Programme: Believers’ Convention Prayer Meeting (Week 4_Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, 25 July, 2023.
Transcript Summary
1. "For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be , or that he heareth of me." (2 Corinthians 12:6) These things are also happening in our midst; this is why we must yield to the Holy Ghost in order to have a correct estimation of ourselves. The revelations that men were getting through Paul made them think he had ascended to a particular height spiritually; that was why God showed him a higher man (2 Corin. 12:1-2). Paul had knowledge, but there was a higher person who had measure than Him. Paul had knowledge in abundance, but God showed Him the future of glory epitomized in a man who encountered it. The man was taken to paradise to hear and see the things of paradise (2 Corin. 12:3-4).
2. Apostle Paul could have chosen to glory in himself, but he chose to glory in his infirmities (2 Cor 12:5-6). This is a sincere place. Apostle Paul was able to open himself to the church. The attitude of Paul was very powerful because of his vulnerability. This is what it means for a man to be naked. Many of us will not go higher if we are not naked. To be naked means to let people know your real estate. It is also an apostolic might – a demonstration of apostolic power.
3. When some men read the book of Peter, they would consider Paul as one who is higher than Peter. Many believers despise and look down on Peter, James, and Jude. Many scholars of the New Testament (theologians) only quote Paul. Peter got to a place where He learned how to hide and not seek vainglory. This is a state where one learns the attitude of wisdom and gains the incorruptible and the invisible.
4. The character of Apostle John's speech makes us know that he also hides. Going by precepts (knowledge), we really do not know these men as we ought to. After Paul was converted, these other apostles spoke with and listened to him; they did not exalt themselves above him, nor did they 'lord' it over him to learn under them. They all gave Him a right hand of fellowship (Gal. 2:9). A student can have more "knowledge" (precept) than His teacher, but he cannot have more "measure" (line) than the teacher.
5. God can give the responsibility of knowledge to one who is younger in measure. Some of us can sound high and revelational but might not see the measure in those revelations. Pressing for knowledge is good, but we must pray to measure up (in the way). We have been given the opportunity to see how we can access measures. Knowledge is the first particle that the face gives. This means we should not run off after we get knowledge because there is more.
6. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6) Light of the knowledge means the shining or opening of knowledge; it is the illumination of the knowledge. Measures and doctrine are not cheap to get. Knowledge must never be ignored, undermined or downplayed. We should have reverence for the knowledge of the Holy One. Some of us have come into different measures, but we may not see them because they are 'ways' which are past finding out (Rom. 11:33). Apostle Paul had knowledge and some measure, but God still wanted to help him to come into His own measure.
7. The light of the glory of God comes from the face of Jesus. When knowledge comes, we have light. But it is not enough for God to cause His face to shine on us, He should also be gracious to us (Num. 6:25). When God shines light (knowledge), some men can run with that alone. However, we cannot journey with light if God has not been gracious to us. This is why we should wait to receive other allocations of God. It is when God's face shines that light comes and we become enlightened, but we can have light and not have an equivalent grace. When Moses was looking for the face of God, he pulled God to answer his prayers because he had found grace in God's sight. “And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. [18] And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” (Exodus 33:17-18). Moses made that petition asking to see God's face under the platform of grace. When the supply of grace begins, God comes to know a man by name. This is not talking about knowing a man's name in the natural; it is the giving of the name of grace, which is the nature of grace that a man has found. God has named such a man in grace.
8. The things we have found in the sight of God are also named in us. The grace we have found has been impacted into us. When Adam was naming the animals, he did not do it by his brain but by glory. He had glory and honour and was set over the work of God's hands (Heb. 2:7). It is with this glory that Adam named the animals through an operation of the face. Adam had a face ministry because he was ministering by the name of the Lord; this made him name the animals as the Lord would want it done (Gen. 2:19). The naming of those animals defined the way they ought to function in their realm. However, the names (functions) of these animals have changed as a result of the fall. A lion was not made to attack or eat man. What Adam did in naming them was to cast a face (grace) on the animals, giving them an identity and a duty to carry out. It was after the fall that they changed because they became cursed. The opposite of grace is a curse. Satan is also naming people by cursing them with his face. But when grace visits a man, there is a name made available – a change of identity that will make a man arrive in God. The reason for the greetings in the epistles is so that grace and peace can be given.
9. Faith is the corridor for a man to get grace (Rom. 5:1-2); it is the first servant of doctrine that invites the rest. If a man wants to destroy doctrine, he needs to hack down faith. Evil spirits fight our faith because of other things (pertaining to doctrine) that rest on it. Grace can detect faith from a distance and quickly follow it because one cannot receive grace outside of faith. The manner of receiving anything from God is by faith. Faith arranges a man for grace to visit him; it is the power that makes a man reach grace, otherwise, grace would be out of reach.
10. A man cannot be born into the world of grace without faith. Although we were saved by grace, it came through faith (Eph. 2:8). The manner in which faith prepares a man to come into grace is the same way in which sin prepares a man to arrive in death. Faith prepares one for the receiving of grace. God respects those who believe Him for natural things because He sees a faith attitude that can bring them into a new world He has prepared for them.
11. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2) Condemnation hangs on flesh. Condemnation is God's rejection of a kind of man in the soul and body but not in the spirit. However, man is not just a spirit. Some believers stretch the emphasis of the spirit without the soul or the validity of the flesh (body). We must know that the soul and body are important in our journey to salvation. The spirit of a man can be saved and his soul is not. The mind is a compartment of the soul, and it can be carnally minded. A carnally minded person is one whose soul is continually pursuing carnality (Rom. 8: 5-6). This mind speaks of a continual imagination in carnality. To be carnally minded is higher than being carnal. A carnal christian is not yet carnally minded.
12. A carnally minded person is one who has fought laws and has settled for the mindedness of the flesh; such a one is an enemy of God. Some unbelievers are carnally minded; this is why all unbelievers are not the same. They all do not have the same stature; some have developed carnal minds and it is difficult to get such born again. Men with carnal strength may hear Jesus but would refuse Him. Such a one has an armory in the mind, such that the thoughts of God would never gain access to it again.
13. The fact that a man is not carnally minded does not mean he does not have death. However, there is a way death can be registered in a man to make him possess a crown of death. Some men are dead but do not yet have the crown of death. However, they still need to be redeemed from death because the practice of sin is traceable from death. Not all unbelievers are in the same status in the kingdom of Satan. Some have concluded the course of death and have become kings, while some are striving to enter. If there is an entrance to the kingdom of God, then there is also an entrance to the kingdom of Satan. There are some allocations of money that Satan only gives to men who have journeyed in his kingdom.
14. Jesus Christ is to be revealed to us (1 Pet. 1:13). To reveal Him is to show us the image or temple of God. The grace of God that comes at the revelation of Jesus is the strength of the materiality of Jesus as a temple. When Jesus appears, the ability to be like Him is committed to all who see Him. The grace needed to be like Jesus can never be ministered outside the revelation of Jesus.
15. Grace is a strong measure in the spirit; it is the measure in God. Salvation is the description of what a measure has done. If precepts alone are taught, salvation will not be obtained because it will not be well described. Grace is a thing that is past finding out, hence, it cannot be described. One can put together scriptures of grace but not arrive at grace because those scriptures have not been well taught. This is because grace is past finding out. One cannot describe grace. Grace is a body of nature in the spirit; it is the very element that precept prepares a man to know.
16. A man needs mercy to see or find grace (Heb. 4:16); this is how grace can be understood and touched. This is what it means to lay hold on Eternal Life. A man can lay hold on scriptures and quote them, but he may not have laid hold on grace (1 Tim. 6:12). Anything we do not yet understand, we do not have. Grace ought to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ is not a thing that a preacher desires to just talk about; the intention is for the coming of Jesus. There are certain strengths a minister can never access if Jesus is not coming. Maranatha is beckoning for the help that will allow Jesus to come. To find grace, Jesus must come, and this can only happen when we obtain mercy. This is not just the teaching of precepts but lines.
17. Faith is the tool to connect grace, and it comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17). Faith comes by the preacher that heaven sends; it is given to us because God wants us to connect or access a world different from what we have known. It is an access to the world of grace. God is stored in grace, but He uses precept (knowledge) to call man. The essence of knowledge is to bring us into measure. When our knowledge begins to bear fruit, it begins to touch reality. The first thing we see or hear is faith, then grace comes through faith (Rom. 5:2). What makes up God’s Son is not just knowledge but the fullness of grace and truth (John 1:14). Glory is the movement of measure; it is the ministry of measure. Glory can be counted as a commodity. When we hear the word “glory”, we should think of grace and truth. The phrase "from glory to glory (2 Corin. 3:18) talks about "from grace to truth". To every grace, there should be a truth. When grace is used, it is stored as truth.
18. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ speaks of grace (John 1:16). To be full of grace is to be full of spirit. Jesus does not just have the fullness stored as grace; He also has it as truth. Truth is grace in another state. For iniquity to go out of a man, what will be sent to such a man is grace, which will then be stored as truth. However, this does not mean that iniquity is gone; the first admittance of grace into a man is to reveal iniquity in a man.
19. Iniquity is difficult to explain because it is formed as spirits or measures. Satan is transacting with men in measures. Many pastors are using weak weapons to attack Satan – the author of iniquity. What can handle iniquity (Satan's measure) is the measure in God. Truth only comes to a man who has found grace. When grace has been able to get its work done, it becomes truth. These are the things in God; they are a twin in Him (Jn. 1:14). Truth becomes life; this means life is the fruit of truth. Grace is also the fruit. At first, it is grace that becomes truth, then truth is turned into life.
20. (John 6:63). The amount of life a man has is according to the measure of grace he has been able to trap. Grace is a way, and it is also called spirit. A man needs to journey from grace to truth, and from truth to life. This is why a minister of the gospel should minister spirit because it is the spirit that gives life. The way of every spirit is life; this means life is a showing forth or manifestation of spirit in the soul of a believer. It is in the fullness of spirit that we see everlasting life.
Blessings!