Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Revelation Hour
Date: Saturday, 12th March 2022
Ministering: Pastor Tunji Adegoke
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12). No one in their right senses would normally go in a way that they know is detrimental to them. Everyone would typically do what is right in their own eyes. However, the Lord lightly esteems the things that men term as being right. God did not leave it to chance for man to determine what was right because man has a fundamental flaw in his being called ‘self’. As such, everything that a man would call “right” would firstly be towards the preservation of himself.
This way that seems right to man cuts across every sphere of his existence. However, the Bible tells us that its end is destruction (Prov. 14:12). One of the greatest deliverances that the learning of the doctrine of Christ would wrought in us is to show us that there are ways which man has hewed out for his existence but are not in his best interest. Man does not know what is good for him because his definition of good and evil is rooted in death and not life, which is according to God’s standards.
Some people fear God but their fear is man-motivated. Such fear does not come from the revelation of Christ but the precepts of man. Moreso, there are subtle interpretations of God that have put a fear in our hearts which God did not author. For this reason, we must not joke with revelation because without it, we would base all our worship, honour and coming near to God on the precepts of men.
Every precept of man — including those who are chasing after God — will end in the ways of death. There is an arrangement in the spirit against man’s ability to come to God. We cannot make progress towards the Lord with the precepts of man. Whenever we do not know the precept of God on a matter, we always rely on the precept of man, which is a naturally installed understanding in us.
There is a way that we have judged men to be spiritual by physical yardsticks (precepts of men) but we should not stay in these quarters of judgement. The dealings of the Lord, which come upon us to make us holy will help us discern our true states in the spirit.
Doctrine is meant to produce fear or reverence in us. They run their full course when they produce a manner of life that is reverential towards the one to whom the doctrine is aligned. Doctrine is a manner of life and the way you live points you in a direction.
Everlasting life gives us precision and accuracy in the spirit – in judgement. We are coming to zones where the teaching of everlasting life is going to bring us together. One thing that fights our coming together is our wrong judgement. If our judgement is still based on the precepts of men, then God has to heal us. We must trust God to be elevated in our souls and not to judge by the precepts of men.
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt. 15:9). The entirety of the life we are learning is about commandments; this is what precepts are (Isa. 28:10). What grants us elevation or credence before God are the kind of layers of commandments that are within our souls. Your soul is an embodiment of commandments that will give birth to a manner of life that God can either approve or disapprove. If those commandments are not taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ, which reveals what is right to us; if we do not have the yardstick of judgement that is hewn from the faith of the son of God, we will naturally fall back to the commandment that was in our members from the time we were born.
Some of these precepts of men include ethnic or racial biases or barriers in the choice of a spouse in marriage. The Lord leads us against these barriers to rewrite precepts in our souls, which will prevent us from worshipping God. This is because we are raising a precept of man that is higher than the movement of the Spirit of God in our souls, but this is iniquity.
Every time the standard of God is raised and you raise another standard against it, it is called transgression. It is a sin against life. Jesus Christ said that God’s commandments are life everlasting (John 12:50). Every time the Lord gives you commandments, it is so that He can lead you against the traditions of men. Some of these traditions are dangerous. Traditions of men that separate us from our brethren are from Satan. Such traditions attack the unity of everlasting life which we must achieve. This unity is non-negotiable because this is where the Lord commands His blessings, even life forevermore (Ps. 133:3).
Anything that will separate you from your brother is against everlasting life. The gospel that we are hearing is from the beginning and does not have any ethnic or racial origin. Precepts and traditions of men are designed to scuttle everlasting life. The warfare against us will fight our coming together.
Many believe that their spirituality is measured by their spiritual activities. Prayer is one of such activities but this does not mean that we should despise it. God has designed every soul to gravitate after Him, but Satan has placed distractions around us that can occupy us for a very long time, if we allow him. The Lord however gives power to the faint (Isa. 40:29).
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. [8] For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. [9] And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:7-9). For us to reap everlasting life, there needs to be a sowing. After you have sown, you should reap in due season but if you faint, you will not reap. As such, we need to pray for strength to reap after we have sown. There is a "well-doing” required of us in this season, which we must not faint in. If we find that we are fainting in it, we need to pray.
It is not prayer that makes you spiritual but the “well-doing”, which is the keeping of commandments. There is a precept of man that makes us think that prayer makes us spiritual. As such, we neglect the ‘well-doing’ and we assume that we will be justified. Prayer and reading of the Bible are only means to an end. They are not an end in themselves. Precepts of men will configure your conscience to make you satisfied with the means and ignore the end.
Where we should be counting time and looking to register our presence is in the realm of the spirit. We are known in the realm of the spirit when we are spiritual and not when we engage in activities that look spiritual by the standards or precepts of men. While we know why we should pray, we should not judge ourselves by our ability to pray for long hours. It is a good discipline but it does not make us spiritual. This is where Satan cheats us, for after praying, we need to also obey commandments. We should strive to know what it truly means to be spiritual.
There are curricula in Jesus to deliver us from wrong judgements of spirituality but we must always be in the path of deliverance. Warfare always seeks to move us away from the path of deliverance. Spiritual warfare involves warring against he that wants to truncate the abiding of God with man. The prophetic name of Jesus is Emmanuel -- “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). Satan fights this prophecy vigorously because if God is with man, it is the complete eradication of Satan's hold on man. Satan had no respect for man until Jesus came. Now, he knows that man has the potential to bring God down to such an extent that he will become irrelevant.
We need to pay attention to commandments regarding relationships with our brethren in this season. This aspect of our lives is not ordinary because this is where God will command the blessings of everlasting life to flow (Psa. 133:3).
“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now”. (1 John 2:9). Fellowship is a relationship; it is a plain of existence. Fellows understand the language that is common to them. God pointed out this commandment of “loving your brother” because before you can come into fellowship with God, you must have left carnality to a great extent. God does not fellowship with carnality because a carnal mind is enmity with God (Rom. 8:7).
Our ability to come into this level of fellowship will not be by the length of prayers or our ability to share revelation but by our ability to love our brethren. This is why we pray. We will know how spiritual we are by our capacity or ability to love our brethren, which is how we are able to accommodate our brethren. Our brethren can be likened to tenants who come to take spaces in our hearts, and we must create space for them. At times, when we think we have loved enough, God will bring a higher light for us to see a higher standard of love that we ought to obey.
In the beginning, there was nothing like forgiveness because there was nothing like offence. We can also get to a point where offence does not exist with us; then we would have become spiritual. Such a person may not be able to preach eloquently but he has relevance in the spirit.
We are being raised to house God in our hearts, therefore, our brethren are used to expand our hearts. If we are faithful with loving one, God will add more to us to increase our capacity and create a space that is large enough to accommodate Him in our hearts. God must train our hearts to come to this place.
When the righteousness of God is revealed, what is expected to be in every heart is judgement. Any man that does not have the right judgement at the revelation of righteousness will reject righteousness and then, reject salvation. The reason why judgement must be found in every heart is so that when righteous standards are raised, we will have the capacity to hold them.
A man’s building is attributable to what he does (1 Cor. 3:10). There are works we would do that would guarantee that we have a good end. Everyone's end is according to their works (2 Cor. 11:15). “Works” (everlasting works) refers to the building that is going to be placed upon the stature of Christ that we have, otherwise we will be ashamed. God is going to inspect the things that have been built on the foundation before He brings everlasting things.
For a man to make progress with everlasting thoughts, he first has to be born again in his spirit. However, there has to be a building on this foundation, which would be inspected and tried. There are works that would easily be burnt up, however, our works have to abide (1 Cor. 3:13-14). We are expected to build faith, hope, and charity (Christ) because the things we should build are things that will not be consumed when they pass through fire.
One of the ways by which our works are tried is by the charity commandments we receive towards our brethren who seemingly look unlovable. While some people might leave the path of faith because they cannot fulfill the demands of the love commandments they receive, others use them as an opportunity to exercise their works in charity.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:23). We demonstrate that we love God when we keep His commandments (1 John 3:11). If we do not pay attention to the love commandments we are being given, we will not fit in the building. The charity company is being raised on the earth, therefore, hate should not be found among us. The Lord wants husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church (Eph. 5:25). The victory that God wants is that the Church becomes one with the Head. This is the reason why Satan is attacking marriages, for he knows that by fighting marriages, he is fighting an everlasting estate.
When you get to the status in 1 Peter 2:9, you have been crafted from grass to stone and have become qualified to be an entity in the building. This is the right ambition we should have; we should desire to be part of the building. It is distractions that do not allow us desire to be part of the building. We must not have a lackadaisical attitude towards the word of God that we are hearing because when all the distractions are taken away, we will be ashamed at the reasons why we did not attain. Hell is a place of pain but heaven is a place of shame because of the many regrets that some men usually have when they get there. We must not be carried away with the things of this present.
How well a preacher preaches does not have anything to do with his spirituality, hence he should not be puffed up by it. Our spirituality is rather judged by our submission to spiritual authority and love walk. We must train our consciences to judge ourselves rightly. We should not judge ourselves by the precepts of menbut trust God to give us a revelation of where we truly are, and how we are being seen in the realm of the spirit.