Programme: Writing The Vision (March Edition)
Date: Saturday, 11th March 2023
Transcript Summary
1. The word comes to us as knowledge, but it is installed in us as doctrine. When God is giving us these two things, He is giving us what will make Him commit Himself to us. The foundations of God must be established in a man before such a man can come to Him. This is what it means for God to be for/with us. If God gives us the opportunity to receive foundations and we do not believe them, we would be broken backwards, snared and taken.
2. Those who have the foundation of God in them will have haste dealt with. Haste refers to the law of death; it makes death flow naturally in a man without any hindrance. It is one who has become a priest of God that can see death and stop it. To see death and have the ability to stop it are two different concepts. Priests of God are not just men who sight death; they also have the capacity to stop death.
3. The essence of the five-fold ministry is for the building of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). The gift of the five-fold ministry can be upon a man but he may not grow in the ladder of the gift. Each season on earth has its particular texture. The climate in a season may not be able to receive some ministrations that God has because dispensation differs. God has to prepare certain vessels to go ahead of the ministry of the actual covenant of God. Such vessels are ministers of God, just as judges on earth are ministers of God. Natural judges are also ministers of God, to foster peace on earth so that the word of God can prosper.
4. Haste is the life of flesh that is difficult to stop a man from. Our Lord Jesus is God’s foundation. However, He was not just a stone to be laid for all of God’s expression until He received things from the Father. These are the things that made Jesus sturdy and solid so He could be immovable and unshakeable. God could only rest regarding Jesus when He became the sure foundation. God is sure of a man who carries the sure foundation. The process of becoming this foundation is by precept upon precept and line upon line, here a little and there a little (Isa. 28:13).
5. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” (Psa. 1:1). "Counsel" here is an equipping to find a path. A sinner is not someone who commits a sin that is obvious to man; he is one who has received some aid in the spirit to find a way of life which is right in the sight of man. Counsel is a spiritual equipment for the carnal life. One who has become a 'scorn' has gone far in ungodliness and has possessed a seat in sin.
6. One can be ungodly and may not have diabolical powers. However, some men can have both. Some men need those diabolical powers to aid their triumph in the carnal realm. When an ungodly man is in power, he uses weapons like money to carry out his agenda. Money is not evil; it is the love of it that is evil (1 Tim. 6:10). In the sight of God, it is called unrighteous mammon. Mammon is a gain; it is a power. Satan created some legal tenders in the realm of the spirit. The gain that comes as a result of mammon is a promise that will occur after one has obeyed its course. There cannot be sin without a promise being painted. Angels sinned because of a promise that was painted to them. This means it is possible for a man to also refuse a building that comes from God because of some kind of promise. Such a man is one who has made a covenant with hell.
7. The ungodly are those who are scorned. A man who has gotten to the dimension of scorn is not an ordinary sinner. It is not every unbeliever that is carnally minded. Some Christians can be carnally minded while some unbelievers are not. This is because what makes a man carnal is a way in the soul. When a man is carnally minded, his imagination is carnal. To be "carnal" is different from being "carnally minded". A carnally-minded man must have fought some wars against God (Rom. 8:6).
8. A scoffer in the spirit is one who is ungodly (2 Pet. 3:3); he is one who has agreed to ungodliness. Ungodliness can be a print in the mind but one may have not submitted to its demands completely. Some can easily submit their ungodliness while some cannot. This is because the latter have their will embedded in it. When there is an agreement, a man’s will is involved. Darkness can be in the heart and yet, the heart is not completely won over because the will is not involved yet. This is why we should check our hearts and guard our will. We should be soft and also learn to be easily entreated. Our hearts should easily turn to God.
9. God wants to remove wrong covenants from us. The power of the New Testament is that it is able to break wrong covenants. A minister of the New Testament weakens the "strength of hold" over the gift that Satan has given to men. Covenants are made through gifts and sacrifices. The essence of gifts is to lure a man’s heart while sacrifices are measures to seal a man’s hold. When a man sacrifices, he does the term of the covenant; it wounds and bounds the soul on what it is holding. A man cannot lay hold on Eternal Life without agreeing to it. We keep handling or holding the word of life until our hold becomes stronger. The strength of evil spirits is that they give things to men so that souls can make sacrifices. Worldliness and ungodliness are things that a man should be 'engraced' to deny because they are covenants.
10. To be ungodly is to be dead, while to be worldly is to be in sin. A worldly person is one who has a posture against the life of faith (Christ). One who then grows from being worldly to being ungodly has taken his final stand (in death). The essence of the new birth is to give capacity to a man in order to make him deny these things. It is when grace comes that one receives the power to deny them.
11. The actual covenant is a doctrine. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is twain – life and peace. The second is a different activity from the first. When the life in a man has become peace, such a man is not offended at life anymore no matter its direction. This is the kind of a man who will not be hasty because he knows he is planted by the river of the water of life. Foundations are doctrines. Doctrines are spirits and they are ways. The ways of God are different from our ways (Isa. 55:8). The ways and thoughts of God are one. To every thought, there is a way. When the girdle of the mind is girded, it becomes a thought in the mind.
12. A minister of the New Testament is a king. Such a one has the power to break the agreement of rulership of darkness over men. It is not easy to break an agreement because it comes with some profitability; but one who is wise would despise the profit so that a new worship system or covenant can be installed. It was a wrong worship that took men away from God; this means it is also by the right worship that men can be restored to God. There is no agreement and covenant without the turning of the heart.
13. The way of the Lord is the way of wisdom, grace and truth. We will find in our spirit that there is a new impression that will bring a new attitude, and we should yield to it. We should not be weak in the season of covenants. Satan has a type of grace called lust. Lust drives the desire of a man in order to ensure that the course of death is fully run and finished inside his soul. The grace of God will come to teach us the way to escape from the tempter, and we will no longer be footstools of fallen angels. Grace and spirit will be ministered to us (Amen).
Blessings!