Programme: School of The Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 6th April 2023
Transcript Summary
1. There is a contention for our flesh. A part of this contention has been won by men who are keeping the feast of charity. Flesh (physical body) is a gift of God to man so that he can take God. Angels have their own kind of flesh, which is a type of glorified body; but there is a kind of flesh that God gave to man such that he can take God. The flesh of angels does not have the frame to take God, rather, they only minister to those who have the kind of flesh that can take God (Heb. 1:14). The Christ company consists of those in whom an aspect of their flesh has been repossessed, but God wants to repossess another aspect of their flesh.
2. Satan came to tempt Jesus as he did to Adam, but Jesus overcame him (Luke 4:1-13). This means it was possible for Adam to have partaken of the promise Jesus partook of if he had overcome Satan. By God’s grace, many of us have found the grace to use the commandment of faith, hope and charity to go against an aspect of the will of flesh and blood. In this season, we are to use the enlightenment in the doctrine of the Father and the Son, wherein the judgment of everlasting life empowers us to go against the will of man. There are three kinds of will: the will of blood, the will of flesh and the will of man (John 1:13).
3. “For I say to every man that is among you, through the grace given unto me, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Rom. 12:3). When our estate changes in the natural, there is a thought about ourselves – which we previously did not take – that we would begin to take. Thus, we need to be careful with the praises of men because when people are commending us, they are doing so from the perspective of how they are seeing us and not how the Lord is seeing us. When such commendations come, it is good to ascribe them to the Lord and not keep them to ourselves because they are acknowledging a work the Lord has done in us.
4. Anybody can be tempted. In this season, the temptation is to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, either by virtue of natural increase or the increase of grace. The Lord would be prospering our company of men because there is wisdom to handle an increase in the natural. As such, we would be able to keep the commandment of using the world and not abusing it (1 Cor. 7:31). One thing the Lord also wants to do is to add to the house spiritually; and He is already adding to the house spiritually by giving us judgements. As we come into more judgement, we often realize that there is a struggle not to think more highly of ourselves than we really are.
5. Apostle Paul in his epistles was always admonishing saints to rejoice irrespective of what they were going through because everything was working together for their good (Rom. 8:28). Even when they did not yet have the lines (life) of a doctrine, the trials were meant to bring them from the precepts around a knowledge into the lines. The only time we should not rejoice is when we are not being tried; this is when evil spirits are relaxed. When we do not have a commandment to keep, something is wrong because it means we are not walking. When the peace that this world gives draws near, we would find ourselves at ease and stop fighting. Whenever Satan is not trying to scatter things in one’s life, something is wrong. It means such a person has lost grip of a commandment. As long as we are holding on to a commandment, evil spirits will keep looking for how we can let go of it. This is because holding on to a commandment is how we can cross over to the lines of the doctrine.
6. “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:9). A measurement of this power was already in the soul of our Lord Jesus when Satan came to tempt Him; that was the power Satan wanted to devour. Satan goes about as a roaring lion looking for whom to devour (1 Pet. 5:8); what he seeks to devour is the life that is in the soul of sons. There is a food for principalities, powers and mights, rulers of the darkness of this world; it is sin and death. When we walk in sin and death or disobedience or according to the course of this world, we are feeding them. What will make them fall is when a critical mass of saints stops feeding them.
7. We are being fed through the word so that we can walk in a way that will not feed evil spirits. We feed evil spirits by our disobedience, and we starve them by our obedience to God. When we feed an evil spirit through our disobedience to God, Satan and evil spirits take the opportunity to accuse us. Every time there is a disobedience or we are not in faith or we are not using the Father’s light, there is an alarm of accusation against us in the spirit before God. Every time we are not consistently walking in righteousness or using the Father’s gift (or light), we fall back to darkness in our judgment or another light from the father of lies. As long as it has not yet completely become natural for us to use the Father’s light, we will keep finding ourselves falling short.
8. “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” (Rom. 2:1). In our company, there are those who bear evidence of the conversation we long to embody. As such, we are without excuse. Based on our proximity to elders in the faith, our conversation is used to convict others. This is the wisdom of the Holy Ghost in preserving generations of faithful men. As long as one person can inherit the fullness of life in a company, the others can inherit the fullness as well. As we behold conversations of elders in the faith and covet it, we will become witnesses of this life in a matter of time. This is how men will follow on to know God.
9. What happened to Adam in the garden of Eden was evil (Gen. 3:1-6). What happened to Jesus would have also been evil if He did not overcome the adversary (Luke 4:1-13). To do evil is when a son of the Sanctuary (Holy Place) going into everlasting life decides to relate with a different (negative) power and glory. God wants to give power and glory to those who are in the company of Christ; this is why we must continue to obey the things we hear till we come into power and glory.
10. The reason for the many teachings we hear is to reveal a particular mind to us. It is possible for all of us in this company to have one mind (Rom. 15:6; Philipp. 2:2). The reason for the mind that charity births in us is so that we can mind something higher – what the Father is saying. As we come into the mind of what the Father is saying (by obedience), the divine mind will be raised in us. It is such a mind that has caressed the world of power and glory. This is the mind that will have the sense to respond with the lines of the glorious gospel when wicked spirits bring pressure its way.
11. When God wants to help us, He arranges situations around us so that we can keep the commandments that come through the understanding of the knowledge that we have; this is how we can fetch life. There is a measure of life Jesus fetched that made Him overcome the temptation in the wilderness. There is a measure of life that is filtering into this company and bringing us to a place where we will overcome like Daniel – one who refused the worship of mammon. What mammon wants is the worship that comes from sons (from their disobedience to God). The choice the sons in Genesis 6 made was a disobedience; it was a service and a worship to Satan. However, we are in a season where saints will deny the enemy (Satan) in order to worship the living God.
12. “All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; And thy saints shall bless thee.” (Ps. 145:10). One of the reasons God called David a man after His heart was because he looked for what new men look for. He had a wrong nature in his flesh that overtook him on some occasions, but he did not give up on that good fight. Those works should also be found in us. Adam had some works; he had gathered in a measure, an identity and a formation. However, he denied those works and lost his identity. We are coming to a season where we would be able to praise the Father better than the Cherubs because we would have better works than they do; we would have the works that are great and marvelous.
Blessings!