Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing The Vision Prayer Meeting
Date: Monday, 14th March 2022
Ministering: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.” (Ezek. 36:24). When a man is making covenants, he is not stationary but is moving. There is a journey attached to every covenant, as one needs to move from one covenant to another. God did not make a covenant with the Israelites until He took them out from among the heathen countries and started leading them. One who has not become the land that the Lord will have him be cannot receive the covenant of everlasting life. As such, there is a kind of land we must become to receive the covenant because every covenant is placed upon a land.
In the New Testament, believers are ignorant of the covenant, which is why they are unable to discover it. This is because the leadership of the church is not strong enough to gather and give direction to the people and show them their future. The future of the church is to arrive at the promised land, which is everlasting life.
“All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.” (Deut. 8:1). Oath is attached to the land, so the (promised) land belongs to those who know oath. Those who know oath are men of full of age (Heb. 5:14) because God cannot swear to any man who has not become aged in the spirit. One would be able to respond to the character of invariableness and have no shadow of turning like God (Jam. 1:17) has come into the age for oath in the realm of the spirit.
The purpose of oath is to make one unable to turn. When God still sees a shadow of turning in a man, He would not swear to such because such a man does not have the age nor capacity for God to give Himself to him. The love of God is oath at work. God has promised Eternal Life and He will give it because He cannot lie (Tit. 2:5). God raised many fathers for Him to swear to because He wants many fathers who can carry His oath. He swore not just to Abraham, but also to Isaac and Jacob, which completed the full cycle of oath. As such, the land was sealed to the third generation. Therefore, it became established according to the scriptures that in the mouth of two or three, a matter is established (2 Cor. 13:1).
“Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) [5] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; [6] That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel…” (Eph. 3:4-6). The Gentiles and Jews have been called to partake of the same promise, as the promised land is no longer in the physical but in the realm of the spirit. As such, both the Jews and Gentiles should be brought into Christ to inherit the promise.
God is Life. Investing in knowing God in these last days is important. As such, we must not get tired or grow weary in knowing God.
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. [26] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:25-26). The making of the new heart will take two doctrines: faith and hope. Hope purifies the heart. A pure heart is a hope heart while a faith heart is a heart of righteousness attaining purity. The first sanctification is hope while the full sanctification is charity. One who is coming into the Holy Place needs to walk by faith to enter (2 Cor. 5:7).
One needs to use the energy of faith to enter the Holy Place. At this point, such a person becomes a king of righteousness (Heb. 7:2). Then as one goes farther into the Holy Place, one becomes a king of peace (Heb. 7:2). The hope that is in Christ is the hope for peace, which is at the first veil. One who has this hope can break through the first veil in order to receive the new spirit, which is what the shewbread does. The shewbread is actually the spirit of the new heart, which is a pure heart for charity. Charity is the spirit of the new man and the new heart.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17). A new man is one whose old things are passed away. There are three things that must pass away: unbelief, hopelessness and the law against charity while new things are three things which all abide: faith, hope and charity (1 Cor. 13:13). The new man possesses the flesh of God, which is the heart of flesh. One with this heart has the capacity to become God's child – such a man has become a peacemaker (Matt. 5:9).
A new heart with a new spirit makes the heart of flesh. The table of shewbread possesses the ingredients that make for the flesh of God. The table of God and the shewbread are one. The bread is a table because its purpose is to make a fleshy table of the heart. It is not everyone in the Kingdom that has eaten the shewbread, for the shewbread is given to those who have received inheritance among them that are sanctified (Acts 26:17-18) and this inheritance is Christ. Inheritance is given to one who has possessed the heart of flesh. The flesh of God is the new man; it is such a man that has become the table of God.
“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: [8] how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?” (2 Cor. 3:7-8). The glory of the ministration of righteousness far outweighs that of the ministration of death. Apostle Paul ranked the ministration of the Old Testament lower than the New Testament because he saw the weakness and unprofitableness of it. The reason the Jews still hold on to the old covenant is because there is a veil in their eyes, which makes them see it as profitable. However, it is only profitable to the carnal mind, which is why many believers still use the scriptures to receive the promises of the old covenant.
When God is giving everlasting life to a people, He is quickening them (John 5:21). This is what the ministration of righteousness does and it is only the fleshy tables of the heart that can receive this ministration. In the Old Testament, God wrote His laws on a tablet of stone (Exo. 34:1), but this was misinterpreted. As such, in the New Testament, God made use of the heart of flesh.
“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:27). It is the heart of flesh that can interpret ‘My spirit’. When God is putting His laws in a man, He is making known His will to the man. “My spirit” here is God's perfect will being introduced to the heart of flesh which will cause the heart of flesh to do God’s will. God did not need to remove the heart of stone from Jesus because He did not have that heart in Him. Jesus received the laws of God without hindrance and God made a heart of flesh out of Him.
God's spirit makes men walk in His statutes and judgements because the ministration of the spirit excels (2 Cor. 3:10); it is an excellent ministration. When a man holds judgement, he will have life and then do the judgement eventually.
“And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:28). The word “dwell” here speaks of rest. The land which God gave the fathers is everlasting life. Those who will have the life culture are those who will become God's people. “I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.” (Ezek. 36:29). There is not going to be a salvation without a change of lifestyle.
“And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.” (Ezek. 36:30). The word “reproach” means curse. There is the principle of seed, bread and fruits. Seed and fruit of the tree are different – both in everlasting life and in Eternal Life. There is the seed in everlasting life called “incorruptible seed”. The incorruptible seed is of two kinds: corn seed and the seed of fruit on trees. The corn seed lives while the fruit seed abides.
One cannot claim to have the fullness of everlasting life if he only lives, for such a person must also learn the law of abiding. There are two manifestations of everlasting life. The first is that the Father will love a man and manifest Himself to him (John 14:21) while the other is Jesus and His Father coming to make an abode with a man (John 14:23). As such, we should highly esteem His coming because the Lord wants to raise our minds beyond being spiritual so that we can be partakers of His coming.
The word that lives and the word that abides are different and they make up the word of God. We start with the living word and then come into the abiding word. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet. 1:23). The everlasting word of God is not the only word of God there is but there is also the eternal word of God which also lives and abides.
The world to come begins with everlasting life. Everlasting life is the word of God. When a soul gets to God’s realm, God speaks life everlasting to him. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds…” (Heb. 1:1-2). The words God spoke in time past to the prophets were just a shadow, but the very word of God, which is His everlasting word was spoken by Jesus.
Bread and Fruit (The Two Dimensions of the Word of God)
The two-edged sword is a bread. Bread is the word of God. Breads are swords (Judg. 7:13). As such, when one is given a sword, he is being given bread (the living word). Both bread and fruits are word. We have to see the word of God from these two postures to have an insight into the spiritual arrangement of the word of God. The word of God is the sword of God. There is the sword of God that abides more than bread – it is the fruit of the tree. Bread is not plucked like fruit, rather, it is taken from the blade (corn).
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…” (2 Thess. 2:3). The most holy corn (living bread) is the everlasting corn while the most holy tree is the vine tree. Jesus is not just Bread, but is also a Vine. Jesus introduced Himself firstly as the Living Bread (John 6:51) and then later as the Vine Tree (John 15:1) – He started with bread and ended with fruit. The insignia of fruit which God expects from man is to prove to God that one is abiding, as it shows that one has moved beyond living to abiding. This is because a man can live and yet be plucked off. It is possible to live in everlasting life and not bear fruits. Do not just live, also bear fruits! The first work is to live while the last work is to abide to bear fruits.
“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thess. 2:4). Opposition by Satan in this scripture is living while exaltation is abiding. The man of sin attacked everything about God. God and Jesus are seated on the throne; They are abiding. God is going to destroy the wicked by the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8). The spirit of His mouth is the bread of His mouth.
“But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4). The expression of the rod is to smite while the breath of His lips is to slay. The rod of His mouth is the brightness of His coming; while the breath of His lips is a sword, and we need both expressions. If a man wants to live alone, he will not come into brightness. The rod of God is the glory of God.
“And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: [27] And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. [28] And I will give him the morning star” (Rev. 2:26-28). Brightness and the rod work together. The work of the rod is to overcome; it is to bring one under by the reason of brightness.
Eternal Life also has its dimension of ‘living’ and ‘abiding’. Its living dimension is the hidden manna because the hidden manna is the sword of Eternal Life. The Tree of Life is where the fruit of Eternal Life is gotten. Fruits are hung on rods and rods grow (Isa. 11:1). Rods are brightness. The word of God teach us how to live but in the season of abiding, we become bright. God will not just give us His laws, He will also give us His fruits and both are His words. We need all the word of God to show the full manifestation of God.