Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
www.egfm.org
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 2nd March 2022
Ministering: Pastor Tope Falaye
1 Timothy 1:12-16
"And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting."
In the scriptures above, Paul talked about the dealings of God in his life as a minister. He detailed how God called him, who used to be a blasphemer, an injurious person and a persecutor of the church. In spite of this, he obtained mercy, and because of this mercy that made him faithful, God chose and called him in the ministry.
Through the scriptures, patterns or standards are first raised in the spirit. When He raises standards, He does not go below that standard. However, He could still fail in accomplishing the purpose for raising that standard, which is as a result of the vessel not yielding to the fullest of God's expectation. This has been revealed in scripture and from contemporary times in Christian history.
When the Lord raises a pattern, He will not go below that pattern. If it seems like it is below that pattern, then either He is doing something else altogether, or the vessels are falling short of the pattern. Hence, it has become evident that the Lord is a God of patterns. In the scriptures, the Lord deals peculiarly with those He raises to be patterns. If what He wants to achieve requires that they suffer for 100 years, He would not reduce the demands irrespective of the external reactions to it.
For example, God dealt with Moses peculiarly because He wanted to make out a pattern in and through the person of Moses. The things the Lord did in Moses became a reference point for all the prophets; including our Lord Jesus, who was compared with Moses in Hebrews 3. Moses was a high pattern, who was raised to see the pattern (Exo. 25:40).
God Himself is the pattern. There is the pattern of life that is stored in God. God, in creating heaven and earth in the beginning, gave a pattern. This means they showed things that if a person can understand by mercy, the person will be helped to see God to a great degree. (Rom. 1:20). Every time God wants to show mercy to a people, He points them back to patterns. Isaiah said to Israel "look to your father Abraham, and to your mother Sarah" (Isa. 51:2) because they needed patterns.
However, there were times when God did things below the pattern found in the beginning. For example, He showed a kind of faith that can remove mountains when he cursed a fig tree to the root and the tree died (Matt. 21:19-21) -- This faith action is not an eternal pattern. A man can use this faith and be ignorant of pattern.
When God created heavens (the angels) and earth (sea, animals, plants etc.), He raised a high standard or pattern. They were made with His everlasting strength. This is why a man cannot understand doctrine if he takes away these patterns. God had to use these patterns even in the gospel as a bridge to make men see Him.
The tabernacle Moses saw is a pattern of God; God is the tabernacle. "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." (Rev. 21:22). God is a temple. He showed David the pattern of the temple while Solomon built it. He did this because they could not take Him raw. The only Being who had the capacity to take Him raw was Jesus. So, Jesus came and said He has not come to destroy the patterns but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17). The reason for the patterns is to see the originality.
Heaven and earth are products of word (2 Pet. 3:7). The same word that made earth made heaven. The only difference is that the natural side of the seed of the word of God was used to make the earth while the spiritual side of the same seed of the word of God made heaven. Another word for pattern is blueprint or architecture– it is all stored up in the word of God.
Not every minister is a pattern. Neither is every ministry saddled with the burden of bearing a pattern by the Lord. Birthing forth patterns most times is always apostolic. The word "apostolic" here means it is something that wasn't there before. This does not imply wanting to be different. Rather, it is the putting of God's burden. We live in an age and time where everyone wants to be different. This world preaches uniqueness, even in ministry. They are eventually led off the way of God
Patterns are born out of God's burden. It is what God wants to do per time. He then looks for a vessel that can bear it. God's choice is dependent on the strength of the burden to be borne: everlasting burden or another. The more invisible a pattern is, the more ordinary the people the Lord will use to carry it are.
The reason why we found our Lord Jesus bear all patterns -- milk, Christ, everlasting and eternal -- is because He needed to be a pattern for all realms. So those who preached the milk of the word of God, can find themselves in Jesus. But when He wants to put the burden of high everlasting pattern, He expires them to bear the pattern. Prior to this, Satan has done a work that has expired the things of God in men.
For example: God wanted to bring forth the pattern of ark in the days of Noah. Noah built the ark for 100 years. It looked foolish to men because it had never rained before on the earth. They felt Noah was being unreasonable when he said it was going to rain because God wanted to judge unrighteousness. They were not familiar with such a pattern.
For some of these patterns, obeying God's pattern was a matter of life or death for them. Apostle Paul said " woe is me if I preach not the gospel"(1 Cor. 9:16). Being acquainted with a pattern is a thing of necessity; it's a burden. Paul also said "...that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." (2 Cor. 11:28). God fought Paul to make sure he did His will. He was taken captive by our Lord Jesus to make sure a pattern is brought forth for those who should hereafter believe on Jesus unto everlasting life (1 Tim. 1:16).
Moses knew he was a peculiar child, that he would save the children of Israel. He tried to achieve this by the arms of his flesh and he failed. But God took him into the wilderness and broke him for pattern sake. Pattern is not external. In the Old Testament, God did a lot of things on the external because the spirits of men were dead. But in the New Testament, all of God's dealings are inside. At new birth, God quickened our spirits. He is building patterns in our souls.
God expired Moses’ life of Egypt. He was a potential Pharaoh, but God took him into the wilderness and broke him. God broke him in his father-in-law's house for forty years until he who was eloquent (Acts. 7:22) became a stammerer. All of the dealings he went through in his father-in-law's house to ensure that man who will not have 'a hand' in the work of God was raised. Raising people who will bear patterns is a herculean task for heaven and also for men who bear it. Many people break the barrier of God's imprisonment and do what they wish.
With all sense of reverence, humility and responsibility, it's good to know that a man can preach the words of Paul, Jesus etc. and have a good ministry but is yet to find "pattern". His ministry can produce men who are holy and would make heaven but is still below pattern. Patterns are tied to lives that are stored in God.
As long as God is in the affairs of men, He will always have people He will come upon to bear witness to the fact that He exists. He will not leave Himself without a witness (Acts 14:17). But the fact that God is in a thing does not mean that thing is bearing God in His true essence. Jean Lead's prophecy said- “There is a hidden mystery, not to be understood without the Revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is at hand to reveal the same to all holy seekers and loving inquirers”.
A person cannot study to know everlasting patterns – Apostle Paul said he obtained grace more than other apostles (1 Cor. 15:10). He also said that the grace was not in vain. Grace and mercy are wisdom God directs towards an individual, generation or people for election. If God shows grace for spiritual, everlasting or eternal things, He is making election obvious; but if He withholds grace or mercy, He is withholding election.
New birth brought us a unique election out of all men who are dead in their spirits. But the delivery of doctrine to men is a demonstration of grace. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord…" (2 Pet. 1:2). Anytime God makes grace and peace known through knowledge, He is choosing. If He doesn't make it known, He is not choosing. So, how we tell election is in knowledge.
When grace comes, a man begins to know. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Gen. 6:8). Grace elected Noah among other sons of God. It also came upon Moses and separated him. So, every time God wants to make Himself known, He makes grace available. And when grace comes, He is showing that He has chosen.
Apostle Paul said he "who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy…" (1 Tim 1:16). There were men, the disciples of Jesus who were more qualified than him. At a level, mercy and grace found them; but at another level it bypassed them and landed on Saul of Tarsus who now became Paul. God separated Paul from his mother's womb (Gal. 1:15). So, in saying that not all ministers bear a pattern, it is not to put any one or ministry down but to magnify the work of Jesus in the earth.
Anytime God raises patterns, Satan also raises spirits to attack ministers who bear patterns. Although, we do not see it but evil spirits know when the Lord hews in someone things that will erase their work in people. The plan of God for the human race is that He wants to move us from righteousness to other levels of righteousness till we are able to see Him, who is our righteousness. Satan raises accusations against righteousness to cause unbelief in the hearts of those who ought to believe righteousness.
According to John 6:29, it is good to believe in the work of God in our spiritual authorities. We ought to love Jesus enough to discern the work He has done in His servants. Paul, according to 2 Corinthians 11, talked about the sufferings he went through in order to justify the apostolic office that he has been called to.
The Lord is committed to Rev. Kayode Oyegoke. It is one thing to preach by anointing and grace, but it is another thing for heaven to be committed to a man. A commitment of heaven is as a result of a call and choice of the Lord. One warfare we fight and must keep fighting is the warfare of familiarity. Daddy is a prophet and prophets have manners. Manners are demonstrations and behavioural patterns that are beyond tongues and interpretation. Discerning God’s wisdom in discerning God’s work in His vessel is scriptural.
According to Rev. Kenneth Hagin, there are four cadres of apostles and the ultimate apostle is the Lord Jesus. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus…” (Heb. 3:1). Jesus quoted this scripture to Kenneth Hagin and told him this during a visitation, “I am the head Apostle; first class Apostle. There can never be any apostle like Me. All other apostles will derive their strength from Me.”
Then the Lord went further to tell him that there are second class apostles: the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Lord proved it to Kenneth Hagin from the gospel and the book of Acts. The Lord told him that people have said that Paul should have replaced Judas; but it was not so because any person who must be one of His twelve apostles must have been with Him from Jordan till when He was taken up (Acts 1:21-22). Paul did not fit into that.
John 1: 29
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
The scripture above means that those twelve apostles had strength to believe Him. If we were there during Jesus’ days, we might have not had the capacity to believe Him; and we may have been offended at His words. The Lord called them the ‘second-class apostles’ because they believed Him as the Lamb in the days of His flesh, and not just when He rose from the dead. The second-class apostles will form the foundation of the city of the world to come. They earned this by just believing Jesus.
Then, the Lord talked about the third-class apostles; the ones who laid the foundation for the doctrine of all generations. Chief among them was Paul who laid the foundation for the doctrine of Christ and also had access to things everlasting. Apostles liked John, Peter, James, Jude excelled in that foundational strength. They saw that foundation but Paul was the first to lay it.
The Lord went further to explain the fourth-class apostles. He said this class is in grades and all that they do is to see the foundation and build on the foundation. If we should stick with the definition that the Lord gave, it means that anyone who does not know Christ is not an apostle because what makes up this foundation is Christ.
Satan speaks to both discredit the message and the messenger particularly when things around eternal and everlasting are being said. Honouring the work of the Lord in His servant is important because the Lord did it in him for us. We need to trust God to believe in the work He has done in His servant (2 Chr. 20:20).
In Ephesians 2, Paul talked about the foundations of apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20). In Ephesians 3, he wrote about holy apostles and prophets (Eph. 3:5). Holy apostles see the things of Christ; they are apostles of holy things. Prophets are people who have strength to see everlasting things.
“Saying, Touch not Mine anointed, And do My prophets no harm” (Psa. 105:15). Anointed ones are Christs. People who enter into everlasting things are prophets. The Lord also raises people who will occupy the prophetic office to facilitate the entry of other people into the everlasting realms. When such offices are in demonstration, their least expression is on the pulpit. The part of it which people can see is the ministerial side. However, there is another side of it – the part of it that has to do with living.
Jesus quoted Isaiah saying “In seeing, they do not see; in hearing they do not hear” (Matt. 13:13). Jesus Himself would also teach people, but they rarely understood the things He taught. When Jesus returns to the disciples, they would ask Him for a clearer interpretation of the things He said. Jesus would reply them saying “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matt. 13:11).
This prophetic manner of life shows things by closing it, and closes things by opening it. One will not be able to touch the core of these mysteries if he is not a disciple. A disciple is somebody who follows by learning, and learns by following. Jesus’ disciples did not always understand the things He said but they kept following Him. The reason why some people do not make progress is because Satan has sown seeds of disrespect and dishonour in them. The spirit that was sent to us expects that we should believe.
Paul boasted about his apostolic ministry and the sufferings he had gone through to the Corinthians church (2 Cor. 11:16-28). Any true minister that preaches the truth in any measure must have gone through many sufferings. Sufferings differ because of the hope attached to the allocations of truth. The quality of suffering is dependent on what one looks for.
Rev. Kenneth Hagin suffered much though he preached faith in a manner that seemed like all of his needs were met. There are some sufferings that Satan brings in order to blackmail pattern. Such sufferings can make men question God. God is beyond the grasps of the mind and He is rarely moved by those situations. His sense of judgement is far from ours (Isa. 55:8) and that is what makes Him stay put in the face of sufferings.
Anyone that will bear the pattern of Christ must bear the sufferings it will bring (1 Pet. 4:13). The Lord in His wisdom has raised His servant and his handmaiden to chiefly bear the weight of the Lord for spiritual things. Our warfare as a generation is to discern the Lord in them. We should all desire to honour the Lord and see Him anew in His servants. God can talk to a person about some things directly, but he may not be leading such a person. To lead a man is to take his life from him and cause him to inherit God’s nature by doctrine.
Timothy knew Paul’s manner of life completely, and he did things as Paul did (2 Tim. 3:10). Thus, Timothy followed Jesus in Paul. It is possible for people to be close to a minister and benefit fully from him. There is the spirit of inheritance in this work. There are lots hanging over us. As people are aligning with the doctrine and the path under the constituted authority in the work, lots will begin to fall on people.
Years from now, things would be much more defined because people will be embracing patterns. The chief pattern to embrace is the doctrine of Christ, of everlasting life and of Eternal Life. As we see our parents walk in it, we will get skill and wisdom on how to yield to the Holy Ghost.
In our midst, there are beautiful patterns of ministers. The Lord has raised a major pattern in his servant (Rev. Kayode) and his handmaiden (Rev. Mrs. Helen). He is further raising patterns who will show the pattern of Jesus to nations.