Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Revelation Hour
Date: Saturday, 26th February, 2022
Ministering: Pastor Thompson Ehima
Life is a product of substances. Faith is a substance (Heb 11:1). Faith is Christ; it is the beginning of a man’s journey unto God. But it also has its own substances. The seeds of faith include righteousness, faith, charity and peace (2 Tim. 2:22). Before we began this journey, we were without Christ (Eph. 2:12) and as we keep journeying, we must overcome some gulfs in order to become people who can inherit God.
The learning of Christ will deal with our alienation from God. Apart from dealing with our alienation, God will also deal with our ability to be strangers to the covenant of the promise of Life Eternal. The covenant of life and peace (Christ) and the everlasting covenant will prepare us for the promise (Eternal Life). When these things have been dealt with in us, we can then begin to search for that blessed hope. When we have found hope, we can begin to journey towards God.
Righteousness and peace are substances for learning Christ in the tabernacle or in the kingdom. The learning of the kingdom starts with righteousness and ends in peace (Rom. 14:17). A man who is in peace in Christ has attained godliness. He is content with everything spiritual and natural that both Christ and God give. The end of any man who is journeying in righteousness is peace (Rom. 5:1). This is because a man of peace is one who has finished the curriculum of Christ or the learning of faith. As such, a man who has used charity well must be a peaceable man.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17).
The just live by faith, so when a man has lived by faith, it plateaus in peace. Therefore, peace is a ground where we settle or are established. It is a place where a man can begin to call on the Lord.
To call on the Lord means to knock or call for the entrance whereby we can be received by the Lord; or that we are ready for the allocation that the Lord wants to bring. The essence of the allocation that the Lord wants to bring is to bring or supply the foundation of God. You cannot call for the foundation of God if you have not followed after righteousness.
“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged” (Isa. 51:1). To follow after righteousness is to call upon the Lord. When you call upon the Lord, you are beginning to seek enduring and better substances. However, you cannot begin to call on the Lord or demand from the Father or the Son of God if you have not arrived at peace. The ground of peace is what gives you a spiritual legal ground to begin to call on the Lord. When you begin to call on the Lord, you are calling for salvation (Rom. 10:13). If men are not calling for salvation, God will not give it.
“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.” (Isa. 61:4). There are things you must overcome before you can call on the Father. What we must overcome is known as former ignorance. Former ignorance is the same as former desolations in the above scripture. These cities are the souls of men. In Ephesians 4:22, former desolations are also referred to as the former conversations. These former conversations refer to the life that is informed by our ignorance.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, [18] Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” (Eph. 4:17-18). There is a kind of posture we must have to be able to call for better and enduring substances. What informs vanity of mind is the power of the darkened understanding. Darkened understanding is an understanding, just like enlightened understanding is also a form of understanding. Darkened understanding is a thought curriculum that has been written in our inward man (our souls).
The understanding that is darkened is not easy to discern. An ordinary man will argue that this darkness is his life because darkness has been able to keep him in ignorance of what he should not be ignorant of. Therefore, it is a veil (Eph. 4:18). The reason why you are alienated or separated from the life of God is because of the working of ignorance. This ignorance is responsible for how the Gentiles walk, the vanity of their minds, their darkened understanding, and their alienation from the life of God. Ignorance is the working of a law; it is a work that makes you think that a vain life is the true life.
Ignorance informs life expressions or conversations. Anytime we encounter the working of death, there will be a wailing inside of us, just like how Jesus wailed at Lazarus' death (John 11:35). Jesus wailed because He knew that man should not be in this state – in death. The reason why man is in this state is because of a work that has been done in him, which is also killing his body. Man easily loses the ability to wail when he is in this state but Jesus did not lose this ability while He was on earth. This was because He had so much substances in Him; He had no ignorance in Him.
Ignorance is a work in the heart but this is what righteousness has come to put right. Righteousness is revealed to put right the things that are called ignorance, which are works of darkness or works of sin and death. We fetch inspirations and conversations from them. Our choices and judgements are as a result of ignorance.
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts…” (Eph. 4:22). Former lusts means former conversation; it is a way of life. It does not refer to the works of the flesh. It is a way of life that is driven by ignorance or darkened understanding. Former desolation is also former lusts. Desolation refers to a thing that has been made waste; it is a place that is not habitable. Former conversation is informed by ignorance and the cure for ignorance is knowledge. When God wants to heal you of vanity of mind, walking like the Gentiles, darkened understanding, blindness of mind and alienation from the life of God, He introduces knowledge, because it will recalibrate you from those laws that have previously configured you.
The journey of a believer first starts with God calling him. However, even at the new birth, a soul cannot respond to God until Christ is revealed or the gospel of Christ is preached to him. This is in spite of being filled with the Holy Ghost or the ability to speak in tongues. If one takes the milk of the word well, it will prepare his heart to be able to take the word of Christ, to hear the call of God in Christ. This is because it is in Christ that God first calls us to obey faith.
The obedience of faith is the beginning of the calling of God. God has to call you out of your former conversations and the state of death (unresponsiveness) in your soul. One who cannot respond to God cannot generate obedience or follow after righteousness.
When God reveals righteousness to you, it is a call of faith to renew you. When you start responding to God, you respond to the call of God in Christ. God first uses Christ to make you able to respond to Him. As such, you cannot come to God except by Christ.
The revelation of faith is the beginning of righteousness. Any teaching of faith that does not teach the righteousness of God is not teaching faith. The test of faith being taught is that it reveals the righteousness that God reveals or approves.
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith…” (Phil. 3:9). Faith reveals righteousness. Therefore, when faith is projected, you should see what is right. If faith cannot do this, it is not the faith of Jesus. Faith must reveal a standard, which is of Jesus and not natural things like cars, houses, etc. The faith of Jesus will reveal the work or righteousness that has been wrought in Christ. Any faith that does not reveal this falls below Christ.
The faith of the Son of God should reveal the Son and what is in Him. A faith that does not reveal the life, nature and law of the Son is not the faith of Christ. There are many exploits of faith recorded in Hebrews 11, but they do not reveal the promise. The faith that will lead to the promise must reveal righteousness.
Righteousness is the beginning of the journey of a believer into the kingdom. When you have done righteousness, it should dovetail into holiness. Holiness is higher than righteousness and another word for holiness is peace. We start by obeying the righteousness that is revealed.
Charity is also righteousness, but it is exceeding righteousness. There are levels of righteousness. Faith, Hope and Charity are levels of righteousness. When you do righteousness to the point of peace, it can be said that you are a godly man or a man who is holy. There is holiness in Christ and when you do Christ, you will access the Holy Place. In the New Testament, the Holy Place is not just a place but a state. As such, you become holy by reason of doing righteousness of faith until charity.
When you are in peace, you are holy but that holiness still needs to be perfected. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation…” (1 Pet. 1:15). You can be holy in some conversations, but the requirement is that you should be holy in all conversations. Holiness is not completed until you have arrived in everlasting life. You need to complete the measure of your holiness and righteousness. You can keep adding to whatever level you have until it can be said of you that you are holy in all conversations; that your entire being is holy.
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Tim. 2:22). Youthful lusts here refers to former lusts, and not lust among physical youthful people alone. Youthful lust is an advanced lust that a soul who has used lust has gained mastery of and found strength through it. The glory of a youth is his strength (Prov. 20:29). It refers to a lust that has strength over souls; it has become a power over such souls. This lust can actually hew down a young man in whom the word of God is abiding.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently…” (1 Pet. 1:22). When a man has done the love of the brethren well, his soul will be purified. There is the ability in every man to resist when he wants to be taken advantage of, but the bible tells us not to resist those who take advantage of us (Matt. 5:44). What defiles a man is not what enters into him but what goes out of him (Matt. 15:11). You will not find peace if your heart has not been made pure. God must purify us, both for our spiritual and natural advantages.
When a heart is loving fervently, it is calling on the Lord, for this is how we call on Him. Then, He can see you calling with a pure heart. We cannot just call Abba Father because God has to configure us to be able to do so. The way God would configure us is through fervent charity and a pure heart (1 Tim. 1:5). We have to join those that with us have something within calling out to the Father.
When we are calling the Lord, He comes to check every man's work. He comes to check our fervent charity and judge our works. He comes to check if a soul is following after faith, fervent charity, and peace. He comes to check if he has perfected all these phases. When we call God, He supplies the foundation where He will rest (2 Tim. 2:19).
The foundation of God is not a physical building but a work. God rewards those who call Him out of a pure heart, for He judges by conversations. He comes to check if a person is following according to what was committed to Him. The foundation of the Lord is the foundation of salvation; the foundation of God is the foundation of everlasting life. We would not be given that allocation if we have not attained an estate where we can call on the Lord. We cannot call on God if we are not in fervent charity.
Charity does not vaunt itself. We must esteem our brothers higher than ourselves and we must do it fervently. This work must be wrought in us. Men who are like this can receive better and enduring substances. We must joyfully take the spoiling of our goods (Heb. 10:34). These goods do not refer to our physical possessions. These goods are the things or riches of this world. To be rich in this world is to have its goods (the things that are gain to us but rid us of the life of God).
It is possible for a man to not have physical possessions but have the world’s goods. Unless such a man sells such goods, he will not find the foundation of God. This was why Paul could suffer loss for the things that were gain to him, in order to win Christ. He counted all things but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of God (Phil 3:7-8).
In the spirit, love means to love the things that the Spirit gives. One way we can train our souls to love in the spirit is through our relationship with our brethren (Col. 1:4). We must use our faith to love in the spirit. We use our yieldedness to fervent charity to show that we seek and desire everlasting and enduring things. Fervent charity is used to call for more of God's love; it can call for the very things that are of God.
Until our charity is judged by the Father and becomes excellent, we cannot be committed to enduring substances. Fervent charity is the sincere milk of the incorruptible seed. A person who is at this level is a babe in the school of everlasting life. The commandments for a babe in the school of everlasting life is fervent charity out of a pure heart. In loving one another fervently, such a person will be born into the incorruptible seed. The incorruptible seed is the word of the Lord. Those who are born of the incorruptible seed can endure (1 Pet. 1:23).
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: [2] And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). It is by the knowledge of the Father or of the Son that the sins of the children are forgiven. This is because knowledge is a cleanser (Isa. 53:11). These little children are the babes.
Fervent charity covers and cleanses multitudes of sin. It cleanses all sins such as malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, and so on. Evil speaking is dealt with in the realm of Christ, but all evil speaking cannot be dealt with in this realm. What deals with evil speaking is fervent charity out of a pure heart. We would continue the school of purification with the incorruptible seed.
“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 incorruptible seed will raise a man to become a child. One can still speak, think and understand as a child in everlasting things just as in Christ. This is because such a person is still handling the foundation of God, which is everlasting life. We need to feed on the sincere milk to grow but we also need to eat the strong meat everlasting to make us strong.
It is men who have been well fed in everlasting life that will wear all the armour of God. They would be able to stand against all the wiles of the devil. (Eph. 6:11). These men are decked with so much strength by the word; they would use the word and become strong thereby (1 Jn. 2:14). There is the word that lives and the word that abides (1 Pet. 2:23).
When we still have sin, we will be weak because sins make us be without strength. God wants to put away things that take away our strength so that by the time we are hearing knowledge, we can be of increased strength (Prov. 24:5). When we become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, we can put on the whole armour of God and withstand the evil day. Sin are leakages of strength; they do not allow us to gather strength.
What the scriptures mean by darkness is past (1 John 2:8) is that a man has passed from death to life (John 5:24). We pass from death to life by keeping the old commandment, which is charity unfeigned. When charity unfeigned moves, it becomes a fervent charity. The old commandment of unfeigned love is heaved to become fervent charity. The purer the heart, the better the quality of charity.
Knowledge is a tool of cleansing so that the heart becomes purer. The same heart that has kept the commandment of unfeigned love becomes more beautiful when obeying the commandment of fervent charity, for it would have been worked on by reason of commandments to become purer.