Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing the Vision (October Edition)
Date: Saturday, 16th October, 2021
Speaker 5: Reverend (Mrs.) Helen Oyegoke
When the devil is speaking to you, his intention is to bring you down. The proof that we are engaging in spiritual warfare is when we fight thoughts. Thoughts are everywhere and they try to dictate our way of life; they come from spirits. In homes, the devil sends thoughts to separate husbands from their wives. He does this by giving them images about their spouses that are contrary to God's standard. He makes them misinterpret and misunderstand each other, and he does this because he does not want any man to come up.
God gives us thoughts and wants us to run with them, but the devil comes to make us reason them out so we do not align with them. However, we must become skillful not to take his thoughts in the place of God's thoughts. God desires that we come up, but Satan has painted things to us wrongly. This is why men are running a race that they should not run. If we know what God intends for us to come into, we will despise everything natural and just focus on pressing into His purpose for us. The promises of God to us give us an assurance that He is good.
The gospel of God is not the gospel that will aid us to make money or acquire earthly things. It is not even the gospel that will aid us to have successful ministries. These are the things Satan paints to us to distract us from the true reason for the gospel. Neither man nor angels can get to where God is. The fact that angels have close proximity to God does not mean that they can access Him. He has however determined to reveal Himself to man.
John 14:1
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."
To believe in God is to believe in the thoughts He brings. When you believe in Him, your heart will be kept from trouble. To believe in God is to be ready to align and accept His thinking pattern, and obey His instructions.
Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in His Father's house, and His intention is to come to receive us to where He is (John 14:2). There is a place (a state in the spirit) where the Lord is now, and His intention is to bring us to where He is. While He was on earth, He had ascended to a state in the spirit. As such, when He said, “...that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3), He was not referring to a physical place but an estate in the spirit.
Although He was physically on earth, He had ascended to the bosom of the Father. It is our calling to ascend to this state where Jesus is. When we understand this, we will stop struggling with many things. The devil will do everything to distract us from getting to where Jesus is, even with legitimate things. However, none of these things matter as much. What matters is that state where Jesus is.
John 14:4
"And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."
God created every man for His bosom. Much more, everyone who has experienced the New Birth is expected to grow up to God's bosom. It is by journeying that a man will get to this place and he can only make this journey in his soul. The devil however brings thoughts to make our souls abide in the dust.
Thoughts inform how we walk, what we do and become and then, where we dwell in the spirit. We need to change estate in the spirit before we can ascend to higher realms of dwelling. In order to change, we need to access certain thoughts. We are products of our thoughts. When we think about a thing long enough, we will perform it. As such, when we stay in the wrong thoughts, we will begin to misbehave.
It is because of thoughts that many have mood swings. Some of those thoughts might even be concerning a matter in the far past but the reason why Satan causes us to remember them is to deny us from ascending. He knows that when we take those thoughts, we would take the wrong steps. He brings thoughts to paint a wrong reality to us about our lives.
Satan is a master of thoughts, but what God is doing in these days is to make us also become masters of our thoughts. Kenneth Hagin said, "You can never stop thoughts. You cannot stop a bird from flying, but you can stop it from building a nest on your head." Therefore, we must master thoughts and know how to dispel wrong ones.
We must be able to resist the devil, even in the realm of thoughts. Many times, some thoughts spur us to anger, but they are only as a result of the influence of an evil spirit. The enemy throws thoughts between husbands and wives, so that they can be at loggerheads, and many homes have scattered because of the visitation of such thoughts from the pit of hell. If husbands and wives do not learn how to discern and resist the devil, many more things will scatter in their marriages .
When Satan sends a thought, we interpret it by the understanding that he gives. We must not be ignorant of his devices because we are fighting spirits, and they war by thoughts (2 Cor. 2:11, Eph. 6:12). They send thoughts to hinder us from going up in the spirit. Many times, Satan sends many thoughts to choke us so that we would remain in the dust. Many times, he paints the actions in a wrong way, even the innocent actions, but we must resist him.
You cannot detect Satan's thoughts if you do not access another thought. You cannot go up in the spirit except by other thoughts. When we take his things, they will fabricate us to remain in his realm until we become like him. When we take the things of Satan, we will become like him because his image is formed by his things.
God is dwelling in a realm of thoughts and understanding and He raised His Son by those things. His things are His thoughts and ways.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."
Things will enter into our hearts through thoughts. The things that God has prepared for them that love Him are revealed to us by the Holy Ghost, and they are preached to us. They are the deep things of God. The deep things of God are the things that will bring us to the bosom of the Father. We cannot access His things if we have not come to a certain level in the spirit.
To ascend to the things of God, we must first access the things of Christ. The thoughts of Christ will remove the thoughts of carnality from us. Carnality exists by thoughts; it is a mindset of death (Rom. 8:6). Carnal mindedness can make a man fight his brother over mundane things. Such a heart is one who rates carnal things above spiritual things. To be carnally minded is to raise physical gain above brotherly kindness; this is usually the reason why some brethren fight. However, Christ comes to detonate those carnal thoughts by the revelation of Christ, which are His things. We must believe in Christ's thoughts, even when our earthly standards of righteousness do not seemingly agree with it.
The fact that everything about a woman revolves around her husband does not mean that she is being cheated. When a woman is instructed by God, the reason why she should obey is not because of her husband, but because God commanded it. When we obey God, we are blessed and not cheated. This is why the church does not feel cheated by submitting to Christ (Eph. 5:22-23). Wives do not submit in favor of their husbands but in the fear of the Lord. God rewards obedience. When we obey Him, we get blessed and empowered by His Spirit. Wives gain by doing this, even though Satan will bring thoughts to tell them that their husbands are cheating them.
We have a blessing of change in the spirit and come into a blessed dwelling when we obey instructions, but Satan does not make us see this. This must be the comfort of our hearts, even in the midst of our brethren. God corrects those He loves, therefore, we must always love to be corrected. The one who accepts corrections will always change, but the devil will not make us see this side of change.
Satan does not have the ability to love, so he tells us to stand our grounds against our brothers (or sisters). God is love; He will always tell us to do the right things that will take us up, but the voice of the devil will always bring us down.
Our minds may not be able to conceive the fact that God wants to bring us to where He is, but Christ was introduced to us to help us go up. As we yield to Christ's thoughts, we ascend to a better place overtime. The makeup of Jesus made Him better than the angels; He ascended beyond the realm of the heavens.
Thoughts bring commandments to us, and we must resolve to obey them. As we obey these commandments, we are exempted from the clutches of Satan. Fellowshiping with wrong thoughts could go as far as making a mind go insane or depressed. Depression usually starts with a thought, which will then make a man conclude that he cannot progress into good things. We must therefore learn to believe God's word because His thoughts will bring us to an expected end. Satan's intention however is to make us disbelieve the promises of God.
The thoughts of Christ will raise a man up. We become what we think. It is what we think that we will do and it is what we do we will become. God wants to bring thoughts that are different from Satan's thoughts to us. When God instructs us, Satan will give us reasons to make us not obey those instructions. He brings contrary thoughts that will hinder us from obeying God. Satan is an intentional enemy. He knows our destination and would therefore do everything to hinder us. He wants us to leave the earth not becoming what God intends for us. He also knows that when we transit, we would not be able to fulfill God’s intention. It is on earth that we can receive a godly abode.
Thoughts can make brothers to be competitive, envious and jealous. There is a way Satan has taught us to rate things. It is because of our value system that we envy one another. However, when we are raised to where God desires, we will not envy any man for anything. Anyone who is not housing God is not to be envied. A soul that is housing vanity is not to be envied.
A man who handles God’s thoughts is not an ordinary person; as we handle such thoughts, we change state, location and personalities in the spirit. It is by God's thoughts that we are changed. Our ascension is by our change, and we cannot go up without the visitation of God's thoughts.
Hebrews 2:4
"God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will..."
Jesus became so much better than angels, and there are things that constitute His image. Particles of His image come to us as thoughts, which could be foolish at times. This is why it is not easy to discern that the obedience of wives to their husbands is a way of ascension for them. We must love to submit more. One who will become supernatural must love to be humble and obey their spouses.
The thoughts of God come in the littlest of ways. His thoughts will teach us to be humble, even to those whom we rather think should be submissive to us in the natural. God's thoughts are not the things we think about, but for it not to be strange to us, we must fellowship with other thoughts that will make us adapt to it (Isa. 55:8). These are the days we have to believe in God, so that we can take His thoughts.
It is the soul that climbs the hill of God and it climbs by obeying commandments. There is a way God thinks, and it is the right way to think. We must return back to the thoughts of the beginning, and relate with those around us and our brethren, whom Satan wants to move us against, with such judgement. The original way of God's thinking is that He is slow to wrath and quick to forgive. We must ‘clean our slates’ and not retain any offence in our hearts because this is the way of God.
The original state of the beginning is not to retain offence. As such, anyone who encourages you to retain offence wants to make you remain in a low realm. We become people who can approach God by obeying His commandments. We must begin to exercise the instruction of cleaning our slates with our spouses and for those that are not married, with their brothers, sisters, and even other people with whom we live.
When we resolve to always clean our slates, Satan will attack us with thoughts to make us feel like those offences cannot be forgiven but it is only a lie; he just wants us to stay down.
The thoughts of God will frame us to become people who can ascend to where He is and dwell with Him. There is a pattern of man that can gain access to God, and to be that man, we must begin to erase offenses and reject thoughts. Some thoughts may come to us and may seem right in another person’s judgement, but we must learn to reject all thoughts that are not lovely.
God will teach us that our brethren are not evil in spite of any wrong they may do to us, but that they are ‘Christ’ (because they are also saved in their spirits). It is Satan that exalts evil but God's judgement is that we should see our brethren in the same way He sees them. God’s thoughts of our brothers and sisters is that they are Christ, irrespective of what we think the person has done. We must discern our brethren beyond their shortcomings; we must believe that they are Christ and treat them like we should treat Christ. The way to treat Christ is to love Him.
We will understand scripture better as we obey commandments. Angels will also minister with those who obey commandments. When we obey commandments, heaven will be opened upon us. When we do not obey, we struggle. Obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rams (1 Sam. 15:22). Obedience is even stronger than a long period of fasting. Obedience brings oil (grace) into our lives to relieve us from friction and stress.
We must begin to exercise love and bring down Satan’s thoughts deliberately. We must resist his thoughts because they are intended to pull us down. God's thoughts however want to take us up. When God speaks, we must believe it. When He says something about our brother, we must believe it. We should take God’s thoughts because it is by them that we ascend in the spirit. We must choose to go up and not come down.