Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Date: Saturday, 11th December 2021
Our Lord Jesus is a Man of high integrity who can be relied upon. We are called to believe in Him – the One whom God has sealed (John 6:27). A man who has been sealed by God has received everlasting life. Jesus is dependable because God raised Him with His own life. The Father sealed the Son by giving Him everlasting life while He was on earth.
Jesus Christ is passionate about giving us everlasting life because it is the original plan/intention of God for man. The giving of everlasting life and Eternal Life to man is not an afterthought; it has been in the heart of God before the world began (John 3:16, Titus 1:2). Man was made in the "image and likeness" of God (Gen. 1:26). This means what informs the godhood of God are His image and life. No one can have the image of God without having His life. Thus, it has been the original intention of God for man to partake in His life – everlasting life and Eternal life.
There is no dominion without life. As such, it is life that informs/gives dominion. God reigns by reason of the life He has. Eternal Life is the reigning life; no one can reign with God without Eternal Life. The light the Lord God uses, which He would give men is the light of Eternal Life (Rev. 22:5). This life is the means by which men will also be able to reign, for there is no dominion without life. God created us for dominion. As such, He wants us to reign; and to reign, we must have His life.
One who is newly born again cannot use the light of the Lord God. This is why God introduces a lesser light (Christ) to such a believer because he does not have the requisite stature to use the light of God, for they are foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2:14). The things that make for reigning are foolish things. If God does not give intelligence and insight to His things, a man will despise the things that make for reigning.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14). A man must have been raised with the light of Christ before he can begin to have spiritual discernment. The light of Christ makes one spiritual – it weans one from the carnal mind, which is the mind of the world. We were all raised with carnal minds. Even after the New Birth, we still think like the natural man.
Carnality is only healed by exposure to the light of Christ. Christ is the One that makes us spiritual – He makes us not to think like ordinary men. The thoughts of ordinary men are division, strife, envying, jealousy (1 Cor. 3:3). There is the way the carnal man walks, which is informed by his thought pattern (1 Cor. 3:3). This thought pattern can only be healed by the introduction of the light of Christ. Christ heals us by raising us from being earthly to being spiritual; He raises us to value spiritual things.
Christ makes the benefits of the spiritual visible to the soul. This process is done gradually by delivering to the soul, spiritual meat and spiritual bread. The soul undergoes the process of becoming bread by the revelation of Christ. A soul that has become bread is holy. However, a man cannot be holy without going through the process of Christ. When a soul gains understanding, there are some things it would naturally drop. This is why we are encouraged to continue eating so we can gain understanding.
Christ is the first meal introduced to the believer after the New Birth and weaning from milk (Is. 28:9). The learning of Christ is a meal that is necessary to change the soul. Change may not come easy, but it is possible.
We must shrink in order to walk the path of life (Matt. 7:14). We find grace to shrink when light comes because light enables you see your faults and see things rightly. Without light, we see things wrongly and make judgements based on our darkness. When light comes, even in an increased measure, we get to see that we were wrong on issues we previously thought we were right about.
A contrite heart is one that is ready to take blame. To help your mind, look for a place in a matter where you are wrong, for you cannot be right all through. Take that place and stand there, so you can resolve the matter. If you are not wrong in action, you may be wrong in reaction. Our righteousness can never be higher than that of our Lord, hence, we must always learn to lose our ground.
“The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth…” (John 6:40). Seeing the Son is understanding the laws that framed Him up, which are the laws He was taught by the Father. It was not on the day He was led to the slaughter that He was taught, for He had been trained previously on how to behave/react to issues. Likewise, we must submit to the Lord to reprove us and train us after His manner.
The Lord leads, corrects and instructs us for the sole purpose of inheriting everlasting life. It may seem like He is hard on us, but it is because He wants to give us His life. Jesus went through trainings when He was being raised by the Father.
The law of everlasting life demands that we go lower, even when we are despised and ridiculed by men. We must resist the urge to vaunt or show that we are something. When Jesus was beaten and maltreated, He did not show that He was God. God is bent on giving us everlasting laws. As such, we must be willing to obey Him. God is giving us His laws so that we can know His life and also come into them.
The laws of everlasting life is to make us small, but we do not like to appear small. We feel we should always be right, whereas only God is always right. Jesus was right all His life, yet, He never claimed that righteous position. Jesus was innocent, yet, He agreed to die as One who was guilty. We fight so much to defend our reputation because we are particular about what men think about us, not how we are seen in the realm of the spirit. The conversation of the spirit which we are learning is powerful. God backs them up when we live according to them.
“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40). What we see about the Son is important; we ought to see the laws that make Him reign. Those laws are seemingly foolish laws that make a man shrink. Dominion cannot be given to one who is high and lofty. God is no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11) and knowing this will make us cautious.
The Father taught the Son everlasting laws. This is what made Him able to die a shameful death. Our definition of shame is distorted because we are in the flesh. It is better to be dishonoured by man than by God. We often think we are too big to take insults, and so when it comes to us some day, we get offended. We often overestimate ourselves, forgetting that we only survive by God’s grace and that He put breath in our nostrils (Gen. 2:7). When we find ourselves being puffed up, we must seek for ways to puncture it. This is because when pride is in a man, Satan is close by to destroy him. As such, we need to trust God to make us little and low at heart.
No one can enter into everlasting life without being converted (Matt. 18:3). We must always remember that we received all that we have. In these days, we need to be sober. Our Lord Jesus is determined to give us life, so He would teach us the laws of life that His Father taught Him. As such, we should not despise His instructions.
We must value the laws and commandments of our Lord Jesus because they come from His very essence. If we receive those laws and obey them, we will attain everlasting life. No one can attain everlasting life without mastering obedience to Christ. Commandments come to us by understanding (light) and the essence is for use.
Judgements are thought patterns used to conclude matters. God’s thoughts are higher than ours and His ways higher than ours (Is. 55:8-9). We gain life everlasting by obeying the commandments God gives us. We should esteem the commandments of God and not shove them aside, rather, we should ask for grace to do them. We may not find grace to obey initially, but we can start out in the flesh and after a while of continuous doing, it would become normal. However, if we want to wait till we have all the grace, we may never obey.
Our real enemies are those fleshly tendencies within us that seek to prevent us from entering into life. The doctrine of everlasting life removes hell and death resident in the soul. We need to know the everlasting Man, Jesus, in order to reveal and deal with hell resident in us. Everlasting life is about judgement; God has to raise our judgement. Sometimes, we may collide with the high thoughts and reasons of the Father. It takes humility to see the way the Father sees. This is why God gives us laws and instructions against our own natures, which we must submit to in humility.
It takes strength to give up one’s right. This strength comes from knowledge. Sometimes, one may be required to give up his right for the sake of peace and this is wisdom. A soul who gives up his/her right to preserve the house of God will be preserved by God. We must do everything to preserve the house of God. To do otherwise is to pitch oneself against God and His will. Through knowledge and revelation, God will rid us of every form of hell and death planted in us.
We must respect the integrity of the Lord Jeus. We must do every instruction He gives, as it is for our salvation. To save is to give life and that is His business. He gives life by laws, commandments, understanding and light. Seeing and knowing the Son is to see those laws. Sometimes, the instructions of the Lord come faintly, and as such, are easy to ignore. We must not ignore the instructions of the Lord because if they slip, we will lose life and eventually, lose salvation.
Everlasting life and Eternal Life come by laws. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Ps. 1:2). We should meditate and obey the laws that the Lord gives to us. To delight in the law of the Lord is to delight in becoming humble and becoming low (Matt. 11:29). When we find ourselves walking contrary to the laws of the Lord, we should repent and moreso, be willing to take contrary steps against them.
We gain mastery of laws by continual practice. When we keep practicing righteousness, after a while, it would become our natural response. Anytime light is present, blood is available. Darkness cannot remain where light is present. We are yet to apprehend the light of everlasting life fully, but the Lord will continue to grant light and give grace for us to come into it.