Programme: Lekki Soul Center (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 25th January, 2023.
Transcript Summary
1. In the season we are in as a company, the Lord is emphasizing things of everlasting life and Eternal Life. Everlasting life is Christ's life that is heaved; it contains the same demands as those of Christ, but with higher standards. So, it is a good season for many of us who still need to strengthen things around our Christ curriculum to trust the Lord for such strengthening.
2. In 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, Paul taught spiritual things. The new birth experience does not automatically make one spiritual (referring to the soul). Spirituality is a quality of life that is in Christ. Every believer is Christ in his/her spirit; but not so for the soul (comprising the heart and mind). So the journey to becoming spiritual is the journey that the soul is called to undertake.
3. (2 Cor. 5:17). The new creation referred to in this scripture is man’s spirit. What God created in Genesis 1:27 is the spirit of Adam, which is a type of Christ, although a natural/earthy one (1 Cor. 15:46-49). God created Adam’s spirit such that the genes and fibers of it were made up of life and peace, just like the believer’s spirit is now. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of the earth to come. This means that by the new birth, every believer is automatically an earthly citizen of the world to come.
4. (Eph. 1:3). The blessings God has given us in Christ are spiritual – they are life and peace. However, Jesus Christ came into other natures in His spirit and soul other than the nature of Christ; He came into the nature of the everlasting Father and the Son of God (Luke 4:41). But we cannot come into these natures in our souls without first obtaining the nature of Christ.
5. (John 3:3, 12-16). Jesus spoke concerning the new birth, spelling out the laws through which one would come into life and peace; and went further to speak concerning things of everlasting life and Eternal Life.
6. Every level of God's realm has laws that govern it. The learning of the faith of the Son (Gal. 2:20) does not hinder one from using faith at the level of milk. The dealings of the Lord in the life of a man can tell what level a man stands in the realm of the spirit. To change one’s standing position is to obtain great favor from the Lord. A man the Lord has moved to a level of the faith of the Son cannot live by the milk of the word and the proceeds of milk faith. That change of season would bring the man to a path where his needs may not be readily met at will, as in previous seasons.
7. Growing out of childhood or becoming an adult in the spirit does not come by virtue of the number of natural years a person has been a believer but through the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ is the instrument for conversion into being spiritual.
8. To be spiritual is to receive the revelation of the mystery called Christ. Christ is both the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor. 1:24). This power is a lesson/doctrine; it is the teaching of the nature of the man – Christ – which we already have in our spirits.
9. (2 Peter 1:5). Virtue is spiritual character – the character that the doctrine of Christ commands. A spiritual person is one whom God will cause to hear the doctrine. Without the doctrine, one cannot do some instructions contained in the scriptures. One may try to work it out, but until the doctrine of Christ is given, such a one would not have access to the grace that should follow.
10 The epsitles often contain both mysteries and lifestyle, telling us that the reason for all the mysteries is for obedience to a lifestyle. One cannot skip the mysteries and go on to the lifestyle. For example, without the doctrine of Christ, no man can love his wife consistently, as Christ loved the Church (Eph. 5:25-26). Life is fetched from the doctrine. And without good knowledge of the Scriptures, we cannot understand doctrine.
11. Continual obedience to doctrine produces a fruit, which is a wisdom that eventually becomes natural to a man. Doctrine itself is a wisdom, yet there is another wisdom that is the "way of doctrine". But first, we must give attention to doctrine. It is when doctrine is well laid that the leading of the Spirit follows. This leading is customized for every individual, which when obeyed, the nature of sin and death is purged in the soul.
12. In 1 Peter 3:1 and Ephesians 5:22, the Scriptures make it clear whom wives are meant to submit to – their own husbands. And if many women in the Church would give the same honor they give to their pastors to their husbands, Satan would have been defeated in their homes. A wife who would dare to be different from what is prevalent amongst the general populace of women would have to rely on Christ to give her new thoughts that would help her come under her husband.
13. (1 Pet. 3:4). A woman with a meek and quiet spirit is of great worth before the Lord. Meekness and quietness in this context are in reference to her own husband, not just anyone. Quietness is a work on the inside; it is a work of peace and everlasting life. A woman who is quiet can relinquish her opinion when making decisions with her husband. Hence, Proverbs 31:11 says, “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.” However, she does not arrive at this place through prayer alone but by demonstrating a kind of attitude.
14. (Prov. 31:10-15; Tit. 2:3-5). A virtuous and spiritual woman is homely and diligent; she is one who has the ability to use doctrine for the changing of her soul. A spiritual woman expresses life by loving her husband and children, being discreet, chaste, a keeper at home and obedient to her own husband. These characters are various degrees of godliness. Therefore, being spiritual does not only involve learning doctrine but how we actually live. And this is the reason for the doctrine of life and peace – to produce a kind of life, a way of behaving.
15. (Eph. 5:25-28). In the new testament, the order for the husband is to first love and lay down his life for his wife, so that he may be able to sanctify her and present her to the Lord. Jesus did not demand change from the Church right from the start, He first loved her unconditionally. This is how husbands ought to love their wives.
16 (1 Cor. 12:31). The more excellent way is love. The leading of the Spirit brings ways to us. As we stay using those ways consistently for living, we escape out of the natures of sin and death.
Blessings!