Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 10th May 2023
Transcript Summary
1. (Isaiah 2:1-2). The programme of salvation is the most important thing happening on earth right now. Unfortunately, not many people are seeing and appreciating it yet; but a time is coming when it will be appreciated. We are in the last days. The establishment and exaltation of the mountain of the Lord’s house will happen by a group of people who would allow God to save them. God is waiting for us because the salvation of the world depends on our salvation. Salvation is exaltation. Salvation is what changes a man from the state of flesh to a divine state. When a man is getting saved he is being exalted, and this is because the things that save a man are from above ‒ heavenly things (Col. 3:1).
2. (1 Peter 1:12). The substances meant for our salvation are not found amongst angels, else, angels would not desire to look into them. They are found in a Being – one whom the Bible describes as “being made so much better than the angels” (Heb. 1:4). What made Jesus better than the angels are the substances in God. Angels also have been sent to "minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb. 1:14). We are heirs of salvation. However, the substances in God must be given to us before we can attain salvation. God wants us to be as saved as our Lord Jesus Christ. Angels are not as saved as our Lord Jesus; that was why sin was later found in Lucifer, a Cherub (Ezek. 28:15).
3. Sin cannot be found in our Lord Jesus Christ; He cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone. Nothing evil pulls Him because He is absolutely saved. There are things that can pull a man, and the devil knows such things. However, God does not allow temptations that are greater than us to come to us (1 Corin. 10:13). If we are to be subjected to some kind of temptations now, we might be lost forever. This is why God manages the kind of temptations that come to us.
4. There are people with very large appetites of ambition in their souls. Such appetites can even limit them from ever becoming born again. Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). By this statement, Jesus means that gaining one’s soul is much more important than gaining the world. And this is because what it takes to recover the soul is far better than the world. Our souls are so precious that Jesus rates it to be better than the entire world.
5. God will rather give us His knowledge than much money. This does not mean God wants us to be poor but that there is something more precious He wants to give us. God is more interested in our souls being saved than just meeting our external needs – which He also takes care of, according to His grace that He provides per time.
6. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” (Eph. 1:3). Our blessings are spiritual blessings. They are not firstly tangible blessings, even though they can later translate to tangible blessings. The blessings that can alter, raise and change a man from grass (flesh) into a divine state sure beats anything the earth can offer. These blessings are not in the heaven of angels but in our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father blessed Jesus with those blessings, which made Him a man that cannot pass away nor perish, and whose years will never fail (Heb. 1:12).
7. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” (Eph. 1:4). The reason God blessed us with spiritual blessings is that He chose us to be holy and without blame before Him in love. God cherishes us attaining this state more than having material things. To be holy before God who sees the heart and tries the reins, one must get blessings from Him because holiness is according to His standard and not any man’s. We are called to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Holiness is separation. God wants us to be so holy that nothing (of the devil or this world) can pull us. And it takes substances that God has prepared for us and blessed us with to achieve this holiness in our souls.
8. “But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions…” (Heb. 10:32-34). The opening of our eyes brings afflictions and reproaches. When our eyes are open, dealings over our lives will change. However, it is only for a while. What helps one endure such seasons of affliction is the opening of one’s eyes to begin to appreciate things that endure (spiritual things). By that, we would be able to cast aspersion on ephemeral things. Natural substances, though physically tangible, cannot become part of a man, nor can they lift the soul from the flesh. God is more interested in giving us better and enduring substances.
9. (Eph. 4:17-18). Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds because Satan has darkened their understanding and blinded their hearts. Due to ignorance, man now works and lives for vanity (that which passes away). Man was never made to live for vanity. God created man to be king and lord over everything created but man lost that ability. Now, things created have brought man under their dominion; that is why man pursues them. God is seeking to restore man’s true essence so that he can take back his rightful place in creation. This is the reason for the preaching of the gospel of Christ. God does not want us to go after things that are created; He wants us to go after the things He wants to give to us.
10. “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” (1 Cor. 6:12). Things have the ability to put a soul under. When the soul is panting after natural things, it can never pant after things that are invisible. This is why God trains and leads the soul of a believer so that it does not come under the power of carnal things because He has better things to offer. Spiritual things (blessings) have the ability to alter a man’s being and make such a one so much better than the heavens (Heb. 1:4); this is our inheritance.
11. God prioritizes giving us His knowledge because it is by His knowledge we will appreciate in His life (Dan. 11:32b). God places a premium on us knowing Him so that we can be saved. Everyone has an arrangement by God to be saved. Sometimes, your arrangement could be that you have a lot of money, but God would not let you use it for yourself. Instead, He would instruct you on how to use it because the purpose is to save your soul. God manages how we relate to natural things because they have a tendency to spoil the soul. The real thing God wants to bless us with are the things that make for our salvation. This means when we experience denials, it is because God has the salvation of our souls in mind.
12. (1 Timothy 6:6-8). When we know that God has a hand in how our finances flow, it would give our souls a lot of rest and contentment. It is certain that we are not taking anything we acquire on earth out of here. The things we can take away from the earth are the spiritual blessings which God gave us and our souls inherited. We are going to appear before God with them and they will determine our rating and status before the heavens.
13. God wants us to rate His dealings in our lives higher despite the tribulation and afflictions that come with it. As we inherit spiritual blessings, we press into the Kingdom (Matt. 6:33). As we seek the Kingdom, God will also not deny us the things we need. However, the way they would come might not be how we would have preferred it. This is because the way one expects God to give things might be a way that would make one take the glory, and God also wants to save us from that.
14. Sometimes, while submitting to the dealings of the Lord, one might have to endure ridicule from even friends. You need to love those who persecute you now. The reason is that by the time God changes the story, He would have brought glory to your soul. People do not easily see internal change; it is the external change that men are after. Even when the Lord brings natural blessings, the blessings in itself would not be the gain but the work that God has wrought and is still working in one’s soul.
15. What brings God pleasure is that we are adopted as children (Eph. 1:5). ‘Children’ here is not referring to newborn babies but full-grown men, just like Jesus was called the “holy Child of God” (Acts 4:30). God said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17). This pleasure was not about the natural attainments of Jesus but His evolving into a man that could please God. Jesus evolved as He partook of the spiritual blessings being given to Him until He attained a state where He said, “All things that the Father hath are mine” (Jn. 16:15). By this statement, Jesus was referring to spiritual blessings, not just anything God has.
16. The Holy Ghost was given to guide us to possess and inherit substances of God. These are the things Jesus was decked with that caused Him to refuse the glories of this world when Satan tempted Him (Matt. 4:8-10). Jesus is offering us the substances that made Him glorious and unfading. Satan always seeks those who would bow to him by breaking the laws of life and compromising the standards of God; this is how he can give what he has to offer. On the other hand, God can give us things according to His standards because He created them. Therefore, we ought to bow to God instead of Satan.
17. The doctrine of “faith towards God” has taught many believers that God gives power to make wealth, but God desires much more to give believers the power to become sons of God. We should not take lightly the substances that make us because they come to us by revelation, laws, and commandments which when we do, we are changed. These are the same laws that framed our Lord Jesus to be “unending”. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings for us to be exactly like Jesus (Eph. 1:3). When a man pursues this same goal, such a one would bring pleasure to God.
18. Unpalatable circumstances in our natural affairs should not prevent us from journeying, bearing in mind that they are “light afflictions which are but for a moment.” (2 Cor. 4:17). What God is offering us are the things that made up His Son, and it sure beats anything on earth. It is the blessing of the Creator, and also what framed “O God”. When we see the joy ahead, like our Lord Jesus, we would despise the shame that accompanies the circumstance; and receive strength to press into God (Heb. 12:2). The devil would try to deceive man into thinking that the circumstance would end him if he does not pay attention to it. But that is not true because we are pressing into what would make us everlasting. God would strengthen us to keep pressing and our change in the spiritual and natural would come. God will attend to our natural affairs more than we can ever plan or imagine.
Blessings!