Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 7th October 2021
Ministering: Pastor Thompson Ehima
A time came when the twelve tribes of Israel broke into two kingdoms: the tribe of Benjamin and Judah made up the Southern kingdom while the other ten tribes made up the Northern kingdom. God sent the king of Assyria against the ten tribes when they went into idolatry and drove the two tribes into Babylon when they sinned. However, the two tribes returned to the land.
When the king of Assyria came to invade the territory of the ten tribes, he did not just move them the way Benjamin and Judah were moved into Babylon. The king of Assyria scattered them to different territories that Assyrians had under their care. And in turn, he brought people from different nations to stay in the cities of the ten tribes (i.e., the cities of Samaria). So there were people living in the cities of the ten tribes who were not native of the land. However, because they did not fear the LORD nor observe the laws that govern the land, the LORD sent lions to devour some of them (2 Kings 17:24-27). The land is a promised land, and it has its laws. However, those who were brought into the land by the king of Assyria did not understand the laws that govern the land. So, lions came to devour them. The king had to bring some priests to come and teach the people the law of that land so that they could guide them against the lions. The lions here speak of evil spirits.
The commandment of not harbouring or keeping records of offences is one that is of the living land. Whosoever keeps that heart posture will be able to survive in the living land. God had to tell the Israelites to rehearse the laws to their children; they must know that there are laws that govern how a people will live in the living land (or in everlasting life). The promised land is one that eats its inhabitants when they do not adhere to the laws of the land (Numbers 13:32). So, it is important to learn the laws of the land. The laws and the land here are not those of Christ, but those of everlasting life. It’s the land of the living (Psa. 142:12). Just like we learnt the laws of the land of Christ (i.e., faith, hope and Charity), so also we have to get ourselves acquainted with the laws of the land of everlasting life.
The land of everlasting life is not one that anybody can just stroll into. It took the first begotten of the Father to reveal to the Apostles and Prophets, the manner of men that those who would be granted access to the land ought to be (2 Pet. 3:11). There is a manner of man who can look for things of everlasting life. Men who would inherit that land of everlasting life must become a manner of persons, they must embody the law of everlasting life because nothing unclean and uncircumcised will pass through that land (Isa. 52:1/35:8). This is one of the reasons why we need mercy.
Uncleanness and uncircumcision speak of our iniquities, so we need mercy to be reconciled from our iniquities (Heb. 2:17). One of the things that mercy will deliver to us is judgment. It is judgment that will be used to reconcile us to become one with the land of everlasting life. Many times in the scriptures, the prophets said that judgment shall be in the land, as this is what will preserve men in the land (Jer. 33:15, Ezek. 5:10). The children of Israel corrupted the preceding land, but the land of the living cannot be corrupted.
The land of the living in the New Testament is the land of everlasting beings, and no corruptible thing will be brought into the land. Anything that defiles and or makes a lie will not be brought into this land (Rev. 21:27). Defilements or lies are things of corruption within us that the law of the land does not agree with. One of the reasons why God drove the physical nation of Israel away from the land is because they violated everything that governed that land. It’s a land that has milk and honey, but it devours the (unlearned) inhabitants thereof. The intention of the Lord is for us to learn the law of that land. It is only by learning the law that we can make covenants or agreements with the God of the land. We must make covenant with the law and life of the land. The Lord is setting before us, life and death and we should choose life by agreeing to learn the laws of this (everlasting) life (Deut. 30:15).
We need mercies to access this realm of the Father. Everlasting life is the least realm that God the Father can condescend into. So a man cannot ordinarily find out that life because the life is a product of the unsearchable judgement and ways of God that are past finding out (Romans 11:33).
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). We need the mercies of God to receive the blessing of His judgments. Judgment here speaks of the inside-sight of God. Judgment is a sight; it is an understanding or a perception. It’s not just a sight but an insight into the matters of everlasting life--the life that is hidden behind the veil. So we need mercies to access it. Mercy speaks of a zone where a man is completely helpless.
Reverend Busuyi Olabode once said that a lot of people have journeyed to the border of the land of everlasting life but were unable to cross it. And this is the same place that we are being called into. Moses and everyone who left Egypt from the age of twenty upwards could not cross from the plain of Moab, except Joshua and Caleb (Numb. 14). Everlasting life is where one begins to touch the promise of Eternal Life (1 Tim. 6:12a). The servant of God mentioned that they could not cross it because they could not let go of their humanity. Whosoever will cross into everlasting life will cease from being a man. When you become a Christ, you are a (new) man; but when you are coming into God, you must cease from being a man. There is nothing of man that can be brought into the land.
People wondered at the manner of man that Jesus was while He was on earth, this was because he had ceased from the things of man. Jesus was not just trying to be defiant by opposing the ways or thoughts of men oftentimes. The world likes to celebrate men who like to be different, especially if they make something out of their difference. Satan will punish some people for trying to be different, but he will spare some so that they will be a standard of life for others to follow. However, though people were carnal and blinded in the days of Jesus, they could see that Jesus was different from them. Jesus was already carrying everlasting life at that time when He began His public ministry.
One of the proofs that Jesus was not just trying to be defiant was that He would attend ceremonies at places where Sadducees and Pharisees were present, even after declaring woes on them. We can see the heart of Jesus, that it was not just because He had any personal issue with the Pharisees that He spoke to them the way He did, but because judgments must just be raised. There is an imminent danger when judgment is not erected in the spirit. This is why we must be raised to a place where there is no sin that cannot be erased or forgiven. Those were zones that Jesus operated in, zones where there is no sin that cannot be forgiven.
There is no man who will cross into everlasting life with the things of a natural man. The fear of losing our humanity is scary. Oftentimes we are afraid of losing our humanity. Though we talk a lot around becoming a quickening spirit but somehow, we don’t want to completely lose our humanity. We don’t want to completely become spirits. However, we must understand that we cannot come into the zone of everlasting life, where the LORD becomes our portion, if we don’t cease from the things and ways of man.
“I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” (Psalm 142:5). We have a portion in the land of the living and when we take that portion, we are sure that we will cease from being (natural) men. To say that the Lord is my portion in the land of the living is to say that the things that made up the Lord are now my property. The Lord is my portion when I have possessed His things. The land of the living is the land of the Father, the Son and the Holyghost, and a man can have a portion there. This is what it means to be written in the Book of Life. When one's name is not found in the Book of Life, it means he does not have a portion there.
Paul had to charge the Hebrews Church who were coming into this zone of everlasting life not to draw back because of unbelief (Heb. 4:11). We need so much mercies for our infirmities to be dealt with; to crack down our humanity or reconfigure our inward soul frame--that is made of the very fabric of our flesh. We need so much mercies for us to be completely changed. It is mercy that will fetch out judgements that pertain to life everlasting for us. However, we cannot find judgement if we have not acquired and fellowshipped with truth. Truth is what makes for the delivery of the judgement of life to us.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). The life here speaks of everlasting life. No one can come into everlasting life except by truth. Jesus meant that He had embodied everything about the Father and whosoever sees Him has seen the Father. The Father is the living God. Lamenting because of the cares around this present life such as what to eat, where to live, etc is not the conversation of those who are looking for everlasting life.
The Lord wants us to understand that in the realm of everlasting life, age is not a barrier. This limitation that we have on our mind is our sin. We cannot be talking about everlasting life and have time limitations concerning issues around this present life. Sometimes, when we look at the challenging situations that we are facing, our minds cannot agree to the fact that there is no barrier in the realm of everlasting life. Sometimes, that judgment is too much for us.
It will take everlasting judgements to bring us to a place where we no longer think that time is not a limitation. This is because men are still bound in time. These are commandments of everlasting life; these are the zones where the law of the endless life resides. This is why the Lord must visit us with thoughts that will deal with contrary thoughts that have plagued us in every facet of life. We have fallen short in every interface of life, in marriage relationships or between our brothers or sisters.
God has been working on our minds and hearts in the season of learning Christ; but the body must be made living. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1). This conversation is one that would have started from Romans 5, where one would live until he is justified by faith. The just must have lived by faith until the soul lives and the body becomes a living one. A believer can have righteousness (or life) in his spirit and the body can be dead because of sin. This is why sin must be addressed in the mortal body. God is bringing us to a zone where it won’t just be our soul that will participate in the judgement of everlasting life, but the body will also participate. God wants to accept the body.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2). There is a way the world makes men conform to her. Worldly lusts are dealt with by the operation of Christ. We might have been made free from worldly lusts but there are still some worldly conformities around our soul frame. We still have certain uniformity with the world. There is still a oneness that the soul still has with the world. Though a man has obeyed the doctrine of Christ, he still has the same idea of limitation that the world has. That’s a conformity.
The people that Paul was writing to in the book of Romans have obeyed the doctrine of Christ, so the conformity to the world being referred to in Romans 12:2 is not referring to being lustful. Paul was talking about what can make a man conform to the world. The renewal of the mind here speaks of the transformation of the mind from being a mind of Christ to being the mind of the Lord. We might have acquired the mind of Christ, but we need the mind of the Lord to search out the unsearchable riches of God.
“For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:30-33). The wisdom and the knowledge of God here are those of everlasting life. The judgments of everlasting life are unsearchable, and we need mercy to access those judgments. If Christ is unsearchable, how much more God. God packages His riches in high wisdom and knowledge, and those are means through which God delivers His judgments. However, a man cannot take any everlasting substances if he has not become a Christ.
God’s ways are everlasting and they are past finding out. For us to fetch our God’s judgments and ways, we need the riches of His wisdom and knowledge. One of the essences of judgment is to initiate us into ways. Keeping of ways is keeping of commandments. Scripture said that Moses knew God’s ways in his days (Psa. 103:7). It was in Jethro’s house that God taught and put His ways in Moses; that was where God configured everlasting ways in him (Exo. 3:1).
On the other hand, death is a way in the soul (Prov. 14:12). What has been killing men is a way inside them and it’s one that seems righteous. Death is a way that is already entrenched in men, and it cannot be taken away without the revelation of another (high) way. It seems foolish to tell a woman who has status in the society to submit under a husband that she is smarter than and to call him Lord; but this is a way and a judgment that will be used to beat the adversary. Without knowledge and wisdom, we will not find God’s judgement and ways; and the princes of this world will also not be judged (John 16:11).
Knowledge and wisdom are products of thought. Your present thought is as a result of the knowledge inside you. A wise man is a man who has wise thoughts. The accumulation of thoughts is what becomes knowledge in the souls. When one keeps receiving the thoughts of God, it will form a body of knowledge inside him and such one will attain unto the wisdom of God. Then, wisdom will start finding out judgments and ways for you that will go against other contrary ways that we have inside of us. Conversations or lifestyle are determined by ways.
Our choices are products of our judgement. Our choices and priorities reflect the judgment we possess in our souls. Just as the sons of God who chose death by choosing wives by themselves, our choices reflect whether we are choosing life or death, whether we are choosing blessings or curses (Gen. 6:2).
Though the new creation reality teachers say that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law, we must understand that that is the only curse we have been redeemed from. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law but there is a curse on any man who continues to live the carnal life; this curse is called condemnation (Gal. 3:13, Rom. 8:2). “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19). The carnal life or the life of flesh is a condemned life. However, whosoever walks not after the flesh will have no condemnation. The soul must be walking for a man to come out of curse, and the walk must be after the Spirit. The soul can generate another conversation even out of a cursed life.
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:34). It is through knowledge and wisdom that the mind of the Lord is wrought in us. The introduction of the wisdom and knowledge of God begins the formation of the mind of the Lord in us. Whosoever has not trapped God's thoughts or the depth of the riches of His wisdom and knowledge will not acquire the mind of the Lord. Such a person will still be conformed to this world. You need a mind that is more than the mind of Christ not to be conformed to this world. The mind of Christ delivers us from the world to a level; but there is another mind needed to be broken out of the mould of the world.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Wicked ways here refer to thoughts patterns that are twisted and not aligned with the thoughts of scriptures. A wicked man here is beyond someone who does an obvious evil like murdering someone but a man who has a twisted conclusion or perception of matters. Though a believer’s mind might have been fortified with the thoughts of Christ, it does not mean that such a one does not still have some twisted or perverted thoughts in him. It can only take the visitation of high thoughts from above to dispel such twisted or wicked ways.
We must not be like Esau, who dropped his birthright because of the pressure of life. “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” (Heb. 12:16). Food is a necessity, and it’s legitimate to be hungry but we should not sell our birth right because of natural hunger or anything in this present life. We must be ready to go hungry in order to inherit God. We should be ready to withstand the pressure of life that evil spirits will machinate towards us because of the inheritance. God allows evil spirits to pressure or tempt us in order to see if we are worthy to inherit the life that He is offering to us.
People usually think that we are just being mean because our ministrations don’t focus on natural needs but only on the Kingdom. However, that’s not so. We must understand that if we focus on natural needs, we cannot be free from the hold of Satan and evil spirits. Evil spirits get angry when we don’t consider our natural needs but continue to seek the unseen. Such are conversations that are generated by men who have ceased from being earthly. This is how we confuse and confound evil spirits.
We need to gain judgments beyond how men naturally think. When we respond differently to our needs, seek God’s Kingdom instead of our obvious needs, the evil spirits surrounding such will be wearied out and that needs will be miraculously met. These are thoughts of everlasting life. May we find mercy to obey this wisdom and come to a mastery of it.