Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 4th May 2022
Ministering: Pastor Thompson Ehima
Nobody will be rewarded with the Throne without learning the law of living and abiding. The essence of everlasting life is to teach us the law of living and abiding. A person, although living, cannot abide until he has been brought forth. To be begotten is to be brought forth. Abiding does not happen until one has been begotten and moved into a realm where he can bring forth fruit. A man cannot bring forth until he has lived. A natural tree must first live and grow to the point where it can bring forth fruit. It will be injustice if after a few months of planting a seed, the husbandman demands fruits.
“And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” Gen. 4:3. The process of time is the process of living. The temptation of Jesus Christ in Matthew 4 was a test to see the kind of fruit that He will bear, and to know if He will move into the season of abiding. Nothing will bring forth without living. God’s expectation of us is for us to live. It is in the season of abiding that we bring forth more fruit.
In everlasting life, there is a season of living. We must live in the land of the living. We must understand the law of living; then we must understand the law of abiding. Understanding these laws qualify us to be rewarded with the Throne. The Throne is a reward to men that have lived until they begat or brought forth fruits; then they abide so that they can abound.
Before you are given the incorruptible seed, you must abound in charity. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren” (1 Pet. 1:22). A man that has obeyed the truth has obeyed the commandment of Christ unto charity. He has attained the place of sincerity. The unfeigned love of the brethren is the end of the commandment (1 Tim. 1:5). Charity is the conversation of the gospel of Christ. Faith and hope are stratas of love because when we obey them, we keep the commandments of love; but they are love that is not yet full. Charity is the full measure.
There is a season of living in everlasting life. The children of Israel could live in the land given to them to possess but they could not abide. Something kept taking them out of land. Thus, they could not receive the reward because they could not abide. There is a law that must be configured in the dwellers of the land.
“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come” John 16:13-15. One of the reasons God sent the Holy Ghost is for Him to teach us all things (John 14:26). The Holy Ghost is here to teach us the law of the Father, but He cannot start teaching us that law until He has taught us the law of Christ. Laws cannot be done in any realm without the Holy Spirit.
The law is responsible for the life. The law of the Spirit of life is also the law of the spirit life. It is the law that enables one to walk in the spirit. Spirit life is the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. They have laws that hold Their lives. One cannot partake of divine nature without learning its laws. Everlasting Life is the learning of the laws of Eternal Life. That is why Eternal Life is a reward.
The law of Eternal Life is everlasting life. One must follow the living law of everlasting life and move into the abiding law of Eternal Life, which brings forth fruits; then Eternal Life is given. Everlasting life is heaved out of Eternal life. God cannot be related with in eternity. Therefore, He had to carve out a law from the Eternal realm that we can relate with in our realm. When we master this carved-out law of everlasting life, we receive a nature that gives us admittance into Eternal Life.
One who receives Eternal Life is not condemned. Condemnation is denial or limitation; it is a lack of access to receive the promise. One who does not have everlasting life will be condemned. To be denied access to life is death (Rom. 8:2). Christ-life alone cannot give admittance to the promise of God’s life.
Faith is a law (Rom. 4) that brings death in a measure, and life in a measure (Gal. 2:20). The law of faith is also a commandment that ends at charity. “…The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned…” (1 Tim. 1:5). Faith is a commandment; good conscience is also a commandment that produces a pure heart. Charity is a commandment as well. Thus, faith, hope and charity are commandments.
The rich, young ruler came to Jesus on what he must do to have Eternal Life. Jesus replied that “if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16-17). Thus, there cannot be life without commandments. Anyone who wants life must first receive its commandments. You will evolve in the commandment- from one to another.
(Rom. 13:9-10) Fulfilling the law is all about doing commandments. The commandments are the tenets of the law. It is not possible to do the law of everlasting life without seeing its commandments. Love is the perfecting of every law.
Christ is life, the Father and the Son are everlasting life, and Eternal God is Eternal Life. Jesus told the ruler that he must keep the commandments to access life. There are commandments governing the life called Christ. When a man is doing commandments, he is doing laws. Faith, hope and charity are commandments of the life of Christ.
One can do commandments and perfect them, but this is not the end. God wants us to abound in these commandments. It is in the place of abounding that we are moved into the next allocation of life. One starts from living to abiding and then to abounding. Abiding is the point of bringing forth fruits or begetting. One that cannot bear fruits cannot abide (Luke 13:8-9).
When one has the statute of the Lord, it rejoices the heart (Psa. 19:8). Rejoicing the heart births an increase in knowledge or increase in strength, which is the strength of the youth. We have youths in Christ; we also have youths in everlasting life. John wrote to young men in everlasting life: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you…” (1 John 2:14). The commandment for a youth is for to abide. Little children are in the season of living.
When the Lord brings one to the season of abiding, he should know. This is to help him discern the type of temptations and the arrangement of evil spirits around him. The season of living has its warfare; the season of fruit-bearing has its warfare; the season of abiding has its warfare, and the season of abounding has its warfare. The reason for all this warfare is to move us further into life (everlasting). Discerning each season will help us live well so that we can be launched into bringing forth. Discerning this will help us know what we are supposed to give our hearts to, and when we are not doing it well. It will help our hearts to cry for mercy at our shortcomings.
"Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill…" Isaiah 5:1. Well-beloved signifies an everlasting covenant. That fruitful hill is an everlasting hill. It is a hill of the Lord on Zion. These are saviours that are supposed to arise from Mount Zion.
"And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." Isaiah 5:2. The farmer planted the choicest vine but it's reproducing wild grapes. This means the enemy has done something.
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." Psalms 19:7. The essence of the law is for conversion. When one has finished using the law to live, his soul should have been converted. A man who uses the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus should have been converted into Christ; godliness should have been formed in him.
Godliness is a nature of Christ just as divine nature is a nature of everlasting life. Godliness is the character of charity. Godliness is the character of a charity man. A charity man is a godly man. He cannot be enticed (Prov.1:10) because charity envieth not. All the fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians are characters of love. Charity is the highest law in Christ. This same thing is applicable to the season of everlasting life. There is the law of living and abiding in everlasting life.
We ought to serve before we can bring forth fruit. We serve righteousness so that we can bring forth holiness. Death is a fruit of a service. It is the fruit of the service of sin.
Another word for servant is "to live". God quantifies service by obedience. "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels" Hebrews 12:22. The living God is the everlasting God. There are laws of the living. We cannot say we are serving the living God and allow the thoughts of the dead to govern us. We must receive laws from His mouth, and we fetch laws from His mouth by what He is speaking to us—by revelation.
“For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (ASV). The word ‘active’ means alive. Soul conversion cannot take place until the soul has been divided, just as the land of the Canaanites was not inherited until it had been divided. The land refers to our souls. The land needs to be divided before the Lord opens His things to a soul. When the word of the Lord is coming to a believer, it is meant to unearth things in them. It is meant to divide the soul asunder.
The word of God described in Hebrews speaks of that which engages in warfare because it pierces, and piercing is the operation of a sword. For God to war with His enemies in believers, He must give them laws. Laws are for warfare (Rom. 7:23). The enemies within believers’ souls would not want everlasting life to be resident within them. There are things within believers that have been dwelling in their minds, hearts, and consciences for a long time. These things (thoughts, ways, judgment, decisions, choices, and conclusions) need to be dispossessed for another occupant (God’s laws) to take over.
(Matthew 10:34) An individual cannot arrive at peace except he has warred. The earth in this verse speaks of a man's soul, and the sword typifies God's word. When the word of God is said to be living, it means it stands (Isa. 40:5; 2 Pet. 1:25). Before a tree brings forth fruits, it must have withstood. A believer stands by obeying (laws). A believer in the season of living must withstand winds. Winds could be of two folds: winds of doctrines (Eph. 4:14) and strange winds or spirits bringing thoughts to a believer (John 3:8).
Evil spirits can come in the form of doctrine. They could also come as afflictions and temptations (Acts 20:19). Paul faced trials by the lying-in wait of the Jews who argued against his teachings. So, evil spirits could seek to move the heart away from living through affiliations and temptations. It therefore follows that no one can say he is living in the season of everlasting life if he has not dealt with winds; just like a tree will not break into fruit-bearing if it cannot withstand the strength of winds. Hence, the first thing the Lord will use the season of everlasting life to do is to help us stand in the days of adversities. God allows those temptations because they are necessary to cause the believer to live.
(Matt. 4:4). What Jesus called every word is every good gift. Every good gift is what will make a believer live before he can move to every perfect gift that will make him abide (James 1:17). For a believer to live, he will need every word. Those words are commandments for living that the Spirit of the Lord will bring forth. Those commandments are the laws of God or laws of everlasting life. When a man is said to be living in everlasting life, he is generating a walk contrary to the design of this world, or the arrangement of evil spirits/thoughts sent to him.
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 5:10. A believer’s warfare will come in thoughts, imaginations or high things. What Satan is after is to make sure the word of the Lord that is meant to convert the soul is of no effect, because it is possible to make the word of God of no effect (Rom. 9:6). For the word of God to be of no effect in a believer’s life, the believer hears the word but cannot translate it into a change in his soul.
(Ezek 36:24-27) A new heart is a clean heart. The putting on of a new spirit will make the individual a pure man. The heart of flesh is the heart of charity. After these works of God, the believer will dwell in the land; this means God will bring the believer’s soul to become living. But there are things that precede the dwelling or living in the land. Firstly, there is the putting of His spirit within the believer thereby causing him to walk. When a believer is walking, he is preparing his soul to live. It is His spirit in the believer that will cause him to walk. The believer will then be able to keep His statutes and judgments. His statutes are the proceeds of His law and commandments. These commandments are for the believer to live by as they are for life everlasting.
We fight thoughts by taking other sets of thoughts. To fight the thoughts of sin, God brings in thoughts of everlasting righteousness. A believer is one who fights ways with ways. If God also wants to overcome a manner or imagination in a believer, He will speak words till He births (other) imaginations in the believer's heart. Imaginations are where vanities are domiciled. Vanity is an imagination of the mind, and they are hopes/possibilities/dreams that Satan has painted to the soul. Vanity is a corrupted or inverted hope—it is painted by speakings until an image is formed in the mind.
What made Satan fall were the thoughts of his heart (Isa. 14:13). God wants to work on our hearts, our minds, and our conscience; this is where He wants to put laws (My spirit) into. The greatest warfare in the last time is the warfare of deception because even the very elect could be deceived. Evil spirits operate in the season of everlasting life by pushing out thoughts and imaginations. They will speak until saints become faint and weary–the two things that are common in the season of everlasting life (Heb. 12:3).
In the book of Daniel, the little horn fought and wearied the saints till he prevailed over them (Dan. 7:21). So sometimes when imaginations begin to trouble us, one of the first things we need to fight is the weariness of the mind. One can deal with a thought in days, the days turn to months and then to years. For instance, when Apostle Paul said a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him, he was fighting a thought (2 Cor. 12:7). And this thought stayed that He had to beg the Lord to take it away from him. But the Lord made him understand that the only way to deal with it is to stand his ground—to keep living.
We need to keep living until we can bring forth fruit, so we can abide. When a man has brought forth fruit and is abiding, those evil spirits that troubled him will give up on him, while another set of evil spirits will be sent to him. These ones that will come and stay with him in the season of abiding are called winds (seducing spirits and sometimes men). It is going to come to pass in the church that there will arise false prophets who will tell people with swelling words to make an image for the beast. These false prophets are spirits; they will stay with saints and wear them out– and what they will use is not fornication or adultery; they will capitalize on God's dealing in one's life. Apostle Peter called them scoffers who walk after their own lusts (2 Pet. 3:3-4).
Scoffers can be men or spirits. The thoughts they bring comes subtly that a man can almost think he is the one thinking it, whereas it was pushed by them. However, we must live above their thoughts. To live in the midst of these winds is our overcoming. Our overcoming is not to allow their thoughts to weigh us down. Their thoughts in the season of everlasting life are beyond not having what to eat. They are thoughts designed to wear out our strength as saints. But it is how we prove to God that we can live in His sight.
Every man must live in God's sight in order to break into the season of abiding (Hos. 6:3). But the season of living is where many saints get weary. This is why God had to train us as a company with Christ; we had to abound in Christ’s teachings well. We must do charity fervently so we can amass strength to war against evil spirits.
Evil spirits get angry when we don't give up easily on God– and this strength comes by the commandment of God. The brethren in Rev. 12:11 kept the commandment of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ (fetched from the law). While they were holding the testimony, thoughts (the flood) that came to sweep the woman with the man-child away were expiring; God raised a standard against them (Rev. 12:15, Isa. 59:19).
God raises standards against (evil) thoughts by giving us commandments and judgements. This is why we must keep journeying. We must not journey to a point and stop because of the times of adversity. But by patient continuance in well-doing, we must seek for glory, honour, immortality, and even Eternal Life (Rom. 2:7). God is girting men up with strength. As He is giving us His word, we will hold onto the commandment of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Blessings!
Summary
1. Nobody will be rewarded with the Throne without learning the law of living and abiding. The essence of everlasting life is to teach us the law of living and abiding.
2. Laws cannot be done in any realm without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is here to teach us the law of the Father (everlasting life), but He cannot start teaching us that law until He has taught us the law of Christ.
3. The law of Eternal Life is everlasting life. One must follow the living law of everlasting life and move into the abiding law of Eternal Life, which brings forth fruits; then Eternal Life is given.
4. The season of living, abiding and abounding all have their warfare; the reason for all this warfare is to move us further into life (everlasting)
5. The enemies within believers’ souls would not want everlasting life to be resident within them. For God to war with His enemies in believers, He must give them laws. Laws are for warfare (Rom. 7:23).
6. Every good gift is what will make a believer live before he can move to every perfect gift that will make him abide (James 1:17).
7. When a man is said to be living in everlasting life, he is generating a walk contrary to the design of this world, or the arrangement of evil spirits/thoughts sent to him.
8. Evil spirits operate in the season of everlasting life by pushing out thoughts and imaginations. They will speak until saints become faint and weary–the two things that are common in the season of everlasting life (Heb. 12:3).
9. We fight thoughts by taking other sets of thoughts. To fight the thoughts of sin, God brings in thoughts of everlasting righteousness.
10. (Rev. 12:15, Isa. 59:19) God raises standards against (evil) thoughts by giving us commandments and judgments. This is why we must keep journeying despite adversities/contradictions.