Programme: Lekki Soul Center (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 31st January 2024
John 6:25-28
“And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? [26] Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. [27] Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. [28] Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God…”
These people knew their testament because Jesus told them not to labour for meat that perishes; they understood some sense of responsibility to what God gives. So they asked to know how they might work the work of God; verse 29 gives us Jesus’ response. Then in the verses that followed, John 6:27-58, He showed them how to work God’s work.
John 6:29
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
Jesus wants us to eat His flesh. This message is tagged: “meat for life”. It is painful that God has given the Church that privilege to feast, but the Church is oblivious about their feast and are yet to see their table. This table or preparation of feast is what Psalm 23:5 referred to, saying, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…” Who are our enemies? The enemy of my friend is my enemy; the friend of my enemy is also my enemy. Who is a friend? A friend is one who hates your enemy. Friendship with the world is enmity with God (Jam. 4:4).
One cannot eat the meat of God if one does not know God’s enemy. Anyone who is friends with God’s enemy would not have a table prepared for him, and would never see the glorious meal, nor the table the Father has prepared for us.
The body of Christ is still feeding below the table preparation. In Nigeria, the statistics of the Church that are hungry for this world is enormous. However, the Church can be hungry beyond what it is currently being fed with. There are many gospels, but they do not constitute the table of the Lord according to Isaiah 28.
Isaiah 28:7-8
“But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. [8] For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
The reason for verse 8 is verse 7. They err in comprehension because they lack vision; vision is food. The vision of God is the provision of God. What God wants us to become is a vision; and so to achieve it, He makes provision for it. They err or stumble in judgement; and because of that, the tables are full of vomit and filthiness, such that no place is clean. Vomit is a nature associated with dogs, while filthiness is the nature of swine; both tables are not ordinary.
Feeding the Church below God’s expectation is an “erring” being committed by the Church. So, what circumvents the preachers, the priest and the prophets? Why are believers unable to perform the priestly and prophetic duty, which is responsible for getting the table set? The priestly ministry has the table, while the prophetic spirit has the vision. The prophetic lays (or writes) the vision for people to run with. The priestly ministry provides the table.
Therefore, a true table servant of the Lord would be a priest and a prophet. It is dangerous when another wine is operating through them—not physical wine but another life that is very strong on them and driving them to lead the Church wrongly; and that wine constitutes a belief system in them. Previously, the adversary had given us wine from his table. He serves his wine to the priests and prophets, and that wine causes a divergence from God’s way. So, wine births way. Wine is a way giver. Anyone who is intoxicated by the wine the adversary serves will follow another spirit. And one who follows such a way would err – he will lose vision and not have access to the meal of the Spirit of God. Because of that, what such would present on tables is vomit or filthiness. Vomit is what comes out of dogs.
Philippians 3:1-3
“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. [2] Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. [3] For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
Paul saying, “beware of dogs”, was referring to some preachers. He was warning the saints to beware of those who know how to do evil, to beware of the concision. Paul’s use of the word “we” in verse 3, was not in reference to the whole church, but those who were ambassadors, those who have become the worshippers who worship God.
To be a worshipper of God, you must be a true being. Worshippers are those who have come into knowing the truth; they are true to be presented to Jesus. They are true, the rest are false. So, when the table is being hijacked by false preachers, the church will have to suffer and suffer long; it is not easy to uproot a government, especially when gain is involved.
The Pharisees held Israel down for centuries and that was why when Jesus came into their community, He kept attacking them because they were not allowing the meal of God to come. The Pharisees knew how to stop prophets. So, when Jesus came, He was not in agreement with them; then they silenced Him and killed Him. And Jesus was not the first to have been killed by them, they had killed prophets previously. The reason is that they had bargained with Satan; their gain was having control and authority over the people. They took the seat of Moses; they were not anointed by God to do that but they worked their way there. They were not sent by God.
The new testament ministry is dangerous. Someone can proclaim to be a pastor but needs to be tested to know if he is truly a pastor. People have an idea of what church is or should be; Satan is empowering people and sending them into the Church. But a time will come, not too long from now, that people will fear to simply call themselves pastors or preachers. It will come to pass.
When dogs are teachers, the people will eat vomit. A dog is one who feeds the church with this world; they are those who have vomited the world and returned to eat it again. Paul spoke about how God delivered him from the mouth of the lion and the power of dogs (2 Tim. 4:17; Phil. 3:2).
1 John 2:15-16
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
There is something about the world and the things that are in the world. Anyone who loves the world is designed to not take the love of the Father. This is why God hates the vomit. When the table is full of vomit, it would be difficult to find a soul with the Father's love. This means that vomit cripples the love of the Father in the souls of men.
There is a feast (or food or meat) in the world that evil spirits are serving men. This food does not come directly from the evil spirits because they use men to serve it. Satan’s method of feeding is highly sophisticated because it is often not easy to detect one who is a preacher of Satan. Satan anoints people to feed one another. Therefore, a supplier of Satan’s meal could be someone’s friend or family member, and that is why it is not easy to escape. That is the strategy of this world. Sometimes, those who encourage and mentor us are strategically positioned to hold us down in the world.
The reason people refuse life is because another life or occupation is already resident in them. No one on earth is free from the devil, except such has come to Jesus by God. No one can come to Jesus except they are brought by the Father (John 6:44). We did not come to Jesus when we got born again. Rather, we gradually come to Jesus through the Holy Ghost. Having an encounter with Jesus stops one from eating the world. God knows that He cannot stop what we are eating just like that, so He has to put us beside the Holy Ghost in order to help our infirmities.
The world feeds us with carnal things that can in turn make us carnal. When we are under the charge of the Holy Ghost, He will use men that have been trained to take from Him to give us things that look like what we used to eat in the world, but they are not the same. This addresses things like having faith for our future, families, and careers, etc. All these are provisions to give us an idea of the meal ahead. It is to gradually wean and train us, to make us desire more of God.
1 Corinthians 3:1
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
There is a way a carnal Christian is spoken to. A carnal person cannot be spoken to like a spiritual person would, as he cannot take it, because he is bound in carnality. Milk is God’s provision for the carnal believer. Carnality is a state/capacity that cannot take the administration of spiritual meat. God is not against carnality but He wants to wean His people from it.
1 Corinthians 3:2-3
“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. [3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”
It is possible for a Christian to be carnal for many years. A whole Christian generation can be bound in carnality for a hundred years and they would all go to heaven. God would just have received carnal people in heaven. However God is not really happy about that, although Satan wants it to continue so, as long as people are not becoming spiritual. When a believer is yet carnal, it means such is not yet qualified to take the meat of the word of God. Carnal believers walk as men. To ‘walk’ is to ‘live’. This means that a Christian can live like a natural unbelieving man. There was a time we lived as men and were zealous for God, but God does not want us to continue in that state for long. He is expecting us to bring forth fruits unto becoming spiritual.
The table should be filled with meat or, at least, milk (Isa. 28:8). The entire milk meal is both solid and liquid. Milk is a provision in the spiritual that we feed on, and can be digestible by babes in Christ. Instead of milk, there could be vomit on the table. There is a nature that makes a people babes in Christ. Vomit and filthiness are not the “milk” of the world; rather they constitute the “meat” of the world. It therefore means that what is on the table is stronger than what the Lord ought to put on the table. This shows that Satan is gaining advancement and encroaching with his table. This however does not mean Satan is more powerful than God. Rather, it is the response of the people. The dispensation of vomit only remains because the people are lovers of this world. When preachers who love this world mount the pulpit, the church would be in trouble.
When the table is filled with vomit, it shows that the milk-taker in the body (or a part of the Body of Christ) is eating certain food that makes him matured somewhere; however, he is a babe in God. Therefore, the challenge we are faced with is to turn the person completely from that matured nature into a babe in Christ. Milk is powerful; it can make a person a babe. If such a person keeps drinking and feeding on milk, he would develop a higher taste bud that can combat on an equal note the present table the devil has assigned to such a person.
Every person in the world, before they get born again, is coming from a feast where they had been eating and drinking something. Preachers should not only thank God when people newly come to their churches, they should also bear in mind the difficult task at hand – the task of changing taste buds. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. When the presence of the Holy Ghost weighs upon a person, it can change the taste bud. When the spirit of a man is recreated, it also affects the person’s taste bud.
It is possible to be born again and still keep eating the former meal of the world. We need to win the war of food in the Church so that believers can be free. Many preachers believe that the physical needs of the people matter more than the spiritual needs. A church can go on for years and not give the people spiritual meat because we have lost the vision. The real vision of the Bible for the Church is spiritual.
It is not easy to teach people because there is always warfare. Satan fights over the meal believers are taking. He wants to know what we are being fed with. He came into churches and bribed preachers of the gospel. Now, he wants to bargain so that the table of the Lord will not survive wherever it is. We must war for the table of the Lord to persist. We must war for the meal and the table to be clean. God is looking for a clean place. We must war because, if the table is not clean, meat will not come. If the table is full of vomit and filthiness, God will not be able to teach knowledge or give Himself to anyone (Isa. 28:9). Warring to keep the table clean is the greatest need of the Church right now. There is so much faith in this present world.
Colossians 2:8
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
This is a terrific meal cooked by evil spirits – philosophy, vain deceit, the tradition of men, and the rudiments of this world. These four are all meats. Anyone who eats these meats will not follow Christ.
The word ‘philosophy’ has its root from two Greek words: “sophia”, which means wisdom, and “philo”, which means passion. Therefore, philosophy is man’s passion for human wisdom. This wisdom is controlling the Church today. It is the first of the four meats because wisdom is the principal thing, while other meats are laid on it. After philosophy is vain deceit. One can not know what is vain unless Christ shows it. The purpose of these meats, including rudiments of this world and traditions of men, is to ensure that men do not end up how God wants us to, which is, to end up as Christ. A person may be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, but can still be spoilt by a meal.
There is another side to the word ‘spoil’. Cars have a part called spoilers, to which other things can be attached. So also, Satan can add stuff that are not supposed to be added to a believer. As a result, such a person would not be a pure christ, but would be a christ with a wrong addition; such a person would have been spoiled. This is possible because the wisdom of this world often seems like a solution to life. The elements highlighted in Colossians 2:8 are means of living life on earth. They are very powerful, even more than demonic doctrine. Philosophy is very powerful because wisdom is better than weapons of war (Eccl. 9:18).
1 Corinthians 1:24
“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
What constitutes solid food is wisdom in the spirit. What makes men grow is wisdom provision. Wise behaviours come from a meal and such behaviours are a sign of development.
1 Corinthians 1:30
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption…”
Philosophy is wisdom. Traditions, vain deceits, and rudiments of this world are kinds of righteousness; they are food for the soul. Satan likes to feed souls and he is not leaving any soul unfed because anyone he feeds properly will ultimately reject God. That is why children should not be left in the hands of their school teachers alone. As Christians, we must know that we have our own education and food. Our prayer should be that every father in the body of Christ will be able to provide food for their household; that they will be both priests and prophets. The office of a priest is not someone who prays. Rather, a priest is a provider of food for the household.
We cannot attain righteousness without being wise; neither can we attain sanctification or experience redemption without having accurate wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30). Redemption is a provision, not a creation. We are created in Christ Jesus but something in us is not yet redeemed.
Ephesians 1:13-14
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, [14] Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
When a person gets born again, such is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the earnest of our inheritance. We have been called into an inheritance and the Holy Spirit is a part-payment, token, or a drop out of the inheritance. This implies that the inheritance is more than the Holy Spirit. We were given the Holy Ghost for us to know that the rest of the inheritance is on the way. However, the remaining parts of the inheritance cannot be received without our redemption (Eph. 1:14). Something was purchased and it must be redeemed. We were purchased with the blood of Jesus unto the praise of His glory, and we must be redeemed.
Acts 20:28
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
It was the Church that was purchased. Our bodies are not ours because we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20). However, our bodies are not yet redeemed, because sin is still present in them. However, God does not want sin in our bodies; that was why God had plans for redemption. He made redemption available for what was bought. The word “redemption” simply means to buyback.
A believer can get filled with the Holy Spirit without really experiencing redemption. Also, the Holy Ghost can lead a believer beyond babyhood while the believer is still not yet redeemed. So this allocation of the Holy Spirit is not enough to give redemption, but it can give the strength to come for redemption. Many are not coming to Jesus for redemption; and we need to come to Him. However, we must first have the Holy Ghost and be filled with Him before we can take steps to Jesus.
Coming to Jesus is coming for redemption. We do not yet come to Jesus at the point of becoming born again. At new birth, our spirits were recreated but our souls were babes, lacking the capacity to come to Jesus. It is the soul that comes, not the spirit; and it is also the soul that needs to be led through the Spirit.
1 Timothy 2:1-2
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; [2] For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
Verse 2 tells us that God is concerned about the economy of every nation. The gospel has a plan. God is concerned about who rules us. If someone has the capacity to thwart the plan of God, then it means the Church needs to pray. Oftentimes, such a person would not easily leave the seat of power. God would then have to either manage that individual until he leaves, or He would ensure the person would not come into power. Some people are anointed by hell to stop the gospel. On the other hand, another person might seem unrighteous in the sight of men, but would allow the gospel to prosper; God would not mind allowing the latter person rule. God is very strategic; He calls Himself a man of war (Exo. 15:3).
God is more concerned about our salvation than our physical needs. A person can make provisions for our physical needs, but shuts down the heavens over us. For example, the advanced nations seem prosperous but the people there are dead to the gospel. This is something we should consider and rather give thanks to God for, instead of complaining.
1 Timothy 2:3-5
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; [4] Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. [5] For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…”
To come to the knowledge of the truth is to come to Christ or to come through the Mediator. Not everyone has come to God. When coming to a person, God does not bring a presence that the recipient cannot receive. God is beyond our capacity, hence, He has to first prepare us before we can receive Him. We will first go through the hand of the Holy Ghost and the hand of Christ before Christ will present us to God.
The process has been muddled up but the way needs to be aligned. If this way is not prepared, people will not come to God. The aim is for us to come to Jesus and then come to God – to know Him in real terms. The principles are in the scriptures. It is one thing to be saved and it is another for one to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).
The Holy Spirit is in charge of the recreation of our spirits; He holds the recreated spirit of man. Jesus could not get spirits born again until the Holy Ghost came. The Holy Ghost had to come from heaven on the day of Pentecost and the apostles who followed Him got born again that day. Their spirits were regenerated and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. Jesus is so powerful, He could lead dead spirits (of the disciples) and quicken their souls to a degree. While on earth, Jesus was a high minister of the gospel, He was ministering from heaven; He took men with dead spirits and prepared them to handle apostolic offices—more than twelve of them. When Judas fell, there was another person ready to fill into his position.
The greatest achievement of Jesus apart from His sacrifice on the cross and His way (lifestyle) were those men He raised. He left twelve men with the burden of the whole world. So, Jesus is not looking for thousands as such, if He finds thirty men who are ready. What Jesus wants to do now is to raise men beyond the level where He raised Peter. So heaven is not giving any chances at all.
The souls in the world are mature. The soul that is now a babe (at new birth) came as a mature being from a place where it ate from a table of vomit. It was not eating milk from that table, but was engaging a more solid food. Some pastors do not have solid meals to stop that contrary solid meal that the devil offers; nor do they have pure milk to delay or quench the taste buds of souls against it. What the milk of the word should do is to retrain our taste buds for spiritual meat. Some believers developed some level of hunger as a result of the good teaching of milk from the pastors they had before encountering the word of righteousness. Hence, we ought to be thankful to God for them.
It is not easy to preach the accurate gospel, one must be taken by the Head of the Church and be imprisoned by Him. If Jesus does not put chains around such a man, he will change. Daddy Oyegoke says, “I am a prisoner of the Lord. Professing to love me equates being in love with a prisoner. I was held down to preach the gospel. So for me, the dispensation of giving the gospel is not really because I have an option, nor is it because of the call; as it is possible to be called and one would not heed it. Some people need to be bent over to preach the gospel. However, the ordination of heaven over some would leave them without an option but to do that which heaven has called them to do.”
Isaiah 28:9
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.”
Knowledge does not really begin until one has been weaned from the milk. The milk and the breasts are properties of the Holy Ghost which He has assigned to pastors. So when a pastor teaches correct milk, the Holy Ghost is daily pumping the breasts so there would be a constant supply of milk for His babies to feed. There are some pastors who teach sound milk, they are powerful; this enables the Church to be kept with some life because the milk has done its job. A man like Frederick K.C. Price was a seasoned pastor of the milk of the word. Listening to him recently, he said some principles in the doctrine of meat through the milk of the word. Therefore, “milk” is not an ordinary meal, it is very powerful. And it ought to be recovered because it is fast losing its strength in the Church.
These days, college-trained men are seen on pulpits teaching the Church with motivation and the human mind. Many of those hearts have not had encounter with the truth. When minds are fine (in terms of human finesse), they know how to drive ministry. However, the case under consideration is the case of redemption that Jesus purchased for the Church with His own blood. The redemption of the purchased possession cannot take place without knowledge.
Redemption is stored in knowledge. There are two levels to redemption: redemption and eternal redemption. Both are contained in the allocation of different meats. Not all meats are the same; some meats are better than the others. Without meat, there can never be redemption; and without strong meat, there can never be an eternal redemption.
Ephesians 1:14
“Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
Believers are the purchased possession. At new birth, the soul and body were bought. God did not only save our spirits and left our souls for Satan, He bought our souls and bodies as well. Although the soul was not born again, the spirit was born again, it was recreated in Christ Jesus. The end of the vision of God is glory. We were saved to be glorified, but we cannot come into glory after partaking of the new birth except we are redeemed. We were bought with the blood of Christ. The article of purchase is the blood, not money; and what bought us is what ought to be dispensed on us.
Ephesians 1:7
“ In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace…”
This scripture above has a sense of being already fulfilled in us. One can assume this has happened already but it has not. Scriptures become clearer as one gets more matured spiritually. This is one way to test spiritual maturity. Although there is a provision of forgiveness at new birth, that is not what happened to our spirits at the point we got born again; rather, there was a recreation. Our spirits were not forgiven at new birth, rather, it was killed to raise another – a regeneration occurred. The redemption that Jesus purchased for us is a process of forgiveness.
Another word for forgiveness is remission, a removal; which means to remove sins from the soul. This removal begins with the soul, then escalates to the body. The soul is laced with sin, a kind of sin that has the operating system of wisdom. Our wisdom is our sin. The way we perpetuate in wisdom is our sin. Wisdom after the order of the earth is actually from a life of sin that Satan gave to the soul. This is why we are admonished to beware of philosophy.
Redemption is Christ. It is also wisdom. Righteousness is wisdom. God brings an operating system that has the programming of making one wise unto salvation into the soul. A wise man is one that remits his sins. A man is able to attain real life when he is living off (or breaking off) from the writing of wisdom that Satan has put in the soul, then it will be known that sins are being remitted. Satan wrote the sin code with wisdom; he used wisdom to produce sin. So our being wise here makes us sinners.
Forgiveness of sin is a provision of grace riches God lavishes towards us in all wisdom. If one is not wise or prudent, such is not living free from sin. This is not just about one confessing for sins to be forgiven; rather, we ought to attain a lifestyle called Christ in order to be free from sin and have redemption.
Romans 8:1-2
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
This implies not only to those who are in Christ Jesus, but to those who walk not after the flesh. It is possible to be in Christ Jesus, but walk after the flesh and not the spirit. To walk in the spirit is to walk in wisdom. A spiritual man is a wise man. A spiritual man is not just one who proffers solutions with regards to creating wealth but one who navigates a way out of sin. We ought to walk in wisdom to be made free from sin. No prayer or fasting can deliver a man from the law of sin and death. Sin and death is a law higher than the human mind; they are spirit statuses, that is, spirits made them so. It is called the course of this world, and a man cannot be free from it; as such, he is perpetually bound to walk in it. As long as a person is born into this world, he cannot be free from those laws.
However, when we become born again, the provision to be free from the law of sin and death lies in Christ Jesus, in His blood. The blood of Jesus is not merely a liquid in the spirit that splashes on people, rather Jesus' blood has been converted to wisdom; because in Jesus, we find a wisdom that made Him live above sin. God has made provision for such wisdom to be dispensed to us, so we can be spiritually minded.
A spiritually minded man attains life. Wisdom is the operating manual for man. Regardless of how we feel about it, there is a wisdom ruling man. Everyone likes to be wise, but only a few want the wisdom of Christ. Oftentimes when we pray for wisdom, we ask for the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom of freedom and redemption. A man cannot attain breaking free from the law of sin and death on his own because Satan wrote the law in such a way that no man should be free from it.
Ephesians 2:1-2
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; [2] Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience…”
There are two dimensions in the scripture above: the course of this world, which we need redemption from, and the prince of the power of the air which we need eternal redemption to be freed from. The spirits now working in this world are not all children of disobedience. A child of disobedience is one who Satan can easily control, one who is in agreement with Satan; such a person is a son of the devil and a child of perdition. This is what Satan aims to accomplish with men. Satan does not intend to leave men halfway, rather he wants to get people to a state where they would be unredeemable. To redeem is to turn, to buy back. At the same time, God is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), in order to get us to a place where Satan cannot turn us. A redeemed person is one whom God can leave with Satan for a thousand years, and Satan can do nothing about such. Then it can be said that Christianity has achieved its aim in man. Man is the project.
The provision of redemption is stored in knowledge. There are two states a soul can attain; two characters a soul can exhibit — belief and know. One can believe and may not know. God did not first come to us with knowledge to be born again, He came to us with believing because that is the best the soul can do; and the soul believed. God made the soul this way by putting the two apparatus (believing and knowing) in it. However, Satan hijacked the realm of “knowing”, thereby causing us to have faith in the present. We are not just believers but also knowers of this world; we know sin. This is why we are strong with properties of the satanic side and strongly believe in its efficacy. However, no one is willing to take up the feat of believing God to a dimension where God approves such a person as His own.
While in Egypt, the Jews believed God; but when God delivered them and took them to the wilderness, they did not believe. This is because they did not have enough strength required to tread the wilderness, because the wilderness belongs to the realm of knowers. God had to train them with new laws of the wilderness, to make them know Him (Heb. 3:10). God took them through the wilderness to teach them how to know Him.
Mark 16:17-18
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; [18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
This scripture relates to those who believe, and not exactly those who know the Lord.
Daniel 11:32
“And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”
A man is not strong as a believer until he begins to know.
Ephesians 6:10
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”
To engage in warfare in the realm of the spirit, one must have to be brought to the realm of knowing. Such a soul has been circumcised into the realm of knowledge, because it is not everyone that comes to God that does so to know Him.
1 Timothy 2:4
“who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
Not every Christian soul is called a ‘knowledge soul’. Some people are of the opinion that teachings in these waters are not centered on the natural and how to meet the needs of people, but on the teachings concerning God and Christ. However it is evident that nearly everyone who is learning God and Christ are prospering.
When a man knows God, natural things would follow him (Matt. 6:33), because God takes care of those things. This is so because man does not have so much time of life on earth, to be engaged with many things, because man is not meant for many things. Rather, man was designed to know God; and a hundred years is too small to do so. Men lived nearly a thousand years learning God in the book of Genesis. Without Christ, man would not have accelerated in knowing God.
God is a project to be known and we were created to know Him. If men study natural things and have become mighty in the knowledge of those things, how much more He who created them. It is only in Christianity that we have the provision of knowing God. That is what is hidden in the Bible and hidden from the world. There is so much in the word that we need to know. There is yet a further journey we ought to take in Christianity – that we have just been called to sit and learn God.
We are going to see the migration of churches from “believing” churches to “knowing” churches. This is when churches would engage war with principalities and powers. A man should not die without knowing God because such would have lost a lot and would have joked with destiny. Our earthly sojourn has a purpose; it is called eternal purpose and it should not be wasted. Regardless of our earthly achievements and celebrations from men, we should not feel like we have fulfilled anything, because there is a reality on the other side of eternity that would reveal to one that one has only walked in vanity (Jn. 6:27).
This end-time army is a war of “knowers” (Dan. 11:32); but evil spirits do not want any man to know God, telling us that there is nothing to know about Him. True knowledge is God. He is the True God (Jn. 17:3). When a man really knows God, he will be able to see (discern) Satan. Satan is a terrible beast that the Church is yet to know. He still toys with the minds of great men; he respects no one. He fell seraphims from their estates in heaven and they are still following him. These fallen seraphims are also called spiritual wickedness in high places. They used to be emissaries in heaven but they turned from God despite seeing the blazing light of God’s glory. Satan had wisdom that could turn others (Eze. 28:17). This wisdom is called “wiles” and we need the whole armor of God to stand against it (Eph. 6:11) because Satan’s wiles are his powers.
There is an expectation of God over us. We are God’s joker. We should not leave our vessels empty. Nothing can fill us, not even our natural achievements. God would give these things (that is, natural things), but they are too small compared to the true provisions of God for man. It took the second person of the Godhead to come to earth and die on the cross, not just to make us go to heaven or attend church services. There are things more exciting for the soul to partake of in the spirit, and much more in the world to come, but Satan hinders men.
Psalm 16:11
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
The day God opens our eyes to see, to make our souls know that we have been given a great gift, all evil spirits and Satan become aware that something has happened to us. But before we come to know, they come against our knowledge because it is the next stage after believing. These evil spirits do not want us to know so that we would not be strong. We should be careful and protective of our spiritual eyes because when we know and are seeing, we would be tempted by these spirits to pluck out our spiritual eyes and focus more on natural things. We must not yield to such temptations because not everyone has eyes or can see.
We should not take matters concerning our eyes lightly because Satan desires to make us blind, as he did with Samson. The Philistines were smart; after cutting off Samson’s hair, the next thing they did was to remove his eyes (Judg. 16:21), because the eyes are one’s great gain. A man should not trade his sight for nothing. When God opens the eyes of your understanding by the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that the eyes of your understanding is enlightened, you would begin to know, “...what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, [19] And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, [20] Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, [21] Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come…” (Eph. 1:17-21).
These are things that ‘knowing’ can make one company with. When a man knows, a world is opened to him. A man should celebrate his extent of knowledge despite not having natural things, because knowing God is more precious than other things. The opening of the eyes of a man is a blessing; blessed are his eyes. It is worth giving thanks for because many kings and righteous men like Abraham, Noah and Melchizedek who broke through in the spirit, and other prophets like Isaiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel who prophesied at a high level of note and Micah amongst many other prophets, did not have the privilege to see; yet, disciples of Jesus were blessed with eyes to see it (Matt: 1316-17; 1 Pet. 1:10-12). We should thank God that our eyes can see and ears hear. God has given us gifts by our hearing these things, and comprehending them.
Psalm 1:1-4
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. [2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. [3] And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. [4] The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”
We should thank God for giving us ears and eyes to hear and see.
Blessings!