Programme: Revelation Hour (RH)
Date: Saturday, 28th January 2023
Transcript Summary
1. Each epistle written by the apostles was written to administer a portion of the program of God. The gospels, epistles, prophets and law of Moses are written with the light of everlasting life. God spoke to the fathers in different manners and at different times, by the prophets (Heb 1:1). Prophets are carriers of the gospel of God in a shadow and they prophesied of the grace of God that should be given to humanity. God spoke to the fathers by the prophets to give them a promise. The gospel is the promise of God to the fathers. These fathers heard the promise of the gospel until they began to seek a country that had no name, but they were assured that God is the maker and builder of such a country. The promise they saw afar off made them strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb. 11:13-14).
2. What God promised to the fathers is the parchments of obedience. Sinners are made by disobedience (Rom 5:19). By disobedience, Adam brought forth the parchment of a kind of life into the earth. All the trees in the garden of Eden were trees for fellowship that Adam should eat before the tree of life. In every one of them was a knowledge of God but by Adam’s disobedience, sin entered. Righteousness would have entered if Adam had yielded to God and he would have received an instrument of how men should please God.
3. Obedience is a tool that God uses to prepare men to acquire a divine nature. Disobedience is not just violating explicit instructions; it is a learning called the course of this world. It is designed to make men aliens to God’s life. Obedience is also a way — a pattern of life and a means for the formation of nature in men (Rom. 5:19). Obedience is how God raises the new creation. (Heb. 5:8-9). Obedience is not first what is done but what is learnt. After learning it, we make it ours by practice. It is our profession, vocation and curriculum of learning, given to us through the things that we suffer.
4. We become practitioners of life by learning obedience. This obedience is Christ. If a man learns Christ and practices Christ, he will become Christ. (Eph. 4:19-21). The first step to the formation of Christ is to have heard Him. The reason we are obeying, suffering long, staying in submission to spiritual authority and forbearing our brethren is because of the inheritance. (Eph. 5:5). There is an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. The inheritance of Christ are the things we gain by obeying Christ. This inheritance is the formation of the new man.
5. It is this obedience that turn men from being citizens of the earth into pilgrims – citizens of another world. We become new creatures by hearing, obeying and becoming Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). We are to obey the instructions of Christ as it is being revealed to our conscience. Our conscience plays a very vital role in the school of obedience. Obeying God as it is being revealed to our conscience is righteousness. It is what we obey that will result in the formation of nature. Obedience to the things that are revealed to our conscience becomes a judgment, a way, or pattern of life in us. It may be a struggle at first but by continuous engaging of instructions, it eventually becomes a nature in us. This ensures our growth.
6. (1 Cor. 12:30-31). In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the gifts of the spirit: these are the things that pertain to Christ. These gifts of the spirit are given for us to serve one another and be profitable to one another. (1 Cor. 12:23-25). The will of God is that every one of us will have care for one another. For one to use the gifts of the sprit to minister to the body, such a person must be spiritual. The gifts of the spirit are given to make way for men to be built. The essence of 1 Corinthians 12 is to explain how God anoints men to minister to the body of Christ. When prophesying, speaking in diverse tongues or interpreting tongues, we are ministering to the body of Christ. All the gifts are for service and they all make up a “way”.
7. According to Reverend Kenneth Hagin, in a church where there is rancor, strife and division, the move of the Spirit will be low. However, when men are in fellowship and manifesting love towards themselves, the gifts of the Spirit will abound amidst them. The Holy Ghost will be comfortable using a man who is walking in love to be a blessing to the people of God. There are two things that make the Holy Ghost willing to manifest the gifts -- the need of the people and the presence of the “way”. There is an excellent way but there is a more excellent way. The excellent way is faith and hope, the more excellent way is charity. It will take a man who knows the way to use the gifts well.
8. (1 Cor. 12:28-30). Paul was describing men who were not just manifesting the gifts of the Spirit, but men upon whom the grace was now resident, as a ministry to the body of Christ. Paul then began to say that in comparison to having all of these, a man who does not have charity is nothing (1 Cor. 13:1). This implies that such a man has no identity or name in the realm of the spirit. Having all the gifts of the spirit without having charity is having nothing. Charity is an inheritance; it can become a nature and an instrument for caring for the body. Charity is not just for us to become “saints”; it can be a means for strengthening the brethren. We can minister to the brethren with charity.
9. Charity can cover a multitude of sins. It is a tangible material that can raise the dead (1 John 5:16). Suffering long is an inheritance. It is not a suffering that is accompanied with murmuring; charity suffers long and is kind. When we suffer long and we are unkind, we minister death. When we envy, we kill ourselves. We are meant to get to the point where our brothers are being exalted and we do not have any ill feelings about it; rather we rejoice.
10 It is impossible to have charity without our brethren. A charity man is made in the midst of men, not in isolation. Brethren are a blessing. Our brother’s infirmities might not leave until we grow by them. God is expecting us to use those weaknesses and infirmities to change. The infirmities of our spouse are the gift of our marriages. Through them, we will learn the life of Christ and grow. In this season, we ought to give more attention to our change.