Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday 27th January, 2022
Ministering: Reverend Helen Oyegoke
The promise God has promised us is everlasting life and He is very determined to make good His promise in us; as we know that God cannot lie. It is a privilege to know what He wants to do so that we can cooperate with Him readily. Everlasting life is real and it is not an esoteric concept; God wants to make this life real to us. He would achieve this by bringing forth the commandments of everlasting life to us.
Everlasting life is the life of the Most Holy which is the life of God. Everlasting life is not an afterthought, God had promised it before the world began. It was not a programme to remedy man from the fall; it is the intention of God for man before man was made. God’s original intention concerning man is to have an everlasting man and an Eternal man. Even Christ in all its goodness was not the original thought of God for man.
The thoughts of God for man is for man to be in His image and likeness because it takes image and likeness to have dominion (Genesis 1:26). Dominion is not attained by praying for it but by growing into a stature of the image and likeness of God. Therefore, God’s original intention for man was for him to be a being of dominion. Even after man fell, God did not go back on His intention but sent Jesus to the earth to die for man and show him the way to dominion.
Dominion is life. So, God’s original intention is for man to become an Eternal being; but He started out by creating man with the least stature possible - the living soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7). The breath of life that God gave to man resulted in the kind of life Adam carried; a living soul. A living soul means a soul that has everlasting life. Adam was created in a state that is a kind of everlasting life though not at the pedigree of God’s.
God planted the tree of life in the midst of the garden and instructed that He can eat of it, but not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is because the tree of life was essential to bring Adam to the fullness of God's intention for man. The tree of life contained the very essence of God and the fullness of the stature of His image. Adam needed to partake of that tree in order to inherit the very essence of God into Himself.
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1-2). Everything that has to do with the throne has to do with the life of God and the very nature of God. The tree in Revelations 22:2 is the same tree that God planted in Eden. The tree of life is a thronic tree because it carries the essence of God. It is the tree of the image of God. What is contained in the tree has the ability to grow man into becoming an entity fit for the throne. Adam was meant to increase in stature until he grows into what God intended for man, which is a man in the image and likeness of God.
Man in the state of a living soul had some degree of dominion (Psalm 8:5). The glory and honour upon Adam was lower than that of the angels because the kind of life God breathed on him gave him the ability to reign over the things of the earth. Notice that although God intended that man be an eternal being, He did not create man so. Rather, He created man with a lesser life, so that man can cooperate with Him to gain the life He originally intended. This tells us that the life of God cannot be gotten cheaply; it is precious and requires our obedience and cooperation. How we prove that we cherish the life that God is giving us is by obeying the commandments of that life.
The partaking of the tree of life is a gradual process and not a one-off experience. Every fruit of the tree has its own demand that culminates into the life of God. After the coming of our Lord Jesus, God repeats the same pattern. At new birth, the man becomes quickened in his spirit and his spirit becomes Christ. At the new birth, God would neither make a man Christ nor can He give him everlasting life or Eternal Life.
Eternal life is dependent on man’s willingness to journey further into God by obedience to His commandments. When we obey God’s commandments we will be quickened in our souls. There were many trees in the garden that Adam needed to partake of to qualify him to partake of the tree of life. It is the same pattern in the New Testament; there are many trees that we need to eat of, and instructions to obey to qualify for everlasting life.
There is that which every joint must supply (Ephesians 4:16). Therefore, we must be meek enough to listen and learn from one another. We must be meek to acknowledge that we do not know everything. One of the ways to guard yourself from evil spirits is to be humble, we must not try to show ourselves to be something we are not. We should not be looking for the honour of men but to please God. We should be content with what the Lord has ordained for us to supply. We should be humble.
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1). For Christ to be formed, Christ has to be evidently laid before the soul to learn and obey its commandments. After the New Birth, the truth that is in Christ must be preached. This is the work that must be done after the believer has been weaned from milk and drawn from the breast (Isaiah 28:9). The believer continues this journey by hearing the teaching of Christ.
There are substances that make up Christ and those substances are given through preaching. The saints should be made to see the things that made up Christ and obey the commandments that follow. The journey forward is only done by obedience. Whatever is revealed from the truth of Christ must be obeyed if one would journey further. Judaism constituted works that were not of the kind that are generated from the revelation of Christ; rather they were religious.
Obedience to the revelation of Christ makes us free from wrong laws that we have been weaved by. Inside Christ are laws of the spirit of life and those laws can only be weaved in us when they are revealed to us and we obey them. There are laws that formed us previously; laws of sin and death. Every revelation is followed by a giving of laws.
In this zone of everlasting life, we must be meek enough to acknowledge that we do not know what is required of us, rather than assuming, because the judgement of everlasting life is higher than the judgement of Christ. There are things that were permitted of us in the season of Christ that will not be permitted of us in the season of everlasting life. Hence, we need to be meek to wait on the Lord, just as our Lord Jesus did (John 5:30). He was so dependent on the Father. We must also be very dependent and not assume. This is the time for us to be slow. We must weigh our actions and reactions carefully, and wait on the Lord for accurate judgement on what to do.
We can also defer to our pastors and brethren to receive and fetch higher judgements. We must walk in the spirit and do what is right; we must not assume that we know. Christ has imparted a level of judgement to us, but in the zone of everlasting life it would be presumptuous to think that because we have Christ laws, then we can preempt everlasting life laws. The commandments of everlasting life are high (Isaiah 55:8-9). Everytime the judgement of everlasting life comes, it makes the soul go lower and lose the life that it considers as its life. The judgement of everlasting life never vindicates your ground/right.
When a soul obeys the truth in Christ, the laws of sin and death that previously made him up are detonated. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-2). We see from this Scripture that walking is crucial. It is only when we walk in the law of the spirit of life that we can have the law of sin and death detonated. Obedience and walking are not negotiable. If we do not walk in obedience to revealed laws, we would not experience any change. The soul may reminisce upon revelations, but he will not experience any change or movement unto God if there is no cooperation or obedience.
Some laws are difficult to be removed and the laws of Christ may not be able to deal with them; the judgement of everlasting life will be required to detonate such laws. There are some infirmities in the soul that are strongholds which only everlasting light can conquer. Hence, we are instructed to forbear one another with all long suffering, in love (Ephesians 4:2). This is to allow for salvation at every level. We might fall prey to unrighteousness if we overflog a shortcoming of another man because that might cause the person to break if he/she does not have strength to deal with that shortcoming.
This is the wisdom of salvation. The scripture says that out of Zion saviours will arise (Obadiah 1:21). We cannot save if we are not like the Lord. Saviours who are tender will arise. The grace to be tender is with the Lord. We must be tender and love like the Savior. Even when it means to take nonsense, we must be tender. Sometimes the Lord does not want us to effect correction on some occasions, lest the corrected person draws back. Although the Bible encourages us to correct (Titus 2:15), there are peculiar situations that are an exemption.
Judgements on various matters differ. Some matters require tenderness and love rather than spanking. We must resort to the judgement of the Lord on such matters because of the inheritance. We must remind ourselves of the instructions of the Lord continuously because the devil will always come tempting us to do otherwise.
We must be able to endure with one another for the ultimate nature of Christ and everlasting life to be engraved in us. Everlasting life can culture our reactions in situations. It is possible for it to become our normal lifestyle. We need to come to the best of God and to do so, we need to align. The awareness of the inheritance we want to receive should put God's fear in us to align with His judgements and standards. One needs to become foolish according to natural standards to inherit everlasting life.
Our hearts must be enlarged and we must be innocent as we relate with one another. We must learn to not take offence in the speeches and reactions of others because they sometimes might just be teasing. One attitude we must also readily possess is the ability to accept our faults. We must be approachable and willing to apologise when we unknowingly do things and they are brought to our notice. We must be enlarged to take insults and still love the person who insulted us. While it is not spiritual to be rude, we must let go when people are rude to us. It is not easy but it is possible because it is a prerequisite for the entrance.
We must not be mindful of what people say; we must not take insults or praises to heart, lest they offend or puff us. It would be filthy to focus on the infirmities of others. As we behold the inheritance, we must let go of offences and filth. It is filthy to ruminate over the wrong speech of another. Knowing that it takes time for the Lord to get through to all the areas of one's life, we must be patient with one another. We must relate with each soul with wisdom because all souls are not the same. We must also grow in innocence.
We must give room for people's formation as they await transformation. A person's present arrangement could either be loud or quiet. Both arrangements are not Christ and they both must conform to Christ to make them right. Christ must be fully formed in a loud person as well as a quiet person. He is the new definition that we all must embody.
Christ is the first program to deal with the devil's arrangements in our soul. Obedience to Christ makes our hearts tender so that we can be brought to the season of everlasting commandments. The doctrine of Christ would raise a godly man who would be able to receive everlasting judgements.
The season of everlasting life is the season of obedience to the everlasting Father, the Son of God. This life would not be put in us the way God breathed into Adam in the beginning. We must obey Jesus because the Father gave it (everlasting life) to Him and He also has the right to give us. We must hear His sayings and obey them. We need to make deliberate steps to obedience and as we obey God would bring more judgement. This includes deliberate steps of forgiveness.
The realm of everlasting life is the realm where we do not have a say; God would want us to be dumb. It is not a nature that we have known before. God's ways are higher than ours and His ways and formation are what makes Him good. He is kind both to the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). If we say we are good, we must check ourselves with the standard of the goodness of the Lord. Are we able to pray for our enemies and bless those that curse us? When Jesus was reviled, he reviled not (1Peter 2:23). Our reflex reaction to curse is to curse back and Satan is the one who made us to be revengeful; he is a hater of God and His children.
To dodge Satan and fly below his radar, one has to be little. We must not see ourselves too big to be above abuse. We must be meek. When we understand that curses from people have no effect on us, we would be calm enough to let go and respond. Certain things do not need any response. Many times, when we respond to such situations, our journey in life is truncated.
Obedience is necessary to come to everlasting life. Adam needed to make progress by obeying commandments after the tree of life and we are required to do likewise. After Christ is formed in us, our journey has not ended. We still need to journey to the eternal realm. God is neither a living soul nor is He Christ; He is everlasting and He is Eternal. So, to enter His realm we must obey because the realm of God is governed by laws and commandments.
The laws of everlasting life are the laws that God uses and obeys; they are the very substances that make Him up. They are higher than the commandments of Christ. Christ gives us the kind of heart that can be instructed after the pattern of everlasting life. Our prayer must be for Him to measure to us the everlasting laws and commandments. He must write His laws in our heart. Everyone who desires to take everlasting life must be ready to obey commandments.
“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39-40). The last day is the time when we are to finish everlasting life commandments and there will be a raising on that day.
Everlasting life is tied to seeing the Son. Therefore, we need to see the Son because there are laws that make him up. Seeing the Son is important to comprehend and understand the things that make up the Son. The Son is a fabrication of laws of everlasting life; He is called the everlasting Father. He came into everlasting life by laws that the Father gave Him. When we see the Son, we are seeing commandments to do.
We need to believe the Son as He is revealed. To believe is to agree and accept the standard of God's righteousness. One of the standards that we must agree to is mentioned in Matthew 5:43-44; “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. [44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”. It is not natural to respond in love towards those who hate us. As we commune with everlasting laws, we are being changed. Unless the laws of hatred in us are dealt with, we won't be able to do good.
Naturally, it is not easy to do good and we need to make some efforts based on commandments and instructions of God. We also have to pray for the ability to do so. When we continuously obey, the strength of the wrong laws in us is reduced. It is easy to go out of our way for those we love, but for those who are not good to us, we would not go an inch.
We can release (our carnal substances) out of our inconvenience for those we love, but not for those who we do not love. That righteousness is below God's righteousness. The righteousness of everlasting life would make us give even out of our inconvenience to those who are not good to us. When we do so consistently, the wrong laws within us would shut down.
The commandments of everlasting life must be measured to us whether we like it or not, because we have told the Lord from the beginning that we want everlasting life. We are quickened by commandments, because His commandments are life everlasting (John 12:50). We become heavenly by running. When we do not do or obey, we do not become and wrong configuration and formations are not broken. When we believe and agree with the standards and commandments that God brings, the devil comes to discourage us from doing them.
When we entertain the counsel of Satan, it would make us heavy. Satan's impositions are forceful; that is why we need to pray more. As we pray, the impositions would lose their strength. Those weights can be wrong thoughts. One thing we must do this season is to pray more alongside hearing. We need to pray more because recently, evil spirits try to oppress our thoughts and force wrong thoughts on us. We must therefore accompany prayerfulness with fear.
Spirits against everlasting life are desperate and wicked and want to cause us to stumble even when we have made up our mind to obey commandments. They want to stop us from life. The Lord wants us to run so that death will not catch up with us. We run and escape by obeying the commandments of everlasting life. When we see the Lord, we see One who is full of grace and truth and He is desirable.
Our arrangement is not good enough; we must desire the beauty of the Son of God (Psalm 45:1-8). We must desire the laws that configure Him -- the laws of goodness, mercy, kindness, long-suffering, patience, meekness and lowliness. They are committed to configure us the same way and so they are commanding revelation to us which we must receive and obey.
The laws would come by instructions and corrections as the servants of God minister to us from different angles until everything comes together and becomes whole. We must increasingly hear and see what is being revealed. The laws of perfection are being shown to us and we must yield in obedience until we come to the place where we bless those who curse us and do good to those that hate us (Matthew 5:44). When we do this, we are defeating death. We must rise up and do good to them that hate us; by doing so, we fly below the radar of Satan.
For these things to be coming to us, some must enter. It is imperative that some enter. We must desire to gain this entrance. We should receive grace and desire to run swiftly, better and faster. The understanding of everlasting life would defeat things that we hold on to with high esteem. When we see the Son, those things would mean nothing to us again. We must not hold on to our hurts.
There is nothing that Satan should show to us that should be valuable enough for us to drop everlasting life. Nothing matters but life. We must not die because of the corruptible. Disobeying everlasting life is dying. We must choose to not die. The strong reasons that Satan wants us to die for are corruptible. He makes the corruptible seem so important to us but this is a lie. Our dreams are still corruptible and are not important; only everlasting life is of inestimable price.
Satan does not savour the things of God, Satan would not encourage us to live, he only wants our death. We must be wise to escape death. When those motions want to rise, by understanding, we must put the motions under and continually bring the motions under till they are taken away. It is a warfare and some must enter. We must desire to be numbered among those that will enter.