Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministries
Programme: Revelation Hour (RH)
Date: Saturday, 23rd July 2022.
The emphasis in this season has been on birth, but before now, the thrust or emphasis was on the calibration of the manner of persons we ought to be (2 Pet. 3:11). The conversation of the world to come will produce different manner of persons. The word ‘earth’ is singular, but ‘heavens’ is plural because there is more than one heaven. Therefore, if the heavens are more than one and are different, the persons in each heaven are also different from one another.
There is the promise of God — Eternal Life, but there are many promises within it (Rom 9:4; 2 Cor. 7:1). There are the promises of becoming the temple of the living God and the promises of God being a Father to us while we become His people or sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:15-18). All these promises make up the Promise, which is Eternal life.
A person cannot just arrive at Eternal Life because it is a progressive accumulation of life. If we do not accumulate life, we cannot accumulate peace. This is why they are paired together as the covenant of life and peace (Rom. 8:6). However, when Paul was writing to the Hebrews, he did not separate life and peace but called it the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11). This is a state of peace that bears the fruit of life that a peaceable person brings forth. One must be peaceable before he can bring forth fruits after the order of the Father and be a son to Him. To be at the state of peace is to be in a state of godliness. A man who has attained the covenant of life and peace is a peaceable man.
We have to accumulate life before we can receive Eternal Life. No creature can receive Eternal Life in its raw form because it will shut that creature down. But before we can take on a higher life, we need to be well built and develop enough resistance (to have some level of substances in our souls).
The essence of the different allocations of the word is to produce manners of persons. In the present heavens, there are manners of persons. But those persons were not begotten; they were created (Heb. 1:5). However, in the order of the new creation, persons have to be born. Adam was made a living soul; this is a manner of person. Some other manner of persons include works in all places of his dominion, flames of fire and spirits (Psa. 103:20-22).
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds… (Heb. 1:2). A son is another manner of person. Sonship is not exclusive to the New Testament because there were sons in the former creation. Sons had existed since the time of Genesis; Adam and cherubims were sons of God. What differentiates the sonship of the New and Old Testament is the process of making — the Old Testament sons were created while the New Testament sons are born. Because the new creation order is by birthing, when God wanted to engage us, the new birth had to be introduced. This is because the new birth uses the technology of birthing.
“And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.” (Psa. 87:5). A son is an inheritor because sonship is about inheritance. As such, both sonship and lordship communicate the same thing. A son is also a partaker. What makes the New Testament (new creation) sonship higher than that of the old creation is that in the New Testament, God wants to bless us with His own express person (nature); just like how Jesus became the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Heb.1:3). The making of image is a birthing process, therefore birth is by making.
The Son is the first and only begotten of God. Therefore, every man ought to conform to His image. However, He was not born once. He went through many births until He became the Only Begotten. His essence and Godhood was compressed and reduced, but He grew back into it through many processes and became a God-man, which is raw Eternal Life in a man.
“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40). Jesus was able to wax strong by wisdom and by the teachings of the grace of God (Tit. 2:11-12). The intention was for Him to grow into a quickening spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). When He was a child, He was not a quickening spirit; He was just a spirit. But God wanted to build a Person, who would be His express image, for God is a Spirit. He was not full of wisdom as a child, but He went through a gradual process of being filled up with wisdom.
“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” (Heb. 12:9). When Jesus said “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), He meant that the Father is of a higher spirit grade than He is. We have fathers of our flesh but there is the Father of spirits who wants to father manners of persons (or spirits). There are grades of spirit-persons, for the promise is to bring forth manners of spirit-persons.
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Rom. 8:10). Every person who will be on the new earth will be a spirit. Men who will go to the lake of fire would also be spirits because it is also part of the world to come. Satan wants to father men in disobedience until they become spirits that can go to the lake of fire. Hell is a present creation for the dead spirits but their permanent habitation is the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).
The definition of spirits is not limited to the human spirit. The evil spirits in the air have souls, just like angels. Although these angels are spirit persons, they have souls because they have power of choices (Isa. 14:13). However their soul is spirit, just as Adam’s soul was spirit but of a lower quality than an angel (Psa. 8:5). There is the spirit of the power of the air which works in the children of disobedience.
It would have been so hard to differentiate between the spirit and soul of Adam because of the level of harmony/oneness they had. Adam was supposed to journey further than this, but he couldn't because of the fall. What was supposed to happen to Adam eventually happened to Jesus. Jesus kept waxing strong but because of death, Adam got weaker; and man has been declining since then. What was declining was the material he was made or created with. The serpent kept on beating down the material of his soul until it became dust, such that winds (thoughts or spirits) can toss him to and fro (Eph. 4:14). Winds of doctrines are teachings that educate the soul and give it suggestions.
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”(John 1:13). To bring forth is to birth and Satan also had a similar arrangement. There is a kind of flesh of Christ, which is called the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), but there is also flesh in the season of everlasting life. There are different levels of flesh. There is flesh that refers to iniquity and there is also flesh in the level of Christ.
The flesh that men became in Genesis 6 is not the flesh that is governed by the law of sin and death; it was a graduated flesh. Their thoughts became wicked continually because they were flesh, so God had to destroy it (Gen. 6:5-7). This was a type of flesh that was programmed by wickedness, and not by the laws of sin and death. The law of sin and death can grow a kind of flesh, while the law of the Spirit of life can grow a spirit (although not a quickening spirit). It is the law of God that can grow a quickening spirit.
Flesh can also be persons. There can be a flesh programmed by wickedness and there can be flesh programmed by the law of sin and death. But we cannot discern the type of flesh that a person is without diagnosing it spiritually. In like manner, there are manners of persons of spirits. For example, there can be a soul that is conditioned by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Such a man is a spiritual man. What determines the type of persons is the law that governs and conditions them.
The new heavens and the new earth are powered by the law of righteousness. This righteousness is what is responsible for the manner of persons that are in them. Righteousness is tangible; it refers to substances, elements, materials, and particles.
“For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” (Heb. 10:34). The better and enduring substance is what is responsible for making persons of spirits. Everything in the new earth and new heavens are grades of righteousness, and it will produce a kind of person of spirit. Princes, for example, are a kind of persons.
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”James 1:18). God's desire for us is to be like the first (and Only Begotten Son, who is the express image of the person of God. God is a person, the Son of God is also a person; what fabricates the persons they are is righteousness. Righteousness refers to ‘wills’. There is the will of man, and there is the will of God. God’s will is His own seed (James 1:18) and the will is the word. The will of God is calibrated into the good, acceptable and perfect will (Rom. 12:2). There is a kind of the first fruit of His creatures; Jesus is the first fruit. God also wants to produce a kind of firstfruit from among men, from His own will.
We should not love the world, for when we do, it prepares you to be born of the world. The essence of the world is to prepare man for a degree of birthing, just as Christ also prepares us for birthing in God. Just as Satan wants to birth the soul into everlasting perdition, God wants to birth man into everlasting life. The birthing into everlasting life has degrees. If you love the world, you will love iniquity. Iniquity is a form of glory. When a man hates the world and does the commandments of Christ till he has a heart of flesh, such a man will be born and will be given the incorruptible seed.
Satan wants to birth man by process. What Satan offers to those that love the world is wickedness. What the world has to offer is limited, for the world is inferior to wickedness. Wickedness is a premium product and some men have sworn to bring it to the earth, change its system, seasons, economy and times. They want to bring the whole world under the ten kings in the book of revelation (Rev. 17:12-14). Some people go to church to have their natural needs met, however, Satan wants to create a system in which man will not have to seek God to meet their needs. He does not want man to have time for God. Satan wants to raise men who just want to do the bidding of the beast.
Satan wants every eye to look to him as their god. What the world has to offer is inferior, for Satan wants to sell a premium product. God wants to give us a premium product that is better than Christ; this product is the incorruptible seed. God wants us to have life more abundantly (John 10:10). As Satan is plotting, God is also doing His work secretly.
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:23). The Father is looking for a manner of persons. Satan wants to birth men who are born after the order of blood and the flesh, but God wants to birth us by His own will. This order will be after the order of the heavenlies. God desires us to look for that which is high. He does not want us to just do the good will but move into other higher allocations of the will of God. Just as a man can be born of the will of flesh, he can also be born of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2).
Overcoming does not imply that you will take all the rewards, for there are degrees of overcoming and degrees of reward. The best of the reward is to sit with the Father (Rev. 3:21). There are other rewards and degrees of overcoming, which are by birth. When a child is being born, he has to overcome many things. There are rewards for each level of overcoming. We are to strive against sin unto blood, therefore, we ought to keep pressing. Being born again is not a one time experience.
Satan is looking for a good ground to birth into blood. A good ground for Satan to do this is a man who loves the world because He is a potential instrument for Satan to use. Our souls should not be fertile grounds for Satan, but we can only come into this state by doing obedience and fervent charity. Fervent charity makes the heart barren for Satan’s birth, but fruitful for the birth of the incorruptible seed.
If we are fertile to Satan, we would not be fertile to God. When we do Christ well, it will make our souls so barren to this world that we will not be able to receive the seed of the wicked one. We would not be like Cain who is of the wicked one (1 John 3:12), for the wicked one sowed his seed into Cain.
Satan will not give up on any man, even when the man has attained a heart of flesh. He can bring forth tribulations, persecutions, offences and bitterness. He can even cause offences in a community and make hearts stumble. This can cause a heart of flesh to gradually become dull, but may we keep enjoying mercy until we bring forth after the order of everlasting life.
Blessings!
Summary
1. (Heb. 12:11) One must be peaceable before he can bring forth fruits after the order of the Father and be a son to Him. To be at the state of peace is to be in a state of godliness. A man who has attained the covenant of life and peace is a peaceable man.
2. We have to accumulate life before we can receive Eternal Life. But before we can take on a higher life, we need to be well built and develop enough resistance (to have some level of substances in our souls).
3. The essence of the different allocations of the word is to produce manners of persons. In the present heavens, there are manners of persons who were not begotten but created (Heb. 1:5). However, in the order of the new creation, persons have to be born.
4. A son is another manner of person. A son is an inheritor because sonship is about inheritance. God wants to bless us with His own express person (nature); just like He blessed Jesus with His nature (Heb.1:3).
5. The Son is the first and only begotten of God. Therefore, every man ought to conform to His image. However, He was not born once. He went through many births until He became the Only Begotten.
6. John 1:13). To bring forth is to birth and Satan also had a similar arrangement. The law of sin and death can grow a kind of flesh, while the law of the Spirit of life can grow a spirit (although not a quickening spirit). It is the law of God that can grow a quickening spirit.
7. The new heavens and the new earth are powered by the law of righteousness. This righteousness is what is responsible for the manner of persons that are in them.
8. (Heb. 10:34).The better and enduring substance is what is responsible for making persons of spirits. Everything in the new earth and new heavens are grades of righteousness, and it will produce a kind of person of spirit.
9. (James 1:18). God's desire for us is to be like the first (and Only Begotten Son, who is the express image of the person of God.
10. What fabricates the persons of the Godhead is righteousness. Righteousness refers to ‘wills’. There is the will of man, and there is the will of God.
11. Just as a man can be born of the will of flesh, he can also be born of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2).
12. God wants to birth us by His own will. This order will be after the order of the heavenlies. God desires us to look for that which is high. He does not want us to just do the good will but move into other higher allocations of the will of God.