Most Holy Call to Pray (CTP, 8th April, 2021)
Topic: Overcoming Iniquity by the Building of God
Minister: Rev. Kayode Oyegoke
The sons who will be brought into glory must be taught to hate iniquity like Jesus did (Heb. 1:9/2:10). This is why we need to be cleansed first. Cleansing in the New Covenant has to do with the raising of an edifice in the soul. Cleansing is not just an erasing; it involves building. Whosoever is cleansed is built.
In the same vein, a man whose sins has been forgiven is one that is built (Acts 20:32). However, this begins with the opening of eyes. The opening of the eyes is the enlightening of the eyes of understanding of a man, in order for him to turn unto God (Acts 26:18, Eph. 1:18). Any man who has not turned to God cannot receive from Him. The opening of the eyes of your understanding is the only way to build you up to get an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
Being spiritually built up is relative to receiving forgiveness of sins. One cannot do away with sins without stature. This is because sin is constructive, and it continues because it has a stature and structure that makes for its continuity in men. The Lord told Jeremiah that he had been set over the nations to root out, pull down, to destroy, to build and to plant (Jer. 1:10). It therefore means that there has to first be a pulling down, before there can be a planting and a building up. A planter is an initiator while a builder builds on what has been planted. A builder is a waterer (1 Cor. 3:6). The water of the word are stones that solidify the hearers of the word.
The planter is the initiator who gives direction to the vicinity of planting; he is the one who draws the plan and charts the direction and later becomes the foundation (Eph. 2:20). When a foundation has been carved out, the builder knows what to raise on the foundation. So a planter is a foundation layer, but there is another kind of builder, who builds upon what another has planted (i.e., the foundation).
There are Satanic kingdoms or dominions existing inside men and it is through words that they will be rooted out and pulled down. Many people think that the Kingdom of God is all about taking over the government sector and having rule over men. That is not the true sense of dominion (John 18:36). The Kingdom in the New Testament is simply the ability to see the spiritual or an ability to see dominions beyond what is obtainable in the natural.
Apostles of Jesus Christ are not ordinary beings; they are Kingdom beings. A man who is not able to see beyond the present life is not yet sent by the Lord. Whosoever will be sent by our Lord Jesus (like Apostle Paul) would be one who is seeing the stratas of Satanic dominion in men and is able to pull them down. Dominion here speaks of the building of sin in men.
God gave charisma to many in the fivefold ministry today, to gather people in Church; but they have not been able to tear down dominions in men. This is why the nature of sin is still intact in the souls of many believers.
Evil spirits are arranged in dominions. There are evil creatures (like demons) that perpetuate evil operations that are visible by men, but there are operations of the devil that are not visible to men. Spiritual wickedness in high places, rulers of the darkness of this world, principalities and power are different stratas of the dominion of Satan (Eph. 6:12). The rulers of the darkness of this world, principalities and powers, might and dominion form the first sphere of the Satanic dominion. Whereas spiritual wickedness in high places is the second sphere. The word “places” indicates that wickedness is in different stratas. These spirits are arranged according to their statures in the spirit and there is a way they rule men.
Sins and iniquity are statures or dominion (Romans 6:14). They do not necessarily “possess” men, but they rule by gaining the allegiance of men. The New Birth is only a beginning of the preparation for deliverance from evil spirits that culture the sin nature in men. A man can be born again but yet, his sin nature or building may never be touched or tampered with for many years. To bring the building of sin down, it must be dealt with in all of its entirety. After dealing with sin, then iniquity would be dealt with.
Sins and iniquity are the homes of evil spirits. The kingdom of Satan is sin and iniquity. The Kingdom of our Lord Jesus is against the kingdom of Satan called Iniquity or Wickedness (Heb. 1:8-9). Therefore, it is kingdom against kingdom.
The beings of Satan’s dominion are either iniquity or unrighteousness. Satan’s sceptre or strength is iniquity. Iniquity is a strength; it is a rod and those who will inherit it will know how to use it. They would use it to inflict pain on men. Money is a type of strength and rod; it is called unrighteous mammon (Luke 16:11). This is why some rich men love to use their money to buy men over, including ministers of God. God must put something in us about our pricelessness. We must have a pure and holy pride, so that no matter what, sin will not be able to buy us over, like Judas was.
Paul levelled out the dominion of sins his days. He brought down the dominion of sins and darkness that are constructed against Christ. For every dominion, there is a word. There is the “word of His grace” and also the “engrafted word” which is able to save the soul (Acts 20:32, James 1:21). The engrafted word is the cracker of iniquity or the destroyer of wickedness.
The kind of dominion that God wants the Church to come into is described in Hebrews 1, because we are fellows with our Lord Jesus who has been anointed more than us all. He already took His place, and He is expecting us to come take our place too. However, we cannot attain unto this kind of dominion without learning to hate iniquity. Even if we have not committed iniquity yet, God does not trust us because we do not have the stature to refuse it when it shows up. Therefore, God needs to feed us with things that will enable us to hate iniquity.
We might have learnt to hate the world, but iniquity is still ahead. The building against sin calls a man into the sanctified realm but there is also a building higher than sin called iniquity. The stature against sin is the stature of Christ called the spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Whosoever has received or developed this stature of Christ should prepare to depart from iniquity (2 Tim. 2:19). Christ gives us the ability to run away from iniquity or the city of sin in order to lay hold on the city of refuge that is set before us (Heb. 6:18, Prov. 14:26). The city of refuge is everlasting life; it is also a building that can be raised in man.
Jesus is the one who builds the house where God would live. He has received glory to build a house for God. Christ is a Son (of God) over His own house (Heb. 3:5-7). We will also become a house if we hear His voice as He speaks till the end of the day. The intention of God is to give us capacity to be raised as His eternal habitation. The things contained in the voice of the Son are such that are needed to destroy iniquity in us. Something needs to be pulled down before something else can be built.
Iniquity is not an obvious sin; it is a life or building that is higher than sin. One needs a building of God to overcome iniquity. The season of temptation is a time of adherence to the process and need to become God’s building by the voice of His Son (Heb. 2:18). This is also a time of refusing the offer of iniquity because iniquity offers something great (but evil). On the other hand, the Son is also offering us a “so great salvation” (Heb. 2:3).
Iniquity is also a rest, which is higher than the peace that the world gives (John 14:27). This is the rest that the beast will offer men. A man cannot truly rest without the building that can easily lay and sleep in God’s hand. To become that building, we need the voice of God. The body that can rest is the body or statures of thronic fellows. Our Lord Jesus is building a body of rest in us as against the stature of iniquity. Rest is a practice of the life of everlasting men.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:12-13). “Creature” here speaks of the iniquity that Satan created and put in men. Iniquity informs our intent. Most of the time we do not know our intents because they are often deeper than us. It takes a lot of judgment as a result of walking with God to really see our intent. Iniquity is the reason for sins; and it is deeply seated in the heart.
To deal with iniquity, we must be built up by hearing God’s voice. The voice is the carrier of the word. The voice is carrying the properties that would fill the valleys, bring every mountain and hill low, make crooked paths straight and smoothen the rough ways (Luke 3:4-6). The word of God is the locator of iniquity or intents. This intent is the reason for man; it was created and dropped in men. This is what Apostle John referred to as “sin” in 1 John 1:8 and affirmed that we are liars and do not obey the truth if we fail to acknowledge its presence in us. We might not have obeyed intent all our lives, but this is because the time to show it has not yet come. It would take everlasting life to crack or decode intents that are deeply written in the soul.