Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 28th February, 2024.
Transcript Summary
Revelation 1:1-3
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: [2] who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. [3] Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
The fulfilment of the prophecy came to its timing at the season when the book of Revelation was written. Much later, the timing of the prophecy swung backwards, then God had to look for its time again. 700 years ago, the time of this prophecy had not come to fruition. On earth, there was a season of the end that occurred after Jesus left and it came to pass when all the things concerning the provisions of the workings of God were under the testament of grace; that is, all the things that had to do with the work of God in the season of grace.
The New Birth is gracious, just as the infilling of the Holy Ghost is under the same season. Then the teaching of the word and the giving of testimonies began to occur after the book of The Acts of the Apostles. The apostles of the Lamb were in the season of the entrance into covenants of the New Testament.
Covenant started with Christ. Christ is the testament after the milk of the word of God. The teaching and revelation of Christ is the testimony and covenant that has to do with the power of God unto salvation. The testament of Christ is called new— ‘new testimony’ or ‘new testament’ —according to the prophets.
Ezekiel 36:24
“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”
The gathering of flock begins when Christ is about to be taught. The teaching of Christ is the means by which God gathers people to sound the note of the covenant in their midst. When the trumpet of Christ sounds, the gathering of the people will occur in order to gather people from all the countries of the earth. It is also a foretelling of the Jewish nation.
The Coming of the Jews into the New Covenant
This prophecy of Ezekiel 36:24 has a two-fold fulfilment. A time will come that God will gather the Jews and bring them into the blessing of the new covenant or the blessing of another covenant apart from what they had. Israel as a nation failed in making covenant with God. They did a few things but did not fulfil the covenant. Jesus came to take away that covenant.
The legal binding of the covenant has the indebtedness of the people to it and it will not allow the covenant to be taken away as a result. For the covenant to be rolled away, there must be a payment of the debts of those who are under the covenant because they have enjoyed a part of the covenant. The Jews have partaken of the benefits of that covenant.
It can be likened to refusing to pay tax in a nation where one resides. If a nation provides shelter for a man, then such must be willing to do the things that would enable such a man to remain in the nation, otherwise he would be removed from the nation. Israel enjoyed great things as a result of their obedience to the law of the covenant, yet they could not attain the major blessing. The blessing of the Jews that is expressed in their natural affluence is very minor.
In the Old Testament, the glory of covenant was not attained. God made covenant with stones and not the people. He never found anyone to write His law upon except for a few prophets whom the Lord wrote His law upon their hearts like He did to Moses.
It was difficult to raise another kind after Moses, except for Elijah who may have attained a stature as Moses. Elijah was a servant of the word and of the testimony of the Lord in Moses, but Moses was the prophet of the word of the Old Testament and the Testimony of God to Israel.
Moses had the original of what God wrote on stone in himself. God wanted the people of Israel to look like Moses who was like a son model to the house of Israel. God desired to make the house of Israel the house of God by being their God and they being His people, making them the envy of nations, but they could not attain that promise.
The Lord appeared unto the people of Israel by the name ‘Jehovah’, which is not fully an inheritance but a lead to the inheritance of the promise in the Old Testament. God did not appear to them the way He did to Abraham, as ‘God Almighty’ (Gen. 17:1). He introduced Himself to Moses as, ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ (Exo. 3:6), which means Abraham inherited the promise.
God took the people of Israel on eagles’ wings and brought them through the wilderness, where He instructed Moses to tell them that He also desired to be their God (Exo. 19:4-6). Subsequently, when God began to state the things He required in order to be their God, the people refused Him. Although this was so, it does not mean that some of them did not still have a pact with God. In such cases, there are some things that the people could still attain with God, but getting into the promise would be elusive and unattainable to them.
There was something about the trumpets that God gave to the people of Israel, because they were able to read the commitment of the sounds (that is, interpret its sound). Though it sounded to their physical ears, it also communicated some things to their hearts – the demands of the trumpets. Those trumpets were spirits and not just a natural beagle or an angelic frame; they were voices with pipes as we have in angels.
The people of Israel refused God. Israel did not attain the promise, so God is not yet their God, even though He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When God says He remembers His covenant, it is that with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
There were covenant holders in generations. For example, David, who moved the tide of the inheritance forward. David decided to go forward with God, even more than Moses did. David saw an entrance, a door in God which was higher than what Moses evidently declared. So, he began to pray, seek after and pursue it. Later, God promised that Christ would come from his loins.
God templated Jesus with David such that instead of being just the seed of Abraham, He became the seed of David, the root of Jesse. It was not ordinary, it was what David purchased. Those are transactions of covenant and promises. God is going to make our souls skillful for the next job – His covenant and promises. This is a breakthrough for the Body of Christ.
Christ, the Beginning of the New Testament
The New Testament began with the revelation of Christ (Christos; Gk.). The teaching of Christ is a complex work on understanding. It is not so easy to teach Christ and one needs some level of everlasting life to be able to teach Him well.
There are two concepts of Christ in the Bible:
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Christ as an entity, and
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Christ as the anointed one
The Christ (Christos) in God can reach down to a level lower than ‘God’, and even further to a level lower than ‘Lord’. It is Christ that can condescend to dust (man). Christ is a provision in God that can extend downward to something that is already almost destroyed. The word ‘Christos’ is a derivative of the words 'shining’, ‘luster’ and ‘glittering’; however, this occurs in bits. The amount of glittering one has is equal to the amount of healing or preservation such a one has.
God cannot deal with sand or anything that is flesh; Satan knew this. God did not commune with Adam in Christ terms, like we are being taught Christ. Reading through the book of Genesis, we see that God was dealing with man on the basis of the present earth measurement. When God raised the standard of response to Himself by creating man, He did not start with man as Christ.
It was clear in the creation and formation that when God formed Adam, His Christ was inside him; and when God built the body, He also built an everlasting body inside him. Everlasting body is not the present state of the human body though it has some everlasting substances in it.
Therefore, when the enemy seeks to destroy the physical man, it is not often the external that he goes for. Satan was interested in the body of Moses because of the things Moses had acquired in his body over time (Jude 1:9). The body of Moses became the body of a holy one, just like the body of Jesus was the body of the highest earthly holy one.
Psalm 16:10
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
The body is the skeletal building in the spirit which our expression in bodily form rests on.
2 Corinthians 5:1
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
A careful read of this Scripture tells us what the house of our physical body depends on – the house of this tabernacle. The physical body is a tabernacle but there is a house. Housing in engineering terms refers to a casing. It is important that the Church is taught about this, not solely on how to receive physical substances from the Lord. The saints should be taught to be raised with Jesus in their souls after the resurrection of their spirits. Teachings tailored to meet the natural needs of people should not remain the major emphasis of an assembly for a long time, though it is good for God’s people to know how to depend on the Lord and anchor their faith.
Adam’s body was formed with an everlasting building inside; this was what Satan took time to eat up; but man himself did not also care about such things. And that is also as a result of a building. Satan is giving us another building which must be dissolved; however, it cannot be dissolved until one agrees to let it go. The frame that Satan gave over time is the installation of the body of death.
The body of death is not ordinary because it is built by the word of hell and death. The word of hell and death is the corruptible seed.
Satan also knows how to build a body. If he can destroy, he can build. Also, if Satan is an eater, then he is an eater of bread. Eating bread is eating flesh. So when the scripture says he will feed on dust (Gen. 3:14), it was not referring to the physical soil. The physical serpent burrows the soil but Satan burrows in and eats things in the body of man and gradually breaks it down. It can take three thousand years to completely eat the body of a man because the Person who put the body together created it to live forever.
There is something about the body; the body and the testimony work together. The body is the frame of a man’s thinking pattern. When one thinks, there are thoughts and coverings that go alongside. Thoughts cover one as a veil because it informs and it shows how one thinks. Veil, which is a covering, affects the mind and one’s outlook on things.
Death forms the life we presently hold, and we naturally do not want to give up that life, which is the body to be dissolved. As such, when God is taking it down, we feel like our whole life is crumbling, so fear sets in.
Hebrews 2:14
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil…”
Flesh and blood are the body and testament, not of God. One might speak of being aware of having flesh but someone else has encroached in that person’s life. As such, there will be another blood, that is, another life. If we have another blood which is another life, then we have another body which is another covering. Feeling naked is not an ordinary feeling, it comes from bodily feeling.
There is something about the soul and the outward man; the soul picks the vibes of the outward man. This means the outward man speaks. There is a sealant inside the covering of a man out there by God to hold the body. It is an everlasting seal which the dragon ate up completely and replaced it with his own. The sealant is not ordinary, it is a signal board by God that the soul can relate to. The soul and the body used to be one until Satan put enmity between them, because he knows how to sow discord. He is a master of breaking cord. There is an umbilical cord between the soul and the body which gets to the spirit man. Satan is a destroyer—a breaker of fellowship.
In the building present in the soul, we see that it has got the Christ of earth, not the Christ of the New Testament; it is integral in the programme God designed, such that Adam standing in Eden was an everlasting being. Jesus came in like manner; He was not born a quickening spirit, He grew into being a quickening Spirit and He undertook the programme of the last Adam, as the first one was a living soul. Jesus was never a living soul, even while He was in the flesh, He was superior to a living soul, He was a living spirit.
Genesis 2:7
“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.”
‘Breath’ means ‘spirit’; spirit in charge of life, spirit that generates life or spirit behind a life.
Romans 8:2
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
In the above scripture, the Spirit refers to the Holy Ghost, while the law is a smaller spirit. So it can be read as, “the spirit of the Spirit of life…”
Law is a thing. A car is not only constituted by the putting together of metals but also the law by which it operates. Law is a spirit that those machines generate through movement— the body of motion. Metals and engineering can be well put together in order to perform a law. In the operation of a car, the laws of combustion and other mechanical laws are in operation. When engines are put together, one puts the bottom engine called lower cylinder, the gasket, and places the top cylinder over it in order to make for mechanical and combustion laws (through the engines). Those are the two laws behind the movement of a car.
When the top cylinder burns, it pushes the pistons down, then the car engine starts rolling, the valves are opening (allowing for fuel), combustion is taking place and the mechanical aspect is also functioning, because laws are in active operation. Then a “spirit” called fuel is added, also contributing a law. Inside that spirit is the gift to that car called petrol which activates the law of combustion in order to generate mechanical law, which becomes kinetic when the gear is engaged.
This is how things are done with laws. The Holy Ghost is the law-giver. He desires to teach the soul of a believer how to have the law that can deal with sin. As such, He gives Christ to the spirit of the saint, which is called the law of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is the passion and nature in the Holy Ghost that is in charge of law-giving. This is not the same as the Spirit that fills people to speak in tongues, but refers to where spirit comes from and where spirits are discharged.
Satan gave a law called sin and death because he is a spirit. He is the “crude oil” that is cracked to shed spirit. This helps us to know the embodiment of the being we are dealing with and what angels can do. Angels can transfer their laws. If an angel has the ability to give laws, we ought to imagine the extent that God can give. The person of the Holy Ghost was sent down to give us laws to conquer our sin and death. That law is spirit.
Breath of life means spirit. Breath means spirit from his lungs through his mouth; breathing law. It also refers to the spirit from within Him.
Upon every breath, God determines the quality of life that He gave to Adam when he breathed into his nostrils. God did not give man His own kind of breath, but gave that which was befitting to that spirit and soul, as a result of it being of the earth. If the soul of man were given more than this kind of breath, he would be unable to function on earth as he would be of above. So man was given the spirit for earth. If man had been given something higher and he fell (sinned) with that spirit, man would have been in more trouble. It was good to have given him something lower.
Do Not Give Room to the Devil!
Breath means the law of life. When God breathed into man, man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). A living soul will comfortably govern this world and can tell the serpent to leave the earth. That command, charge and rebuke had a tie to Adamic status. Jesus spoke about believers having the ability to cast out devils (Mark 16:17) because it is an Adamic gift. Otherwise, a newly born again believer would be unable to tell the devil to leave and be obeyed. Adam was supposed to command evil spirits and the serpent to leave Eden, but he allowed Satan.
The serpent was in a state and a design where he could leave. Satan came as an animal and Adam had authority over animals. The serpent did not leave because Adam accommodated him. We ought not to give the devil room or dialogue with him, rather we ought to resist the devil (Jam. 4:7). Some souls like the devil, they fraternise with him.
Satan can throw thoughts into a man and it can linger for hours. Thoughts are substances which begin to undergo a process until it becomes something lovely, giving a wisdom of the way of death. Partaking of the thoughts that Satan brings is likened to eating what Satan serves and one would not be healed from the covenant made by eating the food. Eating is not an ordinary ritual in the spirit.
God has embalmed the body of man in and out so that it can last. Adam's body would have survived one million years on earth, and it would not have fallen because it was built to last, just like the body of angels; but an angel (Satan) destroyed himself. Satan is ageing; he brought ageing to the universe, it is his creation. Satan took the form of a tedious, wicked animal that had sight. He must have studied the serpent for a long time before entering into it to make use of it. That is the nature he uses to perpetuate in the spiritual.
In the New Testament, Satan is still referred to as ‘serpent’. Christianity dealt with Jewish religion. The allocation of the gospel given to Paul destroyed the law, that is, the tradition of the Jews; even though he fulfilled it by writing. Today, many Christians go to Jerusalem to seek for something new; the Jews have nothing to offer. Jesus wears glory in heaven, not a cap or a shawl. Jesus is no longer in Jewish artifacts. Jesus is not Hebrew; though He was Hebrew in the flesh. Jesus is a spiritual man, He is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47).
The Jerusalem where the saints ought to go is in the community of the word of God – the word community. A Jerusalem would rise on earth, people would go there; God would model it, it would come to pass. When God is done beautifying the place of its feet, nations would flow into it. They shall be called the eternal excellency, the joy of the earth (Isa. 60:15). It is the New Testament hewed, and is going to be raised by the Spirit of the Lord.
Adam had ‘christ’ in him that God did not really make very evident, because He was starting with the first man. It was a genesis (beginning). Beings in the beginning were very high; it is a dealing with everlasting minds. Adam had the works of the Lord, he had the crown of the beginning. The ‘beginning and the ending’ is a crown, a promise. Adam was a work and a promise. God was the God of Adam more than the God of Abraham. Abraham never got to Adam.
“Abrahams” are the celebrated stars of the fallen Adam. They did not celebrate Adam; he fell. When the hallmark of faith was being narrated in Hebrews 11, it did not start with Adam, rather, it started with Abel, Enoch etc. Why was Adam’s name omitted? It was not Adam’s making. In fact, Adam did not want to be celebrated in that dimension, it was a fall to him, a pain.
God would accredit faith to Adam. Adam never needed any celebration, he was made so. But he celebrated his children, Enoch, Metuselah. No one on earth had knowledge like Adam, not even John the Baptist. What John the Baptist talked about, Adam and Eve saw with their eyes.
Eve should not be looked down on, nobody has the stature of her meekness, not even Sarah. Adam and Eve fell. Eve named their children.
Genesis 4:1
“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. [2] And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”
Genesis 4:25
“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”
The first birth was a set of twins, just like Isaac bore twins. Adam named the animals, while Eve named the children, ‘She’ as used in Genesis 4:25 is referring to the woman, Eve. If a son becomes wayward, check the mother. And if a father desires to raise the son and the mother does not support him, the son would still become wayward. But a mother can put her feet down and do everything it would take to ensure her child never becomes wayward; she can be tough on the children. There is a place for the fatherly figure, both roles are important in the life of children.
The Spirit of Life Called Christ: A Closer Look
‘Breath’ is a spirit of life called living soul. There is a spirit of life called Christ. Adam was more than man's christ on earth. Adam is a learning that ought to be undertaken before any covenant of life everlasting. God picked man from the earth; man is of the earth, earthy (1 Cor. 15:47). And God cannot relate with earth just like that, He has to put something in man.
Adam's concept of understanding is not without Christ's kind of knowledge. There was an Adam’s kind of christ, which we find in the minor prophets – prophets who prophesied of Christ, salvation; as the scriptures tell us, “...the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify…” (1 Pet. 1:11). However, someone like Moses was ‘the prophet’, or “a prophet like unto me” (Deut. 18:15). ‘Prophet’ in this scripture means an everlasting man. So that scripture can be read as, “...An everlasting man will God raise, and you should follow him”. However, Israel refused to hear him and they were cut off.
Acts 3:23
“And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”
In the book of Deuteronomy, the term “cut off” was used; it is the same as ‘destruction’. When one is cut off, he withers. The status of this prophet is that he rests on a christos like Moses also experienced. In the wilderness, Moses was taught some Christ-ways until he was raised ready with an everlasting sense to be able to meet with God, and he did. God anointed him and sent him as a prophet of God to rule over Egypt.
There are stones that have suffered, they have lost lustre; those stones can easily be broken. When you see them, you know a lot has happened to them. Some stones have depression all around, and there are some that sand can be seen around them because they have been eaten up. Bacteria have been acting on the stones for years to get them there, having eaten up vitality from them.
To make sand into a stone, anoint the sand, bring it together, you will see the shine. Stones are bodies of geography that have been hewed from sand, a higher level of sand. Beneath the earth is magma, where they anoint sand and raise it over time to make it rock. There is no rock that does not have a shine, there is one shine or the other. The shine is the anointing; the anointed one. The shine is in the members of the sand, not an oil on it.
There is a nature, first of all, that is an anointed one, and there is an anointing on the anointed one. Everything about the stone, the world of the stone, the nature of the stone, is for more anointing. When a stone graduates, it is more anointed.
Sure foundation is an anointed stone, it is a Christ. It is a higher Christ than the one closer to the earth. When Jesus was raised from the dead, He was made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). He was Christ to begin with, then the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). The Son of the living God is Christ higher than the starter. There is a kind of Christ that God can say of, ‘this is My own Son’; He is a tougher stone; a tried Christ; a precious cornerstone.
A foundation stone is lower than a precious cornerstone, because a foundation stone is a tried stone, to be subjected to higher Christ nature — a precious cornerstone, and make him a sure foundation. Our Father is an eternal stone. Every Christ without a title is the lowest. When Christ is moved up, He is given names.
Isaiah 28:16
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.”
The mystery of Christ needs to be rightly divided. Not all christs are fathers. It is not just one mystery. There is a Christos called Father; the Father is another kind of shine. There is another mystery called God, which is not an ordinary one (Col. 2:2).
The spirit of life God gave to Adam is called living soul. It is not easy to get these definitions down. In the land of the living, beings can be seen in their differentials, in their analysis and quality; one would be able to tell the different kinds of living.
There are prototypes that are living. Abraham was living, but not like Adam. The Adamic order started from Genesis 2 through Genesis 5 and ended in Genesis 9 with Noah, then man fell. It means the human soul in Abraham's days was in Christos, then God began to straightaway teach Abraham. He could show him the covenant of the Almighty. When He got to Exodus, Christ had been eroded in men. God told Moses that He could not show man the other covenant, but He would teach him His name Jehovah to teach Israel.
Exodus 6:3
“And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”
Moses developed from sand to what he was, standing before the Lord. During those years of his development, he was given some measure of Christ. Moses had to develop the Christos. He was weaker than Abraham. Abraham went straight to the living, but Moses could not because the children of Israel were busy crying for cucumber and garlic; they were very low, they were eating from the dust. That is the Egyptian way of life.
Another description for the Egyptians is ‘the people eaten by serpents’. Egypt is referred to as a graveyard, although they have wisdom, it is their serpentine nature. The Egyptians have the secret of the dead — embalming. Satan took them deep into the technology of the grave to preserve a dead body. Those pyramids were technologies for keeping the bodies of the dead. Egypt took the lead in that knowledge, and the same knowledge can be seen in other countries in Africa.
In some countries in Africa, dead kings are buried with living people because of the afterlife. For example, the Benin Kingdom, Owo people, and so on also celebrate the dead. Africa celebrates graveyards. This is why the scriptures said, “...and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1). Africa is not a rejected place, it is a grave and yet, God loves it.
God called His Son out of the grave because, without a grave, the Son could not go to the throne. Hence, God needed Egypt. Jesus was also taken to Egypt, after which God brought Him out (Matt. 2:15). When the Egyptians built the pyramid, they did not set out to build something magical for the world, they were building tombs. It was a temple and someone was teaching them how to. The science of those buildings is very high and the builders had to align them with stars or certain ordinances of heaven to raise the building properly.
The keeping of the nation of Israel in Egypt for centuries shows us a picture of living in the flesh, and how long men have stayed in the flesh. So Jesus needed to become a man, to put on flesh like us. Jesus knew His duty and what He came to combat. Satan had taken down the stone and fabric of everlasting life and the glory man had. He had stolen everlasting life from man, killed christ in man, and destroyed what was left of man (John 10:10). He was almost destroying man completely when Jesus came and that was the fullness of time.
The end of Jesus’s battle had to be in the spiritual grave, where Jesus had to learn for three days. Jesus beat Satan by obedience. He went to the grave with everlasting laws, wanting God to come, and interceded until God came to hell. Hell is not a world for God, but because of His Son, God took the stronghold of Satan. God took hell, and after that time, hell will no longer be a threat to humans. People could come out of hell. He got people born again and removed the bondage or laws of hell from people.
Through teaching, Jesus would rid people of wrong laws till they are free. He taught them obedience. There are things that Jesus would give to us that would unwind wrong laws from us. We were actually bound to the loins of hell, which are thoughts, chains, and the way Satan thinks. He taught us to be subservient in our thoughts to him.
Hebrews 2:14
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil…”
Adam was a partaker of flesh and blood, so flesh and blood was not a problem then. But it is a problem in the present era. It gradually became a problem after the fall. God gave man flesh and blood, in the beginning, but it became a problem on earth. It was a good gift to give us flesh and blood. What God did was that the blood in the physical body and the flesh of the blood were both clean and blessed. Because of that cleanliness, there was no need for a temple, because man (Adam) was the temple of God.
Since Adam was a temple, God did not need to create a physical building for him; the trees provided shade for him and made the whole earth conducive for him. The sun must not have been smiting the way it currently does; night was sweet as no arrows flew by night, nor destruction at noonday (Psa. 91:5-6). Everything was nice.
Adam was lord over all creations and all other animals were not predatory as they currently are. The entry of a stranger - the devil - brought a thorn to the earth. The sign of a thorn was Satan’s nature. Satan is a thorn or a curse as thorns mean curse (Heb. 6:8). When someone is a thorn, he will be set ablaze. Some natures are like thorns.
Flesh is the expression of something that should manifest. Flesh is a creation of manifestation. It should show something hidden. If Jesus gave bread and wine and said, with it, ‘I want you to have life within you’ (Jn. 6:53), it means there is a concept of life that bread and wine represent.
Bread is body while wine is life inside the body. Adam’s body was not corrupted. By the time of the New Testament, all men were already bound with someone’s flesh and blood – Satan. Satan managed to sneak his flesh into the human community and sell his blood to us.
Blood means sacrifices. When something comes to blood, sacrifice is made. A mother can sell all her belongings to educate her child, which is the sacrifice of blood. You have not come to sacrifices when you have not resisted unto blood (Heb. 12:4). There are things in human blood that make one want to sacrifice to any length, especially when it comes to someone related by blood.
Satan will often not allow anyone to sacrifice to God, but anyone not sacrificing to God will sacrifice to Satan. This is a hard truth, hard to utter. You do not sacrifice except you are in love. Women make sacrifices because they are creatures of love; she gives all. Jesus loves more than any man on earth. Women often desire a man to love them and go all the way for them.
However, Satan has attacked men and only a few survived. Therefore, men have to be taught to put life into them, and kit them up before they can be faithful as God designed. Adam was well enabled before he could stay with Eve (one woman) for that long. Men today however desire to be with more than one woman; this is as a result of wrong laws that have taken effect upon man.
The potential man currently possesses is not the Adamic potential to stay with one wife. Rather, it is the power to bargain and have many wives. This might (power) was brought about by the fall, and that is what the New Testament is repairing. The Lamb is supplying things that will bring back our building. Man was broken over time; something has been taken from us. Shame is becoming glory to man since we now glory in the things we ought to be ashamed of. We are in a degenerated realm of men.
Like Egyptians keep mummies for thousands of years, Satan has also embalmed his life in men so that nothing will touch it for many years. Satan stole from man; Jesus called him the thief (John 10:10). Jesus also promised to come like a thief in the night so as to bring an end to all satanic works. He specifically mentioned night because that is the time of operation of a thief. Night is not open, unlike the day, which is broad. Like a thief, Jesus will remove the things that ought not to be in us (Rev. 3:20); it is a night operation. There are certain things the Lord will be doing with us that people should not know.
Rebuilding Us to Practise our Heavenly Profession
When Satan is being removed from the people, it is his things that are being removed. Jesus will break the building of Satan in us. He will crumble it bit by bit by His voice. Some things are not meant to remain in us, therefore, they need to be shaken off (Heb. 12:27). The voice of the Lord will deliver children who are bound in bondage to the fear of death (Heb. 2:15).
Satan framed the world for men to fear death. Death limits people from serving God. Death makes us not have time for the things of God. The notion that people need to work to pay offering to the church is inspired by fear, and originates from Satan. God could stop people from working just for the sake of food and He would still supply their needs, just as He did for the Israelites.
Some of us have stopped working but our needs are still being met. It is like the raven’s operation that Elijah experienced (1 Ki. 17:1-6). That operation is a cleansing and a reinstitution from our order. God wants to take away that ability that knows what to do from us and rebuild us with a new flesh, body, and building (Heb. 3:6).
The children in Hebrews 2:14-15 first needed to be built. Blood is not meant to be poured into an empty space. Rather, it ought to travel through cells to nourish the body.
Hebrews 3:1-3
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; [2] Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. [3] For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.”
Hebrews 2 was a discussion on the subject of the house. These fellows were not yet built. They were fellows who needed to be anointed. The Most Holy has to be anointed, but before that, it must first be built.
Hebrews 1:7-9
“And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. [8] But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. [9] Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”
The commission of Jesus in Hebrews 1 was meant for fellows. That portion was not about praising Jesus alone. It was a commission that was meant to lead to something.
Hebrews 1:13-14
“But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? [14] Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”
These verses show us that the very heart of the Father is to build a house that will swallow up death in victory; men who will be delivered from the bondage of death. This will be accomplished by building these men first. Therefore, the building is part and parcel of the heavenly calling, and that is our profession – that we cooperate with God to be built up. We cannot practice if we are not built, so we must be built up as a house for God.
The house here is not a physical building. Rather, it is the soul. There is something God wants to do. There is a practice God has ordained that we should handle, but we are currently incapacitated because we do not have the building for it. The Word is the one who builds the house.
Revelation 1:2-3
“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. [3] Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
Prophecy sent the Testimony. The phrase, “this prophecy” means that it is a particular prophecy. Prophecy is a gift to any generation. Enoch was a prophet because he had prophecy, that is, testimony (Heb. 11:5). His testimony was that he pleased God before he was translated. Nothing pleases God but prophecy.
Prophecy is a foretelling and forthtelling of a book that God has desired from the foundation of the world. Their first kind was Jesus, which shows that the prophecy is about persons. The book ought to generate a prophecy breed. Prophecy is a spirit. If left alone without doers of it, it will remain with no effect. The inheritors of prophecy are those who keep them and get them done. These people are called prophets. In essence, prophecy is meant to generate prophets.
God is looking for a kind of prophets. Jane Leade described them as the most prophetic generation that God is looking for and their time is at hand. They are not prophets by being called into the office of a prophet. Some people like this and they stay there. Some men just like to reveal things about other people while they have their own things (issues). That is not the kind of prophecy being talked about. This prophecy is what is able to make a people. It is a gene.
Isaiah 55:1-3
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. [2] Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. [3] Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
There are two things found in water. One of them is bread (Eccl. 11:1). We do not just drink. There is bread in the water, and there is also labour by the waters. The everlasting covenant in Isaiah 55:3 means that one would find prophecy and testimony. The sure mercies of David make our calling and election sure. The covenant is tied to a testimony.
The water brings blood and bread is found in water. If there is bread, then there is flesh. So when water is springing unto everlasting life, it means the water will be a supplier of both flesh and blood, or bread and wine. Wine is a stronger water that can make one tipsy; it is water with strong genes.
The Vision and the Prophecy: The Building and the Life
Prophecy talks about blood while vision speaks of building. When we are built, then the next step is to do prophecy. A building needs to go according as it is written concerning it. If the building is not progressing, then testimony is not being fulfilled.
A person can be a building and not be a prophet. To be a prophet is to go according as it is written (Rev. 1:3). It is to go according to the Spirit of prophecy, as He knows exactly what God wants concerning the prophets. So they ought to pick their genes from start to finish and fully evolve.
It is not easy to take out a prophetic life of Satan. It is not easy to kill spirits. They only die when we disobey them. Nobody can disobey a spirit without the capacity to do prophecy. The testimony of God helps one not to do the prophecy or testimony of the dragon. As we do the testimony of God, we attack the life that Satan offers. The antichrist is a very weak man. The weakest Christian is stronger than him. Anyone who loves the devil is weak. Such a person cannot do righteousness.
Revelation 12:11
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
‘Their life’ in the scripture above is not actually their life, but something conscripted in a false prophecy. The devil also used to be a prophet but he corrupted his book, though he still retained the anointing of his prophetic wisdom, which is corruption. What leads people is a life bargain; it is a life warfare.
When Satan is drawing out the bargain and fighting for grounds, it is usually on the premise of life so that he can win the war. He wins wars by the number of men he has conquered but we can conquer him, for we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). We become conquerors by winning testimonies and conquering spirits. Right now, there are certain spirits that we have expired. We are currently in the battle against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).
We will always have people in our midst who are complacent, who only follow when others are going. It is not everybody that pours energy at once. Some people are not fully committed and they do not move at the same level with others. There are those who put their foot into the water of everlasting life and bring it out back, to only focus on Christ. They only want to stay at their levels and God understands because they are all His children.
It is similar to Gideon’s army where 32,000 men came out for war, but God told Gideon that he did not have an army yet (Judg. 7:3-4). God was looking for those who were particularly made for Him. Those men were identified at the waters; it was water that separated them. Word will show the stuff people are made of.
Checking through the test of Gideon’s army by the waters in Judges 7:4-8. God said there were two kinds of people: those who lapped the water like dogs with their hands alongside, and those who bowed to their knees to take water. Eventually, three hundred lapped like dogs while the rest of the company bowed. It means that those who lapped like dogs had no fear because they completely relied on the water. Meanwhile, the others that bowed were still checking the water out and watching, meaning they had some fear. It also shows that those who lapped like dogs were more thirsty, and with much desperation. They lost their decorum at the waters and God chose them.
A question we have to ask ourselves is, how do we behave at the waters? Have we lost all of ourselves at the waters? It is possible to tell that some people will soon leave the path by the way they behave at the waters. They are still higher than the waters. They are managing the waters and are careful with it. They still have some things around their attention is still on. They have a life outside the waters, but the three hundred that lapped had no other life than the water. They are the ones the Lord chose to go for war.
Through today’s teaching, we can see how Satan’s life will be expired and it will take prophets to do it. There are two sides to the priestly work: the building of one’s self as a holy temple, and the acquisition of the life of the temple, that is, being a prophet. To build alone is not enough, one has to also do the prophetic to overcome the dragon.
Revelation 12:11
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
These men who overcame the dragon in the above scripture did not love their lives even though they had their lives. This means that overcoming the dragon is tied to us not loving our lives unto the death. Life is life, but there is the death of life, that is, the end of it. The death of a life is the crown it offers – the benefits and promises it offers. If one has not expired those promises, then the laws of the life have not expired. This means that one must receive a law more than works to expire a promise.
Today’s teaching is putting a lot of things together. We were able to see the inner details of the works and the provisions of the testament or the work of God in its entirety.
The duties of the vision and the prophecy are the two works. The vision is the building or house, as Haggai and Zechariah said. However, prophecy is the restoration of life in the temple. So the restitution of all things is both the vision and the prophecy because the prophecy refers to all things that are written therein.
Prophecy is also a writing. By ‘writing’, what is meant is not the writing of letters, but refers to what God inputted in the testament, which must be done. The vision is upward while the prophecy is mobile. The prophecy is more mobile in nature than the building, which is a stable construction.
The prophecy is more of spirit than the vision. The vision is the word of God but the prophecy is a flow like a river. The vision is not liquid in nature; it is a solid work, but the prophecy is a meander in nature, more like a spirit that will find its course to its destiny. It is a flow. When Jesus talked about rivers flowing, He was referring to the spirit of prophecy.
The construction of the building is also a priestly expression. The two works a priest will do are body and blood. Blood is not built in the same manner as the body is raised. Blood ought to be followed as it is allowed to flow out. The sacrifice of blood is stronger and more demanding than the building of the body. So what Jesus is doing is to first build us up to have life. He prophesied to bones and they came together. Then He prophesied for flesh to come and the bodies were formed. Finally, He prophesied to the wind to give life.
So a body can be formed but will not rise up an exceeding great army until His life has entered it. He had to prophesy to the wind for life to enter it.
Ezekiel 37:9-10
“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God ; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. [10] So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”
The calling of the ‘O breathe’ is the calling of spirit. So these soldiers, which represent buildings, would not have lived until blood was instituted. That is prophecy and testimony.
Blessings!