Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing The Vision (February Edition)
Date: Saturday, 19th February 2022
Speaker 3: Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu
There is a sweet atmosphere that has been prevalent in our meetings lately. It is heavy but it is also light (Matt. 11:30). We are not ignorant of the atmosphere of love around us in this season. This is a heavenly atmosphere of charity for us (1 Cor. 13).
The word “holiness” means love. This means that a man who is not loving is not holy. A holy conversation is a love conversation. Some people can claim to understand this gospel of love. However, a man that is not spiritual (Christ) cannot discern love (God).
The gospel of God is the gospel of love. The gospel of love is the gospel that can put the nature of God within a man. God has no other nature than the nature of love. God is not described as a God of prosperity or deliverance in scriptures; He is defined as “Love”. The scripture that says “God is love” means the very DNA or essence of God is love (1 John 4:8). This is a love beyond what man can comprehend.
The reason why the gospel will drive us through three trimesters of doctrine – Christ, the Father and God – is for the purpose of understanding love. We need to love in order to comprehend the love of Christ that passes knowledge (Eph. 3:19). We then need to comprehend the love of Christ in order to understand God. To understand the love that passes knowledge is to see God.
God has designed man to see Him by comprehending His nature. When a man obeys the commandments of love, his soul will be upgraded to understand another (a higher) level of love in God. It is love all the way in our journey to God. Eternal Life is love; it is a love that is stronger than hate or death (S.O.S 8:6). The gospel of God is the gospel of love. It is a great blessing to see and comprehend these things.
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”(John 1:18). The Son of the bosom is the One who has seen God. One needs to pass from the state of the “beloved son” to the state of the “begotten son” to really see God. It is only the begotten Son that can declare the Father and He is the One who has a greater understanding of God.
“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” (1 John 3:14). We need to keep passing from death to life. Every love administration has a measure of death that it is supposed to deal with and when we obey it, we pass from death to life at that level. We escape into life from death as we walk in love.
Many believers are engaged in activities without love. Love is the way to victory over death. A believer is not truly victorious if he has not overcome death. Death is in measures and men do not fully know it yet. There is a small death and there is a great death. There is a measure of love that can overcome both small and great death at their levels. The word “small” here does not mean it is something that we can trivialize, it is only small in relation to what is referred to as “great death”. There are lots of commandments one needs to obey to overcome this small death.
“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints…” (Eph. 1:15). This is a commandment to pass from the death in the season of milk to life (Christ). In the same manner, in the season of Christ, there are commandments to obey to pass from death to life. Christ is a season; it is a realm. One who has the life of an anointed one (Christ) has to be led by God and be brought into dealings of a higher love.
“Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”(1 Tim. 6:16). Immortality is a nature that only God has. A man cannot come to God except through light (love). God is dwelling in a light realm that man cannot ordinarily approach. The saying of Jesus that no man has seen God at any time (John 1:18) means that no man has ever comprehended or approached God at any time. This means that if a man wants to approach God, the nature of man must be taken away from him.
God wants us to come to Him. As such, when a man is coming to God, the nature of man is being taken away from him. What makes up a man are his thoughts (Prov. 23:7). Mortality, death and corruption are all thoughts. As a man is inheriting the nature of God, he would be relinquishing the things of man. There are things of man and there are things of God. To come into the things of God, one must lose everything of man. This was the desire of men like Paul (Philipp. 3:9).
Man has his own righteousness. The man of sin is a man arranged with things within his soul (2 Thess. 2:3). This is why when he speaks, men will wonder at him (Rev. 13:3). The things of a man are things that he will not easily relinquish.
Men in the Old Testament like Aaron and Moses only saw the similitude of God and not the ‘true’ God. “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12). This means that the understanding of God is only with the Son of God. We need abundant life to see Eternal Life. This means we need to abound in life till it becomes everlasting, and then God will begin to be revealed in us.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18). Perfect love casts out all fear. This fear here is the fear of death. Fear has torment and the torment of fear is death. However, love will deal with death. It is the perfect love that will deal with great death. This means that a man has to keep loving until he is made perfect in love.
It was love that instructed Abraham to cast out the bondwoman (Gen. 21:10). We do not yet know what love is. God instructed Abraham to cast away his first son so that when He came for Isaac, Abraham would have no other alternative. God wanted to teach Abraham to be like Him (John 3:16).
“And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.” (John 12:45). One who cannot see Jesus cannot see the One (God) that sent Jesus. To see Jesus is to see the work that God did in Him. Jesus was made a specimen. God, who is perfect in love, dealt with Jesus and He never complained. The work that God did in Jesus is the exact work God has in Himself. Anyone who wants the work God did in Jesus to be formed in his or her soul desires to be made God’s specimen.