Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministries (EGFM)
Programme: Tuesday Prayer Meeting (TPM)
Date: Tuesday, 4th October 2022
In this season, we ought not to live below the conversation of life we are receiving. A lot has been committed to us and we cannot afford to live below it because our commitment is to the Lord and not unto man. It is the Lord who will reward us and this must be our heart state towards anything committed to us in the house of God. Whatever we are doing in the house of God is not for the pastor but for the Lord. We must not withdraw service because of offense, we are committed to the Lord and it is the Lord that would reward us.
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12). God is revealing things to us that are not obvious to the world. If we are not receiving these things, we would think life is about acquiring natural possessions. If we are not hearing the doctrine of Christ and everlasting life, we might think it strange that we are not pursuing hard after vanity.
What we see and behold determines what we give our strength to. Sight is what God gives us. The early Church was given sight; that is why they could hold the kind of conversation they had. It would take the level of these speakings to separate us from the pursuits of the normal man. Many would think it is absurd to be following the Lord this way which is not common in the general church on the earth now. We are not following after the world because of the power of sight. Many times, we follow, not even knowing how and why God is leading us the way He is doing. We are being trained to live by faith. And we are being trained not to be envious of the wealth and progress of the world. We must not be intimidated by the progress of the world because of sight. By sight, we would understand that acquiring natural possessions is not the ultimate of living. God is painting to us a destination and that should be our motivation for living.
Moses endured as seeing the invisible. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27). In like manner, we are enduring because we are being persuaded of everlasting life. Many would see us and say we are being brainwashed to think and believe this gospel of everlasting life. The general church has not yet come into this truth because they have not been enlightened. But by privilege, we are being washed to make us see and appreciate what the natural man would not appreciate.
Every man was made to live for everlasting life— which is the original life. Man was meant to live and get the image and likeness of God. Man was not made to become anything earthly. All the earthly professions came as a result of the fall but it has now become the life pursuits and ambition of man. The enemy did this. He blinded man from the original purpose of God. People are born into the world and automatically, they begin to learn a wrong conversation/definition of life, pursuing hard after it. Except the Lord shows mercy by cutting in our way, opening our eyes to redirect us to the real path, this can be difficult but by the power of continuous hearing. Faith cometh by hearing (Rom. 10:17).
When we hear sometimes, we doubt; this is part of the process. The realities we face make us doubt the word of God and these are the reasons we are not fully persuaded. When we are fully persuaded, we will be able to let go of a lower life for this high life. When we are persuaded of this life, our conversation would be different— we would be able to thrust all our life into it. If we do not obey the commandments we are receiving, after some time, we would begin to doubt. Doing brings the tangibility of what we are hearing.
After some time, what we are hearing would become tangible to us. It is a matter of hearing and doing. We are not meant to remain in the place of just hearing alone without us coming into the tangibility. We are meant to do it. God can be tangible - the life we are hearing can be experienced and inherited (1 Jn. 1:1). The original life is everlasting life; it is God's intention for man. It is the beginning life, it is so real and tangible. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us…" (1 John 1:1-2).
When we give ourselves to hearing we would begin to see; to see is not with our physical eyes or the seeing of a vision. As we journey, we would look upon, then we would handle. To handle is the tangibility— it is the season when this life (everlasting life) would have become our inheritance. The hands handling here are not the physical hands, it is the soul. This life must become the life of the soul and must be the life the soul lives by, but the whole process begins with hearing; so we should not joke with hearing.
Our earthly itinerary is to get Eternal Life; it is contrary to the standards the present evil has set for man, which the Church is also buying into. Anyone who is not living according to the revealed life is living a wasted life. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33). Many believers do not believe the Bible, so the devil is using other things that we ought not to seek to distract us. The adversary can also speak through people telling us that heaven helps those who help themselves but there is a way of other things according to God. He has His own style and way of bringing other things.
We must come to believe that God's ways are sure and rely on Him. The system of the world makes us doubt God. It would take the leading of the Spirit, experience, and remembrance of the kindness of the Lord over time to believe and say that God is faithful and would meet our needs. "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." (Psalm 37:25). We should give attention to doing righteousness, as it is said “Do not be received, he that doeth righteousness is righteous” (1 John 3:7) God is not a liar. We must give ourselves wholly to this so that our profiting would appear to all, not in the natural but in the spiritual.
In this path we are being regulated, so we must not have many encumbrances because the Lord would meet our needs supernaturally. Part of the project of the path is that we would be made humble. Sometimes, the Lord would permit some things; He would show us favour in a way that may make us feel humiliated, but we must be humble. We must allow the Lord to tailor our provisions. We must submit to the grace that God is bringing our way per time.
We must not compare ourselves with those without. We must die to possessing a lot in the natural. When we yield to the process of the Lord, we would live spiritually. God is faithful! We must focus on the journey, locating God's way and walking in it. We must stay in the current position the Lord has placed us in and be humble. We must not use human strength to escape from the dealings of the Lord.
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13). The result of preaching is to make the hearers persuaded to obey what is being preached. Everlasting life is true. As we hear the words of everlasting life, a work is going on inside us, and we are being moved to do the will of God because of continual hearing.
The patriarchs of old heard the words of God and aligned with them by the conversation. As we are hearing the words of everlasting life, our confession and conversation must attest to it. We must keep hearing so we can be persuaded. As we keep hearing, a lot of things would not matter to us anymore.
We must not fret about the progress of natural men because the evidence of our life and service to God is not in natural possessions. We must not be obsessed with getting worldly goods; we must be resolved to sell everything to find God. We must be persuaded by what we are hearing and must resolve to the point of not wanting to inherit anything in this world, but to inherit only Eternal Life. As we make this resolve, grace would be upon our hearts to accept and allow God.
“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: [10] For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:9-10). Abraham was able to pass this conversation to Isaac and Isaac to Jacob.
“But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:16). We must desire eternal substances that will not fade away (1 Peter 1:4). We should look for an inheritance higher than the present heavens. Jesus took His gaze off earthly things, which enabled Him to attain that stature of being higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26).
Men who preach things everlasting have had their fair share of dealings that have contributed to their entrance into things eternal. No one can have access to this measure of life without dealings. As such, we must be able to align with our present dealings and not hinder them because of our previous experiences. There is nothing we go through that is not common to all, and we must receive grace to go through the dealings.
We must desire the heavenly city at every cost; we must not withdraw from pursuing life. We must receive grace so we can walk and get to our destination. Our destination is a beautiful place and we must be encouraged to attain it. Apart from Jesus, some others have borne witness that they laid hold on this life and that is true. This should define our lifestyle. We should not live as those without sight.
Our passion must be to break into everlasting life. Our preoccupation must be to inherit life, but we must be persuaded. We must obey commandments so that we enter into glory. We must count everything as dung (Phil. 3:8) to enter into the realm of glory. The realm of glory is tangible and we must give attention to the things of glory so that our profiting will appear.
God is faithful and true; He can be trusted. Let us bury our heads into finding His ways and walking in them. We should be committed to obeying God. We should align our conversation with what we are seeing and being persuaded of. The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds because their minds were vain, understanding darkened, and eyes blind (Eph. 4:17).
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” (Ephesians 4:17-18). God is opening our eyes so we do not walk like other Gentiles walk. Our conversation should be according to what we are seeing in the realm of the spirit. We should carve out a lifestyle from what we are understanding. God will cause us to see far and we would be persuaded by a reality that is in God.
Blessings!
Summary
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Sight is what God gives us. What we see and behold determines what we give our strength to.
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Moses endured as seeing the invisible (Hebrews 11:27). In like manner, we are enduring because we are being persuaded of everlasting life.
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Every man was made to live for everlasting life— which is the original life. Man was meant to live and get the image and likeness of God. Man was not made to become anything earthly.
-
If we do not obey the commandments we are receiving, after some time, we would begin to doubt. Doing brings the tangibility of what we are hearing.
-
In this path we are being regulated, so we must not have many encumbrances because the Lord would meet our needs supernaturally.
-
(Heb 11:13) The result of preaching is to make the hearers persuaded to obey what is being preached. We must keep hearing so we can be persuaded. As we keep hearing, a lot of things would not matter to us anymore.
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(Eph 4:17-18) God is opening our eyes so we do not walk like other Gentiles walk. Our conversation should be according to what we are seeing in the realm of the spirit. We should carve out a lifestyle from what we are understanding.