Programme: Believers’ Convention 2024 (Week 1_Day 2)
Date: Wednesday, 10th July, 2024
Transcript Summary
1. When a man is with Jesus, he will know how easy it is to deal with a spirit like Satan. Jesus is a very superior Man; this is why we need to stay with Him. He wants us to be with Him so that He can receive us to Himself (John 14:3). While Jesus was on earth, He chose some disciples to be with Him so that they could go 'in' and 'out' with Him. This is still applicable in the realm of the invisible – a time will come when Jesus will want us to be with Him so that we can go in and out with Him. The "in and out" things that Jesus demonstrated in the natural have their landscape in the realm of the spirit.
2. It is good to focus on Jesus. New creation reality teachings have limitations, but it is good to know them. We should not follow new creation teachings to the point that we forget Jesus. New creation reality preachers only highlight what Jesus has done for us and encourage believers to confess and affirm it. This is different from knowing the person of Jesus. There is no redemption in confessing these things; rather, redemption is in Jesus. A believer can be so bankrupt of the person (nature/life) of Jesus. There are many things that people do not know. We can take affirmations of things written in the epistles concerning the positioning of our spirit (in Christ Jesus) to an extent that we neglect the healing destined for us.
3. The spirit of a man (an aspect of man) is truly raised with Christ, but confessing that one is raised with Christ totally does not save the soul (Eph. 2:5-7; James 1:21). Affirmation of scriptures is very good to stabilize a person in the Lord Jesus; this is important so that the doctrine of devils will not sway one away, like the so-called deliverance doctrine from family curses, household enemies, etc. No one has ever taught that people need to be delivered from the curses of great-grandparents for the sake of serving/ knowing God more; it is usually for the sake of mundane things that are only materially beneficial to man. People think that not having a car or living in good houses etc., are curses; but many people who died in foreign countries did not build any house in their lifetime.
4. The lies of Satan are always revolving around physical things. Many people go to the mountain to pray, probably because no one in their family has gone to the university, but no one is bothered that nobody in their family has ever been spiritual. This is the real curse which the hearts of people do not tilt toward. When people talk against the “word of righteousness”, it is usually because they feel the world is passing and they need to have a grasp of it. But God will raise people like Daniel, Meshach and Abednego – men who will not even be preachers. Bankers will be raised such that they will not just resist money but also hate it. There will even be many holding political seats and not be corrupted, but that is still not the manifestation of sons.
5. Many feel that Christians should take over the government institution, but this is not the reward of Christians. These are things that Satan has used for years and offered to people as a promise. We must know that God can raise people outside the church who will repair nations; this is the reason God says we should pray for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:2).
6. “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him…” (Matt. 5:1). These disciples are not just the twelve. While Jesus was in those places, people were joining Him and multitudes were seeing Him, but His disciples were coming nearer because they wanted to make an allegiance to Him. Those who decided to commit to Him as disciples also varied because their commitment was not at the same level. Our commitment to Jesus determines how He will commit Himself to us.
7. Many souls do not want to be instructed. God took Israel to the wilderness where they would not be able to do anything without being told to; they received instruction for everything. This is important because the Lord’s portion is His people. God needs to instruct men (Deut. 32:9-10). What Satan does to people is to make them gain freedom from God. People want to sleep and wake up without anyone telling them about the saving of their souls, but this is not okay. A man should not be living without taking the thoughts of salvation. There is nothing in this world that a man should die for because they are all vanity.
8. Demas was able to fight off Paul's hand; that was why he moved to Thessalonica to pick a life he had left (2 Tim. 4:10). Cain left the presence of the Lord and went to the land of Nod in the East of Eden (Gen. 4:16). When a man leaves where God is, he will experience a lot of trouble. For Demas, ‘presence’ was Apostle Paul. No matter where Damas went, even if it were to follow another disciple, he would still leave that disciple, as long as he could leave Paul. Demas’ heart that left Paul was not going to stay under any other person. To leave Paul is not just to leave a person; it is to leave what God is doing with him. That was how Cain also left the presence of the Lord. Demas forsook Paul, but he forsook God thereby. May we not forsake God.
9. The “in and out” of Jesus is critical to knowing the person of Jesus. Jesus said and did things when He was with His disciples, but He sometimes came out of the presence of His disciples. When Jesus is moving out, He is doing something else that He does not do or say amidst His disciples. That was how Jesus made His disciples – by getting them exposed to His “in and out”. This is the qualification to be made an apostle.
10. The Apostles are extremely meek. For one to be among them, one must have a high level of meek spirit, and one cannot have such except one has gone out with Jesus. There was something they were learning from Jesus. What they were learning was what Judas refused and the devil took him. The reason Jesus was with the disciples was beyond to make them preach; it was to impart His person in them. This is why we can see His characteristics in them.
11. Your proximity to Jesus is the equivalent of your meekness. There is something very special concerning Jesus; it is the meekness that passes out of Him. One cannot stay with Jesus and be high. One needs an amount of meekness to be with Him. That was what troubled Judas. Jesus poured enough life, spirit and power into the souls of His disciples. They were not born again in their spirits, but Jesus cleansed their souls. New creation reality preachers do not know many things about the soul; this is why they do not preach that there is more to Jesus than who we are in Christ. When you move close enough to Jesus, He will not show you who you are; rather, He will show you who He is.
12. There is no way one will go in and out with Jesus and not be like Him. Jesus can be with some men even on earth. This is not a fallacy! It is not all preachers that are with Jesus, but some men are with Him. Jesus truly loves everyone but not everyone will want to be with Him. There are certain things Jesus will not want a man to do if he wants to be with Him; this is because it is not everything that Jesus allows. We can claim Matthew 28:20 that says Jesus is with us, but we must understand that He is not with those who are not doing His will. You can only walk in and out with Jesus if you are willing to be with Him by doing His will.
13. Jesus is the authority of the New Testament. Jesus is the preaching. Jesus is the One that must be known. When people raise the discovery of who we are in our spirit-man, it has its own faith that it generates. However, what it generates can never be a pasture to the purpose of God. The purpose of God cannot be attained without leading the sheep to Jesus. This is why preachers of the New Testament should have a relationship with Jesus beyond the letter. Preachers should have a tie with Jesus by loving Him. We need men who smell like Jesus – men whom Jesus has breathed on. Anytime we see these men, they should remind us of Him. This is one thing about a full apostolic ministry, it reminds people of Jesus. When we see an apostle who does not make people connect to Jesus in their hearts, it is possible they are not fully sent or not sent at all.
14. To help men, God needed a being that could put an end to satanic advancement and eventually stop Satan’s work. Satan would have continued going on and on with his evil deeds among men, but something stopped him. God knew something had to undo what had been done, so He sent Jesus. John identified Him at Jordan and said, “...Behold the Lamb of God…” (John 1:29). God’s wisdom is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Lamb that God took time to raise.
15. When Jesus was born, God provided Himself a remedy to sin. “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). The phrase, “which taketh away” means God needed something to take away the sin of the world. What came into the world is sin, and death by sin (Rom. 5:12). This sin is the nature of an angel (Lucifer, now Satan - Isa. 14:12) that was contrary to the law of earth. Sin passed upon all men, such that nothing could take it away. It took an Adam to bring it in and so, it should take an Adam to take it away. This sin cannot be taken away by anyone unless such a one has been fortified to take it away. It means that what God was building when He was building Jesus was what would take away sin because sin was very great. God built Jesus such that when sin latched on to Him, He would still be found; that was why They could lay on Him the iniquity of everyone.
16. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6). God had to trust Jesus enough to lay on Him the iniquity of us all. Before one can get to this pedigree, God has to be very sure of who one is. When that thing (sin) touched Jesus, the hatred Jesus had for it showed. Jesus did not just hate iniquity from afar; He also hated it when He came so close to it. This iniquity is not just our faults and mistakes, because God can forgive those without Jesus going to the cross. God cleansed Abraham and Isaac (in the Old Testament). Jesus cleansed His disciples but there was something that did not go easily – the nature of sin. Sin is so complex that it has different degrees, and each of those layers requires a kind of understanding to understand them. There is the milk sin, the meat sin, and strong meat sin; these are all a nature that flows from a cherub (Lucifer, now Satan - Isa. 14:12).
17. Nobody can claim to be like Jesus without being spotless. One must have become a lamb to be like Jesus, who is the Lamb of God. God equipped Jesus to a place where He became a Man without spots. To be spotless and blameless is not that one has never committed sin; rather, it is about sin coming to a man and not being able to get him. Many people still run from fornication, and the Bible also warns us to flee from it because people are not yet blameless (1 Cor. 6:18). But fornication was not a problem to Jesus when He was on earth. He was not having inordinate feelings when a woman kissed His feet (Luke 7:38). That was because Jesus had no spot. Having spot refers to something Satan can latch on to and expand; but Satan could and cannot blame or find spot in Jesus at any sphere.
18. It is only God that can give a man the equipment to be holy and spotless. One needs to be so wise when refusing the devil to the uttermost. We can imagine what kind of instrument God gave against the life of a dragon, an angel that fell. Jesus’ coming back to life has a high toll in the realm of the spirit. Angels must have been watching the day Jesus was taken into hell, and that needed to happen because what man married was deadly. Man had inherited something strong that brought a disease to him, but God decided not to allow it to continue because of His love for us. God did not want us to perish, so He gave us His only begotten Son (John 3:16).
19. No one can stop the preaching of Jesus. No one will put an end to it. No one can stop Jesus from showing, but Jesus needs people who will bring Him. Satan has put things here so that men will not bring Him. Our Christian service may not even bring Him. The things many believers seek cannot bring Him. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ…” (Titus 2:13). It is clear that we must look for Jesus.
20. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25). These comers are not those who are just born again; they must have walked to take the place of a comer. We should trust the Lord for mercy on how to adjust our hearts so that heaven will help us, because the closer we are getting to God, the more elusive it seems. Therefore, we need wisdom in coming to God. We need to trust God and ask Him to help us. When we are coming closer to God, the path becomes tighter. God does not look at anything but our heart arrangement; that is where They try us; that is where we pass or fail. We should pray for our hearts.
Blessings!