Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Revelation Hour (RH)
Date: Saturday, 26th November 2022
“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God...” (2 Tim. 1:8). We must not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus. This testimony is what made Jesus mind one thing. One must be able to mind one thing if such would wrestle against spirits and overcome. Many of the things being spoken to us are to prepare us to be able to bear shame, yet not being ashamed, until we are begotten. God is preparing us to be His prisoners. The new man is prepared to become a prisoner of the Lord Jesus by being armed with some commandments of everlasting life.
In this season, we would be trained not to do our will. Our anthem will be like that of our Lord Jesus, which was, “not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). There are things about our will that we do not yet know. Satan specializes in resurrecting wills, like in Genesis 6, when men could strive with God. Satan convinced men that they could make a choice outside God. In Eden, Adam came short of surrendering his will; we would also have to face these temptations. Some men have been able to let go of their will in the dimensions of the good will of God and even the acceptable will of the Lord, but there is also the perfect will of God. The Apostle Paul had surrendered an aspect of his will and had come to the curriculum of the perfect will of God.
“And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:9). What we see in this scripture is a miracle of unanswered prayers. Nevertheless, God answered Paul’s prayers in His own way. Some prayers are not being answered by God in the way we expect, but in His way because this is how God is going to craft His own way in us. Such prayers are occasions through which the Lord sees an opportunity to bless us with the goods of the kingdom; for in His wisdom, He sees a way to work around it for our good. Ever since the fall, God has been working around our limitations. God is not really able to save men when everything is going well, as it was in the Garden of Eden. He specializes in saving men through adversity.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28). We get comfort from this scripture, but we often lose this comfort when challenges come our way. Then, we begin to get anxious and lose touch with the joy that we initially had when we were being comforted by that scripture. ‘All things’ here are things in the season of Christ — the seasons just before the veil. In such seasons, there are responses from the gates of hell, and so, “all things” will come from the Lord as a comfort when we are enduring another season of affliction (Rom. 8:37). This serves as an empowerment from the Lord to enable us to take our eyes off some other things.
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Cor. 13:11). At this point, Apostle Paul could judge all things that are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13-16). Therefore, he could put away childish things. Part of this judgement was knowing what he was lacking. He had a mind by which he could put away things of this world, but he also needed another mind. That He was judged of no man meant that no one could discern him except someone like him, who had been born of the Spirit (John 3:8).
The teachings of the present season are to grant us access into this mind. It is a warehouse of thoughts. The book of John speaks of someone who had browsed through this mind and by this, journeyed to the beginning. This is the mind that Moses in a shadow was exposed to (Ps. 103:7).
This mind wants to deposit the way of the Lord in us. Apostle Paul got to this season where he had the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and he was delighting in the law of God (Rom. 7:22). It was in the process of delighting in the law of God that he was adventuring that mind. He could lay claim to the mind of Christ, but he could not fully lay claim to the mind of the Lord because he still needed to fight the good fight of faith to lay hold on Eternal Life, to journey through the perimeters of the mind of the Lord.
Resurrection from the dead is aimed at raising the mind because the world has assaulted our minds (Rom. 12:2, Phil 2:2). We must have a state of heart that can receive higher substances, which will move us from the acceptable will of God to the perfect will of God. This is the mind God is raising through the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 2:16), and there are conversations that would follow as we make use of that mind.
“[9] Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. [12] Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; [13] Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. [14] Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.” (Rom. 12:9, 12-14). The mind of a spiritual man is instructed to become divine as he keeps the conversations listed here. These instructions constitute the commandments of the Father which would make us perfect as He is (Matt. 5:48). These are some of the conversations expressed by the seven churches in the book of Revelation that brought about the first and last works in their midst. A number of similar instructions are scattered across the scriptures, especially the epistles.
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord…” (Heb. 12:14). This is a season of inheritance which borders on everlasting life. It is in the process of following peace with all men that we would see God and comprehend salvation. What would upgrade the works of our soul to see God are some particular conversations that are already taking place in this season. The day-to-day things that we experience form a crucible that has been available to us all the while, which we ought to take advantage of.
It is beautiful when one sees the message being lived out in a vessel; it makes the life impactful. Three of David’s men broke through the rank and files of the Philistines to get water for David. They risked their lives because they had seen how David had laid down his life; he motivated them. There are many miracles at work in the seasons of seemingly unanswered prayers. They seem unanswered because God is answering those prayers in His own way. God uses unanswered prayers to raise us to become comforters of the truth that is in the Father because this is when God comforts (2 Cor. 1:3-5). It is at this stage that the things we have heard will have a new meaning to us.
God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are not the only comforters there are going to be. Anyone who embodies Their life will also become a comforter. God wants to raise a community of comforters in our midst. All those who would stand on Mount Zion are comforters. Some men have risen to a point that they are able to comfort men who are being troubled, by the word with faith. Faith is a measure of comfort, although not a perfect one.
Those who will have the seal of the living God in their foreheads are comforters. What a person needs to live is everlasting life. A time will come on earth when the life that would be preeminent is everlasting life. As such, anyone who can give everlasting life is a comforter. The measure to which one can give it is the measure to which such a one has the mind of the Lord. It is the measure to which such a person can humble himself and be obedient unto death, like our Lord Jesus (Phil. 2:8).
Job was enabled to not deny the faith nor the Lord by keeping the words of the Lord he heard (Job 23:12). He had gone through a dealing where something will be pressed out of knowledge - wisdom and understanding (Prov. 24:3). Job esteemed God’s words more than his necessary food. Job was a kind of the man Jesus spoke of when He said, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). There is a word we ought to live by in the furnace of affliction.
Satan's accusation to Job, like it is to us, was that he was serving God for gain (Job 1:9-11). He presented a very strong argument against Job. If Job had let go of the commandment he was holding, the trial would have ended. But to survive it, God’s word had to become his food. Like Jesus, God’s word should be our sustenance (Jn. 4:32). We should live our lives one day at a time, like there would be no tomorrow or that the Lord Jesus would return the next day. If we do this, we will find ourselves living differently from how we live, and without fear.
Apostle Paul may not have written to the Roman church again after the Book of Romans, but he left precepts that lead to fulness for them. If they lived by those precepts, they would come into the ownership of the light given, and by doing so, their souls would be made glorious. One of those precepts was to “recompense to no man evil for evil...” (Rom. 12:17). There is a measure of commandments we can use charity to keep, if the evil is coming from spirits. But if the evil is like the kind that confronted the Apostles and God’s servants, we need gifts from the Father of lights to overcome such.
Going lower when we are despised is a conversation that raises our minds, and they are usually not exciting. However, if we watch the conversations of many of our fathers of faith, we will find them doing this. Many of them can exhibit such conversations because they are seeking the blessed hope and more of the mind of the Lord. We fetch the mind of the Lord in conversations when we condescend.
The Lord permitted some of the dealings on His ministers in order to exhume the conversations of death that would constrain us to endure those periods called the death of the Lord. There were privileges our Lord Jesus was denied because of the path. As a Son of God, Jesus had a greater stature than Philip who was caught up and translated to where he was to minister. Jesus was denied of such an experience while He was on earth; the Father ensured that He lived so ordinarily while on earth.
There are some things Paul would not have fetched or known until he got into those pressure zones; he knew the Lord Almighty as a deliverer (2 Cor. 1:10). Many of Paul’s writings were written when was constrained in prison, and reports were coming to him of how false doctrines crept into the churches; we do not know how painful that was for Paul. A soul means a lot to an apostle. Apostles bear the burden of the Lord for the Church. A soul is of great value in the eyes of the Lord Jesus; this is why He can leave the ninety-nine to save one (Luke 15:4-7).
In seasons when the Lord is building His throne in us, we would learn what Romans 1 calls the patience of the kingdom, where situations in the natural may not change and yet, we would be changing. There are seasons such as that which the Philadelphia church went through, the Son of God in glory (the Eternal Son) was speaking (Rev. 3:10). There was a word Jesus was keeping that He saw the Philadelphia church also keep. To keep that word to the end, they must have acquired that patience in the spirit and kept themselves in the love of God. It is a costly dealing to be in the kingdom and patience of Jesus (Rev. 1:9), where one would love not his life and hate the enemy called death.
The processes it takes for God to write His laws in us are very costly because the laws would be responsible for overcoming spirits. When we can gather all the precepts that make up the law, God cuts a covenant with us. Many of these ministrations that come to us are like downloads of the clauses that make up the agreement called the everlasting covenant, and we ought to take all of it.
“Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. [3] Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” (Philip. 2:2-3). What will make one with the mind of Christ become lowly is a costly dealing. It is the process by which one will be taken from amongst men, one by which a priest will be made a high priest. Regarding others as more important than oneself is the process by which a person with the mind of Christ will gain the mind of the Lord. This is not natural to a man in Christ, but such a one can get there by keeping some commandments.
The gospel of everlasting life is shown to a Christ company to bring them to glory. There are other glories outside of that which the Lord is showing. Every glory outside the glory of being obedient unto death is a vain glory. Vain glory is a very high righteousness; a conversation that looks right to a christ until he is shown what Jesus loves. Paul admonishes, “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Gal. 5:26). Vainglory is a wrong response to a thought that seems right. As long as a person has not been instructed in the mind of the Lord, those things will appeal to him.
From the natural standpoint, there seemed to be nothing glorious about the life of our Lord Jesus, yet, He had the glory which comes against death. Death is glorious and beautiful; this was why it seduced Adam. Adam was higher in stature than all our current natural desires, yet the things of death still appealed to him.
There are many things that are legitimately glorious; for example, platforms and heights. Many do not know the glory around platforms. There is something about platforms to sons in the season of everlasting life. It takes a lot to be dead to platforms. There is something enticing in platforms, and that is why some of the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 were enticed by those doctrines because they were being communicated on platforms. As long as we still own ourselves, we can still be tempted.
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ…” (Tit. 2:13). Looking for the blessed hope is looking for the Father and looking for the Father is looking for everlasting life. Looking for everlasting life is looking for the works of everlasting life and looking for the works of everlasting life is looking for the conversations of those works, where one overcomes. If truly we are looking for life, there is a way we ought to respond to evil. We should handle evil professionally. The reason we are not responding as we ought to is because we are not considering the High Priest who places a higher premium on light than we do. The essence of many of the things we are taught in this light is to move our eyes from ourselves and yoke them with commandments.
A man is defiled anytime he relates with any being independent of the commandments that governs that conversation. You cannot beat the devil except through the commandments that govern a particular action or inaction. Our Lord Jesus housed commandments, therefore, we ought to keep seeking for what Jesus sought — salvation. If we have this disposition of heart, when contradictions come, we will know how to overcome them. There was something that Jesus was looking for before Satan showed up. The hunger from a forty-day fast could not take His eyes off it.
Christ is often tempted with vain glory. Anything outside what God communicated to Christ (what the Father is revealing) is an expression of vain glory. The instructions from the knowledge of the Father are meant to upgrade our minds. When our minds are upgraded, we would be able to respond the way Jesus responded. When Jesus was being tempted, the words the devil used in tempting him fell on a formation within Him. It was the formation that reacted to the devil (Matt. 4:1-11).
The Lord has defined the conversations of the prisoner of Christ. God will have to hedge those who will inherit what Paul inherited, like He hedged Job. Anyone whom God calls His servant has been imprisoned. Such a person has been endowed with the mind of the Lord. This is the vocation that the High Priest wants to introduce us to (Eph. 4:1). Through it, we would make our calling and election sure. The secret of Jesus is that He always minds the Father. We are going into a season when some prayers will not be answered, but while that is happening, a work would be going on within us. This is the cross we are going to bear.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matt. 11:29). The yoke is a summation of a commandment that will make us get to where the Philadelphian church got to, that could see them becoming a throne and a pillar in God’s temple. Faith brings us to a place where we are one with the Lord (Eph. 4:3-6). Everlasting life brings us to the place where we are one with the Father; this is the oneness with which we will relate with God.
“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." (Eph. 4:2). This is a commandment of everlasting life. This is where you forebear some conversations that can be traced to iniquity in men. God expects that it is the same mercy and compassion that Jesus lavished on your infirmities that you should lavish towards men. You also have to forebear while doing so. Many times, you will not want to do so, but every time you do, a writing of God’s law is occurring in your heart.
Heaven wants to find everything that was found in our Lord Jesus in us too. He is God, but He is a God-man. The secret to attaining this is stated in Philippians 2:5 – “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The conversations where we will fetch that mind are conversations that are likely to be despised the most. In such conversations lie the comfort of truth; we need to upgrade to that mind. Jesus passed through the same tunnel we are passing through and as a faithful High Priest, He is walking with us through it.
The Lord is upgrading our minds by the teachings that are coming to us and by so doing, redefining evil. Evil is something that is actually loveable. There are some evil thoughts that require being skillful in waiting to be able to discern them. That is why one must wait to process every thought. Some thoughts look innocent yet, they are evil. Hence we may be tempted to relate with them. The nature of warfare in the natural is changing; the same also applies in the spirit.
Through teachings, our minds are being weaponized to be able to see through thoughts and imaginations. If we are going to really go through this present season, and remain standing at the end, we must become skillful in putting on the whole armour of God (Eph. 6:11). As we do so, we find ourselves walking more circumspectly, and not coming short of well-pleasing. Every day should count for well-pleasing towards the Lord, such that He will say about us, “this is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
Blessings!
Summary
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We must not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus (2 Tim. 1:8). This testimony is what made Jesus mind one thing. One must be able to mind one thing if such would wrestle against spirits and overcome.
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The new man is prepared to become a prisoner of the Lord Jesus by being armed with some commandments of everlasting life. As prisoners of the Lord, we would be trained not to do our will.
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These are seasons when we would begin to experience some afflictions that we did not previously experience. In such seasons also, we would be comforted by the power of God and know Him in a way we previously did not.
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Some prayers are not usually answered by God in the way we expect, but in His own way. Such prayers are occasions through which the Lord sees an opportunity to bless us with the goods of the kingdom because God specialises in saving men through adversity.
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The mind of a spiritual man is instructed to become divine as he keeps the instructions/conversations that constitute the commandments of the Father. This will make us as perfect as He is (Matt. 5:48).
-
The processes it takes for God to write His laws in us are very costly because the laws would be responsible for overcoming spirits. It is by the precepts that make up the law that God cuts covenant with us.
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(Gal. 5:26). Vain glory is a wrong response to a thought that seems right. Anything outside what God is revealing is an expression of vainglory. A person with a Christ stature is often tempted with vainglory; but when our minds are upgraded by the instructions from the knowledge of the Father, we would be able to respond differently.
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Heaven wants to find everything that was found in our Lord Jesus in us also (Philipp. 2:5). However, the conversations where we will fetch that mind are conversations that are likely to be despised the most. In such conversations lies the comfort of truth we need to upgrade to our minds.