Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing the Vision Prayer Meeting Day 1 (WTVPM Day 1-September Edition)
Date: Monday, 19th September 2022
A season when we study the scriptures and do not transact with a conviction/light that the Lord wants to use to deal with a darkness in us is passing away. This is because we cannot please the Lord if we relate with this company with our darkness in us. Our minds must first be renewed with the knowledge of the truth in Christ, after which the Lord demands another renewal of the mind of the company of Christ, and this process occurs as we engage in works and conversations of the Lord.
Many of us are not yet as grave and selfless as the Bible character called Epaphras. Epaphras at some season was called fellow servant (Col. 1:7) and at another season fellow prisoner (Phi. 1:23). Epaphras, by being a servant of Christ served God acceptably (Rom. 4:18).
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:6). Among many things, what the Lord sees in secret are some conversations where one lays down their will as worship to the Lord and this cannot be done without being empowered.
In this season, we will be empowered to relate with our will by this testament upon us. Epaphras was able to get there. As a servant of Christ, he was a fellow prisoner and must have entered the season of everlasting life (Philipp. 1:23).
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” (Col. 4:12). Epaphras was able to attain this feat because of what he did in the season of charity and what he did with the incorruptible seed that came his way.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently…” (1 Pet. 1:22). The Lord expects this feat of charity in our midst also because it is an impartation coming from what we are hearing. Epaphras was trading with a fervency that was coming from a fatherly heart because it takes growth to discern the difference between saints who are in the season of being perfect and those who are in the season of being complete (Col. 4:12).
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Eph 6:13). We stand by charity. However, there is another company who will stand again by virtue of what they do with fervent charity. Epaphras stood out as an example of fervent charity and this work of God needs people like Epaphras in this season. There are some who must carry this spirit of Epaphras and serve Christ in righteousness, peace and joy.
“[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God…” (Eph. 3:9-10). There are heavenly places in God. These places would only be accessed when we manifest God's wisdom in those heavenly places. There are certain trials that we will go through and we must discern them properly so that we can rightly harness them.
“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory…” (1 Pet. 1:8). The joy these saints had is a joy in the Holy place. It is a response to the pressures of the world that they had gone through; it was a conversation of wisdom in Christ. However, Ephesians 3:10 talked about the manifold wisdom of God, which is a wisdom that is communicated to a Christ company. This company must have responded with the wisdom of Christ to every experience traceable to the world.
There are some experiences that can be traced to the world and to the god of this world. The unveiling of the Father is the unveiling of a wisdom and through this wisdom, we can register a conversation in heaven. When we do so, principalities and powers in heavenly places would know that a church is being raised.
Hebrews 11 speaks of a generation that was able to generate a conversation that was in line with their testament. It was spoken of Abraham that he dwelled in tents with his sons. This was a conversation of wisdom that God could not teach a generation because it looked foolish by all standards. Yet, God used that wisdom to measure out age to a man.
God dealt with the Hebrews 11:39 patriarchs in a certain way, yet it only accounted for them as a good report. This means God is expecting a conversation from our generation that principalities and powers in heavenly places would respect. In other words, God wants to do something with our generation that he could not do with the generation of our fathers.
Hebrews 11 is an account of those whose lives became a source of inspiration and provocation unto good works (Heb 10:24). God used their lives to project a conversation; He used them to illustrate what a generation would be doing with their will and how they would embody the promise.
“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: [40] God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:39-40). The summary of what the souls of the patriarchs could hold after all their journey was a good report. In other words, that report did not bring their souls to the actual estate that God prepared for man. However, in our generation, God is committing a particular word to us.
The demands of these words coming to us may not be tougher than what the patriarchs went through, in terms of death, as God can hardly lead us like He did to the fathers, because of the weaknesses of our generation. We are not necessarily going to pass through a tougher crucible than they did, but God gave us a better promise. For example, Noah could relate with what he could not see; he could relate with the promise of the ark and was able to hold on to it for 120 years.
Our generation is too weak to endure that but yet God wants to commit to us a promise He did not give to them. This shows how the Lord can use firstly the seed of patience in the word of Christ to raise a company of believers to a place where they can handle the world. He will do this until He can commit a higher seed to the raised company, as He did in Revelation 2 & 3.
“I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.” (Rev. 2:19). God is bringing us to a place where we can keep faith with what Hebrews 12:1 called “to run the race with patience”. This church in question had used faith and the patience of it for them to be called holy brethren. However, Paul was counselling them because a higher warfare would be accomplished in the course of running with patience.
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations…” (Jam. 1:1-5). Jesus said that those who would endure with Him would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel at resurrection (Matt. 19:28). When Apostle James wrote to the church, he was bringing forth a judgement; he was judging the Israel of God and was bringing the judgment of everlasting life to a company of Christ. He wanted to make them know that they would find themselves in diverse temptations as a result of what the Lord was bringing their way and what they were holding.
Our consolation should be that the face and person of the Lord should be more real to each of us than the faces of men. We should be willing to be patient with ourselves and with the Lord. Even shameful experiences in judgement of man should not be as real as the face of the Lord is. When we read biblical characters, we do not actually see the reality of their reproaches. David’s sin was made known before all Israel but God used that experience to save him.
We must learn to place the right premium on salvation and esteem the process of it despite the reproach. The reproach is not and should not be as real as God is. Salvation will come in different ways and it will always leave us better. All that we have experienced are things that can be seen but there is a grace in the Lord Jesus for it not to bother us at all.
“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). God through Paul tried to communicate to Timothy that something is more real than the reproach and God can use anything to save us. We must not be selective about how God chooses to save us. If the gospel of everlasting life that brought light and immortality to pass would become an inheritance, then God will use some pains to save us. He will try our hearts to see if we will be more concerned about the thoughts of men or things that are seen more than the things that are not seen (2 Cor. 4:18).
We must get to a place where we can let go of ourselves because shame can separate a soul from God and shame is one of the jokers God would use in some seasons. There is a shame that accompanies following the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:17) and there is another shame that accompanies the everlasting gospel, and God would permit anything to save us. God wants to see who He means to us after such contradictions. He wants to observe our hearts to see if He means more to us than all Israel.
Our response in the season of death can either deal with an evil spirit or witness to an ongoing work of salvation in us. There is a way to respond to death in the sight of the Lord. God would give us these opportunities to worship Him in ways we have never been able to. God would permit some things and experiences that would destroy the image of men. There is an image that we protect and God would come for it because that image cannot coexist with or before God.
We would go through some things and it would be a lifetime experience for us to worship the Lord like we never could have, if we did not go through it. God would prove who He is to us like He did to Job.
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: But I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15). We must trust God like we never did especially when we go through reproachful looking situations. We should not, because of shame, reduce our worship to God. Anything that is temporal, that would pass away, is truly not real; for what is real to God the Father is the person of His Son and God can permit anything we can go through to make the Son of God our sole inheritance. The trials we face would lead to a resurrection.
We are in a season where we are trusting God for the resurrection of the dead. Some are still trusting for the resurrection from the dead: faith, hope, charity. God wants to save us from death and He can use anything to save us from death. Our consolation should be that God would swallow up death in victory (Isa. 25:8). The trials should make us better, not bitter; they should make us overcome those bitterness that are yet to find expression.
A particular atmosphere allowed the rod of Aaron to bud. Prior to that, he could not have known that the rod could bud (Num. 17:8). Likewise, there are some natures we have that the atmosphere to expose it is yet to come our way and God’s wisdom to save us from them is through the preaching of the word, our hearing and doing of them. Many times, God does not succeed in saving us in the way and time He wants to, so He can permit anything to deal with tendencies, potentials and hidden natures that are not of Him.
Jesus agreed to die on the cross. Even though crucifixion was one of the worst ways to end the life of a man, God permitted it. This was how death was swallowed in victory. Our faith is on trial. There is a way we fall into divers temptations unplanned, but when we do, the way to please the Father in it is to count it all joy (Jam. 1:2). This is the way to respond to hell and die to self.
Our death means a lot to the Lord. We would go through things that would stare us in the face and ruffle our reputation before men. However, God will use them to empty us of them because they are not real in His sight. These earthly reputations are not real to him. What is real to God is the testimony and glory He wants to give. Many times we want our death to be in secret, but that might just elongate our death process more. God might permit a public death and we must accept the dealings because God is the only wise God (1 Tim. 1:17).
We must worship God more than we ever did, even after the season of trials and temptations. Seasons of temptations should open us up to new realms of love and worship to God. One of the things God has been permitting among us is the demonstration of the Spirit.
We are in a season where ministrations would be demonstrated. It is the season of showing us signs. Today’s ministration is a sign and one who is not a man of the spirit cannot understand the sign. It is a sign pointing to us more vividly the essence of conversation. This sign would come more often because it is a season upon us, and those that minister, both in word and prayer, should prepare for it. When it comes upon anyone, it is faithfulness to yield to it and not ignore it.
This sign to demonstrate a conversation might also be required of us in our daily conversation. We are in a terrain of everlasting life, so the manner of things we would experience would look weird. If we judge humanly, we would miss it. Thus, we must always be in the Spirit. The realm of everlasting life is not the realm that man likes to enter. When we were young, we went wherever we wanted; the season of everlasting life is where we are led by another to where we do not want to go (Jn. 21:18).
Everlasting life is a season and there is still another season we are to come into (Eternal Life). Therefore, we have to yield to the manner in the season of everlasting life. We have to understand the signs of this season. If we do not understand the signs, we would violate the rules of the spirit just like anyone who does not understand the traffic signs would break laws. We must prepare for the sign of the Lord to be demonstrated through us, even in our daily living.
When we obey the instructions of the Holy Ghost, death would die and we would live. In this season, we would come under weights and go into demonstrations of the Spirit.
Blessings!
Summary
1. The unveiling of the Father is the unveiling of a wisdom through which we can register a conversation in heaven. When we do so, principalities and powers in heavenly places would know that a church is being raised.
2. The demands of the words coming to us may not be tougher than what the patriarchs went through because of the weaknesses of our generation. Yet, God gave us a better promise (Heb. 8:6). This is why we must learn to place the right premium on salvation and esteem its process despite the reproach that comes with it (1 Pet. 4:13-14). There is a grace in the Lord Jesus that will help our hearts not to be bothered about the contradictions we experience (2 Corin. 12:9).
3. God would permit anything to save us; He would allow some things and experiences that would destroy the image of man in us. There is an image that we protect and God would come for it because that image cannot coexist with or before God.
4. Anything that is temporal is not real before God (2 Corin. 4:18). What is real to God is the person of His Son. Thus, God can permit us to go through anything just to make His Son our sole inheritance.
5. Our earthly reputations are not real to God. What is real to God is the testimony and glory that He wants to give. As such, we must find grace to accept His dealings because He is the only wise God (1 Tim. 1:17).