Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing the Vision (October)
Date: Saturday, 15th October 2022
We must do the commandments of love to cross into everlasting life. This is because there are commandments we must keep in everlasting life in order to overcome the dragon who is twisted against love. The love commandment we are to keep is higher than the love commandment of creation. However, we must go line upon line, precept upon precept. The love commandment in the milk of the word is to prepare us for greater demands of love. When we are not well exercised in the lesser allocation of God’s word, we will be angry when God brings His higher standard of love or commandments. However, we must understand that God would not tell us to do what He has not first done (through Jesus). God wants to raise our minds.
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). When it comes to spiritual things, demands are placed on us and we have to bear them. When we do not perfect the learnings of love in the milk level of the word, we may not fully understand the learning of Christ. There are things that the love commandments in the milk of the word should deal with. This will exercise our souls and give it the strength to take on higher love demands.
Our love walk is meant to increase as knowledge comes to us. The communication of the knowledge and understanding of Christ to us by God demands a higher walk of love than what we have previously practiced. The intention of God is to give us life (Deut. 30:19). We should therefore, make up our minds to obey God or choose life when we are instructed.
We are in a season when we will begin to love blindly. The things that will hinder us from loving our brothers are our observation of their shortcomings. We should rather relate with our brothers based on the fact that God has commanded us to love. There are things we must learn in order to overcome the shortcomings we have when it comes to loving our brethren.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, [2] With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love…” (Ephesians 4:1-2). We can not walk in love when we are not meek. Many times, we must shift our grounds or let go of our rights if we will love our brothers, thereby becoming so little. Sometimes, we have to take the fall or blame for the sake of love. However, doing this makes us little. It is usually painful to our flesh to relinquish our right for our brothers, but thereby, we are gaining life.
We should be meek and lowly, so that we can overlook our brother’s faults in a way that we are not used to. We should forbear one another; we should love in spite of the other parties’ shortcomings. We must learn to endure our brothers because we must understand that they will not become perfect overnight.
“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4] There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; [5] One Lord, one faith, one baptism…” (Ephesians 4:3-5). Scriptures like this should make us endeavour to forbear and suffer long with one another. We must pursue peace and ensue it. To pursue peace, we must let go of our rights. To keep peace, many things will have to come to play.
It is time to provoke one another unto good works and not to wrath. Sometimes, we do things that make it difficult for our brothers to walk in the Spirit. We should be able to say that we are sorry when we do things that are wrong to our brothers, this will help them to quickly come out of wrath.
He that will have friends must show himself friendly (Prov. 8:24). When we understand that we are all obeying the law of God sincerely, we can be vulnerable to each other but if that is not the case, we should walk wisely. We are not perfect in love, we sometimes fall short but we are striving for perfection.
It is love to be able to overlook certain things. We should be quick to say sorry when we are wrong; this is humility. We should be able to admit when we do wrong. We should be contrite enough to admit that we can also be wrong, otherwise, such an act will distort fellowship. When we admit our shortcomings, it helps the heart of the other person to forgive and easily forget it. Jesus loved Judas to the end. However, Jesus did not take Judas to the Mount of Transfiguration even though He loved him. Jesus understood Judas’ infirmities and therefore, did not expose him to everything.
The wisdom of relationships is that we are careful about the soul of the other person. We should love knowledge or the revelation of God’s word, but much more, we should endeavour to have the wisdom that springs from those revelations.
Many times, we disregard others who are not as knowledgeable as we are because of our knowledge, and that is not wise. We must be sensitive to others who are not as knowledgeable as we are.
“Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” (1 Corinthians 8:13). We should be conscious of the lack of other brethren and avoid causing them to offend because of our liberty. We are expected to have wisdom and compassion, knowing that God has also shown us mercy. Many of God's children have been serving Him for many years and are still not growing; this should make us compassionate toward them.
“And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” (1 Corinthians 8:2). We should not be offensive, so that people can be comfortable around us. We must watch out for things we say; we should look out for those things that harm relationships. We should be as harmless as a dove and wise as serpents. We should not think that our brothers should be able to endure anything we do. We should be contrite and easy to repent. The Lord instructed Rev. Hagin to tell a minister to judge himself in his love walk and eating habit, or else he will die. Rev. Hagin told the Lord that the minister would slap him if he told him that. The minister eventually died.
We should use light to work on things that make brethren restrain from us. It should be evident that we are engaging light. We should not be offensive, always demanding love from the brethren.
We should not take sides with the accuser of the brethren by accusing our brothers in areas where they fall short. Some brethren go around taking advantage of other brethren who want to walk in love. In the Thessalonian church, some did not work. Paul had to instruct that anyone who does not work should not eat (2 Thess. 3:10-12). We should use the commandments of love coming to us; we should strive to walk into life by obedience.
There is a lot of grace coming to us; the Lord wants to give us the energy to walk and to overlook the shortcomings of others. We often relate with ourselves based on our infirmities. We oftentimes demonise our brothers and condemn them instead of walking in love toward them. The Lord comes to instruct us on how to see our brothers in the right light and for us to forbear them (2 Cor. 5:16). It is very bad to name our brothers wrongly. We should be wary of calling our brothers/sisters bad names.
Grace is being made available for us to take steps that we have previously not been able to take. When understanding comes to us, it gives grace to do what we cannot ordinarily do (2. Peter 2:1). It is not possible to walk in love as God wants without the help of God. This is because it is contrary to the fallen human nature. What we want to unlearn or put off is contrary to the fallen nature, so we must be trained gradually. This training begins with the commandments in the milk of the word. Many of us have not been exercised in love commandments the way some men who handled a lower dispensation of God’s word did. We are being called to life (Deut. 30:19). The commandment of life is love.
“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye, yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). If we allow God to teach us, he will. God will talk to us on how to love our brothers. When the Lord wants peace between you and your brother, He would instruct you. We should not stay on our brothers’ infirmities but rather use them to grow by walking in love towards them. Sometimes we only need to die to our ego and pride. Judgment or understanding gives us stature above things that can get us offended. When we have issues with our brethren, we should be able to ask the Lord to help us make peace. We will live as long as we are always desirous to seek peace with our brothers (1 Pet. 3:10-11). It takes humility to seek peace. When we are not seeking peace, we will always take stands that end in death. The Holy Ghost will show us things we are doing that are offensive to our brothers and we should be ready to change.
The Lord is very cautious. We are in a season of learning how not to be offensive to our brothers. If our brother cannot bear some things, we should just endure it instead of wanting to correct. We prevent evil when we can endure certain things. To maintain peace with our brothers, sometimes we must endure and suffer long with them.
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; [10] That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; [11] Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness…” (Colossians 1:9-11). We need might to do the things that God wants. “Increasing in the knowledge of God” in the passage above is the knowledge of everlasting life. This knowledge will give us might. This knowledge does not deliver us from the trouble of our brothers but gives us the strength to suffer long with them. At the same time, we are joyful while suffering long with our brothers. We are joyful because we know that redemption is taking place inside, and we will burst into a realm of glory. This is when we will see every circumstance as an opportunity to grow. We should not be bitter, angry and full of wrath while suffering long, rather we should be joyful. The realm of God is the realm of joy. Everlasting life is the realm of joy.
We do not have to say every thought that comes the heart. We have to consider if saying such thought will cause offence. We should look for peace and life (Romans 12:18). The Spirit of the Lord will never lead us to cause riots or uproar. Even when we are being cheated, we can maintain peace. When we feel cheated while suffering long with our brothers, it is because of our wrong imaginations, because when judgment comes, we will not see ourselves as being cheated.
It is a privilege for God to take us through experiences that should leave us better when we engage the commandments of God in obedience. We should have humility one to another; we should not try to outdo one another, it is offensive. Friends do not compete, they compliment each other. It is ungodliness to compete with one another. The Lord will teach us (1 Thess. 4:9).
Blessings!
Summary
1. God gives us commandments for the sake of life. The things we are hearing are matters of life and death, and our hearts should engage them in order to press into life.
2. We must do the commandments of love to cross into everlasting life. So also, there are commandments we must keep in everlasting life in order to overcome the dragon, who is love-twisted.
3. Our love walk is meant to increase as knowledge comes to us. The communication of the knowledge and understanding of Christ to us by God demands a higher walk of love than what we have previously practised.
4. God wants to give us life. Therefore, we should make up our minds to obey God and choose life when we are instructed (Deut. 30:19).
5. We are in a season where we should begin to love blindly. It is because we observe the shortcomings of our brethren that we are usually hindered from loving them. Therefore, we should relate with them based on the fact that God has commanded us to love them.
6. We cannot walk in love when we are not meek. We must shift our grounds, let go of our rights or take the fall for the sake of loving our brothers. We must pursue peace and ensue it. This is usually painful to the flesh but it is a means for us to gain life (Eph. 4:1-3).
7. We should provoke one another unto good works and not to wrath. We should not make it difficult for our brethren to walk in the Spirit. We should be able to apologise to our brethren when we wrong them and help them to quickly come out of wrath.
8. The wisdom of relationships is that we are careful about the soul of the other person. While we love knowledge and the revelation of God’s word, we should endeavour to have the wisdom that springs from those revelations (1 Cor. 8:13).
9. We should not be offensive so that people can be comfortable around us. We must watch out for things we say and look out for those things that harm relationships. We should be as harmless as a dove, but as wise as serpents.
10. The Lord wants to give us the energy to walk and to overlook the shortcomings of others. The Lord comes to instruct us on how to see our brothers in the right light and forbear them. We should not relate with our brothers based on their infirmities but rather use them to grow. (2 Cor. 5:16).
11. It is not possible to walk in love without God’s help and instructions. This is because it is contrary to fallen human nature. Understanding comes to give us the grace to do what we cannot ordinarily do (2 Pet. 2:1).
12. The knowledge of everlasting life will give us might. This knowledge does not deliver us from the trouble of our brothers but rather gives us strength to suffer long with them and be joyful through it (Col. 1:9-11).