Programme: Revelation Hour (RH)
Date: Saturday, 13th May 2023
Transcript Summary
1. (Mark 12:1-11). This portion of the scripture shows how the human heart is trained against God. Vain imaginations are rooted in hearts that are not willing to submit to God’s own program (Ps. 2:9). The wickedness in the heart of man is designed as a system that perpetuates his own will. What runs this system is man's insecurity; this makes him come short of God’s dominion. Man can train his heart not to submit to the dominion of God (Ps. 2:1-3). Man holds on to the kind of dominion he identifies with and therefore finds a way to build a fence (world) around his own dominion (Ps. 2:5). The natural system of the world is built in such a manner that men want to have an everlasting approach to things on earth.
2. (Luke 16:9). Everlasting habitation in this scripture does not imply living forever but a sense by which man views and perpetuates life to have a dominion that he thinks is everlasting. This is how the systems of wickedness multiply on the face of the earth – where men can reinforce their own will over God’s will. Man will eventually lose what he thinks is an inheritance; this is when the folly that runs his heart will be revealed because he has a definition of inheritance that God did not ordain. This means man will lose his place in the end irrespective of his energy, wisdom and resources to build a system that seems secure and can last. People go to any extent (even fight) to make sure their names remain in the sands of time either legitimately or not; this perpetuity is man’s understanding of what is everlasting.
3. (Mark 12:1-11). When we do not understand God’s order of dominion, we would display some tendencies that would take God’s things and give them a short-term interpretation. This propels us to have a wrong definition of inheritance. God wants us to be people who can truly understand our place. Abraham was instructed and he obeyed without knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8-10). We need to be able to understand God’s pattern of dominion; otherwise, we would be tempted to design systems to perpetuate what we think defines the inheritance. God told Abraham, “I am your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1); but it took a long time for Abraham to understand it.
4. (John 7:17). Flesh has been designed to seek its own things, but we must desire to do the will of God in order to attain glory. When a man seeks the glory of God, he will be saved and made true. The path to learning righteousness and coming into true dominion requires that God’s image is formed in us. This talks about how a man can step aside and yet be faithful. Such a man would seek a glory that he cannot touch yet keeps seeking it (in faith). It looks contradictory for the flesh, but this is how God will train us to deal with unrighteousness. The process of God's dealing with our hearts is focused on helping us understand what the inheritance is in order to have an identity in Him.
5. “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13). Fountains ought to fount to bring forth God’s newness. There are things we do for our signature/imprints to be visible to men, and when these acts/actions outlive us, men may commend us for serving God in our generation despite those actions being hewn from a system. There is a foreverness that God commends — the definition of life everlasting. But man finds it hard to come here because of his inability to submit to the process of life that God designed. As it was with Adam, his fall came because He did not submit to the process. God came every day to culture him, but Satan came to show him another process (Gen. 3:1-8).
6. God’s program of salvation is to help our hearts not to settle. The vision of a sojourner and husbandman must remain consistent. The system of this world is designed against God’s coming, but He who sits on the throne would laugh at them (Psa. 2:4). It is possible for men to design a system that allows their reign, purposes and programs to continue. In spite of the sayings of everlasting life, it is possible to interpret how everlasting life ought to run or gain expression. Our hearts can deceive and misguide us into what seems like a leading of the Lord.
7. There is a potential in us to give a short-term definition to things that ought to be eternal. As such, we cut short the intent of God for us in relation to dominion. Dominion does not imply having the capacity to meet the needs of the present or where we invest to make a memorial. This is why several images in our hearts need to be purified so that we would not hurt God’s program of dominion. The design of God is to implant in us a true image of His person in order to bring us to the essence of dominion, but the adversary implants fear in us to ensure this image is not formed.
8. God wants us to come into rest (Matt. 11:28; Heb. 4:1). The law of rest is the image of Jesus. If we can capture that image, we would rest from our imaginations and the creation of broken cisterns that do not hold water (Jer. 2:13). The more we allow God, the better for us; this is because the framing of our hearts is to design cisterns that can hold water. As such, we would not leave the fountains of living water. The heart of man seeks something everlasting, which may not necessarily be God. And this short circuits God's program of everlasting life. We need to truly understand this life to operate in God's dominion. God desires that we are able to capture the reality of the image of Jesus; this is the outworking of the covenant.
9. (Matt. 20:25-28). God wants to deal with unrighteousness and raise us to the point where we can be separated from the glories that surround privileges that He brings us into. He also wants to heal our hearts to truly cover His dominion, and not for the purpose of making a statement or perpetuating our name. We must trust God to show mercy to our hearts so that we do not offend His order. The essence of the dealings of God is to make us remain and abide, such that the ways and intents of God would not be hijacked by the flesh.
10. Being able to fully manifest glory is to have an accurate interpretation of God's definition of life. It is to fully understand the ways of God and His program. This is the definition of a kind of life and wisdom that God wants us to come into. Our journey is to become a pilgrim, like our Father, Abraham, who did not know where he was going (Heb. 11:8-10). God can allow us to build a tent and yet orchestrate it to be pulled down for the emergence of another season. This is because He does not want us to settle for a false rest.
11. There is a groaning which God seeks to retain in our hearts (2 Cor. 5:1-5). It is one that guarantees that we are truly on a journey of faith. God is skilful to work in our hearts to use this world, yet not abuse it by etching His image in our hearts (1 Cor. 7:31). This image would commend an everlasting dominion He has designed for us; it is the dominion that is as a stone cut without hands (Dan. 2:34). Therefore when God takes us through seasons where He has to knock off things that we would naturally want to hold on to, we must allow Him. This might be challenging, but by the learning of a hope that is beyond the veil (Heb. 6:19), we would be kept on our faith journey amidst discouragement or contradictions. God wants to lace our souls with the definition of true glory and hope; this is His program to make us endure and abide.
Blessings!