Programme: Believers’ Convention Prayer Meeting 2021 (Week Two Day Two)
Date: 22nd June, 2021
Powered by: Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Minister: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). The gift of the only begotten Son is the fullness of the stature of Jesus that was given to us. The spiritual growth of Jesus on earth was a gift to mankind because we would not have been able to learn how to grow up without seeing His pattern. Jesus is a gracious man. By obedience to God, He grew out of flesh, attained divine nature on earth and later died. God then raised Him as an immortal being and gave Him to us. God gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him will have the destiny of everlasting life and later end up in eternal Life (John 3:15-16).
The word “Life or Kingdom” signifies the arena of the dominance of God's power where corruption is exterminated. God’s life stops corruption. As you make your journey towards the Kingdom of God, you run into a place of safety as against corruption. As we start our journey towards the Kingdom of God, we begin to have life. At the New Birth, life is given to us in a measure, and this is a foretaste of where we should end up. The New Birth is powerful because it is an obstruction to death in a measure. Unfortunately, Satan has moved and poured his life into the earth to fight the life of God. Satan uses life to fight the prosperity of God’s life in men. Men try to defend the life that has been gifted to them by Satan and this tells us that the issue of life has to do with dominion. Therefore, it is not easy to take that life away from men because the life has become what men use to reign.
The reason for our spiritual growth is to evolve from one order of life in God to another; God wants us to appreciate in life. When a man traps a life that is in God and do the life well, God will keep raising him. There is the resurrection “from” the dead (Rom. 1:4), and then the resurrection “of” the dead (Philipp. 3:11). The resurrection from the dead is the raising of Christ, while the resurrection of the dead speaks of the raising of the Son of God (Eph. 4:13).
Many believers have carnally defined the promises of God. Christians have defined the promises of God by the earthly things God gave to Adam (Gen. 1:28). What men call promises nowadays are things that were already in subjection to Adam. However, God’s promise to Adam was to give him a higher life which he fell short of due to disobedience. This is how men fell into religion.
The intention of God for man is to have everlasting life (John 3:16). Therefore, man must enquire and look for this life (Titus 2:13, Jude 1:21). In the spirit, the things that are considered as the promises of God are not natural things. They are not things that make a person have a carnal edge over the other. It is a foul thing for a man to think of himself as better than his brother because he has some advantage or affluence in the natural. This is a standard that Satan has raised among men. In the Church today, many believers do not rejoice about the understanding of spiritual things, but at the acquisition of mundane things. This shows the depth of Satan’s work in the souls of men.
“John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” (Luke 3:16-17). This talks of the baptism of the Holyghost and baptism of fire. The baptism of fire is the pouring of chaff into fire. The garner here speaks of everlasting life; while the operation of the fan speaks of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which only begins with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Holyghost will keep fanning and the essence of the fan is to deal with our impurities in the soul and gather us together. The leading of the Spirit that begins with the learning of Christ, is in the hand of the head of the Church; and the essence is to move people against the program of flesh.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). “Seeing” here speaks of understanding; it is beyond the physical or spiritual visions that people can experience. This is how Jesus was raised – He was raised by understanding. Therefore, we will also get to a place in everlasting participation where we will begin to see as He sees.
A man will start growing up spiritually the day he begins to see or understand the Kingdom. Such a man will begin to move towards what he is seeing. However, wicked people would shut their hearts and refuse to journey towards the Kingdom, even after they have seen or understood it (Acts 28:27). Paul was not just ministering New Birth to the people, but his teachings were to remove veils (blindness) from hearts. Paul taught the New Birth in such a way that he was opening the eyes (of understanding) of people. However, some who heard him decided to shut their eyes and ears so that they won’t be healed and converted.
“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” (Acts 26:18). Entrance into life or into the Kingdom of God is by sight. God is the God of the living and not of the dead (Luke 20:38). You cannot come into life by visions (discerning of spirits) except such experiences are backed by an understanding. The school of life begins with the giving of sight to a soul.
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord : but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isa. 66:1-2). God desires to dwell in man. God did not put a limit to learning in the soul of man; but angels are limited in learning. By learning, the soul can rise from a low estate to a higher one. God must have secretly made a covenant with the soul of man when He created it. It is interesting how a soul can, on its own, think of returning to God even after it has journeyed far away from Him.
The female gender is a kind of soul that requires the daily commitment of her husband. Some wives need many assurances and confessions of their husband's love to them. Every lady is constructed by God to be loved. Husbands need everlasting strength to love a woman. Wives need fresh commitment and demonstration of love daily. This is why a young boy cannot marry because such still long for his parents’ love. A husband must be one who has grown to be a man and has become a fountain that can keep issuing out love. When men can possess the knowledge of everlasting life, marriages will become strong.
Everlasting life is the healing for all nations (Rev. 22:2). Christ is the first healing of the soul required for entrance into the Kingdom. Christ is the first dominion and the first life in God. There are cadres of life- from the Outer Court, to the Holy Place and to the Most Holy Place. Christ is life but everlasting life is the sure life
(2 Pet. 1:10).
To give life to the soul is to cause it to see, walk and to inherit the promised land -- God. The soul inherits a land when it becomes an inhabitant of the land; and this is by possessing qualities that are compatible with that land. A time would come when the soul would eventually be full of everlasting eyes (sight). It is a great promotion in the spirit for every part of the soul to develop sight (or eyes). Iniquity is also an eye, but God will give us an eye (judgement) against it. Until everlasting eyes are engraved in us, iniquity will not stop.
“Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” (Zech. 3:8-9). As the everlasting light keeps shining, there would come a day when iniquity would be removed from us. Iniquity is sight; it is how Satan has trained us to see and judge; but we can only defeat the life of iniquity by receiving the eyes of God. A conqueror is one who defeats the life or sight of this world. However, God wants to make us more than a conqueror (Rom. 8:37). To be a conqueror is Christ but to be more than a conqueror is to have everlasting life.
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom. 8:37). Everlasting life would make us more than conquerors. We conquer when we have become Christ, but God demands that we move further and become more than conquerors. One who has been made more than a conqueror man is a man who has been sealed with everlasting seals. We must come to a state where we stand as everlasting men or products of the everlasting Kingdom. We must make our calling into the everlasting Kingdom sure; the sure place is our inheritance!