Programme: Believers’ Convention Prayer Meeting 2021 (Week Five Day Three)
Date: 14th July, 2021
Powered by: Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Minister: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:11-12). The Lamb was only made worthy to receive these things after He was slain. Our Lord Jesus was slain in the time of the cross. The cross does not just speak of the slaying of His body but the slaying of His soul as well. Jesus’ spirit died, His soul was slain, and His body was destroyed. Even after resurrection, Jesus’ soul still remained slain.
No man would receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour and glory except he is slain with the Lamb. This slaying has to do with the mannerism on how to kill a soul for it to be glorified by God. Being slain is a lesson to be learnt by anyone who would receive glory. The things that the Lamb received constitutes reward; because He had received a lower version of all those blessings while He was on earth.
Slaying is an activity that is carried out in the soul. This is because of the properties in the soul which are the heart, mind and will. The will of man is what God would need to slay. The will of a man is what defines a man; it is what tells who a man is. A man’s power, riches, strength are saddled by his will; but our Lord Jesus was slain until His will no longer existed. Jesus was always saying “not my will but Your will be done” (Luke 22:42). He kept giving up His will till the end.
The purpose of man is for him to be able to submit all his will to God. Some Christians live to enjoy God with their will intact. Such Christians know how to quote the promises of scriptures, but they cannot relinquish their will. There is no man who will sit on the throne with his will intact. The confessions of some believers that they are already on the throne is a lie because they are yet to lay down their will. Marriage cannot survive when we have two people who cannot let go of their will; marriage is for two slain fellows. Marriage is a provision of the Lord to kill our rights. The male and female in marriage should not have rights.
Feminists seek to free women, but God desires to break those women and their will too. Whosoever runs away from God will fall into Satan's hand. A strong-willed man is an unlearned man. Men who learn the earth would become deluded; we must learn the heavenly life. We must be broken and meek.
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifices and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” (Heb. 10:5-7). The soul must fulfil the demands of the volume of the book. The volume of the book is a book of sacrifice; it spells out the sacrifice that God desires. It is the book of the sacrifice of the pleasure of God.
Hearing prepares us as a body that can do the demands of the book. When a man’s ear is opened, it becomes the door to carry out God’s sacrifice (Psalm 40:6). God’s sacrifice is higher than killing a ram and a cow. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart, such that He would not despise (Psalm 51:17). Our Lord Jesus was slain after this order of sacrifice. We cannot touch dominion outside sacrifice. We would be alien to power, dominion, and real blessing without understanding how to sacrifice to God. Real blessing does not refer to the possession of mundane things like cars; but partaking of the Kingdom of God.
The word “spirit” in “broken spirit” does not refer to the human spirit but the broken attitude that comes from the soul. A broken spirit is a manifestation of the soul that we offer to God. God rejected the person of Cain because He was not broken and contrite. Cain’s person or nature was wrong, and that was why he reacted the way he did when God judged him (Gen. 4:4-6).
A contrite person is one who easily accepts the blame. In the home, the husband and the wife must learn to take the fall and apologize to one another. A woman with a broken spirit does not disrespect men. Many of us claim that we will respect Jesus if we see Him, but that would not be true if we do not regard the men that we can see. The Kingdom of God cannot be operative in a proud soul (Prov. 6:16). To slay the soul of a man is to align him with the will of God. The end of a slain man is that he will inherit the throne of God, which is the throne of Blessing.
Jesus’ sacrifice is of two-fold: He was slain to save the world, and to receive the blessing of God.
We must be in an everlasting position to receive from God. In the beginning, the first man (Adam) was in a place where he could receive from God. But after the fall, Satan led man astray and beat him out of receiving from God. A fallen man cannot be blessed of God. Satan made Adam a man that cannot receive from God. Satan is a user; he uses men to keep them away from God so that they cannot see or discern the blessing from God. Satan is a waster of the soul.
A man must be sacrificing in other to receive from God. A believer with an erroneous understanding of “grace” believes that he has received all the blessing of God at New Birth. Meanwhile, we only believed without knowledge at the New Birth. Salvation should raise a perfect man; a man in whom the work of Christ is finished. We are not perfect at New Birth; even our spirit is not perfect at that level. “We speak wisdom among men that are perfect” (1 Cor. 2:6). This means that it is not all men or believers that are perfect. Perfect here means matured. A heart that can receive from God is one that is ready to make sacrifices to Him. The way of sacrifice is the way of the wisdom of God. The bulletin of the wisdom of God is sacrifices. The wisdom of Christ reads the sacrifice unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
The volume of the book is the book for sacrifices or the book of obediences that would call for the blessing of God. Every soul is a potential animal for sacrifice. A time would come when God would expect every soul to rise and sacrifice to Him so that they would be blessed. God would prepare souls until they are able to handle the manual of sacrifice, which is the will of God (Heb. 10:5-7). The will of God contains the instructions that would raise a soul into maturity. It is the instruction for responding to God’s duty.
There is no real blessing without sacrifice. God wants to give something; but He can't give it to a soul who is not making sacrifices to Him. The Beatitudes in Matthew 5 speak of the sacrifices that are acceptable to God. "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It is not every Christian who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. A Christian cannot be pure in heart if he has not first been broken by the will of God.
It is through the leading of the Spirit that the soul makes sacrifices. The Holy Spirit is the one that knows how to teach a soul to make sacrifices to God. Peace makers are pure and contrite; they have been led by the Spirit and have walked by faith. Faith is the rule of sacrifice in the spirit. A soul that can't live by faith cannot relinquish his life for God’s life. Faith is the first lesson of sacrifices in God. Every Christian should live by faith. Living by faith is sacrificing.
After resurrection, Jesus offered Himself eternally through the Eternal Spirit upon Him (Heb. 9:14). God had to follow the counsel of His will to allow Jesus to die on the cross. If God is not meek and lowly, He would not sacrifice Jesus. Eternal life is made of the fabric of meekness and lowliness. We cannot enter Eternal Life if our souls are not framed with meekness and lowliness. God wants to give Eternal Life to the everlasting men. Everlasting men are humble men but they can become more humble. All these things are sacrifices and it is through them that we would break the hold of iniquity in our souls.