Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing The Vision Prayer Meeting (WTVPM Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, 15th March 2022
Ministering: Rev. Kayode Oyegoke
The New Birth cannot be achieved through works, rather, one has to just believe and the spirit will be quickened. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”(Eph. 2:8-9). No one gets born again by works, so it will be wrong to teach works for the quickening of the spirit. However, subsequent salvation (of the soul) cannot be achieved without works.
The soul does not participate or benefit from the experience of the new birth, rather, the soul is added to the church to be saved. The spirit is regenerated while the soul is washed; this is called the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). Washing differs from regeneration. The spirit was not washed, it was born. There is a profit of washing that is attached to the regeneration of the spirit.
There is a formula for receiving things by souls: nothing can be an inheritance in the soul if it does not have the entrance to those things. The soul can have things and the soul may not understand it. One can be hearing things and may not have understanding. Wisdom locates, understanding makes the soul store it; if the soul does not understand, it does not have it. Anything the soul does not understand, the soul does not have or know it. To know a thing is to own it. Knowing is stronger and higher than understanding.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” (Eph. 1:17). One whose eyes of understanding is enlightened has not known, it is afterwards that he will begin to know. The common phrase “Wisdom is the application of knowledge” is not all spiritually correct. One needs to have counsel and might to reach knowledge. The major reason for wisdom and understanding is to explore/harness the riches (knowledge).
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…” (Eph. 1:18) Riches are kept in darkness. Without these riches, one cannot translate into resurrection power; one cannot understand power. Power is not just about working miracles, power is understanding. This is the first point of knowledge, then there is a next step of knowledge.
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man…”(Ephesians 3:16). The riches of His glory are the knowledge that wisdom and understanding fetches. After gathering these riches or materials, you need to call for the builders. The builders are the spirits of might and counsel. Might is an inward push to translate substances into a solid thing. It is to make something out of knowledge or out of what you have gathered. Might and counsel are to sculpt Christ spiritually; the substances are for making a spiritual man. Counsel talks to Might on how Christ can be framed or built in a person. This is the translation of a man from grass to stone, moulding the man from carnal man to spiritual man.
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love…”(Ephesians 3:17). No one gets rooted except in love; love here is charity. One needs to cross from the acquisition of knowledge to the formation of nature. One needs some travailing for Christ to be formed in a person (Gal. 4:19). The same way Christ is formed in us is the way the son of God will also be formed. One needs to first gather the meal, but knowing is not eating, it is to do what you have known that is eating.
The spirit of wisdom and revelation will give you riches. Riches are what you know. The first knowing is a partial knowledge, what you know or own can still be taken away from you. The parable of the sowers tells us that some people had understanding but because they had no root, they lost it. Birds of the air came to take the seed from some (Matt. 13:3-8). One can lose everlasting life if the understanding does not take root in one.
Partial ownership of knowledge is not strong when the spirit of might and counsel has not worked on it. The knowledge must be translated into another thing so that it cannot be stolen. Nature cannot be stolen; it is a permanent inheritance. It is the appearance of Jesus that is teaching us these things; it is beyond the grace of the five fold. The coming of Jesus is in teaching but He will be involved and present for the minister to teach them. This is because these knowledge are secrets reserved for the dimension of the Godhead.
“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (John 3:12-13) Jesus was teaching from heaven, though He was on earth. He that came down from heaven was not the Son of Man but the Lord Himself, He condescended and later ascended as the Son of Man in heaven, so that He can speak these things.
A man or minister’s state can be told by what he speaks. To be a preacher, one must be careful to preach the message assigned to him. Such a one cannot come up one day and say he is tired of preaching the message. To do so is to fall, because such a one has already laid his hands on the plow, and so must not look back (Lk. 9:62). Satan knows how to make men (ministers) fall. He deceives them by tempting them to alter the message just a little. Hence, one must be dead to this world and overcome it. At times, there is the temptation of becoming weary in well-doing, because one is living a life so different from the general populace. We should not be weary in well-doing.
“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29). This question was a weighty one. By asking what works they needed to do to work the works of God, that is, inherit the kingdom, they were asking what works they needed to do to gain life. Jesus answered them by telling them that the work they needed to do was to believe on Him whom the Father had worked on. The Person the Father sent was the Person He produced. The work of God is He whom the Father has sent. The work of God is the Son of God.
“They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?” (John 6:30). Those who asked Jesus this question wanted an evidence of what this work can do, before they could believe Him. They were carnal. They fell back to carnality because a veil was upon their faces.
John 6:31-32
“Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”
Jesus made it plain to them that Moses did not give them “that bread from heaven”. Jesus was probably saying that the bread that they were supposed to eat was not what Moses gave them. Although, it is true that Moses gave them bread because it is written, but it was not the True Bread. So Jesus was not referring to the manna in the wilderness, but the True Bread which is from heaven. The work of God is the Bread from heaven.
This verse answers the question of those whom the Father gives to Jesus (John 6:37). No one comes to Jesus but His sheep (John 10:23-28). Jesus will not give everlasting life to anyone who is not His sheep. Sheep are made from pastures. The pasture of the Shepherd is not Christ, but everlasting life and Eternal Life. Hebrew 13 buttresses this.
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21). This will or pasture here is the perfect will of God. This is the point where we are introduced to the Shepherd of everlasting life. He is the one who gave Christ as an allocation to the Holy Ghost to make sheep. Therefore, sons of the sanctuary are children of the Holy Ghost. As such, it is high time that the Father owned them.
Sanctuary sons were given to the Head of the church for Him to feed, lead and watch over them (Hebrews 2:12). Jesus is the captain of the sheepfold that will end up with life everlasting. The shepherd's sense of Jesus is high. So, He gave charge to the Holy Ghost, by ordaining men to make sheep that can hear Him. A sheep has a peculiar nature that makes it able to hear the master. One who is not a sheep cannot come to Him.
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the pasture that will convert a man into sheep for the shepherd. Sheep are those in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not meant for lambs. Lambs only graduate into sheep after being fed. Sheep are those who are present in the Kingdom.
Sheep are those who are easily led. If the Holy Ghost has not trained you through Christ, you can not have or get to everlasting life. It is a principle that you must move from fold to fold till you reach the fold of the Shepherd. The Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, must appear for the purpose of life everlasting. Life everlasting is the commission of God the Father upon the Lamb who sits on the Throne.
Any shepherd that leads a sheep leads them with His life. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11). God is the shepherd of Israel (Psalm 80:1). A cherubim is also a shepherd. This is why God dwells amongst the cherubims of glory. The destiny of sheep is glory; glory is the last food for the sheep. The fallen glory that Satan has is what he is still using to kill other sheep.
God is an embodiment of layers of life, and He is constantly giving His life. That is the only way to sit on the Throne. The One on the Throne is perpetually bleeding. Similarly, the Lamb He raised has been slain; that is, He is also giving life. The life of the Lamb is already laid down for sheep. The day a minister stops giving his life for the sheep is the day such becomes a hireling. A hireling is someone who does not lay his life down for the sheep but runs away in the face of attack.
Jesus told the Jews that they must both eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6:47-55). To eat His flesh makes one live but to drink His blood makes one have life in him. The flesh makes one live while the blood makes one abide (John 6:56). The flesh is bread from the seed, whereas the blood is from the vine of the tree. Doing both of them makes a man dwell in Him.
The flesh and blood are the two dimensions of Eternal Life. One is flesh, the other is blood; one is seed, while the other is the vine tree. At the end of Jesus' teaching, He said, "I am the vine." (John 14); that is, I am the Tree of everlasting life. The purpose of the tree is to have a place to dwell in life everlasting.
There are two dimensions to the incorruptible seed; one lives and the other abides. The incorruptible seed lives and abides (1 Pet. 1:23). There are two kinds of seeds: the seed that depends on season and the one that is not dependent on seasons.
The incorruptible seed has a character of the agriculture of earth. It is a seed of corn that makes bread and is also a seed of fruit that makes a tree. Vine is not gotten from corn leaves but from grown trees. The vine is crushed to get blood by which one partakes of the tree. Partaking of that blood is dwelling in Him. Flesh is not enough; it has to be completed by the drink. One other thing that is gotten from the blood is the testimony.