Programme: Writing the Vision (September Edition)
Date: Saturday, 21st September, 2024
Transcript Summary
1. Acts 3:19 speaks about the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, while verse 21 speaks of the times of the restitution of all things. The disciples asked the Lord about the timing of the restoration of the kingdom but His answer gives us insight into the thinking pattern of God on the matter. While they were thinking about the restoration of a physical kingdom to Israel, Jesus was giving the mind of God and calibrated matters of the Kingdom into times. The things that have to do with the Kingdom will be restored in ‘times’. Jesus’ answer shows us that it is a kingdom in the spirit and it will be measured out in times.
2. The first allocation of the Kingdom being given is the Lord sending forth the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:7-8). The times of refreshing began on the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus had to go to the Father and pray to Him to send the Holy Ghost (John 14:16). The Holy Ghost came with a ministry that would touch down on the world. He came on the day of Pentecost and began the work of getting people born again in their spirits and filling them with the wine of the Spirit (Acts 2:4). That experience came from the presence of God and it is only a foretaste.
3. The Holy Ghost is the first answer to the Kingdom being restored (Rom. 4:17). After the new birth experience, He filled us with the wine of the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Then He began feeding us with the milk of the word which produces a life. We hold life in our soul as a result of taking the milk of the word. The gospel of Christ, on the other hand, is the gospel that has the capacity to blot out sins from the soul (Acts 3:19).
4. When Christ is being preached, the times of refreshing are being declared. As such, we are being made fresh because we were old. When Christ is being preached, the Holy Spirit is not doing the work of milk or attending to babies; rather, He is giving the knowledge of the gospel of Christ to remove old nature from the soul. Freshness speaks of the created image that God put in the soul of man. Sin and death took away freshness and made the soul old. When the Holy Ghost opens the gospel of Christ, He begins to teach us the realm of newness – freshness. What is new is Christ, and the gospel of Christ is the gospel of the new man.
5. The Kingdom is given in ‘times’. In the last 20 years, this company has gone through times. Times and seasons have come upon our parents in the faith, together with the dealing of the Spirit in those times. There are different seasons in Christ – faith, hope, and charity – and they are engineered by the Holy Ghost. One can have knowledge but may not have experienced the season. The gospel comes to call our attention so that we can be brought into the season wherein the nature of the gospel will be incubated.
6. Our sins are not blotted out on the day we begin to hear the gospel (Acts 3:19). We need to be brought into times (dealings) to blot out sins. Prior to now, we may have thought the understanding of this verse leads to the forgiveness of sins, but it is not so. To blot is to erase. The work of erasing sin is something that the Holy Ghost must oversee, but it is in ‘times’ that this erasing is done.
7. Times are not seasons of preaching but periods where the Holy Ghost creates the conducive atmosphere to blot out the old nature. Natures are blotted out in times. The kingdom of God is not the knowledge of righteousness, peace and joy; the kingdom of God is a nature. The first point of the gospel is not doctrine; the gospel is the knowledge, while doctrine is the way of life.
8. “...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). This verse is not saying “that they might have the knowledge of life”. The Lord is moving beyond knowledge. The Son of God ‘is come’ so that we may know Him (1 John 5:20). This means His coming is predicated on a lot of lines (life). Part of the emphasis of the hour is on life.
9. In the season of refreshing, the Holy Spirit comes on us and creates the within and without environment to blot out sins. Every time the Holy Ghost wants to heave knowledge, He creates an environment. We do not know our sin until He leads us. Sin is a life, and it is the devil that measures it out to each individual. Everybody can know the general knowledge and precepts, but when it comes to how we become new in our lives, it is the work of the Holy Ghost.
10. It is only the Holy Ghost that can define sin, and He can only define sin when He has brought knowledge. Knowledge is generic because we learn the same things, but the Holy Ghost creates different environments for everyone. This is because the work of the devil is diverse in different souls. The old man has expressed itself in us in different ways because of our diverse souls and the diverse workings and instructions of the devil that we have obeyed.
11. The workings that have to do with sin not only being removed but blotted out, is not without pain. They do not remove sin without breaking forces inside and outside. It is in the season of blotting of sins that the Holy Ghost shows His real self, and He can be really difficult. But if He does not deal with us like that, He does not love us. When He finishes dealing with us is when He heaves charity into our souls. The arrangement in our community is a blotting-out arrangement for sin. The arrangement and leading work together to remove sin in us.
Blessings!