Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Date: Thursday, 9th December 2021
Our God gives birth to sons by words. This type of birth process is not the manner of natural birth which human beings understand. God has a big plan for His people and it is beautiful for us to follow Him as He leads us. The purpose of Anamnesis is to remember Jesus. According to the world’s standard, it is those who are dead that are usually put in remembrance. However, the Man we are remembering is one who is living and not dead (Rev. 1:18). This is also why He can still be a stumbling stone to some (1 Pet. 2:8).
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds..." (Heb. 1:1-2). The Father began to speak to men from the time of Genesis. He also spoke in different ways and manners to the fathers through the prophets in the Old Testament. He had always wanted to speak through His Son, even at that time. However, it was not yet time for His Son to be heard. This is because there is an appropriate time for everything.
We need to come to a place where we understand the things we are hearing. You truly have understanding when what you have heard still stands in you despite the things you go through. Tests and trials reveal the true state of our understanding. Therefore, the fact that you have heard a thing does not mean that you understand it yet. If God does not prove a thing in you, He cannot place you. It is God who determines what tests we go through, for He knows what He is building in us. We cannot negotiate our way to determine the kinds of tests we go through.
The gospel that teaches us to lose our lives – so that we can take on the life of God – has not yet been preached well in the Church. We have been handling spiritual things with a soul that still has its life intact. God is not angry with this, but He needs us to begin to follow the leading of the Spirit. The essence of the leading of the Spirit is not just for the choice of a life partner; but much more it is to be completely separated from the life or purpose that has been defined by this world or from our flesh nature.
There are things that make up man which are not of God. These things are removed from man as he is walking in the spirit; you cannot remain in one spot and expect the things of man to be removed from your soul. This is why God tells every believer to carry his cross and follow Him (Mark. 8:34).
God instructed Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil otherwise, he would die (Gen. 2:17). Prior to this time, Adam did not know what death was. Death is the revelation of the annihilation of a thing. It is a revelation by which things will disintegrate. This revelation first came to Adam from God when He told him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, Adam did not know what this meant at that time. Adam did not also know what it meant to live because he did not fully know what life meant from God’s dimension. Therefore, God wanted him to walk so that he could come into the place of interaction with life and by doing so, he would live forever.
The soul is the place of expression of our lives. It is the soul that can either do righteousness or wickedness. This is the reason for the warfare we are constantly involved in. As such, Jesus asked us to pray that we do not fall into temptation but be delivered from evil (Matt. 6:13). The things that the enemy uses to sway a man are not from without; they are things from within him (Mic. 7:6).
The thoughts of a man can be categorized in two regions – his mind and heart. The thought of the mind is how a man rationalizes things and interacts with the world, while the thought of the heart is how he interacts with the realm of the spirit. The thoughts of your heart are yours while the thoughts of your mind are not yours. Until the thoughts in your mind well up to get to the region of your heart, you cannot own or use it.
The nature of the world still exists in many believers. When you got born again, you were given a new spirit. However, the branches of the tree that was uprooted at the New Birth is still entrenched inside the faculties of the soul. The ways of a man are in his soul. The life of God can come to a man, but such a man can negotiate the use of that life for a different benefit. This is why men can use spiritual things for their own gain.
The journey of Eternal Life might seem as if it is taking so long; but this is because we are not just learning a life, we are also unlearning another life. The reason why we are told not to forsake the assembly of the brethren is not just to assemble for knowledge, we are to also unlearn natures (Heb. 10:25). When we are amidst our brethren, we would experience certain things that will cause our mindsets to change.
What is making the journey to Eternal Life longer than necessary for many of us is because of the mindsets that we have. There is a way we think that is clearly ungodly and it is found in our natures. As such, the first thing we must lay down when God is speaking to us is our mindsets. We cannot follow God when we are too intelligent. It takes a fool to follow God. Even in marriage, it is good that at least one partner acts or pretends to be a fool. This is because the practice of love inside marriage is not possible when both partners are wise. It is those who are foolish that can love, for the demands of love will make you look foolish.
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4). The reason for the light was so that men would know how to live. As a believer, you cannot successfully live in a world of darkness until the light shines on your path. The first thing God gives to us as we begin to interact with Him or that tree of life is light. Light is knowledge and understanding. Christ is the light of God. This means that you cannot know God except you know Christ. If we do not understand this, it will be difficult to follow God who is a spirit.
We need to learn life (light) because the answer to corruption begins with light. This is how the seed of God is planted in us. The seed is planted and scattered on different grounds (souls) by teaching and preaching. Some of such seeds will then begin to germinate but as they do, they will begin to come in contact with the things locked up in our souls, which we might not even know of.
The battle we are fighting at this time is that God should deliver us from ourselves and our mindsets. Our mindsets refer to our ways, which are the enemies of Eternal Life and everlasting life. The reason why light shines in your heart is to remove darkness, which is your enemy. The fact that you have heard the word of God does not mean that you will conform to it. Certain natures still have to be dealt with in you, and this will happen as you give yourself to continuous hearing of the word of God (Rom. 10:17). It is at this point that there can be a formation in your soul. When Christ is being formed in you, you will begin to lose your ground and your carnal natures.
As you journey in the spirit, the things in your heart are exposed. God is not a monument; He is a movement. You are not supposed to come to the same place every day and find Him there. If you are not journeying or moving, the last experience you had with Him will become idolatry. If God’s presence has left a thing, whatever experience remains becomes idolatrous.
Jesus is the Lord of the Church and He is the One the Church should look up to (Heb. 12:2). However, the Church lacks an accurate perception of who He is because of the things that are locked up in us. However, He will give us sight if we journey with Him like the disciples did, so that we can understand Him and also begin to desire to know God.
Until the life in our souls (which Satan worked in us) is expunged, the life of Christ will not find expression. We may have the vocabulary of Christ, but the state of our souls is what determines our true estate. Every food (word) Jesus serves is for the opening of the eyes of our understanding, so that we can understand Him better. If this does not happen, we cannot experience His life.
Closing Charge: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
The programme of the incorruptible seed can only be done by following the Lamb (Rev. 14:4). We cannot partake of the word of God without the leading of the Spirit. In the Bible verse that reads, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14), the word ‘led’ is directly related to food or eating. As such, we are led to eat. You have to be led to eat Christ and the incorruptible word (or the living bread). There is however a higher leading, which is to follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:4).
It is a privilege for anyone to be called to follow the Lamb. Such men will become undefiled in the process. There is no redemption from among men except by following the Lamb wherever He goes. This is because following the Lamb will bring about redemption in the soul.
We need to have the life of Christ first before we can have everlasting life. Abraham's seed is Christ, and it is only Christ that will receive the blessing of God (Gal. 3:16). At the new birth, your spirit became Christ, but your soul also has to be taught to become Christ. This is so that your soul can follow the leading of the Lamb unto everlasting life of the Spirit. To become Christ, one must have experienced a measure of leading. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the leading of the Spirit. The process of leading is from flesh to Christ, and from Christ to become a son of God. It is only Christ that the Father can teach and bless. The promises of God cannot be taught to flesh, nor can he receive it. It is only a spiritual man (Christ) that can receive it.
Christ is life. Although Christ lives, He is not the living Being. A living Being is One who cannot be killed; He has the signature of living without dying. Christ is the one who can be brought into the land of the living, which is the world of everlasting life. The reason why Christ will manifest Himself to us is so that we can also become living beings. This is a higher life in the Son of God.
The realm where the Father and Christ would come and make an abode in us is the realm of incorruption. Making an abode has to do with doing the last dimension of living. There are two dimensions of living: living and abiding.
We should follow the Lamb, so that we will live and not die. The program of Christ is the prerogative of the Holy Ghost. It is at the point of everlasting life that the Lamb would be involved, for both the Lamb and the Holy Ghost will supervise its administration. Without the Holy Ghost, we cannot follow the Lamb. We need the previous training of the leading of the Spirit to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
This would however demand death (losing our natural grounds) from us. It is not easy to die but a time is coming when a people will not be afraid of death anymore. There is a fear residing in all of us which God needs to take out. It is the fear of not being relevant or successful in life.
Most people judge a minister by evident carnal works and not by the life of God that has been wrought in him. The actual prosperity of a ministry is based on the amount of life that is present in it. The prosperity of a ministry is measured and judged by the state of its spiritual health (3 John 2). True prosperity is spiritual. True Church growth is not in the numbers of people in attendance but in the quality of life and spiritual growth of its members. As a result, many ministers who are taught wrongly on Church growth have minds that are not healthy because they are not pursuing life.
The message of everlasting life would move to the Churches. It is only the everlasting gospel that has the power to preserve people. And God intends that all who are under Him are preserved.