Programme: Writing the Vision (February Edition)
Date: Saturday, 18th February 2023
Transcript Summary
1. God is looking for fruits in our company. However, we cannot bring forth fruits without having ways. The two words that were impressed into my heart this year are the warnings to the Gentile churches and the Zion churches. The two churches are not the same and God is expecting fruits from both churches.
2. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5). This was a warning to the Zion church. The reason for the dealings of the Lord upon us, by bringing forth teachings of the way through His servant, is for us to bear fruits. It is our responsibility to bear the heart of the Lord and His burden over us. God has committed so much to us and He expects fruits in return at different levels.
3. Malachi is a book of the way. He was the last prophet who prophesied before the dark ages, and after him, God did not speak again until John the Baptist. The Book of Malachi is a book of contention and a book of the way. While God was contending with the people about their sacrifices, marriages, priesthood, purification and giving, the people were also contending with the Lord and were answering Him back (Mal. 3:8).
4. God had to generate hope for Himself because the people contended with Him until He stopped speaking. The people chose their own way and it became a legitimate path for them. Hence, when the real Way came, they fought and killed Him. The Book of Malachi is a book of instruction for the last day Church because it is also possible for the last day Church to go their own ways.
5. Malachi 3:1 speaks of two messengers: ‘my messenger’ and ‘the Messenger of the covenant’. The Lord Himself is the Messenger of the covenant but before the Lord, there is another messenger who shall come and whom nothing would hinder. This prophecy of Malachi 3, like every other prophecy, has both physical fulfillment and spiritual fulfillment. This prophecy was physically fulfilled when John came. John came as the messenger before the Lord and as the voice crying in the wilderness (John 1:23). Just as John came to fulfill the prophecy physically, Jesus also came to manifest physically as the Messenger of the covenant.
6. John was a messenger of peace who ought to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:79). The way of peace is important and necessary before the Messenger of the covenant can come. Unless a man has come to peace, he would not be able to endure the Messenger of the covenant (Mal. 3:2). At His appearance, the Lord is coming as a refiner's fire and fuller's soap. He is not coming down in a nice manner but as the Lord of hosts. This means that He is coming to fight His enemies that are already instituted in the soul of men.
7. It takes the people who have received the first messenger, and have come to peace, to accept the Lord and praise Him even when He slays them (Job 13:15). "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Ps. 23:4). The rod brings pain, yet it is a succor to a man of peace. When the Lord rebukes a man of peace, he is okay with it. It is a man of peace that takes the rebuke of the Lord and rejoices. On the contrary, a carnal man cannot take the rebuke of the Lord because he is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7).
8. God is not evil and will not chastise a carnal man. God knows that the carnal man cannot understand because carnality is against the nature of God. For example, God gives rain both to the good and the wicked. Therefore, when He wants to raise us, He raises us by His own nature and instructs us to do likewise. God cannot instruct a carnal man to give to those who are wicked to him because he cannot take such instruction or understand why he should do it.
9. The messenger of peace would teach a carnal man how to be at peace with God. It is until he arrives at peace that he can take the commandments of God. The commandments of the messenger of the covenant are stricter. In the New Testament, the first messengers are the ministers of Christ. Ministers of Christ are sent to raise men from a carnal estate to a spiritual estate.
10. We can never be at peace with God if we do not have the spirit of the message. While it is noble to listen to the message, it is more important for the spirit of the message to enter us. It is essential to get the spirit of the message which is the spirit of Christ. This will enable us to understand and be led to know the way of peace. It is the spirit of the message – the spirit of Christ – that follows us around and works the nature of peace in us. This spirit wants to instruct us in our secret places.
11. This year, some of us would become incorruptible. God has made up His mind to harvest a crop of incorruptible men. Our desire must not be to change our natural country or estates but to ascend to the incorruptible. Charity is what we have been doing and we have come, and are still coming, to a measure of being spiritual. When we are at peace, we should be looking for the appearance of the Messenger of the covenant. The messenger of peace will teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to look for things above (Titus 2:12-13). When we are at peace with God, then we are enemies of this world. The messenger of peace would push our souls up to disdain this world and cherish the heavenly (Gal. 6:14).
12. When we still have expectations of this world then our peace is not yet complete. We must be crucified to this world and this world to us and with that, we can look for the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). It is the Messenger of the covenant that would bring the blessed hope to us. The word “messenger” means “angel”. Therefore, the Messenger of the covenant is the Angel of the covenant. This Angel has a very significant work to do, which is to craft the way of the living God.
13. Anyone who has the way of Christ, which is the way of peace, is looking for a higher way - the highway of holiness (Isa. 35:8). One can have the way but may not have access to the highway. To access the highway, the state of the soul must be upgraded. Without holiness no one can see God (Heb. 12:14). To see God, another way which is higher must have been crafted in us, because no man can see God and live (Exo. 33:20).
14. In Revelation 7:1-2, an angel ascended “...from the east, having the seal of the living God…”. This angel is different from the first four angels because he has the seal of the living God. The seal of the living God is to open the way of the living God. This angel is the angel of the covenant; he is the messenger of the east. The way of the tree of life is in the east of the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:23-24). The word ‘east’ means eternal. Adam and Eve should have journeyed to the eastern side of the garden because the eastern side is the way to the Tree of Life. However, man has now lost the way; we have been chased out of the garden and are out of the way of peace.
15. The garden of Eden is the garden of peace. As we hear and obey the doctrine of the way of peace, we are being restored back into the garden to meet the entity of that garden who is the Messenger of the covenant. The Messenger of the covenant is coming from the east to do a work in our hearts, which is to seal us so that the path to the Tree of Life can open. The essence of the knowledge that is coming to us is to restore us and call us to start pursuing the way. We must not be tired of knowledge.
16. The angel of the east would come as a flaming sword and that sword is meant to work in us. There is a sword that is sharper than any sword we know (Heb. 4:12-13). The sword would be touching every part of us. He would sit as the refiner's fire to purify and judge the thoughts and intents of our hearts. That flaming sword is the Messenger of the covenant and He is a person who has eyes to see.
17. The incorruptible life is not difficult but we already have a wrong nature in us (1 Pet. 1:4). We must not defend our person because doing so would be sending the Lord out. We do not know ourselves yet. We are not yet ourselves until we are incorruptible.
18. When the everlasting work is done, we would live in harmony with one another. The Son is not forbearing the Father, nor the Father the Son, nor the Holy Ghost the Son. They are in perfect harmony and that is the estate God wants to work in us also. It is possible to live together in harmony and we do not have any conflicts whatsoever. We would have to drop our own image and wear the image of the Father. This is our eternal lot.
Blessings!
Ruth Emem - 1 year ago