Programme: Believers’ Convection Prayer Meeting (Week 3_Day 3)
Date: Wednesday, 24th July, 2024
Transcript Summary
1. The “Branch” in Jeremiah 33:14-16 is a church that will grow up to the Head of the Church in all things (Eph. 4:15). This is the church that will bear the name of the Lord (Jer. 23:1-8).
2. (1 Peter 1:1; James 1:1) The churches were scattered at the time when the everlasting meal was about to take shape. These churches never became everlasting churches or entered into the promised land in the “promised land”. Israel was not the promised land. The promised land is something else; it is a different understanding. So, many that were scattered were brought together to dwell in their own land. This means it is only Jesus that can give everyone, both Jews and Gentiles, the land that God promised Abraham.
3. The Lord promised two things: the land and the promise. God will not bring the promise to us in any other place but in the land. (Gen. 12:1-2). One cannot be all these things mentioned in these verses except in the land. The land has to be shown first. Promise can only be initiated by the process of blessing. God gives promises by blessing, so it means the promises are blessings. And if they are blessings, then there is a way blessing is given. Blessing is given by blessing. The nature of blessing a people is by pouring out a blessing on them (Mal. 3:10).
4. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:14). When one is born again, such a one does not yet have the blessing of Abraham. After the new birth, many assume that Christianity is about punctuality, being regular for fellowship, avoiding all sins, being on fire for God, and so on, but it is more than that. Christianity is the journey of the encounter of life at various capacities. When the bulletin of service gets open, many will refuse it. That is when one begins to see that the seemingly serious Christians are not serious, and this is because they do not understand what sin is. We need Jesus to reveal our true state to us.
5. God took Abraham to a place to bless him; that was the choice land of God that He wanted to put the promises. It was called the land of promise. Real promise is not in the physical Israel. Christians who were there were taken out. John, who was of the sons of Zebedee and wrote the scripture, wrote it not in Israel when he said, “This is the promise that you have promised us, even Eternal life” (1 John 2:25). The promise is Eternal Life. They were all outside that land and were scattered, telling us that the physical land hook is not the land. The land is a spiritual idea in the Spirit that God wants us, the heirs of promise, to understand. The land is the most suitable realm for the promise to come to. We can only find our land of promise through the leading of the Spirit.
6. “So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. [13] He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; [14] Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” (Deut. 32:12-14). These were all present in the promised land. They are spiritual and are on the land. They are the things God wants to give us. Over time, God leads the sheep, just as He led them to the land. When the Lord gets a sheep, He will lead it. However, when He gets lambs, He makes them sheep. The Lord cannot lead a lamb on a journey of inheritance. Lambs are too weak for leading except they are carried. They do not have legs for journey. Someone who can be led is one who can walk—who has developed the strength for walking.
7. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Rom. 1:16-17). Before one can be the just that can live by faith, such a one must have become a personality that can take faith and use it as life. It is not everyone that is just enough to live by faith. The issue that is bothering Jesus concerning the church at large is that God has a challenge of taking lambs and making them sheep. It is not every sheep that is powerful enough to live by faith. God our Father is particular about sheep. Jesus has tenderness for the lambs and loves them, but there has been little success (through the five-fold) in getting sheep from the lamb folds.
8. A minister can preach a simple message for lambs and bless them just to keep them. But there are ministers who are only interested in preeminence, scattering flocks thereby. Many are ambitious and will do all they can to destroy another ministry to own the people. Keeping the flock is difficult because many ministers are not healthy. It is not easy to prepare a minister for sheep. Some people just have a zeal for ministry and they think they can lead a church but with no heart for the sheep.
9. “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. [30] Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30). The flock is scattered when the pasture is scattered. Ministers should not scatter the pasture of the Lord. Lambs have their developmental stages— from a day old lamb to a lamb that is matured. There are some lambs that are matured but are not yet a sheep. A lamb like Stephen is already a sheep. All that remains for such lambs is to go on a journey of a sheep. A sheep is he who has the stamina for journeying with the Shepherd. Lambs cannot follow the Shepherd; they are carried by the Shepherd while the sheep walks along with the Shepherd. A sheep follows the Shepherd whithersoever He goes.
10. “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. [4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.” (John 10:3-4). The Shepherd does not get involved in leading the flock when they are lambs. The Holy Ghost raised shepherds for the flock. The leader of the lambs is the Holy Ghost and their ministers. Their ministers speak the things that the Holy Ghost says. The ministers who feed the lamb should also have fear in their hearts. People who feed lambs, and are holy and care for them, have the nature of safety that is in the Shepherd across all realms. The Holy Ghost does not feed the church directly but through whom he has made overseer (Acts 20:28). Peter was told to feed the lambs (John 21:15).
11. Feeding happens under the supervision of the Holy Ghost. A time will come when lambs who have been led by the Spirit will bear the seal of the Holy Ghost; this is when it can be said that they are ready to be enrolled as sheep. So, the first sheepfold takes the meal that constitutes an integral part of the Shepherd. The first nature of the Shepherd is when you begin to touch the person of the Shepherd. The first sheepfold takes the first nature of the Shepherd and that becomes their pasture. This first nature of the Shepherd that the first sheepfold needs is the food of the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:6). This is the empowerment needed to gain the nature of a matured sheep.
12. The nature of the Shepherd is actually the pasture land. Nature is pasture. Sheep of His pasture (Ps. 110:3) means sheep of His nature. The Shepherd gradually leads souls into His nature. This is why one cannot take everything in the pasture in one day; it is gradually taken. The first thing a sheep needs is knowledge. Sheep are not led directly into doctrine, otherwise they will be confused.
13. “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. [9] Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.” (Isa. 28:8-9). When lambs are weaned, they are detached from their parents to stand alone. The first thing to be done is to teach knowledge; it has something it does to the outlook of a sheep. It changes the thinking pattern of the sheep. The milk of the word is a processed food from the experience of an older sheep which is broken down for ‘babes’. The dependence of lamb reflects on what food they are engaged in. To wean a sheep is sometimes forceful because there is a nature of dependence that the babe has gained from the comfort of milk. This is why some children grow faster than others.
14. God wants us to master the leading of the Spirit and the feeding that makes up the entire development of the flock – having an insight into the flock/gaining mastery of how flocks are taken care of. The Holy Ghost is in charge of the initial stage of the flock. He births the lambs. Every lamb is a Holy Ghost child. There is a leading of the Spirit that is also involved in the raising of every lamb but it is not as pronounced as that of a sheep. The ministers and ministries that God raised for the lambs are just higher lambs to fight the challenges that lambs face. They are the ones Paul was referring to as teachers of babes (Rom. 2:19-21).
15. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1). This Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is very instrumental in leading the people of God who have been brought as a lamb into the terrain of Christ. They need to be led after the order of Christ—the law of Christ—to set them free. A sheep of Christ starts learning the power of God by walking after the Spirit. Not to walk after the flesh is to walk by faith. It is not every sheep that has developed spiritual legs enough. Lambs do not have legs for the walk out of flesh into the spirit. The meal of baby lambs needs to be changed for them to be spiritual. When someone is lamb enough to be a sheep, it means that such a lamb is showing the sign of a sheep and can be led into Christ. Freedom comes when a sheep has finished his course of Christ through the leading of the Spirit.
16. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience…” (Eph. 2:2). Walking according to the course of the world is what crystallizes in a man that causes the bondage of sin and death. Sin and death is not fornication but a course of living; it is a world and it is systemic in nature. True reformation is delivering people from the course of the world by reforming the mind of men from the world. Freedom is a walk out of the world.
17. The prince of the power of the air has done a work to control anyone who is in the world. This is what makes Satan wise; he created this world and his own world where he rules from. He cannot reach you if this world is not formed in you. After one has been weaned from milk, the next challenge is to get the world out of us. This can only be done by a walk which is brought about by leading. The purpose of the leading of the Spirit is to administer the training of Christ to a soul and make it walk against a course in order to gain freedom.
18. Satan likes flocks but he is not leading them for good; he wants to use them. The more obedient sheep he possesses, the more he will have a stand not to go. He is looking for evidence of stay; this is why he leads and deceives men so as to take their land in the spirit. When you give him your plot, he stands on your high places. Everybody has his own high places, but he does not want you to be there. As long as he has you, he will be contesting and protesting from your ground, and this is because we are the ones who gave him space.
19. Sheep do not start using their legs until the Lord God starts the ministry of revelation. Revelation is designed by God to make the sheep appreciate in their souls. Revelation is the meal of the sheep: it is a wonder that a sheep should be experiencing. The unveiling of secrets is the feast of sheep.
20. The success of the Holy Ghost upon an individual believer is that He has successfully made a sheep for the Shepherd to lead. The first season of a sheep is the season of being a lamb. It is led by the Holy Ghost being overseen through ministers who feed it with the lambish food (milk of the word). After maturation, the lamb is taken away from the breast where milk comes from. This means one has to be drawn away from the breast to change the food system. After being weaned from the breast, the teaching of Christ will make us hear Him when He comes. Jesus will not come until the Holy Ghost is through with a sheep.
21. The Holy Ghost and the minister are the main shepherd for the first sheepfold. Jesus sends the Holy Ghost to raise the minister to do the job for Him until He comes. Jesus will not come if there are no sheep to welcome Him. To make sure Jesus does not come, Satan goes around assemblies to make sure churches are not preparing for Him. One who seems to be looking for this path may be tempted not to prepare people for Jesus’ coming. Ministers need to make sure the environment in the sheepfold is conducive for the Shepherd’s coming. Jesus wants to come to our midst to declare the Father's name and sing praise unto Him (Heb. 2:12).
22. (Heb 10:36-39) Jesus will save us in the saved place which is the place of salvation. This is the realm where we can be saved. However, the flock will never get to that place except they are led. The saved place is first in the spirit. This is a place in the flock where God knows that the flock can receive salvation. So the Lord has to minister the land to the flock. To give the land is a ministration; this happens both in the leading of the Spirit and ministering the land to the flock. All we are doing now is a gradual way of bringing the land into the soul of men; this is the land where we will get the promise. It is the land sworn to the fathers.
Blessings!