Programme: School of The Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 27th April 2023
Transcript Summary
1. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. [2] For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” (Isa. 60:1-2). There are two levels of darkness: there is darkness and there is gross darkness. The advent of great light is for the Lord and His Glory to arise upon us. Jesus Christ was teaching the great light (or the everlasting gospel) to the people who sat in darkness. The preaching of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is the preaching of the great light. The gentiles received “light”, but do not have the facility to comprehend the gift of this “great light” because their minds have been beaten down and dulled by dumb idols. As such, what they could comprehend was “light” which is why Paul began by teaching them the light called Christ.
2. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44). The intent of God is that the Kingdom would not be limited to the Jews alone. The Kingdom is now on earth, but many people cannot see it because it has moved from a natural dominion to a spiritual dominion. This spiritual dominion is the kingdom of heaven and of God. The God of heaven has set up a Kingdom and one cannot see it without being born again. Except we are born of the water and the Spirit, we cannot enter into the Kingdom (John 3:3-5). We cannot enter into the Kingdom except we receive the dealing, leading and training of the Spirit to press into the Kingdom.
3. It takes some spiritual violence to transition from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God because there are evil spirits that do not want anyone to enter the kingdom of God. These evil spirits labour to keep men perpetually under their own rule. As such, it would take force to break free from the web of these evil spirits. God has set up a Kingdom that cannot be destroyed or moved but we cannot just stroll into it because the rebel holders of authority would not allow saints to take the Kingdom or possess it. Hence, the essence of the spiritual violence that we should put against these rebel holders.
4. “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness…” (Col. 1:11). There is a need for us to put on the nature of long-suffering because the Kingdom of God suffers violence. We cannot translate into God’s kingdom without a spiritual violence that is according to obedience to the Spirit. The violence of the enemy has made many to drop the message of the Kingdom of God, thereby deferring to hyper-grace teachings. The threatening of principalities and powers has made them drop the issue of seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and they have thereby succumbed to things (or pursuits) that are lower. These evil spirits have sworn oaths that no soul would experience deliverance from their works, which are “hell and death” and “sin and death”. To be delivered from sin and death is so great a war, talk more of deliverance from hell and death.
5. We cannot begin to take the Kingdom of God without forsaking many things of this present world in their different shades (Matt. 10:37). Satan has peculiar things he can use to distract and stop each category of persons from sighting and taking the Kingdom. In the seasons when a believer begins to war or violate Satan, God watches him. For every soul that persists and endures, God would command the angels to minister enlightenment to such. When the eyes of understanding are being enlightened, we begin to come into knowledge and disdain the state of darkness that our souls have been in.
6. God wants us to take and possess His Kingdom, but flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom, neither can corruption inherit the Kingdom (1Cor. 15:50). This is the essence of cleansing and purging to break us from the law of “sin and death” and “hell and death” for the purpose of inheriting the Kingdom. The present state of our soul cannot possess God’s Kingdom. A man that is flesh cannot possess the Kingdom because the Kingdom is not flesh, rather, the Kingdom is spiritual. The Kingdom is everlasting in nature, but we are still flesh and blood. What configured us to be flesh and blood are the laws of darkness.
7. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 14:17). The preaching of righteousness to peace is a preaching of faith to charity; which is a dimension of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is to be brought into our souls and it displaces the former dominion of darkness that was within us. Our inward man must be subject to tribulations and troubles for the rearrangement of our souls. We have to learn the spirit for our souls to be rearranged after the order of the Kingdom of God. This is because we have previously been wrongly arranged. The essence of the rearrangement by the work of the Spirit is for us to take the kingdom of God. If we are not rearranged by the Spirit, the seed of the Kingdom would be aborted by the wrong dominion we have in our souls.
8. “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called…” (Jude 1:1). There are those who are sanctified by Christ, but the saints of the Most High are sanctified by God the Father. There are things in the Father that sanctifies the saints. The Father sanctifies the saints from the imprints of the fear of death and from the working of the mystery of iniquity which is already working. We need the workings of the Father to sanctify us and preserve us to an everlasting Kingdom. There are evil works Satan has done in the soul which are greater than worldly lusts, and it is for this reason that the Son of God was manifest (1 John 3:8).
9. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5:23). We must be sanctified wholly. Christ’s sanctification is in part because it only sanctifies us from fleshly, worldly and ungodly lusts. However, God’s intent is that we are sanctified wholly and completely. We need to be sanctified and preserved wholly for us to take the Kingdom. To be sanctified by the Father is to be healed and be made incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:53). The soul must put on the incorruptible and brought to a state of sinlessness, where we are no longer transgressors. A transgressor is one who breaks laws. To be wholly sanctified means that we are no longer breaking the law of the Spirit of life in Christ and the law of everlasting life.
10. “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24). There is a higher life than what we have now and that is what we must strive towards. The life of Christ is good, but we must press for everlasting life. Apostle Paul’s goal was to become a saint of the Most High God. The making of the saints of the Most High God is via the sanctification of God the Father. And so, those who are aiming for this must be temperate in all things, even when their earthly desires are not being met. Such saints must have self-control and patience because of the prize they are looking for.
11. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17). The “word of truth” here is the incorruptible seed, and this is what raises the saints of the Most High. It is the word of the Father. So, the sanctification here is to be sanctified from evil so that the saints can be kept and preserved unto the everlasting Kingdom. We must find the courage to keep submitting to the process of sanctification, firstly in Christ and then in the Father so that we might be delivered from everything corruptible – things that can be defiled and can fade away.
Blessings!