Text: 2 Peter 1:16
The things that are brought to us at these times are not fables. We should be able to commit ourselves to them and tell that these recent revelations have been coming with manifestations and encounters, which confirm that they are true and real so that we can commit ourselves to them.
The Father is a very loving and tender father who is committed to giving His own things to His children. The comings of our Lord have been very intense recently. We have been journeying and our journey has an end (1Peter 1:9). Our journey has a starting point as well as a destination. The journey started at the point of being quickened in our spirits. The real intention of the Father is for us to grow up to inherit Him. This intention is witnessed in various parts of the scriptures, including the ones we quote very often (John 3:16).
The reason God gave the only begotten Son is because He is an heir of eternal life. What raised up and begat the only begotten Son was eternal life. Therefore, He was given so that every man would arrive at eternal life. The Son came to stop destruction/perishing (John 10:10). The antidote to perishing is eternal life. A man who is appreciating in eternal life is being preserved from perishing.
The coming of the Son is intended to give us life (Christ) and abundant life (Eternal life). At first, we can only take life to a measure after which we can then go on to have eternal life. The project of God is to give eternal life to man, and we must complete this project. An incomplete project is one who does not end up inheriting eternal life.
Although, having Christ is a great inheritance, we must still proceed towards the hope of eternal life. The purpose of the godliness produced by the life of Christ is eternal life. This current season is showing us God’s inability to lie (Titus 1:2). He is staying true to His word that man would inherit eternal life. This is the only promise that God made to man; every other promise is not man’s inheritance. Every other thing that does not go beyond the grave is not inheritance and is not worth dying for.
The promise of eternal life is hanging upon every man. Eternal life cannot be given to man all at once; we understand it gradually. We must first go through primary training to help our ability to comprehend what life is. In such seasons of learning we pick up principles that are relevant for comprehension.
Eternal life is a school of learning. We must first use the milk well before we may graduate to Christ. While learning Christ we pick up cultures of the spirit. There is a training that is required for a man to bear the training of meat (1Corinthians 3:1). We were uncultured at the beginning of our journey and we must be recultured in Christ. Many of the things that we assumed were right would have to be revisited and adjusted by the revelations of Christ.
We were all once spiritual illiterates. It is in Christ that our understanding of hope is corrected so that we may hope for things beyond this earth and this world. Hope in God is beyond the veil. Being reoriented about our understanding of hope is what promotes cultures like preferring our brother over ourselves. The training of Christ gradually weans us and teaches us virtues of meekness. A natural man cannot be meek; it takes the teaching of Christ to produce meekness.
Learning is accompanied with an abundance of corrections and rebuke. When we take steps in the right direction, the Lord often rewards us with more of Himself to encourage us to continue the learning process. The learning of Christ produces a meek man who can be instructed, guided and led. It takes a meek man to receive the knowledge of eternal life. This is why it is very important to go through the training of Christ.
The judgement and thoughts of the Father are higher than those of Christ. Therefore, we must first become very familiar with the ways and judgements of Christ that are designed to make us spiritual. Patience and compassion are some of the etiquettes of the spirit that we must be taught of by Christ. A spiritual elite would not do things like backbiting having understood laws of the spirit that must not be broken. Christ is an education that every man must partake of for the sake of the promise.
Those who Christ has schooled would appear to be natural fools. The training of Christ fashions us differently from the natural man. We would be taught the laws of the spirit until we become men of charity. How the Lord trains us is that He leads us through places of obedience. He always leads us contrary to our fleshy justifications. Our flesh does not die at once; it is our continuous obedience to instructions that gradually kills the flesh by putting it under.
The reason for all the teachings and tutelage is to make us Christ who is a Son in a measure. After becoming Christ, Jesus still learnt the obedience of eternal life (Hebrews 5:8). The very Son of God is the brightness of God’s glory, the express image of His person and an heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2-3). As a son He was already sanctified but still needed to be begotten of the father. The teaching of Christ is what is responsible for removing filth from us until we are sanctified.
Although, knowing God is the end, we cannot start learning Him at the beginning of the journey. The realm of God is the learning of He who is faithful and true, while the learning of Christ is the learning of truth. The true God is the one who has eternal life (John 17:3). Eternal life is what distincts God from every other false god.
Eternal life is a syllabus that only those who have been made meek by the tutelage of Christ can learn. Only a meek man is malleable enough to be taught eternal life. The vessels who are meet for the master’s use have been sanctified from defilements like pride and arrogance (2Timothy 2:21). Such men are without reputation and meek enough for the master’s use.
Jesus Christ was meek enough to produce good works for the Father. He had been trained in the art of will doing. Only those who have died to their will can do the Father’s bidding. The teaching of Christ is what trains us to lay our wills down by causing us to die daily. This training prepares us for the demand of eternal life which is designed to take our all.
The Son of God is a High Priest who was made by the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7:16). If we are to be in His image we must be consecrated by this power also. This consecration can only come by the learning of eternal life. As we obey the knowledge of eternal life as it comes, we are being consecrated.
God begets His sons by taking them through a season of teaching them eternal life (Heb 1:5). Such seasons are called the ‘day of God’ wherein those who have already become sons will learn obedience for the purpose of perfection (Hebrews 5:9). This learning runs simultaneously with obedience. The Son of God cannot give us eternal life if we do not obey the things He is saying as the High Priest.
This season is a season of higher and quick obedience. As these revelations are coming, we should understand that God wants to harvest us into the most holy realm. As we obey Him, we are continuously being made perfect. The reason for learning His obedience is so that we can be made. Those who have been sanctified, as sons, are the ones who qualify for the learning of eternal life.
Ability to bear a wrong without correcting it is a very remarkable etiquette in the spirit. We often correct others because we do not have grace to forbear. The eternal life that we are hearing is a great commandment of love. This is why the Lord instructs us in love concerning how we interact with our brethren. He continues to instruct us out of His Person. He forbears us and forgives us without correcting us about certain issues about us, because we could not bear the correction. As we obey the demands He places on us according to His Person, we become more like Him.
Learning does not stop until we come to the place where God witnesses that we have been begotten of Him. We should not be discouraged that we have not finished the learning of God. The syllabus of God has been broken down for us and we should be encouraged to quickly obey Him at our various levels. He is the author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him; not just those who hear Him only. It is the doer of the word that is blessed in His deed (James 1:25).