In this season, God is shining His everlasting light which is His knowledge (2 Corin. 4:4). The gospel of Christ is the knowledge of Christ while the everlasting light refers to the knowledge of the everlasting gospel. The everlasting light is the light that would bring us to the place of the everlasting covenant. God does nothing of Himself without covenants. However, it is also possible for God to bless a man without a covenant. When God wants to make a covenant with a soul, it is because it has to do with the very things of Himself; which must be established on covenant. Severally, within the scriptures, we see how God made covenants especially with the children of Israel. They were a people of the covenant while the gentiles were not.
A covenant is a strong agreement that brings about a relationship of absolute commitment between two people or parties. There are different kinds of covenants. Covenants that are made by blood are very strong and with serious implications. Agreements can be entered into for different natural reasons that requires some level of commitment but not like the one established with blood. God is the originator of covenant; He is a covenant keeper. God will not part with anything of Himself without a covenant. Covenant is the foundation that is required to receive the substances of God. What made the children of Israel different from other nations was the covenant they had with God.
God does not break covenant; He is committed to His Word even to the thousandth generation (Deut. 7:9). Everything God did with Abraham was based on covenant; and He also introduced Isaac and Jacob to be partakers of His covenant. Oath has to do with covenant. God is not a man; He does not carelessly enter into covenant but He does this by giving man His Word. God's word conveys Him, although there are some words that He may speak that may not transport His person. To communicate things of His person, there must be a revelation.
God appeared to Abraham as the God Almighty (Gen. 17:1). Abraham came into knowing God and cutting a covenant with Him based on the word of God who revealed Himself as the Almighty; and the commandments of this word which followed, saying 'walk before me and be ye perfect…’(Gen. 17:1-7). God established His everlasting covenant with Abraham and His generation (Genesis 17:7). The revelation of God as the Almighty to Abraham was what initiated the cutting of an everlasting covenant with him and his seed (Gen. 17:1,7). What makes a covenant everlasting is the quality of the word that is revealed. Until the revelation of God as the Almighty (as the Father) came, God did not demand that anyone should walk before Him and be perfect. Light was brought to Abraham to aid his walk with God. In the same manner, the bringing of the present truth to us in our generation is to empower us to walk before Him and be perfect. Abraham did not struggle too much to be perfect because light was given unto him. To become perfect like the heavenly Father, the revelation of the heavenly Father must be given. There is no perfection for the church except the light of the everlasting gospel comes to her.
‘Law’, ‘Oath’ and 'Covenant', lead to one another in that order. The law would bring one to the oath. The circumcision Abraham did was a token (or prelude) to the covenant. Abraham journeyed (he measured a walk) to mount Moriah where God was willing to give Himself to Abraham. The children of Israel did not measure up to that same covenant. The light of the everlasting realm is needed to make an everlasting walk that would cut an everlasting covenant. They could not meet that requirement because there was another perverted everlasting covenant that was warring with them; a covenant which was higher than the covenant of Moses. The promise of God becoming our God and we becoming His people was also made to Abraham, and is still the intention of God for us.
God would not regard anyone that is operating outside His covenant. God does not issue out words carelessly. He is not in the fashion of a man who uses empty words. For one to continue in a covenant, he/she must continue in the law of the covenant. In keeping the law, the people would come to 'Beersheba', the place of the oath which opens the door into the covenant. The progression is law, oath and then covenant. Afte obeying the law, the people would come to come to the point of making an oath and then cut covenant with God. God has to make an oath on the premise of a people who have obeyed the law.
The purpose of the everlasting covenant is for God to become our Father. He did that to Jesus; this is why we can call Him the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To arrive at the place where He becomes our 'God', we must first pass through the dimension of the Almighty, which is where He becomes our Father. Christ ascended first to the Father (John 20:17). For God to be our Father, we also must ascend. We ascend to the Father by obeying commandments. After ascending to the Father, we would then be qualified to ascend to God. No one can ascend to God without first ascending to the Father. One doctrine the Israelites did not understand is the fatherhood of God; they never called God father.
Gentiles do not understand what Covenant is. The manner of God's dealing with fathers is by covenant. For God to be called a man’s Father is a weighty thing. The Jews understood this and called Jesus a blasphemer for calling God his Father. They could not comprehend that Jesus would become as the Father and like God.
The word of God is the Spirit of God. What made Jesus heavenly is what He saw and heard. The words Jesus saw and heard altered Him, like it would also alter every soul that sees and hears the same. What Jesus saw and heard made up His testimony; and what made up His testimony was not earthly. The revelation of God must be seen and heard until we obtain the testimony. This testimony is the Spirit: the spirit of prophecy.
To believe in the Son of God Is to believe in the revelation that the Son has of God. This is not just the simple believing; it is one that comes from what one has heard and seen. The revelation of Christ can be seen and heard; this would give the testimony of Christ which is the Spirit of Christ. The revelation of God which the Son has is not the revelation of Christ, but the revelation of God which made Him the Son of God. At this stage, Jesus possessed all the knowledge that is God. The revelation of Christ would make us become Christ and the revelation of the Son of God would make us become the Son of God; just like God.
The Spirit, water and blood agree in one; bearing witness (1 John 5:7-10). In learning of the Son of God, the 'Spirit' would be learnt; likewise the 'water' and 'blood'. This would make us have the witness. This witness would be an inheritance. The witness is the word of God, which is the testimony. The witness has a record and this record is concealed. While it is concealed, it remains a record but when it is unveiled it becomes a witness. What the three (the Spirit, the water and the blood) witness to is what they bear as a record in heaven. The Godhead do not want their testimony to remain a record in themselves but rather a witness in the souls of a people. The record (eternal life) was first witnessed in the Son, Jesus Christ. He that believes in the Son of God would have the witness in Himself. Eternal life was manifested in the Son. It is no longer a record but a witness that can now be inherited in the souls of men. We can come into this inheritance just like the Son came into it.
God wants to raise many witnesses of His life here on earth; and that is the reason for the revelation of the Son. Sonship has a process. The law is given to children to grow them to sonship because oaths are not made with children. It takes a long time for God to swear to a man; it took some time for God to swear to Abraham. Covenants have laws that the people must abide by. The revelation in the new testament is the revelation of His commandments. The commandments of the New testament cannot be kept without the Spirit. This is why it was hard for the children of Israel to keep the commandments without trespassing. The commandments of the testament are many. The prophets kept the commandments till they held the Spirit and they did so by leading. No one can come into the testimony of any covenant without obeying the commandments of the law by the Spirit. When the law is kept by the Spirit, one would eventually inherit the spirit. The prophets were children of the Spirit and were led by the Spirit to inherit the testimony.
When a witness of a testimony is to be made, the Spirit (Holy ghost), takes the material of that testament and turns it into a path through which He leads and restricts a man. After enduring the process, such man would receive the inheritance. The Holy ghost makes witnesses out of the testimony. He beats the soul into a shape that would qualify Him to carry and inherit the witness of the Godhead. He that cometh from above is above all (John 3:31). What made Him above is the words that He received. What would also make a soul earthly are the words of the earth. While two men stand together, one may be above and the other one be earthly. To be of the above is to be of God; to be above is higher than to be from heaven. What a man hears and obeys determines where he would stand. The substances of the words received would determine our placement. Testimony is a constitution of what has been seen and heard.
Man cannot naturally receive the testimony of the Father who is above all. Man finds it hard to receive the earthly testimony (John's testimony), much less Gods’. Jesus embodied the testimony of the above. We would keep fellowshipping with Christ until we see Him, become like Him and afterwards move to a higher fellowship. Jesus, at the conclusion of His walk on earth spoke of the Word of God in His conversations. Jesus sees what God does and also did it; anyone who lacks God's judgement will fall short of this. The Son can judge just like the Father judges. The judgement of men and of God are not the same; this is why we have to move to receive His judgements.
He that receives the testimony would have the witness in Himself (1 John 5:10). He that received the testimony would have moved from being a man. Anyone whose soul lives would receive the testimony (Isa. 55:3). The testimony of death has prevented men from receiving the testimony of God. God wants us to partake of that which is good (Isa. 55:1-2); and that which is good is Christ. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David (Isa. 55:3).
Anyone that has the testimony has received a seal (2 Tim. 2:19). The name of Christ is the seal of Christ; it is the testimony/Word of Christ. Christ is a seal that has the ability to make a man depart from a level of sin. Just as there is a seal which is Christ, there is also another seal that God is true; the testimony of God sets this seal upon a soul.
In the blood is the full testament and a measure of it was given for the remission of sins. At this level one has not received the Spirit without measure and so the soul must continue drinking into the Father's kingdom. We must continue partaking of the cup till we partake of its full content. The cup is the Spirit and the words that are spoken are spirit and life. Portion after portion is given until we fully come into the everlasting covenant. The everlasting covenant is the revelation of God as the Father. A man must incline his ear and eat that which is good in order to be introduced to the everlasting covenant. The essence of the everlasting light is to bring us to the everlasting covenant.
For God to be our God we must possess His seat in our hearts. Jesus was declaring the everlasting gospel from beginning to the end, so that He and His Father can come and make an abode. The everlasting covenant is the seat for God whereupon God abides; the everlasting covenant is the place of God's rest. Jesus went to prepare a place for us, different from the places that has hitherto existed in God; the same place where men like David and Abraham found. Jesus went to prepare an abode for fathers, 'where I am ye will be also' (John 14:3).
Jesus arrived at the abode of the everlasting covenant and God does not depart from there. It is that same abode that Jesus went to prepare for us. The new testament is an abode that is with Him which He wants us to have. The everlasting doctrine is the doctrine of the Father and it is the doctrine of that abode. They abide in the everlasting covenant. It is certain that God and His son would abide in any man who has the everlasting covenant. God would not forsake any man that possesses the everlasting covenant.