Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Anamnesis Prayer Meeting (Week Four_Day 3)
Date: Wednesday, 1st December, 202
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3). Eternal Life is the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Therefore, Jesus was sent for the purpose of teaching Eternal Life. He is also the High Priest of our profession. Those who claim to have Eternal Life do not have it yet; this should make the church become more serious. Some people also claim that they have the word of God; but the actual word of God is the word of Eternal Life. Such people are yet to even live the life of Christ in their souls. You cannot know Eternal Life without knowing the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Father, and the mystery of God (Coloss. 2:2).
Eternal Life is the message of God. God is Life Eternal; therefore, knowing Him means having Eternal Life. This is the reason why no one should claim to have Eternal Life without having gone through the necessary process to attain it. Eternal life is the x-ray of the components of the Being called God. The weight of the life that is in Him has never been seen by anyone at any time (1 Jn. 4:12). Thus, all men should be humble and not claim to know or have what they do not. The knowledge of this should make us meek (Jam. 1:21).
Knowing God entails a lot more than how much one can pray or how much head knowledge of scripture one has; it requires mercy to know Him. God wants us to know Him—the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The best thought that man has about Eternal Life is that when we have it, we would no longer die. However, Eternal Life is more than that. Adam did not have Eternal Life and yet, he lived for over nine hundred years. If he had not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would have continued to live without dying. Eternal Life is a high thing in the spirit.
The life of Christ, everlasting life, and Eternal Life are all the lives of God. The life we have in our spirits at New Birth is the Christ-life. We were raised together with Christ in our spirits but not to the stature of the Son of God. At this state, the spirit man is a new man and not a divine man.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. [18] And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation…” (2 Cor. 5:17-18). The "all things becoming new" refers to the New Birth, but there is more. There is also the “all things of God” which God desires that we come into as well. There are new things for the new man, therefore we should be meek so we can have life.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, [18] Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: [20] But ye have not so learned Christ; [21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: [22] That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts…” (Eph. 4:17-22). The key to deliverance from the vain mind is Christ. The vanity of man is the mind of the old man. There is a corruption of the old man and it came about as a result of deceitful lusts. Dealing with these lusts will require intensive teaching on Christ.
“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; [23] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-23). The new man is a higher creation which was created by the life of God. However, he has a lesser life than the Son of God. The new man is created to look like God in righteousness and true holiness. The old man is a conversation. He is the stature that was put to death after the resurrection of Christ. Before the New Birth, man had an imprint of the image of the old man in his spirit. As such, the conversation is more than just character but an image. This made the soul corrupt.
The new man is pure and not corrupt. However, he is not incorruptible (totally immune from corruption). The old man is not corruptible - it is corrupt. To say the old man is corruptible would mean that he has everlasting death, but this is not so. The “corruptible” is a hyper state in corruption. If the old man was corruptible, the soul would not have the ability to repent.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently…” (1 Pet. 1:22). The reason for the purification of the soul is to take out the corruption that is resident in the soul from the old man. However, this purification only makes the soul look like the uncorrupted spirit. When the soul has attained the state of a pure heart, he can then do charity. The teaching of new creation realities cannot reach some heights of understanding because most of those teachings are based on letters without the Spirit. Letters alone can kill (2 Cor. 3:6).
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1 Pet. 1:23). The word that performed the cleansing operation in the soul is the water of the word, which is also called Christ. This water can remove corruption from the soul and sprinkle it into the cleanness of the new man. Not every word of God is on the same level. There is the milk level of the word, the meat level, and strong meat level. Christ is the meat of the word yet, there is a level of the word called God’s word that is sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). It is not easy to discern the alignment of the word of God in the spirit. You cannot use the incorruptible seed (word) to claim carnal things.
Anyone who is born by the incorruptible seed will live and abide forever (1 Peter 1:23). Those who have the corruptible seed will also die forever. However, this death is not yet clear to many. It takes the accurate knowledge of God to truly discern Satan, for all his weapons are against God. Jesus is keeping the church from the incorruptible seed. When the incorruptible seed is present in a man, it will check any knowledge or teaching that comes to him and help him to balance his soul from extremities and false doctrines.
To be “corruptible” is higher than being “corrupt”. The corruptible is a higher grade of corruption. Therefore, if the new man is created after God, the old man is also after a god.
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for, you…” (1 Pet. 1:2-4). The saints to whom Peter wrote this scripture were already sanctified, but they had to "obey" again. This is because obedience is from one level of graduation to another. This obedience leads to the sanctification of the spirit. In 1 Peter 1:22, the saints had purified their souls by obeying the truth which is the truth of the new man that makes the soul new. The soul can only be cleansed by obedience to the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. A baby Christian cannot relate with this level of love because the purification of souls takes time.
To defeat corruption, the five-fold ministry needs to water the church. This water is sprinkled over the saints, but not physically. It is a cleansing of the body of the soul. The soul has to carry out obedience for it to be cleansed (for its impurities to be taken out). The soul had inherited impurities by obedience and as such, corruption had become part of it
The word "inheritance" means nature. Christ is the antidote to corruption therefore, He must be taught if saints must be cleansed and have life. Cleansing is the giving of life. The sanctification referred to in 1 Peter 1:22 is not one that is gained through spiritual activity. Rather, it is the deleting of the corrupt man which came in through the deceitfulness of lusts. Lusts refer to things that pull us away from God.
Sanctification is all about obeying truth until the heart is pure unto unfeigned love of the brethren. A soul that has come into this obedience is one that is sanctified. The Holy Spirit uses the truth of the scripture to train the old man who is corrupt. It requires more than the truth that purifies the soul to handle corruption. The commandment to love the brethren with a pure heart fervently is aimed at completing the process of sanctification.
Most believers do not like to go through the process of sanctification, especially the love walk. They prefer to rest at the level of feeling God’s love. However, our heavenly Father is a chastiser and a strong lover. He does not pet us, otherwise, corruption will remain in us. The Father trained Jesus to love us. Jesus also loved the Father. Yet the Father demanded of Him to take up the cross for our sakes. True maturity is to see chastening as an act of love because one who is not chastised is a bastard (Heb. 12:8). Many Christians confess they are sons but they are actually bastards. True identity (in God) is expressed in the state of the soul.
“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” (1 Cor. 5:6, 11, 13). There are many who are born again but they do wicked things. When God purges the leaven (a wicked person) from our midst, that is not the time to walk in love with that person. Rather, the purpose is to save the whole body. We should not even share tables with people who have done evil to the body of Christ, for it is abominable.
If we are in Christ, our spirits are new but our souls are not yet new. The old man who was configured with corrupt things needs to be put off. The state of being corruptible is to have corruption without being able to let go because the seed of the old man remains in him. From such, even God cannot collect corruption because he will fight to keep it.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” (Psa. 27:4-5). The new man is different from the hidden man. The hidden man is an everlasting man, a new man whom God has hidden and has kept in His pavilion. The beauty of the Lord is everlasting light. This rock the psalmist is talking about is the Son of God, upon which one is set for the purpose of Eternal Life. A man whom God has hidden is greater than a man who is new. That kind of man is hidden in God’s pavilion and has been born by the incorruptible seed.
In marriage, the light of everlasting life will adorn with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God (1 Pet. 3:3-5). It requires power to make a woman subject to her husband. Such women are subject to their husbands because they have so much light and understand the power of subjection. Thus, they are not weak but are powerful. God’s life will make women submissive to their husbands.
Any hidden being will be submissive because he has learnt how to hide. "Hiding" is a property of God. This was why He hid His face from the household of Jacob (Isa. 8:17). Meekness and quietness are properties that make God hide a man because they are of great value in the sight of God. They are so valuable because the works of everlasting life are great and are of everlasting worth. This is the power that the church ought to show to Christ.
When our inward man has fully cultivated the attitude of hiding, we will be preserved to receive Eternal Life. The meek and quiet spirit is an attribute for salvation (Jam. 1:21; Psa. 149:4). Nobody will hear the gospel except the meek, therefore, Jesus was anointed to preach the gospel to the meek (Isa. 61:1, Lk. 4:18). As the gospel intensifies, so does the meekness that is associated with it.
While the old man is corrupt, the new man is not. However, the new man is not yet incorruptible, for he still has to move from being a new man to being an incorruptible man. Our spirits are new, but our souls are not. As such, they need to be taught newness. When the soul is taught newness through obedience in the spirit, corruption is removed. This is accomplished by the water of the word. Corruption is a stain that has become an inheritance in the soul and the only way to remove it is to obey something that can remove it. We cannot inherit without obedience. When we are obeying things, we are taking them in. When we obey things that are contrary to God, we are forming a contrary nature within us.
All evil spirits in all their cadres want to teach us is to be like them and thereby transfer their inner nature into man. Their other exploits such as oppression and possession are to dull our minds and prevent us from seeing their real jobs of nature formation. To impede this however, we need revelation. The purpose of revelation is to enrich us with the instructional manual to reveal the works that Satan has done. Thus, we need the revelation of the truth to expose, kill and purify the things that Satan has put in men.
The old man is dealt with by the truth. Therefore, an unbeliever cannot unlearn corruption. Those who can deal with the old man must be empowered by heaven. Ministers ought not to rejoice in their ability to cast out demons but in the deletion of their corruption. The old man needs to be dealt with and purged from the soul, after which that new soul and spirit would be moved into the incorruptible.
The incorruptible inheritance is not resident in the new man but is a result of moving the new man (spirit and soul) into a place of defence where they can be shielded (1 Pet. 1:4). The incorruptible is a shield (Gen. 15:1). We must first be shielded before we are rewarded. The incorruptible status has to be gotten from heaven (1 Pet. 1:4-5). What ought to be revealed in the last time is the incorruptible, undefiled and unfading inheritance. The incorruptible must come by revelation while we are to be kept ready unto salvation. Salvation is the incorruptible inheritance.
The end of the incorruptible is accomplished with a crown known as the incorruptible crown. God wants us to do incorruption. It is a practice and a learning after which a man is crowned with the incorruptible. The crown or end of incorruption is a final lesson (1 Cor. 9:25). While on earth, Jesus wants us to gain mastery of the incorruptible. As such, we are to receive the incorruptible crown by affirming to Jesus and the devil that we cannot be unwound.
The incorruptible seed is the one that has the ability to unearth incorruption to the soul. When it arrives, the seed infuses into us the wisdom to stay incorruptible. The seed has two tablets; one for making us live, the other to make us abide. To abide is to remain and the crown is only given after one has abided. At that point, it will be our normal nature. Men often conclude that it is impossible to be holy up to this point. However, God wants to be the One to make us incorruptible and undefiled. To be unfading is the attainment of a life where one is not removed from the consistency of life. Therefore, such a man will not diminish in life acquisition.