Dearly Beloved,
An Appraisal on The Weighty Need To Seek Eternal Life
As glorious as angels are, it is not given to them to inherit The Divine things of God, so when Lucifer lusted after it, he fell, sold his vision to angels of the first and second heaven and corrupted some thereby!
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds (i.e. above where other cherubs like him dwelleth); I will be LIKE the most High” (Isa. 14:14). That is, Satan once lusted for the Wisdom/Authority/Thronic Life that resides within God; The Kingdom Life which only believers are called to seek by understanding (Matt. 11:29, 2 Cor. 4:6). “As for me, I will behold Thy Face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy Likeness.” (Ps. 17:15).
The first man, Adam, despite the outwardly glorious estate in which he was made also fell short of the calling to the weighty fellowship and knowledge of eternal life which was the secrets of the likes of Apostle John (1 Jn.1:1-3). It therefore took the last Adam, Christ Jesus, who thoroughly fellowshipped with Eternal Life to please God fully and thereby inherited Eternal Life, The Divine Life resident in God.
Christ later began downloading measures of eternal life to Paul from the experience of Act 9 to the encounter documented in Acts. 26:16. The apostles of the lamb who gave Apostle Paul a right hand of fellowship (Gal. 2:9), likewise received access to Knowledge of that Eternal life, which is the Knowledge of Truth. Prior to then, they started as Apostles of the Milk of the Word, which was glorious, as seen through the exploits of Acts 2 to 17 and after tarrying with the teachings of Apostle Paul, they became Apostles of the Meat of the Word as seen in their epistles, which remain the gateway to understanding the synoptic gospels (the books of Matthew to John), the law and the prophets.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (Jn. 17:3). All that Jesus used the first 30 years of his earthly ministry to acquire was the Knowledge of The Father and thereby, He possessed the Life resident in the Father - Eternal Life.
You and I can only possess Eternal Life if we graduate from Believing in Eternal Life to Knowing Eternal Life!
We all have control and are responsible for our actions, but we have no control over the consequences of our actions or inaction and one area where believers grieve the Lord for decades is by their response to the issue of seeking and understanding Eternal Life. A little understanding of Rev. 7:17, 21:4 should provoke us to live contrary to how we do today and the following is an attempt to shed light on how grave this issue is.
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes…” (Rev 21:4). Question: Would overcomers like the Apostles have tears that would need to be wiped away?
I perceive that one of the reasons why God would have to wipe the tears of many believers who make heaven in the day which Paul made reference of in 2 Tim.4:8, which would take place before the unveiling of the new heaven and earth is because of the shocking realization and grief of a belated Knowledge that they didn’t fellowship with The Divine Things Of God in the days of their flesh. The pain of such people would be that they didn’t embrace the tough carnal life shedding ministry of The Tree of Life like Adam didn’t. They didn’t nurse a hunger/thirst for righteousness and therefore weren’t filled while on earth (Jn.7:37) with God’s Divine Things/Blessings. They would have to wait for the world to come to begin the syllabus of Drinking of the fountain of the water of life and Eating of the tree of life (Rev. 21:6) while this very provision was available for them on earth (Jn.4:14) in the epistles but was despised.
When we can’t disown the carnal life (self) like we are called to, we would ultimately treat the issue of their birthright in God, like Esau! Such believers won’t be worthy of the Lord because He won’t be able to intimately unveil himself to such (Matt. 7:21-23)! Believers who lived with the goal of ‘making it to heaven’ and not ‘entering into the kingdom’ can't obey the commandment of not loving their life unto the death (Rev. 12:11), but would preserve their carnal lives and become strangers to the throne though in heaven! They therefore can’t be a part of the bride of Christ, the company called the Heavenly Jerusalem/City of God - Rev. 21:2/10. They won’t be qualified to be a part of the overcomers rewarded with glory mentioned in Rev. 21:7… They only understood the dictionary definition of Reward but not the Biblical one which is extremely unfathomable to many, including myself!
“I have fought a Good Fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me At That Day: and not to me only, But Unto All Them Also That Love His Appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7-8). This is an appearance that would save our souls (Titus 2:13, Heb. 9:28), i.e. Paul completed the syllabus of understanding Eternal Life. He fought daily to overcome the world’s resolve to fill the soul with a pseudo-fulfillment that’s contrary to the infilling that should take place via eating and drinking of revealed kingdom truths.
“He that overcometh (by his spiritual walk on earth) shall inherit All Things (of God); and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (Rev. 21:7).
Beloved, if after 5 years of beginning the faith, the messages you hear year-in-year-out is not confronting what men call ‘My Life’ and is not gradually shedding light on the subject of Eternal Life (which is the divine life we received in our Human Spirit at new birth but are clueless about), you are being unknowingly cheated! Please prayerfully consider the fountain you drink from.
Though Satan is the prince/ruler of this world, he doesn’t understand eternal life, that tells you how precious it is! When Apostle John saw in the Spirit, his amazing exploits in Babylon over kingdoms and souls (Rev. 17), he wondered with great admiration, yet this same fallen cherub, Satan, who fabricated the software driving this world is the terrible being God has called us to overcome so we can Inherit Eternal Life! The question now is “When Would We Begin the Needed Carnal Life Shedding Journey”?
We must not be deceived, for God is not mocked by the attitude of believers and ministers to the true Christian faith! We can only reap eternal life by sowing to the Spirit (Gal. 6:7). God already has a company of few witnesses who disobeyed Satan by completing their course of salvation and we are already without excuse. God remains The Wisest Investor of all generations and he awaits excellent, much and precious Fruits of Eternal Life! (Isa.4:2, Jn. 15:5, Jam. 5:7).
May we all find grace to understand that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12) like the Lord and his apostles did, for only then would we understand how to overcome the obstacles to accessing The Divine Things of God and ultimately Lay Hold on Eternal Life with our soul, not our human spirit like we did at new birth.
Bless You!
Tayo Fasan