Programme: Believers’ Convention Prayer Meeting (Week 2_Day 1)
Date: Monday, 15th July, 2024
Transcript Summary
1. Reverend Kenneth E. Hagin (of blessed memory) showed us a pattern in the spirit by combining “course” and “ministry”. Many people do ministry but omit their course in the spirit. Apostle Paul said, “...that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 20:24). But later on, we see how Apostle Paul did not mention the ministry but said he had finished his course (2 Tim. 4:6-7). He then spoke about how the course has to do with those who love “His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). This means the saving of the soul is in the appearing of the Lord.
2. The appearing of the Lord is in two folds. There is the appearing to purify those in the Sanctuary. Apostle Peter made this clear in 1 Peter 1:2, and this aligns with what Apostle Paul said in the book of Hebrews – “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus…” (Heb. 3:1). The word “heavenly” speaks of the things of heaven under the New Testament allocation. It talks about how their names will be written in heaven. The only person who will make this happen is our Lord Jesus – the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. There is no transition from the Sanctuary into fullness of heaven except the High Priest appears; this is why we need His ministry.
3. The whole book of Hebrews is to bring the High Priest to the sons of God, who ought to be brought to glory. One can be a son but not yet a son in glory. Glorious sons are sons who have already become sons of salvation. God the Father knew that it would not be easy to hold or learn salvation because it is a heavenly calling/lesson; it is not earthly. But to have life precedes salvation, and it begins from the earth. The Hebrew church had come into a sphere of heaven. However, one can be in heaven and has not yet partaken of the core heavenly calling, which is the saving of the soul. One’s soul cannot be saved if one does not go to heaven. Jesus, with His spirit, soul, and body, moved into heaven (Heb. 4:14).
4. New creation reality peddlers feel they have gotten everything; they do not know that migration from earth to heaven is a mystery that cannot be easily read from scriptures. To move from earth to heaven is a secret, but it is in the Bible. Some say it is only Jesus who can ascend into heaven, but the Bible talks about the generation of those that seek the face of God (Ps. 24:6). Many are complacent on earth because the mystery of ascending to heaven is withheld from their eyes. We have an adversary who has done a lot on earth for souls not to leave the earth. Many quote the scriptures about seeking things that are above but cannot get it done because keys are needed to unlock them. It is mercy that makes us see these things; this is why we will never be proud or get elated by revelation. God is the One who makes us able to will and do of His good pleasure (Philipp. 2:13).
5. God the Father has succeeded in this generation because He has caused many to rise out of the earth; and there is going to be an exponential increase. Heaven is coming down here on earth this season. For a long time, heaven has not had the chance to come to earth because Satan kept heaven away. If we look on earth, we will think Satan is winning, but he is not. When we look up to heaven, we will see the amount of heavenly investment in understanding in order to raise men out of the earth (flesh). That was how Daniel ended the reign of the prince of Persia; he was given understanding (Dan. 10:12-13).
6. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14). The foundation of the gospel, which is about God coming to earth in the form of a man, is being revisited. God changed to a man completely to be able to save man. If He was a full God on earth, the devil could not have taken Him to a great high mountain to tempt Him. And if He was not fully a man, He would not be asking us to overcome as men. Jesus never acted as God when He came to earth, even though He downloaded God into humanity. He taught us how a man can use God to live. God the Father is interested in seeing man eating, sleeping, doing activities, and divine nature is at work in him, even in marriage. God wants to move into those terrains. The revelation of Christianity is “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).
7. It takes meekness for us to be in line with our season. There is the kingdom of God for the change of nature. The kingdom of God is coming to change the nature of men and remove the dominion of Satan in the air. The kingdom of God is coming because God is recruiting and delivering men from the dominion of Satan. This has to happen in order to break the hold of the dominion of the kingdom of the adversary. If not, Satan will continue to reign.
8. When our souls are being saved, it is learning the parameters of a dominion that has not yet appeared to all. God is very intentional about saving men (1 Tim. 2:3-4). Satan dominates and reigns to kill, but God dominates to save. The purpose of God’s dominion is to save, so we must have an idea of what it means to save. The kingdom of God comes to save. If one has not received the Kingdom, one cannot ‘reign’. Reign speaks of the evident manifestation of the full laws of God taking over the sphere of man on earth. This is not about when a Christian is in a strategic governmental position, which is still a kingdom or dominion under Satan. God is doing everything to change the dominion that man is under, and bring about the one that translates man into the Kingdom.
9. (John 10:6-11). Peter and the rest of the apostles were supposed to feed the lambs until they became sheep. That was why Jesus told Peter, “Feed my lamb”, “feed my sheep”, and then “feed my sheep” again (John 21: 15-17). This means those who are lambs should be fed until they become sheep, and still further become sheep. A lamb is one who is a babe in Christ, and such a one is to be fed until he grows steadily away from that lambish nature. The lamb of a year old is not yet a sheep; this is because it takes some time to translate a lamb from being a lamb to becoming a sheep. It takes some time to get people to move out of that initial baby state (after being born again). The level of development that one will experience at any state is determined by the spiritual food or table made available (Ps. 23:5). The characteristics by which one feeds is called ‘table’. A year-old child cannot eat the same way when he is four years old. There is a time one is sure of the age of a lamb – a time when such a person is transitioning to become a sheep.
10. Jesus wants men to become sheep; this is because it is only a sheep that can receive both everlasting life and Eternal Life. However, it takes time to develop a sheep. That was why when Jesus was leaving, He told Peter, “Feed my lamb”, “feed my sheep”, and then “feed my sheep” again (John 21: 15-17). It is a pain in the heart of Jesus when men are not being fed. If you are in charge of a hundred men and you are feeding them, you will be loved by the Master (Jesus). That is the way to lay down one’s life for the flock. Satan also comes to bargain with the shepherd because he knows that the food that is eaten by the sheep depends on how much a shepherd dies. A lot of people are not doing well and are not spiritually healthy in the body of Christ because of how they are fed.
11. A sheep must be fed to a point where they master the voice of the Shepherd. This is important because there is also the voice of a stranger. A sheep will never follow the voice of the stranger (John 10:5). A strange voice is that which is against the constitution of the Shepherd. The constitution of the Shepherd is who and what the Shepherd is. This is what makes the voice of the Shepherd. The sheep (who have developed in that constitution) know that voice. As such, they shut down when a stranger is talking to them. A real sheep will never follow the voice of a stranger. A lamb will follow the stranger because he has not yet known the voice of the Shepherd. It is by mercy that a lamb will not follow the voice of a stranger. This means one cannot determine all strange voices except one is of age spiritually.
12. It is a difficult challenge to breed the sheepfold. The word given to the apostles was to feed the lambs until they become sheep. Philip and Stephen were sheep among the sheepfold in Jerusalem. When sheep has been produced (from lambs), then it is high time to feed the sheep. You tell the nature or growth of a sheep by how they are being fed. While one feeds a lamb from the hands, one feeds a sheep from the face. The milk of the word comes down from the feeding of hands. Grasses come from the face of the field; it is called pasture because it is a production of the face. God gives pasture through His face; it is what the face of God emits. The Holy Ghost is the One who builds lambs to become sheep, and He does this through shepherds (men). You seal men by the Holy Ghost when you make them lambs. It is from this state He can oversee them to become sheep.
13. “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.” (John 10:2-3). The word “door” is significant in the verse above. The person of the Holy Ghost is the Porter who is in charge of the door, but the door is also a Person. The door is the Shepherd; this means Jesus enters through His door. The sheepfold is an order of the Shepherd that was designed by God in order to consistently meet with the sheep. It was designed by God because of the destiny of the sheep. Those who will come to the sheepfold are lambs that had previously gone astray in their way, but the Holy Ghost arrested them and gathered them as lambs.
14. To get a sheep to return to their fold is not a physical journey; it comes by preaching and teaching. This is how to call back a soul from where Satan has scattered it. It means ‘milk’ is very essential because it awakens the consciousness of lambs into what they are to become (sheep). We do not also return to the Shepherd to start with; there is a time of returning. “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:25). The time referred to as “now” is the time of salvation; it is the time when we are handed over to return to the Shepherd of the sheep and Bishop of our souls. It is a season of returning from where Satan has taken man.
15. “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. [2] Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. [3] Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” (Ps. 80:1-3). The Shepherd of the sheep is the giver of salvation. Prior to then, men are anointed by the Holy Ghost to preach and teach until men become sheep; these men are to keep teaching and feeding the sheep. Lambs become sheep when they have a foretaste of the Lord that He is gracious. The first food for the sheep is the “power of God”. We must feed the sheep with the power of God to get the sheep ready for salvation (Rom. 1:16). This means every sheep must be empowered; they must be preserved unto salvation. “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5). A sheep that is getting ready to meet the Shepherd of his soul is a sheep that is coming to a place where the power of God has tutored it.
16. To make a sheep return to the Shepherd, the Holy Ghost oversees the process through men. There is the ministry of revelation, which is necessary to build the sheep by first placing in them foundations. The first foundation is Christ at His degree. The obvious building of a sheep is the temple of the Lord. This means each sheep has a destiny, which is to flock with the rest of the sheep until they become a temple of the Lord. When they do, the Lord can come in. This is the destiny of a sheep. At this time, the sheep would already know His voice. Then Jesus will come into the sheepfold and call them by name (John 10:3).
17. “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Tim. 2:19). Iniquity is the voice of a stranger. When people leave the sheepfold, they are accessible by the stranger. The stranger is the one who led the sheep before (to go astray); He is also a shepherd. The thief is the wrong shepherd who knows how to lead the soul astray (to steal, kill and destroy). On the contrary, Jesus is laying down His life so that men may have life, and also have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
Blessings!