Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Center (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 16th November 2022
The issue of the kingdom is a thing of mysteries. The seeing of and entering the kingdom is characterized in mysteries. No one can see, know or enter the kingdom without being given. ‘To be given’ means given to understand. The giving of the kingdom is a ministry in the hand of the Holy Spirit. There were people who desired the kingdom but it was not given to them.
We know that the kingdom is being given to you when your eyes are seeing, and your ears are hearing (Matt. 13:16). Hearing and seeing the word of the kingdom is a great call. That a man is born again does not automatically guarantee that he would see the kingdom. The new birth is a capacity to see the kingdom, but heaven may still refuse people who are born again from seeing the kingdom. It takes more than the new birth for the kingdom to be given. The kingdom cannot just be given to anyone.
The new birth gives the capacity to see the kingdom. It would work out a certain capacity to see and hear the kingdom (Jn. 3:3). Seeing means what is clear to you, that which you can understand. Seeing is the conclusion of your evaluation. The design of the world allows it to run by sight and this is the fuel that runs both kingdoms (of God and of Satan).
The purpose of church is to deal with the definition of life which spirits aforetime had worked on. It is possible for a child of God (by reason of the new birth) to continue walking in the vanity of his mind. For such a mind to be free from vanity, Eph. 4:4-17 must be understood. Vanity is when a mind is being run by vain programs and Jesus said that is the making of a Gentile.
Vanity is a fountain from ignorance that has registered an understanding. Vanity is because of some kind of ignorance that came from blindness. Blindness is not an ordinary work; it is a power— the power of Satan. Power is what keeps the minds of men in a vain state. There are things heaven has employed to take vanity from the minds of believers by getting them born again and into the church to meet the intent of God — going to the blind to shed light on them till their eyes are opened. Satan is holding men down by blindness.
The world is not friendly to the kingdom (Matt. 11:12). The world is hostile to freedom and the true gospel. Men of God can unknowingly fight the gospel of the kingdom because of ignorance. A man can be a preacher, yet he is blind. There is no way a person can be free except the heart is healed from blindness. The blindness of the heart is another mechanism that does not translate to mean that the person is not seeing physically, rather it is a dark work of persuasion that Satan did in the heart such that men would call vanity their life.
Ephesians 4:1-6 defines our vocation and our calling. However, verse 7 began to mention our auxiliary call: the ministry gifts. These five-fold callings are the requirements of God as grace is bestowed upon men to facilitate the preaching of a movement of the sight of the kingdom to men. The fivefold ministry are supposed to be servants of sight. They are more than healers and intercessors for families but many of them have settled in these roles. The offices of the fivefold were given from the throne.
Satan’s captivity is seen when men are held down by the dominion of Satan (Eph. 4:8); living in Satan’s projection to them as life. The agenda of Satan for the captured is great death; he wants them to go to lake. Satan wants to use men to perpetuate his interests. Satan is interested in man and his last agenda is to destroy man completely because he needs a kingdom on earth for a springboard into heaven. If Satan takes over the earth, there would be nothing left for God to do than destroy it. If God has to destroy humanity, He would have to restart man; then the program of Satan entering the lake would be delayed. The law is that the will of God must be fulfilled on earth, so Satan likes it when God is angry and destroying everywhere. Satan prefers the activities of wrath as in the days of Elijah and Elisha.
A man cannot stop a walk without stopping the power behind the walk. Your walk defines you in the Spirit; your walk is your fruit. When you take a walk, you are either dying or living. Walk simply means to ‘do’ in the Spirit. You cannot cram and meditate on scriptures to defeat your evaluation of vanity if light is not shed there.
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: [13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: [14] That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive …” (Ephesians 4:11-14). A child of God cannot read the Bible to set himself free. Even when a person meditates day and night, the idea of vanity remains such a one’s life. Although this might lead to some consecration, it would not deliver one from powers. So, when people say they do not go to church because they have their Bibles and can study for themselves, they are refusing the authority of freedom that Jesus set over men—the fivefold ministry.
The unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God are brought by the fivefold ministry. The Church ought not to remain children. However, the church sees the office of an Apostle as an elevation that ought to be celebrated. Apostles are supposed to make sure the children become sons. When all the fivefold ministries are around, the unhealthiness in the church will go and the sleight of men can no longer penetrate the Church.
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind…" (Ephesians 4:17). Walk is a resolution for life. The life you have chosen is your walk. There is something making a man choose life vainly, and that is coming from blindness. Captivity is a design of life that is generated from darkness to keep men in perpetual pursuit of a lifestyle that looks promising but is vain. For a man to believe in something vain as real is the power of blindness. God led captivity captive for the purpose of saving captivity: the reason for capturing captivity is so that they can have the opportunity of hearing the gospel so that the blindness can be treated. It will take some time and labour in teaching the word for blindness to be treated and sight restored (understanding).
For blindness to go, there has to be a heavy doze of repeated messages. What Satan puts in men are sinful works of darkness – works of years – and so it will take years to undo what he has done. Paul was teaching in the school of Tyranus daily (Act. 19:10) from morning till evening. Satan could not have loved Paul. Such ministers are labourers. They confront the work of Satan.
Immediately the hearts of men are lifted above the pleasures of the earth, the treasures of this earth will no longer have a hold on their hearts. Treasures are the things we hold in high esteem. If God sees that we are not ready for kingdom things, He will dissipate those gifts of heavens to natural things. But if we give to the spirit, we will reap everlasting life (Gal. 6:8). When you communicate your natural things to the spirit realm by sowing to the word, you will reap everlasting life. Everlasting life is incomparable with all the uncertain riches of this world.
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:34). Jesus is teaching us that it is good that a man’s heart treasures the heavenly kind of storage. We need to push our hearts to where moths and thieves cannot break through. This means we should not seek the things that will corrupt and pass away. Do not seek a life embedded in corruption.
"The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness." (Luke 11:34). A single eye is obtained by a discipline of focus that the dominion of light offers. It is singleness against evil. My eye is the evaluation of my judgement or the resolve of my thought concerning life. The body cannot be full of light without obedience. This means that it takes some time for the body to be engaged in sight activity.
Dominion starts by the placement of the eye. It culminates into fullness when the entire being is instructed and patterned after the single eye. This means the man is already a doer of the sight of that light. Both eyes, single or evil, are light. Light here is the means of seeing. One light is single, while the other is evil or darkness. Light in the realm of the spirit is seeing things from a different perspective.
You cannot have darkness and embrace light. You cannot be evil and desire the operation of a single eye. Single eye hates evil eye. The two of them do not align. The single eye is the means by which we serve God. When the eye is taking over the body, the man is profiting.
We inherited the wrong eyes from our parents and we became its servant on earth. Before now, we took wrong thoughts because we have been made helpless, but Jesus has come with grace for us to take the right thoughts. By this grace, Satan’s thoughts can no longer go through us without restriction. Jesus would not say "take no thought" if He had not provided some help. Our heavenly Father cares for all these things that we call life.
The allocation of the provisions of the kingdom is from God. What the heart of God is primarily focused on is our freedom from Satan. We enter the captivity of Satan by thoughts and through thoughts, we can enter the kingdom of God. God's order of seeking is different from the order of the dominion of seeking which the kingdom of Satan offers. These basic things were turned by Satan and exalted by him until they became the life that man began to live and chase as treasures. Man used to be spiritual, higher than food, house, raiment, etc.
People in the kingdom do not do the ‘taking of thoughts for tomorrow’ (Matt. 6:33-34). But this should not be taken to mean that we should not care for our lives. The thought of this scripture must be balanced with other scriptures. It means we should not let tomorrow be our preoccupation as life. Some people are so high on tomorrow and are not resting because of it. Tomorrow is not necessarily the next day, rather it talks about the future.
The evil to contend with in a day is the incursion of the evil eye, that the evil eye should not overtake us. To be overtaken is to make one a seeker. In other words, doing evil is to be a seeker of things. Any man who wants to change from the service of the evil eye must have been hearing the preaching of the single eye. The evil eye contends against our repentance. To do well in ministry, God has to remove this evil eye.
The kingdom is not heaven. Rather, it is the life of God in heaven that God is bringing to earth so that man can partake of it. The first thing the kingdom of God goes for is our understanding. But before this, we must first hear the kingdom so we can see it. We cannot hear the kingdom unless the preachers of it are sent. This preaching is the unveiling of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21).
The power that raised Jesus up is sent to us through preaching to conduct our lives on earth. In essence, it is using resurrection power to live on earth. People cannot be broken free from blindness without a preacher of understanding. The kingdom works by understanding, so hearing must be the first thing.
The interpretation of the parable of the sower bores down to understanding. There can never be understanding except the seed is sown. There is a particular seed of the kingdom. In the parable, we saw that the seed which represents the kingdom of heaven was the least of all seeds (Matt. 13:31-32). If the mustard seed is likened to the seed of the kingdom, then there are many other seeds that are seeds of the word. Preachers do not quickly preach the seed of the kingdom because it is very tiny. It is not easy to see a mustard seed because of its size but that is what grows into a tree. That means God put a tree in something that is physically insignificant.
So, it is not every preaching that is the giving of the seed of the kingdom no matter how good it sounds. We need to look for the kingdom seed. Prophets who inquired diligently were not given, but to us it was given to know the seed of mystery (Matt. 13:11). So, if the mystery around the seed is not removed, we would not appreciate it. The seed of the kingdom comes through periods of waiting.
The Holy Ghost knows the seed of the kingdom. He brought it and He will take us and lead us because we have the seed in us. The Holy Ghost does not lead anyone in the pattern of the kingdom without them having the seed in them. Immediately after the seed is sown, the Holy Ghost will begin to lead according to the nature of the seed because the seed has weather conditions required for it to grow. This message is the climate for the tree of the kingdom. Our climate is changed to sprout the kingdom. The Holy Ghost is the creator of climate. He will take us to a terrain where the seed of the kingdom can grow.
Matthew 13 contains the parable of the sower. In the parable, some seeds fell on the path (Matt. 13:5). Satan is the originator of the path, the rock and the thorns. Thorns are cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matt. 13:22). The path is where natural men tread. When the seed fell on hearts that were paths, Satan knew that the seed would not be useful to that person because it means nothing. The seed loses its strength because the heart of such a person is not well-positioned for it (Matt. 13:20-21).
Satan, as in the wicked one, came to pick the seed away (Matt. 13:19). This means that Satan can pick the kingdom seed, yet he would not have dominion. He would be looking for a way to use the seed but he cannot because it was not conditioned for angels. It has its own climate which is in the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Ghost that knows how to program entrance (John 3:5). When entrance is taking place, there will be some challenges. We ought to stay and not fear or fret. We have stayed for many things that are ephemeral; how much more things of eternal value?
When we know the mystery of the kingdom, it means we are being given the seed of the kingdom. To have the seed is tantamount to seeing the kingdom. We cannot see the kingdom without having the seed but we can have the seed and not use it. So, entrance means planting on a good ground. A good ground is a good heart (Matt. 13:23). A stony heart is one that runs as a result of persecution (Matt. 13:20-21). It is a heart that will not bring to term the period of sprouting for the seed of the kingdom.
There is also the heart of thorns. This heart will allow the seed to grow with thorns, then the thorns will choke it (Matt. 13:7). A person with this type of heart can claim to love this word and may have an idea of the kingdom. He would be receiving washing, though not completely. When the Holy Ghost then brings conditions for entrance, the thorns come and choke the word. That means that the kingdom can be killed when it has not come into full manifestation. The body of the seed can be expired and the life in it would go back to the Person who made the kingdom.
Every seed has a form of life which is the program that is contained in the germination of the seed. When seeds fall into the ground, shells die and life enters into the soil. When life enters the soil, a good soil is a ground for interpreting the program of the seed. A good soil will receive the program of the seed. These are unseen things that are done in darkness. The ground of germination is a graveyard. So, the kingdom can turn death into life. The process does not finish as soon as the seed hits the ground. Satan would still be after it. He understands the processes of growth of the tree. But once the seed becomes a tree, he leaves it alone. The tree would then begin to bring forth fruit in thirty, sixty and hundred folds (Matt. 13:8).
A person in thirty-fold is a spirit. A thirty-fold fruit bearing makes one a spirit. The conditions of living that the Holy Ghost brings in a season does not mean one has entered the kingdom. It takes some time to enter into the kingdom. However, as we undergo those processes, we are not remaining the same. We are changing but have not entered the kingdom. We are being converted to a person that can go through the gates of the kingdom. By the time we bring forth a thirty-fold yield, we are gradually entering the kingdom, having come into dominion. Sixty-fold is a deeper entrance than thirty. We would go through another gate for that. The next level, a hundred-fold, also requires another gate. So, there are three folds of the dominion.
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17). Righteousness is thirty-fold, peace is sixty-fold, and joy is hundred-fold. All these are kingdoms in the kingdom. They are also programs in the seed of the kingdom. One thing the kingdom saves us from is decay. To turn us from decaying beings was by giving us a word that will not allow us decay. When we enter the kingdom, decaying ceases and corruption halts. There are other lessons after corruption halts. For example, there is the lesson of holiness in the kingdom.
There are three beings that characterise the kingdom. There is the least, the great and the greatest in the kingdom. The least in the kingdom are those who have entered the kingdom. The great in the kingdom are among those who are least that have obeyed the commandments that moves one from being least to great. There is a commandment God gives the least so they can become great.
A man in the least of the kingdom that is going towards the great should be able to teach the kingdom to others. But such a man can teach the kingdom and not do it. He does not change state because there are things he is yet to do. He would not just be limited to communicating great things.
“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? [2] And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, [3] And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:1-4). ‘Little children’ is a term for referring to people in the kingdom Jesus showed them the place of little children. Little children are those who are entering or are in the kingdom. Jesus was telling His disciples that the place He put them is where little children are, but the midst belongs to the greatest who is a little child. He was making the disciples know that they had not entered the kingdom and were not even great yet. So, they should first enter the kingdom, become great, then become as a little child.
The law of humility is a particular law for the greatest that God gives to men. God will not give us that law when we are not in the kingdom or we just entered the kingdom. He will only give it to us when we are great. Only great people can understand the greatest things. The farther we go into the kingdom, the smaller we become. There are dominions in the kingdom and they are different from the natural dominion built by Satan. In Satan’s dominion, the deeper one goes, the bigger such becomes but in God’s dominion, the deeper one goes, the smaller such becomes. It is the shrinkage of men to small sizes in their souls, making them young on the inside.
The purpose of the kingdom is to be young in age in the spirit and be innocent of evil. The deeper we go into the kingdom, the freer we become from sin. Jesus, who knew no sin, was in the greatest point of the kingdom. He had no knowledge of sin. When sin is brought before Him, He does not see it. He was so little that sin was older than Him. Jesus and sin had no interaction. The age of sin was so much higher than Jesus’ age that Jesus could not sin. As He was being tempted by Satan, He only replies with one single statement per temptation (Matt. 4:1-10). Satan could not get Jesus because Jesus was kingdom-configured.
The deeper we go in the kingdom, the more heaven hangs authority around us. We would not even know it. Those who are in the kingdom wield tremendous power without knowing. God often guards the hearts of kingdom-men for them not to really know who they are because He wants to push them further into dominion. The purpose of the kingdom is to push corruption out of us.
Blessings!
Summary
-
The seeing of and entering the kingdom is characterized in mysteries. No one can see, know or enter the kingdom without being given. ‘To be given’ means given to understand. The giving of the kingdom is a ministry in the hand of the Holy Spirit.
- The new birth gives the capacity to see the kingdom. It would work out a certain capacity to see and hear the kingdom (Jn. 3:3). But it takes more than the new birth for the kingdom to be given. The kingdom cannot just be given to anyone.
-
It is possible for a child of God (by reason of the new birth) to continue walking in the vanity of his mind. For such a mind to be free from vanity, Eph. 4:4-17 must be understood. Vanity is when a mind is being run by vain programs and Jesus said that is the making of a Gentile.
-
(Ephesians 4:11-14). A child of God cannot read the Bible to set himself free. Even when a person meditates day and night, the idea of vanity remains such a one’s life. Although this might lead to some consecration, it would not deliver one from powers. So, when people say they do not go to church because they have their Bibles and can study for themselves, they are refusing the authority of freedom that Jesus set over men—the fivefold ministry.
-
(Luke 11:34). A single eye is obtained by a discipline of focus that the dominion of light offers. It is singleness against evil. My eye is the evaluation of my judgement or the resolve of my thought concerning life. The body cannot be full of light without obedience. This means that it takes some time for the body to be engaged in sight activity.
-
People in the kingdom do not do the ‘taking of thoughts for tomorrow’ (Matt. 6:33-34). But this should not be taken to mean that we should not care for our lives. The thought of this scripture must be balanced with other scriptures. It means we should not let tomorrow be our preoccupation as life.
-
The kingdom is not heaven. Rather, it is the life of God in heaven that God is bringing to earth so that man can partake of it. The first thing the kingdom of God goes for is our understanding. But before this, we must first hear the kingdom so we can see it. We cannot hear the kingdom unless the preachers of it are sent. This preaching is the unveiling of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21).
-
The Holy Ghost knows the seed of the kingdom. He brought it and He will take us and lead us because we have the seed in us. The Holy Ghost does not lead anyone in the pattern of the kingdom without them having the seed in them. Immediately after the seed is sown, the Holy Ghost will begin to lead according to the nature of the seed because the seed has weather conditions required for it to grow.
-
When we know the mystery of the kingdom, it means we are being given the seed of the kingdom. To have the seed is tantamount to seeing the kingdom. We cannot see the kingdom without having the seed but we can have the seed and not use it. So, entrance means planting on a good ground. A good ground is a good heart (Matt. 13:23).
-
The law of humility is a particular law for the greatest that God gives to men. God will not give us that law when we are not in the kingdom or we just entered the kingdom. He will only give it to us when we are great. Only great people can understand the greatest things. The farther we go into the kingdom, the smaller we become.