Text: 1 Peter 1:1-5, 2 John 1:1
It takes an elder to address the elect. The elect lady that John was writing to was a church; while her children were those who had been raised within her. Jesus Christ is the truth. Therefore, the instrument by which John was loving the elect lady was the knowledge that resides within Jesus Christ. This love is a product of John's knowledge of all truth. It is possible to love outside of the knowledge of the truth.
There are two dimensions to truth; Christ and the Father are entities of truth. There is the truth of eternal life just as there is the truth of life. John had come to the knowledge of all truth having known Christ and the Father. It is possible to walk in a dimension of love without actually knowing the truth.
As believers, who are alive in the spirit, we are expected to continue in His word for us to arrive at knowing the truth (John 8:31-32). To do this, one must have first received the word. The milk should be appropriated well for it to be powerful amidst believers. Some portions of the milk are solid. The milk is the provision for the growing child; while the meat is that which makes a man spiritual. The milk is what precedes the spiritual meat and drink which is Christ (1Cor 10:2-4). It takes a spiritual man to discern this meat, because it is of spiritual fabric. The purpose of the spiritual meat is to make a man spiritual. Therefore, no one can claim to be spiritual if he has not been transformed by the spiritual meat, which is Christ.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the spiritual law (Rom 8:1-4). It is those who walk in the spirit that can fulfill the law of righteousness that is in the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is to be Christ-minded (Rom 8:5-6). It is a spiritual man (a man who has become Christ) that has life and peace. Christ is the truth (John 14:6) that sets free. A free man is one who has been made so by the law of the Spirit of life. Therefore, to be spiritually minded is to be free.
A carnally minded man is in bondage. Flesh is a bondage that is run by the spirit of bondage. This freedom may not necessarily reflect in how quickly a man receives deliverance from sickness. A carnal man may sometimes receive bodily healing faster than a spiritual man. Carnal-mindedness would not be able to discern Job’s spiritual estate rightly because of his bodily condition. Job’s ailment was not the oppression of a demon; it was Satan himself that touched his body.
What makes a man spiritual is that he has been set free from the law of sin and death. Although, both spiritual and carnal men can send sickness out of their bodies, a spiritual man has access to an alternative way of ending sickness, which is by his walk.
A spiritual man may have already obtained life but not yet gotten to peace. There are things that pertain to life just as there are things which pertain to peace/godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The powers that are tangible to a carnal soul make him delight in spectacular expressions. Such powers are able to cast out demons but may not be able to wrestle with spiritual powers. It takes the walk of faith to wrestle with spirits.
What makes the spiritual man is that he has life and he is living. To possess life is to disengage from the manner of life that is common to flesh and engage a high life that flesh cannot dare to live because of fear. Fear is the bondage that preserves flesh. We must not be afraid of what will befall us if we embark on the journey to life.
Belial is the life of flesh which is contrary to the life of Christ (2Cor 6:15). A believer is not just one who believes God for food and drink. A believer is one who has surrendered his life to the direction of the Holy Spirit. One who does not submit his life to the regulation of the Holy Spirit will be exposed in the time of retribution.
The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17). The Holy Ghost is the personality who holds the inheritance of life and would lead us in the way we should go.
Life and godliness were given to us to bring us to glory and virtue. Knowledge is the material that brings forth life and godliness. Wisdom and understanding are what stores up knowledge (Col 1:9). When wisdom and understanding have produced knowledge in a man, that knowledge becomes his. When it becomes his, he is expected to use it and keep it from being taken from him.
Beyond the life and peace of the kingdom is joy. The kingdom is the kingdom of both Christ and God (Eph 5:5). Christ is life and peace. Therefore, a man cannot arrive at the kingdom of God (Joy) without going through the kingdom of life and peace. The levites and priests of the Old Testament typify the life and peace of the kingdom respectively. A levite is one who has just gained entrance into the kingdom having responded to the call to come near (Mal 2:4-5).
Any believer who has obtained the covenant of life and peace has attained a great state. Whereas, a man of peace is living on a higher plane. It is a man of peace that can turn many away from iniquity; that is, making carnal men become spiritual (Mal 2:6). A man of peace is he who has perfected his usage of the law of life and peace. This man is walking in charity and is following peace with all men (Heb 12:14). This man of charity is a peacemaker who can now see and approach the God of peace.
The stature of charity is a perfect man who has put away childish things (1Cor 13:9-11). There is no righteous life outside of faith. The law that powers righteousness is faith. The faith life disengages a man from the carnal life which is dependent on visible things. Some men are not grossly carnal and can be easily entreated to stop living the carnal life. On the other hand, some other men are not willing to give up their carnal life, just like the pharisees who would not willingly give up their achievements.
Outer court Christians are not carnal but are levites who have life to some measure. Those in the outer court are greater than John the Baptist because the gates of life that lead into the outer court is the entrance into the kingdom.
Sanctification is a working of the Spirit of God (1Pet 1:2). This sanctification is the peace region of the kingdom in the Holy Ghost. A man who has obtained the covenant of peace is a powerful levite. It would take a priest to stop death like Phinehas did (Num 25:6-9). It is such men who are zealous that can be given an everlasting priesthood; which is the realm of the holy of holies (Num 25:10-13).
Brethren who have gained the sanctification of the Spirit were elected to obey and receive the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ having finished the first course of obedience (1Pet 1:2). These men were kept for the purpose of inheriting the incorruptible inheritance. This inheritance is what Paul refers to as “a better and an enduring substance” (Heb 10:34). To be sanctified is to be purified and cleansed. This sanctified man is no longer corrupt but is still corruptible; he is not yet beyond the reach of corruption.
It is a man who has escaped corruption that can receive exceeding great and precious promises; promises more precious than Christ (2Pet 1:4). Such man can go on to partake of the divine nature which is the incorruptible. It takes meat to begin to deal with corruption. Faith begins this process which gets purified at the point of hope and is sealed at the point of charity. Charity is a place of grounding and rooting. We are to escape to a point where death becomes impossible.
The realm of sanctification keeps by the power of faith until the incorruptible comes (1Pet 1:5). The incorruptible inheritance is the blood life while the pure inheritance is the water life. Water is the life of faith that cleanses and purifies. However, the obtaining of life and peace is not the inheritance. The inheritance is received by a kind of obedience that is according to the revelation of the blood.
The blood of sprinkling is the blood of the everlasting covenant and is different from the blood that washes (Heb 13:20). This blood of sprinkling is the blood of the everlasting kingdom which is our inheritance. We are supposed to receive that inheritance from heaven where it is garrisoned by God. God is the one who guards it. That is why even the angels, who are heavenly beings, still desire to look into it.
Inheritances are transferred by thoughts. The way God guards the inheritance is so powerful that even angels are unable to access that thought. God designed the thought pattern of angels differently from the inheritance. That is why they are unable to access it even when they minister the things of inheritance to us. When we access the thoughts of the inheritance, we gain heavens. The dew of heavens is responsible for preserving and bringing the inheritance like manna from heaven.
To be purified is to be Christ, while to be saved is to be incorruptible. The blood of sprinkling is what disburses the inheritance by speaking it forth as better things which are things of salvation (Heb 12:24). The blood is everlasting and would speak forth everlasting things. It is that blood of the everlasting covenant that is designated to make us perfect. What we are to obey is what the blood is saying.
Within the Lamb of God are life, everlasting life and immortality. The reason the everlasting kingdom has come is to deal with corruption and mortality. Any other ‘kingdom teaching’ that does not deal with corruption is still within the realm of corruption. We are supposed to journey to a point where we can no longer be comprehensible by death (John 1:5).
God wants to bring us to an everlasting mind by making us inherit everlasting thoughts. Certain things would shut down when we reach the everlasting realm. There, our thoughts would not just be pure but would also be made true. The purpose of sprinkling is to make us cut the everlasting covenant by seeing everlasting standards and agreeing with them. The everlasting God would keep on speaking until the incorruptible seed is formed. Afterwards, the seed would begin to show forth its life and begin to live within us.
As the head of the church visits us, He sows His seed within us. Jesus, the husbandman is a seed sower. He is the carrier of the incorruptible seed and He bears it within His pouch. This seed is the most valuable gift that Jesus can give to a man. Every fibre of Jesus is incorruptible. What limits us from asking the incorruptible from Him is our capacity for understanding.
What the blood of the everlasting covenant is full of are God’s things. The speakings of the blood of sprinkling would heighten amidst us and would initiate everlasting obedience amongst us. As we do this level of obedience, we are being blessed and saved.
Oresotu funmilayo - 3 years ago