Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: 9th March 2022
Ministering: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
In John 3:3, Jesus spoke about seeing the kingdom; while in verse 5 He spoke about entering the kingdom. Jesus' commission is the issuing of the kingdom to mankind. Jesus' words are not ordinary. According to Matthew 18:3, the entrance point into the kingdom is a conversion to becoming like little children. Verse 5 of the same chapter in Matthew shows that there is a difference between 'child' and 'children'. It takes spiritual understanding to recognize that those words are not ordinary; they are kingdom codes to define different points in the kingdom of God.
The little children are the ones who have entered into the kingdom while the greatest in the kingdom is the little child. In the kingdom, people are not in the same place. This means that people can get into the kingdom and then begin to appreciate in the kingdom. Jesus' teachings look simple but human beings cannot have access into them except by mercy. Jesus was teaching at a point where flesh cannot comprehend. Jesus did not come to teach so that everyone could understand; He came to speak mysteries so they can be kept away from the ordinary eye.
All of Jesus' teachings are in parables (Luke 8:10); just as that of the little child and the conversion of the little children. The position of the little child is not the same as that of the little children, telling us that the number reduces as one goes deeper into the kingdom. It is not everyone that will be able to journey according to the laws of the kingdom. Jesus knows that the further you go into the kingdom, the lesser the number; although we all are in the kingdom.
At New birth, a person has the capacity to see the kingdom (John 3:3). New birth in itself is neither the kingdom nor entering the kingdom. But one who is born again is given the capacity to see. To see means to comprehend. This emphasizes that the kingdom is not a physical place but a spiritual sphere for our soul to see and to understand what dominion is. This dominion is not like the rest of dominion.
Dominion to a natural mind is misconceived because what he sees as dominion is what the world places it to be but dominion in God's concept is different. In God's perspective, dominion is a different word from human language and natural thinking. Jesus rebuked his disciples in Matthew 18 on the subject of who is the greatest in the kingdom. If they understood the issue of the kingdom, they would not have tried to strategically place themselves on either side of Jesus. The disciples thought dominion had to do with a physical manifestation of how a king would be enthroned but the dominion of God is different from that.
All flesh shall comprehend the salvation of God (Luke 3:6). Salvation is naturally incomprehensible. So, the preaching of salvation is to make people understand what salvation is. Salvation is the offering of the kingdom of God to man. The answer to the salvation of flesh is the kingdom of God because what made man flesh is a kingdom. Man was not created as flesh. The first Adam began the origin of man (Gen. 2:7). Adam was not made flesh, he only had flesh as a house. Satan made man like his house. Man is a spirit, has a soul and lives in a body. By reason of the fall of man, he became exactly like his abode.
"…that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." (Gen. 6:1-3). Some schools of thought say that the sons of God were angels. But Jesus said according to the New Testament that angels do not marry neither are they given in marriage (Matt. 22:30), because angels are not creatures of that kind and they are not humans. Also, if they were angels, God should not have taken it out on man in verse 3, but on the daughters of men who got married to the angels. But those men were still mentioned as the heads of the house. Those sons of God were men that God depended on. They were the mass of people that were worshiping God, who were spiritual in their souls. They were living souls, exactly like the first man, Adam.
According to Genesis 5:1, it was not only Adam that was a living soul. Jesus was not the second Adam although He was the second Man (1 Cor. 15:47). Jesus was the last Adam. There were other Adams that existed; and then a last Adam after which there were no more Adams. What makes a person an Adam is not as a result of being birthed by a woman but by a qualification in scripture. An Adam is a man that is not 'flesh'— one whose house is not governing him. We can have many men and God can be successful with raising one to be an Adam; because it is not easy to take the soul and raise it above the flesh. The battle in the church right now is to make the church spiritual and to make men who will be greater than their house i.e., their flesh.
"This is the book of the generations of Adam…" (Gen. 5:1). This is the archive of Adams or how Adams were generated. Many of these Adams existed in the beginning. It ended with Noah. The first Adam did not grow up to become Adam; he was made so. But those who were to come after him grew up to become Adam. This does not in any way refer to the outward man or body. Rather, this refers to the inward formation of such a person. The Lord is the one who is responsible for this inward formation. Not even formal education as we have it today can develop man on the inside. Jesus never went to a formal school yet growth occurred throughout His life here on earth.
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years... And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech... And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah... And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Gen. 5:21-32). These scriptures do not only show the chronological order of generations but much more, it shows a record of a kind of birth process. God wanted them to live and understand what life was before proceeding to reproduce. This was so that the earthly life will not overshadow the inward development because the outward life is very heavy and can be weighty.
What Satan the adversary did was that he understood how much of a tripartite being man was. Knowing that man had a house (body), he devised a means to create a life outside man's house so as to make that life become man's everyday reality. God never called 'flesh' Adam. The name Adam is for a living soul (a soul living in the sight of God). Satan's plan was to translate the life of the outward man into the soul. As at Genesis 6, Satan had succeeded in culturing all men to live like that.
Though Adam died in his spirit by reason of disobedience, his soul refused to die. He obeyed God by refusing to be flesh even though he had an option to become flesh. He maintained the living soul state even after the fall. If Adam had fallen totally into flesh, there would not have been an Abel. We would have only had Cain(s) on earth. Adam fought death even though he brought it in. Satan decided to do a work on the two sons of Adam with a focus on the first child until Cain allowed the death nature to rub off on his soul. He undertook the responsibility of making flesh.
Before we received Jesus at the New birth, everyone was flesh. No one was spiritual and even though we became born again, we were still flesh in our souls. This shows us that when Adam's spirit died, his soul never became flesh. The soul does not become spiritual just by the quickening of the spirit. The soul has to also be redeemed from its fleshy state. Committing sin goes beyond committing fornication, theft and the other sins as we know them (1 John 3:8). For example, Cain did not commit any of the above-listed sins; yet, he was of the devil (1 John 3:12).
When your soul is born the same way your spirit is born, you will get to a place in the birth process where you will not commit sin (1 John 3:9). To not commit sin is to be completely detached from the former life of the flesh. This means that you will not serve sin. The first-century Christians had come to a place where they could be born of God in their soul. They were at the place where they could get freedom to not sin. It takes time to be born of God.
"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." (1 John 3:10). 'Children of God' in the scripture above does not refer to new converts. Children of God are those who God can easily control because they are childlike. When God is transacting through them, they do not refuse God. God can travel through them without restrictions and resistance. Some people can even speak in tongues but still resist God. Inability to resist God goes beyond speaking in tongues. A child is easily entreated. This is a son who is childlike at heart. How God measures maturity is a development of age outwardly and reduction of age inwardly.
Miracles are a witness but they are not a sign of the manifestation of the sons of God. The real miracle is the transaction of life: the power to live and express God's character. Righteousness is the principle that God laid for us to carry out so that He can own us. It is to become God's own. Satan's seeks to dispute the fact that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 4:6). The truth is Jesus did not just attain sonship by luck; He attained i t through process. Jesus went through the process to show us that it is possible for a man to also attain such spiritual height. He came as a Man to help us fulfil what we are supposed to become. God wants every one of us to get here.
Jesus, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, is still a Man, and is lower than where He was as Logos. As Logos, Jesus was not subject to God, He was equal with God. But because of mankind, He became an eternal sacrifice; He changed state (Phil. 2:6-8). We should never forget that the Man on the Throne is a sacrifice. He not only offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross but He also offered Himself to God without spot after His resurrection (Heb. 9:14). The issue of rising, growing and getting to the Throne is a thing that we cannot play with.
"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." (1 John 3:10). There are two things mentioned here: righteousness and loving one's brother. Righteousness is the love of God. Loving one's brother follows after righteousness – they both work together. Anyone who does not love his brother is not righteous. This is the test to know if a person truly loves God. Righteousness makes one to be begotten of God. When such a person is born of God and he finds his brother who is also born of God, there is no way he will hate his brother with whom he shares blood in the same communion.
Cain killed Abel because Cain was already born by someone in his soul (1 John 3:12). Though they were siblings from the same parents, he could not stand Abel. Cain did not just wake up one day to hate Abel; something within him made him hate Abel. Cain slew Abel because his works were evil. The works Cain was carrying out were not outward works. Cain was not doing evil outwardly nor was he killing people, but he was being born of the devil in his soul.
What God calls 'works' is what a man eventually turns into. Works are the things that a man would do to change his nature. Works refer to the price we pay so that we can grow up spiritually. Before Jordan, Jesus did not do any miracles; but at Jordan, God was pleased with Him (Matt. 3:17). This means that Jesus must have been doing something to please God. Jesus had done works to become God's son. What God calls works are the things He gives to man for the purpose of changing his nature.
The main work of every man is to change into what God wants him to become. God did not make man so that he would become a preacher; preaching is secondary. One can be a son of God without being a preacher. Jesus was a doer before He was a Teacher (Acts 1:1). Everything that Jesus preached about, He did them before preaching.
As at when Jesus began preaching, He had entered the kingdom through obedience to commandments. Jesus entered the kingdom as a man. His entrance as a man is a proof that man can enter into the kingdom. Jesus did not use the powers of his Godhood to enter into the kingdom. He grew by obeying God until He entered the kingdom. Jesus became one of the little children. He went on to becoming the Little Child. Then He went further to become the greatest in the kingdom (Matt. 18:3-4).
A man's spirit can be saved. This does not mean that his soul has automatically gained entrance into the kingdom. When Jesus came to the earth, He met the operation of flesh. It is this same flesh that Jesus wants to give Eternal Life (John 17:1-2). There was no living soul when He came on earth except John the Baptist, who was beheaded. The purpose of God's kingdom here on earth is not for kingdom dominion in the way people think of it. Jesus said something about His dominion in the New Testament. It is not the same as that of the kingdoms of this world (John 18:36). The kingdom of God is not like that. Evil cannot access God's kingdom, and God will not allow evil to rule over His house.
Inheritance is conversion – turning flesh into spiritual. Another word for flesh is grass (Isa. 40:6). The nature of grass is that it withers; it does not last (1 Pet. 1:24). Grass has glory, but it can wither. Any glory that man pursues on earth will fade like a flower. The bearer of the flower (or of the glory) is grass. There is nothing good grass can do because it is of a lower nature. The kingdom of darkness was what turned man to grass; but God can turn grass to stone.
"who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son…" (Col. 1:13). The power of darkness is the kingdom of darkness. People in the kingdom of darkness are flesh. From the Old Testament, those who were able to escape flesh were prophets. 'Son of man' referred to people that were higher than grass level; they were prophets. Moses was a prophet because he was able to go out of flesh (Num. 12:6-8).
A man with a prophetic nature is one who has been able to overcome his house and stay above it. These were the kind of people God could talk to, rather than flesh. God visited them to help them grow above their body on earth. It is a privilege on earth if any man can live above the outward man. Such a man has been able to fight until he breaks out of the confinement of being flesh. This is what Jesus called freedom (John 8:32).
Jesus has made believers change from flesh to stone in their spirits. To be free is for one's nature to change; and it can only be done by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The flesh is the work of Satan and therefore belongs to his dominion. For God to translate a man from that flesh state to the kingdom of God, He brings a law to that man. This law reveals a work that needs to be done, and its role is to translate the man from being flesh to become a spiritual man or a stone.
In Genesis 4, Adam had two male children named Abel and Cain. Abel obeyed righteousness to develop himself, whereas Cain did not. The scriptures said, "And in process of time…" (Gen. 4:3). What this means is that they both grew up doing things they were given till they became priests that could offer sacrifices to God. They grew up not just physically but on the inside too.
However, one was already wicked and could not offer an excellent sacrifice; unlike the other who was righteous by the works that he did. They brought offerings that God used to reveal who they were on the inside. The offering of Cain showed that Cain had not changed nature. Instead, he later killed his brother. It becomes clear that when a person who should experience a change of heart goes through the change process, another who could not be changed will begin to dislike the former after a while.
Therefore, no man can be neutral when the law is being given. The reason a man would not allow change is because there is an antagonistic force within. The man is obeying a pull within that is preventing him from following the law of God.
At the New Birth, a man is still carnal spiritually. But it is wrong to remain carnal. It is good to go from carnality to spirituality. By doing so, a man enters into the kingdom. To become spiritual is the call into the kingdom. The kingdom is aligned and set at par with our spiritual growth. As a man grows spiritually, he is entering into the kingdom. Nevertheless, to enter the kingdom, a man must first see it. To see it is to comprehend it. This leads us to the importance of the Ephesian's prayer. The Ephesians church were born again and had done well with the milk of God's word. So, the overseer of the church, after watching their walk, was convinced that it was high time they began to take steps towards the kingdom. Because of this, his first act was to pray for them.
It is essential to know that no believer can see the kingdom without Jesus and the Holy Spirit praying for them (Rom. 8:26, 34). It is these prayers of the Holy Ghost and Jesus that Paul undertook for the church after he sensed that someone needed to be praying on earth. He realised that one was praying in heaven: the Holy Ghost was praying in believers; and then there was a need for a third party -- a person who is also in the kingdom and is a witness. Two witnesses were on earth, and one in heaven, so there can be a force. They were all praying to the Father (Eph. 3:14). No one could enter the kingdom without the Father's help and permission.
There is a way a Christian can be qualified to see the kingdom. To be granted permission to see the kingdom, God checks the believer's faith in the Lord Jesus. They test the believer's faith: they can tell if the believer can believe in the Lord, even when things do not go their way. The believer will hang on to faith sincerely. This faith is also buttressed by their commitment of love to the saints. If one's faith in the Lord Jesus is not enough, one would not love all the saints. When one trusts the Lord, there is usually a complete surrender of all to Him. This trust in God goes beyond the supply of needs.
Having faith in the Lord Jesus is more than commanding the sycamore tree to be uprooted. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). When a man has not seen Him and yet believes in Him, that commitment is faith. Although there is no physical evidence, faith is a spirit that holds a man, and the man is committed to it. Hence, the new birth and speaking in tongues are faith expressions. It is not seen physically. Faith in the Lord Jesus talks about a commitment to life without all the clues being given.
A man can be born again, and he will not see the kingdom (John 3:3). Opening of the eyes cannot come to anyone who is not ready for the kingdom. The opening of the eyes is not just for a man to see, but for one to not misjudge the working of the kingdom for the purpose of entrance. This is because when entrance into the kingdom is occurring, Satan can put strings in the way to prevent a man from entering. There are challenges that will come at the point of entering the kingdom.
Violence in the kingdom began when John the Baptist began announcing the kingdom. Jesus said, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matt. 11:12). The phrase "and the violent take it by force" shows us the activity of evil spirits at the announcement of the kingdom by John the Baptist. They rearranged their strategy; they tightened the path to the kingdom to ensure no one enters. Part of their new strategy is to make those willing to enter the kingdom to be seen as useless (weak) and be persecuted by men, for others not to see them as a model to life.
But if men are granted eyes against the workings of these evil spirits, men will leave their kingdom. Satan does not trust his weapons because they are not true; hence the reason for his violence strategy. But God's weapons are true. A time is coming when men would see the lies of Satan and be eager to enter the kingdom of God. If a man can see his true state in the spirit, he will leave his flesh state to become a stone. It is a man who can discern, see and do the things required for entrance that will enter into the kingdom.
In the geography of the earth, stones are in grades. Man should hasten to become a stone because it can only take a stone to enter the kingdom. When the opening of eyes is taking place to see the kingdom, the first eye given helps one to access the materials of stone. This is why for a man who is doing the kingdom, it appears like he is going against pressure. Stones are formed under the earth's crust through extreme pressure. Challenges will come when the kingdom is coming to a man, but we should not be discouraged by it because they are for a while.
In Genesis chapter 6, God did not want the sons of God to have their life because a man living the way he wants to live will end up becoming flesh. God knew that those fair women whom the sons of God desired to marry had things that would make them stop seeking and not continue in God. There is something about flesh and choices. It's good to know that things on earth are not ordinary. The choices a man makes can turn him. They are machinery that can conform a man to this world. Choices are powers. We may see them and not see evil in them.
There are two kingdoms: the kingdom that makes grass or flesh and the kingdom that turns grass into stone. The stone life in dominions is referred to as everlasting life. So everlasting stones are indestructible; they cannot be corrupted. They are made stones, stones God can give Eternal life to. The point of entrance into the kingdom is the point of a stone–the point of moving from flesh to the living.
To make grass a stone, you have to seek the kingdom and its righteousness (Matt. 6:33). The compelling of satanic power is to make man seek all other things. All other things have become legal in our days; they have become 'righteousness'. So, a man can seek all other things and not have energy for the kingdom. This was the problem of Cain. He was not interested in what he will become to be profitable to God. He wanted something else for himself. This desire in the natural doesn't look bad but it converted him into an evil being that he didn't plan for.
Jesus called water and spirit, the will of My Father (John 3:5; Matt. 7:21). So, a man cannot enter the kingdom except he is doing something–the will. The will of God is where the dominion of God is hung. There is no entrance into the kingdom except the will is done. So, when God is revealing His will, He is giving His dominion, kingdom, deliverance and salvation.
Jesus said "... My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." (John 4:34). Our meat should be to do the will of Him that sent us and to finish it also. To finish here means the will has a finishing point. The finishing point of the will is life everlasting. The first will, Christ, gives life. There is also a dimension in the kingdom that gives peace.
There is no entrance into the kingdom except by the water and spirit. The water and spirit is the first will of God. And there are three kingdoms of God: righteousness, peace and joy (Rom. 14:17). The three dimensions of the will are good, acceptable and perfect; and they are all life levels. Good will makes one come into the kingdom and become good. But to be good is not enough; one should run further into the kingdom and be acceptable and then move further into the perfect will in the Holiest of All.
The good and the acceptable realms are also referred to as righteousness and peace (Isaiah 61:1-2). The world also gives peace (John 14:27); it gives righteousness and joy also. The joy it gives is what every flesh on earth wants to get. If the church is not careful, it can preach destruction instead of construction and deliverance. It can be out of sincerity– a desire to make people have a good life, not knowing that we have delved into the archives of Satan's will by preaching to destroy men.