Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 11th November 2021
Ministering: Rev. Kayode Oyegoke
When John the Baptist sent people to go ask Jesus if He was the one to come or that they should expect someone else, Jesus strictly replied with scriptures (Luke 7:20). John the Baptist wanted to confirm if Jesus was doing more than working miracles because he knew that it takes more than the working of miracles to be a Messiah.
“Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” (Luke 7:22). John the Baptist would not have accepted this reply if Jesus did not mention that the gospel is being preached to the poor. Every other exploit outside the preaching of the gospel to the poor would not be enough validation that Jesus is the messiah. If Jesus did all those miracles and omitted the preaching of the gospel, John would be disappointed and would realise that he had shown Israel the wrong messiah.
No one can preach the Kingdom of God without growing up. Just like John as a child grew and waxed strong in the spirit (Luke 1:80), Jesus also grew up in the spirit, increasing “... in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). They both had to acquire growth capacity in order to teach concerning the Kingdom of God. It is obvious that the reason why the Church is currently unable to teach the gospel is because of lack of spiritual growth.
The gospel is for those who are poor in the spirit (Luke 4:18, 7:22). Similarly, the Kingdom of God is not for any man who is not poor in spirit. However, a time will come when this gospel will be, by great power, opened not just to the poor but as a witness to all men. At that point, God will use great power to force the gospel to be heard by all men so that the end may come.
A man who is not poor will be unable to receive the gospel. This poverty does not refer to the lack of money but a heart condition that is required to hear the gospel. God looks at the heart to determine if a man is qualified to hear the gospel. The message that got us born again is different from the gospel. The gospel is a secret message and it can remain a secret even to the church. Many Christians do not know that there is a lot ahead of the new birth and they afterwards plunge their entire lives into business without recognizing the great demand that is placed on everyone who is born again.
A man who is not poor in heart will be unable to respond to God. A man who still has something in his soul will not be able to respond to God, but a man who has been emptied in his soul will easily respond to God. If you lack the poor state of the soul, you will refuse the gospel. The gospel is a ministration of life; therefore, it comes against what you might have previously described as life. Men ought to become tired of Satan’s life that is present in their souls. The poor are those who, over time, have become tired of the life that we have here on earth.
The spirit of one who is born again looks through his soul in search of the validation that the man is ready for God. Scriptures speak of the One who knows the mind of the spirit (Romans 8:27). The Holy ghost checks your spirit to confirm that both your spirit and soul are ready for your movement. The Holy ghost will not move against the will of your spirit. He is also looking at your spirit to see if he is ready for the job of raising your soul.
Just as we bear with our brother in the physical, our spirits also have to endure our souls’ unreadiness. This is why we sometimes have vexations from within our spirits because he is tired of bearing the weight of our unredeemed soul. Thus, our spirits have to be strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit to continue bearing the burden of our souls (Ephesians 3:16). If our spirit is not strengthened with might, it can get tired of the soul. At this point, the spirit no longer speaks up or rebukes the man. Such a man can be said to have overcome his inner man, and thereby, have overcome the Holyghost as well.
Poverty of the spirit is the state of helplessness of the soul that is required to receive what the Kingdom is offering. You would have to be made poor to hear the tidings of the Kingdom and you will be rendered even poorer to enter the Kingdom. The further one goes into the Kingdom, the poorer he becomes. John the Baptist was so poor that he could minister things concerning the Kingdom. However, he could not enter into the Kingdom because he did not have the amount of poverty that is required for entrance.
The privilege that we are given to enter into the Kingdom is because of Jesus; we naturally do not have the qualifications for it. Jesus said that many kings, prophets and righteous men have desired to hear the tidings of the Kingdom but to them, it was not given (Luke 10:24). Despite our unqualified state, God reached into His insides and from there pushed out the riches of His mercy which are able to empower the weak to do what strong men do (1Corinthinas 1:26-27). It is this work of grace that allows us to see what a man like Moses could not see, and to be brought into a place where kings desired to enter but could not.
Jesus must have been a great preacher to trigger a desire for the Kingdom in men (Luke 10:25). The twelve disciples heard the message of the Kingdom from our Lord Jesus but could not preach it because it requires stature. They still could not preach the message of the Kingdom even after they were filled with the Holy ghost at the Upper Room because it takes more than being born again, filled with the Holy ghost, or even called into the fivefold ministry to teach or preach the message of the Kingdom.
A spiritually growing man is one who is becoming poorer in the spirit. As one becomes more spiritual, he relinquishes the worldly goods (dark riches) of his soul. There is an already running programme in man that determines how his life should go; and when life is not happening to him the way he has presumed, he becomes agitated. We were born with an already installed inheritance that determines how we see and evaluate life. It is possible to be born again and go to heaven with that inheritance untampered with. When God appeared to Abraham in a vision and told him that He is his shield and exceeding great reward, he was still concerned about his childlessness (Genesis 15:1-2). The response Abraham gave to God was a result of the wrong inheritance in his soul. This inheritance dictates what is the next thing that a man should have. On the contrary, God wants to invade our arrangements so that He alone decides what happens at every season of our lives or how our lives should go.
In the Kingdom are various dominions with their respective natures. There is the least in the Kingdom and great in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:19). The least in the Kingdom are those who have entered but are breaking or not doing the commandments that are in the Kingdom. The commandment for the least in the Kingdom is to become great. The least in the Kingdom is/are higher than John the Baptist. It is possible for others to overtake you in the Kingdom. There are many believers who are hearing the word of righteousness but are not yet in the Kingdom.
When we are disobedient to the counsels of our pastors, we cheat ourselves and keep ourselves outside the Kingdom. One whose countenance falls when his parents send him on errands is not showing Kingdom attitude. It is impossible to keep up with certain wrong attitudes and come into the Kingdom or become great in the Kingdom.
In the Kingdom there are the least, the great and the greatest (Matthew 18:1,4). If you are breaking commandments in the Kingdom after entering the Kingdom, you will remain least in the Kingdom. We should be careful in the Kingdom, knowing that entrance into the Kingdom does not mean that we cannot still come out of it.
Ephesians 5:5 says, “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God”. There are two major dominions in the Kingdom: the Kingdoms of Christ and God. The Kingdom of Christ begins from the entrance of the Kingdom to the beginning of God’s Kingdom. These Kingdoms have different power towards incorruption. Incorruptibility is attained in the Kingdom of God.
The kingdom of this world is a giver of corruption. The Kingdom of God is instituted against the kingdom of Satan. While Satan’s kingdom corrupts or decays, the Kingdom of God makes incorruptible. Entrance into the Kingdom of God is separation from decay. The New Birth and infilling of the Holy Ghost are prepared by God to slow down decay but they do not stop decay. The will of God is the only antidote to corruption; thus, by doing the will of God, we apply the medicine that stops decay.
Arriving at the Holy Place is an attainment that puts an end to decay because the forces of corruption cannot work there. Although the washing of Christ cleanses a man from corruption, to make him incorruptible requires more than washing. To be incorruptible is to be kitted with things that will stop one from turning back into decay.
God’s dominion is made up of the dominions of everlasting life and Eternal Life while the Kingdom of Christ is made up of the dominions of Life (or Righteousness) and Peace. These dominions are all lives. We eat in everlasting life and Eternal Life (Revelation 2:17) just as we eat in Christ’s life. Jesus Christ is the spiritual bread (1Corinthians 10:3-4), while the Son of God is the everlasting or Most Holy bread. In Christ, we eat of Jesus at various levels. There are portions of Jesus that we partake of before the Outer Court, in the Outer Court and in the Inner Courts. We partake of Chrisy before/until we enter into the separated place ordained by God as the start of the Kingdom, which is the place of the Levites.
There are most holy meals in the Most Holy Place. The most holy bread is the Everlasting bread. Anything divine is most holy; thus, the divine nature is from His bread. However, the hidden manna does not typify the divine nature but the eternal nature. Manna is a corn because it is an edible seed (Exodus 16:31). Manna was a sign to the people of Israel that what God was doing with them was a preparation for the promised land. When they entered into the promised land, having passed Jordan and Jericho, they ate the corn of the land and the manna ceased (Joshua 5:12). At this point, they did not eat only corn but also fruits.
The word of God first comes in the form of seed, as edible corn and afterwards as seed-bearing fruits (1Peter 1:22-23). Thus, there are everlasting seeds, edible everlasting seeds and everlasting trees. The season during which the 12 spies went out to spy the land was the season of everlasting rain and they found two trees in the land; pomegranates and vines. There is the vine of the earth which the Lord will harvest and cast into tribulation (Revelation 14:18-19). Sickle is used for harvesting trees, not seeds. The harvest of trees is the last harvest.
The word of the Lord referred to in 1Peter 1:25 is the incorruptible seed; the corn of everlasting Life. The promised land flows with milk and honey. Honey speaks of the season of fruits because it is usually obtained from trees. Thus, the season of honey is the season of trees, while the season of milk is the season of edible seeds.
When we break into Eternal Life, we will first be served the corn of heaven; thus, we would eat the hidden manna for some time. The corn seed precedes the fruit trees. Similarly, becoming a tree of righteousness - the planting of the Lord (Isaiah 62:3) begins by becoming a seed of righteousness and is followed by growing up to be trees of righteousness.
The fruit and the seed are both products of eternal grounds. Thus, the hidden manna and the fruit of the Tree of Life are provisions of the earth of the eternal ground. Jesus showed us in the New Testament that the hidden manna is a meal for the overcomer (Revelation 2:17). It is a corn of Eternal Life. When we arrive into Eternal Life, we would not immediately eat the fruit of the Tree of life but first, partake of the corn-seeds like the Israelites who first ate the corn of the land.
This Tree is the main meal (Revelation 22:1-2). One cannot partake of the Tree of Life without having eaten the Hidden Manna. Each of the months of the Tree are seasons and these months guide the climate of Eternal Life. These months constitute the months of Elohim.
The latter rain is Eternal Life. Everlasting life is a rain of God. Moses was a man of everlasting stature and he distilled this on Israel (Deuteronomy 32:2). Distillation is a process that yields pure liquid (water). We can be certain that rain would fall because there are clouds; clouds bring forth rain. There are Everlasting and Eternal clouds. Jesus’ return in a cloud is a rain (Revelation 1:7).
Jesus ate the hidden manna after resurrection and, by eating, He grew in Eternal Life. The Scriptures tell us that He afterwards showed Himself to His disciples by many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3). Those infallible proofs were different shades of Eternal Life. He was showing them the manna of Eternal Life. Jesus was the first wave offering of Eternal Life. Just as the priest waves the bread in the upper room as a wave offering, God was waving Jesus to mankind as Manna. God waved Him as an Eternal Bread as a witness to the disciples and as a pointer to the place where they ought to be.
The matter which the heart of the writer of Psalm 45 was inditing was not only about Jesus but also about the many who would sit with Him. Terrible things refer to a reservoir of things He needed to be exposed to, having been ordained into His new office (Psalm 45:4) - terrible things are terrible things in righteousness, not ordinary righteousness. These are highly magnified and fearful things that only the One who sits on the Throne can see and know.
Jesus ate the manna for forty days and, by so doing, showed Himself in different manners. Jesus was a doer; even after resurrection He was doing and teaching things (Acts 1:1-3). The hidden manna will teach you things, thereby giving you a nature. It will introduce you to the new name. The hidden manna works together with the new name and is not so different from the white stone; manna is also white in colour (Exodus 16:31).
The difference between Eternal Life and everlasting life is the absence of opposition. The devil is about to be dealt with. There are men who will overcome the dragon among the company of the man-child before the dragon will fall. A particular number is required to overcome the devil. After he is overcome, the capacity of the man-child will be built into the capacity of the 144,000.
According to Jane Lead’s prophecy, the typical tabernacle is going to be one that will be worked on by God and will multiply itself. The tabernacle will carry the glory of God and of the Lamb. The devil would have been dealt with to some extent at this point, but his final fall will be as a result of the completion of the number of the 144,000. There is a specific number that is required to completely pull Lucifer down from the air.
Thus, that which the Lord is doing in us now tells us that something is about to happen, we are being moved into a place where we will be well safe. Hence, what we need is a kind of power that will enable us to meet up because these speakings will begin to increase. The door is about to be open for many to enter from all sides.