Programme: Believers’ Convention 2024 (Week 3_Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, 23rd July 2024
Transcript Summary
1. Jeremiah 33:12-22. These verses speak about the throne of David, but we see the picture of the land that was desolate. There is a positive attribute to that which seems negative so we can have understanding. It is also a wisdom in the prophets of hiding truth and things. Israel was baptized in the sea and under the cloud (1 Cor. 10:1-2). Those are two different signs. The cloud and the sea are two different types of water. The cloud stood as a witness above, while the sea was a kind of preservation. The sea washed them from Egypt and preserved them for the wilderness.
2. The passage through the sea is a transition to make them spiritual. They could eat of the spiritual meat and drink of the spiritual Rock which is called Christ (1 Cor. 10:3-4). Previously, they drank a bitter water that Moses made sweet, but they found the spiritual Rock much later (Exo. 15:23). The spiritual Rock was Christ. The bitter water was also a preparation for them to take the water of the Rock and manna. That manna was the food of christs. It is the ‘power of God’ for the promised land. The manna did not cease until they entered into the promised land (Jos. 5:11-12). Manna is not a meal of the promise. The promised land has its own meal, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
3. Christ is a promise but they did not do well with Christ. They kept murmuring around Christ. So all those who did not obey Christ died in the wilderness. They could not reach the promised land. God took them round the wilderness and their souls became weary. There was something God saw in their soul and they wanted to take that attitude into the promised land. Achan escaped with that nature into the promised land. His heart lusted after babylonish goods and hid them for himself (Jos. 7:21). God was wrought with Israel because of this, and some people died. There is a way we are living now that we should not discard, so as not to invent again our old way— the way we have forgotten and discarded, a way that God has taken away from us. Achan can be likened to someone who has life and peace but went back to the way he had before life was given to him.
4. “And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers…” (Deut. 19:8). The actual promise has a land; it is called a promised land. It is a most holy land. The land of promise is a land of the fathers. It can only take fathers to have that land. Abraham survived in that land because it was in the land God told him that he has been made the father of many nations; it is a land of oath (Gen. 17:5).
5. “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee…” (Gen. 12:1). The Father blesses by giving vision. That is a sign that such a person is living. ‘LORD’ is the name of the Father. The Father leads and trains. In the Old Testament, He may not begat people of His own truth, but there is a truth of the earth which all that are of earth speak (John 3:31).
6. David understood the truth of earth. However, he had a premonition of a higher truth that would be conceived in the Messiah. There is the truth of the earth and it is in levels; it thinned out from Genesis to the old covenant. It gradually reduces according to the level of the soul— which is based on the capacity of the truth-understanding that the soul can handle.
7. The earth has its own truth. Angels are also custodians of truth. but there is the truth of another creation which belongs to the new world — world to come, which is what we should be speaking. That is the reason They sent the Spirit of that truth to earth (John 16:13). Believers are given the Holy Spirit because of the world to come and for men to have a feel of Their truth. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth.
8. God started training the children of Israel in the wilderness. God did not permit them to go through a shorter course into the promised land, but through the wilderness so that they would not turn back at the sight of war. The reason for Christ is to learn the art of war. When a man comes to Christ, he has begun the real spiritual warfare— the war against sin and death. These are spirits that militate against our progress to resemble or to look like Christ.
9. Those who are in the wilderness are not poor. A person cannot have the treatment of the wilderness if such is not very high with God. Men do not go into wilderness where there is no water or food and survive. The door to wilderness begins with the thought of what to eat, and what the future would be like. Some with joy, go through the thought and continue into the wilderness with some cushioning from God. The children of Israel went into the wilderness with tambourines, singing as they went, but a time came when they began to ask Moses questions. God did not also tell Moses anything. A true leader should be helpless because he is a sheep too.
10. Jesus is so powerful to have given the purse to Judas. One thing we should not play with is money, especially God’s money. We should run away from God’s money. Money can take one’s bishopric. Jesus kept warning Hagin to be careful with money. We should be careful even with our own money. Do not let your money direct you. Money in your hand often wants to redesign you; it has formation power. It is a doctrine and it has a spirit. The love of it is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). God has to purge us of every love of money in us. We should be so pure that we cannot be bought like Balaam.
11. The promised land is where the promise is. The land is key to God. God does not trust any space where He will put His promise except that land, and He has to show it to us. God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3, however, to fulfill the blessing to him, Abraham must go to the land shown to him. It was in the land God began to play out the processes of putting the promise in a man.
12. “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. [2] And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. [3] And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, [4] As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” (Gen. 17:1-4). It was in this chapter the covenant of circumcision was introduced, but there was another covenant which is the covenant of the promise. What Moses gave to Israel was the law from the mount of Sinai. In Arabia, Sinai is called Hagar. Hagar was the maid of Sarai, Abraham's wife. Hagar was an Egyptian (Gen. 16:1). This is why God took Israel back to Egypt, because that was the first covenant.
13. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” (Gen. 17:5). God gave Abraham fatherhood and made Jesus a father. Likewise, those whom God will give the promise to are fathers.
14. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, [2] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds…” (Heb. 1:1-2). Jesus is speaking to the fathers in churches. Jesus cannot talk to everyone, he talks to fathers. This is because the true ministry of Jesus is one that is in our promised land. When there is a sign that some people are becoming fathers then they will meet with Jesus the High Priest. Melchizedek met with a father who wanted to become the promise (Heb. 7:1).
15. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…” (Eph. 1:3). There are two blessed Persons – God and the Father. They are both blessed and are both a blessing. There is a function of God and there is a function of the Father. God is the promise while the Father is the giver or one that will minister God to us. The Father is the trainer that causes us to be blessed. The Father is also blessed, He journeys to bless. The patriarchal honour of fathers is to bless. Priests are fathers. Full fatherhood is one who has the blessing or has been made a blessing; and this takes time. Melchizedek was a blessing, that was why he was able to bless Abraham (Gen. 14:19-20).
16. The blessing in the gospel is the blessing God swore to give Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18). The blessing Abraham brought to earth is being nullified by one man’s obedience. For the earth to be blessed means for death to be removed. Abraham was blessed more than once. After the encounter at the mountain of Moriah, Abraham became a blessing; that was the confirmation of the promise. When a man becomes a blessing, he takes sides with God. Anyone who is in a haste can never be blessed. To be blessed, one has to wait.
17. “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [18] And will be a Father unto you, And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6:16-18). The promise is the blessing; the blessing is God and the Father. There are two promises: to be sons and to be a people. They are for the Most Holy Place. The Lord Almighty is in the Most Holy Place. Becoming ‘a people’ is the promise attached to God. Only ‘a people’ can own God and He owns ‘a people’.
18. The promised land is a land God attached an oath to, which is a Most Holy land. This is the land where fathers are found. ‘A people’ is the personality of a being who has God. A son or daughter refers to one who can carry the Father, one who has the Father. There is a difference between ‘My people’ and ‘sons/daughters’. ‘A people’ is higher than a son. A son is being trained to be ‘a people’.
19. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” (1 John 2:23). He that has the Son has the Father also. To have the Son is to have the promise of the Son so that you can have the Father. This is because it can only take a son to have the Father. To be ‘a people’ is a promise and a blessing.
20. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15). Everlasting life is of Eternal Life. There is a product of Eternal Life called life everlasting. One can be said to have Eternal Life, but may not have the manifestation of Eternal Life yet. Eternal Life is everlasting life because everlasting life in the New Testament is a product of the eternal. Everlasting life is eternal power; that is why angels do not have Eternal Life. The fullness of everlasting life is not just to see Him as the Father but as God. Jesus always comes with the Father. It can only take the Son to have the Father, and to give the Father.
21. “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ…” (Col. 2:2). There is a difference between the mystery of Christ, the Father and that of God. There is something about the Father. The mystery of Christ ends in the Sanctuary. The mystery of the Father begins when the Father comes into the Sanctuary to take the sons of the Sanctuary into the Most Holy, to be living until they become true.
22. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pet. 1:4). There are two types of divine nature. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Cor. 1:20). ‘Yea’ and ‘amen’ are the two pillars of the promises. ‘Yea’ is the Father, ‘Amen’ is God; those are the two entities in God. The Father is a promise and His promises are in Him. God Almighty is also a promise. We must have both in us as the promise. The glory of God is salvation.
23. We must see the Father and also have Him. The operation of the High Priest starts from the Holy Place (Sanctuary), and there are two natures there. These two natures are expressed on the table of shewbread— six on one side and six on the other hand, typifying life and godliness. Likewise, in the Most Holy Place there are two natures. In paradise, there is the tree of life bearing twelve manners of fruits— six fruits on each side of the tree of life (Rev. 22:2). There are twelve seasons, the first six seasons and then the next six.
Blessings!