The Certainty of the Things that We are Being Commanded

Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)

Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)

Date: Wednesday, 22nd January 2025

Minister: Pastor Temitope Falaye

Topic: The Certainty of the Things that We are Being Commanded

Transcript Summary

1. “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us… [4] That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” (Luke 1:1-4). Since last week, the emphasis has been on thanksgiving. Also, one key theme from the teachings is being assured of the things that are being declared, the certainty of the things that we are being instructed in.

• We are entering into seasons on the earth wherein light and also darkness would increase; a season when evil men will wax worse (2 Tim. 3:13), and good men who hold on to the truth of the gospel would become better. There is a yearning for what is true. There are many Christians who are silently confused; they have questions and those questions are being fanned by diversities of voices and emphases arising in the churches.

• As God’s people, now is the time we need to trust God to know the things we have been most assuredly instructed, because there are many teachings everywhere. Although many of them are of God, it is possible to preach themes handling matters of human life and issues that have great impact on the christian faith from the scriptures, and not necessarily preach the things that we have been instructed or commanded. We are not just meant to preach anything. God has overlooked the time of ignorance (Act 17:30), even though it was still God at work, blessing men, during those times.

• (Acts 1:1-8). The commandment Jesus gave the Apostles in Acts 1:4 not to depart from Jerusalem is different from the one in verse 2; the commandment in verse 2 was an instruction from Jesus for the Church. Jesus instructed the eleven when He appeared to them after His passion, and taught them for forty days. This was important in order to teach them the commandment of the doctrine of “milk”.

• “…And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:41-42). Hitherto till now, the Apostles’ doctrine was Jesus’ doctrine (John 7:16). He chose the Apostles to be with Him and what He taught them was given to Him by the Father. If Jesus taught them everything, there would not have been need to appear to Saul of Tarsus who later became apostle Paul.

• (Acts 26:16). Paul bore witness to this Scripture in 1 Timothy 1:16 where the Lord appeared to him again, and taught him everlasting life. If it was so important for commandments to be handed over through appearance, then we should not take commandments lightly. Without commandments, you can have some measure of a successful Christian life but will never conform to becoming like the persons of the Godhead. The reason for the things that we are most assuredly commanded is to build Persons out of our souls.

• “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” (Luke 1:4). Anyone still in a state of disbelieving the message of the Word of Righteousness needs to trust God to press more into growth. There is a sense of innocently wanting to understand the word better. As a result of him being a high prophet and priest under our Lord Jesus Christ, when the grace upon him is highly in behaviour, there are tendencies that the extent of the words he speaks become out of our reach; but there are pastors of churches and young ministers who break such things down to smaller bits we can comprehend.

• Most times, carnal evidences fight our hold on commandments. It is so when we are shallow in our participation in the gospels that the Lord has laid down as commandments. We are no longer in the season when we only know the things that are being said and do nothing about it, otherwise we would keep having questions which after some time would give the perception of our not growing.

• Growth is not only measured in knowledge but in obedience. This is not obedience based on our perception of what is right but of the leading of the Spirit. The leading of the Spirit is a prescription against the old man in the soul. If a believer’s old man has not been dealt with, his opportunity to participate in everlasting life conversations that begin with precepts and lines will be slim, because such will not have the ear to hear it. The gospel of everlasting life with its attendant procedures is easily understood by someone who has prospered well in Christ.

1. Commandments are not suggestions. Instructions are commandments that come when you are already in the commandment. The first commandment is the message. The milk of the word is a commandment; it is the gospel that can make a child out of a baby. Jesus gave “milk” to the Apostles which they taught the early Church in the book of Acts, raising healthy children. This also reflected in their kind of prayers.  

1. (Matt. 28:18-19). These three personalities are natures inside the person called Jesus, and each of those natures are commandments. Baptism is much more than the infilling of the Holy Ghost because it involves baptising them in a singular name which has the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost in it. These three names are one, and Jesus owns it. They are things that have been delivered unto Him.

1. (1 Cor. 3:1; 13:11). One can become a man from a child and can also become a child from a baby. What bridges the gap is gospels. Gospels are storehouses of God’s knowledge, which when obeyed and acted upon will produce the life of a child (if it is the gospel of milk). However, the understanding of a child still has some level of foolishness (Prov. 22:15).

1. All gospels are reports, whether milk, meat, or strong meat. When we hear the gospel and we do or obey it, Jesus can testify of us that we have a good report. When Jesus was giving the milk of the word through the Apostles, He was giving them a report of Himself as a child, but as gospel.

1. A report has two sides to it. It can come to you as gospel, where God gives you a report by knowledge of what He is, at a certain level, and what it should work out of you. It can also come to assess you to give reports of you, like He did of Cain, Abel, Job and Noah.

1. This is not a year to be testing the waters. We should dive into it instead. We need to master how to swim against the tides because great currents are coming and some people must surf through them.

1. We are getting to a place where things will come out in their clearest forms but blessed are those who believe even when it is not clear. Blessed are those who step in by faith, who learn to yield to their spirits and not to their logic, who despise logic and allowed the witness of the Spirit in their spirits rise.

1. Sometimes you may just need to trust the people who lead you because there are certain abilities to judge that a child does not have. When we contend with spiritual authorities over decisions, it shows lack of trust in spiritual authority and parenting and the one who loses is us.

1. This year is full of shouts of victory. There is something phenomenal, which would be of great strength and encouragement to our community in it and we should not be left out. When saints are basking in God’s provision, we should not be watching but be diving in as others are diving into it.

1. We all have different kinds of lying vanities calling our attention (like health issues) but scripture says, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). Mercy is God’s provision to access Him in a season, therefore, we need to be stubborn against them because God wants to declare a report about us, like the report of the people in Hebrews 11.

• We are peculiar people being made precious people. Sometimes our sufferings are not a sign of God not being there. Sometimes it may be a sign of God being there, but He wants to harvest a report. Satan has been afraid to see this kind of people who are not just following God for things.

• Satan has never used spiritual things to tempt anyone. He rather uses things like money, house, car, child, husband, wife, position, fame, etc, because he is weak and petty. However, Jesus defeated him, so we can overcome him. And by God’s grace, under our parents and pastors in the Lord, as we follow the message, we will all overcome him together.

• Satan is a liar; he is always lying. We must trust God for grace to look beyond our lying vanities (Jonah 2:8). That a thing is a lie does not mean it is intangible but that it is not in tandem with what Jesus is doing. Every lying vanity is intended to make you forsake your mercy, but you can choose to be stubborn against him. Your mercy is what God is doing towards you graciously.

• We should be coming to meetings with so much enthusiasm. Some of us have issues, but we just choose to be happy because we know the end of every issue, as we have seen examples with our parents in the Lord. When God’s servant talks to you, believe it. What Satan does is to make us not believe and we do not know the power of believing in His prophet.

• The Bible says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man…but will with the temptation also make a way to escape…” (1 Cor. 10:13). A way of escape may not always mean that He delivers you from the challenge, but that He will relieve you from the oppression of the devil, and you will come into life; you will gain life.

• (1 Peter 4:12). Wherever truth is being taught, you find strange occurrences there. But this is just because the devil wants to blackmail God. But the devil will fail. We will lift up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our help (Psa. 121:1), and we will keep growing.

Blessings!

EGFM Editorial