Believers’ Convention 2024 (Day 2 – Evening Session)

Date: Monday, 19th August 2024

Speaker 2: Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu 

Topic: The Messenger of the New Covenant

“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” (Rev. 3:8). No matter how much the word is taught, if it does not open, then no man can open it. If it opens to a company, no man can shut it. This means that access has been granted to such a company of believers.  As Pastor Dimeji Elugbadebo came up, I saw three angels blowing trumpets. If trumpets are being sounded, then we should take everything in this convention with great seriousness. This convention is climaxing into a season of finishing.

The ministry of Jesus the Son of God is to be initiated amidst the people. There are things the Lord cannot do anymore by reason of where He stands. Reverend Kenneth Hagin, in one of his books relayed an occasion where he was talking with the Lord, then a demon jumped in and was distracting him and the Lord kept on speaking. Reverend Kenneth Hagin eventually rebuked the demon and asked the Lord why He did not do anything about it. The Lord responded saying, “I cannot”, because He gave such power to the Church. There are things He can do but is unable to do so because there is no company to receive what He wants to do.

“Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” (Heb. 2:12). That declaration is a ministry. The church here is not the general church, but the church of the Firstborn that has come up to Zion. These things are ministries, things which He has to do, but until brethren arise and are raised, He cannot declare His name. Until a church that can take the praise is raised, the Lord will not be able to do what He wants to do. This thing is important in the order of events. 

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus…” (Heb. 3:1). The Hebrews church was not a low church spiritual. In the earth today, we do not have churches like the Hebrews church. In the whole book of Hebrews, Paul was explaining the ministry of the High Priest. They were described as “holy brethren” which means they have actually become Sanctuary brethren. That is the only way they could be partakers of the heavenly calling, that is, the most holy calling. 

These brethren were brought to a place where they could become partakers. The word “consider” implies that it is possible to ignore. In other words, for a long time, the Church has been ignoring the ministry of the High Priest. Another word for “consider” is “understand” – understand the ministry that He has. If we do not understand the ministry that He has, we will not know why He is standing as the Apostle of our profession. 

It is because of ignorance that we lack understanding of the ministry of the Apostle and High Priest. As such, He cannot initiate it in our midst because if He does, many will be offended and run away.

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:1). The word “apostle” means messenger. In the book of Malachi, Chapter 1 was addressed to the people of Israel while Chapter 2 was addressed to the priests. The Lord was addressing their village (the limitation that was not allowing them come to their holy calling). The sin of Israel and that of the priests are not the same. The Lord demanded a different thing from the priests and from Israel because they were different.

“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” (Mal. 2:14). One of the things He addressed to the priests was about their wives. When the Lord is seeing how a man is dealing with his wife, he sees a person who can either make a covenant or not. The sons of Levi were actually the priests. The Lord is coming to make covenant with us. To make this covenant, He has to check for the things in us that will not allow us to make covenant.

Satan would not vehemently attack marriage if it were of no value. Satan understands that through marriage, strength is given to the soul of those who keep the covenant. When God sees a man that keeps the covenant of marriage, He sees a soul that He can eventually make covenant with. 

The Lord was reprimanding the people of Israel because of their disregard for the offering that they brought to Him (Mal. 1:6-8). For the priests, God rebuked them about how they treated their wives and then regarding tithes because of covenant. One who cannot keep covenant in one will not be able to keep covenant in all. 

When Melchisedec met Abraham, Abraham gave him tithe of all (Gen. 14:18-20). He was showing a sign of strength for the covenant. God would not give us anything that has to do with Himself without covenant, for He is a God of covenant. Satan fights us so that our soul will not come to a place of covenant and strength.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have   we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” (Mal. 3:8). One who does not pay tithes will be poor and miserable. A soul that cannot give God his one tenth cannot receive the coming of the Son of God.

The temple keeps testimony. Testimony is a keeper of the covenant of life (life according to the portion of that temple). One who has become a temple of Christ has the spirit of Christ. (Rom. 8:9). Sanctuary brethren are the company of the hosts in the Holy Place. There is a way into the Holy of Holies. For the way to be made manifest, we need the Messenger of the way to come. 

“The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing…” (Heb. 9:8). The teaching of ways and precepts were a preparation for this “the Son of God is come”. Immediately the theme was announced, the atmosphere in the spirit changed. It is showing us that it is not actually a theme but a season that has been opened over us by the trumpet. Probably, if we had not tarried with lines, we would not have known.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:2). These little children have been cleansed from their idols for them to arrive at a place where they know that the Son of God is come. There was a level of purification and sanctification from our idols by reason of the way. What stands between us and the Lord are our idols.

“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” (Deut. 32:10). Idols are the things that keep us from knowing the true God. Idols also have their doctrine and will stop a person from knowing God because they also give another understanding of God. The understanding of God we have most times is according to our experiences. However, our experiences are limited, as they cannot capture God completely.

How much of God that we can capture according to our experiences still fall short and whatever falls short can be an idol. A minister can have an idol. Anointing, ministry, name and honour can be idols, which can stop one from progressing to knowing the only true God.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:21). Idols here are referred to as “all sin”. “All” talks about the full strength or manifestation of sin. Idols are sin that would prevent one from knowing the true God or coming into the full knowledge or understanding of the true God.

“But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap…” (Mal. 3:2). This fire is for holy brethren. It is not fire for the children of Israel; it is for the priests so as to further purify the holy brethren. We cannot become the priests the Lord desires for us without passing through the Refiner’s fire. There is a demand of life for the Holiest of all. The reason for that fire is to end every enmity. 

This enmity prevents us from giving ourselves fully to God. The essence of the fire is to help us make covenant. God would have to purify us before making that covenant. After making covenant, the sons of Levi will now be able to offer up acceptable sacrifices to God. The declaration that the Son of God is come is to holy brethren; it is that work that will take us into the Most Holy Place. 

The fire over us will begin to increase and the essence is to make us ascend. Before this convention ends, a lot of us will have been purified with fire. The temple is the temple of the Lord, not the temple of God. That is why it is the Lord of hosts that will come to that temple, for it is the Holy Place. When a generation gives birth to holy brethren, who are men of the Sanctuary, they can call the Lord to come.

This is going to be His first appearance into that temple. He appears as a Refiner’s fire and like a Fuller’s soap, then He will take all the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi are the temple; they are the building. The sons of Levi are the stones that make up the spiritual house. This spiritual house is what Peter called lively stones waiting for the spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Jesus is coming as a living stone.

“To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, [5] ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Anyone who is still a man will not take the ministry of the living God that the Son is coming to dispense. Jesus comes to the Sanctuary to the sons of Levi; to the lively stones to purify and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer up an offering to the Lord in righteousness. 

The Refiner’s fire is a person; it is not a fire, it is His being. Jesus will baptise with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Baptising us in the Holy Ghost begins from the day we get born again till we enter into the Court where He is going to baptise us with fire (Matt. 3:11). The next season is the baptism with fire where He will beat the flour, separate the wheat and thoroughly burn the chaff with an unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12).

“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.” (Mal. 3:3). It is the fire that will birth the newborn babes. The fire is the wisdom of the person of the Lord to trigger a kind of trial of faith. It is in that season the impurity of the silver is purged.

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ…” (1 Pet. 1:7). It is not yet praise, it is ‘unto’ praise and honour and glory. Jesus appeared in the Sanctuary and would then move us into the Most Holy Place. That is the time He brings us into the economy of the incorruptible seed; the word of God that lives and abides forever (1 Pet. 1:23). 

First of all, He will give us the milk of the word. When fire is introduced on a metal like gold, the gold becomes little. This signifies the removal of impurities. Those are the newborn babes. The first thing that the newborn babes are given is the sincere milk of the word (1 Pet. 2:2) because it is a different season. They will then share butter and honey (Isa. 7:22) with them so that they can complete the season of living and abiding.

The first birth is the fire. It is not the incorruptible seed that births one from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place, rather, it is a birth by the fire. When the fire births one, such is presented into the Most Holy Place. Such a person has become a little child whose sins are forgiven (1 John 2:12). The sins of the Sanctuary are the sins that disqualify one from the Most Holy place. When one is brought into the Most Holy Place, there is still some sin in the gold.

We need to wait in patience because it is more than just sin; it is sin and iniquity. There are two dimensions to sins in the Most Holy Place. Thus, we need to wait until He has come to take sin out completely. This is why the Son of God is come – to take away sin (1 John 3:5). Sin is great; it is a kind of an Almighty. Sin is the nature of an angel who was a kind of an almighty. 

The Cherubs are mighty, but God is the Most High. He is the most Almighty. The Cherubs are almighty because they have all the heavens in them, but one fell. Thus, we can tell the texture and strength of sin and wisdom that guides sin. We are not teaching sin consciousness or condemning people. 

Salvation of the soul cannot occur except it is received with meekness (Jam. 1:21). We would keep teaching and hearing. The salvation of the soul is close to one who is meek. Satan did a work for us not to endure salvation. He wants us to complain, murmur, break; but when we are decked with grace, we will have strength to wait. One can die and go to heaven with his sins intact. However, our sins can be removed while we are on earth, if we stay under the ministration of the High Priest who will surely succour and deliver us.