The Right Attitude Towards God’s Plan for the Year
Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 16th January 2025
Minister: Pastor Thompson Ehima
Topic: The Right Attitude Towards God’s Plan for the Year
Transcript Summary
1. We should thank God for every platform He has provided to be able to speak to us; this is so that we do not become entitled that He must speak. We must know that God is not under any compulsion to speak to us. In the Old Testament, the voice of the Lord was in the temple at a point (Ps. 29:9). But a time came when He decided not to speak for a period of time and nothing happened. By the time He decided to speak again, He did not use the temple or synagogue; He decided to speak from the wilderness, in the desert. Wilderness is from the word ‘wild’, which talks about “wildness”. The only people who can hear the voice of the Lord are men who are ‘wild’ in their souls, not polished people who want to follow ceremonial and religious routines.
2. Every platform God has raised in this ministry is a place where He is able to speak to us so that we can receive Him. It is the place where God pushes out His thoughts and ways so that man can fetch what the Lord is doing. However, God is still not under compulsion to speak. We see how He departed Shiloh and Bethel. “So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men…” (Psalm 78:60). God placed a tent among men to be able to speak to them, but He later forsook it. In 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon also built a temple—a house that God wanted to use to speak to His people so that He can communicate His covenant and testimony to them. However, God eventually left that temple too. This means we must have fear and reverence in our hearts towards the speakings of the Son of God. We must not take His speakings lightly; our hearts must be prepared to engage them very well this year. We must have a good heart attitude and be spiritually minded.
3. When many things starts to change amidst us according to God’s expectations—like the disposition of the heart, the desire and hunger in the heart, the consecration, the separations, the discipline of the spirit that are required to keep what God has said, and the desire to keep making progress—it means we are giving the kind of response God expects. Just as we expect God to do some things for us—like keeping us safe—we must know that God also has expectations over us. As men, we have spoken or unspoken expectations in our hearts, and when God meets them, we should know that He also expects us to meet His own expectations. God’s expectations are the responses of our hearts towards Him.
4. God elected and adopted the people of Israel (Jews) to become His people by adopting their fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and tied the covenant around them (Deut. 26:5; Isa. 27:13; Rom. 9:3-4). Even though the whole earth was God’s own, He chose the Isrealites to become a peculiar people—His own people. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. [5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine…” (Exod. 19:4-5). After God adopted them, His expectation concerning them was a response of obedience from their hearts. He made it clear that He bore them on eagles’ wings so that they can obey His voice and keep His covenant. But heaven does not rush to make covenant with a people because it takes a period of time to achieve it. This is because the response of our hearts towards the covenant must be sustained over a period of time. It was at ninety-nine years old that God told Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect (Gen. 17:1-2). It took many years before he could come into the covenant of life and peace, and eventually, the everlasting covenant. Abraham was taught precepts, and lines were also measured to him before he eventually came into covenant. This means the response of his heart to what God wants to do was sustained till he got to the covenant.
5. When God makes a covenant, He does not turn (James 1:17). We see this example in the covenant of marriage that God instituted, where He hates divorce (Mal. 2:16). What God wants to do amidst us must be taken seriously. God wants to teach us both covenant and testimony (Ps. 132:12; Rev. 19:10). However, our responses must be commensurate with what He wants to do. Our responses must increase as we come into a better understanding. However, every man must continue in repentance to have a better response of heart. Your state of ignorance last year should be done away with when more understanding is given to your heart. God expects you to have a better spiritual sense and judgement.
6. Ishmael and Isaac came out from Abraham, but God’s election was on Isaac. Even though Isaac was elected, he still had to come to terms with it and live accordingly before God. Through Isaac, we see how Esau was also positioned for election and adoption naturally. God expected him to transact with the natural positioning to access the spiritual. Heaven was watching the response of his heart, and it later became evident that he was a profane fellow (Heb. 12:16). God positions men in the natural to be able to transact with the spiritual; this means nobody is at a disadvantage the way God positioned them naturally. God can position you in a school so that you can have the opportunity to transact with the spiritual. Sometimes, He brings friends who are rooted and passionate in what He is doing. But just like Esau, because of profanity in the heart, many refuse these avenues God has provided to make them transact with the spiritual.
7. (Galatians 6:7-9). God does not give anyone a spiritual advantage over others; He gives everyone a natural advantage that is aimed at launching us into the spiritual, if properly responded to. This is why we must be wise. For example, it is an advantage when you are experiencing ‘lack’. Any position you find yourself, it is an advantage to work out something spiritual inside your soul. Jesus had a lack, but it was an advantage because a prophecy was hanging that He must fulfill. Scripture recorded that there was no room in the inn when they wanted to give birth to Him (Luke 2:7), but that lack was part of the prophecy that Jesus must fulfil. The more we find mercy, the more judgement we have to know that all things are working together for our good (Rom. 8:28). Prophecy, by design, only manifests amidst those who give a positive response in the place where heaven has positioned them. The prophecy came that a “virgin” shall give birth to Jesus; it did not say it was “Mary”. But someone must fit in, so heaven had to check many virgins for the criteria they had set before the lot fell on Mary (a virgin) as the one who would fulfil it.
9. Sometimes, we wonder why God takes time to prove us before bringing us into covenant; it is because He does not want anything false to arise from our hearts. We want to jump through the process sometimes, and we expect that God will overlook it. We must know that our God is thorough. The reason some of us under spiritual authority must be well processed (entire, lacking nothing) as we serve is so that we can do the will of God very well. When you do some things well under someone you are serving, it becomes easy to be devoted to the will of God. One can tell when a soul is not yet heavy enough to follow God by how less thorough they handle things committed to them by men. We must desire to fulfil all the processes that God has set before us so that we can have a good response of heart towards what He is doing.
10. God is not a trucebreaker, so He cannot make covenant with one who is a trucebreaker. This is why He takes us through a rigorous process and training to purge us from all lies and falsehoods (Isa. 28:15). When we jump or skip a process, there is room for something false to be born. That is why God takes His time to reveal light to men. He brings out a little light and checks our hearts to know if we can continue with more light. Apostle John spoke about those who left the path (1 John 2:19); this means purging is important when you are journeying in light. The purging of our souls must continue till we become the exact and express image of the Son of God. We must be purged from every tendency that will not make our souls keep the covenant, hold the testimony to the end, and finish the sayings of the book of prophecy.
11. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall…” (2 Peter 1:10). The issue we have with making our calling and election sure is a result of the response of our hearts. God needs to prove and try our hearts so that we are not giving a one-time response. Our response towards our calling and election must be progressive and increasing in momentum; they must not be responses that are static. May you find grace to give better responses for your calling and election to be made ‘sure’.
12. God wants to sanctify us till we come into everlasting sanctification. He will use the word to purge, sanctify, and purify us from evil and all forms of iniquities. Everything God is doing is for His name’s sake (Ps. 23:7). God expects us to bear His name, but we must be willing to obey His laws to bear that name. As we submit to His laws, His nature is being worked out in our minds and hearts. We see the promise given to the overcomers in the book of Revelation was the Father’s name on their forehead (Rev. 14:1). All these things are determined by our response. It is time to make our calling and election sure.
13. The type of milestone you come into in your calling and election is according to your response—your yieldedness, willingness, hunger, obedience. How much you can position yourself to receive mercy determines where you can get to. To position yourself to receive mercy talks about how helpless you can become. The more helpless you are, the better response you can generate. God does not repent from His calling, election, adoption; that is why He has tied covenant and testimony around it. This is why our response matters, and there are all manner of responses we can give. At a particular time, the response God needs from you may be to be helpless, while at other times, it may be to tremble or be swift.
14. God desires a better response from us this year than last year. We must find mercy to deal with our legitimate excuses and reasons why we feel that we cannot do certain things God required of us last year. This is important because the season we have come into is a very crucial season. God will continue what He started last year because He is a God of continuum. The Son of God is come and has not gone back. So, God is going to be heightening the ministry of the Son, which means God is going to be heightening the saving of our souls. This is because the Son of God is come to destroy the works of the devil in our souls (1 John 5:20, 3:8).
15. God will be measuring His Son to us as a church this year. His name will be taught in the Church so that we can live and grow up unto the Head, who is the express image of the person of God. This is how we will become true sons of God in its entirety. There is so much strength available for us, and we must, by grace, tap into it. Abraham and Sarah were weak in their bodies but God strengthened them to conceive. We must know that when we are weak, that is when God wants to demonstrate a lot of strength (2 Corin. 12:9-10).
16. As you go through this year, watch out for when you are weak, because that is the great time you should obey more. This is the sign of the season we are in. Apostle Paul said, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Corin. 4:16). This is a critical characteristic of this time, and you must watch out for it. We must cease from seeing that which is temporal and move into seeing that which is invisible (2 Corin. 4:18). We must lean into that which is being renewed inside of us—the invisible.
Blessings!