Believers’ Convention 2024 (Day 4 – Morning Session)
Date: Wednesday, 21st August 2024
Minister: Pastor Thompson Ehima
Topic: Unveiling the Process of Knowing the Son of God
One thing that has been evident since the beginning of this camp meeting is that a Being has been appraising the thoughts, intents and motives of our hearts. This year’s theme is not ordinary, but a witness that the Son of God is come. Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians said we should not judge a thing until the Lord comes, and that when He comes, He will bring hidden things to light (1 Cor. 4:5). This is what the Lord has been doing through some of His ministers that have ministered so far in this convention. Some hidden things would require the coming of the Lord, so He can bring them to light.
We have been called as soldiers, so we should not try to involve in civilian affairs. We are warring, and spirits are not joking; wrong natures are not joking. This is why one of the ministers was saying that it is possible for one to do Christianity for seventy years of one’s life without having genuine transformation. No one walks with the Lord absentmindedly and ever come into anything. Our hearts must be involved, and this entails warfare. Most times, we take only a few things to heart, instead of taking a lot of things. Sometimes, we walk for a while, and enter into “auto-cruise” mode, just gliding, without the heart’s involvement in it. But that is not it, our hearts must be in it. And that is the warfare — the warfare of trying to bring the heart and mind into what the Lord is doing.
Therefore, when we are being admonished to endure one another, it is because ‘who can endure His coming?’ ‘Who can endure? Who can stand? Who can abide? The training is so designed and its essence is to make us a people that cannot pass away. When the preparatory prayers for convention started, God’s servant, Reverend Kayode began with the teaching about Jesus choosing the twelve, that they may go in and out with Him. Raising Kingdom disciples is like military training. Though without arms, the disciples had a testimony that they were people who turned the whole world upside down (Acts 17:6). They never rebelled against the government of their day, but only obeyed commandment.
The Lord is raising an army, which Rick Joyner called ‘the army of the dawn’; those who would carry the morning light. They are referred to as “the morning spread upon the mountains” in Joel 2:2, and also in 2 Sam. 23:4 as “a morning without clouds”. This means the salvation of their souls. We cannot be flippant in our walk with the Lord. God is always ready to give mercy but there is a disposition of the heart that can receive mercy. The essence of the labor of the doctrine of Christ is to position a heart that can receive mercy. It is a training that the Lord must do to bring the heart into this estate.
Tongues and Interpretation
“Help. Help. Help. Mercy is here. Mercy is here. Help is here. Help is here. Help is here, Help is here. I have brought help. I have brought help. I have brought mercy. I have come in response to your prayers. I have come in response to your prayers. I have come in response to your cry. I have come in response to your longing, even the longing that began first from My heart, even longing that began first from the heart of the Father, even longing that began first heaven word that was put inside of your heart. I came in response to your prayers, even in response to your prayers, even to give sight, even to give sight, even to give sight, even to give blessings of sight, even to open eyes, even to open eyes, even to give salve for eyes, even yea understanding.
I have come with blessings, even blessings to see heavens, even blessings to see through the scroll, even the holy book. I have come with blessing, even blessings of judgment. I have come to mend eyes, I have come to mend hearts. I have come with blessing. I have come with grace, even mighty great grace, even mighty great grace. Even mighty great grace to blend eyes and hearts. Eyes and hearts to see holy. To see the holy. To see the holy. To see Him within the veil. To see Him high and lofty. To see the Son of God.
I have come with eyes. I have come with garments. I blessed you today. I blessed you. I bless you. I bless you. I have come to bless you Thompson, I bless you Thompson with a mouth. With a mouth for sight, mouth and might for to give sight, even restoration of sight even to many that be blind. I bring blessing, even great blessing. For this is miracle service. It is miracle. It is a miracle service. It is a miracle meeting, even spiritual miracle, spiritual miracle, even soul miracle, even it is a meeting. Meeting to meet the Son. Meeting to see the Son. Meeting to see Jesus, even it is a meeting for to see Jesus again.”
Tongues and Interpretation (2)
“For a bruised reed He will not break, a smoking flax He will not quench. A bruised reed He will not break, a smoking flax He will not quench. He will mend. He will mend. I will mend. I will mend. I will mend. I have power to mend. I have power to mend. I have power to heal, I have power to heal. I have power to restore, I have power to restore. In My words are power to restore. Even yea, healing for the nations, healing for the nations, healing for the nations, healing for the nations. I heal infirmities. I heal infirmities. I heal infirmities. I heal infirmities.
I am a God of restoration, I have come with healing. I come with healing. The Sun of righteousness is arisen. The Sun of righteousness is arisen. The Sun of righteousness is arisen with healing, healing in His wings. Healing. Healing. Healing. Healing. I will restore your soul. I will restore your soul, I will restore, I will restore. I will repair, I will remedy your deaths. I will remedy your many deaths. I will remedy, I will restore, I will bring to life again. I will bring to life again. I will bring to life again. Even I have come to bring to life again. I have come to bring to life again. I have come to bring to life again, even to life again. Even you that is at the tipping point, even you that is at the tipping point, even you that is at the tipping point, even you that is at the tipping point. Even you that is at the tipping point, that many seem to have given up on, I have come to restore. I have come to restore. I am reaching out to you, even for restoration, even for restoration, saith the Lord God of all restoration.”
(Message Begins…)
This convention is about what the Lord wants to do to people. The issue of ‘the Son of God is come’ is not merely a theme, it is an announcement and declaration of the build up of what the Lord has been doing in the secret. There is a time for that which is done in the secret to be announced on the rooftops (Matt. 10:27). In the past five years, there have been different declarations of the Lord. Those seasons were transition seasons and this year’s convention will have no other one like it again.
‘The Son of God is come’ was a declaration that John made to the Church of his day. There were believers that heard it just as we are hearing it. The books of Revelation, epistle of John and the gospel of John were written in a space of 5 years, within the years 65-110AD. This shows that after Jesus Christ had departed the earth, the Church had been raised for a minimum of 65 years with some kind of writing, before John came to say, “The Son of God is come”. Therefore, this statement was not one made with haste or uncertainty, it was very definite. John first wrote the book of Revelation, and it was from that experience that he wrote other books.
John 1:11-13
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: [13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
‘His own’ in the scripture above is not referring to the Jews or Israel because they were not born of God. At the time of this writing, there were people in the Church who were born of God. They were born of God by reason of His coming and their receiving Him. There were people in the Church in the day of John who were born of God. There were also those He called His own, whom He has been labouring over; they are His own, but not every one of them could receive Him. Those who received Him were given a power to become and by this, they were born of God. There were brethren that were born of God. This birth was as a result of their receiving His coming to them. In the epistles of John, the words ‘born’ and ‘begotten’ were often used because it was an economy that opened up to His brethren, His own.
The first gospel that was written was Mark, then Luke, Matthew, and finally John. In the gospels we read about the coming (parousia) of the Lord. Jesus spoke about His coming again. Studying the gospel of John, we see that he was trying to bring an awareness to the believers of his day because there was a contention and questions about the promise of the Lord’s coming. For instance, some people asked, “…Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4); while in 2 Thessalonians some people said He had come already (2 Thess. 2:1-3). As a result the hope of the people was shipwrecked. Those epistles and gospels were written to shift the perception of the saints from how they were expecting Him to come. The Lord helped the apostles to be able to balance both the gradual comings of the Lord in different seasons and His final coming. Furthermore, in order to bring forth a clear-cut establishment, Jesus began to say to His disciples in the book of John.
John 16:7, 16
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. [16] A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
John 14:16-17
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
The Lord was saying to them that He would not be with them in a little while, but that He would send the Comforter who will be with them and who will remind them of the things He had said, because those things were prerequisite to His coming again. Hence, they had to listen to and obey the Holy Ghost so that a temple of the Lord could be built. A temple of the Lord must emerge on their inside; within a company of those whom He has gathered together.
In addition to the individual building, there must be a people on earth that would constitute a Sanctuary – holy temple in the Lord – that can receive His coming. The Holy Ghost can come into a believer that is carnal; however, the Lord Jesus, having suffered and entered into His glory, one who will receive Him must not be flawed, he must be a building – a holy temple in the Lord. The building of that temple is in the hand of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, who will take things of the Lord and show them to each one of us to obey and do for the holy temple to be built within us. Then all of these individual temple-buildings will together constitute a temple that the Lord, the Son of God can come into.
Therefore, when apostle John began to announce that the Son of God is come, he was not just bringing something out of the blues. The Lord Himself had spoken about His comings severally in the gospels, but they could not understand the manner of His comings. He knew that when the Spirit of truth is come, He will open up the diverse manners of His comings to them.
Hebrews 1:1
“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…”
There was no confusion among the early believers because they were well taught, except for those who were not well aligned. They were well taught to know that what John was declaring was the beginning of the fulfilling of the promise and prophecy of Jesus when He said, “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:16). However, by the time they would be seeing Him, they would have been living by then. Because the condition for seeing Him is that one’s soul must be living.
To live is to obey the provisions made available by the Spirit of truth to prepare a people that live in their souls. If there is any reason we are struggling to see the coming of the Son of God, it is because we are not yet living. To live, we need to live peaceably.
Romans 12:18
“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
We need to live peaceably, not only with all men, but also in His sight (Hos. 6:2). What the Spirit of truth, through the commandments of righteousness fetch from the doctrine, is to raise those who are living. To live is to please the Lord. Apostle Paul labored greatly in the Church to bring souls to where they can live in His sight. Because the glorified Lord does not come to a soul that is not yet living. Men must live in His sight, that is, souls must appear but there is a training given to souls that can see the Son of God. Because the Son of God can come and one may not be seeing Him.
In Hebrews 10, Paul was speaking about the offering of priests which could not take care of the issue of sins as regards the conscience. This was a continuation of Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” All these thoughts were what Paul was building up to Hebrews 10. He was trying to open up Jesus’ offering of Himself once and what its provision was meant to do in us. And how that through faith, He is able to deal with issues of sins in the conscience, which Paul also wrote about in 1 Timothy 1:5.
1 Timothy 1:5
“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.”
1 Timothy 1:19
“Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck…”
In Hebrews 10, Paul was discussing the provisions the first coming of Jesus made available for us which the Spirit of truth will open up and teach us. Jesus was telling His disciples, as seen in John 16, that staying in flesh was not profitable to them, that it was expedient for Him to go, because He needed to accomplish some things for them; else they would still be having remembrance and conscience of sin. The things that the Spirit of truth will take from Jesus are His sufferings and passions that He must accomplish. They are the answers to issues of our conscience, our heart. Else, there is no other way the holy temple for the Lord can be raised.
Hebrews 10:21
“And having an high priest over the house of God…”
This scripture is not referring to what Jesus did but the present ongoing ministry of Jesus. It addressed issues of the body, but much more, the presence of sin in the soul. Paul encourages the saints.
Hebrews 10:19-20
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, [20] By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh…”
Note that Paul did not say they had entered. He was talking to those who had been sanctified and that the work that has taken place in their soul is a holy work. The Spirit of grace (the Spirit of truth) had wrought a work within their souls.
Hebrews 10:30-31, 38-39
“For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. [31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. [38] Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. [39] But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
The Hebrew church was drawing back, they had become weary.
Hebrews 10:37
“For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”
The key to He that will come is that the just must live by faith. One thing that is going to be a snare is unbelief. When it is declared that the Son of God is come, someone might think it is made up. We must live because it is necessary that we appear in His sight. Jesus is glorified, as such, not every soul can appear in His presence.
John 14:19
“Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.”
The world cannot see Him because the world is not living. The key that we need to pay heed to is that we should live and we should live very well. This is what charity does to us, it makes us really live in His sight. We have heard some of the ministers share their experiences; it is the Son of God coming to them. And He came with an understanding. We are supposed to live so that the Son of the living God can do further work upon us so that we can become lively, which is the work of the Messenger of the covenant— to purify us and prepare us to become newborn-babe little children. Just as God’s servant was explaining about the two levels of little children; the first level being likened to when silver is purified and the dross is taken out of it, it reduces in size to become little. Those who can become little are those who are living. If you have not lived, you cannot see Him. He cannot receive you for further work on your soul.
What could have been responsible for the early Church brethren that could not receive Him? Any wise generation should consider why the Lord came to His own and His own did not receive Him? His own constitute the company of those that were sanctified (Heb. 2:11, 14). Paul announced the coming of the Lord to the Hebrew church; John announced it in Asia minor. So the Church was not oblivious about the Lord’s coming. Yet He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. So how do we receive Him? What are the things that must be in place to show to Him that we are receiving Him? In the season of declaring that the Son of God is come, what must I be doing that would show to Him that I want to receive Him? These are the things God’s servants have been talking to us about in this Convention, heart postures.
To receive Him is to believe on His name (John 1:11-12). We receive Him in His commandments. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” (1 John 5:3).
John 14:19-21
“Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. [20] At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. [21] He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
Jesus will appear a second time to those who look for Him (Heb. 9:28). You look for Him by keeping His commandments, by loving Him. You believe His coming by keeping and obeying His commandments. The Son of God can come and not manifest Himself to some. For God to manifest Himself to one is for one to see the Person of the Son. The second appearance of the Lord is for salvation. And it is in the day of salvation that God makes covenant with us. Furthermore, that season of covenant is characterized by something crucial which Hebrews 8:11 captures.
Hebrews 8:11
“And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”
Knowing the Lord at this pedigree is not as in revelation, but the Lord making Himself manifest to one; it is knowing and engaging His Person, not just knowing Him by precepts. We cannot know Him in this manner until we have moved from precepts to acquire lines, which are commandments. Those lines are spirits. The soul cannot know the Lord without having possessed things; there has to be summation of spirits – spirit of grace and the spirit of truth – as a result of the commandments that the heart has kept and ways that have been made in the heart.
When Eve was brought to Adam in the beginning, the statement Adam made on their first meeting would make one think Adam had known all about her but there is still another level of knowing he had not come into.
Genesis 2:22-23
“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. [24] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Adam came to this conclusion by the reason of the breath of life (an understanding) within him. However, after a process of time, he arrived at another level of knowing.
Genesis 4:1
“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.”
This knowing is more intimate and occurred because of the former knowing in Genesis 2, which was as a result of breath. This tells us that there are measures of knowing the Lord; that it would take a man who has kept commandments and in whom spirit has been put on his inside, to get to the stage of knowing the Lord. It is commandments that show to the Lord that you believe and love Him; and it will take a man that has spirit to do this. Keeping commandments of fervent love of the brethren and keeping the commandments that the Son of God will bring to us at different times is what would commend us to know Him at this level.
The Son of God will not need to come if all He wants to give are precepts; because we have the Spirit of truth on our inside. The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of the Father, He can take precepts and make them known unto us. However, the Son of God has to come so that we can know Him that is true and there is an understanding He needs to grant unto us (1 John 5:20). This has to do with knowing Persons; but we cannot know the Person without commandments. We need a lot of His commandments that give spirits. We need His commandments to quicken us. Commandments make us alive. Commandments are life, they are spirits (John 12:50). When we do commandments, we have His way. His way raises us and converts us; they frame the soul to know the Lord. Such that when we are praying, the Lord does not seem like Someone far away in the sky.
This was the desire of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him…”; because those are promises – “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters… [16]…I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor 6:18, 16). This is how we come to know Him. However, these promises cannot come to pass in us except we keep commandments. We keep commandments to live. We also keep commandment for Him to come and make Himself manifest to us. Though these commandments are different. When He manifests Himself to us, He does so by commandments. And after manifesting Himself, He will also leave behind commandments for us to know Him deeper and higher. Towards the last week of the Convention prayer, I was sensing the Person of the Lord. In fact, one of the nights, God’s servant, Reverend Kayode Oyegoke could not minister because the Lord Jesus was around. It is time for us to begin to engage their Persons. They want to make Themselves known to us. This is our promise. This must happen to us before rapture occurs. There will not be rapture until a people know Him. See how the Lord Jesus often spoke about His Father.
John 6:56-57
“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. [57] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”
Eating His flesh is partaking of His Person and cells are being formed in us, just like an embryo is formed in the womb. We eat by commandments. When a baby is not properly forming in the womb, it will be aborted. Those who were not aborted will grow to become sons. Likewise, Jesus, the Son of God, by commandment, puts Himself in us, bit by bits.
Hebrews 10:5-7
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: [6]In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. [7]Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”
Jesus can make His body in you. The Son of God wants to assemble Himself in us through commandments.
Romans 8:29
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
This is a conforming, line upon line, and precept upon precept. The burden of the Lord is how this congregation can move from revelation to a season, which is now, when materials that come through commandments, can form the Son of God in us— so that the Son of God can raise His body in us. While on earth, Jesus said, “…Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father….” (John 14:9). That we would look at one another and see the Son. Sin has used our hearts and minds such that we like revelation but it is hard for us to believe these things. However, this is possible to them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Hebrews 10:37-39
“For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. [38]Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. [39]But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
We would believe that His commandments have the capacity to form and raise the person of the Son of God in us. Such that, by the time we come next year, we would be able to see one another and say, that the Son of God is come in us, in a measure; there will be line upon line and precept upon precept (Isa. 28:10).
Reverend Kayode Oyegoke’s Charge
It is not easy to preach spirit, it is easier to say precepts. You need utterance for spirit. Tongue has to be loosened to speak spirit, because spirit is not in the array of words, it is another dimension; that is why it is “there”. Knowledge is “here”, spirit is “there” (Isa. 28:10). It is not easy to preach spirits, especially when we begin to touch these things; we can see he was warring to fetch words. This is where Jesus is beautiful with creativity. God will bless us with utterance, to paint these things more.