Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Tuesday Prayer Meeting
Date: 14th September 2021
Powered by: Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministries (EGFM)
Minister: Pastor Tope Falaye
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7). There are things that God gives but there are also things that God does not give. For us to be in possession of things that God does not give, it means we received it from someone else. God gives all shades of spirit; He is the Father of spirits. God gave the third Person of the Godhead, who is the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth as a gift to us (Acts 1:8, John 14:16).
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). This scripture talks about Jesus, the Son of God - the person of everlasting life that God gave. The giving of everlasting life is the giving of spirit, likewise is the giving of Christ.
The soul capacity of the Son of God bears every measure of spirit that God has and can give. These different spirit measures given to the Son of God are not likened to that of angels or the measure God gave to man before he fell. The spirits God gave to Jesus are the very things of Himself.
“Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: [11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1 Pet. 1:10-11). The Holy Spirit is the One who gives the spirit called “Christ”. The spirit that is Christ was not just brought forth in the New Testament, for that spirit has always been present. In the heavens, there are angels that possess the stature of Christ.
“But ye have not so learned Christ; [21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus…” (Eph. 4:20-21). Jesus houses the truth which is a spirit called Christ. When truth is being given, spirit is being communicated. The Spirit of God is the giver of spirits. God has been giving spirits right from the beginning, even with angels. The nature of angels was activated by spirits (laws). The giving of those laws are in the region of their souls.
Jesus was given spirits as He was being raised; He learnt spirits. This learning is two fold; the learning of the leading of the Holy Ghost, which then leads to the learning of the giving of spirit which the Holy Ghost brings per time. The Holy Ghost can demonstrate the manner of Christ, as a person, just to commit the spirit of Christ in such a person, a church or a generation. This same Spirit can also express Himself differently just to give a different spirit or reveal a higher measure of life.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12). We are to wrestle ministers of wrong spirits. A man in the New Testament has the capacity to bear the different spirits that are in Jesus. It is quite demanding to wrestle these evil spirits because they are carriers of wrong spirits. A principality may not be fierce or muscular but he carries things that can break a man. One who is not receiving the life of the Godhead in a measure cannot war against these wrong spirits.
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:9). What makes us one of His is the receiving of His laws. What enables one to be a carrier of the spirit of Christ is not the capacity to pray or preach but by doing things which enables one keep this spirit (laws). The beauty of the human soul is that it can take spirits and the Lord wants us to keep His spirits.
There is a wrong mindset we have of spirits and because of this we have a wrong mindset of what it means to be spiritual. There are many things that we have termed as spirituality which are incorrect judgements. If we are not spiritual, we cannot wrestle down wrong spirits.
“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives…” (1 Pet. 1:3). Submission is the hallmark of a spiritual woman. A spiritual woman by the standard of the scriptures is not characterised by prayers but by submission.
To be spiritual is to be enlightened (Eph. 1:18), for we cannot be spiritual if we are blind. To be spiritual is to have an understanding of the life that is in Christ. Therefore, if the light of Christ is not dawning on us, we will remain blind.
In the context of truth, what it means to be spiritual does not begin until our eyes are enlightened. Eyes that are enlightened refer to the soul that can take the journey to becoming spiritual through obedience. To be spiritual is a lifestyle; it is the demonstration of a life springing forth from the doctrine of Christ.
The Lord would give judgement to the Church to attain the true definition of spirituality. To be spiritual is different from being religious. Some, in the bid of not being religious, have thrown caution away but that is not also correct. To be spiritual is to stay with doctrine of truth, line upon line. When people hate the preaching of doctrine, then they are not spiritual; there is a way God judges that is different.
Without the help of the Holy Spirit, we cannot put off the old man. Every of man’s scheme to put off the fruits of the old man he can see cannot entirely bring it to its end. If a person is unable to put off the old man, he would wrongly judge the demonstration of the new man. The Lord would give judgement to the Church to attain the true definition of being spiritual.
There are things of God that we cannot comprehend but they are the degrees of righteousness in God. When a person is spiritual, then he is well aligned and has a better hope that is higher than the natural.
There is a liberty in Christ and we must not abuse it. The tendency to abuse liberty would be reduced if the soul is trained. One can tell the degree of lifestyle in a soul when decisions are made. The level of decision they make is according to the quality of doctrine they have heard.
There is a spirituality that is called worldliness; men under this terrain do not like the message of eternal life. Some men are living exactly the way an evil spirit would live; it is so because evil spirits put their nature in men. The desire of God is that man would be spiritually governed by His laws. It is not by the degree of prayers a man makes; it is his lifestyle that matters. To become a husband governed by Christ, one needs to fight. It is hard for a man to stay with one woman, but a man that desires to be a Christ-husband must fight against the laws of evil spirits that have been implanted in man.
The kind of spirit ruling a soul is shown in its lifestyle. Epistles are life books; they are not spooky. When we live by the life laid in the epistles, it would dominate our mind and would animate a kind of lifestyle in us. We can do some activities that are spiritual but that doesn't mean we are spiritual. There is a way a spiritual man would think of his wife. The epistles are particular of a husband loving his own wife and a wife submitting to her own husband. In the sight of God, a woman or a man obeying this law is carrying something in the sight of God and not of man.
Our commendation is not how men estimate us but how God estimates us; we must learn not to rest in commendation of men. The doctrine of Christ is the doctrine of life. The Lord has raised the church to purge the wrong life in man and be a witness to the life Christ authored. Evil spirits will not fall until people live a different lifestyle according to Christ.
The Lord wants us to behave like Christ, He wants to break by doctrine the life of the negative strata of spirits that is implanted in us. Things must happen to us to defeat the negative life that we have hitherto been expressing. The doctrine of the spirit of life in Christ is to break the negative life that has been deposited in us. As a woman hears doctrine, and also observes a spiritual woman she loves, a work of change is ongoing and she begins to take strides that she had never taken before.
As we obey the doctrine of Christ, we bruise negative spirits. Many of us by our walk have bruised many spirits. The Lord's intention is to break the wrong configuration that has stayed with us. We wrestle not against flesh and blood; it is not our husbands, wives, sisters that we are fighting; we are wrestling against spirits (Eph. 6:12).
We must learn to take our eyes off men and know we are fighting spirits. We do not have the mentality of fighting a good warfare yet, and it is a working of evil spirits. The scripture says we must fight the good fight of faith (1Tim. 6:12). Evil spirits don't believe the Lord can save anyone in this generation but they know Him that He is able; and so they are tightening all loose ends of work they have done in man.
The wisdom of Jesus to those who He wants to show mercy is that they would be made prisoners of His will. Wives must obey husbands, husbands must love their wives; as employees, we must submit to our bosses as unto Christ. The Lord designed it so well that we would make good warfare in every phase we arrive at.
An angel of the Lord would make sure that the work of faith at each level is completed. We may not like a particular phase and may want to do everything to leave but the Lord in His mercy will not allow it till that work of submission, obedience, and love is done.
It is good to see by the eye of the Gospel (the doctrine of the New Testament), that we are being fought daily by spirits. Our warfare is at the level of our meal; we cooperate with the warfare as we eat. As we yield to the leading of the Spirit, we have victory. Fallen spirits are in the air, marshalled in different arrays against men ascending to God.
Many transactions are going on in the air ruled by evil spirits, and man is being governed by these thoughts. A time would come, a man called a beast would ascend out of the earth and he would take everything that Satan has as thoughts (Rev. 13:1). The beast is born of a woman; he will be able to take the things of Satan in full. He would preach a lifestyle and have the capacity to war against the saints.
The war is not against physical man; it is a war against life. There is a life that if a man takes, he cannot be redeemed again because he has been locked up in a realm. The warfare in the epistles and in keeping doctrine is the warfare of life. It begins with hearing; as it progresses, the Holy Ghost leads. As the Holy Ghost leads, we must cooperate; we must discern by doctrine to know when evil spirits lurk. When a home is discerning, they would be able to work contrary to the assembly of evil spirits over them.
We war with them by obedience not by prayers. Our prayers are to help us obey. Spirits can break by obedience. It is a new learning that we are being introduced to and as we do it, things are broken. Some things are as far as our lineage but by obedience, we must break them until we have mastery of breaking. Sometimes, to stay silent in a matter is warfare; evil spirits would want us to talk sometimes when we know in our spirit that we should be quiet.
Job fought Satan. He did not war with Satan by shouting or praying; he was just walking a certain way, living life and evil spirits were broken. A good way to break spirit is repentance, we must find grace to repent. We must not feel less spiritual in our warfare; we must not discourage ourselves or others when they are in their trials. We must not utter words of discouragement, casting aspersions on someone.
Many times, we pride ourselves thinking we cannot fall into some things, but it is not true. It is because we have not found our exact competitors. We must trust God to be humble and confess our faults. We must submit to the Lord to lead us against nature and break free from evil spirits; and become one with the spirit of Christ.
The Lord is stirring hearts by giving specific instructions to hearts with regards to situations with a particular brother or sister or a boss to break the hold of spirits. May we find grace to heed to them. Amen.