Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 9th June 2022
Minister: Pastor Tosin Gabriel
God has a need. Though we always pray to God to meet our needs and He has been faithful in doing that, He also has a need. Isaiah 66:1 makes it clear that God is looking for a house–a place of abode or rest. Solomon built God a house and God said He would put His name there. This means that although God could put His name in the house, He could not dwell in the house that Solomon built (1Kings 8:27). The name was put in the house to identify with God and His purpose.
God is looking for a place of rest. Although God is in this present heaven, He refers to that heaven as His throne. That throne is not a resting place; it is only a place from where God is working with the hope of resting. The present creation cannot give God rest. God’s stay in heaven is inconvenient for Him and He only stooped low to stay in that heaven all the while (Psa. 113:5-6).
God is not comfortable in this present heaven. He cannot fully express Himself in this present heaven. This present heaven and earth cannot contain God in His full essence. If God tried to unveil Himself in this present heaven, everything would dissolve, and God would be unable to achieve His eternal purpose. There are protocols guiding and limiting God’s operation at this moment, but He wants to have full expression.
God had to come out of His eternal estate and descend into an everlasting estate. Everlasting life is the humility of God. The Godhead have humbled Themselves to make sure that They can interact with creation. Thus, God generated a life that is conducive and interactive between Himself and creation. The only way God can interact with creation is by condescending into an everlasting dimension.
Eternal Life is the home of God and His heart is in this home, which is an eternal home. God spoke through Isaiah, telling men that He is looking for something and men are not yet on the same page with Him. Stephen told the Jews that God does not dwell in any building made with hands (Acts 7:48). He is looking for His own dwelling place where Eternal Life can be fully expressed.
God is Eternal Life, but He stooped low to everlasting realm. “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.” (Deut. 33:27). A place of refuge is a safe place. Arms are used for working or for work. The works of God are through the everlasting arms and He is working so that Eternal Life can find expression.
Eternal Life is the home of God and He is looking for home. God is homesick. Before God ventured into creation, there is an atmosphere or life that the Godhead enjoyed and They are denied of that right now because of the limitation of creation. Heaven will always be God’s throne and the earth His footstool (Isa. 66:2). God is seeking for a kind of man–one who is poor, of a contrite spirit and that trembles at His word. This does not mean that the man is the home God is looking for, but he is such that God can consider for a home.
Prior to now, God has not found men that He could consider for a home. Many men are not poor in spirit. Man, because of the fall, became wrongly rich in his soul. God did not initially create a man who will strive with Him. Man is the hope of God just as God is the hope of man. God created man for the hope of making him His habitation. But as a result of the fall, man became an entity that strives with God (Gen. 6:2-3). Whosoever strives with God cannot be considered for a habitation. Striving will not allow the work of God’s building to be done in the soul.
A living soul is a man who has a poor, contrite and trembling heart to a degree. Even after Adam had fallen, he still displayed some elements of trembling when they heard God walking in the garden. However, after a while, those installations in the soul dissipated and man began to strive with God. The first statement Jesus made when He began His teaching ministry was “blessed are the poor in the spirit…” (Matt. 5:3). Jesus was declaring what God was looking for.
By the time Jesus was born on earth, the souls of men were already full of riches of darkness. The Jews, Pharisees, priests etc. were already full of letters and not spirit, and this made them strive with Jesus. They were rich with many things but not the kind of riches God wanted. This is why men need to firstly become poor.
Every man on earth was created to become a home or habitation for God. God is giving Eternal Life so that we can become His Eternal abode. However, we need everlasting life to receive the hope of Eternal Life. As we are hoping to have Eternal Life, God is also hoping to find rest in us. When we are not looking at God’s hope, we are striving with Him. Our strife with God is that we are not hoping for what God is hoping for.
God is looking at man and considering him for a home someday, but man is looking at other things and desires to get rest outside of God. Satan changed man’s priority and made him an entity that hopes for things outside God. Some men are already fulfilled by some earthly status and comfort in the natural, not knowing that what they have is a false rest. There is no true fulfilment or satisfaction in achieving anything earthly and vain.
Man is the prospective resting place of God. The new birth experience is only the beginning of a fresh hope that God will someday have a place of rest in a man. Therefore, we are not yet God’s resting place at the New Birth; it only gives us a hope that we will someday become God’s resting place. Though God has His representation in us, He is not yet living in us. We cannot claim that God has found a resting place in us when we still strive with Him. The state of rest implies that there is no more strife between God and man. There should be no conflicting nature with God’s nature in us when we have become God’s home. Thus, we need to be reconciled to Him (2 Corinth. 5:20).
In the New Testament, reconciliation is a journey back to God, because man went too far away from God. Every believer needs to be reconciled to God. Reconciliation is to bring man back to the original purpose of God. To be reconciled is to meet God’s need of finding a resting place and that takes a journey, not an instant occurrence. Any church that only focuses on meeting the carnal needs of believers is not yet engaging the ministry of reconciliation to God.
When a man is reconciled to God, his purpose, heartbeat, vision or hope is one with that of God. The New Testament is what gives the ability to be reconciled. Prior to the New Testament, there was no faith that could reconcile man directly to God. The faith of those mentioned in Hebrews 11 could not make them receive the promise (Heb. 11:39). Eternal Life is not just the promise; it is God Himself. What God promised to man is Himself (Titus 1:2).
God wants to make man His Eternal abode or His Eternal resting place; this is a great promise. This is the glory that Jesus asked of the Father in John 17:5. To be glorified with the very self of God is to be given Eternal Life which God promised before the world began (Tit. 1:2). Jesus did not have Eternal Life when He was on earth. He was only a man who was doing everything He did in the hope of Eternal Life (Philip. 2:8).
Although Moses saw a similitude of God, he knew that he was still veiled from the very glory of God. It was this glory he asked for when he asked to see the face of God. Moses came to this level of asking, not by praying or fasting but by his manner of conversation or fellowship with God. The face of God is an understanding and Moses did not have the building to see this very face of God. Thus, he was shown the back of God (Exo. 33:23). The back of God that Moses saw is also an understanding. This was what revealed to Moses how God began creation, thus leading to the book of Genesis.
The present state of our Lord Jesus Christ is still low compared to what He was in the beginning. Christ is lower than who Logos was in the beginning. Logos became flesh (the man Jesus), lower than Christ. Jesus was then made Christ. Logos condescended that much so that the promise or purpose of God can be fulfilled.
As a man, our Lord Jesus Christ eventually became the first eternal abode of God. When Jesus was on earth, He was also hoping and praying for Eternal Life (John 17:5). Every prayer Jesus prayed, He did so as a man. Jesus was also hoping for Eternal Life until God eventually found a resting place in Him.
God has fully rested in our Lord Jesus. Jesus has become the eternal abode of God and He is now carrying the fullness of the Godhead. So, God is saying that if this can be achieved in Jesus as a man, every other man can also come into this estate. This is why Jesus is referred to as the first born among many brethren (Romans 8:29). We shall be many that will house God. Jesus became the building parameter for the house of God. The substances of God’s building are in Jesus. Thus, everyone who believes in Jesus has access to those substances for building to take place in him.
The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Holy Spirit of promise because He brought the promise close to man (Eph. 1:13). He is the earnest of our inheritance (Eph. 1:14); that is, He is God’s show of commitment towards the plan for man to eventually become His resting place. The Holy Ghost was given to oversee the specification of the building. The Holy Ghost was present throughout every phase of the building of our Lord Jesus: from a child to Christ, to the Father; and as the Eternal Spirit, He took Jesus to God. This is the same Holy Spirit God sent to man.
The way a man treats the Holy Spirit will determine if he will eventually become God’s building or not. When we do not make the Holyghost comfortable in us, God cannot come to live in us. Grieving the Holy Ghost signals to God that we are not ready to be built (Eph. 4:30).
Our Lord Jesus is the cornerstone that determines the pattern of the building (Eph. 2:19-20). Every apostle and prophet must focus on building; they should see the architectural design of building and start building men in accordance with it. The apostolic commission is to build a people for God. God is not interested in many other things asides raising men to become an abode for Him. The first work of the Holy Spirit is to lay the foundation for the building (Eph. 2:21-22). The edifice cannot be built outside the foundation.
The Holy Spirit builds the foundation for the house of God, which is Christ. When Christ is not built in the soul of a believer, God is not seeing the hope of habitation in such. It is a saint who has become Christ that God can consider for a building (2 Tim. 2:19). Although God has committed the Holy Ghost to us, He wants to commit more to our souls. If the Holy Ghost is a deposit of the inheritance, we can only imagine how great the inheritance is.
The supernatural is not Christ, but a preparation for Christ. The supernatural is lower than the spiritual and is only a bridge between natural and spiritual. The manifestations of the Spirit including word of knowledge, word of wisdom etc. are all supernatural experiences not spiritual. 1 Corinthians 13 is a comparison of the supernatural with the spiritual.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2). Mysteries here do not refer to the mystery of Christ or the Father. So also, the knowledge here does not speak of the knowledge of God. Charity is spiritual; it is what makes a man worth something before God. The purpose of the Holy Ghost is to make a man spiritual, not just to give the supernatural. Until a man is spiritual, God cannot give the next commitment to him.
God will not move into a man who only has the foundation called Christ. A saint who has become Christ must also be built by the revelation of the Son. Not to believe in the doctrine of Christ is to grieve the Holy Ghost because it makes His efforts go in vain. The Holy Ghost bears or endures with us a lot but He is excited when we are responding to Christ.
When Christ has been fully formed in a man, he has arrived at Charity. A man of Charity is a Christ man. The fruit of the Spirit is Charity, which is made of Christ properties. These properties are not things that a natural man can have, but are products of the work of the Holy Ghost in a man. Charity is a product of truth that is in God. When a man has arrived at Charity, he has acquired a lot of gain. The gain of profiting with the doctrine of Christ is the formation of the material for the building of the house of God, which is a heart of flesh.
A heart of flesh is one that God can write upon, and the giving of “My spirit” that follows, is the ministration of the knowledge of God (Ezekiel 36:25-27). A heart that still strives with the Holy Ghost has not yet come to peace or charity. When we cannot love the brethren, we are still grieving the Holy Ghost. The gain of Christ is the heart of flesh. It is on the heart of flesh that God will make a further commitment. This commitment is the giving of the incorruptible seed which is the knowledge of the Son of God that is beyond the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ is the foundation, while the knowledge of the Son of God is the building (Eph. 4:13).
“To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 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). Lively stones refer to Christ. It speaks of a man who has Christ as life. However, a living stone is different; it is a sure stone that is not just living but abiding (Isa. 28:16). A lively stone has to do two kinds of work to become a living stone–the work of living and abiding.
The living God is the everlasting God. Therefore, a living stone is the everlasting stone. The essence of the knowledge of the Son of God is to make the saint cross from the level of Christ into everlasting life. The Eternal God will not take anything less than the work of everlasting life. It is when Christ has been fully formed in the soul that this work of God can begin. The work of God is to cause a man to live and abide.
Christ is the first life that will later be moved into a living dimension by the incorruptible seed. God is a living God, the God of living men. These living men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had an everlasting life of their order. To be living is to come into the everlasting covenant and it is only Christ that can enter into this everlasting covenant or into the New Testament. The New Testament is the writing of the everlasting covenant in the heart that has become fleshy (Heb. 8:10).
All that we learn in the era of Christ is to prepare us to enter the New Testament. The work of the New Testament begins when God starts to write His laws upon us. The first work in the New Testament is to make us live, while the second work is to make us abide. To have everlasting life is to have everlasting laws that make us live and abide. A man can live and may not abide. A man can start the first level of work but not enter into the last work. An overcomer is one who keeps the work of God to the end (Rev. 2:26).
There are laws that are meant to make us live and there are those that make us abide. Until our hearts become fleshy, God cannot start writing on us. A carnal mind is enmity with God; it cannot be subject to the law of God (Rom. 8:7). Hence, our hearts need to become fleshy and God desires it so. A heart that still has issues with the brethren and cannot surrender for others to have their way is not yet fleshy. A brother who is beyond rebuke or correction is not yet fleshy in heart.
“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20). This understanding is for those who abide; it is not an everlasting understanding but an eternal understanding. It is the understanding of the true God; this is what Moses desired to have. The allocation of knowing God is reserved for those who abide.
“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Rev. 21:3). These are people in whom every constraint has been removed and God can fully rest in them. These are a company of God who are everlasting and have the capacity to carry God.
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out…” (Rev. 3:12). A pillar is one who is abiding. It is possible to live and not abide. It is one thing to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and another thing to abide in His shadow (Ps. 91:1). Shadow speaks of the dark room of God, that is, the realm of Eternal Life.
Blessings!
Summary
-
God has a need. Isaiah 66:1 makes it clear that God is looking for a house, a place of abode or rest.
-
The present creation cannot give God rest. God’s throne is not a resting place; it is only a place from where He is working with the hope of resting. The present creation cannot give God rest.
-
Prior to now, God has not found men that He could consider for a home because many men are not poor in spirit. Man, because of the fall, became wrongly rich in his soul.
-
Every man on earth was created to become a home or habitation for God. God is giving Eternal Life so that we can become His Eternal abode. However, we need everlasting life to receive the hope of Eternal Life.
-
Satan changed man’s priority and made him an entity that hopes for things outside God. There is no true fulfilment or satisfaction in achieving anything earthly and vain.
-
We are not yet God’s resting place at the New Birth; it only gives us a hope that we will someday become God’s resting place. We cannot claim that God has found a resting place in us when we still strive with Him.
-
Jesus has become the eternal abode of God. Thus, everyone who believes in Jesus has access to those substances for building to take place in him.
-
God will not move into a man who only has the foundation called Christ. A saint who has become Christ must also be built by the revelation of the Son.
-
In the New Testament, reconciliation is a journey back to God, because man went too far away from God. Every believer needs to be reconciled to God.
-
Reconciliation is to bring man back to the original purpose of God. To be reconciled is to meet God’s need of finding a resting place and that takes a journey not an instant occurrence.