Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministries
www.egfm.org
Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 29th July 2021
Minister: Rev. Kayode Oyegoke
Text: Malachi 3:1-3
Tongues and Interpretation (1)
“I bring you bread, prosper bread. I bring bread from heaven, another layer of life everlasting. I bring that very bread, that particular bread, for I have been sent here this morning to bring bread from heaven. I have been sent by your Lord to bring bread. Prosperity bread, sent here to bring bread for prosperity in things everlasting. I am going to move you forward again this morning, push you forward in everlasting judgement. I bring bread and skill for to divide the bread; dividing portion upon portion. I have been sent here with both the bread and the skill. Sent here bread, sent here, skill.”
(Message begins…..)
Offering in righteousness refers to the doing of the works of everlasting life (Malachi 3:3). There is a difference between the righteousness of God and the righteousness that Christ is. The righteousness of God stated in Romans 1:16-17 is not everlasting righteousness. Similarly, the gospel of Christ is not the same as the righteousness that is described in Malachi 3:1 which says that “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.”
The temple of this offering is the Sanctuary - the Holy Place. The temple is a group of people which make up the Sanctuary of the Lord who we are seeking. The temple of God is the holiest while the temple of the Son of God is the sanctuary. The righteousness in Romans 1 is lesser than the one described in Malachi 3. The latter is a higher righteousness for those who have done the former. The first righteousness is from the gospel of Christ. The preaching of Christ is a preaching of the righteousness of God. The righteousness of Christ may be called a preaching of the righteousness of God because it is something that God gives. It is God’s idea of righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is the righteousness that God is pleased with, and which we must come into before we can come into God's own righteousness.
According to Romans 1:16-17, “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation”. The power in this scripture is not a manifestation of the spectacular but the release of power to derive virtue in the spirit. This virtue is what God counts as right in the spirit. What Christ is made up of will make us know who He is. There are things that constitute Christ and they define who He is. Christ is the righteousness that gets to God.
There is a way the mind of people is towards God. They just think He should only be called upon in times of help, and do not think of Him as One that should be learnt. However, God wants us to know Him. God is jealous about this; He has a holy jealousy. Many people love other things and only see God as a means to getting those things by prayer.
The true definition of a god is something that you love and do not want to be healed of. God can be reached, known and studied. God wants to be everything to us, He wants to be our joy, our love and our happiness. He wants to be the centre of our lives. God is also so humble that He wants to be in the midst of us. God wants us to be attracted to Him for us to admire Him, just like we would behave towards our babies. God is also tender even much more than the babies which He created.
A righteousness from God cannot recreate God; this requires a righteousness that is of God and in Him. Christ is the key to God and He must be learned. We cannot get to God except by Him (John 14:6). Comers are those who are coming to God. If you are not grounded in Christ, you will become unmovable to the next level (which is God).
Christ is wisdom and before a person can come to righteousness, wisdom must play an important role (1 Corinthians 1:30). There is a way wisdom smells. A wise man is a man of wisdom; he is a personality that has been made wise. Wisdom is the gatekeeper or portal to God’s resources. When you reject wisdom, you reject Christ. The first wisdom that God gave to us is the wisdom for knowing Christ. You cannot break the knowledge of Christ without wisdom. No one is born with wisdom in place; it only comes to us after the new birth to make us think in a particular way, to know and discern Christ.
The door that wisdom opens to you is righteousness. Righteousness is the revelation of an ingredient in the spirit which God has set as the right one. Righteousness is ‘rightness’; nothing is right outside it. That which we must do to make us right is called faith. This faith is not the type that men use to get things but is the kind of faith that man cannot conceive; it needs wisdom to be revealed. Faith is the provision of wisdom. Wisdom will make you discover what God calls righteousness.
Righteousness is faith. Righteousness is not defined by ‘holy acts’ because one can engage in those acts and not have righteousness. Men are easily deceived by such acts. However, the wisdom of God (His righteousness) is hidden to a natural man.
Faith is a lifestyle that we have to live by. It is not by natural movement that we journey into God, it is a journey of the soul. It is a movement that takes place even while a soul goes about its normal activities. This movement is a change in the nature of the soul. When you live by the faith of the Son of God, you ascend in the spirit, even though it may not be obvious in the physical (Romans 1:17). You have to defeat things before there can be a shift in the spirit.
The design of a man shows where he is in the spirit. If all of your thoughts are only about the earth, you cannot make much progress in the spirit. A man’s desire tells us where he is. The state of a man’s soul can be known by his thoughts and desires. The way we ascend is by our lifestyle. It is possible for one's soul to be absent from the body and yet connected to the body. This is different from astral travelling which is departure by the spirit.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1). To live after the spirit is to live the faith life. A faith life is a life that is not anchored on anything of the earth; it is one that trusts in the invisible. This life was designed to take the soul away from the earth. The desire of a soul is what binds it to its habitats. As such, we should not be too attached to anything that is not of God. The tree of the knowledge of good can tell you how to be righteous. Righteousness is not naturally in any man - it has to be revealed.
The things that tie a man down to the earth are traceable to spirits who are wise. They make you believe that everything they bring to you is your imagination, whereas, they are the ones who actually bring about all the thoughts. They bring thoughts that make us think those who have achieved milestones in the world are better than us. The truth is that Satan wants to preoccupy us with things that will hold us down to the earth. Philosophies, traditions of men and rudiments of this world are the things that will make us stay on earth. The weapons of Satan are things that seemingly look like righteousnesses.
Sin is the attitude of ignoring things that are valuable, that is, life. Ignorance will make you disdain life. To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Righteousness is not man's idea; it is of God. A man must have partaken of righteousness before he can partake of everlasting righteousness. You must have done this first righteousness before you can come into the other righteousness which is called everlasting righteousness. This other righteousness is the righteousness that is referred to in Malachi 3:3. The men referred to in that portion of the scriptures had done righteousness, sanctification and come to redemption (1Corinthians 1:30). After the righteousness of faith, one will be engaged in sanctification. This is faith projected forward - hope to charity. After sanctification is redemption.
When you start living by the faith of Christ, you begin to receive forgiveness of sins. Therefore, the faith life is responsible for deleting the sin load in a man. When you live by faith, you will not move by the energy of the flesh that makes you susceptible to sin. You will not trespass because something else is going to be moving you. The faith of Christ must be revealed for the work of sin and death to stop.
Faith is a cleansing reagent. Faith is the operation of purification. In our minds, our definition of faith is limited because of the teaching of this world. Hence, you cannot unlearn sin and death in any classroom or school system on Earth. The only places we can learn this faith is the fellowship and gathering of saints.
Faith is God's method of curbing sin; it is a tool of cleansing. Redemption is a faith tool. The first redemption that deals with sin and death is a faith tool. Anyone who lives the faith life is given the opportunity to engage in the crucifixion of Jesus. You cannot come into being crucified with Jesus without wisdom. When a man begins to love and obey the instructions of Christ, he has begun to live the crucified life. Crucifixion is not a suffering that is achieved by suffering or maltreating the physical body; instead, it is a wisdom lifestyle that is designed by God to beat down Satan and cut down the law of sin. Sin and death is the wisdom of Satan. Therefore, you need another wisdom to defeat it.
When God is raising wise people, He is beginning a program of washing by the water of the word. Washing takes place by the ministration of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). One of the signs that a man is ready for cleansing is expressed in the level of his thirst. The water that the soul drinks is what washes him. When the soul thirsts, he is given water. The reason why we are polluted is because we are thirsty for polluted water. However, when we desire cleansing, we should drink clean water - the kind that can wash us and make us clean. Hence, we should be careful what we drink.
There is righteousness (Romans 8:10) and there is everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). Righteousness is life. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:10). The spirit of every believer is life but the body is dead. Therefore, sin is death. Righteousness is not a practice but the deposit of a living thing in your spirit, and this is what your spirit came into at the New Birth experience. Your spirit is righteousness, therefore your spirit is life. That is to say, your spirit is life because of righteousness. If we have life as a result of righteousness in your spirit, you are equipped to also learn righteousness in your soul until your soul becomes life. Righteousness gives birth to life.
Everlasting righteousness will give you everlasting life. The gift that God gave to us is His only begotten Son (John 3:16). God did not just give us Christ but His begotten Son. Recall that Peter called Him, “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The reason is that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes is one who has been born again. Such a man should not perish but should have everlasting life. The word ‘should’ does not connote one who already has everlasting life at that moment but that he should afterwards have it. One may be a Christian and may never come into everlasting life. However, They have started grooming us with life.
“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16). This verse can also be read thus: “thou art the life, the everlasting life of the everlasting God.” The living God is the everlasting God and the Eternal God is different from the living God. Jesus, at this level, saw the living God as He worked. The living God is the One that He refers to as the Father while God is Eternal Life. Christ was revealed to man because man fell into carnality, which is a state below Christ. Therefore, man had to be started out with the milk of the word. However, Abraham did not have to start with milk; instead, he was shown the covenant of the Almighty. This tells us that the level of teaching that They are able to bring to us is dependent on the level of the Word we can bear.
Therefore, we were given both Christ and the Son of the living God. Beyond these, we were also given the only begotten Son of God. The word ‘only’ refers to a title of a Son with the reward. Jesus has everlasting life; this was the life that He offered on the cross. If He had immortality at the time, there was no way He could have been killed or made sin. 1 Timothy 6 describes Jesus from verses 14-16, saying; “That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” As at the time of writing of this scripture, no man had immortality except Jesus. While on earth, if Jesus were in this immortal state, which no man can approach, no one would have been able to lay hands on Him to crucify Him. He would be dwelling in the light and would not be caught, because the power of immortality makes Him invisible. When something is said to be invisible, it means that it cannot be read/decoded. Jesus had everlasting life and immortality. He had power everlasting and in that state, before anyone can come to Him, such must experience His everlasting power. This is what He is preparing us for.
Levites are priests in the Sanctuary and they have life (Malachi 3:2-3). “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6). The children of the Sanctuary have life and peace. The court typifies life, while the sanctuary typifies peace; they are both realms of life. A soul that possesses both life and peace is said to have the fullness of Christ and is spiritually minded (i.e. Christ-minded). However, God wants us to have more than Christ's mind; we should also mind the things of God.
The armour of God starts where the armour of Christ ends. The armour of God starts with the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:13-17). The sandal of an everlasting son is the gospel of peace; while the helmet of the son of God is the helmet of salvation. As such, salvation will be on the head and peace at the feet. This means that we are meant to grow up into being a saved man, that is, a warrior of Eternal Life. Just as we have possessed life mind, we also need to come into the everlasting life mind to make our minds ever-last. One who has everlasting mind minds everlasting things.
Jesus the Lord can condescend to the sanctuary brethren by entering into the midst of the saints. Jesus is upgrading people who have finished life and is bringing them into everlasting life (Malachi 3:3). Thus, before we can have everlasting life, we need to do that which qualifies us to have it.
Some people think that everlasting life is a free gift (Rom. 5:16); however, the same Lord who spoke of everlasting life also instructed us to, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Salvation here refers to everlasting life. The terms, ‘fear and trembling’ are noteworthy in that verse. Recall that “we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” (Hebrews 12:28). The kingdom that cannot be moved is the everlasting kingdom. To serve God acceptably is to serve Him with reverence and godly fear. We may serve God at a level that is less than acceptable and we may also serve Him at the level of good. However, this call is a call for acceptable sacrifice. This is the sacrifice that will be done when a soul has learnt not to touch the unclean thing.
Our Lord Jesus is the One who teaches us to “touch not the unclean thing” (2Corinthians 6:17). When we can do this, Jesus will receive us; to receive us means to accept us. Cain and Abel got to this level. When it was time for them to be made everlasting men according to the order of Genesis, Cain fell because both he and his offering were not accepted. “But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”(Genesis 4:5-7). The time they made this offering was the ‘acceptable time’ and it was the Lord Almighty (the living God or the everlasting God or the Father) who was to receive them. Thus, Cain was rejected.
In New Testament terms, offering refers to the product of your walk. To walk, you must have worked. You give to God out of the product of your work. Therefore, when you offer to God, it may not be excellent if you have not done well. Note the phrase - “if thou doest well” (Genesis 4:7). This means that Cain had not been doing well. This doing was not referring to the sacrifice but his life. Cain had not been obeying God and this showed in the final outcome of what he offered. The reason why he was not doing well was because sin was lying at his door. Sin is a life; and Cain lived by this life.
Sin teaches a life that is against faith. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” (Hebrews 11:4). Thus, Abel must have been doing well. For men to be accepted, God wants to bring them into a higher dimension of life. If Cain had done well, he also would not have killed Abel.
It was by faith that they offered their offerings. To say that Abel offered his offering by faith does not mean that he merely had faith that God would receive his sacrifice as he offered it. Both Cain and Abel believed God in faith as they offered. The word, ‘by’ connotes the way to the excellent sacrifice. This means you cannot bring that kind of sacrifice if you have not done some things overtime.
Thus, long before the day of their offering, Cain was not really willing to be accepted by God. He was giving himself to something else. The phrase, “sin lieth at thy door”, means that sin had an ambition for Cain (Genesis 4:7). This door is the door of the heart. Sin wanted Cain and offered itself as a servant to him with the intention of ruling over him. For sin to rule over Cain meant that sin would use him to get to its destination.
Sin sought for a space and he found it in Cain. Sin offered itself to Cain who ruled over it for a while. Sin offered itself to Cain like a horseback for its user. Sin knew Cain’s ambition to build a city against that which God had instituted. Satan fueled this ambition. Cain was the charter of civilization. He conceived it as a desire and Satan nursed it in him, showing him all of its benefits until Cain bought the desire over. However, sin had an intention which was to reign. But sin first offered itself to be ruled over. We must not be deceived. If sin allows you to rule him, it will afterwards rule you. It is a force we do not know.
To be worthy of the Most Holy, we must be in alignment with the acceptable time (or year) of the Lord (Isaiah 61:2). Cain and Abel had been prepared for the acceptable year of the Lord - a time when they went to meet with God, so that God could receive them. However, God rejected Cain. “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.” (Malachi 3:3). The LORD will not appear until the acceptable time. The Lord is coming for what He represents. He is the Messenger of the covenant; and He will be coming for the covenant.
The kind of covenant in question is the everlasting covenant written of in Isaiah 55:3; “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Jesus is coming to make an everlasting covenant with us. Note the term, ‘everlasting covenant’; the promise of the everlasting covenant is everlasting life (1 John 2:25). No one can come into Eternal Life without attaining everlasting life. Everlasting Life is the perfect promise (or will) of God.
What the Lord is saying in Hebrews 8:6 is that you cannot have the better promise without the better covenant. The covenant is what unlocks the power of the promise and without it there is no access to the promises. Therefore, a covenant is an obedience to promises. The covenant is an aspect of God’s word that you will have to obey in order to eat the fruit of the land (Isaiah 1:19). God does not give the promises to anyone without the covenant or out of sheer wish. It will take the covenant to prepare the rule for the promise. While making the covenant, you inherit the life that is in Christ Jesus and do His covenant - faith, hope and charity.
The everlasting promises have an everlasting covenant - the love of God, which is a sacrifice. Every covenant has a sacrifice; “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Psalms 50:5). When you sacrifice, you make a covenant. Sacrifice is obedience. Jesus is needed in the mediation of sacrifice because He is a High Priest who is merciful (compassionate) and faithful. These qualities of His are so needed for Him not to cease in making sure you inherit the promise. His faithfulness is expressed in the intensity of His intercession. He intercedes for you until you make the covenant and it becomes yours. He gives help, grace and strength to do the covenant - to start the obedience and finish it.
Without the making of the covenant, sins will remain and there will be no reconciliation for sin. Reconciliation is not the promise but the drafting of the covenant for the promise. When reconciliation for sin is made, offering for sins occurs. Sins here refer to everlasting sins.
Everlasting sins are sins that God delivers the soul from; they are the evil (Isaiah 7:15-16). Everlasting sins are the deeds of Satan. Satan does iniquity. When he trains anyone to commit sins, he is writing a covenant in such. Therefore, the strength of sin is the covenant or the law.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). Sin in this Scripture refers to everlasting sin. The strength of iniquity is an everlasting strength and it can only be broken by the strength of the High Priest. It takes a priest who is well equipped to break or remit sin.
Remission also means to forgive. Jesus told Peter, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19). In another account, He said to them, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23).
Remission is forgiveness of sin and it is achieved by teaching the word. In the process of teaching, light is shed and this is necessary to expose sin in men. Sin always seeks to remain hidden; thus, as soon as it is exposed, it weakens. When sin is revealed, it loses its potency.
We cannot disobey sin merely by making up our minds not to sin; we must obey another law to disobey sin. The law of the covenant of God is written and designed to remove the law of His enemy. The enemy of Eternal Life is a collection of laws. Hell and death constitute a higher sin that reconciliation must be made for.
God does not completely trust man because He knows the law that runs within us. Immediately the law of sin and death is disobeyed, sin goes away and the covenant is broken. We should keep breaking the covenant of sin and death until we break them all.
Iniquity is written with the intelligence in the fallen cherub. We can disobey it because we have a High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God (Hebrews 4:14). He passed into the heavens because iniquity is heavenly and was first found in the heavens; thus, it can be only dealt with in heaven.
Reconciliation puts man in the right standing with God. This is a state where you and God become one, so that you think like God. When you lose friendship with the world, you are now ready to be friends with God. Friendliness with God does not culminate to its end in a day, you have to walk with God. To walk with God means to do the things He approves and accepts. To do otherwise is to break His laws and that means you are not yet ready for that life. We break through into everlasting life when covenants are being done. Covenants are revealed by teachings; covenants are laws. When the covenant is revealed and obeyed, you cut the covenant. When the covenant is cut, the life of the covenant begins to find expression in you.