Programme: Anamnesis Prayer Meeting (Week 3_Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, 21st November 2023
Transcript Summary
1. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9). The use of the word “all” alongside sin tells us that there are many things that make up sin. Sin is the work of the beginning; it is what Satan did. Lower sins also came from his instructions and enticements via other fallen spirits. The world is a sin, and there are spirits of the world. However, the sin in the above verse is not referring to the world. The world is the sin that Satan made, but there was a sin Satan committed which can only be seen and talked about by a priestly eye.
2. Many only see sin as outward or obvious offences like fornication. Fornication is not the only problem of the body of Christ – the Church. That is not where sin really lies. Someone might be preaching yet committing sin because he is not aware of what sin is. One can also be casting out demons and prophesying but still working out iniquity. This means one can be under the light of iniquity, yet still do all those wonderful works (Matt. 7:22-23).
3. The beginning talks about origin; this is where sin came from. There is the original sin that Satan carries, which started somewhere and propagated somewhere else. The work of sin is that it has worked in its mystery so well that it has also grown. It has grown so much that you can never easily trace it to the beginning, close to where God was. The properties that Satan used to make sin were holy things; he defiled his sanctuaries and corrupted his holy wisdom.
4. “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.” (Ezek. 28:18). Trafficking has to do with movements on his inside. What is written here is what the man-child company will do to him. They will bring fire out of him by kindling him to anger, then he will come to earth as he is getting angry. God will decompose Satan by making him lower in grade. The wrath of Satan is a result of the fire that would be burning inside him. So, he will turn to ash upon the earth. This is when men will narrowly look at him (Isa. 14:16).
5. “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15). Sin came out of lust. Satan should have checked his desires when those things were rising in him. He should have ordered the things that were coming and cleansed himself from those desires, but he did not. Sin sprouts out from his wrong ambition on a ground of holiness. The same temptation that came to Cain also came to Abel, but Abel's works were righteous and because of that, he kept his heart.
6. “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” (3 John 1:9-10). In this scripture, Diotrephes did not commit sin because he loved money, but rather, preeminence. He is different from Demas who loved the world (2 Tim. 4:10). It was still possible to bring Demas back, but Diotrephes loved to have preeminence and that is satanic. Diotrephes was a spot among the people of God; he was troubling them.
7. Diotrephes was not of God, though he was born again and a minister. We should not think that we have escaped because we are ministering; we should know that Satan was a ministering spirit that fell. Therefore, we should check our hearts and be cleansed from evil. It is good that we confess our sins; this means we should say the thing disturbing us.
8. Sin does not like exposure; it wants to work in the dark and operate in secret. Satan loved preeminence; that was why he desired to be higher in the beginning. As ministers of the gospel, the intent of our hearts matters. We should purify our motives before doing anything. Precepts (knowledge) can put one in trouble but lines (way) do not (Isa. 28:10). Satan tempts everyone, but we should keep our estates.
9. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9). The issue of saying we have no sin is because we are still walking in darkness. Jesus came to us because he saw sin in us. “All sin” referred to in 1 John 1:7 speaks of “sins and iniquity” and they have a meaning. A priest in the Most Holy Place is supposed to know them. To know sin is not talking of fellowshipping with it; it is about discerning good from evil. The day truth comes into a man, he will choose the good and refuse the evil, having eaten enough butter and honey (Isa. 7:15). And as one keeps on refusing evil, one would come to a place of hating evil. We should refuse sins and hate iniquity; this is the end of the work God wants to do in us.
10. When dealing with iniquity, we should have hatred for iniquity generated from within us. This hatred is a sign of healing in one's soul. Any sin that one hates, one would have been healed of it. When Jesus arrived in heaven, God found hatred for iniquity in Him and anointed Him above His fellows (Heb. 1:9). There is still temptation while refusing sins, but we cannot be pulled anymore when we are at the point of hating sin. Jesus will take us to the point of hating everything that is sin.
11. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10). Walking in the good works is walking in the light, as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). This happens because the Lord is good in the light. What is good is something beyond damage; it is something that cannot be killed and it is beyond destruction. God is so good, not just by what He does but by who He is. He wants us to have the good that He is. He also wants us to be good. God gives us goodness by showing us works. The ambition of God is for people to do Him; this is the teaching and the message – He is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). That is to say, when we are doing God, we would not find darkness in Him as works. There are works of darkness – unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11) – but God is light. Light illuminates who He is. It is this light that sheds understanding on His works that we are supposed to do; and as we get it done, we become good. God Himself, is a sin-remitting gift. When we look at God and do Him, we break sin.
12. In fellowship, we have the Father and the Son (1 John 1:5-6). What God illuminates is the Son. The Son is His work – the work He has done. Work means image; what God did was to make One who is like Him. To fellowship with both of Them means we should gain light. God is light and as we walk in the light, we are fellowshipping with Him and His Son.
13. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7). The blood cleanses us by speaking to us. We cannot just come to God the judge of all, He would shed light on the Son for us to see Him as works, and then we would meet the blood of the Son of God that speaks better things than the blood of Abel. The work of God is the Son of God. God illuminates what we should be like in the person of His Son. But Satan wants us to look like him by making us look like sin.
14. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. [8] He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:7-8). To say someone is of the devil means such a person is a devil. While we are fellowshipping, Satan is also fighting. He fights through his own works – he puts pressure on sin. Fellowship is not about being raptured physically; it is what takes place here on earth. We cannot escape Satan by praying for long hours but by engaging in the fellowship of God (1 John 1:3). Fellowship happens when we are doing seemingly natural things. Fellowship is a decision-making plane; it is our choice to either choose the devil or God.
15. Blood is the supply line for life. We need life. Life is grace or spirit. The things the blood is saying constitute grace or spirit in order to do who the Son is. When grace is ministered to us, we would have the enablement to break free from the suggestion, demand or pressure of Satan’s life – sin. Many of us have undergone temptation and overcome it. When we see some of our pastors fighting to stay under authority, it is a good warfare they are engaging in.
16. Blood helps us to break the works of Satan. If there is no shedding of blood, there would be no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). Sin is a work of the devil (1 John 3:8). The destruction of this work is the raising of another work. Jesus is a work and also a destructive weapon. When Jesus was raised, it was a destructive weapon God raised. Jesus destroyed Satan with everlasting life. Jesus overcame Satan while He was on earth but at death, He destroyed Satan. God wants Satan destroyed and Jesus did it. So Jesus’ blood is the grace of God. We need this grace to serve God.
17. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: [29] For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28-29). This grace is for entrance into the Most Holy. When we enter the Most Holy, we would need the life of God. But for this to happen, we need the blood of the Son (1 Jn. 1:7) which is the blood of God. It is a blood for making the works of God. The Son of God is God (Heb. 1:6). Jesus was raised as an answer to sin. Satan worked men to a state where they love this world. But God is not tired of men; this is why He wants to save men to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). Many men cannot bear being saved to the uttermost; that is why salvation became an inheritance. Jesus has promised to commit the world to come only to those who have endured being saved to the uttermost. This means They have to choose those who will rule the world to come in the present.
18. Those who would rule the world to come would be evident here in the present. It will be seen in them that the world to come has been committed to them because they endured the program of salvation to the end. These are the people who have allowed God to do all His works in them; the work is His Son. His Son is Life Everlasting. Life everlasting is what is raised to destroy the devil.
19. God cannot give us the throne until we have been tried. This goes beyond saving the saint. Issues like this have to do with eternal governance; the saint has to sit on the throne and come into majesty, and also prove to God that he is worth it. It is at this point that Satan tries the saint if such can truly sit. Jesus never sat until He hated iniquity. However, it is also an opportunity to destroy your own sin. For some, it is in the world to come that God will help them to destroy their sins. The leaves of the tree found in the world to come are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). We would see many things in the world to come.
20. (1 John 3:8). The manifestation of the Son of God has destroyed the works of the devil in us. However, we still have works in us that we have not yet disconnected fully from. Hence, it is called our sins because we are at par with it in ignorance. However, God wants to separate us from such sins so that we can learn to hate them. God wants us to first hate it so that He can bring light to illuminate it. This is how we see God’s work and what sin is, for us to be able to make choices. But there is a succour for us through the blood (1 John 1:7).
21. Sin is also a blood (Isa. 1:18). This means when it comes to dealing with sin, it is blood for blood. What can deal with sin is blood (life). When a man finishes doing sin, it becomes death. What God sees as sin is death. The end of sin is death. Death here speaks of the way Satan is dead (cannot respond) to God. This is what Satan wants to achieve with men, but God does not want us to get to such a state. Although some people may have started to attain such a state, they have not yet finished sin and can still be saved. This is the power of atonement – some people who are in commitment to sin but have not yet finished sin can still be saved.
Blessings!
If the above summary has blessed you immensely and you'd love to read the full transcript, kindly send us an email at egfmtranscripts@gmail.com to request it. More grace to you (Amen).