Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing the Vision Prayer Meeting (Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, 14th June 2022
Ministering: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
The vessels of mercy are people God has already predetermined to show mercy unto. Thus, it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy (Rom. 9:16). ‘Willeth’ refers to the first will of God, while ‘runneth’ is the second will of God. These entail the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2). The service of walk is the service of Christ, while the service of race is the service of everlasting life.
In the allocations to come into the will of God, there are dimensions of mercy. The first dimension of mercy is the sending of a preacher. This is because no one can learn/gain faith except through hearing, and there can be no hearing except someone preaches. The message of Christ is the teaching of the person of Christ; it is also called the first knowledge of God (Eph. 1:16-21).
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." (Eph. 6:18) "All prayer" can be prayed when the eyes have been enlightened and it means ‘all the will of God’. Therefore, it is clear that Ephesians 6 talks about everlasting life. A man can only be perfected after he has journeyed through the prayers in Ephesians 1:16-21 and then come into the "all prayer" in Ephesians 6:18. This ‘all prayer’ to perfect the saints began in Ephesians 1. "All prayer" is needed to engage in the warfare against spirits that hinder us from doing all the will of God (Eph. 6:12); It is an incense lifted up to God for His pleasure.
The sins of the church were not yet forgiven, for entrance into the kingdom. The love they had for all the saints which Paul commended in Ephesians 1:15 was not the love of Christ. The knowledge of Him in Ephesians 1:17 is the knowledge of God. However, this knowledge is also Christ’s knowledge, which came from God. Christ is the beginning of God; He is the beginning of the will of God. This is not the "beginning" seen in Revelation 1:8 as the "beginning and ending" of God. There is the beginning of the will of God, which refers to another beginning. No one can come to God except through Christ. Thus, to say Christ is the beginning of God (in a sense) means Christ is the first grace of God.
"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." (Acts. 20:32) Beyond this grace allocation, there is another grace which is the "grace of life" (1 Pet 3:7). The life used here is the life used in 1 John 1:1, and it is everlasting life. Christ is the first light. However, this light is not sufficient to complete the enlightenment of man. To fully enlighten men, one needs the Logos, which is a lifestyle. This is the life that should be the light of all men (John. 1:4). This means what should be preached to all men is everlasting life.
"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) Christ doctrine, which is the first crux of the foundation, can be likened to sand. As one goes higher (deeper into the soil), the intensity increases. Thus, everlasting life is a life that has been brought into a sure place that the Eternal (divine) God can relate to. Man is predestined to become a man God can deal with. Christ is the man God can take in while everlasting man is the man God can transact with. An everlasting man is the man of the perfect light of the will of God. To perfect a man is to illuminate him with the truth of God.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…” (Eph. 2:8) Grace saved us through faith for us to learn grace. Faith towards God is according to grace. It is not grace, instead, it is because of grace. That is why "love for the saints" comes via the milk of grace so that we can know how to use grace when it comes.
"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." (Heb. 6:1-2) The milk of the word is the doctrine of the Jews patterned for us as milk. So, instead of faith towards God, for us, it is faith in the Lord Jesus. The Jews knew these doctrines. They knew the doctrine of faith, else, Jesus would not have told them to believe. All of these doctrines in the Old Testament were brought into the New Testament in order to start children up within the course of Christ.
In the New Testament, there is a grace needed to start a believer up. A natural man can use grace to live above sin. Grace diminishes flesh; it starves the grassy life of the soul--there is a lifestyle of grass (flesh). They (the Godhead) start with grace to thrust the newborn into the spirit. To come into spirit is to come into grace. The first commodity of grace is faith. This is why God called Israel unto Himself to be a gracious nation, not having to depend on what she does to survive.
It is the programme of Satan that makes one depend on what one does to live. Such a soul that is engaged in so much doing to survive will be too busy to change from the nature of man to the one God desires. That posture is an emaciation of the flesh. This is because the soul of man is not designed to live like the ungodly. An ungodly man is one who depends solely on himself and lives by his own counsel and might.
Thus, Christ is a meal that would knock off the design of the man that Satan has made. A carnal man is a weapon in the hands of Satan. Ministries that focus only on meeting the carnal needs of man are in agreement with Satan. True ministry is committed to redesigning souls. Heaven has to be unleashed; the throne of God and the angels of God have to be involved when such ministry is to be carried out.
True ministry is backed up by heaven. Heaven is relinquishing itself from the former move. After some time, that move would wane and it would no longer be the concentration of heaven. A whole lot of ministers in the body of Christ would then move into this new ministry because they would know that it is high time to move forward.
It is evangelism that God uses to gather souls. If God would use only doctrine to bring people into Christianity, many people would not be born again today. It is the wisdom of God to send men with power and healing gifts to win the hearts of men to the side of God, preparing them to receive doctrine. However, those problem-solving gifts are not the true expression of God.
God is a redeemer; He knows how to remove things from the souls of men. The redemption programme was what was in His heart concerning the children of Israel. God would not take us to heaven with our sins to be managing us. Rather, He would, in mercy, reveal our true state within for the sake of dealing with it. Our redeemer will come for us and will stand upon the earth (Job 19:25).
The next level of grace, after the grace of Christ, is the grace of everlasting life. Everlasting life is the grace of God.
"And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16) This ‘grace for grace’ refers to the grace for two works. The first grace is the grace of faith. Christ is the faith of God; He is the word of God’s grace for the sanctified. Then, the next grace is the grace of judgement. Judgements are gracious and they are weighty because they save man, turning him from flesh to spirit. Faith in the Lord Jesus does not change one from flesh to spirit.
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." (Revelation 3:7) God wants to raise us into All things. ‘All things’ refer to all the works of God. The tender mercies of God are over all His works (Psa. 145:9). Thus, judgement is grace. The life of God is to be able to love what God loves and hate what He hates. Thereby we would know if a person loves God. All that God wants to do in us is to make sure that we love Him fully. The aim of the work of charity prepares us to be able to love God.
We do not love God fully and completely at first. Our initial love of God cannot be enough to do the tasks of love. Therefore, some people, after having started well with God, get tired because the task of loving is too strong for them. The initial love is only a sign that one can love. The second love comes with commandments of love. The commandments of loving God are the instructions of that which lasts. When God brings it, the question would be whether we are able to endure it to the end. A time would come when we would begin to learn to love God.
Noah and Moses found grace in God’s sight. The grace that was given to Moses enabled Him to continue. Jesus told the sanctuary children, who ought to be saved from the bondage of death, to come boldly to the throne of grace as an answer to their bondage (Heb. 2:15, 4:16). The mercy that they are to receive is an ambition to get grace; it is a lower mercy. That mercy is judgement; it is love and it is also grace.
The time of need is for the purpose of filling up the fatherless void. To have God as a Father is not by proclamation. The need of the soul is not taken care of until one gets to everlasting life. There is something that ought to be addressed and it requires an evident manifestation of the person of our Lord for it to be removed. One who does not have a father is one whose iniquity remains. Jesus quickly grew up for the purpose of breaking the claim of the devil over every one of us. Thus, He obtained redemption for us through His blood. That blood speaks better things so that He may claim complete ownership over us; that He may call us ‘mine’.
The Book of Hebrews is full of judgement. Jesus was and would be judging the Church. Judging the Church is loving the Church.
Love is the first secretion of mercy. For God to love a person, mercy must have passed its judgement and light is released. The DNA of the light is discernment or judgement, that is, careful examination. When God is bringing a man close, He watches him carefully and He wants such a man to be armed with care. Another word for care is fear. When we are approaching God, fear should increase.
"And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears…" (Isaiah 11:3) Judgement is what follows fear; they are synonymous. Someone who is in judgement is careful. A high judgement is at work in the political scene of Nigeria. Sons of God who have judgement will be able to trust God enough to believe that God can make us survive even under a tyrant. Satan wants to make us angry so that he will have a reason to accuse God. But when we are in judgement, we are given the grace and the opportunity to think highly and see how gods think. We would know what gods are looking for.
The first portion of glory or hidden wisdom of God which He ordained for our glory is judgement. The first weight of glory is judgement. The season of the grace of judgement is the season where one begins to carry glory. The warfare of glory is not an ordinary one. Satan wants to prove to God that we are not worthy of glory. God is a spirit. When He brings in judgement, He will shake the heavens and the earth just for us to receive a kingdom that can not be moved (Heb. 12:28). No son of God should have his trust in anything arranged in this world. We cannot receive the immovable kingdom if our trust is in things that can be shaken. There is a caution attached to receiving this kingdom: reverence and godly fear. If we do not have grace for reverence and godly fear, it would be possible for us to get angry and be provoked in the process of receiving the kingdom; and ultimately miss out on the kingdom.
It is possible that our nation is heated up because Satan does not want sons to receive the kingdom. Nothing stops God from taking over the government of the nation overnight. However, there is something about glory that God wants us to stand for amidst it all. One who is weightless in everlasting life or in judgement is not glorious enough for God to have mercy upon.
Mercy is the eternal weight of glory. It is very weighty and raw. Christ is a merciful and faithful High Priest (Heb. 2:17). The merciful nature is an eternal status; the faithful nature is also eternal, not everlasting. ‘Faithful and true’ on the other hand, is different. It is when God raises a man up that he will quicken him. In raising us up, He would be coming to us. As He is coming to us, He would be giving us all things (John 3:35).
Jesus waited for God after He had been given all things. The good confession that He kept before Pontius Pilate is the confession of everlasting life; a confession of good (1 Tim. 6:13). Jesus had been given all things, but those things still needed to be quickened. This was what made Him a quickening spirit.
There are two orders in the glory world: the raising order and the quickening order. When we have been raised to the shoulder, God would come to quicken us (Rev. 22:12). Jesus is faithful and true, but He is more than that; He is also merciful and faithful. The latter is a higher order. Jesus is not the only one who is faithful and true. The army of heaven who are yet to enter into Eternal Life is also faithful and true.
"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. [14] And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Rev. 19:13-14) These armies were not exactly like Jesus at this level. They had an everlasting vesture, not an eternal vesture.
"And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. [7] Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." (Rev. 22:6-7) We are expected to do the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of prophecy. When we have fulfilled all things, we are going to be quickened. This has to do with coming quickly. His coming quickly is to make men quickening spirits; that is, making them merciful spirits.
We have to take grace seriously. We should know how to ask for it. We need to desire it. The Lord will hear us and He will give it to us. We need to ask God for this great gift so that we can obtain it. We should not get tired of getting grace. Jesus received so much grace in order to receive all things.
Blessings!
Summary
1. (John 1:16) This ‘grace for grace’ refers to the grace for two works. The first grace is the grace of faith which is Christ. The next grace is the grace of judgement which are weighty because they save man, turning him from flesh to spirit.
2. The time of need is for the purpose of filling up the fatherless void. The need of the soul is not taken care of until one gets to everlasting life. One who does not have a father is one whose iniquity remains.
3. When God is bringing a man close, He watches him carefully and He wants such a man to be armed with fear. When we are approaching God, fear should increase.
4. (Heb. 12:28). No son of God should have his trust in anything arranged in this world. We cannot receive the immovable kingdom if our trust is in things that can be shaken.
5. Mercy is the eternal weight of glory. It is very weighty and raw. Christ is a merciful and faithful High Priest (Heb. 2:17). One who is weightless in everlasting life or in judgement is not glorious enough for God to have mercy upon.
6. It is when God raises a man up that he will quicken him. In raising us up, He would be coming to us. As He is coming to us, He would be giving us all things (John 3:35). After Jesus had been given all things, He was made a quickening spirit.
7. Jesus received so much grace in order to receive all things. We should not get tired of getting grace. We need to keep asking God for this great gift so that we can obtain it.