Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 12

Dearly Beloved,

The face of Christianity is discreetly changing. Critical masses of believers here and there are gathering unto the Lord and contending in the place of learning and waiting, for the lifestyle and faith of Christ (Acts 26:18e/1Tim. 1:14/Gal. 2:20) which has been entrusted unto the saints.

The true Christian faith as conceived by the Lord would soon be corporately reborn (Jn. 3:5/1Pet. 1:23) and produce a company of lambs (Childlike-Christians) who would stand with the father and Son upon Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1).

The Lord started his church with the HOLY GHOST as the down payment of OUR INHERITANCE which is THE FATHER and THE SON (Eph. 1:14). To fulfil this commission, the HOLY GHOST has to saint many flocks (Acts 20:28) with the fragrance of CHRIST (Grace) which the father (MERCY) must smell (like Isaac smelt a blessed field before blessing Jacob) and thereby authorize our ownership of Grace (Gal. 1:16/Eph. 3:8)

Graceful Reading!

 Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 12

2 Cor. 4:1-6

Vs. 6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The mind of Christ is a provision made for all the church (saints) and everyone of us that has come into the church has this privilege of access. We can access the mysteries of Christ and thereby know what Christ knew in the days of his flesh. No other institution but the church has this access. The church is highly privileged to have access to the mystery and riches of Christ.

If you've not understood what is called wealth, you'll constantly be vexed because you'd wonder why God allows looters to steal so much from a country like Nigeria for example. Interestingly, that's not God’s wealth for the church. God’s wealth for the church can’t be sighted by such looters, howbeit stolen because it has been kept in heaven places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3)

The mind of Christ is our wealth (1Cor. 2:16) and that's the provision for the church. What man defines as riches are only obtainable and usable here on earth but there are riches that you can use here and also leave the earth with, and such is packaged in the mind of Christ, i.e. our inheritance.

2 Cor. 4:1

"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not".

You need mercy to constantly carry out this ministry.  One thing mercy will do for you is what it did for Blind Bartemaeus. He cried: 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me' (Luke 18:38). Jesus knew what his need was, yet he asked him because He needed to know exactly what he wanted mercy to be channeled to.

If the Lord wants to direct mercy towards you, you need to make up your mind on the area for the direction of this mercy. Blind Barthemaeus' response was, 'Open my eyes that I might receive my sight'. Likewise, it would take mercy to see into the mind of Christ. When it comes to the place of sighting God, it’ll take the sure mercies of God! 

We are enjoined in Heb. 4:16 to "…come boldly to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. One will think you have to obtain mercy to find grace, but He said 'Come to the throne of grace to find mercy'. You may come to the throne of grace and mercy will remain veiled unto you.

When you come boldly, you're coming to the Christ (Grace), and He'll take you to the Father (Mercy). If the Father has not given the order to obtain mercy, there is no way you can have a revelation of Grace (Christ). When Peter received the revelation of the Son of God in Matt. 16, it was Mercy (the Father) that unveiled Christ to him. It takes MERCY to unveil GRACE.

Grace will introduce you to mercy and when you've obtained mercy, it will now unveil grace. When you've found grace, you'll then know what mercy is. All of Mercy is encapsulated in Grace. How would you know mercy but for grace? It's in grace that you'll find the accurate definition of mercy. Mercy brings you from a place where you were unqualified and qualifies you. Our predestination is in Grace, in Him. That is where you'll find the reasons and answers to why God is doing things what he’s doing.

There are things grace can do but there's something grace is. Mercy will bring you to the place where Grace will open up to you. How? Your eyes would have to be enlightened. Blind Bartemaeus cried for his eyes to be open. The ministry in 2Cor. 4:1 is the ministry of beholding. The ministry that every saint has been called unto is the ministry of beholding because looking a ministry! That's the ministry of the New Testament. It is ‘Come and See' and that ministry begins when your eyes are being opened (Eph. 1:17-18). Ministry is not primarily to DO but TO BEHOLD!

Eph. 4:12 talks about the equipping of the saints because we need to be equipped with eyes to engage the ministry of beholding and every one of us has been called into this ministry and must to be faithful. Also, you need mercy not to faint (2Cor. 4:1). To faint is for your eyes to be dim or to be fatigued. The ministry of beholding has no end.

We need mercy to sharpen our sight. The sight we now have is incomplete and there are veils upon veils to be torn apart. There are many veils and some of it has to do with our own selves (our mind). The way we conclude/judge things confirms this. This world is another mass of veils. This world steals our sight (judgment) and robs us of the supernatural (divinely spiritual realm). Even in the place of meditation, the world slams us with many thoughts and images such that it becomes very difficult to sustain meditation.

When you’ve pierced through the mass of veils constituted by this world, you would meet the one (God) that hides himself from the house of Jacob (Isa. 8:17). There's a way to approach the place where we would sight Him and it takes Mercy to speak for us here. Mercy will speak for you because it's only mercy that will help remove the veils and take you to the place where you'll find (own) grace.   

There's no miracle that had such continues cry like that of blind Bartemaeus: 'have mercy on me'. Sight is everything. You need to see! Our ministry is TO SEE! Let no one deceive you, it’s not primarily 'what I can do for the Lord' but rather come and see! BELIEVERS CAN DO MANY THINGS BUT STRUGGLE WHEN IT HAS TO DO WITH THE DISCIPLINE OF COMING AND BEHOLDING HIS FACE. Believers want to "do" more than they want to "look". Don't do more than you look. EVEN IF YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN AN ASSIGNMENT, DON'T LET IT TAKE YOU FROM LOOKING. Look at the One who moves faster than the speed of light. Ministry can take the vocation of beholding his image and limit you from changing from glory to glory so be wise.

Mercy won't allow you to be given an assignment that will take your sight. Why? Because it takes a lot of sighting to download his image (nature). His image is not communicated through works but through sighting. You can DO things for Him and end up not LOOKING LIKE HIM and that will result in being told 'Depart from Me for I know ye not' (Matt. 7:23). You may argue, 'But Lord, I did this in your name', but He wants us to know Him as a man will know his wife (spiritual intimacy/communion). Fight everything that will stop your looking unto him (1Tim. 6:12/Heb. 12:2).

One major veil you need to overcome is the god of this world (2Cor. 4:3) which can chart a course for you in ministry. There are some ministry modules that can fit in into a particular dispensation but not fit into another, depending on the allocation of riches of Christ for that time. There's a kind of plate that you can't use to serve some kinds of food. There are some plates that can't be used for God. He can allow some plates to be used for some work but not for others. I'm still trying to understand the particular ministry He wants from me. Someone can be caught there, not willing to move and when God tries to move him in vain, he leaves him. 

Moses asked for God's face, God said it was too costly for the Old Testament'. God was willing to settle him with something less but Moses insisted. If he didn't insist, he wouldn't have seen God’s back and our hearts must be like that. He said 'If I've found favour in your sight, show me who you really are'. Israel was celebrating Moses but Moses knew he had nothing because he hadn’t seen his face.

God is deep (Rom. 11:33) There are things that our eyes have not yet seen. We've not even started. He's deep and willing to show and unveil such deep things to us. This ministry is a ministry of a lifetime. It's a ministry you'll do all your life. Even when you are preaching from one place to another, preach as inspired but keep looking. 

This ministry of beholding has to not only been recovered (Lk. 4:18e) but heightened because we now have the image of God in Christ Jesus. What you behold is what you're going to look like. If you're not seeing Him, you won't look like Him. We'll look like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). There's a way this world has projected Him to be. There is a face this world promotes through our imagination that isn’t really of Christ. Mercy will show us his image. Mercy gives definition to Grace (Christ). Mercy birthed Grace and can tell you what He has given birth to. 

Let's cry: 'Lord, I want to see You as You are. I want to behold You! Let's pray for this ministry of holding to prosper amongst us. Show us MERCY Lord! 

Let's pray that a wellspring of mercy from on high will visit us (Lk. 1:78). It will be a rain of mercy. We need to see and lay hold on mercy. Let it be a time when mercy will reign, oh Lord.

Bless You!

Pst. Emeka Egwuchukwu

2014 Believers Convention Prayer Meeting 

Week 3, day 2 (June 17, 2014)