Dearly Beloved of God: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour be with you.
The Destiny of God’s People is to conform to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). God’s purpose in Creation and Redemption is to have a family of Children conformed to the image of His Son. This is God’s eternal purpose for the believer. This purpose of God is achieved through patience in our walk with God. Romans 2:7 ” To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:”
The pilgrimage journey of God’s people starts from the world of sinners, regenerated, born again, journeying through the realm of the Church to the power and glory of the fullness of God; from the brazen altar of Sacrifice for sin in the Outer Court to the Golden Altar and Table of Prayer, Praise and Communion in the dim light of the Candlestick in the Holy Place, then into the Holiest of all. The light of the Holiest of all was the light of the incorruptible, eternal glory of God. It never ran out of fuel; man’s hand never touched it and no man could add anything to it. This realm of the Most Holy is higher and greater than the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place is the incorruptible, immortal and eternal realm of God. It is the realm prepared for God’s mature sons right here upon Earth. It is the realm of God’s fullness, of perfection, of maturity, of glory, of wisdom, power, authority and dominion. This is the realm of manifest Sonship (Romans 8:29).
The Holy Place is referred to as the Pentecostal realm, it is also called the Church realm, for the Church was birthed at Pentecost. In the Holy Place, there was shewbread (Showbread). The bread consisted of twelve loaves made of the finest flour. They were flat and thin and were placed in two rows of six each on a table in the Holy Place. The bread meal was sown or baked with leaven. In the Word of God, leaven typifies sin or error. The golden candle stick was divine because gold speaks of divine nature of God. Men had to make oil for the candlestick or it gave no light. The oil was processed by man according to God’s instruction and specific formula to mix the ingredients after the art of the apothecary (Exodus 30:25, 35. Exodus 37:29). Human hands were needed to make the oil. This is to say that there was element of Flesh (humanity) in the making of the shewbread and the oil used in the Candlestick.
Flesh has entered into almost all services, worship and other activities in the church (Holy Place). There is so much of human and flesh element in the church to such an extent that it is difficult to know a clear difference between the Church and the world. The church is so worldly and the world is so churchy. The oil had to be made regularly to avoid running out of the Candlestick. It was not the infinite supply of God. The wicks in the lamps needed to be trimmed regularly and daily, the wicks had to be raised or lowered to keep the light burning evenly. Without man’s input and administrations, there would not be light and the purpose of the candlestick would be unfulfilled.
Strong’s Comprehensive Concordance, 4561. Greek word for FLESH is SARX.
Sarx or flesh means human nature with it’s frailties, physically or morally, and passions. Carnally minded, fleshly. The sensuous nature of man, ” the animal nature” with cravings which incite to sin. The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man APART FROM DIVINE INFLUENCE, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.
Flesh expresses itself in many ways as: self-preservation, self-centeredness, self-confidence, self-congratulation, self-consciousness, self-deception, selfishness, pride, ego, and all works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
Flesh or self is an expression of the life of the Soul. In the Tabernacle of Moses, there were three divisions or compartments. The Outercourt, this represents the body of man: the holy place represents the soul of man where flesh nature, self nature, carnal nature expresses itself. Soul embodies man’s mind, will, desire and emotion where flesh nature, self and carnal nature find expression. The Most Holy Place referred to as the Holiest represents man’s spirit.
Another name for Tabernacle is Temple.
The Temple and the Tabernacle serve as the dwelling place of God Himself. King Solomon called the Tabernacle, Temple (Temple of Solomon). Born again child of God is God’s temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
2 Peter 1:13 “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;”
Revelation 15:5 “And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:”
Revelation 3:12 “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
As long as our Adamic nature, the carnal nature, flesh, self and soulish nature remains, it would be impossible for man to enter into the fullness of God; it would be impossible to come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:”
It would be impossible to enter into the Most Holy Place, into the fullness of God and into Manifest Sonship.
Hebrews 9:8 “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:” (the Holy place; human’s soul; the Church realm).
Luke 23:45-46 “And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
Hebrews 10:19-20 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;”
The veil (flesh) was rent in the midst. The veil was the partition between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (The Most Holy), it was rent in the midst signifying that the two rooms merged and became one big room, since there was no more partition between the Holy Place and the Holiest Place.
This informs us that the Adamic, carnal, flesh, self, soulish life and our humanity or human nature cannot enter into the Holy of Holies. Humanity, (human nature), self, flesh and all that is old Adam or Adamic nature has to be totally made subject and be completely subdued to the Holy Spirit in our spirit man to make entrance into the Holiest and fullness of God possible. God has ordained that a people would enter into perfection, and come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. A people, the Chosen and the Elect people of God would grow into all that He is and come to maturity and the fullness of God as sons of God. This calls for total death to all that is old Adam or Adamic nature, self and life. There has to be perfect union of our soul with our spirit. We have to be completely crucified to the world, self, sin and all evil (1 Corinthians 2:2. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Corinthians 5:15-17). The soul must be quickened, sanctified, purified and perfected by the indwelling Christ in our spirit.
Self is the root of all sins. To conquer self is to conquer sin. To conquer sin is to conquer death. Our entrance into the fullness of God, our entrance into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and our entrance into immortality is to be established in our obedience and total submission to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus where we are made free from the law of sin and death as we partake of Divine Life that the tree of life typifies. Christ is the Tree of Life.
Romans 8:1-3 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”
The Law of the mountain of the Lord is Most Holy. The peak of spirituality is Mount Zion, a people that has entered into spiritual maturity and perfection and unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and the fullness of God in Christ and has come into the fullness of the life of the Holy of Holies. The Most Holy is the law in this realm of life. It is the realm of Overcomers and the realm of manifest Sonship.
Ezekiel 43:12 “This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-56 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit in-corruption.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on in-corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
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.”
James 1:15 “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
In verses 53-54 of 1 Corinthians, Paul informs us that (1) this corruptible must put on in-corruption (2) and this mortal must put on immortality.
Putting on in-corruption and putting on immortality are not the same.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit in-corruption. We shall be changed.
To Inherit means to receive or obtain as property, rights or duties, from an ancestor or predecessor; to derive or acquire, as traits or characteristics, through heredity.
We shall be changed, spirit, soul and body by a mighty quickening of divine life. It is only by the mighty quickening of divine life can soul and body partake of incorruption and immortality.
Philippians 3:20-21 “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
The Kingdom of God is the realm of incorruption and immortality. In order to enter into this Kingdom realm, we are to be changed and put on incorruption and immortality.
Corruption is the process by which both sin and death work. Mortality is the state of being liable to death. We are mortal because we are corruptible. Aging process is corruption, whereas mortality is the condition that underlies the aging process, and the final result of the aging process.
2 Peter 1:3-4 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Corruption that is in the world is through lust. Mortality is the product of corruption. Corruption entered into the world through our first parents. Having escaped the corruption that was brought into the world through lust, by the lust or desire of Eve when she saw the tree that it was good for food ( lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes,( lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise ( pride of life). Genesis 3:6, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
1 John 2:15-16 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
James 1:15 “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Eve brought corruption into the world but that same corruption is perpetuated in the world through our lust. Lust or desire is a function of the soul. Corruption is rooted in the soul and mortality is rooted in the body. It is written: Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Death springs from the root of the carnal mind. Carnal mind produces death. To deal with death, carnal mind will first be dealt with. Likewise, mortality is the product of corruption. To deal with mortality, corruption will first be dealt with, for carnal mind is of the soul while mortality is of the body.
The corruptible would first put on in-corruption before this mortal put on immortality. The resurrection of the soul precedes resurrection of the body. Resurrection of the soul is the first resurrection. When the soul, the carnal mind, the desires of the flesh, the emotions of the flesh, and the corruptible nature are dealt with, purged, purified and sanctified and perfected and now has been raised up into the life of God, it is after then, that transformation of the body follows later.
First Resurrection is the resurrection of the soul which will be followed by the transformation and Resurrection of the body.
Revelation 20:5-6 “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Our soul is presently undergoing the process of resurrection (in-corruption). In-corruption leads to immortality. This corruptible (nature of the soul) must put on in-corruption before this mortal can be empowered to put on immortality. The Lord God is making a new creature of us, a new creation man in Christ Jesus. In-corruption is the process of “man’s fall” being reversed.
“Philippians 3:9-12 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
Prayer:
Ephesians 3:16-19 “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Dele Popoola,
Ilorin House Fellowship.
Come Up Hither into the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus
