Pastor Foluso Taiwo - Keeping the Ancient Landmarks

 Thank you for the privilege to share fellowship with all the saints in this community. May the Lord bless our hearts

So tonight I will br brief and quick so that other ministers can share what the Lord has put in their hearts

So let's pray: Father of light,  we thank you for your mercy and grace towards us. Thank you for granting us revelation knowledge. We give you praise. We ask that you unburden your heart to us tonight and that we experience a revelation of your word and precepts in Jesus name.

So friends, we have been  feasting on God's word as regards Ancient landmarks and I'm certain that we have been blessed. We have received definitions and teachings concerning it. Therefore, I will just go straight to the few thoughts I want to share.

I will like to share on keeping the ancient landmarks in three different categories. I believe that if we understand the ancient landmarks I'm about to share and we keep them and walk by them whole heartedly we will experience both personal revival and global revival. Praise God

*Introduction*

Proverbs 22:28.

When we consider the depth of this proverbial saying, we will see that we have really not been called to do something new. There is nothing new under the sun. Rather, we have been called to continue in the standards, boundaries, and mandate that our Fathers set up by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. God has been working and walking with men; we are not the first He is going to work and walk with. This implies that to fully be rooted in what we have been called to do as ministers we must have a solid and precise understanding of what God has started in ages past.

Every believer is a minister, therefore every believer must understand the landmarks God instituted through men He walked with. The undoing of any generation is to feel like they are called to do or start something entirely new.

Now, for the sake of balance: the things of the Spirit are progressive but not new. Progressive doesn't imply being new. Progressive means it may look new but it has its foundation and definition from what was in existence before.

This simply means if a man does not know the operations of the Spirit that found expression before he will be unable to align in what the Holy Ghost doing now. I hope this is clear. 

Now, let's look at three ancient landmarks that must be understood and kept for personal and global revival.

*A) ANCIENT LANDMARK OF DOCTRINE*

We must understand that THE FAITH did not start with us. The faith in this context does not mean faith for receiving things from God, neither does it mean the faith that brings salvation. Faith here means the entirety of the doctrine of Christ on which our conviction and spiritual practise stands. When Jude warned the church in his letter that they must contend for the faith, he simply meant they must strive to keep the entire doctrine of Christ has delivered to them by the Apostles from being diluted and twisted. 

*Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I was compelled to write to you [urgently] appealing that you fight strenuously for [the defense of] the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints [the faith that is the sum of Christian belief that was given verbally to believers].*

Jude 1:3 AMP

Friends, we must understand that if the doctrine of Christ handed to us is twisted and diluted all of our conviction in Christ, our practise of the faith, and our hope will be greatly affected negatively.

 Further more, we must understand that the doctrine of Christ didn't start with us. It was first preached by Christ to the early Apostles and then the Apostles handed it down to us. It is a great heritage. It is as ancient as the grace of God. We must not tamper with it. We must not manipulate nor dilute the doctrine of Christ. Whether you are a singer, preacher or in the helps ministry we must not speak nor sing what is not consistent with the ancient landmark of doctrine we have received from our Fathers as given in the Holy Scriptures. I often tell people that you can't preach or teach what Apostle Peter, Paul, John etc did not preach or teach. We are restricted by what was given to us. The major reason a lot of people enter into heresy is because they are looking for something new. There is no new revelation. All revelation has been revealed to God's Holy Apostles and Prophets and they have handed them down to us through the Holy Scriptures.

*B)ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF CHARACTER*

When you take a dive into the Scriptures carefully, you will find out that character is of great importance.

 Believers were charged to live with godly virtue. Lack of godly virtue is costly. It hinders.

Moses had hot temper it hindered him from the promise land.  Saul was in the habit of men-pleasing and wanting the attention of the crowd it made him lose his crown, Gehazi was greedy and he lost his prophetic call. Balam was full of greed he used his prophetic gift against God's agenda. Also godly virtue is very profitable for instance David had a broken spirit he received enduring mercy, Rahab was hospitable to God's people she earned safety in the day of trouble, Mary was a virgin and it earned her an opportunity to be a mother to the saviour (for if she was not a virgin it would have been impossible for her to qualify based on prophecy). Character was so important that Apostle Peter counselled that to your faith add character. 

*In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,*

2 Peter 1:5 NLT

This is because your character is always an overflow of the state of your heart. Therefore, the Fathers strongly laid a foundation for all believers to live godly. We can't be woke and kick against such truth. To do so is to do it to our own peril. 

Infact, in the two epistles of Paul to Timothy and In His epistle to Titus(I strongly opine that every one takes a study on these books), Paul gave several criteria for anyone to be a minister of the gospel. About 90% of them were character based. In our generation, we lay emphasis on the anointing and gifting. But Paul laid so much emphasis on character. We take certain notice of virtue is ministers: How does he handle money? how does he handle the opposite sex?, does he have a good report?., is he proud or humble?. These are questions that must be addressed before considering one to be a true man of God. Now, no one is perfect we say. But there must be a progressive change in character building. If we keep neglecting this ancient landmark of character we will do much harm to the gospel. When the Apostles were going to choose deacons one of the criteria was that they must be men of good report (godly character). This is what kept the integrity of the church in tact. May we not be high in office and anointing, yet low in character and virtue. May the Lord preserve our souls by His word from pollution and spiritual contamination

*C)ANCIENT LANDMARK OF DEVOTION*

Men who are devoted will do much more for the Lord than men who are not. Devotion is an heart posture. Our Fathers were devoted men. You read of church history and you see blood. The blood of saints who offered themselves as martyrs. Like one church Father said; the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Men literally gave up their lives for the gospel. We can't do less. We might not be in the days of Nero and wicked emperors of old but surely we will have our own portion of persecution one way or the other. Devotion is known in times of trials and sufferings. Infact, all over the epistles The Apostles kept letting us see that if we don't suffer with Christ we can't share in His glory. You can't know the power of His resurrection if you are not devoted enough to fellowship with His suffering. Devotion is stronger than being a prayer machine. Satan is not scared of praying men but of devoted men. Men who will not bow to baal and the graven image even if they have to die for it. Satan is scared of men who will say if "I perish I perish". Now, that's devotion. That's a heart that Jesus has conquered. We want to conquer cities when Christ has not conquered our hearts. We want to make Jesus king over nations when He is struggling to sit in our hearts. Revival starts with us laying ourselves down to the Lord. What made the prayer of men like John knox, Evan Roberts, Apostle babalola, Pa Akindayomi etc so powerful was because they were men whose heart was for the Lord alone. 

They cared not about fame nor prosperity, to them success in ministry is how much of God's will they were doing not how many people followed them and liked them. Indeed  and worthy of all adoration is that a man whose heart is for the Lord is only concerned about the Lord and His will. We must hold on to this truth. The Lord told me one time that the difference between the Fathers and us is simply devotion and consecration. We have prayed more than them, done programmes than them, built churches than them but are not as devoted as them. That is why we are struggling and praying to see the results they saw simply by walking in devotion to the Lord.

May the Good Lord circumcise our hearts through His eternal Spirit. May the Ghost of God deliver our hearts from allegiance to babylon. May we delight in our God and His will alone.

Amen

[31/01/2023, 19:50:26] Minister Foluso Taiwo: Have a blessed night friends.

I hope these words blesses you.