The proverbs of Solomon speak about the love of God for mankind. His love for man is seen in the fact that it is His deepest desire to return us to Him. The question is how does God want to do this? How can this be achieved? When we talk about our return to God, we are talking about returning to a condition of innocence, for all of mankind stands in a position of guilt because of the fall of our fleshly father Adam.

From these words we can already understand that God set a condition for our return to Him and that condition is innocence from the transgression of Adam. Innocence is a condition that stems from obedience and obedience speaks of being in agreement with God.

It is because of Adam’s disobedience (to refuse to agree to the word of God not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) that he was expelled from the garden and God’s presence. Ever since the fall, Adam experienced the struggle of his separation from God: struggling for peace, struggling for joy, struggling to connect to God, struggling to know his purpose in this life, and struggling to be whole.

All of mankind was born into this dimension, born into the transgression of Adam and struggle. This may seem unfair when you think about the choice we had in the matter. We were not present in the garden; we did not make the choice that Adam did to not heed God’s counsel, yet we were born into the kingdom of darkness of which we want no part.

I’m going to share an analogy with you that will get God’s point across: If my father and mother are Italian and they moved to England before I was born. In what country was I born? The answer: I was born in England.

The same is true about our first birth. Our father and mother, Adam and Eve moved from a heavenly kingdom into a fleshly kingdom and therefore we were born into a fleshly kingdom. As citizens of this earthly, fleshly kingdom that is governed by the prince of darkness we learned to think and speak from our fallen nature.

If I received my citizenship in England and want to return to my land of my father’s origin, Italy, I have to learn the language and customs of a new people and agree to abide to the rules of Italy otherwise I won’t be allowed back. The same with our return to the kingdom of God, we need to know the conditions for our return to be able to be accepted by God and learn to think and speak His language of truth.

How can we be obedient to God if we don’t have the knowledge of what God expects from us? In most countries a person has to pass a test to receive citizenship and they have to take a class to prepare for the test.

Applying that to God’s heavenly kingdom helps us to understand that we can only be obedient to God if we know exactly what is expected from us otherwise there will always be doubt in the mind about God’s will. God uses the word “covenant” to convey His will for us. God’s expectation is unfolded in the new covenant of Jesus Christ. God’s will is that we receive His love and reciprocate to Him the fruit of Christ He creates in us.

To be obedient means to walk in agreement with God’s expectation (covenant terms), meaning that we believe in His plan for us as He Himself believes in His plan which He has determined for us before the world was.

Hebrews 6:17
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

God’s plan is perfect and established in Him. He has taken an oath that He will fulfil it. The plan which God has for us was concealed and hidden from us while we were in the kingdom of darkness. This ignorant state of the soul kept us on a path of continuous searching for the answers to life, asking self-questions, trying to find that one “thing” which would bring true peace and joy and which would work equity in our hearts.

But just as Satan withstood Adam in the garden, so also does he withstand us today. Satan will continually present options to fulfil our desire, but he will never allow us to find fulfilment in pursuing that which he presents.

Before covenant, we were always left with a shortfall and this shortfall is what drove prayer. What do you find yourself praying about most often? What troubles you the most? I receive many requests from believers asking for prayer.

If you ask me to pray for you, I absolutely will do that. But I want you to know that prayer is NOT your covering. Covenant is your covering because when you enter into a covenant relationship with God you are also equipped with the knowledge of God’s will in Jesus Christ and given His spiritual tools to touch Him. You are taught how to daily receive grace and to walk in the 9 operations of God in grace. Finally, God gives you a new priesthood in Jesus to equip you for fruit bearing. Your faith not only becomes active with the anointing, but your faith is mobile and ever increasing.

The way in which people use prayer today, is to find the will of God, which is not known, being outside covenant. We can only find the will of God through covenant. When the path to covenant is not taken, the breach of darkness cannot be healed no matter how hard a person tries. A person outside of covenant will be forever asking, “where did I go wrong?”

I know, change is the last thing a person wants to undergo. The habits learned while under Satan’s care and training while in his kingdom of darkness became a rock-solid foundation for the mind to form strategies and pin confidence in what might look like God’s will.

But as Jesus pointed out, this seemingly rock-solid foundation once built while in the kingdom of the flesh, is actually made of shifting sand. It will not hold because it is not made of the substance of God’s truth that is in Jesus only

Matthew 7:26
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.

Every suggestion that Satan plants in the mind about how God should fulfil His promise and care for His church is to redirect the heart away from Jesus’ covenant. It is a choice Satan presents to the mind, just as he offered to Adam in the garden.

In this new apostolic season, believers are beginning to understand that the mind needs to undergo change, a change in the way in which it operates. Change can only take place through correction. There is no other way.

But as God brings correction and believers are asked to empty their pockets so that they don’t carry Satan’s philosophy into God’s kingdom, it is correction that so deeply agitates the soul. Believers tried their whole life to work out their own way for salvation, and although it did not work, they have the perception that one day, if they keep trying different things, they will discover a way which will bring resolve to the continuous lack they experience.

When hearing God’s voice of correction through His chosen apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers about sweeping changes, the first inclination might be to resist change.

To be corrected is not a comfortable feeling because it touches a self-perception that a person uses as a self-light, and naturally doesn’t want that light to be taken away or extinguished. What is he without this (false) light to define his life-long efforts and goals? How can his rock-solid plan (ideals about God) be sand? Impossible!

You can see that when a person’s aspiration (self-light) is touched, it sparks a knee-jerk reaction to protect one’s self. The reasoning may go something like this, “I’ve been trying all my life, without success, who is this guy to now prescribe to me what to do? What does he know that I don’t know? I read the same Bible he does.”

The aspiration is the drive to retain one’s light (which was mistaken for the light of Christ). How can one keep up the image which he has built to position himself in this world? The reasoning may continue, “Am I now to just let go everything I laboured for and count all my efforts as vain works?”

You will find that ministers who are caught up in the false religious system experience this challenge and you will see them continue to shift their positions and goals. This is the sifting foundation we talked about earlier. As many ministers “repent” of wrong doing and speak about how much they regret having been a part of leading the church in the wrong direction, they have been busy with new goals and new visions (building new sand castles).

This kind of repentance is not repentance at all. When one system fails (like failed prophetic ministry and failed healing ministry and failed prosperity ministry) it’s time to turn out the lights and shut down this factory, but at the same time, open up shop on the other side of town. It’s the same shady business under a new name and seemingly under new management with new goals, but it’s the same spirit of this world that does not return the church to innocence.

Jesus brought out in His parable that man’s nature is to get around obstacles in his pursuit of his own increase. A minister will work in what he perceives to be a fruitful field, and when that is no longer fruitful, he’ll just go to another field where he thinks he’ll be able to build a bigger barn. And this is something that Apostle Eric has brought out in his comments on social media.

Luke 12:18-21
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

The habit of man to reinvent himself with false knowledge is a barrier to faith. We can see that God can save only those who are willing to let go of all their previous efforts and the things they come to put their trust in. To be rich towards God one must transition into covenant and begin the process whereby God creates the virtue of Christ within.

That is why Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

It was after Apostle Paul’s entrance into covenant that he calls “dung” his past religious efforts. This is what doctrinal cleansing is all about. Just like Paul initially felt that he needed to defend all that he had learned while being a Pharisee, believers today experience the same need to defend all that they had learned while in the false religious system.

God is liberating believers from the yoke of false knowledge in which they put so much value. So much value is put into every study of the scriptures to know how to use the scripture to preserve a religious tradition. Apostle Paul did that before his conversion to Christ and transition to covenant.

It’s actually funny to think that letting go of such useless substance, can cause so much pain. God is loosening fingers from the false hope and confidence so tightly gripped onto for faith. The reason God liberates the church from these things is that these are the things Satan uses to create doubt and fear within.