Word given by brother Pedro Dong and transmitted by Instituto Vida para Todos, directly from the Church Auditorium in São Paulo-SP, on 04/08/2024. Text not revised by the author.

We encourage you to watch the full message on the IVPT YouTube channel.

John 1:1-3; Gen 1:1-2; Isa 45:18; John 8:44

1. We are starting a new series of messages in which we will address the Epistles of John and those of Peter. In his first Epistle, John begins speaking of the Word of life, referring to the Lord. The Word of life is Christ and was announced by the apostle John. What they heard introduced them into the fellowship of life, the fellowship of the body of Christ. God has always desired to reign through His life. He created the heavens and the earth to establish His government. He did not create it to be chaotic, but to be inhabited. Something happened between verses 1 and 2 of Gen 1:1. God created the earth in an orderly way to be inhabited.
2. Satan’s rebellion resulted in the corruption of creation. Satan, or Lucifer, was created as an angel of light, seal of perfection, full of wisdom and beauty. He was created to lead the angels. One day sin entered him, and he was not content to remain in the position in which God had placed him. He became God’s adversary, Satan, the father of lies, in whom there is no truth.
   

   Gen 1:3; 1:26; 2:7

3. The earth was beautifully created, but the pre-Adamic creatures followed Satan in his rebellion. So, the earth was covered with water and there was darkness. However, God did not give up on His eternal purpose of establishing His government in the universe. Gen 1:3-31 describes God’s re-creation as a “new page”. Where the Spirit of God is, there is life. The first thing restored was light: “‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” This is the power of God. At the end of the 6th day, man was created in the image and likeness of God. He was formed from the dust of the earth and the breath of life was breathed into him, which became the human spirit as a vessel to receive the Spirit of God.
   

   Eze 28:12-18; Is 14:12-14; Heb 2:7; Gen 2:9; 3:1

4. Satan, created full of wisdom and beauty, rebelled against God. God did not create man more capable than the angels; rather, He created him a little smaller than them, but with a place inside to receive God. We are a vessel to receive the almighty God. It is God who is capable, not man. Let us trust in the God who is within us. By feeding on the tree of life, man should receive God as life within himself. Thus, through man, God would establish His dominion over the earth. But the enemy anticipated and, through the serpent, deceived Eve to frustrate the establishment of God’s government in life.
   

   Gen 3:6-7; Rom 5:12, 14

5. When he disobeyed the word of God, man opened a door in this new, “revamped” world, of which Satan had no part. Through it, the enemy entered. Through one man, sin entered the world. Of the world recreated by God, Satan was not part of it. But through man, sin and death entered. From then on, the world was ruled by Satan. Instead of God ruling through man, in life, death reigned over man, whose power is in sin. A lifeless government leads to death, but God desires to reign in life.
   

   Rom 5:17; Eph 6:12; Col 1:13; John 6:63

6. God has not given up on His purpose and wants to establish a government in life through the church. In the world we live in, Satan rules. Our fight is not against flesh and blood. Those who dominate the world today, full of darkness, are the principalities and powers of Satan. God freed us from the empire of darkness and transported us to the government in life. The Lord Jesus is eternal life itself. Life is abstract, but we receive it through the word. The word communicates and transmits life to man. The word of God is life.
   

   Heb 1:1-2; 11:3

7. We were born into this world systematized by Satan. In order for this lifeless government to survive, Satan set up a system. But in the church, it is not like this: we do not have hierarchy, dominators and those dominated, but rather members of the body of Christ organically united. How important the word of life is! The universe was made by it. The work is done by it. Every time God speaks, the work is done. God spoke through the prophets, through His Son and continues to speak today through His prophets. God uses a prophet to speak.
   

   Ex 20:18-19; Num 12:2; 16:1-5; Neh 6:5

8. God spoke to the Hebrews through lightning and thunder, but the people could not bear it and asked Moses for intermediation. Miriam and Aaron later questioned that role of Moses. Then came the rebellion of Korah, Nathan, and Abiram. Centuries later, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, but his enemies came with an open letter saying that he wanted to be king of the Jews. It has always been like this; the enemy wants to nullify God’s speaking by attacking His channel.
   

   John 1:1, 10; 14:16, 18, 26

9. The world was made through the Word, but the world did not know Him. The world made by Him is what was recreated by God. The world that did not know Him is the one after the fall of man, after the door to sin was opened. The Lord died and rose again, becoming the Spirit who gives life. The presence of the Lord Jesus is through the Spirit, no longer physically. The church needs the certified word that comes from God. Receiving this word generates fellowship and circulation of life. This life needs to circulate among us. We have been admitted as members of the body of Christ. When we immerse, transcribe, talk to each other, life circulates and does God’s work. Everything happens because of the word and its circulation.
   

   Acts 2:42; Gal 1:12

10. In the church we have fellowship in the teaching of the apostles. First, God raised Peter. Then Paul was used, revealing to us God’s purpose, the building of the body of Christ. The book of Ephesians shows us the entire process. Everything came from the revelation of Jesus Christ. Only the word that comes from God brings life. No man has the ability to supply life. Christ is eternal life. A sermon is not capable of supplying life. The origin must be from God, not from man. Everything came from the revelation of Jesus Christ.
    

    Eph 3:8; Col 1:25-27; Eph 2:22

11. Paul was not the origin of the revelation, but God gave him grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. All of his writings were completed by the year 67, when he was martyred. God desires to build up the body of Christ and establish a kingdom, to have His dwelling in the spirit. The only perfect government is the government in life, Christ as the head, which circulates through the word.
12. Outside of the government in life, we only have organizations with dominators and those dominated. No lifeless system of government is perfect. That’s why there is always discussion in politics about what is better, being right-wing or left-wing, capitalist or communist, but there is nothing perfect, there are major flaws and defects. The only perfect government is that of life.
    
13. In October we will have a conference in South Africa: there are already 800 people registered. The brothers and sisters in Africa are happy because they practice the same things as us. They have different cultures, but life moves around. There is no control center, everything happens through the circulation of life. We have brothers and sisters in places like Africa, Europe, Central America, Panama, Korea, Japan. We are all governed by life. There is no man capable of governing this. A government is being produced in life.
    

    1 Tim 1:3-4; Acts 20:29-30; 2 Tim 1:15

14. Paul’s ministry was hampered by the Judaizers and the democratic thought of Greek culture. It’s not like this in church. Paul did not come to speak words of human wisdom and persuasion. Faith is based on the word of God. After leaving prison in AD 64, Paul asked Timothy to remain in Ephesus and exhort those who taught different things. Many things were passed down from generation to generation, but this did not produce God’s work in faith.
    
15. Beautiful words from other teachings do not produce God’s work in faith. Paul spent three years serving in Asia and it was those in Asia who abandoned him. Those who taught another doctrine were not concerned with the brothers and sisters, but with seeking followers. What mattered was getting the saints out of Paul’s ministry and having disciples to follow them. When they abandoned the apostle, appreciation for the word had already been lost long before.
    

    2 John 1-4; John 17:17-19; Eph 5:26

16. John’s writings came to combat the apostasy of the church at the time. The net had been broken in Paul’s time. The Gospel of John concluded the gospels, the Epistles of John would conclude the epistles, and the book of Revelation concludes the New Testament. The church will only fulfill God’s will if it walks in the truth. The word is the truth. Today we walk in truth through the word we receive. It is the truth itself that washes the church like water, removes all elements foreign to God and adds the life contained in the word. The way is to inculcate the word in the heart. It is not giving law, depositing the truth in the heart. It’s not just knowing, but having the truth within us. This is the path that makes us walk in truth.
    

    2 John 5-6; 3 John 9

17. When we walk in the truth, which is the word of God dispensed to us, we have the love of God, which is His nature. We walk in truth, so we walk in love. The pattern is brotherly love, the love of the church in Philadelphia. John sent his co-workers to align the churches in the truth. Several brothers and sisters are being sent to Africa. John sent the coworkers, but they were not welcomed, as Diotrephes did not receive them. At that time there was no appreciation for the word. It’s sad to know this.
    

    1 Cor 10:7-11

18. The only salvation for man is to receive eternal life. To do this, you just need to believe in the word of God. But even so the Jews did not receive it. We need to fight for everyone to follow the word in order to come to life. The Jews only sought their own interests, but we seek to serve the interests of the Lord. We must follow Him closely. All those who moved away from us have the same profile: they stopped following the word closely.
    
19. Who governs our life? The Lord? Without a doubt, participating in the conference in person is better than remotely. This weekend we have 70 leading brothers from Rio de Janeiro among us. They gained a lot in these 3 days of fellowship. We will take as many brothers and sisters as possible to the International Conference at EAV in September. Many come from far away, from other states, even from other countries. But what about us, close by, do we have difficulty? It’s so close. Let’s fight, register, and the Lord will provide the meals. If we follow closely, we will be healthy, we will be fighters ready for battle.
20. Brothers Francisco Lee and Rodrigo Barbosa began to follow the work and the word very closely. They gave themselves up. They went to South Africa several times, they went to Korea, they accompanied me to many conferences. This changed their view. They continue to work secularly, but have set aside time to serve the Lord. The Lord took care of them and gave them even more prosperity. Let’s live for the Lord. We all need to work, and God will supply us. We will also follow closely.
    

    Rev 1:1

21. John announced the Word of life; thus, we enter fellowship with the Father and the Son through it. In the fellowship of life, everything positive happens. The word is revealed through a servant, who then was John. He passes it on to the messengers. They are not authors, but messengers who pass on the message received. God does the work by the power of His word.
    

    Eph 1:9-10; 2:19; Col 3:11; 1 Cor 15:24-28

22. The mystery of God’s will is Christ as the head over all things. God gave this to the church. God wants to fill the church with Himself. God is working in the church today, filling it with truth, sanctifying it with the word. The result is the church as the fullness of everything. This will happen when He is able to complete this work in us, making us the church in Philadelphia, a group of overcomers. It is not a powerful church, but it is the one that will bring the end. It’s us!
    
23. When the end comes, the church in Philadelphia will be kept from the trial, which is the great tribulation, and we will reign in the millennium. At the end of the thousand years, there will be the revolt of Gog and Magog, then all negative things will be thrown into the lake of fire, and Christ will become the head over all things.
    

    Rom 5:18, 20; Eph 3:17

24. In the church age, Christ is all in all. In eternity, God will be all in all. Christ accomplished redemption so that we may all be justified. But this is not just for justification. It’s not just this. We are justified to reign: it is the justification that gives life so that we reign through life. There grace abounds, and death no longer rules, but life. Reigning in life will only happen when Christ actually heads up the church, dwelling in our hearts, through the word.
    
25. Christ needs to govern us through the word used for immersion, to inculcate it in the heart. This will establish a root of love. God wants to take us out of the world and root us in Himself. The result is love, which is most perfect. God wants to fill us with Christ, with truth, with glory, with love, more love, more love. Then we will have Philadelphia, totally immersed in love. Like a swimming pool, we will be immersed in love. God’s love will embrace us, as members of the body of Christ, connected and immersed in love.
    
26. Some ask what the relationship will be like with those we love today. The intimate relationship we have with them will be surpassed, as it will be much stronger, because we will be linked to each other by the love of God. Today we have already experienced some of this: the Lord is producing love among us. Perfection is coming. The fellowship of life circulates among us. Our life only makes sense if we live for God’s purpose! Amen.