THEME: UNDERSTANDING PRECEPTS AND LINES: A PEEK INTO UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESSES THAT CONVERTS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD TO LIFESTYLES/NATURES IN US 
LESSON: ONE 
TEXT:  Isaiah 28: 8-10; 1st John 2:12-14: James 2:22-25; 2nd Corinthians 3:6 
MEMORY TRACK 

By the Grace of God, and through the direction of Our Daddy, Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu, we are going to be considering the subject of precepts and lines for a few weeks. The mind behind the lesson as we are being instructed by Our Daddy, Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu, is to both make sure that some of the terms being used in meetings in recent times are properly understood by all. And much more to ensure that as a Church, we increase in our doing/obeying of God’s word, as it is being revealed and made known to us.  

Also, Our Daddy desires that we all, as a local assembly, become fully aware of the full procedures and steps that leads from the knowledge of God’s Word to a word becoming our lifestyles and natures through obedience. 

What are Precepts? (Isaiah 28:10) 

The word precepts as used in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament scripture is “mitsvah”, and literally means commandments, laws, ordinance, or code of wisdom. We find it vastly used in the Old Testament. But much more than its literal meaning, precepts have a spiritual or applicative implication. 

In Isaiah 28:9-10, The Lord through Isaiah the prophet, opened our eyes to the fact that there is what is called “precepts and lines”, and that such precepts and lines are what one who has been weaned from milk, and drawn from breast (one who has become a child in their soul by reason of the milk of  the word of God) ought to be exposed to. What this reveal is that precepts (and of course lines) are things, commands, or ordinance that only one who has drank milk well ought to be given. 

From scriptures, we understand that after milk, the next allocations of meals or words are meat of the word (Christ/Faith of The Son of God) and Strong Meat of The Word of God (The Father/Everlasting Life/Salvation) (Mathew 28:18-20; 1Corinthians 3:1-2; Hebrews 5:12:14) 

So, this means both the meat and strong meat of the word of God consists of precepts and lines! Having been established, what then are precepts and what are lines? 

What are Precepts: precepts are the revealed knowledge of Christ or the Father’s Person by the activity of teaching graces upon ministers who minister the word of God through revelatory graces and anointings of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:17-19; Ephesians 4:11-14). Precepts are not just scriptures, No! Precepts are the understandings and knowledges of Christ’s Person or the Father’s Person, unveiled through the pages of scriptures (Galatians 3:1).  

Precepts are the commanded knowledges and understandings of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25-26). Anyone can go into the Bible to preach or teach anything. But those who the Lord Jesus Christ raised to preach Him (Christ/Father) are commanded on what they MUST teach and preach. And that commandment/revelation/understanding/knowledge is called precepts. Precepts are not just letters of the word but revealed truths of Jesus’ Person! Hallelujah! 

Now, a man can have precepts (the revelations of Christ’s Person or The Father’s Person), but that doesn’t mean he/she has their Lives, natures, or characters, as My life! This is where “Lines” comes in. 

What are Lines (Revelation 21: 15-17; Revelation 11:1-2): Lines are the measures of life that Christ’s Life and The Father’s Life are measured or quantified by. The same way the Holy Spirit is and can be given or received in measures (John 3:34; Acts 6:3), so also the Life of either Christ or The Father can also be received in measures in our souls, depending on the amount of knowledge given to us per time.

Hence, precept must be upon precept, line upon lines. It is the degree or depth of precepts that determines the measures of lines that will be measured out. Put another way, lines are THE COMMANDMENTS/INSTRUCTIONS that we are given by The Holy Spirit to obey! Lines are not revelations/understandings/knowledges, that ministers preach and teach so that we can know Christ or The Father’s Person. Rather lines are the ways of the Life of Christ or The Father painted or brought to us by the Holy Spirit as INSTRUCTIONS OR COMMANDMENTS OF WHAT TO DO so that we can inherit the very nature/habit of Christ or The Father. The use of the word lines depicts and implies a ruler used to measure or a measuring rod (Revelation 11:1). Lines shows that we cannot come into all of Christ’s Life or The Father’s Life at once. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, it is good to stress that precepts and lines are not just Old Testament principles or ordinances. The Old Testament saints, though dead in their spirit, grew in their souls from babyhood to childhood to adulthood to fatherhood stages in their souls through milk and meat and strong meat of the word of God respectively.  

Now in the new testament, though we are now alive in our spirits through the new birth, Our souls, as new born babes, still needs to grow, from babyhood to childhood to adulthood to fatherhood stages through the milk, meat and strong meat of the word (1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 1John 2:12-14; Hebrews 5:12-14) Hence, the principles highlighted in Isaiah 28:9-10 transcends the Old Testament era. It is a working principle for anyone whose soul is upwardly journeying and growing unto inheriting all of God!