Minister: Pst. Laide Olaniyan
Bible Study
Friday, 26th of June 2026
Pastor Laide Olaniyan
The aim of our labour in the doctrine of the milk and other dispensations of God’s word is so that we can arrive at a sense. This sense is installed in us when we exercise ourselves well in the allocations God gives to us.
This sense is also called a spirit or a mind. In the allocation of Christ, for example, Paul told the Philippians to let the mind of Christ be in them (Philippians 2:5). This means that before this time, the church in Philippi didn’t have this mind. They didn’t have this sense.
Philippians 2:1-2 KJV If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, [2] Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Being of one mind is all of us coming to the same faculty of thinking. Being like-minded doesn’t mean we are born of the same mother; rather, it means our minds have been trained on the same basis of judgement. So when the Lord trains us, together all our outcomes will be predictably Christ, even when brethren are put together from different parts of the world. This shows we all have the same mind. Paul also said this regarding Timothy, that he had come into the same mind as himself. Timothy wasn’t born with this mind as Paul, but he grew into that mind by serving Paul as a son with the Father in the ministry and through exercise over time.
Philippians 2:19-22 KJV But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. [20] For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. [21] For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. [22] But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.
Paul didn’t just conclude that Timothy was like-minded as he is; he trained him and evaluated him over time to prove his consistency. So also, arriving at the mind of Christ is a process.
Philippians 2:3-5 KJV Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. [4] Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. [5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
We have to allow this (let this mind be in us) because it’s a training, and we have to go through it and be thoroughly exercised by obedience. At the end of the training, we will be evaluated by spiritual authorities over us to ensure we are producing results according to the training given to us. It’s only at the end of this that we can conclude that we have the mind of Christ.
Transition from milk to meat begins with the prayer for the enlightenment of the eyes. A person using milk has not seen the true hope, even though he has believed in Christ. He calls Christ his Lord, but he doesn’t have the hope of Christ; he does not know the hope of his apprehension. Nobody comes to God except the Lord draws him, but we come without knowing the actual reason why He called. Some of us now begin to draw or adduce meanings and expectations into why He called us.
When we came to the Lord, we had all manner of beliefs. Jesus does not have the liberty to clarify all our doubts and mix-ups. In fact, we don’t have the stature to receive clarity of answers. So, as newly born in Christ, we come to believing many different things. This is why God raised the five-fold to guide us all to the unity of our Faith, and harmonise our beliefs.
Romans 14:1-3 KJV Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. [2] For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. [3] Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
You see, believers can believe different things, just as we also have denominations with various beliefs. However, irrespective of what a Christian believes, God receives them. God receives them because He knows they are on a journey, so he won’t judge or despise any.
Romans 14:4-5 KJV Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. [5] One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Indeed, God accepts the beliefs and persuasions of a newly born believer as long as it’s done as unto Him.
Romans 14:6 KJV He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
As long as a belief is being held unto the Lord, He receives it. This is the wisdom of the lordship of God in Christ in receiving men who are dead in their spirit unto Him. If God receives us irrespective of our various beliefs, we are also supposed to receive another as saints rather than squabbling over who is doctrinally correct. This is what gave rise to denominationalism. There are many things a babe believes; he believes them unto the Lord, and the Lord receives him.
Romans 14:7-9 KJV For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. [8] For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. [9] For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Christ as Lord can be the Lord of a dead soul. What quickened our spirit is believing that Jesus is the Lord and God has raised him from the dead, but it doesn’t mean that the soul has come alive. Christ knows how to lord over a dead soul. One of the characteristics of a dead soul is that they have varying beliefs in the name of the Lord. As the Lord leads such believers in their journey, He begins to clarify the beliefs, not by stating what’s right or wrong, but by raising the essence of our Faith, which is Christ. Until Christ is magnified, denominationalism will not end. When Christ is magnified, what we believe doesn’t matter anymore. The only thing that matters in every belief, opinion, and value system is if it is Christ! Christ becomes the yardstick, even in the interpretation of Scriptures.
Ephesians 4:11-13 KJV And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: [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 fulness of Christ:
We must come into the unity of faith before we can come to the knowledge of the Son of God. Christ is the unifying factor.
Ephesians 1:10 KJV That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
It is in Christ that our various beliefs and scattered faith get united so that we can see the person of the Lord. It is on this premise that Paul prayed for the Ephesians’ eyes to be enlightened.
Ephesians 1:15-18 KJV Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, [16] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; [17] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: [18] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
The saints who used milk exercised themselves thoroughly in obedience to Jesus, and those exercises formed character and inward changes in their soul, but these workings were not borne out of or premised on the true hope.
The hope for which we are laboring has a great influence on our conduct. For instance, a person can be loving up on someone in the hope of a particular reward, but once the hope changes, or becomes less profitable, the labour of love drops. This shows that the work of love wasn’t coming from the heart, but it was in the hope of something. Until we can obey the commandments, in the hope of righteousness, and for the sake of God, we cannot be truly saved. It’s all about where our action is founting from. If the hope of our action is wrong, everything we do will be wrong. God wants to raise us to a place where we can do all things in the hope of the nature of Christ.
It’s not as if milk doesn’t do any work, but God doesn’t trust it because that work is founting from a heart that hasn’t seen the Lord’s hope. Hope matters a great deal. It is the root and the foundation. When Jesus looks at us and everything we do, He knows light has not shone well on us based on the hope we are seeing.
The Lord wants us to be in a place where all we are doing is in the hope of being like Christ. It takes mercy for our souls to see Jesus as the reason for our living. This is why Paul prayed! …The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling (Ephesians 1:18).
The hope of His calling is different from the hope of our coming. He called us to obtain salvation.
2 Timothy 2:10 KJV Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
From the sense that a person who used milk had, all he does is unto the Lord, but that exercise needs to be purified until the person now sees Christ and Christ alone. That exercise is an exercise of faith, to now begin to give him the righteousness of God. Before that, he is righteous in his spirit, but this righteousness is of what he believes, i.e his own righteousness and not the righteousness of Christ. This is good, but somewhat fleshly, because no flesh will glory in His sight. Flesh is a wisdom, and understanding, a basis of judgement of life that makes a man align with the wisdom which is corruptible, perishing, or that which is called Sin. This wisdom will always incline the man towards that which is perishing. A flesh man will always tend towards corruption.
Jesus knows we have the flesh program in us, and he wants to patiently deal with it. The process of our salvation is a long and delicate work that heaven is overseeing. It is not a hasty business. It is a supervised work of heaven.
The opening of our eyes is an exercise. God opens our eyes and ears, exercises our hearts, converts our minds by revelations and instructions. An exercise carried out by the Spirit. This journey starts from the outer court, comes into the tabernacle, where it is exercised in Charity. It is in faith that we meet the brazen altar where flesh is burnt. Here, at the brazen larva, we experience the washing of water by the word. All of those washings are faith responses. That work is also a bread work. Aside from the flesh, the bread is also burnt at the altar. That bread is manna. There is the manna that rained in the wilderness; there is another manna that is in the golden pot in the ark. The general manna that rained in the wilderness is a training in faith. It’s a kind of word, a faith tutelage. It is called Angel’s food (a kind of word) or the corn of heaven…And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. [25] Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full. (Psalm 78:24-25 KJV) Angels don’t eat food. Angel’s corn is a kind of word sent from God for them to live by.
Deuteronomy 8:3 KJV And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Manna is a word. It’s a kind of word the jews in the wilderness were supposed to be exercised in, to purify them from flesh and make them suitable. It was only Levi who qualified from this training. God tested them at the waters of Massa and Meribah, and they didn’t rebel or murmur against God because they had exercised themselves in the word symbolised by manna
Romans 1:16-17 KJV
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
What powers every soul unto Salvation is the gospel of Christ. Inside the gospel is where the righteousness of God is contained. Without the gospel, we will have a false sense of what is right and wrong before God. The rightness of God is Christ. Until we have a Christ sense, we won’t understand God. Christ sense would, for example, answer questions like why do Christians suffer.
The righteousness of God must also be revealed unto us before we know it. This is why we must pray for the prosperity of the revelational ministry, which is the unveiling of the things that are in Him unto us.
Faith to Charity is a faith program. Faith is Faith, Hope is Faith, and Charity is Faith, because they are in the ‘now’. Christ is ‘now,’ and in the now there are three things that are abiding.
1 Corinthians 13:9-13 KJV For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. [11] When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. [12] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. [13] And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
There was ‘when’, there is ‘now’, and there is ‘then’. When (baby/child), Now (Man), Then (full grown man). Even in the ‘now’, which is the economy of Christ, it is a dark mirror. There are characteristics or pointers of the ‘now’; we see through a glass, and we know in part. So we see that the economy of Christ is not a perfect curriculum yet. We undertake the curriculum of Christ in the hope of perfection (Colossians 1:28). Faith, Hope, and Charity in the ‘now’ are all faith dimensions. They are expressions of faith in different levels of work that they are designed to accomplish in a soul.
Romans 12:3 KJV For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
God dealt a definite measure of faith in the heart of every man who believes. Even though the Gentiles during Jesus’ life on earth had some faith expressions, they did not measure up to the faith for the recreation of the spirit. Nobody has faith for the regeneration of their spirit. It is a faith in the operation of God. When we now use that faith, we have different degrees of prosperity.
We cannot define faith outside of a hope. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). Faith in itself must have a predefined hope. However, with the faith dealt in our hearts at new birth, we had our own hope for that faith, and we used our own hope to run that faith. The optimal function of that faith is, however, not for our hope, but it gives the allowance because we have fallen so short. It allows us to run our hope in the hope that we would move and journey to God. The wisdom of Christ is so broad that the lowest man can have access to it. Jesus is Lord over both the dead and the living. The faith that God quickened is such that our hopes and dreams can run on it until he can bring us gradually into his life.
The real place where the journey actually begins is when we find grace to cross into Christ. Then we begin to align with and are plugged into Christ’s hope. Before, we have used faith for anything we hope for, but in Christ this begins to change. It’s only the faith in Christ that can align perfectly with and live for God’s own Hope.
This man begins to live from then on as he is no longer a dead man in his soul.… Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4 KJV). The reason for faith is to make us live and not remain dead. When we use faith, we live, and by living, we align with the hope of God in coming into life. This is where the real Faith journey begins. The real faith journey begins in Christ, which is calibrated in Faith, Hope, and Charity.
The essence of these things is not so that we know and cram the various demarcations of doctrine, but so that a person can be formed in us. We need to know Revelation, but it should help form a mind in us. A kind of mindset that helps us evaluate and judge through the light of Christ.
Charity (1 Corinthians 13:4- 9) is a mind, a sense, that flows from the revelation and understanding of another person. Charity suffers long; it’s not something done once in a while; it’s a nature, a sense of mind.
We will not be made righteous until we are exercised in faith, because it’s in faith we lay hold on the righteousness of God. Faith to Charity is where we exercise ourselves in righteousness. Righteousness isn’t first and foremost in doings, but in righteousness is seeing and aligning with the hope of God for our lives.
Message Ends