Bible Study With Jairus

Bible Study with Jairus - Galatians

This evening we are going to quickly go through several chapters of Galatians.  This morning when I attended an American Evangelical Community Church, the pastor used a term called SBNR which means spiritual but not religious.  This pastor was criticizing people who don’t participate in church activities and are not willing to have any commitment.  He stated that there were Christians in the United States adopting this slogan.  These people are dissatisfied with the church as an institution and use the slogan as an excuse for laziness.  He said that admittedly, there’s nothing wrong with being SBNR, but it shouldn’t be an excuse for laziness.  They refuse to pursue spiritual growth and be built together with others.  He said that God’s intention for Christians is to love and interact with each other in a community so that we can learn and edify each other.

When I got home and opened   Facebook   I saw one of my teachers, a Charismatic pastor at the Randy Clark Scholars, a Doctor of Ministry program at the United Theological Seminary,   preaching through live streaming. He was talking about the same topic, that Christians should be rooted in the community and grow more in one’s spiritual life through interacting with each other. We shouldn’t use avoiding religion and pursuing spirituality as an excuse to escape building each other up.

Then I felt inspired by the Holy Spirit about the message I will be sharing tonight. Today, the Holy Spirit seems to have a theme - the issue of abusing grace and the relationship between grace and the law. Since we were already planning to study Galatians which deals with the law, we will explore this topic tonight.

I heard that there was a dispute in China over the propagation of the so called “Grace Gospel.”  A pastor in Singapore prefers to impart truth by teaching God’s grace and therefore was labeled

When I used to have my own audio program on the Chinese online platform, some of the audience in China often interacted with me. One of them was a follower of this so-called Grace Gospel. He chatted with me and asked me how I felt about the Grace Gospel. I know that he wanted me to affirm this teaching, but to be honest, I don’t know much about the Grace Gospel in China or why people criticize it so I couldn’t support him.  He and I didn’t have any further communication after that.  

 I still hold this point of view. I don’t make any comments on the so-called “Grace Gospel” because my understanding is limited. But I have heard that many churches have split because of their attitude towards the “Grace Gospel. There are also a lot of disputes on the Internet. The purpose of my analysis here is not to judge other believers. Rather, I will talk about my understanding of grace and the law from a general perspective.

I think this topic is directly related to the contents of Galatians.

I came into contact with some people who had background in some traditional American Christian churches. They told me that they don’t like the legalism in the church. An American Christian lady told me that she was from a very legalistic church. When she came to the small Charismatic church, she said that she had absolutely never felt the freedom and release like this before. She described a variety of legalistic situations in her original church which really surprised me.

I met another American Christian man on the train. He asked if we could use instruments at our church. I said of course we can. He told me that his church doesn’t allow any instruments. They believe that instruments are all from Satan.

I also heard from a preacher that there was a teenager (who grew up in the church but wasn’t baptized yet) who accidentally ate the bread of the church’s Sunday worship without realizing it, and was reprimanded, causing the teenager to stumble.

I just cited a few examples as there are too many examples of legalism in the church. I suppose that there are a variety of these experiences. For example, some churches don’t allow women to wear makeup or jewelry, which may cause people to stumble. Some parents force their teenagers to go to church and when they are 18, they leave the church for good not even having experienced God.  The list goes on.

Legalism really exists in churches. There are usually three outcomes of legalism. The first result is to stumble, which I’ve already said above.

The second outcome is people who develop a sense of pretense and hypocrisy. On the surface, they don’t violate the rules and regulations, but they don't really embrace them in their heart. This is the case with Peter in Galatians 2:12 where it says: for before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but after they arrived, he pretended not to eat with the Gentiles. Even Barnabas was led astray. In the end, Paul stood and reprimanded Peter. In the modern church, in the face of the overflow of legalism, many people are like this. They don’t violate the law; they oppress themselves and they pretend. Why? Because of fear. Fear made Peter pretentious because eating with the Gentiles may not have been accepted by the people of Jerusalem and he still had to go back to Jerusalem. If they accused him in the meeting, it would be very shameful for Peter. I mentioned in our study that fear is the main tool of the religious spirit to control people. Everything that is done out of fear is usually not from the Lord, but from Satan. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline (NIV, 2 Timothy 1:7).

For example, the teenager that I mentioned who had not experienced the Lord in a subjective way in the church may have two attitudes.   He may be the type that refuses to go to church saying he’d rather be an unbeliever than a hypocrite. On the other hand, he could pretend to go along with everything to please his parents and live the opposite when they aren’t looking.

The third outcome is a person who finds grace in the law. I likened this type of person to a salmon. Salmon swim and spawn upstream. For them, the environment is like the law. It is against them. They are swimming against the current, but they insist on swimming upstream. Upon reaching their destination, they spawn and they continue to multiply. There are many Christians who are like this, whether in church history or now.

I’ve recently been reading a biography of an African American Christian named Samuel DeWitt Proctor. He had served for several US presidents and had held important positions in the field of education. He was a visiting professor at the United Theological Seminary, where I’m taking classes. In the biography, he mentioned that the arduous history of discrimination of the United States against African American people has caused some African American people to give up on themselves. On the other hand, it has also caused some African American people like him to become even firmer in their faith in God and become useful citizens in American society. If American society's discrimination against the African American people is likened to legalism, then some people have indeed overcome these laws and found God's grace in them.

So, what is the relationship between the law and grace?

Galatians chapter 4 has used personification as an approach. It likened Hagar (Abraham's wife) to the Old Testament, and a person who bears children into slavery. In Galatians 4:25-26, Paul compared Hagar to Mount Sinai, and Sarah to Jerusalem which is the mother of us all. So, Abraham and his two wives have very interesting interactions. Abraham is not just comprised of one person. There are two people in him. One is the new man who lived by faith, and the other is the old man who lived by flesh. Therefore, the intertwined relationship between   Abraham’s new man and old man and his two wives is the best illustration to explain the relationship between grace and the law.

Paul also had a good analogy in Romans 7:1 which says, "Do you not know, brothers and sisters--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?" The “person” here refers to a woman’s husband. Here, Paul is hinting that the old man died because of being crucified with Christ. In other words, the law kills. Paul says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!” (2 Corinthians 3:6). It’s not because of the law or the letter that kills. Rather, it’s because your old man played a role there. As Paul said in Romans 7:7 (NIV), “Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” In other words, Paul found that it’s not totally because of the law that convicted and killed him. Rather, it’s because he has the sin of greed in him. He was convicted when he ran into the law. The main reason why the law, the ministry of conviction, has played a role is not because the law stipulates that you must not steal or covet. The fundamental reason is that your fallen sinful nature has caused you to steal or covet.

Let’s look at the example of Abraham. As a woman, Hagar is already unfortunate enough to be born an Egyptian. What is more unfortunate is that she became a slave girl to Sarah afterwards. Life was already difficult for her and she hoped to have the opportunity to move up the social ladder by getting pregnant from her master. Instead of this bringing her respect, she was driven away by Sarah. Abraham was powerless to do anything. From the perspective of modern women, her demands were not too much. Why aren’t her demands met? In Galatians 4, Paul compares Hagar to the law and the Old Testament. Why is it that when the law (Hagar) asks Abraham to love her back or fulfill the requirements of the law to love, he can’t do it? Is it because the requirements of the law are wrong? No. It was Abraham’s old man who had a problem. Since Abraham married Hagar according to the flesh and didn’t ask counsel from God, thus the result of his flesh could not bring the fruit of the Spirit.

Why do you think God comforted Abraham in his distress and told him to listen to Sarah and allow Hagar and Ishmael to be driven away? It’s important to know that after Ishmael (the son of Abraham) was born according to the flesh, God did not appear to Abraham for thirteen years. Abraham was already ninety-nine years old before the Lord appeared to him and promised the birth of Isaac. It took God thirteen years to deal with Abraham's flesh. When Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised himself, Isaac and Ishmael as God commanded him. This represents the results of him dealing with the flesh. Therefore, it wasn’t Sarah who wanted to drive Hagar away, but it’s because Abraham’s old man   died. According to Paul's analysis in Romans 7, once her old man dies, the law no longer has any jurisdiction over her.  Paul was referring to the fact that the wife was no longer bound by the dead husband. But we are twisting it around here to say the new husband is no longer bound in the way the old man and his wife were bound. Actually, it’s not that Hagar was driven away, but rather Hagar was able to get freedom from her status as slave. This is why many people don't understand why God appeared and blessed Hagar and Ishmael when they were crying in the wilderness. If God didn’t like them and wanted to drive them away, why would He appear and bless them?

Since Abraham's flesh died, his new man began to come to the stage. At this time, the law that convicts and kills us became the law that perfected us. In other words, Hagar exited the stage and Sarah came to the stage. The Old Testament exited the stage, and the New Testament came to the stage. The law and grace have become mutually reinforcing relationships. It’s no longer because the law   killed me and I can’t obey the law. At this time our new man (the life of Christ) was able to repeatedly live out the requirements of the law (the wife). As Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” (NIV, Matthew 5:17). Not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law (Matthew 5:18), but the new life of Jesus Christ in us has fulfilled these laws. The convicting ministry of Moses in the Old Testament became the ministry of the grace of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.

This is the relationship between the law and grace. They are interactive. In other words, now we have the life of the old man, and also the new man. Besides this, there’s also Hagar (who represents the law) and Sarah (who represents grace) as our wife inside of us. Our life is very complicated. But it is also easy if you make it simple. If you die completely to the flesh and circumcise your flesh, Hagar (the law) will become ineffective in your life. You are a person who lives in the spirit and who marries Sarah. Sarah is Jerusalem, the mother of spiritual life.

In other words, if you die to your old man, you won’t stumble by the law.  You stumble by the law not because the requirements of the law are unreasonable but because of your flesh. The requirements of the law are often difficult for our flesh to adhere to. Whether God has given the Israelites the Sabbath, or your church doesn’t allow you to wear jewelry, sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense. Why? For example, it is clear that Jehovah wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath. But in the end, Jesus, the Son of God, came and didn’t keep the Sabbath in certain situations. Isn’t this contradictory? No. God allows the law, and even the existence of legalism. The purpose is not just to keep the law, but to see if you will obey it. If you don’t have a spirit of rebellion, but rather obey everything in the Lord, can you stumble? So people who   stumble usually have problems inside themselves. This would be like the prodigal son in Luke 15. His rebellious nature   led him to commit a sin and wander. In the end, he found a way to enjoy grace by repenting and confessing his sin of rebellion. This is the first R I’d like to mention-- rebellion. I said in the beginning that the American pastor said that many people pursue the SBNR slogan and don’t participate in church activities. Actually, they may be living in rebellion of God and are prodigal sons. This is the current state of many churches and Christians. It is also the state of many prodigal sons in the world.

The next R, which is religion is represented by the eldest son in Luke 15.   He works very hard. He has the presence of the Father outside, but he has no real intimacy with the father. He is even envious of the prodigal son who repented. This type of mentality is the religious spirit. This person represents the second type of person I’ve talked about. They are pretentious. They are often bound by the religious spirit. They initiate legalism just like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus. They often persecute the prodigal son, who represents the relatively weaker people. After being persecuted by legalism and the religious spirit, the prodigal son often goes to the opposite/other extreme, which is rebellion. The prodigal son is often influenced and controlled by the "spirit of rebellion". These two spirits both come from Satan.

The story of Luke 15 is a very good metaphor. Have you ever thought about the possibility that the prodigal son may have suffered persecution from his older brother   way before he decided to leave his house? I read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon.  If I remember correctly, he said that Cain’s persecution of Abel didn’t begin on the day he killed him, but rather it was ongoing because of their different understanding of what an acceptable sacrifice was. The persecution had already existed from the beginning. Similarly, it is very likely that the eldest son in Luke 15   disliked his younger brother from the beginning, and persecuted him through a religious spirit of legalism until he couldn’t take it anymore and left home. Of course, after dealing with the environment, the prodigal son dealt with the spirit of rebellion. He returned to his father's house and found the love of God, allowing him to overcome the persecution of the religious spirit and legalism. But in the end of the gospel of Luke the author did not tell us that the elder brother overcame his religious spirit.

God often allows legalism and even a religious spirit to be in the environment in order to test whether or not we are obedient. I’ve heard that one of the reasons why the teaching on the Grace Gospel is very popular is that many believers have been hurt too much by the church's legalism. This analysis is correct. But we can't be biased. If there is no flesh or rebellion in us, the spirit of legalism and religion can’t hurt us.  The real reason why legalism or a religious spirit hurts us is because our old man has not truly died and still perhaps possesses a rebellious nature.  Christians who are deeply persecuted by legalism and religion often go to the other extreme of what they consider to be freedom and grace but in actuality they are often bound by the spirit of rebellion.

This is like driving a car. If you turn to the left, you’ll fall into the trap of religious spirit and legalism. If you turn to the right, you’ll fall into the trap of the spirit of rebellion.  The prodigal son’s attitude before repentance and his brother’s religious spirit can be likened to the two extremes that the church often goes to. This is not God's intention.

God's intention is for us to become like the salmon I mentioned earlier. No matter how difficult it is, the salmon would swim upstream and multiply. Although there are all kinds of difficulties in the environment, our hearts should be like Paul, a person who exemplifies Christ in every situation. God's intention is to let us bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit through these different and even difficult circumstances. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." People usually pay attention to the first half of verses 22 and 23, but often ignore what the second half of verse 23 says, “Against such things there is no law.” If we live out the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the religious spirit or legalism won’t harm you. On the contrary, we need to understand that whether it’s a religious spirit causing legalism or a spirit of rebellion abusing grace, they are both from the flesh.

Therefore, the reason why I don't want to criticize the so called Grace Gospel is because on the one hand, I am not familiar with it. On the other hand, I know that if we use legalism and a religious spirit to criticize the supporters of the Grace Gospel, not only will it have no effect, but it will cause dissention in the body of Christ. Because legalism and a religious spirit is a reaction of the flesh, and the abuse of grace and the spirit of rebellion is also from the flesh, the flesh is waring against the flesh nullifying any good effect.

It’s important to obey God’s discipline in our lives.  Although many times the circumstances of our environment are difficult or others wrong us unfairly, we need to understand that nothing comes to us without God’s permission.  We learn through experience to obey his discipline because the more we turn away from it the heavier His hand of discipline will be and our circumstances will get increasingly worse.

The reason that people abuse grace and freedom is largely due to opposing the religious spirit and legalism.  The danger here is the tendency to fall into self-indulgence and rebellion which abuses freedom and God’s grace.  I’ve observed that churches tend to be at one extreme or the other in this area.  This is not God’s intention for His people.  He wants us to live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit in every situation and says that against these there is no law.

In other words, when we face an overabundance  of legalism and a religious spirit in the church, the correct response is not to go to the opposite extreme (abusing the grace and indulging in rebellion), but to deal with our flesh and grow up   spiritually   If we do this, legalism is no longer  negative or a stumbling block. Instead, all things will work together for good, which let us grow in our spiritual lives and fulfill God's will for us.

In Galatians 3:3 (NIV), Paul blames the Galatians, "Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?" This corresponds to what Paul said in Galatians 1:6 (NIV), "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." Paul continues to say in Galatians 6:8 (NIV), "Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

These words should be alarming. They should be a solemn warning for us not to live and act according to the flesh. The legalism and rebellious spirit that is pervasive in today's church is actually just two different kinds of living in the flesh. If we don’t live in the flesh, Satan is unable to raise a religious spirit, legalism or the spirit of rebellion to harm the church. As the Lord Jesus said, the evil one has no place in Him.

Paul's expectation for the church is what he said in Galatians 2:20 (NIV), "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is the way   a Christian should live. If a majority of Christians in the church would live like this, the flesh would be dealt with, and legalism and religious spirit wouldn’t be rooted in the soil. The spiritual stature of the church would then greatly improve; the light of the church will also be brighter;   more prodigal sons from the outside world would return to the household of God, and the church would grow stronger.  On the contrary, because there are many churches with believers who live according to the flesh, the prevalence of legalism is high and causes weaker believers to stumble and often leave the church completely.  Those who aren’t willing to leave the church reject any law, regulations or discipline which ultimately affects the growth of the church.

Although we are reading through Galatians rather quickly, our hope is that you have a general introduction and understanding to this rich and valuable book.  There are a multitude of verses worth praying and meditating on.  God bless you as you focus and meditate on His word.

Bible Study with Jairus – Philippians

Today’s study will mainly focus on one topic:  how to manifest Christ in our lives. What does it mean to manifest Christ? It’s what Paul said in Philippians 1:20-21 (NIV), “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

In other words, manifesting Christ is living and revealing Christ through us in any given situation. When we are saturated by Christ, not only will people see us but like Paul we will manifest Christ to those around us. People didn’t only see Paul at this time, but also Christ Himself.

How is this possible? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV), “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Paul further said in 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV), “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

Paul uses the analogy of a mirror here. To put it in simple terms, I am the mirror. When I follow Paul and do the things he does, I am reflecting Paul.  Paul follows Christ and reflects Him and Christ follows God and reflects Him.  When people look at me (the mirror) ultimately they should see God reflected in my life.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NIV), “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” This means that Paul used his unveiled face or mirror to reflect that he has seen the face of the Lord. The face of the Lord is also transparent, a mirror, and a reflection of the glory of God. As Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) says, “Christ is the radiance of God's glory”.

So, when I imitate Paul, I look into Paul’s mirror. And then Paul's mirror reflects the mirror of Christ, which reflects the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:6 said, “to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ”. What you clearly saw was my face, but what you actually are seeing is the glory of God through me.

This is manifesting Christ, which is, showing the glory of God revealed in our body or in our faces because Christ is in us. No matter what situation we encounter, when others are anxious and worried, we aren’t worried and are able to manifest peace and joy in God.   When people see you, they see God and that is a witness to them that God is real.

This is our destiny as Christians.  Unfortunately many Christians don’t act like or reflect Christ in the world around them.  Unbelievers often criticize those who say they are Christians yet act like the world.  If you are in the workplace and someone says “I didn’t know you were a Christian,” this speaks loudly that you aren’t reflecting God in your work or relationships.

If individual Christians reflect God like a mirror, the church as a whole should be brightly lit to the surrounding community. The Lord said the light is placed on a hill illuminating the city.  That is not often the case however.  Many cities are still in the dark because the church isn’t doing its job of reflecting Christ.  This in turn goes back to the individual Christians who need to do a better job being the light of Christ.

The main reason why Christians aren’t brightly lit is because they are living in their flesh or soul which includes their emotions, mind and will.  They also live in the culture, and even religion rather than living in their spirits. Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. When we, with unveiled heart, live and keep in step with the spirit, we will manifest Christ and reveal the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:15-17 says, “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (NIV)

I’m very grateful to the Lord for leading me to the Local Church movement where I was saved.  I am also grateful for the thirteen years of Bible study I received there.  I learned so much about living in the spirit and manifesting Christ from Witness Lee.  The Lord led me to leave the Local Church movement in 2015 in order to learn more about the Charismatic and Prophetic movements.  It was during this process that I realized there were some mistakes in Witness Lee’s teaching.  Many of his teachings however, are correct and worthy to be studied by believers. 

In my personal experience I’m aware of several evangelical groups that condemned Witness Lee’s teachings as heretical which turned many believers away from following him. Many Christians in the Charismatic movement have heard of Watchman Nee but very few know about Witness Lee’s ministry.

Before I left the Local Church Movement I was in a doctor’s office in Baltimore humming a Bible verse to a popular Christian tune.  An African American woman nearby asked me if I was a Christian.  While chatting with her I recommended Witness Lee’s ministry to her. She went home and began to read the Life Study and other spiritual works by him.  I invited her to attend our Local Church Movement and she came to several meetings.  Her goal wasn’t to join our church but to transform her Pentecostal church.  She said she had been a Christian for decades but never heard these teachings although she had heard of Watchman Nee.  Over time she wrote me several letters thanking me for introducing her to Witness Lee’s ministry.  Since she hadn’t been tainted by the evangelicals who condemned Witness Lee, she was able to grow in her spiritual life through learning about living in the spirit and manifesting Christ.

Later in 2015 while attending a Charismatic Ministry meeting in Pennsylvania a pastor testified that he wanted to be holy.  He fasted for 40 days hoping for breakthrough in some of his weaknesses but ultimately he failed.  The person in charge of the ministry took him aside later and told him that holiness was a person and His name is Christ.  He was told that personal efforts or fasting didn’t bring about holiness.  Letting Christ live through him was the answer.  This helped him tremendously and he ended up following the leader of this ministry.

After hearing his advice I realized that the teaching I had received at the Local Church Movement about manifesting Christ was one of the most basic truths.  The pastor in the above story had fasted and prayed for 40 days without understanding this.  Each group of Christians holds truths that may not be known in other groups.  For example I had no idea what the baptism of the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues was when I was in the Local Church Movement.  It was only after I left and began to investigate the Charismatic Movement that I learned about teachers like Kenneth Hagin, Bob Jones and Derek Prince.  I had no idea how the Pentecostal movement had developed over the last 100 years.

Of course, I was very eager to learn about the truth that God revealed through the Pentecostal Movement and the Modern Prophetic Movement. I was also actively seeking the gift of healings and gift of prophecy. In addition to my wife’s supernatural healing and us having a miraculous baby, I’ve also activated my prophetic gift. God often talks to me through prophetic dreams.

Looking back on these experiences, I realize that the division in the body of Christ is very serious. Every group has its own richness, but it doesn’t necessarily know and accept the richness of others.  

I’ve talked about the fact that many of Witness Lee’s teachings greatly helped many to grow spiritually although he was misunderstood and not well known.  The same goes for many Christians who haven’t learned or don’t understand the Charismatic and Modern Prophetic movements.  Many Christians believe that these movements are of the devil.

The attitude of many churches can be likened to martial arts sects described in Chinese martial arts novels, such as the Shaolin Temple and Wudang Sect. Actually, every martial arts sect has its own unique skills, and considered one of a kind in Chinese martial arts. However, many sects are strictly guarded. They cut off their disciples if they learn the martial arts of other sects. They also feel that their martial arts are the only authentic ones. They hope to conquer or dominate Chinese martial arts through their own martial arts sect. The same is true for many Christian denominations.  They think they have the only truth and want others to buy in to that but they often can’t humble themselves and learn the truths that others have.

Actually, God created each snowflake differently. God allows us to be rich and diverse in His wisdom in order to manifest His richness and diversity. God's purpose is not to let us conquer each other, but to help us coexist and complement each other. One man said something that left a deep impression on me. He said unity is not conformity.

An older woman from China who has served in the Local Church movement for many years always comes to see us when she visits her son in the U.S.  She is very caring and full of life.  She heard that I had begun to study the Charismatic movement and became very concerned about my spiritual life.  She encouraged me many times to return to my Local Church.  I told her that the Lord put me on this path just like Joseph was bound for Egypt, I was also bound for this journey.  The more involved I become in the Charismatic church, the more burdened I become to see them grow more in their spiritual lives.  Many of the things I learned in the Local Church Movement would help them tremendously. I told this woman that those of us in the Local Church Movement aren’t familiar with Charismatics and don’t have a heart to love them. Many evangelical believers believe that they are deceived by evil spirits or live in the flesh.  I don’t accept this because I’ve seen that these Charismatic believers truly love the Lord. God has given me a burden to help Charismatic believers in the United States.

In addition to enthusiastically sharing the truths I learned in the Charismatic and Modern Prophetic Movements with evangelical brothers and sisters, I also hope to share some of the truths that I had learned in the Local Church movement. I personally think that just like the experience of the African American sister I mentioned earlier, it will be a great help to Charismatic believers.

Therefore, I suggest that those who are interested take a look at the series “Life-study of Philippians” by Witness Lee to see if it can help your spiritual life. Although Witness Lee’s teachings have a lot of controversy on the Internet, these controversies are mainly about theological issues such as the person of Christ and the problem of One City One Church. I don’t feel that there is a problem with his teaching about how to practice spiritual life.

Since we are speed reading Philippians at this meeting, a friend who is a new believer invited me to briefly introduce the background and summary of Philippians. I said that the main essence of Philippians is to manifest Christ in all kinds of circumstances.   Recently I was getting ready to go to class in my doctoral program at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. My mother-in-law and my wife had a little misunderstanding (which they reconciled later) that almost made me miss my class. Due to the heavy rainfall in Chicago that day, I had to change my ticket. Plus, I was hesitant wondering if the Lord was the one leading me to study this PhD. I almost cancelled it. However, when I got there, I was blessed and I clearly knew that God was the one leading me to this doctoral program. This friend, who asked me to talk about Philippians, recently experienced a similar crisis in his family.  We all experience trials.  As Christians we should manifest Christ in every crisis or in any situation. The greatest power of Christians is to live in peace and joy when people are troubled and worried. This isn’t something that money can buy. Big entrepreneurs like Jack Ma may not be able to do it, but a Christian who has life in the Lord should be able to do it.

Bob Jones, a Charismatic prophet from the United States, said that God is already judging the United States. One of His judgements is anxiety. This anxiety is what Satan released from hell. If a person or a Christian does not live in fellowship with God, he may be bound by anxiety. On the one hand, anxiety is an attack from the enemy. On the other hand, it’s the judgment of God. As the Bible records, after Saul betrayed God, an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him (NIV, 1 Samuel 16:14). Bob Jones said that anxiety, fear, and worry are the three most important tools from Satan’s realm of the dead. In the last days, they will plunder and devour every person who is not deeply rooted in the Lord. I am paraphrasing his words.  Forgive me if I didn’t quote exactly what he said.

Philippians 4:5-6 says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (NIV) I came to the United States shortly after I was saved. I only had a few hundred dollars with me.  The Lord helped me through the Local Church Movement and His wonderful leading by providing for my basic necessities, but I still had no tuition fees, and many other things to worry about. At that time, some fellow believers taught me to pray using Philippians 4:5-6. I began to pray these verses. I don’t know many times I prayed. This was a lifesaving verse. I prayed it over and over again giving my anxiety to God.  Pray-reading the word which I learned from the Local Church Movement is very simple and effective. It’s similar to traditional meditation in Christianity. You repeat God’s Word, you add your own prayers and slowly, you focus your attention on the Lord and His words. Afterwards, you will find yourself slowly entering into communication with God and you can also get the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

This process of entering and getting peace is not automatic. It takes time to build up and it needs long-term practice. The more we practice these prayers and entrust everything to the Lord, the more we will grow in the spirit and live in the peace of Christ. Hebrews 4:11 (NIV) says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest”. This rest is not a complacent rest. It takes effort like our muscles need training to make them stronger. Our ability to enter into peace and rest needs continuous prayer in order to be strengthened.  Christians who don’t make the effort to train themselves will find that they won’t be able to endure anxiety and are forced to go with the tide and succumb to it.

During that difficult time, according to the teachings of Witness Lee I practiced pray-reading this verse. I repeated this over and over again, bringing into play my own prayer entering the depths of the verse and into God's presence.

For example, when I started to pray, I would say this:  The Word of God says “do not be anxious.”   It’s not an option, it’s a command.  It commands us not to be anxious about anything, so anxiety is a violation of God's command. It’s a sin. Lord, I am often anxious. This is considered as unbelief to you. I have committed a sin. Please forgive me.  Your word says “See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?” (NIV, Matthew 6:28-30). We really shouldn't worry. No one can solve problems by worrying. Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (NIV, Matthew 6:27). God, You command us not to worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own (NIV, Matthew 6:34). Lord, forgive me for my little faith, and my worries. I will trust you and not worry.

Then I would pray, “The Word of God says to be anxious about nothing.”  It doesn’t say it’s okay to worry about small things, big things or things that we can’t solve ourselves.  It says not to worry about anything.  My tuition problem couldn’t be solved but I knew I didn’t need to worry about it.

I continued to pray the next phrase, "everything." It turns out that everything can be done in this way. No matter if it’s a big or small thing, something within my ability, or something beyond my ability; I can solve it through prayer and supplication.

"Praying" is telling God the thoughts in your heart. God, I am now praying to You and telling You what I need. "Supplication" is a specific request. I’m asking and believing that you will help me with the tuition problem.   I am willing to dedicate myself to you.

It should also be with "thanksgiving.” The Bible tells us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (NIV, Psalm 100:4). I thank You, Lord. You saved me for eternity.

The verse here also says, “Present your requests to God.” At this time, I prayed and I told God my supplication and requests.

Then, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV, Philippians 4:7). The guard here is like the battle of Roman legions. God will send angels to protect our hearts and minds and to defeat the enemy’s attack on our minds. Although the problems outside may not be solved at once, we can get the peace that transcends all understanding.

And so, I prayed this verse over and over again, and received unparalleled inner peace. The problem was solved through the help of my teacher at the university.  She helped me to get a large deduction on the tuition.  There was also a Christian lady whose heart was touched by God. She loaned me some money so that I could pay the remaining tuition. I was then able to get through that difficult day.

Much later, I was sharing the gospel with new Chinese students on campus in Washington, D.C. when I noticed a woman with a look of despair on her face.  By the looks of her clothing I could tell she was from a rich family.   I found out that she and her daughter had a fight about school.  Her daughter wanted to quit school and go back to China but the mother was adamantly against it.  I wrote down the above verse in Philippians and shared it with her and told her how I meditate and pray to receive answers.  I showed her how she could set her hope in God and get the peace than transcends understanding.

It’s not only a lack of money that distresses people. Those who have a lot of money can also have troubles and difficulty.  In this fast paced world, there are so many things that cause unbelievers as well as Christians to be bound by anxiety. Therefore, the practice of this prayer reading is wonderful for living in peace and joy every day.

Witness Lee’s teaching about calling on the name of the Lord is also a very effective tool. He testified that he often practiced this to the extent that when he quieted himself down, he called on the name of the Lord and in less than ten minutes, he could enter into God's complete presence and rest. I have been practicing this method every day.  When circumstances and worry attacks me, I will quiet myself down and continually call on the name of the Lord, because the Bible tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (NIV, Romans 10:13). This method is simple and easy to learn. You can see the effect if you continually practice it over a long period of time. Americans are busy, have limited time and often don’t spend quality time in prayer. Learning to call on the name of the Lord will bring many benefits and internal peace. Of course, this practice can't be mastered overnight.  It needs to be a consistent long term practice to see the full effect.  If you can practice calling on the name of the Lord three times a day (morning, noon and evening), every day for 10 minutes, you will find that you have more peace.

When I led a small group in the Local Church Movement a new believer attended that wasn’t familiar with the term living in the spirit.  He was very curious and asked what it meant to live in the spirit.  It’s a difficult thing to explain to a new believer.  He eventually left Baltimore and moved to another state.  I happened to see him again when he came back to Baltimore to visit.  He told me that he learned how to stop and call on the name of the Lord when he encountered difficulty at work. He’s a scientist and likes to quantify things. Each time he encountered problems in his experiments he would stop and call on the name of the Lord ten times.  As he practiced this he not only had peace but often received enlightenment from God regarding the experiment.  It was obvious that he had learned how to live in the spirit.  Paul said in Romans 8:6 (NIV), “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace”.

Often fast paced living and the various pressures that go along with that keep our minds focused on the negative aspects of life and cause us to be worried or anxious. This is the mind governed by the flesh, which ends in death. We don't necessarily have physical deaths now, but there are spiritual deaths. It is the weakness, darkness, emptiness, boredom and distress often mentioned in Local Church Movement teachings. But if we can quiet down by calling on the name of the Lord and turn our attention to our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be able to get brightness, light, fullness, liveliness, and peace.

Although Philippians is just a short letter, it has a very practical meaning for Christian life. I hope what I’ve shared opens up a window for you to learn more from others in the body of Christ. Christians can easily develop a bias toward other ministries or denominations but it is very difficult to humble ourselves and learn from others.  I heard Rick Joyner testify that he learned the most from those who hold different or opposing views.  I love to use a Chinese idiom to express my thought about this. “Stones from other mountains can polish your own jade.” That means even when other’s teachings are worthless stones compared to your own jade, they still can be used to polish your jade. Let’s humble ourselves and learn from others even if their views don’t match your own.

One night in a dream I heard a voice proclaiming to me in English, “You will soon be on national TV”.  Plus a number of prophetic dreams about my ministries will be enlarged to a TV ministry. If I was able to have a Christian TV program in the future, I would call it “Stones on the other mountains.”  The Lord also appeared to me in another dream and told me convergence is happening. We are definitely entering into an age to tear down our fences and learn from others.

Are you willing to humble yourself? May the Lord bless you.

Bible Study with Jairus - Colossians

We are striving to speed read several volumes of the Bible every month. The main consideration is to help some brothers and sisters who aren’t able to read further when they reach Exodus in the Old Testament, and Romans in the New Testament. This will help those new ones to have a rough understanding on the contents of some books in the Bible. We started to speed read the Old Testament, from the first book up to the Book of Ruth. Meanwhile, we have done the opposite in the New Testament. We began to speed read from the Book of Revelation up to Colossians. Although it’s just a passing glance, it might help some of our brothers and sisters who have never read the Bible from cover to cover.

This time, the inspiration that I got after speed reading Colossians is how Paul dealt with carnal Christians in the church at Colossae. Originally, we arranged a speed reading of 3 letters: the letters to the Colossians, and First and Second Thessalonians. But because of the rich content of Colossians (one meeting will take up most of the time), we will have one Bible study session on both First and Second Thessalonians later.

I had an inspiration after I read Colossians and First and Second Thessalonians. In Colossians, it was dealing more with carnality in the church. While in First and Second Thessalonians, it was dealing more with Christians who are easily deceived in church. As Paul mentioned in Colossians, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (NIV, Colossians, 3:2), and advised Christians in the church at Colossae to forgive each other.  In First and Second Thessalonians, it talks a lot about the lessons of the Antichrist which led people to be deceived.

What does this mean?  Even when people are long time church goers, we  find that many Christians may actually possess the knowledge and truths of the Bible, but when something really happens, they still can’t overcome their own flesh. For example, we know that God isn’t happy with the divisions in the church and hopes that all of us can get along with each other, but when something happens, we will still form sects and factions.  This is a common situation in churches today.

Another situation we find in today’s church is people who don’t have much biblical knowledge and haven’t meditated on the truths of the Bible.  They may not have strong fleshly desires but they are easily led astray by wrong teachings leading to greater losses.  Both of these situations are ubiquitous in the church.

Today, let's talk about Colossians. First of all, we have to clarify that there are fleshly or other problems in the church at Colossae but it isn’t entirely a bad thing. For example, in the church at Corinth, there were also a lot of problems that existed. Thus, Paul wrote two letters to them, revealing many truths about Christ.

There’s background information behind every letter. Similarly, Colossians has a special background.  Paul wrote four letters in prison - Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.   There’s very important historical background behind these letters. I asked a Christian who attended our Bible study, to imagine that he was Paul, he was in prison, he only had a little time left and the conditions were poor, but he has to say something important right from his heart to write these letters. Of course, after writing the letters, it has a lasting significance, letting the churches benefit from them for thousands of years after. But often, there is a latent cause in writing them initially. For example, when I mentioned the chaos in the church at Corinth, including the man who had married the stepmother, it leaves Paul with no choice but to write a long letter to them.

What is the background of Colossians here? There are many things in the Bible that are not accounted for, but it doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen.

I shared a story I personally heard. Soon after I received salvation, a brother told me of a situation that had happened in the church. There was a man who had been in the church for a long time and his car was accidentally hit by a newcomer causing minor damage. This man insisted on filing an insurance claim to let the newcomer compensate. Someone tried to persuade him to give a little grace to this newcomer, let him compensate just a little money, but the man refused. Naturally, in the end, the newcomer stumbled. The person, who told me the story, said that the man whose car had minor damage didn’t have enough grace. He lacked real Christian love.  He regarded his own car as more important than the newcomer’s stumbling.

Of course here in the United States when we encounter such things, there is no reason not to file an insurance claim. The point that the person telling the story was trying to make is that we should look less at the circumstance and have more grace toward the person to avoid having them stumble.

I don’t know whether a situation like this is a common occurrence in the church, but as far as my own experience is concerned, there are indeed many similar situations. On the one hand, we are Christians. On the other hand, we are human beings. Humans have fleshly desires. When we talk about the love of Christ, we may speak clearly and logically, but when our interests are involved, the flesh often speaks louder than the spirit and we lose.

After sharing this story in the meeting, I asked everyone “Is there a similar situation in the church at Colossae that Paul is concerned about?” As stated in Colossians 1:7, the church in Colossae was taught by Epaphras, and he also reported the situation of the church to Paul and others. Is there a possibility that after Epaphras told Paul about the grace of God to the Colossian church, he also told Paul about the situation in which some brothers and sisters become competitive, irreconcilable and unforgiving when they are in the flesh? And that these brethren are actually those whom Paul knew, even loved, or personally brought to be saved or trained? Is it possible that the two parties are both loved by Paul, but are incompatible, leading Paul to worry in prison and to write a letter to the Colossians to mediate them? Both are Paul's love, so Paul can't blame one, and hold the other in high regard. He must be very careful in dealing with this subtle situation.

If these situations are possible, if you were Paul, how would you deal with it? We don't know if Paul was facing these things, but we know that in the life of the contemporary church, we often have to face these situations.

We assume that this may be the background behind Paul's writing. Let's see how Paul's letters respond to this situation.    Suppose the parties involved are all Paul’s acquaintance, and the two people are still arguing, it will be difficult for Paul to directly judge who is right and who is wrong. And judging right or wrong may not be a good choice because the dispute between right and wrong is often in the realm of the mind, the flesh, or the soul. What Paul needs to do is to help the members of the two factions to break carnal, and spiritual strongholds, enter the mind of Christ in the heavenly, and look at these problems from the eyes and perspective of God. When they can look at these problems from a Heavenly perspective, they can escape from earthly, carnal, and spiritual strongholds and they will be able to forgive, tolerate, and mutually compromise in love.

If you were Paul, how would you start writing this letter? Of course, he wouldn’t begin by blaming the two brothers. Instead, he avoided direct accusation. He started from a very high place - Heaven. Paul’s slant at the beginning of Colossae is very high. Paul began by praising the believers of Colossae, saying he heard the praise of the Colossian believers from Epaphras, which he mentioned in 1:4: "because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people." (NIV)

After praising the Colossian believers, Paul switched the thread of conversation to directly mentioning the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

12 Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youto share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (NIV)

Then Paul used this opportunity to say that, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (NIV, Colossians: 1:15). He added, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” (NIV, Colossians: 1:22). From here, we can speculate that what Paul means is we have eliminated all strife on the cross of Christ.

Paul then uses his experience again to testify that, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” (NIV, Colossians: 1:24).

Paul mentioned how he was called to complete God’s Word. He revealed the mystery hidden by God over the ages - Christ is our hope of glory. Paul has struggled and worked hard for this. He wants us to maturely dedicate our life to God.

In this chapter, Paul seems to be saying good things. It appears that he doesn’t have any criticism. But in the second chapter, Paul slowly began to raise the obscure issue of the Colossians. Of course, when Paul ended the letter, he never forgot to give encouragement and comfort to the audience of his letters. Some people call this type of writing a "sandwich". This kind of writing is very common in the Bible. For example, Jesus’ seven letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation are also in the format of a “sandwich." It praised the faithfulness of each church in the beginning. After which, it criticized the church in the middle. In the end, there were words of encouragement and promise again.

Let's take a look at how Paul began to put "meat" in this "sandwich" from the second chapter (we will use meat as a metaphor for Paul's criticism).

In verse 2:4, Paul said that, “ I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.” (NIV)

This sentence implies that in the church of Colossae, some people will use flowery words to deceive the Christians in Colossae.

2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ”. (NIV)

This sentence has implicit meaning. In the church in Colossae, there are those who will use philosophy and empty deception according to human teachings rather on Christ, leading the Christians in Colossae astray.

Thus, in the second chapter, Paul especially revealed many of the mysteries of Christ in these two negative situations.

Then at the beginning of third chapter, Paul immediately encouraged the Christians in Colossae to set their minds on things above and not on earthly things (NIV, Colossians: 3:2). Chapters 3:1-4 are some of my favorite verses:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory”. (NIV)

Paul becomes more and more straightforward in here.

3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (NIV)

3:8 says, “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (NIV) 

3:9 says, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.” (NIV)

3: 12-15 also say,

“12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” (NIV)

I shared my experience and said that when I was starting to learn to serve, I was with a brother who was a little older than me. We had a dispute when we once served together in the Church.   Our Elders in the church did not criticize us, but they let us sing Colossians 3:12-15. So at this bible study, my wife and I sang these same verses again to the tune of a hymn.

Why is Paul particularly emphasizing here that as God's chosen people, we must have compassion, kindness, humbleness, gentleness, patience, and even if there is a discord between people, we must always bear and forgive each other as the Lord forgive us? It is not enough to just forgive, but we must also have love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect unity.

So although these are just speculations, perhaps things such as carnality and strife among people really happened in the church in Colossae. Ultimately, the reason why such things happen is due to the fact that their life is not mature enough to let the life of Christ rule their lives.

So Paul said in 3:16-17 (NIV),

16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

In chapter 4, Paul has hardly any criticism. Instead, he began to comfort, encourage and greet.

4:2 says,

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (NIV)

4:6 says,

 “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (NIV)

In conclusion, Paul ended the four short chapters of Colossae with a lot of greetings.

Although our sharing is of a speed reading nature, or a passing glance, we can see that many of the verses in Colossians are written with a delicate touch. Let’s pray and try to fathom the implications of these verses. This will be beneficial to our Christian life because it especially helps us to grow up into Christ, overcome the flesh, and even enter and preserve Christian unity.

Bible Study with Jairus – Leviticus 25

Leviticus 25 talks about the Sabbath Year and the Jubilee Year. The Sabbath Year is once every seven years. While the Jubilee Year is the second year after seven times seven years or 49 years – which is the fiftieth year. God doesn’t allow the Israelites to plant in the Sabbath Year. While in the Jubilee Year, the people who sold themselves as slaves are to be set free, and the land must be returned to its seller.

During our Bible study we randomly (or perhaps by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), began talking about how American universities have a one year sabbatical leave for its professors every seventh year.  This sabbatical leave (which is probably derived from the word Sabbath) is a time when they can rest and do nothing or use the opportunity to study a particular field that they didn’t have a chance to do during their teaching time.  Some choose to study abroad for a period of time.

The United States is a Christian country. Most famous universities in the United States are also established by Christian churches. Therefore, we can say that the establishment of this system is largely because of Christianization.

Let’s think about when Adam first sinned.  God judged him and commanded him to cultivate the ground through sweat and hard work to earn his living.  Why then did God create the rules of the Sabbath for the Israelites and tell them not to work on the Sabbath day?  Doesn’t this seem to be a waste of time and human resources?  This is hard to imagine for the Chinese who are hardworking and wish they could make money twenty-four hours a day.  Though the United States has become more and more secular, stores are often closed on Sunday.  My mother-in-law often said that the weekend is the best opportunity for stores to make money and yet they close. This is unheard of in China and is an example of Christianization in American society.

Why did God make Adam sweat to live? Is it because God was unable to supply Adam's food, so He let Adam find a way to solve it? No, it is because Adam committed a sin and he needed to learn obedience through suffering. The Bible tells us that even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, learned obedience from what he suffered (NIV, Hebrews 5:8). Then why did God forbid the Israelites to work on the Sabbath? It’s for the same reason. The main purpose of working for six days is neither to get money nor to earn to get what we need in life, but to learn to know God through this process. As Moses said, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow.” (NIV, Psalm 90:10). It’s not easy to go to work. It’s not easy to be a man. It’s not easy to be a wife. It’s not easy to be a parent. Life is not easy. When people encounter various unsatisfactory things in life, they will often let out a heartfelt sigh saying what is the meaning of life? Slowly, people will seek and find God. This is God’s design. The purpose of the Sabbath is for us to stop and think about it. Have I drawn closer to God and do I know Him better even in the midst of encountering so many things at work and life during the week?  If you can’t say yes to this, start this week and purpose to continue finding God and continue this cycle until your intimacy with him grows and you know Him.

People have two different attitudes toward life and how to act in it. They are shy at the beginning and are not immersed in the role. They are hesitant. The other problem is that they get too immersed in the role. They are too invested in their performance. But the audience has already left, the stage is empty, and they are still unwilling to step down from the stage. Life is like this. Some people are not immersed in their role. They feel that life has no meaning so they don’t work hard. They become hopeless. They are not willing to actively participate in the search of God. They even commit suicide to end their lives. Another type of person is someone who gets too immersed in the role. They don’t understand or will even forget the principles of the Sabbath. They invest too much energy and time to make money to the point of costing them their life.  The issue of faith and eternal life wasn’t even a thought.  They didn’t get anything and just died because people come into this world with nothing and leave this world taking nothing.

Of course, there are still people who just don't understand the true meaning of working six days a week and resting on the seventh day or the Sabbath day. It’s like the pastor preaching on the stage and I am in the audience scrolling through Facebook or WeChat. I’m following all the rules, but my heart isn’t here. These type of people are among God’s chosen people who seem to have participated in everything, but in fact haven’t received much practical benefit.

The true principle of the Sabbath is to stop. Stop for whom? Of course, it’s to stop for God. Psalm 46:10 (NIV) says, “Be still, and know that I am God”. In other words, it’s not that we can’t hear the voice of God, but rather, we are too busy. It’s like being on a crowded bus. You don’t have a clue if your wallet is stolen. But when you are sitting alone in the balcony, you can even feel a breeze blowing through your hair. One of the main reasons people don’t know God is that they are too busy. They do not wait quietly for God. The word “busy” in Chinese has a "heart" on the left and a "dead" word on the right. It is being busy until the heart dies.

Saying stop is easy but it’s actually hard to do. If you don’t believe me, you can try doing it. If you decide to stop and pray to God, or wait for God, you will find that your thoughts are difficult to control even though you have only prayed for a few minutes. Your mind may be in Tokyo one minute, and then in Los Angeles the next minute. Your thoughts travel faster than light, like an uncontrollable wild horse, making them hard to control. Therefore, those who really practice spiritual discipline and who pray deeply are good at controlling their minds. They are able to control their minds not to run wild and to be restrained in the spirit. They set their minds on things above and not on earthly things (NIV, Colossians, 3:2). If we can control our thoughts and become the master of our own minds, we can quickly enter the spirit, communicate with the Lord, and live in His presence.

I heard a story of a smuggler arranging for illegal immigrants to sneak into the United States.  A steel cable was installed in the middle of a waterfall somewhere along the border and the immigrants had to take firm hold of the cable to cross over the falls.  If they were careless or tired they would be washed over the falls to their death.  I think this story is a very good picture of the distractions in our minds or daily pressures of the world or even ministry.  These things are like waterfalls trying to wash us away.  But our anchor of rest and trust is like the steel cable. We must unload our burdens and put our hopes on the promise of heaven, like how the illegal immigrants have put their hopes on their new life in the United States. Hebrews 6:19 (NIV) says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain."

We live on earth, and we have flesh, but our soul can choose whether to set our minds on the spirit to experience life and peace or set our minds on the flesh which means death (NIV, Romans 8:6). The anchor of our soul can be placed in the Holy of Holies. This is like what the above Hebrews 6:19 passage is saying about our spirit. If we put the anchor of our soul in the world, when the rushing torrent of the world falls, we will be swept away and die.

So the main purpose of God's principle of setting up the Sabbath is to let us stop the activities outside, whether it is making money or doing ministry. We should temporarily stop from the busyness of the world. We should place the anchor of our soul in the Holy of Holies through prayer, worship, sacrifice, praise, and other spiritual disciplines. We should go forward to the Holy of Holies and communicate with our Heavenly Father, listen to His voice, and accept His grace and light, allowing us to get supply, comfort, and spiritual encouragement from Him. We are created to be the vessels of God, to be like Him, to be filled with His glory, and to become His fullness. But if we forget this fundamental purpose and we’re just surviving for the sake of survival, we are just being busy for the sake of being busy, then we lose the meaning of life. Therefore, God has set up this Sabbath principle especially for Israel. Even when this principle was first established, a man who was found gathering wood on the Sabbath would be stoned as the Lord commanded Moses to do.  This was a warning for the Israelites.

If people are able to observe the principles of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, there is no need to set up a Jubilee. Why? The principle of the Sabbath is to work six days and rest on the seventh day. The principle of the Sabbatical year is to sow the field in six years and to rest in the seventh year. Not only do people have to rest, the land also has to rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbatical year will be food for the Israelites, and their manservant, maidservant, hired worker and foreigners and the wild animals in their land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten. (NIV, Leviticus 25:6-7). But the question is what if it is not enough? The Lord said that, He would send the Israelites such a blessing in the sixth year that the land would yield enough for three years and that they would be able to eat old crops during the eighth year (NIV, Leviticus 25:21-22).

Based on this cycle, the Israelites didn’t have to worry about not having enough food to eat.  When the Israelites situation was bad economy wise, often they would sell the land little by little. The land of the Israelites in the Bible represents the inheritance we received from God. In the New Testament, we can look at it as the faith we received from God. When we become so poor, we sell the inheritance we received from God, even selling ourselves into slavery. In the Old Testament, the Israelites sold themselves to other people as slaves. What this means in the New Testament is that we were sold as a slave to sin. If this is the case, what should we do? When the principles of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year are not observed, we lose the blessings that God has promised us. Just like the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, who had squandered his family’s fortune and gradually become poor. In the end, he had no choice but to eat pods. This is the scenario of losing the inheritance of God and selling ourselves as slaves.

We need God to intervene at this time because we are unable to extricate ourselves. God has considered human weakness here, and stipulates that the land cannot be sold permanently. If a man sells a land, he can redeem it. If a man is too poor to redeem his land, his relatives can help him do so. If the man doesn’t have a relative nor the necessary wealth to redeem the land, all the lands that are sold and slaves will be released and set free in the Jubilee. This is God's rule to the Israelites.

When we are sinking in deep sin and unable to extricate ourselves, Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to proclaim the Lord's year of favor. Luke 4 records that when Jesus was tempted by the devil and He gained the victory, He returned to his hometown in Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit. On the Sabbath day, when He arrived at the synagogue, someone handed Isaiah's book to Him, and He found the place where it was written:

 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (NIV, Luke 4:18-19)

Then Luke 4:20-21 continues:

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Christ is the Jubilee that God has prepared for us. This is what helps us to be free from degeneration. It is the salvation that God has promised Adam (crushing the serpent’s head) by the seed of woman.

Someone might say I’ve already received salvation; does this principle apply to me? Yes. Let’s look at a verse below.

After we are saved, committing sin or falling will not cause us to lose our salvation because the faith of salvation comes from God, as specially said in Leviticus 25:23 (NIV), “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine.” It is particularly explained in 2 Peter 1:1 that this faith is from the Lord, just like the Israelites had received the Promised Land from God. 2 Peter 1:1 (NIV) says: “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.” Peter’s tone of voice is like when the Israelites received their own Promised Land from God. So, in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we also share the same precious faith. In other words, this faith is like the Promised Land that the Israelites received. Although the number and size may be different, the quality is equally valuable.

God’s faith for us will unlikely let us fall into eternal perdition after we are saved because the Lord Jesus himself said that no one can take us away from the Heavenly Father. Our salvation will not be lost, but it doesn’t mean that our communication with God will not be interrupted. Like a disobedient son, after he left his father, he’s still his father's son but his communication with his father is interrupted. Similarly, after we are saved, if we betray and stay away from God, and break the Sabbath principle, we will not lose our salvation. We will however, be cut off from our communication with the Heavenly Father, and lose the life, peace and joy from it.

Leviticus 25:29-30 (NIV) says: "If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time he may redeem it. If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It’s not to be returned in the Jubilee.” What does this mean? This means that the houses in the city were built by the people themselves. It is not like the Promised Land (that the Lord gave)   which completely belongs to God. There’s the work of man involved here. Therefore, the houses in this city can be said to be the experience of God in the Lord after our salvation, the extra richness we received from Him, and the reward we will be receiving. But if we lose the joy of salvation, it doesn’t mean that we have lost our salvation. It just means that we have lost the joy and peace that comes from our fellowship with the Lord. This is not difficult to understand. For example, how many Christians are feeling anxious and troubled like the world because they don’t have much joy and they lack the fellowship and intimacy with the Lord?   This is a picture of not being able to redeem the house in the city after it was sold. We often say that yesterday’s experience with the Lord cannot substitute our experience with the Lord today. It’s like saying that we already had breakfast yesterday so we don’t need to have breakfast today. Getting closer to the Lord and praying to Him should be done on a daily basis. For example, we prayed yesterday but did not pray today, and began to pray again the day after tomorrow. We may be able to still quickly enter God’s presence, but if we didn't pray yesterday, today, or for a long time, we will find that it will be difficult for us to quickly enter into His presence if we just pray to Him when we encounter difficulties. Because we don’t practice spiritual discipline, the lessons we learned before may be lost. As the Chinese say, if you don't practice calligraphy for one day, only you know it; if you don't practice calligraphy for two days, your family will know it; if you don't practice calligraphy for three days, people all over the world will know it. A more modern way of saying it would be, if you don't practice the piano for one day, only you know it; if you don't practice the piano for two days, your family will know it; if you don't practice the piano for three days, the audiences all over the world will know it. This is an exaggerated statement. But in any case, if you are a pianist, you must practice the piano every day. If you haven’t practiced for a while, although not everyone will know it, as soon as the professionals hear it, they’ll know that your piano skills have become rusty. You fooled others, but you can't fool a professional or yourself.

Our fellowship with God is like practicing calligraphy and piano. It should be a daily assignment that cannot be interrupted. It’s like the house we built, it’s the dwelling place and tabernacle of God. It’s the place where we are with God. Paul clearly stated in the Bible that we are the field and building of God. Our spirit is like the Holy of Holies, our soul is like a sanctuary, and our body is like an outer court. In other words, the three parts of a person – spirit, soul and body – is a small tabernacle in which God lives. We are communicating with God through Christ. We are building this spiritual house through the Holy Spirit. Peter also said that we are living stones. We are slowly building this house into the sanctuary of God to be a holy priesthood (NIV, 1 Peter 2:5). Each of us is building a house. The characteristics of this house and this city are the New Jerusalem. There’s a city there but there is no temple in the city, because the whole city is the temple. We are building a New Jerusalem, but it is stated in the book of Revelation that some people are outside the city. They are not in the city. Only those who wash their robes can enter the city. Although we don't know what is going on, at least we can roughly guess that some people are outside the city. They are alive. They also get sick because the fruit on the tree of life in the city is just given to some people to eat. But the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (NIV, Revelation 22:2).

I repeat, once we are saved, our salvation in Christ will not be lost, but this doesn’t mean that our reward in Christ will not be lost. I believe that some people, because they are lax, don’t manage to build their own houses. If they don’t work their land and fellowship well with the Lord, one day, they may lose the God’s reward. The Bible talks a lot about this, such as the stories of five foolish virgins, and the parable of hiding one’s talent. They don’t necessarily lose salvation because they all call the Lord, Lord, but they may have lost their rewards.

If person understands it that way, he or she can explain why the verse here says that the land sold can be redeemed, and will be returned in the year of Jubilee. Slaves are also to be set free in the Jubilee. However, selling a house in the city can be redeemed in just one year. After a year has passed, you can’t redeem it even in the Jubilee. God is righteous. God's grace allows us not to lose our salvation. But God's righteousness can only reward those who are worthy of His reward, right?

Leviticus chapter 25:31 says: (NIV), "But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee." Why is it different from the earlier verses? My understanding is that this is the difference in spiritual experiences. We often say that the closer we are to God, the stricter God's requirements are. The unwalled village here is like the experience of Christians in the outer court. How God deals with a man who just received grace and has occasionally disobeyed God, is very different from a man like Moses, a servant who is used by God and who does not obey. For example, if you have just been saved and you lose your temper once, you might be easily forgiven by God, or even comforted by Him. But if you are Moses and you have gotten angry with the Israelites when God wasn’t angry, He may let you pay a heavy price, losing the opportunity to enter the Promised Land.   So why is the degree of God’s punishment different for each person? As I said before, the Bible mentions that Moses knew God's ways and principles. Moses spoke to God face to face in the Holy of Holies. He knew that God was asking him to sanctify His name before the people, but losing his temper was disrespecting God. So, God got very angry. It’s like when outsiders are saying something about us today, we might not even get angry. But when our relatives or close family members say the same thing, it will hurt us more and often stir up anger. The type of house in the city is like Moses having a deeper experience in the Lord. While the houses in the villages without walls in the open country are like the first stage of our Christian life, having a shallow experience in the Lord. The principle of God’s dealing with new believers is more grace. But in dealing with people who are growing more mature, the principle of God is more discipline. God will discipline us, just as a father will discipline his children. The fathers in our flesh will discipline his children according to what he thinks is good. How much more will the Father of all spirits discipline His children? (Hebrew 12:9)

In chapter 25:32-33, it mentions the different situations of the Levites. The verse here says: "The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess. So the property of the Levites is redeemable--that is, a house sold in any town they hold--and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites." (NIV). Why is it different here? The illustration here is about the experience of dedicating ourselves to God.  For example, the American evangelist D.L Moody, who was hesitant because of the contradiction between God’s call on his life and his lower educational attainment, later heard a British evangelist say, “Look, a person who is absolutely consecrated to God, the world is yet to see how God can and will use him to change the world”. This sentence greatly encouraged Moody. It let him break away from the inferiority of his own academic qualifications and become a person who was fully devoted to God, a person who was greatly used by God to change the world.  For those who are dedicated to God like Moody, it won’t always be smooth sailing when they are learning to serve God. They will also fail. But God promises them that no matter if they fail; they will fail in the hands of the Lord. Even if they fall, they will fall in the arms of the Lord. Because they are dedicated to the Lord, He will be personally responsible for them. If we are a person who is dedicated to God, honor and disgrace or even gains and losses are not important because we have completely handed over our authority to God. God will naturally be responsible for us. To those people who are not Levites or Nazirites, they haven’t completely handed over their authority to God. Therefore, God does not fully assume responsibility for them. They must shoulder their own responsibilities. But God is fully responsible for the Levites.

God especially told the Levites that “the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.” (NIV, Leviticus 25:34). This means that even if we are Levites and we dedicate ourselves to God, we shouldn’t be self-indulgent. There are some things that we can't do. We can't sell God's property. We should not be like Esau, who was tricked to sell his own birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew.

Bible Study with Jairus – Leviticus 24

Leviticus 24 begins with the Lord commanding Moses to let the Israelites bring olive oil to him to make the lamps burn continually (which Aaron is in charge of doing). The Lord also instructed him to put the twelve loaves of bread on the table of pure gold and as well as some pure incense on the bread to be presented as food offering to Him. Every Sabbath, the breads shall be changed before Him.

The second story is about the son in the tribe of Dan of Israel, who is married to an Egyptian, who blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. In the end, the Lord commanded Moses to let the Israelites stone him to death.

After this story, the Lord enacted a law regarding murder. It is as follows:

17 “Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.” (NIV, Leviticus 24:17-20)

What is the relationship between these three stories? What is this chapter trying to say?

First of all, one of the questions that we have to consider is why the Lord immediately established the law at the trial regarding the punishments for murder after the son blasphemed the Name of the Lord. My insight is that in the eyes of God, murder is as serious as blaspheming His name. Because man is created in the image of God, the dwelling place of God is with man, and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whoever hurts the temple of God, will be hurt by Him.

We started discussing the death penalty and trial in our Bible study. This passage in Leviticus 24 is often used as one of the arguments for those who support the death penalty. But there is also a lot of debate in the United States regarding whether or not there should be a death penalty.

I remember when I was a reporter in Los Angeles, I was covering an event. There was a murderer who turned to God in repentance in prison and has become a role model for youth street gangs. He helped many youth street gangs to repent and believe in the Lord. So when California Governor Schwarzenegger approved his death sentence, it caused a lot of controversy. In one of the events, I interviewed a group of Christian pastors who protested against the death penalty sentence for this man. One of the pastors at the event said that God did not apply a death sentence to Cain, the first person to commit murder. God even prevented others from killing Cain and put a mark on him. Anyone who killed Cain would suffer vengeance seven times over. The pastor’s words left a deep impression on me.

Those who advocate the use of death penalty believe that this is the clear provision of the Word of God in Leviticus 24. They believe that without the death penalty, it’s difficult to deter people from committing crimes. But those who oppose the death penalty believe that even those who have committed crimes are created in the image of God. They also need opportunities for forgiveness and redemption.

Though the death penalty is a topic of much discussion, that’s not the focus of this chapter. Is there a direct or indirect relationship between it and the lamp that Arron had to burn continually in the tabernacle?

I think there is a direct relationship. Let's see what kind of relationship they have.

Proverbs 20:27 (NIV) tells us that "the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord." If you regard man as a tabernacle, then the spirit inside is the lamp of the Lord. The work of the high priest Aaron in the sanctuary of the Old Testament is also the royal priesthood in our New Testament today. It is through continually praying, repenting, and purifying ourselves “fan into flames the spiritual gift God” (2 Tim 1:6) just as letting the lights on the golden lampstand in the sanctuary in the Old Testament burn continually.

We know that the burning lamps on the golden lampstand are from the oil of the pressed olives, and the olive oil represents the Holy Spirit, but the Bible clearly tells us, "whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (NIV, Titus 3:6). In other words, the Holy Spirit has always existed. But if Jesus Christ had not borne our sins and endured those crushing blows on the cross, the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be able to pour out abundantly on us.

And Ephesians 2:18 (NIV) tells us, “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” “Him” here refers to Christ. Through the salvation accomplished by Christ, we can come to the Father through Jesus in the fellowship the Holy Spirit.

So what the Lord commanded Moses to let Aaron do is actually a picture of our fellowship with the Holy Trinity in the New Testament.

The human spirit is created by the Lord. It’s where the Spirit of God dwells in us, and also the lamp of the Lord. This lamp enables us to maintain fellowship with God, receive illumination from Him, enables us to live a holy life, and prevents us from committing sin.

We know that the Old Testament is a foreshadow of the New Testament’s reality. So here, Leviticus 24 is a very good picture representing the reality of the New Testament.

As Christians we should always pray in the spirit to keep our spiritual light shining before God. We often have very little time to pray because we get so busy with our daily lives, so our prayer life is slowly neglected. There is a famous spiritual man who said, “No fixed time of prayer is no life of prayer.” I think this really makes sense because we live in the flesh. If we don't offer our bodies and set a specific time to pray, it will be difficult to maintain a life of prayer.

I think this is why the Lord let Moses take the fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread on the table of pure gold before the Lord. Each of the breads uses two-tenths of an ephah, six in each stack. The breads were to be placed before the Lord each Sabbath, and then it was given to Aaron and his descendants to eat. I think these 12 breads represent the people of God or the body of Christ. Because twelve is the number of tribes of Israel, the fine flour also represents human nature, so I think this is what Romans 12:1 says, “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” (NIV). If we don’t continually fan our God-given Spirit into flames, or offer our bodies through the cycle of the weekly Sabbath (or the cycle of the Lord’s day in the New Testament), it’s difficult to maintain our fellowship with God in the spirit.

There are Christians who initially receive salvation but if they don’t fellowship with other believers or attend church, they will have a very difficult time maintaining a strong testimony in the spirit.  Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is crucial.

We must know that our soul is very precious. In order to redeem our soul, Jesus was willing to give his life. It only takes a moment to receive salvation, but then our spiritual life must continue to grow and our body must also be constantly offered as a living sacrifice. The salvation of our souls should undergo changes over a lifetime to reach maturity.

This is a spiritual picture of the New Testament that the Lord commanded Moses at the beginning of Leviticus 24.

A series of problems will arise if we can't maintain constant fellowship with the Lord, if we gradually stop fellowshipping with Him because of sin and worldly influence, and if the lamp in our spirits is not lit up. We should work as priests and let our lights shine in front of God every week and every day. Then we’ll be able to get closer to Him.

When a person slowly moves away from God and neglects to take care of the lamp inside of him (our spirit), he will sin and fall. The son of the Egyptian father and the Israelite mother is a picture of this.

First, the law of God stipulates that the Israelites were not allowed to marry the Gentiles. So, the Israelite mother had already violated this law.  The light in her spirit had already been dimmed to a certain extent.  By marrying an Egyptian, her son would be part of an environment that makes it easy to fall away and be distant from God.

How can people commit such a serious sin? It is because the lights inside of them have long been dark. They lose God's presence, morality and even basic humanity.

We know that many Christians experience these things.  Before they are saved, lying, stealing, greed or harmful words and deeds don’t bother them. But after they get saved, they find that they can no longer do the things they used to do and say. If they do it, they  feel very uncomfortable. After a couple times, they   realize that they can’t participate in those things anymore. What’s the reason behind this?

One of the reasons is we are born again by the Spirit of God. The light of the Lord shines brightly within us. The things that we were doing in the darkness before didn’t bother us but under the illumination of the Lord's lamp, it can’t be done anymore.

So the main reason of the fall of man (committing sin and the decline of morality) is due to the fact that the light inside of him is dark. But God is the God of salvation. God’s intention for the high priest to continually light the lamps in front of Him represents Christ, our High Priest, who intercedes for us every day in heaven. This intercession will bring change to you sooner or later - from death to life and from darkness to light. One day, we will be saved and become a child of God. We will also begin to learn to serve as a priest. Continuously learning to be the lamp of God is to intercede for sinners around us, let the Holy Spirit work in them and light their lamps.

Our intercession to God in this way, brings the people around us to salvation, letting the light inside of them (which is their spirit) come alive.

It seems that the Israelite mother’s son was punished severely. But the judgment is not the aim, salvation is. Through this judgment, God is able to show the later generations that if they don’t pay attention to lighting up the lamp inside of them and if they constantly turn away from Him, the result will be tragic.

For example, we know the tribe of Dan was not numbered in Revelation chapter 7 among the 144,000 and this was often counted as a proof that the tribe of Dan was cut off. But Revelation 21:12 mentions that on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. From there we can speculate the tribe of Dan was eventually recovered and saved. How did this happen? We don’t exactly know but we can see some traces from the story in this chapter.

Judgement may come upon the tribe of Dan and its descendants. Paul says during his trial “for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.”（Philippians 1:19）Will this principle work for the tribe of Dan in the Old Testament? When the tribe of Dan was facing the difficult moment of being cut off, would this turn out to be their deliverance by the mercy of God?  I believe so.  I believe the judgement in this chapter reveals to us a hidden stream that God has been dealing with the tribe of Dan and eventually the name of Dan will be still written on the door of the New Jerusalem.

Again, judgement from God is always a means but not a goal. The goal is salvation as God is love and he wants to redeem us no matter how far we have fallen. If our light has been dim and we have sinned against God, judgement may come upon us but it’s also an opportunity for us to repent and rekindle the light within us. This is called The Gospel. It happened to the tribe of Dan and it will also happen to anyone who falls but chooses to repent.

Isaiah 61:1-4 says,

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

The Tribe of Dan was almost cut off and seems like they were burnt to ashes but God will “bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes” in the end. Let’s turn back to God and repent of our sin and light up the lamp within us. This lamp surely will restore us to receive this crown of beauty instead of ashes.

Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 23

Leviticus 23 talks about the Sabbath principles and the seven festivals of the Israelites, which are the Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. Why are these seven festivals and the teachings of the Sabbath put together? What is the spiritual significance? What kind of spiritual meaning do the seven festivals have?

Historically, there have been many different interpretations of these seven festivals, but the inspiration from the Holy Spirit that we received is that the seven festivals represent the seven different stages of Christian spiritual development. Of course, it can be further extended to the Body of Christ as a corporate Spiritual person and her seven different stages of life progress and maturity.

Let’s first talk about the principles of the Sabbath. Why do people have a Sabbath? Why should people work for six days and rest on the seventh day?

While everyone was discussing this issue, I was moved by the Holy Spirit and asked everyone the following questions. If you were God, how would you design a plan for the Israelites, churches, or even ordinary humans to seek God, eventually know Him as well as grow in His ways? Could it be that God doesn’t have the ability to supply people's basic needs to survive so He let people labor for six days? Or is it just because Adam committed sin, and God wanted to punish him to let him sweat and labor? Probably not, because God dropped down manna from heaven in the wilderness and gave it as food to the Israelites. He also gave quail to the Israelites as meat to eat. It is obvious from here that it’s not because God can’t supply the basic needs of people and so He let people work for 6 days. Instead, there are good intentions behind the six days of work.  People can constantly realize their own shortcomings through the six days work, and they can also know more about their need to know God.

But not everyone understood what I meant. I asked a friend in the meeting, who was a doctor, if she would still be a doctor after she goes to heaven. She said that she believes that there are still professions in heaven. She saw a testimony that said that angels also have different occupations. I don’t think that she understood my question. I asked another member of the Bible study who is an accountant  if she would still be an accountant in heaven. She said that she may not need to. I said that according to Acts 17 which we read last week, God has set the time and boundaries of lands for everyone so that we can seek God and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him. Without the permission of God the Father, nothing will happen. So her profession as an accountant is God’s way of helping her to know Him better.   The same applies to my doctor friend. Apart from the fact that what we are doing can benefit others, God mainly feels that these professions will help us better understand Him.

I shared this, and people seemed to gradually understand what I was saying. I continued to share that the best way for us is to imagine God as a teacher who trains us in class, or to imagine God as a parent who trains and disciplines His children. The best way for teachers to teach is to give students a little homework to check and see if they have learned anything from class. Anyone who has gone to school knows that if the teacher doesn’t give homework or have exams, it’s easy to forget the things you’ve learned after the course is finished. But if there is an exam pressure, the knowledge that we learn will leave a deep impression on us and will not be easily forgotten.  

In the same way, the principle of six days of work and resting on the seventh day established by God is like this. This doesn’t mean that not doing anything on the seventh day of the Sabbath is in accordance with God's will.  God's will is to give us a day to reflect on what we’ve learned after six days of work and study.

For example, if you apply for Graduate School, you need to prepare for the GRE exam. At the time I took the GRE exam, computer testing was still new. The computer test was designed as follows. If you correctly answer questions in the first level of difficulty, a new more difficult level will appear. If you continue to answer correctly the questions will get more difficult until the exam ends. However, if you answer wrong on the first level of difficulty, you will continue answering questions at that level until the exam ends.  Both seem to be answering the same amount of questions, but the scores of the test results will be very different.

Similarly, the path of life that God has designed for us is the same. For example, it took the Israelites more than 40 stations to pass the trial when they left the wilderness to reach the Promised Land. Some of them died in the wilderness and were never able to enter the Promised Land. But Caleb and Joshua were able to enter the Promised Land. God's promise to every Israelite is the same, but not everyone can enter the richness of God's promise.

The number of man is 6 because humans were created on the sixth day. So the first six days can represent human efforts. The seventh day is a temporary end to our human efforts to find God, know God or share the number of days of knowing God.

I recently accompanied my daughter to take part in her first Easter Egg Hunt.   The Sabbath principle is actually similar to the design of an Easter Egg Hunt.   Pastor Bill Johnson said that God hides the treasure for us not from us. An egg hunt is designed for parents to hide the eggs. The purpose of it is to let the children find them. The parents hide the eggs in more obvious places for the smaller children to easily find.

Acts 17:26-27 (NIV) says: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

We need to realize that God's intention is to let those who are lost find Him, so He has arranged life, which is what the six days represent. He hopes that people will eventually find Him, which is what the seventh day represents. Some people don’t find God early in their life so he extends their life giving them decades of continuous searching for God.

Many people are fortunate to find God early, and enter the reality of the Sabbath, which is entering into God’s rest. If man has rest, naturally, God also has one. God is Our Father. When His lost son returns home, He naturally rests. This is the practicality of the Sabbath. However, some people are not lucky enough. They struggle for a lifetime seeking God but still haven’t found Him. They have been stuck in the principle of the first six days and haven’t entered the principle of the seventh-day Sabbath. When man doesn’t find God, he has no peace.  When God hasn’t found his lost sheep, he doesn’t rest.

This is the practicality of the Sabbath. Can people, who have found God, know more about God every day and make progress in being filled with God? This is another cycle. This is the circumstance of the Israelites. They are God's chosen people, but they still have to continue this cycle, constantly escaping from the six-day natural self, and constantly entering the reality of the seventh day Sabbath. In other words, the first stage is like a Christians’ journey of salvation, and the second stage is like a Christian entering the sanctification process.

This Sabbath is a weekly principle and also an annual principle. It is the principle of a human being, a Christian, or an Israelite. It is also the principle of a group of people, the State of Israel, and church, which is the body of Christ, in its entirety.

The reason why this chapter started to talk in general about the Sabbath and then later the seven annual feasts of Israel is because it is trying to highlight the general principle of the Sabbath cycle.  As the chapter continues it covers the seven festivals of the following year.  When each festival is about to end, they must return to the general principles of this Sabbath.  Seven equals six plus one.  Six represents human effort and one represents God’s rest.  Man was given six days of work but should enter into the rest on the seventh day. 

To start with, let’s look at the first festival. The first festival is the Passover. We all know the story of the Passover. It is the story of Jehovah leading the Israelites out of Egypt, to the wilderness, and finally to the Promised Land. We also know that the spiritual meaning of the Passover is Christian salvation, and transfer from Satan’s dark kingdom to the kingdom of light of God’s beloved Son.

I shared in the meeting that we Christians have entered the reality of the Passover, but how many friends and even family members are still struggling in the dark? It is a difficult struggle, and the process of struggling was in the principle of the first six days of the Sabbath, that is, they were not able to find rest on the Sabbath day. The reality of the Sabbath is not to argue whether Saturday or Sunday is the Sabbath. The reality of the Sabbath is that both God and man have rested. If you haven't found God yet, you haven't entered that rest. The Bible also tells us, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:9-11) So as Christians we must endeavor to enter into this rest every day. You must continually enter this rest moment by moment and day by day. You can’t say that you automatically have it since the time you were saved. No, the verses above mentioned clearly that we must make every effort to enter that rest.

We can call being saved the first cycle.  It’s a shame that many people stay stuck in this cycle for their entire lives. We can liken this to quests that are completed in online games.  Many get defeated in the first round and never get to the second level. The second level is entering to the rest daily and experiencing the transformation of our soul.  This will bring us to the next festival.

But after the Passover, you can’t just lie down and sleep. In the words of the Chinese, this is only the first step in the long march. The second day after the Passover, which is on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread (which begins on the fifteenth day of the same month). Although the cycle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days, it’s definitely not just seven days. Its principle applies to a cycle of seven days. In other words, we all know that the Feast of Unleavened Bread represents Christians who should live a sacred life. How can it be just left behind after seven days? This also should be for a lifetime. Seven days only means a cycle, so the Feast of Unleavened Bread once again goes back to the seven day principle of the week-long Sabbath that was established in this chapter. We should spend the rest of our lives eating unleavened food, that is, to be constantly filled with the life of Christ, and being transformed into His image.   This is level 2 (the second quest) of the game. Many people have also been defeated at this level. Think about how many Christians are saved, but have never lived a life of sanctification throughout their lives?

After the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we aren’t sure about the specific time and period when the third feast of the Jews, the First Fruits, is to be celebrated. At the Feasts of First Fruits, the Jews dedicated the first fruits (e.g. field crop) to God as a sacrifice. Remember, the first two festivals can take place in the wilderness. When the Jews are wandering in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, they could celebrate the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but could not celebrate the Feasts of First Fruits. Why? Because in the Feasts of First Fruits, they need to offer the first fruits of the crops from what they sow in the field. They must enter the Promised Land, and work hard so that they can dedicate the first fruits of their labor. We all know that the wilderness represents the Christian's soul undergoing transformation, and entering the Promised Land represents a certain degree of spiritual victory. First of all, it’s already considered a victory for the Israelites to be able to enter the Promised Land. Being able to operate and produce the first fruits in the Promised Land is a step closer to further victory. In terms of our spiritual experience, the experience of the Feast of First Fruits is a sign that Christians were not only saved, but also for a period of time were free from sin and living an unleavened life. This then will produce to a certain degree the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It can even produce gifts of the Holy Spirit, testimony, and effects of its spiritual work outside, allowing God to be pleased with our ministry and conduct. This is the spiritual meaning of the Feast of First Fruits.

This would be considered the third level (or third quest) of the game. In this level, God's spiritual requirements and requirements of the spiritual sacrifices are different. Christians use a variety of spiritual explanations to explain the seven feasts of the Jews, but the inspiration that we received is the fact that these seven feasts not only represent the seven feasts God gave to the Jews, but also some spiritual stages and the course of development. They also represent the seven different stages of spiritual growth that an individual Christian can experience on earth. I shared in the meeting that we don’t have enough time to study the relationship between the Number seven mentioned in the book of Daniel, and the seven bowls, seven seals and the number 7 etc. in the book of Revelation. But I have a feeling that these sevens and the seven feasts of the Israelites may have a relationship to some extent. No one knows when God's economy will be completed, but my guess is that this mystery may be contained in the seven feasts that Jehovah gave to the Israelites.

I started to have a lot of prophetic dreams beginning in 2015. Many of my dreams were scenes of heaven, so I especially pay attention to other people’s testimonies who claim they have seen heaven. Actually, witnessing heaven is a rising trend in recent decades. In the United States, a female prophet named Kat Kerr is one of them. She claims that she has been to heaven thousands of times. One of the testimonies she mentioned was that she saw some Jewish festivals in heaven, and they even used some of the patterns and signs used by the Jews. She asked God why there were some signs of Jews here. God answered her and said, "This is originally mine, I just lent it to them."

If this testimony is true, if heaven continues to celebrate some Jewish holidays, then to a certain extent it explains that this cycle will not just end on earth, it will continue in heaven.  What I noticed most about other people’s visions about heaven is that everyone’s distance and understanding about God is quite different.  We still have so much to learn about God.

I am not here to talk about the testimonies of heaven, but to talk about the spiritual life cycle of Christians and their different stages of spiritual growth. In addition to offering the sheaf in the Feasts of the First fruits, they also need to offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering. What is the spiritual meaning of this? Leviticus 23:13 (NIV) says, "together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine”. What do these sacrifices represent? To be honest, I am not entirely clear, but if you look at this pattern of development, the Lord does not require the Israelites to offer anything at the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They can just enjoy God’s providence. But it is different in the Feasts of the First fruits. Those sacrifices mentioned above must be offered to the Lord.

What does this mean? It’s like a family. When a child is still small, parents do everything for them. They just have to eat well and have no responsibility. But if the child grows up to a certain age, and still does not do anything, and wants to have everything done for him/her, it either means the child has a disability, or, the parents are spoiling him/her too much. This is not normal. The things between God and us are family matters. We’re in the house of God. The Heavenly Father is our father. The Lord Jesus is our Savior, our elder brother, and our bridegroom. The Holy Spirit is our helper, and we are born again by the Holy Spirit. As members of God’s family we should help each other with His family matters. One day, Our Father hopes that our life will grow to a place that we can help Him a little. We can do something, put something on the table during His feasts so that He can be satisfied and we can let the priest get supplies of grain offerings, and let other young people be fed. However, today, in the Body of Christ, how many Christians have offered their first fruits when they reached a “grown-up” age, and yet still have their diapers on, waiting for others to feed them? I don't think there is anything wrong with being fed by someone else, but it’s a little abnormal when you are just waiting for others to feed you. Many Christians should be able to offer a male lamb one year old without defect. Although the lamb is only one year old and has lesser spiritual experience, at least there is no defect. You can please God and testify of His salvation to a certain extent.  The finest flour represents our conduct and how much we have experienced the changing work of Christ’s salvation in our character or souls.

Basically what we are saying here is that even a young lamb (or Christian) has a limited dedication to God.  It’s not about the amount of service that counts, just the fact that even a young Christian can do something for the Lord.

The fourth festival, Pentecost is also known as the Shavuot. After 49 days of offering the sheaf, a new grain offering is presented the next day (fiftieth day). Remember, the Jubilee is the 50th year after seven cycles of sabbatical years (a total of 49 years). Daniel's prophecy of the destiny of the Israelites is seventy weeks, which is 490. This is divided first into seven weeks, then sixty two weeks and then one more week. I don't fully know the relationship between these 7 and God's seven feasts for the Israelites, but I personally think that God is letting the Israelites and Christians complete His destiny through the cycle of 7 to reach spiritual maturity. In other words, these 7 are just game quests that God has set up for us to learn, and this game is a tool for God to educate His children to grow. I don't think it’s important to guess in detail what kind of practical meaning each cycle will achieve. Rather, the most important thing is that we cherish every one of the 7 cycles that God has put us in and learn the lessons He gives us. When the time is complete, God will naturally lead us out of this cycle.

I think it’s meaningless to focus our attention on the days, the new moon, when the Rapture will happen, or any other auspicious day. The most important thing is that God wants us to achieve spiritual growth through this design.

Pentecost is the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and it’s also the birth of the church.   This feast of Pentecost is very unique and is the day when the Gentiles were grafted into God’s family. When the brother of the Lord, Jacob, declared the church to accept the Gentiles, he quoted some words of the prophet, “God had pre-selected the Gentiles. Originally, they were not called God's chosen people but today, they would become one.”(Acts 15:14-21) In other words, using popular expression, Pentecost is the passing lane set by God.  God has chosen Israel, but if Israel doesn’t play well in this game, God will guide other players to play. This is not to eliminate the Israelites, but to put pressure on them to actively participate. Although Pentecost is about harvest and richness, it has specifically mentioned that “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor.” (NIV, Leviticus 23:22). This reflects the thoughts of God I just mentioned.

The offerings of Pentecost are more abundant, including two loaves of bread as a wave offering, seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. “They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings.Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offeringand two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the first fruits.” (NIV, Leviticus 23:18-20). In short, the sacrifice is richer than the experience of the Feasts of the First fruits. Pentecost is often used to indicate the filling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I personally feel that these sacrifices show the gifts of the Holy Spirit after experiencing its filling and outpouring. It also shows the fruit of the Holy Spirit brought about by the changing work of the Holy Spirit in us.

We can say that Pentecost is a hurdle. It is of great significance both to the church and the individual. There is also a great controversy in theory and practice. I have been an evangelical Christian for 13 years. Later I was forced to look for prayer and healing everywhere due to ten years of infertility. I inadvertently left my original church and was exposed to the Charismatic and Prophetic movements. I have been involved in evangelical churches as well as charismatic churches. My process of seeking healing was intertwined with the process of seeking the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. Finally, I was filled with the Holy Spirit in 2015 and gave birth to my miracle baby in 2017.

My experience being filled with the Holy Spirit was unforgettable and I gained so much through it.  When the Holy Spirit was poured out on me, the two men who prayed for me were overtaken and none of us could stand up.  We tried to stand, took several steps backward and fell to the ground.  I’ve also experienced the Holy Spirit filling my body with electric current.  I don’t share these experiences to boast.  People that come from the same background as I do have a lot of fear and suspicion about the Holy Spirit.  We often don’t dare to challenge the traditional teachings because of the fear of man.  In turn, we can miss God’s richest blessings for us. This issue is not only about the negative attitudes of various churches who don’t accept this.  The attitude of the individual toward this issue determines whether you can receive the richness of the Holy Spirit.  Countless numbers of people have experienced this without fear.  Teachings that cause fear on this subject aren’t necessarily right.  Though it can be a spiritual hurdle to experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit, don’t be afraid and give up.  Just believe, receive and enjoy the richness of His goodness to us. 

Although the Feasts of the First fruits and Pentecost has a fixed date every year, the Bible has not mentioned their specific dates. In addition to the unpredictable date of the feast day of the sheaf of first fruits, spiritually it also signifies that a person needs to be mature during this uncertain period of time. This is not a unilateral decision of God, but a period in which God has given a certain degree of freedom and grace so that people can seize the opportunity to grow. After the second detailed sixty-two weeks of Daniel, there was an uncertain period of time until the last seven weeks came. Biblical scholars usually called this period the Grace Period.

No one knows when the grace period ends. Although God is full of grace, we cannot keep refusing to grow up and mature indefinitely. There is a specific date for the Rosh Hashanah, which is the 10th of July. I guess there may be some connection between the Rosh Hashanah and the Festival of Trumpets. It is at some point when the time that God has established, has come. If people continue to refuse to repent or mature, God will begin a process of “ripening”, which of course may include changes in the environment and the striking of disasters etc. But still, God has good intentions. His purpose is to let people repent and further mature.

There is also a specific date for the Feast of Tabernacles, which is July 15. The Feast of Tabernacles is the last festival of the Israelites. It signifies the rejoicing and celebration after the final harvest. It’s a festival that is celebrated by both God and man. This signifies the Israelites have lived in tents. Although there is a remembrance to Christ's suffering outside, there is a celebration of the union of God and man.

The Feast of Tabernacles is not only the ultimate hope of the Israelites and the church, but also the highest stage of spiritual maturity in an individual Christian. I believe that through the ages, many spiritual Christians have achieved this very high stage of spiritual experience (although it’s on earth, it’s like in heaven) of being in harmony with God. In their experience, perhaps they have been celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles every single day.

On the last day of 2017, I had an experience of being brought to heaven in a dream. In heaven, the Lord pointed to a few people and said to me, “Do you want to be like them?” The Lord pointed out a few people to me, but I didn’t identify who they really were, but I had a spiritual feeling they might be   Godly people. Certainly, I’m longing to be like them.

Looking back at this experience, I shared in the meeting that one of my life’s ideals is to be able to reach spiritual maturity on earth and achieve the experience of Sukkot that many saints have reached. The   thing that many people who have gone to heaven regret is losing the great opportunity to pursue God on earth. Let’s encourage each other not to waste our beautiful time on earth.

I hope that you will be able to finish the game designed by God and get a great reward from Him and become a winner in life!

Bible Study with Jairus Leviticus 21

A common problem when reading the Old Testament is that after a person reads how God is depicted in the Old Testament, they often think that God is cruel, angry and frequently kills people.  This is the reason that many atheists think that the God depicted in the Old Testament, is bad-tempered and narrow-minded. He seems to frequently seek revenge against debtors. But the Gospel of John in the New Testament tells us that God loves the world. John the apostle also tells us in his epistles that God is love. So, how do we reconcile this contradiction?

A friend and I used to talk about the Bible quite a bit. He had the same questions. During this time, I happened to see a person writing a big "I LOVE U" in the snow and the word LOVE was drawn inside the shape of a heart. Because more than a foot of snow had fallen in Maryland at that time, these three words were written in very thick snow and were written so big that you had to stand on the second story to see the full image of these words. When you stood in front of it, you would just see lots of indents in the snow. You couldn’t clearly see what the words said. Then, I suddenly received inspiration and said to my friend, understanding God relates to these words. When we are too close we can’t clearly see what it says. But when we look at it from high places, we clearly see the whole picture. The same is true for the Bible. The angle and height we view it from are not the same as the angle and height of God. The words and the works of God are like His footprints. From a distance, we may be able to clearly see the words: "I love you"   But when we who are as small as an ant in comparison to God, look at things from a close view, we can barely make out the dot in the letter “i”.  When we look at things from God’s view we can get a better understanding of what the Bible is actually saying.

God is love, and every book, chapter and verse in the Bible show us His love. After reading any book of the Bible, if you feel that God is not loving or you feel that God is cruel, then there is a good possibility that you didn’t understand the chapter and need more of the Holy Spirit’s illumination. Each week in our study we read a chapter in the Old Testament and a chapter in the New Testament. We have already read up to the book of Acts in the New Testament and the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament.  With each chapter we read we are moved by the love of God and the Holy Spirit gives us a deeper understanding and proof of the lavish love that God has for each of us.

We encountered some challenges when we read Leviticus 21 and I proposed the same principle. As a result, when we finished our Bible study, we were all aware of God’s love..

The first half of Leviticus 21 talks about how priests should be holy when they are serving God. They cannot defile themselves. First, the priest should not make himself unclean for any of his people who die, except for a close relative or an unmarried sister.  Second, priests must not shave off the edges of their beards or cut themselves. Third, priests must not marry a divorced woman or a woman defiled by prostitution. Fourth, if a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she must be burned in the fire.

As for the requirements of the high priest, it’s even more strict. First, he must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother.  Second, he can't leave the sanctuary of God; third, like priests, he can only marry a virgin and fourth, his children can't be defiled.

The contents of verses 1-15 in chapter 21 can be understood, but the following content has a problem. Let’s read chapter 21 verses 16-24. 

21:16  The Lord said to Moses, 

21:17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 

21:18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 

21:19  no man with a crippled foot or hand,

21:20 or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 

21:21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 

21:22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 

21:23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”

21:24 So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

A Christian friend felt that after reading these verses, that God seemed to discriminate against disabled people. Why can't a disabled man offer food to God? They can’t even go near the sanctuary and offer  food to  God. Why does it say that because they have a disability they will desecrate the sanctuary of God? Isn’t this obvious discrimination towards people with disabilities? How do we explain this?

I replied that according to the principle I mentioned before, if you believe God discriminates and is unloving, you need to take a deeper look from a different angle because God is always love. And, if you didn’t feel His love here, it’s not that He is wrong, rather, we are looking at it from the wrong angle and height. We can't pull God down to our level and use our natural mind to understand Him. We must pray that God will use His Holy Spirit to illuminate us and ask Him to bring us to heavenly heights in the spirit to see God’s love from a higher perspective.

If you agree with what we said here or if you agree with our view that God is love, then, how can we see God's love in these verses?

This friend shared an explanation from the online BiblePoint.net:

The blind represents that he doesn’t know God and the will of God; the lame represents that he’s all talk and no action; disfigurement represents no spiritual sense of smell and has no discretion; the dysmelia (or deformed) represents the flesh; the man with crippled foot or hand represents the lack of spirit at work; the hunchback represents submission and compromise; the dwarf represents that the person’s life is not long; the man who has eye defect represents that this person is prejudiced, short-sighted and snobbish; festering sores and scabies represents that the wound cannot be healed and it’s bitter.

This explanation is quite good. I know that the person who interpreted this received the same spiritual teaching as I did, known as spiritual interpretation. It’s through spiritual meaning that we can explain some of the Bible, especially the Old Testament Scriptures. With this, we can match it with the spiritual significance of our situation today.

If we follow the principles we have talked about before and if we don’t see that God is doing this out of love, then, we are still misunderstanding the bible.  I asked the question, what about when Moses told the Lord that he was slow of speech and slow of tongue to do the task that He had given him.  What does the Lord mean when he responded to him in Exodus 4:11 saying: “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

According to the literal meaning of this sentence, God makes human beings dumb, deaf, and blind. Why would God do that? How do we understand that God is love here? Everyone was speechless because we couldn’t understand why God said this.

Slowly, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we began to understand the spiritual significance of this passage. First, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Even if people were born mute, deaf, and blind, this should also be considered as the result of the sin. This concept is also so common among the Israelites that the disciples of the Lord asked Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (NIV, John 9:2). The Lord Jesus replied that it was not the sin of this man, nor the sin of his parents, but it is to manifest and display God's work.

How do we understand what Jesus is saying here?

First, we know that the disciples asked this question because they were very familiar with the laws of the Old Testament. They knew that the law of God stipulated that blind people could not offer sacrifices to God. They were deeply influenced by the law and they had a strong concept of good and evil. But Jesus wants to turn their eyes from the horror of human sin and the result of sin to the provision that God is mighty to save in His love. The meaning of this sentence is that God has prepared salvation for the sin of man, that is, the coming of Jesus Christ so that people can be set free from their sins and return to God.

I believe the meaning of this sentence is not the fact that Jesus denies that man is sinful and that the wages of sin is death, because it is clearly stated in the Bible that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. This blind man and his parents may also have sinned, and his blindness may be the result of his sin or the sin of his parents. But the Lord Jesus is here to let the disciples focus on how Jesus Christ can save the sinner, and not let them focus on what is right and wrong, or judge who caused this person to be blind.

The reason why I say this is because God clearly said to Moses that He was the one who created human beings to be mute, deaf and blind. And in the New Testament, Lord Jesus also told us that not one of the sparrows will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. (NIV, Matthew 10:29). And we know that every creation of God is good and God would not deliberately create people who are mute, deaf and blind. But why are there still people who are mute, deaf and blind in this world? Isn’t this contradictory? How do we explain these contradictions?

I heard a message from Kenneth E Hagin that many verses in the Old Testament mentioned that the disasters and plagues brought or sent by Jehovah to people are actually mistakes in translation. He quoted a Hebrew scholar's research that the usage of these words is actually passive forms of the original text. In other words, these words should be translated into God's permission to allow these plagues to fall on people.

In addition, I have heard Peter Horrobin, an expert in deliverance, give a very vivid example to explain why the sins of the ancestors often caused the offspring to be possessed by demons. In deliverance ministries, people often encounter demonic oppression due to the fact that their ancestors are practicing idolatry, fornication, and other sins, causing their children and grandchildren to be possessed. This is biblical.

It says in Exodus 34:6-7

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (NIV)

God did say that “He punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (NIV, Numbers 14:18). This doesn’t affect God’s claim that He is a God of mercy and a God of grace. When we compare punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third or fourth generation, we also need to recognize that His blessings will reach up to a thousand generations.

Peter Horrobin gave a very vivid example when the audience was puzzled by why God allowed the result of sin to be circulated through the family. He stood on the podium to represent God. He let a member of the audience sit under the podium, under his feet to represent a father. He let another person  stand below this person to represent a son, and then he poured water out of a bottle on the podium. The water dripped onto the head of the person sitting on the podium, flowed over  the person’s body, and then dripped onto the person sitting under the podium.

He said that when God created us, He set up a principle that the blessings of our ancestors will be passed down from generation to generation starting from the son to the grandchildren. The blessings and grace of God will be passed on to the family as characterized by this example. He said that pouring down mineral water is like God pouring some of the oil on Aaron's head. Then it flowed through Aaron's beard and robes, soaked the whole body, and then this blessing has also passed through Aaron’s sons and grandchildren. It’s passed from generation to generation.

He said that if God stops the consequences of human sins through the ancestors and passing on one’s genes to the next generation, it’s like asking God to close the principle of the Father's blessings to his children that He established. This is not what God wants to do, nor what God will do. What God is doing is changing the source of sin and not closing the channel of God's blessing. When Jesus Christ comes to earth to redeem us from sin, the channel of God's blessing will still work. God will continue to bless us to a thousand generations. In other words, God is looking at the problem from eternity’s perspective. In God's eternal eyes, sin is only a problem that occurs at a certain time. God won’t change the principles of the Father's blessing to his children or the Father's passing on genes to his children that He has set for eternity because of bad things that happened during a certain period of time.

Peter Horrobin said that if God closes the path of inheriting the sin of the ancestors to the descendants, it also closes the way God blesses the son through the Father. There is no problem with regards to the inheritance principle set by God, nor is it the root cause of the problem here. The root cause is that the source is wrong. People made the wrong choice. They chose Satan and sin as the source. God's solution is to change the source, correct the error made by the source. If the error of the source is corrected, slowly other things will be solved, but this will take a time.

From this perspective, God allows sin to flow to the third and fourth generations. This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love people. But in God's eternal eyes, God continues to retain the blessings of the Father to his children and grandchildren. The blessings of God are to be passed for generations. The New Testament also tells us “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29). We have to resolve the contradictions of the Bible here. We don’t need to deny that God does allow the passing on of sin in families, and the fact of mute, deaf and blind caused by the result of sin. We should instead stand at a higher altitude and eternal perspective to look at God's plan and economy. You must know that in God's eternity, sin is short-lived. There are no records of sin in the first three chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of Revelation. The law was established because of sins. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (NIV, Romans 5:20). This is what Paul said in   Romans.

Similarly, the Lord Jesus is answering the disciples that it’s not the sin of his father or the sin that the son committed that made this person blind, but to show the work of God. I personally think that Jesus is not denying the fact that He or His ancestors had sinned, but rather saying, when sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Jesus is teaching his disciples not to focus on sin, but to focus on the grace and the work of God.

So how do we understand why this chapter said that God doesn’t allow disabled people to come to Him to sacrifice? How can this be linked to God's love, and not make God look so mean?

I feel like I was inspired by the Holy Spirit and I shared this at the meeting:

What is the essential difference between philosophy and other religions and Christianity? The essential difference is that Christianity teaches us that we must come to God through a unique mediator - Jesus Christ. No matter how kind, godly and hard we work, we cannot reach God.

Throughout the ages, Satan has encouraged people to strive for salvation through human efforts, religion, asceticism, good deeds, and the law to please God, but 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

If you try to convince an atheist or others who are passionately pursing God’s acceptance through philosophy and good deeds that Jeus Christ is the only way to God, these people would consider you to be narrow minded. The message of one way to God eliminates their freedom to pursue a variety of paths.

Why do you feel hurt when it says here that God doesn’t allow disabled people to offer sacrifice to God? This is the result of the damage that the sin brought that distorted our mind. Let me give you a few examples to illustrate this.

As a child, because I was thin and I had white skin compared to other Chinese children, I was often bullied by my classmates. Some students often laughed at me because I was white-skinned. Although the classmate that called me white was only teasing, because of the bullying and insults I received, I thought of the word white as a person who is thin, weak and unhealthy. I hated that my skin was white, and I longed for my skin to be darker.  I thought if a person was dark-skinned, they were strong because I saw a lot of strong people that had dark skin. So when it comes to the word white, my instinctive reaction was to be annoyed. I liked the word black. But does black and white really represent my interpretation? Does black connote good and white connote bad?

Does white and black really have different meanings? No, in fact, white and black are the same. They have no special meaning, but the fall of man adds meaning to them because of the taint of sin. This meaning is not necessarily correct. Just like my experience, I thought that black was better than white, but that is actually a wrong judgment caused by the twisted soul.

When Adam sinned, God came to look for him and asked where he was. His first reaction was to think that God would punish him, so he hid. But God came not to punish him, but to redeem him. God not only slaughtered a sacrificial animal for them, but He also covered them using animal skins and promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.

Why is it when God came to Adam to save him, Adam felt that God was going to hurt him? A person will have an orphan spirit after he/she has committed a sin. What is an orphan spirit? An orphan spirit is like the prodigal son in Luke 15. It is clear that his father loved him, but he didnt feel that way. So, he wandered away from his father.

Bethel Church, in Redding California which is led by pastor Bill Johnson had a prophet named Kris Vallotton, give an example to explain the meaning of an orphan spirit and it left a deep impression on me. He said that their family adopted an orphan. Because of his lack of love, the child isolated himself when he first came to their home. Later, when he felt the warmth, he opened up his heart, but he still obviously had the orphan spirit. Kris said that during Christmas, his daughter was responsible for distributing gifts to the stockings. She accidentally put two identical gifts in the stockings of another child and unintentionally put just one gift in the stocking of the adopted child. After the adopted child opened the gift, his first reaction was anger. He said, “Why is it that the other children have two gifts and I only have one?”

Kris said that the first reaction of this child is not to thank others for giving him a gift, but rather he was hurt because he thought that the others looked down on him. This is a typical example of the orphan spirit. When we hear the Word of God say that disabled people could not sacrifice in front of God, it stings our orphan spirit and we feel that God is condemning us.

It’s just like I didn’t like to hear others say that I’m white due to the ridicule by my classmates. It’s a reaction from cognitive distortion.

What does God mean here? God's meaning is completely good and it’s completely out of love.

Since people have been tempted by Satan's temptation to fall, Satan has always used two methods to deceive people. One is to constantly lie to people telling them that God doesn’t love themor that God has abandoned them.. When people believe the lies, they become more distant from God. This is an orphan spirit, the sickness that the prodigal son in Luke 15 had.

Satan's second trick is to constantly encourage people to become like God, or to strive to reach God's standards. First of all, the fall of Satan is due to the fact that he said he wanted to be like God in his heart. Second, he first deceived Eve saying that if she ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, she would be like God. Satan also stirred Cain up to give his produce as an offering to God. We all know that Cain's produce from the field represents people's efforts and religions in an attempt to please God. But after his failure to please God, he became a murderer.  Men with religious spirits will tend to act this way. The brother of the prodigal son in Luke 15 has this sickness. This is called the religious spirit.

So Satan encourages all kinds of religions, philosophies, and human efforts to work hard to reach God, practice to be God or to be accepted by God. All of these efforts are types of disabilities in the eyes of God. These are the tactics of the enemy to stop people from using the unique, perfect sacrificial lamb, and our high priest, Jesus Christ to come to God.

In other words, you should understand the words of the Lord like this. God doesn’t say, "You can't get close to God if you’re disabled. You are all disabled. You are not worthy to come near me." Instead, you should hear God shout loudly: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind that is Christ Jesus. No one outside of him can get close to me. Anyone who is mute, deaf, or blind can come close to me, but you must come through my son Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrificial Lamb. In Him, I can see that you’re also flawless. Don't try to use personal efforts to do what pleases me. It's all Satan's tricks to stop you from getting close to me. Don't be fooled! Mute, deaf, blind, I long for you to serve me, so I prepared my son Jesus Christ to be a perfect sacrificial Lamb. In Him you will become righteous, you will be close to me, and I will no longer see you as mute, deaf and blind."

These words are actually God preparing the right path to salvation and sacrifice for the sake of the mute, deaf, and blind. But because people have an orphan spirit, they misunderstand God.

To summarize what we said in the beginning, it’s important to see and know God’s love within every chapter of the Bible.  If we cannot grasp his love within the chapter, we need to continue to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in revealing it.  The Bible is God’s love letter to us.  He is love.  God is often blamed unjustly although he is quietly patient and longsuffering with us.  He’s madly in love with us but is often treated as the bad guy.  Hey…it’s not easy to be God!

 Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 20

Leviticus 20 records the three kinds of punishments for the various crimes in Israel and their corresponding intensity.

Leviticus 20:2 says that “Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death.” Verse 9 then states that “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” Verse 10 follows with, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the adulterer and adulteress are to be put to death” and verse 11 says, that “If a man has sexual relations with his father’s wife, both the man and the woman are to be put to death”

Leviticus 20:12 states that “If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them are to be put to death.”  Verse 13 follows by saying that “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, they are to be put to death.” Verse 14 states that “If a man marries both a woman and her mother, both he and they must be burned in the fire.” Verse 15 then says that “If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death.” Finally, in verse 27, also states “that the medium or spiritist must be stoned to death.”

The scriptures above are more serious sins, and God’s final judgment is for the offenders to be killed. Note that the degree of judgement in the situations below is quite different. I didn't notice the difference when I first started reading the Bible, but after the woman shared her perspective this week, I noticed that there was actually a distinct difference in the level and intensity.

Verse 17 says that “If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, they are to be publicly removed from their people.” What does “publicly removed” mean? Does it refer to killing? I do not believe it refers to killing, but rather cutting him out from the people or community. The following verse says that “If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, both of them are to be cut off from their people.” From here, we can presume that maybe what it’s saying is to be cut off from Israeli traffic.

The next sin seems to be at another level. Verse 19 says “Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, or else both will be held responsible.”, but it did not specify here what punishment in particular.   Verse 20 follows with “If a man has sexual relations with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless.”. In other words, they can still live in Israel but will no longer able to pass on the family name. Verse 21 states that “If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; they will also be childless. This is a filthy thing.” John the Baptist once blamed Herod for marrying his brother's wife, Herodias. I assumed that it was because of verse 21. But the Bible also explicitly mentions that his brother died, and his younger brother should marry his elder brother's wife and give birth and establish an heir for his elder brother.

By reading this passage, I believe that it is clear it mentions the wife of the brother-in-law not because of the death of his elder brother, but because his brother was still alive when Herod married his brother’s wife.

After stating these various crimes and their corresponding punishments, Jehovah said that the reason He did not allow the Israelites to commit them was because the Canaanites had done this before, leading Jehovah to despise them. At this time, Jehovah once again mentions God’s promise of giving them the land of milk and honey and declares that He’s the God of Israel and has made Israel a separated nation.

Verse 25 states that "You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground--those that I have set apart as unclean for you.” In verse 26, it says "You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”

The question raised by the woman at the beginning of our study showed that she did not understand what “sanctification" really meant. She looked for other Chinese translations on the Internet and found the word "self-cleaning".

I told her that it was a very good question. Often, when we are reading the Bible and come across unanswered questions, we feel disturbed. It is very likely that the Holy Spirit is going to answer our questions, but He answered it through a question raised by one member. We must pay attention to this as the Holy Spirit often uses this type of question to provide us with timely answers.

What is sanctification or self-cleaning? Understanding this contains a very important spiritual and practical significance for Christians today who are living in an era of controversial issues such as homosexuality and abortion. If we understand this concept, it will greatly influence our understanding and application of God's law. If we misunderstand, misinterpret, and misapply God’s law, it will cause a series of difficulties.

As we are not in a hurry to answer this question, let’s first consider another question.  Why did God ask Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals and unclean animals into the ark?  We can imagine that the flood had wiped out a lot of people and animals, but have you ever thought that since God had sent the flood to destroy the entire world of humankind and beasts, why not just let Noah bring clean animals to the ark and leave the unclean ones? If that is the case, wouldn’t it be an extinction of unclean animals? Wouldn’t that be that a good thing?

This question is not difficult to answer. Imagine the vision that God gave to Peter. When God called Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, he saw that there was a variety of unclean animals in Tabriz and commanded him to slaughter them. But Peter refused, he said that he had never eaten these impure or unclean animals before. But Jesus said that “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15). This story shows that if Noah had not brought unclean animals to the Ark at that time, the vision would not have happened. The answer to the earlier question is that there is a process of making something unclean, clean.

Abraham was originally an Aramean who lived in idolatry, but God called him and the Israelites to sanctification or cleaning in order to make them holy to be a sacrifice to God. They had gone through the process of being unclean to clean. Similarly, under the grace of God, God also gives a clean process to other unclean people. If God had not provided a process, when Abraham lived beyond the Euphrates river and was involved in idol worship, God could have killed him or cut him off, but God did not do that. Instead, God called him. Thus, Abraham became clean from unclean.

In addition to undergoing the process of being unclean to clean, God has different requirements for clean and unclean people. In other words, judgment begins at the house of God. The people who are part of God's family are those cleaned by God. If they do unclean things, they will be severely punished and disciplined by God. For those who are not yet clean, or who have not yet known Jesus Christ, God's mercy triumphs over judgment.

If you understand this truth and think about the words of Jesus: "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45), it will become very meaningful. It is not that God doesn’t differentiate between good and evil, He gives the "wicked and evil" time to become "good and just." Words such as good and bad, and good and evil are not good spiritual vocabulary and therefore, are easily misunderstood. We can replace good or evil people with the words clean or unclean.

God's words in the Bible, even the law, have different contexts and intended audiences. We cannot generalize it. We must cut straight the truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. First, God has different treatments and approaches regarding people and sins. Second, God's demands, as well as how He handled the time period for the Israelis and Gentiles are also not the same.

Romans tells us that God used the law to judge the Israelites. Although the Gentiles have no law, they are a law unto themselves (their conscience is the work of the law). Romans 2:11-12 NIV says that: “For God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law." This part is well-written. God does not favor people. Whether it’s the Israelites who are holy to God, or the Gentiles who are not holy to God (here is the Canaanites), the crime is to be judged and the capital punishment is death. This is beyond doubt. However, this is not the focus of our discussion here.

What we are discussing here is the scope and application of the law, and the limitations that we have on law. It is essential for us to understand how to be spiritual Israelites in this fallen society today.

God asks the Israelites and the people that are saved today to be the salt of the earth so that the Gentiles can witness God Himself. In order to make us more holy and to manifest God more, some laws or moral requirements have been put forward. When we manifest God, and when these Gentiles or sinners become attracted to God, He will continue to let them sanctify themselves in order to fulfill God's requirement - holiness.

God never imposed these laws or moral requirements on the Gentiles. This is why, when Jesus came to earth, he treated the tax collectors, prostitutes and Pharisees in a completely different way. The attitude of the Pharisees is that these people are sinners and unclean, therefore, cannot come close to God and His presence; the attitude of Jesus, on the other hand, is that these people are sinners, and He should be a friend to them first in order to show God to them. After seeing God's manifestation, they will know God and see salvation. The power of salvation will lead them further to the path of cleansing and sanctification.

I am not saying that the law of God does not apply to the Gentiles and sinners.  What I mean is that Christians should not use the law to condemn others or distance them from God.

Let me give a simple example. One of the hot topics discussed in the US is   about abortion and homosexuality. We Christians should hate the sin and love the sinner.  But we often failed to show love to the person who are sinners.

When Jesus came to Earth, he did not keep some laws such as the law of the Sabbath. He healed the people and let the disciples gather ears of wheat on the Sabbath day.  The first thing He took into consideration was to treasure the people and make them feel the love of God, and for them not to simply obey the law for the sake of obeying. But in stark contrast to Jesus, some Pharisees kept the law for the law. Their concern was the law and not the people. Therefore, Jesus condemned them saying “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27).

I firmly believe that the responsibility of Christians today is not to have moral judgement but to have "self-sanctification" or "self-cleaning." When we put our focus on this goal, we will be able to reflect God’s glory and we will gradually transform and become the image of Christ. People will naturally see the manifestation of God in us, leading them to have feelings of conviction and repentance.

When we are judging people's mistakes and failures before our very eyes, it is very easy for us to put ourselves in the wrong position and treat ourselves as Gods in judging them. But God clearly tells us in the Bible that "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy."(James 4:12). God will judge everyone, and Paul also tells us that since Gentiles have no law, conscience acted as their law.

I mentioned during the meeting that many people are so eager to judge others. But if they look inside themselves to see if they have fulfilled God’s requirements of being holy, they will find that they are far from meeting it. It’s easy to judge others, but it’s difficult to be holy.

I am not against Christians maintaining the basic standard of morality in a society or against anyone to oppose the continuous moral decline in society. My point is that if Christians can pay more attention to the righteousness in themselves and rely more on the light and grace of God to live out the reality of the law, we will be able to change the current situation of moral degradation and this will lead to better results.

To know the level of morality in the world is actually a manifestation of the cleanliness and spirituality of Christians and churches before God. The root of the degradation of morality in society is the church, not the unbelievers. If we only think about how to correct people’s behavior and not change what we have inside, then we are doing things in the wrong order.

Bible Study with Jairus - Romans 1

I asked everyone at our Bible study to think about Romans chapter 1 and ask questions about what they didn't understand.  There was silence around the room. I jokingly said that this made sense for those who have been Christians for a long time.  When you have diligently read the Bible for many years, you become so familiar with it that you feel like you completely understand it.  Unfortunately, this can be a dangerous place to be because you may have the knowledge and Biblical truth but could lack in new spiritual insight given by the Holy Spirit.  God's word should be a living (Rhema) Word to us.  Romans 1:17 says, "For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written; "the righteous will live by faith." St. Augustine was said to be so inspired after reading this verse that he repented and was saved.  Martin Luther restored the truth of justification by faith after this verse inspired him.

We focused on Romans chapter 1 in mid-May, 2020.  I told everyone that the Holy Spirit would illuminate this chapter and speak a timely word to us.  Our intention isn't to explain the chapter verse by verse or word by word, but to enter into fellowship with the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to speak.

The book of Romans was written during Paul's three months in Corinth.  Why did he write the book of Romans in Corinth? Romans is a long letter with sixteen chapters.  The letter was probably written on parchment because Paul obviously didn't have a computer back then.  Can you imagine the burden he must have had to write such a long letter to the church in Rome?

Paul wrote the book of Romans in Corinth, having never been to Rome, so more than likely, the church in Rome wasn't established by him. It seems strange that he would write such an intimate letter to people he wasn't close to.  As an example, if you were Paul today and established churches in Los Angeles and New York, you would naturally want to stay connected by writing or visiting those that the Lord had burdened your heart for.  Wouldn't it seem odd if you suddenly wrote an incredibly long, personal letter to a church in Texas that you never even visited? There must have been some sort of hidden connection that Paul had to the Roman church for him to send this letter.  If we can understand why he had the burden to write the book of Romans, we might have a better understanding of how it applies to us today.

The Holy Spirit will often disrupt our thoughts with questions because he wants to speak to us through them.

Paul mentioned in Romans 15 that he planned to go to Jerusalem. Believers in Macedonia and Achaia collected an offering for Paul to take to the poor in Jerusalem. He also planned to go to Rome later, and then to Spain (Romans 15:25-28).

Acts 19:21 (ESV) said: "Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." At that time, Paul was in Ephesus in Asia, while Apollos was in Corinth.  Paul laid his hands on and prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to fall on those under Apollos' ministry who had not received yet.  Later, he was "resolved in the Spirit" that he would pass through Macedonia, Achaia, and go to Jerusalem. He even said that he "must" see Rome. We know that the reason why Paul went to Jerusalem was to deliver the contribution from Macedonia and Achaia to the poor Jewish Christians. But why did Paul say that he "must" go to Rome?

What is the reason Paul decided that he must see Rome?  Although Paul felt that he must see Rome, he didn't know whether it would happen because he said in Romans 1:10 (NIV), "I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you."  Paul was saying that he wasn't sure if he would be able to go to Rome.  He was still praying that God would open the way for him.

After Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, Agabus and some disciples (Acts 21) prophesied that he would be bound in Jerusalem. Even the disciple Luke opposed him of going up to Jerusalem. But Paul was determined to go, saying that he was ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus (NIV, Acts 21:13).  Therefore, when he went to Jerusalem, he was prepared to die, not knowing whether he would go to Rome.  It was only after Acts 23:11 that the Lord appeared to Paul at night and promised that he would go to Rome safely.  But when Paul was writing the book of Romans in Corinth, although he had a burden for Rome, he did not know whether God would open the way for him to go.

Where did Paul's burden for Rome come from? The Holy Spirit stirred us to look at the verses in Acts 18:1-3, which answered the questions we raised.

Acts 18:1-4 (NIV) said: "After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.  Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.  Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks."

The Holy Spirit has particularly pointed our attention to the phrase "Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome."  Why did Claudius order all the Jews to leave Rome?  We know that most of the Christians in the early churches were probably Jews. Although they were in gentile nations, there were also many Jews in the church. It was only after the gospel had spread before the Gentiles gradually increased.

We checked the history of this period online. Historically, the conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles existed in the city of Rome.  At that time, the situation was similar to the case of Germany during World War II.  Anti-Semitism was flourishing to the extent that there were many conflicts between the Jews and the Gentiles.  At about 40 AD, the Roman consul was drawn in by the anti-Semites.  They began to persecute the Jews. These persecution measures included burning the Jewish synagogue and forcing them to eat pork, causing many riots.  At that time, Caligula did not handle the situation well. Later, after Claudius succeeded to the throne, he regained some favor with the Jews.  This matter was then temporarily resolved.  But later, the Jews were incited by others to stir up trouble.  Because the spread of the Christian gospel was very active there, it caused conflicts between Christians and non-Christians, and between Jewish Christians and other Jews who had opposed the gospel.  Perhaps to avoid these troubles, Claudius had driven the Jews from Rome.  However, no one knows when Claudius's decree became invalid. Anyways, many Jews had begun to return to Rome later.

In short, from these historical records and Romans 1, we can speculate about the situation there. The message of the gospel was flourishing in Rome.  Paul said in Romans 1:8 that he thanked God for the people of the Roman Church because their faith was being reported all over the world.  Rome had a revival before Paul went there.  Why did God burden Paul and confirm that he was to go there in Acts 23?  Romans 1:11-13 (NIV) says, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.   I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles." From these verses, Paul's meaning was clear. His purpose of going to Rome was to strengthen these Roman Christians, mutually encourage each other and to preach the gospel more to bear some fruits.

Paul's purpose was mainly to stabilize and strengthen the church in Rome. I'll use a war example to illustrate.  For example, two armies are fighting for a mountain top.  But if they advance and retreat, this can't be regarded as stabilizing the place.  Only if they fight for a place and establish a base there can they be considered as stable.  The same is true in Rome. Although Rome had a revival, since the Jews were driven out, this shows that the church had not yet established a foothold in Rome.  When Priscilla and Aquila and Paul were setting up tents together, they might have discussed these situations with Paul in detail, giving Paul the burden to help strengthen the church in Rome.  According to the record from the book of Acts, Paul met Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18, and it was only recorded in Acts 19 that Paul was resolved in the Spirit and decided to go to Rome. Therefore, we can boldly speculate that Paul's encounter with Priscilla and Aquila fueled the burden for the church in Rome.

Next, let's look at the record of Romans 16. Paul mentioned a lot of names here.  This shows that he knew many people in Rome. In Romans 16:3, His greeting to Priscilla and Aquila shows that they returned to Rome. But neither the Bible nor history records when they returned to Rome.  In addition to Priscilla and Aquila, Paul also greeted Sister Phoebe (Romans 16:1), as well as Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia" (Romans 16:5) and Andronicus and Junia, who had been in prison with him and dozens of others. This shows that Paul knew a lot of people there. Therefore, although he had not established the Roman church and he had never been to Rome, his connections with Priscilla and Aquila and others more than likely fueled his burden for the church.

Because Paul was not sure whether he would reach Rome safely, he was heavily burdened with writing the content of the gospel in detail to the church in Rome to help them understand the pure gospel.  Paul said at the end of Romans 16, "Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past." (NIV, Romans 16:25).  He is raising the bar with these words.  Although revival had come to the church in Rome, many believers there may not have understood the depth of the gospel message. It's possible that some of the preaching may have deviated from the truth.  Priscilla and Aquila may have passed this information on to Paul or perhaps Andronicus and Junia, who were in prison with him.  This could be why Paul felt burdened to write such a detailed letter about the gospel of Jesus Christ to educate and strengthen the believers there.

The book of Romans is often called "Paul's Gospel" by theologians.  Although it is not included in the gospel, it is a very detailed explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many theologians have commented that Paul's gospel is very helpful for future generations to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.  People such as Augustine and Martin Luther, who we mentioned earlier, represent some of the people who were helped by the book of Romans.

To better help the members of our study understand Paul's experience in Rome (including Paul's burden to go, the environment does not allow him to go, and finally continuing the trip later), I shared some of my experiences.  I hope it can help everyone better understand Paul's spiritual experience and its significance to us today.

I went to Oregon in January 2016 to attend a prophetic meeting hoping to hear from God about my wife's ten-year infertility problem and to learn how to listen to God's voice. In this special meeting, God told me that not only will I have a child in 2016, but also "Jairus Bible World Ministry" came out of Him.  I was saved in the Local Church Movement.  I never thought of having my own ministry, nor did I ever think of serving the churches in China.  But before this special meeting, I read a book by Chuck Pierce, who is an American prophet.  He talked about Jesus appearing to him in the 1980s, telling him God's plan for China until 2026, and China becoming a very powerful country and having a great spiritual revival that will spread to the whole world, significantly changing China and the world.  One of the keynote speakers of the special meeting that I had attended was Chuck Pierce, and he repeated this story.

One day after coming back home, I was walking the streets of Washington, DC, and I remembered this vision. Suddenly I heard the Holy Spirit asking me, "What is a great revival?" At this point in my spiritual walk, I wasn't used to hearing God's voice clearly, so I was taken aback at His question.  I immediately answered Him in the spirit, "I heard that one-tenth of Chinese people are Christians. Isn't this already a great revival?"  Because I was saved overseas, I never participated in the church services in China.  The teaching I received at the Local Church Movement was mainly to minister to Chinese scholars and students overseas.  I never thought of serving the churches in China and the United States.  The Holy Spirit immediately asked me, "How about two out of ten?"  I was even more surprised.  I quickly counted in the spirit, and I realized there would be 100 million more Chinese that will be saved.  The conversation with the Holy Spirit this time had changed me a lot.  I started to have a burden on China.

God placed a burden for China in my heart, but He hasn't opened the opportunity for me to go yet.  His current path for my life is training. I'm studying for my Doctor of Ministry degree at the United Theological Seminary.  Part of the training was leaving the Local Church Movement and exploring truths from the Charismatic movement, which led me to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and learn about the various gifts of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit has assured me that the burden for China will be fulfilled.  A Korean prophet prophesied that God had set my base of ministry in the United States but would send me all over China to minister.  God would also open the door for ministry in the United States.  Other prophets confirmed this prophetic word.  My experience is similar to Paul's in that God gave the burden, but the circumstances didn't permit the door to be opened right away.  Through the waiting period, Paul wrote the book of Romans.  My waiting period includes finishing my Doctoral degree and other writing projects.  As I've been going through this series of processes, I realized what God's plan was for me.  He is preparing me to help stabilize and strengthen Chinese and American churches someday.

The application of Paul's experience isn't to be limited to me.  I would like to challenge every believer to ask God how He is preparing you for His purposes during this coronavirus pandemic.  One woman felt like God allowed her time to prepare for the CPA exam.  Another woman said that God used these circumstances to draw her deeper into faith for healing a physical illness to prepare her to serve Him better in the future.  The Chinese character or word for crisis has two meanings, crisis, and opportunity. It's important to look at situations like the coronavirus or the riots from God's perspective so that we can take advantage of any opportunities he has for us in the middle of the crisis. One man in our study said that this pandemic has exposed sin in many people.  God is more than willing to give them the opportunity to repent and strengthen their faith through this trial.

At the end of our study, we blessed and prayed for the people in China, the United States, and the world. May God be merciful to them; let them not ignore the grace of God for giving them sun, air, and water. Like Romans 1:20 (NIV) says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."  God has allowed our circumstances to change pretty dramatically, and people are feeling weak and helpless. 

It's time to turn to God with a repentant heart, surrendering our will to Him and allowing Him to work through us in power.