God's heart's desire for us to be sanctified

This is to respond to message five in ITEROS-HWMR
Topic: The Will of God—Our Sanctification

In this message, I got some reminders that both God and human need this mutual cooperation in order to make the sanctification to take place in us. 

 (1 Thes. 5:23-24)

“The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it". 

In these two verses, it is quite clear that it is really God's heart's desire to sanctify us completely, and from the message throughout the week, we also see God's multifold procedure to sanctify us and make us as holy as He is. And once He calls us, He "ALSO WILL DO IT". However, I am reminded that although God is faithful in His work to sanctify us, we also have to play a part in this process, that is, our cooperation. 

I think a lot of times I simply cast the responsibility to the Lord for Him to renew and sanctify me. Well, it is true that He will do it as He is faithful in His Word. But I realise I also have a role to play so that the Lord can gain my tripartite being. 

(1 Tim 4:7) But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and exercise yourself unto
godliness.

I have to cooperate with the Lord by keeping my spirit in a living condition. In order to do it, I have to exercise my spirit in order to preserve my spirit. 

(Jer 15:16) Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The
gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God
of hosts.

I also need to exercise my soul to be filled with Him. I can contact the Word and muse upon Him. This will create a way for Him to permeate my soul. Then I will find joy in Him and my soul will be able to praise Him and worship Him.

(1 Thes 4:4) That each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and
honor,

I also need to exercise to live a holy life for the church life. Sometimes, I am quite careless in taking care of my physical environment, and I might be defiled by many things passively instead of exercising myself to run away from the worldly things. Then this can affect the enjoyment of the Lord in my soul and even stop me exercising my spirit to touch the Lord. 

So, it's a good reminder to me again. The Lord is faithful to sanctify us, and this is also His heart's desire to do so. But without my cooperation, whatever He tries to do in me will be in vain. I shouldn't be passive in preserving myself but to be proactive and exercise my entire being to live a life that can let the Lord sanctify us wholly. 

The place where God intends to lead His people to enter into

This message is such a good reminder to me. As a genuine child of God, I certainly have experienced the altar and the laver- believing into Christ as my Passover Lamb and me being washed and cleaned by the work of the Spirit. However, this message clearly shows that in order to further our experience of the Lord, we need to first differentiate the experience in the Holy Place and the experience in the Holy of Holies. The experience in the Holy Place is necessary for us, but it is not a place that we should be content with and linger on all the time. The goal is to enter into the Holy of Holies and experience Christ directly in a hidden way. This can be illustrated by the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan. 

God is merciful. After leading the children of Israel out from Egypt into the wilderness, He provided manna and living water to satisfy them (1Cor. 10:1-4). However, God's mercy to satisfy them with the food and water in the wilderness did not justify the children of Isreal. Their experience to enjoy God's supply was a wonderful thing which showed God's wondrous deeds and tender care, yet that was still not God's goal towards His people. 1Cor. 10:5 says, "But with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn along in the wilderness." This indicates that the children of Isreal's lingering in the wilderness did not satisfy God. He had purposed somewhere higher and better, Canaan, for His people to enter into rest (Hebrews 4). For we believers, we are encouraged to long for solid food to grow unto maturity (Heb. 5:13-14) and enter into the veil, the Holy of Holies, to be partakers of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4; 19-20). This corresponds to Paul's entreaty for the Corinthian believers not be soulish men but to be spiritual men in order to truly know things of God (1Cor. 2:11-15).  

One sentence in the message struck me. We might enjoy "something of Christ, but not Christ Himself". Oh Lord, I repent. May I not be content with something of Christ or even be proud of having something of Christ. May You empty me daily and increase my hunger and appetite for You so I would long for entering into the Holy of Holies continuously and enjoy the hidden portion of Christ that is not known by everybody but only me. May this knowing be my cooperation with You to satisfy Your heart's desire and Your purpose in me and in Your people. 

(Prophecy on "The economy of God- Chapter 19")

1991 Memorial Day Conference -2

This message can be referred to chapter four of the book "The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord's Move" and titled "The way to spread the Lord's recovery in the countries of Europe". 

Several points that remind me. 

1. Study the truth "what is God's ordained way"? Intensified study of the life-study as our responsibility is to teach the high gospel. 

2. Remind me of why I came here. 

We are not doing a work, or participating in a movement. We have to go to Europe by emigration. Just a portion below reminds me of why I am here. Although I do think it's the time that I can make myself graduate now. Also, as brother Lee mentioned that the full-timers will serve in poverty. It reminds me that I want to take a job and support the full-timers. Lord, as I note down this, remind me always and help me find a job in Europe for your economy. Even there will be more families to serve You together. 

Some Emigrating There
to Study in a School and Serve the Lord

Some can emigrate there to study in a school and serve the Lord. I would recommend that some go there to be “professional students.” In other words, those who go to school should plan on remaining in school for the Lord’s work on the campuses. The longer they stay in school, the better it is. This is because they can spend their time contacting the students for the Lord’s interest. I hope that many young people among us would go to the universities in Europe to be professional students teaching the divine truths. It is glorious and worthwhile to be such a student, contacting other students daily with the Lord’s truths. I believe that some students who go to Europe can bear new fruit monthly like the tree of life in the New Jerusalem. (Ministry portion from the chapter) 

3. We must have a change. 

The longer I remain in Europe, sometimes I just lose the burning and vision to follow the Lord. I might just be habitual and feeling comfortable with my life. I am reminded to have a change. We must have a change. Lord, have mercy on me. A term that occurs to me is "being properly aggressive". People in this world, if they want to succeed, they need to work hard to achieve that goal. We Christians, although depending on the Lord, should still have such an attitude towards the particular goal. May the Lord gain many of us at the end time of this age. 

4. Pray to save sinners. 

Prayers work the best to save sinners. 

5. Learn to be pure and faithful. 

The Lord surely will take care of us in His way. Oh Lord, I want to joint to the church for "the goal". 

1991 Memorial Day Conference -1

This message can be referred to chapter four of the book "The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord's Move" and titled "Our responsibility for the spreading of the divine truths especially to the crucial parts of the world".

The influential factors for the world situation:
1) The United States takes the lead in finance, politics, and the military
2) Europe cooperates in finance, politics, and the military
3) the Far East cooperates mainly in finance.

Our responsibility:

Is to teach the Bible. It requires us to understand the Bible and explain the Bible in an understood way. 

European Young Adults (EYA) Thursday fellowship - April 23rd

Br. Reggie Favors:

What is "fellowship"? 
The divine flow of the Triune God. 

It is the fellowship that brings us into the experience of the Triune God.

The secret of the epistles of John and even the gospel written by God, the theme is LOVE. This is because of the mingling with the Lord and thus LOVE becomes a theme, and it is love that makes us open to Him and willingness for participating in the fellowship.

The interwoven fellowship 
- Vertical (2Cor): the Holy Spirit - we need to learn how to enter into this divine fellowship (also, we have the position to enjoy this fellowship but in our practical experience, we need to practise enjoying and entering in this fellowship. Thus, we need to practise setting apart some time to the Lord, and open to the Lord in His Word in simple prayers).

1. Open our ears:
Our ears need to be cleansed from the voices outside, and because His voice is very gentle and small, we need to practise learning to hear His Word via His Word.

2. Eyes be opened:
To experience His unsearchable riches.

- Horizontal
When we enjoy the vertical fellowship, we will desire to have the horizontal fellowship. Sometimes in our experience, we might feel that the heavens are shut and we feel nothing. When we touch the flowing in this divine life, we experience the attributes in this divine life. This divine fellowship will lead us to touch light, love, and various aspects of Christ. The light shows us who Christ is, but at the same time, the light exposes us what we are and how much we need the Lord's portion for us to be cleansed in order to maintain the fellowship.

Therefore, if we want to experience the horizontal fellowship, we need to enjoy the fellowship in the light (if you walk in the light, you have fellowship with one another).
*BUT we are not looking to ourselves which cause us to be depressed and discouraged. Instead, it will help us to enjoy more fellowship vertically and horizontally. 

This divine fellowship will eventually bring us into the reality of the Body of Christ.

Let us sing for joy to Jehovah

Thanks to the menstrual cycle and PMS, I often feel weak for one week or two and come to life afterwards. When you have a weak physical body, it is always not easy to achieve whatever you intend to do. Some work has been piled up during this time. Even when I start feeling better, I can feel overwhelmed just by thinking of all the work before me that needs to be dealt with. 

It is, however, a comfort that when I read many of God's workers in history have had some physical limitations. Many times we might think why the Lord doesn't give us a super healthy body so we can do this and that and to glorify God. We don't ask for a weak body to be seen as a spiritual person, but we do have many "problems" and "thorns" in our daily human life. And this morning, I read Psalm 95. 

verse 1-3: Come, let us sing for joy to Jehovah; Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us make a joyful noise to Him with psalms. For Jehovah is a great God And a great King above all gods. 

The Lord has put limitations to many of us, yet it should not stop us praising God. I am still learning to work and live by the Lord's mercy and grace without feeling much stress so I can faithfully carry out my daily work. And while I feel weak and helpless with many limitations, dear Lord, may You be much closer and dearer to me. 

His name is great in Israel

"God is known in Judah, His name is great in Israel". (Psalm 76:1)

After several months since the last post, surprisingly, or not surprisingly, the suffering has never ceased. I found it funny. Yet when I read this verse this morning, I repented. Lord, may Your name be great among Your people, even during the sufferings.