Bible Study With Jairus

Bible Study with Jairus – Leviticus 27

Bible Study with Jairus – Leviticus 27

 

Chapter 27 is the last chapter of the book of Leviticus.  It talks about Jehovah giving Moses the laws concerning people's vows and dedications.  The value that is set on each person when one makes a vow is not the same.  A male has a higher value than a female, older people and children have a lower value (verses 1-8).  If a man has already dedicated himself to the Lord, he must not exchange or substitute it.  Although the animal and house that he dedicated can be redeemed, a fifth must be added to its value (verses 9-15).  If a man who dedicates a field wishes to redeem it, he must add a fifth to its value.  If he does not redeem the field, it can never be redeemed (verses 16-25).  An animal's firstborn must not be dedicated; he may repurchase the unclean animal after adding a fifth of the value to it.  If he does not redeem it, it will be sold at its set value (verses 26-27).  But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the Lord may be redeemed (verse 28).  No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed (verse 29).  A tithe of everything from the land belongs to the Lord.  If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it (verses 30-31).

 

Leviticus 27:32-33 says,

 

³² Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod—will be holy to the Lord. ³³ No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.'" (NIV)

 

The last verse says, "These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites" (NIV, Leviticus 27:34)

 

One Christian who shared at the beginning of this meeting didn't understand what verses 32-33 meant.  Why couldn't they pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution?  And if anyone did make a substitution, the animal and substitute became holy and couldn't be redeemed?

 

Although we have briefly outlined what Leviticus 27 is talking about, when people read the Bible, they often get confused and don't understand what they are reading.  Is this your experience when you read the Bible?  I remember reading a survey about Christians reading the Bible.  The first reason why Christians don't read the Bible is not that they are lazy, but rather because they don't understand it.  Sometimes after reading the Bible, they don't know what it is saying or how it applies to their lives.

 

If you have finished reading this chapter of the Bible, what do you think it's talking about?  I often say that our understanding of the Bible can limit the growth of our spiritual life.  For example, how can a person who doesn't understand the Bible or doesn't usually read the Bible be changed by the Word of God?  The spiritual growth of new believers is subject to the limitation of their knowledge of the Word of God.  

On the other hand, a person can thoroughly read the Bible from cover to cover and only see it as words on a page rather than a living word.  They don't possess the spiritual experience of the Bible and have a limited understanding.

 

The Chinese are very wise in this area.  Although Chinese people don’t have a long history of studying the bible, they have a lot of experience understanding the world.  For example, the Chinese say that a person can only better understand the world and become a useful person if he/she "travels ten thousand miles and reads ten thousand books."  This is a very philosophical statement.

 

"Reading ten thousand books" is like the first example of when we read the Bible.  We need to read more about the Bible and various spiritual works.  We must also listen to other pastors' teachings to help us understand the Bible and glean as much spiritual knowledge as possible.

 

"Traveling ten thousand miles" is like a Christian who regards prayer as essential and who enjoys pursuing spiritual truths.  Through the Holy Spirit working in him and his circumstances, he learns how to deal with the flesh, control his mind, live in the spirit, and become deeply rooted in the Lord.

 

The two are inseparable and complement each other.  Of course, I advocate reading the Bible more and reading it every day.  I was saved in the Local Church movement and was taught to read three chapters in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New Testament every day.  We can read through the whole Bible this way in a year.  I still insist on doing this every day. Every morning, I read three chapters in the Old Testament and one chapter in the New Testament, and I find a verse that moves me.  I use this verse to practice pray-reading, which is meditation during lunch break.  It has been very beneficial to me.  In addition to attending the meetings in the Local Church, I diligently read the spiritual works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.  When the Lord led me to Pentecostal and Prophetic churches to learn the truths of others, I eagerly read a lot of books about them.

 

On the other side, through the circumstances that the Lord had prepared for me, I have learned to accept God's dealings, and I have slowly experienced that the desires of my flesh have died or are dying.  I have gradually grown in my spiritual life, and the many spiritual experiences and dreams given to me by the Lord have deepened my understanding of the Bible.

 

Therefore, in our meeting this week, I explained Leviticus 27 from the perspective of my personal spiritual experience.  To a certain extent, it has helped our Bible study members studying this chapter to understand better what the chapter is talking about.

 

Leviticus includes many of the laws or covenants that Jehovah gave to Moses.  Leviticus is known as the book of the covenant.  It is the book of the covenant between God and man. What is the covenant between God and man?  Whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, God compares Himself to a husband and the Israelites as His wife, or the Lord Jesus as the bridegroom, and the church is His bride. The covenant between God and man is a marriage contract.

 

We all know that when Americans get married, there is a ceremony. When the minister officiating the wedding asks the bride if she is willing to marry the groom, she will respond with the words, "I do."  This "I do" is the most crucial sentence and the climax or end of this wedding. If the bride says, "I do," basically this ceremony is a success.  If the bride says "I don't," like the movie "Runaway Bride" or the "The Graduate,” it would be terrible.

 

Similarly, as in the book of the covenant, Leviticus ends with the Israelites saying, "I do."  This is the specific regulation that the Lord established in this chapter after He blessed the Israelites and cursed them for their rebellion against Him in Leviticus 26.  These regulations mean that people are willing to dedicate themselves to God.

 

There are two great forces in the world.  The first is the power of God's destiny or election for your life.  He has a pre-written plan for your life.  Even if you are stubborn like Jacob or rebel like the prodigal son of Luke 15, God can save you. The second most incredible power is dedication.  If people are willing to dedicate themselves to God, they will then become a great channel of blessing in God's hands, which will bring blessings to countless people.  Such examples are innumerable in the Bible - Abraham, Samuel, Mary (the mother of the Lord Jesus), etc.  When they dedicated themselves, it changed the universe.

 

Abraham was called righteous when he offered his son Isaac to God.  Hannah dedicated Samuel to God, which transformed an era.  Mary, the Lord Jesus's mother, dedicated herself to God, bringing in the birth of the Savior of mankind.  Their dedication changed the world.

 

When the Lord Jesus was about to be crucified, Mary poured a bottle of perfume to anoint His feet.  When the disciples objected, the Lord Jesus told them that this woman's sacrificial anointing should also be preached wherever this gospel was preached throughout the world.  Jesus valued this woman's sacrifice and wanted her honored by making sure she was mentioned in the gospel message of his sacrifice for us.

 

Leviticus 27 is about the power of people's dedication.  This is closely related to Leviticus 26. Chapter 26 talks about how the Israelites rebelled against God and how they were punished. Chapter 27 revealed how the Israelites could overcome their sins and their own weaknesses, such as rebelling against God and idolatry.  The answer to this is to give God authority or dedicate our lives to God and let him work in us and help us.

 

Let me give you an example of what this means.  Genesis 12:7 records that Abraham built an altar after the Lord appeared to him.  Then in verse 8, it says that he built another altar on the east of Bethel, where he called on the name of the Lord.  In the Old Testament, we know that the altar represents one's dedication because the altar is used to put the sacrifices and offerings (animals) on it.  Calling on the name of the Lord is an act of spiritual dedication and worship.  Because the Lord Jesus said, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." (John 4:24, NIV).

 

After this, something terrible happened.  Abraham gradually went south, leaving the altar he had built for the Lord.  In the end, he experienced a famine.  Remember that the Bible doesn't say that "Abraham moved south after the famine occurred," but "the famine occurred after he moved south."  In other words, famine was a trial from God.  It was reminding Abraham to return to the altar.  But Abraham didn't obey and continued to travel south to Egypt.  In Egypt, He lied to Pharaoh about his wife Sarah, saying she was his sister, leading Pharaoh to almost have an immoral relationship with her.  Of course, after God intervened and struck Pharaoh, he saved Abraham and Sarah.  This matter is considered a weakness or a failure in Abraham's spiritual experience.  It is similar to the Israelites who rebelled against God in Leviticus 26, which we mentioned earlier.  Of course, God blessed Abraham this time.  In Genesis 13:3-4, it states that Abraham returned to Bethel after this incident, where he had previously built an altar for the Lord.  There Abraham had called again on the name of the Lord.

 

Compared to the first time when he built the altars, his understanding of the name of the Lord had deepened. Why? He had experienced his own failure, as well as the salvation and faithfulness of the Lord.  He experienced his own weakness, unbelief, and Jehovah's unchanging promise.

 

I experienced something similar to this when I was a child.  As kids, we often went swimming in the river.  There was an older boy who usually accompanied us.  One day, a younger child would have drowned but was rescued by the older boy.  The rescued child held the older boy’s hand and repeatedly shouted his name because he knew that he saved his life.  The older boy’s name was something to look up to and esteem, unlike before the incident.

 

Similarly, after Abraham experienced failure in Egypt, he returned to the place where he built the altar.  There he called on the name of the Lord again.  The meaning of the name of the Lord was different for him.  His understanding of the Lord's name became deeper because he had experienced the Lord's safeguard and care for him in Egypt.  Although he was not faithful, God was still faithful.

 

Why did the Lord help Abraham even though he failed?  The secret here is that the two previous altars Abraham built were his dedication to God.  When Abraham dedicated himself to God, although he experienced failure later, the power of dedication enabled him to overcome his own weakness and failure.  When we dedicate ourselves to God, the authority no longer belongs to us.  Instead, it belongs to God.  If I dedicate my life to Him and God still allows me to fail, then my failure isn't only mine, but also His.  God will surely guard us, allowing us to overcome the trials in our life.  Every time I think about this, it makes me happy, especially when facing trials.  I am confident that God will guard me because otherwise, my failure will shame not only me but also Him.

 

Abraham's dedication to God came before his failure, not after.  It was because of this that his dedication was of more value amid failure.  So why did Abraham dedicate himself?  It's because the Lord chose him, or possibly it was a response to the Lord's repeated appearances to him.  As I said before, God's destiny or election is the greatest power in the universe.  But our dedication also has a lot of power, and it is a response to God's destiny for us.

 

When Mary broke the alabaster jar and poured the perfume to anoint the Lord, the Lord accepted her dedication.  Similarly, in the Old Testament, God hated Esau.  But the reason for Him loving Jacob was because Esau did not make the right dedication when responding to God's election.  Esau only paid attention to his flesh.  But Jacob was longing for the inheritance rights as the firstborn; therefore, he could please God.  Abel's offering pleased God, but Cain's offering didn't.

 

God's election and dedication is a dynamic and dialectical relationship.  God elects the best, so don't ask whether his election or destiny for a person is right or wrong, good or bad.  Once God has elected a person, others can't evaluate the good or bad of His election.  The lady at the beginning was disturbed by this statement.  She mentioned that she did not understand what verses 32-33 meant.  Why is it that no one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution?  And if anyone does make a substitution, the animal and substitute must become holy and cannot be redeemed?  Also, why is it that God commanded every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod be offered and be holy to Him?

 

Doesn't this seem this unreasonable?  Who will God choose in His election?  Only one person will be elected for every ten people.  What if His election is wrong?  She said with emotion, "This seems to be accidental and also inevitable because God hides the inevitability in chance." Yes. God, who knows the heart, arranges the boundaries of all things and people, so God can't be wrong.  She still didn't understand the reason why God would not let anyone pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution.  Later, under the wonderful leading of the Holy Spirit, we talked about her child and her experience of the Lord dealing with her ways of educating her child.

 

She said that her child has a talent for art but is mediocre in other subjects. Her child is not a straight A or a well-rounded student.  This mother has been a straight-A student ever since she was little.  Therefore, when she teaches her child, she gets frustrated because she finds that her child doesn't live up to her standards.  Through God's help, she eventually realized that her child was given to her by the Lord to help mature her.  In the end, she was very grateful.  She changed her approach to educating her child. She no longer asked her child to meet her standards.  Instead, she learned to dedicate her child to God and teach the child according to God's election and preparation.

 

What this mother experienced is not unusual.  Many parents of Chinese families will face this problem.  Our children may not have the same structural foundation as ours.  Therefore, we often try to mold and make our children according to our image, and the result may suppress the child's nature.

 

My situation is like this mother's child.  Since I was young, I was a daydreamer and not very good at math.  When I was in high school, I ranked first in literature, history, and other subjects. But I ranked last in mathematics.  Therefore my total score wasn't very good.  My sister happened to be my teacher in high school.  Because my overall score was not good, she was ashamed of me.  She often burst into tears and even wrote a 10+ page letter to persuade me to study hard.  I am only good at certain subjects.  My mother doesn't have a high level of education.  To a certain extent, my sister played a role in educating me.  I still remember the tears that she shed for me.

 

This mother needed to focus on the child's strengths knowing that God always sees the good and has a purpose and destiny unique to each individual.  The problem is that people can't accept it and end up having doubts. But when this woman tried to replace God's election by her own efforts by molding the child into someone she likes, she was bypassing what God wanted the child to be.  In the end, her way was impossible, and she realized that she needed to not only dedicate her child to the Lord but herself as well.  This, in turn, made God's election or destiny and her substitute holy.

 

I mentioned my experience because I also want to talk about this.  I was born in a rural area, and I failed a lot when I was growing up.  My educational foundation wasn't very good, plus, as I said earlier, I'm only good at certain subjects, which resulted in me having to take the college admission test three times to pass.  Plus, I experienced a lot of failures over the years.  When I was first saved, I was defeated and felt utterly worthless.  Later, in 2004, the Lord appeared to me.  He asked me to dedicate myself to Him.  After struggling, I dedicated my life to Him.  In a previous study, I mentioned that I was saved in 2002, and in 2004 the Holy Spirit inspired me to attend a special meeting where they encouraged everyone to dedicate themselves to the Lord. I didn't want to, but the Lord urged me through the Christians at that meeting.  I prayed and said in the evening, "If Jesus reveals the truth about His second coming to me, I will dedicate myself to Him."  At that time, I was still in doubt whether the Lord Jesus would really come again.  I dreamed that night that two people were fighting for my heart.  One man was stronger, and he won.  I think that was the Lord.  The next day, I dedicated myself to Him.

 

Later, I prayed and dedicated my marriage to Him.  In 2006, my wife and I met each other in the church and got married. But after marrying, we experienced a lot of tough times. We experienced a lot of struggles financially and emotionally.  These hardships once again knocked me down.  In 2008, I hit rock bottom.  I didn't have a job, and I lost my work permit.  Money was scarce, and I saw no future for myself.  This situation caused more arguments with my wife. She said, "Look, you can't earn money, you don't have a green card, and you don't care about me."  These hurtful accusations from my wife caused me to have a breakdown.

 

At that time, I was serving in the church.  We went to Plano, Texas to attend a special meeting. Because of my service and some other things, my wife and I argued again.  Her words made me feel like I was a loser.  I walked down the street in Plano until the early morning before returning to my host family.  I felt very depressed. The next day, the brother who was serving in the church said, "If God can get 50 people who will fully dedicate themselves to Him today, He can change the world through them."  He called those people who were willing to dedicate themselves to God to stand up.  I had nothing at the time, but I was willing to stand up and dedicate myself to God.  Unexpectedly, after this, the members of my church discovered that I had changed a lot.  A man in our congregation recognized that I had the gift of being able to express people's thoughts.  I often spoke out even before they started to share their thoughts.  I also had discovered that the Holy Spirit had baptized me at that meeting and helped me understand the Bible.

 

I gradually began to learn to lead a Bible study group.  On the one hand, my wife was surprised that God often spoke through me.  On the other hand, she also curiously asked: "Why you?"  In this way, I continued to grow up in the spirit of God's grace.  But I still couldn't overcome the shadow brought by my past failures.  I often felt that I couldn't complete God's call for my life because I felt inadequate.  I said to God many times, "I know that you have a call on me, but I really can't accept this call because I am not wise enough.  I have made so many mistakes, and I have a lot of character flaws."  And I often heard the voice of the enemy saying, "you don't deserve to be elevated by God." "You have a lot of shortcomings, and you're stupid."  If you serve God on a larger scale, not only will you not bring glory to God, you may also bring a lot of shame to Him."  Of course, I recognized that this was the voice of the enemy, but because what he said made sense, and he often reminded me of my weakness, it was disconcerting.  I had been struggling with this pain for years.  Until one day, I read the story of how D.L. Moody dedicated himself to God.

 

Due to low educational attainment, Moody became a shoemaker in his early life.  When he found out that he had a calling from God, he struggled between the conflict of his low level of education and the greatness of God's calling.  He was very insecure about his low education level and didn't know whether he should accept God's call.  One day, a preacher from the United Kingdom said, "The world is yet to see how God can use and will use a person who is absolutely consecrated to God to change the world."  This statement greatly encouraged Moody because there was no mention of a person without high educational attainment who could not be used by God.  I was also greatly encouraged and dedicated myself wholly to the Lord.  I entrusted my "lack of wisdom" to Him and trusted His leading.  I just followed His leading and dedicated myself to Him again.  These experiences are just like Abraham's repeated experience of building the altars, and each dedication was more profound than the last one.

 

The trials that I encountered didn't end.  In 2010 I found out that we couldn't have children.  We had been married for ten years before God showed up and miraculously healed us and blessed us with a baby girl in 2017.  During this trial, my wife and I experienced countless arguments and tears.  The circumstances forced me to further die to myself.  I was driven into a corner.  I remember once, I could hardly keep going.  I said to the Lord while I was walking, "If You don't give me strength now, I can't keep going.  I will fail and fall.  I might bring shame to your name."  As I finished praying, I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit was like an electric current.  It baptized me from head to toe.  I immediately got the strength in God's grace.  I was then able to overcome my weakness and keep going.

 

Looking back at these experiences, although I can't go into detail, I found a pattern.  Once we dedicate ourselves to the Lord and give our authority to Him, He will surely keep us from falling. As it says in Psalm 91:11-12 (NIV), "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."  Although this verse is widely known because Satan quoted it to put the Lord Jesus to the test, it applies not only to Jesus but also to "whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High" (Psalm 91:1, NIV).

 

In addition to the power of God's destiny or election, dedication is the greatest force in the world.  Psalm 110:3 says, "Your troops will be willing on your day of battle.  Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning's womb." (NIV)

 

If we are willing to dedicate ourselves to God, God can do wonderful things and change the world through us.  Often, the church cannot change the world because it is full of people who haven't dedicated themselves to God.  If all Christians would dedicate themselves to God now, I believe that God will accomplish his will soon.

 

We might think that it's only necessary to dedicate ourselves to the Lord when we have reached a place of importance, like the man given five talents in the Bible.  That is wrong thinking.  We need to dedicate ourselves while we only have one talent, and it will grow to five. The Lord Jesus said, "For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them." (Matthew 25:29, NIV). The more you dedicate yourself to the Lord, the more God will expand the gifts and measure in you.  Of course, the Lord also said, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48, NIV).

 

At the beginning of Leviticus 27, everyone's value before God was different.  The value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty was fifty shekels, and the value of a female of the same age bracket was thirty shekels.  For a person between the ages of five and twenty, the value of a male was twenty shekels, and the woman was ten shekels.  For a person between one month and five years, the value of a male was five shekels, and the value of a female was three shekels.  Infants less than one month of age were not counted.  The value of a male sixty years old or more was fifteen shekels, and the value of a female sixty years old or more was ten shekels.  This is a valuation.  It is a ballpark figure.  Just like the US property values. If your county calculates your house price and gives you a figure, and you disagree, you can file an appeal.  The same is true here.  If you feel that you're not worth the money or if you can't afford this valuation, you can argue with the priest and reassess your value according to the ability that you wish.

 

To give people a chance to visit, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States provides a "you name the price" in addition to the recommended fare.  I tried it once.  I paid the full price, and I paid one dollar for my friends from China, which they had gladly accepted.  The same is true of Jehovah's command to Moses.  God is willing to give everyone the opportunity to dedicate themselves to Him.  Although He gives everyone a suggested price, people still have the freedom to choose a price that they think is appropriate to them.  So with regards to dedicating to God, you have no reason to say that you are not qualified.  This is why Jesus was so angry about the person who buried his one talent.

 

As we said in the beginning, Leviticus 27:32 (NIV) says that no one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution on every tithe of the herd and flock that the Lord chooses.  If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.  This is a special case because it talks about the fact that God's election's authority cannot be denied.  Verse 26 also says that no one may dedicate the firstborn of an animal since the firstborn already belongs to the Lord.

 

But when it came to people's volunteer dedication, it involved a variety of factors.  For example, if you dedicated animals, house, and field, they could not be replaced, but they could be redeemed.  But the price of the redemption was the value set by the priest plus one-fifth of the value.  And unclean animals coudn’t be dedicated.  They must be redeemed, and a fifth must be added to its value.  If you didn’t redeem it, you’d have to sell it.  What does this mean?  This means that you need to pay the price when you dedicate yourself to the Lord.  What I said is true.  A person who totally dedicates themselves to the Lord understands the personal price that must be paid.  This is also true for a person called by God.  For example, why did Moses struggle so hard when God called him to dedicate his life to Him?  You need to pay a high price when you accept God's calling and when you dedicate to Him.  Sometimes, we don't understand what it will cost us.

 

Luke 9:57-58 (NIV) says: a man said to the Lord, "I will follow you wherever you go."  But Jesus said to him, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."  This sentence was to remind this person that although he said that he would follow the Lord at any cost,  he would endure hardships and pay a high price.  Peter said boastfully to the Lord, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." (Matthew 26:33, NIV).  But the Lord told Peter, "before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." (Matthew 26:34, NIV).

 

In the next verses, Luke 9:59-60 (NIV), the Lord asked another man to follow him, but the man said, "I would first bury my father.”  The Lord Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  This person's heart towards the world was dead but was not completely cut off.  The Lord then helped him to overcome the world.  In Luke 9:61 (NIV), another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family."  Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62, NIV)

 

Look at the three examples above.  In the first and third example, they took the initiative to dedicate.  The Lord tells them the value of their dedication and the price they'll pay. But the second example is that the Lord Jesus called the man to dedicate.  Although the man bargained, the Lord did not permit him to negotiate.  This shows that the Lord's authority is something that people cannot resist.  I remember Watchman Nee made the statement: "God only used soldiers recruited by conscription.  He does not use enlisted soldiers."  In other words, when God uses certain vessels to perform specific tasks, He made the choice.  It's not just people volunteering themselves.  Of course, if people are willing to dedicate themselves, then God will often remind them of the price they have to pay so that they won't regret it.  Because God is a great God, He never forces or manipulates people to dedicate themselves.  Instead, He asks them to think clearly about the price they'll pay.

 

 I heard a story that touched my heart and still moves me every time I hear it.  There was a Chinese Christian man who was arrested and sent to prison by the police.  He could face years in jail, so he was reluctant to go.  He looked back at his wife and young children as he walked. The wife was also a Christian.  She didn't cry but instead, she told him, "Just go.  No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."  She told him not to worry about her and their children and not worry about the price he had to pay.  No doubt, the price he had to pay was high.  But if he wasn't willing to dedicate himself to God, he would not only lose the blessings on earth but also lose the rewards in heaven.  This woman was strong spiritually.  She raised her children on her own with help from her church while her husband remained in jail for many years.  This is a true story told to me by a Chinese Christian that I know.  It's a story of dedication.  China will have a great spiritual revival in the future, but these people are all pathbreakers.  Undoubtedly, without their dedication and sacrifice, only a few people would be saved, and God's work in China wouldn't go forward.  I believe that they will indeed receive rewards in the Kingdom of God in the future.

 

Leviticus 27:28 (NIV) says that nothing a person owns and devotes to the LORD may be redeemed.  Once a person dedicates himself, whether a human being, animal, or family land, it cannot be sold or redeemed.  Everything devoted is most holy to the LORD.  But if you dedicated a field that was not eternally devoted, there are two options.  One was to dedicate your family's land.  This was okay because it wasn’t an eternal dedication.  The price was based on the years left until the next Year of Jubilee.  But if he does not redeem the field or has sold it to someone else, it could never be redeemed.  In the year of Jubilee, the buyer must sell the land. The land would not be given to him.  It's like the field devoted to the Lord; it would become His property and the property of the priests.  The second option was if a man dedicated to the Lord a field he bought, which was not part of his family land, the field would revert to the person from whom he purchased it in the year of Jubilee.  Don’t these two seem contradictory to the verse earlier? The earlier verse said if I sold the field to someone else, it could never be redeemed.  But in the latter verse, it said that the buyer would revert the field to the person from whom he bought it.

 

Actually, it is not contradictory.  There is a constant dedication process here.  When we are sinners, it is like selling the field (which represents our inheritance), and when it is Jubilee, the field must be returned to us.  Ephesians 4:8 says that the Lord Jesus' led captive those taken captive."  This means plucking us from the hands of the enemy and offering us as a sacrifice to God in the ascension of Christ.  The Lord Jesus came to preach our Jubilee.  We, who were bound by sin and didn't know God or the glorious inheritance that we were called into,  will be released by God in the year of Jubilee.  We were also offered as a sacrifice to God by Christ.  Paul mentioned this in 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV), "For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."  This is  the first stage of the experience, meaning once we are saved, God will "rescue us from the dominion of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of the Son he loves" (Colossians 1:13).  Whether it is Christ, Paul, or other preachers who helped us receive salvation, we are their sacrifices or offerings to God.

 

But are we willing to dedicate ourselves to God as a sacrifice?  This is the further experience in Romans 12.  Paul even said in Romans 12:1 that we should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Since we are all saved and brought into the kingdom of the Son he loves, why should we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice?  This is a deeper dedication. But it's not necessarily an eternal dedication.

 

Exodus 21:1-6 (NIV) records that if you buy a Hebrew slave, he must serve you for six years, and he shall go free in the seventh year.  But if he marries his wife given by the master and gives birth to a child while he was a slave, and declares that he does not want to go free because he loved his master and his wife and children, the master will pierce his ear with an awl.  Then he will be his servant for life.  This is an eternal dedication.  God gives people the free will to redeem before a person eternally devotes himself.  To provide a simple example, the Mormon Church encourages young people to dedicate two years of their lives to their missionary program, which involves preaching the gospel in various places.  This involves a temporary dedication but is not for eternity.  I went to Dayton, Ohio, a few months ago to participate in intensive learning at a theological seminary.  I took an Uber, and the driver was from a Mormon family.  He told me that his brother had participated in the two-year missionary program, but he did not participate.  The church where I was saved also encourages this.  It encourages many young Christians to dedicate two years of their lives to training and serving the Lord.  After their two years, many return to their professions.  However, many are determined to serve the Lord for life. This is like the eternal dedication here.  Of course, we are using modern examples just to make an analogy.  This is not to say that only full-time preachers totally dedicate themselves to God, and other professions don't.  No matter what profession we are in, we can fully dedicate ourselves to God.

 

Previously we mentioned that if you didn’t redeem the field or sell it to someone else in the year of Jubilee, it could never be redeemed.  It's the same story in Exodus 21.  The redemption price represents paying a high price, which is the price for breaking the contract.  We established a new covenant with God.  The Lord Jesus paid his life as a ransom and redeemed us back to God, giving us a glorious inheritance in Him.  This covenant is extremely important.  Therefore, we must treat this covenant with caution.  The covenant of life between the Lord and us will never be broken, but the personal and ministerial covenant between Him and us is agreed upon by the Lord and us.  The Lord gives us the free will to choose, but once we decide to dedicate to God, we can be free if it is short-term when the agreement is over.  If the agreement is not over, and we break the contract, we need to pay the redemption price.  If, after our initial agreement, we declare that we love the Lord, do not want to be free, and are willing to serve Him forever, then we have made an eternal dedication.  Eternal dedication cannot be redeemed. Of course, if God sovereignly elects someone, such as Peter and John, others cannot say anything to them, either good or bad.  For example, you aren't permitted to say that Peter was only a fisherman, so he wasn't qualified to be the Lord's top disciple.  Peter asked the Lord what would happen to John. The Lord said to Peter, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." (John 21:22, NIV).  Each individual has a unique path lead by the Lord that can't be interfered with by others.

 

I repeat, except for God's election, dedication is the greatest power in the universe.  The reason why the church has no power it is too caught up in the world.  It lacks dedication.  Many Christians aren't truly dedicated to the Lord because their lives are focused on their own desires and lifestyles.  If God's people would individually dedicate and commit their lives as living sacrifices, He could use us to change the world.  The picture of Leviticus 27 should be an inspiration for us to dedicate ourselves more to God.  May the Lord bless you and lead you to dedicate your life to Him.

 

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 22

Bible Study with Jairus - Leviticus 22

Leviticus 22 says that priests must be holy when they are offering sacrifices to the Lord. Those who are not holy can’t offer sacrifices to the Lord, nor can they eat the sacred offerings dedicated to Him.  For example, verses 12-13 says, “If a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions.  But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father’s household as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat it.”  How can we interpret the meaning of these verses?

Our Bible studies are not a word for word explanation of the chapter we are reading because we can’t do this in just one or two hours.  The focus of each of our Bible studies is to follow the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Our fellowship is often closely related to our life and work from the past week.

As we have mentioned many times, our Bible study's goal is to have the Word of God speak to us and change us by giving us a fresh perspective and insight.  Knowledge without being moved by the Spirit means the study wasn’t as effective as it should be.  In other words, we may have understood the words being said, but we didn’t understand the Spirit behind the words. II Corinthians 3:6 tells us, “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  In today’s study, we’ll share the inspirations that the Holy Spirit encouraged us with, and hopefully, it will help you also.

In this week’s meeting, a lady shared an experience that she had recently. She made a negative comment to a colleague.  On the one hand, as a Christian, she felt she shouldn’t have said it.  On the other hand, the Lord showed her that this comment exposed her real spiritual state, which wasn’t very good.  She felt awful about it and couldn’t find any inner peace during prayer.  She brought this situation to our study in hopes of getting help from others.

The members of the study encouraged her not to be too hard on herself and realize that Christians are human beings who say and do things in the flesh.  They encouraged her to confess to God, apologize to the offended person, and receive God’s grace.

The story looks like it has nothing to do with this chapter of the Bible, but it ties into this chapter deeply.  Through experience, we recognize that when members of our study have problems in life or at work, sharing their stories often leads the Holy Spirit to show us how these experiences tie into the chapter we are reading, which helps us to go deeper.  

What makes this woman sad is her lack of intimacy with the Lord.  She’s often with her atheist colleagues who influence the flesh rather than the Spirit.  She also feels bad about her Christian testimony.  On the other hand, she felt like she prayed, and God didn’t listen, so she didn’t have inner peace.

As a Christian who is seeking a deeper inner spiritual life, the feelings she was experiencing are normal.  Nominal Christians or unbelievers may feel like you are causing your own problems.  A principle in the spiritual realm is that the closer we are to the Lord, the more sensitive we are.  The Lord’s expectations are higher for those who are closer to Him.  For example, let’s look at the temple in the Old Testament.  Many ordinary Israelis could come to the outer courtyard to offer cattle and sheep sacrifices, but only the Levites could serve in the Holy Place.  Only people who were descendants of Zadok could serve priests in the Holy Place. The other Levites could not serve as priests (Ezekiel 44:13).  Taking it a step further, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year.

Leviticus chapter 22 is a case where the priest offers sacrifices to God and eats the sacred offerings knowing what to do to avoid defiling himself.  You can’t just casually go inside God’s sanctuary and offer sacrifices. You must be holy.  After being defiled, you need to be cleansed first before you can enter the sanctuary again to offer sacrifices.

This woman’s experience is closely related to what we mentioned earlier in chapter 22:12-13.  These two verses say: “If a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions.  But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father’s household as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat it.”

Deuteronomy 7:6 says, “The Lord your God has chosen the Israelites out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:6, NIV).

They were called to bear witness to the Gentiles and attract the nations to God.  The law required that the Israelites not inter-marry with Gentiles.  This meant that they shouldn’t imitate the degenerated customs of the Gentiles.  But I don’t believe this was asking the Israelites to not associate with the Gentiles. Would that make sense?  It wouldn’t be possible for the Israelites to testify to the Gentiles without forming a relationship with them.

As Christians, we are spiritual Israelites.  We live in the world, just as fish live in the sea.  Although they live in saltwater, they are not salty. If a fish is salty, it is probably dead because it is infused with seawater.  Although Christians live in the world, we do not live according to the system of the world.  We are like the salt on the ground and the light in the city.  We’re the light that illuminates the whole world.  If we conform to the world’s way of living, we lose our ability to influence or salt our environment rendering us useless as a witness for Christ.  Or if we hide our light or Christian testimony, our influence for Christ will be lost.

In Leviticus 22:12-13, if a priest’s daughter married anyone other than a priest, it was like us being conformed to the world and losing our authority.  Romans, chapter 7 likens our carnal nature to the first husband and our new nature in Christ as the second husband.  Paul said that if a husband dies, his wife is no longer bound to that first husband, meaning that when we are born again, and our old nature is crucified with Christ, we are free from the law of sin and death.  Our new born again nature lives by the law of the Spirit in Christ.

Can you see the difference here?  When a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it. (Leviticus 22:10, NIV). But in verse 11, it says that “If a priest buys a slave with money, or if slaves are born in his household, they may eat his food.”

What is the difference?  The difference is whether God and the priest have a dominant position.  If the priest bought a slave or the slave was born in his household, they could eat the sacred offerings.  They represent the people who were reborn and purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.  If you marry a gentile husband, the husband usually has the final say at home. The husband here represents your old man or the Gentiles who don’t believe in God. In this case, you can’t eat the sacred offerings. Why?  You are not strong enough to go against the world's influence and could be carried away by it.

The Israelites were not forbidden to make contact with the Gentiles.  Christians are also not forbidden to make contact with the unbelievers.  Instead, we need to have enough influence to impact them to lead them to God.  God will bless us for making the contacts.  For example, if your atheist friends drag you to the casino, you could be faced with the temptation to gamble, even to the point of bankruptcy.  In this situation, God may not be with you or won’t allow you to go.  If you insist on going, you are on your own.  But if you’re the type of person who is not tempted by gambling, and a good friend of yours is immersed in gambling, God may encourage you to go and help him break free from his addiction. 

The daughter of a priest was married to an outsider. As she fell away from God more and more, she even gave birth to a child and was cut off from eating the sacred offerings to God. We won’t talk about offering sacrifices here because she’s not even qualified to eat the sacred offerings. The qualifications for offering a sacrifice are now higher.  In the Old Testament, only the priests could offer sacrifices.  But in the New Testament, every saved Christian is a spiritual priest.  We can offer sacrifices to God. What is our sacrifice?  Christ is our sacrifice, and we offer sacrifices to God through confession and repentance as David did or through praise and thanksgiving as in Hebrews 13:15.

The Lord Jesus said that He is the bread from heaven, and we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life.  He is our spiritual sacrifice. South African pastor Andrew Murray said that prayer is offering the Christ that is dwelling in us to Christ in heaven, or you can say that prayer is the Christ that is living in us praying to the Christ in heaven.  When we conform ourselves to the world, we are deprived of the right to enjoy the sacrifice.  So, how can we even talk about the sacrifices that we are going to offer to God?

I told the woman who’s story we shared earlier that it was very normal for her to feel weak when she prayed to the Lord and wasn’t able to please Him and have peace.  When a person lives according to the flesh's desires for some time, they lose strength, feel isolated, and cannot enjoy God's sacrifices. This weakness is due to a lack of intimacy with God, and it makes sense that they feel weak and powerless even after praying.  

Another pleasing sacrifice that we have is repentance.  When we repent, God accepts our sacrifices and restores our communication with Him.  Then, we can continue to eat God’s sacrifices and will slowly gain strength and have the ability in prayer to please Him.  So, I shared with this woman that if her prayer doesn’t feel acceptable to God, and she doesn’t have inner peace, it may be that repentance is needed.

We often make mistakes, but when the Spirit of God encourages us to repent, we often give excuses. This was the case with Saul in the Old Testament.  Samuel asked Saul to wait for him to come before offering sacrifices, but Samuel came late, and Saul had offered up a burnt offering because of his fear of the masses.  Samuel was furious and blamed Saul for not waiting for him. Saul argued that the masses would not wait. Samuel spoke a very famous line here. In 1 Samuel 15:22-23, he said, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice,   and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

On the contrary, when David sinned, the prophet Nathan blamed him.  His first reaction was to say that he was wrong. He recognized that he offended God.  David repented and wrote the famous repentance poem, Psalm 51.  He didn’t argue or make excuses.

This woman shared that she was still asking why God didn’t stop her from saying those inappropriate words but instead let her get exposed.  On the one hand, she felt that she wouldn’t have been in that situation if she lived in the Spirit.  On the other hand, she also thinks that the Holy Spirit is keeping watch over her at all times, not allowing her to follow worldly ways, and intervening at the right moment.  Our experience can be like this.  Why, after the priest’s daughter married the outsider, did her husband die, and she was left barren?  This is not an exception.  Naomi’s husband and two sons died in the Gentile land of Moab.  She returned to Israel with her daughter-in-law Ruth and was able to eat the sacred offerings and inherit her husband’s property.  Ruth had a child named Obed by her husband, Boaz.  This child was even considered to be Naomi’s son as Ruth 4:14 says, “The women living there said, Naomi has a son!”  This is God’s discipline in our circumstances.  He wants us to have a share of His sacrifice so certain things are allowed in our lives.  He allows our Husband (which represents our old man or carnal nature) to die for a day so we will return to our father’s house (representing the House of God).  This way, we can continue to enjoy the sacrifice God has given us.

The story of Naomi seems to have little to do with the woman in our study’s situation, but it lines up perfectly by showing us that Christians need to be in the world but not of the world participating in the ungodly affairs going on around us.  We need to be in intimate fellowship with Christ enjoying and delighting in him as the sacrifice given to us by God.  Often when everything is going well in our lives, we haphazardly read the Bible, but hearts are closed and there is no deep revelation of the word.  When life gets difficult, we find that the truths of the Bible come alive and are empowering.

Another person in our meeting had a similar experience.  She had a big fight with her husband.  She felt that she couldn’t keep their marriage going anymore.  After their fight, she was moved by a chapter she read from the book of Job, and hope began to rise inside of her again.

The more we stay away from the Lord, the less we enjoy the sacrifice of God.  But when we are forced to return to our father’s house due to circumstances, we will find that God’s sacrifice is really sweet.

When we finished this topic, another woman asked a question about verses 26-28.

“Chapter 22:26-28 says: The Lord said to Moses, “When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as a food offering presented to the Lord. Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day.”

So why not kill the mother and its young on the same day?

One of the men who took the lead in this bible study said that he saw many discussions on the Internet but didn’t see an explanation that impacted him.

I shared an explanation that I felt was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  I think this verse says that when a person is still living in the flesh or the soul, they are very attached to the world's affairs and don’t need to pretend to be spiritual.

Why?  First of all, God hates hypocrites.  When Jesus was on earth, he hated the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Jesus teaches us that yes is yes and no is no.  If you say more, it’s from the evil one.  In Acts 5, Ananias bought land and donated half of it, but he made a pretense of donating it all.  In the end, he offended the Holy Spirit. Peter said: Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold?  Why do you have to pretend and lie to the Holy Spirit?  Ananias immediately dropped to the floor dead, verifying God’s feelings on hypocrites.

Some of us are living according to the desires of the flesh.  We can liken it to the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt then drifted through the wilderness, unable to enter the Promised Land. God knows that saving a person from Egypt, and watching them journey through the wilderness before entering the Promised Land is a process. We need faith to win the battle, and God’s grace is provided for us throughout the different stages of our journey.

For example, when the Israelites were in Egypt, God appointed Joseph to look after them.  When the new king (who did not know Joseph) took over, God appointed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and leave the wilderness.  After the first generation of the Israelites had fallen in the wilderness due to rebellion and disobedience, God raised Joshua and led them to experience victory and enter the Promised Land. God has different leading in every stage.

If you haven’t reached the next stage of spiritual maturity, God won’t always correct you immediately.  He isn’t pleased when we live in sin or act according to the flesh, but he hates hypocrisy.

I’ll give you another example that may help you understand better.  We know that chicks are hatched from eggs. Eggs have eggshells, egg whites, and egg yolks. A chicks’ life originates from egg yolk, but the eggshell protects the egg. It preserves the chick’s life in the egg.  Egg whites provide nutrition to the developing chick, allowing it to get nutrients to help it hatch.  When the chick matures, it naturally breaks out of the shell.  Eggshells and egg whites represent a mother’s nurture allowing the chick's life to grow and expand.  

Imagine if the eggshell was broken into pieces or if there was no egg white. How could the chick survive?

Paul explicitly mentions in the Bible that we needed to be held in custody under the law when we were young because we needed a guardian.

Galatians 3:23-25 says, “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.“

You can argue that this only refers to the time before the coming of Jesus Christ, but I think the spiritual principle still applies today.

We can liken the guardian's role in the law here to the role of the “mother” in Leviticus 22:26-28.  We are all born from the flesh and have gone through a weaning process, but we can't kill our mother as we are undergoing this process.  In other words, before the new life in our Spirit is mature enough to offer sacrifices to God, we cannot kill our mother. The spiritual meaning here is that before we can live the victorious life in Christ, we still need the “mother” jurisdiction, such as the law and the rules.

There has been a big debate among Christians in recent years, especially for those who have been hurt by legalism.  In the Hyper-Grace Gospel teaching, the role of God’s grace has gone too far, and all laws and regulations seem to be abandoned.  I will not deny that these Christians have been hurt by legalism and dogmatism, but you can’t completely abandon the church's law and rules.  Even the Lord Jesus said that He came not to abolish the law, and not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the Law.  He came to fulfill the law.

For example, I am Chinese.  Before the Chinese accepted the Gospel, Confucius's teachings helped us maintain a clear conscience and morality.  It’s not right to say that all the teachings of Confucius are wrong and must be tossed out.  A Christian needs to be disciplined before he can get freedom in the law of the Spirit in Jesus Christ. He needs to be taught by his parents. He needs to persevere in reading the Bible every day. Unfortunately, many people hang on to legalism's negative effects, thinking they are pursuing freedom by abandoning submission to any authority.  But, in reality, they are entering the stage of rebellion against God. God does give leaders authority, not to rule over His children but to help discipline them to become mature in Him.  We need to be disciplined.

This is the current situation of our society and the church.  Many people are using the banner of Grace against legalism, but they are actually opposing God.  They oppose any rules and laws, saying that they are in pursuit of the freedom of the Holy Spirit. But instead, they are entering a lawless state.  This is one of the greatest difficulties in American churches.  The pastors are afraid to ask the congregation to do anything.  If they ask for more, they may be convicted of legalism. They are fearful of weak believers who easily stumble. Slowly, believers become weaker and more frivolous and undisciplined.

Let’s not have a pretense of spirituality when we are living in sin.  An honest evaluation of our lives is essential not only to us but to God. God is Holy and is not pleased with sin, but an attitude of repentance pleases Him.  An example of this is David’s sin.  Although his sin didn’t please God when he had a repentant heart and soft Spirit, it delighted God.  Saul made fewer mistakes than David, in my opinion, but his resistance to God and his Spirit of pride didn’t please God.

God also knows that we still love the world and the affairs of this world.  In this case, we must be honest and strive to grow more, expanding the life of God in us.  We should learn a lesson from Ananias, who donated half of his property but said he donated all.  If we kept something in reserve, we should be honest about it. If we don’t love God wholeheartedly, we shouldn’t pretend to be sold out to Him.

One of the most significant difficulties of the church today is spiritual pretense or false spirituality.  The churches are now full of this spiritual pretense.  They are clearly sinning but are pretending to be holy priests.  They are doing it for the sake of their own interests but say it’s for the Lord.  This is the most fundamental reason why the church has become weak today.  These situations are like what the previous verses have said: it is impossible to kill the mother and its young on the same day.  Because your life has not yet achieved the state of freedom in the law of the Spirit of Christ, you need the discipline of the Holy Spirit (although not the level of following the law in the Old Testament) to help you grow mature in life.

Can people be self-taught?  Paul blessed Timothy and said, don’t forget where you learned these from (2 Timothy 3:14).  All of us need to learn from other people.  The habit of disrespecting older people in American society and churches does not come from God but is influenced by the world’s rebellious culture.  We must respect the elders in the church and accept their training in spiritual life and spiritual discipline to achieve maturity in life. In a sense, these older men and women are the spiritual fathers and mothers we cannot kill.  If you kill them, and your life is not mature enough, both die the same day.

We can’t completely abandon the elders or abandon the law or rules.  But our goal is not to obey the law, rather, to be more mature in character and life through various disciplines.  In all things, God works for the good of those who love him. (NIV, Romans 8:28).  We shouldn’t treat all difficulties as an attack from evil spirits. We must bear our cross daily to follow the Lord.  These daily difficulties we may experience could be the mother to foster our spiritual life further.  If you disregard these disciplines, “kill” them, ignore them, or attribute them to evil attacks every time, you may miss the chance of being “nurtured” to spiritual maturity.

Our physical and soulish lives provide a shelter for our spiritual lives to grow in, just like how eggshells and egg whites helped the chicken grow.  Likewise, the pain of life living in this world and our souls' agonies are the eggshells and egg whites to supply growth in our spiritual lives.  The pain in our physical or soulish lives will eventually mature our spiritual lives.

In the OT, God mentioned that he would not drive out all the Israelites' enemies in one day, or the beasts in the land would increase dramatically. Rather, God left some enemies in the good land and waited for the Israelites to take them out gradually.  This matches the principle we are talking about here. 

When we are not mature in Spirit, we will often have constant struggles with sin or the world.  You should face them and solve these problems.  But you can’t cover issues up and pretend you don’t have them by just reading the Bible, going to church, or staying busy with Christian service or ministry.

That won’t solve the problem.  You can’t offer a good sacrifice to God since you are not mature yet. You haven’t completed your eight days yet and are not weaned before God.  That is the significance of why Samuel asked Saul to wait for him to offer sacrifices to God because Samuel knew Saul’s offering was not pleasing to God.  So Saul first needed to wait for the prophet who represents God to come.  A Prophet represents God’s message and acceptance. Sacrifices and what a priest does represent something we are offering to God.

We are not discouraging anyone from offering repentance to God as Jesus became our sacrifice. But we are talking about offering our service to the Lord.  Don’t hastily offer your sacrifices like Saul or burn the strange fire like the sons of Aaron.  Instead, we should take care of the issues in our lives first.

If you apply to an American Graduate school, you need to take an entrance test called GRE.  This computer-based test works to give you a set of questions that will change to more difficult questions when answered correctly.  The score you get will be higher as well since these questions are more complicated. But if you didn’t answer the questions correctly, the computer-based test will give you more questions in the same difficulty level. It seems like you are still answering the same amount of questions in the same time period, but your score will be lower since you never answered the more difficult levels correctly.

It’s like the test of obedience and faith for the Israelites in the wilderness.  When they failed again and again, they wandered in the wilderness for their whole lives.  The Bible tells us we are pots made of clay, and the Lord God is the potter.  And a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the permission of our heavenly father.  That means we are put into a furnace to mold us, and all of the circumstances around us can be equated to the furnace molding us.

For example, if you feel a particular temptation of sin in your life, it doesn’t necessarily mean that evil spirits are attacking you.  It could be, but it also means that God is testing you to help you overcome this particular sin.  If you succeed, you may face different obstacles, but your victory over this sin will become your sacrifice or offering to God, and He will be pleased.  Suppose you don’t deal with sin properly, and you think spending more time in prayer, reading the Bible, going to a Bible study, or participating more in ministry will offer better sacrifice to the Lord.  In that case, you are just killing the mother and the baby at the same time.  God isn’t pleased with any of that.

I don’t mean that you shouldn’t read the Bible, go to Bible study, or participate in Christian ministries. I’m saying there is a better way to do that.  Obeying the Lord’s dealing in your circumstances is always a better service than mere spiritual endeavor because it builds character in the inner man.

No wonder many Christians haven’t achieved much spiritual growth after many years of struggle.  It is simply because they overlooked God’s dealing in the womb of the mother, whether this is a difficult husband/wife or a mean boss.  They often try to escape God’s plan and do things their way.  We must learn from Saul and his failure.  We also must learn from Cain and his failures.  Sometimes we need to wait for God’s timing, and we should not be hasty to make the sacrifice.  We also need to know that God is delightful and offer the right sacrifices; otherwise, we may miss the opportunities and displease God.

This is my explanation of what it means to not kill the mother and its young on the same day.  It means you shouldn’t hurry to offer the young, which represents your spiritual sacrifices to the Lord, while the Lord intends you to stay in the womb of the mother longer to make you more mature.

 

 

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 28

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 28

Acts 28 includes two stories.  The first story is about Paul staying on the island of Malta for three months and then leaving there after the winter to go to Rome.  On this island, he supernaturally prevailed against the attack of the viper.  He also healed the father of the chief official of the island and other sick people.   We don’t understand why Paul lived on this island for three months but didn’t record much of his ministry there.  For example, if we are talking about healing people on the island, Paul would be able to lay hands on them and heal them in just a few days.  Since Paul was a prisoner, he probably did not have the tools to weave tents as he always did in his profession.  While in Malta, did Paul preach the gospel and teach the natives about the Bible?  Since details aren’t given, we don’t’ know exactly what he did for those three months.

Three months is a long time.  If Paul’s daily life was recorded daily in a diary, it could have been as thick as the Bible.  The Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold.  It is the Christian’s instruction manual for life.  Though details may be left out, we can be sure that those details were not significant for the future of the church.  Verse 11 tells us that they had wintered on the island for three months before setting sail on the Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.  The details mentioned in this passage are significant, which is why they were included in the Bible. For example, Castor and Pollux are Greek gods, indicating that ships from Alexandria, Egypt (under the jurisdiction of Ancient Greece) were going to and from Malta.  The Greek crew members wintered in Malta for three months, yet the Bible doesn’t say anything about Paul preaching the gospel to them.  What did Paul do for those three months? 

In the second story, after Paul arrived in Rome, he preached Jesus as a gospel to the Jews, but a dispute arose among them.  Then Paul quoted Isaiah saying: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:” 'Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."  For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' "Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!" (Acts 28:25-28, NIV)

Why did Paul say this?  You might remember that in Romans 9-11, Paul recorded his burden for the Jews to be saved, wishing that he would be cursed for the sake that the Jews would be saved (Romans 9:3).  And we have witnessed in the previous records of Acts that every time he went to the Jews to preach the gospel, although they did not accept it and chased Paul to persecute him, Paul did not give up.  But why is it that he gave up this time?

Remember that the Lord Jesus once said to Paul, "Quick! Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me" (Acts 22:18, NIV).  In Acts 22:21 (NIV), Paul also recorded what Jesus said, "Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'"  So we can see from these two verses that Jesus had told him long ago that the Jews in Jerusalem would not accept his testimony, and that He would be sending Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.  But Paul's mind couldn’t keep up.  He was hindered from fully understanding Jesus' will for him Because of his love for the Jews, his own cultural and religious limitations, perspectives, and personality.

Previously, we've talked about whether Paul's trip to Jerusalem was God's plan or his own.  This is a controversial topic.  We reasoned that it could be from God because when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to him and said, "Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome" (Acts 23:11, NIV).  In addition, some believe that Agabus' prophecy wasn't completely accurate.  He prophesied that Paul would be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem, but in reality Paul was bound by the Romans in Jerusalem.  This could be why some Charismatics who have the gift of prophecy say that Agabus' prophecy was not accurate.  The Bible does say that when Abagus prophesied, he said: “this is what the Holy Spirit says." Others tried to persuade Paul not to go, but he didn't listen.

The contradiction here is a theological issue debated by many people.  In our study, we looked at it from a different perspective and concluded that perhaps Paul shouldn't have gone to Jerusalem.  If he had understood Jesus' telling him to forego Jerusalem and go directly to Rome to preach the gospel, he might have avoided being shipwrecked and imprisoned.  However, Paul was human like us and had his own perspective about what he should do.  Human perspective can hinder or interfere with God's leading.  Witness Lee said that man's perspective is what hinders following God and spiritual growth the most.  We gleaned from this chapter that Paul finally understood God's leading and plan after going through the storm and subsequent shipwreck from Jerusalem to Rome.  He understood that the Jews wouldn't accept his testimony and shifted his ministry's focus from the Jews to the Gentiles.  We see this at the end of Acts 28 when it said, "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.  He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ –with all boldness and without hindrance!" (Acts 28:30-31, NIV).  These verses confirm that Paul completely refocused his attention on the Gentiles in Rome and God's move among the gentile nations and evangelizing Europe. 

As we finished Acts 28, it seemed that the chapter abruptly ended, and some of our bible study members asked why.  We eventually concluded that the ending of this chapter is spiritually significant.

We can compare a person's journey from accepting God's call to completing it with Paul's journey from Jerusalem to Rome.  God officially called Paul on the road to Damascus, yet he said that God had set him apart from his mother's womb.  In turn, we can say he was called from Jerusalem.  God wanted him to go to Rome and evangelize Europe, but the journey was difficult, and Paul didn't follow God's will initially.

Malta was a turning point for Paul.  He stayed there for three months, yet the Bible leaves out the details of that time period.  Rome isn't far away, but the winter weather restricts the ships from sailing.  Neither Paul nor the ship's captain and crew can leave.  God arranged these circumstances, and here is the spiritual significance that we see.  We believe that during that three months with nothing to do, Paul spent much of his time in prayer and reflected on his journey from Jerusalem to Rome.  He might have thought of God's instructions that he leave Jerusalem as soon as possible because his testimony to the Jews wouldn't be accepted.  Jesus was clear when he told Paul to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel, but Paul's mind was focused elsewhere.  He insisted on going to Jerusalem, causing many uproars.  Perhaps during this reflection time and prayer, his attitude changed.  He may have questioned whether he fully understood God's leading and instead embarked on his own path.  Paul may have had some regret and felt discouraged, knowing that he wasn't fully cooperating with what God wanted.

Acts 28:13-15 (NIV) says that when Paul arrived in Puteoli, fellow believers greeted him.  Some traveled thirty-forty miles from Rome as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three taverns to meet him when they heard he was coming.  Paul thanked God and was encouraged when he saw them.  One lady in our study questioned this, saying, "Wasn’t Paul always strong and courageous?”  Why was he encouraged when these people met him?  I suggested that maybe this confirms that Paul might have had self-doubt and misgivings while reflecting in Malta.

Jesus said to his disciples while He was on earth, "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.  Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." (NIV, Matthew 10:5-6).  Jesus' command to the twelve apostles was not the same command He gave to Paul.  In other words, it was the leading of God's previous move, not the leading of His new move.

Our own perspective often gets in the way of what God wants to do.  Bill Johnson, a Charismatic pastor in California, said, “Every new move of God is often persecuted by the people used by God in His previous move.”  What people knew and experienced in a previous move of God often keeps them from accepting something new or different in the next move of God.  Because things in the new move look different, people will react negatively, saying it’s not of God or even go so far as to say it’s from the enemy.  Personal opinions can hinder God’s spirit from moving.  We can see the cycle if we look to the past, from Martin Luther’s reformation, which was persecuted by the Catholic Church to the Anabaptists who were persecuted by the reformed. Lastly, even within the Pentecostal Movement, newer movements are persecuted by previous movements.  It was the same story without exception.  Paul was human with his own perceptions and shortcomings.  God often has to deal with people’s perceptions and natural inclinations.  The relationship between God and man is like two people trying to run together with their legs tied.  God is often running faster than we can keep up.  He has to wait for people to understand his leading or eventually let them deal with the consequences of their own choices.  This is what happened to Paul.  Jesus told Paul to leave Jerusalem and go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel, but he didn’t listen.  God had no choice but to remind him through the Holy Spirit’s prophecy.  Paul insisted on going, so God waited patiently.  Despite his stubbornness, Jesus appeared to him and encouraged him in prison.  2 Thessalonians 3:5 (NIV) is a verse that talks about the patience of Jesus Christ. “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”  It seems like Paul prayed this out of his own experience of Jesus’s patience with him.

Jesus Christ is not only like that to Paul.  He’s also like that to us.  I shared one of my experiences to help our Bible study members understand the inspiration I received.

I was saved in the Local Church Movement,  a conservative Christian group that values spiritual growth in life.  At that time, my only thought was to serve the members of our church.  I had no thoughts of serving in American churches or churches in other parts of the world.  I focused my life on serving Chinese scholars in the United States and teaching them the gospel within the Local Church Movement.  It never entered my mind that I would leave my church to fellowship with and learn about the Charismatic church and eventually pursue the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Everything changed mainly because my wife and I were dealing with ten years of infertility.  I prayed every day in 2014, asking God to heal us, but there was no answer.  In 2015 I began to seek help from other churches outside the Local Church Movement.  I really wanted help from our own church and attended a special meeting in California in the summer of 2015.  This was the last meeting of the Local Church Movement that I attended.  We didn’t get the help we needed for our infertility problem.  Even though my mindset was inseparable from the Local Church Movement's teachings, God silently led me out of our church to learn about healing and prophecy in the Pentecostal Movement.  I personally heard God tell me when we would have a child, and in the end, it happened!

Looking back on this, my experience is similar to Paul’s at Malta.  2015 was my spiritual Malta.  In one way, I hoped that the Local Church Movement could help us with our infertility problem, but they don’t teach about the gift of healing or prophecy, so they couldn’t help us.  The Holy Spirit began to lead me to the Charismatics teachings online and to attend their healing and prophetic conferences. I struggled inside with being a part of two completely different church movements.  In 2015, every day at the park, I was praying at noon, asking God what I should do to move forward spiritually.  Part of me felt like God wanted me to leave the Local Church Movement, but I loved my church and its people.  I was worried about hurting those who loved and cared about me.  In addition, because of how deeply they influenced me, I didn’t want to hurt the body of Christ in general by leaving.

Later, God showed me something that inspired me. In a vision, He showed me a tributary of the Yangtze River that originated in the Himalayas.  Then I saw a downstream tributary.  He told me that he put me on the first tributary and now has moved me to the second.  As long as I followed the Holy Spirit’s leading, I could live in unity in the body of Christ.  He also said that I would never go back to the Himalayas, but the river in the Himalayas will join me downstream.  This was very encouraging.  In another dream, Jesus appeared to me, telling me that the two rivers would converge, which confirmed this vision.

 It was only when I looked back at this period of history that I was able to see how God was leading me.  He led me to the Local Church Movement to learn how to pursue spiritual life and study the Bible.  It was also Him that led me to the Pentecostal Movement to learn the gifts and receive the baptism and power of the Holy Spirit.  These two rivers will converge and produce God’s new move – holiness and power will converge; the word of God and the Spirit of God will converge; the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will converge.  God also told me that He wanted to take me out of the Local Church Movement because He wanted me to serve Chinese churches on a larger scale, participate in the great revival of China, and serve churches in the United States and other countries.  He challenged me to start my own ministry, another area that the Local Church Movement didn’t encourage.  In 2016 besides telling me that we would have a child that year, he confirmed that Jairus Bible world Ministry came from Him.  

All of this far outweighed what I was taught in the Local Church movement.  I would never have imagined that God would lead me in this way.  So, when I was struggling and hesitating in 2015, God was waiting patiently for me to catch up to him.  God led me to leave the Local Church Movement to study the Pentecostal Movement.  During this process, I had to break through my perceptions, and many of the concepts that the Local Church Movement taught me.  God recovered and encouraged many truths from his word through the Local Church Movement as well as the Pentecostal Movement.  I learned many rich truths and life lessons through the Local Church movement that would benefit every believer.  However, many see this movement and Witness Lee as heretical and have rejected their teaching altogether.  I’ve shared with fellow Pentecostal believers the truth and practice of “calling on the name of the Lord, pray-reading the Lord’s Word, praying, studying, reciting, and prophesying,” and most were curious and open.

Today, whether we are talking about believers in the Local Church Movement or those who condemn them, we shouldn’t allow personal perceptions to divide us.  The same would be true of those who have negative attitudes towards the Pentecostal Movement.  The walls of division must come down.  Much of the time, it isn’t that others don’t know the truth.  Instead, narrowmindedness prevents us from understanding each other.  What you see taught in other churches may not be heresy or evil spirits.  It could be that your own limitations and perceptions prevent you from accepting truths that others know and practice.

We are now entering an era of a great revival.  We urgently need believers of different churches to break their prejudices and enter the new era of God’s convergence.  Only in this way can God's will be better achieved.

That was the inspiration we received from reading Acts 28.  Paul eventually broke through his perceptions and plans through the arduous journey from Jerusalem to Rome. Finally, he entered into God’s plan for his life, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.  Although it seems like the book of Acts came to an abrupt end, it was actually perfect.  God completed his plan of leading Paul from Jerusalem to Rome, taking him from where he was called to the end of his mission.  At this point, Paul fully understood God’s will and was on the path of evangelizing Europe.  This is why the Holy Spirit didn’t need to write more on this.  God’s leading through the circumstances Paul went through brought him to the right place at the right time so Paul could follow through with his mission.

Today, the Spirit of God continues to work on us as believers, helping us to break out of our own perceptions in our spiritual Malta.  Once our spirits and minds are open, we can enter into the plan that God prepared for us long before.  We are not waiting for God; He is patiently waiting for us.

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 25

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 25

Acts 25 is like a tug of war.  Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea, a place Northwest of Jerusalem.  The Jews insisted that Festus send Paul back to Jerusalem for trial, hoping to ambush and kill Paul on the way.  Festus tried to please the Jews and asked Paul if he was willing to return to Jerusalem for trial, but Paul insisted on appealing to Caesar.  So after Festus conferred with his council, he accepted Paul's request.

Looking at it from here, Festus, as the Roman Governor of Judea, was a person who didn't take sides, or we could say that he was a bit of a fence sitter.  He tried to please the Jews, saying he was using a conciliatory approach to rule the land of Jerusalem.  His treatment of King Agrippa's argument about Paul and the Jews allowed us to see that he didn't think their case was that important.  He told King Agrippa that the dispute between Paul and the Jews was merely a matter of disagreement about their own religion and the fact that Paul declared that Jesus died and was resurrected.  His heart was perplexed over this situation.  He asked Paul if he was willing to go to Jerusalem for trial, but Paul wasn't willing.  So he planned to keep Paul.  He said, "hold him until I can send him to Caesar" (Acts 25:21, NIV).

I didn't pay attention to this sentence before.  Festus had already planned to send Paul to Rome.  But after King Agrippa interrogated Paul, he sighed, saying if Paul hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been set free (Acts 26:32, NIV).  Acts 27:24 records an angel of God standing beside Paul and telling him he would stand before Caesar.  This may be why Paul stood trial before Caesar later, but the Bible doesn't record the specific details of Paul and Caesar's meeting.  Instead, it just recorded the experience of Paul, Festus, and King Agrippa meeting each other.  Caesar here is said to be Nero Caesar.  But this is only according to historical legends.  When Nero persecuted the church later, Paul was martyred.

With the Holy Spirit's help, we noticed that God predestined Paul's journey from Jerusalem to Rome to spread the gospel to Rome.  As Acts 28 records, after Paul came to Rome, he rented a house there for two years, "to proclaim the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance" (Acts 28:31, NIV).  This shows that the gospel Paul spread in Rome had laid a good foundation for evangelizing Europe.  Therefore, in the development of the kingdom of God and the spread of the gospel, it was crucial for Paul to arrive safely in Rome from Jerusalem.

Satan attempted to stop Paul from going to Rome.  He incited the Jews to kill Paul in Jerusalem.  But Paul's nephew heard their plan and reported it to commander Lysias, and Paul was arrested.  Then the Jews went to Governor Felix to complain, and Felix asked Paul to defend himself.  Paul gave testimony to Felix, saying that he "keeps his conscience clear before God and man" (Acts 24:16, NIV, and that he did not commit any wrongdoings.   Later, Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings.  "When Lysias the commander comes," he said, "I will decide your case."  He ordered commander Lysias to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs" (Acts, 24:22-23, NIV).  

Later, Felix and his Jewish wife listened to Paul, who continued to talk about Jesus Christ.  "Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come" (Acts 24:25, NIV).  Felix was scared and sent Paul away.  He was hoping that Paul would come to him later and give him some money.   But the Bible doesn't say whether Felix was saved or not.  At least from the story here, Paul's testimony to Governor Felix touched him a little, but Felix hadn't decided whether to accept Jesus Christ.  At the end of Chapter 24, it records that after two years, Festus took over Felix's Governor position.  He wanted to please the Jews, so he continued to imprison Paul.

Many people opposed Paul's trip to Jerusalem.  This included the prophet Agabus who prophesied that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem, but he did not prevent Paul from going.  People in the modern prophetic movement believe that Agabus' prediction was half accurate and half inaccurate because Agabus prophesied that Paul would be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem.  But in the end, Paul was bound by the Romans.  Paul teaches us in the Bible not to treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22, NIV).  Paul has done this with Agabus' prophecy.  In the end, it turned out that Paul was right.  Because it was recorded in Acts 23:11 (NIV), "The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."  This is the key sentence.  It proved that Paul's decision to go to Jerusalem was encouraged by the Lord and that he would also testify in Rome as well.

This explains why Paul had to appeal to Caesar.  God's word prophesied and told him that he would go to Rome to testify about the Lord.  The angel provided the direction he was to go in.  Going to Rome was the will of God.  But Satan tried his best to oppose the will of God by using the Jews in Jerusalem to attempt to kill Paul.  After God defeated Satan's schemes through Paul's nephew and commander Lysias, Satan tried to use the Jews again to accuse Paul before Felix.  But God used Paul to preach the gospel to Felix and his Jewish wife allowing Felix to hesitate and not agree with the Jew's request.

After Festus took over Felix's Governor's position, he wanted to please the Jews in the beginning, so he kept Paul in prison.  He also tried to persuade Paul to go to Jerusalem with him for trial.  If Paul went to Jerusalem, he would definitely die.  So Paul firmly refused and insisted on appealing to Caesar.  After Festus had conferred with his council, he decided to send Paul to Caesar.  The attitude of the council also affected Festus.  Later, King Agrippa came and put Paul on trial.  Paul gave Agrippa a good testimony.  He talked about his experience where Jesus Christ appeared to him.  Later, King Agrippa wavered from his position.  Although he did not fully accept Jesus Christ, he was sympathetic towards Paul.  In the end, he said that if Paul did not appeal to Caesar, Paul could have been set free.

Acts 27 describes Paul boarding a ship and encountering a storm on his way to Rome.  At first, Paul advised the centurion not to continue sailing, but they didn't listen.  Later the soldiers planned to kill the prisoners when the storm continued to rage.  But the centurion wanted to bring Paul safely through, so he kept the soldiers from doing it.  In Acts 28, Paul was bitten by a snake, but God kept Paul safe again.  Through God's signs and wonders, it opened the door to evangelism, and the gospel was preached to the Jews and others in Rome.

From our description of Paul's journey, we can see Satan's actions - he tried to kill Paul or prevent him from going to Rome.  God overcame Satan's schemes and brought Paul to Rome safely.

 The journey from Jerusalem to Rome was arduous for Paul.  Jerusalem can be said to be the place where Paul was called since he was born and raised there.  Although he met the Lord in Damascus, Paul also said that God had set him apart from his mother's womb.  Rome was the last place where Paul preached the gospel and was martyred (this is where Paul had completed his mission).  It could be a difficult journey from our calling to completing the mission God gives us.  Through your journey, you may encounter many obstacles like the Jews trying to kill Paul or a wavering dignitary like Felix, Festus, and King Agrippa.  God may send people to protect you and strengthen your faith, like Paul's nephew and the centurion.

Peter spoke hastily to those who received the temple tax by telling them that Jesus would pay taxes.   Jesus gently rebuked him but told him to throw a line into the water, and the first fish he caught would have a silver coin in its mouth to pay the tax for Jesus and Peter.  I like fishing, but at times I spend the whole day and catch nothing.  Even if Peter were a master fisherman, it wouldn't be easy to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth, but he caught one since the Lord declared it.  The Bible doesn't say how long it took him to catch this particular fish.

According to what Peter said in 2 Peter 1:19 (NIV): "We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts," Peter said, "No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things.  For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21, NIV)

Jesus gave Peter God's prophetic word when he told him to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth.   Imagine Peter, who had fished for many nights without a catch receiving this word from the Lord.  I'm sure it was difficult to accept, but knowing that all things are possible with God encouraged Peter and gave him confidence amid a depressing time.  Peter was able to speak these words confidently because of his experience.

Similarly, Paul faced so many obstacles and a lot of people trying to kill him.  But he still firmly believed that he could reach Rome safely and testify before Caesar.  What is the reason behind this? The reason lies in Acts 23:11 (NIV), which says, "The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.  "No matter how many challenges he would face, he knew that he would reach Rome safely because the Lord told him so. I've experienced God's promise in my life during my wife's ten years of infertility.  In January 2016, I heard the Lord say that I would have a child that year.   I returned to China in February and announced it to my family.   Over time I experienced many people's unbelief and opposition, but I firmly believed it would happen because God said it.  Before my wife's miraculous pregnancy in May, I experienced numerous attacks and ridicule from the enemy, but I persevered.  Why?  I stood on the word that the Lord gave me.  By sharing my experience, I hope that the Lord will use it to comfort and bring hope to those who are facing difficulties and trying to hold on to God's promises.   Hudson Taylor was an English missionary, who as a young boy, saw visions of countless Chinese people going to hell.   He accepted the call to preach the Gospel in China.  Unfortunately, he contracted a life-threatening disease while in medical school.  A doctor declared his case hopeless and told him to go home and prepare to die.  Hudson told the doctor that he would not die because God wanted him to preach the Gospel in China.  The doctor refused to believe him.  After miraculously surviving this disease, the first thing Hudson did was to testify to this doctor.  The doctor was surprised and prayed to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Hudson encountered a severe storm after boarding a ship to China.  He firmly declared that nothing bad would happen because God wanted him to go to China.

On the evening of March 16, 2020, we prayed online with some members of our Bible Study group.  We mainly spent time praying for China and the spread of the novel coronavirus.  That night, I was taken up to heaven in the spirit, and I saw various spectacular scenes of China's future revival.  The activities of worshiping God in different parts of China could only be described by the phrase "in full swing."  In the end, I saw that the angels bound the opposing forces against God in China.  God has enlightened me many times about China's great revival through dreams.  I was in this vision and dreamed for two hours, from two to four in the morning.

This experience, along with many other dreams, is God's promised word to me in these difficult circumstances, especially in the coronavirus outbreak.  These words from God are like a light shining in a dark place.   I value them even though I've encountered unbelief and derogatory remarks.  I believe these difficult times will eventually pass.  After the cleansing work of God is completed, a great revival will be released.  I prepared myself for this, and I hope to encourage many Christians to see a bright future and not focus on the negativity around them.   

We are all like Paul.  Our life is a process of walking from our call "Jerusalem" to the mission and end of our life, "Rome."  Our mission is to come to Rome (which represents the world) to testify about the Lord.  On our way there, we will encounter danger and opposition like what Paul experienced.  But if we hold on to the words God has promised to us, we will be able to persevere to the end.

We must also pay attention to prophetic words, just like paying attention to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

I hope that many fellow believers will see a bright future in the fog caused by the coronavirus.

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 20

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 20

 

Matthew 10:8 (NIV) says, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”  This sentence is what the Lord Jesus told the twelve disciples when He sent them out to preach. It seems that "raise the dead" is somewhat of an obscure command. Even among the twelve disciples, there is not much recorded of them raising someone from the dead.  But there are a few examples, including Acts 9, where Peter raised Dorcas from the dead, and Acts 20, where Paul raised Eutychus from the dead, which we will read today.

 

Nine people in the Bible were raised from the dead.  This includes the prophet Elijah who raised the widow's son, Elisha, who revived the woman's son, and the man who revived by touching Elisha’s bones.  Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus. God raised Jesus from the dead, plus the examples of Peter and Paul above.

 

We will not discuss the other resurrections during this study. We will only discuss the resurrection of Eutychus. Why did God arrange for Eutychus to be raised from the dead?  After this story, Paul arrived in Jerusalem.  Was this because of God's leading, or because Paul made a mistake?

 

From what I’ve studied and the teaching I’ve received, Paul made a mistake here.  The prophet Agabus had prophesied in Acts 21:10-11 that Paul would be bound at Jerusalem.  Agabus took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” (NIV) Then Luke 12:15 records the following:

 

¹² When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³ Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?  I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. ” ¹⁴ When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” ¹⁵ After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. (NIV)

 

I was saved in the Local Church movement and accepted their teachings for many years. I remember reading something about this subject.  Witness Lee thought Paul made a mistake here. When he was asked by others why Paul made such a mistake here, Witness Lee replied that only Jesus is the perfect saint.  What he meant is that everybody makes mistakes.  So this comment made a strong impression on me.  But ever since the Lord led me to learn about the prophetic gifts in the Pentecostal Movement, I felt more confused when I heard their different interpretations of this verse. Many people with prophetic gifts hold similar views.  They believe that Paul did not make any mistake here; he was just following the Lord’s leading.  Because Paul was doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus, not only was he bound, even if he died in Jerusalem, he was also ready. Also, Luke mentioned afterward, “May the Lord's purposes be accomplished.”

 

Acts 21:4 also says that “We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” (NIV)

 

But Paul said in Acts 20:22-24, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (NIV)

 

So at least from here, the biblical record is contradictory.  On the one hand, the Holy Spirit reminds him not to go to Jerusalem through people who have prophetic gifts.  On the other hand, Paul said that the Spirit compelled him to go to Jerusalem.  It’s just that the Holy Spirit told him that he would face difficulties.

 

The question is, does God want Paul to go or not?  This is a tricky situation, and there is a lot of debate about this.

 

The reason people thought Paul was wrong and shouldn’t have gone to Jerusalem stems from a prophetic word from the disciples in Acts 21:4 as well as Agabus’ prophesy in Acts 21:11. Agabus was thought to be a reliable prophet because he prophesied in Acts 11 that there would be a famine that happened during Claudius's reign.  I thought the same thing, but when I was learning the gift of prophecy, some teachers who were gifted prophetically taught on how to avoid giving wrong prophesies and talked about Agabus making a questionable prophesy and how we should learn from it.  I was surprised. It never occurred to me that a prophet in the Bible could make a wrong prophesy.

 

Let us not talk about whether Agabus is wrong or not.  Let’s first talk about whether the prophet's prophecy in the New Testament can be false or not. Paul said, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good.” (NIV, 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21).  Paul also said that "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said." (NIV, 1 Corinthians 14:29). From these two verses, we can see that Paul's attitude towards people who prophesy was not to despise them but to test them all.  In other words, Paul didn’t just believe everything the prophets would say.  It seems from Paul's attitude, the prophet of the New Testament sometimes makes inaccurate prophecies.

 

Let’s look at the difference between the prophets in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Kris Vallotton is a prophet in Bill Johnson’s church (Bethel).  He often teaches prophetic gifts, and I have participated in his training classes.  One of his views left a deep impression on me. He said that in the Old Testament, the prophets are "visitational."  When the Holy Spirit is falling on people from outside, whether Elijah or Balaam, when the Holy Spirit was falling on them, it was considered to be God’s words without a doubt.  But in the New Testament, the prophets and the prophetic gifts are "habitational," that is, the Holy Spirit lives in the Spirit of the prophet, and he speaks through our Spirit.  As He speaks, it goes through our soul and mind and then uses our mouth to prophesy. So in this process, our soul, mind, and expression may filter these prophecies.  It is not that the Holy Spirit cannot fall on people from outside today like the Old Testament.  The Holy Spirit can do the same.  But since He lives in us and not in the Old Testament, He chooses to speak through us because He is willing to train us, and He would rather be subject to some of our limitations.  Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV) also confirms that "God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son."  He spoke through the prophets in ancient times, but now He is speaking to us through His Son.  We know that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17) and that the Lord and the Holy Spirit live in us.

 

One of the textbooks we used in our prophetic gift class is: "You May All Prophesy," written by Steve Thompson.  He and many prophets hold the view that prophecy is divided into three stages.  The first stage is to receive a revelation from God, or a sentence, a picture, or an animated vision. In this stage, you must confirm that it comes from God and not from the evil spirits.  The second stage is to interpret this vision.  What does God mean? Our spirits have to pray; our souls have to think. In the end, we hope to get an accurate understanding. The third stage is to apply this vision, which is how to use or apply to whom and what situation.  At each stage, mistakes are possible.

 

If you think that the prophets just say what God says and that he doesn’t need to think or digest, I would suggest that you need more study on prophetic gifts.  Taking an example from the Bible, Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet.  Jeremiah said that he doesn’t know how to speak; he is too young; he doesn’t want to do it (Jeremiah 1:6). God said, “I will train you.”  Then he let Jeremiah see a picture and asked him, "What have you seen?" Jeremiah said, “I saw the branch of an almond tree.” Jeremiah 1:12 (NIV) says, “The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”  What does this mean?  This is God’s explanation of the meaning of the vision of this almond branch to Jeremiah.  God not only used pictures to speak, but He also used puns in human language to communicate.  In Hebrew (language), the pronunciation of "almond branch" is similar to "watching over."  God uses puns to tell Jeremiah, “Don't worry, I will watch over you; I will take care of you; I will help you.”  The hidden meaning is “I will pay attention to my words and make it happen.”  Then God asked Jeremiah, “What do you see?” Jeremiah answered, “I saw a pot that is boiling, and it is tilting toward us from the north.” (Jeremiah 1:13, NIV).  At this time, God continued to explain to Jeremiah that what He means is that, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.” (Jeremiah 1:14, NIV).

 

Besides Jeremiah, Daniel also saw a lot of visions. But he did not know what they meant.  He needed the angel to explain.  The prophet of the Old Testament is like this, and so is the prophet of the New Testament.  In the book of Revelation, John saw many visions, and he didn’t know what they meant. He also needed the angel to explain.

 

Some people with prophetic gifts in today’s church agree that the prophesy telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem was a mistake.  They believe the prophesy came from the Holy Spirit but was misinterpreted.  How do we make sense of the fact that prophets can make mistakes?  If a Bible teacher misinterprets the Bible, that seems to be a forgivable offense, but if a prophet makes a mistake we call him a false prophet and are ready to “stone” him.  This shouldn’t be.

 

 Of course, this view is controversial.  Some scholars think that Agabus did not make a mistake here.

 

A British prophet, Graham Cooke, is also a recommended teacher in our prophetic class.  He gave an example of the mistake that prophets make when they are explaining the prophetic Word of God.  He said that prophets could get either information or revelation from God.  These two are different. The former may be a fact, but the latter may be God's heart.

 

One day God revealed a secret weakness of pornography in a fellow believer.  Graham and this person had some issues between them at the time.  Graham thought to himself, “Haha, I finally caught you.  He was ready to go straight over and tell him what the Lord showed him, but the Lord rebuked him immediately and said: “what kind of spirit do you have?”  The Lord wanted Graham to have an attitude of prayer for this man’s sin condition and not blame him.  He felt terrible and began to cry over his own attitude.  Then God told him to go to the man and tell him. Graham didn’t want to go.  The Lord told him he had to go, so he bit the bullet and went. When he got there, he couldn’t even speak; he could only cry.  The man was baffled as to why Graham was acting that way and asked him what was going on.  Graham had no choice but to tell him what the Lord showed him about the pornography as well as his own bad attitude. After listening and being in shock, he repented, and he and Graham reconciled.  This man was also saved out of the sin he was in.

 

What the Lord revealed to Graham about his friend’s pornography addiction was just a message or information.  It’s almost like a doctor meeting a patient with a diagnosis.  The diagnosis is only information about the person’s condition; it’s not God’s prescription for the patient.  God’s heart for Graham’s friend was for him to be delivered from that sin. Graham shared that in his experience as a prophet, often the first information that the Lord gives him is just information. He learned to take the information, prophetic dream, or vision to the Lord in prayer, asking for revelation.  During that time of prayer, he often understood God’s intention for the information. A common problem of prophetic people is that they are too eager to share what they get from the Lord, often revealing private sin or negative information about others, bringing pain and damage to churches and individuals.

 

I was inspired by learning about these people’s experiences and my own experience in learning about the prophetic gifts.  Perhaps the teaching that I initially believed in makes the possibility of Paul's mistake worth discussing, and maybe the prophets of these modern churches have reasons to criticize Agabus.

 

I think that the message that Agabus and the other disciples received was indeed correct.  That is, the Holy Spirit reminded Paul not to go to Jerusalem, and if he did go there, he would face imprisonment.  The message was correct, and Paul had also confirmed it.  But why did Paul say, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24, NIV). In other words, regardless of danger, Paul was determined to go to Jerusalem to accomplish the ministry he received from the Lord Jesus.

 

Moreover, when Paul was later arrested in Jerusalem and was sent to Rome, the following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” (Acts 23:11, NIV).  In other words, the Lord had not only praised Paul for testifying about Him in Jerusalem, He also wanted Paul to testify in Rome.  The Lord Jesus affirmed what Paul did.

 

If Paul had done something wrong, the Lord Jesus should have said to Paul when He appeared to him, "You stiff-necked person, why didn’t you obey My Holy Spirit?  Why did you go to Jerusalem? See, now you are caught.  The other ministry that I prepared for you in other places has been delayed. You are stubborn!"  The Lord didn’t say this. Instead, He praised Paul for testifying about Him when he was in Jerusalem.

 

Isn’t this a contradiction?  Through the mouth of the disciples, the Holy Spirit reminded Paul not to go to Jerusalem.  The prophet Agabus also said that Paul would be bound if he went to Jerusalem. But now the Lord Jesus has appeared and said, “Paul, you did an excellent job!”  Did the Holy Spirit quarrel with Jesus?  No.

 

My understanding is this.  There is a very dynamic and deep friendship between Paul and God. It’s like a woman who was very eager to get the snow lotus on the mountain cliff.  But the warrior, who loves her, must go through the threat of icy cold mountains and avalanches and the possibility of falling off the cliff to get this snow lotus.  So when the man said that he was willing to risk his life to get the snow lotus to prove his love, the woman who loves the warrior said, “You absolutely can’t go.  I don’t want the snow lotus either, even if you pick it.”  But the warrior still went to the mountains and picked the snow lotus despite all the danger.  Aside from being moved, this woman rebuked the man, saying, “Didn’t I say that you shouldn’t go there?”

 

The relationship between Paul and the Lord is intimate.  They are very close to each other.  The Lord was concerned about Paul's safety, so he told Paul through the Holy Spirit, “Don't go to Jerusalem.”  Paul reacted, “Do you consider my life as important?  The interests of the Lord are more important.  His most precious treasure, Jerusalem, is more important.”  If you are familiar with the Bible, you know that God sees Jerusalem as the apple of His eye. It is the most precious treasure of God.  Therefore, Paul was ready to risk everything, even his life, to take care of God’s feelings and His chosen people.  I think what Paul did touched Jesus so much that He stood beside Paul at night to boost him up, confirming that his testimony in Jerusalem was worth encouraging, and permitted him to do the same thing in Rome.

 

Therefore, this is God's intention toward Paul.  Paul lives in the heart of God.  His attitude towards prophets and prophetic words is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 (NIV), “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all and hold on to what is good.”  Paul said this from his own experience. This has many implications for us Christians today. No doubt, many evangelical believers don’t accept the words of the prophets or that prophets still exist in churches today.  They reject and even accuse prophets of having evil spirits in them or declaring that they are false prophets.  At the same time, many believers in the Pentecostal Movement believe in the prophets' words too quickly, causing loss/damage or even getting hurt.  However, I feel that we shouldn’t just accept the prophets and treat the prophecies with contempt^, but we also need to test them.

 

After going through the analysis above, I conclude that Agabus and the disciples' prophecies are all messages received from the Lord.  But Paul lived in God's revelation and in His heart, which is why he had an unswerving determination in going to Jerusalem and Rome to bear solemn witness of the Lord.  This may be one of Paul's highest spiritual experiences.  So, Paul could calmly say calmly before he died, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; From then on, there is in store for me the crown of righteousness.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NIV).  Paul also said, "But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.  And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.” (2 Timothy 4:17, NIV)

 

How does this revelation pertain to our ministry to the Lord today?  In this era of information flooding and the following the herd, if you are the church leader, no matter how big the challenge is to be a servant leader, how do you face the complicated and different opinions? Can you firmly live in the will of the Lord?

 

Let’s go back to the story of Eutychus who was raised from the dead at the start of this chapter. This story is not casually placed here.  The experience of Eutychus being raised from the dead happened before the disciples and Agabus warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem.  When Paul was preaching, Eutychus fell asleep and fell three stories down to his death.  Paul went down to check, and it records in Acts 20:10-12, “Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him.  “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”  Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate.  After talking until daylight, he left.  The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”

 

If I was Paul, I might not have been in the mood to continue preaching.  Either I would have been excited that I just raised somebody from the dead or fearful that somebody almost died in my meeting.  My concern may have been about the maximum occupancy allowed in the building at that time.

 

If this happened in the United States today, I don’t know if Paul would still be so calm.  Almost in every elevator or hotel conference room, there is a clear indication about the maximum occupancy.  We took our daughter to a big American church. My daughter was playing with other children there.  The first form we filled out was a disclaimer, saying that the church could  not be held responsible for what may happen to our child, because they were afraid of being accused.  Think about it. A man had already fallen and died when Paul was preaching.  Even though Paul raised him from the dead, according to the United States' current laws, Paul could be accused of child neglect and even be sued for millions.  What if someone else falls? What if Eutychus had side effects from the fall?

 

But Paul handled the situation very calmly.  If Paul was not absolutely sure that he was living in God's will, how could he be so calm?  This is a confirmation that Paul knew that God was with him on his upcoming trip to Jerusalem.  The Bible only records the experience of Paul raising someone from the dead this time. Why?  I shared in the meeting that if you have the courage or the heart to risk everything for God, He will have your back, even to the point of raising people from the dead.

 

In seeking healing for our infertility, I often went to the park to pray.  I asked countless times, “where is the God of Abraham who raises people from the dead?  We are infertile, but you can raise the dead.  You can also create things out of nothing.  I believe in your existence and the Bible.  I believe that you can heal us. I also believe that everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:8, NIV).”  I also believe in what Romans 10:11 says: “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Although others may have laughed at me as I seemed to be beating my head against a wall with all of this, God healed us and gave us a healthy baby girl.

 

We have friends who were also dealing with infertility.  They listened to our testimony and went to the same prophet who prayed for us.  After one time, there was no positive result, and they gave up.  I felt sorry for them because God is no respecter of persons.  We shouldn’t give up because of what the environment says, the doctor says, or even fellow believers.  The key is what God says to you.  During our time of infertility, we heard many things.  Some said it was God’s discipline and punishment, so just accept it. Some said it’s better not to have children so you can devote more time to serving the Lord. Some told us that God doesn’t heal people today. He performed signs and wonders back then to prove Jesus’ divinity and the authority of the Bible.  Now that this is established and the apostolic era has passed, there are no more signs and wonders.  All healing miracles are fake and come from evil spirits.  This is not the truth, and we will continue to believe what God says in His word.  In the end, He has done wonders.

 

Brothers and sisters, I hope that we as Christians can learn to live in God's heart and intimate communication and fellowship with God just like Paul.  Even if you are overwhelmed with information from the myriad of voices out there, allow God’s leading to create certainty within you.  Let’s learn to be like Paul, who can be both soft and strong in broken circumstances.

 

Sometimes we say that we are following God, but it’s really our stubbornness or flesh. Other times we have no clear answers and say we are willing to look at other people’s views.  When serving God, there are times when we shouldn’t be listening to others, but instead, we should be pressing in to hear God’s leading.  The important thing is to be humble and broken before God, making sure we don’t follow our own stubborn will.

 

Listening to one of Pastor Grace Chiang’s testimonies made a deep impression on me.  She said that because she was a female pastor, she often disagreed with some of the men's opinions when she started to build the church.  They may have had more worldly experience, so they felt that what she was proposing was unreliable, but she heard the Lord speaking to her.  So after some battles and a period of confrontation, these men found out that she was right.

 

Watchman Nee said that sometimes, some beleivers in the church do not take responsibility when the situation calls for it.  The damage they cause to the church is much more than the damage caused by those who instead overstep their authority.  In other words, being a good man, or evading responsibility in the name of humility, or fake humility will bring more damage to God's interests.  The church needs more people like Paul, people who will set their faces like flint, bravely face opposition and different voices, and even live out the will of God and His call to them regardless of danger.

 

We have now entered an era in which all political correctness must be broken.  Yes is yes, and no is no. Jesus says, “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37)  Our position must be clear.  All fear must be removed.  We have to stand on the mountain, and not under a bushel.  We need to be the light and salt and be a strong witness for God in this world.

 

We are not just making irresponsible comments.  Rather, no matter where we are, when we as Christians face coercion and imminent danger, we should be like Paul, who risked his life for the interests of God. God will indeed back you up.  Whether it is raising the dead, turning the bitter water into sweet, or creating things out of nothing, nothing is too difficult for God.

 

So, in my understanding, this is the main reason why God allowed Eutychus to rise from the dead before Paul entered Jerusalem.  This is both a testimony and an encouragement of God to Paul. It is also evidence that Paul lived in close communication and absolute faith in God.  I repeat, this may be one of Paul's highest spiritual experiences.

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 27

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 27

Acts 27 records Paul’s voyage to Italy.  This journey involves a variety of places, and often people don’t understand the details of Paul’s journeys and the spiritual significance behind them.  Paul’s four journeys encompassed many different locations and can be confusing to those who haven’t studied it to the point of understanding.  When we were reading the Bible this time, we got the illumination of the Holy Spirit; thus, we had a clear understanding of Paul’s fourth journey and had a deeper understanding of the spiritual significance behind it.

We won’t focus on the names of the locations at this point.  Instead, let’s pay attention to the problem of the winds blowing against the ship.  In this story, a centurion named Julius listened to the words of the ship’s pilot to continue the voyage.  Paul advised him not to sail on, but he didn’t listen, and they encountered a storm that nearly cost them their lives.  But because Paul received a word from God, he told them that they would not lose their lives, but would just run aground on some island.  In the end, as expected, things happened according to Paul’s prophecy, so everyone’s lives were saved.  God used the shipwreck so that through Paul, the tribal people on the island of Malta in Chapter 28 were healed and saved.

This is the rough outline of the story.  But the details are very important.  Acts 27:1 mentioned, “it was decided” that Paul was going to sail to Italy.  Who decided that?  Was it King Agrippa and Festus? Was this decision correct? Did it come from God? Although the Gentiles made this decision, God’s sovereignty may have come into play, because Jesus told Paul that he would stand trial before Caesar in Rome to testify (Acts 23:11).

They started from Caesarea, which was north of Jerusalem, where Paul was imprisoned in Acts 26.  They found a ship from Adramyttium, which was about to sail along the coast of the province of Asia.  Paul and others boarded the ship.  The Bible also specifically recorded that there was a Macedonian from Thessalonica who was with them (NIV, Acts 27:2).  All Scripture is God-breathed (NIV, 2 Timothy 3:16) so this seemingly insignificant information is worth its weight in gold.   We felt that the Holy Spirit hinted to us that Paul might have planned to travel to Rome through Macedonia. Thessalonica was near Macedonia.  Perhaps Paul would have visited the church he established in Thessalonica.

The third verse also seems to confirm this speculation.  This verse says that they landed at Sidon, and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide for his needs. This meant that Paul might have had some freedom to arrange this trip according to his liking.  Sidon is north of Caesarea and on the coast of Israel, near Tyre.  Verse 4 recorded that the winds were blowing against them, starting from here.  Why were the winds blowing against them? Did it come from God, or was it an obstruction from the enemy?

These are all questions we have to think about.  These questions apply to our current situation. For example, did the coronavirus come from Satan’s attack or God’s judgment? Should we engage in spiritual warfare against the enemy or repent and ask God for forgiveness? The Bible tells us that Satan comes only to steal and kill and destroy (NIV, John 10:10).  We know that bad things come from the enemy. The Bible also tells us that no sparrow will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care (NIV, Matthew 10:29) and that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (NIV, Romans 8:28). We know that because of this wind, Paul took a path that was not planned.  This may be what the Holy Spirit wants us to see in this chapter.  We surmised that Paul wanted to take the way he was familiar with, which was to go to Rome through Macedonia.  But because of the wind and the fact that the centurion did not follow Paul’s advice, they had to take a new path.

Verse 4 went on to say that because the winds were against them, they sailed against the lee of Cyprus, a small island in the Mediterranean.  Then verse 5 says that they had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia to Myra in Lycia.  The three places here, Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Myra in Lycia, are all within the borders of today’s Turkey.  Macedonia is probably today’s Macedonia, and the south of Macedonia is today’s Greece.

Verse 6 says that while in Myra, the centurion found a ship that would sail for Italy, but they made slow headway and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus.  Cnidus is located southwest of Asia Minor, and it is close to Turkey.  Paul had changed course here.  Verse 7 says that, because the wind did not allow them to hold their course, they had to sail to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.  Crete, an island south of Turkey and Greece, belongs to Greece.  It would be equivalent to blowing them to a small island in the south due to the wind.  Then verse 8 said that they had difficulty coming to Fair Havens.  Fair Havens is south of Crete, and Lasea is west of Fair Havens.  Here Paul advised everyone not to continue, but the centurion did not obey Paul.  According to natural knowledge, the captain and the ship’s owner may have had their reasons.  It also mentions in verse 12 that Fair Havens was unsuitable to winter in, and they hoped to winter in Phoenix. It specifically indicates that Phoenix was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.  The recovery version of the Bible that we are reading, has a note on the phrase “facing both southwest and northwest.” The note reads: “or, facing the southeast winds and the northeast winds.” After the south wind began to blow, they felt confident to set out. It just so happened that Phoenix was northwest of Fair Havens.  They wanted to take advantage of the south wind to sail to Phoenix. As a result, verse 14 says that a wind of hurricane force called the “northeaster” came up, and the explanation of the recovery version of the Bible said that this was a northeast wind.  I checked the translation of the said verse on STEPBIBLE.ORG, which is also translated into a northeast wind, but the website notes that the original Greek text can also be translated as “southwest wind.” This contradiction seems to echo the fact that the harbor in Crete faces both northeast and southeast.

In Fair Havens, Paul encouraged the centurion not to continue sailing, but the centurion obeyed the captain’s words and continued to Phoenix.  As a result, a south wind came, but it became a north wind. They wanted to take advantage of the south wind to go to Phoenix in the north, but the north wind blew them to an island called “Cauda” in the south.  Then their journey was changed entirely.  In the end, they were blown southwards by the wind, taking a path that they had never intended, nor traveled by many, to an island in the south of Italy called Melita.  They went to Italy from there.  This trip was not planned by Paul, nor by the captain and the centurion.

We briefly talked about the details of Paul’s journeys and applied them to our spiritual experience.  Have you had a similar experience? Have you reached a crossroads in your life? This crossroad may look like Phoenix, with one side facing northeast and one side facing southeast.  It seems like you can go in two different directions.  Have you encountered circumstances or storms in your life that make you head in a different direction? Or did you think that God was leading you in one direction, but when the circumstance arose, you had to go in another direction? After time has passed and you look back, do you see God’s wonderful leading instead?

I was saved in the Local Church Movement, so I received a lot of help from Watchman Nee’s and Witness Lee’s ministry.  Watchman Nee has an article that says that God has Plan A and Plan B. The general idea is that sometimes God will have different plans for us and will lead us to accomplish His mission.  Watchman Nee said that after praying, he had the burden to go to an island to spread the gospel.  He was confident that it was God-inspired.  God also encouraged a man to donate money to help him go to the island.  He also promised this man that he would go.  But difficult circumstances were rising, and Watchman Nee’s mother felt that it would be unsafe, so she objected.  He was in a dilemma at this time, just like the situation of Phoenix depicted here.  If he didn’t go, he would lose credibility with this man who had already donated money.  Plus, he had agreed to go according to God’s leading.   If he did go, he wouldn’t be honoring his mother, and the Bible teaches us to obey the elders.  He was in a dilemma.  Later, he decided to put the trip off temporarily due to the difficult circumstances.  Of course, the man who donated money was angry and misunderstood him, thinking that Watchman Nee couldn’t be trusted.  However, Watchman Nee applied the lessons of the cross and did not justify himself.  Later, his mother’s attitude changed, allowing him to go to that island and spread the gospel. When he got there, the Holy Spirit had already worked and opened the hearts of those people, so the gospel was very effective.  If he had arrived earlier, he might not have been as effective.  Watchman Nee cited his own example and said that sometimes God has Plan A and Plan B.  Although they may all come from God, sometimes they have different results.

I told this story at the meeting and asked the people who participated in the Bible Study a question.  Was there any plan A and plan B during Paul’s journey to Rome? What was God’s original plan? When Paul tried to persuade the centurion not to go to Phoenix in Fair Havens, did it come from Paul himself or God? If they didn’t go to Phoenix, what route would their voyage have taken? The Bible doesn’t tell us, so we have no way of knowing.  It is just mentioned in verse 2 that “a Macedonian from Thessalonica” was with Paul.  I guess that Paul may have wanted to pass through Thessalonica to visit the church there and then through Macedonia to Italy.  Paul may have hoped the journey to Phoenix would be delayed.  We don’t know for sure, so we can only speculate.  We do know that they were forced to take an unfamiliar path. 

Watchman Nee also had a very famous quote, “If God leads you to walk in a way that you know, it will not benefit you as much as If He would lead you to take the way that you do not know.  This forces you to have hundreds and thousands of conversations with Him, resulting in a journey that is an everlasting memorial between you and Him.”

 

By the summer of 2015, I had been attending services at the Local Church Movement for about 13 years.  I reached a turning point in my life, which was the “Phoenix” of my spiritual experience.  I loved my church and had no thoughts of leaving it.  Unfortunately, after nine years of marriage, my wife and I were unable to conceive children.  This was like a “northeaster storm” in our lives.  In 2015, I went to a special meeting of the Local Church Movement in California as a last resort hoping to get spiritual help from some trusted believers but was disappointed.  This was the turning point for me.  I was blown into Charismatic meetings by a spiritual “northeaster” in search of divine healing and help to understand the gift of prophecy. 

I never imagined serving the Lord on a larger scale outside of my denomination.  I planned to focus on providing services for overseas Chinese students within the framework of the Local Church Movement.  I had no thoughts of traveling to China and serving churches there or churches in the United States.  This ten-year infertility crisis became the “northeaster” of my life and completely blew me into a new life and spiritual direction.  Though I received a lot of spiritual growth in The Local Church Movement, they focus more on how to live and share the gospel.  I couldn’t get any help with healing or prophesy. This was God’s secret plan B for my life, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

In regards to our infertility problem, we had exhausted Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine without results.  I had to put my total trust in God.  I secretly sought healing and prophetic help from Charismatic churches.  I found a Korean evangelical pastor, Li Che, near Washington, DC, who pastored a Chinese church and preached in Chinese.  His sermons online were about inner healing and spiritual healing.  He is not gifted in prophecy but he warmly welcomed us and prayed for us.  After comforting and encouraging us, he said that he wasn’t sure when we would have children.  Still, he felt that God would significantly use me because my situation was similar to others in the Bible, like Abraham, Isaac, and Hannah, the mother of Samuel.

I eventually sought out the Charismatic church and received prophetic words that we would have children.  More importantly, God activated my gift of healing and prophecy.  I began to pray for my wife every day.  I also began to experience spiritual encounters and was able to hear God’s voice more clearly.  In January 2016 God told me to get ready to have a child this year.  I traveled to China in February and announced the prophecy to my family, but they didn’t believe me.  I prayed for two of my cousins to be healed of infertility during that trip.  My mother was upset.  She said I couldn’t solve my own problems so why was I showing off and praying for others.  It was on May 12, 2016 that God appeared to me in a dream and told me we would conceive a baby in the next month.  My wife found out she was pregnant on May 28^th.  Our baby girl’s birth in 2017 caused a radical change in my family.  My mother, who held superstitious beliefs about Bodhisattva all of her life, was set free from idol worship and became a believer in Jesus Christ.  Ten years of witnessing to my family had not availed much but God’s prophetic word and the subsequent birth of our daughter changed everything.  I baptized my parents when I returned to China in 2018.  They both pray for me every night before they go to bed.

The prophetic word I received in 2016 is similar to the prophetic words that the angel spoke to Paul in this chapter.  As I mentioned previously, The Local Church Movement doesn’t encourage believers to pursue the gift of healing or prophecy.  We have members in our Bible study who are trained in this movement, so I asked them a question.  What if Paul didn’t get a prophetic word from the angel and didn’t know in advance what would happen?  Would his testimony have been as effective?  In Acts 28, if Paul didn’t pray for the father of the tribal leader and others to be healed, would the gospel be spread as effectively?  One man who still belongs to The Local Church Movement said Paul might have been able to do that, but he felt like his relationship with God wasn’t close enough for God to speak to him.  I corrected him saying that a fundamental principle of the Bible is that everyone who asks, receives.  I told him to believe that God would give him a prophetic word, and he would get one.  God is not holding out on us; it’s our mind that hinders us.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He used Paul to heal and prophesy, and he will use us to do the same.

Though the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements do involve some inconsistencies and chaos, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Although many don’t get healed or prophecies are inaccurate, we should not refrain from pursuing these gifts.  We must lead a balanced life by pursuing our relationship with God first and his gifts second.  It’s not biblical to do one or the other exclusively.  I was saved in The Local Church Movement, and when I left, a well-meaning brother told me not to forget the life lessons that I had learned.  I promised him I would not forget.  In the process of pursuing spiritual gifts, I encountered evil spirits that tried to deceive and attack me, but I held on to the life lessons learned in the Local Church Movement. My relationship with the Lord was held above all else. I’m not pursuing gifts for the sake of pursuing them.  Judging things carefully has kept me safe.  It also makes me victorious over the deception and attack of the evil spirits.  It’s important to grow spiritually and pursue gifts.  Believers in the Local Church Movement don’t pursue gifts because they are afraid of being deceived by evil spirits.  This logic stems from unbelief and the lack of being baptized in the Holy Spirit.  The Bible tells us to trample on snakes, scorpions, and evil spirits (Luke 10:19).  Our destiny is to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).  We cannot be afraid of being deceived.  This would hinder our spiritual growth.  It is clearly a sign of immaturity.   A mature believer has the courage to pursue gifts, not to exalt himself or herself, but to use the tools God gave us to help others.  The fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit come from the Holy Spirit and shouldn’t be neglected.

After sharing my experience, I realized that it was actually similar to that of Paul in this chapter.  A wind of hurricane force called the “northeaster” rose in my life.  It took me in a different direction than what the Local Church Movement taught me.  There are many truths of life in the Local Church Movement, and they hope that many Christians will accept them, but the church was misunderstood and opposed instead.   After I researched the Pentecostal Movement, especially after studying Doctor of Ministry at the United Theological Seminary, which has a background of Methodist and John Wesley,   I met many American Christian friends.  I often had the opportunity to share with them some of the truths I learned in the Local Church Movement.  Most were very curious and open.  God has appeared to me in dreams many times, assuring me that the Local Church Movement will one day receive the fullness and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I was led by the Holy Spirit on a path I never planned on.  But as the saying goes, “All roads lead to Rome." “God’s wisdom is higher than our wisdom; His ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts” (NIV, Isaiah 55:9).

I shared a truth I learned from Brother Witness Lee at the meeting.  He taught that Christians should learn how to hear from God in three different ways.  First, we must read God’s Word in the Bible and get inspiration from it; second, we must learn how the Holy Spirit moves within us to get illumination; third, we must learn how the circumstances that God arranges for us can lead us where he intends for us to go.

I went to California in the summer of 2015, hoping to get help from a fellow believer.  He was relatively indifferent to me.  I knew that this was God speaking to me through the circumstances.  God didn’t want me to find help through the Local church Movement for our infertility issue. It’s like when Jacob saw Laban and his sons look differently at him; he knew that it was God telling him to return to Bethel.  God could certainly have used the Local Church Movement to pray for us and give us words of knowledge about our desire to have children.  He didn’t do this because we would never have left our church.  My wife and I have always said that if we have a few children as soon as we get married, we will never leave the Local Church Movement because there are rich truths there, and the people love us.  Our minds were entirely shaped by the Local Church Movement, so leaving was never an option we considered.  If we hadn’t left, I would have missed out on the truths that the Pentecostal Movement and other churches have taught, and my spiritual growth and faith would have been stunted. 

This is similar to when Joseph was abducted to Egypt.  He later told his brothers that their intention was evil, but God’s intention was to use it for good.  He was brought to Egypt in advance to prepare food and provide salvation for the Israelites. God’s plan always exceeds that of man’s.  Because I walked an unfamiliar path, it forced me to pray to God continually and have fellowship with Him thousands of times.  Through this, not only did I get a miracle baby, this experience has also become the most beautiful memory between God and me.

I will never forget the time that I was praying in the park every afternoon in 2014, pouring my heart out to God by confessing my sins, repenting, dedicating myself, and praying for healing.  Many times after praying, I felt like I came down from the clouds because I had unknowingly entered God’s presence.  I told my wife that if I had to do it over again, I would choose this current path because our ten years of infertility and prayers have allowed us to experience God and increase our faith.  These can never be replaced.  I gradually grew spiritually due to these sufferings and hardships.

Therefore, I speculate that perhaps Paul’s plan here was also to follow the original path that they were familiar with, which was passing through the old road to Thessalonica and Macedonia. But circumstances changed, and God led them along an unfamiliar path.  Though it was an unfamiliar path, God’s presence kept Paul and his fellow shipmates safe, and through Paul’s prophetic words and final achievements, these fellow shipmates were saved.  Perhaps they are in heaven with Paul today.

My mind was so deeply influenced by the Local Church Movement that it never entered my mind to look for help from the Charismatic church.  God changed the circumstances and blocked me from getting help from my church.  The spiritual storm that He arranged took me to the Pentecostal Movement, which activated my gifts.  This showed me how important it is to balance both life lessons as well as spiritual gifts.  They are both necessary for spiritual growth.  We cannot neglect one for the other.

Similarly, Paul may have had his own idea to follow the original road to Rome.  This was plan A, But God’s wonderful plan B achieved greater beauty.  Perhaps the centurion, soldiers, and other shipmates, and even many people on the island of Malta, were saved. This was God’s leading through circumstances.  God often leads us in the spirit, but our soul, which is made up of our mind, will, and emotions can’t always keep up with God’s leading because of religion, culture, personality, etc., so He often has to change our circumstances to guide us.  Through all of the wonderful experiences that God has given me, I’m seeing His plan for my life unfold in the different paths that he has led me.  The Local Church Movement’s vision is to spread the truth that God gave to Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.  They believe we are in the age of body ministry and do not encourage individual ministry.  The heart of this vision is right on, and I was prepared to serve this church for life.  Things changed in 2016 when God told me that Jairus Bible World Ministry came from Him.  The Holy Spirit told me that China would have a great revival in the future.  Many Charismatic prophets, apart from Pastor Li Che, prophesied that God would greatly use me.  I was also told by a Korean prophet that God would allow me to travel all over China to serve Chinese churches as well as serving American churches.  God has established many vital connections through my experiences in the Pentecostal movement as well as through the United Theological Seminary, where I am studying my Doctor of Ministry.  All of these connections, many of which have become friends, are part of the future path that God has prepared for me.

On December 31^st, 2017, I was taken to heaven in a dream.  The Lord Jesus affirmed that He would greatly use me.  I don’t say this to promote myself.  Instead, I want to show that God’s call on our lives goes above and beyond anything we can imagine.  Though we aren’t worthy in ourselves, through His righteousness, nothing is impossible as long as we are surrendered to Him.  God is not limited, but our thinking may be keeping us from doing all that He has purposed for us.

Living in God’s presence is what’s most important.  In His presence, it’s possible to go both North and South.  The GPS may be set at a particular address, but as storms arrive in our lives, we may have to deviate from the original path.  If we live in His presence, being filled with the Holy Spirit and His gifts, God’s good intentions for our lives will come to pass, and we will reach our destination safely.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 24

Bible Study with Jairus – Acts 24

 

Acts 24 tells the story of a Jewish high priest, elders, and a lawyer named Tertullus accusing Paul when he was brought to Governor Felix to make his defense.  

The verse that we are discussing this time is:

24:15 and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (NIV)

A member of our bible study asked, "What did Paul mean by this statement?" In particular, we are questioning the phrase: "the same hope in God as these men themselves have." Who are "these men" referring to?  As we were discussing this verse, the Holy Spirit gave us insight. A person who experientially knows and understands resurrection was being accused by people who only knew about the resurrection written in black and white.  They had no personal experience to back it up.  This is true of those in churches today. Some experientially know the power of the resurrection, and others only go by the written letter.

Let's discuss this.  I think that "these men" refers to the Jews. Paul's name was Saul before he became a Christian.  He was a Pharisee like them (Philippians 3:5). The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees didn't.  Even though the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, they didn't accept Jesus, who proclaimed himself to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). They knew the doctrine of the resurrection but failed to see Jesus, who was the resurrection.

There is a parable in China called "Lord Ye Loves Dragons." The parable is about a person who loves dragons so much that he fills his house with them, but when the dragon visited him, he was terrified and drove the dragon away.   A person can be full of positive talk about a particular thing but, in actuality, not like it at all. The dragon is a negative image in the Bible and Western culture. I used the Chinese parable to illustrate a story. The Pharisees are "Lord Ye who Loves Dragons." They outwardly spoke of their hope for resurrection, but when Jesus came to them as the resurrection, they rejected Him.

Paul was like this before his conversion.  He passionately defended Judaism, even calling for the arrest of those who believed in Jesus.  Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and transformed his life.  He went from a persecutor of Christians to an apostle of Christ.  Paul finally understood the resurrection not only in black and white but from personal experience.

What happened here? Why can a spiritual experience completely change a person, yet the wealth of knowledge that he possessed before conversion didn't change him?

Do you really know the resurrection through experience or only as words on the page?

If Christians today truly understood the power of the resurrection, their attitude about life would be totally different.  They wouldn't be so eager to cling to the things of this world.

For example, there was a story about a Christian couple whose young daughter passed away while exercising.  If you were the pastor of this couple's church, how would you comfort them?  Christians often try to comfort by saying, "she’s in God’s arms and is so happy.”  Unfortunately, many who say such things really aren’t sure if this is true, and it comes across to the grieving parents as a Christian cliché rather than comfort.  If the pastor really believes and understands the resurrection experientially, he’ll be able to communicate it in a way that truly comforts.  When there is no experiential truth, there is a lack of boldness and a sense of helplessness.

Felix was a Gentile governor. He was a sinner. When Paul preached the gospel to him, he was afraid on the one hand, but on the other hand, he hoped that Paul would offer him a bribe. He is an example of a person who doesn’t know the resurrection at all, but he was the judge here.

The Jews who accused Paul were like Saul, which was Paul’s name before God changed it.  They were zealous for God, but they did not know the resurrection through experience. Instead, they accused Paul, who had seen the risen Jesus appear with his own eyes. This gave Paul a chance to testify to the resurrection of Jesus before Felix and these Jews, who didn’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection.

Paul isn’t the only one who experienced this.  Many Christians today have experienced the power of the resurrection.  Let’s look at the example of the couple whose daughter died.  Suppose they had unbelieving relatives at home.  We can liken them to Felix, a judge, and the couple would be the accusers or the Jews.  The pastor was in Paul’s position.  The couple complains to the pastor asking why a loving God allowed their child to die when He could have prevented it.  If this pastor knew the power of the resurrection as Paul did, he would be able to comfort this couple, and perhaps even the unbelieving family would be saved.

In 1 Corinthians 4:9, Paul said, “we have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.”  Paul needs to show by example, the resurrection power of God to the judges who didn’t believe in the resurrection as well as those Jews who only had book knowledge of the resurrection without experience.  Whether or not Felix or the Jews were persuaded, Paul lived out the power of the resurrection.

Katt Kerr, an American prophet, told the story about the couple losing their daughter.  As she was praying, she had a vision.  The Lord told her that He didn’t cause the accident, but in his wisdom and authority, He allowed the girl to remain in Heaven.  In her vision, Katt saw that the little girl had become a young adult leader in Heaven and was mentoring many young people.  The couple was comforted when Katt shared the vision with them.

I was saved in the Local Church Movement but joined the Charismatic church in 2015.  I began to have prophetic gifts activated and started to have many dreams of Heaven.  Jesus has appeared to me several times also.  When I was trying to share my experience of seeing Jesus to a former friend at the Local Church Movement, he politely interrupted me and said, “Let’s just talk about the Bible.”  In other words, he wasn’t interested in my experiences.  This situation may not be unique to the Local Church Movement.  Some evangelicals hold similar views.  The interesting thing is that the Local Church Movement is not opposed to spiritual experiences.  They place special emphasis on spiritual growth and spiritual life experiences.  I led some fellow believers in a study on “The Experience of Life” by Witness Lee, and we gleaned much from it.  The Local Church Movement doesn’t deny Watchman Nee’s spiritual experiences and Witness Lee’s dreams.  Why was this fellow believer not willing to hear about my personal experience? This may seem like a small issue, but it is actually a big one. Many Christians in traditional churches do not deny Paul's spiritual experience in Damascus, nor do they deny the special spiritual experiences of some of the great spiritual people who have been universally recognized and accepted. However, many traditional churches have a more cautious and skeptical attitude towards the special spiritual experiences of unimportant people or regular members of the church.   They are reluctant to talk about these experiences, and they don’t encourage those in their fellowship to pursue such experiences.  According to my observations, because they lack encounters with the risen Lord, some churches will follow the ways of the Israelites in this chapter.  They discuss the resurrection and possess a lot of head knowledge about it, but they haven’t experienced the power of the resurrection in their own lives.  

On the contrary, the Pentecostal Movement encourages individuals to pursue spiritual experiences.  I have heard many testimonies of people who have seen the risen Lord in dreams or visions.  These visions and dreams changed their lives.  Tom Jones, one of my teachers in the doctoral program, even wrote a dissertation on how an encounter with the Lord can profoundly change a person’s life.  Many evangelical Christians don’t believe in some of these personal spiritual experiences, but it’s difficult to deny them when so many people are having these life-changing experiences.

These observations lead me to believe that many evangelicals may fall into the trap of having much book knowledge without experience, which can lead to staleness in their Christian walk.  They highly value the Bible and despise experience because they are afraid of being deceived by evil spirits.  What they may not realize is that they can easily be deceived through erroneous Bible teaching if they aren’t renewing their minds.  There is a balance in all of this.  Christians who are only seeking after spiritual experiences but lack a solid Biblical foundation can also be deceived.  They may get excited about their experience yet lack the maturity to discern what is from God versus the false experience of the enemy.  I’ve seen examples of this.

So how should we deal with the relationship between knowledge and experience of the resurrection?  I believe that we must strive to understand the knowledge of the resurrection, just like Paul, who studied the knowledge of Judaism in the school of Gamaliel, Israel’s best teacher. But when the time came, he saw the risen Lord appear to him on the road to Damascus. Therefore, not only did he have an understanding of the knowledge of the Bible, but he also had an understanding of the experience of the Lord’s resurrection.

 

My experience is the same. I believe it was the Lord’s sovereignty that brought me to the Local Church Movement. The Local Church Movement places great emphasis on studying the Bible. The Christians studying the Bible there are one of the hardest working groups I have ever seen. But because I could not have children, I was compelled to ask for help from the Pentecostal Movement.  

I experienced being filled with the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal Movement, which began my charismatic experience. I have been taken to Heaven many times and observed what goes on there as well as seeing those who live in the Garden.  Jesus has appeared to me in dreams several times as well.  These experiences have helped me to understand the Bible better.

For example, some of the Bible teachers I had early in my Christian life taught the importance of the spiritual side of Heaven known as the New Jerusalem but denied that there is a material heaven. In my dreams of Heaven, I saw buildings, carriages, trains, and other means of transportation.  Jesus took me behind the glass in a building and showed me how people had gone up to Heaven one by one.  There were also meetings with someone preaching. Many times I’ve been brought to Heaven to observe some Chinese people’s lives who not only have houses, but they grow vegetables and plant fruit trees.  I’ve been invited to taste the fruit and Chinese food.  These experiences have helped me to see that material and spiritual are not separable. The Lord Jesus could walk through walls after he was resurrected. The disciples thought He was a spirit, but Jesus asked for a piece of fish and ate it.  This story shows that material and spirit is a mystery after the resurrection.

No doubt, God doesn’t want us to live according to the flesh in this life. God's purpose is not to destroy our bodies or bodily sensations. One of the bodily sensations is the pleasure of enjoying good food. Heaven has a lot of food for us to enjoy. If you don’t believe it, you can look at Revelation 22:2. The tree of life has 12 fruits, yielding its fruit every month for us to eat. There are also buildings in Heaven. I was allowed to see the heavenly house of a Christian lady who comes weekly to our bible study. Her house in Heaven was big, and it resembled a brick structure. The vine and wall had grown together as one, and it was filled with a lot of grapes. The wall next to the main entrance could be opened, and it was a music box that could play music. I can’t explain whether this is spiritual or material, or both spiritual and material.

 

For example, Christians have another theological controversy, which is whether a person will go to hell after they die if they didn’t’ believe in God when they were still alive or whether they still have the opportunity to come to know God in the afterlife. I know this is a very controversial issue. Many times, in my prophetic dreams, I was brought to a valley where diseased Chinese people were living, including my fourth aunt, who had died of breast cancer.  I don’t believe she was saved before she died, but she received and welcomed me. She gave me a fruit similar to a mulberry, but it was like the size of a mango. Her house was as small as the apartments on earth, which is in stark contrast to the big house of the Christian lady mentioned above.  These people live in a deep valley.

I was brought to a similar place in my dream. In this dream, my wife and I were together looking for her father, who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The sudden death of her father, while she was in college, caused her deep emotional pain. I have never met my father-in-law. In this dream, when I got to this place, many people were there, and they excitedly welcomed and received us. Someone brought my wife inside. I was chatting with an old Chinese lady sitting at the door in this building. She showed me the large print edition of the Bible she was reading. After this experience, my wife's heart was completely healed because she was worried that her father would go to hell because he had not believed in God before He died.

I am not trying to arouse a theological debate when I talk about these experiences, nor am I encouraging people to neglect receiving salvation in this life and to suggest they wait for the afterlife. Rather, I’m saying that many things are beyond our imagination.  There are many mysteries that we don’t understand, so we can’t easily say that we understand everything the Bible is saying.

I have just cited a few examples. These spiritual experiences helped me to re-understand the Bible. But on the other hand, I am very grateful for the truths and spiritual practices I learned in the Local Church Movement, including calling on the name of the Lord, pray-reading the Word of God, morning revival, and so on. I keep practicing them every day, and I don't let my new spiritual experiences take the place of me establishing a closer relationship with God. On the contrary, I still give top priority to maintaining a close relationship with God. I worked hard to combine the methods, habits, and attitude of studying the Bible diligently that I learned in the Local Church Movement with the prophetic gifts of the Charismatics. The Lord appeared to me in a dream, telling me that the two rivers would converge. This may be a confirmation from God.

Not only do we need to know the intellectual knowledge of the resurrection, but we also need to try our best to pursue the experience of the risen Lord. If you don’t read the Bible, you won’t know its truths. If you don’t dare to pursue spiritual experiences, you won’t have many experiences. This is a basic law of nature. The muscle that you regularly train will become stronger. If you never train a certain muscle, naturally, that muscle will become weak. Also, the Bible clearly says, if you didn’t get it, it’s because you never asked for it (John 16:24). The principle of the Bible is if you ask, it shall be given to you; if you knock, the door shall be open; if you seek, you shall find (Matthew 7:7–8). These spiritual experiences are not reserved for special people. Because of wrong teachings and fear toward these spiritual experiences, many believers were never taught to pray or ask for these experiences. But I can guarantee you that you would become a totally different person if you have a genuine encounter with the Lord. God wants you to encounter Him powerfully, but some will let fear keep that encounter from happening. Personally, I was very intrigued but wary when hearing about other people’s encounters, but I asked God to show me the heavenly realm, and He did.

 

 

When I was a kid, I often saw electricians in my village climbing up the electric poles making repairs.

They have a tool on each foot. They would hang the tool first on the electric pole; then they would move their other foot to a higher place, and hang this tool again on the electric pole, then move their other foot. They could only do one step at a time. Their left and right feet alternate back and forth, and the gap can’t be too large; otherwise, they would fall from the electric pole.

The electric pole is a very good picture. Our pursuit of biblical knowledge about the resurrection is like our left foot; our Charismatic and spiritual experience of the risen Lord is like our right foot. When you lack one foot, it will make you unbalanced, making it impossible for you to climb to the top of the electric pole and complete the task of repairing the electric wires.

If you only seek the intellectual knowledge of the Bible and neglect the pursuit of the Charismatic and spiritual experience, you will be like the Israelite high priests, elders, and lawyers in this chapter. Although they had a lot of knowledge about the resurrection and hoped for it, they didn’t know the risen Jesus who is the resurrection even when he stood before them. They even persecuted Paul, who knew the resurrection. When they accused Paul, the Gentiles, and Felix, who didn’t have the knowledge of the resurrection and lacked the experience it, became the judges. Many times, our knowledge and truths cannot save people like Felix. Instead, these would become a stumbling block to them. But Paul, who possessed both the knowledge of the resurrection and the experience of the resurrection, was able to witness the power of God's resurrection.

We simply cannot afford to belittle these kinds of spiritual experiences. Fear must be eliminated. Without these spiritual experiences, we could end up like the Pharisees.  We are not encouraging people to seek experiences and neglect the Bible.  I’ve witnessed many churches and individual Christians who are lukewarm because they lack a deep encounter with the Lord.

Those of us who have experienced the power of His resurrection may find ourselves in situations similar to Paul.  God’s purpose is not to harm us but for his power to be shown to unbelievers as well as skeptical believers who lack spiritual encounters.

We need to break free from fear and courageously pursue spiritual experiences as well as a deep knowledge of the truths in the Bible.  Evangelicals and Charismatics should not be enemies.  We are all part of the body of Christ.  We need to unite, merge truths, and break the boundaries of a denominational spirit for churches to be one in Him to accomplish His purpose.  If the church isn’t united in the knowledge of God, they won’t be united in other aspects.  We must come to a place of unity in understanding the Bible.

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 23

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 23

Let's look at a rough outline of Acts 23.  Paul was imprisoned but uses his identity as a Pharisee to his advantage to defend himself and cause division amongst the Sadducees and Pharisees. The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul later that night assuring him that He would be with him and not to be afraid. The chapter ends with a group of Jews taking an oath to kill Paul but were unsuccessful because Paul's nephew heard about the plot and reported it to the centurion.  The centurion snuck Paul out of the city in the middle of the night surrounded by soldiers to protect him.  He was kept in Herod's palace.

The revelation we received from this chapter is that God will use us to change society if we don't compromise with the religious spirit of the church. What do I mean by this? Listen carefully, and I'll explain.

One man in our study shared that he felt Paul was using the conflict between the Pharisees and the Sadducees to divide them. Scripture says, But the Lord appeared to him at night, stood near him and said, "As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." (NIV, Acts 23:11)

We know that Jerusalem was the center of religious power at that time, and Rome was the center of secular power.

I think this man's analysis makes some sense. I call the Pharisees' sect "Vigilantism". They are neither Levites nor priests, and they consider themselves to be defenders of the Jewish law.  They incorporated hundreds of laws that went far beyond the Law of Moses. Their laws were intolerable. Thus, when the Lord Jesus came, He criticized them for being hypocritical and blamed them for putting heavy burdens on people. They also opposed Roman rule. This represents religious power in  the Jewish religion.

Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They even challenged the Lord Jesus on the resurrection of the dead. They did not believe in resurrection and angels, but the Pharisees did believe these things were true.   The Sadducees were known to have vested interest in Roman rule, so they had a mixed bag of secular power among the Jews.    

  Paul was breaking the traditional boundaries of Judaism by spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles, so both groups joined forces against him.  There are religious and secular forces here. The main issue is the religious spirit stirred the Jews up against Paul. Instead of giving in to the religious spirit, Paul bravely fought the spirit of the religion, which stirred the Jews into making a vow to kill him.

I shared my experience of leaving one evangelical church and moving to a Pentecostal church to learn more about what they believe.  This caused a lot of trouble because my original church didn't understand or accept the Pentecostal Movement.  The rise of the religious spirit in several members of my former congregation caused many arguments.  If you've ever left a traditional church and moved towards Pentecostalism, you understand what I mean.  If someone as unimportant as me can cause such opposition from this religious spirit, you can imagine how an important figure like Paul, who was steeped in Judaism, was strongly opposed for converting to Christianity and preaching the Gospel.

I went to the Pentecostal Movement to seek prayer for healing and prophetic guidance because my wife was unable to conceive.  Over time I learned many new truths from this movement.  I understand that there is a lot of the enemy's infiltration as well as human flesh that can get in the way but there are many truths that are important to examine and study.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, spiritual gifts and worship are a few to consider.  I tried to explain to my former church members what I was learning but some believed they possessed the only truth and didn't accept what I was trying to get across.  Others were too afraid to accept it.

I realized that one of the reasons that my evangelical friends who are older than me cannot accept the Pentecostal Movement isn't necessarily because it teaches the wrong doctrine. It's because they may pay a price for joining this movement.  Some will lose family or friends through this association.  An evangelical pastor runs the risk of losing his congregation.  In my situation, I wasn't a pastor or elder, and the price I paid was to have several evangelical friends who no longer talk to me.  That was a low price to pay compared to some. Older members of the evangelical church I belonged to spent their whole lives believing that they hold the only truth.  If I come along and challenge these truths with what I'm learning in the Pentecostal Movement, it has a great psychological impact.  If they admit I might be right, they have to face the fact that they have actually been deceived. It's so much easier for them to say that I'm wrong and deceived by evil spirits.  Unfortunately, their minds will be closed to seeking out truths that may not be comfortable to them, which can lead to spiritual stagnation.

I have challenged their comfort zone and what they have been taught to think for so many years.  The religious spirit immediately tries to convict and stigmatize.  Isolation is the next step that keeps them from being "defiled." In places where an extreme religious spirit operates, such as the one Paul faced, they will try to destroy or eliminate you physically.  Although not common in modern Christian civilization, historically, it has happened and still happens with extreme Islamists.

 Paul was facing the counter-attack of the religious spirit. Remember, the religious spirit comes from Satan, and it is pervasive in this world and in the church.  This doesn't mean, however, that our fellow believers, Jews or Muslims are the initiators.   They are just victims who were used. The master behind it is Satan. Paul said that our struggle is not against flesh, but against the spiritual forces of evil (NIV, Ephesians 6:12). In my personal experience, many fellow believers have triumphed over this religious spirit. Wherever we are, they love us with the love of Christ. They realize that each person has a different calling from God that they need to lay hold of.  Judgment is not the aim here.  The point is to show how the religious spirit operates.

 

Fear of confronting the religious spirit can be terrifying.  I faced it when I left the church where I was saved. They didn't encourage people to step out into their own ministry because they taught that it was spiritual pride.  They were afraid you would get more caught up in your own ministry and neglect the church.  I started my ministry secretly using the pseudonym "Jairus" rather than my real name.  In January 2016, I attended a prophetic conference.  God told me that I was going to have a child that year and that Jairus Bible World ministry came from Him.  In 2017 we ended our ten-year infertility trial and had our miracle baby girl.  What God spoke to me gave me confidence and encouragement to break through the traditional teachings and openly start my own ministry.

The religious spirit controls people through fear. Wherever fear exists, there is a lack of God's love.  Psalm 65:3 tells us that the love of God covers all of our transgressions and 1 John 4:18 says that there is no fear in perfect love.  Many of the Jews thought Paul was wrong and wanted him put to death.  I don't think that everyone believed it, but many jumped on the bandwagon out of fear.  Perhaps they were worried they would be kicked out of the temple or excommunicated from their family or community.  I think that many of our fellow Evangelical believers may reject the Pentecostal Movement because they fear evil spirits or are afraid of what people would think of them, not necessarily because they feel the movement is heretical.

The United Methodist Church will be voting in May, 2020 to formally split.  The church has been divided for years regarding the biblical authority and acceptance of homosexuality.  The division is between conservative and liberal Christians and both sides have decided it would be better to separate.  The seminary I attend has a United Methodist background, so I understand some of the feelings behind the controversy.  A fellow student in my doctoral program, a Methodist pastor from Virginia, believes that what's happening in the Methodist church today stems from the church's compromise on white racism in the early years.  He told me that when African-American Methodist churches were first being formed, the church leaders would not allow African-Americans into their congregations.  They feared challenging the racism amongst white believers which led the church to compromise and divide into white and African-American churches.  This pastor believes that such a compromise led the church to repeatedly compromise on other issues, and eventually, homosexuality.  His perspective really helped me to understand the problem.  Religious spirits often use our narrowness, including racism, to keep us divided, not accepting other nationalities, races and various Christian denominations.  What if the leaders of the Methodist Church had included the African-American believers into their fellowship according to the Bible?  They may have gone through challenges and experienced persecution due to racism, but if they stood firm perhaps the spiritual condition of the Methodist Church would be very different today.  Remember, the religious spirit often cooperates with the spirit of racism and cultural superiority to control the church.  I realize racism exists in many different forms. I'm only using white racism as an example here. The decline of Christianity in the United States can be traced back to Christian leaders compromising and embracing the religious spirit.  One compromise causes the religious spirit to grow and require more compromise.  The morality of American society has gradually fallen, starting from the 1950s.  In 1963 prayer and Bible reading were not allowed in schools which caused further decline. On January 16, 2020, National Public Radio news published an article about President Trump supporting kid's rights to pray in school and warning those schools that they may lose federal funds if they hinder students from their first amendment rights. It's good to hear that this is changing.

The church overall, as well as each individual Christian, must overcome the religious spirit in order for the power of the Gospel to transform society.  When the church continually compromises with the religious spirit, it will lose the ability to be the light and salt to those around us, and our influence on society will weaken.

That's why the Lord Jesus came to stand near Paul at night to encourage him. The Lord said to Paul, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." (NIV, Acts 23:11).

Our spiritual journey is also from Jerusalem to Rome, with Jerusalem being the church and Rome the world around us.  This is what God ordained for us.  The church and its believers must be able to overcome the persecution of the religious spirit within Jerusalem before it can go to Rome and change the world through the Gospel.   To the extent that we can transform and influence the church by overcoming the religious spirit will determine how effective we will be influencing society.

How does the religious spirit control the church?

I've already shared the first angle of how the religious spirit controls the church through fear.  If you come against the traditions of the Jews or Christian denominations, you will be eliminated, defiled, and rumors will be spread about you.  You may eventually even be killed.  Although people may know the truth, fear of persecution keeps them silent.  This cowardly spirit is pervasive in the church.

Lance Wallnau, an American prophet, shared a story about Donald Trump when he was running for President.  Donald invited several Christian leaders to a meeting to exchange views.  They discussed the Johnson Amendment, which is a bill that stipulates that if a church or nonprofit organization publicly supports a candidate, the IRS can revoke their nonprofit, tax-exempt status.  If this happened, the church wouldn't be able to accept donations, and the pastor's income would also be affected.  Lance noted that Trump said something to the effect of "Why are you guys so weak?  You let the Left-Wing and homosexual forces persecute you without fighting back." Many priests in this meeting were silent because this Johnson Amendment is like a gag order on churches and pastors.  They fear taking any risks and possibly losing their careers.  Trump mentioned in this meeting the he would help the church by repealing the bill.  When he became President, he didn't repeal it, but he issued an executive order prohibiting its execution.

This bill and many other similar things have allowed the religious spirit and the spirit of this world to restrict and persecute the church.  If the church compromises, it will be grabbed by the throat and not be able to refute its biblical position regarding homosexuality publicly.  Fear will force the church into a corner over time.  Many Christians believe that President Trump has intervened for Christians against the left-wing politics in the United States.  President Trump has one quality that many Christians lack. He's bold and not afraid to be politically incorrect.

Around the same time that Trump came to power, I was struggling with whether or not to start my own ministry.  I was filled with fear and uncertainty. In addition to God's confirmation that this ministry came from Him, Trump's experience also encouraged me.  He was brave enough to go against the establishment and say what he thought in spite of being seen as politically incorrect.  I do feel that God called me and inspired me to start my own ministry.  I decided to break through the traditions of my former church and bravely follow God's lead.  Through this process, I also achieved a spiritual breakthrough.

Besides fear, the religious spirit uses confusion to suppress believers and the church.  Many of the Jews who plotted to kill Paul were not necessarily bad people.  They were just confused because of the religious spirit.  They believed they were honoring and serving God.  Once a person is confused, it's difficult to pull them out of it.  We need to have compassion for those who are confused, just like when Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).  However, we must understand that the religious spirit is against any new work of God that would link people together, breaking down the barriers of race, culture, and denominations.  This spirit wants to keep us bound to old traditions that keep us divided.

Consider Paul's example.  The Jews had been worshipping the same way for thousands of years, when suddenly a new move of God called Christianity arose.  This new move of God allowed you to eat pork and didn't require keeping the Sabbath.  This was heretical to the Jews.  Through the traditions of the Jews, the religious spirit was used to persecute God's new move. It's not that the Jews weren't God's true children.  They couldn't look beyond their traditions to see what God was doing.  This allowed the religious spirit to take over.  This same thing is what happens in churches today.

Through God's sovereignty, Paul's nephew was able to protect him from the Jews who planned to kill him. Through God's sovereignty, Paul was taken to Rome and imprisoned in Herod's palace.  This was God's plan to allow Paul to preach the Gospel in Herod's house and bring them to salvation.  Herod was an ungodly man but it says in Acts 13:1 that Manaen, had been brought up with Herod, the tetrarch.  This shows that some in Herod's family were saved, possibly as the result of Paul's testimony.

To a certain extent, God permits the persecution we face from the religious spirit to help us become stronger.  When we can take a stand and testify in our own Jerusalem, we may then be taken to Rome to affect the world and possibly save many people like Manaen.  On the contrary, if we compromise to this religious spirit, we will gradually lose the ability to testify to unbelievers in the world.

We need to cast down the fears of offending church traditions and fear God alone. Let's break off that religious spirit so the church can have a glorious testimony in the world.

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 18

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 18

 

As we mentioned last time, Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla. They were Jews coming from Rome to Italy. Paul had already left Athens and they all came to meet in Corinth. I’ve said before that their meeting was a turning point in Paul's spiritual life. Why do I say that?We usually think that Paul is an apostle, so he is always better than others and there is no need for him to learn from others. This isn’t the case. All of us have a learning process. Even when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He needed to learn to grow in the grace of God and man.  Similarly, Paul also went through a learning process. In our study on Acts 17 last time, we mentioned that Paul may have made a mistake of being rash in Athens. He may have been influenced by the environment possibly having a negative rather than positive effect on evangelism. But in Acts 18, it shows the process by which the Holy Spirit further led and perfected Paul through the circumstances.

 

Let's take a closer look.

 

The Holy Spirit patiently leads us into God's will for our lives.

 

The Lord Jesus said that, “Everything is in the hands of the Father. No two sparrows will fall to the ground without His consent.” (Matthew 10:29). Aquila and his wife Priscilla had just left Rome to Corinth because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul also came to Corinth from Athens. Is it accidental that they met there? No. Everything is arranged by the sovereignty of God. The purpose was to let Paul be further perfected and receive help from others in his ministry.

 

There is some deeper insight here that the Holy Spirit allowed me to see while reading the Bible.  It takes time for a person to completely follow the Lord and walk on the predestined path that He has laid out for us.  However, often at the beginning we might not have a clear idea about what God’s will is or how to obey it; so we spend our time and energy following another path and are unable to unleash the gift that God has given us.  For example, If you are called to minister in music but you spend all of your time learning to paint because you didn’t follow your heart, it results in failure and has very little effect for the kingdom.  When you finally understand that music is your gift and you throw yourself into it, you will find that God has opened all the doors.  Another example would be if God called you to be a cartoonist but instead you studied finance because your parents wanted you to be able to support yourself.  When you realize that there is no joy in finance and you return to the industry you love, things will flow and you will be successful in the end.  There are many examples like this.

 

 

So was Paul like this?  In modern times we tend to over exalt Paul’s writings as though he could never be wrong.  Actually this isn’t the case.  Paul is human and has shortcomings. He was on a continuous journey learning to know God in a deeper way.  Even in his old age he admitted that he hadn’t completely taken hold of it, but forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, he presses on toward the goal (NIV Philippians 3:13-14).  This shows that Paul was continuously learning.

Let’s take a look at how Paul gradually learns to obey God's will and walk on the predestined path that God has planned for him.

 

When Paul recalls his experience of being called by God in Acts 22, he said that the Lord said to him, “Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles." If you recall the contents of Acts 17, it   said in the beginning that Paul had passed through a couple of towns, and he went on to Thessalonica to preach the gospel in the Jewish synagogue. After being rejected, he went to the Jewish synagogue in Berea to evangelize. In the end, the Jews in Thessalonica had stirred up trouble and he was forced to go to Athens. He preached the gospel to the Gentiles in Athens, but was not very effective. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that Paul had made a great turn here. At that time, Paul didn’t exactly do what God told him to.. God's will for him is just what Jesus said to him, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (NIV, Acts 22:21). God chose him to be an apostle of the Gentiles, but he couldn’t bear the thought of not preaching the gospel to the Jews. If you look at his description in Romans chapters 9-11, he said that he would rather be cursed so the people of Israel could be saved. You can understand Paul's burden for the Jews. But unfortunately, this was not God's call for his life.

 

The Bible has explicitly stated that God called Peter to be the apostle to the Jews and chose Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13, Galatians 2:8). This is very odd. If you were God, would you choose Paul or Peter to be the apostle to the Jews? If I was God, I might choose Paul because Paul is familiar with the Jewish scriptures and was taught by Gamaliel. He is even a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin. He was also circumcised on the eighth day. No one was more qualified and suitable than him. In contrast, Peter was a fisherman who had didn’t have a high level of education. There are scholars who say that Paul’s level of proficiency in Greek was far higher than Peter's. But God didn’t choose Paul to be the apostle to the Jews. Instead, he chose Peter to be the apostle to the Jews. For the Gentiles, I also think that Peter was more likely to be accepted because he was from Galilee where there were mostly gentiles, and Paul was a strict Pharisee. He was also enthusiastic to persecute the church. So naturally, Paul was more qualified to be the apostle to the Jews than Peter. But God didn’t arrange it like that.

 

There are people who believe that the reason why God arranged it that way is for us not to use what we are naturally good at. He wants us to do things that we are naturally not good at to force us to trust the Lord. We shouldn’t do things based on our ability, but by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

We all have fleshly and natural choices. Often it’s not that we don't know God's will and path for us. Rather, our flesh, human nature, and habits often hinder us so we have a difficult time quickly following God's call  . God understands us, so the Holy Spirit often patiently waits and leads us. But the Holy Spirit often tells us through the environment that "the road is blocked" encouraging us to   "turn back." The same is true of Paul’s experience here. We mentioned in the previous message that maybe because of Paul’s attempt to persuade people to accept the gospel through debate, it wasn’t very effective. But actually, our understanding at that time was not comprehensive enough. In this reading, we can see more light. It was not because Paul’s debate had gone wrong, but because Paul wasn’t living completely in God’s will so God blocked him in all aspects, making his evangelism ineffective.

 

Therefore, Acts 18 is a turning point. It is recorded in 18:5 - 6 that:

 

⁵ When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. ⁶ But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”(NIV)

 

It was possibly here that Paul may have recalled what the Lord Jesus said to him, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles to preach the gospel.” He had just realized that God’s call to him was to become the apostle to the Gentiles. Even though he was reluctant to leave his fellow Jews  who had rejected the gospel, he had no choice but to go to the Gentiles. In this way, he was forced by the environment to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel. It looks like he was forced by the environment, but actually it was all the wonderful leading of the Holy Spirit.

 

Therefore, in Acts 18, it was definitely not accidental for Paul to encounter Aquila and Priscilla from Rome. Rather, it was arranged by God’s sovereignty. Think about it. When Aquila and Paul were weaving tents together, don’t you think they talked to each other? In the content of their chats, is it possible that Aquila talked about his life experience with the Gentiles in Rome and his experience of dealing with the Gentiles? there’s a good possibility some of that was talked about. Paul's experience of evangelizing the Athenians in the previous chapter was not very successful. Maybe one of the reasons is that he didn’t understand the Gentiles and was not familiar with how to preach the gospel to them.

 

Became like a Gentile to win the Gentiles

 

When some Western missionaries first came to China to preach the gospel, they adopted an aloof attitude, as if to say, we are preaching the gospel, you guys are barbarian idol worshippers, so you have to give up your faith and accept ours. Some of these missionaries often have deep relationships with Western colonizers and officials. They will therefore use Western diplomatic and military power to force the Chinese to open their ports and accept the gospel, which caused a lot of resistance from the local Chinese. Consequently,   preaching the gospel to them was not very effective. But when Hudson Taylor came to China to preach the gospel, he adapted to the Chinese culture. He dressed in Chinese robe and grew a pigtail like the Chinese. He   also lived with the Chinese. His living and eating habits were the same as those of the Chinese, sohis gospel work in China was very effective. He preached the gospel to many places in China.

  Paul’s experience of evangelism in Athens seems to be somewhat similar to the attitude of Western missionaries when they first arrived in China. Perhaps he was feeling superioras he wastrying to persuade these people to turn away from idols to Jesus Christ through debates. Unfortunately it didn’t work out well. Is it possible that after his failed attempts to evangelize that Aquila taught him how to witness to the Gentiles and inspired him?  I believe that Paul was able to get inspiration and learned something from his experience in Athens. He said in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22:

 

²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. (NIV)

 

From Paul's words, we can see that Paul had learned how to become a Gentile in order to win the Gentiles. He learned that he shouldn’t be aloof when he preached the gospel, and he shouldn’t persuade others to believe in the gospel through debate. Rather, he should humble himself and put himself on the level of the Gentiles, live and eat with them, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a language acceptable to them.

 

God's later confirmation

 

I   had a special experience recently.   I met a prophet who said that God wants me to be a U.S. citizen because this will help me in my service in the future. However, because I am a Chinese citizen and I also have a U.S. green card, it is more convenient to visit China plus I feel that the chance that God will call me to serve in China in the future is huge, therefore, I have been living in the US for a long time and not been naturalized as a US citizen. f  After hearing the prophets words I spent time in prayer but didn’t receive any confirmation from God.  I reluctantly submitted my application for US citizenship anyway.   Not long afterwards, I had a prophetic dream. I found that the Chinese characters on my Chinese passport were altered, and a lot of English letters were written, and I saw a seal falling down from above with the words "U.S. Citizen" above. I felt that this was Lord’s confirmation that the submitted application was directed by Him. The prophecy of this prophet may be correct. But when I prayed for God's leading, God never gave me any confirmation.

 

This was my own experience, but actually, I’m also explaining Paul's experience here. When Paul didn’t completely live in God’s will, he seemed to be running up against a stone wall everywhere he went. His evangelism in the synagogues in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens was not smooth. Of course, the Lord told Paul before that God's purpose was to send him far to the Gentiles to be a witness for Him. So this was imprinted in Paul's spirit. Therefore, at the beginning of chapter 18, Paul met Aquila and his wife Priscilla who came back from Rome. This might further remind him of the command he heard from the Lord. When Paul swears to turn to the Gentiles from then on, he went next door to the house of Titius Justus. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized (NIV, Acts 18-8:9). Afterwards, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” (NIV, Acts 18:9-10). I called this God’s later confirmation. When Paul finally walked on the right path that Jesus told him, Jesus appeared to him, confirming that he was walking in the will of God. We often have such confirmation in our spiritual experience. The Lord will give us a prophetic word in the beginning. The Holy Spirit will then secretly lead us, give us limitations and leading through the environment. And finally when we walk on the predestined path that God has laid out for us, God will often prove to us again that we are indeed walking on His predestined path.

 

Acts 18:11 records that Paul lived there for a year and six months, teaching God's words among them. This sentence is definitely not accidentally recorded here. Rather, the Holy Spirit further confirms that Paul came here to preach the gospel and live according to God’s will.

 

Of course, we are not saying that Paul could’nt preach the gospel to the Jews. In the latter parts of Acts 18, it’s even recorded that when Paul arrived at Ephesus, he went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. But I guess perhaps the emphasis of Paul's ministry had turned towards the Gentiles. In particular, chapter 18:19 records that after Paul had reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue in Ephesus, when they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. This is a clear contrast to what is recorded in 18:11 where Paul stayed there for a year and a half.

 

Prior to this, Acts 18 also recorded that the Jews had attacked Paul, but the local official did not interfere. After this, Acts 18:18 (NIV) recorded that, “Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila”. But because of a vow he had taken, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea before going to Ephesus. But he did not stay in Ephesus for a long time. He left to go to other places.

 

The matching of the different parts of the body to Christ's body

 

In 18:24, it started to introduce a Jew named Apollos. The Bible specifically mentioned that he was an eloquent man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. The Bible didn’t use these words to describe Paul. So looking at this description, Apollos had a gift that Paul may not have. In addition to Apollos' eloquence (that Paul may not have), it is specifically recorded that Apollos had vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (NIV, Acts 18:28). These records are in contrast with the limited effects of Paul's evangelism before the Jews. These have indirectly proved that God's call to Paul was mainly for the Gentiles because God raised up people like Apollos to preach the gospel to the Jews, and it seems that their work was more effective than Paul’s.

 

Of course, the Bible has also recorded the limitations of Apollos, that is, he only knew the baptism of John. But Priscilla and Aquila, who were perfected by Paul, had helped explain the way of God to Apollos more adequately (NIV, Acts 18:26). This again shows that the principle of God's work is through the matching of the body; allowing different members of the body of Christ to match and complement each other.

 

Paul came to Ephesus again in Acts 19. There he found some disciples of Apollos' ministry who only knew John’s baptism; they didn’t know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This   also paved the way in the beginning of verses 20-21, where he declined the invitation of Ephesians when they asked him to stay there for a while. Instead, he said that, "I will come back if it is God's will."  (NIV, Acts 18:21). It is something that the Holy Spirit mentioned specifically here so that Paul later can come back to help those who are under the ministry of Apollo’s.

 

Why did God arrange for Paul to come back later? What is the meaning and implication of Paul's making up for the lack of Apollos' ministry in Acts 19? Why is it that   Apollos’ ministry only knows John’s baptism and not the baptism of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit? This has   profound spiritual significance. We hope to continue sharing our understanding in the next reading.

 

 

 

 

Bible Study with Jairus - Acts 17

Bible Study with Jairus- Acts 17

In the beginning of Acts 17 it tells us that Paul and Silas came to the synagogue in Thessalonica to preach the gospel. Some people were persuaded, but it also led to the opposition of many Jews. The Jews wanted to bring Paul and Silas out to the crowd but could not find them. Because of this, the Jews dragged Jason out who had received Paul and Silas. Because of this, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea, and upon their arrival, they started to preach the gospel in the synagogue. The people there were more open-minded than the Thessalonians. When the Jews in Thessalonica heard about it, they came over to stir up trouble again. The believers then sent Paul to the coast and escorted him to Athens, while Silas and Timothy remained in Berea.

When Paul arrived in Athens, he asked the people who escorted him to let Silas and Timothy come over. Then the Bible records:

17:16 (NIV) While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

17:17 (NIV) So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

17:18 (NIV) A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

The Christian woman who was leading our Bible Study asked, “Why is it that the Jews of Thessalonica were so opposed to Paul's evangelism and when Paul arrived in Berea, why did the Jews from Thessalonica travel to Berea to oppose Paul? Why is it wherever Paul and Silas went, they went to the synagogue first to preach the gospel? And why is it when Paul arrived in Athens, he still let Silas and Timothy to come over? It seems that Timothy had always been with Paul, but why is it he didn’t mention Timothy when he was in Thessalonica and Berea? After the Jews brought Jason to the crowd, why was it recorded in Acts 17:7-8 (NIV) that: "Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus. When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil." Why were they thrown into turmoil?

There are a lot of questions here but we can only answer one at a time so let’s start with why the Jews were thrown into turmoil when they heard Jesus was king.

I shared that there was a historical background to this which I learned while I was studying Christian theology. During the time when the Israelites were against Roman rule, there were several different Jewish factions. The Herodians and Sadducees mentioned in the Bible were Roman advocates; but the Pharisees and the Zealots advocated for independence and were opposed to Roman rule. In particular, the Zealots advocated the use of violent and revolutionary means to overthrow Roman rule, and they launched violent uprisings against Roman rule but were brutally suppressed by the Romans. After the brutal crackdown, the Zealots were almost completely exterminated. The Pharisees were basically politically cautious. They didn’t fiercely advocate revolution, and thus survived. But the faction that advocated cooperation with the Romans occupied a large part of Israel's upper class.

Why were the Jewish crowds and the city officials thrown into turmoil when they heard that Jesus was another king? One of the reasons may be that many Jews advocated cooperation with the Romans. It can be said that they were "Jewish traitors”. So, if Jesus (another king) came and if He was able to lead the Israelites in a successful revolt, would they have to liquidate the history of these traitors? And Jesus is really the king of Israel. Not only were these Jews afraid that He would become king, but even his disciples were hoping that He would really be king in order to lead them to revolutionary success and to drive the Romans out and restore Israel's glory. Looking at these two examples, the identity of the Lord Jesus as a Jewish king does bring hope but it also poses a threat to some groups of people.

Although Jesus had already been crucified when Paul preached the gospel, talking about Him as another king of the Jews could have caused another Jewish revolution.  The revolts might have been successful and the Roman advocates would be called traitors.  If the revolution wasn’t successful the Israelites would be brutally suppressed by the Romans again.

 

Therefore, there were valid reasons why the Jews fiercely opposed evangelism. It could even be said that it was a very legitimate reason to protect the Israelites from harm. Those who hold this view believe that the people who were opposing Paul's evangelism were actually protecting ordinary Israelites from the Romans, because the history of the fierce suppression of the Zealots was still fresh in their memory.

It may be for these reasons, plus several others, that these Jews from Thessalonica had gone to Berea to oppose Paul's evangelism. In both places, Paul was forced to leave. Please note that the first time Paul was forced to leave Thessalonica and flee to Berea, he was with Silas. The second time Paul was forced to leave Berea and was escorted to Athens while Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. When he arrived in Athens, the one who escorted Paul had taken orders from him and went back to call Silas and Timothy to come over Athens, and left. Here, I guess the person who escorted Paul is just one person, or even if it’s a few people, they were all gone. After Paul was left alone, he encountered a lot of difficulties. Herein lays the problem.

When American pastors and teachers travel to other countries to preach, they spend many exhausting hours on the plane and then often proceed directly to the place they are to preach.   Many times they are already exhausted when they reach their destination. They need to be strengthened by the Lord before they can finish their sermon. Even though we have airplanes and better traveling conditions, a long flight is still exhausting.  If that’s the case, imagine that if you were Paul, and you traveled long distances to evangelize and you were continuously being chased. Now you are alone in Athens, and Athens is full of idols. How would you react?

Let’s look at Paul’s reaction.

Acts 17:16-18 (NIV) says that:

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

How should we look at this passage?

The church that I was saved in was more in favor of Paul's work. In my spiritual education, Paul was rarely criticized. But when the Lord led me to look at the teachings of some of the Bible teachers outside the traditions of my evangelical church, I heard some criticisms towards Paul.

I heard a message from Rick Joyner that there are statistics showing that 80% of the Exegetical and Hermeneutical Work of Bible after Martin Luther’s Reformation have been about Paul. Rick saw Paul once in a vision. Paul told him that everyone has highly exalted him. They should not take his work to analyze the four Gospels. Instead, they should use the words of the four Gospels to measure his works.

Rick Joyner also said that Paul’s life has undergone three stages of growth and change. The initial stage seems to be what he said in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians (NIV), “My immediate response was not to consult any human being.” There seems to be some pride in saying these words; but in the second stage, he claims that “For I am the least of the apostles” (NIV, 1 Corinthians 15:9) and “I am less than the least of all the Lord's people” (NIV, Ephesians 3:8); Later he said, “I am the worst sinner of them all.” (NIV, 1 Timothy 1:15). These verses show that Paul had also undergone a process of constant humility.

There is some controversy that arises when reading Paul's work. The controversy revolves around the issue of Paul’s teachings being infallible. Paul is a human being and all human beings are bound to make mistakes. But if Paul was used to write the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, could there be any errors? If you believe that Paul can't be wrong, that doesn't really make sense because humans are bound to make mistakes. If you believe that Paul can be wrong, then how do you decide which subjects he was right or wrong about? This is an issue in particular with the controversy about Paul's prohibition of women preaching. Was Paul wrong to base it on the customs of that time, or were his words the revelation of the Holy Spirit? How we should view Paul’s teachings? Whether Paul is right or wrong in this matter has become a big debate in Christian exegesis. But for now, we won’t discuss the issue of whether women should or shouldn’t preach.

We certainly believe that Paul's words are the revelation of the Holy Spirit, but we also believe that Paul went through a learning process because he experienced failure. Although the Biblical education I received did not say that Paul's experience in Athens was a failure, I have heard other Bible teachers mention that Paul's attempt to win people's hearts in accepting Christ through debating at Athens was a failure. They specifically compared what is written in Galatians 3:5 with Paul's experience in Athens. Paul says in Galatians 3:5 (NIV), "So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?" Here, Paul specifically mentioned that the Galatians started with the Spirit so that they should not fall into the flesh. He preached the gospel by relying on the Holy Spirit. He had also performed miracles to bring the Galatians to salvation.

Let's take a look again at Chapter 17 verses 16-18 (NIV):

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

I agree more with the argument that Paul’s debating may not have had good results here. Allow me to explain my thoughts. 

As I mentioned earlier, Paul was chased twice by the Jews. He was accompanied by Silas the first time, and the second time; he was accompanied by an escort. When he arrived in Athens, the person who escorted him went back to assist Silas and Timothy so they could come quickly to Athens. In this interval, Paul was alone. Even if Paul possessed remarkable abilities/powers, he would still feel lonely when he was alone. The Bible tells us “How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight?” (NIV, Deuteronomy 32:30). The principle that God established was to partner us with the body of Christ. At this time, when Paul was left alone, he might have faced an attack and incitement of the enemy.

My personal view is that after Paul experienced the continuous attacks and rejection of the Jews plus the fact that he was left alone in Athens and saw that the city was full of idols, he became greatly distressed. Then I think he started to reason and ask himself, was he still in the spirit? The Bible does not explain this so we do not know for sure. But the view I mentioned before, that is, the result of Paul's hopes of spreading the gospel to the Athenians through debating did not go very well. So Paul's experience in Athens is regarded as one of his failures.

Let me discuss the inspiration that I received during this meeting. It can be said through the word "react" or more appropriately, "to be influenced by the environment". In our spiritual experience as Christians, we should be seated in heavenly places in Christ, but sometimes our flesh or minds are provoked and make us react in our minds and in the flesh. Afterwards, we often regret the experience.

I recently listened to a very early message from an American pastor named Jack Deere about the discipline of the Holy Spirit. He mentioned a very interesting experience that he had. He said that he is a pastor in a not so well-off place in the United States. As a pastor, he is often misunderstood and attacked by others. One day, a female Christian, in a church where he served as a pastor, said to him, "You are just serving as a pastor here for the money." He was very angry and he answered her back. Things like this seemed to happen all the time. He asked the Lord, “What is going on?” The Lord said that this is the discipline of the Holy Spirit. He said, “When will it end?” The Lord replied, "When you can treat those who criticize you with a gentle and kind spirit." Jack Deere is a pastor who moved from the evangelical church to the charismatic movement. He is well-known in the Christian world in the United States. He is also one of the few American pastors I know of that teaches the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Supposedly, he’s also a person who pursues deeper spirituality, but he shared this experience to let us see that a person who pursues spirituality is often influenced by the environment especially when they are not mature enough.

When Jack Deere’s spiritual discipline was more mature, he would respond more gently and lovingly to those who criticize him.

When a Christian is practicing to be more spiritual, we need to learn not to react to the environment or be influenced by the environment. Instead, we should react to the heavenly reality and our communication with the Lord, and out of our position of sitting together with Christ in heavenly places.  Reacting to the environment or what you see will end up pulling you down to the level of the environment itself.

Can Paul’s experience here be pulled down by the surrounding environment? We know that Paul is a man with heavenly experience and vision, but there are times that people become weak, especially when he is constantly attacked by Jews, and his co-workers Silas and Timothy are not beside him to assist him. He might have been very knowledgeable since he received training from Gamaliel, and he was good at debating. After he was enraged in the spirit, his soul also became agitated: "You guys know how to debate, I also know to debate. Your philosophy is great. My philosophy is also very impressive."

As you can see here, not only did he debate with the Jews and God-fearing people, but he has also debated with the people he met in the marketplace every day, and some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who have argued with him. We are not sure whether Paul is like this, but those who hold the view that Paul has done nothing wrong is untenable because Paul is a human being, and every human being has a process of learning and continuous maturing. In his later years, Paul did not think that he was fully mature yet, saying that “I press on toward the goal to win the prize.” (NIV, Philippians 3:14). If Paul's later years are not fully mature, then Paul's experience should be a process of continuous maturity. The only difficulty is how we see Paul’s continuous maturity process with the help of the Holy Spirit, but at the same time not be affected in accepting the fact that the Holy Spirit has spread the Word of God through Paul's mouth.

Judging from my limited personal evangelistic experience, many times we encounter some atheist Chinese, who often debate with the people who are preaching the gospel. I personally feel that these debates are often not very effective. The best way is to influence them through prayers and testimonies of love. Of course, among many Christians who advocate Power Evangelism, there are many who use the power of the Holy Spirit to let the atheists be convinced. The debate is usually not very effective. Debates often let us fall to the battlefield of the mind, and debates are things that often happen after we have fallen into a reprobate mind. I slowly learned a lesson, that is, when a person is not ready to accept Christ, or the Holy Spirit hasn’t yet reached a point where he has begun to work on the person to open up his/her mind, we don’t need to have too much debate with him/her. Instead, we can silently pray for the person with an attitude of give and take in the service of love. It has a better effect as time passes.

In addition to this it’s important to be spiritually paired with other believers no matter how knowledgeable or spiritual you may be.  Paul knows this very well. But does the absence of Silas and Timothy affect Paul's judgment? Although Paul is an apostle, the Bible clearly says that Silas is a prophet. If Silas is there, will Silas pray to God to get any prophetic revelation on how to do the work of evangelism in the city of Athens? Or if Timothy is there, will he be more eloquent to deliver and preach the gospel? Although Timothy is younger than Paul, we have seen how young people can do many things better in the church. When people who don’t know much about God come to church, the effect when the pastor preaches a profound sermon is often not as good as the testimony of a few Christians who have faith in the Lord from the very start. The latter is more appealing to those who have just come into contact with the gospel.

This is also my personal point of view. I think that Paul may be more suitable to teach those who want to seek and experience the truth on a deeper level, but Timothy may be more suitable to test the waters first in Athens. Their human hearts are not prepared yet for the idol worshipping people so we should let Timothy pave the way through his words. Or let Silas pray to God to see what strategic or spiritual guidance God has, and then find ways to preach the gospel here. But it seems that it wasn’t mentioned here that Paul has received any revelation or God's guidance. Instead, the Bible mentions that he had reacted because he was angry in the spirit. Is this reaction completely from God?  We don't know.

But I think that those who hold the view that since Paul was an apostle, everything he did was right and he didn’t need to seek God's guidance, and he won’t ever make mistakes is untenable. Although Paul was an apostle, he has the ability to make mistakes and will need a process of learning from them. I personally think that Paul should not be in a rush and do things hastily. He should take a rest and wait until Silas and Timothy come to discuss the matter together and then take action. In other words, Paul is too rash here. This may be one of Paul's weaknesses.

Of course, our analysis is not necessarily right, but it can provide us with another idea, that is, to understand the process of Paul's growth in God. Paul was a person, not a God. Did he have any shortcomings? It’s safe to say that it’s very natural for everyone to have weakness. Did Paul have any weaknesses? If what we propose here exposes the weakness of human nature, what is Paul’s weakness? What effect does Paul's weakness have on his ministry?

We don't know the specific weaknesses that Paul had, but it’s impossible for a person not to have any weakness. Even if people don’t have obvious weaknesses, they need to be paired with other believers who have different giftings.  Therefore, the pairing of Silas and Timothy to Paul is very important.

Of course, we are not totally negating the effect of Paul's evangelism in Athens. Although he wasn’t good at convincing the Athenians through debating, he had attracted some people who were seeking the truth.

Acts 17:19-21 (NIV) says: "Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)”

You can see that the explanation in verse 21 is that the Athenians and the foreigners who live there are very busy, and they have no time to take care of other things. So these people took Paul and brought him to Areopagus to talk about these new lessons/ideas which stood out to us. Going back to what we mentioned earlier, Paul may not have the silver tongue of Timothy, or the effect of preaching the gospel to the newcomers or those who are occupied by the world’s affairs, but Paul didn’t fail to attract those who really seek the truth. Paul’s personality may be more suitable to people who are diligent seekers of truth.

Paul spoke a very famous passage in Acts 17:24-27 (NIV) which says that: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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 have no intention of belittling Paul, and the experience here is also the highlight of Paul's experience in Athens. But I personally don't think that idolizing Paul or assuming that he doesn’t have a process of continuous maturity, is correct. Paul is a human being. When he is continuously attacked and left alone, he will be weak and will be incited by the environment to react. And such a reaction usually pulls us down to the level of the environment or the enemy, letting us lose the commanding heights of victory in Christ. An example is Pastor Jack Deere that I mentioned earlier. When others criticize you, don't rush to react. Instead, rest in the Lord and ask His wisdom and follow his leading to deal these criticisms. Similarly, I think that Paul should not be rash here. He should seek the Lord on how to evangelize Athens which was occupied by idols. He should also wait for Silas and Timothy to come and discuss first before making any decisions. It’s not that Paul has no wisdom, but Paul was constantly attacked and alone. He needs to get a good rest and to be taken care of.

We have a new couple coming to our Bible study. I hoped to give them a prophetic word before the end of our meeting. I prayed to God and asked Him, “Are there any prophetic words to give and bless them?” I heard the Holy Spirit say two names, Aquila and Priscilla. I prophesied by faith that:

I feel that God believes that you are Aquila and Priscilla. They have the same line of work as Paul, but they have also taken care of him. Although Paul is an apostle, the apostles also need to be cared to and helped by people. I feel that God called you to be Aquila and Priscilla to train the Paul of tomorrow, because in this era, God will raise and widely use many Paul-like apostles. God called you to be Aquila and Priscilla to cherish those who are serving as apostles. Whether this person is still your child, or a little brother or sister in your church, God will use you to fulfill them in order to make them become servants like Paul. As we saw in this chapter, Paul also has weaknesses and there are times that he needs help and to be paired with other believers. Paul’s encounter with Aquila and Priscilla was a turning point in Paul’s spirituality, because the couple, Aquila and Priscilla, is very compassionate. They were tentmakers just as Paul was and they had received Paul. We believe that Aquila and Priscilla have tended Paul to a large extent, so after Paul met Aquila and Priscilla, it could be said that spiritually, he became more mature. How God used Aquila and Priscilla to take care of and complete Paul’s ministry, God will also use you two to come along side and complete the Pauls of tomorrow.

I prophesied that according to the principle that “everyone can prophesy” (1 Corinthian 14:31), it’s not because I am a prophet. I was saved in an Evangelical church, but I learned the gift of prophecy after I first came into contact with the American modern prophetic movement in 2015. Of course, I studied five courses at a prophetic school, and their teachings helped me to go and activate this prophetic gift.

I prophesied with inspiration and faith. I don't know if these words are correct for the couple because they didn't give me feedback. However, after other friends who were in the meeting with me verified Acts 18, they began to discover Paul's experience of encountering Aquila and Priscilla. It seems that perhaps, I am speaking by the Holy Spirit. Because when I prophesied, I was not sure when Paul met Aquila and Priscilla, nor was I very familiar with the content of Acts 18.

I hope that when we have the opportunity to read Acts 18, we can learn more about how Aquila and Priscilla have tended and helped Paul with the help of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for reading, listening or watching.