Our God is a speaking God, and we are the speaking people of the speaking God! When we come together with the saints, our meeting need to be full of speaking Christ to one another! According to 1 Cor. 14:3-4, he who prophesies SPEAKS building up and encouragement and consolation to man! Also, he who […]
exercising the key of denying the self to shut the gates of Hades and build the church
We need the Lord to shine on us and show us a vision of the self. From the very beginning in the garden of Eden we see that the self is the soul declaring its independence from God. When we are no longer dependent on God but “take matters into our own hands”, we are in the self. The self is the greatest problem to the building up of the Body, and the self is opposing the Body. The principle of the Body is depending on the Lord and depending on the brothers and the sisters… To be independent of the brothers and sisters equals being independent of Christ, but when we are dependent, the self is gone, and instead of the self, we have the Lord’s presence and are full of peace. [continue reading online]
using the keys of the kingdom to lock the subjective gates of Hades and build up the church
Matt. 16:21-26 shows us not only the subjective gates of Hades coming in to frustrate the building up of the church but also the keys of the kingdom of the heavens which lock these doors and release the building up! We need to use the keys of denying our self, losing our soul life, and taking up our cross! Denying the self mainly relates to our mind, since the self is expressed through the mind with its opinions. Taking up the cross is related to taking up the will of God and not our own will. Losing our soul life is related to the enjoyment of the soul, the pleasure – we need to seek God’s pleasure and His enjoyment!
the way to build up the church as the kingdom of God is death and resurrection
What is the way to build up the church? As revealed by the Lord in Matt. 16:16-18 and then in 21-26, the way the church is built up in a practical way is through death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus builds up the church through His death and resurrection – if He would have not died on the cross for us and if He would have not resurrected, there would be no church. It is the same with us today – if we do not die to ourselves and if we don’t live the resurrection life in the church life, we do not build up the church. [continue reading this article online]
God desires to change our constitution by changing our diet – He wants us to eat Christ only!
God does not want us to “Improve” or “change our behavior”, to be “better people” – even though this will eventually be the result of us eating Him… God wants man to eat Him, enjoy Him, breathe Him in, and be constituted with Him! This is why we see that He brought the people of […]
Christ will prosper in the pleasure of Jehovah and He will extend His days – we are His continuation!
Through Christ’s death and resurrection He produced the many grains – the many sons of God – the many brothers of Christ! This is actually the pleasure of Jehovah – it pleases God to reveal Himself into us, to make us the seed of Christ, to make us a part of Christ, to make us […]
learning to be those loved by God by doing the things which are on His heart
King Cyrus, though a Gentile king, was raised up by Jehovah, anointed by Jehovah, and loved by God (Isa. 48:14). God loves the people that do the things which are on His heart. Cyrus did what was pleasing to God, bringing pleasure to God, by releasing the people of Israel to go to their own […]