the need for spiritual understanding and divine revelation (LS 1 Thes msg 3)

Message three from the life-study of 1 Thessalonians is so rich and so exposing! In the first few verses of 1 Thessalonians Paul speaks of the church in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, the work of faith, the labor of love, the endurance of hope, the manner of life, turning to God from idols, serving a living and true God, awaiting the coming of the Lord Jesus, etc. If you speak English, you understand what these words mean, but we don't really get the deeper meaning of these matters.

I was so exposed to see that I read the Word of God and I think I understand it, but I don't have an exercised heart, spirit, and mind to see the divine revelation in the Word. I take the Word of the Lord for granted. I can even declare, Praise the Lord, I have turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God! - but what does it really mean that God is living and true? Is God living to me? Is my God living to others through me? Am I in God and is God living in me? Is He real, living, and true to me and through me?


O, Lord... how much we need a spiritual understanding of the divine facts - we need to be enlightened by the Lord every time we read the Bible, so that in the organic union with the Lord the divine facts in the Word would be transmitted into us!  We need to have a spiritual understanding of the Word of God (in contrast with the natural understanding of what the Bible says) and the divine revelation in the Word (in contrast with our self-made light according to our natural mind when we read the Bible).

Lord, save us from thinking we know! We don't want to take Your word for granted! Keep us so open to You whenever we come to the Word! May the objective faith be transmitted into us to become our living and subjective faith, by which we are organically united with You! Lord, we want to have a view of what You are, what You have, what You have accomplished and obtained! Save us from our natural ways... we want Spiritual understanding and Divine Revelation!

[NB. There may be a few days ahead in which I may not post here from my enjoyment in the life-study of 1 Thessalonians - but I still do my best to read it, enjoy it, and maybe even share a bit about it. Tomorrow we start the video-training on the Crystallization-Study of the Psalms(part 2), and I will focus on getting these messages in... Lord, re-constitution!]

the bigger the lie, the more people believe it; the truth still stands!

I have been thinking about this matter these past few months, especially when interacting and talking to the people around me. I realized one thing, looking at the history of the church until today - Satan has changed his strategy against the Lord and the church from persecuting the Christians (in the first two centuries) to welcoming Christianity (and then mixing all the pagan and idolatrous things with the things in the Bible); from covering the Bible (the Dark Ages) to allowing people to read the Bible yet add their own flavor to it (thus creating division, many distractions, and "a Christian church supermarket" where people choose the church that fits their taste); and from allowing man to read the Bible to ridiculing and making fun of what the Bible is and stands for...

Still more, because of discrediting and ridiculing the Christians and the church, people today especially in the Western Europe prefer NOT to believe in God but rather believe an outright lie instead of accepting the simple truth! All throughout the ages the truth in the Bible stood strong, and today it is shining forth with more light in the local churches everywhere on the globe. But people prefer to believe a lie, something that would fit their taste, even though the lie is great, absurd, and even colossal.

The influence of Hollywood and the movies on people is clearly seen in many believing all kinds of crazy things like: re-incarnation, no sin - no punishment for sin, ignoring God meaning there's no God, elevating the self to the extent of believing in your self and not in God, accepting all kinds of strange eastern practices and religions as being something to try, etc. I can even go so far as to say that people would rather believe in movies like Star Wars and Star Trek than believe in God - even though, starting from when these movies came out until now, everyone knows such things don't exist. The movies and TV shows today expose man's thirst for supernatural, fantastic, surreal, and as far from the reality as possible.

The truth as it is presented in the Bible and as it stands throughout the ages is so simple, so pure, so un-complicated, and when man hears the truth - there's an Amen - that's right! in his being! When people hear that God created man in His own image and likeness so that man may be God's expression in a corporate way - man is satisfied and filled with purpose! When we hear that God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus and then as the Spirit He wants to come into our spirit to mingle Himself with our whole being and make us even the same as He is - our reaction is, Wow, amen, that's it! It is so good to know the truth and be simple - touch God in our spirit, be filled with Him daily, and express Him in a normal way!

No matter what others say about the Bible, about the Word of God, and no matter how many books people put out as being "best seller" and "best selling book of all times" - the truth in the Bible still stands! The truth in the Bible, being the Word of God, stands throughout the ages - in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1) and when the Lord Jesus will return He will be called the Word of God. Actually, it is the Word of God spoken by Christ as the Overcoming One together with His overcomers that will destroy the enemy. Today it is "man's day", it is "the day of the ruler of this world" - but in us who enjoy the Word of God and are simple to contact Him in a living way, this one has nothing!

But I have noticed that in these last days as soon as you don't touch the Lord in a living way in His Word, it is so easy to just go along with the flow in the world, become like the rest of all the people, even to believe in an outright lie, and then live a life without a purpose... It is almost as if in the age of the degradation of the church the attack and degradation has been intensified, so that you can't even stand by yourself - there needs to be an intensification of God's organic salvation to produce some who would be overcomers, some who would stand against the current of the age and just be simple enjoying the Lord!

What a mercy, how relieving, enlivening, and meaningful it is to be simple! Accepting the truth and having a living relationship with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in a daily and habitual way - this really makes you feel you are one with the Lord, you fulfill the purpose of your life, and you are satisfied simply because God is satisfied! ... I just can't believe that the bigger the lie, the more people are prone not only to believe it but stick to it and uphold it and speak it! It is indeed the Lord's mercy that we would be simple, we would know our God, and we would allow the Lord to save us in His life much more today - so that He in us would become the overcoming One! Lord, do it in us!

One Picture in London - Tesco "You Shop, We Drop"

In London and everywhere in the big cities in the UK you see these trucks from Tesco - "you shop, we drop", meaning not that they drop your stuff on the floor but that they deliver! It's free delivery many times, and you can set what time you want it delivered! Pretty cool... :)

[What do YOU think? Does the truth in the Bible sanctify you to such an extent that the lie in the world - even the lie which is the world - is exposed? What is YOUR experience in this regard?]

not I but Christ; not us but the prayers! - one meaningful thing I did today (30-day challenge)

The title is pretty self-explanatory, but just to have a certain background against which the title may "shine out"... we human beings are amazing "creatures" - always developing, accumulating information and knowledge, growing, etc. We learn to walk and to speak(as babies), we learn to read, write, exercise, have performances in the classes we're interested in, etc. We are being trained to be "better people" our whole life. We go to kindergarten, grammar school, high school, university, post-grad, Ph. D, post-doc... all these things we do to be trained to know, to know how to do things, to invent, to be someone...

Sometime during our life the Lord Jesus, the Immense Magnet in the universe, attracts us to Himself and captivates our attention - we believe into Him and are captivated by His charming beauty(Heb 12:2 + note). When we are regenerated, something interesting happens - we receive another life, even another Person into us! Until now we decided to do, say, be things - but now there's another Person, Jesus Christ, living in us! He is "bothering us" and "speaking to us", giving us life and peace - or giving us the sense of death / uneasiness / unpleasantness when we are in some places or do some things that the Lord doesn't like! We who used to do "whatever we want" now listen more and more to this Wonderful One within us.... - and this brings me to,

Not I But Christ; Not Us But The Prayers! - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

As believers in Christ we daily learn that if we turn to the Lord within, if we exercise our spirit, we get more LIFE and we become more like Him! So we choose to turn... There's conflicts between us and the Lord - we hold our ground, choose things according to our pleasure and preference... loose the Lord's presence - then return to Him and repent + confess... fail again, make mistakes + return to Him... until there's a choice to be made - just like Paul said in Gal. 2:20,

I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me! And the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

More and more in our daily life and in our experience we have this deeper realization - Lord, no longer I but Christ! I want to enjoy You and experience You to such an extent that the old self is crucified, even my person without Christ is on the cross, and Christ is the One who lives in me! Christ organically replaces me to live in me! But it is still I who live - Christ is NOT "using me as a mindless robot to do His will" - NO! I still live - I live in faith, in the organic union with the Lord! This faith is not of me - it is of the Son of God, who loved me and just gave Himself up for me!

The Lord will get us to the point where we realize that IT IS STILL I WHO LIVES - though we love the Lord, we love the Word, we love spending time with the Lord, it is still Stefan who lives, not Christ! When the Lord shows us this, we desperately pray and give ourselves to Him, and we learn to give Him more ground in us, allowing Him to make His home in our hearts... - until little by little, it is "some of me and some of Him", "less of me and more of Him", "none of me and all of Him". Christ WILL be formed in us; Christ WILL live in us, and Christ WILL be fully expressed through us - today we are learning to cooperate with Him in this....

On the other hand, in working for the Lord, coordinating in the church life, serving the Lord in different practical services, helping with the children of the young people, serving with the students, etc - in all that we do for the Lord, He wants us to FIRST PRAY. The younger we are in the Lord, the more full of natural strength we are to do things for Him. More and more though, as time goes by and the Lord is faithful to speak to us and expose us, our natural strength and natural capacity - in His mercy - is running out and is being exposed to the uttermost as being useless to Him! And then we come to the conclusion, I CANNOT DO THIS, I CAN'T SERVE THE LORD!

This is going from one extreme to the other - from "I can do this - bring it on!" to, "I can't do it, I give up!". What the Lord wants us to realize is that yes, we can do it, and no, we can't do it! First of all, we need to PRAY! Before we do or speak anything for the Lord, we need to pray. Why do we try to work so much(and yet accomplish so little) when we can accomplish much more by our prayer than by our working!?! What are we trying to DO FOR THE LORD? He is Almighty, He can do everything - what can we do for Him? It is an insult to the Lord to try to do something for Him without first consulting Him and praying to be one with Him....

When David in the Old Testament wanted to build God a house, God told him that He wants to rather build Himself into David first and then what comes out of David(Solomon) will build a house for God. First of all, we need to be thoroughly mingled with God by praying ourselves into God. And then, once we are in God, one with God, we can do something for God - and this is actually God doing something in us and through us. So then it is No Longer Us, but the Prayers! We pray ourselves into God, we pray God's prayers which are put in us, and we pray out God's will to be Done! We execute God's will on earth by uttering the prayers that He need to move on earth! Wow...

<< the above is just something I realized today while I was doing my job at work (and I realized that it is STILL STEFAN WHO LIVES, NOT CHRIST) and as I was walking home after the home meeting (and I realized that IT IS SO MUCH OF ME TRYING and not so much of praying...). So today I want to choose the Lord - to be infused with Him and mingled with Him to the point that it is Christ living in me! Also, why try to do so many things - which things, by the way, need to be taken care of - when you can call a brother and pray together to be built up into the Triune God and be mingled with Him!?! >>
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This article may be one of the last ones on this theme - on this challenge - since I have to "change the challenge", the 30-day period is almost up now... What do go for next? On the one hand I have been encouraged by all the testimonies and sharings and comments of all the readers - either here or on twitter or via facebook - to go on... But I think I want to go for something a bit different but on the same topic kindda... What about... "One London Picture (with description) + One Verse I enjoyed today(with a short sharing)"? - I am eagerly waiting for your comments on this matter - I want your opinion / feeling on this(that is, if you have read the entire article until down here)!