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At the turning of the age, we anticipate that the believers in the church life will be overcoming and powerful, ready to stand against the nations and the evil and adulterous generation that has become more and more degraded as His return draws near. We know that the book of Matthew is about the gospel of the kingdom — the age to come — but it also shows us a negative picture of God’s people rejecting the Lord at a crucial turning point in His dispensational moving on the earth.
According to the Bible, the church era is confined in time and space, bounded by two dispensational signs: the Lord’s first coming and the Lord’s second coming. We find ourselves in this very scenario — sojourning in the wilderness, awaiting His return, surviving through gathering and eating manna. Just as the Israelites were brought out of Egypt and given an open, heavenly supply to take in, we too, have access to this daily supply in His word.
The church life requires a core sense — a fellowship, or a way of understanding among the saints and across generations that is linked by this pure, innermost sense of life. When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was in prison, and he says in 1:8 that he longed after them all. In the original Greek, this “long for” means “to desire,” or “to pursue with love.”
Modern people live a convenient life. Everything is ready. Most of us don’t need to fight to live or eat, and even our cooking, cleaning and travel are made easy by modern technology and infrastructure. But when you are out in the wilderness, life is very raw. We have to do everything by ourselves, and face our beings every day — both the beautiful part and the ugly part. In the true wilderness life, there are no beds and showers to be comfortable and clean. There are no shortcuts, no conveniences to rely on.
Today, there are many people who can read the Bible. There are also many ways to read the Bible. Scholars may study the Bible, and good Christians may look to the Bible for guidance. But when we touch the word, how often do we truly receive nutrients from the Lord’s words? When we spend time reading the Bible, do we find ourselves being saturated, being constituted?
Eve fell because she was independent, separating herself from Jehovah and from Adam. On the surface, Eve may look innocent and naïve, having been deceived by Satan. But at the moment the serpent said to her, “Did God really say…?” she made her own decision outside of her source and covering, seeking to make herself wise (Gen. 3:1-6). Is this not us?
Paul writes that God has made us “sufficient as ministers of a new covenant.” But what does serving or ministering in the ministry of this new covenant look like, and what is the end goal for our serving? In 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, Paul refers to this ministry as not of the letter, but of life through the Spirit. He exhorts us to be “confident” in this ministry and to exercise it with “boldness” — without a veil — beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord through the Spirit.
Since the time of Adam, as recorded in Genesis 5, death has been part of human history (v. 5). And yet, it was not God’s original intention that Adam should die. Through the fall, sin brought in death to the generations of man: “Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin, death; and thus death passed on to all men because all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). From Adam’s descendants, however, there is a divergence into two distinct genealogies: Cain’s line and Seth’s line.
What does the Lord’s anointing feel like? What does it look like to be anointed? Some Christians believe they need to have some kind of holy water or physical anointing oil. But when we all come together as believers to meet on the Lord’s Day, what is it that ushers us into the true prayer, singing of hymns, sharing of testimonies, declarations of victory, and offering of sacrifices upon the Lord’s altar? What leads us to offer up a real, genuine, and acceptable offering to the Lord?
We know that God in His economy arranges all circumstances to turn out to the fulfillment of His own desire. And as we look at the world situation these days, we know that He is using even — and especially — the most fallen situations to glorify Himself. Religion defines glory a certain way, and humans define glory a certain way, and yet our God’s definition is something completely different. It is the revealing of Himself to His chosen people, that all may know that He is God.