A Prophet Represents The Full Mind Of God

Many aspire to be prophets or messengers of God. Ezekiel is one prophet who many would want to emulate. His visions and prophecies were clear and vivid. God described him as a watchman on the walls of the city of Jerusalem. He was trained to be a priest and not a prophet. He lived through the darkest time of his nation in captivity. He even suffered the pain of the death of his wife (and was told by the Lord not to mourn as the death depicted the state of his nation . Ezek24:15-24).

  

Ezekiel 3:10-11 The people may not listen

¹⁰ Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”
Ezekiel 24:15-24 The Prophet’s Wife Dies
¹⁵ Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁶ “Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down. ¹⁷ Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips, and do not eat man’s bread of sorrow.”
¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded.
__________________________

 Excerpts from the book "The Persistent Purpose of God" by T. Austin-Sparks

A Prophet Represents The Full Mind Of God

Now let us look at the prophet himself. You know that Ezekiel did not begin by being a prophet. Ezekiel was a trained priest and not a prophet. You notice verse three of chapter one tells us that. And then at the beginning, verse one refers to "the thirtieth year": "Now it came about in the thirtieth year" - the thirtieth year was most probably the thirtieth birthday of Ezekiel. It was at the age of thirty that the priests finished their training and entered upon their ministry. You remember that it was when the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age that He entered upon His ministry. His preparation was finished and His ministry began. So, at the age of thirty, Ezekiel ought to have commenced his priestly ministry; but instead of fulfilling his ministry as a priest, he was called to be a prophet. His whole life and training and vocation were changed.

A prophet is one "who represents the full Mind of God when that Mind has been lost." It is impressive to note that Ezekiel had to take up something altogether different from that for which he was trained. The situation which existed required that. We shall come back on that again later.

Now when God moves in relation to His full Mind - which has been lost amongst His people - there are always things essential in the instrument of His movement. And if this is going to be done, it is only God Who can do it! You know the course of men is quite different from that. The way of men is to take men and train them and make them able to do the work, so that when they come out of the college, or the Bible institute, they feel that they are equipped for the work; and now, of course, they can do it. They have been trained for it. However, Ezekiel was not qualified for his work. He was qualified to be a priest, and he was called to be a prophet. And what we find is that all through his life, he never found it easy. You see how difficult Ezekiel found his work: he realized that it was only by the help of God that he could fulfill his ministry.

We all have to begin there if we are really going to minister in heavenly things. There has to be this tremendous change where we come to realize that we cannot do this work of ourselves. Only the Lord can do it. There was this great sense of disappointment with things as they were, the overpowering sense that things were wrong, and this state of things had to be made the business of Ezekiel's life. You will have to begin there if you are really going to be used of God. You will have to be overwhelmed with the sense that things are all wrong in this world, that things are not as they ought to be, and that you have no ability to put them right. You sense that God has called you to this, and that your ability to do anything must come from God Himself.

That is where we begin with Ezekiel, and, of course, we take the spiritual principles as we go along. I think I need not go back over that ground. There is a breakdown in things, they are not as God intended them to be. God calls men and women in relation to this situation, and the call changes the whole course of their lives. And in the call is the consciousness that they have no ability in themselves to meet the situation. But God, Who has called them, will be their sufficiency. I have read the first three chapters of Ezekiel into what I have just said.

Let us take one little fragment out of these chapters, which is the commission of Ezekiel: "Son of man, I send thee not to a people of a strange language, whose language you do not understand. If I sent you to them, they would listen. But I send you to the house of Israel. They will not hear you." (Ezekiel 3:4-7; paraphrased). That is a difficult commission, and only the Lord could carry a man through that. But then notice what the Lord says as to Divine equipment: "...I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads" (Ezekiel 3:8). In other words, the Lord is going to be the strength of this difficult work.

Ezekiel Saw What The Lord Wanted

Then we notice another thing. With this sense of disappointment, this whole change in the course of life, this having to take a way for which there was not natural equipment, there goes this second great factor: "Ezekiel saw the Lord." He was given a vision of the Lord, a vision of what the Lord wanted. Now it is very important that these two things that I have just mentioned always go together. If we have disappointment and dissatisfaction without vision, that is negative. There are plenty of people who are dissatisfied with things as they are. They are the people who can always see what is wrong. They can point their finger at the weaknesses and the faults; they are experts in criticizing everything. That is negative, that does not get us anywhere. With dissatisfaction, there must go vision. But vision must rest upon travail. Vision without travail and suffering of heart is mere mysticism. These two things, vision with travail and suffering of heart, must go together. If you or I feel dissatisfied, and feel that things are all wrong, we ought to be in possession of the knowledge of what the Lord really does want. We ought to have a positive vision of the purpose of God.

Now I want to stop here and say a word to you. Let us read these first verses in Ezekiel:

Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile, the Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans... and the hand of the Lord came upon him (me).

I want to say a word at this point to you about ministry. You notice that what Ezekiel was about to do had a special date for its beginning. It is very impressive how particular Ezekiel is about dates in his prophecies. If you really read through these prophecies, you will see that he is very particular about dates. That gives us our first point for ministry. A minister according to God's Mind must have a message for the time. It will not do for us to be giving out things just in a general way. Our Bible teaching must not be just of a general character. What God needs more than anything are those who have a message for the present hour. When we have finished our life, and our ministry, it ought to be possible for it to be said of us that we had a message for our time, that we were not just one in the general mass of teachers but that we had God's Word for the hour - that our ministry related to a special time in the purpose of God.

Now you servants ask the Lord to make that true of you, that it can be recognized that your ministry relates to the present time - WHAT GOD WANTS TO DO NOW. That is a very important factor in ministry. What does God need at this time? We must pray that we shall be the Lord's instrument for the present time - that there shall be a very clearly defined time factor in our ministry. So the date is a very important thing in ministry. When God really raises up servants, He raises them up for a time. 

 

Ezekiel Was Raised Up In Relation To The Situation

And then the next thing to note: Ezekiel was raised up in relation to the special situation at that time. What we have just read shows that Ezekiel was right there in the situation: "...I was among the captives by the river of Chebar." (ASV). Ezekiel was not preaching to a situation that was distant from himself. He was not preaching to a situation that he had imagined to exist. He was not preaching to a situation that had been reported to him to exist. He was right in that situation. He was in the closest personal touch with the need. The need was his need; he was put right into the heart of the situation, and his ministry came out of that. He said: "I sat where they sat." And that takes ministry out of the realm of the merely theoretical and puts it into the very practical.

You will notice that this was true of all the prophets. They did not speak to the Lord about the Lord's people as THEY - "THEY are in this situation; THEY have done these things; THEY have these needs." The prophets always spoke to God, "WE are in distress." Read the prayer of Nehemiah in chapter one at verse 2-11, and read the prayer of Daniel in chapter nine at verse 3-19. They were a part of the situation. And for you and I to be effective servants, we must be there.

The Word Came Expressly To Ezekiel

And then the third thing: this ministry has to be very personal. You notice what it says in chapter one, verse three: "The Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest." That means TWO things. Firstly, it means that Ezekiel did not get his ministry out of books. He did not fulfill a second-hand ministry. His ministry was not the result of study. This came to him personally. These visions of God were his own. His message was original and not second-hand. It must be like that. Our ministry must be like that: it must be the result of something that God has said to us personally.

Secondly, the meaning of the Word of the Lord which came expressly to Ezekiel is that THERE WAS AN URGENCY ABOUT IT. You know the meaning of that word, "expressly." You speak about an express train. Well, what do you mean by an express train? One that must get there quickly, it is very urgent. You remember the word of the Apostle Paul: "...the Spirit speaketh expressly" (1 Timothy 4:1; KJV) - there is urgency about this! "The Word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel." There is something very urgent about this. You have got to get there as soon as you can. There is very serious business on hand. All your energy must be concentrated upon this object. That is how it has got to be with us. There has got to be a tremendous urgency about our message. There are very great issues at stake. I would say to you one thing before you deliver your message. Stop and say to yourselves: "What is God's Mind for His people - because you are going to influence lives, PERHAPS, FOR ALL TIME AND ALL ETERNITY." 

(excerpts from  http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001234.html Austin Sparks)

End Time Church Witnessing: Back to the Ancient Way -how to hear God’s voice?

“Unless we do understand the principles of the interpretation of the Bible, the Bible is not an open book.” (Austin Sparks)

The watchman has been thus convicted. It is his heart desire that the Bible be open to everyone who seek to hear God’s voice with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.

Recall the time when our Lord Jesus walked the Emmaus Road (a road out of the Old Gate) with his two disciples, how He walked the seven miles and expounded the Scripture to them about Himself. (Luke 24:27 “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”)

Below is the whole passage (from Austin Sparks’ book “the Persistent Purpose of God”) on how to interpret the Bible from the Ancient Way. Readers may download the whole book using the link to the author’s site.

_____ Chapter 1 – God’s Full Intention Governs Everything That He Does

We are going to occupy the first part of this morning with preparation for what we are going to consider later, and I want to speak now about some principles of Biblical interpretation. It is very important for us to be able to know how the Bible is to be interpreted, and this will be especially seen in what we have to consider later on. Unless we do understand the principles of the interpretation of the Bible, the Bible is not an open book; we may know what is in the Book as a book, but we do not understand it until we have the principles of interpretation. So I ask you to try and remember what I am going to say now and bring it over into our later study. We will consider five important principles of interpreting the Bible:

1. The Eternity of God;
2. The Comprehensiveness of Christ;
3. The Interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit;
4. The Final Mention;
5. The Only Real Value is the Spiritual.

(1.) The Eternity Of God

The first principle of the interpretation of the Bible is the eternity of God. We must always remember that all time is present time with God. There is no past and future with God: all that is past and future with us has been present with God always. At any moment in what is time to us, eternity is present with God.

The architect always has the completed plan before him. If he is the designer of a ship, he has a model made of that ship before anything is done. He sees in the model the completed object, that is, exactly how the thing will appear when it is finished. If it is a great building, or even a city, it is the same. The architect draws what we call a scale model, and he sees in that model exactly how the building, or the city, will be when it is finished. The builder works day by day according to that completed plan. Those who only see the parts cannot understand, and must not take the parts as being the whole. Sometimes when you look at the parts of a building, you cannot for the life of you understand what it is going to be. It is only as the completed thing is seen that you can understand the parts.

Now the Bible is just full of parts, but they are all the parts of something that God sees in completion. God is the Great Architect, He has the completed and perfect plan before Him before He begins any work. God’s eternity is in every part. So we must realize that God has His full Mind behind everything that He does! GOD’S FULL INTENTION GOVERNS EVERYTHING THAT HE DOES! You must realize that God’s Mind never grows – God Himself is incapable of development.

The temporary form of anything contains the eternal and full thought of God. You must realize that there are always TWO MEANINGS in anything that is in the Bible. There is the present meaning, that is, how that applies to the present situation; but there is also the future meaning. Everything in the Bible, while it has a present application, has a fuller meaning in the future. That is the first law of interpretation: it is the eternity of God.

(2.) The Comprehensiveness Of Christ

The second law of interpretation is the comprehensiveness of Christ. Christ is the interpretation of all the Bible, to know Christ is to understand the Bible. Men like Peter and Paul knew the Bible, but they did not understand it until they knew the Lord Jesus. We first know the Lord Jesus, and then we take Him back into the Bible, and He is the interpretation of the Bible. Therefore, we cannot really understand the Bible until we know the Lord Jesus. That results in this – that the Bible is really a Person, and not a book. The Bible is a Living Person, and not a dead letter. Because this Person is inexhaustible, He makes the Bible inexhaustible.

Now that is a more important principle than perhaps you realize. It is possible to exhaust the Bible as a book. We have known great Bible teachers who went through the Bible teaching it again and again, but at the end of their lives they were having difficulty in finding something fresh; and they were only repeating again and again things that they had said in past years. The reason for this is that they dealt with the Bible as a book. That will never happen if you know the Lord Jesus and see the Bible in Him, and Him in the Bible. I repeat that the Lord Jesus can never be exhausted. As the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus to us, the Bible is always more alive. So, we have our first two principles of interpretation: (1) The Eternity of God and (2) The Comprehensiveness of Christ.

(3.) The Interpreter Of The Bible Is The Holy Spirit

Now we come to number three: the interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. I have said that Jesus is the interpretation of the Bible. I am saying now that the Holy Spirit is the INTERPRETER of the Bible. We are familiar with the words in the Letter to the Corinthians, but let us just look at them again now. The First letter to the Corinthians, chapter two and verse thirteen: “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.“

Now I do not know if you have marginal references in your Bible but the more correct translation of those words is this: “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.” Let us read the whole passage again in that way:

Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.

That scripture is a very important statement, and it definitely affirms the principle that we are now setting forth – the interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. First of all then, the Bible is the Holy Spirit’s Book. The Bible is not firstly man’s Book, it is not our Book, we have not got the Book. We have got certain writings which are called Scripture, but in truth we do not possess the Book.

You remember the case in Acts of the Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip came near to his chariot, he heard the Ethiopian reading. He was reading the Book at Isaiah 53. Philip said to him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” and he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” Here is a man who had the Book in a certain sense, but in a real and profitable sense he did not possess the Book. We can have the Book as a volume, and yet we may not possess the Book, because the Bible is the Holy Spirit’s Book first. The mind of man and the Mind of the Spirit are two altogether different things!

Do you know that there are many, many Christians who do not recognize that! There are many Bible teachers who do not recognize that! And this is the cause of very much confusion, and the reason for very much spiritual smallness and weakness. I think this may lie at the bottom of most of the controversy. THE BIBLE IS A CLOSED BOOK TO ALL BUT SPIRITUAL MEN. This is the principle that the Lord Jesus set before Nicodemus: You must be born from above before you can see what is above.

Our measure of understanding of the Bible will be just in accordance with the measure of our spiritual life. This is why the Lord takes us through experiences in order to bring us to understanding. The measure of our death to the natural mind will be the measure of our understanding of the things of the Spirit. Please remember that in these days which are before us – something has got to happen IN US before we understand the Scripture. We cannot understand the Word of God by just deciding that we are going to have a training course, that we are going to have some classes for Bible teaching. No, that is not the way in which we come to understanding of the Word of God. We shall only understand according to the measure of our spiritual life. That is the third principle of Biblical interpretation. Now we come to the fourth.

(4.) The Final Mention

The final mention of any particular matter in the Bible is usually a key to all its meaning. That is something that we must think about! We find certain things mentioned again and again in the Bible; but when we come to the final occasion where that thing is mentioned, we usually find the key to all that has been said about that matter before. If you take a particular matter, where it is mentioned for the last time, and then note the setting and the context and the relationship, you will get the full meaning of all that has been said about that before.

Now that is a statement that I have made, and you will need to think and to work on that, but I will help you by taking just one illustration. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation twenty-two and verse two, we have the last reference to “the tree of life.” Now when we go right back to the beginning of the Bible, we have “the tree of life” mentioned, but we are told nothing about it – it is just referred to as something that exists. We have no explanation, we are not told what that tree is, or what it means; it is just referred to as “the tree of life.” We have to go to the end of the Bible for the explanation, and when we come to this last chapter of the Bible, by the context and relationship, we have a very large explanation.

Let us look at the passage. Revelation 22: “And He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” - note the context, ‘the throne of God and of the Lamb.’ you have got to read the whole book of the Revelation to understand that! There is a tremendous amount in the early chapters of this book about “the throne of God and of the Lamb.” And you need to understand what the throne of God is and what is the significance of the throne of the Lamb – in the midst of the throne is a Lamb!

Now in relation to “the throne of God and of the Lamb,” there is “a river of the water of life… in the midst of the street thereof. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner (kinds) of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His bond servants shall serve Him.” There is “the tree of life.” It bears immortal fruit. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR DEATH HERE. Its fruit is born every month: this is fruit immortal, or fruit without death. The leaves of this tree are for the HEALTH of the nations. I am sorry that in most versions the word “healing” is wrongly translated. I do not know what the word is in your translation, but the original is not for “the healing of the nations,” but for “the health of the nations.” You may ask, “What is the difference?” Well, one is THE REMOVAL OF DISEASE and the other is THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE.

In Revelation 22, we have come to the time when the spiritual diseases of the nations have been healed, but the health of the nations needs to be preserved. It is a state that is to be maintained. Thus, the leaves are not for healing, they are for preservation. And so it says: “And there shall no longer be any curse.”

You see, you have got the whole history of the Bible in those words. You have got all that came on the nations through Adam’s sin. You have corruption and death – moral disease – the result of a curse. All that is now cleared up, and “the tree of life” represents VICTORY OF LIFE over all that, Life Triumphant, and Life Abundant. Here the full meaning of “the tree of life” is revealed. And it is like that with all other matters. When you come to the last mention, you have the key to the whole subject. That is a principle of the interpretation of the Bible.

(5.) The Only Real Value Is The Spiritual

Now I come to the last principle for the present, number five: the only real value is the spiritual. We must remember this when we are reading and studying the Bible, and we must keep this in mind in these times in which we are together. We must not come here just with a thirst for more information or a craving for more knowledge. There are people who just want to get more and more knowledge and education. Now that constitutes a danger. That is exactly how Adam was caught. You see, Satan said: “If you take of this tree, you will know”; it was “the tree of knowledge.” And there is always a danger in eating of that tree. It might just lead us into death and not into life. So, I repeat this principle of Biblical interpretation: the only real value is the spiritual. And spiritual value is just how something affects our life with God! I do wish that Adam had recognized that! When Satan tempted him to take of “the tree of knowledge,” if only Adam had said, “How will this affect my life with God?” he, and we, should have been saved all the trouble.

So, let me say this again, spiritual value is just how something affects our life with God. Shall I put that in another way – spiritual value is just how much something increases the measure of Christ. If Christ is the interpretation of the Bible, then the spiritual knowledge of the Bible results in an increase of Christ. If our days together do not result in an increase of the measure of Christ, we have missed the Way. If we do not go away more Christ-like men and women, with a larger measure of the Lord Jesus, this training course has failed. So I beg of you to pray all the way through that this time together may mean SPIRITUAL INCREASE and not intellectual enlargement, but SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.

Everything has got to be judged by how much it contributes to the Ultimate Purpose of God. We have to ask, “Where does this lead us? Is it leading us anywhere? What is it leading us to?” All spiritual knowledge leads to an increase of Christ; it contributes to the ultimate purpose of God.

The question always is “How much of Life is there in it?” It is not a matter of interest; it is not a matter of fascination with Bible truth; it is not a matter of making us more important people, by the enlarging of our natural stature, but it is just a matter of the measure of Christ. That is the real spiritual value.

Now, let us go over our five principles of the interpretation of the Bible. In our second hour together we shall take them over into our special subject for study, just as we will continue to do in the coming days: (1) The Eternity of God; (2) The Comprehensiveness of Christ; (3) The Interpreter is the Holy Spirit; (4) The Final Mention of Everything Containing all its Meaning; and (5) The Real Value is the Spiritual.

Also, brethren, before the next session, I would like for you to read the first three chapters of the Prophet Ezekiel. You will have to read them more than once in these coming days, but it would be a help if you will refresh your minds with what is in those three chapters.

A HEAD STONE FOR MY YOUNGER BROTHER

A HEADSTONE

_________________________________

ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS

  常在我们心中

my younger brother

我的弟弟

The day he went to be with the Lord: 3rd March 2012

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all my iniquities,
Who heals all my diseases,
Who redeems my life from destruction,
Who crowns me with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies my mouth with good things,
So that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

( Psalm 103:1-5 )

我 的 心 哪 ， 你 要 称 颂 耶 和 华 ！ 凡 在 我 里 面 的 ，

也 要 称 颂 祂 的 圣 名 ！

我 的 心 哪 ， 你 要 称 颂 耶 和 华 ！

不 可 忘 记 祂 的 一 切 恩 惠 ！

祂 赦 免 我 的 一 切 罪 孽 ，

医 治 我 的 一 切 疾 病 。

祂 救 赎 我 的 命 脱 离 死 亡 ，

以 仁 爱 和 慈 悲 为 我 的 冠 冕 。

祂 用 美 物 使 我 所 愿 的 得 以 知 足 ，

以 致 我 如 鹰 返 老 还 童 。

（ 大 卫 的 诗 - 诗篇103:1-5 )

________________________________________

The watchman’s compilation of Bible verses on “tears”. May all who mourn be deeply comforted.

COMFORTING WORDS FOR THOSE WHO SOW IN TEARS FOR THE LORD JESUS

Psalm 126:5
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Psalm 126:4-6 (in Context) Psalm 126 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Isaiah 25:8
he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 25:7-9 (in Context) Isaiah 25 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Jeremiah 31:16
This is what the LORD says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD. “They will return from the land of the enemy.
Jeremiah 31:15-17 (in Context) Jeremiah 31 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Psalm 126:5
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Psalm 126:4-6 (in Context) Psalm 126 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

HOW AN INTERCESSOR CRIES FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Job 16:20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; Job 16:19-21 (in Context) Job 16 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Psalm 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. Psalm 119:135-137 (in Context) Psalm 119 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Jeremiah 9:1
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
Jeremiah 9:1-3 (in Context) Jeremiah 9 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsJeremiah 9:18
Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.
Jeremiah 9:17-19 (in Context) Jeremiah 9 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsJeremiah 13:17
If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be taken captive.
Jeremiah 13:16-18 (in Context) Jeremiah 13 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsJeremiah 14:17
“Speak this word to them: “‘Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for the Virgin Daughter, my people, has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow.
Jeremiah 14:16-18 (in Context) Jeremiah 14 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsJeremiah 31:16
This is what the LORD says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD. “They will return from the land of the enemy.
Jeremiah 31:15-17 (in Context) Jeremiah 31 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsJeremiah 50:4
“In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.
Jeremiah 50:3-5 (in Context) Jeremiah 50 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Lamentations 2:18
The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. You walls of Daughter Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.
Lamentations 2:17-19 (in Context) Lamentations 2 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsLamentations 3:48
Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
Lamentations 3:47-49 (in Context) Lamentations 3 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

THE LORD DETESTS THESE TEARS


Malachi 2:13-14 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Malachi 2:12-14 (in Context) Malachi 2 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

THE LORD APPRECIATES AND GIVES AWARD TO THESE TEARS


Luke 7:38
As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
Luke 7:37-39 (in Context) Luke 7 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsLuke 7:44
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
Luke 7:43-45 (in Context) Luke 7 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

THE LORD RECORDS TEARS THAT ARE SHED FOR HIM (TEARS SHED BY THOSE AFTER JESUS' HEART)


Psalm 56:8 Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record? Psalm 56:7-9 (in Context) Psalm 56 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
Acts 20:19
I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
Acts 20:18-20 (in Context) Acts 20 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsActs 20:31
So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Acts 20:30-32 (in Context) Acts 20 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations2 Corinthians 2:4
For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
2 Corinthians 2:3-5 (in Context) 2 Corinthians 2 (Whole Chapter) Other TranslationsPhilippians 3:18
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Philippians 3:17-19 (in Context) Philippians 3 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations2 Timothy 1:4
Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.
2 Timothy 1:3-5 (in Context) 2 Timothy 1 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

NO MORE TEAR AT LAST!

Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ” Revelation 7:16-17 (in Context) Revelation 7 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

Revelation 21:4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:3-5 (in Context) Revelation 21 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

End Times church witnessing: The Pattern is the Son

The watchman found new treasures in the writings of older archives. Here is an excerpt from the writing of Austin Sparks in "The Kingdom That Cannot be Shake" 
____________ http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002070.html

The Pattern is the Son

The pattern of the training of sons is the Son. Conformed to the image of His Son! Christ fully formed in you! Foreordained unto adoption as sons! And adoption is at the end not at the beginning; adoption still waits; the day of our adoption has not arrived. You know the New Testament teaching on this matter is altogether different from modern English practice; and so, although Paul does not use that actual word in that connection, he puts the same truth into other words when he says, “Waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God”. The manifestation of the sons is only another way of saying the day of adoption: that is, when the sons are brought forth and presented as sons, no longer children but mature, now to take responsibility.
What is God doing with us? His work with us is to reproduce in us the constituents of sonship as represented by the Lord Jesus. The battle that rages and rises between our thought and the Lord’s thought, between our will and the Lord’s will, between our way and the Lord’s way, between our desiring and the Lord’s desire, has this one issue at stake, whether something more of His Son is to become a part of our very constitution, or whether we are going to put that back and remain just the same old creation. There is a big thing hanging upon that battle. In our last meditation we were speaking about adjustability. What is it that we are to be adjusted to? It is simply putting Christ in the place which we ourselves in some way have occupied, giving place to the Lord. That is Christ being fully formed. He is in us, but He is to be fully formed in us.
I am sorry the translators left out the value of the Greek in that passage. The Greek word is perfectly clear: “Till Christ be fully formed in you”. He is there, but there is formation, and this formation is through conflict, and Paul says that he is undergoing the suffering: “For whom I am in travail till Christ be fully formed in you”. There is something going on that is costly. It is marked by a painful process.

The Sphere is our Spirit

I want to come to the sphere of the training of sons, the spirit; of course, now not the Holy Spirit but our spirit: “the Father of our spirits”. You notice the word “father” in this twelfth chapter is implied, suggested by son; “fathers of our flesh” — “Father of our spirits”. So that it is in the realm of our spirit that all this is going on. God is concentrating upon our spirit, and I want to define that. The teaching of the Word of God about the spirit is not just what we mean when we say, He has a nice spirit! That means that what you meet is something very pleasant, it is a kind of outgoing influence to you. Or we may say, He has a nasty spirit! You mean he is a cantankerous person. That is not the meaning of the Father of our spirits. Our spirits are represented in the Word of God as the essential man: that is, the innermost part of our being, and if you like to sit down with a concordance and go through this matter of spirit you will be surprised.
I am impressed with some of the things that are said about spirit. I will give you two or three references.
Take 1 Corinthians 2:11, “For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God.” That is not just breath, that is an intelligent organ, and that is clearly something deeper than reason. It is not that I meet a certain man, and I look him up and down; I look at the size of his nose, and the shape of his chin, and just how his head is formed, and various other things, and I come to the conclusion that he is a certain type of man; that kind of man will behave in a certain way. I know what I may expect by having taken the measure of that man, and so I know that man. No, it is not that. This passage is deeper than the reasoned thing, the thought-out thing, the sized-up thing, it is intuitive knowledge, and that is spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is intuitive knowledge, and the spirit is the intuitive organ. That is exactly how angels move; they are spirits. God and angels never have to reason out anything. They never have to calculate. Angels do not move at the behest of the Lord by being told in words and given an explanation. They move intuitively. It is intuitive knowledge of the Lord. If another brother and I are one in spirit we intuitively know what we will do, and what we would like each other to do. We do not have to be told, we do not have to be argued with, we know intuitively and we can anticipate one another’s wishes intuitively. It is an organ of knowledge.
Or take another passage in the same letter, 1 Corinthians 5:3: “For I verily, being absent in Body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing”; “...absent in Body... present in spirit, have... judged”. In spirit judged. I have weighed this thing up in spirit, my spirit has come to the conclusion that such-and-such is the case; my spirit has decided this thing. It is an intelligent organ.
Or pass to 1 Corinthians 14:14-15: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” There you have spirit and soul. The understanding heart is the intelligent, the rational soul, but that is not the point. The apostle is saying that it is possible for the spirit to pray. It is an organ that can pray and that can sing. You can sing in spirit, and you can pray in spirit. If it comes to the matter of an unknown tongue that is another thing, and it is not our point. We are detaching it from the matter of tongues at the moment. Here is an organ that it is said can pray and sing. I suppose you know something about the singing inside; your understanding is not at work, but it goes on. I know what it means. I remember an experience I had myself, and just recount it to convey to you what I mean by this. When undergoing a somewhat serious operation I experienced that in coming back to consciousness. Not knowing anything or anyone, being altogether dead so far as soul activity was concerned — that is, reason, and feeling, and all the rest — there was going on in me a hymn all the way through. I might have been in another world; it was going on all the time:

End Times watchman’s Bible Study: How two persons got out of depression/panic attack

The watchman observed an increase in depression and even panic attack cases lately. He witnessed the helplessness and suffering of such victims even when under medication. Only after the family of the patient had exhausted all medical and psychiatric means, they came to seek help from the Lord. As led by the Holy Spirit the team of brethren would normally pray and do deliverance. 

He learned that when one listened and obeyed the Holy Spirit, and prayed accordingly, then the calming result would be instant. Indeed in many occasions he noted that like Paul taught the Corinthians church in 1 Cor.12 on the many gifts of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ consists of many parts and all members must function together as a harmonious team to be effective. However, there are times when resources run out and all hands are required on deck. The Lord will give gift suitable for that occasion to the willing and available.

For example, he is a word and watchman person. He has a spiritual watchtower and has passion for the words of God only. So he normally stays away from healing and deliverance. However, when others are not available or seem to be stuck with a difficult situation, then he (being a spiritual jack of all ‘trades’ for teaching purposes) would have no choice but to ask the Holy Spirit to show him what to do with the person who manifests and urgently needs help. Often he receives the words instantly and when applied, the positive outcome shows he hears correctly.
Thus he often receives words (even when he has not asked) which demonstrate how one can use to counter every situation. The following two psalms are bonuses received today. These are generic ways of dealing with mental situations. The Lord is merciful and full of loving-kindness. This is grace.
___________________________

Psalm 63:6-8 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.

Watchman’s Notes on Psalm 63 (The watchman noticed this psalm when he realized that David was a watchman/intercessor too!)

The psalmist was actually flying under the wings of God with his soul following the Lord closely. That means even our souls can follow the Holy Spirit. David was a watchman intercessor. He practiced. He started this prayer by saying how his soul and his flesh thirst and long for God’s presence. He knew that he could find and see God in His power and glory, in the sanctuary, in worship and in praise. Thus his soul could be satisfied. Even at night he continued to meditate on God in the night watches and remember God’s help. Thus he could enjoy the soaring of his soul like an eagle, following God’s wings! That is why David was described as a man after God’s heart!
Psalm 77 (For depression and other form of mental attacks)

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, And my spirit makes diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off forever? 10 And I said, “This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” 11 I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. 12 I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.

Watchman’s Notes on Psalm 77 The psalmist gave a solution to trouble. When in trouble, he observed and learned from the following:

1. He prayed without ceasing, even at night.
2. His soul refused to be comforted until he received his solution.
3. When he complained, his spirit was affected (overwhelmed).
4. So even at night he worshiped and sang to the Lord and meditated within his heart.
5. His spirit made diligent search of his memory for him.
6. His spirit enables him to ask relevant questions regarding the nature of God: His favor, mercy, promises, grace etc. which never failed.
7. His spirit made him see the reason of his problem, i.e. he had put his focus on the wrong things. When he realized his mistake, he re-focused (remembered, meditated and even talked about) on God’s wonderful works of old.
8. After the psalmist broke through he concluded by giving a testimony on the great works that God had done to His people. (v13-20).)

________________________________________
Watchman’s overall summary on his observations
1. Live and be led by the Holy Spirit is a must for living an overcomer life. Let your spirit take over. Your spirit connects to the Holy Spirit Who searches all things.
2. Always focus on God’s goodness. Remember all the good deeds and wonders He has done in the past.
3. Meditate on them.
4. Talk to others about the goodness of God. Give testimony.
5. Join other brethren in worship and praise God together.
_________________Bible verses on the God of Peace (Jesus)

1. Romans 1:7
   To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
   Romans 1:6-8 (in Context) Romans 1 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
2. Romans 5:1
   [ Faith Triumphs in Trouble ] Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
   Romans 5:1-3 (in Context) Romans 5 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
3. Romans 14:17
   for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
   Romans 14:16-18 (in Context) Romans 14 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
4. Romans 15:13
   Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
   Romans 15:12-14 (in Context) Romans 15 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
5. Romans 15:33
   Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
   Romans 15:32-33 (in Context) Romans 15 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
6. Romans 16:20
   And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
   Romans 16:19-21 (in Context) Romans 16 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
7. Philippians 4:7
   and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
   Philippians 4:6-8 (in Context) Philippians 4 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
8. Philippians 4:9
   The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
   Philippians 4:8-10 (in Context) Philippians 4 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
9. Colossians 3:15
   And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
   Colossians 3:14-16 (in Context) Colossians 3 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
10. 1 Peter 1:2
    elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
    1 Peter 1:1-3 (in Context) 1 Peter 1 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations
11. 1 Thessalonians 5:23
    [ Blessing and Admonition ] Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    1 Thessalonians 5:22-24 (in Context) 1 Thessalonians 5 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

End Times watchman’s Bible Study: How to teach how to listen to the Holy Spirit?

The most difficult topic to teach is to teach how to listen to the Holy Spirit. A few students may find it effortless like drinking water or even mere breathing. But most students just do not seem to get anywhere. This has been the experience of the watchman as a ‘teacher’. Yesterday he stumbled upon his ‘old’ blog on how he started his personal journey in the Holy Spirit. It was hilarious. He just could not remember those earlier days of apprenticeship. But the outcome is worth all the foolish stumbling along, because of his analytical mind as opposed to the spiritual mind being led by the Holy Spirit (as a son of God should). He now marvels at the patience and long-suffering of the Lord who did not give up on him.

But how to teach others so they need not go through all that he had gone through? He sighed after another long hard and hot afternoon. In terms of human view, the time of 1.45pm-3pm on a hot and humid day was really far from ideal for any learning. But this was the only time slot given at this point of time. In his spirit he knew he had to set an example of learning by the Spirit. So he took the class and sat on the floor with a low table before him, reading the Bible verses together. There was minimum teaching from him. The key of learning is to go through the reading from verse to verse and let the Holy Spirit speak to individual.
The watchman was merely demonstrating what he does normally: sitting on the floor before the Lord and learning from the Lord. But the class could not get it. Even his translator started looking at the time and pushed her hand phone to him pointing to the time when it reached 3pm! He observed that people were struggling to stay awake and/or figure out what it all meant to be a “New Creation” ( a topic which the Lord prompted him to read with them today).
Sitting there before the Lord, reading the Bible verses as led by the Spirit of Christ, focusing on Yeshua, listening to what the Holy Spirit had to say, all these were exactly the practical activities of learning to follow the Holy Spirit. But after he finished the session, the translator told him that it was all theory and no practical so they all felt sleepy and exhausted. It had been a long and tiring day for them as they had to listen to a long and hard sermon before the afternoon class. They also had a heavy curry lunch.Indeed by the time he let them leave everyone was relieved.
The watchman could have gone on for hours. But there was no more ‘student’ or ‘apprentice’. He had a long day too. On the previous two nights he had only a few hours of sleep. Today he also sat through the morning worship and sermon with them. The only difference was that he skipped lunch, which has become a comfortable habit. He felt fresh and wide awake. The word of God spoke clearly and brought marvelous light into his being. They were reading a lot of verses about the light of God.
The practical part of “listening to the Holy Spirit” was actually the waiting upon the Lord, reading Bible verses and listening to what the Lord say. In his case today, the room was of course filled with sounds of toddlers at the same time. he could understand how the class must have ‘suffered’. But this is how one can be trained. In the end times no one can expect a quiet and peaceful ideal environment. At any time, emergency and crisis could emerge and one just has to ask and hear the Lord speaks. The quietness and stillness must come from inside and not otherwise.
Jesus commended Mary who sat at His feet and did exactly the same practical listening to Jesus talking. She did not do anything else. But she listened to everything that Jesus said to the disciples. When the time came for Jesus to go to the cross, she actually knew and believed he meant what he had said to them! (None of the other disciples believed or even heard such important predictions from Jesus. None was ready. Only Mary came to Jesus to say farewell by offering Him her best and most valued gift, anointing Him for the crucifixion and subsequent burial). If she had not spent all her time focusing and listening to Him, she would have missed the most memorable historical moment of being the one who performed the last service to the Lord while He was on earth as a human.
Hebrews 12:16 described Esau as ‘godless’. He gave up his inheritance rights as the oldest son for a single meal (some lentil stew). He focused on his body needs. He gave more priority to his physical needs than spiritual needs. Materially he did not lose anything as his brother Jacob had to leave home shortly to escape being killed by him. Jacob later acquired great material wealth working for his father in law (with God’s blessing) and not through inheritance from his physical father Isaac. However, Jacob who became Israel became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel (many nations) thus inheriting the promises that God gave to his grandfather, Abraham. God called Himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Ex.3:6). What a great honor and privilege! As a young man Jacob spent a lot time in the tent with his parents and listened to their teachings about the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. He listened and he believed. He valued the double blessing from heaven for the firstborn.

Living as a ‘new creation’ means living by the Spirit. He must be born of the Spirit and walks by the Spirit. He lives as a spiritual man (as opposed to being carnal/of the flesh). If he follows the Holy Spirit, he will not be constrained by his physical, mental or emotional needs or wants. The symptoms of his body do not frighten him. His mind or feeling cannot dictate to him when to be at ease and when to be uncomfortable. He will live a supernatural lifestyle.
The watchman has practiced this lifestyle for sometime now. Looking back, when he first started he really had a hard time. He had no mentor. He could not ask or learn by following the example of someone he could see often. However he attended half-yearly seminars conducted by senior supernatural living practitioners during which he witnessed the long hours they stood on the stage and read verses after verses. They went on without lunch. They had less than five hours of rest/s/sleep a day and could go on for days. They even went through long fast (40 days) before the seminar. Supernatural living could be done by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Coming back to the subject on how to teach this new lifestyle, the watchman has no other clue except to carry on asking the Lord, seeking his answer, obeying His word.
When he looked at the page his Bible happened to display now, he read: “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace.” (Malachi 4:1a) Indeed the day has been unusually hot and seems like a furnace burning.
“But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2a)

End Times watchman’s Bible Study: He kept right on going because

Today the message is “faith” that makes one see the invisible. Faith requires one to be led by the Holy Spirit and see what cannot be seen by flesh and blood. Jesus was very clear and definite on this point. He told a well established teacher of the law and a high official in the Jewish Council, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:3,5) The watchman has discovered that all the following faith people in the hall of faith were Spirit-led people!
Bible verses with the watchman’s study notes in bracket. ————————-

Hebrews 11

New Living Translation (NLT)

Great Examples of Faith

11 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. ² Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.
(Faith is all about things we cannot see in our physical realm or with our physical eyes and mental or emotional perception.)
³ By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
(To claim that you have faith you must first believe that the world was created from the invisible!)
⁴ It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
(Faith is the only testimony that will continue testifying even after physical death. It supersedes the power of death! Faith sets a man free from the inevitable prison of death.)
⁵ It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.”^[a] For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. ⁶ And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
(Faith in action means you can even supersede the process of physical death! A man of faith like Enoch was not bound by the death process as other mortals do.)
⁷ It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
(Faith means willingness to look like a fool in the eyes of other human beings. it means being a minority minority by choice in the world. It also means hundreds of years may have passed and you still need to carry on believing in what the Holy Spirit says to you through the word of God even though you have not yet seen anything as the word has promised!)
⁸ It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. ⁹ And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. ¹⁰ Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
(Faith father Abraham did not know where he was going. But he followed and listened to the Holy Spirit. He could only see in the spirit as revealed to him, the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the City of God. And he believed. How amazing it was considering him being a man who existed over four thousand years ago! The Holy Spirit was not restricted by time and space.)
¹¹ It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed^[b] that God would keep his promise. ¹² And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.
(Sarah too existed four thousands years ago. She believed just as her husband did. Faith broke the physical boundary set by nature over her beauty, her child bearing age etc. It was amazing how the foreign kings were awed by the great beauty of an elderly woman!)
¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
(Faith means we believe in God and the existence of the City of God, the New Jerusalem. Like Abraham, of whom we became descendants, we must see the City in our spirit. This is a common quality of faith people.)
¹⁷ It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, ¹⁸ even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”^{[c] 19} Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
(Faith requires readiness to give up/sacrifice your best love, whether it is another person or yourself. Everyone of us is both Abraham and Isaac. Only when I am ready to let go of ‘ME’, let ‘ME’ die, on the cross with Jesus, I may receive the resurrected new ‘me’ back from the dead, just as Abraham received Isaac.)
²⁰ It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau. ²¹ It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff. ²² It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. ²³ It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.
(The above three examples showed what faith in action required of parents or patriarchs. They passed on godly spiritual blessings to their younger generations. They showed that they feared God more than they feared man and they valued the promises of God more than everything else in this world. Indeed nothing else about their achievements on earth was recorded by the Holy Spirit here illustrating their faith except this point.)
²⁴ It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. ²⁷ It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. ²⁸ It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.
(The watchman was led to read this paragraph first when he opened his Bible today. The key verse that showed Moses’ faith was “He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the One who is invisible. ” Who was he seeing? He was seeing Jesus as he followed the Holy Spirit and he dared not take his eyes off Him. Because Jesus is always ahead, showing the direction and crushing the enemies for him, Moses had to keep right on going. That was how he led over three million people out of Egypt.)
²⁹ It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned. ³⁰ It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.
(Miracles always follow faith in action.)
³¹ It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
((Faith requires action in submitting to and obeying God. even Rahab could hear and obey the Holy Spirit. Who was she? A mere prostitute who existed over 3500 years ago.)
³² How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. ³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received their loved ones back again from death.
But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. ³⁶ Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. ³⁷ Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,^[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. ³⁸ They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
(Faith in action produced victors, Faith overcomers and supernatural exploits. Suffering in the eyes of the world too.)
³⁹ All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. ⁴⁰ For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
(God sees and appreciates faith in action, regardless of the outcome in the eyes of the world. “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Heb11:6)

Footnotes:

1. Hebrews 11:5 Gen 5:24.
2. Hebrews 11:11 Or It was by faith that he [Abraham] was able to have a child, even though Sarah was barren and he was too old. He believed.
3. Hebrews 11:18 Gen 21:12.
4. Hebrews 11:37 Some manuscripts add some were tested.