In 2008, a sister saw a vision during her prayer: Two young sisters extended their hands and received the seed of lust from Satan. God revealed to her in the vision that among the seeds of Satan, the kind of seeds that would sprout first is the seed of lust, then the seed of greed. Only by refusing seed of lust from Satan can we not commit sins and obey the word of God. Once a person receives seeds of lust, it will be difficult for him/her to get away from temptations and tests from Satan. It is very dangerous! We need to pray for them earnestly. Only if we pray earnestly, can we get away from the net that Satan casts toward us.
Once a person is caught in the net of lust outside the holy matrimony (that is, marriage before God), he/she will become another person, who will not pay attention to spiritual life and not listen to God’s word in the Bible , (to be married in the Lord, to marry only True Jesus Church (abbreviated as TJC hereafter) members, to not to commit adultery before marriage, and not to love other people than our own spouse, not to become a homosexual, not to choose our own spouse by our own wills, and not to cheat our spouse who made a covenant with us (Malachi 2: 10~16)).
What are the consequences if we do any of these sinful acts? Have not all of us seen those who joyfully received the seeds of lust from Satan lead a life of misery? Without the abidance of God and His protection, there will be no peace. We will be living miserably in the wrath of God, fearing and trembling daily. Not only this. There will be judgment of God, endless punishment in hell, and endless pain and suffering, waiting for us. Where is the joy resulted from love? Where is the love that is supposedly stronger than rock and more abundant than sea? Once we commit mortal sins and leave God, all the blessings will disappear. Can we not be careful and not watch out?
It is easy to love another person and receive a love from another person. However, only those marry within the Lord can enjoy true love within marriage. We can never share this love with any other than our own spouse. Those who have not been married within the Lord have to rely on help from the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, keeping word of God in our hearts, waiting for the arrangement of God. Do not complaint. Cherish your time in this period of freedom and carefree. Strive to learn more of knowledge both spiritually and worldly. God will never disregard our efforts to be holy. He will surely grant you whatever fruit your labor under the sun should grow you – give the person that shall be your spouse. How blessed we will be if we live a life happily, building a Christ based family and walking toward the Heavenly Kingdom together? We will not be harmed even if tribulations and suffering are coming unexpectedly. With God on our side, we will be satisfied.
In 2009, a TJC member had a dream in which this member saw a coworker who expressed mutual like toward each other stuck out a tongue of snake from the mouth! The member was greatly shocked and woke up horribly! This member realized, “Thank God! This is a reminder from God!”
We should treat others with grace, see others better than we are, and live peacefully with others, but we cannot put down our guards. Guarding against what? We should guard against the tendency to let out our love toward those other than our own spouse. We should repent and pray for God’s forgiveness. We should guard our hearts, so that we will not fall into the trap of Satan and leave God. We should also pray to God that this person will not be too sorrowful by expressing love to a wrong person. Pray that God cherish a friend who we cherish much. Someday this person can also walk toward the Heavenly Kingdom with us and enjoy eternal blessings!
Chapter 2, verse 9 and 10, and verse 13 to 15 of II Peter say “…the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority…” and “They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straightway and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.”
Therefore we should not leave foothold to devil by refusing the seeds for lust from Satan. Lord Jesus knows who are His. Whoever called Him the Lord should leave unrighteous deeds and escape from lust, and chapter 2, verses 19, 22, and 21 of the book of II Timothy tell us, “Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."”, “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”, and “If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”
Is not it what we have all hoped for day and night from God to be used by the Lord?
(Continue next issue.)
A Weeping Prophet - Jeremiah
by Pr. D. Liang
(Languages: Spoken in Mandarin, Translated in English)
Leaving God, we, humans, will not be able to find the meaning of life; and we will not find the true value of life. Without God, living is the same as death; it will be better men not born into the world; and there will be no hopes in our lives. Therefore, if men is living without God, whatever our plans, ideals and what kind of lives we are leading will be meaningless. This is why chapter 2 of Jeremiah says that we will be like nothing by leaving God.
So, God does not need us, but we all need God. This is a very important concept we should all have. Some people think that he comes to church to make God, church board members, or preachers to feel good. Originally, he/she is not coming, but he/she comes because someone or his/her parents are going to show up.
As a matter of fact, God does not need us if we do not come to Him. We can see in the Bible that there are millions of millions of angels serving God. This is why the Book of Isiah says that when angels were praising God, the foundation of the temple shook and the temple was filled with glory! If we do not worship God, God is still in that place, His glory still remains, and His power still intact. God will never be affected by those of us who do not worship Him. Men are but like dusts, and God will never be affected by men's not worshiping Him. On the other hand, if Men do not worship God, men will suffer a great deal because whatever he is striving or has striven will become totally meaningless.
For a person to become anew, he/she needs to transform him/herself – to pull up and destroy. Pulling up and destroying ones old self are very difficult things to do. What prophet Jeremiah wanted the Israelites to do? He wanted them to leave the godless life by telling them what was wrong about their actions. If a person is spreading about the wrongs that we have done, he/she will have no friend, for everyone like to hear people to tell us what are the good things about us.
Jeremiah, in his several decades of being a prophet, did only one thing – telling the people of Israel, “You have done wrong. You should repent. Otherwise, big calamities will fall upon you!” Because of his action, he probably made no friends and was persecuted everywhere. However, what he told was the truth and the message was the salvation to the Israelites – Returning to God, Babylonians were going to bring calamities upon the nation of Judah! He suffered much, but he was loyal to the Lord until to the end, out of not only his fear and obedience to God, but also his love toward humans...
When God uses a person, He looks upon the person's spiritual qualifications. The Bible never says, “Oh, this person is so gifted, so I shall choose him and use him.” No way! In the Bible, God chooses those who are like a child, just as Jeremiah was when he was chosen. No one can see any gift out of Jeremiah, but Jeremiah had spiritual qualifications, which is his sympathy toward mankind and his fear towards God! These are the factors why God chose him to be a prophet.
The book of Jeremiah Chapter 1 verse 8 says, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.” Jeremiah was young at the time God spoke this to him. Jeremiah said, “I am afraid!”. God told him, “Do not be afraid, for I will be with you.” These words are important when we conduct sacred work – God will be with us. If God was not with him, Jeremiah would not have become a prophet for several decades, and he would have beaten to death! It was because of God's abidance, Jeremiah was able to be a prophet for such a long time.
Therefore, Paul said to Timothy that he should be strong by the mercy of God. The reason that we have strength to carry out scared work of God is because of God's mercy. We are nothing, and we will not be able to serve him and men until now. Look at the people who serve in the church so many years. They all rely on God's mercy. Sometimes, someone says some bad things about us, we will say, “Forget it! I am not continue doing it anymore!” It is God at this time who give us strength to continue.
We need to think about one thing here: Did Jeremiah's work produce any effect? No! He preached warnings to the Israelites for several decades. No one listened. His message was very clear – to pull out, destroy, and rebuild and replant. God's abidance was very clear. However, there was no effect to what he had preached. Why there was no effect? It was not because God was powerless, not because Jeremiah was not doing his best, but because hearts of men were adamant – refusing to change.
Therefore, today, we need to realize that we need to do our best to perform sacred works in church by relying on God. Despite the fact that we have no control over the results, we need to examine ourselves – have we done our best? How many believed Noah when he preached the warnings of the flood? No one but eight people in his family.
The end time is coming. The mission to preach the gospel will be all the more difficult, but we will still need to do our best! We need to ask God's abidance. Paul sowed and Apollo watered, but it is God who grows it. We only need to give the results to the hands of God. God will remember our work and our efforts....
Pr. Liang –A Weeping Prophet Jeremiah