2020 Memorial Day Conference 2

Message Title: Seeing a Vision of the Throne of God, the Spiritual Scene behind the World Situation, and Christ as the Center of God's Administration

in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, we can see that God reveals certain visions to His people, for the consummation of a certain age. we want to enter into the same vision that these ones saw, so that we can know how to cooperate with the Lord in the last days. 

in order to see the vision, we need to fulfill certain conditions:

1. be mature in life: not childish or babyish. 

2. be those who overcome the powerful tide/influence of today's age.

3. be a priest. living in God's presence, praying to God, contacting God.

4. be willing to bear His reproach. 

5. to have the heaven opened to us.

6. no veil covering us, to have the vision revealed to us.

7. have the word of God come to us expressly, not ordinary doctrinal word, but the living word revealed to us.

8. to have God's hand upon us, to carry out, to operate, to hold us, to lead us. 

I. we need to see a spiritual vision of the throne of God as the center of God's administration throughout the universe

it is very crucial, that we need to see the throne of God. all things are happening on this earth right now, but we should see that there is a throne set in the heaven, and there is One sitting on the throne. especially in the book of Revelation, the book of God's administration, there are several times mentioning the throne of God. everything happening now, is decided at the throne. the throne of God is behind the scene, ruling over everyone and everything. 

though nowadays, the governments, the leaders of the nations put God aside, and try to push through their own human wisdom and rulership, one day, Christ will come as the stone not cut with human hands, to crush the great gold image in king Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and terminate the human government, to bring in the kingdom of God. 

God did not create the old man. but the man created by God fell, therefore he became the old man, and cause the entire creation contaminated to become the old creation. when the Lord died on the cross, He terminated the old man with the whole old creation, and brought forth the new man. that is why when we believe into the Lord, we need to be baptized. we need to let our old man to be terminated through the cross of the Lord, and then we can be ushered into the new creation. 

II. Chapter 10 of the book of Daniel presents a vision of the spiritual scene behind the world situation 

Daniel 10:5 I lifted up my eyes and I looked, and there was a certain man, clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with the fine gold of Uphaz.

in this chapter, Daniel 10, when Daniel saw the vision, the first thing he saw, was Christ, which shows that Christ is the preeminent One in the spiritual world. He is the centrality and universality of God's move. we need to be careful, not to be distracted by other things, like spiritual warfare, or demon casting, etc, not to be distracted from the focus of God's economy, God's move, Christ. we do need to know the other things, but we should always focus on Christ, the preeminent One, the precious One. what Daniel saw in the vision, was "a certain man". this means that we need to see Christ as a Man. He is God, but He is also a Man. the One who appears to us is a Man, the most excellent One, who has passed through all the sufferings and now exalted to sit at the right hand of God. He is precious, valuable, complete and perfect. 

Daniel 10:11 And he said to me, Daniel, man of preciousness, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand in your place, for I have now been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.

Daniel 10:12 And he said to me, Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand this matter and to afflict yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.

Daniel 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days; but now Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I remained there alone with the kings of Persia.

the second thing Daniel saw in the vision is the spiritual war going on in invisible spiritual realm. Daniel was praying for 21 days, the angel came as soon as Daniel started to pray, but the evil angel came to fight with him to delay him. and another angel Michael came to help the good angel to fight. this shows us a spiritual battle going on. so we need to pray unceasingly, because a lot of things are going on in spiritual realm. there is a fighting, a battle going on. there is the need for us to rise up to pray to fight this warfare. if we can see this matter, we will realize that we should not just pray for our own welfare, our own goodness, but we need to pray because there is a spiritual warfare going on, requiring us to engage in this spiritual battle. 

III. Christ is the center of God's administration according to God's eternal economy

today, we are living in the age of revelation, so our vision of Christ also needs to be uplifted, to be strengthened, to see the Christ, whose face shines like the sun. we need to see the different Christ whom John saw and fell at His feet, almost dead. particularly, we need to see Christ in His ascension, the Victorious One. 

Revelation 1: 5 And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood 

there are currently, many kings, rulers, prime ministers, presidents on the earth, seemingly many powerful people. but we need to be reminded that Christ is the Ruler of the kings. Christ is the One we are all submissive to. 

Life Study of Revelation message 16

the Church in Laodicea

here the church in Laodicea signifies the degraded recovered church. the Lord reacted to the church in Sardis and raised up the brotherly love church, Philadelphia. However, if Philadelphia does not hold fast to what she has, she will become degraded again, therefore becoming Laodicea. 

the prominent characteristic of Laodicea is they are neither cold nor hot, which means they are lukewarm. the Lord said that He would rather spew them out His mouth. this should be a warning to us, that if we become lukewarm like Laodicea, the danger is that the Lord will spew us out from His mouth. I was kind of wondering, how can they become lukewarm, like not just cold? Because they once were Philadelphia, they did receive many riches from the Lord, this leads to what the Lord says in verse 17, that they think they are wealthy but they are poor. they think they are wealthy, because the Lord did recover so many truths through them and they became proud of their spiritual riches. but think about their situation later, saying that the Lord is standing at the door and knocking. they had all these truths but they did not have the Lord. the Lord was outside the church, knocking the door, trying to get inside. this is a warning to us today also. now we have this open bible, all the published ministry books. the question is how are we reading the Bible, reading the books? are we reading with the Lord, or are we reading them with the Lord standing outside and knocking? without the living Lord, all these truths are just dead doctrines, dead letters, which will kill us. it is the Spirit that gives life. so while we are reading the word, how much we need to exercise our spirit to touch the life-giving Spirit, to touch the living Person. 

the Lord charges the church in Laodicea to:

1. buy gold refined by fire: gain more of God, more of His nature to be worked into our being, so we can have more divine element added into our being.

2. white garments: in our daily living, we need to live out Christ, express and magnify Christ. this is also to prepare our wedding garment, so we can be ready when the Lord comes back. 

3. eyesalve to anoint their eyes: because of their spiritual pride and lukewarmness, they do not have spiritual insight to see the things of God and God's economy. therefore, they need the anointing Spirit.

the Lord charged the church in Laodicea to "buy", not to take freely. for this one, we need to buy, which implies that we need to "pay the price". the three items above do not come freely, even do not come in a cheap way. we have to be willing to pay the price. what price can we pay? obviously, at least, we can pay the price of "our time". may the Lord help us to redeem our time to spend more time with the Lord and in His word. 

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore and repent. 

this verse is such a comfort to us. the Lord's spending time to discipline us is a sign that He loves us. if we realize this point, we will be willing to accept the Lord's discipline, and will be willing to repent. 

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. 

Revelation 3:21 He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne. 

the Lord promises to the overcomers to sit with the Lord on His throne: to be co-kings to reign with the Lord during the millennial kingdom.