LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom. 8:16)
Putting His Spirit into Their Spirit
Ezekiel 36:27 says, “I will put My Spirit within you”¹. Here we see that the Lord said that He would not only give us a new heart and a new spirit, but that He would put His Spirit into us, putting His Spirit into our spirit. We should not neglect our spirit, because our spirit is the vessel that contains the divine Spirit.
When believers hear the word spirit, they usually think of the Holy Spirit. They rarely consider that they have a human spirit. Yes, we need the Holy Spirit, but we must realize that the Holy Spirit is in our regenerated human spirit.
“The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16). Praise the Lord that we have a new heart and a new spirit and that we have the Holy Spirit in our spirit strengthening us all the time.
This enables us to keep the commandments of God. God’s commandments are according to His nature, and we have the nature of God within us, for we have His Spirit within us.
Now there is something within us that corresponds to the law of God. The Spirit of God within us contains the nature of God, and the nature of God corresponds to the law of God. Because we have the nature of God within us, it is easy for us to keep His law.
Previously it was difficult for us to love people, but now it is easy to love them and difficult to hate them, because we have a new nature, the nature of God, within us.
THE LAND BECOMES LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN
In 36:34-36 the Lord promised that the desolate places and the wastes would become like the garden of Eden. There the memorable plantation (34:29), Christ as the tree of life, would be their rich supply.
The local churches need to reach this high condition so that they may be like the garden of Eden. Even today, many times in the church meetings, we have the sense that we are in the garden of Eden.
MULTIPLYING MEN LIKE A FLOCK
Ezekiel 36:37-38 says, “Thus says the Lord God: In this also I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will multiply men for them like a flock. Like a flock of holy things, like the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so the waste cities will be filled with flocks of men; and they will know that I am the Lord.”
Here the Lord promised that He would bring people like flocks. Although He promised to do this, it is still necessary to inquire of Him. This means that we need to pray for the multiplication, saying, “O Lord, gather people. You promised this to us.”
In the past, whenever we prayed for an increase in number, the Lord answered. I feel that we need to pray more. The Lord promised, yet He needs our petition. He promised that He would increase our number of men like flocks, but we need to pray for this and ask Him to do it.
I hope that the saints in all the local churches will definitely and specifically beseech for the increase in numbers. We should never be satisfied with our present number. Instead, we should all aspire to be multiplied in a short period of time. Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord, gather people as a flock.”
In 1963, in Los Angeles, we had only twenty to thirty people, but after we prayed for six months, the number was greatly multiplied. In Elden Hall, we also prayed that the Lord would gather people.
We prayed, “Lord, bring flocks of men to us,” and the Lord heard that prayer. I feel that today we need to pray even more, standing on and claiming Ezekiel 36:37-38 concerning the increase in the number of people.
We should not say that numbers mean nothing and that we do not care about numbers. We should not be comforted by any failure regarding increase. Certainly we need the increase in numbers.
We need to pray for the increase, claiming the Lord’s promise in Ezekiel 36. When someone hears this, they may say that they do not care about quantity but about quality. However, quality comes out of quantity. Therefore, we need to pray that the Lord will give us the increase and that He will bring flocks of men.
_____________
¹ This text makes it clear that not only we in the NT have a human spirit capable of receiving God, but the people of God in the OT also had it. It is not correct to say that the Spirit of God was only “upon” the children of God in the OT and that only today, in the NT, He dwells within the believers.
🌿Enjoy more:
Hymn: Praise to the Lord - “His Victory and Exaltation”
https://hinario.org/detail.php?tab=1&mainmp3=admin/Uploaded-mp3-Files/1100.voz_piano.mp3&id=1179
No comments:
Post a Comment