keeping Christ as the Word of God

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

The matter of God blessing His people is so often spoken of in christian circles these days. Popular books detail the right prayer to pray or the latest method of bring ourselves into to a place where God can bless us. Well, surely God does desire to bless His people. Perhaps you’ve prayed such a prayer of faith and God has answered by blessing you with some material possession. But if the Lord would mercifully open our eyes, we would see that even in an Old Testament book like Deuteronomy the highest blessing for God’s people is just Christ Himself…and that we would hold Him fast and live in the sweetness of His presence.

Today…as we look at chapter 11 in Deuteronomy…we see that there is the promise of a marvelous five fold blessing if we keep Christ as the Word of God in some very specific ways. Of course the blessings that are outlined in Deuteronomy were outward…even physical (some of them) or material. And they were conditioned upon keeping the commandment.

But today, the real blessings are spiritual (or we could use the word intrinsic) and we’re going to get into these, but let’s open up by discussing this matter…and that is in order to receive the real blessing God is not looking for us to keep an outward commandment of the law. But to keep Christ as the Word of God.

It’s possible just to have the outward letter of God’s word. For example, in the Old Testament you had all the laws, ordinances and commandments. But actually, they are a picture and a type pointing us to Christ Himself as the reality of the Word of God. In John 5, some of the religious leaders came to the Lord and they were trying to give Him a hard time, but you know what He said? “You search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life. But it is these scriptures that testify concerning Me, and you’re not willing to come to Me that you might have life.”

So the real Word of God is the living Word which is just Christ Himself embodied in the written word. So you may have black and white letters, but you may miss the Person. The real blessing in God’s economy is just Christ Himself. God wants to bless us with Himself in Christ. So many we never let anything replace Christ. He is God’s unique blessing.

Moses says “posses the land”, but Paul said “Let’s gain Christ.” So as we take heed to and care for and love Christ as the Word of God, we really enjoy God’s blessing. And this is a real precious blessing. Because we keep Christ then God blesses us and strengthens us to hold fast to Christ. Like Paul said, “…one thing I do…I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.”

So, we’re blessed with the strength and encouragement to go on and possess Christ more. What touches the heart of God more than Christ Himself as the Word of God? The more we keep Christ as the Word of God, the more we have God’s affection…we have God’s dear presence…signified by His eyes.

Living Stream Ministry

His ministry was the ministry of Jubilee

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

In Luke, the start of the ministry of the Man Savior was chapter 4 with Jubilee, and the Jubilee concept should govern the writing of all the following chapters. Now you come to chapter 9, 5,000 men with their wives…children, if they would be dismissed with hunger, there would be no more Jubilee. This one and than one would complain. “Nearly the whole day, I didn’t get any food.” Would this be Jubilee? This would be famine. The people would be full of hunger. But after the feeding there was real Jubilee.

The Lord sent the 12 to spread His ministry. What was His ministry? His ministry was the ministry of Jubilee. There would be no poor ones. All poor ones would be filled up. There would be no more captives. All captives would be released. And all would be brought back to the enjoyment of God. What is this?

This is Jubilee declared in chapter 4. Twelve (12) baskets of leftovers. This is Jubilee. In the kingdom of God could there be some kind of hunger? No! Jubilee. In the Jubilee there would be no hunger, but satisfaction. Everybody would be satisfied and there still would be some left over.

The disciples approach…in Luke chapter 9…was to ask the Lord to send the crowds away so that they could provide food for themselves. This approach really is in the principle of the law. The law places requirements on man. In order to fulfill the law, man has to do something out of himself to meet those requirements. There is no supply from God to meet the requirements of the law.

But the principle of Grace…which is the New Testament principle…is that God supplies man with everything that man needs to fulfill the requirements of God and also to satisfy man’s inner hunger. God doesn’t ask us to do something; He asks us to receive what He supplies.

So in this story here (Luke 9), the Lord asked the disciples to make the people recline in groups of 50, and then the Lord proceeded in a wonderful way…under Gods’ blessing…to feed this great crowd of people…to supply every one of them so that not one of them was hungry. Everyone was fully satisfied. And there was an overabundance of supply. This is the real Jubilee. When everyone has his hunger fully satisfied and still there is something left over. This is God’s New Testament Gospel. This is God’s New Testament economy.

Living Stream Ministry