- You may want to have contact with those “big guys;” in fact they are not as what people think. You are the “great person.”
- If you look at yourself with this world’s concept then you are wrong. Romans 12:2 we should not be conformed to this world.
- There are many wrong concepts in this world. Even they say things opposite, like people say there is no God. They are completely wrong.
- In the past we were blind and wrong. God found us and He had opened our eyes.
- He is the Light , He is the true Light, He is the great light, He is the morning light, He is the light of the world that shines upon every man.
- The problem is man does not like the light and they choose the darkness.
- The church of Ephesus was strong yet Paul still prayed for them that God gave them the spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph 1:17) that they could truly know Father.
- Paul prayed that their eyes could be opened that they could see the hope of His calling (Eph 1:18)
- What we can see with our eyes is limited. We can see them with some tools or devices. Nevertheless there are things that you cannot see, such as love. What we cannot see with our eyes doesn’t mean it does not exist.
- 2 Cor 4:18: Paul did not mind things that he saw but things that he could not see. We cannot see things in eternity.
- We should have spiritual ears to listen (Matt 11:15).
- Paul talked about inner eyes. (Eph 1:18) He asked God to open our inner eyes.
- We need to see the Lord every day. We need Him every day though we could not see Him with our physical eyes. We truly need Him.
- Heb 11:3: the world is not created by things that we can see.
- How can we fully see God Himself? Even we are not able to consider everything about Him. He is eternal and we don’t know His limit.
- God is Spirit, whom our eyes cannot see. He is beyond our sight.
We should consider good things with our inner eyes / our consideration
- Every day we should spend some time to remember and think how God looks at us.
- It's good that we have the Bible to tell us what God really thinks (2 Tim 3:16).
- The Holy Spirit will also help us by opening our eyes and His words.
- The wonderful creation, the heavens and the earth also express His messages.
- Song 8:6-7: remember His undying love
- Heb 13:8: remember Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. When He became the Son of Man, He was also the Son of God at the same time. His heart and His beautiful attributes are the same. Though the love expressions can be multiplied. His love has been the same–before the foundation of the world, when He became a man and when He was on the cross. He always loves us with the highest love.
- When we were weak, we stumbled. He still loves us with the same love as when He was on the cross.
- Romans 5:8: even when we were sinners and not yet repented, His love to us is the same.
- Jeremiah 31:3: He loves us with His everlasting love and He attracts us with His loving kindness
- We need to experience this love firsthand and know that it’s better than all; this love is beyond man’s words. This love is the purest and heavenly. It’s God’s love.
We need to draw near to God to enjoy this great love and let this love sustain us.
We cannot fully contain this love in this life and even eternity.
We will continue to grow and be transformed by such great love.
- The enemies use wrong concepts to fool us and make us confused about God’s image.
- The devil lied to Eve and Adam that God’s love towards them had reservation and made them feel God did not love them 100%. Therefore they failed.
- Now the enemies are using the same way to deceive us and make us doubt God’s love for us. They use the world and different worldly pleasures to distract us, which seems to be different from Adam’s time, but it’s actually the same trick.
- In the past the enemies tempted them to eat the fruit and today they tempt us by different media. All temptations are used to distract us from listening to God and to make us far away from God.
- The enemies made us feel the other things are better or more important than God.
How to overcome those lies
- We cannot overcome the lies by scolding or blaming ourselves. We cannot remind or warn ourselves not to do it again.
- We need to fix the root and that is we need to trust in God’s love.
- God loves us the most no matter what.
- God will use all things to work together for our good. He will do His best to help us.
- All the messages are to bring us back to the fountain; therefore we always encourage all to draw near to God.
- In His love, not only we would not sin but we would be able to enter deeper and deeper in His love.
- When we are in His love, in the truth, we can overcome the world.
- The lies of the enemies affect us not to trust in His love fully. The lies made us misunderstand God and think that He loves us less. Then troubles happened.
- They lied to us that the things in the world are what we need, and that we cannot afford to lose it.
Trust in Him and overcome the world. The Lord trusted in the Father’s love
- We need to have faith and most importantly we need to trust in His love.
- Isaac trusted in his father’s love, so he obeyed and there was no objection about Abraham’s action.
- John 18:11: same as the Lord: when He prayed in the garden, He did not refuse the cup from the hands of the Father.
- No matter how painful the cross was, the Lord still trusted in the Father’s love.
- On the cross, the Father chastised His Son, yet it was also His love to His Son. Behind the great pain of the cross there was great love of Father to the Lord. He had to glorify His Son.
- Through the cross, we can see how the Lord loves Abba and us. The world can see His glory that for God and us He was willing to give up Himself.
- Luke 12:50: the Lord was zealous for the “baptism” of suffering, the baptism of blood, death and the Father’s punishment.
- What we face cannot be compared with the cross.
God for sure loves us the most
- Only we do not fully understand, God will not love us less. We need to trust in His love (1 Peter 1:8).
- Although Thomas had doubts, the Lord still loved him and appeared to him. If he had not seen the Lord but believed when someone told him, it would be even better. Yet he was blessed to see the Lord appear to him and let him touch the His side. When he touched the wound, he would understand more deeply. Now we also can understand the love from His riven scar.
- The Lord is so good that He is always good to us whether our faith is strong or weak.
- Don’t wait until we see to believe.
- Song 4:9: our faith captures His heart. Our faith ravishes His heart.
- When we trust in His love, we can overcome the world.
- Proverb 17:17: a brother is born for adversity
Proverb 18:24: there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother
We and the Lord are true friends. We partner together with the Lord in the tribulation and kingdom. (Ref Rev 1:9)
Only when we are still on earth can we suffer for Him.
After the Lord comes to take us, there will be no more chance to suffer for Him.
I treasure I can suffer for the Lord the same way as He treasures He could suffer for us. Every week we remember Him and His suffering for us. We treasure the love behind.
Friendship between God and man
- 2 Chron. 20:3: from this chapter you would feel amazed how they went to battle. It’s not by troops or any weapons. Johashaphat is a good king who asked the nation to pray and fast. Israel gathered together and sought for God.
2 Chron. 20:3-9: in his prayer, King Johashaphat mentioned God was God with affection. He mentioned God's friend Abraham.
Do you notice God is gracious to some people and has His special favour? God was gracious to Abraham.
Although Abraham failed a few times, God saved him again and again. He is called “the father of faith.”
He had failures but God took care of him and the situations.
Fish is a full time preacher and God provides. When we fail or are weak, He will not stop providing for us. It does not mean that He encourages us to ignore our failures.
When people in the Old Testament time prayed, they mentioned again and again what had happened to them in the past. They remembered their friendship with God, which was very special and unique.
God’s love and affection will not be affected by our performance or even our failures.
Just because of this relationship, He will come close to support and help when we are weak.
“The land was given to your friend Abraham.” Now enemies came to attack…
Isaiah 41:8: more than once the Bible mentioned that Abraham is God’s friend. Although some people claim to be friends of certain famous people, those famous people may not think the same. But we are called friends of God.
Isaiah 41:8-10: pay attention how God treasures His friend.
God desires us to be His closest friend and darling
God knows His friend and He knows our names. It’s not one sided admiration; God Himself says whom we are to Him. He wants us to be His friends.
John 15:13: the Lord said no love is greater than laying down one’s life for their friend. The Lord was willing to die for us. He wanted us to be His darling.
Calling Him our true Beloved is not man’s own imagination. It’s the Father who sets up a wedding feast for His Son.
Before we were created, He had set His love on us. He set us as the main character of His love story. This is from the bottom of His heart and His desire.
In the New Testament how Abraham as God’s friend is mentioned.
- James 2:21: faith brings forth actions. From one’s behaviour and work, we see his faith.
James 2:23: God counts Abraham as righteous because he has faith and he trusts in God that he gains strength. When someone trusts in Him and His love, we can receive help and love from God. Then we can do what God wants us to do.
It was not that we were saved after we changed. Instead, it’s the opposite: we believe then we receive Him. When He is in us, He will give us strength to change and do good.
That is what the Bible says: James 2:23: “it was accounted to him as righteousness.” Even when the actions are not yet shown, the faith that you have will lead to righteous work.
God knows whose faith is true. If anyone does not have true faith, he is still not yet saved. Really some people have been joining church meetings for years but still are not clear about salvation.
We know His heart and we are His friend in this generation
- James 2:23
John 15:13: remember the love and friendship between Jonathan and David. The love is so strong that he could die for his friends.
John 15:14-15: we know what God wants. He wants to build His church. In the past Fish did not know that clearly about church even though he had read many times the word “church” from the Bible. In 1968 the Lord opened his eyes to see the vision of the church. From then the direction of his life and ministry changed totally.
We know His heart in this generation, but many are still not sure. We are not boastful of ourselves but we treasure to know His heart.
- Every morning after we wake up, it’s good to spend some time before God to remember how He looks at us. It’s important to look at the truth and not to be deceived by the enemies.
- You should also think about the Father telling you, “You are my beloved son whom I delight in.” It is not the same as what He said to the Lord, His only beloved Son of God: “You are My beloved Son” when he came up from the water after His baptism. Yet we enjoy the same love as the Father loves His beloved Son. (John 17: 23)
- We are not God, yet we are children of God. Ps. 8:5: we are a little lower than God. Based on the original script, it’s not that we are a little lower than the angels but God.
- According to power we are a little lower than the angels now. One day you would see we can fly faster than them if there is a race. Otherwise, how can we rule over them?
- Gen 1:26: God put all the authority of the world under man. Also, Ps 8:6 mentions again man is the king on earth.
- Hebrew 2:7: The angels are servants to minister to us. If we are weaker than the angels, how can we rule over them? Only for now we may not know more than them, we do not move faster than them but one day when we have the resurrected body all will change.
- One day we will get the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23) We have a higher position than the angels.
- Even the Son of God became the Son of Man. No words can explain the preciousness of a man. It’s just that men do not know it. That’s why some want to commit suicide.
- We are God’s love gift to His beloved Son. We are wonderfully and fearfully created and we are born of Him. We are not clear about our own potential, but later we will see more in eternity.
Enter into the truth that we are our Beloved’s
Song 2:16: My Beloved is mine and I am His. We felt the Lord is ours when we first believed. We are very blessed to have Him in our life. Yet we also need to enter into the truth that we belong to our Beloved and His desire is towards us. Slowly we realize He needs us so much.
The love story in Song of Solomon has a journey: from enjoying He is ours to we are His joy. Really we are His desire. His joy of gaining us was greater than our joy of gaining Him.
- In 1959, Fish was excited the night he believed. It was the happiest day of his life, yet he did not know how happy the Father and the Lord were for him. His love and all His goodness all belong to us.
- We enter into another stage when we know His desire. He treasures so much to have us, and we are His happiness.
- Our eyes should look at His heart and desire towards us every day.
- Every day we need to look at the truth that we are His joy ahead. Even a short time in the morning before getting out of bed would be helpful.
He could endure the cross and despised the shame, for He wanted to accomplish salvation for us.
When He saw the effect of the cross- we could be saved and be His, He felt satisfied.
How people look at us is not a problem; what matters most is that the One we treasure loves us and treasures us the most.
We use not our physical eyes but our inner eyes to look at the facts every day
- Our heart can understand and feel Him.
The Holy Spirit came to lead us into the truth.
We know He is true and we live to Him and live with Him daily.
When we are weak and fail, He is the One to lift us up. He can immediately help us and save us. (Ps. 145:14)
We interact with Him every day.
Ps 119:37 Revive me in your ways
- We live in His truth every day, including how He is and how He looks at us. We live to live in this truth.
We live in the Father’s name, the Lord’s name, which includes His heart to us.
When we live in His admiration and attention, that will affect our everyday life.
- The enemies accuse us of our mistakes, failures or weaknesses. They emphasize our wrongs and want to make us sad and depressed. They want us to focus on our wrongs and lose peace.
The Lord does not focus on our failures. How God looks at man is different from how man looks at man.
Most people think Samson is bad. It's true that he sinned and it’s a big lesson to us. The Bible records it as our warning.
Samson is a man of faith. In the Book of Hebrews, the writer said he did not have enough time to mention those heroes with faith but he mentioned Samson. (Heb. 11:32)
Man may think Samson is weak, but in God’s eye, He remembers his faith. God looks at his whole life. He mentioned him in the Bible as a man of faith.
After he sinned, he suffered so much that he became blind and was humiliated by his enemies. Yet at the end he killed more enemies than in his life.
Although his people betrayed him and handed him over to the enemies, he won the battle by faith, with no weapons.
God remembers Samson’s faith and his whole life; He did not focus at the moments when he sinned. After he rose again from his failure, he regained his faith. He is God’s beloved one.
- David sinned against God because he used people’s hands to kill an innocent man. He committed adultery. Yet in Acts 13:20-22, he is called a man after God’s heart.
He sinned, and it was a big failure. He still had different weaknesses and failures. This is a big warning to us. We need to rely on God every day. Yet, in God’s eyes, He remembers how he walked after His will.
Abraham
- He is called a friend of God; he also had his failures. He experienced weakness in faith and lied. He also failed to wait but used man’s way to have a son.
However, he is called the father of faith.
He remembers our life and all the good memories.
- Try to remember and feel that He remembers our life but forget all our iniquities.
More than remembering, He treasures all our past experiences with Him. Man would take video to remember those precious moments. God remembers even more. Our smile captures His heart like a baby captures the parents’ heart.
Song 4:9 and 6:5: this is the fact and God really looks at us and treasures us this way.
Hebrew 6:10 God is righteous to remember our work
- He is righteous to remember our good work. Do not only think that He is righteous to judge, but He also remembers and He will reward us one day.
Although you may think what you did was small, God will remember. If He forgets, He is not righteous.
I think you probably have forgotten how many people you have helped.
Matthew 10:41-42: Even a little one is precious is God’s eyes. All the little deeds God treasures and remembers.
He looks at our work of love and many more. The enemies are the opposite-- he points to us at our one-time failure.
Truly we have many precious and happy moments. We need to know God looks at us with all those good memories.
He also knows we don’t want to sin. He is our all knowing friend. He also knows we’ve returned to Him.
Our relationship with God is much better than that with our best friends. He understands and gives comfort to us more than our friends.
We need His words and the work of the Holy Spirit to let us know we are beautiful new creation.
We are not just a piece of white paper that has no more sin. God’s salvation makes us whiter than snow. In fact, we are full of colours and wonders. He gives us life abundantly.
- Not many theological studies talk about the beauty of God. Neither do they talk much about His joy, His smile and His loveliness.
Many say that God is almighty and He is everywhere, knowing and eternal, but not about His joy, especially His joy over us.
After we believe, we start to understand the beauty of His creation and His own beauty.
Man likes beautiful things; we are the most beautiful.
Fish talked about the creation on 3 scales: a macro scale (those stars and galaxies), medium scale human and those around us) and micro scale (those cells and microorganisms). All these show God’s infinite power. (Ps. 19:1, Ps. 8:9)
Among all the amazing creations, man is still the most special and beautiful. We need to adjust our mindset to understand we are the most beautiful and precious among all His creations.
- We are created in God’s image. We are more beautiful than all the other creatures. It’s the enemies’ lies that we are not good.
- Book of Job: the accusations of the devil that God is not good and Job is not good. The devil accused and defamed. He twisted the image of God and man.
- The enemies always want to make us feel we are not good enough. They also try to discount God’s love in our hearts. They make us not accept or love ourselves.
- Although we don’t have a resurrected body yet, we are still the most beautiful and wonderful. Our spirits are His marvelous creation. Our heart is His desire.
- From the stories of those who have physical disabilities, we see that they are still very precious. We should not just look at their appearance.
- A smile alone shows the beauty. We capture His hearts.
- Some people bring along their pets to immigrate. Those dogs or cats are so cute and they give warmth and support to the owners. They are interesting and lovely. We are more beautiful and lovely than all other animals.
- Plants and vegetation are beautiful, yet man is above all.
- We are given to the Lord by the Father as His beautiful bride and companion.
- We are the new creation that is the most beautiful.