Prophecy
Isaiah 7:15 “He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.”
When God is expanding our church ministries, He also reminds you and me to choose to do the right things. God will reveal His new ways so we should purify and prepare ourselves to be a channel of His blessings.
Message
Genesis 31:13
We are still talking about Jacob. “Bethel” is a special place, because God very seldom connects himself with a location. He said I am a God of Bethel. He linked himself with a location. Bethel is a place where the prayer altar is built on. Abraham built an altar here and prayed before God, so did Jacob. Actually, “Bethel” originally represents “House of God”. In other words, “Bethel” symbolized “Church”. That means whatever God was calling people to do in Bethel, He is calling us to do at church in this moment as well. A while ago, we talked about Genesis 35 that God had asked Jacob to build a prayer altar. That is why Jesus says, “My temple will be called the temple of prayer.” Bethel is the place that God invited people to pray. In our heart, we need to pray. In our cell groups, prayer meetings, we should start to pray. This is God calling us to do whenever we are. We see “Bethel” overshadowing Church, so what God has done in Bethel at that time, God is going to do here, at church, today! In June and July, there are Ling Leung Conference and 21 Day Healing Crusade, let us not to focus on so many tedious works to do, we should know God is doing miraculous things now in our church.
Genesis 28:16-17 describes how Jacob met God here. It says when Jacob awoke from his sleep, he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Here we see three things God wants us to do:
1. “Bethel” is the gate of heaven- a place where the heaven will be opened. These days we have been talking we need to open our spiritual heavens. So we need to pray for church, cell group, otherwise our hearts are being oppressed. Even though we want to be joyful, however, we lost the power of being happy. Why? It is because the gate of heaven has not been opened. That is why we cannot see the works of God, we cannot hear from God. We can see “church” is actually the place, exit or door to open the spiritual heaven.
2. “Bethel” is location where God manifests His presence- here we see Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place…” Church is not a place filled with programs, ministries; it is mainly a place that God’s presence is manifested. Let’s God turn around our heart towards Him, seek His presence more than anything else on this earth.
3. “Bethel” is a place where people meet God- even though some of us come to this place, the house of God, their hearts will be drawn to God. Once the altar of prayer has been established, the Holy Spirit can start working in people’s hearts. The church is such a miraculous place where God shows Himself among us.
Reflection
No matter what you do and serve, let’s cry out to God in these three things: Open the gate of heaven, show us your presence and so people drawn near to you.
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