Well, brothers and sisters, this is supposed to be a question-and-answer period. But I have to say, it is the wrong name. We will have questions, but who will give the answer?
If you have a real spiritual question, nobody can answer you except our Lord Jesus Himself. All we can do is help you remove some of the hindrances so that the Lord can do something in your life.
So, brothers and sisters, do not expect too much at this time. Remember, Christ is the only answer. If you have a real problem in your life, you have to go to the Lord and let Him be your answer.
The first question is: What does it mean to be an overcomer?
Now, brothers and sisters, when we are talking about overcomers, we have to understand that there is only one real Overcomer. And who is He? It is neither you nor I; it is Christ Himself.
Basically, man had fallen into the hands of God’s enemy. Men have been overcome by the enemy instead of being overcomers. But thank God, one day God’s Son, Jesus Christ, came into this world, and He overcame.
No matter what the tempter tried to do, He overcame. So our Lord Jesus, on the cross, could declare, “It is finished. It is done.”
So, brothers and sisters, when we are talking about overcomers, remember: Christ is the Overcomer. Because Christ is in us, He is the Overcomer in us and through us. We can overcome—not by ourselves.
History has already proven that man had fallen into the hands of the enemy. But thank God, through Jesus Christ, we overcome the enemy.
Not only is Christ the Overcomer, but according to the Word of God, those who believe in the Lord Jesus are supposed to be overcomers. Let us read a verse in 1 John 5:4-5:
For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world:
and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.
And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Here you find that those who belong to the Lord, who are begotten of God, overcome the world. It is our faith that overcomes the world.
So, in the thought of God, the church is a victorious church. The church is supposed to overcome in the Lord, by the Lord, and for the Lord.
But unfortunately, as we read church history, we find that instead of the church being an overcoming church, it seems as if the church has been overcome by the enemy. The world has come into the church.
Because of the failure of the church in general, you find a call for overcomers addressed to individuals. When we read the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we find that in the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, at the end of every letter, there is a call to overcome.
So, brothers and sisters, we believe that the last call to God’s people is to overcome. God knows our situation, and He has made every provision for us to overcome. He calls each and every one of us to be an overcomer.
Do not have the idea that only a certain special minority will be overcomers. No. The thought of God is that every believer is supposed to be an overcomer. Why? Not because of yourself, but because of Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, what do you need to overcome? Of course, there are a number of things we can mention. We need to overcome sin—not only the sins that we commit outwardly, but even the power of sin in our soul.
We need to overcome the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We need to overcome self—that old Adam who dwells in our soul. We need to overcome him.
And, of course, we need to overcome God’s enemy, Satan. To overcome means that, by the grace of God and because of the life of Christ in you, you overcome all these things—not by yourself.
I think we have all tried. If you really mean business with the Lord, you will try to overcome. You will try to overcome the power of sin, as you find in Romans 6-7. You will try to overcome the world around you, and you will try to overcome the accuser.
The Bible says that they overcame the accuser by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and because they loved not their lives even unto death.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is the meaning of being an overcomer: you overcome by the life of Christ in you. If you have communion with the Lord, His life is living and active in you. Then, by His life, we overcome. So all glory be unto God.
The second question is: “Brother Kong, Brother Stephen, can you please share the burden of the Lord’s coming more explicitly?”
I am very sorry that I have tried my best, but unfortunately it is not as explicit as you expect. But anyway, the coming of the Lord ought to be the burden of every believer.
This is not the time for us to sleep. This is the time for us to be awake, because the Lord is coming. There is nothing more thrilling than this very thought: our Lord is coming, and He is coming for His bride.
This is our blessed hope. Do you have any hope in the world? As you look at the world today, can it be worse? It seems to have reached its worst.
When you look at yourself, are you disappointed in yourself? What you know you want to do, you cannot do; what you do not want to do, you do.
Brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord have a blessed hope—something worldly people do not have. The Bible says that when they see all these things coming, they will tremble with fear. But for us believers, as we see these things happening, what does the Bible say?
Look up,
and lift up your heads;
because your redemption draweth nigh.
Thank God, our redemption is drawing nigh. Our Lord has told us, “I am coming.” The best assurance for the coming of the Lord is based upon what He says to us: “Behold, I come.”
In view of that, this should be the burden of every believer: that we are waiting for His return. He says, “Trade till I come.” Are we doing that?
The best way to wait for the coming of the Lord is not just to sit there and wait, doing nothing, nor to go into the wilderness waiting for His return. The best way to wait for His coming is to prepare ourselves for Him.
He is looking for His bride. He is looking for His counterpart. He is looking for Himself, as it were, in us.
When you read the seven letters in Revelation 2-3, you find that He is looking into every church. What is He looking for? Not some wonderful doctrines about Him, and not some great activities for Him. He is looking for Himself.
When He walks in the midst of the churches, He is trying to find Himself in those churches. That is why, at the beginning of every letter, He reveals a part of Himself. That is to say, He commits Himself to the church as her testimony.
So, brothers and sisters, we know that the Lord is waiting for His bride.
So far as I know, there was only one occasion when the bride was waiting for the bridegroom. Usually, in a marriage, you find that the bridegroom arrives early, and you can see how restless he is, waiting for the bride to come. It is as if the bride purposely delays her coming and gives the bridegroom lots of headache.
But here is another case: it is the bride who is waiting for the bridegroom. This is Hudson Taylor’s great-grandfather.
Hudson Taylor may not be a familiar name to you, but the Chinese all know him because he was used by God to open interior China to the gospel. His great-grandfather was a young Christian, but he loved dancing and all these worldly things.
On the day he was going to be married, he got up and suddenly thought, “I am going to be married and have a family. My, that is a great responsibility.” So he went to the field to pray.
He was so involved in praying that he forgot the time. When he finished praying, it was already time for his wedding. He quickly rushed to the church building, and there was the bride and all the guests waiting, wondering what had happened to the bridegroom.
He got married, and that night, before they went to bed, Hudson Taylor’s great-grandfather told his wife, “We have to pray.” So he had his wife kneel down, and he started to pray. The wife said, “I did not know I married a Methodist.”
But thank God, from that hour the husband and wife served the Lord faithfully. Look at Hudson Taylor. For generations after him, they served the Lord.
So, brothers and sisters, we think we are waiting for the coming of the Lord, but who is really waiting? Not you, not me. It is Christ Himself. How much He is wishing that the bride is ready.
He is waiting for you. Are you ready? How can we be ready? We have been trying to share with you how to be ready: give yourself totally to the Lord, be obedient to Him, walk before Him, and live for His glory.
The Lord’s coming ought to be a burden to every one of us. Well, as a matter of fact, it is not a burden; it is a pleasure. Whenever you think of the coming of the Lord, your heart should leap and say, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” This should be our attitude.
Finally, there is another question: “How do you differentiate the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of conscience, and the voice of the enemy? I know the voice of the Holy Spirit is always gentle, and the voice from the enemy always accuses us. Sometimes I cannot tell whether the voice is the Holy Spirit guiding me or just my own conscience leading me.”
Now, that is a very practical question. Usually, if it is the voice of the enemy, he is trying to accuse you of something. It comes with such force that, in a sense, he tries to put you down completely.
But that is not the way of the Holy Spirit. The way of the Holy Spirit is like a gentle dove. Remember the story of Elijah when he fled to Mount Sinai and the Lord appeared to him—not in the storm, not in the great fire, but in a still, small voice.
The important thing is this: if you want to hear the voice of the Spirit of God, you need to be quiet. If you are hearing all sorts of voices around you, you will not be able to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.
First of all, we need to be quiet before the Lord. We need to have communion with the Lord. If you are in the presence of the Lord, then it is much easier to differentiate the voice of the inner Spirit from the voice of yourself or even of the world.
Basically speaking, you need to have a close walk with the Lord. If you are far away from the Lord in your daily life, you will not be able to hear the still, small voice.
Thank God, even though we say that, the Lord is so gracious. He is still trying to speak to you, but unfortunately, you do not hear Him. The Spirit of God is teaching us all the time. The indwelling Holy Spirit teaches you in all things—small things, big things, everything.
The question is: are you listening? If you are really in communion with God, in that state I think it is easier to distinguish the voice of the Spirit of God from your own voice or even from the voice of the enemy of God.
Basically, I would say it depends upon your spiritual life with the Lord. If you are near to the Lord, somehow you will know. When the Holy Spirit is speaking in your spirit, it is not only gentle, but persistent.
But if the enemy tries to do something, you will feel so overwhelmed, as if you cannot live.
I remember when I was in college. I tried to be true to the Lord, and I went to such an extent that I even got the school regulations, read them, and tried to see whether I had committed anything against the school law—whether I had walked on the grass, or what I had done.
I was in such turmoil, with no peace whatsoever, until I talked to an elderly sister who helped me very much. She said, “You cannot forbid the bird to fly over your head, but you can forbid the bird to build a nest on your head.”
In other words, when all these thoughts come and try to build a nest in your head, resist them. That is not from God. Thank God, by His grace, I was delivered.
So, brothers and sisters, how can you distinguish the voice? There is no technical way. It is altogether a spiritual way. It depends on your life with the Lord. The closer you are walking with the Lord, the clearer the voice will be—whether it is from God, from yourself, or from the enemy.
I suggest that you live a life close to the Lord. By experience, gradually, you will learn the difference. I think that is the way we grow in Christ.
The first question is: “If our mina is the life of Christ, why does one have one, one have five, and one have ten?”
Before we get into it in more detail, parables are pictures. The Lord used them to illustrate spiritual realities to our human eyes so that we could understand what He was trying to say. Parables are never perfect. They help us to a point, but if we examine every detail too closely, they can distract us from the point.
In the parable in Luke 19, the ten bondservants each received one mina. This mina is the life of Christ that has been invested in us.
In John 3:16, the Lord tells us that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Sometimes we think that means our physical life will live forever, but we all know that at some point we die.
What happens when we accept the Lord is that our Lord’s life, which He gave up for us when He was crucified, the life and the Spirit, takes up residence in us.
Galatians 2:20 says:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
This verse reminds us that Christ lives in me. It speaks of this mina which the Lord gave to us: His life is living in us. We all start with this life. We all have one mina.
How does it grow fivefold or tenfold? It is not that multiple lives are given to us. We all start with one, but the life of Christ can grow. One of the defining characteristics of life is that life grows.
My wife and I have a daughter named Lily, whom we love very much. Lily was adopted from Hunan Province in China. When we went to pick her up, she was eighteen months old.
When I saw her for the first time, she was this scrawny, little, fearful girl. She looked fair-skinned, but she was not really fair-skinned; she had simply never seen the light of day. She was so small that when I picked her up, it was like picking up a newborn puppy.
She was eighteen months old, but she could not walk, could not talk, and did not know her name in any language. Then, somehow, as we took her home and began to give her food, she began to grow.
It is because life grows, if we allow it to. Now she runs faster than me, jumps on me, and I cannot believe how large she is.
Life grows as long as we invest in it. The parable is not saying that someone was given fivefold life and someone else was given tenfold life. We all receive one life. But if we invest in that life, the life grows. That is the point: we start with one and allow it to grow.
In order for life to grow, it has to be nourished. Brother Kong mentioned that much of that nourishment comes from having a quiet, listening heart to the Holy Spirit. There has to be positive nourishment for that life.
We also need to be wary of the things that might restrict the life. I remember trying to plant something. A man at the gardening place told me that a plant needs to be put into a large pot, allowed to grow, then moved to another pot, and placed in the right area.
If you put the plant in too small a pot, it cannot grow. One of the things that binds up the life in us is the world and our flesh life. These things bind up the life so that it cannot grow.
Much of what we have been sharing about occupying speaks of the nourishment of that life on the one hand and the removal of restrictive things on the other. We all have one life. It is in occupying with that life that we allow it to grow.
The second question is related: “Is occupying similar to seeking the Lord with all our hearts? If so, how do we truly occupy? How do we truly seek the Lord with all our hearts? It sounds like such a big thing to do. Is it like Luke 19:17, being faithful in a very small thing?”
This is such a practical and true question. Every one of us is different. Every believer has different struggles and difficulties. When I was in high school, I thought people who were forty had no problems. Now I think people who are seventy have no problems. But I suspect all of us have our difficulties and challenges.
The issue of occupying may be different for each of us, according to where the Lord has placed us, but it always has to do with the increase of the life of Christ.
Brother Dana mentioned yesterday evening that for some of us, occupying may mean that we need to speak up more. For others, it may mean that we need to let the Holy Spirit hold our tongue. It might be the same matter, but different ones of us struggle with it from different directions.
The key is that occupying is real. It is not a routine or a checklist of things we have to do. It is brought forth by the living God through a living Spirit in our heart, alive with His life. It is real, alive, and never meant to be merely an outward habit.
Sometimes a brother or sister may be struggling with something, and the Lord is trying to have that one occupy spiritual ground which we have already been led into. In times like that, the encouragement to shepherd one another becomes very real.
We have the same Lord, and He is doing the same thing in all of us, leading us all forward. But it may not be the same thing in every life or at the same stage. It is orchestrated by Him.
The question asks whether occupying is similar to seeking the Lord with all our heart. That verse was given in Deuteronomy when the people of God were about to enter the promised land. The Lord foretold that they would be scattered and occupied with the things of the world, building wooden idols and doing all these things.
Then the Lord said that in that time they would turn again and seek the Lord with all their hearts. The matter of occupying goes from being totally lost to being completely captured by the Lord and moving forward.
Sometimes it is an inward truth: the Lord is seeking to have His life grow in us. But there can also be an outward manifestation. The inward truth may command someone to move to New York City or to leave a place of comfort and go somewhere unfamiliar.
But occupying may not mean occupying New York City. It may mean occupying a two-foot-by-three-foot space next to your bed for the first time in three years, to kneel and pray. Or it may mean occupying your seat at the desk with your Bible, or the last pew at the fellowship meeting where you have not been for so long.
The issue of occupying is real, tailored to where we are. It may sound like a big thing, and in truth it is a big thing. But the Lord knows exactly where we are.
The wonderful thing is that the Lord never leaves us alone. In the parable, the nobleman went away to receive a kingdom, but for us, as we are occupying, He is with us the whole time. He never leaves.
It is His whisper to our spirit that says, “You have not prayed for so long.” Then we can occupy that little area by our bed. “You have not read for so long. You have not been near to Me for so long.” We must live according to where we are today and allow Him to have headship in us where we are. The Lord, in His faithfulness, will grow us forward.
The enemy is against this. He is always trying to inhibit growth through accusation, lying, distortion, and sometimes a very loud voice that accuses us unto death and despair. Our Lord is always whispering us unto hope.
I remember a brother sharing at a conference many years ago about a house. The enemy comes and knocks at the door, always seeking to enter and accuse. We may feel equipped to open the door and politely greet the enemy.
But we should never forget that the Lord lives in our heart. The brother said that we should simply say, “Lord, would You please get the door?” The Lord opens the door, and the enemy takes one look and says, “I think I have the wrong address.”
The fact is, the enemy has no answer for Him. The list of accusations against us has been nailed to the cross. It is done. The Lord said, “It is finished.” Whenever these voices come to remind us of what we have done in the past, we need to remember that the Lord answers the door. He is our protection.
The issue of shepherding is also very important. Some questions are more personal, and it is hard to answer them in a large crowd. But the Lord has placed us where there are others around us with whom we can walk daily, receive encouragement, and grow together.
So we brothers will pray. Find someone local whom you know loves you and can help you with these other questions.
The great encouragement of these questions is that there are people who are really seeking the Lord and really want the Lord and His way. That is a wonderful thing to see.
The first question is simple, but I feel there is something under it that we can fellowship about: “Please explain what is meant by a kingdom command.”
Our theme is “A Kingdom Command: Occupy Till I Come.” So this person is asking, “What exactly is a kingdom command?”
Let us look at three kingdom commands in the Bible. The first one is given to Joshua in Joshua 1:9:
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage;
be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed:
for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua was standing by the Jordan River. He had no idea how he was going to cross it. The Lord said, “Have not I commanded thee?” A kingdom command brings you right to the end of yourself, because the Lord asks you to do something that is not natural to do. There is faith involved, and repentance involved.
Joshua was unlike Moses. Moses had to be meekened through forty years in the wilderness. Joshua was a servant, a servant—very introverted, not the sort of person who would simply get up and lead.
Then God said, “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise.” To a timid person, that immediately brings you to the end of yourself.
Here is the first great lesson about a kingdom command: when God commands something, there is a miraculous supply of life to obey. Joshua, with knees knocking, stood up and led that mighty nation into the promised land.
“Have not I commanded thee?” In other words, God is saying, “No loopholes here. If I command you, I will supply.”
Every one of us, as we go on in our Christian lives, comes to the place where the Lord commands us. As young Christians, our first experience of the Lord speaking may be the inward anointing that becomes disquieted while we are doing something. These are the first inklings of a voice.
But we are to come to the place where we, as sheep, hear the Master’s voice. How do we hear the Master’s voice? We obey by faith, and we begin to learn.
Our Christian life is lived by the Spirit. He leads us and speaks to us by anointing, by circumstances, and in many ways. He commands.
When we speak of kingdom commands in a more particular sense, we mean that every Christian is not only a child of God, raised by grace and growing with the growth that is from God; every Christian also has something to do in service of the King.
It is to your profit to do what the King wants you to do, because you were made for that very purpose. As unnatural as it may seem, we need to hear our King command us. He wants to command us, and it is our delight when we obey.
There is an old phrase: “It is the glory of a king to command; it is the glory of a man to obey.” If we are servants of God, it is our glory when we obey.
Jesus went about with this anointing because of His obedience to His Father in everything He did. How it glorified the Father—the obedience that was in the Son.
It is a glorious thing when God can give a command. Indeed, the kingdom of the heavens is active all around us. There are kingdom commands going on in our lives all the time, but sometimes we are out of sync.
Like Jacob, we may be surprised: “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” May the Lord wake us all up to know that He is commanding all of us. There is nothing more glorious than when our Lord commands us and we say, “Yes, sir.”
At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, we find another kingdom command. Matthew 28:18-19 says:
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
Jesus does not merely say, “Go.” First He says, “All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” Therefore, go. That is so important. He has the life and the authority, ready to be poured out. There simply must be obedient vessels who go out among the nations and make disciples.
In John 15, at one of the most intimate times Jesus had with His disciples at the Last Supper, He gives two commands:
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
Is it not interesting that He commands in the context of abiding? The Lord wants to command us, but we have to want to be commanded.
If we are stubborn, rebellious, and unwilling to listen, the Lord has some purpose for us that is not being fulfilled at the present time. The Lord is persistent. He will engineer our circumstances until we finally look up and say, “Okay, Lord, what do You want?”
Because I am stubborn, sometimes I take a little ride around the wilderness. I feel the Lord telling me to do something, but I am not ready. I need my space. So He gives me space—a wilderness.
After I come around and wrestle with the matter for a while, I come back to the same spot and say, “Oh, Lord, Thy will be done.” He says the exact same thing He said two months ago. The command was interrupted, but it is the same command.
In all His commands, the Lord has His Son’s glory in mind first of all, and He also has your best interest in mind. He wants to say to every one of us, “Well done, faithful servant.”
It is always over some small thing, but in the small thing we receive the greatest reward. We sang recently, “Thy gracious smile is my reward.” I cannot think of anything more pleasing than when I sense in my spirit that the Lord was pleased.
The Lord often commands us through the Word of God. We read something, and He speaks it directly to us.
God says, “Go into all the world, and make disciples of all nations.” That is a kingdom command. Does that mean every one of us should leave our jobs and go somewhere—perhaps Brazil—and make disciples? No.
When you hear the command, you need to say, “Lord, what does that mean for me?” He wants to explain it in detail. He does not want everybody going to the same place.
In Acts 13, while they were worshiping, praying, and waiting on the Lord, the Lord said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
Saul did not immediately pack his apostolic bag and head out when he was saved. He waited for the Lord’s specific direction. The general command was there, but then came the specific word: “Separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
A kingdom command, in this particular sense, means that the Lord has something for all of us to do related to His kingdom, His service, and the testimony of who Jesus is throughout the world.
We are not all apostles, and we are not all meant to travel worldwide. But the Lord has a specific thing He wants each of us to do. He communicates that command in a loving way.
Our Commander is not harsh. The Father first arranges circumstances to prepare you for the command. Then He gives the command, gives you life to obey, and by the grace of God you do what you are told. The Lord is blessed, the kingdom comes, and it is a glorious experience.
Someone asked for more detail about how I got to New York City from Huntington, because I mentioned taking the Faithful Tour with Christian Chen in 2002.
Here is an example of a kingdom command that was not even a spoken word. It was something seen. I saw that the Lord wanted to capture cities and work out of them.
I did not move into the city merely because of what I saw. I went to the Lord and said, “Lord, do You want me to do something about this?”
Since September 13, 2001, my wife and I had been living on Long Island, thirty-five miles from Manhattan. Our house was covered with a yellow fog that smelled like burned bodies. Something happened in my heart that changed me concerning New York City.
I went into New York City on several occasions after that, just to go down to the site and survey what was happening. Many Christians were there witnessing, and many people were broken and listening. It was quite an amazing time.
Something began in September 2001, but I did not understand it until one year later, in 2002. The Lord said, “Yes, you need to go.” He directed me.
I pulled out my spiritual compass and thought, “There it is. We have to go to Queens.” Julie and I began looking for apartments in Queens, but in the Lord’s sovereign plan He moved us across the East River, and we ended up in Manhattan.
Did I hear a voice on the bus while watching Christian Chen speak that said, “Go into New York City”? No. But I saw that it was my next step. Then I had to clear it with the two bosses: my wife and the Lord—not in that order.
The greatest privilege in life is for the Lord to speak to you. Do not quench His voice by disobedience. He may speak something that upsets your life for a month or more. He may ask you to turn from family, home, and comfort in order to obey Him.
But there is nothing like hearing the voice of the Lord. Without that, none of us has anything to trade with. He is a King, and here we are, the worst of servants. Yet it is His pleasure to command us to do little things.
The next question concerns the difference between the parables in Luke 19 and Matthew 25: “Matthew 25 is about talents, and Luke 19 is about minas. Yet the rewards appear the same. Are they the same or different, and in what way?”
In Luke 19:16-19, the first servant says, “Master, thy mina hath made ten minas more.” The master says, “Well done, thou good servant: because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”
The second servant says, “Thy mina, master, hath made five minas.” The master says, “Be thou also over five cities.” These are wonderful rewards.
Suppose the poorest, weakest, most introverted servant had invested his mina and said, “Lord, I only brought back one more. I got one, and I got one. It is so small.” What would the Lord have said? “Good job. Well done. You were faithful in very little. I will give you one city.”
Ten cities, five cities, one city. Of course, the main reward is this: “Good job. Well done.” You were faithful in little; now be faithful in much.
In Matthew 25, the servants receive different amounts: one receives five talents, another two, and another one. The servant with five talents gains five more. The master says:
Well done, good and faithful servant:
thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will set thee over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
The servant who received two talents and gained two more receives exactly the same commendation. If the servant with one talent had been faithful and gained one more, the Lord would have said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
There is a difference between the parables. The servants in Matthew 25 were given different talents, or gifts, and were to exercise them as a kingdom command. Yet they all received the same reward: the King’s pleasure, His commendation, and entrance into the joy of the Lord.
It would not be fair if the Lord gave one person five gifts, another two, and another one, and then rewarded the five-gifted person more merely because he had received more to begin with.
To whom much is given, much is required. A five-gifted person needs to be faithful, and a one-gifted person needs to be faithful. In terms of using what God has given you, He commends everyone who is faithful and uses his gift.
If you consider yourself a one-gifted person, just be faithful. It is the Lord’s commendation and blessing that you want. You want to be in His presence in the kingdom, and you will be if you are faithful.
One-talent people will be in the presence of the King during the kingdom age. It is a wonderful thought. You will have more than you can do by the life that Jesus gives you in the kingdom age.
With the minas, however, there is a differentiation of rewards: ten cities to one, five to another, and we would suppose one city to another if he had been faithful. That is because we have all been given the life of the Lord, but in kingdom matters it does matter what you do with what you have been given.
There is reward for those who live by the life of the Lord and discover the life of the Lord. In 2 Peter, we are told to add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge. There is a life that adds and grows.
Peter says that as this life grows, we gain a large entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We will be rewarded on the same basis: everyone has one mina. Are you faithful? Are you exercising and using that life?
In the context of Corinthians, Paul says that in building the church we need to be wise master builders. There may be five-gifted apostles who make a mess of the church by building wood, hay, and stubble.
On the other hand, let us suppose Apollos is only a three-talent man. Yet, as a wise master builder, by the life of Christ he builds the church so that Christ is the top, Christ is the foundation, and Christ is the life in the walls.
Apollos will receive a greater reward than a more gifted person who does not use the life of the Lord as his ministry. There is a differentiation, and there will be different rewards. But it has to do with what you have now by the gift of grace: Jesus Christ. Use Him.
That is why it is not merely modesty when we say that the first shall be last and the last first. We will see rewards in the kingdom given to people we scarcely noticed in this age—people who gave their simple lives to the Lord in prayer and obedience.
This world’s allocation of awards is completely different from God’s. In this world, you may receive your reward by standing here and answering questions. In the kingdom, those who ask the questions may be the ones who receive the reward.
Another question asks: “Is overcoming a daily process? If so, what happens if the Lord returns on a day when I have not cooperated with Him?”
Do we mean that every day you must have prayed and read your Bible, and if the Lord returns on the day you could not find your Bible, you would be left behind? Did you do something wrong if you walked on the grass?
Anybody who pursues the Lord can become entangled in some kind of bondage to the law. The enemy uses this kind of thinking to rob us of joy.
Julia had an aunt who arranged a flight at the wrong time and on the wrong day, throwing the whole vacation off. When she arrived, she explained that she had not been to church in several weeks. She was afraid that if she got on the airplane without taking communion, and there was a crash, she did not know where she would end up.
To us, that may sound ridiculous. But to a person who believes there is sacramental virtue in taking the table, such a fear can become very real. She had to go to church on Sunday and take communion, even though she had not been to church in six months; then she felt safe to take the plane trip.
Surely the Lord did not have her Sunday-school attendance card out. If you are pursuing the Lord and overcoming day by day, there is a life: you have hold of Him, and He has hold of you.
There are seasons when we become weak, and He holds on to us. There are seasons when we feel strong in grace, and we hold on to the Lord. But this is not merely a twenty-four-hour provision.
In 1 John 3:19-20, John wonderfully says:
Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth,
and shall assure our heart before Him:
because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart,
and knoweth all things.
We have a heart that will condemn us in a heartbeat. The enemy has all kinds of darts to throw at us: “You forgot to do this. You did not obey there. Ten years ago, you did not do something.” All kinds of things get dredged up, and the result is a gray cloud of condemnation over the heart.
Then you are not really overcoming. John says, “Abide in Him, and let Him abide in you.” If you sin, you have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. Confess your sins, and He will forgive and cleanse you.
But in the final analysis, God is greater than your heart. Do you think He will let you go because you had a hissy fit one day and He came back on that day?
Our conscience can become overheated. God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.
In our little group in Manhattan, there is a parent who is obviously dying. This one has been faithful to the Lord all life long, but is experiencing depression in the last moments of life, which may be part of the physical and pathological process of death.
Now the person is concerned, and the family is concerned, that this one may not be holding on. But God is greater than our hearts. You have a servant who has given his or her life to the Lord. Do you think the Lord will look at some momentary cry, pain, or weakness and cast that person away?
You abide in Him, and let Him abide in you. That vine and branch are not so easily chopped off.
So, not only seek the Lord with all your heart, as Brother David exhorted, but trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean upon the feelings or understanding of your own heart.
Someone asked how I made crucial decisions in life. It is actually based upon things that happened before the crisis came.
When I was a Baptist pastor, I read something in Watchman Nee. I do not remember where it was, but something spoke deeply to my heart: “To the degree that you understand God’s will in the Word of God, do not compromise.”
That is why, in the end, I left being a pastor in the Baptist church. Do not compromise.
I began to do things in that Baptist church that were a little unusual. At that time, the charismatic movement was active. On one Easter Sunday, a young woman with two children could not come to the communion service because of a back problem. She had been in the hospital for a week.
I took some of the deacons to the hospital. We had communion with her, anointed her with oil, and on Monday she walked out of the hospital. The Lord touched her back.
As far as I knew during the next couple of years, she had no more problem with that back. To tell you the truth, that got to the headquarters rather quickly.
The people above me did not like such things happening. I was a missionary for Southern Baptists. But when I looked in the Word of God at James 5, I said, “That is what it says there, and they are telling me not to do it. What am I to do?”
When enough issues like that came up, I turned in my resignation. I said, “All I have is the Word of God. I have to obey as best I understand.”
We all have more to understand, and we all misunderstand some things. But you cannot go against your conscience when God tells you something. So, in a sense, I had to leave.
It is ironic that two years later, that church building and the church itself ceased. But we left to do other amazing things.
Moving to New York City was not some great thing. The Lord had already prepared my heart concerning New York City for almost a year. Then, during the tour with Christian Chen, I fell on my knees, and I knew: New York City—that was what the Lord was saying to me.
We are all trying to be led by the Lord. So much of this is about hearing from the Lord. I also want to say that I have heard things from the Lord that He never said.
I still eat crow over that to this day. I have been humiliated because I thought something was the Lord, and it was not the Lord. But there is only one Person in this universe who knows what He is doing.
The rest of us know in part, hear in part, and act in faith with our consciences as clear as they can be. We are left in the hands of God, who rules and overrules. He is a mighty King, and we can trust Him.
He will not mock faith. There were things I thought were of God and that I thought I should do, but they never came to pass. God overruled in wonderful ways. My wife is very thankful that God overruled some of my crazy ideas. The Lord is merciful, and He gave me a good wife.
I just want, by the Lord’s grace, to conclude with one or two thoughts that the Lord has laid on my heart these last few days.
Recently, I have had a renewed appreciation for the short phrase we find in the Gospels: “Again I say unto you.” Those few words have meant a great deal to me in recent months.
They speak of His persistent love. He will not give us up, and He will pursue us to the end. That short phrase, “Again I say unto you,” comforts me because the first time we heard it, we did not quite catch it—and the Lord knew that.
So He says, “I will speak again.” Every time He speaks, on our part we must make the necessary adjustment. Often we do not quite understand what He was saying the first time. He must repeat it: “Again, again I say unto you,” to register its importance.
As I listened to our three brothers this weekend, I realized how much I need to unlearn, how much I need to relearn, and how much I need to forget in order to have a fresh start. He is always the beginning, and everything He begins is the right beginning.
This matter of occupying till He comes is not new to us, in one sense. It is all in the Scripture, but we do not quite catch its importance. The Lord has been so kind and loving to allow us to be here this week and to register this word—“Occupy”—in such a forceful way that we will never forget it.
We may take it lightly, listen to it, and forget it. But He will speak again. May He speak again to our hearts, and may our hearts be responsive.
I looked into the book of Exodus. The reason the Lord took His people out of Egypt was that they might be occupied with His business. From Exodus 25 to the end, it is all about His business—the building of His house, so that He could dwell among them and His glory could fill the place when it was accomplished according to His good will.
That is what He is doing with us. Are we going to need another conference next year? Do we need the Lord to speak to us again? What do you think? Let us be honest. Do we need Him to speak to us again? We do, do we not?
So perhaps we already have the theme for next year: Occupy Till He Comes, Part Two.
Did you catch all that was shared this weekend? Did you catch all that was shared? No. So we need a repeat, actually. But the Lord is good, and we are kept by His grace.
We may forget Him, but He never forgets us. He has already invested His life in us, and what He has begun He will surely fulfill.
We thank the Lord for Brother Kong, for Brother David, and for all of you. When there is hunger, we draw Him out. He speaks when there is hunger. When there is no hunger, we hinder His speaking.
The Lord is good. Before we finish, let us have a short word of prayer.
Father, we thank You for this weekend, for speaking to us again and again. In Your love, You will not give us up. You will pursue us unto the end, until Your will is accomplished and Your name is glorified.
To God be all the glory in the whole creation. We pray for our brothers and sisters as we go to our homes. Get hold of us. Make us do business for You until You come.
Thank You for calling Brother Dana, Brother David, and the three brothers. Continue them faithful unto You. Speak truth from their hearts so that Your people may walk away in a way that is pleasing in Your sight.
We thank You. We love You. We praise You. You love us with everlasting love. We thank You in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.