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Hidden Life – A Hidden Life

Higher Ground | Day 3

A HIDDEN LIFE

Instructions:

Pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

Write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Matt. 13:3b, 5-6 – Behold, the sower went out to sow…And [other seed] fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much earth, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered.

What is a root? It is growth that occurs beneath the soil. What are the leaves? They are growth that occur above the soil. In other words, roots are the hidden life, whereas leaves are the manifest life. The trouble with many Christians is that, while there is much apparent life, there is very little secret life. In other words, there is the lack of a hidden life. How much of your life is hidden from view? How much is unknown to others? You stress outward works. Yes, good works are important; but apart from that manifest expression of your life, how much of your life remains hidden? If all your spiritual life is exposed, you do not have any root. Are all your virtues before God manifested before man, or is there something more that is unknown to man? If all your experiences are manifested, then all your growth is upward; there is no downward growth. If this is the case, you are a person who has only leaves without root, and you are on shallow ground…May God work in us so that we can take root downward. (Deep Calls unto Deep, pp. 2, 5)

Those who do not have any root before the Lord will be dried up in their life…Nothing can preserve you as much as a hidden life. If you see that a brother has fallen or failed, or has come into trouble, without asking anyone, you can surely say that prior to this trouble he lost his hidden life. He lost his hidden life during the previous weeks, months, or even years. Your spiritual life depends very much on your hidden life before God. If you cannot sustain a hidden life, you will be weak before the Lord. Therefore, you should realize the importance of the hidden life. (CWWN, vol. 11, “The Present Testimony (4),” pp. 834-835)

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Hidden Life – A Spiritual Time

Higher Ground | Day 2

A SPIRITUAL TIME

Instructions:

Pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

Write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Eph. 6:17-18 – And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit… 18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit…
1 Cor 6:17 – But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

In verse 18 Paul says specifically that we are to pray in spirit. This refers to our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. It may be considered the mingled spirit-our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. Whenever we are in our spirit, we are also in the Holy Spirit, for our spirit is one with the Lord. Therefore, Paul’s charge to pray in spirit implies that we must also pray in the Spirit of God, for these two spirits are mingled in us. In prayer, the main faculty we should use is our spirit. If our mind is overactive or if our emotion is not under control [e.g. we are too sad or too excited], we shall find it difficult to pray. When we pray, our mind should be at rest, and our emotion should be regulated, neither too hot nor too cold. According to my experience, I easily become distracted in prayer when my mind is preoccupied with other things. Likewise, when my emotion is not properly regulated, I find it difficult to utter something from my spirit in prayer. Furthermore, if we would pray at every time in spirit, our will must be strong. It may seem that prayer is easy, but actually it is difficult. It is very easy to talk or read, but it is not easy to pray. Hence, in order to pray in spirit, we need to be adjusted in our mind, balanced in our emotion, and exercised in our will. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 552-553)

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Hidden Life – A Private Time

Higher Ground | Day 1

Instructions:

pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Matt. 14:23 – And after He sent the crowds away, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. And when night fell, He was there alone.
Matt. 6:6 – But you, when you pray, enter into your private room, and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.


We need to see and follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. He did not remain in the issue of the great miracle that He performed. Instead, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. The word privately is very meaningful. This means He did not let the people
know that He was going to pray. Otherwise, they would have followed Him. He went away from them to be with the Father privately in prayer….We should learn from the Lord’s pattern here by exercising to be with Him on the mountain in prayer. His looking
up to heaven means that He had no trust in Himself. His going up to the mountain means that He wanted to be with the Father in prayer.

To pray with others is good, but often we need to pray by ourselves. When we pray with others, we cannot enjoy the Lord as deeply as when we pray to the Lord privately. Even the Lord Jesus told us that when we pray we should enter into our private room and shut our door and pray to the Father who sees in secret (Matt. 6:6). Then we have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and
how close we are to Him. We have to learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and the saints in the church to go to a higher level on a “high mountain.” We have to go higher, far away from the earthly things on a lower level. We need to get to a higher level, separated from the crowd, to be with the Father privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him. This is the significance of being on the mountain in prayer. (The God-Man Living, pp. 127-128)

Note: The materials we will be using for Morning Revival are adapted from the “Daily Bread” devotional produced by Christian Students at CSU (Fort Collins, CO).

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The Jubilee – The Freedom you get from Enjoying God

Rom 8-2 For the law of the Spirit of Life

In this Bible Study we found that there is a law within us that frees us! To see just how this works, we thought it best to present an excerpt from a very helpful book: The Jubilee, by Witness Lee.

You can read the whole book for free here:
The Jubilee, by Living Stream Ministry

Also, read the PDF of all the verses for this Bible study: The Jubilee 05

Excerpt from The Jubilee, chapter 3:

Our possession is God. We cannot renounce God, saying that we want freedom instead of God,  because without God there is no freedom. Our possession is God, and our freedom comes from our enjoyment of God. When we have our possession and enjoy our possession, the result is that we have freedom.
…
Announcing the gospel to the poor [in Luke 4] does not refer to preaching the gospel to those who are poor in material things. Otherwise, millionaires, bankers, and presidents would not need the gospel, since they are not poor in material things. The accurate meaning here is that all men, whether rich or poor, honored or despised, need the gospel, and they need to gain God.
…
Moreover, Luke 4:18 says, “To proclaim release to the captives.” America today is the freest country; no one can wrongly capture anyone here. In reality, however, nearly everyone is a captive. The leaders have been captured, and the people have also been captured. Who captured them? According to Acts 26:18, the Lord told Saul of Tarsus that He would send him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God.” Strictly speaking, we have all been captured by Satan.
…
Now we must go further to see what sin is. The common definition is that rape, robbery, sorcery, and fornication are sin. Likewise, extravagant eating, drunkenness, sexual indulgence, and gambling are also sin. Similarly, murder and arson are sin; not honoring one’s father and mother is sin; stealing and looting are sin; lying and cheating are sin; and cursing and hating are sin. However, in the intrinsic sense, these are not the real sin. Sin is something intrinsic in man’s being; murder and arson are merely the outward, sinful acts that are carried out and manifested. They may be regarded as the results of sin, but they are not sin itself. What, then, is sin?
…
In actuality, sin is just Satan. Romans 7 says that sin can dwell in us (v. 20). Normally we say that a table is placed in a house; no one would say that a table dwells in a house. Only living persons can dwell in a house. The fact that sin dwells in us proves that sin is in us as a living person. Romans 7 also says that the sin that dwells in us has killed us (v. 11). A table cannot kill, but sin kills. Before sin kills a person, it oppresses him, forcing him to do what he does not want to do. Sin is a “gangster” who coerces people to do what they do not desire to do. Paul said that he did not want to covet, but the sin that dwelt in him made him unable to control himself. He said that to will to do good was present with him, but to work out the good was not, because someone who was stronger than he was dwelt in him. This one not only overcame him but also killed him. In this way the Bible reveals that sin is Satan.
…
If we want to be free, if we do not want to commit sin, then we must obtain the Son of God and enjoy Him. The Son of God today is the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the Spirit of life, who is in us as the law of the Spirit of life.
…
The law of the Spirit of life releases us from the law of sin. We enjoy the freedom of the jubilee not only at the moment we believe in the Lord, but beginning from that day we should enjoy this freedom all our life and for eternity. This freedom comes from our enjoyment of God. He has become our possession for our enjoyment, and when we enjoy Him, we obtain freedom. This is how we have the real freedom and are no longer in bondage. However, if we do not enjoy God sufficiently, we will still be in bondage in many things.

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The Jubilee – God Being our Possession

University-of-Utah-Christians-on-campus-God-being-our-possession

Thank you to Kevin for providing us this wonderful note concerning the jubilee. It is so appropriate for this Bible Study!..

The parable of the prodigal son in the gospel of Luke is an excellent illustration of the jubilee. Man is the vessel of God, and God is the possession and enjoyment of man. The prodigal son selling all his possessions and even himself is like man losing God as his possession and man selling himself to slavery. However, one day the prodigal son returned to his possessions and to his father’s house; that was a jubilee! Today, WE have Christ as OUR real jubilee! He is the one who set us free from our poverty, captivity, blindness and oppression.

“If therefore the son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

When we repent and return to God like the prodigal son, God in Christ becomes the fattened calf for our enjoyment. We can enjoy God as our possession from now unto eternity. When we gain and experience Christ, we are living in the jubilee. Hallelujah! We are living a life full of enjoying the Lord, a life full of joy and praise!

Read all the verses for this Bible Study! Download the PDF here: The Jubilee 04

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The Jubilee – An age of Ecstasy for Salvation

 

Psalm 100-1 Make a Joyful noice to Jehovah

Rejoicing is a central theme of the jubilee. There is always much rejoicing in our Bible Studies. Rather than boring, academic exercises, our Bible Studies are filled with singing, and our singing is filled with rejoicing!

Isaiah 12:3-6 says:
Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation, And you will say in that day, / Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name! / Make His deeds known among the peoples; / Remind them that His name is exalted. Sing psalms to Jehovah, for He has done something majestic! / Let it be made known in all the earth! Cry out and give a ringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion, / For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Read all the verses from this Bible Study here: The Jubilee 03

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The Jubilee – Christ Being Our Satisfaction

Christians-on-campus-at-the-university-of-utah-Jubilee-Bible-Study-Christ-SatisfactionNot only do we know that Christ is the reality of the Jubilee; we are also learning to apply this wonderful one in every situation!

As the Jubilee, Christ truly satisfies us when we…

  • Contact Him in prayer
  • Call upon His name
  • Sing to Him

Philippians 4:6-7 also stood out to us during the Bible study:

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; And the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus

Read all the verses we prepared for this Bible Study: The Jubilee 02

 

 

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The Jubilee – Christ as the year of Jubilee

Leviticus25-10-Year-of-Jubilee

It was another wonderful Bible Study. We spent half the time singing with grace to the Lord! You know, by singing, we can enjoy God and also get filled up with truth! The other half of the time we got into the Jubilee mentioned in Leviticus. We saw that the year of Jubilee is actually Christ Himself! Furthermore, the word Jubilee means… Happy – Year !!!

Read all the verses we read in the Bible Study here: The Jubilee 01

Join us for more Jubilee, Wednesdays at 6pm – Union 311.

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Who Christ Is – Man – Creator – Firstborn of all Creation

Christ-is-the-Creator

Some new people joined us for this Bible study (come back any time!). All enjoyed presenting aspects of who Christ is. Two aspects that came out strongly were:

  1. Jesus is the Savior, for Jesus means Jehovah the Savior.
  2. Jesus is God Himself, the creator.

In addition to the verse in the picture above, we really enjoyed:

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21)

Feel free to get more into this Bible Study through the attached Pdf: Who Christ is 05

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Who Christ is – The Life-Giving Spirit

Life-Giving-Spirit

The Bible shows us that in God’s plan there were two crucial steps that Christ went through. In John chapter 1 we see His becoming flesh. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, a chapter on Christ’s resurrection, we see that He became a life giving Spirit. This is who Christ is today, in His resurrection – He is the Life-giving Spirit.

In order to enjoy this marvelous Life-giving Spirit, for our Bible study, we also sang the following song:

Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit;
Now Christ is the Spirit today.
Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit;
So turn to your spirit and say—
O Lord, Amen,
O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!
O Lord, Amen,
O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!

More of the lyrics can be found at: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/ns/103

See the PDF of this Bible Study here: Who Christ is 04

Join us on Wednesdays at 6pm for dinner and more of what Christ is!

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Who Christ is – The Word

Handle-Christ-as-the-Word-of-Life

Christ is the Word. He is the explanation and definition of God. And He is the Word of life, particularly, conveying the eternal life, the very divine person of God.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1 JOHN 1:1 – That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we beheld and our hands
handled, concerning the Word of life

The burden of the Spirit that came forth in this Bible study was that we need to be handling the Word of life. In addition to what we came up with and what is shown in the photo above, here are some more ways that we can handle the Word of life.

  • Share the Word of life
  • Post the Word of life
  • Tweet the Word of life
  • Like the Word of life
  • Pin the Word of life
  • Publish the Word of life
  • Announce the Word of life

Download the Pdf of this Bible Study: Who Christ is 03

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Who Christ is – The Only Begotten and the Firstborn Son of God

Christ-as-the-only-begotten-and-as-the-Firstborn-Son-of-GodThis week we continued with two more aspects of who Christ is. The Bible Study was interactive and enjoyable.  We read verses and worked on diagrams that show these two aspects.

As the only begotten Son of God, Christ gives us the zoe life, the eternal, uncreated life of God.

John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

In His resurrection, Christ became the Firstborn Son of God. His resurrection was a birth for Him–and actually, for us too!

Acts 13:33 says, That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.”

Romans 8:29 says, Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

Being the Firstborn implies that there are many more. Those of us who believe into Jesus Christ receive His divine life and become the many brothers of Christ! Hallelujah!

Download the Pdf of the Bible Study here: Who Christ is 02

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Who Christ is – God and the Son of God

Who-Christ-Is-For-in-Him-dwells-all-the-fullness-Web-Version

This wonderful person, Christ, wants us to know Him. In this Bible Study we read a passage from Colossians 2 and other related verses. We saw that Christ is God and also the Son of God.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, – Colossians 2:9

This verse (Colossians 2:9) is a true gift to us from God. We can really treasure it, as it shows us that the entire Godhead dwells in Christ and that outside of Christ there is no God.

As an assignment for the week, we presented this open-ended question:

How should we be affected by seeing who Christ is?

Download the pdf of this Bible Study: Who Christ is 01

You can also read last year’s related Bible Study: The Tree of Life – Who is Christ?

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An Exceedingly Good Land – How to Possess the Land

In this Bible study we reviewed the history of the children of Israel, as they left Egypt and the things they experienced on their way to the Good Land. The Lord really led us to focus on two matters: Confessing our Sins, and Eating Christ – through His Word.

Although we are on a college campus, reading many books and articles and studying topics thoroughly, our eating of Christ in His Word is something special. We must come to His Word, linger there, contact the living Person there, and learn to exercise our spirit, our deepest part, to receive Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him.

Why did God bring us to this university? To meet other Christians and mutually help one another to… POSSESS THE LAND!

Download this short Bible Study: An Exceedingly Good Land 09

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An Exceedingly Good Land – Its Unsearchable Riches – Minerals 2

Minerals2We had seen that minerals are for building. This time we saw that minerals are also for protection. That is, for the spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the stratagems of
the devil

Download the pdf of the Bible Study: An Exceedingly Good Land 08

Join us for the Christians on Campus Bible Studies. We not only study, we also get to know each other, we eat dinner, we sing, and we pray!