Christ Gives life to the Dead and Heals us of any Leaven with Himself as the Fine Flour

Christ came to give life to the dead, recover our right to enjoy Christ, and heal us of any leaven with Himself as the fine flour. Amen!

Elisha was a type of Christ in what he did; he did not merely perform miracles but had the ministry of grace resulting in life unto the reigning in life as kings, and the things he did were a type of what Christ did in reality.

Elisha was a sweet and pleasant prophet, unlike Elijah, who was very strong for the Lord, standing as an anti-testimony to that generation.

Elijah was a type of John the Baptist who came preaching repentance and condemning the self-righteous ones; Elisha is a type of Christ as a sweet and pleasant prophet.

The miracles that Elijah did were monumental, for he prayed and there was no rain for three and a half years, and he called for God to send fire from heaven on the burnt offering he laid on the altar.

But the miracles that Elisha did were not great outwardly but with deep significance in life, for they were the result of the ministry of grace in life.

Elisha was careful and considerate with men, like the Lord Jesus was. The Lord Jesus came as a compassionate and caring Savior to look for the lost sheep of God.

For example, in Luke 7:11-17 the Man-Savior saw the weeping widow who just lost her only son.

She lost her husband already, and now she also lost her son. He was moved with compassion and touched the bier so that it stopped.

He sensed the sadness of the situation, for this woman had lost her only son after she lost her husband; therefore, He was moved with compassion and raised her son from the dead.

The Lord Jesus came not to condemn or point out the faults of sinners; He came to save the lost sinners (Luke 19:10).

In saving sinners, He displayed a high standard of morality, expressing God in His rich divine attributes through His aromatic human virtues.

The Lord Jesus is the fulfilment of the type of Elisha; yes, Elisha was a prophet of God in the Old Testament who did many things, but Christ is the real Elisha, for He is the compassionate, caring, shepherding, and healing Man-Savior coming to save, rescue, heal, and restore us.

He wants to come into our situation and be full of compassion to us; when we open to Him, He is not condemning or criticizing us, though He may have the ground to do so, but He heals and restores.

When He comes, grace comes, for He as the Word of God came as the embodiment of God to be grace to us, that is, He came to be our enjoyment and our everything.

The Lord Jesus came to change our death into life; we have death in our body, soul, and spirit, and the Lord comes in to remove and swallow any death in our spirit first, then in our soul, and eventually even in our mortal body.

There is so much death operating in our mind, emotion, will, feelings, emotions, and desires; when we contact the Lord, He spreads from our spirit into the death-filled parts of our soul to remove any death and simply bring in life.

The more we experience Christ as the life-giving and death-swallowing One, the more our death is changed into life, and we can be raised from any death situation to live Christ and serve God.

Christ came to Give Life to the Dead and to Recover us from any Death Waters to Enjoy God as Life and Reign as Kings

Elisha is a type of Christ in resurrecting the dead from death. In 2 Kings 4:18-37, we see the story of the son of a woman dying and her going to tell Elisha about it, and then Elisha raising him from the dead.

This is amazing. Yes, it is a miracle, but it is not a miracle that is great outwardly for all to see and be amazed, but a miracle in life, the result of the ministry of grace in life for us to reign as kings.

Elisha’s resurrecting the dead from death, giving life to the dead, is the same as what the Lord Jesus did, both physically and spiritually (Luke 7:11-17; John 11:41-44; 5:25).

He was moved with compassion when He saw the large crowd accompanying the widow who was about to bury her only son in Luke 7, and He touched the bier and raised her son up.

In John 11, the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, in spite of the unbelief of all those around Him and in spite of their opinions.

He came as resurrection and life, and He came to give life to the dead.

We as believers in Christ today are those who benefit from the Lord’s giving life; He came to give life to the dead, and we were dead in sins and offenses.

Thank the Lord, we have met the Lord, we heard the gospel, and we received life from Him; now we are no longer dead in sins and offenses but are raised with Christ to live as a new creation in resurrection.

And whenever the gospel is preached and Christ is ministered, those who are dead spiritually hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (John 5:25).

The Lord Jesus has resurrected millions of persons, including us; they who hear His voice are raised from the dead and live, having the life which is really life.

Elisha was a type of Christ in 2 Kings 6:6 when the axe head of someone fell into the water, and Elisha threw a wooden stick in the water, and the axe head rose to the top of the water.

This was also a miracle, but it was a miracle in life, a miracle issuing out of the ministry of grace in life for us to reign as kings.

What is the significance of the axe head falling in the water, and Elisha throwing a wooden stick to cause it to float and be recovered?

Elisha’s causing an axe head that had fallen into the water to float by means of a wooden stick signifies Christ’s recovering through His cross in resurrection the lost power of sinners that had fallen into the death water (Eph. 2:1-6).

We were once dead in sins and offenses, for we walked in them according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience.

But praise God, though we conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, being by nature children of wrath even as the rest, God was rich in mercy!

Hallelujah, God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in offenses, He made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus! Wow!

Christ came into this world to save sinners; there are no other kinds of persons on the earth.

Sinners are enveloped in death waters.

But when the light of the gospel shines on them, when the Lord reaches them in a fresh way through the speaking of the word, their right to enjoy God is restored.

The lost power of sinners who fell into death waters is restored by the cross of Christ in resurrection! Hallelujah!

Thank You, God, for being rich in mercy toward us because of Your great love with which You loved us. Thank You for coming in the Son to be our Savior, the One who died for us to redeem us back to God. Oh Lord, we were dead in sins and offenses, having no right before God but being sons of disobedience and children of wrath, but You loved us and died for us. Hallelujah, Christ came to give us life and turn all our death into life! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for coming to give life to the dead. We come to You as we are: we open our being to You and we allow You as life to spread into every part to fill us with life and to swallow up any death. Hallelujah, we are made alive together with Christ, and in Christ, we have life, the life that is really life!

The Lord Jesus came to Heal us of any Leaven with Himself as the Fine Flour

One time when the disciples of Elisha were short of food, they cooked a stew in which there were poisonous gourds; they cried out that death is in the pot, so Elisha took some flour, threw it in the pot and there was nothing harmful in the pot anymore (2 Kings 4:40-41).

In principle this is what the Lord Jesus did for us, His disciples, when He warned us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt. 16:6-12), healing us with Himself as the fine flour.

Today in Christianity there are many “poisonous gourds”, for some Christian books and teachings are good, while others have poison in them.

Some Christian books are good, but many Christian books are not pure; they also contain some poisonous elements in them.

We thank the Lord for the ministry of the age that not only opens up the word of God for us to enter into its depth and experience Christ as life, but also imparts the healthy food into us.

There are some very good books today such as The Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray, God’s Plan of Redemption by Mary E. McDonough, and Life on the Highest Plane by Ruth Paxson.

Also, there are the excellent writings of brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee who, though were rejected when they ministered, are now accepted in Christianity as healthy teaching.

By the Lord’s mercy and grace, He has revealed to us the most important revelations in the Bible through the ministry of the age, and we can be healed from the leaven of the Pharisees and of any leaven by the healthy teaching, His healthy word.

We need to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Matt. 13:33; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9).

A little leaven leavens the whole lump; if we do not beware the leaven of hypocrisy, if we don’t allow Christ as the pure, fine flour to heal us of any leaven, we will be leavened and become part of Christianity.

Christianity as a whole today is full of leaven.

All the good teachings, doctrines, practices, and aspects in the Word of God have been leavened and now are something big, something of hypocrisy, something for the show.

We need to remain with the Lord in His word, abiding in His healthy word in the Bible and in the ministry that properly interprets and applies the word for us to experience and enjoy Christ as life.

The leaven that operates in Christianity as a whole will consummate to something big, the Great Babylon, which God hates and will personally destroy.

But the fine flour which is Christ, the pure and fine Christ that we enjoy and even become, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the city of life.

May we remain under the ministry of grace in life that leads to us reigning in life as kings, and may we allow the Lord to heal us of any leaven.

May we not eat of any “poisonous gourds” and may we not waste time collecting these gourds; may we simply remain with Christ, the pure revelation in the word of God, and the healthy things in the sound teaching of the ministry.

If we remain in the healthy teaching of God’s economy in the church life today, we will be healthy, for Christ as the fine flour is added to us and we become a lump, the church as the Body of Christ, to satisfy God and man.

Eating Christ and only Christ will give us a taste for Christ, and whenever poisonous gourds may be there before us, we will reject them, for we love Christ and we do not want to be deceived by the enemy and corrupted from the simplicity toward Christ.

Lord Jesus, keep us eating You as the pure food in God’s economy. Keep us under the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy. Heal us of any leaven by Yourself as the fine flour. May we stay away from any leaven and from any “poisonous gourds” that bring in death. Amen, Lord, keep us simple and pure toward You. Save us from paying attention to teachings and practices that are not healthy and sound. Keep us in the pure and healthy things of God’s economy in the word of God so that we may be healthy Christians enjoying the pure Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to remain under the ministry of grace in life that will lead us to reign in life as kings!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msg. 16 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 3, entitled, Elisha Being a Type of Christ in His Ministry of Grace in Life and as a Man of God Behaving Himself as God’s Representative, as the Acting God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ has put on human nature and become / a man like me, / He has died upon the cross that I from Adam / might be free, / He has risen and as Spirit He has come / to live in me / That He might be my life. (Hymns #1017)
  – The Church’s seed is nought but Christ Himself / Sown into human hearts as life, thereby / Growing as wheat, producing flour fine / For bread both God and man to satisfy…Satan has also used the fallen “church” / Evil and heathen practice to include, / As leaven mingled with the meal of wheat, / Thus to corrupt its purity as food. (Hymns #829, stanzas 1 and 5)
  – Then Thyatira comes at length: / Her mixture with the world her strength. / Fine flour leavened by the yeast, / A harlot riding on a beast. / Lord, we are mixed but hardly know; / To us this mixture fully show. / Each added thing we will refute / Until we’re wholly absolute. (Hymns #1274, stanzas 9 and 10)