We need to Exercise Discernment in Contacting People and be Separated from Death

As believers in Christ, we need to live a holy life separated from death and exercise discernment and care concerning our contact with people. We need to stay away from any kind of death and be filled with life, so that we may not be affected by death but be the Nazarites of today, those separated unto God for His purpose.

Touching the uncleanness of spiritual death is the most serious thing in the eyes of God.

The trespass offering is Christ Himself dealing with and removing our sins, and we need to come to the Lord again and again to be cleansed with His blood from any trespass, mistake, sin, or wrongdoing.

We need to realize that the source of every trespass is sin in the flesh, and the reason for every trespass is our not living absolutely for God. Because we have sin in our flesh, we commit sins, and because we don’t live absolutely for God, we trespass.

We need to take Christ as our sin offering for the sin in our nature, and we need to take Him as our burnt offering for our absoluteness before God. When we lay our hands on Christ through prayer in faith, we identify ourselves with Him, what He is becomes ours, and what we are becomes His – He takes care of all our problems, and we enjoy all that He is.

We sin many times unintentionally, unwillingly, because we have the sinful nature in our being and many times we don’t live absolutely for God. We may not say the truth to others but we may say half-truths, not being faithful and sincere in our speaking.

Such a thing is sin, and we need to take Christ as our trespass offering for all our sins. When we are not true and sincere in what we say, and we do not speak the truth as we know it, we lie, and we speak one with Satan who is the father and source of all lies.

Satan in our flesh is a liar and the father of it, and by default we are inclined to lie. When the Lord’s light shines on us and exposes us of our sin, when we realise in God’s light that we lied and didn’t speak the truth, we need to confess our sin and take Christ as our trespass offering.

We should not be afraid or ashamed to come to the Lord again and again to apply His precious and effective blood, for this is our supply day by day. When we agree with the Lord concerning the trespasses we commit, He can wash us with His blood, forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Today we want to see more concerning something that is most defiling before God, which is death and our association with people who spread death. In a sense it is easy for us to be cleansed of our trespasses and sins, but it is not so easy to be cleansed from being defiled by death.

For us as God’s people to live a holy life, we need to exercise discernment and care concerning our contact with people and our association with them, for there are many kinds of death that can come in and affect us and those around us.

To Live a Holy Life we need to Exercise Discernment in our Contact with People

To touch the uncleanness of spiritual death is the most serious thing in the eyes of God. In Lev. 11 God points out a few kinds of animals that His people should not eat, for they are unclean; eating here refers to our contact with people and being associated with them.

If we are to live a holy life separated from death, we need to exercise care concerning our contact with people – we need to exercise discernment.

In Acts 10:9-15 Peter had the trance in which the great sheet was lowered from heaven, being loaded with all kinds of unclean animals; these animals represented people, and Peter eating of these animals was his being associated with unclean people.

We need to have a discernment in our diet. To eat is to contact things that are outside of us and receive them into us, with the result that they become our inner constitution; eating in Lev. 11 signifies our contacting people.

For God’s people to live a holy life as required by the holy God, they must be careful about the kind of people they contact (cf. Lev. 11:46-47; 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor. 6:14-18). There are four kinds of people that we should be and we should associate ourselves with, as we exercise discernment concerning contacting people:

1. People who have discernment in their activities and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration. In Lev. 11:2-3 God allows His people to eat animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud. To divide the hoof signifies to have discernment in our activities (Phil. 1:9-10).

To have discernment is to know what is of God and what is of the devil, what is heavenly and what is earthly, what is spiritual and what is fleshly, what is of the new man and what is of the old man, and what is of the world and what is in the divine and mystical realm.

We need to exercise discernment and be around people who practice this. To chew the cud is to receive the word of God by much musing and reconsideration. “Cud” is the food regurgitated from the first stomach of a cow back to the mouth, then chewed again.

We need to chew, eat, digest, and assimilate the word of God, and then during the day we need to regurgitate the word of God, muse on it again, until we extract all the Spirit in that word. We should be such ones, and we should associate ourselves with such people.

2. People who can move and act freely in the world, simultaneously resisting its influence. The aquatic animals that have fins and scales (Lev. 11:9).

In the Bible the sea refers to the fallen, corrupted world (see Dan. 7:3, 17; Rev. 17:15), and the aquatic animals that have fins and scales can move freely in the water but are not influenced by it.

We need to be those who can move and act freely in the world, but at the same time we resist its influenced and are not influenced by its death (signified salt). This is something we should be, and we should exercise discernment to be around such ones.

3. People who live and move in a life that is away and above from the world, and who take the things of life as their supply of life.

In Lev. 11:13-19 the birds that were to be the food for God’s people were those who had wings for flying and who ate seeds of life. We need to live a life in which we live and move away and above the world, and we need to take things of life as our life supply, and we need to be around such people also.

In contrast, we should stay away from people who feed on the things of death (signified by the animals that feed on carcasses, see Lev. 11:13-19). It is so wonderful to be around people who soar above anything of the world and who eat things of life!

4. People who live and move in a life that is above the world and who can keep themselves from the world. In Lev. 11:21-22 the insects that were to be the food for God’s people were those who had wings and legs above their feet for leaping on the ground.

This signifies persons who can live and move in a life that is above the world, and who can keep themselves from the world.

How can we not be defiled by the world and its death? It is by exercising discernment to be around people who can keep themselves from the world and who live by the divine life, the resurrection life of Christ.

We need to realize that we are what we eat: if we eat Christ, we become Christ, and we live because of Christ (John 6:57). We shouldn’t be deceived: evil companionships corrupt good morals (1 Cor. 15:33).

We may want to seek the Lord and be His holy people, but if we associate ourselves with people who feed on the things of death, people who love the world, and people who are not discerning the things of God and the things of the devil, we will be corrupted. We need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, we want to live a holy life in the church life by exercising discernment in our contact with people. May we exercise discernment in our activities and receive the word of God with much musing, reconsideration, prayer, and enjoyment. May we be those who move and act freely in the world yet simultaneously resisting its influence of death. Lord, we want to be around people who eat Your word as their food supply and who live and move in a life that is away from and above the world.

Being Separated from Death and Filled with Life to be the Lord’s Nazarites Today

On one hand we need to exercise discernment in our contact with people and our association with them, and on the other hand we need to stay away from any kind of death.

The carcasses of the animals in Lev. 5:2 refer to three different kinds of spiritual death that may spread among God’s people in the church life: beasts signify wild death, cattle signify mild death, and creeping things signify subtle death (Rom. 14:15, 20; 16:17).

One kind of death is like a wild beast, a second is mild and gentle like a domesticated animal, while the third one is subtle like a creeping thing.

Regardless of its kind, death is death, and death is unclean; any kind of death – whether wild, mild, or subtle – is filthy and defiling, and we should stay away from it.

It is not easy in the church life to stay away from the uncleanness of these different kinds of death.

According to the Bible, death is more defiling and abominable than sin. Through the trespass offering any sin could be forgiven immediately (ch. 5), but a person who touched the carcass of any animal was unclean until the evening (vv. 24-25, 27b-28a, 31b-32, 39-40). Our sins are forgiven by the Lord immediately after we confess them to Him (1 John 1:9), but a certain period of time must pass before we can be cleansed from the defilement of spiritual death. A person who touched the carcass of a man was unclean for seven days (Num. 19:11, 13), indicating that in the eyes of God, fallen human beings are the most defiling element (cf. Matt. 15:17-20). (Lev. 11:31, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)

In God’s eyes death is more defiling than sin; when we sin, we can confess our sins in God’s light and He will wash us and forgive us, but when we touch death, a certain period of time has to pass before we are cleansed from its defilement.

The poison of death can damage and even destroy the saints. We need to be those who are sober, calm, fair, and kind to consider whether we are really building up the Body of Christ through what we are and what we do, or we unconsciously do something to destroy God’s work by spreading the poison of death.

We need to exercise discernment in our contact and association with people and we need to stay away from any kind of death.

Instead of touching the things of death or spreading death, we should be the Lord’s Nazarites who are separated from death and filled with life – filled with “anti-death” (Num. 6:6-8; Rom. 8:6).

To be a Nazarite – a willingly consecrated one for God’s purpose today – we need to be separated from four main things: natural affection, earthly pleasure, rebellion, and death.

We need to be those who live and walk by the Spirit and not in our natural affection. We need to enjoy God, delight in God, and find our joy and satisfaction in Him, and not be drunk with earthly pleasure and enjoyment.

We need to be headed up in Christ, take Him as our Head in all things, and live a life fully under His headship, rejecting any form of rebellion. We need to separated from death and be filled with life – filled with the sevenfold life-giving Spirit as anti-death.

Lord Jesus, we want to be the Nazarites who are separated from death and filled with life to live a life for Your purpose today. We choose to live and walk by the Spirit, and not by or in our natural affection. We don’t want to be filled with the enjoyment of this world but take You as our enjoyment, satisfaction, pleasure, entertainment, and joy. Head us up, Lord, and head up our day with all its activities and circumstances; head up our spirit, soul, and body, and may our living be under Your headship. Lord, we want to be separated from death and be filled with the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit. Save us from touching death, spreading death or, being affected by death in any way!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 36 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 8, Taking Christ as Our Trespass Offering for God’s Purpose.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, teach us to discern the spirit / From soul that we Thyself may know; / Thou art the Spirit in our spirit, / In oneness mingled with us so. (Hymns #746)
  # But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, / Faith, love, peace with those who / Call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (Scripture song)
  # You need the Nazarites to turn this age. / Strengthen us to overcome in these last days— / All rebellion, natural affection, even death, / Worldly pleasures, every enjoyment of the flesh. / I need You, but You need me too, / To do what You want to do. / Rekindle all of my love for You, / To be a voluntarily consecrated one. (Song on, Consecrated One)