Living a Rejoicing Life by Calling on the name of the Lord and Rejoicing in Him

God trains us, His people, to live a rejoicing life, a happy life; as we touch the Spirit in our spirit, there’s a law of rejoicing, and we rejoice in the Lord, spontaneously! Amen, Hallelujah!

In Leviticus we see how God trained His people to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life.

First of all, God’s people were trained by God to be holy and live a holy life; they were set apart unto God, and for the holy God to dwell among His people, they had to sanctify themselves.

Today we as the spiritual people of God need to have a holy living, a living that is not only set apart unto God and distinct as He is distinct, but also one that is saturated with God and lived according to the divine nature.

God wants us to live a holy life by living according to the divine nature which saturates us and permeates us. God has no intention to obtain a group of people who merely behave in a certain way; He wants a people that is open to Him and allows Him to work Himself into them, so that His holy nature becomes their holy nature, and they live a holy life because of the holy nature which is in them.

Furthermore, our God is a clean God, not touched by sin, defilement, or impurity; we are unclean, easily defiled, and full of impurities.

Therefore, the people of Israel had specific regulations concerning being cleansed when they touched something or someone unclean, when they were unclean, and when there was a discharge from their body.

Similarly in our Christian life we need to live a clean life, a life of applying the blood of Christ to be cleansed from our sins, and enjoying the washing of the water in the word of God to be reconstituted with God’s life.

If we sin, we need to come in the Lord’s light and walk in the light; here we confess our sins and the Lord is faithful to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7, 9). Hallelujah, we have the blood of Christ which can cleanse us!

Furthermore, we have the life of Christ, His Spirit embodied in His word, which can not only cleanse us but also reconstitute us with God and beautify us to be His bride (Eph. 5:26).

We need to daily enjoy the Lord in His word, spend time in the word to read, pray-read, and muse on it, so that the divine life contained in the word would wash us, constitute us, and become part of our being; the result will be that we will live a clean life.

Today we want to see what it means for us to live a rejoicing life, a life of rejoicing in the Lord always.

God wants us to Live a Rejoicing Life by Calling on His Name and Rejoicing in Him

God trained His people – the people of Israel – to live a rejoicing life, a happy life. All the feasts which He carefully ordained are times of rejoicing, for God wants His people to live a rejoicing life, feasting with Him and enjoying Him.

To rejoice is to let the joy within us be expressed; such a rejoicing is especially expressed at times of feasting, which are times of rejoicing. A rejoicing life is the result of enjoying God in Christ as everything. God wants His people to be happy with Him in His presence.

For this, He ordained daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly feasts so that His people would rejoice together and even live a rejoicing life.

Paul tells us in Phil. 4:4 that we should rejoice in the Lord always; however, many times we can’t just rejoice. We need to realize that rejoicing is not act that we deliberately do or spontaneously perform when we’re happy, but it is a law.

If we keep the principle of the spiritual law – the law of rejoicing – then we will spontaneously be rejoicing. Rejoicing is a law that belongs to the Spirit of life; in the Spirit of life there’s the law of rejoicing.

When we touch the Spirit of life, no matter what our situation is outwardly, deep within this law is activated, and it works spontaneously. The Spirit of life is Christ as the life-giving Spirit; He’s the Spirit of life, and when we call on the name of the Lord, we activate this law, and we will spontaneously rejoice!

When we call on the name of the Lord, we touch the rejoicing One within us, and the law of rejoicing is activated; therefore, it will be easy for us to live a rejoicing life, and we will rejoice in the Lord.

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, He said, Let My people go to hold a feast unto Me! – God was not happy for His people to be slaves in Egypt; He wanted to deliver them and bring them into an incredible happiness that they would hold a feast unto God, with God, in God, and to God!

God wants us, His people, to be delivered from any bondage and hold a feast unto Him – He wants us to touch Him as the happy God, become happy people, and live a rejoicing life by rejoicing in the Lord always!

We need to be the “Hallelujah people”, those who rejoice in the Lord always. Many times the best thing to do is to sing a song, and we will be filled with joy; the result is that we will enjoy Christ as our rest, and we will live a rejoicing life.

When we sing to the Lord a hymn like this one, “This is my story, this is my song, / Praising my Savior all the day long. ” (Hymns #308, chorus), we will be rejoicing in the Lord. Our church life, our daily life, and our Christian life should all be a happy life.

We should be rejoicing day after day – rejoicing not in a natural way or in ourselves, but in the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19-20).

We should thank the Lord for all things at all time, and day by day we should sing to Him, enjoy Him, and be the “hallelujah people” wherever we go!

Oh Lord Jesus! We love You Lord! Thank You for everything! Thank You for making us Your people. Thank You for giving us Your life. Thank You for redeeming us by shedding Your blood for us. Thank You for coming into us as the Spirit of life. Hallelujah for the law of rejoicing in the Spirit of life! Lord, we want to be the Hallelujah people, those who rejoice in the Lord always! Praise the Lord! Oh Lord Jesus! Thank You Lord! Amen! We rejoice in You, Lord, for You are our joy, and we love to feast with You, unto You, in You, and to You! Hallelujah!

Living a Rejoicing Life in the Lord by Holding the Feasts and Rejoicing in the Lord

The book of Leviticus shows us the weekly enjoyment (the Sabbath), the monthly enjoyment (the feast of the new moon), and seven annual feasts, and also the Sabbath year and the jubilee. All these items typify the New Testament enjoyment.

As the New Testament believers we should be a holy people, a clean people, and a happy people who are always rejoicing. We should live a rejoicing life in the Lord by holding the feasts and rejoicing in the Lord.

When we keep the feasts – the reality of the feasts being Christ given to us as our portion to be our enjoyment with God and before God – we will be a rejoicing people, a hallelujah people, a people who live a rejoicing life on earth.

Let’s take a closer look at the feasts ordained by God, and let us see how they apply to the people of Israel and to our experience as believers.

The weekly Sabbath was the principal denotation of all the annual feasts; these feasts were a Sabbath, which was for God’s redeemed people to rest with God and with one another – see Lev. 23:1-3.

Then, the monthly new moon feast signifies that we can experience a new beginning in Christ as our joy and enjoyment with light in darkness – Num. 10:10; 28:11-15.

The Feast of the Passover typifies Christ as our Passover for our initial and foundational salvation; hallelujah, even our initial salvation, the beginning of our regenerated life, was a time of rejoicing – Lev. 23:4-5; Exo. 12:2-14; 1 Cor. 5:7.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread typifies the entire course of our Christian life without sin – Lev. 23:6-8; Exo. 12:15-20. This feast lasted for seven days, typifying the entire course of our Christian life as a feast without sin; Christ is our strength to live a life without sin in our entire Christian life for our enjoyment and rest.

The Feast of Firstfruits typifies the resurrected Christ for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection – Lev. 23:9-14; 1 Cor. 15:20. When we know His resurrection power in our experience, we can enjoy Christ in a rich way as the feast of Firstfruits.

The Feast of Pentecost typifies the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit for the formation of the church – Lev. 23:15-22 (two loaves were offered to God on that day, signifying the Jewish and Gentile parts of the Body).

The Feast of the Blowing of the Trumpets typifies God’s calling together of His scattered people – vv. 23-25; Matt. 24:30-31 (this will be fulfilled at Christ’s coming back).

The Feast of Expiation typifies the enjoyment for the whole house of Israel after they will be gathered together by God – Lev. 23:26-32; Rom. 11:25-27; Zech. 12:10-14 (this will be fulfilled at the very time of Christ’s descending from the heavens to the Holy Land in His second coming – see Rev. 1:7).

The Feast of Tabernacles typifies the enjoyment of the age of restoration to be fulfilled in the millennium on the restored earth – see Lev. 23:33-44; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 20:4, 6.

The Sabbath year typifies Christ as our rest in full – Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22; we enjoy Christ without laboring – He is our continual and eternal feast.

The jubilee, the Pentecostal year, typifies Christ as our full release, rest, and joy by His redeeming back what we have lost in our rights and have sold in ourselves – vv. 8-17; this is for us to enjoy Christ in His resurrection in the fullest way forever and ever.

All these feasts need to be our experience, for God wants us to live a rejoicing life, rejoicing in the Lord always!

Lord, train us to be Your rejoicing people who live a rejoicing life by rejoicing in the Lord always. We want to keep the feast by enjoying Christ continually. Lord, You are our rest, our satisfaction, our new beginning, our light in darkness, our joy and enjoyment, our rejoicing, our sinless supply, the Spirit who has been outpoured, our gathering, and our full release, rest, and joy! We rejoice in You, Lord, for You are everything to us. Thank You for saturating us with Your nature to make us Your holy people, cleansing us with Your blood and Your life to be Your clean people, and making us Your rejoicing people who live a rejoicing life by continually feasting on the Lord and calling His name! Oh Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The History of God in His Union with Man, ch. 13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 1, God Training His People to Worship and Partake of Him and to Live a Holy, Clean, and Rejoicing Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Rejoice in the Lord always; / And again I say, rejoice. / Rejoice, rejoice, / And again I say, rejoice. (Scripture song)
  # Rejoice in the Lord! Rejoice in the Lord! / Rejoice with thanksgiving! Rejoice ever more. / Rejoice in the Lord all your days; / Rejoice in the Lord always! (Song on, Rejoice in the Lord)
  # O let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, / When the darts of the tempter are flying, / For Satan still dreads, as he oft did of yore, / Our singing much more than our sighing. (Hymns #717)