As those who want to cooperate with the Lord and be one with Him in the direction of His move on earth today, we need to exercise the keys of denying the self, taking up the cross, and losing the soul-life, so that we may close the gates of Hades and live a life for […]
Seeing the Expressions of the Self to Deny the Self for the Building of the Church
The Lord Jesus said that, if we want to follow Him, we should deny the self; today we want to see what are some expressions of the self and how we can exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self in every situation. What is the self, and why do we […]
What are the Gates of Hades and how can we use the Keys of the Kingdom to Close them
Matthew 16 is a very enlightening chapter in the Bible in our seeing how the direction of the Lord’s move today is to bring in the kingdom of God; in this chapter we have the way to build up the church and the enemy of the building of God. The matter of the direction of […]
today the church is the depository and the storehouse of the power of resurrection
Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” It is so easy to take these verses for granted, but if we are enlightened by the Lord […]
using the keys of the kingdom to lock the subjective gates of Hades and build up the church
Matt. 16:21-26 shows us not only the subjective gates of Hades coming in to frustrate the building up of the church but also the keys of the kingdom of the heavens which lock these doors and release the building up! We need to use the keys of denying our self, losing our soul life, and taking up our cross! Denying the self mainly relates to our mind, since the self is expressed through the mind with its opinions. Taking up the cross is related to taking up the will of God and not our own will. Losing our soul life is related to the enjoyment of the soul, the pleasure – we need to seek God’s pleasure and His enjoyment!
the way to build up the church as the kingdom of God is death and resurrection
What is the way to build up the church? As revealed by the Lord in Matt. 16:16-18 and then in 21-26, the way the church is built up in a practical way is through death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus builds up the church through His death and resurrection – if He would have not died on the cross for us and if He would have not resurrected, there would be no church. It is the same with us today – if we do not die to ourselves and if we don’t live the resurrection life in the church life, we do not build up the church. [continue reading this article online]