Scripture Reading: Lev. 25:8-17; Isa. 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-22; Acts 26:16-19; Rom. 7:24; 8:2

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 23　DAY 1　»

　　Lev. 25:10 ...You shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and...to his family.

　　Luke 4:18-19 "...He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,...those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee."

　　[The word for jubilee is] perhaps related to the word ram; meaning "a time of shouting," or "a time of the trumpeting of the ram's horn." The trumpeting of the ram's horn signifies the preaching of the gospel as the proclaiming of liberty in the New Testament jubilee to all the sinners sold under sin (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 26:17b-18) that they may return to God and God's family and may rejoice with shouting in the enjoyment of God's salvation. (Lev. 25:10, footnote 3)

　　As Paul says in Ephesians 2:12, we were apart from Christ, having no hope and without God in the world. Today, however, we are no longer apart from Christ. Rather, we are in Christ. We have God, and we "turn on the switch" to enjoy God as our possession. The jubilee is altogether related to our possession, and our possession is God. When we have God, we have the jubilee; when we have God, everything is to our satisfaction. Our preaching of the gospel is our blowing of the trumpet of redemption to proclaim to the world, "Behold, now is the well-acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation," the year of jubilee (2 Cor. 6:2). Though man has fallen far from God, God is waiting for him, longing for his return. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," p. 20)

　　[We enjoy] God as the possession of the jubilee and [obtain] the freedom of the jubilee....We saw the possession of the jubilee, and [now] we will see the freedom of the jubilee. Possession and freedom are both positive, but there is a difference between them. Some may say that they would rather have freedom than a possession, but this concept is not correct. 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. Freedom is to be without oppression or deficiency....How we thank God that today He is our possession, and when we enjoy Him, we have freedom!

　　The Old Testament describes the year of jubilee very well. Leviticus 25 is a long chapter, but it has only two main points. The first point is that in the year of jubilee all those who had lost their possession were returned to it. The possession was not returned to its original owner; it was the owner who was returned to his possession. On the one hand, man left and lost his possession, but on the other hand, his possession lost him. Did we lose God, or did God lose us? Both are true; we lost God, and God lost us. As we have seen, the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an illustration of the year of jubilee. We are all the real prodigal sons. Today even kings, presidents, prime ministers, and cabinet officials are prodigal sons. In this parable, did the son lose his father, or did the father lose his son? This parable mainly does not speak of the son's losing the father. In verse 24 the father said, "This son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found." From this verse we can see that the father's losing the son is emphasized more than the son's losing the father. Therefore, in the year of jubilee we mainly do not have our possession restored to us; rather, we are returned to our possession. Primarily, God is not restored to us; we are returned to God. The greatest blessing in the year of jubilee is that we are returned to God as our possession. This is the first main point in Leviticus 25. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 23-24)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 56-58

«　WEEK 23　DAY 2　»

　　John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

　　34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

　　36 If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

　　When the year of jubilee comes, we not only are returned to God as our possession, but we also obtain freedom and are released from the bondage of slavery. Today many people talk about freedom, civil rights, and human rights, but if man does not enjoy God, he cannot have real freedom....When people only speak about freedom without being returned to God, the result is that many problems are produced, and many evil things are brought in. Who has obtained real freedom? If someone says that he is so free that he can go freely to gamble, he does not realize that he has fallen into the slavery of gambling and is under more bondage than ever....The biblical principle is that we must first be returned to God before we can have freedom. If we want to obtain freedom without being returned to God, the result is that we do not have true freedom. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 24-25)

　　There is a sinning factor, an addiction to sinning, within man. This factor, this addiction, is Satan himself, and man is his captive. He has captured man and dwells in him as the inciting sin. First Satan captured us; then he came to dwell in us as the inciter, the instigator, of our sins. The result is that he has become our illegal master, and we have become his captives to the extent that we are unable to do good and can only commit sins. In the Bible, Satan is also called Beelzebul. According to the original language of the Bible, Beelzebul means "the lord of the dunghill," from the name meaning "the lord of flies." The top of a dunghill is covered with flies. As the lord of the dunghill, Satan specializes in leading flies to feed on dung; hence, he is also the lord of flies. Since he is the lord of flies, all sinners are like flies that follow Satan to "feed on dung." They go wherever there is a stench, following Beelzebul to feast on dung. Even upper-class people are like flies. Beelzebul can disguise himself with a high-class appearance so that all the "flies" following him appear to be of a high class. Such persons...dress nicely and are very cultured, and when they dance, they seem elegant. In actuality, however, they are "eating dung."

　　All the descendants of Adam are the captives of Satan; everyone has been captured by him. After he captured us, he entered into us as Beelzebul, the lord of flies, and began leading us about to commit sins. Deep in his heart, no one wants to sin, but when a person becomes addicted and is stirred up by Beelzebul, he has to follow, allowing himself to be led around "by the nose." Afterward, he regrets it and may say, "I am so stupid; what was I doing? Why did I have to do that?" Although deep in his heart no one wants to sin, eventually everyone sins. No one has control over himself, and everyone has become a slave of sin. This is why the Lord Jesus said, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34).

　　Freedom means release, to be freed from all bondage, all heavy burden, all oppression, and all enslavement. Paul says that all things were lawful to him, but he would not be brought under the power of anything to be its slave (1 Cor. 6:12). Everything in our life can be a bondage to us, and we can be slaves under any matter. To pursue education is to be enslaved, and to not pursue education is also to be enslaved. The poor are ruled by poverty, and the rich are ruled by money; the Chinese expression for miser refers to one who is a slave of money. The jubilee is a matter of possession and also of freedom. The jubilee is to return those who are poor and who have lost God back to God as their possession, and it is also to proclaim release. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 29-30, 33)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," ch. 3

«　WEEK 23　DAY 3　»

　　Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

　　Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee."

　　It is not easy to come back to the Lord after we get angry. Perhaps a person may be one who has learned the lessons well and is able to come back to the Lord and calm his anger. However, after such a one leaves the Lord's presence, his anger may return again when he sees the offending person....All these problems are due to the fact that man is under bondage and has no freedom. The sin within us is a real controlling power. In Romans 7:24 Paul says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" How we thank God for Romans 8:2, which says that in Christ the law of the Spirit of life frees us from the law of sin and of death! We thank the Lord for His mercy. Many can testify that when they get angry, they can get over it very quickly, and the anger does not come back. This is because the law of the Spirit of life frees us from the bondage of sin. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," p. 30)

　　In Luke 4:18-19...to announce the gospel to the poor is to preach the gospel to those who have lost God, and those who are oppressed refers to those in slavery. We should not think that the year of jubilee came to free us only on the day we were saved. Actually, the entire age of the New Testament is the age of the jubilee. We have our entire Christian life in the jubilee, living a life of liberty, release, and freedom from bondage.

　　Announcing the gospel to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, and sending away in release those who are oppressed are the freedoms of the jubilee. These are the blessings of the jubilee, the blessings of the gospel. The blessings of the gospel are the return to God and the gaining of God as our possession. Once we enjoy God as our possession, we are free. Only those who enjoy God do not commit sin and are really free. John 8:36 says, "If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed." 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. Therefore, the law of the Spirit of life is just the Lord Himself, who passed through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life. Every life has a law, so the Spirit of life also has a law. 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.

　　The year of jubilee is for us to be...returned to God from the authority of Satan and [to be] freed from the slavery of sin. Hence, it is useless to struggle and strive. The only effective way for us is to believe the gospel and enjoy God. Some may say, "I will go home and make up my mind not to be angry or lose my temper again," but whereas one can make up his mind to do good, he does not have the power to perform the good. Making up our mind will not work; we must enjoy the Lord. We must learn to contact this true and living Lord to enjoy Him. In this way He becomes our release within us and our freedom. As a result, we have not only our possession but also our freedom. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 30-31)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," ch. 4

«　WEEK 23　DAY 4　»

　　Rom. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

　　8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

　　The Spirit and life are mentioned in Romans 8:2, but only in connection with the working of [the law of the Spirit of life]. Life is the content and issue of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the ultimate and consummate manifestation of the Triune God after His being processed through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and becoming the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, who is life to all the believers in Christ. The law that has freed us from the law of sin, which is of Satan, who dwells in the members of our fallen body (7:23, 17), is of this Spirit of life. It is this law, not God nor the Spirit, that works in us to deliver us from the working of the law of sin in our flesh and to enable us to know God and gain God and thereby live Him out. This law of the Spirit of life is the spontaneous power of the Spirit of life. Such a spontaneous law works automatically under the condition that fulfills its requirements.

　　Both Satan and God, after entering into our being and dwelling in us, work within us not by outward, objective activities but by an inward, subjective law. The working of the law of the Spirit of life is the working of the processed Triune God in our spirit; this is also the working of the Triune God in us in His life. (Rom. 8:2, footnote 1)

　　In Romans 7:7-25 Paul used his own experience, which he had before he believed in the Lord, to illustrate the wretchedness of trying to do good under the law in order to please God. Neither the human spirit nor the Spirit of God is mentioned in this section; rather, the will and the mind of the human soul (vv. 19, 23), which attempt to please God with the good of the natural life (vv. 18-19, 21), are referred to. Although this is the situation of an unsaved person, nearly all Christians pass through this kind of experience after they are saved. (Rom. 7:7, footnote 1)

　　The power of sin is strong; our own power is weak. The power of sin always prevails, while our own power always fails. As soon as Paul realized that sin is a law, he knew that none of his methods would work. His determination was useless; he would never overcome the law of sin by his will. This was a great discovery, a great revelation to him.

　　Paul saw that a man cannot experience deliverance by the exercise of the will. As long as a man trusts in the power of his own will, he will not turn to God's way of deliverance. The day will come when you will prostrate yourself before God and acknowledge that you can do nothing and henceforth will do nothing. That will be the day you find deliverance. Only then will you understand Romans 8. Brothers and sisters, please do not belittle Romans 7. We must first have the knowledge of chapter 7 before we can have the experience of chapter 8. The problem is not whether you understand the doctrine in Romans 8 but whether or not you have emerged from Romans 7. Many have buried themselves in Romans 7; they are still trying to deal with sin by their will. The result is nothing but failure. If you have not seen that sin is a law and that your will can never overcome this law, you are trapped in Romans 7; you will never arrive at Romans 8....All your willing and struggling is in vain.

　　The realization of the Holy Spirit as a law is a great discovery....All victories are unconscious victories because the law of the Holy Spirit is operating and upholding us, not our own will....Only the indwelling Spirit can keep you from sin; you do not have to will not to sin. It is also the indwelling Holy Spirit who is enabling you to overcome; you do not have to will to overcome. Since this law dwells in you, you are delivered from the law of sin and of death. You are in Christ Jesus, and the law of the Spirit of life is in you. Spontaneously, you are free. As long as you do not rely on your own will and effort, the Holy Spirit will bring you into victory. (CWWN, vol. 49, pp. 386-388)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 49, ch. 25

«　WEEK 23　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

　　Apart from the Spirit as the current, the flow, there is no way for God to be applied to us. God is rich and all His riches are for us; but there is the need of the Spirit as the current for the application of the riches of God to our experience. This flow of the Spirit is the anointing, the moving, of the ointment within us....Now in our spirit we have the flowing of the divine current, the moving of the ointment. Within us there is something that is constantly in motion. This moving element includes divinity, humanity, Christ's human living, the effectiveness of His death, the power of His resurrection, the fragrance of His resurrection, His ascension, enthronement, headship, lordship, authority, and kingdom.

　　[We need to see] the importance of our spirit in applying the current of the Triune God. Our spirit is like a switch. By exercising our spirit, we switch on the heavenly electricity which has been installed into us. If we did not have a switch or did not know where the switch was, we would have no way of applying electricity. In the same principle, apart from the switch of our spirit, we have no way to apply the heavenly electricity. Praise the Lord that we have a switch and that we know where it is! The switch is in the inner chamber of our being, that is, in our spirit. The simplest way to switch on the current is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 587-588)

　　In Romans 1:9 Paul said, "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son." The place to serve God is not the mind; it is our spirit. People rarely say "my spirit." They speak of their heart, their soul, their mind, their emotion, and their will, but not of their spirit. However, Paul was a person who served God in his spirit. We need to develop the habit of saying "my spirit" or "our spirit." As 8:16 says, "The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God." We need to speak more about our spirit, turn to our spirit, and use our spirit in all things. (Life-study of Romans, p. 588)

　　[Paul] says, "Work out your own salvation" (Phil. 2:12). Apparently, this is altogether against Martin Luther's teaching. Salvation should be by faith, not by works. Yet Paul says to work out your own salvation. What is this? This is just switching on. To work out your salvation is to switch on. God has installed something, and God is still operating something, but you need to switch on. Romans 8:2 says, "The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death." But who is this "me"? It is the switching "me." It does not mean that the law of the Spirit of life frees every believer with no qualification. At least the one in Romans 7 was not freed; he was still struggling there. Until Paul reached chapter 8, the law had no way to work out something. The law had been set up, and the law was still under God's operation, yet it needed Paul's switching on. Over fifty years ago I heard messages and I read books on this verse concerning the matter of the law of the Spirit of life. But no one ever told me that this law does not work without certain activities on the believers' side. Actually, Romans 8 is a definition of how the law of the Spirit of life is working. The subject of Romans 8 is the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life. But just by verse 2, you do not know how the law of the Spirit of life works. So from verse 3 onward, nearly the entire chapter is a definition of how the law of the Spirit of life operates. The law of the Spirit of life does not free everyone. Many Christians today have not been freed. The law of the Spirit of life only frees the believers who fulfill all the doings in this chapter. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, "Perfecting Training," pp. 314-315)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 56; CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, "Perfecting Training," ch. 31

«　WEEK 23　DAY 6　»

　　Phil. 4:6-7 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.

　　4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

　　First, to be in the jubilee is to eat the Lord Jesus....A proclamation concerning the jubilee may be made, but if your stomach is empty, you will not care for that proclamation.

　　Furthermore, in order to be in the jubilee, we need to have Christ as our lodging, as our dwelling place. When Christ is our home, we have true rest.

　　We have seen that the two main blessings of the jubilee are being returned to our possession and being...[set] free from the slavery of sin and from the bondage of law and religion. Praise the Lord for the blessings of the jubilee! (Life-study of Luke, pp. 566-567, 576)

　　There are three kinds of labor in human life, not including working at a job to earn a living. The first kind of labor is the labor to be a good person, to have good behavior, and to improve one's character....[But] no one can be saved by the works of trying to improve one's behavior and character, to keep the law, and to be good, patient, kind, and honest [cf. Eph. 2:8-9].

　　The second kind of labor is to worry, to be anxious. What a hard job it is to labor under anxiety! If you could do your job day by day without having any anxiety, you would be a healthy person....The only way to escape anxiety is to enjoy the Lord. Whenever I am not enjoying Christ, I have anxiety.

　　The third kind of labor revealed in the Bible is suffering. Suffering is a very hard labor. When we enjoy God in the jubilee, there should not be any suffering. Paul, for example, suffered from a "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7). Concerning this thorn, he entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from him (v. 8). However, instead of removing the thorn, the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you." The Lord seemed to be telling Paul, "No, I shall not remove the thorn, for My grace is sufficient. If you enjoy Me, you will not have any suffering."...In Acts 16...although [Paul and Silas] were in prison, they had enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 589-590)

　　The Lord has won the victory, and we are shouting in victory. This is the tone of an overcoming living. Every one of us should have this kind of overcoming tone in our daily life....Being more than conquerors is being victorious continuously and having a tone of victory all the time.

　　The overcoming life can only survive in an environment of thanksgiving and praise. If it is placed in an atmosphere of sorrow, it will die. Whenever our heart is stripped of thanksgiving and praises, it loses its victory. Philippians 4:4 says that we have to rejoice always. Rejoicing in the New Testament is unceasing rather than occasional. There should never be a time out for our rejoicing. Whenever we lose our joy, we lose our victory. Hence, we must rejoice in the Lord all the time. First Peter 4:13 says that believers should rejoice under all kinds of circumstances and be filled with thanksgivings and praises. (CWWN, vol. 41, pp. 174, 176)

　　The Christian life should be a life of fully enjoying the Lord. When we enjoy the Lord fully, He becomes our jubilee; that is, He becomes our inheritance and liberty. Not only so, the Lord also becomes our living. In such a living, we love Him to the uttermost and let Him be the Lord. Then He becomes the primary factor and center in us to lead us and govern us. In this way, when we pass through things, we will not be tormented, enslaved, or dominated by them. Instead, we will be free.

　　Everything is under His sovereignty. Therefore, we should empty ourselves of everything and tell the Lord, "Fill me, gain me, and possess me. Lord, no matter what the outward situation is, I just want to enjoy You." (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 43, 45)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msgs. 64-69; CWWN, vol. 41, ch. 23