1 Kings Overview Part 7 - Elijah and Remnants Battle Israel’s “Carbon Copy” Belief and Jezebel’s Ideology

I followed Rev Leechull for 10 years and did not skip any meetings then, and I have now become what I am now - a bit like Jesus Christ now. It takes time to become a disciple. If you desire for world gospelization to be fulfilled in your life, yet do not come for discipleship training or prepare well in prayers before coming, your 10 years as Christian will be just like one day only.

God has totally loved us, and prepared the whole life’s road for us. We who are in Jesus Christ must courageously say, “I am the most loved and have the highest calling by God.” In all the problems we have, we must have the courage to stand above and on the problems. Those who can see this, as and when, are called great people. The people on middle-level always look at their environment, and cannot have joy. Those considered small are easily shaken and always feel inferior. We follow not physically or on the surface, but there is a goal that we head towards. All our marriages, studies, career are for this purpose. We must have courage for this.

I am 30 years old this year and I discover that I fall in the average age group of those in the church. I believe we will live past 60 years old. Therefore, do we wish to see the fulfillment of gospelization in 30 years? For me, I want to be equipped. Equipping is not any other but the equipping of the vessel capacity and the depth of perspective. When you are 40 or 50 years old, the anointing will come along with the position you hold as an elder or the head of a mission organization. In 50 to 60 years, you will run around between Singapore and Malaysia. Do we want to be pressurized because of marriage or having a family with children? Unless we have a goal, we do not look like a normal Man. It is totally different if you come to meetings with a goal and without a goal. For some people, when they find a job, I will rejoice with them. But for some whose lives are different, I will tell them that finding that job is too small an evidence to be happy, as there are greater and more definite evidence ahead.

What is the absolute success? When does it come? It is not tomorrow. Absolute success is achieved now! If God says should you not ground up from there, you are not successful and will never be successful. If you live only a moment but have your expectations on the Lord, you are already successful. Jesus Christ had incarnated, died and resurrected and has dominion by holding the throne. Therefore, know what is real success. Have you ever considered your conditions and see that God wants to use them? Why is it that God has molded us with our character through the upbringing of our parents?

Our goal works towards all the churches. Do you see that you have meals and do every other thing for the churches of this age? If so, you are somewhat there. Have you considered the situations of the churches now? If you look at big churches, they focus on big programs. For the small churches, they continue to be discouraged. In this age, I want to see everything that they cannot see. When they are discouraged, I will take the road of faith. When they are joyful and merry, I want to cry because of their situation. I must be set apart from them. This is called being a remnant. Elijah was the remnant of the era. This is today’s message. However, you must first receive a goal before dating or working. Do not fear to bring all your weaknesses to the Lord. The Lord knows everything, but if you want to receive freedom, you must bring these before the Lord.

1 Kings Overview

1. Successful Principle <1-10>

We know that the first part of Solomon was very successful.

1) Continue David’s (Life)

Solomon did not need to go into the world to transform anything. All people came to him and received transformation. The important thing is that you must inherit correctly.

Assurance: Child of God

Everything starts from assurance. I am young, but I boldly believe. This is because of what the Bible says. I do not continue to remain in guilt, because if God has liberated me, why should I continue to live in accusations?

2) Acquire Wisdom <Life Ideology System>: foundation

I see that there are people of great wisdom, power and position in the church. They have touched every of the world’s rank and people power. What do they need so that we can influence them? You must inherit correctly. If you do not have this, how can the wealth of various nations and kingdoms come to you? Because Solomon inherited correctly, therefore, he received the wisdom of God first. This is the life ideology system. When others are affected, you are not because you see deeper than others and have root. For example, Guorong and Qiuyin’s daughter had gone through an operation and it has been 5 days. The critical point was on Sunday, when they were deciding whether to go for operation, to take medicine, or other choices. If you have the foundation, you will acquire wisdom to know how to handle the situation along with your emotions. If you do not have this, you will not be able to influence the people of the world. Otherwise, we can only tell them, “We must love one another and seek after the love above.” This is very abstract. If those people like our Minister Mentor hear this, they will think that this is the same as what other religions have said, and will laugh at the message. If you know the ideology you will have answers to give them , when they are in financial crisis, What is the wisdom of Solomon? This is where you have a set of answers on handling children, on handling retrenchment, etc. You can read the future here. Solomon’s wisdom comes from here. He received the eternal perspective and the perspective of the world. With this, how can anyone win against him? Paul says that there is no one who can win over the spiritual person.

3) Build Temple

Very strangely, after putting so much effort in building the temple, Solomon said that the Lord did not live in the temple. He understands that God lives with us, that the ideology of God lives in us. This is called Emmanuel.

I plus I = Church

Because of this church, your family, career and everything are honourable. Without this, any efforts to take care of your own children are wasted. Many people do not take the things of the church at heart. They put it at second or third place. For them, they will not receive any answers at all in this life.

4) Offer sacrifices (converse)

Only through prayers is everything shown. Only through prayers that our identity is confirmed and our future is fixed. With this, our attitude in studying or working is different.

5) Fruits <Is 60:1-5>, Already come to him

For such a person, only when he rises up, it is enough for God to work. Do not touch problems, for problems are solved by faith.

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“When the Holy Spirit comes upon you” is the meaning of all the points above. From then, all peoples will come to you to ask how to solve their marriage, family, work, etc problems. What God emphasized, we must take it to heart.

2. Failure <11>

Solomon built up the navy because there were no airplanes then. Water surrounded Israel and he made use of this to conquer all nations. However, even such a blessed person failed. Why?

1) World vs Kingdom, Flesh vs Holy Spirit, Temporary vs Eternal

He failed because he could not discern the above. Therefore, he married foreign wives. He at first thought he wanted to marry foreign wives not for love, but for political reasons, and that was wise. Man always started like this, “for the sake of the church”, “for the respect of the Christians”, etc. However, as time goes by, Solomon really loved his wives. When you let go loosely, you will indulge later on. Paul says that our life is a battle. If not, we will definitely fall away.

2) Bring about idols (converse with demons)

What a contradiction! Solomon built the temple, but now built altars for the demons. He made those detestable altars, and told his wives, “Ok, I have made the altars for you. You worship them yourself, but I will not worship.” However, he did not understand that man and wife are one and he was slowly assimilated into the idols.

3) Warning

There was warning from the Lord, but the bible did not record anything after that. He did not repent like his father David. If we still do not take the warning, very quickly, the discipline will overtake us.

4) Enemies

At last the Pharaoh of Egypt even took him as enemy. His subordinates turned against him. It is as if he feels that the boss, colleagues, family members do not like him. He does not even like himself. Be warned and open your eyes.

3. Division <Judah vs Israel>

There are 20 kings of Judah, who inherited David. Israel had 19 kings. Inheriting David must be correct, or we will quickly receive the curses in the bible. We are Abraham’s descendants and we inherited Abraham’s. Israel had no foundation. Ahab listened to Elisha, but it was written that he continued to do evil and followed the ways of Jeroboam. In BC 722, they were exterminated. Some kings were better, but they were all with no foundation. If you kill or even adulterate but have foundation, God still loves you and will forgive you. This is just an empty model that is not the real thing. Many churches give fake messages. Their messages are motivational speeches. They do not have the foundation in sharing messages and their zealousness have no foundation. God hated this. Sometimes, the kings of Israel asked for advice from prophets before going for war. However, they were unable to get out from the clutches of the road of Jeroboam. Genuine and fake things are, of course, different. For example, those Luis Vuitton bags that are not genuine look like the real thing. However, a careful examination will reveal that there are no details to it. This is so corrupted. The models are not genuine, and it will be broken down in just a moment. If it is of life, no matter how weak they are, if they turn to God, they will be restored. There is a sister who attended motivational talks. However, I told her that the attraction is on the atmosphere, but so what if there are hugs and quarrels thereafter? We must go for the genuine, the true and upright love of God that has meaning in and out. They appointed priests and pastors for the temple because they saw someone who looked zealous. They had worship services, too. Their elders and deacons love their positions and work for it, but they do not like to pray. There are a lot of such people. I know because I was like this before. One comes to the church because he hears the Lord telling him to be equipped. Another goes just because someone asks him to. One goes to work because of the need of money, but another hears God saying that he has to go because of the field God prepared for him. Why is it that both of them had different endings? There was no more pure breed for Israel, who intermixed with foreign women, at the end. Who can tell me why is it that God wanted to wait for 19 kings in order to exterminate the kingdom of Israel? Why is it that God waited since people like Ahab would never ever repent even after waiting because he was dead? This is because there were still 7000 hidden in Israel, who inherited and followed the ways of David. This is what the bible meant when it says that the sins are not full. He waited until His people were found, nurtured and raised.

4. Ahab vs Elijah <16:29-22:53>

* King Ahab

1) Half a body: Jezebel

Jezebel, very clearly, was an enemy of the Lord.

2) Baal (male demon) and Asherah (female demon): Regional Problem

They were the gods of fertility because of the farming work of Israel. They worshipped them, and famine came for 3 years and 6 months instead. Elijah appeared, “If I do not appear again, there will be no rain”, and he disappeared. This was because of the sin of Israel. Idols are actually a “thought”. I believe that the political leaders have the power of idols behind them even though they do not openly say it. Our minister mentor once said that he is an agnostic Buddhist. This means that he believes that there is no god, but has the complicated philosophy of a Buddhist. Many university students believe this now. Actually a lot of religions come from this philosophy. Actually the “Soka” ideology like karma, etc comes from here, too. Singaporeans believe a lot in “Feng Shui”. This is because there is certainly evidence of it working. Look at Suntec City with its five-fingered Fountain of Wealth. I also discovered that the condominium building of my elder brother is a bagua (8-diagramed) figure. People are afraid of not doing this in case they lose out in being abundant. Paul did not go against his own Judaism on purpose. He went around to the synagogues to put away every of the leaders’ teaching. The religious thinking had seeped through such that people remained and had their guilt aggravated in Judaism. I finally understood why our ministry has to start by acquiring the believers of the churches. The problems start not with non-believers but the Christians who have to shine but do not shine. The churches are not able to discern. Christians must become alive and be healed. Then the doors will be opened, and we will be able to lead the non-believers from Buddhism, Islam, etc, and the persecution will then come from there. This is a very important word.

3) 400 worshipped Baal, 450 worshipped Asherah = 850 false prophets

4) Killed true prophets

Jezebel killed true prophets to remove the word of the Lord. Therefore, problems came.

5) Result: sins

Beside the temples of Baal and Asherah, there were prostitutes. In order to receive answers, they must mix with the prostitutes, who were the priests of the demon gods. The places where idol worship is concentrated are shown most clearly to have mental problems and are in sexual corruption. Look at Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.

Baal

Asherah

6) Killed false prophets (Mount Carmel)

After the false prophets were killed, the kingdom of Ben-Hadad was overcome.

7) Shown mercy to Ben-Hadad

However, Ahab let go of the king of all the enemies against Israel!

8) Naboth

Ahab’s greed for the vineyard of Naboth resulted in Jezebel killing and seizing the vineyard for him.

9) Heard false prophets

Ahab listened to comfortable and good words from false prophets (the crowd grew bigger in size) but not from God. If you hear things that are not good to listen from the pastor, you must consider well why the word came to you.

10) Died a horrible death

* Elijah <16:29-22:53>

When prophets appeared, we must know that this is not coincident but that the age is very corrupted.

1) Remnant: Stump <Is 6:13>

Does it mean that all the churches are wrong? No! But we must renew. Every era, this is required. We must rise up and know that we are the remnants of this era. We are the main characters and the ones to shine in this age. Amen?

2) Elijah: John the Baptist

Elisha: Jesus Christ

(Symbolism)

What we want to emphasize is life. No matter how small the tree, if there is life, it will grow. If the tree is big, if it has no life like in the case of the fig tree that Jesus talked about, it will be cut off. Elijah anointed Elisha. Elisha would anoint Jehu and he would exterminate Jezebel. Elisha would also find all the 7000 people and would open the prophet school.

3) Elijah’s blessed calling (Have foundation)

This is when the ambassador identity, calling and vision come upon us. God’s Spirit convicted Elijah. God does everything. Therefore, calling is very important. He hears the voice of God to start and to serve. This is with foundation. There is assurance, similar to what Solomon had in the beginning. If we have received the highest calling, but no assurance, we remain small in our problems of going to work and setting up a family. This is the greatest sin of having a small vessel. For the sake to reveal this to us, God wants to show us these very problems so that we meet with problems and hence turn to God. If our vessel is big, we will hear the voice of God, being called as a Christian, and therefore, though you have great sufferings, you will immediately be comforted. We must, or will not enjoy at all. From 10 years ago since we received the gospel, we continued to remain in sufferings not because of our small conditions. This is because you only hear the voice of Rev Leechull and Pastor Vincent, and not the voice of God. This is not because Rev Leechull is not with you. This is because you have not put your life in this foundation and therefore, you immediately love the world. When you put your life into this foundation, you immediately walk with God.

4) Set apart as holy / Consecrated

Why did Elijah wear those set of clothes, ate things of the wilderness, and drank the water from Kerith Ravine, went to Mount Carmel, then to Mount Horeb? And in the end, he did not die but was taken away by the Lord. You will become the main character of this age by setting yourself apart as holy. Though the worldly job gets better, you will not be happy unless God can use it. When your thoughts, judgments and motives are different from all other people. Then God will use you. If a church has never heard about gospel and religion, she will never be able to come out to the gospel. If you have, you will be able to set yourself apart. When others come in disappointment, you will rise up and be different. Why do we remain in our state of feeling “not there” and not be able to say “Amen” out loud but softly, thinking that it is enough to say it in our hearts? Singaporeans like to “play safe” in their actions. This is the spiritual problem of Singaporeans. Therefore, people say that Singapore is a nanny state. No one will dare to say anything against the boss or government, or comment on anything in the lecture or tutorials. When you become a little bit different from others, you are afraid. We set apart to do it for God. This is different. We must think about this. The dark spiritual wind here is so strong. The discouragements that are so strong and typical with the preachers, I must ever more drive out. I will not accept the fact that there may be a chance that pastors will lose out in some form of security of life. We must be courageous. Why is it that we must discern? Unless we know the world, we will not discover the need to discern and we will just use a narrow perspective to live. Therefore we do not understand our commission. What does God tell you to do in the churches of this era? If you do not become living and active, have you ever thought that the brothers and sisters will be even less active and remain in their lowly forms? If we know our commission, we will be set apart because of seeing the need to raise them up.

5) Converse with God

Our Father in Heaven: when we pray, we must confirm. This is the most important.

Your will Be done, on earth as it is in heaven (test and approve): we must know what to do in all things.

Supplication: if we pray for our bodies so that we can think well and deep about the word of the Lord, God will give you the healthy body you need! If we pray for money to support missions, God will give you. If you ask for manpower for the kingdom, you will have assurance that God will give it to you. God will give even more than what you have asked for if you pray correctly.

Heart: with such a life, you will definitely love and have mercy on people.

Victory: there is definitely victory. If you die and submit, you will not be tempted anymore. Why do you remain in sorrows and continue to be accused? If we are frustrated to handle children, I will come to the Lord in prayer the next day and repent, “it is because I do not love You enough.”

Expectation (whole life)

Elijah learnt this his whole life. Some people read aloud the Lord’s Prayer as if it is an incantation. Is our Lord’s Prayer a curse or charm? Even if we read it out straight, the important thing is that we know the essence.

6) Prophesy => accomplished

This prophecy must be correct so that it will be fulfilled. Some people say, “Tomorrow you will meet the man of your dreams”, etc. It is easy to say such things. If we continue to say such prophecies, the more you say this, people will slowly dislike reading the bible. Immediately, people will want to hear more of such prophesies. Therefore, after giving the bible, God revealed as little as possible outside the bible. The most important prophecy is Christ’s gospel. “If you believe Christ, you will not die.” “If you love the Lord and meet Him, God will bless you and your family all your whole life.” When people hear, be cut to the hearts and believe, then the pastor will see that they have faith and will bless them, “your family will surely be well!” However, some pastors do not say this. When the pastor advised, “Do not be affected by the situations now. Use this situation to glorify God because many people are worse off than you”, some people cannot understand and accept. Then he will continue to remain in sufferings and the advice will remain a prophecy. I see this every time, that when I say this and people believe, everything will turn out well. This is the road of Christ. God says that if people do not believe the sign of Jonah, there are no more signs for them. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

7) Evidence (God’s work)

3 years 6 months, ravens/widow of Zarephath

I like to say “evidence” and not “accomplishments”. God’s work is evidence. Therefore, we must have a movement in our lives to know.

Central to Body of Christ

Central to Prayers

Central to Weekly Meetings

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Career, Family, Interpersonal Relationships

If we are central to the Body of Christ, prayers and weekly meetings, our career, family and interpersonal relationships are then evidences. All others are not. We must understand this. Do you realize that even though our job seemed to have a little evidence here and there, but if we have not restored being central to the above, such were not evidences at all?

8) The Battle at Carmel

If you have evidences that God is with you (when you submit, God will do/ when you do not submit, God will answer), you will not be afraid when you battle. Elijah was not afraid because he had gone through and received such evidences. When the battle came, he had already won. He gave the false prophets a lot of opportunities and poured lots of water on the sacrifices. Elijah knows that if God is alive, God would even suck up all the water.

Already won -> Explain -> Answer -> Believe, Submit, Hand over

If you have followed this way, you will already have won. When you pray and in one day, the marriage is restored, this is a miracle. However, if a person is not clean, (i.e. having mental problems) but he stayed in church for five to ten years, and become a preacher in the end; this is also called a miracle! Such a person will not love the world. The greater miracles of the Lord will come in a longer time. My cousin’s wife worshipped “Soka” and she looked anorexic when I last saw her. She even explained that it was karma for her. We do not need to fight against our family’s stubbornness or the deep beliefs in other religions, but when we come before the Lord to be central in Him, their ends will come.

9) Elijah beneath the broom tree

Concentration prayer: Quietness, Think

It is not a big wind, earthquake or fire, but a gentle voice. Concentration prayer is not a big voice. My concentration prayer is quietness. When the church brothers and sisters come to great weaknesses, I will quiet down and think about the process of how the weaknesses come about and where they will go. Therefore, Elijah heard about the voice of the plan of how God was going to deal with Ahab and Jezebel, and the plan of how he was to pass everything to Elisha and the 7000 that had not worshipped the Baals. Therefore, the end of the ministry of Elijah was discipleship training. There is no use if after one has received healing, to just pack up, go home and do his own things.

Conclusion

If you hear my message well, you will understand that I do not fight against men, but I fight against their thoughts. Actually we are all influenced by the spiritual wind of culture of this age. When this age cannot hear the voice of the Lord, the lukewarm belief of the Christians in this age will never do. Such “Christians” are not Christians at all.

Taken from Discipleship Training on 25th May 2007, 1 Kings Overview Part 7.