2019年 夏季训练
GENERAL SUBJECT: Crystallization-Study of Number (2)
Moses Desiring That All Jehovah’s People Would Be Prophets
Scripture Reading: Num. 11:29; Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:21-22; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 5, 24, 31
Ⅰ Our God is a speaking God—Heb. 1:1-2a:
Ａ God is a mystery, but this mystery has been revealed by God’s speaking—vv. 1-2a:
１ Without the divine speaking, God would remain forever unknowable—Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21.
２ Our God is the revealed God because He has revealed Himself in His speaking—Heb. 1:1-2a.
Ｂ Every created thing came out of the word of God—Gen. 1:3; John 1:3:
１ The old creation—the whole universe—came into being by God’s speaking—Gen. 1:3, 6-7; Psa. 33:9; Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:3.
２ The new creation was brought into being by the entire God speaking as the Word—John 1:1, 3; 5:24.
３ The speaking God continues to do all things through His speaking—Rom. 4:17.
Ｃ The living God imparts and infuses Himself into us by speaking—2 Tim. 3:16-17:
１ When God speaks, the light shines, bringing us understanding, vision, wisdom, and utterance—Psa. 119:105, 130.
２ When God speaks, life is imparted, and this life includes all the divine attributes and human virtues of Christ—John 6:63; 1:1, 4.
３ When God speaks, power is transmitted, and this is the growing and producing power of life—Mark 4:14, 26.
Ｄ In the Old Testament, God spoke in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, in men borne by the Spirit—Heb. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:21.
Ｅ In the New Testament, God speaks in the Son, in the person of the Son—Heb. 1:2a:
１ This person was first an individual and then became corporate—Matt. 17:5; Acts 9:4; 1 Cor. 12:12.
２ God today speaks in a person, and this person has increased to be a corporate person, including all the apostles and all the members of this person’s Body—14:4b, 31.
３ The believers are all a part of the corporate Son; God is still speaking in the Son—Heb. 1:2a.
Ｆ The speaking God desires to have a speaking people—Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; Col. 4:3; 2 Tim. 4:2; Rev. 1:2, 9.
Ⅱ In Numbers 11:29 Moses exclaimed, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!”:
Ａ A prophet is not mainly one who predicts the future but one who speaks for another, as Aaron spoke for Moses—Exo. 7:1-2; 4:16.
Ｂ Prophets are God’s spokesmen; they speak for God and speak forth God—Isa. 1:1-2a; 6:8-9; Jer. 1:1-4; Ezek. 1:3; 2:1-7:
１ God is hidden, but through the speaking of the prophets, God Himself and His intention are explained—Isa. 45:15; Eph. 1:9; 3:3-5.
２ Prophets receive God’s revelation directly and are borne by the Spirit of God to speak for God and to speak forth God—2 Pet. 1:21.
Ｃ Moses desired that all the people of Israel would be prophets, those who spoke for God—Num. 11:29:
１ The word in Numbers 11:29 was a great prophecy uttered by Moses.
２ Concerning the matter that all of God’s people should be prophets, Paul in the New Testament and Moses in the Old Testament are in agreement—v. 29; 1 Cor. 14:31:
ａ The word that Moses spoke was promoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14, and it is fulfilled in God’s New Testament economy by the prophesying of the believers in the church meetings—vv. 24, 31.
ｂ It is likely that Paul’s concept came from Moses, because Paul, as one who understood the Old Testament, must have been familiar with what Moses had said in Numbers 11:29.
ｃ In both the Old and New Testaments God wants His people to speak for Him.
Ｄ A prophet typifies Christ as the One who brings us into God’s light and revelation—John 1:1, 14; 6:63; 8:12; Matt. 11:27; Mark 4:11.
Ⅲ “A Prophet will Jehovah your God raise up for you from your midst, from among your brothers, like me; you shall listen to Him”—Deut. 18:15:
Ａ In verses 15 through 19 Moses spoke concerning Jehovah God’s raising up of a Prophet (the coming Christ) like Moses for the children of Israel.
Ｂ Acts 3:22 applies Deuteronomy 18:15-19 to Christ, who is God incarnated to be a man, indicating that Christ is the Prophet promised by God to His people, the children of Israel.
Ｃ That the Prophet was to be from among their brothers (v. 15a) indicates that Christ as the coming Prophet would be human as well as divine—John 1:1, 14:
１ As God, Christ could not be from among the Jews as a brother, but as the incarnated One, the One who has put on human nature and was a Jew, Christ was from among His brothers—Rom. 1:3-4; 8:3; Phil. 2:5-8.
２ The coming Christ would be God incarnated to be a Godman—Luke 1:31-33.
Ｄ Deuteronomy 18:18 indicates that God would raise up this Prophet through the incarnation of Christ to speak the word of God—John 1:14; 3:34; 7:16-17; 8:18; Heb. 1:2a:
１ To speak God’s word—to prophesy—is to dispense God, to speak God forth into others—1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 5, 24-25, 31.
２ This is what the Lord Jesus did as the Prophet raised up by God—Acts 3:21-22.
Ⅳ The prophets in the Old Testament typify the Holy Spirit as the anointing ointment in the New Testament—2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27:
Ａ In the New Testament the Holy Spirit has replaced the work of the prophets—Luke 1:41-42, 46-55, 67-79.
Ｂ The anointing of the Holy Spirit has replaced the prophets of the Old Testament—Acts 3:21-22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Acts 1:2; 2:4.
Ｃ The Holy Spirit, the anointing element, has entered into us to be our Prophet—Rom. 8:11, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 4:4, 6:
１ In the Old Testament the representatives through whom the Holy Spirit gave revelations were the prophets—2 Pet. 1:21.
２ Today the Spirit of revelation, typified by the prophets, is in us, and the Spirit gives us revelation—Eph. 1:17-18; 1 Cor. 14:29-30.
Ｄ The anointing Spirit within us is the Prophet—2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27:
１ The anointing Spirit has entered into us to be our living Prophet—vv. 20, 27.
２ In the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon certain people and moved only them; now the Spirit has entered into all of us to be our Prophet—Num. 11:25-26, 29.
３ The Spirit who inspired people to be prophets has entered into us as the anointing to be our Prophet—1 John 2:20, 27.
Ⅴ The New Testament shows that God wants us, the saved and regenerated ones, to prophesy as prophets—1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 5, 24, 31:
Ａ Prophesying is the excelling gift produced in the growth in life through the enjoyment of Christ for the building up of the church—v. 12; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 14:4b.
Ｂ The New Testament believers are saved by God to be kings, priests, and prophets who prophesy for God—Rev. 1:5-6; 20:4b; 1 Cor. 14:31:
１ Regenerated and saved persons are able to prophesy for God—John 3:3, 5-6; 1 Cor. 14:31-32.
２ God desires that each of the believers prophesy, that is, speak for Him and speak Him forth—vv. 1, 3, 5, 24, 31.
３ God wants to speak within us and through us according to the principle of incarnation—6:17; 7:25, 40.
Ｃ Speaking for God and speaking forth God are speaking by the Spirit of God; the Spirit is always ready to speak with us and through us—12:3; 14:32.
Ｄ To prophesy in the sense of telling for and telling forth—speaking for God and speaking forth God—requires much growth in life—Eph. 4:15:
１ For this, we need to know God and experience Christ—Heb. 8:10-11; Phil. 3:7-15.
２ If we do not have the adequate knowledge of God and experience of Christ, we do not have anything to say for Him, and we cannot speak Him forth.
Ｅ The main work of the New Testament prophets is for building up, encouraging, and consoling others—1 Cor. 14:3.
Ｆ The goal of prophesying in the church meetings is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—v. 12.
Ｇ Prophesying requires the three constituting elements of prophesying:
１ A knowledge of the Word of God—the human element of learning—2 Tim. 3:16-17; Ezek. 3:1-4.
２ The instant inspiration of the Holy Spirit—the divine element of inspiration—1 Cor. 14:32, 37a; 1 John 1:6-7; Rom. 8:4.
３ A vision concerning God’s interest and economy, concerning the church as the Body of Christ, concerning the local churches, concerning the world, concerning the individual saints, and even concerning ourselves—the view through the enlightening of the divine light—Eph. 1:17; 1 Cor. 2:11-12.
Ｈ If we are going to prophesy, we need to live a prophesying life:
１ We need to be revived every morning—Prov. 4:18; Lam. 3:22-24; Psa. 119:147-148:
ａ The path of the righteous is like the dawn that becomes brighter and brighter until noontime; this is according to the natural law in God’s creation, and we have to go along with it.
ｂ In Lamentations 3:22-24 Jeremiah says that the Lord’s compassions are fresh and new every morning.
２ We also need to live an overcoming life every day by fellowshipping with the Lord moment by moment, by walking according to the spirit, and by speaking the word (the Lord) in season and out of season—1 John 1:6; Rom. 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2a.