Keys for Staying in the Jubilee Living and the Enjoyment of Christ #NACT2019
Recently, I attended the North America College Training with around 1,900 college students, where we received a fresh, living speaking on the jubilee and the reality of the jubilee.
During the Old Testament times, Jehovah appointed Sabbath days and Sabbath years. A Sabbath year occurred every seven years, and the eighth Sabbath year, or the 50th year, was the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8).
What happened during the year of Jubilee? Lev. 25:10b says, “It shall be a jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.”
At this time, the children of Israel had already entered the good land and each one was given a portion of the land. However, some became lazy and fell into poverty and had to sell their land. Some became so poor to the extent that they had to sell themselves into slavery.
However, in this 50th year, everyone who lost their land was able to return to it at no cost, and everyone in slavery regained their freedom and returned to their own family.
As ones living in the New Testament age, our condition was the same as the children of Israel. We were poor, having lost our divine inheritance, which is God Himself, and we were slaves of sin.
But, hallelujah! Christ came as the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee (Luke 4:19). Through Christ’s death, sin was terminated, and through Christ’s resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit and entered into us when we believed into Him.
Through our receiving, we now have God as our possession and have returned to our divine family, the church!
However, in our experience as believers, we may fall back into slavery and lose the enjoyment of God, just like how the children of Israel lost their possessions although they had already been brought into the good land.
At the college training, there were keys that were brought out on how we can stay in this jubilee living and in the enjoyment of Christ in the morning sessions, which were based on Acts 26:18:
To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 26:18
These were some little nuggets from each key that I enjoyed and were a great help to me practically:
1) Our eyes must be open to see the divine and heavenly things. Although seeing is fully dependent on the Lord’s mercy, what impressed me was to have our eyes opened to see the things concerning Christ, we first must be willing to be blinded from the world and worldly things.
When Paul received the revelation of who Jesus was (Acts 9), the Lord physically blinded him for three days. Through this, the Lord was able to open Paul’s inner eyes (Acts 9:8, footnote 10). We need to come to the Lord and ask Him to sanctify our eyes!
2) We need to have a turn from darkness to light! What is darkness today? Darkness is not just the gross sin, but Paul also speaks about the darkness of religion, culture, philosophy, and empty deceit (Colossians).
There is darkness even in our self that we need to be delivered from. A prayer we can tell the Lord is, “Lord, deliver me from darkness I don’t even know about!”
3) We need to receive forgiveness of sins, and we can receive forgiveness of sins just by confessing (1 John 1:9)! God loves us, but He abhors our sins. However, Christ fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law through His death, and we may receive forgiveness of sins, no matter how big or how small.
In our Christian life, we may lose the joy of our salvation and even become accustomed to our sins; however, whenever we come to the Lord we should sense a need of His forgiveness. When we confess, God not only forgives us of our sins but forgets our sins, and our fellowship with God is restored!
We don’t have to dig up our sins by introspection but we can simply contacting the Lord and allow Him shine on us. (By the evening session that day the brothers sensed a greater release from the students during the singing time, after many had come to the Lord that day to confess their sins.)
4) We need to enjoy our divine inheritance! We have the greatest inheritance, God Himself. God’s intention with His seekers is that they may find everything in Him and not be distracted from the absolute enjoyment of Himself (Psa. 73:25 and footnote 1, v. 26 and footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible).
The brother asked us as college students, “What is our goal? Who is our goal?” May our only goal be our rich, enjoyable Christ! To have God as our inheritance is to have a personal, affectionate, personal, and spiritual relationship with the Lord.
We build this relationship practically through the Spirit and through the Word, and by striking the word with our spirit and by pray-reading, musing, singing, and psalming the Word!
5) Lastly, we need to be “among those who are sanctified”! We should be those who attend the meetings of the church and have a meeting life. We also should have two or three companions in the Lord (Matt. 18:20).
In the same way, we can have a companion our age, one who is more experienced in the Lord, and one younger than us. Let us flock together and stay in the divine family!
May the Lord gain our generation fully to live, enjoy, and proclaim the jubilee for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, the church, and His bride!
Sharing by C. W. from Boston, USA, from her top enjoyment in the 2019 NACT. To share your enjoyment or testimony from this time, you can either email us at enjoyingthelord@gmail.com or click on this link.
