Crystallization-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Message Six
The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Ezra 10:10-11 And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them,…Now therefore make confession to Jehovah the God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.
Neh. 13:30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign…
2 Tim. 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience…
Word of Appetizer
What is the Intrinsic significance of the purification of the returned captives?
Before Ezra arrived, there was mixture because some of the Israelites had married heathen wives and had children born of this mixture; this is a type, which we should apply spiritually, not literally.
In the Lord’s recovery there is the need of purification to separate “the holy seed” from anything that is heathen. After the building up of the house, we need purification (seen under Ezra’s leadership), and after the building up of the city, we need to be purified again (seen with Nehemiah’s absoluteness).
Spiritual Burden
The Lord’s recovery is unique, and it must be absolutely pure, single, and holy, without any mixture; thus, we need Ezras and Nehemiahs to carry out a purifying work; in all the steps of the Lord’s recovery, there is the need of purification.
If we want to have the real church life, the church herself must be pure gold, that is, altogether of the divine nature; here we need the work of the cross to purge us and to purify us.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The Lord’s recovery is unique, and it must be absolutely pure, single, and holy, without any mixture; thus, we need Ezras and Nehemiahs to carry out a purifying work; in all the steps of the Lord’s recovery, there is the need of purification. Babylon is a mixture of the things of God with the things of idols, and the principle of Babylon is the principle of mixing the things of man with the Word of God and the things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit.
In Acts 21 and in the book of James, there is mixture; James mixed the Old Testament with the New Testament, the new dispensation with the old, the new people of God with the old, and the new man with the old man.
A great problem among God’s children is the mixture of the self with the spirit; we need to be pure in heart, in conscience, and in spirit. The city of New Jerusalem is pure gold, like clear glass, and the street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.
The Experience of Life
Seeing God equals gaining God, and to gain God is to receive God in His element, life, and nature so that we may be constituted with God; seeing God transforms us, because in seeing God we receive His element into us, and our old element is discharged.
If we take God’s nature as our unique way, we will be pure, without any mixture, and transparent, without any opaqueness. If we are infused and saturated with the life-giving Spirit, our inner being will
become transparent and crystal clear.
Practice and Application
In the local churches we must be thoroughly purified of all mixture; anything common and anything contradictory to the heavenly nature of the Lord’s recovery must be purged out.
We need to deal completely with all the mixture in our spirit so that when our spirit is released, it will not be dangerous or cause trouble to others. If we want to be used by God, our spirit must be released, and our spirit must be pure.
If we want to have the real church life, the church herself must be pure gold, that is, altogether of the divine nature; here we need the work of the cross to purge us and to purify us.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The Lord’s recovery must be absolutely pure, single, and holy, without any mixture (Ezra 1:10-11; Neh. 13:30)
(Please illustrate in the local churches we must be so pure, so simple, with no mixture.)
T2 When the recovery is holy, we will see the Lord’s blessing (Ezek. 34:26; 2 Tim. 2:21)
(Please illustrate in some places the reason the blessing was frustrated was the mixture caused by the background.)
Day 2
T1 Dealing with the spirit is dealing with the purpose of the heart, motive, aim, and intention (2 Cor. 7:1; Heb. 4:12)
(Please illustrate dealing with the spirit is not dealing with the spirit itself but with the passage of the spirit.)
T2 The difference between dealing with the spirit and dealing with the conscience (Matt. 5:8; 2 Tim. 1:3)
(Please illustrate what is the practical way to deal with the spirit.)
Day 3
T1 Having the ambition and the ability yet lacks a pure motive, we will become a problem (Matt. 5:8; 2 Cor. 3:18)
(Please illustrate only when we have the ambition and the ability, and the motive is pure can we become useful in the hands of the Lord.)
T2 To be pure in heart [Matt. 5:8] is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God’s will for God’s glory (Matt. 5:8; Job 42:5)
(Take Job as an example to explain that seeing God is a reward to the pure in heart. )
Day 4
T1 A pure conscience means that we are only seeking God and His will (Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3)
(Please illustrate that we may have a good conscience, but it may not be pure.)
T2 To be pure means to be single unto God. In other words, our mind considers nothing but the Lord (Matt. 5:8; Job 42:5)
(Please illustrate that only a pure and single heart, through many dealings, can influence the conscience to be pure and single.)
Day 5
T1 A problem among God’s children is the mixture of the soul with the spirit. (2 Cor. 6:4-8; 1 Tim. 3:9)
(Please illustrate that the first qualification in the work is a purity of the spirit, not a measure of power.)
T2 Pureness is the basic condition of our service (2 Cor. 6:4-8; 1 Tim. 3:9)
(Please illustrate that pureness is a basic factor; it kills all the germs.)
Day 6
T1 A righteous person, is the one who is right in small things as well as in great things, one who is right with God, with others, and with himself (2 Cor. 5:21; Rev. 22:1)
(Please illustrate that as a result of experiencing the Spirit living and working within us, we become righteous.)
T2 The difference Between Clean and Pure (Rev. 1:20; 22:1)
(Please illustrate that simply to be clean is not enough; we need to be purified by the death of the Lord on the cross.)
