157 - Sprinkle Flour in the Pot, Receive Heavenly Provision#
157 - Sprinkle Flour in the Pot, Receive Heavenly Provision
(JP Text Group - beloved 整理)
2 Kings 4:38-41 from the Old Testament,
We share a topic: Sprinkle Flour in the Pot, Receive Heavenly Provision
Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and make stew for the sons of the prophets.” One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were. Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. But Elisha said, “Bring me some flour.” And he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Well, let us first pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you especially! Your children have come before you to listen to your words. We are willing to receive the heavenly provision at this moment, because we live on this earth for six days. As we begin this week, we want to look solely to you, especially to bless them. You know the needs of each person's heart right now. Please supply them according to their needs, and personally give them the heavenly bread, just like manna. We completely entrust this time to you. Holy Spirit, help each one of us! In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray! Amen! Hallelujah!
Every day we need to receive His words and His provision from Jesus, right? If we have a period of time when we do not look to Jesus, do you feel like you are missing something? This proves that Jesus has become an indispensable part of your life. That proves that Jesus is very important in your life. Each of us needs this growth process, where one day you truly say that without Jesus, you can do nothing, and your life is already in abundance! Amen!
Let’s look at today’s situation. After Elisha came to Gilgal, because there was a famine in that place, while the disciples were making stew, one person went out to gather herbs and brought back a lap full of wild gourds, sliced them into the pot. What happened? It became poisonous; he did not know that it was a poisonous gourd. Now, normally, if the pot is poisoned, what should we do? Throw it away?
Don’t forget, it was a time of famine. What to do? Today you might have various opinions; I can use some chemical reaction to remove the poison. Well, you have your method, but God’s method is simpler. Amen! So what I want to say is, no matter what you are encountering in your life right now, what difficulties you face in life, maybe you say you have this method, I have that method, but there is actually a simpler method, which is to let Jesus solve it! Amen!
This method is the simplest, so today we will share the topic of sprinkling flour in the pot to receive heavenly provision.
So what God does is different from ordinary people. We see in today’s text, Elisha came to Gilgal again. Brothers and sisters, do you know what kind of place Gilgal is? If you have read the first five books of the Old Testament, Exodus and Leviticus, you know that Gilgal is a place blessed by God. After Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River, their first stop was Gilgal. Amen!
Gilgal is also the place where they piled up twelve stones, proving that this is the work of our God, who led them to this place with His mighty hand. At the same time, Gilgal is also the place where the Israelites performed circumcision, because the second generation of Israelites had not been circumcised. Therefore, circumcision was performed on the people at Gilgal. I have mentioned before that in the Old Testament, the covenant God made with the Israelites was physical. Amen!
Every man who was circumcised had a covenant with God and with his family. So at that time, the people performed circumcision at Gilgal, which was a place full of blessings. So what does Gilgal mean?
Let’s read Joshua 5:9 together:
And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
To put it simply, in Gilgal, the reproach of the Israelites was rolled away by God. Amen!
Do you know? In the past, we were in shame before God. We were ashamed, but do you know where that place is? Yes, it is at the cross, where all your shame was rolled away by God. Hallelujah! It is also at that place where God made a covenant with you, and your blessings began to flow from the cross! From that moment on, your life is no longer a life full of shame, but a life full of blessings. Hallelujah!
So we know that Gilgal is a blessed place.
Let’s look at this passage, 1 Peter 2:4-6, which tells us:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
What is our Lord Jesus Christ? A living stone, right? He is a living stone. So today you are not believing in a dead Lord, but in a living Lord, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You know, at the cross, was that a place of shame in the eyes of the world? But God removed your shame at that place of shame! Amen! Then, you also, as living stones, are being built up. Amen!
Always remember, whenever you come before God, you are like a living stone. Just as Jesus is, so are you when you come before God today. Amen! And it says, being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood!
You are not an ordinary person; you are a priest. Amen! You are a priest, brothers and sisters, so you can bless others. Do you know? You can bless your children; you can bless your company; you can bless your family. Because you are a priest, what kind of priest? A holy priest!
Brothers and sisters, this is because when God rolled away your shame at the cross, you became a holy priest before God. Amen! It says to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ offered up spiritual sacrifices. Amen! So it tells us that when Jesus offered up like this, He said, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
So today, if you come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will absolutely not be put to shame. If you rely on other gods, there will be no achievement, but if you believe in the words of the Lord Jesus today, God will not let you feel ashamed. So when there was famine in Gilgal, God appeared and said, “I will not let the people feel ashamed.”
We see that there was famine in that place. What does this mean today? In the last days, before the return of Jesus Christ, the world is in a state of famine, just like in the book of Genesis, where there was famine everywhere, right? Where is there food? Egypt has food. Amen!
So who is in charge of this food? Joseph! Isn’t he the son of Jacob? So Joseph represents our heavenly Jesus Christ. Therefore, when the world is now full of famine, when there is no message to preach in the church, today Jesus wants to personally supply you. How did Joseph supply his family with food? Was there a charge? He gave them abundantly! Amen! So you see, when the world is in turmoil and famine, God still allows you to be abundant in this time of famine.
So don’t look at what the world is like now, how the economy is in recession; don’t look at these things. You should solely look to the heavenly provision, and it becomes very simple, doesn’t it? Brothers and sisters, although there is famine now, it doesn’t matter. You see, the sons of the prophets are sitting before him. Now the man of God is sitting here, and the sons of the prophets are all sitting before him. Don’t look at the famine; don’t complain. Now the problem has come. Today, when you come before God, don’t complain. Don’t say, “Oh, you don’t know, Teacher, what happened to me last week.” I say, don’t say that. How about coming to this place? Be quiet and receive that heavenly provision. No matter how serious your famine is, don’t look at your surroundings; just look at this man of God. Amen!
Then what did the man of God say? “Put the large pot on the fire, and make stew for the sons of the prophets.” Is there food? Yes! It is stew. If it were water, God would have directly said to boil water for them to drink. It is stew, right? Not water, right? It’s stew, right? This proves that there is provision! Amen! So today you come here to drink stew. Ah, it is drinking stew. This is a good thing; making stew for the sons of the prophets, brothers and sisters. Then a problem arose, one person went out to the field to gather herbs. Something else happened.
We want to share the first point: Do not add anything to what Jesus has already accomplished.
This is a very important matter. Today we know the stew is already there, right? Did the man of God say, “Disciples, now the stew is not enough to drink; there is not enough food; you all hurry to see if there is anything to eat?” Did the man of God command them to do this? No!
Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ has already accomplished everything you need on the cross. Amen! But what did this person do? He tried to add something to the already prepared stew. He thought he could make the stew taste better, but it turned out to be a foolish thing. Where did this mentality come from?
It actually comes from the mindset of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. You see, when God created everything, was it not all good? It was already complete, right? Did they lack anything? Everything they needed was already prepared by God, and then God said, “You enter into rest with me,” and did not let him do anything. But at that moment, the serpent suddenly came out and said, “What God gave you is not the best; that is the best. Eat it, and you will have wisdom; you will be able to discern good and evil like God; you will have wisdom.” He wanted wisdom, but did God give him wisdom? Just like this disciple today, the stew is already prepared; you don’t need to add anything. God has already prepared it. Amen!
But Adam and Eve listened to this and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What happened? They believed what the devil said, thinking that God had not given them the best. Eating this could enhance their wisdom, but it brought death. Isn’t that the situation? We see today’s text is remarkably similar, isn’t it? Originally, the prophets had already prepared the stew; you just needed to drink it. But he insisted on doing something else. As a result, when he went to the field, he saw something very beautiful.
Brothers and sisters, this is human nature; they always want to add something to God’s work, and then a problem arises. When people want to rely on their own cleverness, it reveals human sin, resulting in death.
Let’s look at a verse, Romans 5:20,
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Amen!
The Israelites said, “God, we don’t want what you give us for free; we want to do something.” God said, “Alright,” and then the law appeared. Brothers and sisters, the law was not God’s intention; it was added. Amen! Just like the text we read today, this gourd should not have been in the stew; it was added from outside, wasn’t it, brothers and sisters? It was something this person added after his efforts. As a result, when the law was added to grace, what happened? Death appeared. Amen!
So when the law appeared, offenses abounded. Now this person originally wanted to be clever, didn’t he? “Ah, I finally found something you haven’t eaten before, something you haven’t seen before.” But when he put this gourd into the stew, it brought death to the people.
Brothers and sisters, many times we feel that God’s word seems ineffective, and when we want to do something, it results in a huge aftereffect. When Eve looked at that tree, what did she see? She saw that the fruit of that tree was pleasant to the eyes.
Now in today’s text, we see: One went out to the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lap full of wild gourds. Our Chinese Bible doesn’t show it, but I specifically looked at the original text. In the original text, this person saw something shining, something that caught his eye. You can imagine, in a time of famine, if a large pile of gourds suddenly appeared, wouldn’t your eyes light up? Then what do you think? “Wow, I’ve found a treasure!” Don’t you feel very clever and proud? Then he picked a lap full and brought it back. Remember, it wasn’t just one; it was a whole lap full.
Brothers and sisters, just like at the beginning with Eve, the more she looked at the fruit on that tree, the better it looked. Finally, she ate it, and what did it bring? It brought death.
It can be seen that many times, our human thoughts are not necessarily correct. Let me give you an example. In the Bible, Abraham’s wife was Sarah, right? What did God say to Abraham? Only what is born of your flesh can be called your offspring, right? Isn’t that very clear? But they waited and waited, and finally, his wife became clever. She suddenly thought, “Hmm, I have wisdom. We can’t let God’s promise fall to the ground; we have to do something. Abraham, you go and have a child with my maid Hagar, and it will be under my name, so that when others ask, we won’t be ashamed.” They added something to what God had already accomplished, and as a result, what happened? To this day, Israel and Palestine and the countries in the Middle East have been in conflict for years. This is something that should not have appeared, right? It was added by humans.
Humans want to rely on their own efforts, resulting in adding some things, so the law was added from outside, secretly infiltrating, which should not have appeared, resulting in offenses abounding, revealing our foolishness, ignorance, and lack of understanding. But what is more important afterward? But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
Brothers and sisters, let’s give another example. In the Bible, there are many people who have added things to what God has already prepared. These are the people who think they are clever. Remember Jacob’s mother, Rebekah? When she was pregnant, God said that the older would serve the younger. God had already promised her, but she finally couldn’t help it. She said, “While your brother is out hunting, you go deceive your father for the blessing.” They added something to God’s promise, resulting in what? It led to the two brothers becoming enemies, and from that day on, Jacob began to flee, leaving home, and until the day he died, this mother never saw her son again.
So do you see? Brothers and sisters, every time someone wants to add something to what Jesus has already accomplished, it always brings death. So today, many people say, “Don’t just talk about grace; it’s dangerous to only talk about grace. We need to add something else, like we can talk about how corrupt the world is; we can talk about other cultural things and bring them in.”
People think they are clever. I found something that is very similar to Jesus. Once, when we were chatting with a sister, she said, “I finally discovered that Christianity and Buddhism are actually the same.” Did she find something new? I asked her where they were the same. She said, “Look, Buddhism relies on self-effort to enter the paradise layer by layer; believing in Jesus is much simpler. You just believe, and ‘whoosh’ you go up. Isn’t that different? You go to a different place.” I was quite frustrated at that moment. I said, “Is it really the same place?” She thought she discovered something new, but what is it? It brings death. Amen!
Many times, we think we are clever, but it actually brings death. So until today, we keep saying, grace is Jesus. So don’t talk about anything else besides Jesus! Having Jesus is enough! With Jesus, you can have everything! If you think of adding something else on top of Jesus, it will definitely bring death to others!
So many people ask me, “Teacher, can I practice yoga?” Brothers and sisters, do you think it’s okay? Can I practice qigong? It’s really not a matter of whether you can or not. When I say no, in their hearts, they think they will still go practice, right? When I say yes, if they don’t want to go, they still won’t go, right? It’s not a matter of can or can’t.
Brothers and sisters, today God will absolutely not say, “You shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that.” God doesn’t use this method. God just gives you the best. If you find that Jesus is already the best, you won’t go do anything else. Just like this person today, if you already know that this stew is the best, you won’t go to the field to find that wild gourd and insist on adding something unknown.
If today people feel that grace is not enough, and they want to add some commandments to them, or add Jewish laws to them to make them stronger, you are wrong; you are killing them slowly. Originally, they were living well, but you are cutting them to death piece by piece. In fact, many times, we just need to return to the truth, and that’s enough! Amen!
You only need to rely solely on Jesus, and that’s enough!
The problem is, have you discovered that God has already given you the best, Jesus? God has already given you the best Holy Spirit. If you realize this, you no longer need to look for anything else to add color to Jesus; you don’t need to, because He is already the best. Amen!
I have told you before why people always want to change, change, change? Why is our God always unchanging? I have said before, because God is already the best; He is the best in every aspect, so He doesn’t need to change anymore. We humans are different; we humans, because of our inadequacies, because of our imperfections, always want to change to become better. But God says, “I now give you Jesus; this is already the best.” Amen!
Do you all remember that passage from earlier? What are you now? A holy priest. What else do you want to become? The best has already been given to you. Amen! God is already pleased with you. God tells me, “He who believes in Him will by no means be put to shame.” So what else do you need? Trusting in Jesus is enough. Amen!
This stew is already being cooked, but this person wanted to improve the quality, so he sliced the wild gourd and put it into the stew that was cooking. Because the latter part clearly says, “For they did not know what it was.” Wow, these people are bold; they dared to put something they didn’t know into the pot to cook. So today, many people say, “Why doesn’t your church recite the Ten Commandments?” You don’t even know what you are talking about. You give people something unknown to eat, and it will kill them.
So these people, because they did not know, when it was served to everyone, they began to cry out, “Oh, man of God, there is death in the pot!” Why didn’t you ask the man of God before you put it in? You cooked it and then said, “Man of God, now the whole pot is soaked with poison.” Isn’t that how we often are today? Before we do things, we don’t seek God. We always say, “This seems good; I think it’s great.” We insist on doing it.
When death appears, you say, “Lord, why treat me this way? How cruel! How unfair!” Do you know what our God thinks? God is actually the most wronged. You know? Many times, it is we who make mistakes, and then we complain to God, saying, “You are punishing me, testing me, tempting me.” God says, “That’s not me.” But God doesn’t argue with you like this. When we have problems, God will still help us! Amen!
So if you understand that Jesus is such a Lord, you will not add anything to what Jesus has given you. In today’s text, when he served it, he cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” So the people could not eat it. Let’s first look at the group of people they were facing; they were the sons of the prophets, right?
What do the sons of the prophets do? They are a group of people who speak for God before the people. If this group of people dies from poison, then there will be no one to speak for God among the Israelites. Is this group important? Extremely important! So this group absolutely cannot be poisoned, right? To put it in today’s terms, the person on the podium must not be poisoned. If I get poisoned, everything I put out will be toxic, and you will be in trouble. Amen!
So here, you see, the prophets and the disciples now have poison appearing. This is a problem. First, where is the poison now? In the pot, right? Everyone thinks about what a pot is used for. It’s for cooking, right? And what else? It is a place that supplies life, isn’t it, brothers and sisters? The pot is a place that supplies life; it is a place that holds food. It should be full of life, shouldn’t it? But you shouldn’t find something deadly in this place. However, now death has appeared in the pot.
Today, do you know? Many people want to find life but end up finding death because they have not found the pot that can truly supply life. Brothers and sisters, look around the world, besides Jesus Christ, you cannot find life anywhere else. Amen! So if you want to find life, you must find Jesus Christ to find life; outside of Jesus Christ, everything else is death!
In today’s text, what can sustain our life? What can give us life? Because we are talking about food, but the food cooked in the pot was originally meant to supply us with life. However, now there is a problem; death has appeared here. So many times, we keep saying that the podium is crucial. If what appears on the podium is something deadly, the people below will definitely hear something deadly, right?
If the podium constantly condemns, “Ah! You are a filthy sinner; you are a betrayer,” when you hear that, you will feel indifferent, thinking you can live however you want. “I have fallen; I am already like this. What does it matter if I fall further? God doesn’t delight in me anyway, so it’s fine.” At that time, do you know? What is being supplied from the podium is toxic, is death, so what you receive is all death!
If at that time, Elisha said, “It’s okay, everyone eat,” wouldn’t a group of people have been poisoned? Right? So Elisha didn’t do that. He first purified the food, turning it back into a place that supplies life, Hallelujah!
So the church’s podium should supply people with life, which is to supply Jesus Christ to people. Amen! Death should not appear in the pot. The problem is, when death appears in the pot, what to do? They began to cry out to Elisha. The meaning of Elisha in the original text is: God is our salvation.
So we can think that Elisha represents our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! These disciples are not foolish; even though they got into trouble, even though something deadly appeared, they still went to find the man of God. If you encounter any problem, if you go to find Jesus, you still have hope! Amen!
So if you are under the law and feel very painful, very uncomfortable, very tired, it is time to find Jesus. That place is a place of death; start turning to life. Amen! So Elisha is, God is our salvation!
Let’s share the second point and see what Elisha did.
The second point: Sprinkle Flour in the Pot to Remove the Poison.
Elisha is indeed a man of God. At the beginning, I asked you, if there is poison in your pot at home, what would you do? You would say you would throw it away. But if it is a time of famine and there is only this little food left, what if there is still poison in it? You still have to throw it away because you have no other method.
Let me tell you a little story, okay? When I was in school, I was very poor. The living expenses given by my family would run out in a few days. In the last few days of the month, I was always tight on money, and I would save on food. My classmates were similar. One time, we really had no money, and we could only buy two bowls of Korean rice noodles. I invited a friend to eat. After we finished eating, this friend told me something that almost made me vomit everything I had eaten. Can you guess what he said? He said, “You don’t know, but I just saw that in our Korean noodles, each of us had a dead fly.” I said, “Why didn’t you say anything while eating?” He said, “Didn’t we have no money? I just endured and ate it.”
Brothers and sisters, have you thought about it? In a time of famine, fortunately, the fly is not poisonous; he endured and ate it. But now? In a time of famine, poison appears in the pot. It seems there is no way out, right? People have no choice but to choose to throw it away. They began to cry out to the man of God. Please remember, when you feel there is no way out, do not give up. Never say it’s over; never say there is no way out. You must come to find Jesus Christ. Amen!
With Him, there is always a way. We just said, if you find a fly in the flour and you are very hungry and have no money, what would you do? It’s very simple; you would pick out the fly and then eat it, right? Out of sight, out of mind, right? But now you see, there is poison in the pot. What method do you use to remove the poison that has already been cooked in the stew?
Human methods always think about how to take it out of my life. How to remove it? How to get rid of it? God’s method is different from human methods. We humans always think about how to get these things out, but God’s method is different. How does God do it? He adds something else, and it disappears! Amen!
Many times, we say, “Lord, Lord, look, I have a lot of sins in my life. How can I clean my sins? Quickly, one, two, three… all go out!” But it still doesn’t work, right? What is God’s method? “Don’t always think about getting rid of it. I’ll give you a method: Add Jesus in! That’s it!” You say, “What if I have a lot of darkness inside?” Jesus says, “I will add the Holy Spirit in, and the darkness will all disappear.”
Just like today, putting this flour into the pot makes all the poison disappear. Is it simple? Very simple! So many times, when we can’t think of a method, we come to Jesus, and Jesus uses a very simple method to solve it for you.
It’s not about losing something; it’s about adding something in. This will not only not reduce your life but will actually increase it. So this is Jesus!
Now let’s talk about it again. We have talked about it several times. Elisha, this man of God, is really amazing, isn’t he? His way of doing things is different from ordinary people. Last time we talked about the water source, when bitter water came out, it brought death. Elisha said, “Bring some salt over and pour it in.” Good, it was healed.
Today, he used something very common in life, which is what? A handful of flour. Can flour remove poison? No. So why did Elisha do this here? Therefore, when we read the Bible, we must see why it is written this way. I have told you before how to read the Old Testament. When you read the Old Testament, you must find the hidden Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Amen!
You need to find the hidden Jesus in this. It’s not that this flour has any special function; it’s not that Elisha’s flour is different from our flour. It’s the same flour; it’s just that this flour has been set apart. It is no longer ordinary flour! Amen!
Let’s look at the five types of offerings in Leviticus. Do you remember? One of them is called the grain offering. The grain offering is different from the other four offerings. The unique characteristic of this grain offering is that the other four offerings are all offerings of life, symbolizing the death of Jesus Christ. But only the grain offering symbolizes the life of Jesus Christ being supplied. This is the difference, brothers and sisters.
Moreover, the grain offering is never offered alone; it is often paired with the burnt offering. The two combined constitute a complete offering. Just now, we said that Jesus Christ offered a spiritual offering before God, right?
Brothers and sisters, why are you holy? Because the offering that Jesus Christ offered is a complete offering; it represents all five types of offerings in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! So here, the grain offering represents the life of Jesus Christ. The grain offering itself has no blood, but it must have a blood sacrifice as a prerequisite, which is the burnt offering.
So we see this is why it must first go through a blood sacrifice, which is the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus’ blood, and then the grain offering can be accepted by God. Why is that? If your life does not have blood, the grain offering will not be accepted by God. Do you all know why? If there is no blood sacrifice, the grain offering will not be accepted by God? It’s very simple. If Jesus Christ does not remove the sin problem in our lives, God cannot accept us. Amen!
This is a very important matter, so remember, if Jesus Christ does not bear your sins for you, God cannot listen to your prayers today because God does not do such things.
Genesis 4:3-5 tells us, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” You see, the offerings of Cain and Abel have a very obvious characteristic, right? What did Cain offer? The best of the produce of the ground. What did Abel offer? A lamb. The only difference between the two is the difference in the offerings.
But God accepted Abel and his offering, but did not like Cain and his offering. It’s not that Cain’s offering, for example, potatoes, was bad. It’s because he offered a grain offering. If there is no blood sacrifice in front, the grain offering is not accepted by God.
So today, why is the offering you present accepted by God? Because it’s very simple; Jesus Christ has already offered the blood sacrifice for you. Amen!
So today, before God, you say, “I offer thanksgiving as a sacrifice to you,” God accepts it. Amen! You say, “I offer my life to you, and God accepts it.” But if there is no issue of Jesus Christ’s blood, even if you offer everything, even if you offer your life, God will not accept it.
In fact, the problem lies here. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. So first, there is the blood offering, and then there is the grain offering.
Let’s see what the grain offering represents in the Bible. Leviticus 2:1-3, let’s read together:
“When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. And he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and one of them shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil, with all the frankincense; and the priest shall burn the memorial on the altar as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; it is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire.”
This is very important, brothers and sisters. So do you see? “When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord,” what is being offered? Fine flour, right? Just now we mentioned, why did Elisha use a handful of flour in the pot? Because fine flour represents our Lord Jesus Christ’s grain offering.
Brothers and sisters, it tells us here that fine flour is made from barley or wheat, and it is the best of the wheat flour. Fine flour signifies our Lord Jesus Christ’s purity, softness, fineness, consistency, and beauty! Amen!
Because it is first ground and then sifted, taking the best from the flour and offering it before God, it signifies how much our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and endured to meet your needs. Brothers and sisters, today Jesus Christ can meet your needs.
Think about it. When this flour is harvested from the grain, it begins to be ground. It is for you. Then He broke Himself to become your supply. Then oil is poured on it, so olive oil is poured on this fine flour. That oil represents the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Then frankincense is added. Frankincense is a precious spice, and this frankincense is a sap that flows from the cut bark of a tree, condensed into the essence of the tree. This represents the fragrant aroma that comes from the abundant life of our Lord Jesus Christ!
So all these are put together and offered before God. When He offers it, He does not offer all of it, does He? He takes how much from the fine flour? A handful. Then what happens to this handful? It is burned on the altar, and what happens to the rest? Brothers and sisters, what happens to the rest? The rest shall be Aaron’s and his sons’! What is Aaron’s position? We read earlier, what are you? A holy priest!
So today, do you know? When you offer this grain offering to God, God accepts part of it, and the rest is given back to you because it has all been set apart as holy.
In the New Testament, it says, “If the part of the offering is holy, the whole lump is holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
That’s why we say, when you offer a tithe, the remaining nine-tenths are considered holy by God, and God will keep everything because it is a grain offering. Hallelujah! That is with a fragrant aroma, and God will take responsibility for it. Hallelujah!
Jesus represents the fine flour, offered before God for us. But many people misunderstand this. They say you must strive to be broken, strive to be broken… You must strive to become fine flour. Please tell me, brothers and sisters, how can you become fine flour offered before God? How can you be considered thoroughly broken? If you die, you are thoroughly broken, right? If we die, we can no longer sin.
But brothers and sisters, now many people are still teaching, “You must strive to become fine flour. God wants to break you until you become very fine, so you can offer yourself as a grain offering before God.” It’s as if you make yourself smell fragrant. In fact, brothers and sisters, think about it. If a fly is ground into powder and offered before God, it still smells bad, right? It’s different because the essence of life is completely different, right?
What is being talked about here is not that we must strive to become fine flour; it is that Jesus Christ has already become your fine flour, already offered before God. Hallelujah! So the focus is not on whether you have a fragrant aroma; it is that you should exude the fragrant aroma of Jesus. You are not the fine flour; Jesus is! Hallelujah!
So you are not the bread of life; Jesus is the bread of life. But you can receive that bread of life. Hallelujah! Let’s look at a verse, John 6:50-51,
“This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Do you see? Is this talking about Jesus Himself? Jesus is that bread of life, given for whom? For me! Amen! What is the purpose of giving? It’s not for us to just look at, right? It’s for us to eat, right? So when you eat this bread of life, who becomes strong? (I) That’s right; this is Jesus. He has become your grain offering. The purpose of His coming down is to let you eat Him. How do you eat today?
In fact, this verse refers to the Holy Communion. Every time you take the Holy Communion, you should know this is the fine flour of Jesus Christ, already offered before God for me. When I eat this bread of life, I have life inside me. It’s not your life; it’s not the life you strive to become fine flour; it’s the life of Jesus that is inside you. Hallelujah!
Let’s return to our earlier text. When Elisha said, “Bring me some flour,” he sprinkled the flour in the pot and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” The pot had no poison. Would you dare to eat? Wow! You all have great faith. Thank the Lord! You see, this man of God, Elisha, does not do things in a complicated way. He doesn’t say, “Everyone stand up; let’s fast… let’s all fast; let’s pray together, let the poison in the pot disappear, disappear…” It’s not like that. Elisha simply took a handful of flour, sprinkled it in, and the poison disappeared.
Brothers and sisters, during the preaching process, you may not remember anything else, but you must remember that Jesus is that handful of flour. When He is sprinkled into your life, all the curses, pain, and sickness in your life will disappear. This is what is happening in the spiritual realm right now. When it happens, you will not see it in the material realm. This needs to be believed and received because it is heavenly provision. The pot has never changed; it is just that after the flour was sprinkled in, Elisha said, “Serve it to everyone; there is no poison.”
Brothers and sisters, you will find that many people during the preaching process, while listening, suddenly get healed. In the process of praising, they are praising, and suddenly their illness is healed, depression disappears, insomnia disappears, stomach problems disappear, neck pain disappears. What is the reason? Because Jesus is constantly entering into every aspect of their lives. Just like that handful of flour, He is to supply them with life. You can think of this as a pot that is continuously supplying food to you. There is no poison in it; feel free to receive it. Amen!
So when Jesus is constantly entering into your life, constantly entering, you will find that whatever poison is in your life will disappear, disappear. Amen!
So you only need to focus on that flour. Jesus is your provision. Therefore, every day when you take the Holy Communion, you must remember that Jesus is the bread of life. He enters wherever He goes, and the poison disappears. So you should think about what needs to disappear in your life. What kind of poison, what should not exist, needs to disappear? When you eat it, the other will disappear. Hallelujah!
This is the word of Jesus. So we may not preach perfectly, but remember, we cannot spend an hour giving you a perfect sermon. But please remember, as long as there is Jesus in every sermon, that is enough because Jesus is perfect. So please ensure that in everything you hear, there must be an appearance of Jesus. Then when Jesus enters your life, the unclean parts and the problematic parts of your life will have no problems. Isn’t that very simple?
Let Jesus enter because for six days, we live in this world, and we hear all the worldly things, which are many toxic things. You will find that when you wake up in the morning and open the news, the most eye-catching thing is, “Wow, there was another car accident in that place.” “Wow, that plane suddenly disappeared.” “Wow, there was a murder incident in that place.” Death is constantly entering. So when you come to this pot of life, what is supplied here is stew, not toxic stew. When you drink this stew, the problems in your life begin to disappear. They begin to vanish, constantly disappearing, constantly disappearing. Hallelujah!
This is why you need to keep drinking the stew because you are constantly receiving these toxic things. So come before Jesus, constantly receive Jesus, and this poison will continue to disappear, disappear. Your body will always be healthy, and your life will always be healthy. Amen!
Let’s look at a verse, Mark 16:17-18. Let’s read together,
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Is this passage good? You must memorize it because it relates to you. It doesn’t say, “The pastor will have signs following them.” What kind of person? Who is that believer? Tell the person next to you: I am that person! If you know you are that person, then what follows is for you. I will have signs following me, casting out demons in the name of Jesus, speaking in new tongues, taking up serpents… Don’t read the rest; why not let everyone read? Because it’s very dangerous.
Many people say, “Well, I’ll go buy a bottle of pesticide tomorrow and see if I can still live.” Do you know what the consequences will be? You will see God immediately. This is not saying you should drink it when you have nothing to do. It’s not this meaning. If you drink poison in a special environment where you cannot solve it and you don’t know, God will protect you.
Do you know why we pray before meals? It’s very important. You don’t know what poison is in that food; it’s too unsafe, isn’t it? So I tell everyone that praying before meals is definitely not a formality. It’s not because the Lord Jesus said we should pray before meals, so we pray. It’s not like that! It’s to purify your food. Amen!
So we can imagine that Elisha did it very simply. He sprinkled the flour in the pot and then said, “It has been purified because the Lord has purified it.” Amen! So every time you take food, you pray to God. One important reason is that God wants to purify it. Amen! This is beneficial to you. Hallelujah!
I have also asked some people why we pray before meals. In fact, it is to receive heavenly provision. Do you know? Why pray? Many people say, “We need to thank God!” That’s right; your answer is correct. But why thank God? Clearly, this food was bought from the supermarket. Why thank God? When an unbeliever asks you, “You bought this food with money. Why thank God? What did God give you?” In fact, you have cleared all the middle links, and only God is missing. Have you thought about it?
When the farmer harvests the wheat from the field, he beats the grain and sells it to the grain collector. Did the grain collector pay him? He has already received what he deserves, right? So you don’t need to thank the grain collector; he has already received his wages. When you go to the supermarket and take a bag of flour home, you have to pay again, right? They have already settled in the middle, so you don’t need to thank the supermarket because they have already received their wages. When you finish preparing everything at home and put it on the table, in fact, only God is the one you haven’t thanked. This food is what God allowed to grow; it is God who allowed it to be safely received from the farmer. If it doesn’t rain for three years and six months, no one will harvest anything.
So only you are missing that thankfulness to God.
But in this middle link, some problems have appeared. Today we talked about a very safe thing, right? People added other things in it. You all know this. I won’t go into detail about this problem. People added other things here, thinking it would make it taste better, right, brothers and sisters? They thought it would make it look better.
But it was something deadly, wasn’t it? Isn’t it the same as what we talked about in today’s text? What do you do? How can you separate this thing? It has already been cooked; you can’t separate it anymore. It looks shiny, but there is something in it that you can’t discern. So what do you do? What do you do, brothers and sisters? So prayer is so important! Hallelujah!
So after you listen to this sermon, you say, “Yes, I really need to pray. I am not doing it as a formality.” You say, “Lord, I thank you for providing my daily bread.” Amen! It’s not just shouting slogans; it’s because you really see this food. You say, “Lord, yes, if it weren’t for your provision, this food would not have come to me. Even if I have money, I might not be able to buy it.”
Isn’t it true that many countries can’t buy food even if they have money? So today, you should thank the Lord that in such a peaceful country, you can buy this food, you can cook it, and then you can thank God. Hallelujah!
More importantly, you should be like Elisha and say to the Lord, “Oh, there is deadly poison here; I won’t eat it.” Then you shouldn’t eat anything at all, right? Just fast; don’t eat anything. Well, if you investigate, there will always be a problem. What do you do at this time? Don’t forget who you are. What is your identity? A holy priest. How can a priest become holy? It’s very simple; let your food at home become holy food. You just say, “Lord, I offer this before you.” Hallelujah!
In the past, when they were very poor in Korea, because they had no money, do you know what they offered? They would take, for example, a bag of rice from their home, because the family was relatively poor. They would take one-tenth from this bag of rice and bring this one-tenth to the church, and then everyone could eat together. In fact, this is exactly what the Bible says about the grain offering. They offered this, and God guaranteed that the part at home would not lack. Do you see, brothers and sisters? But when we offer everything from our home, you say, “Lord, this is all yours. I offer it before you. In the name of Jesus, purify these,” and then this food becomes purified. Hallelujah!
Just like Elisha, when he sprinkled the flour in the pot, he said, “Serve it to everyone; there is no poison.” So no matter where you go, whether you eat at home or eat out, remember to develop a habit of praying to God. You will set this food apart as holy and let Jesus enter. Brothers and sisters, bless this food in the name of Jesus, and then it will have no poison. This is the meaning of this verse, “If they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.” Amen!
Now you can read this verse, “If I drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt me.” Have you understood it correctly? Why didn’t I let you read it? Because it needs to be explained to you. Don’t go home and drink pesticide after listening to this; that would be a problem.
Then there is also the part that says, “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Amen! This is all done by Jesus, just like the Old Testament Elisha. He represents that God is my salvation. So brothers and sisters, Jesus today is your salvation. Amen! You must believe that when you set something apart in the name of Jesus, there will be no poison in it. Hallelujah!
So in your life, in everything, you must look to Jesus Christ. You say, “I am now in darkness.” It doesn’t matter; come and look to Jesus, and He can bring you out of darkness. It’s very simple; it’s not about leaving some place; it’s about directly giving you light. This is Jesus’ solution. Let Jesus enter your family, and your family problems will be solved.
You will find that especially for us believers, we often find that if there is a period of time when both people are far from God, there may be some conflicts arising. The devil finally discovers that he has the opportunity to deal with both of them, to separate them. But if both of these people draw near to God at the same time, they have no opportunity. Amen!
So this is the believer. If you let Jesus constantly enter your life, your life will always be healthy and full of joy. Amen! That is to say, when you let Jesus enter your life, it is equivalent to letting fine flour enter your life, and the poison will disappear. When Jesus enters your life, bitterness will disappear, sickness will disappear, curses will disappear because the heavenly provision of Jesus Christ has come upon you!
Well, let’s pray together:
You think about what problems you have in your life today. You say, “I can’t solve it, Lord Jesus.” Don’t worry; let Him enter your life. Well, let’s pray out loud together. No matter how serious the problems in your life are, Jesus wants to enter your life now! He is that fine flour, the perfect life, the life that has been broken for your life. When this life enters you, curses will disappear, sickness will disappear, bitterness will disappear! In the name of Jesus Christ, insomnia will disappear! In the name of Jesus Christ, the pain in your body will disappear! The chronic diseases that have troubled you for many years, in the name of Jesus Christ, will disappear now! Amen!
Because you are receiving that heavenly provision, the heavenly provision is continuously supplied. What do you need now? If you need something, open your mouth and pray to Jesus! He will give it to you at this moment.
In the name of Jesus, I heal you! In the name of Jesus, I heal you! Make you completely healed! Before Him, you are completely healthy because you have an identity: a holy priest. You are a holy priest of God. Jesus has already set you apart, set your life apart, and will set your life apart! Hallelujah! Thank and praise the Lord!
Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you for encouraging us again through the message of Elisha. I know no matter how serious the problems in my life are right now, we will not be discouraged today. I will not despair because I know I have Jesus. Jesus is in my life!
You are that fine flour, now supplied in my life. So I believe that from today, my life has begun to turn around! My life has also begun to turn around! That curse, sickness, and pain have all left me because Jesus has entered. Because you have entered into me, you are that life. When life enters, death disappears. Thank you and praise you!
Jesus, I thank you for loving me so much today. You have supplied me with such bread, and I thank you for it! In the name of the Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen!