Introduction
Today, I want to share with you why we must recount these spiritual stories. You might think it's mere entertainment, but it is a reality for Christians. Today, you must understand that a Christian church that does not speak of spiritual matters is in dire straits. In fact, the Bible uses spiritual language to speak of spiritual things. It is not about moral concepts, but about what is actually happening in the spiritual realm.
In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, a serpent came to the Garden of Eden. Among all the animals God had created, the serpent was the most cunning. Consequently, the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, and they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, leading to a series of events as humanity developed generation after generation to this day. Until today, have these spiritual stories ended? No! Why do I speak of spiritual stories? Without spiritual stories, how can you believe in the Lord? Therefore, today I speak of spiritual stories to give you the idea that: everything is a spiritual matter, and the Bible uses spiritual language to explain spiritual things. Spiritual matters occur so frequently in our daily lives that all matters are spiritual, bringing us great reflection.
Is making money a spiritual matter? Yes!
Is dating and marriage a spiritual matter? Yes!
Is work a spiritual matter? Yes!
Is dreaming a spiritual matter? Yes!
All things are spiritual. We must get spiritual matters right before we can understand other things. We must see what is operating behind the scenes, and what is operating behind that. Today, we must have spiritual eyes, viewing everything from a spiritual perspective, opening our spiritual eyes to make us wiser.
The Story of a Confused PhD Student Due to a Relationship
Some time ago, a student studying at SMU in Singapore came to me. Why did he seek me out? How did he find me? He said he found our church website online and obtained the contact information. As it turned out, he had a girlfriend, and he began to fall into an extremely uncomfortable state, with his mind in complete chaos. This chaotic state is incomprehensible to normal people – whenever he pondered research questions, he got a headache. He was entirely unable to think; his mind was filled with disturbing voices.
He consulted many psychologists, but none could help him, which frustrated him greatly. A month passed, and it was still the same; another month passed, and it remained unchanged. Fortunately, he encountered me, someone with an understanding of the spiritual realm. After finding me online, he came to seek my help. He was quite bold; if he had consulted a sorcerer who cast a spell and made things worse, it would have been troublesome.
This brother was very eager to resolve his chaotic problem, so he found me. I first took him for a cup of tea to understand his situation and state, then brought him to my office to pray. I have a habit of first leading people to receive the Holy Spirit when I lead them to pray, yearning to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then praying in tongues. As soon as this brother was filled with the Holy Spirit, he started barking within ten minutes and vomiting, with blood in his vomit, which was frightening. The next day, he sent me a message saying that his mind had never been so clear in months, and he had never slept so well. Thank God, hearing such good news!
In fact, there are spiritual reactions in many places. After he was filled with the Holy Spirit in this office and released, he said, What is this? This is a treasure! From then on, he continually followed us on the path of believing in the Lord. As he walked this path, he discovered a very interesting phenomenon: doing research is also a very spiritual matter. When he believed well in the Lord and was strong in the spirit, he made rapid progress in his research; when he began to view things with human methods, problems arose in his prayer and service, and his mind gradually became chaotic.
People are interesting, and spirits are interesting. Including myself, these people were all driven into God's kingdom by demons. If we hadn't been tormented to death by demons, how would we have known to seek God? Because life was miserable, I sought God, and this seeking turned me into a demon-fighter. Many believing intellectuals, well-dressed, beautiful, cultured, and with good jobs, believe in a very dogmatic way. I took a very different path and became a spiritual Christian, gaining a deeper and deeper understanding of the spiritual realm.
The Curse Brought by Sexual Immorality
I once mentored a student doing her graduation project, and this girl ended up in a mental hospital because of finding a boyfriend. Therefore, I discovered that having a boyfriend or girlfriend is a profoundly spiritual matter; these very intimate relationships are spiritual matters.
Let me tell you another story: I had a very close classmate, and we were always in the best schools and the best classes in middle school. After entering university, we maintained a decent relationship. His family had an interesting issue. His father was a heavy drinker who became violent when drunk. After his father died, the drunken spirit passed onto him.
He told me, You don't know, now if I drink just a little bit, I am not myself anymore. I asked, Then who are you? He said, I become another person. Although I am clear in my mind, I am confused and carried a flowerbed from the street back home. I asked, How heavy is that? How could you possibly carry it? The next day, after waking up sober, he asked, Who brought this junk home?
So, how did these things come about? Later, I told him these spiritual stories about having boyfriends and girlfriends. I told him that these things are serious! The Bible speaks of a truth: the two shall become one flesh, and they shall jointly bear the curse. In fact, you really need to ponder this logic.
For example, if a person has thirty ancestors, then a couple has two, four, eight, sixteen, totaling thirty. This is four generations. The first, second, third, and fourth generations above: the first generation is your father and mother; above your father and mother are their parents, which makes four people. Above them are their parents, making eight, and above them are their parents, making sixteen, totaling thirty. That is to say, naturally, a person inherits the curses of thirty ancestors, and these curses fall upon them. Whether someone in the family passes away or not, these evil spirits in their family are at work.
Behind the curse is the legitimate operation of evil spirits. What is a curse? A curse comes from God. If a person violates God's word and is cursed, this curse will be passed down for three to four generations. As soon as a person is cursed, the evil spirits related to this curse will legitimately dwell in that person. In fact, you don't know the names of many of those thirty ancestors. My child's maternal grandmother asked him, Do you know what your grandmother's name is? The answer was no. Then I asked the child's mother, What is your grandmother's name? She also said she didn't know. We may not know the names of our ancestors, but the spirits of our ancestors know you. People are really unlucky; I don't even know who those thirty ancestors are, but the sins they committed and the curses they suffered will fall upon me.
People carry the curses from thirty ancestors, and when they get married, it becomes sixty. Thirty is already a burden, what about sixty? They find a husband, and the husband has an affair, making it ninety. Then the person having the affair has a lover, making it one hundred and twenty. My classmate asked me how demons come about, and I told my classmate about this. He said, Oh! Old classmate, then I must be carrying thousands of curses. Why? Because his private life was a bit chaotic. He used to run a nightclub.
Brothers and sisters, you must understand these things; it's not just about two people being in love, it's about inheriting curses. Therefore, be careful in sexual behavior and don't mess around. If you do mess around occasionally, you must repent and cut off these evil spirits.
In the past, Singapore was famous for its red-light districts; now, Singapore is famous for its casinos. The casinos in Singapore have a new name called Integrate Resource. We don't know the Chinese name; it's not called Casino. These Integrate Resources are where families go for vacations. I know a very devout entrepreneur who came to Singapore for a vacation and stayed at a hotel in the casino. Hotels can be dangerous places, and hospitals are also dangerous.
Today, we'll talk about red-light districts. What do red-light districts do? Actually, I've never really figured it out. When people look at red-light districts, they know it's a red-light district, but I can't see anything different. They are just many small hotels and restaurants, and you can't see anything different when you pass by.
I once met a Chinese man who was sent to Singapore by a Chinese company to develop the Singapore market. In fact, he was already married with a child a little over one year old, and he had a habit of frequenting prostitutes wherever he went. He liked to show off about his prostitution and exchange information with his friends about which prostitute was good at her job. He also liked to come to church, which was a real problem. One day, he came to church to find me, and I just talked to him and noticed that his eyes were strange. Suddenly, he smashed his phone into pieces, and I was puzzled. If a person carries evil spirits, can they feel good? Where did he bring the evil spirits from? They came from being with prostitutes in the red-light district.
Prostitutes in this profession carry evil spirits that make them miserable. It's not just a physical problem, but also a spiritual problem. The spiritual problem is very serious. This Chinese man lived in the same dormitory as a nineteen-year-old young man in our church, and he said, Come, I'll take you to see the sights. The young man was young and full of vigor, and he had never seen much of the world, so he followed him. The man could find the places and went in through the door, and all he saw was the relationship between prostitutes and their customers, which scared the young man so much that he ran away. Do you think he could escape? The spirit of sexual immorality attached itself to him, and from then on, the young man developed a habit of sexual immorality. I once prayed for his deliverance, and it was so violent and frightening. So, the things of this world are truly spiritual matters.
Today, you must remember that everything is a spiritual matter. What happened as a result? The young man had a girlfriend, whom I also knew, who was very promiscuous. One day, he and his girlfriend argued. Can they not argue when they carry evil spirits? During the argument, his girlfriend went to a nightclub and slept with someone else (this is all hearsay; don't think I saw it with my own eyes, I didn't). Halfway through sleeping with the other person, she called him and told him that she was sleeping with someone else. The young man was so angry that he punched the wall. As a result, he broke a small bone in his hand and had to have surgery, and they put a steel plate on the bone. So, sexual immorality is deadly, and Christians must live a holy life. Prostitution has a very deep impact on people.
This is a story from Singapore, so are there such stories in the Bible? There are many examples in the Bible. I once preached a sermon called Sexual Immorality Brings the Spirit of Death, which was a good sermon.
Bible Stories - The Wickedness of Sodom
Let me share some stories from the Bible. The first is about Sodom and Gomorrah. How depraved was Sodom? The Bible describes it this way:
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to them at the door and shut the door after him and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, so that they could not find the door. (Genesis 19:4-11)
What do you see? In Sodom, a form of entertainment was that every passerby, regardless of age or gender, would be subjected to gang rape. The entire city, young and old, participated in this. Can you comprehend this? The city was depraved to an extreme. No one could escape their grasp in Sodom, and the result was the city's destruction by God. Immorality brings death, and after death, the soul is taken to hell by evil spirits. This is Sodom.
Last night, I attended a gathering where they argued for a defense of God, claiming the God of the New Testament is different from the God of the Old Testament—that the God of the Old Testament destroyed Sodom with fire, while the God of the New Testament would not. This isn't the correct way to view it. I tell you, it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city! (Luke 10:12) God will destroy that city: it is not a matter of the God of the New Testament being different from that of the Old Testament.
Bible Stories - The Woman of Bethlehem
Judges chapter 19 tells of a man who took a concubine from Bethlehem, but she was promiscuous and left her husband to return to her father's house. After four months, the husband and his servant went to persuade her to return, and her father-in-law welcomed him with joy. After a few days, on their way back, they passed through a city called Gibeah, which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.
In Gibeah, an old man, not wanting them to spend the night in the street, took them into his home. Gibeah, like Sodom, was a place where all passersby were raped, which they considered a normal form of entertainment. The wicked men of the city surrounded the old man's house, demanding that the man who had come to his house be brought out so they could rape him. The old man came out and pleaded with them not to commit such a wicked act.
**Here are my daughter who is a virgin and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do such an outrageous thing.” But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and put her out to them, and they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the day began to break, they let her go. And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.
And when her master rose up in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and seizing his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, take counsel, and speak.” (Judges 19:24-30)**
As the story unfolds, the men of Gibeah raped the man's concubine to death. The husband cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them to the various tribes of Israel. The tribes of Israel, filled with rage, gathered their infantry to attack the city. They demanded that the wicked men of the city be handed over, or they would destroy the entire city and remove this evil from Israel. The people refused to hand over the criminals, and in the ensuing battle between the tribes of Israel and the men of Gibeah, almost the entire tribe of Benjamin was killed, with only a few remaining.
How did death come about? Because the people of Gibeah were immoral, and immorality brings death. Sodom and Gibeah are both examples of deaths caused by rampant immorality.
Bible Stories - Jacob's Daughter Dinah in Shechem
In Genesis, Shechem, the son of a king, raped Jacob's daughter Dinah, and was subsequently killed by Jacob's sons. Today, we must have a clearer understanding of immorality. Immorality brings a spirit of death, very clearly. Dating, building a family, including prostitution and promiscuity, are directly and closely related to curses. This is not just an individual matter, but is closely related to the spiritual realm. In the future, when seeking a partner, one must clearly understand their history of immorality. The spiritual principles remain unchanged. Now that everyone is beginning to understand these things, next week I will share stories about greed and the spiritual aspects of living a simple life. That's all for today. May God bless everyone!