Introduction

This is a very important truth. I have seen many older Christians, and ministering to them is daunting because it is so taxing! Why is this? Because older Christians become jaded; they seem to know everything, yet they are not quite clear, and they are very self-righteous. I have seen many older Christians, and a common characteristic is that they always share testimonies from many years ago.

Once, I attended a gathering and met an older Christian who repeatedly shared a testimony from 20 years prior. I wondered, are there no fresh testimonies? It is difficult to deal with jaded people. We must truly revive our initial love. I do not want our brothers and sisters to become jaded as well.

What does it mean to be jaded? Fresh 油条 (youtiao, fried dough sticks) are delicious, but old 油条 are dry, hard, and dirty, making them difficult to swallow. As Christians, we must never become jaded; it is a very numb state.

Do you know how a jaded pastor taught me? He said, Prepare 100 sermons and use them repeatedly. Alas, how can that be? Every sermon I prepare is new. I hate serving leftovers. Today, we must revive our initial love and absolutely never become jaded.

In the past, some of my classmates took the college entrance examination many times. I thought they should be very familiar with the high school textbooks. But when they opened the books, they seemed to know everything, yet they could not answer correctly. Jaded Christians seem to know everything, but what they know is wrong, which is problematic.

What is initial love? It is freshness. God loves freshness, and so do people. Fruits, especially the first fruits, are the best; those that are overripe rot.

Scripture

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we come before You today, asking Your Holy Spirit to do a renewing work within us. Let us turn from the state of being jaded, let our church be new every day, let our love be heartfelt, not only renewing our minds but also restoring our initial love. Thanks and praise to You! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

How do Christians lose their initial love?

I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:2-4)

The church in Ephesus was a great church. Why would God still reproach them for losing their initial love?

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:10-12)

Newly converted Christians love God very much, and they feel that the church is very holy. But gradually, the more they suffer losses in the church, the colder their hearts become. How can there be so many liars among Christians? After casting out demons many times, I have found that Christians are very attractive to demons. If you are a Christian, you either attract demons or cast them out. If you attract demons, you will be corrupted by them. Rick Joyner's The Final Quest talks about how the devil is not riding on a horse but on Christians.

If you hear that a church suddenly has three thousand new converts, or five thousand new converts, be careful. The church in Jerusalem was a very corrupt church. How many Pharisees were mixed in? Later, the church in Jerusalem withered. There were too many problems in the church; there was a mixture of good and bad among the three thousand or five thousand people. Later, my view of the church continued to change: the church should not pursue numbers but holiness and unity.

If there is a mixture of good and bad in the church, and there are frequent false apostles and false prophets, then there is a big problem! Our task is not to identify false apostles and heresies, but to love God. Never forget the original purpose. The church is a group of people who love God and carefully follow His words together. The initial love for God feels great, but focusing all day on identifying heresies and false apostles leads to losing the initial love.

Initial Love is Fresh

The beautiful love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is poignant because they died together. Had they not died, but instead lived a married life, there would be no beautiful love story. One would become an old man, the other an old woman, disliking each other every day, unable to feel love. When young couples are deeply in love, they always walk side by side; but when they grow old, they are usually several meters apart, walking one in front of the other, estranged.

The initial love is a very pure love, a very good feeling, fresh. Fresh means new, Refresh means to renew. The initial love is the freshest, the purest, looking forward to gatherings every day; but after becoming jaded, one loses that initial love, falling asleep during sermons and waking up only at the Amen at the end. This is a kind of numbness.

Why lose the initial love? Because as people do things, they forget why they came to do them in the first place. A Christian's initial love is very important. A jaded person has no feeling of love, but rather a mindset of an old man/old woman, annoyed by prayer meetings.

For a time, a sister came to me, saying, I have no feelings for my husband anymore. That is not far from divorce. If you absolutely lose your feeling for God, then you have lost your initial love. When the church loses its initial love, it loses God's presence.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5)

Holding onto Initial Love, the Holy Spirit is with the Church

The lampstand has oil, and the oil on the lampstand is the presence of God's Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, the church loses God's glory. Like in the days of old Eli, glory departed from the church. Without the Holy Spirit, the church cannot solve problems. Then the church introduced corporate management KPIs, many rules, but these cannot solve problems at all. Later, I learned to manage the church with initial love.

If initial love is in the hearts of every brother and sister, how much of God's presence should there be in this church. A church without God's presence is tiring; you can be busy to death and still not finish. But building the church according to God's Word, with God's presence, any problem can be solved, many problems disappear completely, experiencing God every day. How wonderful such a church is! The church must not be without the golden lampstand. Every week I ask everyone to prepare fresh spiritual food, though it is hard, I see God's presence. Knowing God is endless.

Strive, the Revelation of the Spiritual Realm is Infinite

2018 is about to pass. If I have deprived you of your joy, I am sorry, but I must continue to ask you to grow. A person's growth must be a state of striving, and those who strive will surely grow. Those who grow will surely have something to write. The past is the past. In 2019, start striving, not repeating old tunes, but doing new things, restoring our initial love for God. Do not stop, the laws of the spiritual realm cannot be fully understood.

In the past year, we have learned many things, the spirit of Lao Ma, Leviathan, the false prophet weasel... these things are all in the Bible, but why didn't we realize them in the past? Because our spiritual height had not grown to that level. We must deal with the attitude of playing fake, playing false. You cannot rely on last year's knowledge and apply it this year. You must constantly renew, constantly strive. I am in technology; many technologies become useless after a few years and you still have to learn new ones. Not many IT companies survive more than three years because they are frequently updated and easily outdated.

Believing in the Lord and the spiritual realm are much more profound than high technology. In the past, China discovered ESP and wanted to develop weapons with human ESP, but they could not develop them because it is a spiritual matter.The spiritual world is very real. If you constantly solve problems, you will find this spiritual truth is great.

Recently, we have been deepening our understanding of the spiritual world, gaining a deeper understanding of Alzheimer's disease, which is not just cerebral atrophy. When my mother gets confused and talks nonsense, that's a demon. When the demon is driven away, the old lady returns to normal.The more I learn, the more I realize my ignorance. The Holy Spirit is leading us to constantly break through, the Spirit of God is constantly leading us into His truth. If we do not improve, how can we overcome the devil and the enemy?

If you do not strive on this climbing road, how can you climb up? Striving may not even be enough to climb up. When the day comes when we eat the fruit of the tree of life, wonderful things will happen, the force to strike the devil will be greatly increased, completely striking the devil and the enemy, releasing the captive souls. But you must overcome, do not lose your initial love, do not become jaded.

Conclusion

Being jaded and not overcoming is very tiring! Overcoming, joy will fill our hearts. Today I encourage everyone again, enjoy striving, restore the initial love for God. If you love God tiredly, you must repent! If you have not served for a long time, repent! Ask yourself, what did you do in 2018? How much have you grown? What are your plans for 2019? What do you want to do? Where will you grow? Do not be a rotten fruit, be the first fruit and offer it to God. What God wants is fresh.

Follow me in prayer:

Lord Jesus, I ask for Your Spirit to enter into me, help me, restore my initial love for God, let my love for God be a pure love, a fervent love, rekindle the flame of service within me. Restore the love for You in me, that I may enter into the paradise of love and eat the fruit of the tree of life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!