Pastor Samuel Sharing

Brother William Sharing

Introduction: Freedom, Army, and the Kingdom

Today, let us look at Exodus Chapter 12 and it was the final stage that Israelites came out from Egypt. When we came to this part of the story, what was the main point Moses was trying to deliver to us? Let us read verse 40.

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. (Exodus 12:40-41 NIV)

The length of the time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years and at the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. I prefer the Chinese Bible translation and it is clearer about division as I am not sure how well you perceive the word “division”. I will make it more straightforward as The Army of God came out of Egypt. This is a lot more straightforward and I cannot understand why people translate into division. The main point of Chapter 12 is “The Army of God came up of Egypt”. If we are going to use this as the key point to talk about the whole chapter, it will make much more sense.

At the end of 430 years, the Army of God came out of Egypt. Israelites were slaves in Egypt. This signifies that all the people in the world are slaves of the world and we need to be set free. How can we be set free? The only solution is the Army of God came up from the world. We must come up from the world to become free people and not fall under the bondage of the world. When we are set free, we have freedom. We are no longer slaves of the world. That day when we are set free from the world by the Lord is called Passover.

The Fundamental Job of the Church

The Army of God is the fundamental concept of the church. Many people neglected the fundamental concept of the church as the Army of God. They substituted the concept with family, the house of the Lord, or the family of the Lord. Yes, you can have the House of the Lord but if you do not have the Army of God, the Kingdom of God will stand anymore. Are you with me? Please remember the church is the Army of God. If we established a church and did not fight the spiritual battle, you are still a slave of the world. Worse of all, the church is still promoting the slavery concept.

Now, we are talking about a Kingdom. A kingdom without an army cannot stand by itself. Look at all these countries such as Russia, China, the USA, and Singapore. Can you imagine if they do not have an army? Even in the World, all these nations cannot stand by themselves without a strong army. Without a strong army, any other country can easily invade them, taking away their wealth and all they have. Your wealth will be nothing if you do not have an army to protect you. In the spiritual world, it is exactly the same. Many people ask: "Why did God not bless me? Why were there so many unlucky things that fell on me? Why were there so many plagues that happened to me?" Do you know why? God blessed them but their blessings were taken away by the devil.

That's why this is the fundamental concept that the Army of God is part of the Kingdom of God. If you are promoting the Kingdom of God, you do not have a clear concept about the Army of God, then the Kingdom of God will not be able to stand at all. I am not saying that the Kingdom of God will collapse. The Kingdom of God still exists but the people are unable to enter the Kingdom of God. If you want to be part of the Kingdom of God, you must be an Army of God to fight with the devil in the spiritual battle.

At the end of 430 years in Egypt, the Israelites came out from Egypt as an Army of God, not as a family. Are you with me? It was an Army of God, not a family enjoying food together. They had no good food, but only unleavened bread. Many Christians who did not grasp the fundamental concept are suffering from cancer or poverty. I have seen many Christians having many unlucky things happening to them. They did not have blessings in their workplace, in the country, or in any environment they were in. Unlucky events surrounding them all seem to be very common. I kept asking myself: Why is that so? After studying the bible for many years, my question was answered. Finally, I realized that the church that I set up must be an Army of God, fighting the spiritual battle and bringing the people out of the slavery of the world.

If we are still in the slavery of the world, we would be slaves and slaves have no blessings at all. Let me bring up this question: "How many churches are set up as the Army of God?” There are very few, that you can even count with your fingers. Do you know why? If you set up a church as the Army of God, the church members must pay a heavy price. At least, they must devote plenty of time to the training of fighting the spiritual battle. But many churches dare not to do that. Then what are they doing? They are promoting "Family First". They are educating their church members to put their families as a priority. Do you see anything written in the Bible as the family comes first? No. The book of Exodus stated at the end of 430 years, the Army of God came out from Egypt. The Army of God did not come out unorganized but came out in a very orderly manner and organized.

In the Book of Numbers, they counted the number of people in each clan and tribe. This is the concept we must establish. If you see problems arising among the Christians with many sufferings, there is only one reason, the Church is not an Army of God. If the church is not the Army of God, the Kingdom of God cannot come. That's not the only point. There are many more things that have to do with the Kingdom of God. What I meant to say is when Jesus said when I cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom come upon you. Every time when we prayed the Lord’s prayer, “Your Kingdom come.” How can the Kingdom of God come upon the church when they said they were not anointed to drive out demons or they did not have the gift? It is not about the gift or anointment, it is all about the fundamental job of the church to drive out the demon and set people free. It is about setting people free from the slavery of the world and promoting the concept of devoting our life to our Lord Jesus Christ as well as forming a group of mighty Army of Almighty God.

Many Churches must shift their fundamental concept and we can call it a paradigm shift of the church. There are many churches today that are hanging a banner displaying what their churches are like. But do they understand the concept of a church? They need to know that the concept does not work. If we do not understand the concept or do not have a clear idea of a church, how can we set up a church?

The fundamental theory of the church must come from the bible. Jesus Christ was talking about the church and had given us a fundamental definition of the church. What did Jesus Christ say about building a church? Jesus said that building a church on a rock is the rock of the truth. Exodus Chapter 12 also conveys the truth of the fundamental concept of a church. In Matthew 16:19 Jesus mentioned, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” That is the fundamental definition of the church. "Bind and Loose" is part of the fundamental job of the church. Casting out demons is the fundamental job of the church.

The Church Is The Army of God

But if today you are casting out demons, they would say you are charismatic. It is not important if you are charismatic or not. The problem is whether you are complying with the bible’s teaching.

Honestly, I cannot understand those pastors who preach the sermons every Sunday are reading the same bible as me and why they could not grasp the concept of the church. That is puzzling me and I cannot get my head around it. They tried to get some ideas from here and there. In the end, they have their own concept of the church.

I have a friend who is a pastor of a church and is promoting the family concept. Of course, when he is promoting the family concept and he is also promoting the concept to himself too. That kind of church is something I have a problem understanding. There is no office, the church staffs don't even have to come into an office to work. It was a long time ago, even before the pandemic. At home, he has to look after the children. He has plenty of children, and he has to look after them all. I asked: What kind of job is this, to look after the children? And is family a duty given by the Almighty God? After a couple of years, do you know what happened? The church started to have a lot of problems. In the end, this pastor went into depression. It was very serious, I would rather call it almost as a possession, possessed by the devil. I was talking to one of his staff, and I said I can cast out the demons of his depression. If he wants to be ministered by me, I am willing to help. Do you know what the pastor said? "No, no, no." Finally, I understand why now. If I did that, he would lose his face as a pastor. "How can you cast out demons from me? I am a pastor too!" He would rather suffer depression and medicine given by the hospital. I am not disagreeing with medicine. It's fine. Medicine can also solve problems. You can take it.

There are plenty of cases like these. Another pastor called me up and he said: "My mom suffers from insomnia." This pastor prayed for his mom for seven years, but she was still taking sleeping pills. The dosage doubled and doubled every time. The amount in the pills far exceeded the average amount, even to doctors said that she reached the maximum amount she can take. Finally, the mom came to me, and I cast out her demons, and her insomnia was gone!

I was wondering, why is that so? Because the church is set up as the army of God! In the church, there are so many divisions. Some people believe in speaking in tongues, some don't; some people believe in deliverance, others don't. There is a huge argument, a huge division. How can they come together and fight the spiritual battle? They can not.

With my experiment, I put this concept into practice. All the sick in our church will be healed. We have to give thanks to our Lord. He is a faithful Lord. Everyone who comes into our church will be set free. And this is the army of God. The fundamental job of the army of God is to cast out demons and to set people free. This is the gospel that we preach: to cast out demons and heal the sick.

An Army Needs Tough Training

In Exodus Chapter 12, Moses said after 430 years, the army of God came out from Egypt. That is just the beginning. What were they going to do? They were going into the desert, where there will be tough training. Do you think they were going into the desert to enjoy life? Singing some karaoke, with a nice TV, with a TV console? No! You just have training: marching on and on. Sometimes they got up in the night, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at noon. Even in the sun, sometimes they had water, sometimes they did not. What tough training!

There was once a civil war in China. The Communist party and another party. In the end, the Communist Party won the war and took over all of China. The other party was supported by very modern weapons from the US, yet they retreated to Taiwan. After they retreated, the leader, Jiang Jie Shi said this: "the Communist party trained the soldiers very differently from us. From now on I will train the soldiers with the method of the Communist party." In China, the army goes through very tough training. That is why they can fight tough battles. They are probably one of the strongest armies in the world. That is why training is so important for armies.

Nowadays, the churches promote all sorts of clubs, but not an army. If you are not training your army in a tough manner, they will be defeated in the battles. The moment you are defeated, you will lose your blessings. So the Israelites came out of Egypt and became the army of God, and the training had just started. They went into the desert to go through tough training. But the Israelites started to murmur. And the entire group of people, about 600 000 people (Can you imagine? 600 000!), all of them died in the desert. They couldn't go into the promised land. Do you want to be a church that cannot go into the promised land?

Even among Christians, there are many different kinds of Christians. One kind of Christian is still a slave to Egypt, to the world. Another type of Christian is a Christian who came out from Egypt but cannot go into the promised land. They dare not fight the spiritual battle, and they will die in the desert.

Another type of Christians is able to come out of Egypt, able to pass the training, and able to march into the promised land. Then what type of Christian do you want to be? What type of church do you want to set up?

Promise of God

If you were to ask me, of course, I want to gain access to the promise of the Almighty God! The promise of the Almighty God is there, but whether we can gain access or not is our choice. What kind of choice do you want to make? You can make the choice to become a slave. But as a slave, you don't even belong to yourself. Anything you own belongs to your master. So don't blame God if you cannot gain access to His promise. The problem is with us because God is faithful. God already revealed every truth. He said, "Set up the church in this way, in this kind", but people set it up in a different way.

That is why the paradigm has to shift. A church is not hanging a banner or a sign. The church should be set up on a rock. Look at the substance of what they do. Look at the definition of a church in the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ, long ago, already gave us the definition of a church. We want to be sound Christians. We want to be Christians standing in the victory, forming the army of the Almighty God, and fighting in the spiritual world.

Let me tell you some experiences of my encounter in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, the devils know who I am. I do not want to make my name known. When I cast out demons, some people don't even know my name. I don't want to promote my own name, only the name of Jesus Christ. But this man was possessed by a certain kind of devil. When I was casting it out, the devil started to speak out, saying "I hate you!" He started to speak out my name: "I hate you! I hate you!" How could the man know my name? The man doesn't know my name at all, but the demon inside him does. The devil's behavior is very interesting.

Another time I was casting out the demons, and God opened my spiritual eyes. I saw six or seven of those monkey-like devils, about one meter tall. They were standing up there and talking to each other in a language I know of: "We are so unlucky! We are so unlucky! How come we met this guy? Let's go! Let's go now!" Then they all fled away. When they all fled, the person was set free.

So during the spiritual battles, I start to know more and more how important it is to set up a church as the Army of God. I have spent half an hour talking of the Army of God. That's a very important concept. You know this is the day, the Passover Day when the Army of God came out from Egypt. Do you know how the Army of God came up from Egypt? Because God has struck on Egypt. Not just striking on every firstborn, God basically killed every firstborn of both men and animals. God brought judgment on all the gods of Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped all kinds of gods. Then all these spiritual beings failed to protect the Egyptians at all because God brought destruction onto Egypt. From the Pharaoh to the slaves, in every family, the firstborn died. Can you imagine? Can you imagine in every family, the firstborn died in one night?

Of course, dying is a process. During this process, everybody was trying to do first-aid, either massaging or pushing on the chest in order to save the person. During the process of trying to save the dying people, a lot of people were crying out loud. There could be a person going to the neighbor next door: "Hey, come and help! My son was dying!""Oh, I also need your help! My son was also dying!" Everybody needed help; everybody was crying out: "Oh, you got one person died!""Oh, my son also died!" Everybody, including the Pharaoh. This is God's approach. This is God's approach. God kills.

Do you think God should have mercy? No. God had no mercy towards those people who tried to stop the people of God from coming out from Egypt. If you want to stop it, be careful. Don't stop the people of God from coming out from Egypt. Don't stop people of God from becoming the Army of God, forming the division of armies. If you want to stop it, it's fine, but you will swallow the result. You will slow swallow the result.

Set Up The Church As The Army of God

Now you should understand: If you are setting up a church, whether as the senior pastor or the junior pastor or whichever pastor, but the church is not the Army of God, then what are you doing? You may play the role of trying to stop the Army of God from coming out from Egypt. If the pastor is preaching the worldly system, preaching the value of the word, he or she is basically stopping the Army of God came up from Egypt.

I do not know why so many churches go against the healing of the Holy Spirit which is biblical. I also do not understand why so many churches go against casting out demons, because Jesus casts out demons anyway, right?

So if you watch carefully and have a closer look at those people, you will see that God will bring judgment on those people. God will bring judgment. I know they may be saying: "Oh I love God. I love God. I love Jesus Christ!" But never mind and ask yourself this question: are you doing what God wants you to do? If you are not, then you will get problems.

I met one of the pastors because the daughter of the pastor got cancer and I was the one who ministered to the daughter. Later I told the pastor: "You need to set up the church as the Army of God: cast out demons and heal the sick." That is exactly what Jesus said, right? Preaching the Gospel, casting out demons, and healing the sick is part of the spiritual battle. Do you know if the pastor did that after he went back? No. He's supposed to go back and do it according to what I shared with him. Do you know what happened? The wife disagreed. The wife disagreed and go against this. Of course, most pastors listen to the wives. Do you know what happened? The wife got a lot of sicknesses. So much so, the pain which struck on the wife was so severe.

There are a lot of cases if you ask me. I have a lot of stories to tell you. Another pastor's wife had a tumor in her body. The tumor initially was the size of a peanut. Later on, it grew a little bit bigger, like a date. Then later on it grew a little bit bigger to the size of an egg, and eventually, it became so big, much bigger. Do you know why this happened? Because she was stopping the church from becoming the Army of God. Why do I say so? The reason was very simple. They want to have their own family life.

Choose to Live The Army Life

If you want to have your family life, you cannot have an army life; If you want to have an army life, somehow, you will not have a good family life. Then which life do you want? Do you want family life or army life? Can you imagine? Even though in the worldly system, now if you belong to the army, you cannot have your family life, right? if you belong to the army, you serve in the army, God will strike on the Egyptians who wanted to stop the army of God from coming out from Egypt. God will strike. God will bring judgment. God will strike on them. That's God.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. (Exodus 12:29-30 NIV)

Do you think God should have mercy on these people? No, come on! This is the day when God killed every firstborn in the Egyptian families but preserved the Israelites, God's own people, as the exception. For what? For being an army of God, and that is the destiny of the Israelites. God had determined the destiny for the Israel people to become the Army of God.

Of course, you may sacrifice a little bit. You may sacrifice a little bit of your family life. But the end result is much better: You can gain access to the promise of Almighty God. That's called Passover. Passover is just like we Christians accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior. It's just the beginning, the beginning of the training. That's why In our church, we believe that we should give tough training. Actually, that's not so tough at all, not as tough as the training in the desert. **We just need to set apart more time for the Lord. You know what? The result is wonderful. The blessing will flow from the throne of the Almighty God onto all of us. The devil has no chance to take it away. **

The Requirement of The Army of God: Deal With Flesh

When you form the mighty army, not everyone can just be the army of God. There is a restriction: no foreigner is able to eat the Passover meal; Any slave you bought may eat it after you circumcised him. Do you know why? Why are some people counted and some people not counted? It's simply because the Army of God has a requirement and this simple requirement is called circumcision. Circumcision means you are dealt with the flesh. Your flesh is circumcised. But the problem is that circumcision is on the male organ, but it's supposed to be on the heart. If you read Deuteronomy, it actually clearly stated that circumcision is not just on the male organ. Instead, it should be on the heart. So the church is supposed to deal with the flesh. So if we are the Army of God, the number one thing we got to deal with is the flesh of our own. If we submit ourselves to the flesh, we are going against God and we cannot please God. That is the truth.

Dare to Fight the Spiritual Battle and Gain Access to God's Promises

In the subsequent chapters after Exodus Chapter 12, especially in the Book of Numbers, it clearly stated how the people died in the desert, how they could not pass the training. If you could pass the tough training, you are not able to gain access to the promised land. If you are not willing to fight the spiritual battle, you cannot gain access to the promises of Almighty God. That's how it was recorded in the Bible.

You may wonder, God already promised Abraham that He would give this land to you. But why did the Israel people need to form the army and take up weapons to march into the promised land and drive out the people? Why did they need to do that? If God had already given the promised land to Abraham and the descendant of Abraham, then by this time they would be able to go into the promised land just like taking holiday. How nice it would be! But no! This is not the truth revealed in the Bible. The Bible said you got to take up the weapon, march into the land, fight the spiritual battle, gain access to the land and drive out the people. If you cannot drive out the people, you cannot gain access to God's promises.

That's what the Bible taught us. It also applies to the church today. We need to change this kind of paradigm. Today the paradigms of many churches are established on the wrong concept. You and I have the obligation to bless these people by telling them the new concept, which is a lot more biblical. Not just biblical, it is practical as well. It is so practical. It really solves problems by accessing the promise of Almighty God. No matter how many promises there are in Jesus Christ, it is true, it is yes and it is Amen. I hope all of us go with me, to gain access to the promise of Almighty God more and more. How nice it is!

May the Lord bless you. Thank you very much.