Pastor Samuel Sharing

Brother William Sharing

Introduction

Good morning, everyone. Today we are looking at Exodus Chapter 15. The book of Exodus is talking about “the Army of God came out from Egypt”. Why did Moses say it is the "the Army of God" who came out from Egypt? Why not just the people or the family of God? Why not a "traveller" or a "tourist" of God but the "Army" of God? There are a lot of misunderstandings among Christians. If I were to say, the best part of the story in Chapter 15 is that God led the Israelites out of Egypt.

In the previous chapter, God had buried Pharaoh's chariots and his army. The Egyptian army was buried under the Red Sea as the Lord closed up the water and no one was able to escape including Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You may worry about who will succeed to the throne and who will take over the power and what would happen to Egypt. But God doesn't bother. God only cares about one thing: to let His people know that the Lord is a warrior and the Lord is His name.

Build The Church As The Army of God

If you still do not know that our Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name and the Lord reigns forever, I can tell you that you will shortchange yourself because whenever you encounter enemies, challenges or difficulties, all of sudden your memory will be wiped out. In the past, God had helped you and brought you out of Egypt by His mighty hand. Do you know what happened? The Israelites were saying: "Oh, the Egyptians are chasing after us. Don't we have graves in Egypt? I told you that I just want to be a slave in Egypt."

If this chapter is talking about the Lord is a warrior, what happens to the church? How many pastors build the churches like the Army of God? If God is the warrior, are we supposed to be the warrior and follow the way of God doing things? Let me tell you, in the Book of Numbers, only those who was over the age of twenty could pick up weapons could be counted. That means if you cannot fight the battle, you are not counted. I received a brother from a well-known church yesterday and I asked him a question: "Why did you come for us?" He replied: "My church is in big trouble now." I asked again: "What problem?" He said: "The Pastor is suffering from a brain tumour and almost dying."

There are a lot of problems in the churches and many Pastors do not realize that our Lord is a warrior until they pass away. They also read the Bible, but they do not know that they are supposed to build the church as the Army of Almighty God because our God is a fighting warrior. This is the Doctrine of Destiny or Doctrine of MingDing. "MingDing" is a Chinese word that is stronger than the English word "Destiny". Destiny is what we live for and what we die for. The Doctrine of Destiny is about we build the church as the Army of God.

Many Pastors are still wondering why they got brain tumour. The problem is that the Pastors do not build the church like the Army of God. They are talking about family, and family becomes the cornerstone in the churches. Do they still preach and fight the spiritual battles? Sometimes they do, but the church is not an army. If you build a church that is not like an army and never has any training for the brothers and sisters. How can you fight the devils in the spiritual world? We better know our Lord is a warrior, and the Lord is His name. God fights for His people; it is not you to fight for yourself. You are supposed to follow what God is doing, fight with God and walk with God. Then we will be working with Almighty God and our memory will be renewed and changed by the word of God.

Remember the Lord is our strength and defence

If you and I both know our Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name, and He reigns forever. Then we know God is fighting for us and there is nothing to be afraid of.

Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh's officers are drowned in the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:4)

When the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea and turned back, this was what they saw and what happened to the Egyptian army. Moses and the Israelites started to sing a song to the Lord and He is highly exalted. Both the horses and the drivers of the Pharaoh had been hurled into the sea. In the past, we are afraid of the Egyptian army and we have been enslaved in Egypt for years where we could never fight against the Egyptian army. But now, they were buried in the Red Sea.

Probably the Israelites were thinking: "Oh, the Egyptian army were bullying me before, and they are so powerful in my eyes. But my God just buried them in the Red Sea and they cannot do that anymore." But the problem is: Can you remember this forever? When we are facing a problem, do you see the problem is bigger than our Lord? We become someone who has no faith, we praise the Lord when we are in a good environment and everything is running smoothly. But when you encounter a problem: "Oh Lord, what is going on?" In fact, nothing happen because it's just a training from God. You can see how Israelites were praising the Lord:

The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)

Do you still remember this? Whenever I minister to people, I remember that the Lord is my strength and my defence and He became my salvation. He is my God and He is a fighting warrior, enemies cannot stand against Him. I will build a church following the word of God and I will work with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord built His church on the rock. Lord, here I am, please use me. I will follow your word to fight with the battle. I know bullets have no eyes and bullets may not know who I am, but I am not afraid of anything because I know you are my salvation! You will be my strength and my defence.

I have performed many miracles through my hands. I can tell you a story about my mother. If my mom walked too far, she would feel pain and lose all her strength. She took an X-ray of her spine and the result was showing that she was supposed to be paralyzed. That was what the doctor said. Do you know what happened? I prayed for my mom and she could walk very well and could even climb up to a panel van which was about two meters tall. It was amazing for an 80 years old woman to do so.

Until one day, someone said to her: "We can go to the medical checkup; it is free of charge for people in old age. So she went with that person to the hospital and took another X-ray. The doctor was looking at the X-ray and asked my mom: "Can you walk?" And my mom was able to walk in front of the doctor. The doctor was surprised and said to my mom: "You are not supposed to be able to walk." My mom replied to the doctor: "Why can't I walk?" But after she listened to what the doctor said to her, she lay down on the bed after coming home and could not walk anymore, because the doctor said “How can you walk?” It started to get suspicious. I was there with my mom, I stayed in my mom's place, and I asked “What happened to you?” She told me she went to a medical checkup and the doctor said she can not walk. Oh my God! The Lord is my strength, the Lord is my defense and he will become my salvation. So I told her “Come on, I’ll pray for you.” I laid my hand on my mom's back and prayed. Then she could stand up and walk again.

I praised my God. How nice it is to have a God like this! There is no other God like this, no other God can do things like this. He has so much mercy. I praised God saying, “Lord I will lay my life in your hand, Lord, please use me. How wonderful it is to be used by you as a mighty warrior fighting against the devil, the strongest enemy in the world. Lord, I’m willing to lay down my life for you. I’m willing to die for you. I don’t care about the bullet. I don’t care about the chariot. I don’t care about the houses. I don’t even care about the mighty army of Egyptians.”

God is the almighty warrior

One day I was fighting against the spirit of horse. He told me that his name was an old horse, and he was speaking in Chinese saying he was the horse. I don’t care whether you are a horse, or whether you are a donkey. I don’t even care what you are. I know I am a mighty warrior. The mighty God is my Lord. My God is the fighting warrior. He will fight for me. He has buried all of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. Then if you come in front of me, it will happen to you.

I confronted so many devils, and I can tell you a lot of good stories. The result is that God is a faithful God. He has never fought a lost battle. Our God reigns forever! Some people will ask “Oh, well, is there any single bad story?” Yes, there are. But are you willing to be a fighting warrior in the mighty army of God? If you are, then there are no bad stories, there are only wonderful stories of winning the battles. Even the enemy boasted, even Pharaoh has boasted about his house, his army, his weapons, his chariots, but it’s no use in front of our mighty God. In the unfailing love, my God will lead me into his promised land. In the strength of God, he will get me to his holy dwelling. I want to be with him. Lord, I want to be with you. Our Lord breathed and the Red Sea went back down, it was just as simple as that!

Don’t fight against God

Come on, if the Lord is the mighty warrior, do you want to fight against him? Do you want to be the enemy of God? If you do, then are you more powerful than Pharaoh's chariots and horses, and his army? No! Then how can you dare to go against the mighty God? I’m struggling to understand many Christians, they don’t fight the devil, but they fight against God who loves them. What kind of people are they? And sometimes they complain and murmur to God, they just have no fear of God but they have fear for the Egyptian king. Sometimes not even the king, they even fear their boss, fear their supervisor. But they have no fear of God. How foolish can that be? I struggle to understand why not obey the Word of God, build the church, and follow his instructions. How nice is it? I’m a Biblical person, I like to follow the Bible. We read the same Bible. Have you ever read about God leading his army out of Egypt? The Bible is such a strong word. Do you want to live for God? Then become part of the army fighting the spiritual battle. Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Lay down your life for God

I encourage you to be a Biblical person. Which part of the Bible does it say to put your family above church? There's no such thing! Even in the secular world, if you join the nation's army you can not care for your family life. How can you look after your family while serving in the army? If you want to serve in the army of God, number one is that you need to have no fear of death. Life and death are no longer a consideration. If you want to fight in the battle, you’d better lay down all of your concerns. If you say “Oh I may die!” The bullet will look for you because God will not be able to help people who have fears. Even in Revelation, the people who have fear will suffer the second death, being thrown into the lake of fire.

If you say, “Oh I'm just the kind of person who fears, I have a phobia of height, I have a phobia of walking, I have a phobia of living,” then you better name yourself phobia. Then you won’t be able to be a part of the army of God, and you won’t be able to gain access to the promise of God. You can’t go into the promised land and you can only be a slave in Egypt. We want to gain access to every promise of almighty God, and we lay down our life for Jesus Christ. If you have a phobia, then go back. You just don’t have any fear of God. Let me tell you, our Lord is a fighting warrior. The Lord is his name and he reigns forever and ever. In His unfailing love, God will lead us into his promised land. God will lead us into his dwelling place, I want to be with God. That’s why the requirement to be a part of the army of God is pretty strange. You have to lay down your wife, children, your mother, and your father. And for God’s sake, you have to lay down everything, your house, your property. You have to lay down your life, then you will become a person who defeats all kinds of devils. Let me assure you, you will be a mighty warrior in the spiritual world, you will defeat so many enemies. They won’t be able to stand in front of you. I want to be that kind of person.

God will make our name great!

One day when I was casting out a demon, God opened my eyes. I saw the demon looks like a monkey, about 1 meter when he stands up. The monkey was black and his eyes were so powerful, I said “What is this?” I heard that they were speaking in a language I can understand, they said “Oh It’s so unlucky to face this guy.” He was talking about my name! He knows my name. I thought, wow, God has made my name great. God has made my name known in the Spiritual world. And that time when I was casting out demons, the fellow didn't know my name. But he started to shout out my name. Those devils, who look like black monkeys, talked to each other, “Oh it’s so unlucky, quick, let us flee!” And then they left. I saw that when they were gone, the person was set free.

From then onward, God talked to Abraham saying he will make his name great. God will make my name great not in the world but in the Spiritual world. Do you know why? Because I am a fighting warrior, I follow in the footsteps of our Lord, and I am a co-worker of Almighty God. Wow, how nice it is! So wonderful! From then onward, every time I confronted the devil, whether it is a terminal disease, the fellow is blind, or he can not walk, paralyzed. I don’t care. I know as long as this is the devil, he will be under my footstool. He will be put under my feet and I will trample upon them and defeat them. In the unfailing love of mighty God, I have no more fear. How nice is it? Come on, brothers and sister, you can enjoy your life because you are a mighty warrior. God already promised to all of us that God is our salvation, our strength. And he is my God. This is a very strong sentence, say “Yes you are my God!” What a nice phrase it is! “You are my God. You are my salvation. You are my defense. In your unfailing love, I will gain access to the promised land!"

In this chapter, it is recorded that the Israelites could not find anything to drink for three days. But if you are a mighty warrior, three days without drinks wouldn't do you any harm, OK? Three days without drinks, what a big deal? As a soldier in the army, no water to drink, no food to eat, so what? What a big deal? What a big deal? The Lord is my strength. I will obey the word of God. I will follow the instructions of God. God, You can test me because I have already laid down my life for you!

You know, in the Bible that a lot of stories about people who lay down their life for God. Once for all our Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for God the Father. Do you think God needs to test Jesus Christ? There's no need anymore! Not anymore! And also Isaac, the son of Abraham, who laid down his life for our God , willing to die for God. From then onwards, God did not need to test him anymore. No more test at all!

Come on, my brother and sisters! If you are the one who lay down your life for Jesus Christ's sake, for God Almighty's sake, then you won't need to be tested for three days without water. No! Because you have already seen through life and death. If I can see through life and death, will I be bothered with three days without water? No! I have already passed the test!

I read this in this chapter:

If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you. (Exodus 15:26 NIV)

Have you passed the test? If you have not, you better pass the test. You better pass the test. Those people who are close to me know how I served the Lord. Those who are close to me know that I'm a real person. When I stand on the stage, I behave in this way and I talk in this way. When I come down from the stage, when I'm dealing with people, I also behave and talk in this way. I only have one face. I don't have to wear a mask on the stage and take off the mask after coming down from the stage. I don't behave totally like two different persons on the stage or not. No. I only want one face. I'm not divided in my mind. Why? Because I'm serving the Lord whole-heartedly.

There are a lot of things which I'd never even bother. Why is that so? Because everything is just nothing compared to the Lord I serve. Nothing. I work so tirelessly and so willingly. Am I boasting now? No, I'm just talking about the truth. I work tirelessly and willingly, all because of one thing: I'm looking forward to the day. I'm looking forward to the day when I stand in front of our Lord Jesus Christ and I'm going to tell our Lord Jesus Christ: "Our Lord, my Lord, the battle you give to me I have fought. I have fought and I have won. I have won the battle. I have won all the battles and I have obeyed all your instructions. Here I am. I have come before you!" Do you know what I'm willing to hear? What I'm most willing to hear is this: "Good and faithful servant, come enjoy my glory which I prepared for you before the world was created!" I'm looking forward to the day. If there is any suffering in the world, it's a small case, it's just a peanut.

That's why you hardly hear a story in which I'm talking about how much I suffer or how painful and depressed I am. You can hardly hear that. You may be saying: "Well, how can this guy work so tirelessly at such an old age but is still very energetic?" Wonderful God! Wonderful God!

So listen, my brothers and sisters, listen. Listen carefully, carefully, carefully to the God we serve, the Lord. Have you got this idea? You need to follow our God. Our God is a fighting warrior and you need to be one, too. If you are not a fighting warrior, if you want to build your own family, you can go ahead to do so. But is that a part of the instructions from God? No! I did not see that in the Bible. If you found the biblical support for those kinds of things, then you can come and teach me.

There's a funny movement, which goes against God: "Family First". Where did they find this idea of "Family First"? Come on! It should be "God First"! If your family is very important and you put it as your first priority, then how about the church? Will the church be in the second place? No. My job is the second. Then where is the church? Will it take up the third place? No, my children are there. And then the fourth is my pet, my job, my mother, my wife, my children... When God asks you to lay down all these things, your reaction would probably be: "Oh no, I have a boo. I have a donkey which I just bought. I just bought a property and I need to pay attention to that. I'm going to sign a contract."

I'm not saying that you cannot do all these things. What I'm saying is which do you think in your mind is the most important? Which is the most important? You cannot pretend. You can pretend in front of people, but God knows your heart. God knows my heart. I have no gut to play God for a fool. I have no gut to come before God to pretend. I don't learn to pretend. Even Apostle Peter pretended, but I learned from Apostle Paul. I do not want to pretend.

Let's get back to the concept of the church. The church is the Army of God that came out from Egypt. No enemy can stand in front of us. We do not follow the way of Esau; we do not follow the way of Edom; we do not follow the way of the Philistia. We do not follow the way of the Canaanites. We do not follow the way of the Egyptians. We do not follow the way of the world. We follow the way of our God! Fighting, fighting against all the spiritual enemies. Then you will gain access to the promises of Almighty God.

I encourage you to review yourself and revisit the word of God. They're top-notch. The top priority of our God is to make the church an army of Almighty God. If you want to build your church as a family center, or you want to build the church as anything other than what God has instructed, you better follow the word of God. Listen carefully, listen carefully. Do what is right in his eyes. If you cannot gain access to the promise of God, let me tell you: it is impossible. It is impossible for you not to be able to gain access to the promise of Almighty God. God will not give me the diseases he has given to the Egyptians. He will not give me the so-called brain tumor or cancer, simply because I want to listen to God carefully,

So every time I face brothers and sisters who suffer from cancer or suffer from all kinds of diseases like God had given to the Egyptians, the first thing I tell them is: you got the word of God wrong? You get it wrong. And I often hear people say: "Oh I'm Job!" Yeah, you can say so. But Job is wrong. Then you may say: "Oh only you are getting it right?" No, I'm merely trying. I'm trying. I'm trying very hard. Then they say: "Maybe one day you may get cancer as well! Then I'll see what you're going to say." You hear the word of God: "If you pay attention to his command and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians." Even if one day I got cancer, that's because of only one thing. Let me tell you: because I did not pay attention to His command; I did not keep all His decrees; I did not listen carefully to the Lord our God. Are you with me?

So, build the church as the army of God and shake out those people who have fears. Shake them out, especially those who dare not or do not want to lay down their life for our God. God is looking for people who in his eyes are a treasure, the apple of the eyes of God. Then do you want to be one of them? Or do you want to say: "Oh, my job is the second priority? My family is the number one priority." Then how about God? or the church? "Oh no no no, that could only be number 9!" Are you that kind of person? It's a big problem. It's the problem of today,

so I'm going to come to the end of the Bible study, Exodus Chapter 15. Remember, our Lord is a fighting warrior and you need to be one as well. Do you want to follow in the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ? If your answer is yes, then you follow. You need to be one in the army of Almighty God. If you want to ask this question: What about my job? What about my life? What about this? What about that? You don't have to ask, because they are all in the promise of Almighty God. They are in the promise of Almighty God. The promise of Almighty God is much more valuable than what you are asking for. They are all in the promises of our mighty God.

May the Lord bless you.