Enjoying the Proclamation of the Jubilee in Malaga (Iberian Peninsula Conference)
What an enjoyable time we had in Malaga at the Iberian Peninsula Conference this past weekend! The messages were rich, edifying and encouraging, the food was delicious and plentiful, the environment was warm and pleasant, and of course the company was sweet and precious!
The countries represented at the conference were: Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA. Praise the Lord!
The subject of the conference was The Proclamation of the Jubilee. I confess that when I first saw the general title and the message titles, I thought, “Oh, I already had this at the University Conference in Shropshire last month, maybe I shouldn’t have come…” But – the Lord is always fresh and new. An hour after that, I didn’t have that thought anymore!
In actual fact, brother Minoru’s burden during the conference was not going strictly though the outlines, even though in his speaking he covered most of them (and of course we have them as a rich resource of points, verse references, and excerpts), but rather his burden was that we would be in the age of jubilee and learn to have the living of the jubilee – something for our daily life and everyday experience.
Brother Minoru said that this was not a conference, but rather a ‘fiesta’ (party), so we had better drink the Spirit… and that frowning was not allowed! I’d say that the hotel we were in for the weekend was a wonderful environment that cherished our body and our soul, but even if the outward environment hadn’t been so comfortable, we would still have been thoroughly cherished, inwardly comforted and fed, and full of rejoicing as a result of all the speaking and fellowship this weekend.
During the conference, brother Minoru also taught us three new songs he had written related to the jubilee – and yes, I had learnt them at the Uni Conference, but it was still sweet to learn them again with brother Minoru, and to hear them being sung with much enjoyment in Spanish!
Below is my enjoyment from the conference, previously posted on Instagram and Facebook for those who follow me there, but with a little more expansion (especially for message 5, as promised), and with lots of pictures interspersed. I’m sorry if the writing is a little choppy and with a lot of exclamation marks – it was originally written in note form, and I don’t want to change it too much.
Enjoyment from message 1: NOW is the age of Jubilee, so experience it!
The jubilee is not a one-time event or occasion, but an entire age. The New Testament is the age of jubilee, but it doesn’t end there; it continues into the kingdom, but even that is not the fullest extent of the jubilee. There is also the ultimate, eternal jubilee, the New Jerusalem, God mingled with man for eternity!
The Bible reveals the jubilee in a number of aspects (I’ll leave it as an exercise for you to look up the verses):
- The jubilee in type (Leviticus 25:9-10)
- The jubilee in prophecy (Isaiah 61:1-2)
- The jubilee in fulfillment (Luke 4:18-21)
- The spread of jubilee (Acts 26:18)
- The jubilee in experience (that is, the secret of jubilee) (Philippians 4:11-13)
- The jubilee in fullness (Revelation 19:7; 21:7)
- And you can also add the jubilee in parable (Luke 15)
The jubilee is when you have everything and you have no need for anything.
This is what God wants for man. The only way man can have this jubilee is when man has this God. When you have Christ, you are free. When you have God, you don’t have need for anything.
Regarding the secret of jubilee, this jubilee is for all time and any time, for all situations and any situations. It is not outward prosperity, health or wealth, but the inward empowering of the indwelling Christ.
Some of us have recently experienced the deep loss of people or possessions. Some of us are under bondage, or under the oppression of addictions or depression. We have this jubilee, but we need to call on this Person. Lord Jesus! We need to talk and converse with this Person, that is to pray – and not in a formal way, but in a personal and intimate way.
One way to enjoy the jubilee is to sing. We can learn from Paul in prison, to sing, that is to praise the Lord. Our Christian life should be one big jubilee. May we learn to escalate our enjoyment of this Jubilee!
I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.
Philippians 4:13
Enjoyment from message 2: The blessing of freedom!
If this is a day you are not enjoying Jesus, then this is a wasted day. If you are enjoying Christ, it is meaningful!
Lord Jesus, help me to number my days, that I would enjoy You every day!
The blessings of jubilee include regaining God as our portion, being freed from all bondage and slavery, and returning home to our lost possession.
If we lose our freedom, actually we lose our humanity. We were created free by God, and that’s why we have a free will to either choose the Lord or not. But if we lose our freedom then someone else, or something else, is our master. Jubilee is the restoration of freedom, of liberty.
However, society’s concept of liberty is wrong. It claims we are free, but actually no one is free. We are all slaves to Satan, sin, death, and the by-products of death. These are our masters. But there is a glorious freedom: JESUS!
Real freedom is only in Jesus Christ. If you are not in Him, you are not free. The apostle Paul was in prison, but he was really free. Nothing could imprison, enslave, or put him in bondage.
In order to be really free, we need to be freed from both the bondage of two kinds of laws. We need freedom from the law of letters. No one can keep the entire law. Even if they look like they are keeping it outwardly, they are not keeping it inside. But when Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, he met the Lord, and he was rescued from the law! He dropped the law and embraced grace which came through Jesus Christ. Grace is God enjoyed by man, God doing what you cannot do. Today we can either be people who are law-keeping or grace-enjoying.
Don’t try to be good, don’t try to keep the law, just love Jesus! Just turn your heart to the Lord and the veil will be taken away. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!
But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:16-17
And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM.
We also need freedom from the law of sin and of death. This freedom is in the law of the Spirit of life – so touch the Spirit, breathe the Spirit, drink the Spirit, and be filled in spirit!
Jubilee is a great thing, but we need to cooperate, and we need the secret to make this freedom a daily and moment-by-moment experience. Then we live in the jubilee!
For the law of the Spirit of life has FREED me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.
Romans 8:2
Enjoyment from message 3: A life of rest!
The whole human life is a life of labour, work, toil, and burden, and filled with effort, anxiety, and suffering. So we need the life of jubilee.
The life of jubilee is a happy life! Yet many brothers and sisters are not happy, and many of us have “low grade depression.” We are not sick enough that we have to stay in bed, but we are sick enough that we cannot smile. We’re not dead, but we’re almost dead. We’re breathing, but barely breathing. We can still carry on with life, but something is not quite right. This is human life today, and we in the church life are not immune. So we need the real rest!
Casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you.
1 Peter 5:7
We like this verse, but we don’t keep it. Instead, we keep the anxiety and internalise it, until it affects our health. We get ulcers, we get high blood pressure, we cannot cope, we cannot bear it any more, and yet we still don’t actually cast our anxieties on the Lord! We are so foolish! We will try and do everything, but we won’t come to Him. So we need a conference like this to remind us that jubilee is waiting for us!
Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
May we have a recovery and a renewed practice of calling on the name of the Lord. We call on the Lord, but sometimes that makes us even more depressed. Calling on the Lord should lift us out of our depression! Let us call on Him in a new way. Oh Lord Jesus! Oh Señor Jesus!
Enjoyment from message 4: Application and practice
In this message, brother Minoru didn’t stick to the outline at all, but rather he shared his burden, which was not so much for the truth of the jubilee, but for the living of the jubilee.
How much are we really in the reality of this jubilee?
Jubilee depends on how much we are one with Christ. The reason you and I are not in the jubilee on a certain day, during a certain meeting, or in a certain situation is usually because something has replaced Christ in our heart. It’s not always evil things; it could be keeping the law of letters, or a formality, or knowledge, or a gift. These are not bad, but they replace Christ and so our jubilee subsides.
But Christ Jesus is now the Spirit who has breathed Himself out, and we now have this Spirit in us! And this Spirit is now sevenfold-intensified, and He is our portion! We should be intensely living and the church life we have should all also be intensely living! Let’s enjoy the Spirit! Our one job is to drink this Spirit!
We need the truth, but even more we need the application of the truth that we have. If we only have truth and no experience, then the truth will become knowledge that becomes mere doctrine. We could have the high peak of the divine revelation and yet we could be spiritually dead.
We need application and practice, and the greatest practice is calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. We know these things, but we don’t do them, or we don’t do it whole-heartedly and from deep within! We need the affect of calling on the Lord, so that every time we call on Him, something happens. If you are human, you should be calling on Jesus, and if your heart is right, something happens!
Always rejoice,
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
Unceasingly pray,
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit.
The Lord has done so much for us, what shall we give unto Him for all He has done for us? Let us take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:13-14). Let us thank Him and praise Him. This will bring us into the jubilee!
Lord Jesus! Oh Lord Jesus! Thank You Lord Jesus! Praise You Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! Oh Jesus! Oh Lord! Oh Jehovah! Oh God! Oh Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!
Enjoyment from message 5: Rise up, and pray!
The preaching of the gospel is the heralding of jubilee. The jubilee is an announcement, a broadcast, a proclamation. We need to find our trumpet and dig out our horn, and blow it again. The horn today is our spirit!
But rise up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen Me and of the things in which I will appear to you.
Acts 26:16
We need not just one appearance of Jesus, any years ago when we were saved, but every morning the Lord should freshly appear to us and freshly commission us. He has to minister to us first, so that we can become ministers and witnesses of Him. We need to see more of Him, touch more of Him, and then when people ask how do we know what Jesus is like, we can say, I was just with Him! I just kissed Him! I just talked to Him! If we drink Him and become drunk with Him as the Spirit, we will smell of the Spirit, look like the Spirit, and walk by the Spirit!
To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.
Acts 26:18
There are seven aspects of the jubilee from Acts 26.18 that we need to experience and then bring others to experience:
- To open their eyes – We should not go to people to just teach them some knowledge, but to open their eyes, the real human eyes of every human being, that have been blinded by the god of this age.
- To turn them from darkness to light – A blind person is continually in darkness. All fallen human beings are in darkness and belong to the kingdom of darkness. Fallen man needs to be brought to the real light, which is God.
- To turn them from the authority of Satan to God – All fallen man is under the authority of Satan, in an illegal manner. We all belong to God, but Satan stole and captured man.
- That they may receive forgiveness of sins – Mary who broke the alabaster flask on the Lord, loved much because she was forgiven much. If our love for the Lord is down, waning or decreasing, it is because we have not enjoyed the Lord’s forgiveness recently, and so our salvation is old and not fresh. If this morning you were forgiven for something, you would love the Lord much. We are forgiven because of the precious blood of Christ, so we need to announce the crucified Christ and the shedding of His blood. We need to have a fresh recall of the experience of God’s salvation, to touch the freshness of our salvation. It is something that can be tasted and that has power, and that results in us loving the Lord with our best love.
- They they may be sanctified – Once you were out there, common, but now you are sanctified, made holy, by salvation.
- To receive an inheritance – This is the returned divine possession of God in Christ as the Spirit, to be the allotted portion of the saints in the light.
- Among those who have been sanctified – This is one more implied point, that being ‘among those’ means to be in the church, God’s people, God’s family,
These are the seven aspects of the jubilee that we should preach as the full gospel. As those who have received this gospel, we now have a responsibility to spread and proclaim it. Not everyone can preach this gospel, because not everyone has seen this gospel. But we have been blessed to receive this gospel. We need to rise up, and go to people. They are waiting for us to go to them. We do not know who they are, so we just go – city by city, town by town, village by village.
HOW do we go?
We need to go to the Lord, in a fresh and new way, and to pray specific prayers, subjectively and personally according to these seven points. Brother Minoru stressed a few times, including after the testimonies, that we need to first pray for ourselves.
I was deeply touched by the example prayer that brother Minoru prayed – and remember that this is just an example, we should all go to Lord and pray about this personally:
Lord, open my eyes first. Lord, I know so many things. I don’t need just knowledge, but I need my eyes to be opened. Lord, turn me from anything dark. I don’t want to remain in darkness. I don’t want so much darkness in me. Turn me from darkness to light. Turn me from the authority of Satan, turn me from the dominion of Satan. In this and that part of my life, Satan still has dominion over me. Turn me from Satan to God. Make me a person in God. Lord, forgive my sins. We can never graduate from repentance, Lord, forgive all kinds of sins. Lord, sanctify me again and again. I am positionally sanctified, but sanctify me in my disposition. Make me a person who, day and night, enjoys You as my all in all. I would not enjoy so many things but just enjoy You. Replace all the idols in my being. And Lord, make me one fully in the church life, living in the church, functioning in the church, building the church, in a full way, not a half-hearted way. I don’t want to be on the edge of the church, a peripheral Christian, but I want to be fully in Your house. Lord, unveil to me all the New Testament contents of the jubilee, and make these my reality.
Then secondly, we also need to pray for people. There are four kinds of people we should pray for: our friends and relatives, the community we are in, young people (i.e. students), and for our own children in the church.
I’d like to insert here, that I guess that the majority of people reading this far into my post are the saints in the recovery who already have a taste for the ministry that causes us to love the Lord and opens our eyes to see God’s economy and the high peak of the divine revelation, and this sharing is for you – that you would be watered by the good report from the conference and be encouraged to also bring these matters to the Lord. (In turn, I have been encouraged by your responses to keep sharing, so thank you.)
But I would like to add, for all my Christian brothers and sisters regardless of who you are and where you meet, that this is for you too – this Christ, this Jubilee, is for you also to enjoy and participate in and proclaim.
And for my non-Christian friends and family, this also is for you – this wonderful Jesus Christ desires that you would receive Him as your Lord, your Saviour, your Jubilee, and your everything. Please do not let the prayer above and the opportunity to pray it, pass you by.
Amen Lord, gain our response – gain our prayer, gain our living in the Jubilee, and gain our proclamation of this Jubilee!
The conference in Malaga ended with seven baptisms in the swimming pool. Hallelujah!
Remaining in the Jubilee
Following the conference, my conference companion and I took the train into Malaga city centre and enjoyed some determined trips (because I was aware of the closing times) to Museo Picasso (did you know Picasso was born in Malaga?), Mount Gibralfaro (we were one minute too late to get inside the fortress! But we stayed on the mount to watch the sunset, and the views were amazing), and the Pompidou Centre (a modern art gallery, I liked it better than the Tate Modern) – all these places were free entry on Lord’s day afternoons, which was perfect for us.
We stayed an extra night at the hotel in Torremolinos due to better flight times the next day, which meant more opportunity to feast on the delicious food and to spend time with the other saints also staying longer at the hotel. We also bumped into saints while we were sightseeing in Malaga who were staying at other hotels, so it was a bonus to see them again 🙂 There ended up being some sisters on my flight back to the UK, and with the Ryanair flight was the emptiest I’ve seen, so a couple of us could move around to sit together and fellowship on the way back. It was 6 °C when we touched down, which is better than the -1 °C it was when I left!
Thank You Lord 🙂 Keep us warm and happy in You as our Jubilee!
SUCH AN UPLIFTING AND SUCCINCT SYNOPSIS OF THE MESSAGES. THANK YOU FOR MY ENJOYMENT. BEAUTIFUL PICTURES OF MALAGA TOO. WE LOVE YOU, LORD JESUS. YOU, O LORD ARE OUR EVERYTHING, YOU ARE OUR PERCEPTUAL JUBILEE. KEEP US EATING AND ENJOYING YOU DAY BY DAY.
Amen, thank you!