Book Description

Over the course of six months during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Titus Chu shared twenty messages to the church in Cleveland on the topic of "Visions and Revelations." The messages were recorded and posted on the church website, allowing them to be enjoyed by other saints and local churches around the world. This sharing was meant not only to give spiritual supply and encouragement to the saints who were isolated and quarantined at home during this time, but also to be the core of the fellowship and spiritual pursuing of the church. Therefore, the context of these messages was not individual enjoyment alone, but a local church with saints pursuing the Lord together in fellowship. We editors feel this is also the best context for Jesus lovers and seekers enjoying these messages in the future. Though each message is quite high and heavenly, brother Chu's desire was that everything shared could be practically applied to our daily lives and today's need, in turn practically affecting our church life. The first eight messages of the series are presented in this volume as spoken, with only light edits to change them into readable form. We editors have done our best to maintain the flavor and character of the spoken sharing. Most direct references to the pandemic have been made more general for the benefit of future readers, although some specific examples have been kept for the sake of the point being made. We trust readers will find helpful applications in their own settings and environments.The messages in this volume cover the various visions God gave surrounding the birth of Jesus and the beginning of His ministry. At this time, the age of Law was turning to the age of grace, and God gave numerous visions to bring people into a realization of what He really desired. He is gracious, He longs to give grace and lead us and be with us in ways that are so much more intimate than the nation of Israel could experience under the Old Covenant. Consequently, these messages challenge us to leave our old ways, habits and old patterns, and call us to be brought into something new and fresh of God's heart through visions and revelations. By receiving fresh vision from God, we can follow Him more clearly, buoyantly, and with more reality than before.Visions and revelations demand a response from us. These stories from the New Testament demonstrate, on the one hand, the danger of a lack of proper response-seen in Zacharias's initial reaction and in the examples of the chief priests, the scribes, and even John the Baptist. On the other hand, they reveal the blessing to those who pay a price to gain the reality of their vision-seen in Zacharias's eventual realization and the examples of the shepherds, Mary, and the wise men. May these messages not only reveal more of God's heart to us, but also provide us with a supply of life and grace to respond and follow faithfully.We feel it is profitable to note not only the background and purpose of these messages, but also the man who gave them. Titus Chu is a man of vision, and his life and ministry have been marked by always fighting to see more and to labor accordingly. In this way, he follows in the pattern of the apostle Paul, whose Christian life began with a vision on the road to Damascus-a great vision of Christ and the church. Then, later in his life, Paul also wrote to the church in Corinth, "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord" (2 Cor. 12:1b). The great heavenly vision had become, or produced, many more visions and revelations.