Speaker: Ivan

David is mentioned in Revelation too: the One who has the key of David speaks to the church in Philadelphia and praises it for having "kept the word of my patience" (Rev 3:7–10). David told Saul how he went after a lion and a bear for the sake of one sheep (1 Sam 17:34–36): humanly speaking that is foolish, but that is how God worked with his spirit. Patience means holding on to the word when there is no other evidence but the word. We confess the qualities of Christ and see no result yet, because God has His own time. But what God has spoken in the spirit no one can shut. The Lord's Supper gives us access to the altar where once only the high priest entered, once a year (Heb 9:7).

Speaker: Mikhail

• The foundation of faith: God loves each one and will never forsake us. We need to put our faith to work: "I know that You hear me and want to help."

• In His prayer Jesus repeats one thought three times: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee… that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:20–23). "If a man love me, he will keep my words… and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23; 2 Cor 6:16). Communion prepares the body for this.

• Faith is a word that has settled in the spirit: the mind doesn't receive it, and the spirit won't accept what isn't ours yet. Each day has its own food at its own time.

• Love cannot be divided: whoever has come to love the commandments has come to hate the world with its lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life (1 John 2:16). A fountain cannot send forth both sweet water and bitter (Jas 3:11).

• "Ye do shew the Lord's death till he come" (1 Cor 11:26): not until the end of our life, but until He comes into our life together with the Father. The kingdom grows without observation (Luke 17:20), and then "the Lord… shall suddenly come to his temple" (Mal 3:1).

• "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world… there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood" (1 John 5:4–8). The word of God, the Spirit and the blood of the covenant together give power to trample the three lusts. The word is strengthened through patience, experience and hope, and leads to love (Rom 5:3–5).

• "That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence" (Phil 1:8–10): whoever has tasted a good drink won't want muddy water (John 4:14). Many thought their Soviet childhood was the happiest, until they went abroad. Once a person sees what God has given, it is easy to part with emptiness.

• The devil's lie: "I sin in my body, but my spirit doesn't sin." Blood cannot live without a body, nor a body without blood; the blood of the covenant must flow in a cleansed body. The prophets and the wanderers of whom the world was not worthy dreamed of this (Heb 11:13, 11:38–40).

• Personal: when he was young, cars were started by turning the crankshaft by hand, and they never started on the first try, not until the gasoline was drawn in and there was a spark. Communion is the same: step by step, until the Lord gives the body its final form. The blood holds the soul of Jesus, and it speaks better things than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24), purging the conscience from dead works (Heb 9:14).

• "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Rev 22:17). We don't need religion; we need the glorified Lord. A prayer that He would cleanse His house with a scourge from everything built for people's convenience (John 2:15–16), so that the house becomes the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).