Speaker: Mikhail

• A word that has entered the spirit can no longer be lost: "the just shall live by faith" (Rom 1:17). We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph 4:23) and say, like Samuel, "Speak; for thy servant heareth" (1 Sam 3:10). The ability to discern good and evil comes gradually (Heb 5:14).

• A revelation about a wild horse: it is caught on a long rope and allowed to run in circles, while the trainer in the center only turns around. It bucks until it is exhausted; then he pulls it close, strokes it, scratches it behind the ear, and it understands that he is its friend. In the same way God lets us grow tired, and only then teaches us meekness and lowliness (Matt 11:29). There is no need to fear His restraints: this is a school higher than any education.

• He said he was "not in good form" and weak today (2 Cor 12:10), and prayed that the church would not keep circling the same mountain, as Israel did in the wilderness (Deut 2:3).

• The start of a study of Romans, which says a lot about serving in the spirit and about putting to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit. Those who preach righteousness "by faith alone" don't see that "we establish the law" through faith (Rom 3:31), and that there is a law of the Spirit of life (Rom 8:2). He will ask questions so that someone carries them for a week and asks God for revelation: a word spoken by one person lifts another's spirit and comes back to the one who spoke it.

• "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ" (Rom 1:1): you have to ask to become a servant yourself. A servant of God is both a lamb and a lion, not someone without a will. Mixing your own with God's means spending your whole life going "two steps forward, one step back". Paul didn't just want to visit the Romans; he prayed that God would give him a prosperous journey (Rom 1:9–11), just as Christ did nothing of Himself (John 5:19). Many ask God whether to make a trip only to find out whether He will keep them safe.

• The prophets foresaw a time when the body would be set free and man would become like God (1 Pet 1:10–12). "Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6): God touches a person less and less often, so that they will seek new revelation.

• "Made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3). In his view, Jesus could not have been born of human seed, or He would have inherited the vain way of life received from the fathers (1 Pet 1:18). Both genealogies, in Matthew and in Luke, lead to Joseph (Matt 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38), not to Mary. "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Heb 10:5): God chose Abraham and Israel in order to prepare a body for Jesus. The Holy Spirit placed an already prepared embryo in Mary (Luke 1:35); Mary only carried it, and nothing of her was in Jesus. Jesus was a spirit living in a human body, without father, without mother, without descent, like Melchizedek (Heb 7:3).

• As he explained it, in ancient times God sent angels in human bodies to be kings and priests. Some of them, while in the body, did not keep their first estate (Jude 1:6; Gen 6:2), like the king of Tyre, whose heart was lifted up by the multitude of his merchandise (Ezek 28:2–19). It is impossible to fall in heaven before God: God is love that one cannot help loving.

• Three kings are missing from the genealogy in Matthew: according to him, they were descendants of Ahab, on whose house God brought judgment (1 Kgs 21:29). From David's royal line God took only what was needed for Christ's body, fulfilling the promise to Judah (Gen 49:10). When Igor asked about the missing kings, Mikhail suggested that Igor study the question himself for next time.

• "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you… he shall also quicken your mortal bodies" (Rom 8:11): this is not eternal life on earth, but victory over the death that lust brings forth (Jas 1:15). Whoever drinks the water Christ gives lives forever (John 4:14).

• A prayer for Edik and Viktor: "Answer us: what do You think about this situation? It is a question of our confession. The brothers are suffering, and it looks like defeat."