There was a period of time when I was managing my day work, travelling heavily on business trips and building my a new business during the night. I was so passionate and driven to make my business successful that I did not realize I spent too much time at night on it and subconsciously neglected what God has initially appointed me to do – to lead a group of fellow Christian brothers and sisters. I was missing in action for 2 months until God spoke to me through His Words in the bible and through my spouse.
What I started off for God fervently and consistently for a considerable period of time had taken a lesser priority in my life unknowingly. The consciousness of God has always been there and I have always wanted to spend time with God daily. The problem is the more I extend the time and effort on my own start up business, the more I compromise those time with God through prayer and bible study, leaving these times to the end of the day when I was physically and mentally tired. As a result, the degree of intimacy with God decreases and slowly the accountability of the things He as given me wanes. Instead of seeking God for instructions and wisdom to manage my group, I spent more time asking for favor and wisdom to build my own business. While asking God for wisdom to grow my business is not wrong, the issue is the content of my prayers are becoming more self centered and less “servanthood”. I am losing balance in this area.
However God has been merciful and gracious.
Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.”
While reading my bible during one of those stolen moments, God brought my attention to the Words written in the book of Haggai. In particular, I could sense that God was trying to catch my attention to the following scriptures
Haggai 1:4, ““Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?””
I realized I have neglected building the house of God while I pursued to build my own business. I was convicted then.
Several days later, my spouse also mentioned that I was focusing too much on my business and have spent considerably less time with her in the evening.
I felt that God was also trying to reach me through my spouse and bring me to an attention of something that needs to be reviewed and change.
Then and there, I have decided to put my own agenda aside and reprioritize my roles and responsibilities. As much as I want to pursue my business, I have decided to cut and limit the time I spent on it and give God’s work its due diligence and attention.
Looking back at those 2 months, I was also glad that I did not clinch a major deal that would considerably boost my confidence in my new start up business. If I had then, I would have overworked to meet the dateline and compromised every other areas of my life and get hurt in the process.
I thanked God for His conviction and correction.
Revelation 3:19, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”
In addition, I was brought back to my remembrance on what the bible says.
Proverbs 23:4, “Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!”
Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.”
Anonymous
Saturday, December 4, 2010
God orchestrated a string of events supernaturally for the Word of God to be shared
I had a friend of mine whom I have the desire to reach out to him. He was an unbeliever and he was a good man. I will call him Tom in here. Every now and then I would have this nagging feeling in me to share the gospel with him. This lasted for months and I knew I need to obey God at a point in time.
The challenge is Tom is smart, sociable and had a strong character. In a social setting he leads conversations and provide logical advices most of the time. I knew it will not be easy to bring up the subject of God and share my testimonies with him. God would need to open up doors of opportunities for me to do so and I knew He would.
In the beginning of our friendship, I was already seeking ways and opportunities to reach out to him. However the level of passion wanes as time passes when I repeatedly could not find the right time to do so. Nevertheless, our friendship deepens as we get to know each other better over the months. Trust was established. Close to a year later, Tom would be pursuing his own agenda which means that we would not get to see each other as often in the future. It was then when the sense of urgency came back to me and I begin to seriously ask God for opportunities again. I knew that it would be now or never.
I must say supernaturally, God orchestrated a chain of events that eventually gave me the chance to bring up the topic to Tom. I looked back and realized it was God’s hand moving behind the scene as various situations build upon each other over time to give me this final opportunity. God leads but my obedience was equally important to bring the events to pass. Most importantly, my heart was seeking and hence God can use me and work through various situations.
There was an occasion when 2 of my Christian friends mentioned that there was a Christian book store sale going on around the corner. Tom happened to be lunching with us at that time and he thought it was ok to accompany us to the store. I was quite surprised though. Anyway when we were in the store, we were searching for what we wanted while Tom was walking around the store. After I paid for what I wanted, I went to search for Tom. At the corner of my eye, I noticed him browsing through a book at one corner. A part of me wanted to go up to him to check out what he was reading due to my curiosity. The other part of me thought that God could be speaking to him through the book and I should not interrupt him at this moment. After all we are in a Christian book store. Hence I continued my browsing before joining him later.
When we convened, I suggested we check out the café around the corner as the other 2 friends were still browsing. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to bring up the subject of God to him. So I asked him, “Tom, you believe in God?” Tom replied, “I do not feel it is relevant to me. I cannot relate to it.” He paused before saying again, “Anyway, I was reading a book on something relevant to my life and I agree with some of the things the book mentioned. It is more like some motivational book to me.” At this point in time, I still could not feel the flow to share my testimony on how relevant Jesus can actually be in our lives using me as an example. The conversation took a change in topic and I could not find ways to bring back the topic on Jesus. In my heart, I was thinking if I could have just force my testimony into our conversation even though it did not flow. Such thoughts have went through my mind on several occasions when Tom and I were alone and I thought it was a good time to share the gospel.
Nevertheless the next day when I woke up, I was still thinking about the short conversation I had with Tom at the Christian book store. “How can I create a situation that allows the topic of God to me share in a non intimidating manner?” Then, I recalled about the book he mentioned and I felt impressed in my heart to buy the book for him and use it as the conversation starter! Praise God! And I did just that. It was out of the way for me but I drove to the Christian bookstore, check out the area where he was browsing the book earlier and managed to find the book which he was reading. I knew it must be the one because that was the only book on the subject he told me he was reading. I was joyous! Not only that I picked up another Christian children book which I thought since this was a rare opportunity so why not bless his child too! Now I told myself that I must make the opportunity right and ask God to help me.
A few days later, we had the chance to have lunch alone again. One of our friends wanted to join us but he could not due to some reasons. I brought along the books and was glad he could not so I could have some alone time with Tom. I believe it was God’s plan. I had a very specific agenda for this lunch.
I put out the books and passed it to him, “Tom, for you and your child. This is the book that you were reading that day right?” He was shocked. I then said, “This is a Christian book and hence as a Christian, I want to bless you with you. In addition, the other book is for your kid. I hope your child will like it too.” I paused. “Anyway have I shared with you how I became a Christian and how God transformed me to who I am today?” God opened the door of opportunity and the divine seed in Tom was watered. It was watered because Tom later shared with me that he had encountered some friends who had similar testimonies with God. I told him, “See, I am not the only one, hope that someday before you pass away, you must remember to asked Jesus to be your God. This is one thing which I sincerely want you to do and you know I have your interest at heart.”
Hallelujah! Praise God! This evangelizing encounter with Tom is certainly one of the highlights of my life. I am very grateful to God to lead me in this manner to reach out to Tom. God was helping me to see the “cracks” that I could use to reach out to Tom and how things unfold over time still amazes me today.
Anonymous
The challenge is Tom is smart, sociable and had a strong character. In a social setting he leads conversations and provide logical advices most of the time. I knew it will not be easy to bring up the subject of God and share my testimonies with him. God would need to open up doors of opportunities for me to do so and I knew He would.
In the beginning of our friendship, I was already seeking ways and opportunities to reach out to him. However the level of passion wanes as time passes when I repeatedly could not find the right time to do so. Nevertheless, our friendship deepens as we get to know each other better over the months. Trust was established. Close to a year later, Tom would be pursuing his own agenda which means that we would not get to see each other as often in the future. It was then when the sense of urgency came back to me and I begin to seriously ask God for opportunities again. I knew that it would be now or never.
I must say supernaturally, God orchestrated a chain of events that eventually gave me the chance to bring up the topic to Tom. I looked back and realized it was God’s hand moving behind the scene as various situations build upon each other over time to give me this final opportunity. God leads but my obedience was equally important to bring the events to pass. Most importantly, my heart was seeking and hence God can use me and work through various situations.
There was an occasion when 2 of my Christian friends mentioned that there was a Christian book store sale going on around the corner. Tom happened to be lunching with us at that time and he thought it was ok to accompany us to the store. I was quite surprised though. Anyway when we were in the store, we were searching for what we wanted while Tom was walking around the store. After I paid for what I wanted, I went to search for Tom. At the corner of my eye, I noticed him browsing through a book at one corner. A part of me wanted to go up to him to check out what he was reading due to my curiosity. The other part of me thought that God could be speaking to him through the book and I should not interrupt him at this moment. After all we are in a Christian book store. Hence I continued my browsing before joining him later.
When we convened, I suggested we check out the café around the corner as the other 2 friends were still browsing. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to bring up the subject of God to him. So I asked him, “Tom, you believe in God?” Tom replied, “I do not feel it is relevant to me. I cannot relate to it.” He paused before saying again, “Anyway, I was reading a book on something relevant to my life and I agree with some of the things the book mentioned. It is more like some motivational book to me.” At this point in time, I still could not feel the flow to share my testimony on how relevant Jesus can actually be in our lives using me as an example. The conversation took a change in topic and I could not find ways to bring back the topic on Jesus. In my heart, I was thinking if I could have just force my testimony into our conversation even though it did not flow. Such thoughts have went through my mind on several occasions when Tom and I were alone and I thought it was a good time to share the gospel.
Nevertheless the next day when I woke up, I was still thinking about the short conversation I had with Tom at the Christian book store. “How can I create a situation that allows the topic of God to me share in a non intimidating manner?” Then, I recalled about the book he mentioned and I felt impressed in my heart to buy the book for him and use it as the conversation starter! Praise God! And I did just that. It was out of the way for me but I drove to the Christian bookstore, check out the area where he was browsing the book earlier and managed to find the book which he was reading. I knew it must be the one because that was the only book on the subject he told me he was reading. I was joyous! Not only that I picked up another Christian children book which I thought since this was a rare opportunity so why not bless his child too! Now I told myself that I must make the opportunity right and ask God to help me.
A few days later, we had the chance to have lunch alone again. One of our friends wanted to join us but he could not due to some reasons. I brought along the books and was glad he could not so I could have some alone time with Tom. I believe it was God’s plan. I had a very specific agenda for this lunch.
I put out the books and passed it to him, “Tom, for you and your child. This is the book that you were reading that day right?” He was shocked. I then said, “This is a Christian book and hence as a Christian, I want to bless you with you. In addition, the other book is for your kid. I hope your child will like it too.” I paused. “Anyway have I shared with you how I became a Christian and how God transformed me to who I am today?” God opened the door of opportunity and the divine seed in Tom was watered. It was watered because Tom later shared with me that he had encountered some friends who had similar testimonies with God. I told him, “See, I am not the only one, hope that someday before you pass away, you must remember to asked Jesus to be your God. This is one thing which I sincerely want you to do and you know I have your interest at heart.”
Hallelujah! Praise God! This evangelizing encounter with Tom is certainly one of the highlights of my life. I am very grateful to God to lead me in this manner to reach out to Tom. God was helping me to see the “cracks” that I could use to reach out to Tom and how things unfold over time still amazes me today.
Anonymous
An interesting evangelizing experience with a cab driver
This was one of the most interesting evangelizing encounters I had with a cab driver.
I was going to the airport to catch my flight. As usual, I would flag a cab for my trip. However the moment I got into the cab, it did not take me long to realize that the cab driver was actually meditating with a chain of beads while he was driving. The chain of beads was long and it kept getting tangled around the gear stick and the cab driver was trying to change gear and count the beads simultaneously. I was certainly not pleased with him trying to multitask this way and putting his passenger’s life at risk, especially when he was driving a manual car.
However I could feel a sense of grief in my heart for this cab driver for putting his faith in the wrong source. My compassion for him rises and I could feel the Holy Spirit prompting in my heart to share the gospel with him. I started praying in tongues at the same time, asking God to lead me or show me an opportunity to break the salvation message to him. So I broke the silence and the conversation went like this:
Me: “Uncle, can I disturb you for a while?”
Cab driver: “Ya, sure sure.”
Me: “ What are you doing?”
Cab driver: “Oh, I am meditating.”
Me: “For peace?”
Cab driver: “Yes, yes. For peace.”
Me: “Is it ok if I share my experience with you?”
Cab driver: “Sure.”
Me: “Jesus can give you the peace that you want.”
And the conversation about Jesus and God’s salvation plan started from here.
As our conversation went on, I could tell that this cab driver was a staunch believer of another religion. He believes the need in doing good works to attain salvation. While he was not a student of his religion, his faith in it was strong.
I remembered in the past, one of the visiting pastors to our church shared his experience with the congregation on his relationship with a leader of a non Christian religion. He told us that this leader was very well trained in the teachings of his religion. The pastor started to build a relationship with this leader and gradually gained his trust as a friend. There was mutual respect for each other’s role as a religious leader. The pastor also did not try to share his faith with this leader all this while. He knew they would engage in a never ending debate on the topic of God. Until one fine day, the Holy Spirit prompted the pastor to ask the religious leader questions on salvation and eternal life. These were questions where the answers to them were vague and uncertain from non Christian religion teachings. Hence I applied this wisdom into the current situation I was facing.
While I was trying my best to share the message of that salvation is free for the cab driver, I could sense that our conversation was veering towards the direction of a debate which was something I do not want to get into.
Cab driver: “Every religion is the same. It depends on fate. Maybe I do not have the fate with Jesus.”
Me: “Then you can consider we are fated today to meet and for me to share this gospel with you.”
(Some people tell me that they are not fated to be with the Christian God. In realty, they just do not believe in Jesus and was using this as an excuse. I have realized that my answer is probably the best approach to such replies, which is true. God arrange for this divine appointment.)
Colossians 4:2-4, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.”
Then I asked, “Uncle, does your religion guarantee a passage to heaven?” The cab driver replied, “Yes.” I was not surprised because I had encountered such replies in the past but the underlying confidence is not there when you probe further.
Me: “How do you know?”
Cab driver: “It was written in this religion’s scriptures.”
Me: “Who wrote the book?”
Cab driver: “The religious head.”
Me: “So is this person a man or God?”
Cab driver: “Man.”
Me: “So if he is a man, how does he know he will go heaven when he had not been there?”
The cab driver was not able to answer properly and kept emphasizing it was written in the scriptures. If he has asked me, I would have said, “I knew I would go heaven because the bible says so too. The bible also says that Jesus was resurrected and hence we serve a living God. But most importantly, I had a living relationship with Jesus. Hence I am fully convinced that I would go heaven should I die.” I did not have the luxury of time to explain this to him as he tried to change the topic.
Cab driver: “So tell me. When is Jesus birthday?”
Me: “I do not know.” (Jesus birthday was not written in the bible although 25th Dec was appointed as Christmas day)
Cab driver: [laughs] (Deity birthdays are very important occasions in his religion)
Me: “Is it important?”
Cab driver: [kept quiet]
Me: “I really do not know when is Jesus birthday because the bible did not say so but I knew that Jesus death made such a big impact to this world that 2010, the year we are living now, was marked at His point of death. This is where BC (Before Christ) and AD (After Death) dates arises from.”
Cab driver: “Sorry, I do not understand what is BC and AD.”
The cab driver was probably not well educated and hence he did not know what is BC and AD. By this point in time, I was arriving at the airport already. I ended our conversation with, “Uncle, thank you for allowing me to share my faith with you. Please do not misunderstand me that I am asking you to believe my God right now and then. I just want to share this with you so that in case you want to seek other gods, you can consider turning to Jesus Christ by asking Him to be your God.” The entire conversation went well and we ended amicably. It was non confrontational but gentle in nature. My sharing arises from my compassion for the cab driver and I was sharing with fear and trembling.
1 Corinthians 2:2-4, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,”
After I got down the car and think back about this incident, I realized that the Holy Spirit had been leading me in asking the right questions and giving the right answers to the cab driver. Praise God!
Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Like what the visiting pastor advised. Ask the right questions, share the Word and let God minister to their hearts and set them thinking.
I thanked God for this divine opportunity as well as the wisdom to share the gospel with this cab driver.
Steve
I was going to the airport to catch my flight. As usual, I would flag a cab for my trip. However the moment I got into the cab, it did not take me long to realize that the cab driver was actually meditating with a chain of beads while he was driving. The chain of beads was long and it kept getting tangled around the gear stick and the cab driver was trying to change gear and count the beads simultaneously. I was certainly not pleased with him trying to multitask this way and putting his passenger’s life at risk, especially when he was driving a manual car.
However I could feel a sense of grief in my heart for this cab driver for putting his faith in the wrong source. My compassion for him rises and I could feel the Holy Spirit prompting in my heart to share the gospel with him. I started praying in tongues at the same time, asking God to lead me or show me an opportunity to break the salvation message to him. So I broke the silence and the conversation went like this:
Me: “Uncle, can I disturb you for a while?”
Cab driver: “Ya, sure sure.”
Me: “ What are you doing?”
Cab driver: “Oh, I am meditating.”
Me: “For peace?”
Cab driver: “Yes, yes. For peace.”
Me: “Is it ok if I share my experience with you?”
Cab driver: “Sure.”
Me: “Jesus can give you the peace that you want.”
And the conversation about Jesus and God’s salvation plan started from here.
As our conversation went on, I could tell that this cab driver was a staunch believer of another religion. He believes the need in doing good works to attain salvation. While he was not a student of his religion, his faith in it was strong.
I remembered in the past, one of the visiting pastors to our church shared his experience with the congregation on his relationship with a leader of a non Christian religion. He told us that this leader was very well trained in the teachings of his religion. The pastor started to build a relationship with this leader and gradually gained his trust as a friend. There was mutual respect for each other’s role as a religious leader. The pastor also did not try to share his faith with this leader all this while. He knew they would engage in a never ending debate on the topic of God. Until one fine day, the Holy Spirit prompted the pastor to ask the religious leader questions on salvation and eternal life. These were questions where the answers to them were vague and uncertain from non Christian religion teachings. Hence I applied this wisdom into the current situation I was facing.
While I was trying my best to share the message of that salvation is free for the cab driver, I could sense that our conversation was veering towards the direction of a debate which was something I do not want to get into.
Cab driver: “Every religion is the same. It depends on fate. Maybe I do not have the fate with Jesus.”
Me: “Then you can consider we are fated today to meet and for me to share this gospel with you.”
(Some people tell me that they are not fated to be with the Christian God. In realty, they just do not believe in Jesus and was using this as an excuse. I have realized that my answer is probably the best approach to such replies, which is true. God arrange for this divine appointment.)
Colossians 4:2-4, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.”
Then I asked, “Uncle, does your religion guarantee a passage to heaven?” The cab driver replied, “Yes.” I was not surprised because I had encountered such replies in the past but the underlying confidence is not there when you probe further.
Me: “How do you know?”
Cab driver: “It was written in this religion’s scriptures.”
Me: “Who wrote the book?”
Cab driver: “The religious head.”
Me: “So is this person a man or God?”
Cab driver: “Man.”
Me: “So if he is a man, how does he know he will go heaven when he had not been there?”
The cab driver was not able to answer properly and kept emphasizing it was written in the scriptures. If he has asked me, I would have said, “I knew I would go heaven because the bible says so too. The bible also says that Jesus was resurrected and hence we serve a living God. But most importantly, I had a living relationship with Jesus. Hence I am fully convinced that I would go heaven should I die.” I did not have the luxury of time to explain this to him as he tried to change the topic.
Cab driver: “So tell me. When is Jesus birthday?”
Me: “I do not know.” (Jesus birthday was not written in the bible although 25th Dec was appointed as Christmas day)
Cab driver: [laughs] (Deity birthdays are very important occasions in his religion)
Me: “Is it important?”
Cab driver: [kept quiet]
Me: “I really do not know when is Jesus birthday because the bible did not say so but I knew that Jesus death made such a big impact to this world that 2010, the year we are living now, was marked at His point of death. This is where BC (Before Christ) and AD (After Death) dates arises from.”
Cab driver: “Sorry, I do not understand what is BC and AD.”
The cab driver was probably not well educated and hence he did not know what is BC and AD. By this point in time, I was arriving at the airport already. I ended our conversation with, “Uncle, thank you for allowing me to share my faith with you. Please do not misunderstand me that I am asking you to believe my God right now and then. I just want to share this with you so that in case you want to seek other gods, you can consider turning to Jesus Christ by asking Him to be your God.” The entire conversation went well and we ended amicably. It was non confrontational but gentle in nature. My sharing arises from my compassion for the cab driver and I was sharing with fear and trembling.
1 Corinthians 2:2-4, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,”
After I got down the car and think back about this incident, I realized that the Holy Spirit had been leading me in asking the right questions and giving the right answers to the cab driver. Praise God!
Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Like what the visiting pastor advised. Ask the right questions, share the Word and let God minister to their hearts and set them thinking.
I thanked God for this divine opportunity as well as the wisdom to share the gospel with this cab driver.
Steve
A testimony on how God changed the hardened heart of a non believer
My friend shared this testimony of her friend’s father’s salvation which I felt was very encouraging to all believers whose family members have not been saved as well as a reminder to continue reaching out to them. I will name her friend Sharon here.
Sharon was serving full time in her church ministry. She is a Malaysian but has been working in Singapore for a long time. Not long ago, her dad fell sick. He was suffering from cancer and that was then when Sharon decided to take a no pay leave to return back to Malaysia to care for her father. As a trained nurse, she felt that she could take care of him and it was her duty to do so as a daughter. For 9 months, she saw the gradual deterioration of her father’s health and for the 9 months, she fed, washed and clothed him unceasingly with love. One of her greatest desire is to see her father receive God’s salvation. Her father was strong willed and stubborn. Despite all the years of reaching out to him, her father never accepted Christ. There was a point in time when the father even told her that even if he is going to die, he will not acknowledge Jesus as his God. However with this sickness hitting him hard this time, Sharon was more than determined to see her father accept God’s salvation before he dies. She told God that if He could change King Nebuchadnezzar, He could change her father. And by God’s grace, her father accepted Jesus finally.
One day, Sharon was washing her father and scrubbing his back as what she had been doing all for the past 9 months. And then she gently asked her father, “Dad, you want to accept Jesus as your God?” To her utter amazement, her father replied, “Yes.” She could not believe it. In fact after leading her father in the salvation prayer, she still doubted because she thought her father might be in a state of semi conscious under medication.
It was then later some of her relatives visited her father. She told them that her father has accepted Christ. This group of relatives was elated! In fact they have been praying for her dad all these while. “Did you really receive Christ?” one of them asked. “Yes I did. I only believe Jesus and no other gods,” her father replied. Sharon was swept away by her father’s reply as this was a confirmation God is showing her. Praise God.
A while later, Sharon knew that her father’s time to go home to the Lord was near. One night she felt impressed in her heart to sing the song “So you would come” by Hillsong to her father. In fact a friend of hers emailed her the lyrics of this song for her to sing to her father a week ago. Finally that night, she sang the song to her father while he was lying on his bed. Her father was in pain and could not sleep. She sang once, and then the second time, and then the third time. She just kept singing because it seemed like the Holy Spirit was prompting her to do so.
So you may come lyrics:
Before the world began
You were on His mind
And every tear you cry
Is precious in His eyes
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come
Nothing you can do
Could make Him love you more
And nothing that you've done
Could make Him close the door
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come
Come to the Father
Though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives
He will take them all
The power of the Word
The power of His blood
Everything was done
So you would come
When she sang the third time, she saw tears running down her father’s cheek and her father broke into a smile at that moment. A short while later, he fell asleep. He never woke up again.
After the funeral service was over, Sharon began to ask God, “Heavenly Father, why did you ask me to sing the song 3 times and then why did my father tear?” God answered her, “It was because your father felt unworthy of Me for all the years of rejecting Me. He was not sure if he would see Me when he dies. I affirmed him through your singing.” Sharon was touched and was very grateful to God. Only God knows the deepest depth of a person’s heart and know how to respond to him in times of need.
Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart - These, O God, You will not despise.”
Steve
Sharon was serving full time in her church ministry. She is a Malaysian but has been working in Singapore for a long time. Not long ago, her dad fell sick. He was suffering from cancer and that was then when Sharon decided to take a no pay leave to return back to Malaysia to care for her father. As a trained nurse, she felt that she could take care of him and it was her duty to do so as a daughter. For 9 months, she saw the gradual deterioration of her father’s health and for the 9 months, she fed, washed and clothed him unceasingly with love. One of her greatest desire is to see her father receive God’s salvation. Her father was strong willed and stubborn. Despite all the years of reaching out to him, her father never accepted Christ. There was a point in time when the father even told her that even if he is going to die, he will not acknowledge Jesus as his God. However with this sickness hitting him hard this time, Sharon was more than determined to see her father accept God’s salvation before he dies. She told God that if He could change King Nebuchadnezzar, He could change her father. And by God’s grace, her father accepted Jesus finally.
One day, Sharon was washing her father and scrubbing his back as what she had been doing all for the past 9 months. And then she gently asked her father, “Dad, you want to accept Jesus as your God?” To her utter amazement, her father replied, “Yes.” She could not believe it. In fact after leading her father in the salvation prayer, she still doubted because she thought her father might be in a state of semi conscious under medication.
It was then later some of her relatives visited her father. She told them that her father has accepted Christ. This group of relatives was elated! In fact they have been praying for her dad all these while. “Did you really receive Christ?” one of them asked. “Yes I did. I only believe Jesus and no other gods,” her father replied. Sharon was swept away by her father’s reply as this was a confirmation God is showing her. Praise God.
A while later, Sharon knew that her father’s time to go home to the Lord was near. One night she felt impressed in her heart to sing the song “So you would come” by Hillsong to her father. In fact a friend of hers emailed her the lyrics of this song for her to sing to her father a week ago. Finally that night, she sang the song to her father while he was lying on his bed. Her father was in pain and could not sleep. She sang once, and then the second time, and then the third time. She just kept singing because it seemed like the Holy Spirit was prompting her to do so.
So you may come lyrics:
Before the world began
You were on His mind
And every tear you cry
Is precious in His eyes
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come
Nothing you can do
Could make Him love you more
And nothing that you've done
Could make Him close the door
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come
Come to the Father
Though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives
He will take them all
The power of the Word
The power of His blood
Everything was done
So you would come
When she sang the third time, she saw tears running down her father’s cheek and her father broke into a smile at that moment. A short while later, he fell asleep. He never woke up again.
After the funeral service was over, Sharon began to ask God, “Heavenly Father, why did you ask me to sing the song 3 times and then why did my father tear?” God answered her, “It was because your father felt unworthy of Me for all the years of rejecting Me. He was not sure if he would see Me when he dies. I affirmed him through your singing.” Sharon was touched and was very grateful to God. Only God knows the deepest depth of a person’s heart and know how to respond to him in times of need.
Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart - These, O God, You will not despise.”
Steve
A lesson learnt to just obey God’s prompting instead of deferring it
Not long ago, I learnt that my colleague’s dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer. I give this colleague a car lift back when we knocked off from work pretty frequently. In fact during the same year, his grandma passed away. Hence it was particularly sad and tiring for him to take care 2 sick family members one after the other as he was the only son and they do not have many relatives in Singapore. I offered my prayers to his father but he told me his father was not keen as his father was a staunch believer in another religion. I did not pushed further but told him the door is always open for prayer any time he felt it was ok for me to visit and pray. His father’s condition deteriorated over time. Each time my friend mentioned about his father condition, I would offer to visit and pray for him. However, this was always turned down. In order not to appear too pushy, I did not offer my prayer proactively since then.
A few weeks later, I was chatting with my colleague over the phone and then I casually asked how his father was doing. He said no good and that his father will be admitted into hospital in the week after this. To hear this, I was happy and yet sad. Sad that his condition worsens but happy because I thought I could visit his father more conveniently and pray for him at the hospital. However at that moment there was an impression in my heart to ask if I could visit him at his place to pray for him. I did not obey. I thought I would get the same negative response from my friend and since I could visit the hospital next week, I will just check him out at the hospital. The conversation with my colleague on the phone was on Friday. The next Monday, my colleague’s father died.
Immediately I thought if I should have offered my prayers back then. It was too late now. I knew my part was to just ask when prompted to instead of being overly concerned with what the response might be. Like what .. says.
Luke 5:5, “But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.””
I might have missed a divine appointment with my colleague’s father. I apologized to God and asked for His forgiveness then and there.
A few days later, I learnt about a probable relapse of my dad’s cancer at my dad’s place. I felt impressed in my heart to tell him I want to pray for him. I struggled to tell him as my dad was a non believer and we had unpleasant experiences over issues of religion in the past. However I recalled about my disobedience to my colleague’s father case. In addition, God brought me into remembrance of a sermon from John Bevere shared that I heard recently. God asked me, “Who is the source of my life? Men or God?” I said, “God.” He said again, “Do you remember you just learnt that a person will not offend his source of life just like a salesman wouldn’t do so to his customer. He will choose to please his source. ” He paused and asked again, “So if you are willing to visit your friends’ relatives and pray for them all these while, why are you then afraid to pray for your own dad?” I knew if I determined in my heart to make God the Lord of my life, I need to obey his prompting. God has teaching and correcting me.
Eventually I did so and I was glad to do so. There was a sense of release. I do my part and will leave the rest to God.
Anonymous
A few weeks later, I was chatting with my colleague over the phone and then I casually asked how his father was doing. He said no good and that his father will be admitted into hospital in the week after this. To hear this, I was happy and yet sad. Sad that his condition worsens but happy because I thought I could visit his father more conveniently and pray for him at the hospital. However at that moment there was an impression in my heart to ask if I could visit him at his place to pray for him. I did not obey. I thought I would get the same negative response from my friend and since I could visit the hospital next week, I will just check him out at the hospital. The conversation with my colleague on the phone was on Friday. The next Monday, my colleague’s father died.
Immediately I thought if I should have offered my prayers back then. It was too late now. I knew my part was to just ask when prompted to instead of being overly concerned with what the response might be. Like what .. says.
Luke 5:5, “But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.””
I might have missed a divine appointment with my colleague’s father. I apologized to God and asked for His forgiveness then and there.
A few days later, I learnt about a probable relapse of my dad’s cancer at my dad’s place. I felt impressed in my heart to tell him I want to pray for him. I struggled to tell him as my dad was a non believer and we had unpleasant experiences over issues of religion in the past. However I recalled about my disobedience to my colleague’s father case. In addition, God brought me into remembrance of a sermon from John Bevere shared that I heard recently. God asked me, “Who is the source of my life? Men or God?” I said, “God.” He said again, “Do you remember you just learnt that a person will not offend his source of life just like a salesman wouldn’t do so to his customer. He will choose to please his source. ” He paused and asked again, “So if you are willing to visit your friends’ relatives and pray for them all these while, why are you then afraid to pray for your own dad?” I knew if I determined in my heart to make God the Lord of my life, I need to obey his prompting. God has teaching and correcting me.
Eventually I did so and I was glad to do so. There was a sense of release. I do my part and will leave the rest to God.
Anonymous
Sharing the gospel with a Japanese friend
I had the opportunity to share the gospel with my Japanese colleague during one of my business trips to Japan. Although we moved in a group visiting customers and conducting meetings, I had the opportunity to sit next to him in one of the long rides on a Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka.
I took this opportunity to know his background, hobbies and family better. It was been a while since we met and it was a great time to catch up especially on long train rides like this. I thought this would be an appropriate time to bring the message of God’s salvation across to him too. While my friend’s command of English is limited, I tried my best. Knowing his mobile phone was installed with language translation software. I requested him to check the translation on words like “Salvation”, “Sin”, “Holy Spirit” and “Speaking in tongues” as I shared the key points of God’s salvation with him. My intention was to make sure he understood me and he responded with “I see, I see.” each time he read the translation.
Later I asked him if he had anyone to share the gospel with him like I did. He told me he had an English teacher in the past who was a missionary. I did not ask if the missionary shared the gospel with him though. Nevertheless he commented that this is the first time someone shared his religion so “strongly” with him. In Japanese culture, I do not know whether “strongly” meant I was not polite or I was very direct in my sharing. He did not seem offended though and we had a great time even after my sharing. Anyway I believe the message has been clearly delivered.
God will be using someone else to touch him again in at the right time and at the right place. I want to thank God for allowing me to be part of His divine plan for my Japanese colleague.
Steve
I took this opportunity to know his background, hobbies and family better. It was been a while since we met and it was a great time to catch up especially on long train rides like this. I thought this would be an appropriate time to bring the message of God’s salvation across to him too. While my friend’s command of English is limited, I tried my best. Knowing his mobile phone was installed with language translation software. I requested him to check the translation on words like “Salvation”, “Sin”, “Holy Spirit” and “Speaking in tongues” as I shared the key points of God’s salvation with him. My intention was to make sure he understood me and he responded with “I see, I see.” each time he read the translation.
Later I asked him if he had anyone to share the gospel with him like I did. He told me he had an English teacher in the past who was a missionary. I did not ask if the missionary shared the gospel with him though. Nevertheless he commented that this is the first time someone shared his religion so “strongly” with him. In Japanese culture, I do not know whether “strongly” meant I was not polite or I was very direct in my sharing. He did not seem offended though and we had a great time even after my sharing. Anyway I believe the message has been clearly delivered.
God will be using someone else to touch him again in at the right time and at the right place. I want to thank God for allowing me to be part of His divine plan for my Japanese colleague.
Steve
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Evangelizing under the anointing of God and evangelizing without the anointing of God
There is a difference between evangelizing under the anointing of God and without the anointing of God.
Most of the time, I am consciously aware of the need to reach out to non believers. However I remembered there was a period of time when I evangelize out of duty and not because I really want to. Sometimes, I was just responding to a personal challenge of whether I am bold enough to share the gospel with this person or that person. It did not flow out of the love for the person.
This was also the time when I neglected spending time with God through reading, praying and studying His Word. As a result, I felt spiritually dry, even after sharing the gospel with someone. My words seem to be bouncing off the person. There was no “life” in my words. My sharing seems not effective and I was regurgitating what I normally say without the supernatural flow of the Holy Spirit.
However knowing the mistake that I made, I was encouraged by what God says in Philippians and all my “lifeless” sharing is not lost.
Philippians 1:15-18, “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Hence I believe seeds were still sown or watered despite my lack of intimacy and corporation with God.
On the other hand, evangelizing under the anointing of God is a completely different experience. You share with passion and out of the love for the person. Such passion develops as your desire to know God increases and time is spent on developing a personal relationship with God through praying and reading the Word of God.
I like what Reinhard Bonnke wrote in his book: Living a life on fire regarding sharing the love of God to others from his heart. I was able to somewhat relate to his experience.
He wrote: “…it was an overwhelming feeling of love. This too, had been the force that had moved me past all the expectations others had placed on me … It was so much more than sympathy, or empathy, or affection. It came from the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit.”
I remembered there was this occasion at work when a colleague known for his superstitious beliefs and feng shui theories came into my room to chat with me and my other colleague. Before I was a Christian, we would listen to his stories and laugh about it. However this time, it was very different. I was a young Christian then. He started to share passionately about reading the face of a new colleague and started to predict how his future with the company will turn out. I was busy with my work but I was listening to his chat with my colleague. Suddenly I felt a deep sense of compassion for this colleague. There was this love welling up inside of me, that I felt so sad for him for putting so much faith into something that is not of God, to the point that I started to tear in my eyes. Of course I did not let my colleagues see what was happening. I was very young in Christ during that time but God allowed me to experience a portion of the reality of His love and compassion for the lost. It was supernatural.
Matthew 9:36, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
In some of my evangelizing experiences under such compassion, ideas came and words just flow out of my mouth. The right words were shared at the right time. I knew I hit the nail when I get comments like, “Have you considered preaching as a career.” There is life in such sharing. There is life when you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in these precious moments. Glory to God!
There were times even though the person who was receiving your message was not paying attention to what you are saying, he could see the reality of God in your life and the passion you have deeply for God. I remembered sharing the gospel with a colleague of mine and telling him how my life changed as a result of a divine appointment. After I shared the gospel, he commented, “Wa, you talk with passion just like my son talked to me about God!” I responded, “If your son talks like this and I talked in the same manner, there means that there must be something about this God that I am sharing with you today.” I believe the seed in him is watered by my words too.
Not only that, there will be evidence of your much time spent with God.
1 Timothy 4:12-15, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”
You will have a supernatural glow on your face.
Exodus 34:29-30, “Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”
This was true. There were 2 occasions when someone commented that I looked different. The first was in the lift with a middle age lady. She took a longer than normal look at me and said that there was something different about me in a positive manner. On a separate occasion, it was my security guard who actually stop me in my tracks, took a look at me and again commented, “Wow, brother, you looked different today.” I knew it was not physical beauty that both persons were talking about. I believe it was the same supernatural glow that I sometimes see in some God fearing people. As I recalled back, those “glowing moments” were period of times when I spent a lot of time with God privately. Hence your spiritual intimacy with God does show outwardly.
Lastly I would like to make reference to what John Bevere wrote in Drawing Near. People who spent intimate time with God carry His presence where ever he goes.
He wrote: “… I had previously picked up close to a hundred ministers, for many came to our church. However, this would be different, for when he (Dr, David Cho) got into my car the first time, the presence of the Lord came into my car. Almost immediately I started crying, tears were running down my face. I was very quiet as I didn’t want to disturb him before ministering. Yet I eventually felt compelled to speak. I said soberly and softly, “Dr. Cho, God is here, in our car.” He smiled and nodded.
It was also written in Acts where Peter carried the presence of God with him.
Acts 5:15, “ … so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.”
Therefore lets serve God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and experience the supernatural. These experiences will leave you wanting more.
Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Steve
Most of the time, I am consciously aware of the need to reach out to non believers. However I remembered there was a period of time when I evangelize out of duty and not because I really want to. Sometimes, I was just responding to a personal challenge of whether I am bold enough to share the gospel with this person or that person. It did not flow out of the love for the person.
This was also the time when I neglected spending time with God through reading, praying and studying His Word. As a result, I felt spiritually dry, even after sharing the gospel with someone. My words seem to be bouncing off the person. There was no “life” in my words. My sharing seems not effective and I was regurgitating what I normally say without the supernatural flow of the Holy Spirit.
However knowing the mistake that I made, I was encouraged by what God says in Philippians and all my “lifeless” sharing is not lost.
Philippians 1:15-18, “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Hence I believe seeds were still sown or watered despite my lack of intimacy and corporation with God.
On the other hand, evangelizing under the anointing of God is a completely different experience. You share with passion and out of the love for the person. Such passion develops as your desire to know God increases and time is spent on developing a personal relationship with God through praying and reading the Word of God.
I like what Reinhard Bonnke wrote in his book: Living a life on fire regarding sharing the love of God to others from his heart. I was able to somewhat relate to his experience.
He wrote: “…it was an overwhelming feeling of love. This too, had been the force that had moved me past all the expectations others had placed on me … It was so much more than sympathy, or empathy, or affection. It came from the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit.”
I remembered there was this occasion at work when a colleague known for his superstitious beliefs and feng shui theories came into my room to chat with me and my other colleague. Before I was a Christian, we would listen to his stories and laugh about it. However this time, it was very different. I was a young Christian then. He started to share passionately about reading the face of a new colleague and started to predict how his future with the company will turn out. I was busy with my work but I was listening to his chat with my colleague. Suddenly I felt a deep sense of compassion for this colleague. There was this love welling up inside of me, that I felt so sad for him for putting so much faith into something that is not of God, to the point that I started to tear in my eyes. Of course I did not let my colleagues see what was happening. I was very young in Christ during that time but God allowed me to experience a portion of the reality of His love and compassion for the lost. It was supernatural.
Matthew 9:36, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
In some of my evangelizing experiences under such compassion, ideas came and words just flow out of my mouth. The right words were shared at the right time. I knew I hit the nail when I get comments like, “Have you considered preaching as a career.” There is life in such sharing. There is life when you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in these precious moments. Glory to God!
There were times even though the person who was receiving your message was not paying attention to what you are saying, he could see the reality of God in your life and the passion you have deeply for God. I remembered sharing the gospel with a colleague of mine and telling him how my life changed as a result of a divine appointment. After I shared the gospel, he commented, “Wa, you talk with passion just like my son talked to me about God!” I responded, “If your son talks like this and I talked in the same manner, there means that there must be something about this God that I am sharing with you today.” I believe the seed in him is watered by my words too.
Not only that, there will be evidence of your much time spent with God.
1 Timothy 4:12-15, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”
You will have a supernatural glow on your face.
Exodus 34:29-30, “Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”
This was true. There were 2 occasions when someone commented that I looked different. The first was in the lift with a middle age lady. She took a longer than normal look at me and said that there was something different about me in a positive manner. On a separate occasion, it was my security guard who actually stop me in my tracks, took a look at me and again commented, “Wow, brother, you looked different today.” I knew it was not physical beauty that both persons were talking about. I believe it was the same supernatural glow that I sometimes see in some God fearing people. As I recalled back, those “glowing moments” were period of times when I spent a lot of time with God privately. Hence your spiritual intimacy with God does show outwardly.
Lastly I would like to make reference to what John Bevere wrote in Drawing Near. People who spent intimate time with God carry His presence where ever he goes.
He wrote: “… I had previously picked up close to a hundred ministers, for many came to our church. However, this would be different, for when he (Dr, David Cho) got into my car the first time, the presence of the Lord came into my car. Almost immediately I started crying, tears were running down my face. I was very quiet as I didn’t want to disturb him before ministering. Yet I eventually felt compelled to speak. I said soberly and softly, “Dr. Cho, God is here, in our car.” He smiled and nodded.
It was also written in Acts where Peter carried the presence of God with him.
Acts 5:15, “ … so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.”
Therefore lets serve God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and experience the supernatural. These experiences will leave you wanting more.
Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Steve
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
People can see the relationship between you and God when you pray
Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Even though Paul was addressing the Philippians with regard to the teachings of the same God, he used the word “MY” God which might suggest his God and the Philippians’ God were two different Gods. However this is not the case. Paul was actually personalizing his relationship with God and demonstrating outwardly his intimacy with Him.
Recently I had the opportunity to share the goodness of God with a friend of mine. He was facing some challenges in life and God impressed in my heart to tell my friend that in an event of need, God can help him supernaturally.
Now this is not the first time I am sharing the Gospel and the goodness of God to my friend. As far as I could remember, God has opened up 3 times, the door of opportunity to minister to him over a period of a couple of years. Through the grace of God, I had shared the salvation message with him, my own testimony, addressed some of his questions regarding God and even provided some good literature for his reference. Each of these was accomplished over the 3 different occasions through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, whatever I knew with regard to Christianity and God, I have shared much with him. However there was something different this time round. I was prompted in my heart to request if I could pray for him before we end the chat. He gladly said, “Sure, why not?” I requested him to close his eyes. I then closed mine and I started to pray out verbally with boldness. This was something I learnt from Pastor Amos when he shared in one of his testimonies.
The prayer went forth as follows briefly, “Heavenly Father, I thank you for this wonderful opportunity to pray for my friend XXX … Father I pray that You will touch him supernaturally in a way that he knows and he knows that You can be so real and that he could not deny that You exist. …. Father I pray that You will bless him, bless his family and that Your peace manifest in their presence. We now thank You and we praise You. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”
(Certain contents were excluded in the above written prayer to protect the privacy of my friend)
What happened next was when I opened my eyes, I saw my friend looking at me. It seemed to me that he had been observing me while I prayed. There was a moment of silence before he said,” Wow, your prayer is very comprehensive and all round.” I jokingly replied, “I think this is what you need at this point in time.” However in my heart, I believed this is the first time someone has prayed for him and he was amazed by the way and the things that I prayed out. Holy Spirit was actually bringing things in my mind to pray for him. Moreover I have been telling him how real God is to me but somehow I believe he was able to witness the relationship between God and me from the way I communicate with God during the prayer. I feel that God is trying to show me that if I consistent talk with God and fellowship with God through prayer, when we have the opportunity to pray for people, especially non believers, they will be able to see the presence of a relationship with the God that we believes in, as well as the authenticity of the intimacy we have with Him. Just like how Paul says, “My God …” Praise God!
On the hindsight, I could have added the following scriptures in my prayer for him as well: “Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts; and Your ways higher than our ways. Moreover the thoughts that You have toward us are thoughts of peace and not of evil; to give us a future and a hope” and “We thank you for what you are doing right now and what you are going to do in the future.”
Nonetheless, I will bear these in mind when the next similar prayer opportunity comes.
Anonymous
Even though Paul was addressing the Philippians with regard to the teachings of the same God, he used the word “MY” God which might suggest his God and the Philippians’ God were two different Gods. However this is not the case. Paul was actually personalizing his relationship with God and demonstrating outwardly his intimacy with Him.
Recently I had the opportunity to share the goodness of God with a friend of mine. He was facing some challenges in life and God impressed in my heart to tell my friend that in an event of need, God can help him supernaturally.
Now this is not the first time I am sharing the Gospel and the goodness of God to my friend. As far as I could remember, God has opened up 3 times, the door of opportunity to minister to him over a period of a couple of years. Through the grace of God, I had shared the salvation message with him, my own testimony, addressed some of his questions regarding God and even provided some good literature for his reference. Each of these was accomplished over the 3 different occasions through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, whatever I knew with regard to Christianity and God, I have shared much with him. However there was something different this time round. I was prompted in my heart to request if I could pray for him before we end the chat. He gladly said, “Sure, why not?” I requested him to close his eyes. I then closed mine and I started to pray out verbally with boldness. This was something I learnt from Pastor Amos when he shared in one of his testimonies.
The prayer went forth as follows briefly, “Heavenly Father, I thank you for this wonderful opportunity to pray for my friend XXX … Father I pray that You will touch him supernaturally in a way that he knows and he knows that You can be so real and that he could not deny that You exist. …. Father I pray that You will bless him, bless his family and that Your peace manifest in their presence. We now thank You and we praise You. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”
(Certain contents were excluded in the above written prayer to protect the privacy of my friend)
What happened next was when I opened my eyes, I saw my friend looking at me. It seemed to me that he had been observing me while I prayed. There was a moment of silence before he said,” Wow, your prayer is very comprehensive and all round.” I jokingly replied, “I think this is what you need at this point in time.” However in my heart, I believed this is the first time someone has prayed for him and he was amazed by the way and the things that I prayed out. Holy Spirit was actually bringing things in my mind to pray for him. Moreover I have been telling him how real God is to me but somehow I believe he was able to witness the relationship between God and me from the way I communicate with God during the prayer. I feel that God is trying to show me that if I consistent talk with God and fellowship with God through prayer, when we have the opportunity to pray for people, especially non believers, they will be able to see the presence of a relationship with the God that we believes in, as well as the authenticity of the intimacy we have with Him. Just like how Paul says, “My God …” Praise God!
On the hindsight, I could have added the following scriptures in my prayer for him as well: “Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts; and Your ways higher than our ways. Moreover the thoughts that You have toward us are thoughts of peace and not of evil; to give us a future and a hope” and “We thank you for what you are doing right now and what you are going to do in the future.”
Nonetheless, I will bear these in mind when the next similar prayer opportunity comes.
Anonymous
We need to learn to embrace boldness to represent and serve God effectively
Ephesians 6:19, “… that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
I had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of my relative lately and he accepted Christ as his savior. Praise God!
My relative came to visit my family and we had lunch together. Such visit happened every now and then and our conversations were mostly revolving around catching up with each other. However this time, it was a little different. Halfway through the meal, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me in my heart to share the gospel with him. There was a burden in my heart and I knew God wanted me to do so right then and there. It was a familiar feeling.
Nonetheless, I started to struggle in my mind on how to start, what to say and should I even bring the topic up. I was also thinking perhaps I should wait for another convenient time to share the gospel. Perhaps I should not even spend the effort as it is impossible for him to accept what I am planning to share. Since I would face rejection, I must as well not talk to him about it. Thoughts of justifying why I should not share the gospel with this relative of mine just went wild in my mind in that short span of time. This was when I started to realize I have not been consciously making the effort to seek out opportunities to share the gospel with people around me lately. I was too occupied with my own agendas. As a result I felt “rusty” in some sense.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to obey the Holy Spirit leading. This was one of those moments when I knew that if I consciously ignore the prompting or procrastinate long enough to miss the opportunity, the Holy Spirit would be grieved and I would be accountable for any consequences.
So while I was eating, I started to replace the negative thoughts with thoughts of how to bring the subject up at the right time. Eventually I started bluntly and asked my relative, “Have you ever thought of believing Jesus?” Next I brought up the subject about how God could forgive bad deeds that we have committed in our past and that we have an eternal heaven to go when we die. The sharing took off from there as the Holy Spirit leads. Eventually I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian. In fact, I did not ask him. I suggested to him, “Why not we pray together right now with my wife, I lead you in the salvation prayer and you repeat after me, as you do not know how to pray. But you must speak to God with your heart.” I assured him that he does not need to go church and he does not need to be baptized. At that time, my wife was in the room. My relative hesitated and suggested later. I was not ready to let go of this rare opportunity. I asked my wife out and then suggested to him to pray with us again. He said OK this time round.
Word for Word, he repeated after me. I could feel the boldness in my voice as I lead him to say the salvation prayer. I wanted to make sure he understood clearly what he was praying about. Praise God. As I think back, it was truly a miracle for my relative to even say the salvation prayer with us. I am glad that I obeyed Holy Spirit’s prompting.
As what Pastor Amos shared recently, boldness is the key to effective evangelism and believing for the promises of God. He mentioned:
Moses was bold enough to step out and call forth the parting of the Red Sea.
David was bold enough to step out and challenge Goliath.
Peter was bold enough to step out of the boat to walk on water.
Peter was bold enough to step out and preach to multitudes after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he just denied Jesus previously.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. By stirring up the gift that was in us, which is praying in the Holy Spirit, we could speak forth the Words that were accumulated in our hearts with conviction. This is when power is released through our mouth.
There were several accounts in the bible where men of God asked for boldness.
Paul requested his brethren to pray for him the boldness to speak the Word of God in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:19, “… and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Peter asked God for boldness in the book of Acts.
Acts 4:29, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,”
And Paul reminded Timothy about the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother and urged him to stir up the gift that was in him because Paul knew that praying in tongues can bring forth the boldness of God in the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:5-7, “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Therefore, boldness is one of the key attributes we need to learn to embrace in our personal life to represent and serve God effectively.
Steve
I had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of my relative lately and he accepted Christ as his savior. Praise God!
My relative came to visit my family and we had lunch together. Such visit happened every now and then and our conversations were mostly revolving around catching up with each other. However this time, it was a little different. Halfway through the meal, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me in my heart to share the gospel with him. There was a burden in my heart and I knew God wanted me to do so right then and there. It was a familiar feeling.
Nonetheless, I started to struggle in my mind on how to start, what to say and should I even bring the topic up. I was also thinking perhaps I should wait for another convenient time to share the gospel. Perhaps I should not even spend the effort as it is impossible for him to accept what I am planning to share. Since I would face rejection, I must as well not talk to him about it. Thoughts of justifying why I should not share the gospel with this relative of mine just went wild in my mind in that short span of time. This was when I started to realize I have not been consciously making the effort to seek out opportunities to share the gospel with people around me lately. I was too occupied with my own agendas. As a result I felt “rusty” in some sense.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to obey the Holy Spirit leading. This was one of those moments when I knew that if I consciously ignore the prompting or procrastinate long enough to miss the opportunity, the Holy Spirit would be grieved and I would be accountable for any consequences.
So while I was eating, I started to replace the negative thoughts with thoughts of how to bring the subject up at the right time. Eventually I started bluntly and asked my relative, “Have you ever thought of believing Jesus?” Next I brought up the subject about how God could forgive bad deeds that we have committed in our past and that we have an eternal heaven to go when we die. The sharing took off from there as the Holy Spirit leads. Eventually I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian. In fact, I did not ask him. I suggested to him, “Why not we pray together right now with my wife, I lead you in the salvation prayer and you repeat after me, as you do not know how to pray. But you must speak to God with your heart.” I assured him that he does not need to go church and he does not need to be baptized. At that time, my wife was in the room. My relative hesitated and suggested later. I was not ready to let go of this rare opportunity. I asked my wife out and then suggested to him to pray with us again. He said OK this time round.
Word for Word, he repeated after me. I could feel the boldness in my voice as I lead him to say the salvation prayer. I wanted to make sure he understood clearly what he was praying about. Praise God. As I think back, it was truly a miracle for my relative to even say the salvation prayer with us. I am glad that I obeyed Holy Spirit’s prompting.
As what Pastor Amos shared recently, boldness is the key to effective evangelism and believing for the promises of God. He mentioned:
Moses was bold enough to step out and call forth the parting of the Red Sea.
David was bold enough to step out and challenge Goliath.
Peter was bold enough to step out of the boat to walk on water.
Peter was bold enough to step out and preach to multitudes after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he just denied Jesus previously.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. By stirring up the gift that was in us, which is praying in the Holy Spirit, we could speak forth the Words that were accumulated in our hearts with conviction. This is when power is released through our mouth.
There were several accounts in the bible where men of God asked for boldness.
Paul requested his brethren to pray for him the boldness to speak the Word of God in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:19, “… and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Peter asked God for boldness in the book of Acts.
Acts 4:29, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,”
And Paul reminded Timothy about the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother and urged him to stir up the gift that was in him because Paul knew that praying in tongues can bring forth the boldness of God in the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:5-7, “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Therefore, boldness is one of the key attributes we need to learn to embrace in our personal life to represent and serve God effectively.
Steve
Saturday, July 3, 2010
God is more interested in developing our character
There have been many times when I thought God was opening up doors for me to exit out of my current situation and move on to another phase of my life but it was not so. There have also been many occasions when I thought God was ready to bless me abundantly but it was not so too.
Proverbs 16:1, “The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.”
Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.”
Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As I stand on the above Word of God and wait upon God to navigate me through my life, it came to a point whereby I was no longer overly excited about new business opportunities that come along my way or extremely happy when I clinch a deal. I became indifferent to a certain extent.
And when things do not turn out well, I will encourage myself with the following scriptures:
Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
From the life of Paul, we are able to see that serving God is Paul’s passion and focus in whatever situations God presented to him. My personal opinion is Paul must have experienced many times when he thought God was going to bring him out of his hardship but it turned out to be otherwise. Eventually he was fully persuaded that while good and bad things happen to him, Jesus is still there for him. That is why Paul was able to write in Philippians 4:11-12.
Philippians 4:11-12, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
Similarly Joseph being given the promise by God to rule over his brothers ended up being sold as a slave. Nevertheless, there were many occasions whereby he must have thought God would bring him out of his captivity but it turned out otherwise. He was made to oversee his master’s household only to find himself jailed over a false accusation. Subsequently he interpreted the dream of a royalty while in prison, with the hope of being released, only to find himself being forgotten and continuing to stay in prison for a couple more years. However eventually he was promoted overnight to be the right hand man of the pharaoh. At that point in time, I believe Joseph must have been happy that God delivered him. However I also believed that God has molded his character to an extent that he was cool and not overly hyped up about his latest promotion. He would be a good testimony to what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-12, “for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:”
We create plans for our personal life eg getting a good job, getting married, having children, getting a bigger house etc. While we are charting the way we hope it will turn out and desiring God to lead us the way we want it, it dawned on me one day during worship that God was more interested in developing our character. He is more interested in planning and charting the way we can develop our character.
Therefore while we anticipate the way God will open up doors for us to meet our needs, I believe we need to look into our heart and see if God is trying to use the present opportunity to develop our character or attitude towards certain matter or person.
This is especially true when we are faced with difficult situations.
Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Steve
Proverbs 16:1, “The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.”
Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.”
Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As I stand on the above Word of God and wait upon God to navigate me through my life, it came to a point whereby I was no longer overly excited about new business opportunities that come along my way or extremely happy when I clinch a deal. I became indifferent to a certain extent.
And when things do not turn out well, I will encourage myself with the following scriptures:
Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
From the life of Paul, we are able to see that serving God is Paul’s passion and focus in whatever situations God presented to him. My personal opinion is Paul must have experienced many times when he thought God was going to bring him out of his hardship but it turned out to be otherwise. Eventually he was fully persuaded that while good and bad things happen to him, Jesus is still there for him. That is why Paul was able to write in Philippians 4:11-12.
Philippians 4:11-12, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
Similarly Joseph being given the promise by God to rule over his brothers ended up being sold as a slave. Nevertheless, there were many occasions whereby he must have thought God would bring him out of his captivity but it turned out otherwise. He was made to oversee his master’s household only to find himself jailed over a false accusation. Subsequently he interpreted the dream of a royalty while in prison, with the hope of being released, only to find himself being forgotten and continuing to stay in prison for a couple more years. However eventually he was promoted overnight to be the right hand man of the pharaoh. At that point in time, I believe Joseph must have been happy that God delivered him. However I also believed that God has molded his character to an extent that he was cool and not overly hyped up about his latest promotion. He would be a good testimony to what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-12, “for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:”
We create plans for our personal life eg getting a good job, getting married, having children, getting a bigger house etc. While we are charting the way we hope it will turn out and desiring God to lead us the way we want it, it dawned on me one day during worship that God was more interested in developing our character. He is more interested in planning and charting the way we can develop our character.
Therefore while we anticipate the way God will open up doors for us to meet our needs, I believe we need to look into our heart and see if God is trying to use the present opportunity to develop our character or attitude towards certain matter or person.
This is especially true when we are faced with difficult situations.
Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Steve
Friday, July 2, 2010
We need to maintain the holy fear in our heart towards God to stay in His will
Recently a friend of mine shared with me the story of Samson and pointed out certain revelations which inspired me to read more about the story in the Book of Judges.
Before Samson was born, he had been chosen by God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Unfortunately Samson backslided to the point that he thought he could get away with his sins. He must have thought that “God does not see” what he was doing.
Ezekiel 9:9, “… the LORD does not see.”
As a result, God gave him the desire of his heart according to his covetous desires and eventually the judgment of God catches up on him.
Ezekiel 14:4, “… I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,”
Firstly before Samson’s birth, God has appointed Samson to be a Nazirite to God. As a Nazirite, he should not drink wine (Numbers 6:3) or go near a dead body (Numbers 6:6). However Samson broke the above two laws that God had set.
Then Samson married a Philistine woman, an enemy, when he was ordained to deliver Israel out. Not only that Judges 14:5, “… came to the vineyards of Timnah.” gave hints that Samson had hanged around vineyards to know this Philistine woman and most probably drank wine in his younger days although the bible did not specifically state so. I believe this might be the beginning of his willful disobedience to God’s instructions.
The scriptures revealed that Samson later drank honey from a lion carcass, went in with a harlot and married Delilah who caused his ultimate downfall.
He became so complacent that he thought God would not judge him when he realized his supernatural strength stayed with him even while he was sinning.
1 Timothy 4:2, “… having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
How could he not discern something was wrong when his wife, Delilah, repeatedly taunt him to reveal the secret of his supernatural strength? How could Samson treat something so sacred and divine so lightly and carelessly? At that point in time, he was still playing along with Delilah and joked with her.
Judges 16:20, “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”
Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him when his hair was shaved. The words “did not know” suggested that Samson had not been spending time with God for a long time as he could not discern the presence of God had left him.
Judges 16:20, “So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!””
He still thought that he had his supernatural strength because he said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”
It is sad to learn that a man ordained to do great things for God by God himself no longer know the Person who gave him his supernatural strength, probably forgot about his mandate and was deceived by his own pride. He seek the power but not the source. He assumed that the power will stay with him forever.
Judgment finally caught up with him in the end; and his fall from grace was great. Samson got his eyes put out, cast into prison and put to mockery as a performer before the very people he was ordained to defeat.
Nevertheless, it was a good but sad ending for Samson when he repented before God.
Judges 16:28-30, “Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.”
The scriptures showed that Samson burial was a simple affair.
Judges 16:31, “And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah.”
If Samson has stayed in the will of God and finished his race, his death would be one that is greatly mourned and his burial would have been a glorious affair. Why wouldn’t it be if he had delivered Israel out of the hands of the Philistines?
Steve
Before Samson was born, he had been chosen by God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Unfortunately Samson backslided to the point that he thought he could get away with his sins. He must have thought that “God does not see” what he was doing.
Ezekiel 9:9, “… the LORD does not see.”
As a result, God gave him the desire of his heart according to his covetous desires and eventually the judgment of God catches up on him.
Ezekiel 14:4, “… I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,”
Firstly before Samson’s birth, God has appointed Samson to be a Nazirite to God. As a Nazirite, he should not drink wine (Numbers 6:3) or go near a dead body (Numbers 6:6). However Samson broke the above two laws that God had set.
Then Samson married a Philistine woman, an enemy, when he was ordained to deliver Israel out. Not only that Judges 14:5, “… came to the vineyards of Timnah.” gave hints that Samson had hanged around vineyards to know this Philistine woman and most probably drank wine in his younger days although the bible did not specifically state so. I believe this might be the beginning of his willful disobedience to God’s instructions.
The scriptures revealed that Samson later drank honey from a lion carcass, went in with a harlot and married Delilah who caused his ultimate downfall.
He became so complacent that he thought God would not judge him when he realized his supernatural strength stayed with him even while he was sinning.
1 Timothy 4:2, “… having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
How could he not discern something was wrong when his wife, Delilah, repeatedly taunt him to reveal the secret of his supernatural strength? How could Samson treat something so sacred and divine so lightly and carelessly? At that point in time, he was still playing along with Delilah and joked with her.
Judges 16:20, “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”
Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him when his hair was shaved. The words “did not know” suggested that Samson had not been spending time with God for a long time as he could not discern the presence of God had left him.
Judges 16:20, “So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!””
He still thought that he had his supernatural strength because he said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”
It is sad to learn that a man ordained to do great things for God by God himself no longer know the Person who gave him his supernatural strength, probably forgot about his mandate and was deceived by his own pride. He seek the power but not the source. He assumed that the power will stay with him forever.
Judgment finally caught up with him in the end; and his fall from grace was great. Samson got his eyes put out, cast into prison and put to mockery as a performer before the very people he was ordained to defeat.
Nevertheless, it was a good but sad ending for Samson when he repented before God.
Judges 16:28-30, “Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.”
The scriptures showed that Samson burial was a simple affair.
Judges 16:31, “And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah.”
If Samson has stayed in the will of God and finished his race, his death would be one that is greatly mourned and his burial would have been a glorious affair. Why wouldn’t it be if he had delivered Israel out of the hands of the Philistines?
Steve
It is easier at times to share the gospel without prior knowledge of the person’s background
I read about 2 amazing testimonies of people sentenced to death but was miraculously being released from prison in John Bevere’s Honor’s Reward as well as Reinhard Bonke’s Even Greater.
In John Bevere’s book, he gave a prophetic word to one of the prisoners, who was sentenced to 3 life sentences, in the middle of his prison service. He was not even aware of this until 16 years later, he bumped into the prisoner who became a worship leader in a big church.
In Reinhard Bonke’s book, he was instructed by God to give a prophetic word to one of the prisoners telling him he will be released in due time. In this case, Reinhard Bonke struggled to speak these words to the prisoner for he thought it was cruel. These prisoners were on the death row and there is no way he can leave the place. Nonetheless Reinhard Bonke yielded to God’s leading and spoke forth the prophetic word. However he felt that he was giving the prisoner a false hope and did not feel good about it. Little did he know that many years later, Reinhard Bonke met that person on the streets. The prisoner was miraculously released from the prison. Praise God!
From these 2 accounts, we can see why Paul wrote in Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 2:1-3, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.”
If Reinhard Bonke did not know what his prisoner friend was going to be put in death, if would have been easier for him to speak the prophetic word to him. It would have been easier for John Bevere in this case.
Moreover, I recalled in one of the soul I managed won to God’s kingdom. Little did I know that the person declare that he detest Christianity prior to our conversation. I reckon that if I knew his background and perception, I might not have been as free and as bold to share the Word of God to him then and there. It could have hindered the flow of God as a result of my thinking.
Anonymous
In John Bevere’s book, he gave a prophetic word to one of the prisoners, who was sentenced to 3 life sentences, in the middle of his prison service. He was not even aware of this until 16 years later, he bumped into the prisoner who became a worship leader in a big church.
In Reinhard Bonke’s book, he was instructed by God to give a prophetic word to one of the prisoners telling him he will be released in due time. In this case, Reinhard Bonke struggled to speak these words to the prisoner for he thought it was cruel. These prisoners were on the death row and there is no way he can leave the place. Nonetheless Reinhard Bonke yielded to God’s leading and spoke forth the prophetic word. However he felt that he was giving the prisoner a false hope and did not feel good about it. Little did he know that many years later, Reinhard Bonke met that person on the streets. The prisoner was miraculously released from the prison. Praise God!
From these 2 accounts, we can see why Paul wrote in Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 2:1-3, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.”
If Reinhard Bonke did not know what his prisoner friend was going to be put in death, if would have been easier for him to speak the prophetic word to him. It would have been easier for John Bevere in this case.
Moreover, I recalled in one of the soul I managed won to God’s kingdom. Little did I know that the person declare that he detest Christianity prior to our conversation. I reckon that if I knew his background and perception, I might not have been as free and as bold to share the Word of God to him then and there. It could have hindered the flow of God as a result of my thinking.
Anonymous
Knowing which church to attend and staying where God wants you to be
For the past few years in His Harvest Church, I have witnessed various phases of transformation of our church size. People have came and have left the church for various reasons. I have been asked if I have ever considered leaving the church and I said, “No.” So I started to ask myself why I would not do so at this point in time and the following reasons came to my mind.
1. I treat His Harvest as my home church.
It is not the church of the pastor but a church that belongs to everyone who recognize it as their home church. Just as in a secular family setting, there will be good times and there will be bad times. However the home is still where we belong. Therefore; the church is also the place where we could learn to overlook each other weaknesses, keep off offense and we do our best to stay together.
2. I came for the message and not for the Pastor.
John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
The Holy Spirit has been using the messages that I have received under the ministry of Pastor Amos to guide my life throughout the years. To correct me in times of err, to comfort me in times of despair, to encourage me in times of disappointment and to guide me in times of dilemma. I honor the Pastor but I came for his message more than the person himself.
3. I have learned to submit and honor my leaders
We should always submit and honor our leaders as much as we can, even at times when they might have offended us. Samuel honored Priest Eli although his sons were living in sin and that Priest Eli has lost his anointing. David honored King Saul by withholding his sword to kill him on two separate occasions even though King Saul sought over his life repeatedly. In fact, David mourned after King Saul’s death. We must keep a submissive heart towards our leaders instead of being critical or judgmental, in order for the anointing upon the leaders to flow into our lives.
4. Isaiah 55:12, “ For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace;”
Last but not least, I believe that if it is God’s will for us to leave, we should leave with peace in our heart. If we feel that God wants us to move away from the spiritual covering of one church to that of another church, we need to know very clearly in our hearts that it is His will for us to do so.
Steve
1. I treat His Harvest as my home church.
It is not the church of the pastor but a church that belongs to everyone who recognize it as their home church. Just as in a secular family setting, there will be good times and there will be bad times. However the home is still where we belong. Therefore; the church is also the place where we could learn to overlook each other weaknesses, keep off offense and we do our best to stay together.
2. I came for the message and not for the Pastor.
John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
The Holy Spirit has been using the messages that I have received under the ministry of Pastor Amos to guide my life throughout the years. To correct me in times of err, to comfort me in times of despair, to encourage me in times of disappointment and to guide me in times of dilemma. I honor the Pastor but I came for his message more than the person himself.
3. I have learned to submit and honor my leaders
We should always submit and honor our leaders as much as we can, even at times when they might have offended us. Samuel honored Priest Eli although his sons were living in sin and that Priest Eli has lost his anointing. David honored King Saul by withholding his sword to kill him on two separate occasions even though King Saul sought over his life repeatedly. In fact, David mourned after King Saul’s death. We must keep a submissive heart towards our leaders instead of being critical or judgmental, in order for the anointing upon the leaders to flow into our lives.
4. Isaiah 55:12, “ For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace;”
Last but not least, I believe that if it is God’s will for us to leave, we should leave with peace in our heart. If we feel that God wants us to move away from the spiritual covering of one church to that of another church, we need to know very clearly in our hearts that it is His will for us to do so.
Steve
God helped me to release my bitterness of feeling shortchanged
My company is approaching the end of the fiscal year and this was the time when our performance reviews were done and the amount of variable bonus to receive was determined.
In my case, I had some contention with my supervisor on the way my bonus was calculated. Although I left the meeting with a common agreement and understanding, I later realized that there were still some areas which I have overlooked that could contribute more to my overall performance bonus. However looking at how the meeting had proceeded earlier, I knew that if I continue to pursue the matter, it would not benefit my long term relationship with my supervisor. I was not happy and felt that I was stuck in a compromising position.
I wanted so much to complain to my other colleagues on how unfair my bonus was calculated. However I knew that such an act would not contribute a cubit to my bonus but only cast a bad light on my supervisor. Not only that, it will stir up my bitterness over the matter. At that point in time, God reminded me that it is right to control my tongue. I knew the Holy Spirit was constraining me. I did well in this area in the past and I should and could do it again.
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
Eventually, I kept the matter to myself.
On the same day, I attended my church night service. The congregation was having a great time worshipping God and Pastor Amos was telling us the presence of God is in this place and encouraging us to continually praise and worship and enjoy the presence of God. Time passed and it was almost more than an hour that we worship God.
However while everyone around me was worshipping God, I knew I was not flowing with the anointing as much as I wanted. In fact throughout that time, my mind was so cluttered with what happened during performance review meeting I had earlier in the day. I kept thinking how unfair my case was, what I could do later, how I should justify my bonus etc. Images after images keep appearing in my mind. Thoughts after thoughts of bitterness flood my mind. “Its not fair” became the focus of my mind. The bible says
Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,”
It was not easy. I knew that if this matter could pull me down so badly that I could not worship God, something is not right. I told God to help me to get into the place of worship because I was struggling to offer sacrifices of praise to God while keeping those thoughts at bay.
It was then at some point in time, I felt impressed in my heart that Jesus was asking me, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” I was caught in my tracks. Jesus asked again, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” I did not reply. He asked the same question the third time, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” Eventually I relented. I said to Him in my heart, “No.” His questioning and my response to Him somehow helped me put an end to the contentions I had in my mind. One touch of God is indeed better than a thousand words.
While a better way to get out of the rut is to put my faith into the Word of God and ask God to increase my faith to help me release this bitterness, God could see I was struggling and He loves me so much to drop a word of correction into my heart. I knew God was trying to help me release this bitterness, accept the outcome and let the matter rest.
In the later part of the service, Pastor Amos shared on Ephesians 5:17-19.
Ephesians 5:17-19, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,”
I realized that. I was “drunk in my thoughts” dwelling for so long on the matter leading to “waste”, when I should be worshipping God in spirit and in truth. This serves as a reminder to me that we should be constantly praising and worshipping God to keep us in the presence of God. In the presence of God, there is fullness of joy.
Psalm 16:11, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Anonymous
In my case, I had some contention with my supervisor on the way my bonus was calculated. Although I left the meeting with a common agreement and understanding, I later realized that there were still some areas which I have overlooked that could contribute more to my overall performance bonus. However looking at how the meeting had proceeded earlier, I knew that if I continue to pursue the matter, it would not benefit my long term relationship with my supervisor. I was not happy and felt that I was stuck in a compromising position.
I wanted so much to complain to my other colleagues on how unfair my bonus was calculated. However I knew that such an act would not contribute a cubit to my bonus but only cast a bad light on my supervisor. Not only that, it will stir up my bitterness over the matter. At that point in time, God reminded me that it is right to control my tongue. I knew the Holy Spirit was constraining me. I did well in this area in the past and I should and could do it again.
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
Eventually, I kept the matter to myself.
On the same day, I attended my church night service. The congregation was having a great time worshipping God and Pastor Amos was telling us the presence of God is in this place and encouraging us to continually praise and worship and enjoy the presence of God. Time passed and it was almost more than an hour that we worship God.
However while everyone around me was worshipping God, I knew I was not flowing with the anointing as much as I wanted. In fact throughout that time, my mind was so cluttered with what happened during performance review meeting I had earlier in the day. I kept thinking how unfair my case was, what I could do later, how I should justify my bonus etc. Images after images keep appearing in my mind. Thoughts after thoughts of bitterness flood my mind. “Its not fair” became the focus of my mind. The bible says
Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,”
It was not easy. I knew that if this matter could pull me down so badly that I could not worship God, something is not right. I told God to help me to get into the place of worship because I was struggling to offer sacrifices of praise to God while keeping those thoughts at bay.
It was then at some point in time, I felt impressed in my heart that Jesus was asking me, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” I was caught in my tracks. Jesus asked again, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” I did not reply. He asked the same question the third time, “Is it fair for me to go to the cross?” Eventually I relented. I said to Him in my heart, “No.” His questioning and my response to Him somehow helped me put an end to the contentions I had in my mind. One touch of God is indeed better than a thousand words.
While a better way to get out of the rut is to put my faith into the Word of God and ask God to increase my faith to help me release this bitterness, God could see I was struggling and He loves me so much to drop a word of correction into my heart. I knew God was trying to help me release this bitterness, accept the outcome and let the matter rest.
In the later part of the service, Pastor Amos shared on Ephesians 5:17-19.
Ephesians 5:17-19, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,”
I realized that. I was “drunk in my thoughts” dwelling for so long on the matter leading to “waste”, when I should be worshipping God in spirit and in truth. This serves as a reminder to me that we should be constantly praising and worshipping God to keep us in the presence of God. In the presence of God, there is fullness of joy.
Psalm 16:11, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Anonymous
Be faithful in little
In one of my night church service, Pastor Amos wanted me to share some of my experiences with God with the people. It was a last minute request and the only time I had to prepare was during the worship session.
The sharing was brief and it went well. Then I thought about how I managed to quickly put my thoughts together. While part of the reason was Holy Spirit inspired ideas, I was also reminded that the other part of the reason was I have been faithfully updating my church testimony blog, sharing God’s Word with people around me as well as regularly reading God’s Word.
Matthew 25:23, “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”
God has showed me that by constantly sharing of God’s Word, reviewing and improving what I have shared, such practices are important and will prepare me well when he create opportunities for us to bless people or evangelize. I believe as we continue to do our best in various service that we offer to God, God will definitely open up more opportunities to use us as a vessel to bless others. His expectation of us will be raised as well.
Matthew 13:12, “For whoever has, to him more will be given,”
Steve
The sharing was brief and it went well. Then I thought about how I managed to quickly put my thoughts together. While part of the reason was Holy Spirit inspired ideas, I was also reminded that the other part of the reason was I have been faithfully updating my church testimony blog, sharing God’s Word with people around me as well as regularly reading God’s Word.
Matthew 25:23, “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”
God has showed me that by constantly sharing of God’s Word, reviewing and improving what I have shared, such practices are important and will prepare me well when he create opportunities for us to bless people or evangelize. I believe as we continue to do our best in various service that we offer to God, God will definitely open up more opportunities to use us as a vessel to bless others. His expectation of us will be raised as well.
Matthew 13:12, “For whoever has, to him more will be given,”
Steve
God gave Jesus to the world but He gave the Holy Spirit to His Children
Pastor Timothy shared with the church a revelation that he received previously. He taught about the relationship between spiritual facts and truths in our hearts.
It is a spiritual fact that Jesus died for our sins and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. God gave Jesus to the world.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
It is also a spiritual fact that God has already prepared all the promises for us and it is our responsibility to access by grace through faith to claim these promises in our lives.
Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
However how do we establish these truth in our lives?
Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Holy Spirit is given to His children. We are the children of God. Therefore we need to be led by the Holy Spirit to translate what the bible says into reality in our lives. We need to receive these promises as established truths in our heart in a manner that we are fully persuaded by the Word of God through the revelation that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Ephesians 1:17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”
One example is in the area of tithing/ giving. You will not be fully established in this truth unless the Holy Spirit leads you to tithe/ give accompanied by experiences of the supernatural blessing and protection from God in the area of finances.
After establishing the various truths of the bible in our lives, we will then be able to minister effectively to believers or non believers who need to hear our personal experiences.
Like what John C. Maxwell wrote in his book: Everyone Communicates Few Connects, “Nothing can happen through you until it happens to you.”
Therefore it is necessary that we spend time reading the bible, praying in the Holy Ghost so that Holy Spirit is able to teach us and guide us and bring the reality of God’s promises into our lives.
1 John 2:27, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
Steve
It is a spiritual fact that Jesus died for our sins and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. God gave Jesus to the world.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
It is also a spiritual fact that God has already prepared all the promises for us and it is our responsibility to access by grace through faith to claim these promises in our lives.
Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
However how do we establish these truth in our lives?
Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Holy Spirit is given to His children. We are the children of God. Therefore we need to be led by the Holy Spirit to translate what the bible says into reality in our lives. We need to receive these promises as established truths in our heart in a manner that we are fully persuaded by the Word of God through the revelation that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Ephesians 1:17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”
One example is in the area of tithing/ giving. You will not be fully established in this truth unless the Holy Spirit leads you to tithe/ give accompanied by experiences of the supernatural blessing and protection from God in the area of finances.
After establishing the various truths of the bible in our lives, we will then be able to minister effectively to believers or non believers who need to hear our personal experiences.
Like what John C. Maxwell wrote in his book: Everyone Communicates Few Connects, “Nothing can happen through you until it happens to you.”
Therefore it is necessary that we spend time reading the bible, praying in the Holy Ghost so that Holy Spirit is able to teach us and guide us and bring the reality of God’s promises into our lives.
1 John 2:27, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
Steve
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Lessons we can learn from the bad press on Christians recently
In recent few months, there have been several bad presses on the conduct and choice of words used by prominent pastors and a case on the probable misuse of church funds in a high profile church. Being a Christian, I do not feel comfortable when I see these stories highlighted on the headlines of major newspaper. The worse part was people started to take this opportunity to make snide remarks about God and the church on various forums. What happened does not cast a good name on Christianity especially on non believers who followed the news.
If we look carefully, the events that occurred will literally affect two key areas of bringing the gospel to the world.
Firstly, spiritually immature Christians in the area of tithing and giving will be affected. They may not trust the leadership of the church or even feel bitter about giving money to the church if the allegations of fraud is true.
Secondly, if I am a member of the church of which the above news were affiliated to, a young Christian might feel certain reservations in spreading the gospel or even invite people to his/ her church services. Or spiritually young Christians might not openly declare their faith lest people start to challenge them in these areas and they do not know how to respond. As a result, the commission of Jesus upon Christians to spread the gospel will be hindered.
Nevertheless, reflecting on what is happening around us further reinforces two very important principles of Christian living.
Firstly, the gospel is free but the channel of bringing the gospel to the lost is not. Hence it is important that we remain cheerful in tithing and giving with the full awareness that we are giving unto the Lord to build the kingdom of God and not to men.
2 Corinthians 9:7, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Having said that, I knew one of my colleagues belongs to the church under investigation and hence I felt in my heart to drop the person an e mail to encourage her to continue tithing and giving to her church cheerfully and not lose heart. I was glad when she thanked me for the encouragement and that she understood the principle of giving unto the Lord and not to men.
Romans 12:4-5, “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”
This is a good time for fellow Christians to build up each other and undergird each other’s faith in the face of persecution and trials.
Secondly, it is very important that Christians should always look at Jesus and not to men.
Their Christian faith must be based on Jesus and not men.
Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In an unfortunate event where the pastor/ leader indeed fell from grace, the disappointment of the sheep under the covering of these pastors/ leaders would come but the faith of these believers must not wavier because their confidence is not on men but on God alone.
In fact a spiritually mature Christian should remain in his/ her church to encourage and support their pastors/ leaders at least during this period of time. They should not leave their church or abandon their faith because a truly repented pastor/ leader would need all the encouragement and support they have around them to help him overcome his challenges while he seeks God for restoration and guidance.
Let every Christian stand tall and stay strong and be proud to continue declaring their faith in the midst of these trials and persecutions.
Steve
If we look carefully, the events that occurred will literally affect two key areas of bringing the gospel to the world.
Firstly, spiritually immature Christians in the area of tithing and giving will be affected. They may not trust the leadership of the church or even feel bitter about giving money to the church if the allegations of fraud is true.
Secondly, if I am a member of the church of which the above news were affiliated to, a young Christian might feel certain reservations in spreading the gospel or even invite people to his/ her church services. Or spiritually young Christians might not openly declare their faith lest people start to challenge them in these areas and they do not know how to respond. As a result, the commission of Jesus upon Christians to spread the gospel will be hindered.
Nevertheless, reflecting on what is happening around us further reinforces two very important principles of Christian living.
Firstly, the gospel is free but the channel of bringing the gospel to the lost is not. Hence it is important that we remain cheerful in tithing and giving with the full awareness that we are giving unto the Lord to build the kingdom of God and not to men.
2 Corinthians 9:7, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Having said that, I knew one of my colleagues belongs to the church under investigation and hence I felt in my heart to drop the person an e mail to encourage her to continue tithing and giving to her church cheerfully and not lose heart. I was glad when she thanked me for the encouragement and that she understood the principle of giving unto the Lord and not to men.
Romans 12:4-5, “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”
This is a good time for fellow Christians to build up each other and undergird each other’s faith in the face of persecution and trials.
Secondly, it is very important that Christians should always look at Jesus and not to men.
Their Christian faith must be based on Jesus and not men.
Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In an unfortunate event where the pastor/ leader indeed fell from grace, the disappointment of the sheep under the covering of these pastors/ leaders would come but the faith of these believers must not wavier because their confidence is not on men but on God alone.
In fact a spiritually mature Christian should remain in his/ her church to encourage and support their pastors/ leaders at least during this period of time. They should not leave their church or abandon their faith because a truly repented pastor/ leader would need all the encouragement and support they have around them to help him overcome his challenges while he seeks God for restoration and guidance.
Let every Christian stand tall and stay strong and be proud to continue declaring their faith in the midst of these trials and persecutions.
Steve
Our words rule our world
Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 6:2, “You are snared by the words of your mouth; You are taken by the words of your mouth.”
Proverbs 21:23, “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.”
Pastor Amos was sharing the importance of words that proceed out of our mouth.
He shared that our words rule our personal world, not other people’s world but our world. Hence we can change our world through speaking good words. In order words, speaking in tongues is definitely speaking good words that would help shaped our world.
1 Corinthians 14:2, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.”
Mysteries here refers to divine secrets that God wants to share with us at the right time and at the right place.
We know that we have a good future ahead of us
Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”
However we do not know what our future is like and sometimes, we do not know if we are walking in the will of God. Hence as we pray in tongues for our future which God has prepared for us, we are actually ruling our world supernaturally. I like to picture myself praying out the supernatural events that would take place in the future that would lead me in the way prosperous.
For example when we pray in tongues, we might be praying out something like this: “On the 1st of August, I would bump into an ex colleague of mine at 5.06pm while I was on my way to buy my family dinner. He will share with me a business venture he is interested in investing and he will asked me if I would be interested in it …” Perhaps, what happened next could be the onset of explosive financial blessings.
Or we might even pray out something like this: “For the church service this coming Sunday, I would not feel like going to church due to a late night the night before. However I would feel the urgency to still attend the service. In that service, Pastor would talk about the forgiveness of heart. This will minister to a particular matter that has been bothering me and the message will set me free once and for all ...” Again, God is arranging an opportunity to set us free from bondage.
Therefore we can safely say that in the event of us walking out of God’s will due to disobedience or due to ignorance, God can lead us back as we pray out the events that will help us to do so. Praise God!
We can rule our world with both our natural tongues as well as our spiritual tongues.
JY
Proverbs 6:2, “You are snared by the words of your mouth; You are taken by the words of your mouth.”
Proverbs 21:23, “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.”
Pastor Amos was sharing the importance of words that proceed out of our mouth.
He shared that our words rule our personal world, not other people’s world but our world. Hence we can change our world through speaking good words. In order words, speaking in tongues is definitely speaking good words that would help shaped our world.
1 Corinthians 14:2, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.”
Mysteries here refers to divine secrets that God wants to share with us at the right time and at the right place.
We know that we have a good future ahead of us
Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”
However we do not know what our future is like and sometimes, we do not know if we are walking in the will of God. Hence as we pray in tongues for our future which God has prepared for us, we are actually ruling our world supernaturally. I like to picture myself praying out the supernatural events that would take place in the future that would lead me in the way prosperous.
For example when we pray in tongues, we might be praying out something like this: “On the 1st of August, I would bump into an ex colleague of mine at 5.06pm while I was on my way to buy my family dinner. He will share with me a business venture he is interested in investing and he will asked me if I would be interested in it …” Perhaps, what happened next could be the onset of explosive financial blessings.
Or we might even pray out something like this: “For the church service this coming Sunday, I would not feel like going to church due to a late night the night before. However I would feel the urgency to still attend the service. In that service, Pastor would talk about the forgiveness of heart. This will minister to a particular matter that has been bothering me and the message will set me free once and for all ...” Again, God is arranging an opportunity to set us free from bondage.
Therefore we can safely say that in the event of us walking out of God’s will due to disobedience or due to ignorance, God can lead us back as we pray out the events that will help us to do so. Praise God!
We can rule our world with both our natural tongues as well as our spiritual tongues.
JY
God gave Jesus to the world but He gave the Holy Spirit to His Children
Pastor Timothy shared with the church a revelation that he received previously. He taught about the relationship between spiritual facts and truths in our hearts.
It is a spiritual fact that Jesus died for our sins and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. God gave Jesus to the world.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
It is also a spiritual fact that God has already prepared all the promises for us and it is our responsibility to access by grace through faith to claim these promises in our lives.
Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
However how do we establish these truth in our lives?
Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Holy Spirit is given to His children. We are the children of God. Therefore we need to be led by the Holy Spirit to translate what the bible says into reality in our lives. We need to receive these promises as established truths in our heart in a manner that we are fully persuaded by the Word of God through the revelation that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Ephesians 1:17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”
One example is in the area of tithing/ giving. You will not be fully established in this truth unless the Holy Spirit leads you to tithe/ give accompanied by experiences of the supernatural blessing and protection from God in the area of finances.
After establishing the various truths of the bible in our lives, we will then be able to minister effectively to believers or non believers who need to hear our personal experiences.
Like what John C. Maxwell wrote in his book: Everyone Communicates Few Connects, “Nothing can happen through you until it happens to you.”
Therefore it is necessary that we spend time reading the bible, praying in the Holy Ghost so that Holy Spirit is able to teach us and guide us and bring the reality of God’s promises into our lives.
1 John 2:27, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
Steve
It is a spiritual fact that Jesus died for our sins and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. God gave Jesus to the world.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
It is also a spiritual fact that God has already prepared all the promises for us and it is our responsibility to access by grace through faith to claim these promises in our lives.
Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
However how do we establish these truth in our lives?
Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Holy Spirit is given to His children. We are the children of God. Therefore we need to be led by the Holy Spirit to translate what the bible says into reality in our lives. We need to receive these promises as established truths in our heart in a manner that we are fully persuaded by the Word of God through the revelation that the Holy Spirit brings to us.
Ephesians 1:17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”
One example is in the area of tithing/ giving. You will not be fully established in this truth unless the Holy Spirit leads you to tithe/ give accompanied by experiences of the supernatural blessing and protection from God in the area of finances.
After establishing the various truths of the bible in our lives, we will then be able to minister effectively to believers or non believers who need to hear our personal experiences.
Like what John C. Maxwell wrote in his book: Everyone Communicates Few Connects, “Nothing can happen through you until it happens to you.”
Therefore it is necessary that we spend time reading the bible, praying in the Holy Ghost so that Holy Spirit is able to teach us and guide us and bring the reality of God’s promises into our lives.
1 John 2:27, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
Steve
God refreshes my spirit when I feel down from the pressures of working life
I am always trying to do my best to conduct myself in every aspect of my life, honoring God, especially at work. However, in this pressure cooking society, I realized it is difficult to keep my focus on God as much as I want to. In my new job, there are so much politics and strives that makes me sick to my guts, often time... I am one of the tools that people use in the game of "Who is to Blame?" Just a few days back in the office, my supervisor was in a bad mood and shouted at the top of her lungs at me from morning till evening for minor issues that crashed my soul and my confidence.
Nevertheless as I seek the Lord that night, He touched my heart and gave me the strength to stand. I stood up from the inside, refreshed and felt like the best employee that everyone wants, hahaa. The next day, my supervisor was like a changed person, happy and kept her cool and gave me peace for that day. And Yes, the Lord has saved my day once again!
In the midst of this chaotic environment, I realized Jesus is my only hope in journey of life. Many times, Jesus has took me out of burning situations that would oppress my soul. This just makes me shout, "Yes, Jesus is my all, my way out and my God who understands all my sorrows that no human or creature can feel. Oh I need him so much!!..."
I love the way Apostle Paul wrote about work, labor and patience in 1 Thessalonians 1:3
1 Thessalonians 1:3, “remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,”
I think I will anchor myself on this verse, as I walk towards my destiny that the Lord has prepared for me and while waiting for His return :)
D
Nevertheless as I seek the Lord that night, He touched my heart and gave me the strength to stand. I stood up from the inside, refreshed and felt like the best employee that everyone wants, hahaa. The next day, my supervisor was like a changed person, happy and kept her cool and gave me peace for that day. And Yes, the Lord has saved my day once again!
In the midst of this chaotic environment, I realized Jesus is my only hope in journey of life. Many times, Jesus has took me out of burning situations that would oppress my soul. This just makes me shout, "Yes, Jesus is my all, my way out and my God who understands all my sorrows that no human or creature can feel. Oh I need him so much!!..."
I love the way Apostle Paul wrote about work, labor and patience in 1 Thessalonians 1:3
1 Thessalonians 1:3, “remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,”
I think I will anchor myself on this verse, as I walk towards my destiny that the Lord has prepared for me and while waiting for His return :)
D
We are to be the LABORERS to reach out to the harvest
Luke 10:2, “Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Pastor Timothy shared on one occasion with the church. He asked, “If the Lord of the harvest refers to Jesus. Have you ever wonder why would Jesus himself urge His believers to pray to Himself to send laborers into the field?
The answer is simple: Jesus, being the head of the church, is in heaven while we, the body of Christ, is on earth and hence we are His hands and legs and mouth piece to spread the gospel of God.
In Dutch Sheets: Intercessory Prayer, he wrote the following passages which I felt help to explain why we need to pray.
Why, then, am I supposed to ask Him for something He already wants to do if it’s not that my asking somehow releases Him to do it?
It has been handed over humans were forever to be God’s link to authority and activity on earth.
Please think about that. If earth remained a paradise, it would be because of humankind. If things became messed up, it would be because of humankind. If serpent ever gained control, it would be because of humankind. Humanity was really in control.
Here we have, I believe, the reason for the necessity of prayer. God chose, from the time of the Creation, to work the earth through humans, not independent of them. He always has and always will, even at the cost of becoming one. Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning affairs of Earth, to working through human beings.
Therefore while we pray for more laborers to be sent to spread the gospel of God, let us be driven by the passion to proactively seek out opportunities to bring the message to people around us. Jesus already says that we are the laborers, meaning we are to be the workers. We need to work to reach out to the harvest.
Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Pastor Timothy brought up something which I found very insightful. In the medieval times, when one nation attacks another nation, the attacker will attack the fort/ castle and the only way of penetrating the fort/ castle would be through the gate.
Hence what Matthew is illustrating here is we are the attackers, attacking satan’s gate to bring souls to the Kingdom of God. We are not to be passive. And this is further enforced in Matthew 11:12.
Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
JY
Pastor Timothy shared on one occasion with the church. He asked, “If the Lord of the harvest refers to Jesus. Have you ever wonder why would Jesus himself urge His believers to pray to Himself to send laborers into the field?
The answer is simple: Jesus, being the head of the church, is in heaven while we, the body of Christ, is on earth and hence we are His hands and legs and mouth piece to spread the gospel of God.
In Dutch Sheets: Intercessory Prayer, he wrote the following passages which I felt help to explain why we need to pray.
Why, then, am I supposed to ask Him for something He already wants to do if it’s not that my asking somehow releases Him to do it?
It has been handed over humans were forever to be God’s link to authority and activity on earth.
Please think about that. If earth remained a paradise, it would be because of humankind. If things became messed up, it would be because of humankind. If serpent ever gained control, it would be because of humankind. Humanity was really in control.
Here we have, I believe, the reason for the necessity of prayer. God chose, from the time of the Creation, to work the earth through humans, not independent of them. He always has and always will, even at the cost of becoming one. Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning affairs of Earth, to working through human beings.
Therefore while we pray for more laborers to be sent to spread the gospel of God, let us be driven by the passion to proactively seek out opportunities to bring the message to people around us. Jesus already says that we are the laborers, meaning we are to be the workers. We need to work to reach out to the harvest.
Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Pastor Timothy brought up something which I found very insightful. In the medieval times, when one nation attacks another nation, the attacker will attack the fort/ castle and the only way of penetrating the fort/ castle would be through the gate.
Hence what Matthew is illustrating here is we are the attackers, attacking satan’s gate to bring souls to the Kingdom of God. We are not to be passive. And this is further enforced in Matthew 11:12.
Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
JY
True meaning of submitting to your authorities
Colossians 3:22-24, “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
1 Peter 2:18, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.”
God wants us to be submissive to both our spiritual leaders as well as secular leaders regardless whether they are good or bad.
A few days ago, I was reading Kate McVeigh: 12 ways to be a blessing to your church,
In one of the chapters, I thought it gave a very good description of what it meant by submission. In essence, the author wrote:
Agreeing with what your leader asks you to do does not involve submission. You do not submit until you disagree with what your authority asks you to do. What it means to say is if you are in the shoes of your leader, you will not handle the matter in the manner you leader does. Nevertheless you choose to obey and follow what your leaders says even though you think your idea is so much better than your leader’s.
Recently, I was ordering a plate of grilled fish with two side dishes from a hawker during lunch. While I was pondering what side dishes to choose from, the hawker took the initiative to make his recommendations fervently. He ended his recommendation with the following words which I was quite impressed. He concluded his recommendation with, “Sir, my suggestion, your decision.” I think this saying fits very well into the context that was shared above. Our attitude towards our leaders should be “My suggestion, your decision.”
I have witnessed several instances of people falling off with their leaders in both the secular world and in church as a result of not submitting to their authorities. It affects both parties ultimately.
Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Hence what I read is a good reminder for me to consistently watch out for this aspect of my Christian walk as an employee as well as a church member. As what Pastor Amos said several times, “Humility is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength!”
Steve
1 Peter 2:18, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.”
God wants us to be submissive to both our spiritual leaders as well as secular leaders regardless whether they are good or bad.
A few days ago, I was reading Kate McVeigh: 12 ways to be a blessing to your church,
In one of the chapters, I thought it gave a very good description of what it meant by submission. In essence, the author wrote:
Agreeing with what your leader asks you to do does not involve submission. You do not submit until you disagree with what your authority asks you to do. What it means to say is if you are in the shoes of your leader, you will not handle the matter in the manner you leader does. Nevertheless you choose to obey and follow what your leaders says even though you think your idea is so much better than your leader’s.
Recently, I was ordering a plate of grilled fish with two side dishes from a hawker during lunch. While I was pondering what side dishes to choose from, the hawker took the initiative to make his recommendations fervently. He ended his recommendation with the following words which I was quite impressed. He concluded his recommendation with, “Sir, my suggestion, your decision.” I think this saying fits very well into the context that was shared above. Our attitude towards our leaders should be “My suggestion, your decision.”
I have witnessed several instances of people falling off with their leaders in both the secular world and in church as a result of not submitting to their authorities. It affects both parties ultimately.
Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Hence what I read is a good reminder for me to consistently watch out for this aspect of my Christian walk as an employee as well as a church member. As what Pastor Amos said several times, “Humility is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength!”
Steve
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Someone paid for my drumming lessons
This is a combined testimony on the topic of giving from both the recipient’s and the giver’s point of view.
A member of our church saw a need for a drummer in the worship team and decided to offer his service to play with the worship team. However he has not undergone any prior formal training but decided to give it a try any way. Things turned out well and Pastor Amos decided to ask if he would like to take up formal training in drumming lessons to upgrade his skills. However the volunteer was not sure if this is a permanent role for him and to use the church fund for training would inevitably demand a certain level of commitment to play with the worship team seriously. Therefore he decided to reject Pastor’s offer but prayed to God that if it is His will, send someone to provide for his training.
Around the same time, another member of the church saw the above mentioned volunteer took up the position of the drummer and was very glad. The drummer’s involvement would definitely add more resources to the worship team was well as allow a wider variety of worship songs to sing and play. He thought about how he could help the drummer and God later impressed in his heart to send this volunteer for drumming lessons. Hence he checked out the rates in the market and felt that he was able to afford the course. So he later obeyed this leading and offered the drummer to send him to a beginner’s course in drumming.
During the conversation, the drummer asked if it is ok if he does not continue to play for the church after the course. The giver told him it is ok. In fact the giver told him that this arrangement is even better because the drummer can go for lessons without the pressure of commitment to the worship team and if the drummer felt that he would like to seriously play with the worship team, he could then probably consider using the church fund for subsequent lessons. At that point in time, he was not aware of any prior arrangements that were made between Pastor and himself. Immediately, the drummer knew that this was the person God sent to settle him
Praise God! Two parties seeking ways to bless the church and God divinely connected them together while increasing their faith in the process.
Steve
A member of our church saw a need for a drummer in the worship team and decided to offer his service to play with the worship team. However he has not undergone any prior formal training but decided to give it a try any way. Things turned out well and Pastor Amos decided to ask if he would like to take up formal training in drumming lessons to upgrade his skills. However the volunteer was not sure if this is a permanent role for him and to use the church fund for training would inevitably demand a certain level of commitment to play with the worship team seriously. Therefore he decided to reject Pastor’s offer but prayed to God that if it is His will, send someone to provide for his training.
Around the same time, another member of the church saw the above mentioned volunteer took up the position of the drummer and was very glad. The drummer’s involvement would definitely add more resources to the worship team was well as allow a wider variety of worship songs to sing and play. He thought about how he could help the drummer and God later impressed in his heart to send this volunteer for drumming lessons. Hence he checked out the rates in the market and felt that he was able to afford the course. So he later obeyed this leading and offered the drummer to send him to a beginner’s course in drumming.
During the conversation, the drummer asked if it is ok if he does not continue to play for the church after the course. The giver told him it is ok. In fact the giver told him that this arrangement is even better because the drummer can go for lessons without the pressure of commitment to the worship team and if the drummer felt that he would like to seriously play with the worship team, he could then probably consider using the church fund for subsequent lessons. At that point in time, he was not aware of any prior arrangements that were made between Pastor and himself. Immediately, the drummer knew that this was the person God sent to settle him
Praise God! Two parties seeking ways to bless the church and God divinely connected them together while increasing their faith in the process.
Steve
Be more than a follower of Christ, be a disciple of Christ
When we are young in Christ, we find that our prayers are answered almost very easily and God blesses us in many different ways that are personal to us. As we grow spiritually through knowing God better, God starts to expect us to act on His word and put our faith in Him through the various situations and circumstances that we found ourselves in. This is similar to the difference in the expectations we have towards a baby and an adult.
Nevertheless apart from the above area of Christian living, there is also another aspect of Christian walk that God wants us to engage in as well. Being a service to others.
Jesus came to serve and not to be served.
Matthew 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
When we experience God in using you to touch other people lives, you will not find yourself being contented with just leading a passive Christian life. You will want to be someone who wants to get involved in the “works” of Jesus. Such experiences might include:
- Someone whom you thought would be the least likely to accept Christ actually act on it when you ask him.
- Laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover before your eyes.
- Sharing your testimony with someone and you see tears welling up in their eyes.
- Giving someone a sum of money that God led you to do so and later you found out that he has been praying for this exact amount of money.
Experiences of the above nature often require the obedience on our part. Most of the time, thoughts of doubt or fear (of rejection, appearing stupid, saying the wrong things etc) come into our mind each time we felt led by God to give more financially, to share the gospel with a fellow friend or extend an act of love to someone else, just to name a few examples. However this is exactly when you will know that there is a divine connection when we act upon this leading and we see that act of blessing making an impact upon the person's life or when we experience the unexplainable joy in our hearts.
This is the point when you start to consciously look out for opportunities to bless people and see how God moves creatively in your life to do so through divine intervention and connection.
This is the also level of Christian walk that Pastor Amos has encouraged us to pursue and persevere. We serve because we love God and also because we love the people God loves.
Be a useful vessel!
2 Timothy 2:21, “… he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
Steve
Nevertheless apart from the above area of Christian living, there is also another aspect of Christian walk that God wants us to engage in as well. Being a service to others.
Jesus came to serve and not to be served.
Matthew 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
When we experience God in using you to touch other people lives, you will not find yourself being contented with just leading a passive Christian life. You will want to be someone who wants to get involved in the “works” of Jesus. Such experiences might include:
- Someone whom you thought would be the least likely to accept Christ actually act on it when you ask him.
- Laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover before your eyes.
- Sharing your testimony with someone and you see tears welling up in their eyes.
- Giving someone a sum of money that God led you to do so and later you found out that he has been praying for this exact amount of money.
Experiences of the above nature often require the obedience on our part. Most of the time, thoughts of doubt or fear (of rejection, appearing stupid, saying the wrong things etc) come into our mind each time we felt led by God to give more financially, to share the gospel with a fellow friend or extend an act of love to someone else, just to name a few examples. However this is exactly when you will know that there is a divine connection when we act upon this leading and we see that act of blessing making an impact upon the person's life or when we experience the unexplainable joy in our hearts.
This is the point when you start to consciously look out for opportunities to bless people and see how God moves creatively in your life to do so through divine intervention and connection.
This is the also level of Christian walk that Pastor Amos has encouraged us to pursue and persevere. We serve because we love God and also because we love the people God loves.
Be a useful vessel!
2 Timothy 2:21, “… he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
Steve
God divinely arranged an opportunity for me to minister to my sister
It was amazing how God lead me to minister to my sister who was a non believer recently. She has not been open to the gospel all these while and it is rare that we share our hearts out.
I remembered a few weeks ago, my sister dropped by my house with my dad for dinner. She was lounging in my living room when I noticed she saw a Christian book that I was reading then lying on my coffee table. She took a while looking at the book but did not picked it up. Nevertheless, I could sense that she was interested in the content of the Christian book. That instance, I smelled an opportunity to reach out to her. I felt impressed in my heart to buy the book by Joel Osteen: Be A Better You for her; and I did just that.
Two weeks later, I had a phone conversation with my sister to learn more about an unhappy incident that she has experienced lately. I was able to share some of my thoughts with her concerning the incident and we had a few laughs here and there.
As we chatted, I was seeking how to bring God into the picture into the course of conversation. God amazingly led our conversation from one topic to another topic. The conversation slowly evolved into a counseling manner whereby I shared my views and suggestions on approaches that I would adopt if I was in her shoes that were Christian based. She then talked about a motivational course she has attended lately but felt very uncomfortable with the intrusive methodology the course employed into her personal life. It was not cheap either and I do not feel good about the tactics and content of the course from the way she described it. It was at this point in time I found the opportunity to encourage her to read the book that I gave her a few weeks ago (she has not look at it yet at that point in time). Most importantly, I concluded by telling her that all the precepts that I shared with her concerning the issues that she is facing came from the bible and my experiences with God and they were free.
Towards the end of the call, I could feel that she was lifted up in her spirit and I now know why God specifically led me to get the book for her. Joel Osteen’s books are motivational based with underlying Christian values but yet not too heavy or aggressive for a non believer to read it. On my part, this is definitely one of the closest opportunities God used me to touch her in this manner after all these years. Praise God!
Anonymous
I remembered a few weeks ago, my sister dropped by my house with my dad for dinner. She was lounging in my living room when I noticed she saw a Christian book that I was reading then lying on my coffee table. She took a while looking at the book but did not picked it up. Nevertheless, I could sense that she was interested in the content of the Christian book. That instance, I smelled an opportunity to reach out to her. I felt impressed in my heart to buy the book by Joel Osteen: Be A Better You for her; and I did just that.
Two weeks later, I had a phone conversation with my sister to learn more about an unhappy incident that she has experienced lately. I was able to share some of my thoughts with her concerning the incident and we had a few laughs here and there.
As we chatted, I was seeking how to bring God into the picture into the course of conversation. God amazingly led our conversation from one topic to another topic. The conversation slowly evolved into a counseling manner whereby I shared my views and suggestions on approaches that I would adopt if I was in her shoes that were Christian based. She then talked about a motivational course she has attended lately but felt very uncomfortable with the intrusive methodology the course employed into her personal life. It was not cheap either and I do not feel good about the tactics and content of the course from the way she described it. It was at this point in time I found the opportunity to encourage her to read the book that I gave her a few weeks ago (she has not look at it yet at that point in time). Most importantly, I concluded by telling her that all the precepts that I shared with her concerning the issues that she is facing came from the bible and my experiences with God and they were free.
Towards the end of the call, I could feel that she was lifted up in her spirit and I now know why God specifically led me to get the book for her. Joel Osteen’s books are motivational based with underlying Christian values but yet not too heavy or aggressive for a non believer to read it. On my part, this is definitely one of the closest opportunities God used me to touch her in this manner after all these years. Praise God!
Anonymous
I asked God why my business venture did not take off
Recently, I looked back at the amount of preparation and ground work that I have done two years ago in setting up a business. It was quite a hefty amount of work and I poured out my heart into this business venture. All these were done while I was holding a permanent normal working hours job.
Disappointingly, it never really took off but by God’s grace, I did manage to clinch a deal that paid off all my initial investment plus a couple of thousands in profit. After that, I tried many ways and means to make new sales but have been unsuccessful. I was really discouraged and wondered if I have missed God in any way or this business was purely out of my own will and by the mercy of God, He helped me to pay off my initial investment. Nevertheless at the same time, I do not believe God will allow me to go through something in vain. There must be at least something I can learn from this experience. I have been asking God many “whys” and recently I felt that God was trying to show me two things.
Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the LORD:
“ Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.”
Firstly, you can have all the resources on hand, you can have all the brains and even the best business plan. However things might not always turn out in the manner you thought it would be ideally no matter how hard you try. Nevertheless this does not absolve you from doing your best in whatever you set you hands on.
Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might …”
Secondly, by God’s grace all things are possible.
Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Therefore this is a good reminder to me that God is Lord and we should always depend on Him in everything we do. We need this.
Anonymous
Disappointingly, it never really took off but by God’s grace, I did manage to clinch a deal that paid off all my initial investment plus a couple of thousands in profit. After that, I tried many ways and means to make new sales but have been unsuccessful. I was really discouraged and wondered if I have missed God in any way or this business was purely out of my own will and by the mercy of God, He helped me to pay off my initial investment. Nevertheless at the same time, I do not believe God will allow me to go through something in vain. There must be at least something I can learn from this experience. I have been asking God many “whys” and recently I felt that God was trying to show me two things.
Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the LORD:
“ Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.”
Firstly, you can have all the resources on hand, you can have all the brains and even the best business plan. However things might not always turn out in the manner you thought it would be ideally no matter how hard you try. Nevertheless this does not absolve you from doing your best in whatever you set you hands on.
Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might …”
Secondly, by God’s grace all things are possible.
Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Therefore this is a good reminder to me that God is Lord and we should always depend on Him in everything we do. We need this.
Anonymous
Thursday, April 1, 2010
At times God wants our heart to be ready before we receive His promises of life
Sometimes God does not want to reveal the full picture of His plan for our life. God hide it for our own benefits. Perhaps He knew the condition of our heart and how we will react if he reveals to us too much. Like a father who would not give a car to a small boy even though he intends to do so in the future. It is just not the right time.
I remembered hearing stories of my friends getting head hunted and experiencing rapid progression in their career. I started to develop this desire to be headhunted as well and hence I told God about it. True enough, I begin getting calls and leads on potential job offers. However I also did not realize that pride had started to creep into my heart as more calls started coming in. I begin to feel proud about myself to the extent that even though some of the jobs that I was head hunted for were not suitable, I felt bitter about it. I thought that I was so highly prized that everyone should think that I was good enough for all the roles offered. Soon I came to realize that this was only a sign of immaturity and lack of social exposure too.
Romans 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Eventually, all the jobs that were offered were not suitable for me. Actually there was also no peace in going for them. I started to feel demoralized and God started to take this opportunity to teach and correct my heart and warned me of pride.
Proverbs 3:11-13, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding;
Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
After all, all the talents and gifts that people might see in me is God given and not by my own strength. I learnt that if it is the intention of God to lead me to another job, it would be a smooth transition with everything falling into place. I do not need to get overly excited or promote myself so eagerly during the calls. I just need to do my best and God will settle the rest. Moving forward, I begin to take a very different attitude towards such head hunter calls. An attitude of humility instead of pride, knowing that next job offer might not be what God wants me to do. There is nothing particularly great about a head hunter call after all. I would not have known my weakness in this area if I did not go through the failed interviews. God is good. He changes us inside out.
It was then that a job offer came by through a head hunter which God has meant for me. I accepted the offer and God blessed me financially over this job transfer.
Eventually I was led out of my old job with peace and entered another new one with joy.
Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;”
Praise God.
Anonymous
I remembered hearing stories of my friends getting head hunted and experiencing rapid progression in their career. I started to develop this desire to be headhunted as well and hence I told God about it. True enough, I begin getting calls and leads on potential job offers. However I also did not realize that pride had started to creep into my heart as more calls started coming in. I begin to feel proud about myself to the extent that even though some of the jobs that I was head hunted for were not suitable, I felt bitter about it. I thought that I was so highly prized that everyone should think that I was good enough for all the roles offered. Soon I came to realize that this was only a sign of immaturity and lack of social exposure too.
Romans 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Eventually, all the jobs that were offered were not suitable for me. Actually there was also no peace in going for them. I started to feel demoralized and God started to take this opportunity to teach and correct my heart and warned me of pride.
Proverbs 3:11-13, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding;
Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
After all, all the talents and gifts that people might see in me is God given and not by my own strength. I learnt that if it is the intention of God to lead me to another job, it would be a smooth transition with everything falling into place. I do not need to get overly excited or promote myself so eagerly during the calls. I just need to do my best and God will settle the rest. Moving forward, I begin to take a very different attitude towards such head hunter calls. An attitude of humility instead of pride, knowing that next job offer might not be what God wants me to do. There is nothing particularly great about a head hunter call after all. I would not have known my weakness in this area if I did not go through the failed interviews. God is good. He changes us inside out.
It was then that a job offer came by through a head hunter which God has meant for me. I accepted the offer and God blessed me financially over this job transfer.
Eventually I was led out of my old job with peace and entered another new one with joy.
Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;”
Praise God.
Anonymous
Developing a heart of giving and allowing God to open up your heart
I tithe and give under the obedience of God’s leading.
During times when I am in doubt of the amount God impressed in my heart to give is more than what I wish to, I would pray about it and eventually just follow my heart. The attitude that I have kept is, even if I heard wrongly from God, it is still money sowed into good grounds.
While sowing into the kingdom of God will bring returns to us in various forms,
I realized that as I continue to do so, God has also developed my heart in the area of giving and helping others in times of need; be it for spiritual reasons or natural reasons.
When I was a young Christian, a few of my seniors blessed me with Christian books which have helped to enrich my spiritual understanding of God immensely and at the same time developed a hunger in me to read extensively. When I was tasked to take care of a group of church members, I too started to seek out opportunities to bless them with books which I have read and hope that these readings would bless them at the right time. In this aspect of giving, the value the book I perceived could bless them often far exceeds the tangible cost of the books that I need to pay for them. In such instances, I would not be overly concerned about the price of the book although some of them were expensive to me. It was a pick and go attitude.
In the area of helping people with natural needs, I too start to realize my heart starts to seek out opportunities to do so. I become sensitive to situations that I come across and conversations I have with people around me be it Christians or non Christians. I wanted to see where I could contribute financially through practical gifts, cash etc. Moreover such acts of gift will help soften the heart of non Christians whom I want to share the love of God with them as God leads.
Luke 16:9, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”
Luke wrote about using money (unrighteous mammon) to make friends with non believers to make connections and eventually share the gospel with them.
Not only God gave me the desire to help others, I realized that the desire to make my contribution a bigger impact to the recipient or organization increases as well. I seek to see how I could significantly help in various situations as God leads within my means.
I could relate to Pastor Amos when he mentioned that he does not bat an eyelid when it comes to God’s leading in the area of giving while he is more “careful” with spending in his personal life.
Acts 20:35, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’””
I definitely feel blessed in my heart with the joy and liberty to help others within my means. God bless us to be a blessing to others.
Like what Pastor Amos mentioned, one of our purposes is to help others to be a success.
To side track a little, there was a time when I was pondering on the below scripture and thinking to myself:
Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
God is faithful in meeting our needs and not our wants and His will is always to bless others through us. This implies that if I continue to develop this heart of giving to others, perhaps it will come to a point that such acts of giving would eventually become part of my need; and this could be one of the many reasons I give God to bless me financially even more!
Steve
During times when I am in doubt of the amount God impressed in my heart to give is more than what I wish to, I would pray about it and eventually just follow my heart. The attitude that I have kept is, even if I heard wrongly from God, it is still money sowed into good grounds.
While sowing into the kingdom of God will bring returns to us in various forms,
I realized that as I continue to do so, God has also developed my heart in the area of giving and helping others in times of need; be it for spiritual reasons or natural reasons.
When I was a young Christian, a few of my seniors blessed me with Christian books which have helped to enrich my spiritual understanding of God immensely and at the same time developed a hunger in me to read extensively. When I was tasked to take care of a group of church members, I too started to seek out opportunities to bless them with books which I have read and hope that these readings would bless them at the right time. In this aspect of giving, the value the book I perceived could bless them often far exceeds the tangible cost of the books that I need to pay for them. In such instances, I would not be overly concerned about the price of the book although some of them were expensive to me. It was a pick and go attitude.
In the area of helping people with natural needs, I too start to realize my heart starts to seek out opportunities to do so. I become sensitive to situations that I come across and conversations I have with people around me be it Christians or non Christians. I wanted to see where I could contribute financially through practical gifts, cash etc. Moreover such acts of gift will help soften the heart of non Christians whom I want to share the love of God with them as God leads.
Luke 16:9, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”
Luke wrote about using money (unrighteous mammon) to make friends with non believers to make connections and eventually share the gospel with them.
Not only God gave me the desire to help others, I realized that the desire to make my contribution a bigger impact to the recipient or organization increases as well. I seek to see how I could significantly help in various situations as God leads within my means.
I could relate to Pastor Amos when he mentioned that he does not bat an eyelid when it comes to God’s leading in the area of giving while he is more “careful” with spending in his personal life.
Acts 20:35, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’””
I definitely feel blessed in my heart with the joy and liberty to help others within my means. God bless us to be a blessing to others.
Like what Pastor Amos mentioned, one of our purposes is to help others to be a success.
To side track a little, there was a time when I was pondering on the below scripture and thinking to myself:
Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
God is faithful in meeting our needs and not our wants and His will is always to bless others through us. This implies that if I continue to develop this heart of giving to others, perhaps it will come to a point that such acts of giving would eventually become part of my need; and this could be one of the many reasons I give God to bless me financially even more!
Steve
God made a divine arrangement for me to demonstrate His love for my friend grandmother
Jude 1:21-23, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh."
Recently a grandmother of my friend passed away. Although I have met her only 3 times within a period of a few months, I felt sad in my heart looking at her corpse at the funeral. There seems to be a connection between both of us. God supernaturally connected me to this friend of mine and led me to be a part of his grandmother’s life.
The first time I learnt about her was when I was giving my friend a ride home. He mentioned about his 90 over years old grandmother being admitted to the hospital. The immediate question I had in my mind was whether she was a Christian. I knew it would be a matter of time before she passes away. Unfortunately she was not. Hence I wanted to visit her and share the gospel with her.
The first visit was at a local hospital. She was in a dazed state with no ability to move or communicate effectively. I could feel the compassion in my heart for this particular grandmother. I spoke into her ear about receiving the salvation of Christ and prayed for her. All I could ask God was, “God, help her know you.” However I was not convinced she would receive her salvation then. Despite my friend was a non believer, he was appreciative of my prayer.
The second visit was when I learnt that the grandmother was admitted to one of the local old folks home. I visited her and could understand why my friend was reluctant to place her there. In her ward of over 20 old folks, all of them except her were in the state of unconsciousness, mental instability or handicapped in one way or the other. The old lady beside her had both her legs amputated while the old lady diagonally across her bed died a day ago. The atmosphere was definitely not edifying and there was a sense of despair lingering around. The care takers were also mostly foreign workers who could not speak dialect or Chinese. After the visit, I shared with my friend that I was very concerned about her salvation than her current situation. He was appreciative of my concern but he told me his grandmother was not ready to receive Christ.
The third and last visit was on Good Friday. I have been pondering how I could help to bring some joy to the grandmother’s day and so I thought of bringing my baby girl to see her. My family went there without the knowledge of my friend. Initially I was a little apprehensive about the spread of diseases or sickness among the old people but I just make sure hygiene was ensured for my baby during the visit. The grandmother could not recognize me but I just took her hands to stroke my sleeping baby’s head and talk to her about my baby. Although the grandmother was still not able to communicate well, she was more alert in her mind this time. On several occasions she even broke into smiles as she touched my baby. This time, I took the opportunity and time to explain the gospel to her again and prayed a little in tongues for her. I asked her if she believed Jesus and she just looked at me and nod her head at times. To be frank, I do not know if she really did accept Jesus.
Every now and then, I would have this grandmother in mind and would ask my friend how she was doing. The last time I heard was she got into a seizure and was admitted into the hospital again. However I had other commitments and thought of dropping by the week after. It was then that I received the news of her death when the new week started.
Through this episode, I was reminded not to be negligent in the area of reaching out to non believers. I am probably the last person to reach out to my friend’s grandmother and who knows I might be the only person to share the gospel with her.
Moreover whenever God made the divine connection to touch non believers through us, He would place the compassion in our heart to love them to our best know how for the sake of the kingdom of God. I also realized that when these people passed away, I would feel the sense of loss in my heart that is different from the loss of people whom I have acquainted for years.
Steve
Recently a grandmother of my friend passed away. Although I have met her only 3 times within a period of a few months, I felt sad in my heart looking at her corpse at the funeral. There seems to be a connection between both of us. God supernaturally connected me to this friend of mine and led me to be a part of his grandmother’s life.
The first time I learnt about her was when I was giving my friend a ride home. He mentioned about his 90 over years old grandmother being admitted to the hospital. The immediate question I had in my mind was whether she was a Christian. I knew it would be a matter of time before she passes away. Unfortunately she was not. Hence I wanted to visit her and share the gospel with her.
The first visit was at a local hospital. She was in a dazed state with no ability to move or communicate effectively. I could feel the compassion in my heart for this particular grandmother. I spoke into her ear about receiving the salvation of Christ and prayed for her. All I could ask God was, “God, help her know you.” However I was not convinced she would receive her salvation then. Despite my friend was a non believer, he was appreciative of my prayer.
The second visit was when I learnt that the grandmother was admitted to one of the local old folks home. I visited her and could understand why my friend was reluctant to place her there. In her ward of over 20 old folks, all of them except her were in the state of unconsciousness, mental instability or handicapped in one way or the other. The old lady beside her had both her legs amputated while the old lady diagonally across her bed died a day ago. The atmosphere was definitely not edifying and there was a sense of despair lingering around. The care takers were also mostly foreign workers who could not speak dialect or Chinese. After the visit, I shared with my friend that I was very concerned about her salvation than her current situation. He was appreciative of my concern but he told me his grandmother was not ready to receive Christ.
The third and last visit was on Good Friday. I have been pondering how I could help to bring some joy to the grandmother’s day and so I thought of bringing my baby girl to see her. My family went there without the knowledge of my friend. Initially I was a little apprehensive about the spread of diseases or sickness among the old people but I just make sure hygiene was ensured for my baby during the visit. The grandmother could not recognize me but I just took her hands to stroke my sleeping baby’s head and talk to her about my baby. Although the grandmother was still not able to communicate well, she was more alert in her mind this time. On several occasions she even broke into smiles as she touched my baby. This time, I took the opportunity and time to explain the gospel to her again and prayed a little in tongues for her. I asked her if she believed Jesus and she just looked at me and nod her head at times. To be frank, I do not know if she really did accept Jesus.
Every now and then, I would have this grandmother in mind and would ask my friend how she was doing. The last time I heard was she got into a seizure and was admitted into the hospital again. However I had other commitments and thought of dropping by the week after. It was then that I received the news of her death when the new week started.
Through this episode, I was reminded not to be negligent in the area of reaching out to non believers. I am probably the last person to reach out to my friend’s grandmother and who knows I might be the only person to share the gospel with her.
Moreover whenever God made the divine connection to touch non believers through us, He would place the compassion in our heart to love them to our best know how for the sake of the kingdom of God. I also realized that when these people passed away, I would feel the sense of loss in my heart that is different from the loss of people whom I have acquainted for years.
Steve
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