Supernatural

A short reflection of 2011

2012-02-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

The extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our church which started last year in April brings back a lot of memories time. I was born again 27 years ago during a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit sporadically in many parts of Malaysia. Experiencing dreams and visions,trance, signs and wonders that I couldn't figure out how it happened. There were no teaching about it, even the gift of speaking in tongues and moving with the gifts of the Holy Spirit was considered extreme and was deemed with tremendous caution. Thank God for a good pastor that I had, even though he could not explain what had happened to me, but encouraged me to be free flowing with the Lord. He tried his best to shelter me from many criticisms and suspicions of other Christians, asking me to explore deeper with the Lord individually. At the same time, God did a miracle in my life that I just couldn't be bothered much of what others said – I was just extreme and weird to many. My pastor wanted to see the outpouring amass in the church, but majority of the church leaders and members were not ready for that kind of move of God.

Why am I telling you all (World Harvest Church) these? I am not digging badly of the past. I really appreciate the experiences, the research and the willingness of Ps David and the cooperation of the full-time team to embrace this outpouring of God. Many teachings and practices in World Harvest Church, that you think is a norm, was not a norm. If you attend our church long enough, you will notice that we don’t keep tradition, in fact,we always change for the sake of the move of God. At one point we emphasis on this, at another time, we may just do the opposite. This may drive some people crazy, but just to cater for the Holy Spirit to move mightily, we are willing to change and embrace mistakes, love and forgive. Change does not come easily as you age and already accepted certain values or practices. But we are not all-knowing, what we thought right at one point, later we realized God has a better way. And not everything we learnt in the past was wrong. God's revelation comes line upon line; precept upon precept, respecting people who are before us not reacting to their mistakes creates a “green house environment” in your heart for the seed of God to grow in every season of life. So are you ready for change? I used to hear a man of God say, "The only thing constant in this world is change."

Lastly, the point that I want to drive home here is, some of you who has experienced this move of God for the first time, do you know you are very privileged? No one in the leadership questions your creditability; on top of that you are encouraged and guided with sound teachings for you to flow more effective with the Holy Spirit. You are like what the Chinese proverb says “like a fish in the water (如鱼得水), wings were added on the tiger (如虎添翼).” Oh! And what I envy most is, this outpouring of God is on a big group of you and the fire is still spreading, this dynamic is what an individual can't achieve.

As a church we can't generate the revival, but we can create an environment that treasures and honors the Holy Spirit. A revival is never meant to last for a few months or years, is should continue and grow stronger until Christ comes again. It starts from our heart, expended to the whole church and must spread to our community. In the Old Testament, God got a box (the ark) but He never stayed in the box, later man build Him a house, but He would not be limited by a man-made building, He wants to stay in, move in and through us, He wants to pour out His Spirit on all flesh, not just Christian.

Ministry - activities or expression of God's heart

2011-11-12T02:46:00.001-08:00

As a church we are in the midst of God training us to serve with the leading of the Holy Spirit. We learn about the gifting, the spiritual gift etc. etc. Let us not compartmentalize things, we can't separate the person of Jesus or Godhead from the nine manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the twelve ministry gifts or the five fold gift. All these are the expression of God's goodness and love. You will find all these in the person of Jesus when He was on earth!
Teaching or using gift apart from Jesus and the heart of God is not complete. If you want to move into these gifts for the sake of the result that the gift can bring and want nothing to do with Jesus, His mission and purpose you miss the focus of the gift.

So what is ministry? What does it means by serving God?
To me, ministry is the expression of who God is (the person of God) and what He want to do. It is the expression of what is in the heart of God and His ability. Jesus is the personified of ministry.

So why you serve God?
You serve God to express the heart of God and to release His power.
God used a gifted musician or artist to speak to me about gift and ministry. Artists or musicians always want to show their talent and express what is in their heart through their work (drawing or music they play). A true artist don't just imitate other perfectly and have no soul of his own. Likewise, ministry is not just blindly imitate the ministry of someone else - what they do. You may do exactly what they do, but do not know the heart of God for the people, situation, location that you are in or the heart of God for you and to release the His art work through you.

The Shepherd of my soul

2011-08-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Do you know what it means to have a shepherd over your life? I don't know either until recently (2009). An elderly prophetess took Psalm 23, wanted to illustrate how she can prophesied over someone with Scripture, I think God must has set me up. The prophetess asked me to volunteer, and prophesied over me with Psalm 23.

A few days later, a picture of a herd of sheep gleaning on a green pasture that I saw sometimes ago flashed through my mind while I am working. "Psalm 23", I thought...em.... So I went to look for that magazine and took a snap of that picture, saved it as my phone wallpaper.

When I got back home, I find all this 'coincidence' interesting, so I open up Psalm 23 and read again. Suddenly the word HE, HE, HE, popped up! Hey! I always think of I need to follow closely after my Shepherd, but this time, what I see is He-Jesus, my Shepherd, is the One who makes sure I stick close to Him. He makes..., He leads..., He restore..., He leads...

You see the sheep never worried whether she will follow the shepherd (by the way, sheep are too dumb to worried :p), the shepherd does. The sheep doesn't find it's own pasture and water, the shepherd does. That means Jesus will make sure I will have spiritual revelation, food, refreshing, restoration all the time. I will never lack of them simply because He is my Shepherd.

Sometimes, I may wonder off (all sheep does!), but He will pull me back with His rod and staff. I hear and recognize His voice, and I follow His voice. This revelation really makes me feel save and secure. I don't need to fence for my own life anymore, my Shepherd will take care of this.

We are His sheep, He knows us and calls us by name, we hear His voice and we follow Him. It is just that simple.

Spiritual Warfare

2011-06-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

The most subtlety of spiritual warfare is not the devil attack us outwardly like sickness, trouble etc. but is what Jesus said “Get behind me Satan, you are an offense to me (or a stumbling block), for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt 16:23).

You would be surprised that Jesus didn’t say “the things of devil but the things of men”, the Amplified Bible put it “minding what partakes not of the nature & quality …. of men.”

Human beings have one basic personal need, which is a sense of personal worth, and acceptance of oneself as a whole, real person. The two required inputs this are significance (purpose, importance, adequacy for a job, meaningfulness, impact) and security (love – unconditional and consistently expressed; permanent acceptance).

After the Fall, fear came in, rejection came in (as that is the nature of sin), we lost our significance and acceptance. So men are constantly seeking for it. Usually for man, the primary route to personal worth is significance and for women it is security.

So the attack came in a form of the fear of losing your significance or security over what God has said in His word or spoken to you.

Have you ever hear thoughts like, “My leader/boss/parent plays favoritism, he only recognized so and so, he won’t even mention my name or gave me opportunity”, “You see, whatever so and so do will be recognized, but not what I did, I’ve no chance to fulfill my dream in this place.”

To those who seek the approval or acceptance:

“My leader/boss/parent is not fair, when so and so made mistake, he didn’t punish him, but when I make mistake, he rebukes me for one hour!”

“Why should I stay here, no one ever appreciate my work!”

God put us together and place in a church to fulfill His purpose. Your senior pastor is not perfect, all mighty or all loving like God. Just like God put David under Saul (Do you know Saul is David spiritual father?) No one can has a worst spiritual father like David, one who sought to kill him off (God is humorous to put David under Saul to train David!) Saul wanted Jonathan to take over the kingdom (not considered God’s plan), but God wanted David. David knew the heart of God and was mindful of the things of God. He submitted himself to Saul, acknowledged that he is the anointed of God and even loved him. David didn’t said, “Well, Saul is a bad king, sin against God, since God called me to replace him as king, I will kill him off now, why should him continuously lead the people to suffer, let me bring the people to the glory of God!”

The tactic of devil is to break the unity of our church by attacking our most basic need and those needs are not wrong and they are what God want us to have also. But when we let those needs divert us from the things (purpose, nature, quality) of God, then we are under the attack, we are being fooled. Our response should be like Jesus, “Get ye behind me Satan, you are an offense to me”

Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.” Jesus had the right to live, the right not to suffer, yet He chose the purpose of God.

Look to God for your significance and security, know that you are totally accepted, unconditionally loved, your position in Christ is secured (no one can replace you! you are the only you in the whole human history). Find your identity in Christ, then out of that identity serve Him (your doing unto Him) and man.

The world way is 1^st, you do something (by your own hard work) to get your identity and then establish your position or gain acceptance. But the kingdom of God is 1^st , you are accepted, loved and in Christ you are given the identity, the calling (position) all by grace, then realizing your identity you do the serving.

So, what should I do if this kind of thought comes?

First, I don’t yield to it (I don’t let the thought linger in my mind), I don’t get panic, don’t blame myself or go into pity party. Calmly and coolly say to yourself “ It is no longer I who live but Christ live in me, this life that I now live, I live by faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me! So devil, get behind me! Flesh, you are dead!” Then, purposefully rejoice with the person whom you have a negative feeling, or just thinks of what Jesus has accomplished for you on the cross. If you want the same kind of blessing, just ask!

But I don’t feel good!

You are not feeling led, but Holy Spirit led and walk by faith on God’s promise.

But I feel condemn!

Forgive yourself, say sorry to God then change your mind think like what God think of you. 1Jn 3:20 said, “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and know all things.”

Lord! Send revival start with me

2010-10-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

Sometime as I read the book of Acts, seeing in just one impromptu preaching of Peter after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, about three thousands of souls come into the kingdom of God! Wow! How I wish my church experienced that!

The Lord brought to my understanding, what we saw happened in the book of Acts was not a sudden magical change without any preparation and perspiration. Something had happened that would eventually lead to the joyous and victorious climax that we called a kairos time.

Let's go back to history.... rewind to three years before the Pentecost experience....

On one fine sunny day, our Lord Jesus suddenly appeared in the eyes of the public after 30 years of concealing His identity and purpose. No one ever notice how He live His silent life those 30 years. He went to see the most famous prophet of His time - John the Baptist, was baptized and led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness not to do sign and wonder but to be tempted by Devil! He fasted forty days & nights and came out with flying color. In the next three years, we saw Him recruited 12 imperfect person (Peter - one who spoke without thinking through, James and John, who seriously needed to join the anger management workshop, Judas Iscariot - a thief and greedy guy, Philip - the guy who was blur all the time, Thomas - one who always doubt, you get the point) and turned them into His serious disciples ^^'''! You can imagine the countless correction, rebuke, and late night explanations that He had to do in order to train them.

Day in day out, He tirelessly preaching and ministering from village to village, town to town, city to city. Sometime He spoke to the multitude and sometime just an individual. And don't forget the numerous whole night prayers, early morning prayers or late night prayers that He prayed. He didn't just stop at making 12 disciples, He trained the seventy two and sent them out. He recruited even the women which was unusual in those day.

On top of that, He got to face fierce persecution from the religious authority, as the tension grew stronger, His earthly family tried to pressurized Him to conform to the acceptable value of the Jew, and many of His disciples left Him after the infamous, controversial message that He preached.

Finally the as He was crucified, all His beloved disciples left Him. After the resurrection, He restored back the eleven, appeared to the 500 and commissioned them to take the world. Out of those 500, 120 responded to the called and waited at the upper room and the rest is history.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remembered the sweat and blood that our Lord Jesus Christ put in for 3 years in preparation for the day of Pentecost. The revival that the early church experienced was not an accident or a sudden moment of change that without effort, someone had till the ground, someone had prepared the hearts of the multitudes. So my challenge to you is - Are you willing to be that someone? Aren't we all called to be like Jesus?

Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Think about this quote for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to the way you run your church, your cell group, and your life?

God Wants Relationship

2010-09-06T03:45:00.000-07:00

God wants relationship, sons and daughters and not religion. Relationship start from a heart, grow through interaction, communication and experience things (good or bad) together, and the glue that glue a relationship is knowing that you are loved and you reciprocate with love.
Complain – It is alright and healthy if you complain to God, but after your complain, do you quiet down to listen to what God has to said about the issue you complained? If you don’t, then, that is not a healthy relationship.

Praise – All agree that we should give God all our praises, but have you ever heard God praising you? Or you are thinking, ‘How can it be? This is crazy! ’ what’s wrong if a father praise his children, Isn’t God praised Job as a blameless and upright? And we are born of God, through the blood of His precious Son that makes us righteous.

Asking – we always ask God for things, bless my study bless my job, give me a life partner, a house and etc. You see, again this is one way traffic, do you listen to God’s heart, paying attention to His request of you?

Silent – someone said that a best friend is someone you can just sit quietly together, and feel absolutely comfortable. When you feel the present of God do you always compel to do something or there are times you can just sit quietly with Him and do nothing.

Hurt – can you express your hurt to God as it is? Do you feel His hands gently comforting you, wiping away your tear? Do you notice there are times God is feeling hurt too? How do you response to Him when He is hurt?

Smile – a smile lighten you day. Do you greet God with a smile every new day? Do you know He is smiling at you?
Debate or negotiate – as far as I know, if you do that to defend yourself you will lose up to Him. But if you do it on behalf of others, He will entertain you.

Doing things together – Do you invite Him into your daily activities, ask for His advice, and exercise faith when He assured your heart, change your plan when He direct you.

Opinion – do you share your opinion with Him? How about listen to His point of view?

The lists can go on and on, the bottom line is – is your relationship with God a monologue or a dialogue?

Short article by John G Lake

2010-09-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

If you have not heard about John G Lake, just type his name at google and you will find out who he is - a man of faith and passion for God. Below is a short article written by him and it touches me deeply:

Jesus took each discovered promise and worked it out. He discovered the promise of supply and fed the multitude, He discovered healing power and made the blind to see and the deaf to hear, the lame to walk. He discovered the promise of "man the master" when anointed of God and he stilled the waves, and turned the water into wine, discovered of life present and He raised Lazarus and the widow's son, of life everlasting and He rose from the dead.

He gave His promises as discovered and demonstrated truth and tells us these things shall be ours, as we are lifted by the Spirit into God's realm, the Christ conscious realm.
(John G. Lake)

Read it, think over what he said and live it. Christ in you the hope of glory!

A Called to Pray

2010-02-03T21:59:00.000-08:00

For a long time I wanted to take something from my personal spiritual journal and publish it on my blog; yet I don't know which to choose. Decision, decision, decision.... Today, as it is time for me to write another article, I opened up one of the journals and found a piece of scrap paper title – Seed of Revival. Here is how it goes:

2007
As I was driving to work, stopping at the traffic light, God spoke to me the He has planted seed of Revival all over Malaysia. He is waiting for His people to pluck it down from the spiritual realm.

2008
All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come (Matthew 24:14 The Message).
God has promised us in the Bible that at the end of time, there will be a global revival, a massive spreading of the gospel with the power, sign and wonder to attest it.
If you are watchful (the Lord has asked us to watch and pray), you will notice things are happening very fast all around the world. Miracles like the one recorded in both Old and New Testaments are happening again. Food multiplies, the blinds see, the lames walk etc. all this happened not only within the four walls of churches but out there in the marketplace, shopping complexes, restaurants and wedding event. All these miracles happened not only through the hands of pastors or ministers, but every believer as well.
Phenomenon or sign like gold dust falling from nowhere, diamonds dropped in the hands or floor of people who were deep in worship, rain in the building, fire that burns but not consume, and angels so on and so forth.
Recently, when I was in Singapore, I met a lady who just came back from Israel, attending a prayer for all nations conference. She told me that the Lord move the heart of people during the conference and all of them praying and crying for Malaysia, yet there was no Malaysian representative in that meeting.
One evangelist prophet from America came to Sabah because he heard from God that God wanted to do something special here in Malaysia. When he arrived, he was sadden by the churches here, he shared freely to the leaders that Malaysia churches lack of prayer and unity.
Another prophet just having a conference in Penang, prophesied that God is going to do a great thing in Malaysia, but the churches here need to rise up and pray, if not, we may miss the timing of God (see also Matthew 25:31-46).

Dear brother and sister, I earnest urge to you is let us fast and pray for Malaysia, let us pray for all churches here, let us wait upon the Lord and see what He wants to do here and then like Isaiah, when he looked into the heavenly realm and heard the voice of God, he offered himself, “Lord! Here I am, send me.”

2010 Enlarge Your Vision!

2010-01-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

We always heard Ps David said that we are saved for a higher purpose. Yet most of us has yet to experience what God has prepared for us! I believe the main reason for this is, we are so familiar with lack and are locked in the earthly realm that always running out of resources.

Alan Cohen said, 'It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.' Let us come out of our limitation and step into the realm of God. In order to do that you need to:

1, Shift from 'I' to 'God'
'I' realm's faith asks, 'God, makes my life more comfortable'. Well, nothing wrong to have a comfortable life, indeed it is the will of God to comfort us - His is called The Comforter. But, if all your aim is to be comfortable, then you are bound by a very narrow way of life.

Matthew 6:33 says, 'Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your human everyday concerns will be ' (Msg). Your new life has much more potential than you can imagine, don't settle for the less.

2, Shift from 'Church Oriented' to 'Global Oriented'
It's always in the heart of God to take the world. It is sad to see many churches (I don't mean the building, you know who is the church) still seeing serving God is confined within the four walls of the church. Jesus commanded, 'Go into all the world ...' and we say, 'Let's us serve God in the church...'.

The world is moving into globalization. But do you know, more than two thousand years ago Jesus already charted the plan of globalization, starting from Jerusalem (your community), Judea (your nation), Samaria (others culture) and to the end of the world (all nations).

This Great Commission is the ultimate call of all Christian. The early disciples were a happy bunch, full of passion and contagious, because they didn't just mentally agree with the Great Commission, they lived the Great Commission. Everyday as they wake up, they were expecting God to use them in a fresh new way.

So, decide ye this day what kind of Christian you want to be.

God has given out the invitation, to the grandest, most exciting, most meaningful commission. Nothing can be greatest than this. My friend, one day this invitation will end - the day where all nations, tongues and tribes bowing down to Jesus as prophesied in Revelation.

3, Shift from 'Child-mentality' to 'Adult-mentality'
'My friend, stop thinking like children, think like mature people...' (1 Cor 4:23-24 CEV).
A child's world is all about self, but grown-ups think of other. This is a difficult mental shift. We are all self-centered, the only possible way for this mental shift is to depend on God's grace moment by moment.

Thanks God that He didn't issue the command and then leave it to us to struggle on our own. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us along the way (1 Cor 2:12). Begin asking the Holy Spirit to show you the need of people whenever you talk with them. Pray short precise prayer in your heart, 'Let me know what are the things hinder them from knowing You.' Your initial plan is to figure out the level of their openness. After that, let's be like Paul, put ourselves in their shoes, and with wisdom and creativity, bring them one step closer to Jesus.

4, Don't trade what is eternal for the temporary
Most of what we work so hard for will not matter a year from now, much less for eternity. Don't waste your youth for temporary things. Invest your time, energy, talents, spiritual gifts, money etc. for the things that can last for eternity.

Maybe you have heard, 'When you die, you can't bring all your hard earn possessions with you.' But Jesus said, 'What you invest now on this earthly life can has eternal value. Use your money to make friends and win them to God's side, then you will have friends for eternity, and they will welcome you when you get to heaven (Luke 6:19).

Merry Christmas

2009-12-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

I read of a poem by Edgar A Guest and find it meaningful. I know it is odd to share something like that in Christmas season. But come to think about it, it may be the right thing to share. I hope that this poem will cause you to ponder of how God has bestowed His grace on you and let us look at what we have (not what you don't have); give and share in this special season.

Out of this life I shall never take

Thins of silver and gold I make

All that I cherish and hoard away

After I leave, on earth must stay.

Though I have toiled for a painting rare

To hand on my wall I must leave it there

Though I call it mine and boast of its worth

I must give it up when I quit the earth.

All that I gather and all that I keep,

I must leave behind when I fall asleep.

And I often wonder what I shall own

In that other life, when I pass alone.

What shall they find and what shall they see

In the soul that answers the call for me?

Shall the great Judge learn when my task is through

That the spirit had gathered some riches too?

Or shall at the last it be mine to find

That all I had worked for

I'd left behind?

Are you crazy for spiritual gifts?

2009-10-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Many people have an idea of if they received a prophecy saying that they have this or that spiritual gift, then they will have those spiritual gifts; if they never receive any, then, it is too bad, they have none. I think this is a myth that we need to bust it. Actually we didn't see any evident in the Bible says so. But the Bible did ask us to EARNESTLY DESIRE spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12 : 31; 14 : 1).
This morning as the pastoral team are praying for the church, God spoke to me about spiritual gifts. If you want any of the spiritual gifts listed at 1 Cor 12 : 7-10, you just need to desire it.
I ask the Lord how to desire? He then shows me an example of how a youth crazily desire to have an IPhone or PSP. Have you ever seen one? I have. They will talk about it with their friends, go to the shop to look at it, tried it, search the Internet for the info, find out the functions and literally memorize every features. If their friend got it, they will admire the friend and ask the friend to show them or let them play it. They will bargain with their parent for it, do some part time job to earn extra money in order to get it, so on and so for...
That is how you should desire for spiritual gifts! Talk about it passionately with God and your friends, ask God for it, find out what and how it function and go to places where you can see it been operated, ‘shop’ it in the Internet – well, what I mean is, search the Internet for the info, see for yourself from YouTube the video clips about the operation of those gifts..... Then go ahead and try it, use it, just like the youth that will not stop playing his friend PSP once it is in his hand.
Dear fellow brothers and sisters let us pursue love, and crazily desire after spiritual gifts. If you are passionate about it, let's start shopping! (below is a link that you may not want to miss)
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkxF8eHePzs

We need you

2009-09-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

As a pastor, I want to know what success means. I believe as a member in the church we all need to know what it means to be fruitful as a believer of Christ and as a church as well.
How do you define success in ministry? Recently I found the discussion on this topic at http://www.originsproject.org/ to find out how younger pastors are defining (and redefining) success. They said success is…
· When a church moves from being a fortress from the world to being the hope of the world
· When servanthood organically emerges from your community
· When nobody leaves the church because a guest is on the patio smoking a cigarette
· When you have to expand your new believers ministry
· When the city government calls and asks for your help to solve a local problem
· When modern and postmodern Christian sub-culture lingo is completely absent from your service
· When an increasing percentage of your community engages in worship, incarnational outreach, and love for the less lovely
· When your ministry team can tell stories of God’s undeniable work in the people they know on a weekly basis
· When your community is growing in both depth and width – growing deeper in knowledge and love of God and sharing what they learn with others so the church can’t help but grow
· When in your corporate worship you faithfully preach the whole of God’s Word including the law and the sweetness of the Gospel
· When lives are transformed
· When you celebrate the Sacraments in all their richness and meaning, following the institution of Jesus to his disciples
· When people are increasingly living their lives in joyful response to the Gospel, including loving and serving others, giving sacrificially, and being passionate about seeing others know Jesus
I found the points that they said were right. My fellow members, we need to think and look into our life and see are we contributing to the success of our church? If not, maybe it is time we ask God to change us, you are the one that God wants to use to be a light to our community.

The Ten ''Can''-mandments

2009-05-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

Recently I got from my email an article that I found it worth sharing. This is how it goes:

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13 NIV).

So often we think of commandments as a list of don'ts. Instead of focusing on what we can't do, let's start looking at what we can with this list of ten "can"-mandments!

1. Instead of thinking, "It will never fly," think, "Through God's strength, it's worth the try!"

2. Replace the thought, "It won't work," with faith that, with God's strength, it will work!

3. When someone says, "It's never been done before," respond by saying, "That means God's giving us the opportunity to be the first."

4. "What if we fail?" What if we fail to try, knowing God says we can do everything through Him who gives us strength?

5. "We don't have the money." Where God guides, he provides so that we can do everything he has called us to do.

6. "We don't have the time!" Perhaps God is telling us to re-evaluate our priorities as we rely upon his direction and strength.

7. "We don't have the expertise." Maybe not, but we can learn as God directs our path.

8. "It's been tried before." But we're wiser now because we know we can do everything when we rely on God's strength instead of our own.

9. If someone says, "There are so many problems with it," respond by saying, "Yet, there are so many possibilities when we're trusting God instead of ourselves."

10. Instead of saying, "It's not working out," say instead, "Let's try it one more time, but this time focused on God and the truth that we can do this through Him who gives us strength."

"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse" (Philippians 4:8 MSG).

Ordinary people, Extraordinary God!

2009-03-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

I love testimony, it fuels my heart, refreshes my soul, it makes me walk this journey of faith with songs and laughers.

“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10b)

Recently I met a quite lady in a Christian gathering. I introduced myself had a casual chat, then find out how she got to know the Lord. A treasure of goodie flow from her mouth.
I was delighted. I can’t wait to share her story to as many as I could. Her name is Pauline. Just like any other modern Chinese, she called herself a free thinker. She married a Roman Catholic, and went to church with him. All she knew from the church was rosary and the ritual of Hail Mary. Life seems fine for her until she was pregnant with her second child. At her one month pregnancy, she was infected with German measles (rubella) – an acute virus that is damaging to the fetus when occurring in early pregnancy. After going through some tests, the doctor advised her to consult a gynecologist. She was told by the gynecologist that if she carried on the pregnancy, the child was at risk for growth retardation; mental retardation; malformations of the heart and eyes; deafness; and liver, spleen, and bone marrow problems. This gynecologist happen to be a Christian, after explaining that to her he advised her if she wanted to continue the pregnancy, she should pray to the Creator of this universe for a miracle. He gave her two days to make her decision.

Pauline went back with a heavy heart and was too distress to break the bad news to anyone. She looked up to heaven, in her heart she thought, if there is a Creator of the universe, than, He must be in heaven. She cried out in tears to Him without knowing who He is, she even promise Him that if the baby is born healthy, she will find out who He is and will seek Him the rest of her life. After the sincere cry to God, suddenly a sense of confidence came into her heart. The next day, she went to the gynecologist, and told him that she wanted to continue the pregnancy. The gynecologist then advised her that she needed to pray to the Creator of heaven and earth daily for the baby. She obeyed like a child and carried on the pregnancy.

Everything went well until the seventh months. As she read from the news paper of a case where a couple were sued in court because they accidently cause the death of their baby - a defected child, who was blind and having heart problem due to German measles the mother had during the pregnancy. This news once again shocked her heart and fear crept in immediately. With fear, she confided to her friend. She was reprimanded because of the risk she took, putting herself and the child in danger.

Nowhere to seek comfort, once again she turn to the gynecologist, and he continued to encourage her to trust in God and shared with her 2 Timothy 1:7 that God does not give her a spirit of fear but of power and love and sound mind. He asked her to meditate on this word daily and asked for the spirit of power, love and sound mind to fill her heart. This verse comforted her heart, and she clung on to those words for the next two months.

All her trust in God was not in vain. When the baby was born the Lord, gave her a sign – the baby eyes kept turning from right to left and pout right and left as thought he was telling her that “Mom, don’t worried I can see and I can speak.” The nurse congratulated her that the baby was born healthy. Pauline insisted that they should double check and was confirmed that he was totally normal.

When she went back home, she was so thankful to this Creator of heaven and earth she remembered her promised. So she went to ask the gynecologist who this Creator is and found out that His name is Jesus. She then was told that in order to receive Him, she just needed to do the ABC step – Accept, Believe, and Confess. With the Catholic background, she couldn’t believe that it was so simple. Since she has promise the Lord to seek Him, she took the Bible that was given to her and read. One day, when she read Revelation 3: 20, the verse jumped out from the Bible touching her heart. She now understands that the Lord was knocking at her heart and all she needed to do was to open up her heart to receive Him. Finally, she said the sinner prayer that the gynecologist taught her and received Jesus into her heart.

It was difficult for her when she announced the news to her husband that she is a Christian, and will stop doing all the ritual that she used to do. With the strong conviction in her heart and gratitude she continues to seek the Lord till today.

A Christmas Poem

2008-12-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

Jesus is the Gift that perfectly fits every heart,
and it is with His love that all new life start.
He came on Christmas day in a manger no one know,
the Child grew into a Man our sin and shame He bear as His own.
On the cross His blood drop like a scarlet ribbon wrapped around the gift,
this greatest gift of all God offer to you so that you may live.
So each year as Christmas comes let’s remember what He’s done,
and receive this perfect Gift – God’s one and only Son.

Communication

2008-12-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Recently I went for a haircut. I told the hair dresser that I wanted to cut my hair at shoulder length, and he asked me is it short? I answered yes. I thought that he understood what I said, and as usual, I picked up a magazine, happily began reading it, have some light chit chat with him and let the hair dresser do his job. After awhile, I felt something was not right. Looking up at the mirror, I was shock that he cut my hair so short. Finally it turned out to be short hair and not shoulder length.

This experience reminds me of what I learnt about poor communication. We make a lot of assumptions when talking with others; we assume that people understand the meaning of what we are saying. The fact is everything people hear, that includes us, go through a filter. in our mind. This filter is determined by our past experiences and our unique personality. As a result, we may not be actually hearing what the other person is really saying. No wonder the Bible tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. If we do the first two, we can avoid the third.

Another area that causes miscommunication is presumption – we think we know it all. Thus we become impatient, then we interrupt and jump to conclusions

“He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame” Proverbs 18:13 (NIV).

Hurts in our life can also cause us to miscommunicate. When we feel hurt, we are defensive and unteachable (it is the same with pride). We build an invisible wall around us so that we will not be hurt again. So subconsciously, you set up a "spy camera", all your focus is to watch out for another possible attacker that is going to hurt you again.

Since that the Bible advices us to be slow to speak and quick to listen, I believe the key to good communication is listening. All of us do hear, but not many of us master the skill of listening. In order to listen, we must not come to a conclusion or worst, judge quickly. It is so, especially when you hear something you disagree with. Let people finish their story; you may want to clarify by asking questions such as, “What you say about is …. and what I think you actually said is….”. Don’t evaluate until you have heard and comprehended it all. To do this is quite a challenge (especially for me! That is why I choose not to talk on a serious matter when I am tired). After listening, you try your best to tell the person what they have just told you before you talk about what you plan to talk. By doing this, it will save you a lot of trouble from saying something that the other person didn’t ask for. Finally, as you listen, do not just focus on the words, be sympathetic, listen with your heart and eyes, try to understand the emotion behind the words, the facial expressions and body language.

Wow! What a skill to learn! Don't feel bad if after you read this and the next moment you see yourself make the mistake. We all have a whole lifetime to learn this skill. Be gracious to yourself, smile and enjoy life.

After saying all these, I want to direct you to your quite time. Prayer and reading Bible as all of us know is simply communicating with God. At this moment, let us take some time to think - when we pray and when we read the Bible, are we communicating with God by listening to Him (since the key to great communication is listening) or are we doing all the talking, then read the Bible without involving our heart, and before God can say anything, we end with In Jesus’ Name. Amen. : )

“Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” Mark 4:24-25 (NLT)

Try to practice all this communication skill in your quite time and I can assure you, your quite time will never be dry again.

Driving In Foriegn Land

2008-10-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever driven in the foreign Land? Or have you tried to drive to a new place?

When I first drove in Singapore, it was a nervous experience (especially you were driving your senior pastor car and had him sit next to you!). I would study the road map, tried to memorized some landmarks before I hit the road. I would ask the person who known the road well to direct me. Listen to his instruction while driving and asking him from time to tome just to make sure I was heading to the right direction.

After years of going to Singapore, I realized that I have no problem driving there. I started to understand their road behavior, recognised many roads and going places.

This remind me of our spiritual journey. God wants us to go deeper and deeper with Him. In order to do that we must be willing to go into the unknown. Abandon our sense of security and self confidence; be humble, study His Word (map book), and ask the help of the Holy Spirit (the person who sit next to me to in the car to guide me) moment by moment and put our total trust in Him to guide us to the new territories. When He says turn right we turn right, turn left, we turn left without hesitation. If not, we may miss the junction to our destiny and have to detour (thanks God, He is gracious! When we make mistakes, He is patience to guide us back to the right track). This way of living our life is challenging but exciting. And it is also very rewarding. God will give us many good surprises along the way!

Many have limit their walk with God base only on their past experience and never dare to venture into the new. To live life this way is like me driving from my house to church office. I don't need a map book, and definitely not another person to guide me along the way! It is easy, comfortable, predictable but lack of life. That is not what God makes you and me for! In our Father's house, there are many places and many rooms for us to explore into. Don't just stay at where you are.

It is good that we can ask ourselves these questions from time to time:
1. Is our walk with God has become so comfortable that we no longer need to refer to His Rhema Word for guidance and the Holy Spirit to come alongside us?
2. Are we so comfortable and so contented with what we have, when the Holy Spirit asks us to explore into the new, we put a deaf hear to His gentle whisper?
3. Do we feel contented with the touch of God that we once experienced and lost our appetite for more?

If we want to walk this journey with God, we need to be willing to go where He want to go. In order to do that we need to be willing to explore to the unknown; have His Spirit as our constant Guide and His Word as our road map. Let our past experience be an assurance for us of His faithfulness and not a monument or the measuring stick to judge our future experience. Our past experience of God should not limit us but to encourage us to move deeper into God. Neither should we use it to judge other who may have a difference view or experience. God is so great. No single person in this world is able to know all of Him.

Furthermore, there are times, God may lead two difference person to reach a same destiny with two difference routes. There are 5 ways for me to take to return from office to my house. At difference times and difference occasions, I will take a difference way. I use my common sense and judgement to determine which way can help me to reach my home faster. When I need to drop by certain place to get something on my way back, I will use difference road. I think this is how God thinks, He wants all of us to reach our destiny, but He know better which way is the best for each individuals. So don't be upset if you find the way God leads you is difference from others. Just remember to bring along your road map (His Word) and have a Guide (the Holy Spirit) with you. then you will surely reach where He wants you to be.

Something to make you smile : )

2008-10-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

Lately I have a lady meeting with my cell members. I take this opportunity to ask them questions about boy girl relationship. We have a good time together, talking sincerely from our heart. Follow up from that, I have a good joke to share with all of you who came for the meeting and those who read my blog : )

A language instructor was explaining to her class that in Spanish, nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. For instance, "house" in Spanish is feminine: "la casa". "Pencil" in Spanish is masculine: "el lapiz".

One puzzled student asked, "What gender is 'computer?'" The teacher didn't know, and the word wasn't in her Spanish dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups, appropriately enough by gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun.

Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation. The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer") because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic!
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else!
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval!
4. As soon as you make a commitment t one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it!

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("el computer") because:
1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on
2. They have a lot of data, but they are still clueless!
3. The are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem.
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model!

; ) You decide who win.

Nasi Lemak from Heavan

2008-08-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

The book of Proverbs says Wisdom cry out at the busy place of the city, if you just pause a while to listen, she will speak to you. Just a week ago I met a nasi lemak store owner in Singapore who told me of his fantastic life story.

Joseph formerly knew as Harry, was a vegetable wholesaler. He was a strong Buddhist believer and teacher. Life was tough for him and in order to run away from the entire life problem to seek for an answer; he sold his business and traveled to Thailand to become a Buddhist monk. After sometime, he went back to Singapore and started to look for a job. When he saw a church nearby his house had a vacancy for maintenance job, he applied. He got the job and started to work.

During the first few months, he felt very disappointed with Christians. Every time after the church service, he had to pick up the Bibles from all over the place and even from the floor! "If Bible is the holy book of Christian, how can they treat it lightly?" He complained in his heart. After a few months of picking up Bible, he decided to read it in order to find fault with it and to shame Christian. So he would diligently search the bible to look for loop hole. To his amazement, he couldn't find any fault with it, but the more he read it, his heart was convicted. The word of God moved his heart so much that he even started to teach others the principle he found in the Bible. When the pastor in charge saw the change in him, wanted him to teach in a bible class. He declined it immediately as he said that he was not a Christian but a Buddhist.

One day, his friend invited him to New Creation Church. Reluctantly, he agreed. At the end of the meeting, the pastor urged those who want to receive Jesus to walk to the front. The Spirit of God broke all the resistant in his heart and he saw himself walking toward the pulpit with tear in his eye to receive Jesus.

His life was changed after he invited Jesus into his heart; those words that he read in the bible now became more meaningful to him. He felt so hungry for God that he read the bible and many Christian books that the Holy Spirit put into his heart to read.

One morning, as he took bus to work, the Holy Spirit spoke to him, "Set up a nasi lemak store." He argued in his heart, "Lord! I don't even know how to cook and how can I operate a store?" Then the Lord spoke again, "I want you to use the store to glorify me." Finally he agreed, and he prayed that the Lord will open a way for him.

Next Sunday after church meeting, one of his friends told him that he and another friend wanted to look for a store to start an Italian Food business. Joseph went with them to the food court. Many of the stores were shifting out as the business was bad. His two friends signed up to rent a store, but a week later one of them chickened up. So Joseph took over the store and his friend joined him.

Seeing God open the way for him, he now faced another big problem - he didn't know how to cook. Many of his friends and relatives tried to talk him out as it made no sense - he didn't know how to cook and that food court was losing business! Joseph heart was firm. He came to the Lord in prayer and sought for guidance. The Lord just told him, "You go to the market, and I will tell what to buy and how to cook."

With simple faith, he went to the market, and bought all the ingredients that his heart felt led to buy. He went to the store and started to cook. The first day of business, the Lord asked him to pray against all the evil spirit that hindered the business in that area before he open the store. Just a few hours after he opened, the queue was building up, and before noon, he sold all the nasi lemak. Many customers were satisfied and praised the good taste of his nasi lemak.

Until this day, the business is good and he always takes opportunity to share gospel, testify of the goodness of God and pray for people when he does his marketing or when selling nasi lemak.

You Are Not Alone!

2008-08-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

I have a very cool real story to tell. There is one seventeen year old Brazilian boy, whose heart is sold out for God. One day he toke his guitar and going up to a mountain to worship God. Thinking in his heart that may be God will give him a new song so he brought along his recording gadget. When he reached a quite spot he started to play his guitar and sing with all his heart. "Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah" a simple old hymn. After some time of singing, no new was given, so he decided to head back home.

When he reached home, he turned on his recording to hear how he would sound like in the recording. As he listened, he heard piano playing in the back ground. He got frighten, immediately he turn it off. Feeling nerves as he is a young believer, he ran to his brother who accepted Christ earlier than him to find out what was going on. As the brother switch on the recording and listened together with him, they heard the voice of the young boy singing hallelujah with piano, later organ, trumpet, drum and a choir of angel singing with him "Hallelujah, hallelujah...."

Wow! How wonderful isn't it? Knowing that when we sing with all our hearts to God the whole hosts of heaven is echoing with us praising our Almighty God. You are not alone :). See you next time.

Dream...dream...dream

2008-08-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Dream is a beautiful language. It reflects our inner being, it tells the secret of our heart. Do not think that dream is just a reflection of the activities of the day; it is to a certain extend. The bible tells us that dreams have many facets.

God speaks to us through dream. Yes, even you are not a Christian; He does speak to you through dream. There are many records in the Bible that God speak to those who do not know Him in their dreams. God reveals our future through dream and He also warns us about danger with dream.

Some dreams are the reflection of your heart. It is good and helpful if you can understand your dream as it will help you to sort out many issue of your life, untangle your struggle or confusion. Help you to face yourself honestly and integrate your heart and mind. Have you ever has the face a situation where your feeling and reasoning just go the opposite direction? Understand your dream will help.

Dream can bring an answer to your problem, inspire you, and give you a creative idea. Many modern inventions came about because of dream!

If you are interested to understand your dream or want to know how to interpret your dream do write to me, I will be glad to help you.

The begining of the journey

2008-07-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

As young as 5 years old, I had asked myself why am I here on earth for? Just like any other children who are full of imagination, I liked to think that I was from outer space. My life here on earth was just a dream that I have. The real me is not here. Deep down in my heart I knew there is a realm that my eyes could not see.

As I grew older, this simple faith that I have eroded with the never ending demands of this meterial world and the hardship that my family faced. A fire that destroyed my family business and a save haven for me, leave a deep wound in our life. As young as nine, I tasted the dark side of human life where you were rejected and scorned just because you do not have money. I swallowed every bitterness and anger in my heart, waiting for a day where I could have my revenge.

Life take a turn, when I touch thirteen. Three of my sisiters received Jesus into their life and they seem to be very happy. One of them tried to talk me into it, I just didn't budge. Little did I know God had set an ambush awaiting me...

Exam was around the corner, I was studying hard everyday. One night, my little sister running down from up stair asking me to accompany her to toilet and gave me a silly reason that she scared a ghost may ate her up. Furious, I gave her a piece of my mind. The last thing I knew was she was crying, running up again. I continued to study. Suddenly, my books that I placed on top of a display shelf, tumbling down to the floor. Astonished, I turned my head to look at it. As I turned my head back, I saw a shining figure standing right in front of me. The place where I was seem to be electrified. At that moment, I knew in my heart that this Person who stood there is the God that my sisters believe in. An awe and guilt struck my heart, I asked Him to forgave my sin and requested to be His follower. The moment I did so, great peace desended from heaven into my little heart. I cried and cried, like a child who were being comforted by a loving father. When I opened my eyes, He was gone. I washed my face, regathered my thoughts, and doubt crept into my heart. I wondered would Him be so kind to receive me? I asked Him to give me a dream if He favored me.

The next day, as usual, I was getting myself ready to school. I totally forgot what had happened last night. When I walked pass the place where I studied, an open vision (like a live giant TV screen) appeared before me. It was the dream that I dream of. In that dream, He assured me that He had accepted me. What a joy filled my heart!

From that point onward, my life is never the same again. I have started my supernatural journey. Till this day, as I look back, I know that is the beginning of my new life, the old has passed, wonderful things is ahead of me. : )

See you next time to explore into more of the Supernatural journey. Bye !