Good day, Mdm.
Praise be to God and His Glory. Thank you Jesus for His Grace. My heart is full... Full of gratitude towards His unmerited favor. Wow, this has been a year of great glory thus far... First, the promotion on my current job.. Even though I've rejected it (due to political reason; being new in work place & not to create unnecessary envy among peers) , increment of salary was given nevertheless, Amen.. Praise the Lord!...
And then, I am thankful for the bonus... A decent one after so many years of "drought"... And the amount is the highest payout among various departments....Amen!
Amazingly, when I first join this company, after a few weeks, I was on the verge to quit... You know my story.. I was then jobless for a year and desperately looking for one until I landed on this job... And yet I thought I won't last long here... Little do I know that God has set me up here for His blessings... I doubt I could have gotten so much payout if I was offered by the other jobs then prior to this one. I still remember my disappointment over not being offered those jobs interview... Indeed, when I look at the natural then, it seems like life was not working out for me and God seem no where to be found... God is good. He has already planned everything for us, all we need is to trust and "rest" in Him and not be deceived by what we see in the natural. Amen!
And His goodness continue to flow in us... I just received an email from HDB that we are eligible for flat selection! Praise be to God! We have been always wanting to find a new home but never been successful. Thank God for His favor...
I tell you... as much as you are sensitive to the word "Grace" these days... I am, as well, super-sensitive to this word. Amazing Grace! The power of Christ Jesus and His finished work!
Come to think about it... I have to thank you too...... for I found "Grace" when you are saved! You know what I mean.. Amen!
Ok, so much to thank God for.. let's go back to His Words...
Last week, we talk about faith.. Faith is something we need as believers.. Without faith, we cannot please God... And then, we say that faith come by hearing God's Word.. rhema word in particular.. In other words, we build faith by believing and meditating on God's Words... We don't build faith by focusing on our faith per say but on His rhema word.. Put it another way, we are unconscious to faith and conscious to His rhema word if we want faith in our lives.
Ok, let's look at another example on faith...
Luke 8:43-48
43"Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any,
44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.
45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”
46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.”
47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Here, in this passage, it talk about this woman with the issue of blood. She had this problem for 12 years.. That's a long time... and "spent all" her money on doctors...in other words, she was trying to find healing through the natural but without much success.... Are you seeing this? Just by one verse alone, we can see a lot of things going on....and there is more...
Now, for a woman to struggle through the crowd to touch the garment (not even the body of Jesus) for healing.... What do you think she knew about Jesus that made her go through such trouble?
Was it the law? It can't be... she had broken the Leviticus laws.. Under law, the unclean should not touch the clean.. Under law. the unclean should not be out in the public.. she was defying the law!
Was it holiness of Jesus? It can't be... If she could sense Jesus holiness, she would probably felt unholy to come near to Him...
For this woman to go out to the public and touched Jesus. Whatever she heard about Jesus was causing her to defy the law, to be unconscious of herself nor her surrounding... Her focus was on Jesus garment and she bravely broke through the multitudes to touch His garment, not even His body..... Agreed? What does that speak of? Of course, Grace!.. Undeserved favor, Amen!
Let's continue... then Jesus felt someone touched Him and power left Him.. Wow! The power of God was so strong that even it can transmit through the garment...
And then the woman fell before Him and explain why she touched Jesus... What did Jesus said ? "Oh, you.. unclean creature... stay away from Me.." NO NO NO... He said "your FAITH has made you well!" Hallelujah!
The essence to this passage is this.... When we see His Grace, He see our faith! Amen! The woman was not focusing on her effort, herself nor her faith (she did seek doctors and spent all her money away without any healing)... she was trying all her best to touch Jesus garment... And yet Jesus said her FAITH healed her...
Be conscious on His Grace and unconscious faith will arise in us... Amen! And when we touch His Grace, power is released! The sick will be healed, the demon possessed will be delivered. Amen!
In fact, the key to a victorious living and have His abundant favor on our lives is to be Christ-occupied and not self-occupied. If we accept Jesus, God will accept us (regardless of our short coming). If we honor Jesus, God will honor us. If we reject Jesus, God will reject us. It is all about Jesus. What He has done on the cross 2000 years ago is an over payment for you and I. All we need to do now is not to do anything other than to "rest" on His finished work..Amen! That's another sharing all together another time...
Ok, hope you now charged up with faith after hearing this testimony and His Words... This is how it is going to be when we go for mission trips... We charged up the faith of the people and then we lay hands on them. Power will be released in the name of Jesus! Amen!
Grace & Peace be with you!
Shalom
Bro
Dated: 26 Feb 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Week 23: Having Faith
Good day, Mdm.
So far, we have been discussing on personal healing/well being/health.. We spoke about one could partake holy communion, read the Scriptures and pray in tongues to achieve the state of well being.
In fact, it is the desire of our Lord that we walk in great health. Before Jesus went to the cross, the last thing He said to His disciples in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. " After His resurrection, the first thing He said to His disciples in John 20:19 "...Peace be with you.."
Our Lord want us to be in the state of peace, "Peace" in Hebrew is "Shalom" which mean well, favor, friend, great, good health, perfect. In the New Covenant, God is on our side .. When Jesus went to the cross, He has already conquered sin once and for all. He is now seated at the right hand of our Father.
Psalms 110:1
"The Lord (God) said to my Lord (Jesus),“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
So God told Jesus to sit.. which mean rest.... until God make (not Jesus make) His enemies His footstool. Note it is one thing to conquer the enemies, it is another thing to make the enemies the footstool. Jesus is now seated, at rest while His Father (God) bring every enemies (poverty,sickness, lack, worries, condemnation, depression, etc) under His feet.
Now that we are seated together with Him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6), our posture should be similar like Him... seated (at rest) while our God bring our enemies under our feet, Amen! The bible says "As He is, so are we in this world.." Jesus has conquered sin, so are we in this world, Jesus has conquered sickness/poverty/depression/bondage/fear/anxiety, so are we in this world (not in heaven, in this world)Today, we no longer fight for victory, we fight from victory, Amen!
What it mean is when we walk into a dark place, we don't say "Oh, so dark, I am scared... the demon may attack me, so scared, but maybe if I pray to Jesus, He will help me..." This is called "fight for victory."
Instead, we should be saying" Oh, demon, you better flee...I command you to leave in the name of Jesus! " This is called "fight from victory."
The moment we identify ourselves in Christ, we reign with Him in life, Amen! Ok, so much for the introduction....This actually lead to what we would like to discuss today.. How do we have more faith in our Lord??
It is important as believers that we have faith for the bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. We want to please God, we want God to be on our side. How then that we can have more faith??
In Rom 10:17, the bible says Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God... Note the "word" here in Greek is "rhema" (pronounce ray-mah)
Rhema is the revealed word of God, as an utterance from God to the heart of the receiver via the Holy Spirit.
For example, when you are running marathon.. Half way through you feel exhausted, your leg become heavy and you feel like giving up... all of the sudden, Holy Spirit remind you of this bible verse Isaiah 40:29 "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength." Then this verse become the rhema of God.
You utter this verse, you confess this verse, you claim this verse, this rhema word from God for your situation. The moment you confess and speak out this particular verse, faith is in you.
Notice your focus is in the rhema word and not on faith. Faith comes when you confess the rhema word of God. Often we say we want to have more faith, the key is not to focus on the subject (faith) but focus on the object (Word of God).
If a student want to score 100 marks for Math, he doesn't focus on 100 marks, Instead, he focus on answering correctly all the exam questions in Maths.
Ok, we shall stop here... Next week, we will look at another example in the bible on having faith.
Shalom
Bro
So far, we have been discussing on personal healing/well being/health.. We spoke about one could partake holy communion, read the Scriptures and pray in tongues to achieve the state of well being.
In fact, it is the desire of our Lord that we walk in great health. Before Jesus went to the cross, the last thing He said to His disciples in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. " After His resurrection, the first thing He said to His disciples in John 20:19 "...Peace be with you.."
Our Lord want us to be in the state of peace, "Peace" in Hebrew is "Shalom" which mean well, favor, friend, great, good health, perfect. In the New Covenant, God is on our side .. When Jesus went to the cross, He has already conquered sin once and for all. He is now seated at the right hand of our Father.
Psalms 110:1
"The Lord (God) said to my Lord (Jesus),“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
So God told Jesus to sit.. which mean rest.... until God make (not Jesus make) His enemies His footstool. Note it is one thing to conquer the enemies, it is another thing to make the enemies the footstool. Jesus is now seated, at rest while His Father (God) bring every enemies (poverty,sickness, lack, worries, condemnation, depression, etc) under His feet.
Now that we are seated together with Him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6), our posture should be similar like Him... seated (at rest) while our God bring our enemies under our feet, Amen! The bible says "As He is, so are we in this world.." Jesus has conquered sin, so are we in this world, Jesus has conquered sickness/poverty/depression/bondage/fear/anxiety, so are we in this world (not in heaven, in this world)Today, we no longer fight for victory, we fight from victory, Amen!
What it mean is when we walk into a dark place, we don't say "Oh, so dark, I am scared... the demon may attack me, so scared, but maybe if I pray to Jesus, He will help me..." This is called "fight for victory."
Instead, we should be saying" Oh, demon, you better flee...I command you to leave in the name of Jesus! " This is called "fight from victory."
The moment we identify ourselves in Christ, we reign with Him in life, Amen! Ok, so much for the introduction....This actually lead to what we would like to discuss today.. How do we have more faith in our Lord??
It is important as believers that we have faith for the bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. We want to please God, we want God to be on our side. How then that we can have more faith??
In Rom 10:17, the bible says Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God... Note the "word" here in Greek is "rhema" (pronounce ray-mah)
Rhema is the revealed word of God, as an utterance from God to the heart of the receiver via the Holy Spirit.
For example, when you are running marathon.. Half way through you feel exhausted, your leg become heavy and you feel like giving up... all of the sudden, Holy Spirit remind you of this bible verse Isaiah 40:29 "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength." Then this verse become the rhema of God.
You utter this verse, you confess this verse, you claim this verse, this rhema word from God for your situation. The moment you confess and speak out this particular verse, faith is in you.
Notice your focus is in the rhema word and not on faith. Faith comes when you confess the rhema word of God. Often we say we want to have more faith, the key is not to focus on the subject (faith) but focus on the object (Word of God).
If a student want to score 100 marks for Math, he doesn't focus on 100 marks, Instead, he focus on answering correctly all the exam questions in Maths.
Ok, we shall stop here... Next week, we will look at another example in the bible on having faith.
Shalom
Bro
Dated: 20 Feb 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Week 22: Spirit, Soul & Body
Let's look at it from the angle of the bible. If the disciples of Jesus like Peter, John, Paul who were the authors of the bible (a book which is still the best seller after thousand of years!) speak in tongues, how much more we should follow their foot steps. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit didn't only fell on the 12 disciples, He fell on everyone who were there. That goes to say speaking in tongues is not mean for some only, it is mean for all, Amen!
One other great benefit of speaking in tongues is we can pray into the future and unforeseen situation. You see, when we pray in a known language, our prayers are limited. But, when we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit will help us even when we miss out certain things which need to be prayed.
26 So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
27 And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will."
When I started to share about speaking in tongues to people around me, the common question is " What should I be focusing or thinking when I speak in tongue? I cannot "feel" anything after speaking in tongue."
I must admit to some extent, my answers to these questions then (due to my limited understanding) may not be as accurate.
Let me see if this time my explanation can be clearer.....
We are created with Spirit, soul and body. We have a body, and the Spirit dwells in the body. The body has a mind/soul which affect our feeling. The ultimate aim as a Christian is to come to a place where our Spirit control soul and our body.
When we are saved and are born again, what it actually mean is the Spirit has come alive (resurrected). But at that point, the Spirit is still "young", He does not have much control over our soul. Bear in mind that from the day of our physical birth to the day we accepted Christ, the mind has been dominating the body (what we eat, do, decide, think,etc).
It is therefore the interest of the Satan to keep us in that stage, even when we are born again. Why? Because our body, our mind are temporal....but our Spirit is eternal. What we do and what we can see today are temporal... We can see our body, our body are temporal. At the end of our life, our body will become dust and return back to the ground... What we can't see are eternal.... We can't see God, God is eternal. We can't see our Spirit, our Spirit is eternal. When we die, our Spirit will go to heaven.
Because of this, many at time, believers are easily swayed to unbelieve by what they see or feel. Especially when the Spirit is still "young". The Spirit has little control over their mind nor body.
Now, back to the question... so what should we be thinking when we pray in tongues? When we are praying in tongues, we are edifying ourselves, charging up our Spirit.
Remember, the Spirit should be taking control of our mind. If something is bothering us or there is some worries, anger, anxiety, pressure, etc, loitering in our mind, then mind is actually trying to take control of our body.....agreed?
Question. When we identify these worries or any negative thoughts, we activate our spiritual warfare weapon by speaking in tongues, will these worries or negative thoughts disappear immediately? Usually not, at this point, our minds are still overwhelmed by the negative thoughts. But when we keep praying in tongues, no matter how lousy we feel, our Spirit will overcome those thoughts and it will dissipate gradually. That's the power of the tongue, Amen!
How about in situation when we are not burden by any troubles and we speak in tongues. What should we be thinking?
If we speak in tongues in normal situation, we should let the Spirit lead us. Some time it could be a bible verse that "pop" out in your mind (we call it rhema word; a Word or bible verse given by God for your situation at that time) or it could be a person appear in your mind. In this case, God may want you to intercede for this person for he/she could be in danger. Otherwise, it maybe God want you to minister to that person.
Just flow with the Spirit, we should not be thinking anything. Remember, our Spirit should be taking control and not our mind/thoughts. Our Spirit should led us just like the river flow. When we flow with the Spirit, it will be effortless. You will find yourself at the right place at the right time. When you speak edification to a person, the person will be lifted up. When you lay hands on sick, the Spirit will flow through you and heal the sick, Amen!
Alright, that pretty much rap up what we want to discuss about speaking in tongues. I hope you are enlightened as much as I have with this wonderful gift from God. And this gift is only given to the new covenant believers like you and I.
This gift is only given only when Jesus went to the cross, buried and resurrected and is glorified. The bible say in John 7:38-39
" Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."
We belong to the generation that are positioned to receive this gift because we are born after Jesus has been glorified. How much we want to put it to good use is totally up to us. People like Abraham, David, Solomon in the Old Testament, they do not have this privilege.
Alright, I believe we have covered most of the aspect on personal healing/health..for the next few weeks, before we go into discussion on how to minister to others, we will talk a bit on bible study.
One of the effective way (besides speaking in tongue) to minister to sick people is to impart faith to them first. In other words, we will share a Word from God to build up their faith( faith comes by hearing the Word of God). And when we pray and lay hands on them, it will be very effective.
Grace and peace be with you.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Week 21: Benefits of Tongues
Gong Xi Fa Chai to everyone!
Blessed be the children of God whom seek diligently to know Him. I believe this year is a year of greater blessing, not because the Year of Horse can bring good luck. In fact, we, as Christian, do not associate with the word "luck" (which the first 3 letters of the word "luck" spell the name of Lucifier, the fallen angel or better known as "satan").
If we identify every good things that happen to us as "lucky", unconsciously we are actually denying the existence and finished work of our Lord Jesus. A better word to replace this would be the word "Grace". As much as the word "luck" is associate with Lucifier, the word "Grace" is associate with Jesus. In fact, if you replace the word "Grace" with the word "Jesus" and vice versa in the Bible, you will see a clearer meaning of the Bible. This is because Grace is not a subject, Grace is a person and Jesus is that person, Amen!
There is every reason why God pen-off the last page of the Bible with the word "Grace" and there is every reason why the last book of the Bible is Revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ and not anti-Christ. The entire Bible is about Jesus. Jesus is the Old Testament concealed and the New Testament revealed. This Bible is a divine book and contain lots of hidden truths and secrets. The bible say it this way:
Proverbs 25:2"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
As we go along, I hope to share with you more of these truths and secrets. The ultimate revelation we should seek is the revelation of Jesus Christ and His finished work. Simple yet profound.
Ok, back to our topic on praying in tongues. Last week, we talk about how speaking in tongues can help us to "untie" knots of trouble, stress, anger, bitterness, resentment, worries, anxiety or anything negative. These knots are the root to diseases & sickness.
Speaking in tongues is very much like charging a phone. By doing so will charge us up positively in Spirit. And when we know someone who is negative (anger, stress, worries, etc) and we lay hand on that person, power of restoration, comfort, love, peace will be released to that person. In short, this is what healing the sick or deliverance is all about.
God leave this stewardship of speaking in tongues to us. Speaking in tongues is what it does to our spirit man just like what carry weights do to our physical body. The more we speak, the bigger the spirit man becomes.
In the natural realm, Brain specialists at Oral Roberts University’s hospital found out through research and testing that when a person prays in tongues, his brain releases two chemicals that are directed to his immune system, giving it a 35 to 40 per cent boost. Interestingly, these secretions are triggered by a part of our brain that has no other apparent activity and which is activated only when we pray in tongues.
Other separate studies also show that when we pray in tongues, it actually lower our stress level and reduce our blood pressure, Amen!
With all these health benefits, I would encourage you to speak in tongues more often. And not be restricted to speaking in church only, but also while you are driving, cooking, jogging, or as and when possible. I am confident that you will be amazed by the results.
When you see what a gift God have given us, don't you think God really love us...really...and I hope you can sense His love by now.
With this, I leave you with this bible verse to meditate:
Roman 8:31-32"
31 What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]
32 He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?
Shalom
Bro
Dated: 6 Feb 2014
Blessed be the children of God whom seek diligently to know Him. I believe this year is a year of greater blessing, not because the Year of Horse can bring good luck. In fact, we, as Christian, do not associate with the word "luck" (which the first 3 letters of the word "luck" spell the name of Lucifier, the fallen angel or better known as "satan").
If we identify every good things that happen to us as "lucky", unconsciously we are actually denying the existence and finished work of our Lord Jesus. A better word to replace this would be the word "Grace". As much as the word "luck" is associate with Lucifier, the word "Grace" is associate with Jesus. In fact, if you replace the word "Grace" with the word "Jesus" and vice versa in the Bible, you will see a clearer meaning of the Bible. This is because Grace is not a subject, Grace is a person and Jesus is that person, Amen!
There is every reason why God pen-off the last page of the Bible with the word "Grace" and there is every reason why the last book of the Bible is Revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ and not anti-Christ. The entire Bible is about Jesus. Jesus is the Old Testament concealed and the New Testament revealed. This Bible is a divine book and contain lots of hidden truths and secrets. The bible say it this way:
Proverbs 25:2"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
As we go along, I hope to share with you more of these truths and secrets. The ultimate revelation we should seek is the revelation of Jesus Christ and His finished work. Simple yet profound.
Ok, back to our topic on praying in tongues. Last week, we talk about how speaking in tongues can help us to "untie" knots of trouble, stress, anger, bitterness, resentment, worries, anxiety or anything negative. These knots are the root to diseases & sickness.
Speaking in tongues is very much like charging a phone. By doing so will charge us up positively in Spirit. And when we know someone who is negative (anger, stress, worries, etc) and we lay hand on that person, power of restoration, comfort, love, peace will be released to that person. In short, this is what healing the sick or deliverance is all about.
God leave this stewardship of speaking in tongues to us. Speaking in tongues is what it does to our spirit man just like what carry weights do to our physical body. The more we speak, the bigger the spirit man becomes.
In the natural realm, Brain specialists at Oral Roberts University’s hospital found out through research and testing that when a person prays in tongues, his brain releases two chemicals that are directed to his immune system, giving it a 35 to 40 per cent boost. Interestingly, these secretions are triggered by a part of our brain that has no other apparent activity and which is activated only when we pray in tongues.
Other separate studies also show that when we pray in tongues, it actually lower our stress level and reduce our blood pressure, Amen!
With all these health benefits, I would encourage you to speak in tongues more often. And not be restricted to speaking in church only, but also while you are driving, cooking, jogging, or as and when possible. I am confident that you will be amazed by the results.
When you see what a gift God have given us, don't you think God really love us...really...and I hope you can sense His love by now.
With this, I leave you with this bible verse to meditate:
Roman 8:31-32"
31 What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]
32 He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?
Shalom
Bro
Dated: 6 Feb 2014
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