Congratulation once again on your recent achievement of completing the HK 100km run. This is awesome! What a run! It takes great endurance to accomplish task like this and I truly believe our Lord is with you, Amen! Praise be to God!
Last week, we touch on life & death. We say that life & blessings are synonymous. If we choose life, it is as good as saying we choose the blessings from God, the life He mean for us.
Then we say that tree of knowledge of good and evil is death. Why? Why is that knowing good and evil is bad for us? The danger is this. By knowing good and evil, one will become dependent on his self-effort to do good and keep away from evil. And when he is depending on his own efforts, he is bound to fail. The devil want us to be self-focus. God want us to be Christ-focus. God want us to have a relationship with Him and be dependent on His goodness and His goodness alone.
If I can simplify the entire understanding of God to the effect of being an effective believer, I would choose these three words " Bread, Book & Tongue."
Book - Bible, Word of God, Specifically the Love of God. The entire bible can be summarized to this phrase "Love of God". He love us so much that He wrote this book called "Bible". (How everything started? What went wrong? And how He fixed the problem and provide a solution to restore mankind?) It's only when we read the bible in that manner, then we can understand how great our God is and how much He love us.
Tongue- The Helper, Holy Spirit. When we speak in tongue, we stir up the Holy Spirit whom in turn will help us to navigate the way out of this fallen world.
With that in mind, when we meditate on this verse 2Cor 13:14 become more concrete and understandable.
2 Cor 13:14
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Especially the words like "grace", "love" and "communion" are abstract words. It is difficult to measure these words nor know their dimension. e.g How do you know the Holy Spirit communicate with you??
With due respect, I believe our God is not complicated to understand and follow. Yes, He is almighty and yet what He provide for His children is more than abstract words. It has to be something concrete and can be related.
When the world fell into sin by Adam's disobedience, sickness, diseases, deterioration, aging came in. Death became the number one enemy of mankind. In order for God to restore this fall, God do not insist us to be obedience to get right with Him for He know we can never upkeep the law. Grace came through Jesus instead. By partaking the bread, it help us to off-set the aging process that is taking place daily. We do not have to be obedient to receive the healing, all we need to do is believe. Am I sure? Yes.
You mean God is willing to heal you even when you are not obedient? Yes, this is called "Grace". It is not my obedience, but Jesus's obedience! And the thing is when we touch "Grace", it will produce obedience in us. Obedience is a fruit (product/result) and not work (self-effort). Very much like saying when you touch water, you touch wet. Wet is a result of touching water. When you know very well in your heart God love you, will you commit murder? Will it be very difficult to exercise self-control not to kill someone for that matter? The truth is it will be effortless. It's not about our effort anymore but His. All we need to do is rest on our believe in Him.
To deal with our daily situation, God give us His Words (literally). Confess His Words to your situation and you will be ok. If you are sick, confess His Words on healing. If you are limited by your situation, confess His Words on breakthrough. If you are fearful, confess His Words of faith! And everything will be ok! Amen!. Can you see how much He love us by catering to all our needs in His infallible book called "Bible"?
And then, He left us with a gift before He ascended to Heaven. The gift of speaking in tongue. To be more specific, praying in tongue. Yes ,pray. But, what is the point of praying in tongue when I don't understand what I am praying?? In fact, that's the point. Don't try to understand. Huh??
Many people I spoke to lately have problem understanding this gift, let alone its purpose. Praying in tongue is not about understanding what you are praying.
Why do we pray in tongue then? The bible say it is for self-edification, build-up the spirit man in you, fan-up the Spirit being. It is like blowing a balloon. The more you pray in tongue, the more spirit man grow.
Praying in tongue is the witness of being baptize in the Spirit. Praying in tongue sanctify our spirit. For God is a Spirit. In order for us to "speak" to God, we need to "charge" up our Spirit. The more we pray in tongue, the more our spirit are aligned with God's will. That's why it is always a good practice to pray in tongue first before reading the bible. You will be amazed by the revelation you receive when you look into the Word right after praying in tongue.
2 Cor 13:14 say "...the communion of the Holy Spirit...." It make sense now, isn't it? The Holy Spirit has been stirred up by you praying in tongue and now He is ready to communicate with you the truth of God's Words. Spirit (Holy Spirit) to Spirit (God). Amen!
I hope you have receive some understanding through this sharing... It is so effortless and enjoyable to be able to share with you this truth. So edifying! Praise be to God!
Next week, we will continue with this topic... we will share a little more on the benefits and difficulties of praying in tongue.
Till then, Shalom!
Bro
Dated: 22 Jan 2014
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