During the weekend the servers and the 2nd liners went for prayer retreat. It was quite the highlight where we had a chance to really seek God as well as bond with each other. We planned it to start off the year on the right footing and I'm glad that God's presence was there...
So the programme began in the morning when we fasted from 6am to 630pm and then we gathered in church for dinner. Then we had a time of worship followed by a sharing of the Word by Pastor Timothy. He released a word right after the worship saying something along the lines of us waiting for God and that we have to wait with expectation and God will bring it about in His own timing...
After the short "service" we had some time to rest and then we started praying in shifts from midnight till 6am in the morning... Quite glad that we really took our prayer times seriously and many of us heard from God and all the things that we've shared bore witness with one-another (to those reading this, the impressions that we've received from the Lord during the retreat are written in the mahjong paper pasted on the wall inside the youth room if you'd like to take a look at it...) In the morning, we had breakfast, followed by a short time of worship, followed by corporate intercession, followed by a sharing of what the Lord impressed upon us during the retreat, followed by a short wrap-up and time of ministry.. really thank God for His presence! :)
Some ppl slept while others were chatting or having an extended time of devotion that evening... Before the prayer watch, some funny thing happened (i din get to see it myself but it's just as funny when you hear about it..) which i won't blog about... i think it's best left for people to tell by word of mouth... :D
Anyways, wanna thank God for *a****, *o*****, ***i**, **e* and **a** who have shown, in one way or another, their desire to attend the retreat though they were not servers or 2nd liners... not all of them were able to make it in the end cos of various reasons lah but the Lord looks at the heart and i thank God for their desire to know Him and experience Him more. :)
If you wanna experience God more, I urge you.. Go for it!!! :)Now i'd like to share the things i believe the Lord was speaking during the retreat...
During the worship, I saw a really dark storm cloud and the sky overcast and there were lightnings coming from the cloud. I believe that it's gonna rain!! It's really gonna rain, yeah... The lightnings represent God striking our enemies and giving us breakthrough! yeah...
One of the things i sensed while praying is that the Lord really wants us to lay aside our distractions... TV, computer games, ect... I believe that this year is gonna be
a year of pruning, a year of change...
While praying, i also saw a waterfall.. The waterfall represents God's flowing revelation from a higher place (above) to a lower place (here on earth). If you listen to the flow of revelation, the sound that a waterfall makes is like the sound of thunder. The sound of thunder is likened unto the sound of God's judgments. I believe that the Lord wants to judge the things in our lives that keep us from Him. We need revelation- we need eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that obey... recalling the scripture the Lord impressed upon me sometime back,
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” Amos 5:24In connection with this, i just wanna share a part of what i have written to the servers and mentors a short while back about this scripture:
The word “justice” is also translated as judgment in the KJV, it also refers to a verdict which is usually pronounced. The word “roll” also carries with itself the implication of rolling down. What I believe this scripture is referring to is that God is going to pass a judgment and it will roll down from Him from above. In turn, it is to roll down from those at the top (i.e. the leaders) onto the rest of the body. I believe that God wants to deal with the leaders, to judge the idols in our lives and to topple them over that we may in turn take our place as judges and move into a place of authority. I believe that God wants to deal with the leadership first before moving on to the rest of the Sojourners. During the retreat, God also impressed upon me this scripture:
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall sping forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19Was praying for God to cause His Spirit to seek out the dry and thirsty... for His river to seek out the deserts and to flow in them, to water them and for new life to grow. I believe other people also received the same impressions from the Lord.
I saw bottles (like you know those empty coke/sprite kind of bottles). They were empty and waiting to be filled. Then the Lord impressed upon me that the reason that they were so easily knocked down was cos they were empty. The same goes for us- the reason we fall, yield to distractions, discouragements, etc.. is because we're not filled with the life of Christ... we need to be filled by Him, His Word, His Spirit so that we can live an overcoming life... we need to get plugged in!!! :)
I also saw the river rising and the sky overcast.. this talks about what the rain will do- it will make the river rise higher and overflow! Now all of us as children of God have a certain measure of His river flowing in us. But when the rain comes, that river rises, it flows higher and gets stronger.
Now imagine this closely and carefully. The rain clouds are moving in the same direction as the river is flowing. If it has rained upstream, but it has not yet rained downstream, the water in the downstream portion of the river will still rise because the river carries the water from the upstream downwards... What i'm gonna say next may be a bit hard to grasp for some but it has truth in it. The river represents the inner life while the rain clouds represent the outward, manifest, visible corporate move of the Holy Spirit. The river represents our own personal walk with God and how strong we are personally in our walk with Him. The rain clouds represent corporate revival and transformation. You see, the river runs faster than how the rain clouds move. Both are moving, even in the same direction, towards the will of God and what He wants to accomplish in our midst but the river moves faster than the clouds. What this means is that our personal walk with God, our inner life has to be stronger first before we see a corporate revival and before we see the fulness of God's plans being manifested in the ministry in such a corporate level. We have to have ourselves built up first. It's true that the rain, God's work in our mist, causes the river to rise, causes our faith to rise up when He does things amongst us but the rain may come and go in seasons. Sometimes, there's no rain to test our faith. But the river should be continually flowing and the ever-present factor in our lives.
Another thing we can learn is that if it rains upstream, the downstream portion of the river will also rise up. Similarly, when God moves in the lives of some people in the body of Christ, the rest of the body will also benefit, everyone's faith will increase as ppl share their testimonies of how God has been real and faithful to them and how He has revealed Himself in their lives. If one part of the body experiences revival, then the faith of the other parts will also be strengthened even before they themselves experience corporate revival in their midst. Additionally, when the leadership experiences revival, a strong inner life and rises up in faith, boldness and action, the rest of the ministry will rise up and will be built up with the leadership. We are the body of Christ. What happens to one part will affect another! :)
Ok... so anyway, the Lord also has impressed upon me 3 words for this year:
LargerFasterStrongerManytimes, we look at this words in terms of the external.. We look at these words in terms of ministry context... eg. having a larger ministry, etc... may i suggest a different interpretation? First internal, before external... We need a larger heart to sustain a larger vision. We need God to build into us, a larger character, more of Christ in us. We need to be faster in terms of keeping up with God cos He's really moving quickly. We need the mind of Christ so that we can keep up with God and so that we can quickly and accurately process, digest and appropriate the things that He reveals to us and quickly put them into action and align ourselves to what He's doing. Having the mind of Christ, can only come from being yoked with Him, moving where He's moving and doing what He's doing. We need to have a stronger inner life that sustains in faith and passion regardless of outward circumstances. A stronger inner life that lays distractions aside in the pursuit of what is eternal.
Onward, Sojourners ministry!!! :)
