"Acts"

So what has been happening lately?? I admit i have been slacking in my spiritual walk... especially after the 40 days and WMD but now is not the time to slack at all cos we're in the middle of something that God is doing and if we're not careful we might just experience some spiritual abortion... so God was still faithful in teaching me stuff even though i've recently been neglecting my prayer life... but we're in the midst of great warfare...

Passion
The Lord has really been good and He's just dropping practical strategies into me and gets me to start thinking about stuff i wanna do and see amongst the youth and in the church... On thursday i went out for dinner by myself cos they were having a really noisy gathering at my estate and i can't stand noise. So i went to watch transformers on my own (despite the fact that the Lord prompted me not to)... so after that as i was walking home, i was just thinking about some ideas that the Lord had dropped to me the night before regarding passion and certain things to do in the ministry... When i checked out Webster's 1828 dictionary for what passion really means, i found out that it comes from the word patior- to suffer. It means:

1. The impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; that which is suffered or received.

2. Susceptibility of impressions from external agents.

3. Suffering; emphatically the last suffering of the Saviour.

There are other meanings lah... but the top three listed are not ur common definitions. They teach me a lot about what it means to be passionate. From the first one, passion talks about affecting others. It makes me think... many times leaders think that they're passionate just cos they're doing lotsa stuff.. but the real question is have u affected someone? Cos even if we do lotsa stuff but we dun affect someone for the kingdom, den are we really passionate?? The second one talks about our teachability, our ability to be influenced, challenged and ignited for the kingdom... passionate ppl have no problem being infected by other passionate ppl! :) The third one is the one ppl hardly talk about... cos it talks about the laying aside of our own desires to follow God's will and His desires... if we refuse to go through suffering for His sake, can we truly be counted as a passionate ppl?? :)

Gatekeepers
Felt during gatekeepers that God wanted to do a deeper work in our hearts... It's a call to lay aside those things that hinder us, those things that distract us.. so during prayer and intercession, we focused a lot on cleansing for the ministry...

on a side note, i was playing the keyboard and the Lord was teaching me on friday how to handle it... When you take up your instrument, you should do it with a certain sense of dignity and respect.. like when a king draws out his sword for battle.. he doesn't just handle the instrument anyhow... he does it with a certain grace and smoothness. Similarly, i hope that somehow new team members will learn this concept. That theor instruments are instruments of war to serve the Lord Almighty. That the way they handle it should reflect it's use...

Tranformers
Watched it again on Saturday... cos this time, Shaun, David and Jared wanted to watch it so a whole bunch of us watched it together. That's why the Lord din want me to watch it on thursday... cos He knew that i would be wasting my $ watching the movie twice. Oh well.. guess we hafta suffer the consequesnces of disobedience. But there were certain things i caught from the movie:
-no sacrifice, no victory
-God can use a total nobody to save many... it's high time that we cast aside all that self-pity and go for the kingdom of God.

Teacher's Debrief
Went quite well. we got to strategise and think of where to go to facilitate what the Lord has done during the camp. Thank God that the debrief went well too... we really need to pick up pace from here... guess wad.. we're starting with prayer and that's a really good place to start!

Saturday Revival Meeting
Also went quite well... thank God that the youth are rising up... and can you see how interested some of the guys are in playing with flags.. that's just so nice! During the worship, i just felt that a fire flag was being waved across the congregation so i took the "fire in His glory" flag and started waving it around to signify the work of cleansing that God wanted to do in the church...

Pre-Service Prayer
I was honoured enough to join the church intercessors for prayer on Sunday morning and there were certain impressions i received during the time of prayer:

-We need to pray for understanding upon the congregation- That they would have their spiritual eyes and ears and their hearts open to receive the ministry of the Word. The reason why there's no transformation is cos there's no understanding.. just as in the parable of the sower where the birds took away what was sown. This was confirmed by Pastor Ban when he took over the worship and the first thing i heard him pray was for the eyes of our hearts to be open or something liddat.

-I saw a lighthouse... and i just remembered that that's our calling and i believe that's what the Lord was reminding us.

-i felt that God was emphasising the point that we are living stones.. but some of the living stones have been neglected, even as some have neglected their own spiritual lives.. and that's the reason why the church is weak- cos each individual member contributes to the overall state of the church. It's about identity. It talks about us forgetting who we are, neglecting our identity in Christ... It's time that we returned to that.. as we know who we are and our identity in Him. It's about remembering that we are living stones consecrated unto Him for the building of a spiritual temple for Him to dwell. When we have a revelation of our identity, then we take hold of the revelation and run with it, that's how we become a healthy church- that is, if every individual becomes responsible and accountable with his/her own spiritual life.

Da Vinci Code
Watched it on DVD yesterday in the evening... now why would someone like Chris watch such a show liddat that has caused a stir amongst religious communities and Christian groups? Wrong question. The right question is- why would God allow such a potentially faith-destroying book to become so popular and marketed into a movie and cause such a stir amongst religious communities? I finally knew after watching the show.

You see, the word "Acts" has continually been coming back to me the whole of this year. I read the book of Acts earlier this year to see what God was trying to say.. then sometime back, i began to realise- look at how it's called the Acts of the Apostles, not Words of the Apostles. The whole body of Christ needs to grasp this truth if it's gonna enter into what God wants to do from this next season. Cos for the past so and so hundred years, the church has been primarily evangelising using words, not acts... now i have nothing against the Bible. In fact i believe it is the basis of our faith, the sure foundation, the Word of God that lasts forever.. the Word upon which every experience or teachng must fall back on. The thing is, many times, we get stuck on the words and we neglect the idea of a true living relationship with Jesus Christ.. cos that kind of a true living relationship will develop into experiences too. It will develop into acts... ever heard of a love relationship based purely on words? "I love you" says the man. "Prove it" says the woman.

We need to return to that place of faith where the gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely preached but lived, accompanied by signs and wonders. The reason why the Lord allowed ppl to publish things like da Vinci code and gopel of judas and whatever else have you is because we need to get to the place where the Word is lived out in acts. Cos we can argue on matters of faith and tradition for all we want and still not get anywhere.. So He wants the church to move forward and show the world the edge of having a living relationship with Him. Signs and wonders follow those who believe. Greater things than these, Jesus said we would do. So where is the church when doctrine is challenged? The church should always be one step forward. It has to come to a place where we say- "I know that book is nonsense cos i have a living relationship with Jesus and i can prove it!" "You tasted wine b4? You see that glass of water over there..."

For the world out there... which is more powerful? Just words or a demonstration? ;)