Lessons from the Lift

Oh my oh my... God has really been gracious to me cos He's been giving me lotsa dreams lately and i just can't wait to share them with you... they're not just those dreams that i dream in my heart but dreams that i see when i'm sleeping...

i'm gonna start with what i saw yesterday morning.. since i'm still on holiday, i've been sleeping quite late so that means when i sleep on sunday night, it really means i sleep early on sunday morning, etc.. just wanna clarify the date for easy reference...

Ok... the dream... I was involved in a massive evangelistic youth evangelistic event. It was organised by Sojourners and the interesting thing was that there were other youth ministries present when we held the event. I saw myself welcoming guests from other youth ministries into what at first seemed like a small house.. but later, when i looked it seemed to be a very big stadium.. I think i saw ppl from Generations ministry with Pastor Daniel.. i think Pastor Yang was also there.. There were also ppl from Point Community (CHS).. Rena was my keyboardist i think... can't seem to recall if i saw anyone from THOP. Oh but anyway, got to chat a bit with the Generations youth and there was really something different about them.. they were very supportive of the event and i even saw an intercessor amongst them who was deep in prayer before the event started.

What was i doing? It seemed i was doing a lot of things- besides organising the event and welcoming ppl i was also supposed to worship lead as well and share the message... And i believe God was trying to tell me something. Perhaps He was showing me that i can't do everything by myself. Cos i was so busy going around welcoming ppl that i didn't even have time to get back on the stage when they started the worship- cos the place was quite BIG and it would take something to transport me from one place to another... but i was holding the cordless mic so i could still sing from where i was... and i was singing from a hidden place in the stadium- not onstage.. so God may possibly be showing me something about being in a place of hiddeness. The first song i took was "The One i Long For" by Reggie Smith... the congregation was singing but my mind was in a muddle and i couldn't focus cos i couldn't communicate with the band and i've just stopped from doing lotsa things and din have time to rest in God and quieten myself before Him. Anyway, i went away and stopped singing cos there was something i needed to attend to.

This part of the dream was not very clear.. it seems that a lorry or something had arrived to transport me and the backups to the stage but it drove off without me and i had to do something else... Ok anyway, i had my handphone with me and i could dial a number and someone (perhaps from the worship team) would pick up and through that i could hear what's going on during the worship.. So apparently, JK took over leading i think... i could hear the congregation singing "Hosanna" from Hillsongs United... i still had the cordless mic with me so i was thinking of taking over but when i checked the worship again, they were singing a song i had composed sometime back "Yours is the Glory"... and i just decided to let the worship continue... Den it was here that i woke up i think.

At the beginning of the dream, when i was preparing for the event, the Lord showed me that i was supposed to deliver a message on Isa 53 especially verses 3-5 which talk about healing... Healing as in the restoration of all the things from all that ever resulted from the Fall. Then He showed me that for the altar call, i was supposed to operate in raw faith and call out all those who needed healing and den pray for them...

Another thing that happened in the dream was that someone got stuck inside a lift... So ppl were trying to get him out and for a while i tried to help too.. but then i lost interest and went away... and God was teaching me something about evangelism there and then. Many times, we treat evangelism like an activity and we stop when we dun feel like doing it or when we lose interest.. or maybe when our leaders dun talk about it enuf... We treat evangelism like an activity instead of being concerned in that one soul, that one person needing salvation. Evangelism is about people, not activities.. it's about reaching out to that one person that needs salvation. Many times, our heart is not right, our focus is not right. Many times we try and then lose interest and then we give an excuse that someone else will do it. Like how other ppl were also helping that guy in the elevator and so we decide not to concern ourselves with that responsibility cos we think that we have "other better things to do".

So after going away, i went around welcoming other ppl from other ministries and among them was Generations and as i was talking to them, guess wad.. they asked me for help to get their fren Kelvin out of the lift... and they were like so concerned for him. And it made me think. It's all about the heart... they were concerned about the person.. resulting from a relationship with the person... rather than being concerned with the activity of getting ppl saved. And this was perhaps by far the strongest lesson i could learn from that dream. It's about our motives for evangelism- are we concerned with salvation or the hype of the activity? Are we concerned with the value of the individual more than the manifestations of God's presence or the glory of having a large youth ministry? That's the difference.. we have to get the right motives. Perhaps that's why some youth ministries prosper more than others.

I have come to believe that the getting-someone-out-of-the-lift scene was more important than the idea of having a large stadium-sized gathering or even the spectacle of seeing God move in healing. A large heart and character is more important than large events. And many times God uses the small and insignificant to shame the wise- of how He chose to teach me such an important truth from the small lift instead of the BIG stadium... I also wonder if that lift scene was an allegory of many of today's Christians and even churches and youth ministries who are "stuck in the lift" and can't go to the next level because of wrong mindsets and attitudes...

I spent yesterday morning with Crusade ppl doing some dry run for the games for this year's Blastoff Camp.. It's interesting to note that the crusade mission statement is to build spiritual movements everywhere so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus. And truly following Jesus means knowing God's heartbeat- it's for ppl not for programmes. In evangelism, we need a change in mindset... we need to know the heartbeat of God and be motivated by it and not just the hype of another activity. God's heartbeat is for people. I was kinda tired when i came back from the dry run yesterday afternoon so i went back to sleep again and during my sleep God was speaking to me. It was as if He wanted to confirm what He was telling me in the dream that morning. He was showing me that He is concerned with people... He was showing me that our passion must be converted into people... no point having lotsa "passion" and being so active in church and obsessed about God if it doesn't translate into getting more people into His Kingdom.. God wants more people to know Him. That's what God is passionate about and anyone who claims that they are passionate about God must be passionate about people.

God's glory doesn't come in programmes- it comes on people... Just as how the ark of the covenant rides on Levites, not on oxen carts. Isa 60 talks about the glory of God and the glory of God upon Zion. But John 4 talks about a time that is coming and has now come when ppl wun worship in geographical places like Jerusalem, but God is seeking true worshippers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. What is Zion? Zion is His people, the new Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ. You want the glory of God? You gotta recognise that it comes through people. In those days, Gentile worshippers would bring soil from the Holy Land back to their countries to worship God on. Yes, the glory of God comes upon places... but we are God's temple..we're supposed to provoke the world to worship. We are made of dust, of soil.. we are the ground. Matt 13 talk about the parable of the sower.. we are that ground. We are holy ground. Ephesians 1 talks about His inheritance in us. We are the ground upon which God has chosen to dwell by His Spirit and to show forth His glory. If we're gonna pursue the glory of God, we need a change in mindset from getting caught up with programme, activities and whatever else have you to focusing on people- God's chosen instruments and vessels to show forth His glory.

God bless! :)