Young Adults Retreat

Spent last weekend at Pasir Ris Park at YAM retreat and boy was it fun! :) Never had a retreat like that in ages.. haha... played in the park on the first night, stayed up late and played taboo and catan, had nice food and fellowship, and of course spent time in the presence of God!

On the first evening, Uncle Ban challenged us to believe God for our inheritance. He even showed us the plot of land at Sembawang that the church is believing God for. And inheritance means we dun have to start from scratch... cos out of the 10 million we need for that property, we already have at least 5 million from our present units! :) He shared the message I.P.O.- we need to recognise our Inheritance, Possess it by Prayer and Obey God.

Anyways, during that session, God was speaking to me personally about having the grace of yielding, the grace to die to my own will and my own desires... Den He was continuing the download He was giving me from the last YAM session i attended.. then, i felt that the Lord was saying that before He can reveal the vision, He needs to find people who are willing to run with it... Then on Friday evening, He was just showing me that He's not so much interested in the blueprint... He's interested in yielded hearts, He wants to change our hearts.. Vision is dead in itself but it becomes alive in a person, those who run with the vision. This is especially important as many of us have been sensing from the Lord the need for us to be Kingdom-minded... it's something that keeps on recurring over and over again for YAM whenever some of us pray for it. And we need people who are kingdom-minded, who have willing hearts for the things of God to run with the vision to see the ministry established.

The verse for the retreat was 2 Chronicles 7:14 and we went through that verse for morning devo.. as i was just reflecting on it and what it could mean to us, i was just reminded that as we humble ourselves, it was a way for God to fill us with the grace and truth that will spark the revolution upon society (see my previous post).. and the part about God healing our land. What is our land? Do we even wat it healed in the first place? The Isaraelites were a bunch of agrarian ppl. The land was their life. It's also a picture of ours. It reflects the condition of our hearts (matthew 13) and shows our propensity for nurturing a particular vision that is laid upon it... and how soft, ready and receptive our hearts are determine how fruitful that vision is.

The evening session went well.. actually at first before that i was just talking to JK and Dot concerning some stuff in ministry and i was kinda down over certain issues lah.. but when we entered into worship, the Holy Spirit was there, the presence of God was there and it compelled me to push these things aside, trade them for His joy and just worship Him and enjoy His presence there. Then the fire of God hit me and i started groaning from the depths of my spirit as a prayer. And the Lord was continuing some of the download i have been receiving...

I believe it was for the YAM though some are also for me... First point: We must believe our vision and what we have to say before we can pass it to someone else. If we don't really believe in it, how can we expect the other person to catch it.

Then i saw myself holding a torch (kinda like the ones you see during the olympics).. and God was just telling me about the torch of faith that our forefathers passed and now it is our turn to run with it, to run with the vision and then pass it to another...

Third point. We have to go up, we have to go to a higher place to receive that vision. We have to bring ourselves to the place where we can receive it...

Then i saw a banqueting table prepared. And i believe that it is the feast the Lord has prepared for us in His presence.. and everything was all set up and ready but the question was where are the people? The thing is that God wants to spend time with His people and everything is ready and it is the people who refuse to draw near, who are so reluctant to come... maybe they dun even know that a banquet has been prepared for them??

Then the Lord was reminding me the truth that those who are changed with fire and pass through it will become fire, will become that very substance that He is.. and thus will change the people/things around Him.. :)

As to how all this is applicable, i leave it to you to think about it and meditate on it.. ;)

We live in exciting times yeah?? :)