The Great Cloud of Witnesses

Hmmm... for those of you who have never heard this teaching, here's something for you to ponder over and think about... warning: this might really mess with your minds! muahahaha... Can an old saint come back and speak to us in the present day? Can someone like Moses, Abraham or maybe Paul come and visit us? What about modern saints who have already passed away.. like Katherine Kuhlman, William Branham, etc... Well i haven't been visited by any of these (yet) but i've heard of stories and testimonies by men and women of God who have. Freaky huh? But that's cos we don't usually talk about it. But a close study of Scripture shows that it does happen!

Hebrews 12:1 talks about us being surrounded by a great cloud of winesses. Now who are these great cloud of witnesses? The therefore in that verse will tell you that they are the saints of old, the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11... and more than that. Now where are these people? Are they all living a lofty and boring life confined to the clouds of heaven? No.. the Bible says that we're surrounded by them. They're around us... Now what are they doing here? What are they witnesses to? They're witnesses to our walk of faith and the unfolding of God's will upon planet earth. They're cheering us on in our pursuit of the revelation of God!

Now wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible say that the dead can't come back?? Like the story of the rich man and Lazarus?? But these witnesses... are they really dead? No! They're alive in Christ.. the Bible doesn't call them dead but asleep, awaiting the coming of the Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the righteous. They're part of the church.. though they live at a different place. Belive it or not, they're alive in Christ... and because we are one body, that means the church in heaven is as one in Christ as the church on earth.. cos there's only one church.. that means that we're baptised with them and they're alive as much as we're alive cos in Christ, all are alive! And they're part of Christ's body also. Hebrews 13 says that we've come to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.. that's them! They're part of God's Kingdom too and have specific roles to play in bringing about His plans and purposes upon the earth...

Now perhaps many of us have been acquainted and used to the idea of being visited by angels, or by Jesus Himself. After all, it's all in the Bible and Jesus visited His disciples after His resurrection and visited Paul in Arabia during his 3-years there after his ascention. Maybe some of us are even crying out for a visitation of Jesus or some of us might have already been visited by Him (I sure would love that!). But wait a minute... are there any instances that the great cloud of witnesses showed up in the Bible? Of course...

First we have Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus at the mount of Transfiguration... talking to Him about the work that He has yet to do, His coming departure at Jerusalem. Here we see two old saints showing up talking about the purposes of God.. so we know that the great cloud of witnesses are real and they sometimes have a special work to do upon the earth.. like to release a message or something in bringing about the fulfillment of God's purpose. How did Peter recognise that they were Moses and Elijah? After all, they didn't have TV then, Charlton Heston wasn't born yet, and they didn't have cartoons depicting men with long beards and flowing robes. Like I mean Peter had never seen Moses or Elijah! But i believe that Peter supernaturally recognised them through his spirit. It was a kind of discernment that enabled him to identify them...

Where else? In the book of Samuel, we see some of the events that happened before King Saul died. By this time, Samuel was already dead and Saul had already long been cast from the Lord's presence... there was an upcoming battle and Saul decides to consult a medium, the witch of Endor for answers (no, she's not someone from Lord of the Rings..). He wanted the witch to try to bring back Samuel's spirit from the other side of the grave so that he could speak to him... the witch was used to contacting the spirits of the dead.. but it was all counterfeit! She probably had a familiar demonic spirit with her who posed as the dead person to deceive whoever came to her... she was used to doing this.. but anyway, she tried to contact Samuel but instead of the familiar spirit showing up, the real Samuel showed up. How do we know it was the real Samuel? Cos the witch was afraid! She was so used to seeing the counterfeit that when the real thing came, she didn't know how to handle it! So Samuel went on to rebuke Saul and tell him about the coming defeat... Sounds like something from a very grim fairy tale...

So what's the use of talking about the great cloud of witnesses?? I believe that now as we're nearing the final clash of the ages, we're going to see more and more of them... some of them would come to strengthen us in our call and role in these days as Moses and Elijah strengthened Jesus concerning His mission. We're gonna see lots more angelic activity in the days ahead as well as visitations from the great cloud of witnesses. Like Peter, we'll be equipped with the discernment to be able to tell the false from the real. We'll be able to know those who are part of the heavenly church... after all, we're all in Christ! I believe that when we die, we'll be given missions to fulfill.. not just sit around resting on a cloud watching fat little cherubs shoot arrows. The kingdom of God is supposed to be exciting! And now that we are approaching the final clash of the ages and that spiritual activity is gonna increase, the church on earth is gonna learn more and more how to work with God's heavenly agents to bring about His purposes upon the earth!

Let's go! :)

Random Thoughts

-When i read a book about the spiritual experiences of other Christians or ministers, i take it like a travel guide... it tells me about God and the places i can go in Him... but then, it leaves me to seek Him for myself and have my own experiences in Him. A travel guide shows you the country but nothing beats experiencing it for yourself. Likewise, Christian books tell you about God but nothing beats experiencing Him for yourself...

-Do we treat God like a dentist or a doctor?? Like we consult Him when we have some problems and when He tells us what to do, do we take it as advice? Or rather, do we take it as words of wisdom -or even more- as commands that are to be obeyed, coming from the Creator Himself? In this increasingly service-oriented society that is Singapore, we tend to lose our focus.. and we see God like someone we go to for service.. i pay you my tithe, you help me. when He doesn't, we complain, but what right have we? God is not our hairdresser.

-Students in Singapore are so busy. From primary school right down to uni.. and it seems that the workload only piles up after that. Are we too busy to dream? Stop. Think. When we keep working, what we're doing is essentially perpetuating the status quo. That means to say, if we work and work and we don't dream, nothing's gonna change and we'll be stuck like that... Suppose we do dream... are we then too busy to put wings to our dreams or put feet to our blueprints? This case is even worse than the first one.. it's like knowing what to do but not being able to do it. It's like seeing what you want but not being able to have it... if we wanna see something we've never seen before, we've gotta do something we've never done before! it's time for a holy revolution!

Break out and break through! ;)

Reese Howells, Intercessor

I've been reading this book lately which i got from Faithworks last sunday.. It's a biography of Reese Howells. He was an intercessor that lived during the time of the Welsh revival and into world war II. Not many people know about him. Many know people like Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, etc who changed the course of the war and the course of history... but Reese Howells was one such man used by God in intercession to change the course of the war... He would be taken up into the war rooms of God and see what's going on in the spirit and he would pray strategic prayers that were decisive in altering the not just war but history! Reading about him is really remarkable...

But what caught my attention was his life and how the Spirit dealt with him and taught him principles of intercession. He went through such dealings of God in his own life, with his finances, etc.. he went through such a dying to self in order to gain his position of authority. .and from the book, one could glean many principles for intercession still relevant today.

What surprised me was the fact of how these golden trasures that he walked in so eluded this post charismatic-renewal generation. Even among intercessors and those who teach intercession, why don't they teach about dying to self to identify with those they're interceding for? Why don't they teach about the importance of abiding in Christ and living out His life and experiencing the dealings of God? It seems that we've lost a lot of truth a long the way and now, when we talk about interceding, it becomes so shallow... we think that we can blast our way in tongues without living an abiding position. We may have the prophetic outpourings but if we're not guided and dealt with by the Spirit, the measure of authority we're gonna come to is gonna be quite shallow. I wanna see real intercessors who know the real dealings of God! I really hope that these time-tested principles that Mr. Howells walked in would soon find its way again in churches and in pulpits so that we may all find the importance of living a life of intercession, not just interceding...

there's a difference you know...

Letting Go...

In this season of experiencing the dealings of God, God was showing me yesterday evening that a lot of the things that i do in mny areas of my life are about trying to maintain control.. and they were all ordered around the fear of losing control... He was showing me that in my relationships with people.. how i relate to them.. He was showing me that in the way i carry myself in ministry. He was showing me that in the area of my studies that when things seem to go out of hand then i find myself troubled. Even in my finances... In many things in my life... I've already posted a lot on letting god take control recently and it seems that He's really dealing with me through and through on this matter... but what alerted me most, when God made realise it, was the fact that this control even extends to my relationship with Him!

What? Me control God? Or atempt to do so? How can that be??

The way i relate to Him in my prayers... it seems that instead of using praying to draw near to Him, as a way of cultivating relationship with Him, many times i use it to present to God a list of things that ineed Him for... not that that's wrong in itself but it's an immature concept. Many times, i become contended just dropping my list before God and going on and on without really knowing His heart and knowing Him more... many times, i think that if i don't pray, God won't do anything.. but the fact is, God is already at work even before i open my mouth.. Many times, i narrow prayer down to an aggregated concept: i put in prayer A, and therefore, i should get result B... it's a form of control.. i expect God to work within my ability to pray Him into situations.. i expect God to work in response to my words without counting in His desire for a relationship... Even when i confess my sins and ask for His work in my life, i've been so deceived as to think that He won't work unless i ask Him to but the fact that i'm confessing already means that He's working! And by the cross He has forgiven and all i have to do is accept that! The terms are not mine- they're His! He doesn't want us to pray out of fear but out of desire...

Ironically, operating like this takes the desire out of me.. makes prayer boring, religious and repetitive.. doesn't produce a new revelation of Christ cos prayers that come from the flesh can't produce a revelation from heaven! Takes the joy out of ministry, takes the love of praying out of the most earnest believer.. prayer becomes merely like clocking time, kinda like those sessions you spend in the library during period's when the teacher is sick and the relief forces you to stay there...

Let's talk about surrender.. even when i surrender to God, i surrender from a position of control.. What I mean is this.. "God i want this done so i surrender to You" in effect, i'm still saying that i'm the Boss... When i ask the Holy Spirit to take control of a situation, it's because i want Him to do something in that situation, so i give Him control... and hope that my praying will produce something.. and this pattern of praying is dead, boring and just takes the life and relationship out of the equation.. what i'm essentially saying is "Holy Spirit take control because i want You to do this, this and this..." It's not true surrender.. it's surrender within a given perimeter..

But guess wad.. prayer is for Him to take hold of us.. for Him to change us and replace our desires with His desires! When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, it's Him who takes hold of us, who possesses us, not so much because we possess Him.. He's God remember? When we operate in the gifts, it's not so much because we possess them as much as we are in Him! Who's bigger? He wins hands down! And if ever we should surrender, it is He who works in and through us that gives us the supernatural grace and enablement to die to the flesh so we can live for Him...

God, change my paradigm.. remove all this deceptive ways of how I've seen you and teach me to trust You more, knowing that You're in control whether i give You control or not. In Jesus name, Amen.

Out of the Mouth of Babes...

This morning i had a really interesting dream... i saw little Janan come up to me and started to prophesy.. and He really said a lot of things and i couln't really catch the details.. but if i'm not mistaken, he was crying as he was releasing those words but they were tears in the Presence.. he still had that usual smile on his face while he spoke.. Can't really remember what he said and he really spoke quite quickly and it was not very fluent but i kinda remember he said something about rain.. he was prophesying about rain... Then in the dream, i turned to Raj and impressed by what had just happened, i asked him "Where did he get that from?" And Raj gave a kinda casual answer, seemed like he didn't know either and replied something like Janan got it from someone he saw in Youtube or something...

Though i can't remember the content of what Janan said, i do believe that this dream points to reviavl.. Revival is coming and God is gonna use little kids, including the very young. We've yet to see the full manifestation of Joel 2! Rain is coming! but we have to be prepared when it comes.. often God doesn't come the way we expect/like.. He may come through the toddlers.. he may speak the secrets of His heart through them.. what then do we do? Do we dismiss it? Do we marginalise them and say that they're just talking rubbish or talking anyhow? The Bible says the kingdom of God belongs to such as they... do we miss the Word of God just because it doesn't come through the vessels that we expect it too? Is our heart filled with such pride and presumption? "I'm an intercessor in the church!" one may think. "I pray many hours a day. Surely if God's gonna speak, He's gonna speak through me? I'm, after all, on the cutting edge..." Wishful thinking.

If then we learn how to accept them, what then are we gonna do with what they say, are we gonna take it as optional.. or worse, are we gonna persecute them for it? There was a great revival in Indonesia but what happened was the church persecuted the children cos the children started to speak out the secret sins of the people! Are we still gonna hold that paternalistic attitude/mindset thinking that we know better??

Are we gonna have the eyes to see, the ears to hear and the heart that understands so that we do not miss the day of our visitation? When the Spirit speaks, do we have a discerning (= listening) heart? Do we discern His voice and obey? Are we able to hear His voice through a child, though a sign, through a piece of music or even in an everyday situation? We have to listen closely, we have to pay attention, we have to practice hearing so that when He speaks we're tuned in! The bible says out of the mouth of babes He has ordained praise (Psalm 8)...

To those skeptics out there who believe that God can speak through children but maybe not toddlers or babies, i have this for you.. there's recorded in church history about a time when babies (in France i think) would speak in actual languages of other nations... Babies! That's God for you...

anything else? ;)

Warfare for Your Destiny

One day, Jesus decided to cross the sea of Galilee to the Gerasenes region around the area of the Decapolis. He said to his deciples, "Let's cross over to the other side".. and so they did... while they were in the boat, Jesus found a comfy cushion and laid his head to rest. Meanwhile, a furious squall came upon the boat. There came a fierce raging torrent. The disciples, who, mind you, were experienced fishermen shook in fear.. they thought they were going to die! They knew plenty of storms but they never met a storm like this. Shaken with fear, they went into the boat and woke the Master up... "How could the Master sleep at a time like this?" they must have thought. Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the waves and everything went back to normal... what about the disciples? Jesus rebuked them for having so little faith... starngely, these disciples whom He knew so well were terrified! Terrified? But they walked with Jesus, didnt they? Haven't they seen Him drive out evil spirits before? Or heal the sick? Or do the other cool stuff? They didn't think this was cool... they think this was really dead scary!

Then they got to the other side... and over there was a man (matthew records two)who was nuts... he was demon possessed, living among the tombs and with a such violent reputation that no one passed where he was... The townfolk were probably nice enough to try to chain him so that he wouln't hurt himself or others that happened to pass along the way but each time, he tore through the fetters.. no one could restrain him... imagine that for an uncle! Ok.. anyway.. Jesus comes into the picture and the demons are terrified.. they fall down before Him asking Him not to cast them into the Abyss.. instead, the demons begged Him to allow them to posses a herd of piggies that were gathered nearby... and Jesus allowed them and they went into the pigs which then rushed over the steep bank into the lake and drowned...

That's not the end of the story.. the word spread around and people gathered... they saw the demon-possessed man with Jesus and in his right mind.. and guess wad... they were afraid! Now that's really interesting cos when the man was still possessed, they were bold enuf to try to chain him and restrain him... now that he was ok, they were frightened! So anyway, they asked Jesus to leave their region cos of their fear but before leaving, Jesus comissioned that man to go and tell his family of what God has done for him... but the man told more than his family.. he told the entire region...

So what does this all mean?

Jesus was on a mission... it was more than just to cut down the cholesterol intake of an entire Gentile region. You see, in the Bible, this was a very unusual mission. Jesus said that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. He primarily ministered to Jews and if a Gentile came to Him, they were the exception- He didn't usually go to them. But here, we see Jesus take His entourage of Twelve (who thought they were gonna drown), brave the storm and go all the way accross the sea of Galilee to deliver the man from demon possession! It's like taking thirteen people to pray for a single guy during an altar call! He didn't do anything else there! After the event, the townsfolk asked Him to leave so he crossed the sea again. But He went on a special mission outside of Israel to specifically minister to a Gentile... so what He did must have been really special and really important.. and that the demon possessed man whom He liberated must have had some kind of significant role in God's plan for Jesus to go out of His way for that very purpose.

Now this mission was dangerous and the company was met with fierce opposition. The storm wasn't natural- it was supernatural, engineered by the spirits of the day who wanted to abort the mission (cos it was so important)! That's why the disciples never encountered anything like it! But didn't Jesus already say "let's go to the other side"? What does that mean? It means that Jesus already knew they were gonna get to the other side! all that was needed for the disciples to do was to trust in Him and His Word! Beloved, does a storm stand between you and your destiny? perhaps it's the biggest storm you have faced in your life. Perhaps it's of supernatural proportions and it will only take a supernatural God to see you through it. Perhaps there's a lot of warfare that stands between you and your destiny, between now and the prophetic words that have been released over your life. But take heart, know what He has said, and know the God who said it! And rest in that! When God says it will be, it will be. When God says you're gonna get to the other side, you will, even if right now you don't see it!

Then you'll go.. "Who is this..." You'll be afraid. The terror of the holiness and awesome greatness of God will hit you, once you know who's with you in the vessel.. Maybe you've walked with Jesus.. but you haven't seen anything yet.. There's yet a time for Him to show you that you don't really know Him that well after all.. and when you see another aspect of his nature, you'll stand in fear and awe!

The man at Gerasenes... his destiny was so important to God that he would even send Jesus to go all the way to a gentile region to liberate him... and his destiny was so important to Satan that those in the boat were to be met with such strong spiritual opposition, that even the threat of death loomed over their heads. yes, your destiny is important to Satan! Why? Cos he wants the worship that hould rightfully belong to God for himself.. He wants your giftings, your talents, your destiny and spheres of authority so he can use you as a counter-apostle for the kingdom of darkness and through you, he wants to spread such darkness and hatred for God. But God knows why He made you. He marked you out before you were born. He sees the potantial in you! Satan sees that too and that's why he's all out to stop it. But guess who's more powerful? ;)

Then the power enconter comes and Jesus wins hands down without even doing much.. the demons were literally begging Him.. now i wonder what the disciples were thinking... "Why did you have to put us through that ^$$#^*& storm??" "What are we doing here anyway? You single-handedly defeated the entire legion of them... and two thousand pigs too!" "You didn't really need our help now did You?" But Jesus showed them a lesson on faith. And He showed them that the destiny of that one man was worth more than all their comfort.. it was worth all the spiritual warfare they faced.. Cos the Master had a plan for him...

When the man was dressed and in his right mind, he wanted to go with Jesus, become Jesus' disciple... But Jesus had other plans. He commissioned him to be his first Gentile evangelist... normally when Jesus performed a private miracle, He would tell his patient not to go around telling other people... but this time, He commissioned the man to tell his family what God had done.. and guess wad.. the precious man did more than that- he told his story all over the Decapolis (which means the Ten Cities)...

I believe that the reason why people were afraid of Jesus was because they were not used to seeing light. Let's say someone lives in darkness his whole life.. and then suddenly gets out into the open and experiences light for the first time, he'll take some time to adjust! Maybe at first he may want to close his eyes or even go back in darkness! And the Gerasenes people were probably not used to Jesus' ministry... They were not used to seeing the real thing, real power.. they were more used to seeing demonic counterfeit... so He needed a forerunner.. like an advertising agent.. The perfect job for the man he set free! Later, Jesus was to return to the Decapolis to do some healing and to feed the 4000... i believe that the testimony of this man prepared them for Jesus' future ministry.

So where are you in your walk with the Lord? Are you experiencing warfare for your destiny? Look to Jesus.. He turned the man from a helpless demoniac living in tombs to a free, sane man.. and more than that, the first evangelist to the Gentile people! He was kept hidden for a time until God the Father decrees from heaven for him to be set free and comissioned with a mandate for the Kingdom. Jesus then proceeded to execute the Father's will in accordance to the divine command. Overnight, the destiny is unlocked and the man becomes healed, saved, set free... In the book of Zechariah, it tells us that God will remove the iniquity of the land on one day. Though it refers primarily to Jesus' death on the cross, i believe it also is a prophetic decree of reversal when God overturns the situations we face and launch us into the good works He has prepares for us, and which He has prepared us for!

God bless! :)

Christian's Day Out

Today was one of those interesting days i didn't follow my usual schedule.. spent time at CSCC and went for Generations Service in the afternoon.. and there were lotsa interesting stuff that i found out

-pastor yang was a fan of marvel comics (!).. yeah.. i'm glad there are at least 2 in the business.. :P

-there's a bus from my house that takes me directly walking distance to both CSCC and Trinity... nice!

-before the youth service started i saw a bunch of youth praying at the back.. mostly guys (!).. there are those who pray and there are those who pray... these are the ones who pray...

-i also noticed that they did everything as a cell group or as a zone... they sat together in thier cell groups, they ate together.. they even went out together as a group i think...

-they put up a really creative advertisement for their youth camp in which a bunch on ninjas went to confront Jason Chua for not paying up his camp fees... the presentation was complete with plastic swords, paper shureikens and a parody of a hillsong song... highly entertaining...

-speaker for youth service was a guy called pastor victor who's a filipino serving as a missionary/youth pastor in malaysia.. and he's really super funny lah.. one of the things he said which i can recall: "nobody's ugly... they're just abstract." the crowd was laughing.. and his jokes were not the usual kind.. dunno how he thinks of such things... but the sermon spoke to me :)

-apparently, Faithworks was having some anniversary thingy so everyone got a $5 voucher.. i got too carried away at the bookshop after service lah and i spent some $ buying two books... and they're really interesting- not your usual kind... after i'm done, i'll lend them to whoever's interested...

-took the same bus home.. oh how i love those big new SBS doubledeckers.. hardly get to ride them cos they dun usually pass by the places i frequent.. they're very spacious and they dun have a TV mobile! I have great respect for buses which dun have TV mobile! They're like the Armani of buses... (dunno who came up with that bright idea of installing TV inside the bus that irritates you with lame local sitcoms while everyone is trying to get a peaceful ride home from an exhausting day at work/school or getting an extra snooze early in the morning...)

-while on the bus, ******* called me to ask me to pray for him cos he needed to make some decision regarding some school stuff.. and it just encouraged me lah.. cos out of the conversation, it just confirmed a prophetic word i released to him a few years back.. and it was not one of those ordinary words.. it was one of those words of destiny that lasted more than just a few sentences... anyway, i knew from the Holy Spirit on that bus ride itself on what decision he should make and apparently, the same decision was confirmed by his mother too... really thank God for His counsel!

~seriously refreshing! :)

Control

Woke up early this morning and had my sleep disrupted cos my tummy was giving me problems.. Hmmm... interestingly since i couldn't return to sleep properly i decided to take out the 40th anniversary mag to read again and as i was looking at the church photo, my eyes were drawn to the small company of children at the bottom.. it was like one of those God-moments where you know that God would do something in your heart... and then i felt the holy spirit speaking to me something like "Your committment to them must be like my committment to you"... and i kinda understood what He was saying.. that i must believe in them and see their dreams raised as far as possible and not give up on them.. cos Big Daddy's committment to be is top class.. and mind you, i've done some really naughty things.. but He's not prepared to give up on me... So i responded at that moment and asked God to make me a father to the (children's church) kids as Uncle Jem has been a father to me... and then the Holy Spirit showed me how it's not easy.. you know that fathers also do a lot of dirty work? like cleaning up after children if they still dunnno how to relieve themselves in the toilet properly... it works as an allegory.. i might have to clean up after some.. so it's not easy.. but i meant what i prayed and i believe God will give me the grace! :)

I went back to sleep and i just woke up a while ago.. God gave me a dream this morning and i want to blog about it while it's still fresh in my memory...

We were having some kind of camp.. like a youth worship camp or something and if i remember correctly, it was entirely planned by the 2nd liners.. at first i was kinda flustered because while some went out of camp to get some logistics stuff, i was looking for *someone* and the rest told me he'd gone out with them... (when i asked why, i was told that he went out to buy a toilet roll cos we're supposed to bring that along.. but he ended up mistakingly bringing a pack of plastic toilet seat covers...)

-_-" ...

Anyway, the camp included people from all over the place with guests from other churches.. I saw the sanctuary that we were using.. it looked kinda like our sanctuary now but it was different.. it seemed bigger, the lighting looked better, etc.. There was even a girl's school who sent an entire contingent down for the event (St Margaret's if i remember correctly.. though the uniform looked very different) and there were so many of them that we removed an entire section of chairs for them to sit on the floor... The place was packed and people were moving all around. I was quite surprised at the number of people that came for the event, young people.. There were interesting kinds of people all around too, with their own quirks... We invited CHS over apparently.. we had guest worship leaders and one of them was from CHS.. when i was talking to him, he was asking whether the mic can be affixed to a mic stand.. apparently, he wasn't used to leading worship without a mic stand.. then i saw one of the backup singers who looked like he came from China.. he got too carried away with his singing that the mic head actually went into his mouth...

You're probaby laughing rite now as you're reading this.. in my dream, there were lotsa things that were going on and to have so many people in an event is not only possibly mentally and physically draining but may also be a potential source of frustration.. cos so many things seemed to be going on at once and many things seemed to be hapening all around and it's easy to get lost in the mess and worrying about what needs to be done...

What caught my attention was *****a* who sat in the sanctuary even before the event started.. he wasn't caught up with the things everyone else were.. but alone, he was just sitting there, praying and seeking the Lord. Like Mary, he chose the better part. He was seeking God, choosing to spend time in the presence of God and praying... Later i saw Auntie Lee Noi just talking to him in the sanctuary, presumably ministering to him.. and i was glad in my heart that he chose to stay there and spend time in God's presence early cos that shows how much of a seeker he is...

In the end, i stationed myself by the side near the stage and watched as the worship began. There were many backups lined alongside the worship leader, ******. I felt that it had begun prematurely cos there was like no formal introduction and all... But anyway, when the worship started and ****** opened his mouth to sing, it was like my thoughts were arrested. I was surprised to hear his voice like that so loud and clear, with resonance and even more than that, with authority. It carried character and stature that interrupted the thoughts, chit-chats and mess that was going on to command worship to the Most High God. Never saw him worship lead like that before. It seemed that he has grown not only in skill but also in stature... Then my attention was drawn from his voice to God and i started worshipping Him. His presence was there and it was so strong.. i started thanking God for his Presence and for showing up... that despite all the mess and all the frustrations and things happening all over the place, He was there.. and that was the one thing that really mattered. As i was getting lost in that moment of worship, all that running around and things going on around me didn't seem to matter anymore.. it's just me and my God...

And God was teaching me an important lesson through this dream.. many times, we worry about events for nothing. When He's around, that's all we need. The reason we worry is cos we always feel the need to remain in control... and when things dun go the way we expect them to, we get flustered.. but God wants us to know that He's in control. We need to learn to let go and surrender to Him. The presence of God came.. and i had nothing to do with it.. like i said in one of my earlier posts, it seems that the presence of God is strongest when i dun do anything to try to steer the circumstances and just allow Him to move...

What i saw in my dream... is this what revival looks like? Cos when revival comes, we may not expect how it's gonna look like... and it might get messy, things happening all around.. and it's easy to lose our focus off God and onto the mess or even onto the voice of the WL, or the manifestations of the Spirit. Let's get this clear.. we dun worship the manifestations, we worship Him. We have to return to that basic understanding of ministry if we're gonna help to steward the coming revival. It's so easy to lose focus and get caught up with the people and what's happening that we forget to choose the better part.. in all the spectacles of a revival, how many true worshippers will God find, whose hearts are really seeking after Him? :)

When revival comes, it's all the more important to lose control and allow the Holy Spirit to take over.. even if it offends us... even if there are so many things going on and things become "messy" in our eyes.. cos if we want to hijack the service to promote our own agenda, His holy Presence might just lift from us and the revival might die prematurely... i dun want that.. Furthermore, if we spend unecessary time, energy and resources trying to control things or to direct things to go our way, not only we'll lose focus but we'll be wasting resources on things that are counter productive and might even end up burning out.. that's why we need to keep our eyes on God and listen to the Holy Spirit and what He wants to do... so if we're all gonna learn how to steward the coming revival, we better get these principles right now cos revival may come at anytime.

Also, during a revival, many people will be around and you never know who you'll get. Some of them may come with their own quirks, insecurities, weird habits, etc... but when revival comes, we have to learn how to love them, receive them, and not to "other" them... not to isolate them but to accept them.. cos it's God who adds memebers to a church.. we can't pick and choose and if we choose to ostracise the quirky ones, we would not be good stewards of all those souls that God would give us...

Big church is nice. Great music is nice. Having many people is exciting. Anointed worship leader is good. But all these can never be a substitute for God's Presence.

Stay tuned! :)

English Lecture

You could really hear the murmuring that went on during lecture today. The prof had just used a term that he hadn't explained to us yet. We moved on from learing about PS rules into new concepts like pronouns and anamorphs, etc.. and lost somewhere between linguistic jargon and the prof's Korean accent was this word that sounded vaguely like "sicko man"... The lecture theatre was buzzing and everywas was trying to regurgitate out the sicko word that the professor was using in hope of trying to understand it or perhaps recall a term that was vaguely familiar...

Then the professor moved onto the next slide...

... from which he taught us a new term- C-command. and everyone went like "ohhh".. while some laughed, obviously amused by the incident... haha... it kinda reminded me of Amanda's "oceanpatties" incident too.. :P

That was during EN2101 lecture in the morning. And since it was vaguely a comfortable time before noon, i decided to take a nap during the short 10-minute interval that was to be our break during the lecture. My lecture pad (which i didn't use at all) was rested comfortably on top of the foldable little black slab that was the lecture table, upon which was my head rested... might as well do something useful during that 10 minutes right.. well anyway, God was so random cos right in the middle of a break during EL2101 lecture, He decides to give me an Altar Ministry 1101 lesson.. believe it or not, in that short time span, i fell asleep and i had a really quick dream.. and it was like those little instructional ones where you hear a voice telling you what to do.. and in this case i saw myself practising the laying of hands.. and there was a voice i heard instructing me saying something like this; when i pray for people, i must believe what i speak over them..

and here's the amusing thing.. after i heard that in my dream, i saw myself pushing my hand out and extending it as if to touch and pray for someone in front of me.. and right at that moment, the lecture pad on which my head was resting suddenly slid forward, presumably from my weight leaning upon it and my body jerked forward and suddenly i was back in the "real world"... haha...

guess wad.. when i woke up, the break wasn't over yet.. so i went back to sleep.. :P

The Second Visitation

Let me tell you a story...

Jacob just got his blessing from his father but his elder bro Esau wasn't too happy. In fact, Esau was so angry that he wanted to kill him... So Jacob took off and fled and went on his way to look for Laban his uncle. Meanwhile, on his journey, he came to a place called Luz. Luz seemed like an ordinary enough place and he decided to spend the night there. He took an ordinary rock and used it as a pillow... so much for comfort... But then in the night, as he was sleeping, something from heaven touched the place.. he dreamed of a ladder extending to heaven with angels ascending and descending.. There, God made a covenant with im, telling him that He is with him, will watch over him and will bring him back to his father.. everything looked so uncertain for Jacob, his whole environment changed and he was forced out of his confort zone.. his bro was the hunter type.. he's used to going out and staying away from home for days.. not Jacob.. he preferred to remain at home.. but now things have changed.. and with the background of all this uncertainty, God met him. And he promised God that he would serve Him if He took care of his needs... Jacob was aware of the presence and glory of God in the place. Where God appeared, the atmosphere changed. And Jacob said "This is none other than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!" He took his pillow and made it a pillar, an altar of worship and He named that place Bethel- the house of God.

God prospered Jacob. He had the adventure of his life filled with ups and downs.. he gained 2 wives and many sons and many many more cattle... until finally, it was time for Jacob to fulfill his promise to God. God now asked Jacob to return to Bethel. On the way, Jacob told all his household, slaves included, to throw away their foreign gods and he burried them under a tree. He also told his entire entourage to change their garments.. cos they were on a journey to Bethel. And this journey wasn't an ordinary journey... It was a special mission to meet God. It was a mission of worship. It was a dangerous mission.. and entourage that big could be attacked by robbers and the surrounding tribes and countries.. but the fingerprints of God were all over that mission- the terror of God fell on all the towns that they passed so that no one dared to attack them... and Jacob reached Bethel.. and Jacob worshipped, building an altar there... He called it El Bethel- God of Bethel, God of the house of God. And God met with him, reaffirmed his covenant with him that was to last for generations. There, God appeared and procaimed his new name- Israel, the prince of God... Jacob received a new identity, a new revelation of his calling and destiny... and it worship was at the centre of it.. You see, it's great to be the father of an entire nation and even the father of kings.. but it's even greater to be known as a worshipper, a servant of God, a priest and a prince of God. Cos then, whatever God is, it reflects a bearing on us.. Because He is, we are!

It's amazing what God can do to a rock.. from something on the ground to becoming a pillow. Now that's useful... but guess wad.. from a pillow, it became an altar, a representation of God's presence on the earth... Now where are we in our Christian walk.. perhaps we see ourselves totally useless.. or maybe slightly useful like a common pillow.. but let's dream of our potential to be a representation of God on this earth that commands greater worship to be given to the Most High God. Even a rock had a destiny.. what more us! Even the destiny of a rock changed with God's presence.. what more us who are called to that very purpose!

When Jacob first came to Bethel, he had a revelation of the place. And how awesome it was indeed! Surely God was there! It was a really nice place where God was! And guess wad.. Jacob wanted others to visit that place too... he wanted the pillar that he set up to be God's house... but guess wad.. he was short changing himself.. cos he only had a revelation of the place, not God.. the name of the place changed from Luz to Bethel, but not his... cos destiny is all about the ever-unfolding revelation of God.. as God is revealed, we walk in our destiny... and some of us may just lose sight of it.. like Jacob, we may encounter his presence, be touched, get a few prophetic words here and there.. and we'll want to do things for God.. like build a church! That's noble! But guess wad... how can a pillar be God's house? How can a rock be God's house? Surely he made these things and He's far greater to inhabit them!

And then came the Second Visitation. Here, after history with God, all the adventures and the ups and downs, Jacob met God again.. and his response was very different.. He callled that place El Bethel- God of the house of God... this time, he didn't just have a revelation of the house, or of the place.. He had a revelation of God. Jacob was undone, ruined. He knows that His God is bigger than he could even imagine. And here, He received a revelation of His nature- El Shaddai... it's a mind-blowing revelation of God's power and might... But more than that, God confirmed his name-change; Israel. And God's own divine quality was in it. This time round, he heard his new name uttered from the very lips of the Almighty. This time round, it wasn't the place that was changed, it was Jacob. It was Jacob's destiny unfolding before him as he had a revelation of God. What I would give just to have God utter my name before me! But as Jacob knew more of God, he knew more of himself...

And many times in our evangelism, people come to church, get hooked to the place cos God's presence is there.. and they get a revelation about the place and that God is really there and they stay.. but we all need a personal encounter.. we need to move from Bethel to El Bethel. They need to encounter God personally and have a revelation of who He really is. This would demand worship from them and they would receive a revelation of they are in Him, a revelation of destiny. The angels ascending and descending represent the various gifts and commissionings of God coming down upon the earth... but a greater place than that is to understand who we are in Him.

Jacob had a revelation, that it is not the pillar that should be God's dwelling place- it's us. He is the treasure in jars of clay and the more we go through history with Him, the more He's revealed. and the more we understand ourselves. The Second Visitation called for holiness, casting aside sin and idolatry for the mission of worship. This prepared him for the visitation and the revelation. That's where the church needs to go. And what happened after Jacob and his house had cast it all aside and buried it, the terror of God came upon the surrounding towns. That's what the presence and the holiness of God does to us. Not only are we living temples and living Bethels but the holiness and character of God penetrates our very radius that the terror of God will hit all who surround us and they will have such an awe for our mission of worship and greater awe for our God! How dangerous is your radius? Does it cause the people around you to tremble and know that God is real? But that comes from a place of holiness, from a place of brokenness, from a place of the revelation of who God is and who we are in Him.

Bethel was good, Bethel was cool.. but nothing beats El Bethel, the God behind it. ;)

The Heart of the Nation

Last Saturday night i had a significant dream.. dunno if you all really wanna hear this but i'm just gonna talk about it plain and simple...

I dreamt that i was reading a book by a renowned foreign prophet and inside the book was a section on Singapore and God's prophetic timetable... it spoke of a time when Christians in Singapore are not gonna be safe.. we'll be hunted down and even the basements of our own homes would not serve a good hiding place... i saw in my dream that it was as if we were on the run.. The dream didn't last very long and neither was it very detailed but i did hear certain things during the dream.. one of the things was to raise godly children.. (this is very important cos you never know what will happen to you...) and the other was a phrase that went something like "we can't trust the brains of the nation, we need to trust the heart of the nation"... (im not really sure what this means completely though in my heart i have a slight idea).. and then as i read the book, i saw the year that denotes the timeframe in which this would happen.. if i remember correctly, it was 201_... When i woke up from the dream, i had the sense that what i was dreaming was real and that it was from God.. and i was suddenly more aware of the urgency of the hour even as the evil days are coming...

How does this apply to us? Well we can't remain in the mold of comfortable Christianity anymore.. there will have to come a time when each of us would have to make a choice between light and darkness and if we begin to compromise in our lives now, we'll be caught off-guard and unprepared when the day comes. We need to be aware of the urgency of the hour, of the timetable being set in motion. We might think that not a lot is happening now but in 10 yrs time things might look very different. When i saw the year on that book, it was hard for me to believe that it was so close... Moreover we're talking about Singapore! Is it really possible for such a level of danger and anarchy to come in this otherwise peaceful country? When God moves His hand to orchestrate the events that would bring about the end-time clash of kingdoms, anything is possible!

So what do we do now? We need to live our lives with a sense of expectation of what's to come.. we need to live our lives in holiness and obedience before God as Christ is coming soon. We need to gird our loins and prepare for His coming! It's the last of the last days. Whether we like it or not, people are gonna die, not because God has abandoned His own people but because of the martyrs who are gonna emerge to bring about the fulfillment of His purposes! That's why we need to train godly children! So that if anything happens to us, they can hear from the Lord themselves and they know how to walk in His ways and depend on Him to survive during such and such a time.

We need to pray for our nation. I'm a Filipino and if i have a greater heart for this country more than some of you Singaporean Christians, something must be wrong. We need to pray for our government leaders. The recent battle about repealing 337A banning gay sex in Singapore needs to first be won in the spirit before it can be won in the natural! We have to win this battle on our knees! We can't compromise on this cos if we do, we'll see Singapore sliding down the path to oblivion! Whatever you believe, Jesus Christ is stronger than the Singapore government! The heart of the nation is accessed through fervent and strategic intercession.. we'll know the places in the heart of the nation that are grieving because of hurts and social injustice and these are the places upon which we need to apply the cross so that God will heal our land. When we're able to see the condition of the heart of the nation, then we'll be able to pray strategically and gain the victory. But we must have a heart for the nation first to be able to pray effectively.

We know that prophecy is conditional and intercession can change the course of history. I was wondering why i had this dream on Sat night until i recently became aware of the recent "repeal 337A" campaign. I believe it's related in that the church needs to pray. No political activism can solve problems relating to the heart of a nation. It's time for the church to rise up!

Take off your sandals...

Nowadays the Holy Spirit is leading me into a time of prayer and there are just some amazing things that He's been impressing upon my heart which are so pertinent to my life and which i wanna just share here...

A few days back when i was in the bus just praying and seeking Him (it's amazing how the bus can become your altar), He was showing me what He's doing in my life.. i saw myself as a sword being hammered by the Blacksmith.. and He's hammering me and putting me into fire and then into the water.. whoa.. that's a lot to go through for a piece of precious metal.. but that is the instrument hammered and fashioned by the Lord.. and many times i feel the same way with the circumstances that i face every day that hammer my life into shape.. and in this season when i find myself needing to become more and more dependent on Him, it's not always easy but its pushing me into the birth canal of greater things seen in my life... He knows how much i can take and at the end of it all emerges an instrument fit for a King...

Yesterday, as i was praying after i came home, i was just listening to Him and asking Him to speak to me.. And the words that were impressed upon me was what God spoke to Moses and later to Joshua- take off your sandals for the ground you're standing at is holy... And i know that that's the season that God has in my life... Moses and Joshua received such an encounter before they received a fresh commissioning and after God has dealt with them. I know that i'm at my Gilgal... but beyond that is a greater place of authority.. taking off your sandals means becoming vulnerable, removing your masks and defenses and casting aside that which is worthless and man-made.. cos when we're in the very presence of the Majesty, everything is stripped away and we come before Him bare and what He's interested in is our hearts...

Today, i wasn't feeling too good in the morning and i was just calling upon God cos i just really needed a touch of His presence in my life once again.. and so on my way to school (the bus again).. God was speaking to me again that beyond my present circumstances, there is a power i've not yet touched, that i've never seen before or experienced before.. and He's bringing me there.. i saw myself swimming in the river of God.. and the thing about the river of God is that the more of it you want, the more you lose control... those who are totally immersed will be swept away by the mighty waters.. and the question to a deeper walk is how much we're willing to lose control and allow Him to take over cos therein lies true power... That being said, the power encounters i've had with God so far seemed to be the strongest when i was just standing by allowing Him to do all the work.. in Philippines, during CC Camp.. when He takes over it's often unpredictable but in yielding to Him completely, that's how we're gonna see Him work in our mist in a greater measure... I was musing to myself last night.. i prayed that God would use me to birth revival.. and i see it coming to pass, but not as i expected it to be.. and it's rather amusing, really if u can see what's going on from my angle.. how God uses the little quirks and stress marks in people to push us towards that direction.. hehe.. when He's in control, it's often unexpected.. but hey.. we love what comes out of it right...

Then on the bus, God was showing me my heart.. His throne room.. as much as i'd hate to admit it, i saw a throne room covered in like jungle weeds.. kinda like Angkor Wat before the French discovered it.. and the greens covered the throne itself with only some of the gold parts showing.. seems like it was the kind that it's been left alone and untended for a long time.. but God was showing me that if i'm walking in what i'm walking in now with only a little revelation of the throne, what more if i start walking with the throne room restored in full glory for the King to find a proper habitation?? :D My experience on the bus today just made my day and it imparted me with fresh vision, something from heaven downloaded into my spirit that spurs me on in my pursuit of Him...

It's clean-up time! :)

The Grace of God

During this time of seeking God, wanting more of Him and experiencing His dealings in my life, God has been showing me that i need to trust Him and rely on Him more... i've come to a point in my life that i need to stop relying on my own strength and steam cos that can eventually kill me... i need to be more dependent on Him... as i mentioned earlier, i'm going through this time in my life where the end result will be the the bride "coming out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved"... i need to spend more time praying and seeking God, not because i need to consult Him regarding some ministry matters but cos i love Him... expect a different Chris once he comes out of this season!

When i saw a vision of an axe a few Gatekeepers ago, i gladly received the mandate that it represented- the tearing down of traditionalist and religious mindsets and structures.. little did i know that i was to be the first "victim" (or should i say patient) of the instrument.. God's been tearing down lotsa stuff in my life and it's not an easy process... its kinda painful.. and guess wad.. it's not over! but i'm finding myself in greater degrees of freedom.. cos if i'm going to be used by Him to tear down such structures, He first needs to tear those things down from me... and so one of the result is that i'm increasingly receiving revelation regarding the dealings of God that i go through and also of the grace of God...

I was crying out to God in seeing my need to be perfected, in the light of certain things in my life that He's surfacing, certain issues that need to be fully surrendered to Him and in which He still needs to do a deeper work in. As i was praying regarding this, the Lord asked me why i wanted to be perfected.. and the reason itself needs sanctifying.. i wanted to be perfected cos i was a perfectionist and cos it would perhaps gain me greater prospects of accessing His presence.. and this itself was a lie of the devil cos it's only by the grace of God that i get sanctified, no matter how much i pursue or desire it.. and it revealed a condition in my heart.. that i was driving myself based on such a lie and imposing the same measure on others... if anyone should desire to be perfected, the desire itself should be sanctified.. not driven by the need to be the "best" but by the simple love for God and desire for Him to remove those things in our lives that are enemies of this love! Confused? hehehe but it's true.. really..

So i was sharing during Gatekeepers last Friday about out need, even as a ministry to understand the grace of God.. perhaps this is something we might need to address during the camp or next year.. cos satan loves to keep us in the guilt trap.. that when we sin, we become afraid to come back to God cos we have this image of a vengeful taskmaster who's always out to get us, especially when we stumble.. God is not like that.. but why issit that many times we feel the same way when met with such situations despite having read the grace stories of Luke 15 and having learned about His grace? Cos it's a spiritual condition that needs to be fought and warred against... we have to win the air assault in intercession first before the groundwork can ensue.. It's a war against paradigms.

God has been teaching me in this season to come to Him just as i am.. that we should come to Him and even serve Him just as we are and trust that He will certainly and speedily bring about the victory that he has promised and that is ours already in Jesus.

Another precious truth that God has shown me is our precious standing before Him... we are changed from glory to glory, going from strength to strength. What does that mean? It means that we don't start from scratch, we don't start from nothing.. we start from glory and then we move onto a higher level of glory.. That means even if we fall, where do we fall to? We still fall to glory! We're still on glory! We don't have to go all the way back all over again! That's a work of His grace! Romans 8:29 tells us that those He called, He justified and those He justified, He glorified! Do we accept the message that God has called us? Yes! Do we accept the message that God has already justified us? Though there may be doubts, yes! But do we know and receive the message that God has already glorified us? That, we don't usually hear and we may not be sure of.. but it's there in the Bible! in the past tense! We're a bunch of glorified people, ladies and gentlemen... now you take a good look at yourself and then you wonder how that can be true since you're so lousy, imperfect and there are still lotsa things in our lives that God still needs to deal with.. but that's the way God sees us.. we're glorified, hallelujah! We're seated with Christ in heavenly places! There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

The bible does exhort us to behold the kindness and the severity of God... there needs to be a balance in both.. the problem many people have with the grace message is that they think that it is lopsided and that it doesn't preach holiness... That's wrong cos the true message of grace will result in true holiness and true holiness proceeds as an extension of the grace message. Cos though we're exhorted to behold His kindness and severity, the Scriptures are clear in Romans 2 that God's kindness leads us to repentance! So if we wanna see true repentance in our congregation, our neighbourhood, our nation, we truly need a revelation of God's kindness! Amazing but true.. and as we learn to depend on Him and respond to Him, the Holy Spirit will work deeper and deeper measures of holiness in our lives until we become mature and complete in Him! Sanctification is not by our own work or striving but it's a work of the Holy Spirit by the grace of God! :)

The Holy Spirit was just teaching me during the most recent Gatekeepers how so many people (including myself) try so hard to "pull" His presence down without really understanding that His desire to be with us is greater than our own desire for Him to be with us! When the Holy Spirit shows up, He exposes the stupidity that adults and youth alike practice in church. And that's what i love about Him! There needs to be a greater reality in our lives and ministries.. we have to do away with the plastic faces.. cos God is coming soon... :)

I smell revival.. :)

40th Anniversary

Last saturday, Salem celebrated it's 40th anniversary and it was a nice occasion! I was really brimming with hope and expectation for what Rev Des Short was prophesying over the church! We truly live in exciting times and i'm glad that i'm a gate- as you are- whom God will use to help steward His great plans and purposes on planet earth!

Highlights:

-the musical... i was unusually relaxed.. in fact, i was stressed that i was too relaxed! but by God's grace we pulled it off and i'm glad at how it turned out... :) Thanks everyone for all your kind effort and contribution, hard work and perseverance, all glory to Jehovah! :)

-the dinner... (needless to say...) :9

-the fellowship, playing a little with Janan, Keri-Ann and Peter(unca Derek's really really cute son! might i add that he's really easy to coax if you wanna carry him and he likes camera pictures!) :)

-prank-calling various ppl with *** ** and *** on the 2nd floor

-the cake :9

-seeing rena again

-when clement chow sang "my tribute" and one table in front, together with a few others, were singing to the Lord and worshipping right there and then in the midst of dinner... beautiful.. :)

-the holy moment when everyone shut up to hear Rev Des Short's prophesies for the church... i went out and came back in late so i din get to hear the whole thing but i did manage to catch that part about going global...

When everyone was going back already, Pastor Timothy, who came for the event, said goodbye and said something very interesting... He said that while we were acting on stage, there was a strong anointing (Wow! Can you see it?? Anointing released through creative arts!).. anyway, he released a word to me... (yeah.. and it so happens that night that i was looking for someone to release a word to me).. It was about strengthening my foundations and then God will use me.. :)

Satisfied.. :)

?

More on Destiny...

One of the things that God has been giving me this season is a greater sense of destiny.. and mind you this all came in a period of intense warfare, personal struggles, internal conflicts and even times of weakness, sin and stumbling at certain points in my walk... but the grace of God sees and reaches beyond it... A few sundays back, i was just weeping before God during worship and i just felt God as a Father just embracing me with His love asking me to come back to Him again.. and then i saw Him looking at me with that jealous love and that great fiery zeal to see my destiny come to pass...and here is what came out of this season...

I parked myself in church recently during the mssions conference hoping that God would speak to me cos i really needed to hear him... And i still do... remember the post on frustration that i made much earlier? I'm still in that season.. Well back to that conference last friday.. i was sitting at the last row of the church, watching Auntie Yang Meng give an excellently content-filled and systematic presentation on world missions. The didatic approach is very informative indeed but for an adventure seeker like me, it was kinda boring... but who said that God can't work in boring atmospheres? While auntie Yang Meng was talking about missions mobilisation, i remembered a word spoken over me a while back that i would mobilise people for missions... i didn't really think so much about it though i remembered it.. i din't know what form it would take and how it would look like.. but then i experienced a vision right there at the back of the church and i saw myself preaching to a multitude of young people challenging them... it looked radical... i often thought that my call to mobilisation would only be limited to a few... When i'd just say to some people "Hey.. come and go with me to so and so and do this and that..." I never knew that it could be to so many although i did perhaps have a somewhat vague idea that it might.. and neither did i think that it would also entail revival... It was a God moment for me and i started weeping to myself, just between my Creator and i... and being thankful for unveiling that little piece of my destiny...

That part of the story over, here's another. A few weeks ago, Amanda delivered a word to me that God will enlarge my heart... i'll share it's relevance later.. anyway, i was riding on the bus on my way home from school about 2 weeks ago when i was pretty much bored so decided to pray and talk to God on the bus... then God led me into a kind of prayer that's different.. it's more of declaration and it borders on prophecy.. and i started declaring some things over myself regarding my future.. and oh what a glorious future it is! But God took me beyond that and believe it or not, i started prophesying over my children! Both natural and spiritual children! I saw my kids, living a good life, going to a good school and by the time they're fifteen, they're gonna be ministering to people.. while they're still young, they're gonna walk in a greater anointing that i was walking in at that age... Then i moved to prophesy over my future spiritual children.. the Lord knows that it's in my heart to take children and youth out of the streets and build orphanages for them to live in.. and what's gonna happen is that these orphanages will have a war room where there will be child intercessors interceding for the purposes of God over nations.. i saw the rooms with maps on them and these children are gonna be used to bring forth the purposes of God.. some of them are gonna be hidden but there will be those that God will use to impact society greatly... in whatever field God has placed them.. they're gonna deliver the word of God in these different areas, to kings and governors.. can you imagine that.. taking a child and nurturing him/her to fulfill his or her destiny in God that would in turn shake society and the nation! I was asking God for keys to nations, communities and societies and i knew that it was in God's heart to give it... Then the promise of Isa 22:22 came to my mind.. God is indeed enlarging my heart! :) I wanna be a person God can trust for these things..

His dream for me is far greater than my own dreams... sometimes our own dreams have to die in order for God to be able to give us something better.. like how Abraham sacrificed Isaac on Moriah (Gen 22) while having confidence on God's ability to raise the dead.. We have to die so God can give us better! :)

Dare to dream!

This Blog is not Dead...

Hi everyone.. to all my faithful blog-readers out there... this post is to explain my long absence from the blogosphere... haha... was caught between doing readings, essays and preparing for the now over 40th anniversary celebrations along with some much needed sleep meditation and going through the ins and outs of spiritual walk..

Because so much has happened over so many weeks, for now i'm abandoning the chronological approch of posting to adopt a more thematic approach.. this blog is to document my walk with God and i dun want to miss telling of a single moment that He has made himself real to me...

A short update about my life.. i've been asking God for more of Him and been cultivating a greater desire to just know Him more.. but there's also great warfare.. which then in turn drives me to the point of greater intimacy with Him.. im in a season after which we'll hear the call in Song of Songs: "Who is this that comes out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved".. i'm exploring further the journeys of bridalhood and sonship and the adventures of faith that comes with being a son of the king! To make your reading much easier and to make my words digestible i have decided to go on a posting marathon of a series of updates of what's been happening... may you join this journey with me...

cheers! :)