Harvest Paradigm Part 1: Great and Precious Promises

I just wanna articulate several thoughts that have been present in my mind ever since the Combined Youth Rally that we had not too long ago... that evening when i came back, there was one small part of me that could have gone "hey God... how come not many ppl came?" or perhaps "hey God... how come not so many ppl received Christ tonight" but the thing is that my spirit was alive and it was rising up and deep inside of me, it overruled such thoughts and such responses and the first thing i did when i got home that night was to thank God for what He did.. it was not just an afterthought that came or a biproduct of me trying to force myself to praise God anyway.. but it was deliberate.. it was from the spirit.. it was rooted in a confident expectation of something which He started and opened up in our midst.. and eager expectation of something stirring, something brewing in the atmosphere, of something great which is to come...

Glad that i was that Minh received Christ and the fact that he joined us for the subsequent youth service, i know that there is something more that God wants to do... and it's something that i've resolved to prepare my LG for... during the rally, i saw a lot of things... i saw Dee rise up in faith and boldness.. i saw Sam's readiness to share with Evan's friends who subsequently rededicated their lives to Jesus.. i saw the synergy, the corporate anointing released when Sojourners and Club Moriah worked together... i saw the earnestness in prayer and calling forth the harvest in us during the time of intercession.. and even much of what Pastor James shared on that day is prophetic for our generation.. for this season.. for our fellowship...

of all that i've seen, perhaps what touched my heart the most was when my LG members went up to dedicate themselves for service to God... i saw my three "sons" Nigel, Jon and Abel at the altar.. i saw Gideon and Naveen go up... i even saw Shaun go up to intercede for those who were at the altar... perhaps i've missed some others but the reason why i'm so glad is because i'm seeing God answering the prayers that i've been praying over my LG and even over the ministry.. i've been claiming Psalm 110:3 especially.. that His people will be willing in the day of His power.. on that day, i beheld that eternal spark, that willingness.. the same spark that, if nurtured, could catalyse a movement...

The sunday prior to the rally, i was watching the musicians involved in the worship team over at the new place rehearsing and preparing for the session... as i was doing so, the Holy Spirit said "You are looking at the birthplace of a movement"... i was mildly stunned for a while as the implications of it began to dawn on me... i questioned to see if that thought was really from Him or perhaps a bi-product of my imagination... until i realised that i wouldn't have arrived on it on my own.. because so far, all my prayers and my thinking over the church and over the ministry have always been about revival... a revival that is confined to church and ministry level, and at most perhaps to the youth of the nation... but a movement is even beyond revival scale.. it even goes into other nations... a revival may come and go but a movement continues as long as it continues moving.. and so the Lord was challenging my boundaries and my mindsets and perspectives... He was challenging me and how much i dared to believe Him for...

Can we stop for a while and imagine.. let's say maybe 10 years from now, people flocking to Thomson Hill Drive, congregating at the new place as part of an organised tour group... and they'd be there saying "this is where it all began"... and they'd stand in awe of God and His hand upon the humble no.11-sized beginnings of the same movement... very much like how tourists and neo-pilgrims alike visit Azusa Street today in wonder of what God has done... perhaps even imagining this may blow our minds away but now that we have, can we believe that God shall do increasingly and abundantly beyond all that we can ask or imagine?

After i shared this with the team that sunday afternoon, we prayed... and there i wept, prostrated before the Lord and totally undone and humbled by even the thought that He would use us in such a manner.. that He would even use us to birth something to that degree... the Bible says not to despise the day of small beginnings...

We are at the threshold of something that God wants to do.. at that very same practice session, i saw rain coming down... also, during Gatekeepers the evening before the Rally, i saw that the clouds were darkened and that a storm is coming, after which JK led us in singing "Rain Down"... and we know that rain is coming.. and the purpose of the latter rain is to bring the grain to full maturity for the harvest...

And so what do we have to do? We have to prepare for what God is gonna do... we have to pray.. to consecrate ourselves.. we have to shed aside the old ways of thinking and align ourselves with His thoughts.. shed aside old paradigms and mindsets and learn how to see things from God's perspective... the way we've thought is too small... God wants to do something understatedly BIG so let's start thinking in kingdom terms... And let's set our expectations high and let's start expecting Him for BIG things!

back to the Rally, from the altar scene, i know that my people have the heart... so now what's missing in the equation? now that it has been established that they are willing to serve the Lord, all we need is the expression... the outward working and release of the latent desires the God has already put within us...During gatekeepers the night before, we were prophesying the release of new songs into the ministry... something which Pastor James himself confirmed during the ministry time... He pointed to a direction of the room where Nigel and Abel were sitting and said something about people who were sitting over that side that God is going to use to to write songs and poems and that God wanted to anoint them... i knew that it was something in the heart of the both of them.. and that was why i expected them to go up and offer themselves at the altar (which they subsequently did)... and while there i was just amazed and thankful at what God was about to do as i eavesdropped on the words that were released into their lives...

The importance of the release of the new song is more important than what we might think. We're gonna look at that in our next piece...

Can you hear the sound of the abundance of rain?;)