We're living in Revival

I'm back to blogging after a very long time... but here's a little something that I hope will bless your heart.

The Bible talks about Seth (Adam and Eve's third son) being 'appointed'. But why was Seth's line so special? Well, Genesis 4: 25b tells says, "For God has appointed another seed for me (that is Eve) instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." We too, are of a NEW line in Jesus.

The NEW line of Seth was clearly blessed (as we are) because we read in vs 26 - And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD. They began to call on the name of Yahweh!

I believe that this was the first revival in the Bible. Men began to turn from their sinful ways and call on the name of the LORD. They began to be saved.

You'd think there must have been something special about Enosh because the Bible mentions this revival in conjunction with his name, right? But interestingly enough, Enosh means the frailty or weakness of mankind and we all know how names in the Bible are really synonymous with the person's character (remember Jacob the supplanter). Enosh wasn't this mighty leader or anything but he recognised how frail he was before the Almighty God. That's the key to revival.

I think if we are to see revival in our land, we have to realise that it's not about us. It's about the Almighty God. We don't have to prove our might or strength. All we have to do is lift the name of JESUS higher and He has promised to draw all men unto Him - John 12: 32

Pray up your immune system!

1 Corinthians 14:44 - He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself...

When you speak in tongues, The Bible does not say that the speaker edifies his spirit. No, it says that the speaker "edifies himself". This means his entire self — spirit, soul and body. So he who speaks in tongues builds up his spirit, soul and body.

Does this include building up your immune system? Yes, it does!

Brain specialists at Oral Roberts University's hospital found out through research and testing that when a person prays in tongues, his brain releases two chemicals that are directed to his immune system, giving it a 35 to 40 per cent boost. Interestingly, these secretions are triggered by a part of our brain that has no other apparent activity and which is activated only when we pray in tongues.

Now, your immune system is your first line of defense against diseases.

During the SARS outbreak in Singapore in 2003, not everyone who had the disease died. Only those whose immune systems were weak succumbed to the disease and died. Therefore, many people resorted to vitamins and herbs to boost their immune systems.

A 74-year-old church member decided to build up his immune system against more heart problems. Two of his arteries were 70 per cent blocked and five smaller vessels were 80 per cent blocked. So during a church service, when I asked those who wanted to be healed of heart problems to stand up, he stood up, placed his hand over his heart and prayed in tongues.

He shared that at that moment, he believed that the Holy Spirit touched him and he became a different person. When he went for his medical check-up, his surgeon found that all the blockages in his blood vessels were gone! Even a scheduled heart-related operation was cancelled as there was no longer any necessity for it. Indeed, he was a different person. He literally had a change of heart, a new heart from God!

You may not have a heart condition, but you can still pray in tongues and pray up your immune system!

What makes you really happy?

Are you really happy? (If you had to think to answer that question, you probably aren’t.) So what’s the one thing that will make you really happy? Is it more money/ a new car/ a bigger house, healing of a relationship or may be the salvation of a family member?

My job used to be the one thing that gave me tremendous happiness. I loved being a writer. Writing was my passion (and still is) and because of that, I could stay back late in the office and even work on the weekend. Then around the end of 2008 recession hit our company real bad and people were being laid off by the dozen. I started to panic. That’s when I realised that my job had become my life and everything else (including God) had taken a backseat. God convicted me of this. It was almost like He was asking me, “Is your job more important than Me?” I didn’t want to admit at the time, but it was. I was truly sorry about it. God in His goodness preserved my job but from that time on I learned this: Nothing (not my job or anything else) should come before Jesus.

My point is that it’s normal for certain things to make us happy. But does our happiness depend on those things? If it does, then the moment we don’t get what we want, we will cease to be happy.

God wants us to root our happiness in Him.

In Psalm 16: 11, the psalmist says, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At your right hand are pleasures forever more.”

The key to experiencing joy is basking in the presence of our Father and allowing Him to lavish His love upon us! And that’s not all. At His right hand are pleasures (every good thing). He wants us to enjoy all of that too.

Jesus said, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done – kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.” – John 15: 9 – 10 (MSG) “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” – vs 11 (NKJV)

The Bible always talks about FULLNESS OF JOY. God’s intention is not that we have happiness with our family and friends but are miserable at work. God wants us to have joy in every area of our lives and that kind of joy is only found in Him.

Today if there’s anything in your life that you think gives you more happiness than God (read: anything that you would rather do than spend time in God’s presence), put it aside. Enjoy God’s presence and let Him fill you with His joy. Even as we do that God will add everything else unto us.

P.S. He blessed me with a great new job. I cannot but thank Him!

Watch out! The devil's watching you...

The last couple of months have been tremendous. God has been opening new opportunities for me to serve him... I went through an experience I thought would have crushed me but it just made me stronger and brought me closer to God... God has been ministering to me so beautifully through His Word. I was on a 'spiritual high'. And that's not all. My professional and personal life seemed to be soaring too.

Then suddenly, a couple of days ago, something happened... and before I knew it I was down in the dumps. I was actually asking, "Where are you, God?" (I know you're thinking 'how tragic!' and you're allowed to. It's not something I'm proud of anyway :p)

I desperately wanted to take my Bible and start confessing God's Word but instead of picking myself up and rising above the situation, I was lying on my bed and hoping God would miraculously make everything disappear. And you know what? He did... in His own way!

He spoke to me from the book of 2 Samuel that I had been reading the previous week. Here's what jumped out at me...

In the run up to David's love affair with Bathsheba,

• David was anointed king over Judah.
• He had danced before the ark of God with all his might, wearing just a linen ephod. And when his wife Michal despised him, he said, "I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this."
• God had given him victory over all his enemies.
  
• God had used him to show kindness to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth.
  

David was definitely on a 'spiritual high'.

Then suddenly in Chapter 11... in a flash... everything came crashing down. What in the world went down there? Well, to put it simply, the devil was after David. He didn't like the idea of David being sold out to God. So he decided to keep David busy with something else. What David didn't realise was that Satan was out to get him and so he gave in.

If you are soaring on wings like eagles, be sure the devil is out to get you. He doesn't care about Christians who live defeated anyway. He's after you. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So be on high alert! Resist him, standing firm in the faith... And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast! (1 Peter 5: 9-10)

Experiencing Bethel: Right Here, Right Now!

Have you ever been at a church service where everyone else seemed lost in worship (some crying, some slain in the Spirit) and you just couldn't seem to feel the presence of God in any dramatic way? You closed your eyes. You concentrated. You went on your knees. You tried everything but nothing seemed to work.

Well, here are some things that I have learned from my personal experience about the presence of God. And since I'm no expert, I've used Jacob's experience in Genesis 28 to give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about.

1. I cannot control the way God chooses to reveal Himself to me.

Everyone likes to feel God's presence in a tangible way. There was this one time that I experienced some very tangible signs of the presence of God. I smelled the aroma of God - something sweeter than I've ever smelt before, I heard a choir of hundreds of thousands of angels and I saw a beautiful vision all during a single time of worship. It was an awesome experience but that doesn't mean that all those things are necessary to determine the presence of God.

It's not my fasting and prayer, how loudly I worship or how much a cry before God that will invoke His presence. God does not reveal Himself when and in ways we think are appropriate because His ways are much much higher than ours!

God appeared to Jacob in a dream when he was least expecting it. For Pete's sake, he was on the run!

2. I can never associate God's presence with one specific emotion or place.

Experiencing God's presence doesn't mean I have to be weeping uncontrollably or be overjoyed. It also doesn't depend on whether I am in the confines of my bedroom, at a church worship service or on the street.

Jacob was escaping from his brother Esau after stealing his birthright. He was on his way to his mother's hometown when he stopped at a certain place - "no where in particular" - for the night. He was asleep with his head resting on an uncomfortable stone when he felt the presence of God!

3. I don't have to strive to feel God's presence.

When Jesus came to earth, He was Immanuel (God with us). God is with me right now as I write this post. I don't have to be reading my Bible, praying behind closed doors or listening to my favorite worship CD (although that would be great) to feel God's presence.

God's promise to Jacob was,"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."

God longs to be with His people. I believe that's what the ladder was all about. It was God coming to down to Jacob, not the other way around.

4. God's presence may be all around me and I may just not know it.

Sometimes I can get so engrossed in my daily activities during the week that by the weekend I can't wait to go to church on Sunday and just rest in God's presence. Granted, Sunday mornings are a great time to spend with God but that doesn't mean I can't do it during the week, even while I'm busy working. Just because I can't find too much alone time during the week doesn't mean God can't be part of my busy schedule.

Jacob wasn't seeking God when God showed up and that's why when he awoke, he said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." We tend to miss the presence of God when we are not expecting it.

5. God can reveal His presence to me in people I don't even like.

One of the most common ways in which God reveals Himself is through people. It's only when I start practising the presence of God daily that I will be able to notice this.

We may not like everyone in our own church, let alone everyone we ever meet. But we have to be willing to see God's presence even in people we don't like. After all, human beings are the primary carriers of the presence of God.

After God revealed Himself to Jacob at an ordinary place and an unexpected time, Jacob learned how to recognise God's presence even in the ordinary and unexpected. That's why when he meets Esau, he was able to see God's presence in his brother (his enemy for twenty years or so). He says to his brother, "For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably."

Our Bethel can be anywhere, any time. Let's not limit God or try to fit our experiences with Him into a box because if we do, we just might miss Him!

The Law of the Oatmeal Brush

This is an extract from the book God Is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg:

Sin always has the consequence of damaging our ability to perceive God in the present moment. Consider, for example, the Law of the Oatmeal Brush.

For some years I have been trying to make each day an adventure in practicing God's presence. I try to direct my thoughts toward Him first thing when I wake up in the morning. On one particular morning I was getting ready to leave for work. I'd had oatmeal for breakfast, and after I finished washing my dishes, the white scrub brush in our sink was covered with oatmeal.

My wife asked me, " Are you done with this brush? If you are, it's be helpful to just whack it on the sink, get the oatmeal stuff out."

I was feeling defensive. I had actually been kind of proud of myself for washing the dishes in the first place. I didn't want someone telling me to clean the oatmeal brush.

So what I said was, "No, I'm not done with it." The reality is that the dishes were done. What was I pretending I was going to do with it? Brush the oatmeal junk into my hair? It wasn't just a lie - it was an unbelievably stupid lie. Even I couldn't pretend to believe it for a second.

But as long as I tried to maintain it, a strange dynamic was at work in my spirit. I had to muster up enough anger and hurt and pride to justify my deceit. I had to cut myself off from humility and truth. I had to say the prayer, "Don't look at me, God."

And as soon as I confessed the ridiculous truth to my wife, I could quit hiding.

The Law of the Oatmeal Brush is that every choice to sin - no matter how small - diminishes my capacity to experience God. Now, every morning when I see the Oatmeal Brush, it has become a kind of icon for me. It reminds me of how quickly I can go into hiding.

My Heart's Song

Caught in the half-light, I'm caught alone
Waking up to the sunrise and the radio
Feels like I'm tied up, what's holding me?
Just praying today will be the day I go free

I want to live like there's no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one's around
I want to sing like nobody's listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I'm not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made

Made in Your likeness, made with Your hands
Made to discover who You are and who I am
All I've forgotten help me to find
All that You've promised let it be in my life

- Chris Tomlin