We Are The Temple of The Lord ( 28/05/06)

Pastor Matt Heins preached about Fuel Your Faith this Sunday morning in the church.I was given the priviledge to serve in the choir this morning. Although we were not able to be the audience (below the stage) to his preaching, as we stood on the position in the choir throughout his preaching, I was so glad that I was able to attend both two services this morning; first service, as a supporter to Pastor Matt at the back of the stage, and second service, as the audience to Pastor Matt's preaching.
Even in the first service, God reveal to me greater things from the preaching into my heart. In short, Pastor Matt pointed out that (1) God will fuel our faith with fresh challenges of faith, (2) God gave us the fuel of faith through the power of the church (assembly = engage in the work of the Lord), & (3) fueling the flame by keeping up with our daily devotion (daily fuel of fire).
After Pastor Matt preached, Pastor Jane came with a great revelation and connection when she spoke about the temple of the Lord in the Old Testament (OT), where David was given the plan of the temple and she spoke about the two pillars in front of the temple; one named He will establish and another In Him is Strength. This OT temple is a picture of what God wants to do in the New Testament (NT), where WE are the temple of the Lord and His presence dwells in us. It has the same blueprints and the two pillars; He will establish through His work on the Cross and He will strengthen us.
As God spoke about the OT temple, the Lord also spoke into my heart about the continuous burning fire of the lamp in the temple. As it was in the OT, we need to keep the flame burning within our heart if we want the Lord to dwell in us (the NT temple). So we need to constant fire burning within our heart by having continual fellowship with the Lord and daily devotion. That's the source of oil for our lamp to keep the flame burning within our heart.
Now I understood the meaning of one of our Sunday School song, Give Me Oil In My Lamp, to Kepp me burning, burning, burning.
Praise the Lord for such a great revelation and great message He has brought to the church this Sunday!
Hallelujah!

Obedience Step By Step (20/5/06)

God spoke to me again, this morning in my devotion, the same message that He spoke to me last night when I was reading through Joyce Meyer’s book. I truly believe that He is preparing my heart well for today’s devotion through last night’s reading and also preparing me for the great challenges of the walk of faith in the future. Again He spoke to me about Obedience Step by Step, the title of this morning’s devotion. The same passage from the Bible was chosen as one of the examples in the book. It was taken from Genesis 22:1-2, where the story of Abraham’s obedience was taken as an example. [Well, I do hope that this would at least motivate and challenge every Christian to read the whole Bible, including the Old Testament, so that we can get a better picture of what happened when such a story was told.]

It says in the devotion book that Abraham learned patience as he waited on God’s promise of a son…Abraham learned to trust God…
Life application: As the Father reveals His ways to you in your Christian pilgrimage, you, like Abraham, will develop a deeper level of trust in Him. When you first became a Christian, your Master’s instructions were probably fundamental, such as being baptized and changing your lifestyle. But as you learn to trust Him more deeply, He will develop your character to match bigger tests, and with the greater test will come a greater love for God and knowledge of His ways.
Are you ready for God’s next revelation?

Another passage from my reading this morning spoke to me the same message that God revealed to me last night. As I read through Proverb’s, my eyes caught an attention on Proverbs 20:24 A man’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?
In the Life Application explanation, it says We are often confused by the events around us. Many things we will not understand; others will fall into place in years to come as we look back and see how God was working. This proverb counsels us not to worry if we don’t understand everything as it happens. Instead, we should trust that God knows what He’s doing, even if His timing or design is not clear to us. See Psalm 37:23 for a reassuring promise of God’s direction in your life.

Another verse that spoke to me more clearly about my role as a student was found in Proverbs 20:4 A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.
Life application: You’ve heard similar warnings: if you don’t study, you’ll fail the test; if you don’t save you won’t have money when you need it. God wants us to anticipate future needs and prepare for them. We can’t expect Him to come to our rescue when we cause our own problems through lack of planning and action. He provides for us, but He also expects us to be responsible.

We Can Know Only In Part (19/5/06)

I continued reading this great book, How To Hear From God, by Joyce Meyer this evening, after dinner. I came to this inspiring chapter, We Can Know Only in Part and I started highlighting each point and sentences that spoke into my heart. Somehow, I had this feeling that I had to finish at least this one whole chapter before I do something else. So I managed to finish the whole chapter. I ended up highlighting almost every paragraphs. The following (Italics) were all that were spoke to me today.
There may be times when we just can't see through the darkness that seems to be closing in around us. It is in this times of endurance and patience that our faith is stretched, and we learn to trust God even when we can't hear His voice.
We can grow in our confidence level to the point where "knowing" is even better than "hearing"...... We may not know what to do, but it is sufficient to know the One who knows....... Knowing God is faithful and ever true to His promise, and that He has promised to be with us always, is comforting and keeps us stable until His time is right to speak to us more specifically (see 1 Cor. 1:9, Matthew 28:20).
These passages spoke to me again about the step I've taken to apply for the working visa a few weeks ago and also for the volunteer job in the nearby pharmacy. I believe this is what He is leading me to now and I somehow figured out to go for it by faith and to invest into this work and also to sacrifice some of my money into this investement. So far, I still haven't get any reply rom the pharmacy yet, since the last time I send my application in. But I truly believe that God will open up the way for me if this is His will.

Trust is needed in those times when, for whatever reason, we are not hearing from God as clearly as we would like.
Before we ehar from Him, we need to learn to rely on His character, ability, and strength during the times we are not hearing from Him. If we will trust Him during those times, He promises to make clear the way we should go........
But we must learn to trust all situations to the Lord, even when He seems to be silent....

Truth from God's written Word is an anchor to our souls when we become temporarily blinded by sudden storms in life. We can always hear from God through His written Word.... Even if His Word does not speak to our specific situation, it does speak about God's charcter, and it tells us He will always take care of us and provide a way for us.

IS GOD'S TRUTH YOUR SECURE ANCHOR?

HAVE YOU BEEN READING HIS WORDS DAILY?

Conclusion: He wants us to keep our eyes on Him, and follow Him one step at a time. Step by step. Step by step.

This passsage reminded me of what God has said and how He has answered my prayer at the altar call in Pwergen meeting through Brother Wilson. PTL!

God gives us direction, one step at a time..... by trusting Him with the first step. Understanding that His will for you is revealed a step at a time should build your confidence to do at least what you know already to do. After the first few steps, your faith will grow because you will realise there is always sure footing beneath each step He instructs you to take. [Wow! That's truly inspiring and glad for me to hear that. Hehe!]

Faith becomes great through experience. It develops as it is used...... Faith often requires action........ I had to be willing to invest what I had in order to have what God had planned for my future. [Woh...... This one speaks into my heart strongly!] ...... But we can't forget that God required a sacrifice of obedience from Abraham in order to receive that promise...... Even though we had taken step 1 in obedience, we still had to persevere....... We often see more clearly and have better understanding with hindsight than we do when we actually going through things........ As he usually does, the devil took advantage of our lack of experience in these areas and told us regularly that we had made a mistake and would surely make fools out of ourselves.

This last sentence revealed to me devil's work in my mind when I recalled back of my recent days when I felt truly intimidated and foolish (or regretted) to have done what the Lord has placed in my heart to apply for the volunteer job (including the working visa). Now that the Lord has revealed his lies, I should stand firm on what He has placed in my heart and not let it be shaken.

God usually builds slow and solid, not fast and fragile.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF MAKING A MISTAKE

I learned that even when we are in a place of obedience, we often have no way in the natural of knowing for sure whether we are tight or wrong........ We are not going to know for sure that what we are doing is the right thing until after we have done it and then look back to see if God was there to anoint out efforts.

I have discovered that if our heart is right, and we do the best we know to do when we hear from Him, God will redeem us and honour our steps of obedience. If we move in childlike trust to obey what we believe in our heart He has told us to do, even if that decision is wrong, God will take that mistake and work it out for our good.

God simply answered, "..... don't worry; if you miss Me, I will find you." Those words, tucked away in my heart, gave me courage to do what I believed He was telling me to do, and they have necouraged me to step out in faith many times since then.

If you want GOd's will in your life more than anything else, if you've done everything you know to do to hear from Him, then you have to take a chance, step out, and believe.

But God's plan unfolded step by step. Following God is like climbing a mountain. If GOd showed us how high the mountain really is that He wants us to climb, we might be afraid to take the stpe. We might argue that we're not ready, that we're not at all prepared to go all the way to the top. So He covers the top of the summit with a cloud, and all we can see is the step before us.

That first step looks manageable, so we take it. And then we take another step, and another, and another, until one day we find ourselves at the top of the mountain without even realizing where we were headed when we began. Then we are very glad we took the journey.

This picture truly showed me what and where God is bringing me through now. I shall stand firm in the Lord as He led me each day, fiathfully, in His arms of assurance.

You may think that you are not hearing from God because you don't see the whole picture, but trust that He is showing you all that you need for today. Do what is in front of you to do, and even if you are not hearing perfectly, God will honour your obedience and will complete His full plan for you.

In GOd's plan for us, we cannot skip steps that we don't like and move on to other ones. We cannot skip the har steps or the ones that require sacrifice. I repeat: Following God's plan for our life requires investment.

We must sacrifice self-will to have God's will; we must sacrifice our way to find His way.

Freely I received (these words o encouragement), freely I give. Hope this would be an encouragement to everyone who reads it. Do also take the challenge to read the book by yourself too. I believe it will belss you greatly. Make it a great investment to collect such a powerful books like this one. May God gives you His peace and joy as you seek Him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.

1 Corinthian 2:9

Servants of Christ (14/5/06)

I had a very weird dream last night.
GOd woke me up to rebuke the devil's lie about the dream and I went off to sleep peacefully after that. I woke up early in the morning and had my QT as usual, where I fed my soul with His words.
The devotion passage for today spoke assurance to my heart again. Titled "Servants of Christ" and passage taken from Luke 17:10. It says in the explanation after the passage (these are what spoke into my heart):
The master does not tell the servant to develop a vision that will guide the master. The master is the one with the vision; the servant's task is to help fulfill the master's purposes.
We are the servants; God is the Master...... God's revelation of Himself, His purposes, and His ways depends directly upon our obedience. He may not reveal today His intentions for the next firve years, but He will tell us what our next step should be. As we respond to God's revelation, He will accomplish what He desires, and He will be the one who receives the glory.......
As God's servant you should have no other agenda than to be obedient to whatever he tell you. God does not want you to dream great dreams for your life, your family, or your business, or your church. He simply ask for obedience. He has plans that would dwarf yours in comparison (Eph. 3:20).

WOw! These pasages are truly great and spoke deep into my heart as I learn to take my life step by step and day-by-day.
Praise the Lord!
Happy Mother's Day!

Worship As A Lifestyle; By Telling Others About Him (11/5/06)

It was indeed a very and exciting day for me today. I've planned for a full-packed-schedule day today. After quiet time in the morning, I rushed over to catch the Connector Bus at the back of my unit, along Tynte Street. Thank God I was there earlier by 5 minutes. I met my friends in the bus and was full of joy to have met them. I started my "work" with doing some research in the computer pool - online - till lunch hour. Wow! The stuff to look for about Respiratory Tract Infection was truly massive and messy. Every information was all around the net. At the end, I figured out that looking into my textbook - Therapeutic Guideline - was still the best place to stick to.
After lunch, I went for PBL tutorial. Honestly, it was truly a good session today, compared to the days before. Maybe because I was getting used to this type of sturcture of PBL. Before this, I really don't like the way this tutor conducted it. But I guess I was starting to like it now. PTL for helping me to adapt and to be flexible.
After the tutorial, I went over to the gym straight away. I spent about 2 hours there, working up my back and shoulders (+cardio) today. The adrenaline boost and the serotonin boost made me feel good, strong and warm. I rushed off after around 5pm, headed towards Rundle Mall.
I went to grab 13 small cans of tunas for storage, as they were on sale now in Woolworths. 99 cents a can...... That's not bad. Just wanna store some Omega-3's for future use.
After that, I rushed off to catch a bus home and took a shower and a light meal before rushing off to catch a bus to the city again, heading to church for choir practice tonight. Phew! What a rush! Not much time for me to waste!
I watied for quite a few minutes before the bus came to pick me up, heading to the city. Well, I was really glad that God is in control in all this and He gave me peace as I waited for the bus for quite a long time.
At last I reached church about 5 minutes late for the choir meeting. But thank God I didn't miss anything, as they haven't start the meeting yet. PTL! I didn't miss anything!
The meeting tonight was really awesome. The worship was great and the short message by Ps Rowlie was great as well.
In short, he spoke about WORSHIP and How do we glorify God? John 17:4
The points that he gave were (1) worship is a lifestyle, we are the reflection of who we are worshiping [1 Cor. 10:31]; (2) By loving each other [e.g. we practice this in the church]; (3) Becoming like Jesus; (4) By serving others with our gifts [e.g. massage - strengthens and refreshes others]; (5) By telling others about HIM [2 Cor. 4:15], Draw someone into the house of God.
Wow! This simple short message was really a powerful message. I can truly felt the presence of the Lord in the hall during the meeting and also even before the worship begins, as the anointed keyboardist stroke the keyboard.
After the message, we got a surprise that pizzas were provided for tonight's meeting. As we grabbed the food, we were also shown the DVD's recording of the items that we presented during the four nights of Influencer's Conference two weeks ago. It was truly a great revelation to us and a great blessing to us that God enabled us to serve His people and to bless them in our service in the house of the Lord. I truly believed that our services in the choir and the worship team have blessed multitude of people, as we gathered up our gifts to serve the Lord and His people in UNITY and AGREEMENT.
After the meeting a caring and faithful brother sent me home. Thank God that I could be home earlier today - around 9 pm. Again, I believed this was another divine appointment of the Lord, for enabling me to reach home earlier.
As I walked over to my unit, I noticed that someone just moved into the apartment. They seemed to be lack of people. I was expecting to see a guy carrying the furniture up, as I only saw a lady standing by the truck to take care of the stuff. But to my surprise, I saw only a lady carrying stuff up the stairs. I went back home and dropped by my stuff. As I was taking off my shoes, the Holy Spirit somehow spoke into my heart and impressed into my heart to go and help them out with the moving. As He spoke this, He also impressed into my heart the message that was preached by Ps Rowlie, about the fifth point; that we need to be a witness to the Lord in our daily lives. That again motivated me to move on and obey and take the opportunity to help and witness through love.
I offered the help and the offer was accepted and seemed to be appreciated as well. I tried all I can to help them with the furnitures and I was also given this opportunity to meet new people. They are my new neighbours (a floor on top of mine).
This was my first time (probably the second) of truly knowing my neighbours. Well, I truly believe that God is working mighty, great and unseen works within their lives right now, even as I offered myself as a channel of blessing to them.
I truly felt so happy and joyful and glad of being able to share such love and help and concern to my new neighbours. What God has enabled me to do today was really satisfying. I felt that I've maximised my day well today, although I knew I can do a lot more than that. Praise the Lord for His love and goodness. Thank God for letting me see such a great opportunity and not to miss this.
Hallelujah! All glory and honour belong to my great King!

I Found It in Proverbs Today (4/5/06)

I was doing my morning devotion as usual that I came across the passage from Proverbs, which I had been looking for for the last few days.
Proverbs 4:5-7 Get wisdom, get understanding;....... Do not farsake wisdom and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
This passage (especially the bold ones) spoke to me when I was deciding whether or not to apply for work experience (unpaid) in a pharmacy and to pay to get working visa for the work.
This passage came to my mind, where the Lord told me that this is a worthwhile and good investment for my future work as a pharmacist. So I went by faith and applied for the working visa. Now I trust the Lord will provide me with the best place to work in. SO far I've only asked one pharmacy, which I think would be a great place to work in. I trust that the Lord will provide if that's where He wants me to be and learn.
All praise and honour and glory belongs to Him who reigns eternally.

Divine Appointment (27/4/06)

In my devotion this morning, God spoke to me almost the same message that He is going to speak to me on this coming Friday. It says in the book that; Too often, we would prefer a road map of our future rather than a relationship with the Way. It often seems easier to follow a plan than to cultivate a relationship. We can become more concerned with our future then we are with walking intimately with God today.
Through this passage in the book, I can sense that God assured me of my future, as I seek to know His plan for my future. I need to cultivate daily relationship and fellowship with the Lord first of all and He will lead the way.
Wow! God answered my prayer again and reconfirmed it to me again through the Fridays' sermon.

I also thank the Lord for the divine appointment today that He has provided me with express transport to the church in the evening. As I had class in the evening, I rushed back to uni to attend the class and rushed back to church immediately after that to join the choir practice. Apparently, many buses were full at this after-office hour. My friend and I was hoping to catch the earliest bus and reach church as early as possible. However we were not able to catch the normal bus we used to catch. However, God directed/made us to catch a bus which neither of us tried before. In the bus, I was so compelled to just put my pass tag on for the conference, trying to waste no time when I reach the church. As it turned out, another lady who was sitting beside saw us and recognised the tag. She offered us a ride to church that evening at the next stop. (May the Lord bless her!) We manage to reach the church earlier and prepared for our service/ministry in the conference. I truly thank the Lord for such favour and divine appointment.
PTL!

Are you having a relationship with the Lord today?

Walk With Faith (30/4/06)

Influencer's Conference (25th - 28th April 06) was really great and God has been doing great things both in my lives and in the church. I truly thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to serve in the choir throuhgout this great event. Indeed I believe that the Lord is doing great works of breakthroughs within my lives and within my family too, as I served the Lord faithfully in this house of the Lord that He has placed me. Although the teachings throughout the conference were really great, the one that truly spoke into my heart was the last message, on the last day of the conference, at night, (28/4/04) which was preached by Bishop TD Jakes. GOd has impressed within my heart earlier today that this will be the day that He will speak forth to me.
I had been praying to the Lord that He would show me what He has planned for me in my future, so that I could walk in accordance to His plan. The Lord spoke to me when TD Jakes spoke to us in his message, that we need to walk the journey of life with FAITH. TO walk with faith is to step out in faith and trust and with little information provided. This occured to Peter when he asked that he walked on the water towards Jesus, who was walking on the sea. Jesus just asked him to come (walk over) without providing him much information.
At this, God spoke to me when He said "Just trust me and I'll give you the details while you walk" and "Just keep on walking", through TD Jakes. Wow! Praise our awesome God who answers prayers.
All throughout the four nights of the preachings, as I was serving in the choir, we didn't manage to join the crowds in the main hall in listening to the sermons. We were listening to it in another room because of limited seats and the need of the choir at an unknown time. So we have to be prepared all the time. Even though we were outside the main hall, I can still felt the heavy anointing of the Lord upon us in the room as we listened to the sermons. We were even shouting with joy and agreement as it was preached over the screen. WOw! God 's presence is just awesome and indescribable.
Even as I sang in the choir, I found such abundant joy and happiness that I just can't contain myself that I just dance and shaked with the songs as we sang and clapped together. I also believed that God is working breakthroughs within my praise too. PTL!
God also planned everything well for me that I was able to join this session, almost to the fullest. I still remembered when God placed this thought and challenge and the peace within my heart to just sign up for the conference last year, for the full sessions of the early bird payment. As I reflected through it, I praise the Lord that He has helped me to be obedient and that He has arranged everything to me so that I was able to attend the full conference this time. Praise God for His goodness and revelation.

As I recalled such blessings, I took the step of faith again today to pay for the early bird rates for the next Influencer's Conference in January 2007, as He again put such thought and peace within my heart to take this step of faith again. I trusted the Lord and sacrificed my own savings to pay for the conference.
At first I was hesitating and kept trying to get and wait for the students rate, and I was also attempting to get my sister to sponsor me to the conference (not willing to use or sacrifice my own money), but at the end of the service, after I've spoken to my friend and once again God spoke into my heart, I took the step of faith and just sign and pay for it that afternoon. It was also the last day for early bird registration today.
I truly believe that God will somehow make a way for me and arrange and plan everything well in place for me.

I also thank the Lord for enabling me to be a blessing and help to one of my sister in Christ, who just had an awesome encounter with the Lord through the conference. The joy and the enthusiasm that I see in her was overwhelming and I truly believe that the Lord shall cause her to grow into a great strong tree as she seeks the Lord passionately each day.

I was also blessed with a great dinner with my good freind, ex-housemate, together with my housemate, who is also his cousin brother. We shared food and fellowship together and I also believe that the Lord is working great wonders in amongs us and in the fellowship too.

All glory and honour to the Great and Awesome God! Hallelujah!