John 16:24

I had a bad week. Many things happened, one after another. Its like you are trying to cover a leakage and before you succeed, the other end starts leaking else well. I will share in greater details in my next post, but for today, let us confirm this message. I find it very relevant, very straight forward, simple to understand. Maybe we have heard this message at lot of times until we grew tired of it, but sometimes, it is the simplest truth that we failed to confirm and therefore hindering us from knowing more. The following message is translated from the Everyday Emmanuel today. 

Receive Great Joy from Going Into the Truth

Have you ever asked yourself when are you most joyful? For a born again Christian, his most joyful time will be when he understands the will of God. It is the same as when a child is able to listen to his father's voice, then he will be most comforted and joyful. Like a sheep, when it is able to hear the voice of its shepherd, it will feel safe. 

Lets ask ourselves this question, " Where do all my pain, suffering and hatred come from? "

 Actually, it is not the problem or the situation that has cause the suffering but it is due to the fact the we are unable to hear God's voice in the midst of our problem that has caused the pain in us. There are some young people who are going through break up, they questioned " Why God allows me to go through such pain and what is His perfect will for me?". Or those who have failures in their life, they too will ask similar questions.For the child of God, their real pain is a result of not knowing the God;s purpose for allowing them to go through certain trials in life.

So, God has given us the Holy Spirit in us to teach us all things in life. The Holy Spirit guides us and helps us understand the perfect will of God in our problems so that our joy be will satisfied. In John 16: 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 16. Jesus went on to say, " In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." ( Here, it implies that God has His timetable) 23 that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (after we have understood) 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

So here comes the question, how will I be able to know and understand God's perfect will in my problem?

Firstly, the will of God will be understood when we confirm God's words. The key word here is confirm. When God says that He loves and guides you, whatever that He has given you is the best- have you ever confirmed His words? Have you ever confirmed that with your past and see His guidance? Have you confirmed before that it is your past failures, struggles that has brought you before God ?  Your confirmation will help you see and understand His perfect will.

Secondly, God has a blessed timetable. Our Lord says that we have to wait. But most of the time, we harbor an unwilling heart to wait or a frustrated heart when we are told to wait, that's why we fail to see what God has already accomplished or fulfilled.  Or our lack of faith that has make it hard for us to understand His will. If only we are willing to wait upon the Lord, then we will slowly begin to understand Him. It is very important that during this process we must continue to be submissive. When God ask us to wait, He wants us to wait submissively not wait unwillingly. This is very important because it is through being submissive that we will be able to understand His plan for us more clearly. They are people who get disappointed with God and themselves. Some might claim that they are willing to wait but in the process, they refused to pray, go to church and communicate with brethren. They have harden their hearts towards God. 

Most of the time, God's perfect will cannot be understood simply or instantly. When we serve and shepherd others, we will be able to know His will better. Jesus asked us to ask whatever in His name and it will be given to us- in this context, it means that we would be able to understand His will after that. Only at that time, our joy will be complete. Then what does it mean by in my name?  When we submit, confirm and wait upon the Lord , we will be able to receive the true answers. God has already given us the Holy Spirit so that we will be able to understand all things in Him. May you and I be diligent in confirming the Truth. God bless!

John 15

I have been busy lately, its the second week of the block and my end of semester test is in less than a month's time. I won't be able to blog very often since I can hardly find some time to study. This is just a short post on today's Every Emmanuel. I just did some simple translation, I may have missed out some points here and there because I couldn't understand some terms. Hopefully, my Chinese class would do some good. 

Keep Testifying even as The World Keep Persecuting

In church, there are believers who say they would be happy and thank God as long as their life is smooth sailing while some say that they hold on to one principle - they won't hurt others if others don't hurt them. However, if you are a born again Christian, you will definitely have trials and tribulations in your life, the world will not stop attacking you because the ruler of the air, Satan always go against the God in your heart. Everything that is of this world is of the opposite of God. 

John 15: 18-20,25-26

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. Remember what I told you: ' A servant is not greater than his master'. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. But this is to fulfill what is written in the Law: ' They will hate me without a reason'. " When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father- the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father- he will testify about me. 

We must know that since the beginning, Satan has already go against God, so he also opposes and attacks those who believe God.
Satan's attack comes in 2  forms- Temptation and Accusation.
If you realize that you face many stress, temptations, accusations and etc it is because you are the type that goes after the Kingdom of God. That is why the culture of the world is always going against you. For example, the worldly people go after success, achievements, materials but what you want to do is love God and live a life centered on that. Then the world will go against you but this is not your fault. It is because the world hated our Lord Jesus first, so they are hating us now. Take heart and be joyful for your reward will be great.
In contrast, if you are a believer that follows the world, you won't experience these struggles in you. And you will eventually be swallowed up by the world and end up as its slave. Just like Lot who stayed in Sodom and Gomorrah. He grieved about the sins of the city everyday but is unable to leave because his wealth, possessions, family, everything that he has is in that city. He couldn't leave that fallen city. Do not walk such path.
Follow the path of Abraham instead. Even though he faced some struggles and challenges ( he was troubles because he had no son), he still followed God and end up getting the best things in life.
God has given us the Holy Spirit that would help us in all things so that we may have wisdom and power to overcome the problems we face. For example, if you have a marriage problem now, God will ask you not to focus on that. Focus on how God is helping you and guiding you each step that you take. If you have a financial problem, it is just temporary, God won't let you remain poor forever. Don't put your focus in your problem, focus on Him, your provider. Whatever that you need today, give thanks for the day, then you'll be able to see His timely provisions.
In verse 26, it is written that the Holy Spirit will testify for Jesus. When we are in our problems, God wants us to continue to testify for Him. God is equipping us in our struggles so that we are able to testify the love and mercy of God more effective and convincing. The trial will bring out the most beautiful testimony in us. You will then help many people and bring them to Christ, eventually your problem will also be resolved.
Do not be afraid of trials and tribulations, this is the process God uses to help us mature spiritually and testify God.

ps: Prayer request: Please pray that I would be able to grasp every opportunity to be Holy Spirit filled and be able to transcend over my situation. Thank you.

2 Chronicles 20

My one week break just ended and I am back to cold showers and my own cooked meals. My time spent in Penang was not very fruitful because my  spiritual growth has remain stagnant. In my hometown, I always look forward to come back here where I am able to attend church freely, gather with my brethren and listen to His words. I like my life here- even though I am living in some remote small town that even McDonald refuse to have a franchise here. 

Sunday

I was ( still am ) enlightened with last Sunday's message, maybe because the week's break without God's word has made me appreciate the time I get to attend service here even more. But the highlight of this post is not on the message. Just after service, I was attacked by Satan. And I ended up crying in the car, in the mall and in my room. I mean I was already weak without God's word and so I broke down. I experienced the feeling of not wanting to pray, I feel fed up at God, I feel tortured and oppressed, it feels like whatever I do is never going to be good enough. In short, I was depressed with my life and the situation that God has put me in. My lips could not give thanks and sing praises to Him. 

Have you ever feel so angry and upset that you don't want to talk to God? Like you want to ignore Him. But the funny thing is no matter how hard you try to walk away, you just end up talking to Him again. You know you need Jesus. Yes, He is unseen. You may not be able to even 'feel' His presence. But somehow, you are assured that He is still with you just as He has promised. My lips may be tightly sealed, refusing to utter a word to Him. Yet, my heart yearns for His comforting words. And that was how my Sunday ended.

Monday

Since Sunday didn't end on a high note,my  Monday morning was a little affected. All went well until the test results were out. I wasn't ready for it. I know I did better compare to last test but it wasn't exactly great. So, I didn't have the courage to check my results. I told myself that I'll come home and pray about it and I will only check it when I gather enough strength to fight the unpleasant thought if  I fail. Just when I thought I got everything under control, suddenly the results were posted online and I accidentally saw it when my heart was still weak. I broke down. I failed again- 46/100. Looking at the result, I couldn't stop weeping. 

So I wiped my tears dry for real and start clicking at my church websites. After several failed attempts of trying to get to the websites, I almost gave up. I know this is definitely Satan's work so I prayed. And with God's grace, there is still one website that is not down. 

The title of the sermon  is Praise the Lord in the Holy Spirit and you shall see victory. 

That was the message I heard right before I sat for my test and listening to it for the second time, it really feels different from the first time. It was really as though, God tailor made the message just for me. 

What really convict me is that God's plan is far greater than my plan, His thoughts far exceed mine. I have the tendency to hold on to my certain ideal thoughts. Like this time, its on passing a test. Maybe you would have question God on my behalf, " She just want to pass a test, she's not asking for anything ambitious at all, why can't You grant this small desire?". God can easily let me pass. I just missed by 4 marks.If God can part the Red Sea without a sweat, what is this to Him?

Then this is the part that I realized that often in life, we may think what we want is ideal, we may have picked up a piece of rock on the ground and held on to it tightly like its a piece of gold and  refuse to let  go when God asks us to. If God didn't prepare a diamond for us, do you think He'll ask us to let  go off the things we deem valuable and worthy of holding on? 

Most of the time, we failed to see the bigger picture. We clench onto many things ( thoughts, relationships, wealth and etc) because we can't see the greater blessings from God. We complain about certain failures( my test), temporary circumstances all because we don't know what He has planned ahead.

 " It is not for you to know the time or dates the Father has set by his own authority". Acts 1:7 

My housemate asked why did I fail again, what went wrong. Honestly, I do not know the exact answer. Not finishing the syllabus is secondary in this case. I believe that God won't let me go through this without a greater plan in mind. 

Give thanks to God that our days and hours have been made unknown to us and because of this we need to rely on Him everyday to face the uncertain days. 

When we are in difficult situation like this, we must not let ourselves remain in a weak state ,like how I refused to pray. In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat was under the attack of a vast army against his people. Obviously,  he didn't resolve to crying like me, instead he prayed. If you study carefully on his prayer ( verse 5 to 9), he prays in a way that he knows he is the child of God. A child of God is one who is bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who was once living in darkness but with the saving grace of Christ, he is now living in the light. Therefore, as a child of God, we all have the privilege and power to pray and  when we do, the gates of heaven open and the army of angels start to move.

So what did God say? 

Do not be afraid or discouraged of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God's. 2 Chronicles 20:15

The way God instruct them to fight the war is interesting that is to sing praises to Him. God didn't ask His people to prepare swords nor spears, but to sing. In our difficulties, God don't expect much from us, He doesn't expect us to do what we are not capable of. He really just want us to submit to Him entirely and give thanks. Just as simple as that. 

When we continue to give thanks and sing praises to Him regardless of the situation we are in, the fears and worries within us will be driven out and be replaced with His great love. 

In my case, I give thanks for my results. If it wasn't because I fail, I guess I won't listen to the message again and receive such valuable lesson on giving thanks. 

When you see the rocky path ahead of you but you feel assured that God never make mistake and this is the greatest plan He has for you, you respond " Lord, I'm willing."- This is called submission. 

ps: Here is the link to the video. For greater details, listen to the message. ( The sermon is in Cantonese and is simultaneously translated to English). Enjoy. 

http://www.christlifeliving.com/en/gospel/worship-message/praise_the_lord_in_the_holy_spirit_and_you_shall_see_victory.html