Sharings on prayers (Part 2)

During the whole period at Japan, I continued to intercede, and my intercession, which started from Jan 12 finally was finally truncated by a serious flu caught when we went down from Hokkaido to Tokyo – the date – 12 february, which was exactly 1 month from the date 12 january which I started intercession.

I would like to share a bit of my experience of praying when I was sick. Previously, in one of my posts, I shared that I had a fever and was praying in my bed – I felt a strong presence of God and after resting, my fever was gone. However, this time, I couldn’t pray at all even when I tried very hard to concentrate. The flu was so bad that I had to keep lying down. My aunt, who was a christian, had to lay both her hands on me to pray for me.

After coming back from Japan, I had to nurse the flu, at the same time, start on a new job at a local hospital as a coordinater.

The whole episode of intercession, disciplined, focused and targetted at different groups of people, had ended but it was very rewarding. I am still paying my premiums everyday – would either pray with my christian aunt on the phone or have dinner at her place and afterwards we’ll pray.

Going back to the sermon preached by my pastor, which was on the 2nd of march, there were three main points derived from the book of Acts 4:23-31.

1. The presence of God is perceived
2. The power of God is received
3. The purpose of God is achieved

I have shared on the presence of God being present, signified by the shaking of the ground. The power of God was received when the believers was filled with the Holy Spirit and the purpose of God achieved when they spoke the word boldly.

I hope I can start another bout of intercession soon, and this time, let it be more enduring!

Sharing on prayers (Part 1)

The sermon preached by my pastor today was on prayer (Acts 4:23-31) - “when the church prays”, so i think it was the opportune time for me to write a post to revise on the things which I had learnt from the book the intercessory prayer by Dutch Sheets, share my experience in my journey in intercessory prayer for more than a month, and also share a few important pointers on what my pastor has shared today. It would have a part 1 and 2.Ok. To revise on the three chapters on intercessory prayer, I would summarize into 3 main points.

The first I believe is the importance of persistance in intercessory prayer. This is because God is really into marinating while we are into microwaving. The parable of the persistent widow clearly teaches us this (Luke 18:1-8). While we are into marinating, our faith increases to the point where we claims the promises of God.

The second is seeing ourselves as important in the involvement of the works of God on earth. This was illustrated in Ezek 22:30,31 where God searched for a man to stand in the gap but found no one. It was depressing. Therefore, we are representatives of God to fulfill his works on earth. And intercession is part of that work we can do.

Thirdly and lastly, there’s an intercessor for us in heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his name we can bring our requests to God (1 Tim 2:5). All our intercession would be futile if not for Christ. 

February has passed in a flash, as you may know, I went on a holiday trip to Japan from 6 Feb to 15 feb. And I started on learning intercessory prayer on 12 Jan. On the first day of the Japan trip, when we touched down at Tokyo Narita Airport, we proceeded to take a train which travelled overnight to bring us to Hokkaido. In my learning on intercessory prayer, I have been praying for my cousin Yingwei, because she is a backsliden christian and to say sheepishly, I have not maintained a good relationship with her all these while to see the possibility of inviting her back to the church. On this first day, by grace of God, I managed to rebuild my relationship with her. We had a good conversation and laughs while consuming a night snack at a restaurant on the train (it occupied one cabin) with other relatives.

At night, I was thanking God for breaking the ice between us and helping me to build a bridge to her. This would opened up doors for me in the future to invite her back to church. At the same time, I was interceding for my family as well as relatives, going through my usual routine of intercessory prayer for different groups of people. When i finished the prayer and said “Amen”; incidentally, the train shook. It had stopped perennially at a stopover station – the eminent presence of God.

In the sermon preached today by my pastor, in Acts 4:31, the place where the believers were meeting shook after they prayed. The shaking signified the presence of God. It was very coincidental that the train shook at the exact moment I said “Amen”. I wouldn’t be reading too much into this but what I would believe is this - this prayer had shaken situations in the spiritual realms. End of part 1.. Look out for part 2.  

Never a challenging time?

As a christian, does it mean we’ll never go through a challenging time?

Find your answer after listening to the Faith Struggle (Sermon).

After listening to the sermon, I thanked God for the struggles which I persevered through in the past which made me a better and stronger person; however, I also asked for forgiveness for the struggles I cowardly escaped, eventually had to be disciplined and relearn them again in the future to come.

God will be leading us into these circumstances at certain point in our lives and I am expecting one to come when I take on my new job. Did I really choose this path? No, but the heavenly father chose it for me. I have to learn to be obedient and faithful.

2 Cor 12:9 My Grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

We are to rest and trust that God has brought us here and keep us here as long as He chooses and God will bring us out His own time, His own way.

Useful resources for devotionals and re-thinking your faith

This post is written particularly for christian friends who are reading my blog; I don’t know who you are, how you found my blog; but 1 thing I know, I hope my blog can be an inspiration and help to your spiritual growth.

However lofty my wish, I am lacking in many areas to teach and share. I would like to share with you 4 useful websites/blogs which can help you in a closer walk with God.

They are in my blogroll - all about God, Jesus-is-savior, comfort food and finally livingwaters.com.

Livingwaters.com contains a morning and evening Spurgeon readings which I find useful for devotionals. Comfort Food is a blog by Ray Comfort, who is running a evangelism training ministry, the school of Biblical Evangelism. All about God is an internet ministry for seekers, skeptics and believers, it has comprehensive biblical teachings on various topics in life. Finally, Jesus-is-savior is a cool and hip christian website that challenge you to think about issues such as abortion, catholicism etc. 

I have added 2 more christian resource sites to my blogroll (21st Jan 08) on reformation theology – they are STEMI and reformation theology.

In a short summary, the movement of reformation theology urges all christians to go back to the bible to build their faith on.

Another site added on (22nd Jan 08) - your-church.com. There are good worship services and sermons in it!

Check them all out! 

Last Sunday’s Sermon 13 Jan 08 – the proud prophetess (Miriam)

I was rebuked by last Sunday’s sermon titled the proud prophetess (Miriam). Actually, I was already in repentance for my pride for the 2nd interview 2 days ago, if to delve deeper, I have committed these sins even much earlier when I served in church during the army days.

The three points were

1. Don’t be jealous
2. Don’t harbour hatred
3. Don’t be proud

These lessons are not easy to learn but by the grace of God, I am trying and in the process to learn ‘em.

I would start with point 2 - don’t harbour hatred. I did harbour hatred and one person who was salient that I did harbour hatred against was my elder sister. Actually, over the years, I have become misogynistic. It was bad when my previous organization was filled with them and my first senior pastor was a female. It was my anger and hatred against my sister that has caused my failures in building healthy, respectful relationships with women. Hatred is like a virus and it corrupted the trends. If you bear hatred against let’s say, your teacher; in the future, the relationships that you are going to build with other teachers; the way you see other teachers, expect them to be, will be corrupted.

I think that’s why God wants us to forgive, kill the virus, if not quarantine them and kill them off slowly. My sharing would not be at the sidelines, i believe, many would argue the difficulties, especially when the host of the virus is always present – imagine having to stay with someone who always offend you for 12 years. When peter asked Jesus how many times must we forgive, Jesus replied: ” 77 times 7,” meaning innumerous times. May the grace of God help us to forgive and build healthy relationships in the future.

Point number 1 – don’t be jealous. It’s easy for us to be jealous of what others have or their ministry. When I first heard my pastor preached that when God has passed on your ministry to others, it may be 1) He no longer uses you 2) He knows you cannot handle it. It’s pure truth right. How come i never thought of point 2. I think point 1 only applies to backsliden christians or christians who became non-existant in the church. When God gives us a task, we can either challenge it or refused, to take a back-seat and do simpler tasks, letting others do it. The bottomline – someone has to do it right. 

Though my heart did feel sunken that I wasn’t in charge of any ministries now, but I thought God has to deal with me so he could use me again. And not to overlook, most of the time, the ministries that few people took up are at the backline – prayer, exhortation, giving etc. May God help me to start with those.

Lastly – Don’t be proud. Haha, I used to love to feed my pride. But I have come to realise I’m nothing. What I can do, so can God raise another to do, even better so I could enjoy their service and be blessed. So, just do my role as a servant, make fun of myself, haha.  

At the end of the year, reflect – What’s my progress in overcoming jealousy, hatred and pride?