its-all-connected

Hey guys(:

going to share something here. its way much easier than saying it out. haha. It has really opened my eyes to many things I thought were just there, and it has truly blessed me; and I believe it will bless you too.

You know how last year 2008 was said by Pastor to be a year or manifested blessings right? And this year 2009 would be the ‘acceptable year of the LORD (Luke 4:19)’ – the most blessed time when salvation and the free favour of God profusely abound (dektos).

And on the first service of the year, Pastor Prince shared about how rest should be a priority in our lives. Then he went on to show us how to get that rest too – that is through tounges.


11 For with stammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
12 To whom He said, "This is the rest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,"
And, "This is the refreshing"; Yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was to them,
(Isaiah 28:11-13)

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okay. So going back to last year, after I heard about how this year was supposed to be a year of all these good blessings from Deuteronomy 28, I was really glad. Because just nice that year I was taking my A levels. heh.

But 1) strangely enough, all through the year, God led me to focus more about resting instead of blessings. Now when I say that ‘God led’, I don’t mean it in an audible voice. It is more of an inner knowing that God will take care of my stuff for me. like there is a sense of comfort and assurance and peace that God is always by my side all the time, and that everything is going to be alright because of that. it was a time where I was so much more aware and conscious about the fact that I can leave my problems and worries to God, instead of trusting in my own efforts. I believe this awareness did not come from human willpower, but I believe it really was supernaturally given by God. And this sense just constantly came back to me time and time again, always reminding me whenever I forget.

And when I say rest, I do not mean inactivity in the natural. when I told my Christian Fellowship friends about how this year (2008) I would rely on rest, I think they saw it more in its literal form. They sort of smiled and joked about a ‘magic pen’ that would help me write words as I just sat there. Now don’t misunderstand, but they are good friends who love God and are quite grounded in the finished work of Jesus already. but just that I don’t think we were exactly on the same page there.

I believed it more along the lines of how rest is not inactivity, but rather Holy Spirit-directed activity (its from a sermon). and… I’ve clean forgot what was said in that sermon already. I believe that Pastor would have shared about praying in tongues somewhere in the sermon, but at that point in time I still did not really practice tongues as often as we could la.

Now, if you ask me how I rested, I also seriously cannot remember exactly how :/ I just would merely say to God ‘this thing I’m gonna leave it to You’, or ‘I cannot handle this on my own, You know. I let You take charge of it.’ . All this regardless of my ability or inability to handle a matter. Initially as far as I can remember, there was hardly much awareness of the power/frequent practice of tongues at that time at all – (even though I was aware that there was such a thing as tongues la). Yet while I did that, so many blessings came to me. how friendships fell into place, how there was a supernatural ease when I did my CCA and school stuff, and how theres just this peace even though things did not work out the way I want them to.

And the best part here is that God isn’t petty about how well I perform towards Him, or whether I am doing it the so called right way or not. He still favours me even though I did not pray in tongues like Pastor Henry. That He does not withdraw His grace or favour just because I don’t do regular ‘intensive quiet time’, or do deep Hebrew bible study, or even if I flip to the contents page of the bible :/ heh. (Now those things are good, but not in a legalish way.) and moreover I can so easily believe Him in my own personal way, that I can even talk to Him in singlish privately. And there is just so much security in that.


So this was how it was like for about the first one third of the year.

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and 2) strangely enough, at the beginning of the year, when I was on the bus on the way home, something inside me said that ‘tongues is the key to all your blessings’. Now at that time somehow my mind focused more on the word ‘tongues’ only, and I did not see the full picture la. How it ties in with the blessings. So I asked God, saying ‘how come Pastor Prince talk about blessings, and then You come and lead me towards tongues? Shouldn’t I be sort of in line with the rest of the Church?’

*from here you can tell that at that point in time, I didn’t know much about tongues la. Head knowledge-wise and heart knowledge-wise.

Anyway after that, I tried to practice praying in tongues for a few days. I only succeeded in doing it (as a routine) about 10 mins for 5 days I think. Then after that it died down. heh. Then it was back to the same life where I prayed in tongues only sometimes.

But somehow the desire towards tongues came back to me again after awhile, like after the first one third of the year part. And it was all especially because I wanted to pray something really badly about friendships. And I remembered somewhere that Pastor said that tongues is the perfect prayer that you can ever pray. And that’s good stuff. So I began to listen to the sermon series about tongues by Pastor Prince. Like really pay attention to listen those kind. As I listened to those sermons, (there are loads of them), I began to get more and more rested, in many many ways.


One example is by how we ‘work out your own salvation’ (Philippians 2:12). From there I don’t have to be bothered about how I should have the right kind of faith or what is the proper attitude/mindset when it comes to loving God, or the correct way we should worship and stuff like that. I just tell God that all this I leave to Him, and as I pray in tongues these things that I want will be ‘worked out’ from inside of me. that means that it is not me who makes this relationship with God work, but rather it is the Spirit, or God Himself, that makes it all work in the end. how this example links to my prayer for friendships is that, I knew that I didn’t have to count on my natural efforts to make things work. I knew that He should be our first priority – and not the blessings that we all desire. Then after that I can leave all the rest to Him; whether the outcome is what we desire or not.


Okay. At this point in time, its towards the end of the year already. this is when we heard what Pastor Henry showed us about praying in tongues during one meeting. And I was really glad that whatever things I believed about praying in tongues, was grounded again in the Word. Like a reminder again of the significance of what I was practicing; cos we cannot remember every word that was said in sermons that we’ve heard before.


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alright. this part would be the conclusion to what I said just now. It might seem kinda out of link categorically with what was mentioned above, but this part is the more important one.


I used to think that there are different stages in our walk with God. Like we should categorize different aspects of this walk, and focus on these different aspects all the time. perhaps you all have realised it already and I’m just slow :/ but I just realised that everything that was showed in church is all actually linked together.


I used to think that for example:
Stage 1 – grace/finished work/righteousness/favour/love
Stage 2 – speaking as a king and priest
Stage 3 – anointing oil, tongues, supernatural healing
Stage 4 – genuine heart understanding of the bible
Stage 5 – super intimacy with God


And stuff like that. Like everything should be categorized. Like only in 2007 will we see more acceleration, and only in 2008 we will see more manifested blessings, and only in 2009 we prioritize our rest.


But in a profound scheme of things, I feel that all these things cannot be divided and focused on individually. (I don’t have bible reference for this part though) Rather, all these things above like His love, healing, anointing oil, rest, and stuff like that, all boils down to ONE thing – that is the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

I really don’t know how to explain this, but everything is linked together.

From the finished work,
- righteousness that we have in Christ (1 Cor 1:30)
- blessings through righteousness. (Romans 4:8)
- how we get peace through His death. (John 14:27)
- how we have the authority to speak as kings and priests. (Ecclesiastes 8:4)
- how we have the Holy Spirit to guide us/ ability to speak in tongues/ sword /fruits of the spirit (John 7:39), for example.
- and many many many more of the things that we learn in church during service.


Bascially, everywhere in the bible is centered around the finished work! I mean, I’ve heard this before many many many times, but I’ve never actually realised what it actually means. Not that I fully do now la.


So when I was listening to the sermon on rest this year, in my mind I was thinking ‘God, I’m one year earlier than all of them?’ And I was believing that this year would be a year that I will be on a whole new level in being conscious of His work, apart from how well I do or how badly I fall. But the thing is, even though last year I was led more towards rest and tongues, doesn’t mean that this year I neglect them and focus on this ‘new one’ instead.

In any case, it would be impossible to focus on rest without involving all the other stuff, because they are all linked together. And the thing that links them all together is ultimately the finished work, and His love for me. It does not matter whether I fall or not, whether I do right or wrong, whether I sin or not. I do not mean it in a perpetual lifestyle of the flesh or evil hurting others kind of sin.

But ultimately really, even if one does live in a perpetual state of drugs or vice, but he is saved – he is still ‘righteous apart from (his) works’ (Romans 4:6). It does not mean that what he is doing is good and acceptable and should be continued, but he is still righteous by the blood of Jesus and he will get to heaven. (only faster ). By the same token, if he is compared to another man who is super intimate with Jesus, like our Pastors, or even the Pope for that matter. The first man is no less righteous than the pastor, nor is the pastor more righteous than any other person around – simply because of what Jesus did on the cross. And from that belief we would then live ‘right’. Yeah(:

So with the so many things that we hear and learn in the Church every week, or the so called ‘themes’ for every year, it would be difficult to focus on each of them individually all the time. all these things that we learn from our church are really really great Truths – since its all from the Word. but instead of trying to use my own effort to wrap my mind around all of them, and focusing on each of them individually, it would be better to just continually speak in tongues and rely on Jesus, allowing Him to work out everything that is needed for us – even in our own personal relationship with Him.

yup

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if you managed to read until here, it surely is God who gave you supernatural endurance and comprehension to read and understand this. Heh. I’ve no idea how to organize these personal thoughts. they just float as 'concepts' in my head. Which is really apt in my need to rely on Him to write this out :/

Sorry for being long winded though. Haven’t written essays in a long while(: but I reallly hope this has spoken to you.





Stay loved,
George.