Some people may think that we Christians are one lazy bunch who only know how to pray and depends on the grace of God. Waiting for money to drop down from heaven? Yes!! We pray to interact with our Abba and everything we do is through the unmerited and unearned favour of God! But definitely, we are NOT lazy and waiting!! We are movers and shakers on the earth!!
I believe that Jesus is bringing us into another level of faith!! In recent sermons, Pastor has been touching on taking a step out to inherit the treasures which Abba has installed for us! Again, i have accumulated the revelations from last sunday service, this midweek bible study as well as the Oasis ministry shared by Pastor Chin. The foundation for all these revelations are:
Prayerlise >> Visualise >> Actualise
Prayerlise
Haha... there is no such word as "prayerlise". It is used for illustration purpose and it simply means our prayers. Mar 11:24 is the best verse used to lay the foundation ground for prayers.Mar11:24 Therefore, I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for--believe that you have received them, and you will have them. Yea... i think we are established enough to know the power of our prayers; our speaking power as royal priesthood; the power of praying in the Spirit. Let us take a step out to see the revelations from our beloved Pastor!
Visualise
Visual in the Heart
Pastor has preached on visualisation for less than 2 times. Visualisation of faith simply means - what you see is what you get! Whoo.. poweful!! A lot of breakthrough does not come from the logical of our brain, is the visual! Bible is a visual book. New covenant in the bible is on visualisation because of the Holy Spirit. The way the Holy Spirit works is to come in us to allow us to see visions! In Jesus ministry, He sees what the Father do inside Him! The works of Holy Spirit can be seen in Heb 10:16-17 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds, He adds: I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. God put desires in our heart! Another verse to share in Luk 1:51 He has shown strength with His arms; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Do you know what Apostle Paul pray for the Ephesians church? It's in Eph 1:17-18 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints. In verse 17, he pray the prayer which pastor pray the most! Me too! I pray for the wisdom and revelation to know Jesus more every morning! Next verse, he is praying for the inner eyes of the church to be open. Whoo.. the eyes of our heart is so important. No wonder Pastor always preached on guarding our heart. Heart in greek means
kardia. Spirit in greek means
pneuma. Heart is where spirit and soul joins! Pastor has a revelation on how God design our heart. If we look at the heart which is sliced into half, we see that it is in the shape of the first name of
EL SHADDAI which means God Almighty or "God All Sufficient." Do you know that even the sound of our heart beat is the sound "SHAD"- "DAI"? If u listen carefully...
Visual given to great men in Old Testament
God give Abraham a vision on his seeds by the vision of the stars. It is visual aids to help him visualise! Gen 15:4-5 Now the word of the LORD came to him: "This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then He said to him, "Your offspring will be that numerous." Later, the Lord even tell him that his seeds will be multiple like the sand! Wah… how abundant is the sand!! Gen 22:17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. If you read the chapter of Num13 and Num14, we see that Moses send 12 spies to scout the land of Canaan. However, after listening to the bad report from the 10 spies, the children of Israel were afraid of the giants. God gave Caleb and Joshua the visual of victory over the giants because they saw that the Lord is with them. This can be seen in Num14:6-10. Indeed, the giants were afraid of the children of Israel for they have heard of the miracle that God has did for them at the red sea.
Visual of Jesus on the cross given to us
Isa 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of our God's vengeance; to comfort all who mourn. In Isaiah, it talks about the freedom to the prisoners. To be set free from the prison of debt and other bondages. In Hebrew, it means to open the eyes for those who are bounded! People bound are people who cannot see. In Luk 4:17-19 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, Jesus has come to open our eyes! To see everything on Jesus on the cross! Who is the one who close our eyes? Devil! In Num21, the children of Israel got bitten by the poisonous snakes and as long as they look at the bronze serpent (picture of Jesus on the cross) lifted up by Moses, they are healed! The children of Israel just LOOK! They did not look intensively or look for a long time, they look spiritually! Pastor shared about his wife, Wendy, who recently break out on hives and they were bloated. Wendy has the revelation to SEE all the hives carried by Jesus on the cross! She says this:” At least I could still scratch, He could not!” Whoo.. great revelation!!
Actualise
Key 1: Natural becomes supernatural!!
Let us dive right into Luke5:1-10 to see the verses which change Pastor’s life since teenager and make him who he is today. In Luk 5:3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat, Jesus went onto the boat when Peter allow Him to take over. Luk 5:4-5 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch." "Master," Simon replied, "we've worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at Your word, I'll let down the net." Notice that Jesus ask Peter to cast the netS into the water; but he cast a net into the water! Luk 5:6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. See!! Now the blessings are too much till net breaking. The supply is not limited but the receiving is limited. Go deep to receive more fishes!! Luk 5:7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Whoo.. the blessings cause the partner to prosper also. The blessings are super abound till sink!
Whatever natural things we give to Jesus, it becomes supernatural! Jesus cause it to become magnet for blessings. He is above them all, He disregard the nature. He takes from the lower level to higher level! He use the natural and make it supernatural for His glory!
Key 2: Become multiple!!
The next key of giving to Jesus is multiple! Not only money also other for e.g. strength. When pastor have strength is when he use His strength for the Lord. He preaches to wellness! Things don’t return the same when you give to the Lord. Let us look into John6:5-13. Joh 6:5-6 Therefore, when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward Him, He asked Philip, "Where will we buy bread so these people can eat?" He asked this to test him, for He Himself knew what He was going to do. Buy is not His first choice; miracle is always His first choice! Joh 6:9-10 "There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish--but what are they for so many?" Then Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. The men numbered about 5,000. God will always use something that you have, which is within your means. Talking about children here, Pastor shared that he will always ask children to pray for him because their prayer are powerful due to the simplicity faith. See the miracle in Joh 6:11-12 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks He distributed them to those who were seated--so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were full, He told His disciples, "Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted."
Whatever you give to the Lord, it does not remain the same, it multiples!
Give the danger of natural to Jesus
Every natural has danger. Money has snake in it. In Exo4:1-4 Then Moses answered, "What if they won't believe me and will not obey me but say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?" The LORD asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A rod," he replied. Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it, but the LORD told him, "Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail." So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. Give the rod (EVERYTHING) to the Lord and cast it on the ground. Every talent, everything that we possess has a snake. The Lord say: "Give it to me, you take the tail and I will take the head!" Let us continue to see what happen to the rod in Exo4:17-20 And take this rod in your hand that you will perform the signs with." Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." Now in Midian the LORD told Moses, "Return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and set out for the land of Egypt. And Moses took God's rod in his hand. Whoo.. the rod of God which open the Red Sea! The children of Israel take the shoes off their feet. The people are willing to give. What happen to their feet when they give to the Lord? Their feet did not swell! See this in Neh 9:21 You provided for them in the wilderness 40 years and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.
Actualise in financial
Revelation on saving 20%
Last saturday, Pastor Chin shared on his revelation on handling finance in his life. The revelation came from the life of Joseph in Egypt in Genesis41. In Gen 41:34-36 Let Pharaoh do this: Let him appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the harvest of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. Let them gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming, store the grain under Pharaoh's authority as food in the cities, and preserve it. The food will be a reserve for the land during the seven years of famine that will take place in the land of Egypt. Then the country will not be wiped out by the famine." This is where Pastor came up with the revelation to set aside 20% for savings! Even Pastor Prince set aside 20% of savings for the church too! Please note that this is a revelation for savings NOT the tithing of 10%. We save to sow, not only sow financially, but also sow the word of God. We do not save for raining days because we have the divine protection of God! We need to always have the liquidity to give; having a pool of financial resources to sow and give! All these giving is like the spiritual investment in the Kingdom of God. Sound financial wisdom is led by peace!
Give to Jesus and prosper
Gen 41:37-44 The proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. Then Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find anyone like this, a man who has the spirit of God in him?" So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as intelligent and wise as you. You will be over my house, and all my people will obey your commands. Only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you." Pharaoh also said to Joseph, "See, I am placing you over all the land of Egypt." Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, clothed him with fine linen garments, and placed a gold chain around his neck. He had Joseph ride in his second chariot, and servants called out before him, "Abrek!" So he placed him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your permission no one will be able to raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." The world (Pharaoh) sees the spirit of God in this man. In one day, Joseph from a jail horse to white horse. Joseph is a picture of Jesus in the bible. Whatever he touches prosper. The more Potiphar put in his hands, the more the things prosper. Finally, he put everything in the household into his hands. Pharaoh put the whole Egypt into His hands, the whole Egypt prosper!
Ground to sow
Sowing into good grounds is very important. Be discerning when you give! Give to ministry that is fruitful, life changing, souls born again, life transformation. We can see this in Gal 6:6-9 The one who is taught the message must share his goods with the teacher. Don't be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up. So where is the good ground to sow - our Pastors! This can be seen in 1Ti 5:17-18 The elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: You must not muzzle an ox that is threshing grain, and, The laborer is worthy of his wages.
Jesus is our source of finance
2Co 8:9-11 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: although He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich. Now I am giving an opinion on this because it is profitable for you, who a year ago began not only to do something but also to desire it. But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have. Start believing first then saves! Pastor ask us to be conscious to this verse this year: Eph 1:7-8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Whoo.. it is according to his riches NOT from his riches! Do you know it makes a difference? If it is from, it can be $1 from $1billion. Phi 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. We don’t work for money; we work for happiness because our source of finance is from God. Let us become the financial magnet for God’s blessings!!