(Pastor Chuan)
Opening Prayer:
“Our heavenly Father, our LORD, we want to look up to You, You are our salvation, You are our redemption. We pray for those who know You that You may grant us to know what the purpose is, what is our calling today. Reveal to us of our mission today indeed during chaos or amid turmoil, we may be a haven in the storm. We commit this preaching into Your hand, You know the inadequacy of Your servant, we pray that You may use him, hear our prayer as we indeed worship You from the depth of our hearts. Amen.”
Fear Of Death And Looking For Elixir Life
I was in China many years ago and if you’re in China you must see one place, not the Great Wall of China but you must go to Xi’an to see our great great great great grandfather Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. According to the documentary, he’s still there, our great grandfather is still there. So, if you want to pay him a visit, you can go to Xi’an. Qin Shi Huang achieved a lot for China. He was the first emperor because he unified China. Before that, China was barbarians, warlords, and there was no unity. He also built many good things, amongst which was the Great Wall of China. It took so long to build up this and you needed more than a lifetime to see the result of his labor.
On top of his successful ambition and aspiration, he was also looking for an everlasting life, he was looking for this elixir of life. He sent some men to look for the special fruit, fruit of eternal life. In the off-record history, it was saying that when these men couldn’t find it, they would be beheaded. Hence, in order to escape the death punishment, these men opted not to go back anymore but instead started new life on the new place. It’s rumored how the Japan started a country.
This Qin Shi Huang was so desperate to keep his health going. He had a group of physicians attending to him. Unfortunately, at that time, they didn’t even experiment the new medicines like what we do today. His personal physicians made him mercury balls to grant him good health. At that time, the big thing was mercury, would you believe it? Mercury! He trusted his personal physicians and he took it. Nowadays, we know that mercury will not lengthen your life, but instead it will shorten your life. It’s true enough, he died at the age of 50 due to mercury poisoning.
Since he couldn’t have this elixir life on this earth, so he built a massive mausoleum which resembles the map of his kingdom completed terracotta army in it. He believed it will secure his afterlife. The researchers found out that the mercury content in that mausoleum was many times above the average level. It proved that this Qin Shi Huang was obsessed so much with this everlasting life, even after he died.
Qin Shi Huang went through all means and all ways to secure his life. Unfortunately, his desperation had ended his life and killed him. Isn’t it irony, is it?
He was the emperor of China with absolute power and authority. He owned all the riches and glories, yet he was not satisfied. Indeed, he was looking for that one thing that eluded man from the beginning of mankind, everlasting life.
Today, despite all the science, medical and technology advances that are at our disposal, there’s one thing we human are incapable no matter how, that is, we cannot conquer death. You can lengthen your life by taking a whole battery of supplements. I know people now are so obsessed of taking supplements, some can even spend half of the salary for it. But how long are you going to keep your life going? Another few years? No matter how, our age keeps on increasing and our body keeps on aging. At the end, we all still face the inevitable death. Unfortunately for Qin Shi Huang, he lived around 250 BC, and he didn’t have the Bible with him. And so, he didn’t know the secret of everlasting life. He had to find what was the secret of everlasting life.
Secret Of Everlasting Life Is Revealed
We are different from him; we live in these ages where we have Bible. In fact, the scripture in the Bible already given us this secret of everlasting life. You want eternal life? We can refer to Galatians 6:7-10,
“Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.”
Apostle Paul told us that this secret of eternal life is given to you but with one condition. What is the deal? You keep sowing in the field of the spirit, only then you are going to reap eternal life. Hence, the key phrase today is to sow in the field of the spirit. It’s crucial for us to understand the meaning to sow in the field of the spirit, only then will we have the eternal life.
Apostle Paul said, you only have one seed. What is this one seed? In John 12:24, it said:
“For sure, I tell you, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will only be a seed. If it dies, it will give much grain.”
We only have this one seed which it is our present life. What are you going to do with that one life? You only have two choices. In fact, we should be thankful that there are only two choices. If there are too many choices, we might be in the state of dilemma of don’t know which one to choose. The two choices are either put your seed in the field of the flesh, or you sow your seed in the field of the Spirit. Which field would you choose? Field of flesh or field of spirit? We can only choose one, we can’t take both. So, what will be your choice? If you choose to plant your seed in the field of flesh, the result is corruption and death. Imagine you only have one seed, and you plant it in a salty soil, you won’t see it grow but instead the seed will get moldy and dyeing eventually. On the other hand, if you plant your seed in a proper soil, what comes out is a bountiful harvest.
Whom To Be Blamed For Our Unfortunate/Dismay?
We must not take our life for granted; we must really consider what are we going to do with our life now. Life is not gamble, where you can have many chances to repeatedly putting the bet. You can win sometimes, and you can lose sometimes. However, life as in physical laws of the universe, is a structured order. You cannot expect something not rationale to happen. For example, you don’t expect when you jump off a building then you’re going to fly.
In the spiritual world, many Christians do not understand that our life is very structured. There are no two ways about it. There’s no haphazardness. This is because it is the same God who created the world and created us. Christian life is not all emotional and all feeling. When you sow the wrong thing, you will have to reap the consequences. In other words, what we are today is a result of what we have done or chosen in the past. We are simply reaping what we have sown maybe yesterday, a month ago, or maybe even years ago. Alternatively, you can say that what you are today explains very much on what your decisions or choices were.
It is very common for us to question God, “Why do you put me in this kind of situation?” But it’s not God who put us in that kind of situation. Don’t blame the wrong person. The person is you. For example, you don’t eat well, you eat extravagantly, you only eat meat without taking fiber. We all know that this kind of eating habit increase the chances of develop colon cancer. Now when you get colon cancer, you blame God why let me have this cancer? Well, the answer is obvious because you didn’t eat well.
Similarly, the difficulties and troubles that we are facing in our life today are simply man-made, not God-made. It’s we who created it, not God who created it. We must identify the root cause correctly. It’s not God’s fault, why do you blame God? Imagine the whole world, that six billion voices that blaming God. I’m very pity with God, He is always the scapegoat. But, when something good happen, no one remembers Him or thank Him.
Seed For Death Or Seed For Life
It’s our own choices that creates the situation. Lord Jesus and Apostle Paul already told us clearly in the Bible, if you sow in flesh, you indulge in yourself, you will end up with death. Your final ending is death! But, if you sow your seed of life in spirit, you will have life, abundant of life. Can you see that?
As you know, in the countries blessed with plentiful of rain, once you plant a seed into a ground, it would grow into a bountiful harvest even though you leave it alone. That’s amazing. That’s the miracle of life. It is the same thing, if you plant your seed in the field of spirit and let yourself be in control of the spirit, or I shall say, let spirit takes over your life. it will produce for you an abundant harvest of life. From 1 to 2 and then 4 and then 34, 64, 104, and keep growing. That’s wonderful.
Meanwhile, life is not something neither you nor I can create. No, we can’t create life. Life is something given to us, but the condition is you must bury that seed into the field of the spirit and let God takes over. He will create an abundant harvest out of that one single life. Wasn’t it beautiful?
Lord Jesus promised that “He who believes in me, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living waters.” Lo and behold, if a man thirsty and drink one cup from Lord Jesus, rivers of living waters come out. It’s not just river, but rivers of living waters come out of the inner being. Imagine, one seed and it multiplies into 30, 60, 100 folds of seeds. Thus, remember that God can create miracle in your life if you live rightly, He can make your life something very special.
Can you see that, we have 50 audience here which is like 50 seeds. If we understand this principle, we plant 50 seeds into the field and a harvest will take maybe about three months. After three months, 50 multiplied by 30, we can harvest at least 1500 seeds. That is marvelous!
Fruit Of Spirit From Christians And Non-Christians
Let’s look at Galatians 5: 22-23,
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Now let us come to the specifics. We say there’s an abundant harvest. What are they? Look at the ninefold fruit of the Spirit. The LORD gives or produces in your life these qualities, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on.
You might be thinking that everyone including non-Christians are having those qualities as mentioned above. They are nice, loving, peaceful, gentle, not pursuing fame and money. So, what’s the differences between Christian and non-Christian? Not to mention that even some Christians do not exhibit these qualities. Do you have all these qualities in your life? Do you have love? Do you have joy? Or your condition is depending on the situation. When things are good, I’m up; when things are bad, I’m down. I know that is life. Everybody goes through life. So, how are we going to witness non-Christian’s people around us in our life? Their life and our life are not much different except our philosophy. I claim that I have eternal life, whereas the Buddhists claim they have karma, and they also believe in reaping what they are sowing. Hence, there’s essentially no difference.
Under these kinds of circumstances, where is the fruit of the spirit? Where is this bountiful harvest that everybody is talking about?
Maybe I shall put it in contrast for you to have a better picture. Love during hatred; peace amid turmoil or everybody is losing temper; joy in the midst of circumstances that should bring forth sorrow; patience when in trying circumstances; kindness among unkind people; goodness in the mid of evil; faithfulness when everyone is betraying one another or when the love is cold; self -control where everybody in this world now has lost control of themselves.
I was mentioning sexual desire yesterday. It’s a big problem for people nowadays. If you can have self-control in the midst of blatant flagrant or licentiousness, then you are able to control yourself. If you really can manage to do all these, it’s really something big! Indeed, that is the fruit of the spirit.
When the spirit is in control, you will be able to produce these fruits of spirit despite of any circumstances. These fruits should be always coming forth. That would make you different. When your spouse, your children, your colleagues, friends, neighbors noticed nothing disturb you, nothing bother you. You always have peace and joy no matter what happen, you always have love toward others. They can feel your differences, they can witness your fruits of spirit.
However, when things in this world are going smoothly, there is not much difference because the circumstance itself doesn’t give you the opportunity to show forth the difference, the extraordinariness, right?
An Eye-Candy Christian Is Possible For Everyone, But A True Pragmatic Christian Is Impossible For Everyone Unless With The Spirit Of God
I remember when I was in Beijing, I stay in a dorm where you can see people from all around the world, from America, Sweden, Japanese, Korean, whatever you name it. For them, the dorm is like a revolving door for them to have sex anytime, they play it like a game. They’re so loose they can do it with you anytime. I experienced it when I was alone in the dorm, a girl stepped into my room. I know what she wanted but I rejected her and walked out from the room. I became the queer fellow for them, they had many stigmatize thought on me. May be I’m not normal human, I’m homosexual, I’m not interested in girls and so on. But they notice a difference in you even put in very trying circumstances.
I just read a testimony of a woman. For me, it is the utmost extreme case. She is a devout Christian. she is a single mother, and she had a daughter. You know it’s not easy to bring up a child, with all the sweat and toil. In year 1997, when her daughter was 19 years old, it’s the prime time of her life, she was raped and murdered. If you are in her shoes, what would be your response? What would you say to God? Wouldn’t you say, “God, why did this thing happen to me?”, would you?
But for this mother, she said, “I’ve always called myself a Christian. now it’s time to do what a Christian does.” Guess what she did? She went to the prison to look up the person who raped and killed her daughter. When she was sitting in front of the boy, she felt so difficult to shake hand with him. You can imagine all the sentiments, all the emotions in that one handshake. She looked at that boy and said, “I have one question for you. I just want to know what she said before she died?” That boy immediately broke down and wept. And then she said, “I forgive you.”
All the prison officials were standing there with all tears. She could forgive the very person who not only murdered but humiliated and raped her daughter. That is really something. That is abundant life. That is the fruit of the spirit. We’ve been talking so much of being a Christian but when come to the real test, can you still stand firm as a Christian? Have you seen a Christian like this?
In fact, it is a very natural response for most of the people, that when people hurt you, you hate them, right? Can you love your enemies? Enemies could be people close to you, and when they hurt you, they really hurt you. You don’t have to look for your enemy out there. The enemy is in your house, isn’t it? Can you love that person? Wow, I tell you, without the fruit of the spirit, it’s impossible to love.
We have to confess that not all Christians are like that or can be like that. Most Christians are very ordinary, and it might be the reason that many people cannot believe in God. Back to the case of that single mother. If you were one of the prison officers standing there witnessing all that, what would you think of this lady. I believe that those prison officers are father or mother or having children, they must be impressed by this lady who possessed some power that is beyond an ordinary human power. This is simply wonderful. This is the fruit of the spirit that she was reaping.
What I’m trying to say is that if you let yourself be controlled by the spirit of God. He will take away all the circumstances. He will overcome the emotions and He will create in you a new power and a new life, which you can manifest to others no matter where you go. Sometimes you don’t even have to say anything but people can feel it.
Empowered By The Spirit Of God, Your Life Will Flow Like Living Water
There is one thing that I really want to thank God. When I was in India, there was this brother I could not communicate with due to the language barrier. This is because he speaks Tamil and I speak English. One day he came to me and wanted to speak to me. He communicated to me through a translator. He told me that he’s been struggling with sexual desire for so long. Although he was married, he found that he could not control his sexual desires. This had made his life a turmoil, and he couldn’t experience God. He was struggling so much, and simply had no power to overcome until I arrived. He couldn’t explain why but the whole sexual bondage disappeared. I also cannot explain it. Thus, when the time I was about to leave India, he was very anxious, and hoping me to come back again. In fact, I didn’t do anything. It was simply the spirit of God, the life that came forth. Doing things which you cannot explain. You don’t know why, and much of this thing is simply something that you are not conscious of.
May be you found it is very difficult to love your enemy, but the Bible teaches us must love our enemy. So, what should I do? Open your heart and let God working in you, He will work in a way that you cannot explain or even understand. Provided you’re willing to be led by the spirit, you can experience Him. That is simply wonderful. God will make a way. Have we really experienced the power of the spirit? How can we experience it? What is the secret to the spiritual life? I’d like to share this very important lesson. May be I can illustrate it in this story. Perhaps LORD can use this parable to speak to you.
The Way You Plant The Seed Determine Your Relationship With God
There was a king who was going to die, and he had no male heir to the throne. Hence, before he passed away, he was looking to adopt a son. He called forth an edict to his kingdom. He told his citizens that he was looking for an heir to his throne, who can sit beside him. But the prerequisite was, this person must pass through a series of test. Thousands of people came for the test as everyone wanted to be his adopted son. It’s a ticket to life, to success. The king did the screening tests, and he got the 10 finalists out of thousands of contestants. The king spoke to the 10 potential adopted sons, “Here is a corn seed. Now I want you to plant this corn. You must only use this seed, no other seed. But remember, this is not a game. This seed is your life. You plant your life into the ground. If it dies, you die. If it lives, you live. But the one that grows the most, that bears the most fruit, will be my son. I will see you all in two months’ time.”
This had become a life betting game; their future was at stake in this seed. All the 10 boys promptly took the seed back and started to plant, with the hope that the seed will grow up abundant fruit in two months’ time.
One of the boys, let’s call him Adam. He planted the seed with all his efforts, he watered it, putting fertilizer. He was taking care of the seed day and night and waiting eagerly for it to grow. He prayed to God everyday, asking God for help. However, day after day, nothing happened to his seed. He was nervous and helpless. His mother even suggested him to get another seed from the market. After all, a seed is a seed is a seed, right? What’s the difference within this? If you get the same variety, it will work, right? Though his mother gave him a very constructive idea, but Adam pondered back and forth. He knew it was very difficult to make up his mind, as his life was at stake but at the same time, he remembered the warning from the king, that is only this seed but no other seed. At last, he didn’t take the advice from his mother but instead, he wanted to be honest in front of the king, regardless of scarifying his life.
Times flied, after two months, all the 10 boys went to the palace to show their plant. The king went down the list to examine the plants brought by the boys one by one. Each plant grew up so well, until the King walked to the last boy, Adam. He has nothing to show. Adam was weeping and was trembling with fear. He said to the king, “I’m very sorry, king, I don’t know what to say, I tried my best, I really tried my best, but I cannot get it to sprout.” All the palace officers were whispering to each other, and all the other boys were staring at Adam with shocking eyes.
Then the King said: “Quiet down, I want to say something. I would like to announce that this boy will be my adopted son, he will inherit my throne.” Everyone in the palace was shocked for the king’s decision. The king continued to say, “In fact, I’d boiled all the seeds before distributing to the 10 boys. Those seeds were not supposed to germinate and grow. All these nine boys are lying. They did not follow my word. And this boy did the right thing. He shall be my son.”
This boy passed the test and became the heir. It’s not whether you can cultivate the seed, it is whether you can cultivate your life. This parable reflects our spiritual life, it reflects our relationship with God.
God has given to us one life, this one seed. Your life, with that one seed it will die anyway, just like Qin Shi Huang. Thus, what are you going to do with your life? What are you going to do with the only one seed that you have? God wants to see how you cultivate your life today, how you sow your seed today. It later on will determine whether you have life with Him, whether you will sit at His side and be the King with Him. God wants to test us.
Eternal Life Is Not For Everyone. Are You Eligible For It?
Have you wonder why do we live on this earth? Is it your life is about your career, to get enough money, bear more children and hopefully your children will continue your name after you die? Is that what your life is about? If your answer is yes that means it will end at the grave. Have you ever thought the reason God create you? He wants to give us a very wonderful precious gift, that is eternal life. An eternal life is so valuable and priceless; hence, it is only given to the person who knows how to treasure that gift. It’s no point giving to those don’t appreciate it. In the Bible, it said, we don t give a diamond ring to a pig, we don’t give pearls before swine. Why? Because they don’t appreciate it. The pig doesn’t know the cost and value of a pearl.
To know you are the right person to receive this gift, you must pass the tests and trials. Throughout all these tests and trials, God can see how strong your faith is, and how much you obey His words. Now, you can realize why your life is so difficult and why you have to go through so many series of tests. This is the moment that God want to test you.
I give some examples. When you want to do something for God, your health status suddenly goes down. When you really want to pursue God then you fell into crisis. You might start doubting, what is God doing? In fact, it’s only through a crisis that you can tell what you are made up of, either you were sold to the flesh or you were sold to the Spirit. Will you choose to obey God or obey to yourself, following your own desires?
In other words, God takes you through a journey of tests. If you pass through it, you will be His Son, His adopted Son. But if you fail the test, the negative applies. You will experience the consequences of your actions or your choices. The result will be death.
Remember what the LORD told Adam and Eve right from the very beginning? That is, you shall not eat of that fruit. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve chose to disobey Him, thus, they reaped the consequences of that disobedience. For the moment you eat that fruit, you shall surely die. And these are the words, right? You shall surely die. He who reaps to the flesh will surely die. When you choose to sow your seed in flesh, you will only get thorns and thistles instead of abundant harvests. Your life will be barren. It will not bear the spiritual fruits from God. But to those who pass the test, will be like Abraham himself.
Three Major Tests That Abraham Went Through
1. Stepping out from comfort zone
I would just quickly share what are these life stages. If you look at Abraham, there were three major tests. Of course, God tests you with many tests along the way, but three major tests.
The first one happened when Abraham was in Babylon. In those days, Babylon was a superpower country, it was first world power, just like America today. It is unlike the backward heritage site you are seeing today. Imagine Abraham was an American boy, enjoying his life in the big city. Out of sudden, God told Abraham to come out from there and go to the promised land where he cannot immediately move in yet and didn’t know when can move in yet. However, he obeyed without any hesitation and without any doubt.
Says, this situation happens to you, what would be your choice? If the Lord tells you today, pack up your bags and go to Africa. Without any more details, will you obey? Or will you feel reluctant to quit your job, or to leave your comfort zone?
Isn’t it irony, is it? We seek for God, we call Him our LORD, but when the time of making decision between God and ourselves, we always will find excuse to turn it down or to procrastinate the plan. What a contradiction! The main reason is that we are too comfort in our comfort zone and we do not want any changes, especially those changes without any promising outcome.
2. Obey without questioning
And the second test is whether you will obey Him without questioning. If you want to experience God, if you want to really know who this God is, but at the same time, you are putting yourself at the top of your priority, then, you will never know God and hardly experience Him.
I experienced it myself. If you remember the story of my dad, he was from a third world country, as you know Malaysia was a third world country in 1960s, then migrate to the first world country, Canada. I was following him. After that God asked me to go back to the third world country, not only that, but go to India. I knew I would be going to have suffered big time in India, but I still said yes to LORD, I told Him I will go.
Thus, if you want to experience God, you must leave your comfort zone. If you don’t leave your comfort zone, there will be no fruit. This fruit is for you or for others to enjoy. If you reject God means you don’t give the opportunity to others. If this is the case, why should God give you the fruit? Because the fruit will be rotting anyway eventually.
Therefore, when God calls you to follow Him, to be his disciple, He will take you out of where you are. Are you willing to follow? If we have obeyed, He will show us the next step. Just liked what God had promised to Abraham that He will make him fruitful as he follow God. In Genesis 17:4-8, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
Wow, that’s a wonderful promise. For those who have who have followed to the core, God will reward you, God will bless you. You will be a father of many nations.
I shared an example of Pastor Eric. He was like a north star; he was the guiding light for travelers and sea merchants. He led them to the correct direction. If you obey God, God will make your life like a guiding star too. God will make you a fruitful plant that keeps on bearing fruit at all seasons, so that others will feed on your fruits. That is a wonderful vision.
If our churches are heeding the LORD’s call, we will be a spring or well, where others come and others drink from our midst. It’s such a wonderful picture. God will say, “I will bless you,” and we have seen indeed the LORD is blessing us.
I know your worry, that is our weaknesses. In fact, each one of us are full of weaknesses and inadequacies. Abraham also the same, he had his weaknesses. But God still used him diligently, as he fully obeyed God. the same applies to us. Despite our weaknesses, God will bless us if we obey Him. Oh, that’s wonderful.
Now, you can understand why your life is barren, you cannot bring someone to the LORD, and your life have on effect on others. That’s because you have not gone through life stages with God. You have not gone through this journey with God. You are still building your nest in the world; you are rooting in this world. You not even passed through the first test, not to mention to overcome the second test i.e., become fruitful to others.
3. Test of being forsaken
Now the third test. At the age of 85, God told Abraham that he will get a son without elucidate the exact timing. It took him 15 years before he got his son, Isaac. That was the son of promise, the spiritual promise from God. That was the fruit given to Abraham when he was 100-year-old. Abraham took care of his son like treasure, like gold. But not long after that, God wanted Abraham to sacrifice this son. If you were in Abraham’s shoe, how would be your feeling? God, you just promised this, and now you want to take it back. You just promised this fruit to me, and now you say that fruit is not mine. God must be kidding.
God not only wanted him to sacrifice his son on a mountain but called him to bring along Isaac to travel three days to reach the mountain. Imagine the agony that Abraham had to go through in those three days, how could he face his son in these three days, what should he answer his son when the son asked where to go and what to do? What a cruel God he is, what a heartless God!
This is the time for the highest test, where God blesses you with spiritual life and then he takes it back from you. He requires from you; He requires the time for the test. You must be wonder why is this God like this?
Have you ever faced this test before? The God you’ve been experienced all the while was no longer there, he takes away the fruit from you, he takes away the spiritual fruit from you. You become very dry as you have nothing to share. In other word, God has been blessing you and using you. But then suddenly your life is a struggle, and you’d lost somewhere. You wonder and start to ask like the Lord Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Indeed, there are many servants of God go through this kind of thing. As the servants of God, they have been faithful and obedient all their years. And now, God requires the ultimate test from them, He takes your fruit away. It is not easy to become a Christian, the more you are faithful, the higher the test, the more difficult the test. God will require of us. Nevertheless, Abraham obeyed. The LORD said to Abraham, “Now I know. My servant fears me. I will truly bless you.” Wow! I think Abraham is sitting right beside the king. That is a wonderful privilege!
Letting Go The Binding In Your Heart, You Will Experience God
What does it mean to sow in the spirit? To sow in the spirit is to walk with God in total obedience. This applies to everyone. For example, you had a grudge against someone, then God said, forgive. You must learn to forgive instead of complaining. In my younger age, I was trying to pursue a PhD in the field of cancer research. But LORD simply told me you drop it now. That time, I struggled for months just to give up that idea. When I gave it up, the blessing of the Lord was so real. When I read the Bible, it was so different. It was like the words jumped out from the Bible, and He’s speaking to me. It was so wonderful that I wondered what a fool I was. Why did I disobey God for so long?
How about you? When God takes you through various stages and tests in will you choose to obey Him or pursuing the world?
I don’t know your circumstance. Maybe there’s one sin or one thing you cannot give up. But the LORD will speak to you. Maybe it’s your boyfriend or girlfriend? But when the LORD says that it is His will for you to give up this relationship, will you give up and follow Him? If you’re open to Him and let Him takes control, He will speak to you. You will reap in time to come.
Closing Prayer
Let us close in prayer. Our LORD, we pray that You may speak to us in the depth of our hearts, because we know that these things cannot be spoken by men, but it is Your spirit who is speaking to us. LORD, help us not to justify ourselves, help us not to harden our hearts against You. We pray that whatever You speak to us, we may listen to You for indeed Your plans are not for calamity for us, but to give us a future, a hope. And LORD, we pray that we might be found worthy to enter Your kingdom. LORD, may You show us how to enter that kingdom. So, hear our prayer, as we continue to commit ourselves into Your hand. Amen.
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