Camp 2012 S4: Redefining Success

Redefining Success - Jonathan Poh
Camp 2012: The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me, Session 4

Success is not in what you do; success is knowing your identity in Christ [and living it out]. The following three 'P's illustrate what His Church looks like, and the calling which we have been given.

Pursue His Presence
Pursuing God's presence is the greatest and most principal thing. The fruits of such a lifestyle establishes our foundation, grounds us in His love and is our primary calling - Psa 27:4. It is in His presence that we find the most fulfillment, and the centre of God's heart for the Purpose He sends us to accomplish.

Pursue His Purpose
Purpose helps define what you do and who you are.
Purpose comes out of intimacy with God - Matt 28:17-19

Pursue His Power
John 14:12 says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."
Power is needed to complete the Purpose God created us for.

Ekklesia - it is a Greek word that is translated in the Bible as 'Church' or assembly. To the Greeks, however,  it connoted a group of people who governed a people and made laws - like a parliament. To the Romans, it was people who infiltrated and transformed spheres of society to change them and make them like Romans.

Christ-followers should be reaching the "seven mountains of influence" in society and transforming them into areas of integrity, godliness, justice and truth - like the Kingdom of Heaven. And it doesn't end there - we are called to disciple the nations: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations..." (Matt 28:19

If you want to be a person of significance, it is important to re-align our definition of success with God's: it is knowing and living out your identity in Christ. Pursue His presence, purpose and power with all your being.

Just Step Out

Sometimes we wait for God to act before we do; but this isn't always the way God works!

I listened today to a message where a guy called Ray Vander Laan explained social, geographical and historical background to passages in the Bible in a Focus on the Family series called 'That the World May Know'. He explained that because of the nature of the Jordan River, once you step in, you're in, possibly over your head!

He brought out an important point that I want to share with you today: if the priests of Joshua's time had said, "I'll wait here till God parts the water, then I'll step in," they would have never entered their Promised Land. The Bible says in Joshua 3:15:

"as those wo bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city beside Zarephath.
So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho."

God acted as He said He would when they stepped into the river, not before. It requires faith and total commitment - but that's exactly what God responds to. Just as in Daniel's day when Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were willing to go all the way into the furnace because they refused to compromise on their obedience to God, God stepped in when the situation had gone to the stage where they would have been impossible to rescue (see my post From the Fire to see more on this).

Let's not be afraid to give God our total commitment when He calls you to do something: just step out in faith and obedience; He's waiting to show Himself strong to you. Step in and watch Him work on your behalf!

image sourced from http://trainingwithmatt.com/archives/908

Marriage in Australia

It's time to make your voice count for an issue that will affect the social fabric of Australia for the generations that come after us: marriage.

Australia is poised to make a decision about whether the definition of marriage should be revised to include same-sex marriage. The current definition is: "the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life". This nation was built on Biblical principles - yes there have been mistakes about racial equality - but the Bible is clear about same-sex relationships:

Rom 1:24-27: 

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator...for this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise also men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 

1 Cor 6:9:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not homosexuals, nor sodomites... 

Lev 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.

Anyone who tries to prove that the Bible says otherwise twists the truth to their own hurt. God designed us in a specific way; perversion of our natural design causes physical disease, spiritual and emotional death. Every nation that built itself on Biblical principles has prospered; when these nations move away from their founding principles, they open the floodgates to the consequences of rebellion against our original design and grieves the heart of our Creator.

Let every Christian who has a heart for this nation now fight on their knees to move heaven and earth so that its people live in righteousness, blessing and power. And let the government know - because they want to hear from you!

Go to this website and complete the survey: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=spla%2Fbill+marriage%2Findex.htm

Camp 2012 S3: God Qualifies the Called

God Qualifies the Called - Rachel Poh
Camp 2012: The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me, Session 3

God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called. He is looking for people who just take Him at His Word and act on it. He wants people who put up their hand and say, 'Pick me!', then He will change you and mould your character.

Rachel shared how before she caught hold of God, she was a very quiet, shy person. Then, when she realised that God was more real than she thought, she decided to act on His words. When she heard that if she prayed for people, they would be healed, she decided to do just that.

The first time she set out to do this, she spotted a girl limping along in a car park with her knee in a bandage. Rachel explained that she had just found out that she could pray for people with healing and asked if she could pray for her. The girl did not seem very convinced but allowed her to pray. After the first time, the girl tested her leg and announced that nothing had changed. Undaunted, Rachel prayed again - but again, nothing changed. Disappointed, Rachel let her go. Later, she spotted the girl again walking normally without the bandage.

"Hey!" she called, "what happened?"
"Oh hey," replied the girl, "it's all good now so I took off the bandage. Thanks."Then she strode away.

Rachel was left scratching her head. She wasn't sure if the girl was actually healed or not. She looked for a second person to pray for. She found a second girl with her leg elevated and her knee under ice, obviously in great pain, and asked if she could pray for her. The girl assented.

Again, the first prayer brought no immediate change. Rachel prayed a second time, but this time the girl tested her knee with a very perplexed look on her face. She jumped up, flexing it without difficulty, then exclaimed, "What did you do to it?!" She too could throw away her ice.

Later on, Rachel found a guy who had injured his thumb so that the joint in his palm had ballooned significantly. Rachel laid her hand on the swelling and asked the Kingdom of Heaven to come upon it. As soon as she took her hand away from the boy's hand, she jumped back in astonishment - it had reduced in swelling by at least half. This was the beginning of a habit since to look for people to pray for and release the power of God on their behalf.

She shared how we could look for opportunities to do this in everyday life. One day, she was at a tram stop with a friend who seemed to have some neck pain. Rachel asked about it, and her friend said, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's just some mild pain - no big deal." However, Rachel encouraged her and the friend let her pray for her.
Rachel positioned her hands some distance from her friend's neck without touching it and prayed - nothing. She prayed again, and felt suddenly very warm, and her hands burned hot although she was not touching her friend. She thought perhaps that it was the weather.
When she finished praying, her friend's expression was of shock and surprise: "The pain is gone - and - my neck got really hot!" Rachel was amazed, "My hands got really hot!"

We serve a mighty, living God who is waiting to back us up with signs and wonders if we step out in faith! Will you be one of those who makes themselves available and just says, "Pick me!"?

Camp 2012 S2: God's Design + New Creation Identity= Purpose with Power

Camp 2012: The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me, Session 2
Speaker: Melissa Yong

We cannot live with strong purpose if we do not embrace our God-given identity. This applies both individually, and corporately. We are hindered from walking in the full power of the Spirit if we do not embrace BOTH God's Design AND our New Creation identity created in us the day we chose the Lord as our God.

We need to see God's design in all aspects of your life and embrace it.
Every part of you, down to the colour of your eyes was created for a purpose. Your family, socio-economic status as you grew up, the race you are - all of it is in God's design.

I talk often about a story about Amy Carmichael, a missionary around the turn of the century from India who wrote that as a little girl, she envied her mother's beautiful blue eyes. She would pray for blue eyes but wake up the next morning, disappointed. But when she became a missionary, she would one day find herself darkening her skin with pigment, putting on a sari, walking into the dark temples and carry out the little girls who were being forced to participate in sexual religious rites. They were being abused and often ill-treated, and it was she, with her brown eyes who was able to rescue them.

You might never know the reasons for all that you are and look like - but every single thing about you positions you uniquely for a role, influence and connections that no one else will have.

For those with tragic, difficult stories, I offer this: while we are not able to see the big picture, I propose that the mistakes and weaknesses of ourselves, and of our ancestors, as well as the work of the enemy have a big part to play in any brokenness or tragedy in our stories. God's great mercy is that He can use all of that brokenness to make something both beautiful and good to come out of it. Trust Him. He will both heal you and use your story to heal others.

We need to work on our character flaws in humility and obedience to God.
If we would turn to God about our character flaws, He will not only help you, but use the same struggles you have to become gateways to wisdom, experiences with the love and power of God, and enable you to relate to the people you were created to reach out to.

We need to know our Identity in Christ.
You are Beloved (1 John 3:1)
You are Accepted (John 1:12)
You are Righteous (2 Cor 5:21)
You are Powerful (Rom 8:16-17, Rev 1:6)

Our Full Identity is BOTH God's Initial Design AND Identity in Christ
We only live out our FULL identity and potential when we:

• Accept God's design with thanksgiving. Acceptance of this leads transformation as we relax into what we were created to be.
  For example, Mum often talks about the transformation that occurred in her life when she found out that she was beloved by God. Previously, she had thought that she was ugly and felt rejected. After she found out her identity in God was as His beloved, and that this awesome, mighty God was at her side, she transformed from a painfully quiet girl who often cried into confident girl who was quite at home with telling strangers about the gospel and preaching in front of many people.
  Accepting God's design for our lives allows us to blossom.
• Walk closely with God in humility and obedience.
  When we walking closely with God, we get to know His heartbeat, His love for the world, and His pressing desire to make them whole. All of us have been given a passion: something we're great at doing and love to do. Connecting this to the heart of God gives us a purpose to our passion.
  When we then follow God in humility and obedience, we learn wisdom and walk in HIS power, not our own limited understanding.

Accepting God's design requires faith and trust, but it yields character transformation. Walking closely with God requires humility, obedience and some effort but it connects you to your purpose, and the power you need to get it done.

Daniel in the Plan of God

Daniel could have counted himself extremely ill-treated by God. He was violently carried away from his family, his country torched and ravaged, friends and family killed or separated from him - perhaps never to be seen again - to a foreign nation and uncertain future.

He could have tried to pretend to never be a Hebrew again since being one caused so much trouble in the first place. But from the very first chapter in the book of Daniel, we see him holding tightly to his identity as a Hebrew. The Chaldeans conquered each land with military force, then made sure that they would never rise against them by assimilating the vanquished into Chaldean culture until they lost their own roots and became just like the conquerors. This is what they tried to do to Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-Nego.

Yet, they continued to observe the law of God - even when it was inconvenient to. They with wisdom and respect showed that they not only born of noble families, but noble in character also - which brings me to my next point: Daniel and his friends were brought into their position at the King's court precisely because of God's design in their family, appearance and skill-set.

Daniel 1:3-4 tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar instructed his eunuchs to find Hebrew young men from the King's line or noble families who were both good looking and smart. Daniel and his friends fit the bill to the T. They could have tried to deny their noble upbringing, or thought their smartness to be a curse because for these very things they were separated from their friends and families - but they accepted God's design for them. They could have rejected, railed and denied their captive circumstances, but they determined to make the best of them, and to honour God while they were at it.

So because of their acceptance of both God's design in their lives, and their identity as chosen people of God, they stuck fast to God, honoured Him and were empowered to interpret the King's dreams, move the Kings' hearts, and thus influence the nation's laws and destiny. O for more Daniels!

Daniel Chapter 5 tells us that Daniel became known as the one 'in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God'. Two different kings, in different empires made a decree that all should revere, and that no one should speak ill of Daniel's God because 'there is no other god that can deliver like this', and 'He is the living God, and steadfast forever' (Dan 3:29; 6:26-27).

This is the influence of one who is trusting, humble and obedient to the God who designed him and called him to be His child.

YOU are called to be like Daniel. Everything about you has a reason and purpose. Trust the Lord in all things about you, walk with Him in humility and obedience, and you will be able to live in the power of the Spirit of God and show the world that He is alive.

Camp 2012 S1: Living a Purposeful, Transformed Life

Camp 2012: The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me, Session 1 Summary
Speaker: Ps. Jasmine Yong

God has a great plan and purpose for each individual. The sum of our lives is to know Him and glorify Him forever.

When Engineers create a car or electronic device, they write a user's guide. When God created you and I, He wrote a manual - the Bible. God has given us life, and His manual needs to be followed to get the most out of it. When we violate the principles set out in the manual, we bring ourselves problem and pain.

Therefore, obedience is not only a good idea but essential to living our lives to the fullest, and most joyful possible.

Prov 4:20-22
My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;
for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.

When we connect with God's plan and manual for our lives, we will be changed into His image day by day. We will also be able to demonstrate the truth and power of God to the world. You are a demonstrator of God's salvation!

Who is God? Liege Lord

Who is God?

King: Liege Lord

Liege Lord: A feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service (Webster's Online Dictionary).

In this age of democracy, we have lost much of the concept of allegiance, submission and dependence on another. Some concept of each is retained, but the weight of their meaning is somewhat dimmed by lack of positive contemporary examples. So, I'll try to explain some concepts from the feudal era that may help with understanding these concepts in a new light.

In the feudal system, the King and local lords could grant land to vassals. Vassals referred to their lords as 'my Liege' - you may have heard this term in some historical movies. Vassalage was sworn in by a ceremony in which the person becoming that vassal sword alliegiance and service to the lord. This oath was to create a bond between the two people that was supposed to last their lives.

In this system, the Lord protected and provided for his vassals, and the vassals were to stay loyal to the King and fight for Him in battles when called. (Encyclopedia Britannica; The Middle Ages Website ).

We are, in effect, vassals to God: when someone accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour, you are making covenant with God to say, 'I recognise your authority over me. I have glimpsed the fact that You are a good, merciful, powerful God who actually loves me so I choose to submit to You and obey You. You are my Liege." 

In the Old Testament, covenants were never broken. The Old and New Testament is another way of saying 'Old Covenant' and 'New Covenant'. We are under the New Covenant Jesus made in His blood. We make a commitment to loyalty, obedience and service to God, and He has sworn to bless and protect and be God to us. The difference is that we are not just servants, but family. The other great difference is that our Lord has sacrificed His own life to set us free from our old lord of Satan, sin and death. He is worthy of our love and allegiance.

Everyday, there is a battle for the Throne of Your Heart

There really is. Throughout each day, you will meet many decision-points where you choose your way of dealing with something, or God's way. In essence, you are choosing who is sitting on the throne of your heart. Many people are in a perpetual state of rebellion by sitting on the throne in their hearts even though they "received Jesus as Lord and Saviour".

See R.Sipe's article "Who's on the Throne?" on his blog 'Daily Discipleship' for a clear and insightful commentary on this topic, and a useful diagram that helps illustrate this concept.

Jesus taught that only those who keep His commandments (do things His way) are true lovers of God. So the next time someone describes someone else as, "they love the Lord" - measure that statement against Jesus' definition of 'loving the Lord':

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” - John 14:21

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? - 1 John 4:20

Notice that not everyone who has Jesus' commandments loves Him. Only those who HAVE them AND KEEP (value, treasure, obey) them are those who love God.

The word 'manifest' means 'to exhibit, display, to reveal its presence, to put beyond a shadow of a doubt' (Webster's Online Dictionary). Do you want Jesus to MANIFEST himself to you? Have AND keep His commandments.

 Eph 2:1-3 & Col 3:5-7 show us that those who are deemed disobedient are those who conduct their lives to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Romans 8:8 tells us that the people who walk in the flesh cannot please God.
THEREFORE -  to walk in the Spirit is to walk in obedience. In order to do this, we must deny the urges to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

• walking in the Spirit requires submission to our Liege.   
• If we live our lives focused on the needs and desires of our body, we have deposed God from His throne, and made ourselves king.
• this is a choice that we have to continually make. 

Let us determine in our hearts that God should always be King. We fall when we give ourselves the right to sit on the throne when we have no business there at all.

How do we tell if we are ‘walking’ in the flesh instead of the Spirit?

1.     Be able to identify how the flesh operates: Gal 5:19-21 All the works of the flesh are disobedience to the commandments of God - so any disobedience constitutes to walking in the flesh.

3.     Rom 8:6 – the consequence of carnal living is death; that of the Spirit is life.
We can tell if we’re not in the Spirit if evidence of the law of sin and death is at work: anxiety, stress, fear, anger, sickness, depression etc
If we are walking in the Spirit, we will be experiencing the opposite: peace, joy, blessing, efficiency, health etc.

Similarly, what are your MOTIVATORS? Common ones are fear, anxiety, lust, greed. These are fleshly motivators. If we act according to them, we are acting according to our carnal nature that is an enemy to God and cannot (read 'impossible to') be subject to His laws (Rom 8:7). This is therefore disobedience and rebellion to God.

If we are led by the Spirit, we would be led by His nature: love, peace, wisdom. Therefore anything that is opposite or in conflict with these things is not of God. Walk in the Spirit, and you will be walking in obedience.

Choosing the ways of the Spirit
a) How do we ‘put to death’ the deeds of the flesh?
What does it mean in Rom 8:15 – “…by the Spirit put to death the  deeds of the body”

Answer: Gal 5:16 - Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

This is by no means an easy thing - it is a struggle everyday for the throne of your heart. Will you let flesh rule, or His Spirit?

For example:

• Tempted to feel irritated at someone? - instead, choose to speak a soft word of encouragement. And keep it up, too!
• Someone at home is grumpy and says things that could make you grumpy too. Instead of letting yourself get riled up and infected by the grumpiness, respond to the person, not the attitude because 'love is not easily provoked' (read 1 Cor 13 for more definitions of love)
• Tempted to be lazy and not prepare for tomorrow's big day - stop and ask God for wisdom for how to prepare, then do it.
• Thoughts about the impending exam or placement make you anxious. You stay up all night burning the midnight oil, get even more stressed when you realise that you aren't remembering everything. You get tired and depressed and think that you will fail. This is a sure sign that you have been 'leaning on the arm of flesh' - you're depending on your own ability and not God's. Instead, of going through all that - at the first thought of anxiety, apply Phil 4:6-7 - be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving, give your requests to God...with thanksgiving. Then, ask God for wisdom on what and how to study, then do it without giving in to the thoughts of fear.
  
  See my article

a) Apply the Law of Lift

This is what I like to call the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The law of sin and death, which is what our bodies like to operate in, keep us bound to our limitations an weaknesses so that we are bound to fail. This is what I believe is analogous to the law of gravity. It is a law that is ubiquitous and seemingly unconquerable. BUT if you apply the law of lift, you are free to work in the bounds of another law that is able to overcome gravity. This is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Applying this law is to walk in obedience to God's Word, and choosing to be motivated and lead by love, wisdom and peace - because GOd is love, wisdom and peace.

b) Find godly sources of visual and auditory input to feed our spirit with the things of God

c) Make practical steps

Make a list of the commandments and teachings in the Bible then identify the ones we should be doing but may not be very good at. Then, make steps to keep that commandment consistently until it becomes your own habit.

Example list:

•  When someone borrows something from you, don’t ask for it back
• When you pray privately, do it in secret
• Pay your tithes by budgeting for it first before all the bills and expected expenses 
• Forgive others and ask for forgiveness before coming to God in prayer. 
• Keep on praying in the spirit. Use a common occurrence of something in your life as a trigger for prayer eg toilet breaks (works for me!) - avoid choosing triggers that will keep you busy for too long eg phone calls
• Consider others over and beyond yourself: when tempted to look after yourself first, choose looking after another instead. Make sure you do this in common-sense driven by wisdom, not selfish agendas. 
• Judge not. Search your own self first and deal with it with God before you think anything negative about someone else.
• Be anxious for nothing but in prayer and supplication, present your requests with thanksgiving to God.
• Honour the Sabbath Day: search the Bible for God's version of keeping a Sabbath Day holy, then apply steps to gradually make your day match His version.

N.B Apologies for strange font size differences in this article - Blogger seems to be playing up and I don't know how to fix it!

Re

He Came Anyway

Have you ever thought of Palm Sunday like this?

Palm Sunday is the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and her colt. It would be the last time He would enter it a free man. The next time He would be paraded through Jerusalem would be as a convicted criminal, bloodied, torn, hated. He must have known this on that day as the crowds thronged around Him, strewing the path with tree branches, singing 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!"

I wonder what His disciples thought that day. They had entered Jerusalem with their Master with some trepidation because they had last left it in an uproar: Jesus had nearly been stoned to death because He had taught, "I am the Son of God" (John 10:22-39). The sense of impending danger was so strong that Thomas the Twin had said to the other disciples, "let us also go, that we may die with Him"when Jesus announced plans to return to Bethany, which was only 2 miles away from Jerusalem (according to John 11:18).

Perhaps they felt that their fears had been unfounded while the crowds sang and celebrated joyfully at Jesus' arrival on the donkey. On Palm Sunday, He entered Jerusalem as its King, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah (Zech 9:9):

Tell the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

About a week later, He would stagger through its streets carrying a heavy Cross as their King, and He would die to His last breath as their King, convicted by the declaration above His head: "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS". He was sacrificed in their place as a mute, willing sacrifice for the jeering crowds who spat and cried, "Crucify Him!"

He had come to Earth for this very reason: to bring them back to the root principles He had instated in the fledgling years of the Israeli nation as they wandered in the desert; to call them back to Himself and away from the man-made foolish additions to the Mosaic statutes that the religious leaders of the day called The Law; He came to pay the punishment for their sin, the sins of their forefathers, and for the generations to come so that they could enter His presence as beloved children, not terrified subjects.
He wanted His family to be near to Him -- so, although He knew that they would not understand, He had come anyway. They would laud Him, and then they would crucify Him, but He came anyway.

All throughout His ministry, many Jews had asked Him, "Are you the Christ? If you are, tell us plainly." So He did - but they did not accept it, and killed Him for it. To this day, many Jews today still reject Jesus as their Messiah but it does not change the fact that He is.

The Bible speaks of a time when all Israel shall be saved (Rom 11:25-27). Their time is coming soon because His death and resurrection for the very people He had first come to was not in vain. He had come for them first as His chosen people, then to the rest of the world because that had always been His plan. Soon, their eyes will be opened and they will find Him. And so, His prediction, "the first will be last, and the last will be first" will again be witnessed on a whole new level.

Let us remember the pain of His heart, and yet the joy that He was waiting to experience on the other side of the Cross as we realise that He knew what would happen, but came for us anyway. Let us not be weary in well doing in the light of Jesus' meekness and great sacrifice in comparison to our own, then live our lives for Him so that the world may know He lives.

Happy Palm Sunday!

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