Tag Archives: ministry

August 28, 2016 · 5:30 pm

THROUGH WHO’S EYES?

I remember attending a party quite a while ago, when break dancing was the hit. As a four year old boy with very little self-consciousness and without any understanding of the concept of shame, I thought I was a really great dancer. You can’t blame me too much; after all I was seeing the world through my little eyes. My opinion must have been the right one as far as I was concerned.

As I took centre stage, people were clapping and laughing hysterically. I thought they loved my deft moves. However, like the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, someone had the courage to bring me down from my high horse. My dancing was in fact nothing short of disastrous and I had no fleeting idea. This is much like what happens as we tread along life’s well-worn paths, we form opinions, our thought patterns are shaped and we develop customized perspectives towards almost everything. We almost always see ourselves as right, because we judge ourselves through the ‘self filter’.

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Looking at life generally and zooming in on our service in the Kingdom, we may actually have an incorrect view of what God demands from us, if we judge only through our own eyes. I guess the people that Jesus will address as He did in Matthew 7:21-23 will realize this too late:

‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

I can imagine how shocking and devastating it will be to hear that at the end of the road; after we must have thought to ourselves that we fought the good fight and finished the race well. We may even have had people cheering us on and singing our praises. But these opinions do not really matter in the end. Only one thing indeed matters – the view through God’s eyes.

When Jesus called His disciples, He had the priority clearly defined – Stay with me first before you go on to any form of service.

He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Mark 3:14-15

In staying with Him, we know Him more, we become more and more like Him until our will is lost in His will and our selfish motives and intentions for serving in the Kingdom become non-existent. Whatever service we are using to occupy till He comes should flow from that personal relationship and an outpouring of love for God – this is the will of God. He wants us more than whatever we can indeed offer.

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September 19, 2015 · 4:26 pm

TONGUES AND POWER

But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (AMP)

And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Acts 2:4 (NLT)

Just before the ascension of Jesus Christ, He promised to fill the disciples (and all Christians by extension) with the Holy Spirit to enable them fulfil the work of the ministry that was handed over to them. Shortly afterwards, this promise was fulfilled and this team went on to become the greatest band of world changers that the world has ever known. They went on to preach the gospel, speak with new tongues, heal the sick, deliver the oppressed and in summary live out Mark 16: 17 – 18

These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” Mark 16: 17 – 18 (NLT)

The encounter with the Holy Spirit changed everything about them. Peter that denied Jesus in difficult times became a great preacher; recording about 5000 converts after his first major outreach. People brought their sick relatives to the streets so that his shadow would fall on them and heal them. All these happened because the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. The other disciples have similar stories of awesome exploits surrounding them. By the help of the Holy Spirit, even Stephen that was ordained to serve tables and share food also performed amazing miracles (Acts 6:8).

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Fast-forward to our generation. We have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit! Really, it’s the same Holy Spirit that worked in Peter, Paul, Stephen, Phillip. We speak in tongues and most times, that is the only evidence of this baptism. I really don’t think that was the whole plan from the beginning. We didn’t get the Holy Spirit just for speaking in tongues.

My thought is that when we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, we should live supernatural lives every moment of every day. It should make our church services unpredictable. It will make praise and worship more than just singing and dancing. It should make us pray for the sick as a first response to sickness. The power should enable us to turn people to disciples of the Lord and not just increase our church attendance. It should make us speak the Word of God with great power and not just eloquent speech. If we have that power, we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated by men to part our resources; instead, we will give bountifully and cheerfully. Moreover, the power imparts the excellent spirit in us, so that we stand out for the right reasons at the work place. We ought to be changed by the power and ability for the purpose of changing our world.

Where did we miss it? We need to get back to the culture of personal fellowship with God. The power to fulfil God’s purpose comes from waiting in His presence. The early church pioneers had to wait in the upper room until they were endued with power and ability. I believe that if we can wait, the same power and ability can be ours and we can fulfil God’s mandate effectively.

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January 7, 2015 · 11:59 am

MY FATHER’S GOD

While waiting for my car to get washed on a sunny day, I sat under a tropical almond tree for a shade. After sitting for a while, I decided to ease off the boredom by walking around the tree. As I was doing this, I observed that all the leaves on the tree were not looking exactly the same. Some of the leaves were complete, while some had been turned into beautiful works of art by some leaf-eating insects. The insects had created exquisite patterns on some of the leaves by eating portions of the leaves in a creative way.

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Interestingly, both sets of leaves were still green and they appeared to co-exist happily together and the tree was still producing fruits as expected. I suspect that those half eaten leaves did not know that they had some problems. In fact, they could actually remain in that form for years if the insects choose to move on to greener pastures. This reminded me of what was written about Samson on the day that he was converted from a conqueror to a blind captive: He was ‘dead’, without actually knowing it.

Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him. (Judges 16: 20 NLT)

Moving over from the Bible times to our present day; it is possible to exist in a church, where each service is indeed a wonderful fellowship with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and not be part of that fellowship. We may busy ourselves with countless church activities and still end up as outsiders where it really matters. That fellowship is what God really wants from us and it is also what we need to fulfil our calling as per the new covenant:

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (1Peter 2:9 NLT)

We can never know him personally, understand our place in Him, grasp the immensity of the glorious life he has planned for us and realize the utter extravagance of His work in us if we do not have that personal touch in our relationship with Him. The veil has been torn and we have unlimited access to the throne of our Father.

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It is becoming increasingly popular to pray to the God of our Bishop or the God of our Pastor or the God of our Father-in-the-Lord. This is not what our father desires. He wants to be my own God. He wants to be your own God. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the term “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” was no longer commonly used. It was used just once by Peter at his fist sermon, where he had to introduce God to the Jews.The apostles all understood the kind of relationship that God wants to have with us and related with Him accordingly. He was the God of Peter, God of John, God of James, God of Timothy, God of Silas. Each person had a personal relationship with Him. This is evident in Paul’s declaration in Acts 27:23 – 25

Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’  So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. (NIV)

From the highlighted words, it is very clear that God was his God. That personal touch in the above declaration is unmistakeable. God does not just want to be my father’s God; He wants to be my God. A good starting point is a consistent personal Bible study and a good start time is now. His grace is sufficient for you and the door is open.

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February 10, 2013 · 4:11 pm

GOLD MEDALS

RACEWALKING! I recently learnt that word. I knew the sport, but I never really knew the name. It’s actually one of the long distance athletic events at the Olympics. It’s that sport, in which the people walk in a rather comical manner. The winner of the race gets a gold medal, which has the same value as the gold medal won by the winner of the 100m race. Very few people actually know anything about the sport and an even less number of people would actually aspire to become racewalkers.

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This same scenario plays out in the church today, where more people aspire to be engaged in the more ‘visible’ services and possess the spiritual gifts that place them in public view. The erroneous belief is that the more visible or seemingly impactful you are, the more valuable you are to God and the more important you are to the church. In fact, this is not a problem that started with the new generation Christians. Paul saw it in the Corinthian church and he wrote in 1Corinthians 12:

 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body…17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? … 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 As small as the toe nail of the smallest toe is, if it is hurting, the whole body will not operate optimally. Every gift and ministry is essential for the wellbeing of the body of Christ. I believe that if you have been called to be a toilet cleaner in the church and you do it effectively, you are fulfilling your ministry. The same way the pastor who preaches every Sunday and during the mid-week service is fulfilling his own ministry. Can you imagine how wonderful the service would be if the toilets are running over, the seats are dirty and the whole auditorium is decorated with different grades of dirt.

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 I remember the name Hur being mentioned in the Bible only once, when he held up the hand of Moses with Aaron. He fulfilled his ministry, because by his service the people of Israel won the battle. Whatever God has called you to do, Occupy Till He Comes. People don’t have to notice you for God to notice you. He sees you even when you are fulfilling that ‘lowly’ service. Your reward surely awaits you.

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