Highly Favoured by God

It’s been another week. Time flies at the speed perhaps second to light, but I should commend on this week because it’s been a week of tremendous blessing, great burning of the Holy Spirit within me compelling me to go, it’s been a week filled with peace that surpasses all understanding.

Where should I start, but to start with praising the Lord?

He is awesome. His favour never fails. And His favour always comes as unmerited, undeserved grace. The Lord always backs us up with more than enough grace as we do His work – sowing seeds of love, planting a word of encouragement, urging fellow believers to become disciples, praying for changes to happen and materialise just as it is in the heavenly realm, calling down His hope and peace when there is despair… Lord, without You I am nothing.

Just the other day I was late for work. And I’m talking about really, really very late. I woke up in shock and disbelief that I was 5 minutes away from the clock in time. Well, what to do? Just take my time to get ready and drive to work with the peace of God in my heart and not fretting.

My colleagues will usually be reprimanded for clocking in late by 1 or 2 minutes. This is the first time I’m ever late for work, and it’s not a 1 or 2 minute lateness. It’s 1 hour and 25 minutes! Both my bosses just smiled at me as I entered the office and told them that it was because I had forgotten to set my alarm and I woke up at 8.10am.

Favour.

My teammates have long ago acknowledged that there is indeed favour upon me and my work. Of course, they didn’t exactly acknowledge God in the picture although I told them before that it was God’s favour on me. And yes, they do joke about it every day, but still, it doesn’t change this fact and truth that I am indeed a highly favoured one.

I am thankful, but my desire is to see all my teammates experience the same favour that I have. I want to see them being blessed in their work and receive recognition and praise for their work, because they work very hard. I want to see all the accusation and injustices that they suffer be nullified. And more than anything, I want to see them believe in Jesus.

Two days ago I had a dream about my work. (I seldom dream about work.) I dreamed that there were some people who came with weird instruments to do some research and test on me and my colleagues on our ability to withstand pain. But it's not just a test on physical pain; the instrument tested on emotional pain at the same time, where the more physical pain you experience, the more emotional pain would increase as well. A few of us were selected to go through this test, and the people assured us that it will not do us great harm. One of my teammates were selected, but I negotiated and told the scientists to let her go, that I would replace her. So they did.

They put a band around my left wrist and started on the weird instrument. I felt pain instantly, slowly at first, and growing more intense as they increased the "volume" on the machine. I could feel a piercing, searing pain in my heart, almost like the emotional pain inside was channelled to my brain cells and transmitted throughout my whole body so that I feel the physical pain. I didn't cry out even though I was already in great pain, yet all the while I felt as though my body was separated from my mind. Throughout the test, I was thinking about how Jesus had suffered the cross and that pain must have been greater than what I was going through. And so the test went on; the scientists kept increasing the "volume". It was getting excruciating now, but I still did not cry out; I still persevered.

Yesterday, I had another dream about my colleagues. It was an annual occasion of some sort for the company, but I don't know what it was. It was almost like a bonus giving day, except that it wasn't. My bosses had prepared gifts for each of us and we were to go to them one by one to receive the gifts. I got a beautifully decorated box. It's not a big box; only the size of my palm, not tall either. My teammates have opened their boxes and revealed accessories of all kinds. All of them only had one or two accessories. I opened mine and took out the accessories one by one, for there were many -- pearl chains, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, you name it. As I took them out one by one, my teammates were all amazed and envious of my gift.

Many things are happening at the moment, and mostly changes that are not good. But I believe the Lord is telling me that even though I will go through times when things are negative and look like they will become worse, He is sustaining me, He will see me through, He will come through for me. And in the midst of all, I will receive gifts and favour from Him. I will remain the highly favoured one. Praise the Lord, He is awesome.

Lord, I pray that at where you have placed me, it will be a position of influence, a position that will enable to share Your love and shine Your glory. Please let Your grace be upon me, so that I will have open doors to preach the gospel, so that in my work I will glorify You.

* picture from gettyimages.com

The Timing of God

Did you know that God is always punctual and never late for anything? Even though we may sometimes think He is slow or even delays answering our prayers, He actually knows the perfect timing for everything. If He sees the end from the beginning and has time in His hands, He surely knows when is the right time for things.

I have been wanting to have a career switch for some months. I've thought long and hard about it, because I wasn't sure about where I wanted to go. When I finally took the step of faith to applied for another job, I had in mind that I was going to begin the new job in April, because I have planned for the Melbourne trip in March.

The interview went smooth, and I felt sure that it was going to be a good job, but they wanted me to begin in March. When I couldn't make it, eventually they turned me down. It was timing problem on both sides.

At that time, I felt very sad because I hadn't applied for any other jobs. It seemed like I had to delay leaving my company to an indefinite period of time. Nevertheless, I resolved in my heart that I would stay on and trust the Lord.

A month after the trip to Melbourne, the interviewer called me back and asked if I was still interested in the job. It was truly God's miracle open door for me! I went for an interview again and this time, it was the right timing for both sides. The boss even told me that a few months ago, the company was not doing so well, but is now picking up again.

So, I accepted the job offer and tendered my resignation letter. After checking on my annual leave, I could actually have one week off before the start of my new job. Wow, talk about the timing of God!

Truly, God knows the timing and seasons for our lives. He not only knows it, but takes care of us accordingly. So just be patient when God delays answering us. He has something better in mind. :)

Saying "I love You"

I have this distinct memory of myself before I became a Christian, that I could hardly bring myself to say the word "love", or "I love you", or even "God". It felt pretty difficult, but I didn't understand why. I had this perception that "love is sacred" and "God is Holy"... and hence these words shouldn't be simply said. After all, you need to say "I love you" and really mean it.

I remember reading love stories and novels, thinking, what's love? What's love that it's so captivating, so alluring and passionate? Can we live without it? Why are some people willing to die for it? the so-called "in the name of love"...?

I could not understand it, but I knew I longed for it. I longed to be loved, to be held in the arms of the someone special, to be romanced. To me, love was the exclusive romantic feeling between man and woman, fairytale stories like Cinderella and Snow White... Gives you the dream-like, fantasy idea right?

When I was form 5, my friend invited me for an Easter Outreach at her church. After the night's performance, it was followed by the preaching.

The preacher talked about how Jesus suffered on Good Friday and was nailed on the cross, that because God so loved the world He gave Jesus to die so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Somehow, I sat there listening to him and I started crying. I didn't know why I was crying, but the tears just kept flowing. And when the preacher asked those who want to receive Jesus to raise their hands, I was among the few who did so. After that, my friend went with me to respond to a prayer. I was still crying and I didn't know what to do. The preacher asked if I could feel God loving me, but I said No. He asked me again if I could feel the people that God had placed around me are loving me, but I just fell silent and kept crying, because I didn't know how to answer him.

Finally, I didn't accept Christ that night. But from then on, I knew that Jesus died for me. I didn't understand why He did that, or why it was significant. I just knew that He had suffered death. Yet if you asked me whether God loves me, I would say no. This was because I had felt so much rejection from friends and family that I thought there was no way God would love me. I felt that I was too unworthy to be loved by God.

Fast forward to my first year in KL, I was again invited to church for Sunday Praise Celebration. I felt awkward singing songs with the words "love", "I love you, Lord", "God" and so on. It didn't feel right to me. But as I learned more about the gospel and how Jesus died and resurrected to give me new life, I began to see that God wanted to love me.

In another meeting at church, the Lord touched me again and I was once more down in tears. That night, a friend led me to pray the sinners' prayer and I received Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Saviour and Lord. I could truly feel God's love touching me deep in my heart, and I knew that it was love in its deepest and highest and greatest form.

Now, I have no problem saying the words "love" and "I love you", because I know that I have received love into my heart. I can even tell my family and friends that I love them. But above all, God, I love You.

Verse to Remember:

John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Ears

World Harvest Church Camp day 2, night session with Ps. Dennis. I was with those few who didn't manage to join the whole 4 days 3 nights but still travelled all the way to Rawang every night for the night sessions.

We were late that day because of the rain and massive jam, so by the time we reached Rawang it was towards the end of the worship. Nevertheless, as we stepped into the hall, I could immediately feel the strong presence of God in the place. I quickly found a seat to settle down and opened my heart to draw in His beautiful presence.

At this point, Ps. Dennis had started to prophesy. He was speaking as he saw what was happening in the spiritual realm. He said that there were angels ascending and descending in that place. He spoke of turning points, that for many it was turning points for their lives. The Holy Spirit was filling each of us. He said that the Lord was there and He was giving to each of us gifts, all wrapped nicely in beautiful boxes.

Having my eyes closed, I was drinking from the Spirit, literally. I was gulping in fresh water from the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to fill me and refresh me, desiring Him more and more. And when Ps. Dennis said there were gifts for each of us, I just stretched my hands out in front of me as a sign of receiving from the Lord.

I saw a beautiful square box delivered into my hand. I looked into the box and saw a pair of ears. I received them, but I was thinking to myself, "Ears? Not eyes to see better, but ears? Lord, what is it that I need to be hearing?" It wasn't because I didn't welcome what the Lord had given me, but I was curious to know if I haven't been hearing the Lord.

The Lord reminded me of Romans 10:17 -- Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Pondering upon this, He also spoke to me another verse in Matthew 7: 24 - 27:

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine [Jesus], and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.

God was saying to me, "Hear and obey". It was an instruction for what I was going through currently, as well as something that He was building in me for the future. I needed to hear what God says and obey it, do it. I need to hear the right things, not gossips and destructive words. I needed to hear the word of faith, which is also the word of Christ. I needed to hear truth and follow it.

I believe the pair of ears were the spiritual empowering that God has given me, so that not only will I hear faith, but I would do accordingly.

Over the past 3 weeks or so, I have experienced this frequently. It felt like I had installed a large speaker over my spirit or heart; I felt myself being very sensitive in knowing what the Holy Spirit was saying. I'm still learning to hear more and do according to what He says. The Lord would impress upon my heart what advices to give, what to pray, what I should do or say, etc. This is especially true when I'm desperate and don't know what to do. It ALWAYS works.

Isn't this the coolest way to work with God? you hear from Him and just do accordingly? Ministry doesn't need to be difficult or need us to strive so hard to persuade people to believe in Jesus. People don't need persuasion; they need a demonstration of the power of God, and that's what preaching the gospel is all about. Hear and do. hear AND do.

The Rainbow

This blog is named 'The Rainbow of Promise' for many reasons. This account of God's glorious presence and faithful promise is one of it.

I graduated and started working in June 2007 as a junior executive in a Public Relations agency. It's a tough job, very stressful and highly demanding for a fresh-grad like me. I'm still in this job as I'm writing this, not because of anything else but God's grace.

The first three months of the job was really challenging as I tried to adapt to the new phase of life. It was not encouraging when I saw some of my colleagues leaving for various reasons. One particular colleague who was close to me said that she was going to resign because she found the job unsuitable for her. I was very sad when I heard this, because she was like a partner in the job.

At that point, I too, began to ask myself whether this job was really suitable for me. I knew I had asked God to bless me with a good job and a good future, but was this really it? Is this where I really want to be? Is this the dream that I am pursuing? If not, what is my passion and how to I get there from where I am now? There were a lot of questions and uncertainty in me.

But it was at this time that the Lord have spoke this verse to me: Jeremiah 29:11–14a “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord…”

And He also said to me, “Stick onto Me, I will bless you.”

At first, I could not understand much of it. I have always known that the Lord is interested in my life and will bless me with a good future. And I was already sticking to the Lord – I was drawing myself close to him in prayer and worship. So I asked the Lord, “God, I will stick to You. My future is in Your hands. But Lord, will You please let me know if this is where You want me to be? And if Your answer is yes, will you please show me a sign? Could I please see a rainbow in the sky?”

It has always been in my understanding that rainbow symbolises God's promise. In the Bible, God showed Noah a rainbow after the 40 days and 40 nights of the great flood, as a sign of covenant between Himself and the earth that there will never be such a flood ever again. "The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." (Gen 9:16)

However, rainbows are rarely seen on KL skies, being quite a polluted city. I knew that I have asked something that was definitely going to be God's miracle working.

A few days after this prayer, my colleague gave the resignation letter, and I felt very helpless and despair again. I broke down in tears, but it was in tears that I found assurance from the Lord again. The Lord impressed deeply upon my heart that if I would just stick onto Him, He will surely bless me. I purposed in my heart that day to choose the more difficult choice of staying on in the company, even though I would be the only junior left.

On that day, when I was on my way home after work, it was drizzling on my side of the city, but I saw that there was sunshine on the other side of the city. The Lord quickened my mind, and as I turned to look behind me, behold, there was the huge beautiful rainbow in the shape of an arch, clear and displaying its splendour against the grey sky! Silently, I thanked the Lord in my heart as I stared in awe (and in tears) of His wonderful creation.

Although from that point onwards I still faced a lot of challenges and difficult times at work, the Lord also added strength to endure and to embrace along with the promise of rainbow. I understood that He was training and equipping me for greater things to come.

Truly, the promises of God are faithful, He will never leave us nor forsake us, but He will surely bless us if we would just stick onto to Him. As I held on to God’s promises, things took a positive turn and became better. I experienced His joy and peace as He took over my concerns.

Lord, I will always remember this promise -- Your rainbow of promise.

Faithful in Sowing

The LORD says, what you sow, you will reap. If you sow sparingly, you will also reap sparingly. But if you sow bountifully, you will also reap bountifully.

Worship is not complete without our giving of tithes and offering, because the Lord deserves the best of us, not just in our singing, but also in the things that mean the most to us.

Yes, money means the most to us, because we need money to survive in this world. But God says that He knows we need all these things, yet as we obeying Him in our giving, we will receive blessings.

I am not from a wealthy family background, but I have never lacked in finance or experienced any financial difficulties. Of course, it does not mean then that God did not bless me financially.

I've always settled in my heart that if there would come a time in my life that I needed a large sum of money, it will be provided for me. I also understood the blessings of God may not be come in monetary terms all the time – it could be in other areas of life. All in all, I was content.

I used to give in this manner: on Saturday night, I will set aside my tithes and offerings for the next day (Sunday), so that there will be something given every week, instead of just giving a sum of money at the beginning of the month and end up not giving later on. In my heart, I have always settled the amount that I want to give to God and had no problem preparing that amount for that week.

However, when I started to work, I also began to spend more. It felt more difficult to be giving tithes and offering on a weekly basis than it used to be. Towards the middle of the month, I would be asking myself where had my money gone. I was not tight on my budget, but I felt as though my money was shrinking in value.

Then, the Holy Spirit quickened my understanding that I needed a change in the way that I give. Instead of setting aside my tithes and offering on a weekly basis, I decided to do so right at the beginning of the month. This means that as soon as I withdraw money from the bank, I will set aside the total sum for tithes and offering. Only then from this sum of money, it will be segregated into weekly giving.

The Holy Spirit taught me to honour Him by putting what belongs to Him above all my spending. I also need not worry that I don't have enough to give by the end of the month.

Immediately on that month itself, I saw His hand blessing me financially. I no longer felt that I was tight in my budget. In fact, I saw myself having surplus at the end of the month. With faithful sowing, I reaped my harvest of financial blessing at the end of the year when I received my annual bonus. From there, I blessed the Lord with my annual thanksgiving offering, an amount that I never thought I could give.

Truly, when the Lord bless us, He bless us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think of. Therefore, by honouring Him in our giving, we shall have overflowing blessing.

Verse to Remember:

2 Corinthians 9:6 - 8 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is ale to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having sufficiency in all things, will have an abundance for every good work.

Grace for Studies

This is an account of my studying years, times that hold a lot of bittersweet memories.

When I was in my secondary school years, I was in a very competitive environment. I was in one of the top classes in school and naturally, everyone was competing with one another. It was all about marks, all about academic, so much so that it didn't matter whether you really know what we were studying, as long as you do well during exams.

For me, I was considered average -- I was not outstanding among the top-scorers of my class, nor was I very active in curriculum activities. I could be labelled as 'insignificant'.

Those years, I was not very enthusiastic about studies. I found it a bore, a burden rather than an interest. But things took a turn when I started tertiary education in KL.

I accepted Christ when I had an encounter with God after a few weeks in KL. I was very touched by God’s love and in His presence, I received Jesus as my personal Saviour and Lord. At that point, what I understood was that the Lord loves me and is interested in my life, that He will bless me in all things.

However, I did not immediately connect this with receiving blessings for my studies, until I was approaching my first semester final exams.

It was a very stressful time because it was the first time I was sitting for a college exam. Yet, as I continued to study the final exams, I realised that God was with me in all the time, assuring me and giving me peace of heart. As I prayed to Him, He was constantly with me -- when I studied and memorised all the important facts, when I felt that I could not stuff my brain with more information, when I went into the examination hall, and even after the exams.

Initially, I thought I was just going to get an ordinary, average kind of results, but it turned out that I scored 4.0. I was so surprised and happy, and more than anything else, I was very thankful to God and I gave Him praise.

Since my first semester, I have scored many other 4.0s over the span of four years of studying in KL. Many of my friends thought that I was a very hardworking or smart person, but I knew that it was not by my own effort. It was all by God’s grace.

There were times when I was not able to finish studying, but it turned out that I could still do the paper and scored better grades than my friends who studied more than I did. I remembered those times when I cried out to God in desperate and earnest prayers, when I decided in my heart to rely on nothing else but Him alone. As I put my trust in Him, I sat through the exam with peace and joy.

John 15:5 says “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.” Truly, I couldn't have done it without His strength and help.

Resurrected with Christ

The Israelites in the Old Testament regarded names as an equation to the person’s character and personality. It carried significant influence to their lives. When I learned of this, I asked God, “Lord, what’s in my name?”

Stacy was my pen-name when I used to write stories, but when I accepted Christ I decided to take it as my Christian name too. I had no idea what it meant until I did a search and found out that Stacy means RESURRECTION. I was very happy and surprised when I knew this because I realised that God had given me this special name even before I was born-again.

Jesus was crucified on the cross, He bleed and died for us, and He was resurrected on the third day. Today, He is sitting on the highest position on God’s right hand side, and all of us who has believed in Him are on that same position with Him. But God spoke to me that I though was sitting together with Him in the heavenly places, my life was not resurrected.

Dying, Resurrected, and Living
I was on the bus on my way back to Ipoh when the Lord dropped His understanding to me from heaven. He said to me, “Stacy, your name means resurrection, live up to it! To be resurrected means you have to die first, overcome death and rise again to live a stronger and better life.”

Actually, we are all in the process of dying the moment we were born into this world. If we’re not growing, or if we are stuck in stagnancy, we are living a dead life. If we’re not doing the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do, we’re doing dead works.

Dying is not without the price of pain. When Jesus died for us, He not only suffered pain, but also rejection, betrayal, shame, mockery, and loneliness. However, Phil 2:8 says "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Because Jesus was obedient and humble to the point of death, God raised Him to the highest position in Heaven.

The Lord spoke to me that I needed to die to my old-self. I need to die to all my past hurts, pains, disappointments, fleshly desires, sins, weaknesses, and especially pride -- everything that had hindered my growth in Christ. The thing is, even though we don’t like all our weaknesses and the bad things in our past, we can still hold on to them and be unwilling to surrender ourselves to God. There are also things in our lives that are so dear to us that we don't want to surrender to God, but these are the very things that will hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in and through our lives. It was definitely painful, but I have to submit to God all those dead areas of my life so that He can do a resurrection in them.

Then God said, “Stacy, be resurrected!” Just like Jesus had called Lazarus out of the cave when He resurrected him, God was calling me out of the cave of death. I have to leave behind all the old and walk into the new with Christ, into the new life that Jesus has given me when I accepted Him as my Lord.

In the Bible God said that He’s a Living God. Praise the Lord He’s not a dead piece of idol, Amen, because if He is we’ll remain dead. God is a God of resurrection. He resurrects our lives so that we are able to walk alive in His spirit. Romans 8:5–6 says, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” I have to resurrect not my worldly mindset, but my spirit, so that I will live in the will of God, and His life and peace may fall upon me.

I’m determined to walk more and more in His Spirit. I commit myself to resurrect all the dead areas of my life, so that God may do a change in them. It may be very difficult at times, but the breakthroughs will come if we press on. Therefore, let us be mindful of what we want to resurrect in our lives – whether our old-nature, or our renewed life, a life that we live by faith through Christ.