When I first attended Evangelism Explosion, we learnt that when sharing the gospel, the testimony of a changed life is very powerful. A typical example of a conversion testimony is – “Before I knew Jesus Christ I felt anxious, rejected or life wasn’t working out for me or I was on drugs/pills, felt depressed, empty. After I received eternal life I have peace with God and purpose in life” (more…)
By ps Kenneth Wong
All of us would agree that it has been a trying time for many of us. We have been stuck in this pandemic for more than a year now. Thankfully, we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel as the vaccination slowly kicks in.
It was a similar situation for the nation of Israel during the time of Elijah. The Lord judged the nation with a severe famine for 3 years because of the many sins that were committed in the land. Towards the end of the 3 agonizing years, Elijah challenged the false prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt Carmel and achieved sweet victory. All the false prophets were executed and the Israelites were beginning to turn back to God. The famine was coming to an end! Breakthrough was just around the corner!
1 Kings 18:41-46 – “Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!” 42So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees. 43Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.” The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.” Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. 44Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea. Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’” 45And soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel. 46 Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.”
As how Elijah prayed for rain, there are 7 key lessons we can learn from him in praying for a breakthrough during this season, be it in our personal life, family, church ministry, community or in our country.
Elijah ‘heard’ that a mighty rainstorm was coming. In the natural, everything might probably appear the same as usual. There weren’t any clear signs in the sky to indicate that a storm was nearing. But not for Elijah. Elijah knew prophetically that God was about to release His blessings on the land. In the same way, do we know the plans and purposes of God for our lives? Are we listening prophetically for His voice? It is time to sit up and ‘listen’ to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus says this: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…”
The great prophet Elijah bowed down before God in total surrender and submission. He was not consumed by the exhilaration of his victory at Mt. Carmel. Instead, he earnestly sought the Lord and came before Him in humility. As we pray for breakthrough, we need to do some soul-searching. Is there pride in our life that we need to repent of? Have we been so proud of past successes that we have forgotten to depend on Him anymore? Scripture tells us that God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. Humility attracts God’s favour in our life. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!
Elijah prayed laboriously for his nation. We call this travailing prayer. The image is like how an expecting mother is painfully giving birth to her child. This is how we should be praying for ourselves, for our church and for our nation if we want to experience a breakthrough. It is one thing to pray but it is certainly another thing to travail in prayer. We need to learn how to travail and groan in the spirit until something is birthed in the spiritual realm.
Elijah commanded his servant to go and look toward the sea to see if there are any changes in the horizon. Elijah wasn’t just praying, but he was praying with expectation. Faith and expectation go hand in hand. We cannot say we have faith if we are not expecting God to move. It is like how the early church prayed for the release of Peter from prison. When Peter showed up at their doorstep, they didn’t believe. They prayed fervently, but they didn’t expect God to answer their prayer miraculously. Are we in danger of making the same mistake of praying but not expecting to receive anything from God?
The servant probably came back to Elijah and said, “There is nothing out there.” But Elijah would not settle for the initial report. He sent his servant to go and look again, and again, and again. Likewise, we need to keep on persevering in prayer. Many revivals in the past happened because there were a group of people who would not give up praying. Don’t be discouraged. Keep on praying. Keep on ‘harassing’ God until something happens!
And when something happens, it usually starts small. At the seventh time, the servant came back to Elijah and reported that he saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand. It is easy to discount that or to ignore it as something that is insignificant. But remember, in Zechariah 4:10, the prophet says this, “For who has despised the day of small things…” Don’t underestimate small beginnings. Learn to celebrate humble beginnings that can and will snowball into something bigger and greater, far beyond what we can ever imagine!
Finally, God gave supernatural strength to Elijah to run so that he would not be overtaken or overwhelmed by the heavy downfall. It is crucially important for us to ask God to give us supernatural strength to do His work when He finally brings showers of blessings over us. It will be such as waste to lose all the fish we have caught just because our nets are not strong enough to contain them. Pray for a breakthrough, we must, but remember to also ask the Lord to empower us to be ever ready to receive His harvest.
May the Lord bless us all as we apply these 7 principles in praying and receiving a breakthrough from Him.
7 Steps To Be An Effective “Soul Winner”
By Ps Kong Choke Kee
Jesus told His disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you Fishers of men” (Matt 4:19).
The implication is that IF we are really following Jesus, we will be fishing i.e. soul-winning. (more…)
Intimacy with God should be the #1 priority in our lives.
All mighty men and women of God had intimacy with Him. Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and the disciples had tremendous intimacy with God. We can see how Moses had intimacy with God from reading Exodus 33: 7-23. Intimacy with God is vital to a fulfilling life and it can be sought in the following ways:
The first key is the TENT OF MEETING
We should have a meeting place with God. Our own tent of the meeting. It could be a place in the house or outside the house. This is the secret place of the Most High. We should spend time with God daily. We get to know a person more intimately only as we spend more time with that person. It’s the same with God. The more time we spend with God, the more we will get to know Him deeply and intimately. We read about Enoch in the book of Genesis, how he walked with God in habitual fellowship. God was so pleased with Enoch that He just took him away Enoch never experienced death because of his intimacy with the Lord.
The second key to intimacy with God is WORSHIP
God is seeking worshippers.
There are a very few places in Scripture where it says that God Himself is seeking someone. And John 4.24 is one of the places. The primary activity of Heaven is worship. The angels never stop crying “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.”
One Hebrew word for worship is ‘proskuneo’ which means to kiss. When we worship God, we are kissing His beautiful face. We become like the person we worship. Many husbands and wives start looking like each other after staying together for many years.
The third key to intimacy with God is becoming ADDICTED TO HIS PRESENCE
There is nothing like the presence of God. There is no high like the Most High. The more you have Him, the more you want Him. His presence is so beautiful.
In the book of Exodus, we read about Joshua, the young assistant of Moses. When Moses finished talking with God and went out of the Tent of the meeting, Joshua would continue to linger in the Presence of God. He was hungry to get even the crumbs of His Presence. He had such a passion for the Presence of God. No wonder God chose him to lead the children of Israel after Moses.
The fourth key to intimacy with God is the FAVOR OF GOD
The favor of God means the blessing of God. Without the favor of God, we can never know Him. Mike Bickle says that it takes God to love God. Unless He chooses to reveal Himself to us, we can’t know Him. We need to ask God for more hunger and thirst for Him. Jesus said, “Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be filled.” If we cry out passionately for more of Him, He will hear our cry and answer us.
The fifth key to intimacy with God is to KNOW HIS WAYS
In Psalms 103.7 it says, ”God made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the children of Israel.” His ways are higher than our ways. We need to surrender to His ways and don’t insist on doing things our way. That is when we will come to know Him more deeply and intimately.
The sixth key to intimacy with God is to SEEK HIS GLORY
The Hebrew word for Glory is ‘kavod’ which means ‘weighty’ presence. The Greek word for Glory is ‘doxa’ which means brilliance or radiance. The glory of God brings intimacy, signs, and wonders.
The more intimacy we have with God, the more of His glory we shall experience. The more of His glory we experience, the more we will become intimate with Him.
The seventh key to intimacy with God is to SEEK HIS FACE
His face is lovely. There is no one like Him.
In 1994, there was a great revival in Toronto, Canada. Thousands of people flocked to get a touch from God. But the main feature of this revival was the love of God. People came to seek the face of God and were powerfully touched and then carried the anointing back to their churches from all over the world. They were powerfully touched when they sought His face. His touch made a total difference in their lives.
One of the persons who was powerfully touched in that revival was Heidi Baker. Today she is working in the African nation of Mozambique and she has started many churches which is absolutely amazing. Another minister of the Gospel was touched in Toronto. His name is Leif Hetland. God called him to go to the Muslims of Pakistan and other nations and he has led thousands of Muslim people to the Lord. All this came about because they sought intimacy with God. They were seeking his face diligently and passionately.
The message of Intimacy with God is a central message of the Bible. The greatest commandment in the Bible is the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that this is the greatest commandment in the Bible. So my friends, intimacy with God should be the main reason why we live. As it says in the Book of Revelation chapter 4, we were created for the pleasure of God. And as the book of prayer in England says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God.”
I pray that the Lord himself will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand this message and not only that but that you will experience intimacy with God to such a degree that it will consume your life and that you will be a conduit to impart that same anointing of intimacy to many in the Body of Christ. I pray that there will be a revival of intimacy with God in the Church throughout the world. Amen.
By Nitin Khaire
Click on this image to read about this BIG word…PROPITIATION!
by Rev Kindah Greening
With buzzwords and acronyms like hyperstitial, matrix management, spyware, competitive analysis, FAQs, empowerment and stem cell research, life in the 21st century has become what I term ‘high tech, low touch’.
There is no denying that modern technology, medicine and science have their positive aspects, but I sometimes find myself wondering whether in our eagerness to accept these advances, we are forgetting the importance of the personal touch.
Too often life races by, leaving people feeling bewildered, stressed and alone. It is at this point that the church can really come into its own, through ‘touch ministry’. What do I mean by this? I mean simple things like making a phone call, sharing a laugh over a cappuccino, giving a hug or praying for someone. It’s very easy, as we are propelled through our days, to underestimate the importance of the personal touch.
You don’t have to look very far in your workplace, your church – maybe even in your own family – to find someone who needs the reassurance of the personal touch. Through over 50 years ministry, I have seen so many times the balance and peace that can be restored to a person through a mere squeeze on the shoulder or five minutes of unabridged time.
One of my favourite scriptures when conducting Coping with Grief and Crisis seminars is found in Ezekiel 3:15 where it says, ‘I sat where they sat’. This is such a profound illustration of empathy. It is a place where words are unnecessary, but where mere presence can comfort, console and uplift.
Jesus understood the power of the personal touch and, in the midst of a demanding multitude, is often seen stopping to make that one-on-one connection with someone. Consider the woman with the issue of blood or Zaccheus or Mary Magdalene. These are just three lives that were dramatically changed because the Master took just a few moments to minister individually.
Despite its challenges, I am all for progress and do not believe we should attempt to stop it or ignore it – to do so would be an act of futility. But I am equally convinced that at the very centre of every human being is a desire for the personal touch.
Let me encourage you today, as you no doubt face a multitude of tasks and responsibilities, to make a difference in someone’s life through the personal touch.