FINISHED WELL

Last night I was looking through my past journals and I realised that I had been expectant of a promise since end 2011. I was already talking about the end in sight. Then when this vision tarried, I felt out of steam in end 2012. I was crying out to the Lord. This was what I wrote in Oct 2012. I felt like now is a full circle moment.

I came to a point that I told The Lord I can't make things move but He can. I told Him I am tired for I have waited so long and I felt that I had walked a long journey. I said 'Lord, I am tired. Please take over. You carry me to the finishing line if necessary. I run to You for rest.' I know that when I rest in Him, I will rise up like wings in eagles. I know I will finish well and give Him all the glory. In the final analysis, it is not about me but about Jesus.

Then in Jun 2016, I read Doug’s prophetic forecast for that year. He was also talking about how weary he had become due to the long journey and at one point he couldn’t carry on and told Jesus to carry him across the finishing line. I was so encouraged to hear that word because the warfare was so fierce in that year.

But little did I know that I still had some way to go. I really didn’t know how I made it through those years, especially when I already felt like I couldn’t take it in 2012. I still had so many more years to journey. At that time I had like just begun and I already felt weary! Honestly if it wasn’t God sustaining me, I would have given up in those years.

As I was speed reading Doug’s prophetic words for 2016 and 2017, I then realised that God’s word is timeless. As in, He works in a different timeline than we expected. Most of the times when He gave us a word, we would expect it to happen like straightaway but it doesn’t usually happen this way. There is usually an incubation period to the word.

God may have given a word ten years ago, five years ago, three years ago that is still valid now. Or maybe it is only coming to pass now. We may have thought His word was delayed but in fact it is right on time. But these are things we couldn’t have discerned when the word was first given. So when it didn’t happen soon enough, we assumed that we heard Him wrongly or that it wasn’t coming to pass.

What is interesting is after a passage of time had passed, God will bring to remembrance those things He said years ago. That is also the reason why He wanted us to write those things down so we could refer and run with it. Else we would forget. But He doesn’t forget. So when He comes to us again with those words, we should sit up and pay attention. For usually that is the time He is about to perform His word.

It is a bit like Deuteronomy when God reminded the children of Israel about the law He gave in Exodus. People called it the second law. It was a reminder of the first law. The timing of it was given at the point when God was about to move the Jews into their promised land. After all it had been 38 years so they would have forgotten about the law. Besides this was a new generation arising.

This was exactly how I felt this year. God opened my eyes to see the things which I didn’t understand in past years. He also gave me the answers to the questions I asked Him years ago. I now realise why I could not see it at that time was because I haven’t reached my destination yet. But once I came to where God wanted me to, everything became much clearer to me. This is called hindsight.

Now, ten years is considered a long time to wait and journey. So many things could have happened in a decade. You cannot even imagine the amount of things God told me over the decade. The secrets of His heart and the things in the future. Things to come. This year I see many things which He told me in 2011 coming to pass so I don’t take prophetic words for granted. I know that God has an uncanny way of making His word come to pass.

In a timeframe that we didn’t expect. We probably thought we had missed it or that it was all too late for us. But in God’s eyes, nothing is too late. He sees time unlike we do. He is timeless. He created time. The things He spoke ten years ago were still fresh. When He brings it to remembrance it is almost like He just said it yesterday. Like it was the first time He said it.

And so, in this aspect, I was reminded of my desire to want to finish this race well more so than seeing this promise manifest. I know this journey was never just about a promise fulfilled but so much more. I don’t know the extent of my spoils yet but I know it is very great. Anyway at this point in time, I am at peace for I know I have finished well. This is what truly matters. 

I have gotten what I desired all these years. To finish well. Now I am crossing my finish line. This is my part to play. The promise is up to Him to deliver. All I know is that He does not lie to me. If He still wants me to bring forth this promise then no man or devil can stop it from manifesting. All I have to do is to avail myself and just believe. 

Well, I can start rejoicing for a fact that I have completed the journey. Yes. That is a mega milestone. I have come to the end of the super long journey. Yes I have made it. I have crossed the finish line. So all that remains is for Him to perform. He is able and most willing to give me the manifestation. And yes, the enemy cannot taunt me anymore on the timing issue. He has been using this to torment me for years. Now he is totally silenced.

The enemy knows I have come to the end of the tunnel. He knows that God has shifted my season. So that cannot be used against me anymore. Praise the Lord! He has released me from this torment! The enemy I see today I will see no more! I have indeed passed through the passage of time. No matter how long it took, I made it through by His grace. I have paid a price so to speak. I have passed through the passage of time. Now what awaits me is my prize. 

(Lana’s post on 13 Dec confirmed this. The Lord is saying this to us: The hard toiling is coming to an end. Your faithfulness and obedience to Me has brought you into a place of great reward and increase. Now I shall entrust you with much. The enemy attempted to ruin your vineyard that I had you place your hand to, but you remained. Well done! The season has now changed and I am moving you into a place of tending many vineyards with greater empowerment of My Spirit, ease, joy, peace and favour. You shall know abundance in these vineyards like you have never known before.)

MY BLOG GOING INTO THE TENTH YEAR!

I know I haven’t been blogging frequently this year. The last one was about exponential growth in July. Yet so many things had transpired since then. After we visited a new CG, God also brought us to our tribe. Yes, we were finally plugged into a group of believers who were like-minded, and they were very hungry for the presence of God and His word. And yes, they also greatly desired to see signs, wonders and miracles manifest on this earth as much I did.

After God connected us to this group of believers, I really felt that our lives are forever changed. We have never felt as on fire as we did before. Previously we were feeling like flickering embers but when God joined us to this group, He fanned into flames the dying embers in us and we felt like going through a personal revival. I had been praying for years for God to bring me to my tribe and He finally answered my prayer! It was amazing how He led us to such divine connections. More exciting things are coming!

Well, I was suddenly reminded that today my blog is nine years old. Tomorrow it will be entering into its tenth year. Time really flies. A decade was almost over. Talking about this, we had just crossed over a Jewish new year 5780 and a new decade. This is a decade of Pey which symbolised a mouth. The decade that had just passed was a decade of Ayin or The Eye. We had just been through a decade since 2010 when God had been sharpening our spiritual eyesight and now it is time for us to speak forth what He had shown us in the last decade.

Yes, we just have to speak forth the word of God in our lives and see things change. No more longer prayers of contending or travail but praise and worship for what He has already done. Many are also saying that this is a season of the prophets. I also believe that the prophets are coming out from hiding and their voices would be heeded, no longer ignored. In this new era, worship seems to also take a renewed importance in which we can expect prophetic words to be given during such times.

And when the word of God is decreed, there is inherent power in that word to break through any situation. All we have to do is to align our mouths with His word and to speak forth that word. Yes, the speaking part cannot be understated. This season we shall see the importance of speaking words carefully for life and death is in the power of the tongue. God is teaching us to call those things which are not as though they exist. Hence the creative power of our tongue.

In the days to come I hope to be able to blog more and share about my revelation of the word, during the times of my silence on the blog. Meanwhile I just like to thank you all for your support.

TIME FOR EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

Recently I have been reading some financial books that talked about the power of compound interest. I learnt that initially the money grows very slowly. But the moment it reaches a critical point, the growth becomes exponential! When given enough time, the power of compounding can turn very small amounts of money into huge sums. 

That’s usually the case with compound interest. You really cannot see much increase in the first few years but after it crossed a certain timeline, the increase becomes exponential. I realised that was the case for the payment of our house loan too. I noticed for the first eight years of the loan, we paid off very little in terms of the principal sum. Much of our payments went to paying off the interest. 

Some people would make lump sum payments to offset the loan at some point. This is good because it will help in reducing the principal sum borrowed. And as the outstanding loan becomes lesser, the interest payments will be lesser too, so more of your monthly mortgage will go into the reduction of principal sum. I think in the spiritual world, it also functions the same way.

Like how it is usually much harder at the start but as it progresses, things get easier, especially when one is very near the end. Of course there would be increased resistance coupled with unbearable weariness that causes one to give up towards the end but if the truth was to be made known, one would be rejoicing. Like the payment of a loan towards the end, you are making more contribution to pay off the principal sum as the interest decreases. With every single month of payment, you see your loan balance drop significantly.

Imagine how that would encourage you to press on to clear off your loan as soon as possible in the natural. Unlike the start of the journey, that same stride you take actually causes you to advance much more towards the end. More than you can imagine. Then the lump sum payoff is like a second wind, which offloads your burden significantly, so that you can advance even more than before. 

I would liken the second wind as God sending help when we felt most weary and out of strength. This could come in the form of revelation to see things from His perspective or how far He has brought you or how close you are to the breakthrough. It may seem like you are making little progress towards the end than the beginning but that is just a smokescreen from the enemy. The truth is you are making so much progress than you ever know. Covering more grounds.

I feel that the ending is definitely not harder than the beginning because the end is in sight. After all we have been faithfully ploughing for the last ten years so it is time for the exponential growth to take place. Yes it is really time. Thank God for opening my eyes to see this revelation! It so encourages my heart! This is like the second wind! It just made me feel like sprinting towards the finishing line so that I could end it off earlier. Just like how towards the end of a loan, you want to quickly pay it off.

So that’s why it is so important to press through the sluggish times, the inertia, the times when we don’t see anything happening, no increase, no progress etc. There is progress just that it is slower in the beginning. But when it gains enough momentum things will naturally move much faster. After a certain time, you may find that it is moving so fast that you cannot keep up. That’s what I feel for the past decade I had journeyed through. The early years were quite slow moving, with no apparent progress.

It was tough and fallow ground but I had to just keep ploughing to break up the soil. But somewhere around last year I think, there was a turning point. Things started falling in place, much faster than I imagine. Even though I was still in the old season and old place, I could already discern the changes. These were signs of season change. There were a few key financial decisions we made last year which I think was laying the foundation for exponential growth in the future years.

SO MANY CHANGES

It had been four months since I last blogged. So many things happened since then. Good things. Thank God that Joshua did well in his primary school leaving exams (PSLE) and got into a school of his choice! Initially we hoped that he would choose Catholic High School but in the end he chose Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) instead. We prayed about it and sensed that God was leading him to HCI so we supported his decision. The only thing was the school was in Bukit Timah Road, which was very far from our home in Hougang.

In fact before his secondary school posting was confirmed, we already went about our house hunting. We felt that our season at Rio Vista was ending soon and a new season was beginning. God seemed to be leading us out of our home after staying for eight years. It wasn’t a coincidence that we also stayed in our first matrimonial flat for eight years before moving to Rio Vista. I sensed the Lord telling me to start preparing for the house moving even though Joshua had not confirmed his secondary school.

In fact, after the PSLE was over, I felt prompted to start clearing out some old stuff to make way for the new. After all I had to clear away all the worksheets and old textbooks after Joshua graduated from primary school. So I went on to clear some old clothes and stuff from our store room. The recurring message I received last Oct was to let go of old baggage to make room for the new things coming. So I happily went about doing that without knowing what God had in store for us.

It was amazing how God accelerated the entire house hunting process. Within ten days of our first viewing, we managed to rent a unit in Bukit Timah that we all liked. It wasn’t easy to get a consensus on a place that all of us liked but God’s handiwork was in the entire process. And so on the last day of 2018, we signed the tenancy agreement and took over the unit on 6 Jan. And we started staying in the new place so as to make it convenient for Joshua to go to school. He only needed 10 min to travel to and from school as compared to 50 min if we stayed in Rio Vista.

We officially shifted over all our stuff on 15 Jan. Initially I was worried about how long it would take to the rent out our Rio Vista unit but God also expedited the process. On the same day that we took over the unit at Bukit Timah, God confirmed the tenants for our old home. Things fell into place very fast. It had been a busy month packing up, clearing away old stuff and moving to this new place. After we moved over, we focused on cleaning up our old home to be handed over on 1 Feb. After our Rio Vista unit was handed over, we could finally catch a breather.

Not long after the Chinese New Year came and we were again busy with the festivities. At the same time we were settling into this new neighbourhood. Joshua was also settling into his new school. Although there were many changes and we were in transition, thank God that we are more or less settled in now. We are still exploring this new neighbourhood but beginning to like it because of the abundance of good hawker fares and nice eateries. We really love this new home because it is newer,  brighter and windier even though it is smaller. The condo environment is also very elegant and stylish.

Really thank God for giving our family this beautiful place to live in! And it wasn’t that our old home wasn’t beautiful or good anymore. It was just that the season had changed and we had to move on. The changes were massive and inconvenient but when God called, we had to move. It was definitely an out of comfort zone experience but I welcomed it because I had been waiting for changes in my life for a very long time. God has also prepared my heart so I could embrace the change and move swiftly. Honestly if I hadn’t responded by clearing my old place and sourcing for furniture, we would be ill prepared to move so quickly. God is really good.