WHAT ARE OUR FAILURES TO GOD?

Some time ago I was pondering upon certain things that people said regarding their past failures. They were asking themselves, which part of it was their responsibility and which part was God’s. Have they missed God? Why did God set them up for failure? If God already knew that the venture would not work, why tell them to do it anyway? It was incredulous to think that God will set anyone up for failure. Well, that depends on how we see failure. Our failure to God is not failure, it is fermentation. 

Such experiences served the purpose of changing us from one state to another. God had to deal with our impurities and much of our flesh, the old man inside us before He could do a great work to us. Before He could bring us to the palace or put us in prominent positions. We had to be prepared in our hearts that when we faced our transgressors, that we still could have compassion on them, rather than to take revenge since we are in a position of power. 

 

Not many people went through as many failures as Joseph did in his life. And these were not mistakes of his making. Not intentionally anyway. Yet God used these painful experiences to build his character which was able to withstand the temptations of being in high position. In the end God restored more than double back to Joseph. He came to a place where he could see how others meant it for harm, but God turned it out for good. And everything that happened was all part of God’s plan. 

 

Well, Joseph could blame God for not protecting him from being sold as a slave to Egypt. But he didn’t. Even while he was being favoured in Potiphar’s house, he still had the fear of God to not commit adultery. He could have just done it, having cared less since this God that he served didn’t even stop the bad thing from happening to him. But Joseph was still honouring God in spite of his circumstances. He knew that the Lord’s presence was with him hence he was prospering. 

 

Once again Joseph could blame God for not justifying him before Potiphar. Or angry with Potiphar for not standing up for Joseph when he probably knew the truth. There in the cold prison cell, he probably wondered why he had to suffer when he did nothing wrong. It was all so unfair. But yet he did not give up his faith in God. He kept a good attitude and God caused him to prosper even in prison. How amazing can that be! When he interpreted the chief baker and chief butler’s dreams, he was again forgotten by them. 

 

He probably thought the opportunity had come for him to be restored to freedom and vindicated but who knew he had to wait another 2 more years? Well, it was only on hindsight that we can see it was all according to God’s timing. If he had been released 2 years ago, he wouldn’t be in position to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. He would have missed the opportunity to become the prime minister of Egypt. But more importantly God’s plan of raising Joseph up to store up grain to prepare for the coming famine would probably not happen. 

 

Which was why I now begin to understand more that these seeming ‘failures’ in our lives were all part of God’s plan. It wasn’t that we missed God or failed because we didn’t obey Him. We wondered why we stepped out in faith many times only to fall flat on our faces. Perhaps our ultimate ‘failure’ was our inability to understand God’s timing for our lives. Or that the right connections were still not in place yet. But if we are honest, we did see a measure of success in the venture God told us to do at first. 

 

Think back to the experiences and anointing God has given all of us. They blessed and helped us but in most cases they were only a forerunner or first fruits of the Lord’s full intention. This is not a matter of failure on our part. Nor is this a matter of not fulfilling an assignment. Rather, it is a matter of the fullness of God’s timing. Just as Elisha told the Shunammite woman to leave and come back at the right time, God is now bringing us back to those experiences. Or bringing those experiences back to us. Why now? Because now is the fullness of time. Now is the time of full harvest.

 

So yes, I felt so heartened knowing that it was a matter of God’s timing, not a matter of me not fulfilling my assignment. Because all I wanted to know is if I had obeyed the Lord as I did not want to miss His voice when He told me to step out to do something. The important thing is that I need to do my part. As for the outcome, I have no control over but just to entrust it to Him. Whether it succeeds or fails it is not my responsibility at all. It is His. All I wanted was to cooperate with Him to close each chapter of my life well. To finish well and move on.  

 

I may not understand why that season didn’t work out the way I expected but I still trust that God will work all things out for my good. And at the right time, He may choose to show me the big picture. If not, it is ok. I still trust Him. The past is no more but what I don’t want to do is to miss the time of His visitation now. The kairos moment. The fullness of His timing. I don’t want to be so bitter or hopeless or bruised that I don’t dare to try again. To dream again, to hope again when He comes to tell me to fan into flames those dead dreams in my life. 

 

I want to be in position when He calls. I want to receive the fullness of whatever He has prepared for my life. I want to lay aside all those disappointments and heartaches in those years. I want to let Him heal me of my soul wounds. I want to be made whole again. I want to be restored to a childlike faith in Him. I want to believe that He has come in the fullness of time to bring to pass those dead dreams. To give me resurrection life. And I know that this time, I will not be disappointed because the fullness of time has come. Yes, it has truly come.  

 

 

MY BLOG IS 12TH YEAR NOW

I know I have not been blogging for a long while. I just have been quite busy as God shifted my season. I am no longer in the long winter but I have entered into spring. It was a long awaited change. I will update more about what I have been busy with recently but today I just wanted to commemorate my blog 12th anniversary. It has been 12 years. 

I have not been consistent with my posting this year but I promise to be posting more in the days to come. There has been a wealth of revelation that I received in the past months. So yes I will be unloading these nuggets bit by bit in time to come. Meanwhile I just would like to thank God for 12 good years of this writing ministry. 

It was interesting that this date falls in the week of the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth. So this calls for double celebration. During this Feast of Tabernacles the Jews would make booths and stay in them to remember the days of wilderness. 

The Jews are told to rejoice and celebrate the entire week. Have a good feast. The words “be only joyful” can also be read as “to rejoice,” which tells us that we are to do things that cause us to “rejoice,” which, by extension, will lead to “be only joyful.” Such as taking time off work, coming together with family and the community, putting a smile on the faces of the poor and downtrodden.

The Jews will buy new clothes, get the best meat and wine they can afford, buy their wives a gift and get kids some treats. It is acts like this that will put us, and those around us, in a better mood…a holiday mood. Emphasise the material and the physical in honour of the holiday, and you will feel a bit more spiritual. Laugh, dance, music, the works!

On Sukkoth the Jews are required to eat elaborate meals every day of the holiday and celebrate to the best of our ability. When they celebrate Sukkoth, they should remind ourselves of all the blessings God bestows upon them and arouse within ourselves a post-Yom Kippur repentance through indulgence. 

AUDIOBOOKS ON SALE IN SHOPEE

Following the news interview, I was given the idea of creating audio books from my ebook ‘Devotionals for Joseph people’. I thank God for a talented brother giving me the right to use his creation as background music to my narration. When I was going about narrating the book, I was reminded of the teachings God wanted the Josephs to take note of. I had the strong sense that now is really the time, the appointed time. Whatever God taught us in the past two years, this is really it. This is the launch. Which is why God had me review the teachings from this book that I wrote two years ago but forgot about it. 

The word of God is truly powerful. I was ministered by my own narration for the devotional. It was like God speaking to me as I could hardly remember penning down the contents. It was a direct download from the Lord, as I was just as a scribe. Coupled with the anointed music playing in the background, I truly felt that the audiobooks would be more impactful than the ebook. As such I was led to do six parts of the audiobook and each part was minted as an NFT on OpenSea. However, instead of having airdrops (free copies of the NFT) unlike my ebook NFT, we had these audiobooks listed and selling on Shopee. 

This marketing strategy was also to cast the nets wider to a bigger audience as not many people are familiar with OpenSea or the NFT platform. Or they may not have a crypto wallet or OpenSea account. Shopee is an online shopping platform like Amazon, which means the payment methods are widely used by consumers. So yes, I thought it was a good idea too. Besides for the purchase of the audiobook NFTs, my sale proceeds would be donated to my church. So it would be a blessing to my church too. As such I thank God for listing my audiobooks in Shopee. 

Thank you all for your support and here is the link on shopee if you are interested in the audiobooks NFT. 

https://shopee.sg/product/289454700/13292548198?smtt=0.289473896-1652943286.9

FIRST INTERVIEW ON CHANNEL 8

I really thank God for opening the door for me to be interviewed by Channel 8 reporter. The topic was about NFT scams and how to prevent it. This interview was conducted on 6 April but it was only aired on 2 May, on Channel 8 news at 9am. It came about because the founder of NFTCircle (the platform that I worked with to mint my first book ‘Devotional for Joseph people’) was scheduled for an interview. He was speaking from an entrepreneurial point of view and the news station wanted a content creator. 

I was feeling inadequate because my ebook was just minted on 23 Mar but since God opened the way, I just walked through it. Later on I realised the interview was conducted in Mandarin which made me feel even more inadequate as my Chinese was not good. But I did some preparation before hand and the Lord put words into my mouth as the reporter conducted the interview. I could not refer to any notes that was prepared beforehand. I just had to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide me. Thank God the interview went well. 

After the interview was completed, I have been looking forward to this day when it would be screened. The long-awaited moment came on 2 May. I woke up earlier to record the segment before it was posted on youtube. As the news segment was in Mandarin, I translated the summary of the news for the benefit of our non-Chinese audience.  The video can be found here. https://youtu.be/lL13YWzzouQ

Summary of the news segment:

NFT non-fungible tokens operate with encrypted currency and blockchain technology, setting off a wave of investment in artistic creation. From time to time some people get rich by investing in NFTs, but disputes also increase. There are related cases received by law firms last year. twice as many as the previous year. Experts also warn that there is already an overheating of investment.

Writer Li Meizhu (Avin) published her fourth book. She commissioned a company specialising in the promotion of NFT to make the book into NFT, adding details such as electronic signature authentication, transaction methods and ownership. Issued on the mainstream NFT trading platform OpenSea. For each of her transactions, the operator only charges 10% of the royalties, so her initial setup cost is almost nothing.

‘NFT is a trend that cannot be ignored, and many young people are concerned about NFT. I think NFT will be an aspect they want to invest in.’ quoted Writer Li Meizhu. 

Experts remind NFT buyers and sellers that they should figure out the trading rules first and not rush into the market. A law firm received nearly 20 related cases last year, most of which can be handled by contract law or copyright law. The current investment boom has cooled.

Lawyer Zhong Tinghui: What is more interesting is that there will also be disputes over intellectual property rights. The artist created NFT and sold him to the buyer, but did not specify that the copyright has been handed over to the buyer. After the buyer buys it, if he sells it to a third party Otherwise, there may be a conflict from time to time.

Luo Ruiyun, a senior lecturer at the Business School of the SIAS University, believes that NFTs will indeed have a crisis of bubbles, especially at the beginning of this year, the transaction volume and market share have dropped a lot.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently proposed a draft regulation for the cryptocurrency trading market related to the development of NFTs, expanding the supervision of such financial service providers to further protect consumer rights.

FIRST FORAY INTO NON-FUNGIBLE TOKEN (NFT)

It has been a busy few months for me this year. At the start of the year I was exploring the possibility of selling my ebooks as non-fungible tokens (NFT). Yes it was a whole new world for me but somewhere in May 2021 I was initiated to the world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency through some friends. Later on I was trying to understand how investing in cryptocurrency worked with a small sum. Right now I still cannot say I understand how it works but at least I had some first hand experience. 

My point is not to encourage believers to start investing in cryptocurrency. All I can say now is not to dismiss this alternative currency system as totally not from God. I just hope that you guys can be open to the new ways God is doing in this new season. That’s all. Well, for me I thank God that He sent me help to publicise my ebook. I have always stopped short at marketing my books because I was not savvy in social media marketing. 

I always felt my focus should be on content creation, rather than marketing. I told the Lord I needed help in this area years ago. Someone like a literary agent. But times have changed so much. Today much of the publicity and marketing has gone online. So the social media channels are becoming an important tool of marketing. With the help of a community, word gets spread around about a certain art piece or creation. There is much power in the hype created by social marketing, which also explained the boom of NFTs in the past two years. This was also due to the pandemic where many people has turned to online platforms. 

Anyway I am pleased to announce that my ebook ‘Devotional for Joseph People’ has just been minted on the NFT marketplace yesterday. Really thank God for I still did not know how I got into it in the first place. It was God who led me to the right people who could help me and also the skills to understand how it worked. He was the One who led me step by step or else I would really be lost in the world of NFT. My part was very simple, which was just to obey His promptings. 

So here it goes. If you are into NFTs investment, you could consider getting the airdrop for this piece of work. You can go to Twitter to check it out. https://twitter.com/nft_circle/status/1506263947418439682?s=20&t=b_SxDv_K4JGdY8v-zv-qwg As for those who are not into NFTs, you can still go to this website to obtain a free pdf copy of my ebook by clicking on the pdf link and downloading it. If not, you can email me to ask for a free copy. https://app.vtag.cc/document/c1xxGbgajqHj98g367Lr

I truly thank God for this open door because it has always been my desire for this message about the Joseph people to reach a wider audience. I hope that it will bless more people because this is really the heart of the Father. It is really time for the church to arise and take our inheritance. It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us His kingdom. And truly, we cannot take the kingdom of God alone. We need to have community. We need everyone to rise up higher, to fulfil their calling in Christ. 

SENSING OF 2022

Blessed 2022 to all! I had been battling with some things in the last few months hence had not been posting. As I was just reviewing my journals and the posts for the past week. I realised that God was trying to tell me after I had been through the fire and water, He is bringing me to a wealthy place. I have been impressed upon this verse about seeing the goodness of God in the land of the living in Jan but along the way with all the assaults, I forgot about it. It was only recently, especially in Dec that the Lord brought this verse to my remembrance. Although it still didn’t see like I had seen much of God’s goodness in the natural, the hope is that I would see more of His goodness before this year ends. 

(When I did the review of 2021, I finally saw the goodness of God. I was blown away because there was so much the Lord did for us this year. More than anything else, the greatest work was inside us. How He changed us, fortified us and sustained us in spite of the opposition and persecution. He has done such a marvellous work of cutting off all bondages in our lives. Bringing us to a place where we can be fearless in Christ. To see His hand at work despite all the evil in the world. To find hope where others see no way out.

 

Though the trials were uncomfortable and we didn’t like it, we made it through by His grace. We didn’t perish in the fire. What didn’t kill us would only make us stronger. God burnt away the ropes of captivity in the fire, gave us true freedom. We had a taste of persecution so we would know how to navigate it in the future. We also testify to God being our provider. How He came through for us when we most needed Him to. Nowadays I can hear His voice more easily, His instructions gave me the courage to move on.)

 

Well it didn’t occur to me that as I was talking about going through the fire and water, the fiery furnace like the Hebrew teenagers, until one of our pastors also preached on this on 19 Dec. And this month the Lord began to talk to me about the wealthy place He is bringing us in 2022. Even though things still seemed dire in the natural, my spirit was stirred up and excited when I caught a glimpse of this wealthy place. The transfer of wealth will begin next year and will accelerate. I had gotten a forecast of this transfer in the past two years but more is to come. 

 

I still didn’t know exactly how God prospered us in the past two years because my focus wasn’t on it. Especially this year, the attacks were mainly in our health. From the recent messages, it seemed like the season of fighting and contending was finally over as we chased out the giants and possessed our land. So the next assignment is to start building. There was a time and season to fight and conquer, but now is the time to build. Exactly what we are building I am still not very sure but God will download the blueprints in the days ahead. 

 

My sense for next year is that it would be a more stable year, less of the roller coaster ups and downs we encountered this year. Either the circumstances would have changed next year or we have changed. Indeed the end of the season has come and we are entering into a new era. There has been much letting go of the past and putting the house in order. To make way for the new things. As the Lord heals our battle wounds and refreshes us before the new year begins, He is also causing us to hope and dream again. 

 

He is raising our expectancy of all the good things we can’t even imagine in 2022. Yes there will be a payback from the enemy. It is a season of great restoration. And there will also be many promises fulfilled. Long awaited promises. Hence it is the time to get my hopes up and press in. Don’t give up or give in. For in just a very little while my long-awaited promise will manifest. After I turned the corner around last Christmas. 

 

The reason for my confidence this time round is based on what God told me: I am coming out of my 13-year wilderness. I have passed the faith test. I have done whatever I knew to do. I have finished the race. I have closed the chapter of waiting. Now what awaits me is the manifestation. This is my reward for being faithful to His promise all these years. God is not a man that He should lie or change His mind.

So yes, I can look forward to the new year with hope because I have already come to the end of the old season. The old has passed away and the new has finally come. No matter how long the journey has been, I had walked to the end of it. During those years of waiting, I used to wonder many times if I could ever make it to the finish line, whether I would be able to endure to the end. Now I know that I have indeed crossed the finish line. There has been a dying, a death of sorts. Passing away of the old season and a part of me died along with it. Yet out of the death comes resurrection life.

As I sought the Lord for His plan in 2022, I began to see how wealth transfer is a recurrent theme. And God bringing us to a wealthy place next year. I still don’t know how things are going to pan out but God is going to bump us up to the next level of prosperity. Where we would not be able to achieve by our own strength. And people will look at us and wonder how we even manage to get there. So yes, financial blessings are going to play a big part in 2022. The other sensing is that 2022 is going to be a year of new beginning hence the restoration of God will take place. 

 

When God restores, it is always better in quality or quantity. So whatever the enemy stole from us in the past two years, God will make him repay us sevenfold. Our family will be very healthy next year because the enemy stole from our health this year. 2022 will also be a year of promises fulfilled where I will see that I hadn't heard God wrongly all these years and that His word really came to pass. 

 

Which was why the warfare was so fierce leading up to the crossover into 2022 because of all the pent-up and delayed blessings in the past decade. The dam was breaking. The walls are crumbling. This time the breakthrough is going to be so huge which was why the enemy was desperately trying to distract us. 2022 will be a repayment of all that I suffered in the 13-year journey. Pursue and overtake, recover all. A restoration of all the shame and pain that I went through. 

 

God will give me double honour for my shame. It will also be a year of launching into my divine destiny. Finally the year that Joseph got called to the palace. I will begin to see that all the preparation and training in the past decade didn’t go to waste. It was to prepare me for such a time like this. There will also be many open doors of opportunities. Be it my personal ministry or Joseph ministry. Hopes deferred will also be broken. An avalanche of blessings will be seen. 

There will also be much freedom in 2022 as all the restrictions would be removed when God cause the pandemic to end and the virus to fade away. Yes 2022 will be a very good year which is why God is so excited and He kept telling me to rejoice and celebrate now. If only you knew what is in store for you, you will not be discouraged or lose hope. You will rejoice now. 

Main themes for 2022:

• Year of giving birth to new things (John 16:21), sorrow turned into great joy
• Acceleration, things moving fast all at once (Amos 9:13)
• This is when harvest time comes, hundredfold return (Mark 4:20)
• Avalanche of blessings began, floodgates of heaven open over us (Acts 10:11)
• Time of restoration and repayment (Joel 2:25)
• Good days ahead because we have been through the fire and water, enemy overplayed his hand (Psalm 66:12)