One Touch of God's Favour

Today we went prawn fishing with a friend and her niece and nephew. We had a fun time prawn fishing. It was their first time there. For our family, we had gone prawn fishing for about 3 or 4 times but we never managed to catch many prawns. The most we had was about 6 prawns. Well today we had a bumper crop...not through our own efforts though. In the beginning, we had slightly more success than before in prawn fishing today because Heng asked God for good success. We were fishing for about 1.5 hours when suddenly a guy came over to Heng with a net full of prawns. We were surprised that he wanted to give all the prawns to us! It turned out that he don't eat prawns but just fished them for the fun of it!

Well I was so excited to experience this touch of God's favour! My friend said it was restful increase. Indeed when we were laboring for the past 1 to 2 hours, we only caught a few prawns. In fact, we would have never been able to catch that many prawns in our 3 hours there. Yet when God shows us His unmerited favour, we had overflowing abundance! We really felt like Apostle Peter when they labored all night and caught nothing, yet when Jesus told them to let down the nets, they caught a boat-sinking, net-breaking load of fish! What a tremendous testimony for Joshua and the kids! God is so good to us...of all the people fishing there, the guy chose us to give the prawns to! It is really God's favour!

In the end, we caught 11 prawns and my friend caught 10 prawns (not bad for a first-timer). But what was amazing was that the net of prawns was more than 40! My friend said her mum would be so surprised to see so many prawns!

 

More fruits manifesting!

Just this month I got to know of more fruits manifesting in my life and my ministry. I just want to say I cannot thank God enough for allowing me to be part of this exciting plan He has prepared for me. Indeed I am like a tree planted by the rivers of water and I bear fruit this season.

First of all, I received news that one of my care group (CG) members who has not spoken with his daughter for 7 years has finally reconciled with her. I still remember last June, during one CG meeting, the Holy Spirit was moving so strongly in our midst and the work of restoration has already started in his family. His heart was softened and he wanted to reconcile with his daughter but she was not ready. The CG stood in faith with him, believing that God would work on his daughter and soften her heart. One day, the father and daughter will surely be reconciled.

Subsequently she decided to venture overseas and she left Singapore in Oct 2011. Her mum had hoped that she could reconcile with her dad before she left but it did not happen that way. Yet God is so good. He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. In Apr 2012, God completed his work of restoration in the family. The daughter finally talked to her dad and he assured her that he was never against her and he told her that he loved her. Wow! I believed this reconciliation was more than what the dad could ask for because I could see joyful tears in his eyes as he shared this with us. God is so good - the fruit manifested in less than a year!

Secondly, as I was attending CG meeting this week, I heard a testimony about a father sharing how God is so timely in His favour. His daughter was the beneficiary of the tie-up between a local arts institution and a renowned UK university. As a result, the degree would not only be recognised by the government, there would also be government funding for the degree programme. This meant that he would have saved up on a huge sum of money because the degree course was quite expensive. I was happy to share that this project was the fruit of our labour when I was in my previous workplace.

My previous organisation has been trying to fight for government funding for the arts institution for a decade but in 2010, the stars had aligned. God allowed me to be part of the team that fought for and finally witnessed this funding approval from the government. It was the last project that I completed back then which gave me a great sense of satisfaction and more importantly, a legacy to leave behind. I knew that with the continued government funding, the future arts students in these institutions would definitely benefit from this policy change. Indeed, thank God that it came to pass: I heard a brother testify how this funding has benefited his family!

Thirdly, I remembered God prompting me to pray for a young boy with celebral palsy in church last Aug. I did not know the boy but as he sat on the pram, the sad look on his eyes caught my attention. At that point I had great compassion for him. Then I felt God telling to lay hands on him and pray for his supernatural healing. As I stepped out in faith to lay hands and pray for him, I experienced God's intense love for this boy and I teared. I told him that God loves him so much and Jesus wants to heal him. One day he would be able to walk and play like the other kids. After praying for him, I walked away feeling more blessed. I was sure that he will be healed but I never saw him again after that.

Recently, one of my CG members who is an usher in church told me about a miracle healing that took place. She said that a boy who could not walk before started walking during the service. My heart was beating so fast as I was quite sure it was this boy. Indeed as I described his parents and gave his name, I confirmed that it was really him! I was really so happy to hear that he is finally walking like other kids! I am sure that many others had laid hands and prayed for him, not just me but I thanked God for allowing me again to be part of this beautiful miracle. More importantly, that is also God's affirmation of his plan for me to be involved in a healing ministry in future. I again saw fruits manifesting from this ministry.

In the final analysis, I just wanted to encourage my brothers and sisters that whatever the Lord has put on your heart and told you, just hang on to His word. No matter how long it takes, I have learnt that God's Word will always come to pass. Take heart that God is accelerating things behind the scene and you will see your breakthrough very soon! Now is the time! Praise Jesus!

Study of End-times (Part III)

When I used to read Jesus' account of The Great Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ in Matthews 24:15-44, my response was naturally to look upon such events with dread and fear. But now that I have a solid assurance that we definitely will be delivered from God's wrath at the end of the tribulation, I felt more peaceful and secure.

Even though we may not be totally delivered from the wrath of the Antichrist or escape persecution for the sake of the gospel, I am not afraid. I believe the Church is not totally at the mercy of the Antichrist. God's power is greater than the evil one and God is well able to deliver us from persecution. Even if He doesn't, I know that there is a special anointing or provision of God's grace in times of persecution for believers (just like for Apostle Paul). And there is a reward in heaven waiting for believers who suffer persecution for Christ's namesake. God's glory is magnified when believers refuse to bow down to the Beast or the Anthichrist.

Drawing mainly from the passage in Matthew 24:15-44, there are 3 main responses for a believer:

1) Don't be afraid - In John 16:33, Jesus told His disciples that in this world, they will have tribulation but take heart that He has overcome the world. For those of us who will go through the Tribulation, we can still have peace in this world because Christ will preserve us till He comes back for us again. Jesus will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other. (Matt. 24:30)

2) Don't be deceived - Jesus has told us beforehand that there will be false christs and false prophets with great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect (Matt. 24:24-26). It seemed to me the way not to be deceived is by spending time in the bible to acquaint ourselves with the true Christ, just like how the bank tellers were trained to spot the counterfeit, not by studying these false notes but by studying the real notes.

3) Watch and pray - Jesus told the believers to pray that their flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath (Matt. 24:20). It does seem like there is a place for the Church to have an influence over the end-times events and the timing of these events. Even though the Church cannot stop the rising of the Antichrist or stop this world from total destruction (at the end of ages), the Church definitely has authority over the principalities and powers of darkness. We can pray for protection over people and we can pray for the salvation of lost souls. We also have a responsibility to preach the good news to the lost because there is a hell to shun and a heaven to go to for all eternity.

Finally I am encouraged to know that even in darkness, light dawns for the upright (Ps. 112:4). I know that as the world gets darker, the Church will shine even brighter. I take heart that even though this world will go from bad to worse and eventually end in destruction, for the believers, the Lord will arise over us and His glory will be seen upon us (Isa. 60:1-2).

My response towards end-times is no longer one of fear and trepidation but one of hope and glory. I can say that I now look forward to the 2nd Coming of Jesus, the Rapture of the Church and the rewards awaiting me in heaven. I no longer fear the occurrence of events signalling the end of times because Jesus says 'Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.' (Luke 21:28)