We have heard wonderful testimonies of how some believers in church were in debt which they could not possibly pay off by themselves. They believed that their outstanding debts were paid by Jesus Christ when He hung on that cross. And according to their faith, their desire was granted to them. By some miraculous ways, all of their debts were supernaturally cancelled and they became debt free instantly!
Of course they all didn't deserve to have their debts cancelled but the whole point was: Jesus paid their debts for them legally! It was all about the unmerited favour of God. If Jesus did not pay off their debts, they would always live in fear, thinking 'Did the bank make a mistake in cancelling my debt?' But thank God that when Jesus resurrected, it was proof that He had indeed paid all our debts! We had this experience just yesterday.
There was an outstanding credit card payment of $225.90 with a bank which Heng had not paid for months. It was not something that we bought and signed for it; just that the bank was imposing a late charge and some interest on a previous late payment. Heng had already called the bank to ask for waiver of the late charges and the interest. However the bank still sent us the outstanding bill month after month with additional late charges and more interest slapped on us. Heng gave up on calling the bank. (Well, I think he was afraid that he will give the customer service officer a big dressing-down, which would be ugly!)
And so, when we saw the letter from the bank yesterday, I told Heng 'Your creditors are chasing you for payment again. Why don't you just settle it once and for all?' Heng declared 'My debts are supernaturally cancelled in Jesus' name!' Well, for such a bold confession of faith, what else could I say? But in my heart, I really couldn't believe that debt would be cancelled.
Turned out that I was wrong! When I opened the letter, I was surprised to see that our outstanding debt became $0 and I happily told Heng! He was amazed at his own declaration of faith and said that words are indeed powerful. The bank had miraculously reversed all the late charges and interest payments and now we owe the bank nothing! Praise the Lord! All glory to God!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Certainty of God's Promise
God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged ~ Hebrews 6:18
Have you ever read the bible verses, thought you knew it well enough and yet at another time, God still caused fresh revelation to come up from the verse? Well, this happened to me many times. And sometimes I did not fully understand what God was telling me in those verses but my heart is processing the Word, which is like the seed.
The seed is planted in my heart while I go about my daily business, sleeping by night and rising by day. Yet all this while, this seed is germinating below the surface, in the depths of my heart and it sprouts and grows, though I do not know how. When the seed breaks out from the ground, grows into a tree, produces flowers then bears fruits, the farmer knows harvest time has come. When the fruit is ripe, the farmer immediately plucks it down from the tree because if it stays too long, it will drop to the ground and be spoilt.
This analogy of the seed is used to describe how the Word of God takes root in your heart and in time to come, produces results in what you want to see. Sometimes the revelation of the Word and the physical manifestation comes immediately; other times it may take a while to gain full revelation and for the results to show. For me, Hebrews 6:18 was shared by Heng in Feb 2010 and I heard it again in a sermon in Feb 2011. Yet during these two instances, I still did not have the full revelation of this verse until today.
I wondered what are the two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. I interpreted them to be God taking an oath and swearing by Himself. Actually taking an oath and swearing mean the same thing and they refer to the covenant that God had cut with Abraham. Yet instead of making the covenant with the blood and body of animals, God cut the covenant with the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. And so, all these while, the two unchangeable things referred to the body and blood of Jesus.
God is telling me that when we take Holy Communion, we should be thinking about His covenant to us. This covenant confirms what is said by God and puts an end to all arguments with regards to His promises in our life. From early Feb 2011, our family had been taking Communion daily and applying the Anointing oil. Holy Communion is powerful because when we remember the broken body of Christ and His blood that was shed for our forgiveness of sins, we are also declaring God's covenant to us.
We are saying that though the physical manifestation has not come yet, God's promises are sure and it is impossible for Him to lie. In this we are greatly encouraged and look out expectantly for news of our 2nd pregnancy as we believed the harvest is here. The fruit is already dangling in front of us and we need to pluck it down. Now. Immediately.
Have you ever read the bible verses, thought you knew it well enough and yet at another time, God still caused fresh revelation to come up from the verse? Well, this happened to me many times. And sometimes I did not fully understand what God was telling me in those verses but my heart is processing the Word, which is like the seed.
The seed is planted in my heart while I go about my daily business, sleeping by night and rising by day. Yet all this while, this seed is germinating below the surface, in the depths of my heart and it sprouts and grows, though I do not know how. When the seed breaks out from the ground, grows into a tree, produces flowers then bears fruits, the farmer knows harvest time has come. When the fruit is ripe, the farmer immediately plucks it down from the tree because if it stays too long, it will drop to the ground and be spoilt.
This analogy of the seed is used to describe how the Word of God takes root in your heart and in time to come, produces results in what you want to see. Sometimes the revelation of the Word and the physical manifestation comes immediately; other times it may take a while to gain full revelation and for the results to show. For me, Hebrews 6:18 was shared by Heng in Feb 2010 and I heard it again in a sermon in Feb 2011. Yet during these two instances, I still did not have the full revelation of this verse until today.
I wondered what are the two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. I interpreted them to be God taking an oath and swearing by Himself. Actually taking an oath and swearing mean the same thing and they refer to the covenant that God had cut with Abraham. Yet instead of making the covenant with the blood and body of animals, God cut the covenant with the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. And so, all these while, the two unchangeable things referred to the body and blood of Jesus.
God is telling me that when we take Holy Communion, we should be thinking about His covenant to us. This covenant confirms what is said by God and puts an end to all arguments with regards to His promises in our life. From early Feb 2011, our family had been taking Communion daily and applying the Anointing oil. Holy Communion is powerful because when we remember the broken body of Christ and His blood that was shed for our forgiveness of sins, we are also declaring God's covenant to us.
We are saying that though the physical manifestation has not come yet, God's promises are sure and it is impossible for Him to lie. In this we are greatly encouraged and look out expectantly for news of our 2nd pregnancy as we believed the harvest is here. The fruit is already dangling in front of us and we need to pluck it down. Now. Immediately.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
God's Good Friday gift to us
One of our dear sisters from the care group blessed us with 3 tickets to the musical performance 'Voyage De La Vie' at Sentosa Resorts World. God is really so good. For this free favor from God, I felt so loved by God like the last time we went for a buffet lunch at Hard Rock Hotel and there was a one-for-one promotion. The tickets were at the stall and they were the most expensive tickets. It would have cost us $400 for our whole family to watch the performance. Yet because of God's unmerited favour on us, these tickets came FREE! It was good entertainment and best of all, Joshua enjoyed it very much despite the loud sounds and fire and smoke.
All these blessings were made possible because of one Man's death on the cross. He is Jesus Christ. Because of what He did at the cross 2000 years ago, we are still enjoying the benefits of what He purchased for us at the cross. In today's Resurrection Sunday's message, Pastor Prince preached about why in the old testament, God always seemed to favor the younger son over the elder one though the eldest son had the birthrights to the best blessings. The eldest son was rejected yet the younger son was blessed and loved. Examples are: Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh and the prodigal son over his elder brother.
In Genesis 48:13-20, Joseph brought his sons Manasseh and Ephraim for his father Jacob to bless. He purposely placed Manasseh the eldest son at Jacob's right hand and Ephraim at Jacob's left hand. Yet Jacob stretched his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head and his left hand on Manasseh's head. (By doing this, Jacob was crossing his hand, which is a picture of the cross.) Jacob pronounced that the younger son shall be greater than the elder one.
Pastor Prince said that God our Father had rejected His eldest son Jesus Christ (who is also the firstborn) so that all of us, the younger sons could be accepted and loved. Wow, to me, it is such a revelation! It is totally unfair but we get to enjoy all that Christ has done for us; the most important of all being the forgiveness of our sins. The fact that Jesus is risen from the dead meant that He has paid the penalty for all our sins and God our Father has accepted His payment totally.
After He is risen, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us. He is our Mediator, our Advocate. The Father is pleased with Jesus and hence He is also pleased with us because we are in Christ. As Christ is, so are we in this world. We do not have to rely on our efforts focusing and reflecting on how we could be more Christ-like or how we could emulate Jesus' example. We just have to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and we are effortlessly changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). Oh how lovely is my Lord Jesus!
All these blessings were made possible because of one Man's death on the cross. He is Jesus Christ. Because of what He did at the cross 2000 years ago, we are still enjoying the benefits of what He purchased for us at the cross. In today's Resurrection Sunday's message, Pastor Prince preached about why in the old testament, God always seemed to favor the younger son over the elder one though the eldest son had the birthrights to the best blessings. The eldest son was rejected yet the younger son was blessed and loved. Examples are: Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh and the prodigal son over his elder brother.
In Genesis 48:13-20, Joseph brought his sons Manasseh and Ephraim for his father Jacob to bless. He purposely placed Manasseh the eldest son at Jacob's right hand and Ephraim at Jacob's left hand. Yet Jacob stretched his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head and his left hand on Manasseh's head. (By doing this, Jacob was crossing his hand, which is a picture of the cross.) Jacob pronounced that the younger son shall be greater than the elder one.
Pastor Prince said that God our Father had rejected His eldest son Jesus Christ (who is also the firstborn) so that all of us, the younger sons could be accepted and loved. Wow, to me, it is such a revelation! It is totally unfair but we get to enjoy all that Christ has done for us; the most important of all being the forgiveness of our sins. The fact that Jesus is risen from the dead meant that He has paid the penalty for all our sins and God our Father has accepted His payment totally.
After He is risen, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us. He is our Mediator, our Advocate. The Father is pleased with Jesus and hence He is also pleased with us because we are in Christ. As Christ is, so are we in this world. We do not have to rely on our efforts focusing and reflecting on how we could be more Christ-like or how we could emulate Jesus' example. We just have to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and we are effortlessly changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). Oh how lovely is my Lord Jesus!
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