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.

MY BLOG'S EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY

For the past few months I had been busy preparing Joshua for his primary school leaving exams (PSLE) in end Sep and early Oct. What a great relief it was when his exams finally were over on 3 Oct! It had been so intense for the past few months, especially the few weeks leading up to the exams. Once the written papers started, things moved even faster. But towards the end of the written exams, we were out of steam and could not wait for the exams to end. Thank God that it had been a relatively stress free year preparing for PSLE. If not for the grace of God, it would have been so much worse and stressful.

After the exams, we went on a cruise holiday last week. It was a busy but fun-filled trip. So it was only today that I was reminded by a dear sister that my blog turned eight today. I haven't even been tracking it for the past few years. The last time she reminded me was when my blog turned five in 2015. How time flies! I had not been active blogging especially this year. I was busy internalizing what the Lord had taught me for the past year. So much revelation that He has poured into me. Maybe it is about time that God wants me to start blogging about these revelation. 

In fact, some time ago I read Doug Addison's book on dream interpretations and I started getting understanding about my dreams. I always had dreams since I was young but I didn't understand what they meant. Last year I began having dreams more frequently and some of them were warning dreams. As I received revelation from the Lord about my dreams, I became more in the flow. I learnt that God also speaks to us in our dreams, though not all of them symbolised something. But if a dream was recurring, then most likely God is trying to get a message across to you.

And so for the past few months, I had been practicing dream interpretation for people around me. I believe that their dreams hold the key to their breakthrough. The interpretation from God about their dreams bore witness with their spirits. Some of their dreams pointed to a deeper root cause of bitterness or unforgiveness. It was always so exciting to hear of dreams and receive the understanding of it. As such, I was prompted by the Spirit to share this gift with my viewers. If you have a dream that you cannot understand yet you feel it is important, you can email me and I will ask God for the interpretation. Remember I am here to help you. My email is avinlee77@gmail.com