THE NEED FOR CONSECRATION

Recently I was led to meditate on the purpose of consecration. Mar 2016 was the first time I was impressed upon the need to consecrate myself to the Lord. I didn’t know what it meant and I hadn’t blogged about this topic. Maybe because I hadn’t gotten the full revelation yet. 

Come to think of it, the past few years had been a journey of consecrating myself to the Lord. But it was only in Feb 2020 that I received a word about Joshua 3:5 again. I didn’t know we would be going into a time of lockdown. In Mar 2020, I was reminded about the need to consecrate ourselves again. The prophets were all talking about this. 

In Apr and May 2020, the call for consecration became more distinct because we were all entering into a cocoon stage. During this time, the prophets were urging the believers to draw near to God, to seek Him first and to encounter His presence. For some of us, it wasn’t that we were doing anything wrong but that God was about to bring us to a new level. We had to press into Him to receive the strategies for the crossover. 

Joshua 3:5 was given to God’s people the day before they crossed Jordan. There is a call to consecrate ourselves, to surrender to His will and stay close to the Lord now more than ever. The reason is clear. We are crossing over to our promised land very soon. And this is also why the prophets kept telling us not to give up now. Press into the pressure and we will break out into the new place. Pressing into the pressure is how we provoke a suddenly to manifest in our lives. 

The old has passed away and the new has come. Increasingly the Lord has been saying this repeatedly and telling us to let go of the old wine skin. It was necessary to renew our minds and to stay close to Him so that we could align ourselves with the new things He is doing. Otherwise we would not be able to recognise the day of His visitation and reject the new move simply because it was strange to us. 

I just realised that the command to consecrate themselves was given by Joshua not the Lord. He was sensitive to recognise that God was coming on the scene mightily. Again it was back to the purity of our hearts. The more we are yielded to His will, the more God can pour out His power on us and work through us. At the end of the day, He is looking for pure vessels that He can work with. Without us He will not, without Him we cannot. 

After the Israelites witnessed the Lord parting Jordan and they stepped foot on the promised land, they were told by the Lord to circumcise themselves at Gilgal. The reason for doing this was also an act of consecration. In fact it was an outward circumcision of the inward heart. The timing for this act couldn’t be more inappropriate. They were putting themselves in dangerous situations for the enemy could attack them while they were still recovering. But again this act proved that their trust was in the Lord to protect them. 

It was a very necessary act on their part to prove their hearts’ allegiance to the Lord. God also rolled away their reproach as this place Gilgal meant rolling away the reproach. God had to remove all the condemnation in our lives before He can cause us to defeat our giants. After that the Lord Jesus appeared to Joshua as the Commander of Hosts and revealed the strategy to defeat Jericho. 

They were to march around Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day, they were to circle the city seven times. After the seventh time on the seventh day, they were to sound the trumpets and give a shout of victory. Yet another senseless battle strategy that soundEd silly. But the number seven showed that the circling was part of a spiritual exercise or process designed to set the people apart (sanctify them) for the Lord as a holy people who belong to a holy God. 

God was testing their hearts to see if they would complain about the silly act of circling the city. Besides, Joshua didn’t reveal that they had to do this for seven days. The instruction was given to them day by day. They were told to keep silent until the day Joshua say to them to shout. They didn’t know how long they had to do this. But they didn’t question Joshua or ask about the battle strategy. This was such a stark contrast compared to their parents who seemed to question Moses at the drop of a hat. 

Once again the Lord impressed upon me Isaiah 1:19. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land. This second generation of Jews was amazingly obedient and willing to do anything to possess their promised land. Maybe they were sick and tired of wandering in the desert unlike their parents. They watched their parents perish in the desert because of their disobedience, complaints and murmuring. 

The Lord is saying something very important now. In the days to come, we have to be like the Israelites and do what our Commander in chief tells us immediately. No delay and no questioning. There is no time to ask if it makes sense. Just do first then think. Whatever Jesus tells you, do it. God is looking for yielded hearts and a clean vessel to pour out His power. This means that we have to be willing and obedient for His power to flow through us. And the world will see it and give glory to Jesus.

DON’T LIMIT GOD

I just watched Andrew Wommack and Jesse Duplantis’ conference titled ‘Don’t limit God’. I saw this video some time ago but I hadn’t have the time to get down to watching it until recently. I really loved what they shared about their relationship and conversations with the Lord. I loved how they value their relationship and time with the Lord above all else. 

Through their sharing, I learnt on another dimension what God meant when He told me about no more limitations last Dec. Other than liberating me from the spiritual bondages, God is also telling me not to limit Him. My faith was stirred up as they shared testimonies of what the Lord did for them. Each time the Lord stretched their faith, asking them if that was all God could do for them. 

Andrew Wommack was saying that the real test comes when we are very blessed, living in the promised land. That is when we stop believing Him for more or relying on Him unlike in the wilderness where we have no choice. It is in the promised land that we forget to rely on Him and start doing all kinds of things in our own strength. Hence the command to remember Him in the promised land.

God doesn’t want us to be complacent. He wants us to come up higher. There is always more in His plan. Even when we think we are already very successful or blessed, He still has new levels for us so that we can stretch and grow. But we have to catch a vision of the future He has for us. And then we have to declare that future. Speak it out. Many people think it is pride when we say what God says about us or His plans for us. 

That is not pride. In fact, Andrew Wommack had such a low opinion of himself that he asked God to use someone else. God showed him that it wasn’t how He saw Andrew. Andrew Wommack was concerned that if he did what God wanted him to do, it would affect his relationship with God and his time with God. He told God that he can do without a ministry but he cannot live without God. He didn’t want to stray away from God once he became very successful.  

Maybe ten years ago I would have gotten so excited when God told me that He will make my name great or use me mightily in His kingdom. Or that He will give me a platform or connect me to so and so ministry. I wasn’t disillusioned because all of that hadn’t come to pass. I really didn’t need all these things now. I just need His fellowship and His love. 

In fact the Lord had dealt with me about my unwillingness to take up ministry position. I repented and told Him I want everything that He has prepared for me. I am not going to give it up so easily anymore. One of the reasons could be that I didn’t think I was qualified to do this great work. I mean who am I that He should I choose me? Again that stems from a wrong perception of myself. I don’t see myself as how God sees me. 

Recently God seems to be telling me to dare to dream big. Enlarge my tents and stretch forth my tent curtains again. In a time of famine when everyone is apprehensive and cutting back, God wants us to enlarge our tents. Think big and dream big. Don’t limit Him. Don’t limit what He can do in our lives. I felt like how I did in 2010, when God was stirring up those flames in my heart. 

SEEDTIME AND HARVEST

Recently I am watching Andrew Wommack’s series on ‘A Sure Foundation’. He talked about seed time and harvest, and how this law always works. But there usually is a time lapse between sowing and reaping. The seed needs time to germinate, spring up and then grow to a point where it can bear fruit. If we don’t understand this principle then we will get discouraged if we don’t see fruits soon enough.

He taught from Mark 4:4-8. It was a parable of how a sower sowed seeds and some fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and ate it. Some fell on stony ground and it immediately sprung up but because it had no root, it withered away. Yet some seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew and choked it, so it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a harvest: some thirty fold, some sixty and some a hundred. 

This verse was given to me in Apr 2011. That was the time I started studying the word of God seriously. I knew God was trying to tell me that one day this word will produce a crop because it is like seed sowed in good soil. In Feb 2012, He even gave me an imagery of a big oak tree and told me that one day I will be like that oak tree of righteousness and others will take shade under my tree. 

I always take it that Mark 4:8 was referring to how the harvest might be progressive like healing manifestation. Thirty, sixty then hundredfold. But when I read it again, I saw that the word of God sowed in different good soil might produce different harvests. For some people it might produce thirty fold harvest. For others sixty fold. Yet others hundredfold. As for me I want to go for the hundredfold harvest. 

Somehow the principle of sowing and reaping was brought to my attention when Pastor preached about it two weeks ago. He was saying that we might be eating of the old harvest but are we sowing for the next harvest. He was talking of sowing in a time of famine to reap a hundredfold return. When I watched his sermon again, I had this sense that the famine we are going to see is going to be more severe than we can imagine. 

This is definitely not good news for the world but for the church, when there is a famine, there will be a transfer of wealth. This can’t take place under normal circumstances. Only under a major shaking or a time of famine. Once again I am convinced that the Lord connected me to a particular group for a time like this. It had only been a few months but we are already seeing a time of famine in the world.

For some reason while the people of the world are fearful of their financial future, I am not. Somehow I know this is a great opportunity for the transfer of wealth. Although I don’t like to see people losing their jobs or economies going into recession, I believe this shaking is for our good. And the world will not understand the power of a seed. The power of sowing in a time like famine. It doesn’t make sense to give when you could be in lack. 

Genesis 26:12 says ‘Isaac sowed a seed in a time of famine and he reaped a hundredfold in the same year.’ There is a transfer of wealth taking place in a time of famine. Things are always inverse for the church, so when the world is in famine, the church will prosper. That was what Andrew Wommack did. During a time of recession in 2008/2009, the Lord prospered his ministry and they were able to buy properties at a fraction of the price because people were selling frantically. 

He was bold enough to enter the market to buy the properties instead of putting his money in the bank because he knew that one day things would turn around. And when it finally did turn around, they benefited so much from the downturn. This was something the Lord impressed upon me too. This is not the time to draw back but be bold. When the Lord tells us to take action, we obey. We don’t have to fear like the people of the world. The Lord protects and blesses our seed when it is sown.