MY BLOG’S 13TH BIRTHDAY

I cannot believe that my blog is 13th years old now. Time really flies. I was so busy for the past year that I have not been blogging. Today when I woke up, I was reminded to post because it is my blog’s 13th birthday. I hope that in this new year, I will be able to post more regularly. I thank God for reminding me of how this blog started in 2010. I just wanted to express my views because I believed that God has given me a voice. I hope that through my sharing, believers all over the world could be encouraged by the word of God. 

Well, just a quick update as to how the Lord has been leading me in the past year. After being commissioned into the marketplace ministry last Oct, I have been working with a few companies the past year, providing spiritual covering for them. This spiritual covering takes the form of prayer intercession. It is a contractual relationship with the companies for 6 months or 1 year. The whole idea is about commitment from both sides, not just sporadic kind of prayer support but dedicated spiritual intercession. 

I first learnt about this concept of spiritual covering through Kingdom Initiatives Australia. There is so much to share about spiritual covering but that will be for another post in future. Before I even heard about spiritual covering, the Lord has put on my heart the concept of prophetic coaching which might be more familiar to some. Yes some prophets like Doug Addison has been providing mentoring and spiritual coaching for believers. Basically to me, it is about journeying with the companies in prayer and also in prophetic consultation. 

The idea is not new. As coaching is not new in the business world. But spiritual or prophetic coaching is a little different because it requires us to tap on God’s solutions and the wisdom of heaven for everyday marketplace issues. In doing so, it isn’t just about giving a word to the business owners, it is also about a renewal of their minds. We want the Christian businesses to have a kingdom mindset eventually.  We hope to help companies, not just individuals, discover their kingdom assignment, the role it plays in the kingdom or the marketplace. 

This type of coaching and intercession in the marketplace specifically deals with issues in the business world. Areas like mammon, corruption, greed, business fundamentals like sales, marketing, staffing, partners and macro economic factors etc. The Holy Spirit is a practical Person and I have seen how His instructions from the word of God are so applicable to the marketplace ministry. For example, as I pray for certain companies, the Lord will highlight specific issues faced by the business owner like the need to build capacity or a good team first. 

Later on, when I began to study secular books about doing business and helping businesses prosper, I realised that these concepts were actually espoused by people in the business world. It was then I realised that God Himself was teaching me how to profit and to help these companies to profit. So my bottom line is simple. Besides helping these companies get aligned to the plans of God, eventually the Lord wants them to prosper. So the test is in the pudding. Whether our partnership results in more open doors, sales or increased profitability. 

By profitability, I do not mean maximising profits with every single opportunity. At times the instruction of God goes against the grain of the worldly wisdom. It may not just be about making money all the time but yes, God is practical. People who go into business must eventually make a profit. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of doing business. Money is not a bad word. It is the love of money or the Spirit of Mammon that pulls believers away from God. Again, I have much to share on this but it will be for later. 

So yes, this is the summary of my work for the past year. It may not sound like a lot but God is laying the ground work in which much is unseen. Or behind the scenes. But I believe that God will open more doors in this new year. He will also cause dead dreams to come alive. Like this writing ministry. Like the idea for my sci-if book. All I have to do is to be willing and obedient. That’s all for now. I will provide more updates in time to come. 

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.