Post by Zac Loh on Jun 5, 2008 10:07:11 GMT -5
Leave The Old Things And Have The New Things
In the Bible, the number 8 is the number of new beginning. Several preachers I know prophesied that the year 2008 is the year of `new beginning’.
We must leave the old to put on the new. In the Chinese culture, we do house cleaning because we enter a New Year, and we wear new clothes in the New Year. Likewise, when we enter into a new season in God, we must leave the old things behind.
In the Bible, we read that we are instructed to renew our minds. We are instructed to put on the new man, the new mindset …and to put off the old man, the old mind set. As a church, God will always renew us every now and then. This is the pattern of how God lead us ….applicable for every Christian and every Church.
The church needs to have a new way of thinking, a new way of approach, a new concept and a new mentality. Jesus said that in order to have a new wine, we need to have a new wineskin.
The wineskin is made of animal skin probably goatskin. What happens is that, the wine will expand the wineskin. Then, the wine will harden the wineskin. So, the old wineskin is unable to expand anymore and it is harden.
When new wineskin is poured into the old wineskin, obviously it will expand and it will crack because it can’t expand anymore and it is hardened. The new wine will leak out and be wasted.
What the olden day people do is that they soak the old wineskin in the water for some time until the wineskin become as new again.
To have the new wine, the new anointing of the Holy Spirit, the new move of the Holy Spirit …we need to be soaked in the presence, the water of the Holy Spirit until our mind is expandable and flexible again.
Our old thinking is unable to contain the new concept, the new method of the Holy Spirit. We need to have an expandable and flexible mind that is able to comprehend the revelation and direction of the Holy Spirit.
There is a new move of the Holy Spirit, and we need to have a new mentality to flow with the Holy Spirit, to follow the Holy Spirit into the new things that He has for us.
God instructed Abraham to leave his home country. And Abraham left the old to enter into a new territory. Moses left his old life in the palace. Jesus left the old order of the old covenant, to start a new covenant. Paul left his old way of religious upbringing, concept and thinking of the Pharisee …he considered his old thing as rubbish …so that he can embrace the new thinking in Christ.
We always have to leave the old, to embrace the new.
The Key To Prosperity
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)
Many times this verse Luke 6:38 is used for material/financial prosperity. But when we do this, we have a very limited view of prosperity. Read the whole portion of scripture and you will find out the whole picture of what exactly Jesus was really talking about (Luke 6:27-38).
The key to prosperity is the heart. Listen to me, if you want to have a big congregation, you have to have a big heart – to accommodate many different people in your heart. You must have room in your heart for all sorts of people who is different from you. You have to be able to love those whom you dislike. You must be able to forgive and keep forgiving. You must always wish others well.
In business, if someone who is not part of my company wants to help my business but don’t want to join my company, I welcome, as long as my business benefits from it. We cannot close ourselves, and set limitations and restrictions …and say if you want to help us, you must join us.
And we must not be too selective and choosy. If someone can offer help this much in this small area only, we accept it. This is humility – to accept whatever is offered by anyone if it blesses our church. We have to have humility to accept advice and suggestions – even from non-famous people.
In a corporate company, many times we don’t have a choice to choose which colleague we work with. As long as working together means benefiting the company. Jesus said, many times, the people of the outside world are wiser than the children of the light. We, as God’s children find it difficult to work with people we don’t like even if it benefits the kingdom. How can this be?!!!
The bigger your heart, the bigger your ministry will be, the bigger the church will be. God wants us to prosper in our heart. He wants us to have a big heart that is strong and yet tender with love. To enlarge our vision, God needs to work in our heart and in our soul. Big heart …big church!
God wants to make our heart strong because we will face rejection and disappointment. At the same time, God wants to make our heart tender because we are to continuously forgive people and be merciful to them.
Say, “God, make my heart strong, and make my heart tender …for You …so that I can always love …any person …no matter what happens. God, make my heart big, strong and tender …for You!” This is the key to prosperity.
Our God Who Does Multiplication
When we look at the church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts, we see that God added to the church. In Acts 2:41, it says that on that day about three thousand souls were added to them. In Acts 2:47, it reads, the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. In Acts 5:14, it reads, believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
And then, after this phase of addition, something happened, we see a multiplication. In Acts 6:1, we read, the number of the disciples was multiplying. In Acts 6:7, we read that the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
Our God does multiplication. When we reach out to Him in faith, He is able to multiply our resources, our time, our manpower, our ministry and our church. The commodity of the economy is money. If the financial situation grows and runs, the economy will prosper. The commodity in the kingdom of God, is faith. Once we give our faith to God, God will multiply our faith. Many more Christians around us will believe together with us; and many more non-Christians outside will become believers together with us. Christians are called `believers’ …those who believe …faith.
How do you become a Christian? It is by faith. Faith is about believing. I believe, therefore I speak and confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Christians are called believers!
If we begin the Christian life by faith; shouldn’t we continue, grow and expand - by faith?
But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:20)
GOD MULTIPLIES OUR FAITH!
OUR GOD DOES MULTIPLICATION!
When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:15-21)
5 thousand men …and not counting women and children …ate to the full …out of 5 loves of bread and 2 fish …and 12 baskets full of pieces of bread …balance …leftover.
Jesus asked the disciples to give something. You see, God is asking us to give Him something to feed the people outside there who are hungry for the real spiritual food of God.
God is asking what you have so that He can multiply it! You must work with God. God can only work with what you give Him. Give God something to work with. He needs you to give Him something so that He can do the miracle!
Give God your time. Give God your talent. Give God your energy. Give God your human connection. Give God your knowledge.
How does God multiply your time? God will bring-in more people who will contribute their time to the kingdom of God. How does God multiply your talent? God will bring-in more people who will help you with their talent. How does God multiply your energy? God will bring-in more people who will give their energy and combine their energy with your energy, and working together with you as one. Do you get the idea?
Jesus asked the disciples to give something. But the disciples said we have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
Many times, we say, I only have a little of this. Jesus is not asking about how little you have. Jesus is asking what you have.
Many times, we say, I don’t have this, I don’t have that. Jesus is not asking what you don’t have. Give God what you have!
What is the thing that you have?
God is asking you to give it to Him in faith. What God is looking for, is your faith.
GOD WILL MULTIPLY YOUR FAITH!
Soldier’s Faith
Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! (Matthew 8:5-10)
Have you ever been to an army camp? Have you watch movies or TV drama about the army? What do you see? What do you perceive in a soldier’s behavior? What is the soldier’s attitude towards the commander? How do orders from superior are carried out?
Jesus is the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army. And we are His soldiers. And you know a soldier cannot refused or disobey an order from His commander.
He can only ask 2 questions: when can I do it and how can I do it.
He cannot say, “let me think about it whether I want to do it or not.”
He cannot say, “I cannot follow your order because it is too harmful to me.”
This is God’s army. We believe in our commander-in-chief whom we call Lord Jesus. We believe in His wisdom. We believe He knows what is best. We believe He is more than able to lead us, help us …and He will always be with us!
So when He asks us to do something, we will go all the way because our faith carries us through. We will not doubt our commander. If our commander says yes, we say yes. If our commander says go, we go …and not turn back.
We only ask 2 questions: “when to do it, Lord?” and “how to do it, Lord?”
You are in God’s army.
In the Bible, the number 8 is the number of new beginning. Several preachers I know prophesied that the year 2008 is the year of `new beginning’.
We must leave the old to put on the new. In the Chinese culture, we do house cleaning because we enter a New Year, and we wear new clothes in the New Year. Likewise, when we enter into a new season in God, we must leave the old things behind.
In the Bible, we read that we are instructed to renew our minds. We are instructed to put on the new man, the new mindset …and to put off the old man, the old mind set. As a church, God will always renew us every now and then. This is the pattern of how God lead us ….applicable for every Christian and every Church.
The church needs to have a new way of thinking, a new way of approach, a new concept and a new mentality. Jesus said that in order to have a new wine, we need to have a new wineskin.
The wineskin is made of animal skin probably goatskin. What happens is that, the wine will expand the wineskin. Then, the wine will harden the wineskin. So, the old wineskin is unable to expand anymore and it is harden.
When new wineskin is poured into the old wineskin, obviously it will expand and it will crack because it can’t expand anymore and it is hardened. The new wine will leak out and be wasted.
What the olden day people do is that they soak the old wineskin in the water for some time until the wineskin become as new again.
To have the new wine, the new anointing of the Holy Spirit, the new move of the Holy Spirit …we need to be soaked in the presence, the water of the Holy Spirit until our mind is expandable and flexible again.
Our old thinking is unable to contain the new concept, the new method of the Holy Spirit. We need to have an expandable and flexible mind that is able to comprehend the revelation and direction of the Holy Spirit.
There is a new move of the Holy Spirit, and we need to have a new mentality to flow with the Holy Spirit, to follow the Holy Spirit into the new things that He has for us.
God instructed Abraham to leave his home country. And Abraham left the old to enter into a new territory. Moses left his old life in the palace. Jesus left the old order of the old covenant, to start a new covenant. Paul left his old way of religious upbringing, concept and thinking of the Pharisee …he considered his old thing as rubbish …so that he can embrace the new thinking in Christ.
We always have to leave the old, to embrace the new.
The Key To Prosperity
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)
Many times this verse Luke 6:38 is used for material/financial prosperity. But when we do this, we have a very limited view of prosperity. Read the whole portion of scripture and you will find out the whole picture of what exactly Jesus was really talking about (Luke 6:27-38).
The key to prosperity is the heart. Listen to me, if you want to have a big congregation, you have to have a big heart – to accommodate many different people in your heart. You must have room in your heart for all sorts of people who is different from you. You have to be able to love those whom you dislike. You must be able to forgive and keep forgiving. You must always wish others well.
In business, if someone who is not part of my company wants to help my business but don’t want to join my company, I welcome, as long as my business benefits from it. We cannot close ourselves, and set limitations and restrictions …and say if you want to help us, you must join us.
And we must not be too selective and choosy. If someone can offer help this much in this small area only, we accept it. This is humility – to accept whatever is offered by anyone if it blesses our church. We have to have humility to accept advice and suggestions – even from non-famous people.
In a corporate company, many times we don’t have a choice to choose which colleague we work with. As long as working together means benefiting the company. Jesus said, many times, the people of the outside world are wiser than the children of the light. We, as God’s children find it difficult to work with people we don’t like even if it benefits the kingdom. How can this be?!!!
The bigger your heart, the bigger your ministry will be, the bigger the church will be. God wants us to prosper in our heart. He wants us to have a big heart that is strong and yet tender with love. To enlarge our vision, God needs to work in our heart and in our soul. Big heart …big church!
God wants to make our heart strong because we will face rejection and disappointment. At the same time, God wants to make our heart tender because we are to continuously forgive people and be merciful to them.
Say, “God, make my heart strong, and make my heart tender …for You …so that I can always love …any person …no matter what happens. God, make my heart big, strong and tender …for You!” This is the key to prosperity.
Our God Who Does Multiplication
When we look at the church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts, we see that God added to the church. In Acts 2:41, it says that on that day about three thousand souls were added to them. In Acts 2:47, it reads, the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. In Acts 5:14, it reads, believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
And then, after this phase of addition, something happened, we see a multiplication. In Acts 6:1, we read, the number of the disciples was multiplying. In Acts 6:7, we read that the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
Our God does multiplication. When we reach out to Him in faith, He is able to multiply our resources, our time, our manpower, our ministry and our church. The commodity of the economy is money. If the financial situation grows and runs, the economy will prosper. The commodity in the kingdom of God, is faith. Once we give our faith to God, God will multiply our faith. Many more Christians around us will believe together with us; and many more non-Christians outside will become believers together with us. Christians are called `believers’ …those who believe …faith.
How do you become a Christian? It is by faith. Faith is about believing. I believe, therefore I speak and confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Christians are called believers!
If we begin the Christian life by faith; shouldn’t we continue, grow and expand - by faith?
But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:20)
GOD MULTIPLIES OUR FAITH!
OUR GOD DOES MULTIPLICATION!
When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:15-21)
5 thousand men …and not counting women and children …ate to the full …out of 5 loves of bread and 2 fish …and 12 baskets full of pieces of bread …balance …leftover.
Jesus asked the disciples to give something. You see, God is asking us to give Him something to feed the people outside there who are hungry for the real spiritual food of God.
God is asking what you have so that He can multiply it! You must work with God. God can only work with what you give Him. Give God something to work with. He needs you to give Him something so that He can do the miracle!
Give God your time. Give God your talent. Give God your energy. Give God your human connection. Give God your knowledge.
How does God multiply your time? God will bring-in more people who will contribute their time to the kingdom of God. How does God multiply your talent? God will bring-in more people who will help you with their talent. How does God multiply your energy? God will bring-in more people who will give their energy and combine their energy with your energy, and working together with you as one. Do you get the idea?
Jesus asked the disciples to give something. But the disciples said we have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
Many times, we say, I only have a little of this. Jesus is not asking about how little you have. Jesus is asking what you have.
Many times, we say, I don’t have this, I don’t have that. Jesus is not asking what you don’t have. Give God what you have!
What is the thing that you have?
God is asking you to give it to Him in faith. What God is looking for, is your faith.
GOD WILL MULTIPLY YOUR FAITH!
Soldier’s Faith
Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! (Matthew 8:5-10)
Have you ever been to an army camp? Have you watch movies or TV drama about the army? What do you see? What do you perceive in a soldier’s behavior? What is the soldier’s attitude towards the commander? How do orders from superior are carried out?
Jesus is the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army. And we are His soldiers. And you know a soldier cannot refused or disobey an order from His commander.
He can only ask 2 questions: when can I do it and how can I do it.
He cannot say, “let me think about it whether I want to do it or not.”
He cannot say, “I cannot follow your order because it is too harmful to me.”
This is God’s army. We believe in our commander-in-chief whom we call Lord Jesus. We believe in His wisdom. We believe He knows what is best. We believe He is more than able to lead us, help us …and He will always be with us!
So when He asks us to do something, we will go all the way because our faith carries us through. We will not doubt our commander. If our commander says yes, we say yes. If our commander says go, we go …and not turn back.
We only ask 2 questions: “when to do it, Lord?” and “how to do it, Lord?”
You are in God’s army.