The Way of the Warrior (Graham Cooke)

At the YWAM retreat, the Lord spoke to me about spiritual warfare - namely, that if we can be at rest in the spirit even amidst a storm, that is when we will overcome. It's something I still need to process, but Graham Cooke's The Way of the Warrior helps immensely in making sense of many things I am still pondering...



Spiritual warfare is primarily about discovering the sovereignty, supremacy and the majesty of Jesus and learning to track from heaven to earth, rather than earth to heaven.

The fruit of the spirit is a more powerful weapon against the enemy than the gifts of the spirit. The nature of God, which makes us Christ-like, is the very thing that overwhelms and defeats the enemy. Our circumstances are not the problem; it’s our perception of that which is the problem. When you are a warrior, you start with a perception that comes direct from heaven.

When you deliberately align yourself with how you are known in heaven, how you are perceived in heaven, what your identity is that comes to you from heaven, you step into a place of agreement, you step into that place of alignment, and the intentionality of that identity. And it is your identity that opens up a way for you to experience and come into your destiny, what you were created for, what your role is in the earth, what your persona is in terms of how you’re known in heaven. When you begin to deliberately align yourself with how God sees you, that’s when you notice that the intentionality of God himself flows into your life in such a powerful way that you become significant even when you’re not trying to.

I find the last quote, in particular, very interesting. How does God see you? Ask him! I have found that His view is always refreshing! And He always think of us very highly, because we are much loved by Him.

Reflections on YWAM The Call (One Body, many parts)

Attended the YWAM - The Call retreat over a week ago. It was an awesome four days with the Lord, and I count it a great honour and privilege to have journeyed with the organising committee and walked with them as a prayer partner throughout this time. It is especially a privilege for me because despite my rather tenuous link with YWAM, they took me into their fold. It gave me a behind-the-scenes picture of the preparation work behind this amazing retreat, and has taught me so much!

One big reason the retreat was so awesome is that from the start, the Holy Spirit was given plenty of room to have His way. Unlike pre-planned or pre-programmed meetings, there was a large dose of listening to God, to hear what He wanted, before moving out. It was, as far as we could, letting God set His agenda. It required a new paradigm to how we Singaporeans, consummate planners that we are, do meetings. As an example, on Day 2, I asked the organising team who would lead worship on Day 3, and was shocked that they hadn't yet firmed this up. I was panicking on their behalf, but they hadn't finalised the team because God hadn't spoken. Hence, they weren't going to move in presumption. Wow.

Because I had the privilege of praying with the organising team, and was privy to their pre-gathering discussions, one thing that struck me was how we sometimes had to launch out in faith with God alone as our safety net. Before one particular session on worship, the team had met (like we always did), to pray and ask God how He wanted us to run the session. The collective, corporate revelation we had was probably only 50%, when it was time for the session to begin. Again, if I was leading this session, I would have panicked! The Lord had given us revelation to start the session, but no sense of how to run the middle or end part! We had to trust that He would take the reins and glorify Himself through it. It turned out to be one of the most breathtaking sessions of all, because I believe the Holy Spirit honoured the team for giving Him the freedom to move.

One other big learning is something the Lord has been teaching me these past months -of the preciousness of the Body (One Body, many parts) walking together. For me, this was just precious to behold:

1. Prophetic minstrels - the sessions were phenomenal because the worship was incredible. The worship leaders, with their talent and giftings, yielded up to the Lord, were able to bring us into the Holy of Holies, the very throne room of God. They were hearing God as much as the intercessors were, and ushering in the presence of God through song. One worship leader, a friend of mine, broke into prophetic song for the very first time in her life, and it was one of the most ministering songs I've heard in a long time. They blessed us with their anointing.

2. Intercessors - In "The Kneeling Christian", which I have been recently reading, one quote has just stuck in my head. The author said, "All fruitfulness in service is the outcome of prayer - of the worker's prayers, or of those who are holding up holy hands on his behalf." Before one of the sessions, the worship leader asked the intercessors to pray during the worship. In his words, he said, "Throughout the entire practice session, I feel that the arrow has been missing the mark, and what is needed for the arrow to hit the target is intercession." I was floored by his humility, of his recognition of the importance of prayer fuelling worship. It turned out to be one of the most incredible worship times over the four days.

3. The teachers - After the worship, we had the word, and this was brought to us by very anointed teachers, who knew how to rightly divide the word of truth

4. The "grandparents" - In a meeting that is run so much by hearing God's voice, how is abuse prevented? How do we know we are hearing rightly, and not being deceived by our hearts? This is where the "grandparents" come in - the ones who have walked with the Lord for many more years, who have developed a deep intimacy with God, who have honed their discernment. They are there to protect us, and it is to their wisdom and counsel that we submit.

5. The nations - In this meeting, there were over 20 nations represented, and one thing the Lord is increasingly showing me is that there is a glory that is unveiled when the nations walk together. He has gifted each nation with its own unique anointing, and when we serve each other (as individuals, corporately, or as nations), it brings delight to His heart. As a case in point, on one of the days, the teaching was on freedom, and the breaking of chains. There were 4 Samoans in the meeting, and in one of the sessions, they felt led by God to do a Haka (a warrior dance), to symbolically war for the breaking of strongholds. When they did so, the spiritual atmosphere changed; it was highly charged, and I believe chains were broken that night.

"God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body." (1 Cor 12:18-19)

I have been greatly blessed because all the members of the body, diverse as we are, walked in our various giftings, and served the others according to our anointings. That partnership is precious, and I believe, brings the corporate church into a greater measure of the fullness of Christ.

The Father's Love (Matt Redman)

I heard this song at the YWAM Associates retreat over the past four days, and have been playing it over and over again since. I find it so incredibly ministering ... and have broken down in tears just listening to it, and to know just how much God loves us. Over the last few days, one of the things I discovered about God is that what pleases Him is to see His children be just who He created them to be. At the meeting, we had 4 Samoans. These indigenous people have a special anointing, I believe, as a warring tribe. When one of the Samoans, a huge man, danced his native warrior dance in honour of the Lord, I could feel God's delight all over. It breaks my heart to know He loves us, he loves us, he loves us. We don't need to perform to earn that love, He loves us because we are His.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

The Father's Love

I have heard so many songs
Listened to a thousand tongues
But there is one
That sounds above them all
[Sounds above them all]

The Father's song
The Father's love
You sung it over me and for eternity
It's written on my heart

CHORUS

It's Heaven's perfect mystery
The king of love has sent for me
And now you're singing over me
The Father's song

The ACS Clock Tower Revival of 1972

For a while now, I've heard snippets of the Clock Tower Revival at ACS Barker in the 1970s, but they have just been bits and pieces. So when a friend passed me a little booklet "The Clock Tower Story: The Beginnings of the Charismatic Renewals in Singapore" (edited by Michael Poon and Malcolm Tan), it was exciting to me. Finally! Here was the complete story of what transpired at ACS so many years ago, when the Holy Spirit fell upon a bunch of young boys, whose lives were so indelibly changed, that a number of them became pastors in the Methodist Church in Singapore.

In a nutshell, the ACS Clock Tower was a place where groups of students gathered together for regular prayer. In 1972, the Holy Spirit moved upon the students "in a dramatic way ... the result was similar to the experience of the apostles at Pentecost". Nearly 30 years later, the students described it as "a move of God", "outpouring of the Holy Spirit", "baptism of the Holy Spirit", and "speaking in tongues". It was such a big thing at that time that two articles appeared in The Straits Times.

Given I have been thinking about revival for some time, here are some thoughts as I read this account that happened in Singapore nearly 40 years ago:

1. A prayer movement preceded the revival. As Malcolm Tan recounted it, "It cannot be denied that there was a very powerful prayer movement that was going on here in school prior to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And if you walked up Barker Road Hill in those days, you will see groups of ACS boys - five, three, four - just praying in the sanctuary of the Barker Road Methodist Church. Not only was the church full, but also the clock tower was full. Boys were meeting and praying."

2. There was such a tremendous zeal for prayer, the students used every opportunity -recess-time, before school hours, after school hours, to cry out to the Lord. I believe that God cannot resist the hunger and thirst for Him. As Noel Goh put it, in 1971, "we started to gather to pray, and we prayed every recess. Every recess, we would run to the clock tower. And when we hear the bell, we would quickly say 'Amen' and run back. It was quite a distance back to the Pre-U block. We would just be on time there panting away in the classroom".

"Sometimes, we would come before seven o'clock to pray before school starts. If we did not have prefect duties, and other duties, sometimes we would also stay back after school to pray. I remember we used the church garage. We took chairs there after school and would kneel there to pray until four or five o'clock and then go back."

3. Conditions must be right for the Holy Spirit outpouring. Some lay down their lives to lay the foundations for this, and it is only the ones that come after who enjoy the fullness of God. We must always honour the ones who go before us, because truly, their ceiling is our floor. Revival comes when the different generations are as one.

Malcolm Tan: "I wish you could feel the spiritual fervour in those days as people like Noel Goh, who led us in the Christian Fellowship. They were into Scripture memory, personal evangelism and prayer. And they influenced us in the younger generation."

Tan Khian Seng: "Rev Noel Goh was like John the Baptist who blazed the trail in the prayer movement. When he vacated the clock tower because he was slightly older, we took over."

4. If our experience does not square with the Scriptures, it is not because the Scriptures are wrong. The boys, who came from a Methodist background, did not know the Holy Spirit, having come from a more traditional conservative environment. But "they searched the Scriptures", and were convinced that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was right and true. Given this, they pressed in to God, asking that if this was true, that He should make it real in their lives. God responded to this, as He would. I love the simple faith expressed by Tan Khong Chew, "We went into the Word, took it at face value, and claimed the promises that God has given us. We began to see things happening in our lives."

5. Genuine moves of God can meet with tremendous opposition, both from the world and even the church itself. The Straits Times on 7 Nov 1972 reported that "some students who have been taking part in religious meetings after school hours have ended up either in hysterics or in a trance".

This doesn't surprise me. The world doesn't interpret the church, the word interprets the world. So when the world interprets the church, is it any surprise that it condemns or derides that which it doesn't understand?

But what was stunning to me was that the church condemned this movement too. In the ST report on 11 Nov, it was said that church leaders at 4 mainline Protestant churches likened the renewal to "a certain religious cult with unhealthy practices ... the trouble with young people is that they think it is a great experience to end up in hysterics".

6. God works behind the scenes to take care of all our needs. He prepares the way in advance, knowing what we need. After the clock tower revival, the school authorities clamped down on the boys meeting, so that they could mostly only meet with a teacher present. As one of the boys said, "Because most teachers were not willing to be with us, we could not meet."

Funny thing is that at this time, a Rev Hugh Baker, a veteran Pentescostal preacher, had his beautiful premises at Clemenceau Avenue taken away and he and his wife had to move to Bukit Timah. Said Rev Baker, "My wife and I were talking about this move, and we said certainly God must be going to do something great. We did not know about all of what was happening in ACS at that time." Because Rev Baker's centre was near ACS, he was the one who opened his house to the boys, and ministered to them often, teaching them about the things of the Holy Spirit.

7. Ps Melvin Huang: The hunger for the word, the hunger for prayer and the desire to preach the Gospel were the hallmarks of the revival.

8. I thought this musing by Rev Baker sums up this little known but glorious moment of history in ACS, which then spread across Singapore, and across denominations, beautifully:

"There is nothing in ourselves that merits anything from God. But God in His mercy and his grace and love sees the hunger of our hearts and the channel that is open for the moving of His Holy Spirit. And He begins to pour His Spirit into that channel and that begins to spread out. God was looking for channels.

"He found channels in ACS. He found channels in Swiss Cottage. He found channels in the Anglican Church. He found channels in the Methodist Church. He found channels in the Catholic Church. He found channels in the Baptist Church. And that's a miracle. He found people who were willing to be channels the Holy Spirit could move through. And in moving through, we begin to touch lives."

Finally, love this prayer as prayed by Rev Baker.

"Father, here I am. I just want to be the channel that you can use to ignite the revival that will not only spread across Singapore but will spread out to the rest of the world. And the world will come to know the glory, the majesty and power of your name. And the free flow of your Holy Spirit will demonstrate to the world the power of a living Christ. Thank you, Father, thank you, Father, thank you, Father."

To read about how the ACS clocktower revival was the epicentre of the 1970s charismatic renewal, click here.

The Cambridge Seven

Today, I found out about a group of men known as the "Cambridge Seven", who gave their lives to the cause of Christ and became missionaries in China. Am deeply, deeply inspired by this, since they are from my alma mata. At their lives' end, all of them had run the race well, having stayed true to their original vision to evangelise Christ.

But what is equally inspiring is the story of Harold Schofield, of whom it is said prayed "night after night" to God to send labourers into the harvest field. Surely he who prays (and moves the hand of God) - and he who is sent - both labour equally. Am praying that I, like the Cambridge Seven, will view with right perspective the all-surpassing greatness of giving my life to His cause. He is worthy.

------
The Cambridge Seven (Reproduced from an article by Anthony B. Wong)

The seven young men who came to be known as "The Cambridge Seven" were all Englishmen, but the story of how God used this handful of students really begins in China, with a medical missionary named Dr. Harold Schofield. Dr. Schofield was a member of the China Inland Mission, the first Protestant mission allowed to penetrate into the interior of China and it was the mission pioneered by Hudson Taylor in 1866. Dr. Schofield had been a brilliant young doctor at Oxford who gave his life to Jesus and at the age of 29, God sent him to China as a missionary.

There was nothing glamorous about missionary life in the interior of China. The stench of dung, mingled with the stench of unwashed bodies was everywhere. Disease was common, especially among the poor, peasant class, and in fact, Dr. Schofield would later die from typhus, contracted in his mission field. At the time, few in England were interested in China mission. Fewer still had even heard of Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission and the handful who did go to China were not university men, "trained in mind and body for leadership." Students in the universities were not interested in foreign missions and actually, there were not many students who were deeply interested in Jesus. Of the university students who had answered God's call to be missionaries, they wanted to follow the paths blazed by Dr. David Livingstone in Africa or the footsteps of William Carey in India.

As Dr. Schofield surveyed the province (Shansi) in which he lived, with its nine million unsaved heathen Chinese and only five or six missionaries total, combined with the sleeping church back in England, he should have packed up his bags and went home in utter defeat.

However, Dr. Schofield was a man of prayer and so night after night, "leaving behind food and leisure," he got on his knees and prayed that God would raise up Bible teachers and shepherds, especially from the universities and send them to China as missionaries. When Dr. Schofield died, he did not physically see much answer to his prayer. But God was working in such a way as not only to answer one man's faith and prayer but to awaken an entire nation from its spiritual slumber.