Sunday, November 20, 2011
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
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Brian Doerksen: Resting place
This beautiful song is based on Isaiah 66. It blows my mind that God desires to dwell among men. He says "where will my resting place be"? In Genesis, God walks with men in the garden in the cool of the evening. After man sins, the entire bible chronicles God's singular mission to reconcile man to Himself through the death of Christ, so He can dwell with us once again.
Rev 21 shows His heartbeat and what happens at the End of the Age: "Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
I am just awestruck by the Father's great love for us!
While that is what happens at the story's end, in the meantime, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing privilege that God Himself should dwell with us, in our hearts!
Heaven is my throne
And earth is my footstool
Where is the house you will build for me?
Whom of you will hear the cry of my heart?
Where will my resting place be?
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared for You a home
Long have I desired for You to dwell
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared a resting place
Here Oh Lord I wait for You alone
Rev 21 shows His heartbeat and what happens at the End of the Age: "Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
I am just awestruck by the Father's great love for us!
While that is what happens at the story's end, in the meantime, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing privilege that God Himself should dwell with us, in our hearts!
Heaven is my throne
And earth is my footstool
Where is the house you will build for me?
Whom of you will hear the cry of my heart?
Where will my resting place be?
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared for You a home
Long have I desired for You to dwell
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared a resting place
Here Oh Lord I wait for You alone
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Running in a time of acceleration
Of late, there seems to be an acceleration of events around us. A sense of the need to fasten one's seatbelt, because of the time compression all about us. God is fast-forwarding events, and also His saints, because time is short.
I am reminded of a couple of verses where God says RUN! (not meandering about, or taking a leisurely stroll, but RUN!)
In Habbakuk 2:2-3, for example, He says, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
Or Jeremiah 12:5, which is all about running with horses. Horses! "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Interestingly, Elijah in 1 Kings actually outran King Ahab in his chariot... which must surely count as a miracle. It is a lesson in the supernatural strength and enablement that only the Holy Spirit can give.
Then there is what I call Holy Spirit transportation, which is even faster, as illustrated in Philip's encounter with the Ethopian eunuch in Acts. After Philip explained the gospel to him, and baptised him in a pool of water, "the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus."
The closer we get to the end of the age and the imminent return of Jesus, the shorter time becomes. The time is coming when seed time and harvest will be the same time. The speed at which souls are swept into the kingdom will take place at an unprecedented pace!
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, and the planter by the one treading grapes." (Amos 9:13)
God says in 2 Tim 4:2 "Be ready in season and out of season." If we are called upon to be ready even out of season, then how more so in this season of acceleration. Lord, make us ready to partner you for this great work of yours that is coming upon us! In Jesus' name, Amen.
I am reminded of a couple of verses where God says RUN! (not meandering about, or taking a leisurely stroll, but RUN!)
In Habbakuk 2:2-3, for example, He says, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
Or Jeremiah 12:5, which is all about running with horses. Horses! "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Interestingly, Elijah in 1 Kings actually outran King Ahab in his chariot... which must surely count as a miracle. It is a lesson in the supernatural strength and enablement that only the Holy Spirit can give.
Then there is what I call Holy Spirit transportation, which is even faster, as illustrated in Philip's encounter with the Ethopian eunuch in Acts. After Philip explained the gospel to him, and baptised him in a pool of water, "the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus."
The closer we get to the end of the age and the imminent return of Jesus, the shorter time becomes. The time is coming when seed time and harvest will be the same time. The speed at which souls are swept into the kingdom will take place at an unprecedented pace!
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, and the planter by the one treading grapes." (Amos 9:13)
God says in 2 Tim 4:2 "Be ready in season and out of season." If we are called upon to be ready even out of season, then how more so in this season of acceleration. Lord, make us ready to partner you for this great work of yours that is coming upon us! In Jesus' name, Amen.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Living your prophetic destiny (Graham Cooke)
All of the tests you presently face are there to develop you into the person you need to be to live your destiny. Everything you are going through has been aligned by God to forge you into the person He has called you to be. Your destiny is unfolding before your very eyes. You have a battle to win, and He must prepare you for it.
When we embrace the idea that God has a plan for us, no issue should be able to stop us. The statement, “This situation will be the death of me,” is completely incorrect. The truth is that this situation will make you into who you are destined to be.
God partners with our present situation to prepare us for the future He has designed. He uses every test, every challenge, every hurdle, every issue to sharpen us for what is to come.
We can use the prophecies over our life to navigate our way through our present circumstance. God wants to establish intimacy as a way of life. He wants to cover us in His favor. This process starts by God establishing the fact that He is our source. Quietly and deliberately, God will strip away every crutch we have been relying on and obliterate anything that detracts from His ability to provide for us.
He wants to take away the false sense of security most of us have been clinging to. God is not in the business of playing second fiddle to anything—and certainly not to the many ways we try and take care of ourselves.
Lesson one is to go into the future and bring back the traits and intimacy we will need to fulfill our destiny. We must understand what that intimacy will look like. How must our relationship with God evolve and grow in order for us to become the person He has destined us to be?
When I was 31 years old, I had a dream about the kind of relationship with God I would have when I was 45. It was so alluring, so magnificent, so amazing, that I did not want to wait 14 years to get there. I was so hungry when I woke up that I immediately began to pray for that kind of intimacy to happen right away. I discovered something in the process of fighting for that word—I didn’t have to wait until I was 45 for it to come to pass. I had been looking prophetically at a 45-year-old who had lived in that intimacy for ten years!
Our timeline is not always God’s timeline. He often wants to bring breakthrough far sooner than we dare hope. I wanted that intimacy at age 31, thanks to God creating a deep hunger in me for it. I thought about it, meditated on it, prayed for it, and began to come into powerful times of worship. An hour worshipping God would turn into two and then three and sometimes six. I desperately wanted to know God, and God always answers an extreme desire for intimacy.
Prophetic words come to pass as our intimacy and reliance on God develops. Intimacy is a part of our destiny. Look at the prophetic words over your life and ask yourself about the intimacy you will need to live in that kind of wonder. Become hungry for that relationship, and your destiny will come into focus.
In Genesis 18:9, God says a remarkably simple thing about Abraham, His dear friend: “I have known him,” (NKJV). God wants that same intimacy with us, and has guaranteed that it can occur through the love and motivation of Jesus. Intimacy draws us and keeps us in the presence of God. Jesus taught on the importance of this relationship in John 15:4-5—Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Intimacy is a reciprocal act; there is exchange and dialogue. It is not a one-way street. There is interaction between us and the Lord Jesus, and that interaction results in us staying, dwelling, and remaining where God has put us in Christ.
The enemy wants to knock us out of that place of intimacy. He knows how key that relationship is to everything the Lord wants to accomplish, so he tries to poison it from the start. Without water, a seed won’t grow; the enemy wants to kill the seed of our destiny before we grow even a single inch. But our job is to be so established in an intimate relationship with God that nothing can come between us and Him.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” David sang in Psalm 139:23-24. That is the very crux of intimacy—allowing God to look deep into us and remove any blockage between Him and us. Everything in our lives, every situation we go through, is about growing our intimacy with God.
When we embrace the idea that God has a plan for us, no issue should be able to stop us. The statement, “This situation will be the death of me,” is completely incorrect. The truth is that this situation will make you into who you are destined to be.
God partners with our present situation to prepare us for the future He has designed. He uses every test, every challenge, every hurdle, every issue to sharpen us for what is to come.
We can use the prophecies over our life to navigate our way through our present circumstance. God wants to establish intimacy as a way of life. He wants to cover us in His favor. This process starts by God establishing the fact that He is our source. Quietly and deliberately, God will strip away every crutch we have been relying on and obliterate anything that detracts from His ability to provide for us.
He wants to take away the false sense of security most of us have been clinging to. God is not in the business of playing second fiddle to anything—and certainly not to the many ways we try and take care of ourselves.
Lesson one is to go into the future and bring back the traits and intimacy we will need to fulfill our destiny. We must understand what that intimacy will look like. How must our relationship with God evolve and grow in order for us to become the person He has destined us to be?
When I was 31 years old, I had a dream about the kind of relationship with God I would have when I was 45. It was so alluring, so magnificent, so amazing, that I did not want to wait 14 years to get there. I was so hungry when I woke up that I immediately began to pray for that kind of intimacy to happen right away. I discovered something in the process of fighting for that word—I didn’t have to wait until I was 45 for it to come to pass. I had been looking prophetically at a 45-year-old who had lived in that intimacy for ten years!
Our timeline is not always God’s timeline. He often wants to bring breakthrough far sooner than we dare hope. I wanted that intimacy at age 31, thanks to God creating a deep hunger in me for it. I thought about it, meditated on it, prayed for it, and began to come into powerful times of worship. An hour worshipping God would turn into two and then three and sometimes six. I desperately wanted to know God, and God always answers an extreme desire for intimacy.
Prophetic words come to pass as our intimacy and reliance on God develops. Intimacy is a part of our destiny. Look at the prophetic words over your life and ask yourself about the intimacy you will need to live in that kind of wonder. Become hungry for that relationship, and your destiny will come into focus.
In Genesis 18:9, God says a remarkably simple thing about Abraham, His dear friend: “I have known him,” (NKJV). God wants that same intimacy with us, and has guaranteed that it can occur through the love and motivation of Jesus. Intimacy draws us and keeps us in the presence of God. Jesus taught on the importance of this relationship in John 15:4-5—Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Intimacy is a reciprocal act; there is exchange and dialogue. It is not a one-way street. There is interaction between us and the Lord Jesus, and that interaction results in us staying, dwelling, and remaining where God has put us in Christ.
The enemy wants to knock us out of that place of intimacy. He knows how key that relationship is to everything the Lord wants to accomplish, so he tries to poison it from the start. Without water, a seed won’t grow; the enemy wants to kill the seed of our destiny before we grow even a single inch. But our job is to be so established in an intimate relationship with God that nothing can come between us and Him.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” David sang in Psalm 139:23-24. That is the very crux of intimacy—allowing God to look deep into us and remove any blockage between Him and us. Everything in our lives, every situation we go through, is about growing our intimacy with God.
Tough love
Just last week, a tumour started growing on the foot of Tom Yam, my pet hamster. Took him to the vet, and because he's a small creature, surgery isn't quite an option. Amputation is, and the vet assured me that Tom Yam's quality of life would still be pretty good even if he were down to three legs. But we thought we would defer that drastic move. In the meantime, I am to swab the tumour every day with a disinfectant to prevent an infection.
I know it hurts or stings badly when I swab the foot because Tom Yam struggles and winces every time. The other day, this mildest of hamsters even bit me because I insisted on putting him through the pain for his own good. It was the first time he ever bit me, probably because he really wanted me to stop putting him through pain.
It reminded me of this principle: In the fire, and trial, it really is about understanding and trusting God's love. It may be tough love. But it is love alright.
Graham Cooke writes:
"If we really are going to rise to a place where our own personal anointing and faith level is high, then we need to know what real communion with God is. All ministry comes out of relationship. Power comes out of suffering and anointing comes out of intimacy. It is in communion with God that we learn how to humble ourselves under His hand. There is no point in complaining.
In communion, the Lord works a new level of intimacy into our lives. Standing still under the hand of God, wanting His will to be fulfilled no matter what cost to ourselves, is one of the most intimate responses we can make to Him. Kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God."
I baulked when I heard the line "kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God", because it is so hard to do! When God is stripping away the things in our lives that hinder love, it will hurt. And it will hurt bad. The human tendency is to resist, to decry the process. Would it be that we will have the grace to endure, knowing that when God puts us through a stripping process, it is only out of love.
I know it hurts or stings badly when I swab the foot because Tom Yam struggles and winces every time. The other day, this mildest of hamsters even bit me because I insisted on putting him through the pain for his own good. It was the first time he ever bit me, probably because he really wanted me to stop putting him through pain.
It reminded me of this principle: In the fire, and trial, it really is about understanding and trusting God's love. It may be tough love. But it is love alright.
Graham Cooke writes:
"If we really are going to rise to a place where our own personal anointing and faith level is high, then we need to know what real communion with God is. All ministry comes out of relationship. Power comes out of suffering and anointing comes out of intimacy. It is in communion with God that we learn how to humble ourselves under His hand. There is no point in complaining.
In communion, the Lord works a new level of intimacy into our lives. Standing still under the hand of God, wanting His will to be fulfilled no matter what cost to ourselves, is one of the most intimate responses we can make to Him. Kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God."
I baulked when I heard the line "kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God", because it is so hard to do! When God is stripping away the things in our lives that hinder love, it will hurt. And it will hurt bad. The human tendency is to resist, to decry the process. Would it be that we will have the grace to endure, knowing that when God puts us through a stripping process, it is only out of love.
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