Silent retreat at Seven Fountains (Chiang Mai)

Just returned from 3 days spent at Seven Fountains, a Catholic retreat centre in Chiang Mai. Had gone for a silent retreat, a breakaway from times past, when we had gone to Osanri and Kwang Lim in South Korea instead. Compared to Kwang Lim, Seven Fountains has what I would describe as "raw beauty"... it is not as scenic, the gardens are overgrown and haphazard at parts, and mosquitoes abound. But just as we are treasure in earthen vessels, Seven Fountains grew on me as the days passed. As I spent time in quiet meditation seeking the Lord for the things on His heart, I began to see the gems in the place. There are wonderful creatures in the place - beautiful birds I could not identify, squirrels, moths... and God spoke more deeply to me there than before. The Jesuit Father who was my spiritual director was also always gracious and full of wise counsel.

In particular, God spoke to me through the cat family! He spoke to me about trusting in His love through a very loving cat which roamed the grounds. And He spoke to me about His majesty through a lion I saw at the Chiang Mai zoo (within walking distance from Seven Fountains). It made me realise that the Great King of the Universe, the Most High God, the Lion of Judah, loves me unconditionally, just the way I am. The revelation brought tears to my eyes :)

It was a very precious time for me with the Lord; sitting in His presence, communing with Him. I grew to appreciate the sanctuary that Seven Fountains is, a place away from home to be in silence and solitude and to tune in to what is on God's heart.

The problem with prophetic people

Wise words from Ps Lip, one of the pastors at Cornerstone Community Church ...

The problem with prophetic people is that we are given to know something about the future and yet at the same time, we have no idea how it will look like when it happens.

Think for a moment about Joseph. He was given prophetic dreams in which he saw his call to rule and govern. Yet he could never imagine that the fulfillment of his dreams would be in a place he did not know, to a people that was not his own, in a language he could not speak, and much less the process that he had to go through to come into his prophetic future. Likewise with Abraham or Moses or David - none of them could have imagined the timing or the form in which the fulfillment of their future would be, even though they all received prophetic calls. Even the disciples could not imagine that Jesus had to die or the death Jesus had to endure to become the Messiah of not just Israel, but of the world.

If this is a consistent picture in the word of God, then it means that this is a pattern through which God will work in all the lives of His people. What this means is that if you have been given a prophetic sense of the future that God has in store for you, you can be certain it is not going to appear the way you imagine it would. With this in mind, I believe then that we can get into deep trouble if we try to help God along by trying to orchestrate things to suit what WE have imagined our future to look like. From a scriptural point of view, I want to show you what we can and need to do: -

1. They kept their integrity
The people that went on to fulfill their prophetic future were people that kept their integrity even when things did not turn out the way they expected or wanted them to turn out. Joseph kept his purity when tempted by Potiphar's wife. His work ethics gained him favour, whether as a slave or as a prisoner, and that enabled him to progress on in God's plan for him. David continued to walk in integrity towards Saul even though Saul was after his life. It didn't matter that these men were going through contradictory circumstances in their lives, they kept their reputation intact through integrity.

2. They kept their walk with God
We ought not to forsake our walk with God just because we are not in the place that we imagined ourselves to be. It was in the delays of his life, that Abraham grew in his walk with God. Many of the names of God were revealed to Abraham prior to the birth of Isaac. In fact, it is in the times of delay and contradiction that God shows up and begins to teach us about Himself. This instructional season is crucial to our ability to handle the task of our prophetic call in the future. It is important, therefore, for us to be aware of what He is speaking to us NOW and pay attention to the lessons and dealings He has for us. Learning the present lessons unlocks the future.

3. They kept believing despite circumstances
This is faith! It is to completely lean our human personality onto Christ in trust and confidence. The great men and women in the bible who entered into their prophetic future clung on to God's promises and did not waver despite how their natural circumstances were around them. They kept believing and never gave up. They counted God faithful, trustworthy and able to fulfill His word to them, and God always came through for them. Not only does He come through for us, He does exceeding, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think of.

I received the call of God at the age of 12. Over the years, I've tried many times to help God along, towards what I had imagined the call of God would look like. However, these efforts never seem to take off. In fact, often times, the opposite seems to happen. At the most crucial moments of my life, I always seem to encounter failure and disappointment. However, after 25 years of hindsight, I now see that those failures brought me closer to His plans for me and placed me in line to be where I am today. I still have many unfulfilled promises, but I am fast realising that there will be unexpected turns ahead of me that I can never anticipate. I can rest though in the knowledge that I am in good hands - His hands.

Pastor Lim Lip Yong
24 November 2012

Rest (Bob Fitts)

I grew up with Bob Fitts' worship music in secondary school, so was really glad to see him back in Singapore ... about 20 years later. And to see that he still pretty much looks the same :)
He led this song in worship at Cornerstone yesterday and today, and it's just such a ministering song to me.

 

I rest in Your love

My strength comes from You alone
Your grace is more than enough
A fountain for my thirsty soul

You are everything that I need

My all-sufficient King
I rest, I rest
In Your love
I rest in Your love
My strength comes from You alone

Your grace is more than enough

A fountain for my thirsty soul
You are everything that I need
My all-sufficient King
I rest, I rest
In Your love

You're Beautiful (Phil Wickham)

How great is the Creator God we serve.

In Job 26, Job says of God:

"He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness."

He goes on to say in Verse 14, "And these are but the outer fringe of his works".

This great God, who created the skies, the clouds, the Universe, the beautiful earth we live in, is truly awesome. The breathtaking beauty of Creation is just but "the outer fringe of his works"!! I don't even think we've begun to scratch the surface of who He is, and what He is capable of. And yet, this great God deigns to know and love me, takes a keen interest in my life, knows the number of hairs on my head, keeps every tear I shed bottled, hears every prayer of mine and treats it as a fragrant incense to Him. Sends His best gift, His son Jesus, to die for me, so that He can adopt me into His family and call me daughter. Sends the Holy Spirit to live in me, so I can live this life victorious. Wow. I am quite undone.

Beautiful
I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful

Worthy of It All (David Brymer and Misty Edwards)

All the saints and angels bow before Your throne
All the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and sing
You are worthy of it all,
You are worthy of it all
For from You are all things, and to You are all things,
You deserve the glory

Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise
Day and night, night and day,
let incense arise

Set A Fire (Will Reagan and United Pursuit)

When Jeremiah is called to be a prophet to the nations, he is also called to obediently share God's word even though all of it would fall upon deaf ears. He will be ridiculed, rebuffed, rejected. There is a point where he realises the futility of so much of what he is called to do.

Yet he says in Jeremiah 20:9
If I say, “I will not mention his word
or speak anymore in his name,
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot."

Praying that He will send a fire down our souls to purify our lives, send a fire into our hearts so that we will burn with passion for the things that matter to Him. May we say like the prophet Jeremiah, "His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones, I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot."

The goodness and severity of God

Am currently reading the book of Jeremiah, and today stopped to linger at Chapters 14 and 15, where God tells Jeremiah not to intercede for Judah because He will not relent.

 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

God goes on to say in Jeremiah 15, that because the people have persistently rejected Him, He is "weary of relenting".

You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting (Jeremiah 15:6)

I've paused here because these two chapters have made me rethink my notion of God - whether my view of Him is a biblical view or a Santa Claus view. I've always known of course that God is a God of justice and mercy. But these chapters reminded me today that we cannot presume on the mercy of God forever. Even more sobering, it reminded me today that there is a point of no return, a point where God intends to bring forth judgement, and no intercession, no pleading, will change His mind.

We really need to consider the goodness and severity of God, and hold this in a tension. He is "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). But He is also "a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5), and holy and righteous.

God cannot let sin go unpunished, but He has graciously made a way - by sending Jesus, His son, to bear our punishment in our stead. We need to repent though of our wicked ways, ask God for forgiveness, and made Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

We don't know how long this window of opportunity for repentence will be. We cannot presume upon God that His patience towards us will last forever. May we respond to Him, and keep our hearts tender towards Him.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)