[The Blessed RUN] Gospel Short Clips (Video): Recent Episodes
Pastor Vincent
What is the voice that is making you feel orphaned from God's love? Guard yourself by seeking the protection and counselling of the Holy Spirit.
If even the righteous Job have to go through sufferings, how can we even question God about our sufferings with all our hidden sins? Rather than blaming God for the sufferings, thank Him for His sustaining grace.
Although Job was a righteous and blameless man, God allowed sufferings on him, so that he could see the full measure of God’s grace.
Job was fearful of God, and remained righteous because of his fear. Through his sufferings, Job saw that his salvation did not lie in his righteousness alone, but in the grace of God.
Have you seen God’s grace in your sufferings?
Sin is ever-present in man and allows evil to work in us. We cannot destroy sin, nor can we pay it back in kind - it is only Christ who pays it back in full for us.
What we can do to is to seek repentance. In repenting, we do not just correct our wrongdoings, nor do we just seek to do good. Instead, we realise that we have already been redeemed, and in receiving God’s grace and love, we learn to hate and reject sin.
How does Satan use suffering to damage our relationship with God?
Satan wants to prove that our relationship with God is based only on material gifts, not on love. By blaming God for our sufferings, we affirm ourselves of God's abandonment and become food for Satan.
In spite of all our weakness or limitations, we should still strive to use sufferings as a chance to know God's grace, and in doing so draw closer to God.
During suffering, how aware are we of the presence of God? How aware are we of the presence of evil?
Satan is constantly seeking to weaken our relationship with God in our moments of pain and suffering through insinuations and accusations.
Only through prayer, preparation and reflection can we guard ourselves against his deception.
Satan finds ways to accuse and insinuate us during our periods of suffering. Instead of relying on our own merits, we must learn to rely on the Spirit for strength.
How does the Sprit work through the promise of God?
Why do we pray? It might be easy to pray when one is in a ‘spiritual’ mood, but it is even more important to pray through our weaknesses and sufferings.
We pray because of the promise of God, given to us through Romans 8 - for nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. He has suffered for us, and will surely share in our sufferings, just as we will surely share in His comfort.
Which is more important to gaining a godly attitude: works, or faith?
Work is a test - the test by which we nuture and strengthen our faith. For faith without works is dead. Yet it is not through works that we find salvation but through faith. As it is by grace that we have been saved, through faith.
A godly attitude is seeded with faith and bears fruit to righteous works - our specialisations. So take joy in working for the glory of His kingdom.
We are all given specific gifts by God according to our specific calling. It is in the trials of our lives that we discover and utilise the gifts given to us so that we come out of our old self and claim our purpose.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:33)
Real success starts from within the spirit, when we tune our hearts to seek out the will of God. Only then can He work in us to carry out His good works.
And how can works alone, without the spirit, ever be significant?
Our weaknesses, failures and successes - it all starts with grace.
In our weakness, we look to God for strength; his grace is sufficient to carry us through.
In our failure, we find redemption through grace, for He has already won the battle for us at the cross.
In our success, we see His grace at work, and give thanks with humility.
Are you aware of the spiritual reality in our era? Satan is constantly working to corrupt our hearts and draw us away from God. In this age of technology, it is easy to get caught in the flow of information and lose sight of what is truly important.
Look past the veil of the world and become aware of the spiritual reality.
What is the one constant in the midst of our worldly achievements or sufferings?
It is the grace of God. We see His grace when we are given recognition in the eyes of men; we also see His grace when we are given the strength of carry out His work, even when shunned by men.
"You cannot be selective about the grace of God - if you choose the grace of God, you will not see the glory of His grace."
For our prayers to reach the throne of God, we need to pray with the truth that stirs up a spiritual battle within us, so that we restore the right mentality and vigilance towards the works of the spiritual realm.
Indeed God has called us to share His gospel, but are we able to do it consistently with a willing heart? On the flip side, it is in times of inability to preach willingly, that our experiences amplify God's power and grace more.
Do you find it hard to pray in your daily living?
Without seeing the impact of Satan’s daily influences through the information we receive in this new age, it is difficult for us to be driven into prayers.
We need to have a violent faith that is up against Satan, the world and our sinful nature, in order to come out of typicality and advance God’s kingdom.
Our living and prayers should not be detached. Instead, it should be embedded onto everything that we do so that we can fall back onto the truth and guard our hearts in all areas of our lives.
What can we look to in our imperfections and weaknesses? Where do we get the strength to run the Christian race? How do we overcome temptation?
We look to Jesus Christ on the cross. In His moment of apparent weakness, He shows His ultimate strength - He died on the cross to redeem us from our sins.
He has never failed, and will never fail.
What does the cross symbolise?
To the world, shame and suffering. To Christians, strength and glory.
Christ took both, scorning the shame and enduring the suffering with joy, for the glory set before him.
As Jesus did, so should we - to fix our eyes towards eternal glory while running the race set out for us.
In the current era, it is getting increasingly tough to rest our hopes and desires on God because of the distractions and worldly culture surrounding us. Are we sensitive enough to realise how Satan is working in our hearts today?
Delight in your struggles because it pushes us into a race that has to live each step by seeking God's will, when we are in brokenness.
In the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20), Jesus calls his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations". As we run the Christian race, how are we to find our personal calling as part of this Great Commission?
Especially, when circumstances get tough and we find ourselves lost, remember that Jesus is with us “always, to the very end of the age”. Pray to free our hearts, so that we can find our calling in the midst of these circumstances and through it, exalt God.
Why did the Lord wipe the world out in the time of Noah?
It was because the corruption in the hearts of men that turned them away from God, got so great that there were only evil inclinations in their hearts.
So, as we run the run the Christian race towards the end times, let us guard our hearts against the antichrist - for he is the one that brings this corruption back in its full measure.
When do you feel that you are worthy of praise? We may define being praiseworthy by our outward conditions and works, but God values the inner person more.
Never be afraid to make a choice that jeopardise your earthly benefits. for Christ. Believe that if it is for God, His promises will reveal clearer and clearer to you through your submission. His plans are greater than your plans.
Losing World, Gaining Christ.
The world offers the promise of abundance, but these are empty promises and they ultimately lead to destruction. In the same way that the Lord rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He will come to pass judgement on those who put their faith in the world instead of in Him.
Seek not the false riches of the world, which are lost in the blink of an eye. Instead, look toward the eternal glory of the Lord.
The promise of God is the only yet most fundamental foundation holding our relationship with God. It's not through our good conducts and obedience to the law that make us worthy of His promise. Instead, it's when we realise, and believe in God's promise that is freely given to us through His sovereign grace that leads us into submitting to Him, naturally, in all things.
We often proclaim "I believe in the promise of God!" without thinking deeper what we're actually looking forward to when we say this. At times, we believe that God will give us the result, relationship, the promotion etc that we think we need, and equate them to God's promise. But beyond what our human minds and eyes can imagine and see, God actually promises us more than these. God promises you HE Himself, in whom you can find all you everlasting purpose, joy and satisfaction.
In faith, everything that we do must come from what is within us. Thus, to set ourselves apart, the focus has to be our spirit. We need to restore the faith that continues to claim the complete gospel, the complete truth and the complete promise that God has given us.
What are the yardsticks we use to measure Godly success? In the book of Samuel, one of the ways that we can measure David’s is the way in which he wins the approval of God’s people.
In following the example of David, we should seek success that benefits not only ourselves but more importantly the people of God. Just like David, we should place our focus on caring for people, and put our faith in God when tackling tasks.
1 Samuel 18
5 Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.
6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres.
"I have to do well to glorify God so I need to work hard" and "It is God's will so I don't need to work that hard" are common excuses used to fulfil own flesh / desired achievements, to be deemed successful.
In fact, while thriving for achievements, we need to revere God, abide to His words and go back to His promises. Even it did not turn out as what you expected, never cease revering God as you never know what God has prepared of you. Christians are deemed successful not with our achievements, but having an assurance heart to live right before God with any achievements we get.
We are the visible reflector of the invisible God's glorious attribute. The strength, wisdom and love of God is shown when we pray, internalise His truth and live by it.
When we truly understand this, the spiritual sense in us will transcend our sins and weaknesses.
Consistent Godly success is achieved through consistent dependency on God. This is the single underlying principle of David’s successes in the book of Samuel.
One cannot achieve consistent success by either depending on luck or relying on hard work alone. David’s faith was always rooted on the Lord, regardless of whether he was up against lion and bear, Goliath and the Philistine army, or while he was on the run from King Saul. We can see David reaffirming his faith in the Lord in the book of Psalms.
In our daily lives, let the basis of our hard work be rooted in genuine dependency on God. Keep our spiritual eyes open to find true purpose behind the work given to us by the Lord and be blessed with consistent success.
1 Samuel 17:37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.
Psalm 16:8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
When we evangelise, we will be able to testify for God's glory through our lives. Our submission towards God as we reign the many circumstances portrays the sovereignty of our Father, above worldly successes.
What sort of attitude should we adopt when approaching our daily work?
Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
If we open our hearts to God, purpose and meaning can be found in even the most minute of acts. This is what Colossians asks of us - to devote all our heart towards fulfilling God’s purpose in all that we do.
With the assurance of an inheritance in both the heavenly and physical realms, Colossians urges us to serve Christ with a heart of faith and gratitude; in doing so, we will be able to do our best for the Lord.
Are our inner selves getting renewed day by day? Being conscious of our inner selves mean fixing our eyes not on what is seen, such as the momentary tasks and troubles of our lives, but on what is unseen - the deep love for God and the flourishing of our souls.
To feed our inner selves, we should look past our feelings and sentiments and instead take guidance from the Spirit. We will know that our inner selves have grown if we see a change in our attitudes when we face the challenges of life.
(2 Cor 4:16-18) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Guard your thoughts and emotions through constant reflection on your inner self.
When confronted with undesirable circumstances and people, our first instinct is to get carried away by our emotions - anger, impatience, fear and discouragement. Even in our achievements we can lose ourselves to pride.
To protect and cleanse our inner selves, we should constantly check the way our hearts react to external situations, dwelling neither on our emotions nor the outcome of the situation, but rooting our hearts instead in the Lord.
The two ultimate and unseen evils are sin and flesh, and they are always working together to bring down a man. When you give in to sins, your flesh takes over and be the master of your inner person.
Nothing in this world can set you free from the sin and flesh, but only the blood of Christ. Hence, we need to live through the HS to put our flesh to death. It is not by exercising your will, by having a renewed and recreated heart, which you achieve through prayers with a contrite heart after knowing how self-centred you are in wanting to satisfy your flesh.
When one is in a state of unbelief, confirm the genuine existence of God in your life by observing the presence of God's works and intervention in our life. Men may fail but God's truth does not. If we lead our lives with God ahead of us, He will prevail in all our circumstances.
"Humility is the attitude of our heart that is in sync with God's truth." We need to give humility its priority as we face God so that we may acknowledge His love and purpose of our circumstances in His time. This will allow God's truth to become the benchmark of our joy, assurance and decisions.
The legitimate way of testing God is with a heart of faith. Test God so that you can know Him in full, and He will bless you with an abundance of faith. Those who test God out of arrogance and their selfish desires will never be contented, and will never genuinely know Him.
Mal 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
How do we convince others about the truth of God?
The strongest conviction comes about through following His will on a daily basis and letting Him shape our inner self - our thoughts, emotions and decisions.
The genuine confession then comes about as a result of a change in our actions in daily living, rather than by words alone.
Isaiah 55 tells us about God's gift of salvation, given freely out of grace, to be received through faith. For His way is higher than our way, and the physical and emotional satisfaction that one attains from money and labour cannot compare to the spiritual satisfaction that one gets from following Jesus.
55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
55:2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Two common mistakes of believers: (1) Worship an imaginary God - Making their "ideal God" through their emotions, which is a form of idolatry. (2) Stop short of seeking God - If you don't seek Him with all you know about Him, your belief is empty.
Through His omnipresent characteristic and His covenant made with us, we can be rest assured that He is always near and can be found whenever we seek Him. However, when one give Him no thought at all, He will not be found. Not because of Him being not near, just that He is not near to your heart.
Oftentimes, we fall short of what is required of us when seeking the Lord. Here, we examine three common obstacles that most people face:
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Things and desires of this world (1 Jn 2:15-17) Are we loving the world rather than loving the Father? The love for the world is a void that can never be filled, with old desires quickly giving way to new ones. It distracts us from seeking the only true satisfaction for our soul - the love for the Lord.
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A spiritual veil (2 Cor 3). Are we allowing the legalistic nature of religion to obstruct our understanding of the Spirit? When we treat the Gospel simply as a set of theological teachings, doctrinal laws, or historical facts, we might blind ourselves to the presence of the Lord, who is alive and always with us.
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Our own thoughts and ways (Rom 2). Are we relying on our own thoughts and ways rather than relying on God? Self-centeredness can lead to pride, jealousy and can damage relationships. In dealing with your problems, seek the Lord first rather than relying on yourself to lead a God-centered life.
Seeking the Lord requires us to re-examine re-order the priorities in our lives - by His grace we are able work out our salvation.
Take heart, believers, that we do not use the word of God to our own standards. We may fall into the footsteps of a Pharisee that judges others while being blinded to our own weaknesses.
There are many inaudible voices in the spiritual realm that influences our thoughts, emotions and actions. The cause of a judgemental spirit is when we accept the wrong voice that breeds self-centredness within ourselves. This judgement builds up when we feel that something is happening to our inconvenience, against what we think is right or when we feel shortchanged. We will start to lose love and exalt our self-exalting voice more. Let us be mindful of the voices that influence our living system.
"With the measure you use, it will be measured unto you."
Do we all have standards that we use to measure the people around us? We may outwardly or inwardly measure their actions, spiritual level, behaviour and situations, without realising that it is by our own expectations. Gradually, God's grace and love is weakened. Don't let what you deem as fact, become your yardstick of measuring others.
As children of God, we are a representation of Him. We are given this innate ability and responsibility to exercise His goodness and justice in this world through our judgement. Thus, we need to make good judgement in all our fields so that we may be able to manifest the glory and wisdom of our God to others.
We are often surrounded by the presence of people in our different fields. Being one who has the truth, it is important to know that the spiritual realm affects us and may cause us to execute wrong judgments that harms our spirit and interpersonal relationships.
We need to challenge the wrong thoughts in order to make good judgement that is right before God.
"Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will judged." Let us not generalise what Jesus said about judgment.
We need to make right judgment that does not serve our own pride or benefit but to make right what is wrong before the Lord.
Our prayers put our conscience in the right perspective. The content of our prayer affirms our conscience as it faces God intimately and genuinely. So let us all restore the right conscience through a truthful and God-seeking prayer.
After we know the word of God, the Holy Spirit will speak through our conscience to us. The key is we need to response to it by testing and approving the voice (as Satan can speak through our conscience too), and obey His perfect will - living a good conscience through the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Satan is the symbol of not giving sovereignty to God. When one no longer desire to exalt God in their lives, they will be handed over to Satan where God will no longer intervene in the person's life. They will face the same fate as Satan, being handed over to self-destruction.
Our faith needs to come together with a good conscience. Otherwise, the faith we pursue is one that works on a corrupted co-Knower mechanism. We will seek a form of spirituality that does not have the acknowledgement and affirmation from the sensitivity of the truth in our conscience.
Sins work in subtle ways that gradually forms little cracks in our conscience. If we ignore them and continue to feed ourselves with the untruths, we will start losing the simple faith of a joyful child of God.
Don't let the world shape the standard of your faith, let the truth guard your hearts.
No one can rely on their own conscience to deserve their salvation. We must first reconcile with God by acknowledging our sinful self, going into a repentant and humble heart before Him. This will grow in us, the heart to pursue Christ-likeness in His word.
"To love is the heartbeat of a born-again conscience."
It is the basis and most important motive of the right conscience. We need to go into deep prayers to help set our motives right in loving others. It does not matter how big or small the love is. We only need to start by simply interceding for the other.
Believers should not feel accused or find excuses that bring us away from evangelising boldly. Instead, we must be true to the signs of our conscience. Come before the Lord and seek Him for the strength to gospelise to those in need.
The cost of salvation is God's only son.
It is through this cost that we see the magnitude of God's love and develop a new perspective of our trials. Through this, we will value our walk with God as we take His grace more seriously in the face our our daily living. "How you respond to this cost of salvation determines the depth of your faith."
So, let us ponder on the cross again with this cost in mind.
There is nothing more real than the fact that God gave His only begotten son to salvage mankind. When we internalise this truth, we will realise that all the different kind of needs we have are ever-changing and perishable.
So, what is the ultimate need for all mankind?
The extent of God's love is so unfathomable and vast that we can never understand it, except to live our whole life discovering His love. We need to internalise this love in every situation and challenges, so that you may be build up by it.
Our indebtness to God can never be repaid by using our own will. The true growth of indebtness comes when we constantly take a second look at our Saviour, to internalise His personality in our lives.
When His love manifests in our hearts, we would naturally want to bring this love to others. Now, that is the true evidences of indebtness to Christ's works.
"Christ is the sole determinant of salvation."
It is never by men's self will that earns their salvation. Men try to do good deeds, redeem ourselves or gain approval of others, forming their humanly-invented religion. However, the bible blatantly reveals to us that men are inherently evil and thus, it is purely by the fulfilment of Christ's death on the cross, that saves us from the wrath of God and the perishable world. Discern and pursue this truth, apart from the compromised doctrines.
God has given men the function of body, mind and soul that sets us apart from all other creations. Our soul is given this ability to converse with God and in so, discern the right voice to guide our body and mind.
Faith and practicality are two spectrums of believers' concern. We cannot lean more on either side as it would make us too realistic or too abstract. The bridge between faith and practicality is the voice of the Holy Spirit. If your conscience is in line with the truth of God, reconciling with His word, then there is no fear as you are led by the right spirit.
"Jesus came to reveal the Father, the way to salvation and all truth."
God is not just an abstract form of idea or image. It is through Christ's life that God's attributes are shown to men so that we may have the right understanding of Him and the reality of His existence.
We wrestle with many voices in the spiritual realm, and it is this voice that dictates our thoughts, feelings and living. Let us examine the disposition and inclination of our hearts by discerning and allowing the right voice from the Holy Spirit to influence us. Which voice is your spirit yielding to?
Do not let the importance of our relationship with God become a mere phrase we know. This relationship should become a basis of what we continuously go back to for decisions, assurance and all matters of our living system. Build this relationship upon our prayers that look upon Him, becoming in sync with His heartbeat and delight simply in the contentment of His love.
Do we allow our lives to see, hear and connect with the unseen God of our lives? We often feel lack in our life because we do not realise we have lost this connection. If we truly know the attributes of Christ, we ought to emerge from our ritualistic routines and start being drawn to what He is concerned with. This concern focuses on pursuing a Christ-like life that connects to all areas of our living. When we pursue in this direction, the strength of the Lord will lead us through it all.
There is no testimony weightier than that which comes from God himself. However, men may ask: "How sure are you that it is God testifying? How can you prove it?" The truth is we know not by physically having God's signs or outwardly seeing evidences. We simply know it when we look at how His son, Jesus Christ, does and finish the work of God. When we look at the extent of the works accomplish, we affirm that it is never by human efforts but solely by the hands of God's grace and sovereignty. God testifies for us by how we yield him into our lives, doing His works and manifesting His power through our circumstances and fields. Our lives, His testimonies.
Sometimes, we are too conscious of the outcomes when we evangelise, overlooking the fact that it is not about men's response or how we portray ourselves to others. We ought to restore the attitude of Apostle Paul. The attitude that despite our weaknesses and self-conscious nature, we put ourselves down and continue to share the word of God.
"I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means, I might save some."
Pursuing true holiness required us to change our inward to become holy and start professing how Jesus works in our life and has become our life. It also comes from evangelism, where our holiness and understanding towards souls is being tested. If all these do not happen in our life, all we know about God is theories and knowledge.
We are saved because we believe, it is not because how good the preaching of an evangelist is but the word of God which brings the truth into our life. We will be delivered from our problems as the result of the Gospel we have believed but will be condemned if else.
It is true that believers will face persecutions and difficulties as we walk our path of faith. However, these trials should not bring us to numbness or discouragement. Instead, it should steer us into an epiphany of how far people around us are away from heaven.
When we realise this, we start to pray deeper for them, affirm their situations with a spiritual perspective, testify for God and share the truth.
Ministers only focus on the ministry more than loving the souls of men but Paul serve the Lord with humility, love for the souls of men.
We ought to seek new convictions in our life through prayer so that we are able to see God renewing our life in many areas. This allows us to understand that He will provide us strength to face the challenges that He has given to us.
During time of persecutions, God constantly draws us to Him so that we will rely totally upon His grace. We learn that, by following Christ, we endure persecutions which are seemingly discouraging. Only when we truly rely on Him, seek upon Him and yield our heart to Him, then we will be strengthened in Him.
Many people miss the new thing because they dwell on the former things. The former things constraint our mindset not enabling us to understand the new things.
Holy Spirit leads us by the Word of God. One is able to see the subjective guidance of God when he constantly pray deeply and enjoy walking closely with God.
Do not see church life as a responsible but see the need of being together. Find a way to manage your work with brethren living as the anchor point.
The sense of superiority in us always wants to make ourselves as the center point of every thing rather that God being centralized. But the kingdom of God is not about that. Rather, it brings godly culture to people around us and edifying their life.
The most impactful, fundamental and forgotten blessing in the lives of Christians, is the unmoved covenant that God has already given to us. We do not internalise it as the truth of all truth and see it as a calling of our identity in Christ. It is not in the outcomes and progression of matters in our lives as they are all temporal and ever changing. Strength comes from us being rooted and reliant on the unmoved promise of God- I am saved, I am blessed and I am called to save people who are in lack, pain and away from God.
In the end times, there will be oppressive persecution and deception that pull believers away from truth. However, they can never cause one to undo their faith, which is given by Christ. God himself will preserve the faith of a genuine born again believer. Hence, we have to prepare our hearts for persecution and deception, and confirm that through our perseverance, the gospel is spread.
There are many false teachings in churches. Thus, we must not dwell in truths that are convenient for us as it only appeals to the flesh but does not glorify God. Be willing to suffer shortfalls for the gospel as it is through the perseverance of saints that our faith will be refined.
In trials, disappointment and discouragement, best fruits reaped through perseverance. God works mightily in time of trials. You will accomplish a little bit through short bust but you will accomplish much more through perseverance.
Perseverance is not a self-merited virtue but given by the grace of God. It is Christ who persevere our faith in Him first such that we can persevere in His truth even in the midst of struggles.
When our faith comes to a point where, even we continue to serve Him faithfully, the problem or challenge comes and it doesn’t go away. We lose hope, and give up when we do not remember or do not want to check it back to the Lord of what to see the matter. This is where the perseverance is needed which to force us turn our thinking to applying what we are having now with His Truth. Without perseverance, we might not even know if we are using our own strength to deal it or we see the need to rely on the Lord, to whom He allows this to happen.
Remnants need to be persevering Christians through righteous living rather than entertaining falsehood that will weaken our conscience, which worsen the process of perseverance.
Purpose of Jesus Christ went up to the Cross is to show persevering and steadfast love towards us, sinners. It is not professing but a genuine love that abounds us daily. His love also shows that true power comes from the ability to listen to Him, exercise our life in accordance to His will and knowing that He has reigned victory on the Cross.
Our understanding of ‘lie’ is commonly associating with ‘false statement’, ‘deliberate act out of ill intention’, ‘compromising someone else for own’s advantage’ or ‘falsehood of something’. However, these are just the definition we can understand from the plain description in man’s terms. Ever since the era of Adam and Eve, humans are subject to the manipulation of the lies because of the existence of the ruler of the air - Satan. He is the king of lies and the pure motive behind all kinds of his lies is just to draw us away from knowing who we truly are and how great is our God. So how to identify what is the real ‘lie’? Watch the video to find out more.
The Truth is the pillar of a Christian’s life. Always, we are flooded with all kind of stuffs in our lives: our works, children, friends, school stuffs, and we tend to be forgetful of what God has promised us. Grasping on the promise of God and receive the blessing from God with thankful heart are what making us to enjoy the Immanuel, yet Satan’s work is always diluting the Truth, and reverse everything upside down so we are blind to see the same promise, same blessing again. Watch the video to recall, rethink and restore back to what God originally made us to be.
Lie is not just restricted to being deceitful about false information. The lie of Satan is more than that. Often Satan use partial Truth as a medium to make us the subject and channel of His lie. The worst is, while we are being used as tool as lie, we also become the co-contributor of his lie to others.
How does Satan corrups believers? By corrupting the image of God, providing the false understanding of who you are and right view on all things. And what is the correct understanding?
Before we ask from the Lord, we need to understand what is His will for us. Then, pray for it by the Word because it is what the Lord wishes us long for. This allows us to perceive that whether or not we have or lack in our life, it is still His merciful grace upon us and sustaining us spiritually.
Every single word and promise of God is true and will be fulfilled. Do not allow your conditions, situations and feelings to restrict and constrain the word of God. Have faith, ask and you shall be given.
Faith cannot increase when we focus on how small it is and how much we want it to be. It can only increase when we focus on the truth and rely on the sole-giver of faith as the accomplisher of all things. And that is God.
Human factors such as conditions, performances and logical mindset could constrain the faith in us.
When we talk about the heavenly kingdom, it is not all just about the second coming of Christ - the new heaven and earth. In fact, God wants us to live in the heavenly kingdom each day. Experience and enjoy the actualization of kingdom right now so that you can live in full anticipation of the second coming of Christ. Through the living of heavenly kingdom each day, expansion of heavenly kingdom will eventually occur as people will be drawn to it.
During the time of trials, we keep praying that our problems will be taken away. It is a natural response that humans will do this. But we should ensure that our prayers be grounded to His problem because trials are meant to sanctify and shape us to become more compatible in Christ. In fact, He is constantly unchanging unlike earthly things which are vice versa.
His kingdom is actualized and come upon us whenever we follow His will. Just like Jesus Christ obeyed His will to be crucifed on the Cross despite of His status as Son of God and ability to summon angels. It is a perfect example that to prompt us to seek Lord's perfect will, hence follow it in our respective fields and blessed timetable. We ought to pursue His righteousness and His acknowledgement daily. Think about it again, how many times have we embittered by our own sense of righteousness?
Righteousness has to be the stepping stone of understanding God’s truth. There are many that focus on peace but the peace they talk about is one that is flesh-driven. When that happens, we enjoy the peace that is self-centered and fall short of Godliness.
Only through careful obedience, His glorious will can be manifested and revealed to us. Because when we obey, we commit our weaknesses to Him and work out our will. Hence, this allows us to have assurance that His will is the greatest commandment that one should follow.
Whenever there is no struggles or troubles in our life, we have never realized that there is an evil one working in the spiritual realm deceiving us. It is only when troubles and problems strike us then we turn to religion to seek for what is good and evil. However, this does not bring people back to the origin where our identity as His child is made known.
The evil spirit of untruth goes against God's word and will. God created us in His image but due to the evil spirit, man sinned and fall short of God's glory. Therefore, man loses the ability to be the reflector of God's glory, which causes us to be self-centered and self-righteous.
In this world, there will be many wrongs or unjust upon you. We must not seek revenge by self but through the will of God; feed your enemy if he is hungry and drink him water to drink if he is thirsty. Through this, he will be either be attracted to the Christ in you or hastened his time for punishment.
"Do not repay evil with evil." It is easy for us to be quick to react in the face of evil with our emotions, actions and thoughts. However, we do not realise that when we want to justify ourselves with the pain we receive from others, we are resisting untruths with untruths. Let us be mindful not to fall into this vicious cycle.
Redeeming love of Christ is so much that none of our doings is able to make it payable. It creates willingness for us to love others be it spouse, brethren or enemy.
It is often that believers want to test God's will in their lives but do not receive the answers or strength within. We need to go through spiritual introspection to understand some fundamentals in testing His will- to practicalise our belief and submit to Him daily. This can only be done when we continually deny the untruths of the world, renew our minds by God's values and have sober judgment in discerning God's voice against the voice of self.
The society is practicing more and more kind of ideologies, such as materialism, hedonism, capitalism, humanism, equality, rights and etc. Behind these philosophical thoughts and ideas, they share one common ground: self-centeredness. Their only difference is just to satisfy different kind of needs that people want. Because we are getting so self-oriented, we don’t realize it is in fact the very root of sin - denying God. Sometimes it is not because we subscribe to any of these practices but it might be our natural distinct or even integral of life since young. Watch this video to discover the practical examples of ‘self-exaltation’ in our daily lives.
We always think that we are capable to do good and able to have conscience if we want to. This is an act of self-exalting as these elements come from self and are not from the Holy Spirit. This also discerns how Christ works in our will and those who work through their own will. So remnants of Christ, let's cling onto His work and acknowledge the sins in our life.
There is nothing that a man can do to be righteous, as righteousness is imputed to man through Christ; forgiving his transgressions and covered all his sins. With the understanding of this truth, man will confess that there is nothing good in him as it all comes from Christ, which will cause him to embrace His grace and bring him to true repentance.
What is a genuine confession? It is not making a confession for a particular mistake. It is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, handling over sovereignty both in conversion and confession to God. In confession, acknowledge you are an instrument for God to do what He wants in you and through you.
In trouble times, we often feel frustrated and lost our trust in Him easily. But little did we know that, actually those are the times where we can taste and see how good and satisfying He is in our life. It's because our faith is being actualized and our heart is contented with absolute truth of Christ.
Thorn from a messenger of Satan is a representation of an evil. Why is it evil? It strips away our faith and reveal our weaknesses to Shame God and us. However, the Gospel is designed in a way to win over evil by letting evil to bring us to total helplessness. In order for us to solely trust in Christ's power to lift us up.
God's words are all fixed and true. We need to realize that His words and promises are not happening in our life is due to our disbelief, which is caused by us ritualizing our faith all the time, such as ritually going to church and gaining head knowledge. Hence, we need to start actualizing our faith through continuous confirmation of His words, and see His words happening in our life.
Often we do not know that we sin or do something displeasing God, is because of the existence of the evil. So first, we must know what is evil and how it works in our daily lives. In this video, we will know what kind of perspective or lies that Satan always direct us to and how do we pray against it effectively.
In our daily life, we will face a lot of temptations. But ofttimes, we fall into temptations unconsciously. Actually, our realization towards temptations depends on how much we have and desire from God. This is because He Himself is the answer for our temptation and the only way for us to resist temptation completely.
Have you ever wonder why the strength of temptation doesn't decrease? 1) Give in to temptation 2) Exercise self will to overcome
Only knowing self can't resist temptation but only by Grace and God empowerment through humility. Pray through the word till the holy spirit change our hearts then we know it is by the grace of God.
Have you ever wonder why there are so many temptations around us? Take a step back and ponder, where does 'temptation' come from? It is because we develop various kind of 'needs' to satisfy ourselves! But does that mean, we can't have 'needs', or it is bad to have 'needs'? Check out the gospel short clip to learn more.
In Genesis 1: 27, it is stated that "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Many believers chase to live out Christ's image but what is truly image of God? As we are created in His image, every man will always seek for the higher being. We also possess spiritual attributes of God and always give all glory to God.
While hearding the truth, the Spirit works in your mind, sensibility and will. Only by listening from the truth, then we can think rightly, having Godly senses, feel rightly and making right choices for God.
When trials come, we tend to turn away from from Him. But, do you know that trials are allowed by Him for our benefit? He will not allow harm to fall on us without any reasons. We ought to seek His will in these circumstances and allow us to obey Him.
Like Timothy, we may be facing many challenges and inadequacy within ourselves. This is because men are inherently weak. But God did not give us a spirit of timidity to fret on uncertainties. The spirit God gives us is one that drives us from self-reliance to God-reliance in problems and trials. One that is strengthened by the gospel, not by our own will. That is the spirit's way.
In living out the Word, it is crucial to start off from the understanding of God's sovereign grace in Christ. We don't start off with "grace" but "choice". Do we truly understand grace?
When we stand the tests of the world, His grace will cause us to have no choice but to develop genuine obedience. Through genuine obedience, you will then not just not do evil, but hate evil. You will just do good, but love to do good. It is not just a change of action, but a change of heart, a heart that love to obey Him.
By grace, we are able to receive His word through Holy Spirit and influenced by it deeply in our daily life. Let us enjoy the conviction of Holy Spirit so that we can experience His holy presence and restore heart of Emmanuel.
How do you know that you are rooted in the right spiritual foundation? When we have allowed Christ to become the rock of our lives, we do not need to use our self will and power to be God-driven. There will be a consistency in how we live out His word.
A person is called by the Lord when he or she starts to realize that there is no other way to obtain answers other from God alone. Through meditation of the words, a person is able to meet God personally because the word itself is the personality of God, and everything else will start to look so insignificant in value and less appealing. So pray through the words, and not just plain listening, and you will start to enjoy the perfect works of God are all around you every single second.
Don't fear accusation because Christ has paid all on the cross. Not fearing accusation is not what Christ wants Christians to stop at but to live out His will.
Ask yourself, how precious is the gospel to you? How much you need the gospel? If the gospel is really important to you, does it binds you? Just as much as the gospel sets you free, it binds you at the same time. A soft binding due to His selfless love for you. The more your heart is bind by the gospel, the more worthless the world is to your eyes.
The gospel is priceless because our lives are brought at the greatest price. God has paid the greatest price by using His own live to reveal the greatest love. The love of God is not just conceptual but His unconditional love paid for our sins. Men are simply helpless in sin and the only way is to receive this great love.
Faith is the fundamental part of a christian living but do we truly understand faith correctly? Often, we may link faith to the outward works of a person. However, genuine faith is simply coming before the Lord in all things. Let us examine our hearts again on how we are defining our faith living.
Man is born in flesh that cause us to be easily self-righteous, which leads us to judging others, mostly on their disobedience towards Christ. The fact is that there are many things we do not know about them, such as their disobedience could be due to them being new in faith, their disrupted backgrounds or even poorly fed spiritual life. We really learn to humble ourselves and face God for the right directions to face them. The key is that we need to know that whatever we are able to do now, is all by His grace.
We always look things and study issues from our own perspectives and understanding, making assumptions and passing judgments on others. Reflection : Do we pass judgment especially towards those who faith are weaker than us?
Injustice results in blaming and conflicts. But the crucification of Jesus Christ has overcome the injustice and unfairness of life. Thus, this taught us to overwhelm our heart with the essence of Cross and live before Christ despite of our circumstances.
Ofttimes, we keep wanting people around us to change, we put expectations on them according to what we want. Somehow these drive us into frustration and disappointment. Instead, let our faith to bring acceptance towards other so that we can love them more without looking at their circumstances and conditions.
'When the truth has come in and you have acknowledged it, there will be an unrest spirit in you that stirs your heart to want to pray in obedience to God.'
'You are the light of the world. But for you to be able to shine in the world, to be a watchman of this era, God has to prepare you!’
‘God can uplift you a certain way for you to be glorified. And He can also humble you a certain way for you to be glorified. But it is definitely the best for His children.’
Until you are completely and totally helpless, only can you stand still, quiet down and see the Truth of God standing before you.
Often times, we find ourselves lost in our worries and restlessness. The question is: Why do we always focus on the ‘things’ (our situation/condition/circumstances/problems) and not on the source of all things —God? When we fix our minds on tangible things, we lose sight on the One who creates and controls all things.
‘Before you confirm it, it doesn’t become your faith, it doesn’t become the truth in your heart, it doesn’t become the reality in you. So, without confirmation, your faith is dead.’
‘Do not keep looking at what others have and develop an unhealthy need. An unhealthy need is not a real need.’