Sustaining A Supernatural Environment

As the year comes to a close, I personally am bracing myself for what is to come in 2012. Some beliefs say that 2012 will be the end of the world. I personally believe so too. I believe that 2012 will be the end of the world and the beginning of a worldwide kingdom invasion. A worldwide jubilee, revival!

The word wineskin has kept popping up in recent weeks since my trip to Frasers Hill (it was a blast seeing what God was doing at the TOD Youth Camp). Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded this event where Jesus mentions about the wineskin and it is important to take note at what Jesus said (Matthew 9:16-17, Mark 2:21-23, Luke 6:36-38).

I believe that the outpouring of the knowledge (experiential knowledge) of God and His kingdom signals a need to reconstruct our lives and the way we govern our ministry. Ephesians 4:11 talks about the Church and how it is to function and 1 Corinthians 12:27-28 states an order of governance. We must not ignore Scripture and use templates gleaned from earth's governors in an attempt to replicate Heaven. Only Heaven's template can reproduce Heaven on the earth.

Here are some excerpts from the book 'Culture of Honor' by Danny Silk.

When we use other models, the Church becomes no more than what people already expect from their earthly experience. This is a huge and fundamental mistake, with serious consequences. I think we've been duped! When we use man's governing systems to define or reproduce Heaven, we've started down the path of implementing an inferior system. This will not only not reproduce Heaven but create a dysfunctional culture. Heaven will not conform to or replicate an inferior system. Heaven must be the source.

I've heard Bill Johnson say many times, "Jesus is perfect theology." I agree. If we see Jesus doing it, then we are on to something good. If He wasn't doing anything like what we are doing, we'd better ask ourselves, "What went wrong?"

I believe as we end this year, let us re-align our lives to not only what God has spoken but what God is speaking!

For the move of the Holy Spirit to perpetuate, we must constantly have a reconstruction of our internal world to the form of Heaven. We are the other side of Heaven!

I highly encourage and urge anyone of you reading this post to read and re-read and meditate on the 2nd chapter of the book 'Culture of Honor'. This is the time and season for what is written there to be read. Be blessed as we move into new things and sustaining a supernatural culture!

Rainbows and Sunshine

As the close of the year is just around the corner. Many people look back at the year only to hope that next year will be better. It's been such a difficult year for me and seems like the passion for love has left me and hurts seem to be the current reality that could prolong. But I know that God has cornered me to deal with my problems and issues rather than just sliding them under the carpet and pretend they aren't there. I realized that the human heart can only take so much before it explodes. Because of issues that are not dealt with, things will only go from small mistakes to big problems. A wrong definition of "dealing with hurts" would be "moving on". Moving on does not take you to use your mind or heart and it certainly is far from actually dealing with the issues. In fact, you'll be deceiving yourself and problems, like garbage, over time, will turn from bad to worse. Bringing things before God actually does take boldness because when weaknesses are exposed, we might "look funny" and the hurts feel so real. And we can come to His throne boldly because it is a throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Often people evaluate whether a year was good by how much money they have in their bank account, or how smooth things went their way but sometimes the worst happenings in a year turn out to be the best things that could happen to us in our life time. We can't determine the outcome of tomorrow by the pain we suffer today. Jesus encouraged us not to worry about tomorrow since today has enough of its own problems (Matthew 6:34). Why do we need to deal with these problems? Coz' we will either be slaves to guilt and pain or be free to celebrate life. So, choose!

As for me I don't know when I'll be fine again but I have to trust God that He is watching over me and He is in control. I know that my measure of being out of control cannot be equated with any standard of love, hope and faith He puts on me. Even for a prophet, we don't see everything. Thanks Papa that you're not a prophet, You are YAHWEH!

Lets keep our hearts open before Him because Jesus is the only one that can set us free from pain. Don't bottle up and think that hopefully things will get better. You need to do something. You need to come to Him. Jesus isn't a pain killer, He is a pain healer!

Life will never be free from problems but let us always know that after tears are smiles, after rains are rainbows, after storms are sunshine.

If you've read this post and feel something burning it your heart, feel free to contact me. :)

'SAY - LAH (SELAH)'

Having God fearing friends and accountability to leaders are a great benefit in hard times. :D

Open To All, Closed To Everyone

One passage in the Bible that has become one of my favorite stories is that of Luke 24, the road to Emmaus. Recently I came across verse 45 of the chapter and it really popped out, so to speak, and made me really excited to get it's meaning and a question came to mind, "HOW DID HE OPEN THEIR UNDERSTAND!?". The reason that got me really excited is that Jesus promised us in John 14:12 that we would do greater works than Him. So I must say that the thought of being able to partake in what Jesus did in Luke 24 would be an awesome inheritance.

As how I usually get some reference, I checked out my all-time favorite blog http://skipmoen.com. I was very excited to have found something Skip wrote about Luke 24:45 when I typed in his search engine 'Luke 24:25' and 2 articles/post were found. Here's what he says,

1st post: THE FIRST FRUITS OF THOUGHTS

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:45

Opened – Oh, how I wish I had been there. These two men, walking from one village to another, encounter the greatest teacher of all time. As they follow the dusty road, he begins to explain the Scriptures to them. He opens their minds. The Greek verb dianoigo has the nuance of opening something for the first time (see Luke 2:23). These Jewish men, trained in the Scriptures all their lives, understood for the first time what it really meant. For years they knew the words, but they were completely ignorant of the meaning. Now Jesus reveals to them what was previously hidden. Suddenly they see.

Aren’t we just like that? We know the history. We know the stories. We think we have the theological arguments in place. We follow the rules. But our minds are closed. Until we have an encounter with the living Lord, until Jesus comes to us and explains the hidden message of His suffering and death, we just carry around a book filled with religious words. Without the illumination of the Spirit, we just don’t get it. We can have all the right propositions, all the right religious rules, even the right theology, but our minds are still closed. It takes a walk with Jesus to give us spiritual enlightenment.

The Bible is the strangest book in the world. It contains God’s essential message to Man. It is crucial for life, here and beyond. But it is a closed book to those who are not touched by the Spirit. You can read and read and read, but without God’s involvement, you will come up empty. This is the only book in the world that is open to all and closed to everyone. “Let him who has ears hear” describes each of us. We all have ears, but our physical apparatus is of no value in this process unless it is accompanied by a spiritual component. Then we actually hear the text.

Don’t imagine that you can simply read a passage in Scripture and understand it. God’s message to men and women requires the agency of the Spirit and the receptivity of a humble heart. When you pick up this book, you need to remember the two men on the road to Emmaus. They knew all the words and yet were completely in the dark. They needed Jesus to open their minds for the first time. So do we.

2nd post: CLOSED SHOP

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:45

Opened Their Minds – Luke expresses the thought in a truly Greek way. “Opened their minds” is the Greek phrase dienoizen auton ton noun. Literally, it is “he opened up the mind of them.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? The pronoun (auton) is plural but the noun (ton noun) is singular. Even in this Greek construction, we see a Hebrew perspective. The verse does not say that Jesus opened each one of their individual minds. It says that He opened up the collective understanding. The truth was revealed to them as a unit, not as individuals in the unit. When we translate this verse, we move the meaning to a Greek worldview. So we convert the group consciousness to individual apprehension. What Jesus says is revealed in community, not in individuals. That’s important, especially in a culture where individualism reigns supreme even in religious experience.

The Greek verb is dianoigo. It implies opening up what was closed. It is used to describe the experience of a firstborn child – to open the womb for the first time. In the LXX, it translates the Hebrew word paqah. This verb is often used to describe the experience of seeing something that was hidden. When Jesus causes His disciples to “get it,” they suddenly discover what was there all the time. It was just hidden from their understanding.

The implication is actually rather staggering. This event occurs after the disciples are fully aware of the resurrection. These men had studied the Hebrew Bible all their lives. They learned to read from its texts. They heard it read aloud every Sabbath. They probably were more acquainted with Scripture than any ordinary Christian today. But they still didn’t see the bigger picture. They were eye witnesses to the greatest manifestation of God in history and they didn’t understand what it meant. Jesus had to open up their minds.

What this means is that Scripture is not apprehended by intellectual prowess alone. Scholars do not command exclusive rights to spiritual wisdom. Why? Because the truth of God’s Word lies hidden until the Spirit opens a passageway into a person. It’s perhaps ironic that the oldest form of the Hebrew language is pictographic. Like Egyptian hieroglyphics, early Hebrew used symbols to represent letters. The consonants DRB make up the word dabar (which means “word”). The pictograph carries the meaning “a door into a person.” God’s Word is an opening into me, but it will never be what it is supposed to be until God opens the door. This is not the picture of Jesus knocking. This is a picture of the active word, pushing aside the door to enter into me. What this means is straightforward. You will never understand what the Bible is saying unless God opens the pathway into your consciousness.

You can’t get it by reading, studying and memorizing. Without the Spirit’s intervention, the door stays closed. Maybe reading your Bible needs to start with something besides opening the book.

Here are 2 scriptures to really bring everything into perspective.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. (Luke 10:21)

Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. (1 Corinthians 14:20)

Bill Johnson wrote a one-liner recently on his Facebook page, 'Gifts are free, maturity is expensive'.

Truly our Father hides things for us not from us :D

Living In Godliness

I've been studying and reading about this word godliness recently. And I've come to realise that many people have been living their live contrary to the word 'godliness' that was used by Jesus and various apostles such as Paul and Peter. Thanks to a curriculum that my dad wrote called 'Discipleship 200' under the chapter 'Kingdom Qualities', I'll be writing many things base on that, a very good book indeed.

The word 'godliness' in Greek that they used often in text such as 2 Peter 1:5-7, Titus 1:1, 1 Timothy 4:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:3-5 and etc. was the word eusebeia which means a true and vital/essential relation with God.

It is the opposite of the word threskeia, meaning an outward act of religious observances or ceremonies.

In Acts 10:1-4, we see a centurion named Cornelius that was a devout (Gk: eusebus) man which God was so pleased with that He sent an angel to tell him that his prayers and alms were acceptable before Him. In other words, this guy Cornelius was a person that went to church every week, never skipped any prayer meetings, gave his tithes and offerings regulary, reads his Bible everyday, probably fasted very often too and there was a special celebration, a festival you might say, in heaven because of his deeds. Seems pretty obvious hes a "godly" man and God sent him an angel to praise him coz he's doing all these "religious" stuff. But before we come to any hasty conclusion about what's upon God's mind, we see so often Jesus rebuking the superficial charitable deeds, prayer, and fasting of the religious people of Jesus' day (Matthew 6:1-17).

The final stage of maturity of threskeia is fanaticism. An extreme pride for one's conviction.

Now, the attitude of Cornelius was an important factor in the whole process. He was a eusebus man. He wasn't athreskeia sort of person. In Acts, you will come across that Cornelius did things because he feared God. In other words he didn't do all this things so people could see how "faithful" he was. He simply gave and worshipped because he had a true and a vital relation with God. He loved God because he loved God. Nothing more nothing less. He had a relationship with the Almighty God. A relationship that he understood was special to him and that it didn't matter what people thought of him but what God thought of him. He didn't give in to the pressure of what people thought of him. He didn't try to prove anything before God because he knew that he was already in a relationship. He wasn't doing all those stuff because he needed recognition. He didn't do all those stuff because he needed God to notice him or love him more.

Religion is working for something you already got by relationship. Cornelius knew that very well!

Godliness is always and will always be eusebeia. A wonderful relation with our Father in heaven, our Creator.

I hope your blesse by this note. For further in depth in thought of this subject, check out the 'Discipleship 200' book. I'll try to get better at my writing and maybe add in a few personal encounters of my own in the next edit.

Also check out http://skipmoen.com/2009/04/29/buried-by-desire/
You'll surely be blessed by this amazing teacher. God bless!

Interested in the original Bible language?

I found a very cool website recently as I was searching for the Hebrew word for prophet, naba, on google. The site by a man called Skip Moen, is really helpful if you're interested in getting the raw authentic essence of certain words in Hebrew and Greek. I for one am very into authentic word study because it draws me closer to the heart of the one I'm pursuing in relationship and as a teacher of the word of God, I don't wanna get my doctrines messed up right?

I love the caption of his website, 'Recovering the intent of God's Scriptures, one Hebrew or Greek word at a time'. Awesome site indeed.

I recommend this site to any pursuing lover of God and if you want to get better, more authentic and accurate in teaching the word of God, I highly recommend this site.

Here's the link to the website.

http://skipmoen.com

I've also updated my website and you can now watch messages that I've preached there. I hope you'll be blessed and empowered as you tune in to them. God Bless

Daniel Wong

Messages

It's been exciting months since my last post. Just for a start, I've been to heaven a couple of times. Awesome much!

Been occupied with ministry and have been to 2 conferences since March. Randy Clark's School of Healing & Impartation and James Goll's Open Heaven Conference. Been blessed by great men of faith :)

I've also added links of messaged I've shared in the past month on my shutterfly web.

I hope to blog more and bless you more.

Daniel Wong

How Can I Please God?

How can I please God? A defining moment question in any believers life.

• Before we can answer this question, we have to bring some things into perspective.

Firstly, as humans, we naturally go through a "response-cycle". We noticed something (it may be a problem or it may be a positive ligetimate question) > we ask a question > we formulate an answer > we act accordingly. Secondly, what does God look at? Outward actions or heart (attitude, character, mindset)? Obviously the answer is, He looks at our heart. By understanding first these two points, we then can answer the question.

Character, attitude and mindsets are very important factors in our Christian life. We got saved by accepting Jesus into our lives and our nature changed, from sinners to saints. But attitude, character and mindset (ACM) change/transform as a process. One key factor of pleasing Him is being humble (teachable, correctable, moldable, changeable). Letting Him have complete say over our dreams and "5 year plans" will definitely please Him. Jesus is the perfect example.

He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane before He was crucified, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). So, letting Him invade our lives (hurts, fears, comfort zone included) is something that will please Him.

• Dealing with the problem

Sadly many Christians respond wrongly. Instead of letting God invade their souls and transform their ACM, they instead focus on actions rather than the heart issue. Being occupied by activities or even ministry does not settle the heart issue. Only in the light of Jesus there can be restoration and overcoming. The often quoted statement in avoiding the issue of the heart would be, "Don't worry, I can deal with it" or "You don't understand me, I wasn't at fault and he started it" or "You don't know my dad like how I know him".

• A true story

Let us take the last sentence as an example. Chileab is a 9 year old boy who hates his father because he doesn't spend enough time with him, always isn't at home, and nothing ever seems to meet his father's expectations. Years pass and Leinad hears the gospel and accepts Jesus into his life. Praise the Lord, he is saved! He then grows in the Lord and learns that we should forgive our enemies and love our neighbour as ourselves. Chileab then "deals with the problem" which is to not expect much of his dad coz' he will be disappointed anyway. So to avoid being disappointed, I shall not put my trust in him. To avoid quarrels, I shall just not talk with him. After all I'm now serving in church and I've got God's things to do now. Wow, so smart! NOT!!! My friends, that is not dealing with the problem whatsoever. It's just avoiding the problem.

Avoiding the issue of the heart is not dealing with it. Busying yourself with stuff, even ministry, is not dealing with the problem.

• OK.... I understand what you mean. I understand that my heart is what pleases Him and that this "daddy issue" is not pleasing Him. What am I suppose to do now?

Deal with it....... by letting it expose to the light of Jesus. Acknowledge before Him that you hate your father and let all the memories of the pass surface and forgive him!We should all this.

• But what about if the issue of the heart was not settled for a long period of time? That seed of bitterness has grown to become a tree. It even is bearing fruit! Bad fruit!!!

If that is the case, comes my first point in the first place. Humility. You need to be open to someone for correction, wisdom, accountability, guidance, direction, advice and counsel.

• And who should I be open to. Who should I be open to for correction and the other stuff ?

The only people you should be open to correction, counsel, accountability, etc. is someone that does likewise also. Meaning the person you are open to is also humble (teachable, correctable, moldable, changeable), such as your section overseer or your leader if he/she is humble as well (best applied by WHC members).

• Can I be open to a friend instead?

Well you can, but only if they are humble people (teachable, correctable, moldable, changeable). I don't encourage this.

• Why not? I think he/she is humble.

You have to develop accountability. Accountability is not people who have your same struggles. That's called friends.

• So who should I be accountable to?

The right person

• So you might ask, "How do you know if you're accountable to the right person?"

Well if you fail you'll be nervous about telling them. I'm not talking about paranoid. But listen, if you can go "Hey dude, slept with a girl last week man, feel really convicted about that." "Hey no worries man, I've done that before too. I know how that feels." That's not accountability, that's misery loves company.

So what is the conclusion of the matter?

1. Don't focus on what you should DO to please God, but first let God deal with your heart. Because occupying yourself with activities for God is not the thing that pleases Him and it might lead you into further hurts because the issue of the heart is not dealt with in the first place.
2. Be open for correction, counsel, direction, etc. from someone spiritually mature (someone that is also teachable, correctable, etc.). Example (for WHC members), your section overseer.

The circle we chose in the 4 spiritual laws booklet was not just a formula to get into heaven. It was a road to becoming a perfect man (Eph 4:13 aka 'maturity' in NIV). Lets not forget this and put ourselves back on the throne again.

Wasn't simple of an answer was it? :)