Find your Specific Calling

Two months ago I watched a video about heaven in Youtube. The video shows the paintings painted based on real heaven by Korean artist who have been seeing in Heaven. Heaven is beautiful, majestic, and real. One part of the video had made me think about my specific calling in this world. The part is about when Jesus and the artist went to a very far place by airplane. The people who live in that place are very happy when see Jesus. The artist felt sad because those people can’t see Jesus everyday even if it is in heaven. Jesus told her there is a difference in level between the heaven in which perfected spirits live & average spirits live. In heaven, the houses and all the things in them differ depending on their deeds, and there is a difference in their location & the love they will receive.
Long time ago, during the reign of King Josiah of Judah. God called a priest named Jeremiah to speak to His people.
God said to Jeremiah, “I knew you before I made you in your mother’s womb, before you were born I chose you to do very special things. I chose you to be a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah said “Oh no God! I don’t how to speak in front of other people. I’m just a boy, only a youth!
God replied “Don’t say that. You will go where I send you and say what I tell you to say.
You do not need to be afraid because I am with you. I will protect you.
Based on this story, God has specific calling for us before we were born! Live in this earth it’s not about going to school, working, getting marriage, having kids, retired, and die. What a boring life if God created us only for this kind of purpose. The purpose we’re created on earth is for God’s glory. It means to praise God, worship Him, to proclaim His greatness, and to accomplish His will. The question is What God wants us to do on earth?

Way to know our specific calling is to pursue God’s love and get to know Him as a friend so that we can enjoy His presence. Pray to Him and meditate on His word. If we are puzzled as to what His plan is for us and which passion to pursue, pray to God for guidance, and ask others to pray for us as well. If we don’t get the answer yet, find a way to serve others, whether on mission trip or in your community. Try that for a while to see what comes of it.
After I was baptized, I often asked my specific ministry as Christian. Yes, I have my own dream. But am I walking on God’s plan? I told God I have done difference kind of ministries. I served as worship leader, youth committee, usher, choir member, mission trip, and now I am in healing ministry. Last year I made conclusion my calling is to share gospel in market place. Yeah, it’s still sound general. But last month, at home, there was a question pop-up in my mind. “What will you answer if a pastor ask your prayer request?”. I prayed and told God. “Lord, I have many prayer requests, the time will not be enough if I tell the pastor. But I believe You will supply all my needs. I will ask the pastor to pray for my specific calling in this world.”
Three days later, I went to prophetic night service. There was a special guest pastor from Australia who has prophetic gift. During the worship, suddenly he asked me to go to the stage. And He prayed for me and everybody in the room listened! He revealed my specific course/calling. I was happy finally it's revealed but I didn’t understand. I just told God “Lord, let Your will be done”.
Fellow toastmasters, Paul said in Ephesians, we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God has a specific course for us to run, but if we don't know what it is, how will we ever finish our race? Let’s find & identify your specific calling. ID .

Power in Jesus name

Once upon a time in Jerusalem. There was a lame man who laid daily at the gate of temple which called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.
He saw Peter & John about to go into temple, asked for alms.
Peter fixing his eyes on him, with John. Peter said “look at us”.
So the lame man gave his attention to them, expecting to receive something from Peter & John.
Then Peter said, “Silver & gold I don’t have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up & walk.”
And Peter took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately the lame man’s feet & ankle bones received strength. He leaped up, stood, & walked.

There is another similar story. There was a girl followed Paul & his friends, and cried out for many days saying “These man are the servants of the Most High God. Who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” But Paul greatly annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And the spirit came out immediately from the girl.

By these stories, I would like to emphasize the power of our Lord name, Jesus Christ. When Peter said Jesus name, the lame man can walk. When Paul said Jesus name, the bad spirit came out from the girl immediately.
In Bible, Jesus taught His disciples to use His name when healed the sick & cast out the evil spirit. Jesus gave them authority to cast out evil spirit, to trample on serpents & scorpions & to resist all attacks from enemy. And when they did it, divine protection was assured. The disciples never went out alone. None of them could have accomplished what Jesus had done in their own strength.

The same is true today. Jesus gives us authority to act in His name. His name is well known in the spirit world. At the sound of His name, all evil spiritual power & principalities must bow down. Satan has been put to shame, and the name of Jesus is above every other name.
There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. Jesus name brings healing, peaceful, encouragement, & joy. Through the name of Jesus, heaven is opened and satan is forced to flee. Satan is afraid of His name. They are shaking when heard of His name.

Talking about this, I’d like to share my experience when I was a university student. I loved to pray, praised & worshiped God at my room and I spent 1-2 hours at prayer tower twice a week after class. I stayed in boarding house, and there is graveyard behind the house. There was nothing happen, I lived peacefully. Till I was in a condition, which I called it as “test” season or “training”. It can happen at anywhere and everyone, not because of there is graveyard behind the house.
I got “nightmares” every time I slept. It was not usual nightmare. There was presence of evil spirit in my room. When I felt it, I just said “in the name of Jesus”. I could wake up and feel peaceful again. It’s almost happen every day at that time. I just said “in the name of Jesus”, the spirit left immediately. Hallelujah. They are afraid of Jesus’ name. So, another day, when I slept. Suddenly I felt there were hands hold my neck, I couldn’t breath and I couldn’t say Jesus name. But I prayed, called Jesus and said in my heart “In the name of Jesus”. Then I could wake up & breathed.
I don’t want to scare you. It can happen to anyone. It’s a test of our faith whether we continue to pray, praise & worship God after this situation. Satan doesn’t like us to pray, praise & worship God. They can’t stand in the presence of God. Remember we are a child of God, and the Spirit in us is much greater that satan. We have authority to use Jesus name.

Therefore, Whatever the circumstances we are facing now, just say “in the name of Jesus” for there is power in the name of Jesus.

Let's sing together:
There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
To break every chains, to break every chains, to break every chains...

First Love

Who has ever been falling in love? Or who hasn’t ever been falling in love?

I believe all you have experienced this. One Indonesian song describes that Falling in Love has thousand feelings. Someone who fallen in Love is someone find himself/herself to be very attracted to someone and begin to love them.
But the love I want to talk about this morning is not the love between man and woman. It’s love between me and God. It’s about First Love. Yes, My first love.

I can’t remember it exactly when it happened at the first. I just remember, after I was baptized and moved out from hometown for studying at university in Yogya, I visited a charismatic church where my sister & brother served in youth ministry. My sister kept talking about Holyspirit and God’s works.

I came from a Christian family, but I only know Father God & Jesus. Holyspirit? I only know He is part of the Trinity. During the youth service of the church, I was astonished and wonder of the expression of the people there during praise and worship. They looks very happy & joyful. They sang as if they are in a music concert. They were dancing, rising their hand, and they jumped! I just clapped my hands and looked around.

During the worship session, they lifted their hands and cried loudly. This part I understood. I did crying when I was prayed at hours before I went for water baptism. At that time I made a big decision in my life to be Jesus follower. But these people were not going for water baptism. I was asking to myself, why I couldn’t praise & worship God like that, why I don’t have such felling. I knew it’s because of Holyspirit because my sister always talks about it.

When my sister back to hometown for a month. I told God I want to know Holyspirit. I open a book that she recommended me to read. The title is "Good Morning Holy Spirit" written by Ev. Benny Hinn. After read some chapters. I bowed down on my knees and prayed in my sister room. I asked Him to touch my heart. I sang a worship song and I felt my burden being lifted up, very light, and joyful. It was unspeakable and full of glory. It seemed that my sister room had been lifted into hemisphere of heaven. Holy spirit is very gentle, full of love, my comforter, and He is real.

There was a change in me. Holy spirit became alive in my life. He was no longer a distant “third person” of the trinity. He taught me & guided me. Every day I read bible, read some Christian books, I listened to Christian songs, prayed & worshiped God at my room, I loved to talk about Jesus, I went for cell group and prayer meeting, I attended minimum three services at church in a week! And I volunteered myself to serve in church by joining youth ministry.

I was so crazy, I was so curious about Him, curious about Jesus Christ. I pursued Him. Yes, I was in Love! Praise the Lord!

In bible, it is called First Love.
I believed every true believers have experienced this. But the question is do we still have this feeling right now? Do we still spend our time to have relationship with God every time? Do we read bible and meditate on His word? Do we still talk about Him everywhere? Do we put God at the first place?

In Revelation 2:4-5, Jesus said:
" Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."

I still remember, in a special service at church. While I was singing and worshiping God, my heart was full of love. Holyspirit gently asked me to say “I love Jesus” with my lips. I was thinking whether to say it. I grew up in conservative & chinese family, “love” word was almost never been spoken in my family. It’s odd. But because my heart love Jesus, I lifted my left hand to Him and I open my mouth slowly and nervously, said, “Jesus, I love you.”

Jesus is my First Love and your first love. We love Him, because He first loved us.
Let’s back to our first love. ID

Center of Evangelism

Evangelism! This word always reminds me of South Korea. In that country, every day I could see Christians were preaching or sharing gospel in public area with their own creative way. Along street in the market, subway station, in the park, I saw some people distributed leaflets about gospel, a group of youth sang Christian songs, a man was preaching loudly while riding his bicycle, some people carried out and put up banner with written words of Heaven is for real and they preached loudly.

This phenomenon is common in public area in South Korea. Something I’ve never seen in Singapore since I moved into this democratic country. I like Singapore, a country which tolerant of different religions and encourages religious harmony. But unfortunately, Evangelism is not allowed in public area.

I checked in Wikipedia, Christian population in South Korea, including the Roman Catholic, is only 29% of total population. And Singapore has 18% Christian. The Christian populations of both countries is not much different.

I was thinking about this when I prayed in church and I got wisdom. Even though evangelism in public area is not allowed in Singapore, but with its unique characteristic, I believe, from this tiny country, gospel is able to be preached out up to the unreachable ethnics group, villages, islands & nations. Why?



Strategic Location

Singapore is located at the heart of Asian trade routes. Every Ship cargoes which come from East Asia or Western countries have to pass by and stop at Singapore. There are a lot of airlines fly directly to Singapore.

People

Many people from abroad come to this country. Singapore has the lowest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes investors/businessman from other countries make business here. It creates Jobs which make professionals/workers come to work.
It also has excellent education system, that make the parents send their children to study in Singapore.
Yes, I can see and meet people with different nationalities easily in Singapore compared to South Korea. The foreigner are everywhere here!

Multicultural

Singapore is multicultural country. Even though, it has three major cultures, Chinese, Malay and India, we still can find other cultures from other country and even it’s from far-far away country.
In Singapore, I can eat any kind of food from any countries. I can find African food, Moroccan food, Arabian food and even food of minority ethnic group from China such as Uyghur & Miao ethnic.
It means almost all ethnic group from all over the world are in this country.

Language

English is the main language of this nation followed by Chinese, Bahasa, and Indian. It makes communication is easier to the foreigners in this countries. The foreigner can absorb information faster and they understand.

When I was living in Korea, I felt I grow slow because I can’t understand Korean. I need a translator and simply trusted my Korean friend while dealing with something. Yes, Language is very important for communication.

Dear fellow toastmaster, there are a lot of foreigners in Singapore. They come with different purposes, they speak in English, they leave their family/friends and start new life here, they need a friend, some of them are lonely, and many of them haven’t ever heard yet the gospel and Jesus Christ. Please let’s think about this, if we can be their friend, introduce Jesus to them, share the good news, and help them growing in Christ. I believe one day when they return to their hometown, their home country, they will share the good news to their families and friends, and to their village. Imagine started by your preaching to them, you save one ethnic group, village, and even a nation!

Hence, Singapore is a center of evangelism to reach out up to the unreachable ethnic group, village, nations and country. We can do the evangelism by building a friendship/relationship with foreigner and share the gospel to them. And all the glory to God!

Reason to be a Morning Person

I love sleep. Few things are better than when you are nice and warm, perfectly snuggled in bed. I have always considered myself to be a “night owl” for the majority of my life. Sleeping was something I looked forward to.
When Holy Spirit touched me, and I completely felt in Love with Jesus. I heard about some great pastors. How God used them to bless & heal people and they have brought many souls to Jesus. They are very sensitive with God’s voice. I read their books and found out that they have spent their time & talk with God every morning.
I still did my quiet time/devotion at night and felt it’s more effective. There were sometimes I did in the morning, sometime I successfully did it and most of the time end up fell asleep. “Sleeping in the presence of God.” But Abraham, Jacob, Job, King David, Moses and even Jesus prayed in the morning!

It’s written in Mark 1:35. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

When I went for bible study, the pastor talked again about having devotion in the morning.
This time I tried again, discipline myself with full commitment. Thanks God. Finally, I can do it daily. Well, it’s different!




The reasons to have a quiet time every morning are:
1. Let God to lead your day.

King David said in Psalm 5:3, O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

When you start your day by filling your mind with God’s Word, with His Truth, those old thoughts don’t have a leg to stand on anymore. You’re able to put God in the driver’s seat where He belongs, rather than allowing that day to run all over you. You’re making a conscious choice about how you will view your day, which prepares you to recognize God’s gifts and His grace and hold onto them tightly so that the daily challenges won’t continue to sweep you away.

2. Peaceful mind and Joyful

Moses prayed In Psalm 90:14 "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love; that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

Once I began a new routine of spending time with God first thing in the morning, my days radically changed. The problems didn’t go away, but the negative, anxious, stressful, and fearful thoughts that warred with my desire to handle it God’s way did start to go away. Little by little, I was regaining territory in the battle for my mind, and I was beginning to see my days and the obstacles that lay before me in a whole new light.

3. You are giving the 1st portion of your day to God, not the leftovers
Giving your morning to God is like using your phone when the battery is at 100% (full charge) – Your phone spent the night re-charging. Now, it is ready to go for the day. You could give God the last 3% of your battery life (when you are falling asleep, etc.) – Well, this is your choice.

4. Keep you healthy
A new study has found that night persons are at higher risk for several unhealthy conditions. And this is true regardless of the number of hours they sleep.
The study, conducted in Korea, looked at 1,620 participants between the ages of 47 and 59. They were divided in two groups, morning chronotypes group & evening group. The researchers compared the health of the morning and evening groups. They found that:
• Female evening chronotypes tended to have more abdominal fat and an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (a condition associated with the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes).
• Male evening chronotypes overall had higher rates of diabetes and sarcopenia (a condition in which the body's muscle mass slowly declines).
• Evening chronotypes, though typically younger than morning chronotypes, generally had a higher percentage of body fat and higher blood triglyceride levels.
Even adjusting for age and lifestyle differences such as exercise, drug and alcohol consumption, and so on, the late risers were less healthy overall.

So, the morning is a great time to pray. It gets you focused on the things that matter most, such as God, family, career, and being thankful. Praying in the morning helps you meditate on those you love and even yourself.
If you have quiet time at night, that’s cool. This is my personal preference and after trying both for many years, I find mornings are way better. Hence, I think you should give mornings a try.