It’s Friday again! Always look forward to the weekends because I know tonight there’s cell group and Sunday is coming up soon. I’m always very excited to see and experience what God has in store for us. We just celebrated our church 4th Anniversary!Harvest Generation Church is now 4 years old!
Last week at our Breakthrough Service, we had a breakthrough attendance for a normal weekend service; 109 people came! Then in the night, at our Anniversary Celebration Dinner, we had about 112 people! God has been so faithful to us as a church, we are really growing!
This month has been a very packed month for all of us, events after events, visiting our members, bible-study classes and a lot more that’s going on. I made a big mistake by neglecting my health in the heat of getting everything done; hence I was down with a viral infection and fever for 2 days. I literally couldn’t even walk straight without having ‘drum solos’ in my head.
Praise God, I’m completely healed now. It's a hard lesson I had to learn; despite being busy with everything, making time for people, I have to also learn to make time to keep myself healthy. I cannot be ignorant and arrogant about my health, I’m no ironman. It’s my responsibility to take care of the people under me and myself as well.
Next week some of us guys will be following Pastor Ryan to Penang again. This time we’ll be visiting City Harvest Church Penang because Rev Kong Hee will be doing a special service there. It’s very exciting and such a privilege to go see Pastor Kong preach in person again.
I have to admit that I was reluctant to go when Pastor Ryan asked me to follow him. You can say that I lacked faith because I’m not exactly in the best financial state now to travel. But after a day of just complaining and praying to God in my solitude, the Holy Spirit just convicted my heart to just submit and align myself to Pastor Ryan’s leadership.
I learned that submitting and aligning myself is not about being a ‘Yes’ man, it’s not about throwing my brains out and stop thinking, it’s not about giving up my dreams and vision, but it is about honoring the authority that God has placed on Pastor over my life. There must be something that Pastor wants me to catch; I know he won't ask me to do anything that will put me in a position of loss.
Obedience is greater than Sacrifice; Obedience is always much harder that Sacrifice. Why? Because sacrifice is by choice but obedience challenges your will and comfort.
Pastor Ryan is most anointed man in Harvest Generation Church. If I want to build this church, I must align myself with Pastor Ryan; to trust the anointing, leadership, guidance and authority of this man that God has placed as the Senior Pastor of this church. I know through this, my life will grow in every aspect. Discipleship is ‘strength under control’; There’s no point having strength, talents and abilities when there’s no control and direction.
I love my Pastor and I know God is gonna bring us as a church and individually from faith to faith, strength to strength and glory to glory through this man. Growth is never comfortable, progress always requires effort; Only dead things don’t grow and are motionless. Our church is ALIVE!
Tomorrow evening, we’ll be having a special Heart to Heart Talk with Hannah Yeoh, the State Assemblymen of Subang Jaya district. She’s one of the person I really admire; He tenacity in building an honest and honorable government in our country, yet not neglecting her commitment to her family and her service to her church. What a great testimony!
That’s all I have for today, I hope all of you will have a great weekend ahead! Last note, on behalf of Harvest Generaton Church, our deepest condolences to Whay Chiat and his family for the passing-on of his father. Our prayers are with Whay Chiat and his family.
Another Monday, the very day that many people finds it a dread to start off. Mondays are days where I sometimes wonder if I am supposed to remain in this very mundane job. After having a great Sunday at church doing ministry, I always have to remind myself that Mondays are my time of ministry too; Ministry at the marketplace.
Some of us guy leaders went to Penang two weeks back to minister with Pastor Ryan in a campus camp and also to throw Calvin a bachelor party. We got to meet-up with Pastor Saras and some of his staff at his office. He showed us around his church premise, City Harvest ChurchPenang. It was quite amazing, simple and effective how they structure their office and their main hall.
In the evening, Pastor Saras took us to Hard Rock Hotel, Penang for dinner. I tell you, it was nostalgia to me because I haven’t had Hard Rock Café burgers in ages! It is still the BEST! We guys had a great time just eating, enjoying the music and chilling out, nothing spiritual =) By the way, the lead female singer for the night was really HOT STUFF! So cun voice!
When you put a few crazy guys together who have been serving in church together for a long time, you’re bound to have craziness all around. We joked about the stupidest things, talked about a lot of deep stuff, we ate and ate, laughed and laughed, made formal shirts and suit for the wedding; It was such a great time to relax after a long year of tireless working. Every morning after our personal devotion, we start our craziness all over again! This shows that leaders know how to work hard and play hard as well =)
We had the privilege to host Pastor Saras here in Subang Jaya and he did an illustrated sermon in our church two Sundays back entitled ‘Speak To Your Future’. The sermon covers mainly on the life of Jacob, in the Bible, as he progressed on in his life after he left his father’s house. We had a record breakthrough turn up of 110 people in our church! Praise God! We’ve been praying as a church that we will see 100 people in our church by the end of August and God blessed us with 10% more! Many lives were touched during the service and there were salvations!
Pastor Saras came with this family; his wife Pastor Felina and his 2 daughters. Besides just hanging out and having fun with him, he taught us a lot of biblical principles on church building and on really taking care of our Senior Pastor. I know that our mindsets have to be challenged and broken for us to move to another level. We have to progress together with the Holy Spirit.
We had a great time in church yesterday as well, we had 71 people in our church! Praise God for the new people that He brought in. It’s really exciting to build church and see lives being touched and changed. Pastor Ryan spoke on the Power of Words; how words spoken into our lives by ourselves and by others can have a major impact on us. Words were first meant for creation therefore what we speak into our lives as well as other people’s lives create either a positive or a negative product.
Pastor Ryan said this one thing that was really amazing, “If we think that our children are a gift from God, why do we speak so ill about them?” It invoked something in my heart that typically Asians always speak ill of people that they treasure the most and it’s still a mystery on why this is so. I grew up in an environment where people kept saying “Sure or not? You can meh? You that good meh?” when I share with them of what I want to achieve in life. Thus these things have engrave in me to respond others in that way as well when they tell me their dreams, sometimes unknowingly.
Constantly, I have to remind myself to not bring to the present the demons that have been sown in my life in the past. Now that I’m leading a cell, I constantly have to watch what I sow in their lives through my words, constantly questioning myself on what I want to see when I say something to them, what do I want to create in their lives and their future. I’m not perfect, sometimes I do say the wrong thing out of anger or frustration, but I’m working and believing that I will be better.
Pastor Saras said “Speak to You Future” and Pastor Ryan reinforced it in us by saying “Words can create; speak positively to create a positive environment!”. Words has such tremendous power and it is our responsibility to use it well. Even the world knows it “With great power comes great responsibility” – Uncle Ben, Spiderman. What am I doing with my words as a believer of the Most High God?
It’s wrong to speak the wrong things, it is also wrong to not speak at all when you know you’re supposed to. Being quiet doesn’t change anything if we’re going through a crisis in our lives. Yes, the Bible said ONCE that we ought to "Be still and know that I'm God” but that’s not an excuse to stay quite. We have to learn to speak out in faith to our lives, our situations, our future. There’s no such thing as a wordless prayer, even when we speak in tongues we are speaking mysteries that only God understands, it’s the language of the Spirit.
I’ve shared this before that the devil will do everything possible to keep us quiet when we’re down because even he knows the power of the spoken word. I’m teaching myself and my cell people to speak out in faith what they want to see in their lives, in their situations. Use the power given to us to create a positive outcome for our lives and the lives of others. Pray! Pray! Pray!
Carol’s 23rd birthday just passed, we had an awesome time celebrating with her family over the weekend. I bought her an iPadwhich she was so looking forward to have. I believe that it would really help her in her ministry as well as help her de-stress with the mindless games it can cater for. I pray and believe that this year will be a year of new levels for her in every aspect of her life; God’s going to elevate her to heights that would be beyond our expectation. I hope to celebrate with her many, many more birthdays to come.
That’s all I have for you this time round, hope you all have a great start to a new week. I’m expecting this week to be great! Speaking to my future and letting my words create a positive environment! God bless!
It's Wednesday, the last day of this working week for me as I will be heading off to Penang with Ps Ryan and some of the Harvest Generation guy leaders for a ministry trip come Calvin’s Bachelor Party. Really looking forward for this trip after so long of not having a break from our very hectic lifestyle.
Much has happened within just this week itself, last Friday we all had a great time at cell learning and discussion what God’s dream is all about; what is the definition of a selfish dream and what is the definition of a God given dream? The presence of God was so strong during cell that even when we were worshipping, people started tearing already. Everyone one of us in I1 Cell, as well as the other cells, really responded well and received a lot through the session.
Then came Saturday, I followed Ps Ryan and Chris down to Singapore for a day trip to look for the iPad. We were all dead tired because of the stretching we had to take on the previous week; we took turns to drive and rest. It was rather amusing that we all knew how to get around by MTR but have no idea on how to drive around Singapore. Thankfully, with Ps Ryan kept telling us “go straight only”, we manage to locate the place where we could buy the iPad.
Just a little sharing of why we were willing to go all the way down to Singapore just to buy Ps Ryan the iPad. We believe in really taking care of the man of God, to cater to all his needs as we’re able to, so that he would be able to do his job well as the pastor of our church. We will do everything in our capability to unsure that his needs are all met so that he will not be distracted by lack, hence it will make him more effective and productive as our discipler and pastor. I personally believe the principle that if you honour, bless and take care of the man of God, God will definitely add on back to us so much more.
Sunday morning came, we were all prepared and excited to have a great service and God really moved powerfully. Pastor spoke on a very timely topic on ‘Letting Go of Our Past’. That message struck me right smack into my heart because I know I was still holding on to old mindsets that has been really slowing me down in my progress.
It has been quite a long time since we’ve had altar call in our Sunday services, but Ps Ryan opened up the altar for people to come up and be prayed for. When Ps Ryan and the leadership start laying hands on the people, the power of God just moved. A lot of the people were just crying their eyes out because God was working in their lives. It was just totally awesome, the presence of God was so strong in the hall.
After service, my cell group, I1 Cell, and S1 Cell combined for lunch. We ate at this moderate standard Pan Mee shop in SS15, which I will never EVER go back there again if I had a choice. Putting the moderate food aside, the company was great, we had a very good time chatting and chilling with each other. One of my cell members was very quick to run to the counter to pay for my meal, so proud of my cell for catching the spirit of generosity.
After lunch, we drove back to church for out Easter Play rehearsal. While driving back we were stuck at Persiaran Murni, USJ area. I was wondering why was there such a bad jam in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. As I inched my car forward closer to the traffic lights, I saw a car on its side. My first thought was, it’s just another accident. Then when I saw the people that were climbing out of the wreckage, I recognized one of the victim’s clothing. Then it struck me, that was Bethany, a member of our church, who just climbed out of the vehicle’s side window and that vehicle is John Sim’s Avanza!
I quickly overtook the cars infront of me, honking my way through, parked my car at the side and rushed to the scene. I saw a lot of blood everywhere, on the road and around the vehicle. Then I saw John Sim, with a bleeding elbow, standing at the side of the vehicle making sure that every passenger that came out of the wreckage was accounted for. Further down, sitting down on the curb, was a girl bleeding very profusely. When I went over to her, I realized it was Eunice! Passersby were all helping to stop the bleeding from her head, hand and foot. It was a very scary sight!
I quickly took some bandages and wrapped up her wounds, carried her to my car and sent her straight to SJMC with Amanda. In the car, it was amazing that although Eunice was still in shock, she asked me to pray for her and started speaking in tongues and singing to God. So I prayed for her while driving like a madman rushing to the hospital.
When we arrived at SJMC, the nurses really did a good job in responding to her emergency. Thank God that the ER was not packed with people. They tended to her wounds rather swiftly. After many hours of treating, X-Ray and stitching up her wounds, I really praise God that although it was a really terrible accident, she suffered only superficial wounds.
Every single person that was involved in the accident only had cuts and bruises, none of them broke any bones, none were seriously injured. If you were to have seen the condition of the car, you will be amazed on how God has really protected every single one of them.
It was very much later that I learnt that Eunice’s head was pinned under the vehicle when it was lying on its side. The part of the car that was over her head was twisted to an angle where it precisely cleared her head. If that piece of metal didn’t bend, her head would’ve been crushed under the weight of the vehicle. Our God is so awesome to preserve her life!
Priscilla came to SJMC as well to get the cut on her arm stitched up,John Sim had to go through 2 minor surgeries to get the glass fragments out from his elbow. Praise God that both of them went through all the treatments necessary without any complications. Now, every one of them are resting and recovering in their respective homes.
As church is growing, I know that the enemy is working very hard to deter and distract us to throw us off course. Through this incident, I’ve learnt not to take prayers for granted. We must always be constantly praying for our Pastor, leaders and cell members for God’s favour and protection. Prayer precedes every great thing and it also keeps the enemy at bay. Let’s grow together in our level of faith by praying for our church every day.
Other things that happened recently, Tay, a medical student from IMU that has been attending our church, has just officially received Christ as his personal Lord and Savior two Sundays back! Praise God! I’ve been doing Bible study with him and I can really see God working in his heart. I’m believing that I1 Cell will grow to 20 people by the end of this year.
That’s all the time I have now. Hope you all have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Tomorrow I’ll be on my vacation in Penang! WooHoo! This weekend, we’re having a Big Day on Sunday with Ps Saras Bany from CHC Penang! It’s gonna be such a power-packed weekend, can’t wait! Don’t miss out ya! Come to Harvest Generation Church this Sunday and have the experience of your life!
It’s another Friday again, another week has gone past just like that. It has very eventful though, got to spend quite a lot of time with our dear friends of the church, Rev T. T. Quah and Rev Maudrenne. They’re really been a blessing to us as a church, as well as to me personally as well.
What Rev. T. T. Quah spoke in church last week really challenged our faith, to really do a thorough checking on our belief in Christ. Many people have really mistaken that just believing in Christ would mean that we’re saved. Most do not pay attention the level of believing in Christ. The Bible clearly states that even the demons believe in Christ, but does that mean the demons are saved too?
But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.Even people who are moving powerfully in theirministries, the Bible states that some of them may not even be able to enter heaven. - James 2:18-19
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ – Matthew 7:21-23
All these people mentioned above, who can prophecy, can do deliverance, can do mighty miracles, even they stand a chance of not entering heaven. Isn’t that so puzzling? So what does it really take to really be saved?
Rev. T. T. Quah explained that grace is free, Jesus died for our sins to redeem us from sin, many of us know that. But how many of us wonder the significance of the Resurrection? We’re usually always stuck at the free gift of grace and forgiveness, but salvation is not just about that. Through the death of Jesus, we are forgivenof our sin, but through the resurrection of Jesus, we’ve given the freedomto choose to live our lives in accordance to God’s will.
Don Moen, a great Christian song writer said this in of his articles on worship, “God will not anoint who we want to be, He anoints who we are”. We must understand that through God, we are given the chance to live life fulfilling the very purpose of why we are made, we don’t have to live day by day trying to become someone else, but the decision is still ours to make.
Grace is free because Jesus paid for it through His death without us having to lift a finger, all we have to do is confess that we believe in Him, but Living for God has a price. As believers, we cannot be stuck at the ‘Grace’ state forever, as we mature we must grow into living our lives for God. The highest expression of one’s belief is shown through his life. What we really believe will always be evidently seen in our everyday life.
Every day I drive my car because I believe that it can take me from one place to another fast, every day I put on my shoes before I go out because I believe that it will protect my feet from getting injured, every day I wear my glasses because I believe that it will correct my vision to help me see clearly, every day I make effort to go see Carol because I believe that I will definitely have a good time spent with her.
So what we truly believe in will definitely be expressed through our actions in our everyday life. How much do we believe in God that we will read His Word every day, pray every day and live our lives according to His will every day?
Some people just believe but they just are not assured of it. Example, if I’m scared of flying, I may believe that the plane can take me from country to another safely, but I’m not assured. Another good example, being overweight I may believe that having a good diet will give me better health, but I’m not assured enough to actually live out that lifestyle. The thing that hit me hardest is that I do believe in God, but am I assured in God enough to live it out? How much do I believe in God that I would trust everything I have and my life itself to Him?
It’s a good heart-check for someone as despicable as me can be saved by His grace without me having to do pay anything, and because I believe I'm saved, I now also am assured in Him. The fruit of this assurance is that I’m more excited about God and I’m more passionate about doing what I do for God. Belief with no actions is dead, nothing will happen. The power of our believe coupled with actions, be it with or without God, will always produce something. Can you imagine what we can produce if the power of our belief, with actions, is coupled with God’s awesome power?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ – Matthew 7:21-23
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. . - James 2:14-17
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not ourancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? – James 2:20-25
Let’s learn to live our lives as an expression of our belief in Him. We all know that God’s ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, that He has thought about us to prosper us is and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. So what is stopping us from living it all out for Him? The decision is up to us, make the right choice today.
This week has been awesome, we had our very first Cell Harvest, my 1I Cell group had to join with the S1 Cell group because most of my cell people were back in their hometowns. Nevertheless, we had 28 people who turned up! Praise God! We got to meet a lot of awesome new people, Grace and I got the opportunity to share our testimonies of God’s faithfulness. I believe God really touched the hearts of the people; the seed has been sown, now we have to continue to reach out to them and pray for them. I believe one day, they will receive Christ and join our church =)
I had the opportunity to play bowling twice with Rev T.T. Quah, Ps Ryan and a few Harvest Generation leaders. It was not just about playing bowling for having fun sake, although that is really important, but even through these little times spent, I have caught so many principles from these awesome people.
Really excited about this coming weekend for Cell and Church service, I know God has prepared something great for us to receive. For this Sunday, if you’re looking for a church to come or have not been to church before, come visit us at Harvest Generation Church. That’s all I have for you this week, till next time, God bless!
Hi people, it’s great to be able to blog again. My working hours are pretty much back to normal now after many months of working over the human threshold. Really thank God for sustaining me through all those late nights of merciless tasks but now things are looking a lot better for my current project.
The past month has been a both exciting yet challenging for me in almost every aspect of my life. Church has really grown to another level in terms of the quality as well as the quantity. We’re seeing a lot of potential people coming and joining our church. The leadership of the church is getting tighter, we’re more united now than ever before because things are getting so much clearer for each of individually as well as corporately.
In my cell group, I1 Cell, which comprises mainly of medical students, I can see tremendous growth in every one of my members. They’ve really caught what it means to be hearers and doers of the Word of God. Even in times of challenges, I am so encourage that most of their responses have shifted from being negative to speaking the positive promises of God.
Sometimes when I doubt my own capability to lead them, the Holy Spirit constantly reminds me of the changes that He has done in every one of my cell members’ lives, that encourages me to press on and further depend on Him
I’m now about to embark on the biggest decision of my life thus far, it will definitely change my life and the lives of the people around me forever. My heart is bounding in excitement, with a little mix of fear and uncertainty, but definitely having the peace that this is the right decision to make. The only discouragement right now is that I know financially I’m not able to support this decision yet.
Many times I look at my circumstances and wonder, “Will I ever be delivered from not having enough?”. I’ve been working for my company for almost 4 years now and still have not seen a promotion or significant increments. Yes, God has indeed blessed be with many things that I desire, many people look at what I have and always think that I’m from a rich family that can afford anything, few understand that almost every good thing I have was a blessing in which I did not need to spend a single cent on.
I’ve been reading this book by Rev. Dr. Cho Yoggi called ‘The 4th Dimension’. This is a really good book! It really has thought me to look at my situations in another aspect. Before any breakthrough or miracle can happen in my life, I have to first learn to dream it, build faith to believe it and confess it. Evert prayer must begin with a dream, we have to first learn to visualize what we desire in our spirit.
So when I’m down and discouraged looking at my current financial state, I spend a lot of time praying in the spirit to edify myself, then focus on the all the things God has provided for me, thanking Him for every single blessing as far as my mind allows me to remember. Finally, I start visualizing that I am no longer financially in lack.
When I’m visualizing, I dream of the one day I’m able to write cheques of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions, and place it in the offering bag in church. I dream of having the best, most grand wedding for Carol. I dream of being able to afford a nice house which both Carol and I can settle in after marriage and build our family. I dream of buying a nice white BMW 5 Series to chauffer my beautiful wife-to-be and kids-to-come. I dream of setting up a home recording studio with state-of-the-art equipments and musical instruments. These dreams, which are so defined and specific in its every detail, may not have materialized yet, but it encourages my spirit because I know that it’s not impossible with God.
After I’m done visualizing, I start praying and confessing. This has never failed to lift my spirit because it reminds me, in my heart and spirit, that God has been in control in my past, He is in control now, and He will still be in control in my future. God has never failed, is not failing, and will never fail to provide.
There are a lot of things that are written in Rev. Dr. Yoggi Cho’s book that has tremendous truth to it, but the few things I’ve caught is summarized in the points below:
Have more of the Holy Spirit & the Word of God in my life
Always have an attitude of thanksgiving to God
Visualize in specific detail about the breakthroughs that I desire
Confess the breakthroughs with my mouth in prayer, never staying silent.
So now, every time I’m feeling defeated and bogged down by my circumstances, I do the 4 things stated above. I particularly love point 4 because when we pray, we use words, and in the Bible, in the very beginning of time, the first mention of the spoken word is for creation.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day - Genesis 1:1-3
This revelation dawned upon me when Pastor Ryan mentioned in one of his messages, Rev. Dr. Kong Hee said the same thing in one of his service videos, and Rev. Dr. Cho Yonggi said the same thing as well in Asia Conference 2010. With this revelation, the portion of scripture below made more sense to me.
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." – Matthew 21:21
Having faith alone will not do anything if we do not confess it with words. The devil knows that there's power in words. He can never take away your faith, but he will try his best in every way possible to keep you silent. As long as we don’t pray and confess, no matter how big your faith is, nothing will happen.
Therefore, in any situation, I’ve learned never to stay silent, keep praying, keep confessing God’s promises. Through faith, coupled with specific and persistent prayers, we’re creating our breakthrough in the spiritual realm (the 4th dimension), which will directly influence our physical realm (the 3rd dimension). The Bible clearly says that all things seen were not created by the things which are visible, and words are invisible.
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. - Hebrews 11:3
My situation has not changed much, sometimes with all the credit card bills, petrol expenses, highway toll expenses, education loan repayments and other monthly commitments, it can be very overwhelming. There's always temptations to just stay silent and sulk through it... but I constantly have to discipline myselfto continue to pray in the spirit, give thanks to God, visualize my breakthrough and confess God’s blessings! I believe in time, my financial lack will be totally eradicated. I love this quote by Pastor Ryan; "Poor now... but not poor forever".
Hope this sharing has encouraged you as much it has encouraged me, just blogging this really lifted my spirit. Always remember that with God in us, impossible is never forever. It’s gonna be an exciting journey ahead!
The weekend’s is coming! I am super excited about the Young Adults Brunch on Saturday afternoon at Empire Hotel, Ministry in CBC PJ on Saturday evening with Pastor Ryan, Sunday Service with Rev. T. T. Quah and Cell Harvest on Sunday evening with S1 Cell and I1 Cell combined. Till next time, God bless!
Hey people, it’s been awhile since I updated my blog. So much has happened in the past one year that has really blew me away in terms of church, my career as well as my own personal life. Testimonies after testimonies kept pouring into my life, God is indeed so faithful.
Let me begin by updating you on what has happened in December of 2009, Harvest Generation had it’s first Christmas play and we had a crowd of 220 over people over 2 days of the play, this is excluding the number of the cast and crew. Really praise God that our vision for last year came to past, that we will see 200 people in our church.
After Christmas, I was invited to go on a Singapore trip with my girlfriend, Carol and her family. Weeks before the trip, around Christmas time, her parents gave a very expensive facial pore cleanser thingy and a small silver paper box, which I found a bit weird at first. When I opened it up on Christmas Day, there was a large sum of Singapore Dollars in the box. The money was solely for me to spend on shopping in Singapore. Again, I was left speechless.
So we went down to Singapore, stayed in the awesome Hilton Hotel at Orchard road, and spent a few days there walking in EVERY mall there was there. We ate at really awesome places and I had the privilege to meet-up with Carol’s aunt and her family. They were really awesome and hospitable people. At the end of the trip, I manage to buy not one, but two Ed Hardy t-shirts at the Ed Hardy boutique in Heeren mall! It was my first time buying Ed Hardy for myself, breakthrough! We spent the New Year’s there, it was such a great way to end the year 2009, relaxing and having fun. This is my first testimony in 2010 of God’s providence, but it doesn’t stop there.
Right after New Year, after the Singapore trip in January 2010, I got news that a couple who was very close to me wanted to bless me with a Blackberry. I tell you, I was astounded! About a year or so back, when Chris got his Blackberry, I immediately fell in love with it. It was such an awesome tool to use to communicate with people, manage my schedules and surfing the net without limit. So I just turned over to my lovely girlfriend, Carol, and just told her, “I believe we will have this one day, together”, I prayed, and about a year later, it happened! So now, Carol and 1 are proud owners of the new Blackberry Bold 9700, Praise God! This is the second testimony of year 2010 for me, but it doesn’t stop there either.
The first few weeks of working in the New Year, my boss gathered the entire department to give us an annual summary of our company’s performance for the year of 2009. He said our company really did not do well enough, that we actually loss in the first half of the year. But thankfully, at the second half, our company managed to make enough to just cover the loss with hairline profits.
Due to this, we as employees were all very disappointed and de-motivated when our boss announced that there will be no promotions, raise and even bonus for 2009. Then at the end of the meeting he announced that the company however wants to honour five employees for outstanding achievement by giving them a pay rise. Then he started calling out the names one by one, after he called out the forth name, I was thinking to myself “Lord, could the next person be me?”. Then my boss turned and smiled at me… and he called my name! I got an 11% pay rise despite our company’s poor financial performance! Praise God! This is my third testimony of God’s providence, but again, it doesn’t stop there.
February, Chinese New Year came, I was just doing what I do every year, buy stuff for Carol’s family, for Ps Ryan’s family and for some of my friends that I wanted to visit. At every visitation, in my mind I was not even thinking about how much the ‘ang paus’ would be, because every year, I really don’t expect much. A little of my ‘ang pau’ history, I was never brought up in an environment where I’ve gotten few hundred in a single ‘ang pau’ pack before, and accumulatively it has never surpassed RM500 in total collection. That’s why I didn’t expect much. But this year, God broke my mindset.
As I visited every single family that invited me to their house or for dinner, they gave me ‘ang pau’ amounts in a single pack that just blew me away. Compare to the things I bought for them, my stuff seemed like nothing! It really taught me a lesson, if you are faithful to sow and not hold back from blessing people, God will definitely bless you back with so much more. Ps Ryan has always told us to be generous because it really attracts God’s favour and blessings, and really, I am experiencing it now! This is my forth testimony of God’s providence, but yet again doesn’t stop there either.
Let move on to the month of May, we had the privilege of having Ps Saras, from City Harvest Church Penang, in our church to speak to us. Ps Ryan, Chris and I had the privilege of chauffeuring him and his team around during their stay here, brought them to Pyramid to do some shopping. Seeing how Ps Saras can afford to have really expensive things, it really broke my ‘rigid’ mindset that day that God’s people can have the best things in life as well. It just made it so much clearer what Ps Ryan and Rev T. T. Quah has been teaching us, that serving God full-time doesn’t mean you have to live a second-class lifestyle.
The Holy Spirit used Ps Saras in such a powerful way over just one weekend, the direction of the church was made so much clearer. Ps Ryan and the leaders as well as the member were all spurred to bring church to another level. Now the church is more united and together than ever before, we’re expecting more that what we did before. We are all praying and believing that we will hit 100 members by August of 2010, I know in my spirit that this can happen. Building church is really exciting!
In the last week of May, we as a leadership of Harvest Generation Church, went down to Singapore to attend Asia Conference organized and hosted by City Harvest Church. We had the privilege to listen to great men of God speak, people like Rev. Dr. Cho Yonggi, Dr Reinhard Bonnke, Dr. A.R. Bernard, Dr. Phil Pringle, Dr Lee Young-Hoon, John Avanzini, Steve Munsey and of course Rev. Dr. Kong Hee himself. Our spirits were all so drawn towards what God had to say through them.
Before the trip I told Carol, “When we go down to Singapore, let’s break our mindset and buy something nice from one of Rev. Dr. Kong Hee’s boutiques, be it Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier or whatever”. So she happily agreed. We took out some money from our wedding savings and converted it over to Singapore Dollars.
When we were at the conference, the money we brought was not spent on buying stuff. At every session, speakers like John Avanzini kept on challenging the people give an offering beyond even what we can afford. Me and Carol were very deeply convicted in our hearts, so we gave amounts that we’ve never given before. It was difficult, but it was a breakthrough for us. Every other leader were also challenged to sow, and they did!
God is no man’s debtor, even as we sowed, God supplied all our needs and even our wants! At the end of the trip, although we sowed almost all our money into the offering during the conference, Carol came back to Malaysia with an Ed Hardy top, a pair of Laguna Beach jeans and a pair of Miss Me jeans. I came back with anEd Hardy t-shirt and 2 Christian Audigier t-shirts.We paid for everything without owing anybody or and credit card any money, and we’re not living in lack.
This is first time that me and Carol bought these kind of stuff together because we use to not be able to afford it. It wasn’t only me and Carol that experienced this, all the core leaders came back with funky attire. Below is the picture of me and Carol in the our first Ed Hardy attire which we bought together in a single receipt. This is my fifth testimony of God’s providence, but it doesn’t stop there also.
Asia Conference was a life changing experience for us as a church as well as individually. We’ve learnt to love each other more, we are even more united than ever before, learnt to sow more than ever before, and we learnt to treasure even more what matters most for building church and our lives as well; Love the Holy Spirit, Love the Word of God! Pray, Pray, Pray!
When we were back in Malaysia, the atmosphere of our church really changed. The Holy Spirit moved even more powerfully in our prayer meetings and services than before. Now every week, we just can’t wait to get to cell meetings, prayer meetings and church services to see and experience what God has in store for us. The leadership is so aligned and united than ever before.
Now we move to the month of June, I was pleasantly surprised that the same couple who blessed me with the Blackberry earlier this year heard that my laptop and desktop had died on me. A little history, earlier this year, my laptop and my desktop just committed suicide, both couldn’t function properly because suspected that lightning struck it. So they asked me, “What laptop do you want?”. I was a bit reluctant to answer because the laptop that I’ve been trying to save for was quite high-end and expensive. So I told them I needed some time to think it through.
In my heart I was bombarded with the poor-man mentality of “Just take the second best of what you actually want, just settle with the basic of the basic”. But I know I will not be happy with just getting any Dell or HP laptops. So I prayed and Holy Spirit convicted my heart by asking me “What do you really want, Aaron?”. The question is what do I WANT, not what do I NEED. I already knew in my heart what I really wanted.
After a few days thinking and prying through, I gave this couple a call to thank them for their generosity. Then they said to me over the phone, “Just choose ANY laptop you want that you think is best for you, don’t worry about the price. Me and aunty, we want to bless you with it”. So I mustered up all the courage in my heart, I just said “Well, ummm… My dream laptop is the MacBook Pro”… But with a slight doubt in my heart I continued by saying “Is that ok with you both?”. The couple replied me saying “Yes, just get that one, don’t worry about the price”. Again, I was left awestruck.. I was gonna get the laptop of my dreams!
About half a year back, I was at a Mac Reseller store in Pavilion KL with Carol and we saw the MacBook Pro which was just released at that time. I just turned to her and said “Let’s pray and believe that one day we will have this”. Then she said “Yeah, the MacBook Pro would be very useful for your music and the iMac would be very nice for decoration in our home next time”. It was a bit of a ‘duh’ moment when she said ‘decoration’ but I am very happy guy to have a girlfriend that believes with me for not only spiritual and ministry growth, but even the quality of our lives. So I said a simple prayer together with her and we just believed that it will happen.
So on the 8th of June, 2010, I got my MacBook, Pro, 15 inch, Intel Core i7 processorand everything was paid with cash! No loans, no credit card debts! Praise God! This is yet another testimony of God’s providence over me and Carol’s life. I am proud to testify that both of us have not held back and in our giving, be it tithes and offering, or just blessing the people around us, even when we were financially tight. God has really added so much to our lives, more than what we can even imagine. Below are the pictures of my new MacBook Pro. This is my sixth testimony of God’s providence.
Other things that happened in the month of May and June, I did some exhaust upgrades due to my faulty muffler box which had a hole and some bodykit work on my car because the current bodykit at that time was cracking already due to age. Below are the pictures of some of my exhaust upgrade work in-progress and final product at AH Exhaust, USJ 1. I was very satisfied with the quality and the sound of my muffler is superb!
Below are the pictures of the latest bodykit work in-progress.
The pictures of the final product of my car bodykit work will be uploaded soon.
Before I end, I just want to say that God is indeed so faithful. He is a God that will never give us things that are second best, but it is our part to keep sowing, keep believing, ask specifically and keep expecting. I can confidently say that God has added so many things in my life that I once thought I can never have.
Above all these material things that God has blessed me with, the greatest thing that God has given to me is my relationship with Carol. Next to God, the closest person to you is your girlfriend, fiancé or wife. I’m glad that God has placed such a God-fearing, Bible loving, Spirit filled, loving, caring, supportive and of course, extremely beautiful girl in my life. Carol is my girlfriend you know, don’t play-play ah!
This is my seventh testimony of God’s providence in 2010. Can’t wait to marry her... soon =)
That’s all for today, people~! God Bless and have a great day ahead!
It’s the end of August already, many things has happened throughout the past one month or so. I’ve been extra active in a lot of things lately because God has placed me in a position where I have no choice but to stretch my physical and spiritual capacity. I just came back from a ministry trip in Kota Bahru with Ps Ryan and 4 other Harvest Generation leaders. We really had a great time there ministering in the adult and youth service. We were also fed beyond our capacity with awesome food, I had one of the best durians in the world there as well =))
Church is really growing at a fast rate! It’s so exciting to be able to have a hand in building God a great house! Ps Ryan kicked off the Financial Series in our church last weekend, a sensitive topic most church would not dare to even touch, but the church has really been blessed by the message. It is tough to NOT allow money be the master over our life, since every aspect of our life requires money, but by putting God first in our hearts and through His power, we can be masters of our money. The beautiful thing about being masters of our money is that we can control when and how money can work for us. If money is our master, it will control us. God is not against us having more money, but God is totally against money having us.
I have always been so disturbed in my spirit with people, long time Christians in particular, who always condemn other Christians for being rich and having much wealth. Obviously, these people don’t know the Bible and God very well, as they claim to know.
But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 8:18
There are so many accounts of great people in the bible who do marvelous things that change the course of an entire nation, who love God fervently, who one of them is even called the very man after God’s own heart, that were very VERY wealthynot just in their sprit, but in their physical possessions.
You don’t believe me? Do open your Bible and refer to the following references:
Abraham (even when he was still Abram)
·Genesis 12:1-3
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
·Genesis 13:1-2
So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
Isaac
·Genesis 26:12-14
Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
Jacob (wealth inherited from Isaac)
·Genesis 37:1
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
Joseph (Pharaoh’s appointed Prime Minister)
·Genesis 41:44
Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift His hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
Job
·Job 1:1-3
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, His possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
King David (his preparations to build God’s temple)
·1 Chronicles 22:14-16
“Indeed I have taken much trouble to prepare for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond measure, for it is so abundant. I have prepared timber and stone also, and you may add to them. Moreover there are workmen with you in abundance: woodsmen and stonecutters, and all types of skillful men for every kind of work. Of gold and silver and bronze and iron there is no limit. Arise and begin working, and the LORD be with you.”
King Solomon (richest king of ALL human history)
·1 Kings 10:14-22
The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.
And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.
All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had merchant ships[b] at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.
Paul (a tentmaker-biblical time hotelier to wealthy travelers)
·Acts 18:1-3
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
·Acts 20:33-35
“I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the LORD Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' “
Jesus (He wore designer clothing of the new testament times, it was so expensive that the soldiers were very careful not to tear it, instead they gambled to see who wins it)
·John 19:23-24
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
God desires to bless us and make us wealthy, otherwise He wouldn’t have given us the power to make wealth. However, the foundation of wealth is generosity. Without a generous heart, the wealth that we gather will never last.
There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty.
The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.
Proverbs 11:24-25
I still don’t understand where ‘so-called Christians’ get the idea that becoming a Christian, we must be poor. GodNEVER related humility to being poor in the physical. However, Jesus did mention that we have to be poor in our spirit so that we will always depend on him (Matthew 5:3). Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean having nothing in our spirit. When we talk about being poor, it’s always related to being hungry, not having enough. It is the same in our spirit, being poor in the spirit means always being hungry and desiring for so much more of what God has for us, totally depending on His wealth. So in other words, we can be rich in the physical, having everything that’s top notch this world has to offer, yet we must continuously be hungry for more of God.
I personally had enough of the nonsense from the older generation of ‘christians’ condemning fellow believers because of their wealth. Being a strong believer doesn’t mean we must live scrapping the bottom of our buckets every month just to feed ourselves. My God is a God of Abundance! If I choose to put Him and His desires first in my life, He will add on to me all the things I need to live abundantly without any worry (Matthew 6:32-34). So personally think that ‘christians’ that have a problem with wealth are plain weird..
God promised us that if we give our offerings and tithes in obedience, He will bless us even beyond our own measure (Malachi 3:10-11). To the measure of our hearts in how we give, God will bless us back with so much more (Luke 6:38). Most of the time, people who have a problem with Christians being wealthy have a problem with giving and tithing in church. These people are so weary of what the church will do with the money that they have missed out on God’s blessing for them if they were to have sown (Ecclesiastes 11:4).
Giving and tithing is a personal thing between a believer and God, we don’t have to worry what happens to the money after we’ve offered it to God because true giving out of a generous heart is to totally release the wealth with trust. Do you think God will keep quite if someone were to steal from the church? I HIGHLY doubt, because God is a just God, even if they escape in this life, they won’t escape eternal judgment. So if Christians working outside church can make wealth through obedience, why can’t full-time workers in church be wealthy too? Does God practice double-standards? Definitely NOT!
How great would our testimony be if the God whom we declare as the creator of the entire universe, the one who supplies all our needs, can’t even provide for our daily needs? How great would our testimony be if full-time pastors can’t even send their children to the best universities? How high would people regard Christianity if full time church workers don’t even have enough to provide for their own families? If we Christians live in poverty, we are actually declaring God a liar and publically saying the Bible is fake! It is written in the Bible that we, as believers of Christ, shall not beg for bread (Psalm 37:24-26).So Christians, be very careful not to reject or condemn God’s financial blessings on other as well as yourself because rejecting or condemning God’s word is an outright blasphemy.
We can glorify God through our wealth. I believe God is raising up a new generation of millionaires and billionaires, who are strong in the Word and totally dependent on the Holy Spirit, to cause a major impact in world economics, moving governments and impacting nations. A new generation that doesn’t gather wealth for his or her own self consumption, but a people who will fund that many ministry and missions works, building many churches across the world, relieving poverty and giving welfare to the needy, all for the expansion of His Kingdom, making His Name great! All this is because we’re are blessed by God to be a blessing to the nations (Genesis 12:1-3).
Hope this little sharing has inspired you to live out your dreams, to make more money for the glory of God. If we choose to build God a great house, to go after what matters to Him first, He will add on much to us. I’m so glad I’m now planted and discipled in Harvest Generation, a church which believes in taking embraces EVERY PROMISE that God has for us as believers of Christ. I want to be very wealthy one day, and I want other people to see my wealth, particularly non-Christians, not to boast of my ability to make wealth, but to boast of God’s favour, goodness, blessing and greatness over my life and the lives of my future children, to be greater blessing to them not just in spiritual and emotional support, but also in physical finances.
Do mark my words, if you think money is a problem or even a curse,Please Bring Your 'Problems' and 'Curses' to me! I will gladly DELIVER you from ALL of it~!! HAHA!
PROJECT REPORT! I’ve just traded in my old car audio amplifiers to a more powerful one as the former was causing my sound system to produce a lot of white noise. I’ve also added 2 new Clarion mid range speakers to the back of my car to create a surround sound feel in my car. Now I’m blasting Eminem songs from it and it sounds fantastic! HAHA! Other than that, I’m currently planning my finances to change my worn-out clutch and clutch pressure plate. Planning to change to a Trinity 6-puck racing clutch couple with Exedy racing pressure plate from to be able to support the torque my engine is currently producing. It’s about time my gearbox is serviced also.
That’s all the time I have for now, thanks for taking time to read this post. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you. Have a great new week ahead! Take care and God bless!
That’s all I have for today, I hope all of you will have a great weekend ahead! Last note, on behalf of Harvest Generaton Church, our deepest condolences to Whay Chiat and his family for the passing-on of his father. Our prayers are with Whay Chiat and his family.
