gateway to joy.

Note to self:

“And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?”
Luke 12:25-26

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Matthew 6:34

“And of Asher he said: ‘Asher is the most blessed of sons; let him be favoured by his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; as your days, so shall your strength be.”
Deuteronomy 34:24-25 

3 times I had this note to self post of scriptures and today I realise, they are really God-given scriptures for that particular day, especially today! It is really the Bible coming alive for me and God leading me to these particular scriptures and bringing them to remembrance.

And only from these scriptures then I realised I had been worrying too much and when I prayed for strength for today (I was physically very tired), God brought the verse in Deuteronomy to my mind! (then I cried…)

He taught me today how I could rely on Him on a DAILY basis. (AWESOME X5) =)

The thing i struggle with most and has been struggling with most of my life - you cannot even imagine how ridiculous it is.
But I shall prevail! Because, my God is the God of the impossible! 

One thing that I always didn’t want to accept (really) is that I couldn’t hear God’s voice, audibly… I wanted Him to talk to me out front and in my face so I will know it is definitely Him.

God speaks to different people in different manner and He doesn’t speak to me audibly, but He STILL SPEAKS! He is my shepherd and I am His sheep; I know His voice and He speaks in a still small one. =)

He told me, the reason why I couldn’t tell for sure that it is Him is because I haven’t been spending time in prayer; spending time with Him… I could not recognise His voice because there was doubt. 

Living The Difference Camp was a different prayer experience for me. An extremely exciting one! And I did not even realise that God was taking me on such a journey till I come to the very last service at camp! He led me to pray a prayer for myself that I’ve never before, in fact, I was pleasantly surprised (amidst all my sobs and crying) by what I prayed on 3rd day’s morning prayer. It felt like I was prophesying to myself sort of, the words just came without much thought and what I usually prayed for people, for the first time I prayed for myself! Through that prayer, God also revealed things in my heart that I did not explicitly acknowledge and from there I knew what I got to give up to Him. (AWESOME) 

Praying for others was different as well. Felt the prompting to go pray for a certain someone, didn’t know what to pray! Went ahead still, but with some hesitation at the start… Asked God to put words in my mouth, words came without me thinking and I know many times the person did felt a witness in her spirit. For some, I ran out of words, but I didn’t felt to go so I stayed (which is the first time i did this!), and more words came. (AWESOME X2) =O

It is addictive to be used by God! (AWESOME X3) =O
And through all these, I was actually learning to recognise His voice! Following, as He leads me. (AWESOME X4) =O

God gave me a promise, which I won’t elaborate here but I shall do my part to see it come to pass!

Brother Wright talked about David - the day David was anointed to be king by Samuel and the day David actually became king was several years, but David endured through the process God brought him through because he remembered that particular day when he was anointed. And Brother Wright described: how David remembered the oil that trickled down his face; the fragrance of the oil that permeated the room…

And for the last service, they were going to seal what we have received from God by anointing us with oil. I printed the experience in my mind like I was a computer recording something. With my eyes closed, (amidst all my sobs and crying) I ‘recorded’ the feeling in my mind as the oil trickled down my forehead, several deep breaths I took so I remembered the smell of that olive oil that filled the altar that day…

  

Thank you God. I LOVE adventures and You are taking me on the greatest adventure ever.

Note to self:

“Concerning this thing I pleaded with Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:15-16 

Learning to recognise and obey His voice.
Learning to move in the Spirit.

For many of us, our walk with God has been like a roller coaster, we peaked twice a year, during youth camp and the church camp at the end of the year where we will almost be soaring in the spirit. Other times, from those mountain tops, we’ll start to descend and most times, we eventually found ourselves in the valleys, struggling to get out.

This has been very true for myself and I’ve never been good with discipline. It disgusts me even that I found myself in the valleys again the few months before youth camp. AH! THE VICIOUS CYCLE! I didn’t want to fight anymore; there wasn’t much faith left in me to believe that change is still possible and I don’t know where is my God - the one who we call, God of the impossible. 

In my mind, I know God is going to do something incredible at this camp this year, things are going to change, we are after CONSISTENCY in our walk with God. In my heart, I was afraid that it will be the same ups and downs again.

But… My God is a 

 

He begun to revive my heart, starting at Pre-LTD service. 

Sis Grace, “How long are you going to let the devil beat you down, he’s pushing you, right and left! How long! How long are you going to allow him to put you down!” 

I weeped, literally.
Cried and cried and cried…

And the bible says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 

Sis Grace (our youth leader) got us to rebuke the devil and bind the spirit of fear, like in LTD 2008 where we got up front with the mic; not for the sake of re-enactment, but to declare our faith and stand up to fight again.

This post will get really long if I even start describing what went through my mind and what I felt in my heart after Sis Grace said that. But yes, after the much struggle within myself, I took a stand for myself and fought back! Oh, and you can just imagine the release I felt and the faith that just came pouring back in…

Then God spoke,
“There can only be one Master, now that you have chosen Me over the spirit of fear, I’ll come back to you. Would you give me your time, energy, past and disappointments? … … I longg… to meet you, I have never leave nor forsaken you… Come back to me.”

How then do we get consistent?
Study the Word of God. Know the Word of God. Memorise scriptures so that God can bring it to remembrance at the right time. 

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

How do you get transformed?
”by the renewing of your mind”
Empty out the junk and fill it with God’s word.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

We are at war, a war for our souls and time is short.   

Note to self:

‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ 
Ephesians 6:12

‘Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.’
Proverbs 4:23

‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’
Romans 12:2

‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.’
Romans 8:1

Hi y’all, I am finally back online from camp! There are a lot of things I have in mind to blog about and will definitely make sure they are reader-friendly so you wouldn’t be plowing through a field of words. =)

I will update again really soon, in the meantime, I’ll leave you 2 quotes from camp to chew on. =)

And one of the quotes is by one of the youth at camp.

God Bless!

Living Streaming 1 | Living Streaming 2

Morning Service: 8.30AM - 11.30AM SST| 5.30PM - 8.30PM PST| 7.30PM - 10.30PM CST| 8.30PM - 11.30PM EST 

Evening Service: 4.30pm - 6.30pm SST| 1.30AM - 3.30AM PST| 3.30AM - 5.30AM CST| 4.30AM - 6.30AM EST

This is not a picture by me because I’m in the photo, but there is a reason why I am putting this here.

The picture is taken in the Youth Camp (we call it Living The Difference Camp) 2008, where the services were held in church. (if you’ve seen the video i posted in this blog previously, i think you would probably have some idea about this camp)

There were no music, there were fasting, we all had to take a segment of the bible study lesson and teach to one another, and learn how to be a bible study teacher. It wasn’t just pastor or a foreign minister that was preaching, some of the youths got to share morning manna and for the Sunday following the camp that year, it was the youths that were preaching on the pulpit. It is definitely a life transforming experience, indeed like what Bro Stoneking always says, “you’re never be the same again…”

Services started without music but we were already in the presence of God that brought us to our knees in weeps and tears, travailing and interceding in the spirit.

I’m saying all these is to say this, I want to invite you to be a part of it this year. We will be streaming live, so you can watch the services wherever you are, all over the world. If after all these, you feel as I do that God has done a great work in our 2008 camp, then be ready to expect more this year.

Already, more is happening! Even before camp started, we had a pre-camp service to prepare our hearts and God moved in a tremendous way such as we had not witness or experience before. And today, when the foreign delegates arrive, we were planning to just watch the 2008 camp video to give them a glimpse of what to expect, but the presence of God fell, God spoke to us in tongues and interpretation 5 times! (that never happened before, at least not for me…) We ended up spending the next 2 hours in the auditorium praying! (and I thought we were just going to watch a video and I didn’t even realise so much time has passed!)

The following are some photos from today:

I dare you to take up this challenge, just watch one service. =) You can email me at jinnettkidra@hotmail.com or tayyongen@hotmail.com to find out more or ask me anything, I can still check my email at camp with my phone. =D

Thank you all of you that are following this blog, I hope it has in anyway inspired or made a difference in your life.  

GBU

P.S I probably be still blogging a little stuff at camp through my phone, tried that day, it worked! Stay tuned!