Asia Conference [part FOUR]

Part 4 is going to be about Pastor Phil's Sunday morning ordination service message.

But before I begin, I'd like to say that you taggers have been very kind...I believe it must have been a hectic and exhausting 5 day conference from morning to night as much as it is exciting. I only went for like, 1.5 days out of 5. I suppose that's why i've got so much energy to write so much. i usually don't....haha. :p

The Valley of Dry Bones

Pastor shared that there are 4 reasons why the bones got dry.

a) A wounded/broken spirit (Prov 17:22, Psa 64:3)

b) A cutting spirit

c) A bruised spirit (Isa 42:3)

d) A poisoned spirit (Psa 143:3)

As what have been mentioned in part 3 of the Asia Conference update, the purpose of AC is to revive dying visions and dreams. Pastor Phil didn't go detailed into the scriptures, but he shared that there are 2 things "the dead" will do: first they seek God in the old, and secondly they seek God in the negative (1 Jn 1:5).

This message is a direct personal challenge to me. Many seek God. That's wonderful...but how many are seeking God in the new things? God is a God of the new. It can be difficult to follow Jesus because every single second God is doing something new through the Holy Spirit. Unless we really follow Christ closely, it can be very easy for us to think that the old wine is better than the new.

What struck me most was the part when Pst emphasized to church leaders to have faith in the youths and allowing them to serve in church. He also spoke about it during the Fri midday session when he was prophesying. Man...I believe many church ministers will go back to their home countries and churches after the conference implementing radical changes.

I love my church because it is one that that seeks God in the new constantly. The old is good, but God is creative (Elohim) and He has got many new ideas for us that we must catch from Him.

Yup so that ends my 4 part series to Asia Conference!

Asia Conference 2008 [part THREE]

I decided to dedicate part three to post about Benny Hinn's healing meeting on Saturday evening. There will be a final part four so watch out for it. :D

Well, I wasn't there for the meeting that night, but one thing I know is that many healings took place, and those healings are divine and genuine.

Jeremiah 33:6 says, "Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security."

When there's signs and wonders taking place, it is always a move by God.

1) However, it was brought to attention that Benny Hinn that night gave prophecies so precise and exact that shook many people.

The Bible tells us clearly- in 1 Cor 14:1 to "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy."

Prophecy is something we should and must desire, not just for big ministers only, but for us as Christians we should seek to move in the gift of prophecy as well.

HOWEVER, for every prophecy given, the prophecy MUST bring about 3 things (1 Cor 14:2-3) :-

1) Comfort

2) Edification

3) Exhortation

Also, the prophecy must come true in order to prove that the prophecy is true, and that you are not a false prophet. In the old testament times, false prophets suffer from a terrible fate; they will be stoned to death. This is how serious God is with false prophets.

Hence, city harvest's stance as a church is to put the prophecies given by Benny Hinn that Saturday night on the shelf for now. If it comes true, then the prophecy is true. But if it does not, then we see a false prophet in our midst. In anyway, the point is: Wait and see. Time will tell. And don't take matters into your own hands. Ultimately, God is the only judge. By boycotting him even without giving him a chance by personally experiencing his ministry, we are already judging him by our actions.

However, there is another issue that is far more serious than the prophetic utterances.

2. Benny Hinn declared during his preaching that his family is less important than his ministry, and that his ministry is more important than his wife and family.

I heard from WL who attended the meeting that he was telling the congregation he actually engraved his ministry logo on his ring to remind himself that his ministry always comes first, and not his family.

Pastor addressed this wrong doctrine very strictly this Sunday morning during service, including the issue on prophecies as mentioned above.

1 Tim 3:5 says, "If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?"

Hence, God is FIRST, family is SECOND, then ministry THIRD.

.

So what can we learn from this incident? I can almost hear cynics and critics go "there you go City Harvest, I told you Benny Hinn is a fake. Still engage him for what? U are simply making yourself in a difficult position where people dislike you because they are against Benny Hinn."

Hey firstly, EVEN if you treat Benny Hinn like an enemy, God never ask you to hate your enemies right? Instead, the Bible teaches us to love our enemies as ourselves! Now that's hard to do huh? Cynics.

Sorry, but i really detest people like that. But even as I detest people like that, I make sure I practise what I preach and love these cynics the best I know how. I pray for them.

As I've posted in part ONE entry, AR Bernard shared that there's a thin line between practising SEPARATION and ISOLATION.

Do you isolate someone just because people around you are saying bad things about that person?

Do you condemn Benny Hinn just because people are saying bad things about him, or do you say 'let's wait and see' meanwhile not passing judgment on him?

You may say that you also think, sense and judge by your own thoughts and feelings towards this person or event. But the truth is that what you think/ sense/ judge is based on external perceptions and influences that you are exposed to. How then can you judge and think clearly if you deliberately expose yourself to negative stuff?

The foolproof method is to judge a man of God by the BIBLE. The bible is our standard for lifestyle. Not youtube, not blogs, not the media newspapers. In anything we find deviate from the teachings of the Bible, we call it the wrong doctrine and the person teaching it a false preacher.

Now the point is, how are you going to know that Benny Hinn is a false preacher of the wrong doctrine if we didn't give him a chance to stand on our church's pulpit and preach?

You say that it's a tremendous risk to expose the church to wrong doctrines. I say that it is simply a stepping stone to affirm the right faith doctrines. In everything, there are always 2 sides to the coin. The issue is how you handle the situation and put it to good use.

I admire and respect pastor Kong and I'm proud that he is my spiritual father. He managed this Benny Hinn hoo-ha really well. He does not owe anyone apologies because the Bible is the standard for the things he do for the church. By inviting Benny Hinn to come and speak and minister without putting on any glasses of discrimination against him. It is only when Benny Hinn taught the wrong doctrine to the Asia Conference congregation that Pastor Kong stood out to protect our faith and set things right. In everything there are consequences. We reap what we sow.

I believe we will not be seeing Benny Hinn in action in our church any longer. But it's only after we have given him a chance when other people criticized him like crazy.

Ultimately, it is about personal experience, not really about determining who's right or wrong. When you have personally experienced, you naturally will find out the right from the wrong. You should never condemn a person, church or event if you have never personally gone down to experience it.

3. In any way, there is no denial that Benny Hinn REALLY has the healing anointing in him.

God works through anointed man. I have personally experienced the move of the Holy Spirit during a few Benny Hinn healing meetings. The presence of God was very strong. What is saddening is to see an anointed man with so much entrusted upon him fall into wrong doctrines.

Likewise, a church that start in the Holy Spirit ends up stagnant in past visions and dreams. Pst Kong calls this a dying church. And that's the whole purpose of Asia Conference...to revive passion of church leaders with dying visions for a dying church.

I think this incident has also given Pst Kong an unexpected opportunity to demonstrate to the foreign delegates the wisdom required in handling situations like that even in the face of a major event like the Asia conference.

Asia Conference 2008 [part TWO]

Part two comes immediately after part one. Just too many things to share!

1. Morning session with AR Bernard (Michael Bloomberg's man & soon-to-be team mate of Barack Obama)

You are in your culture, as fish is in its saltwater. But the fish does not have to be salty in order to live in the saltwater! So we are to be in the world, but not of the world.

BUT. Look at the Christians in the world today. Are we practising: Imitation or Isolation? (with respect to culture)

The church today is preaching separation but is in fact practicing isolation! (My notes: Double standard Christian living?)

Under a culture that is not redeemed, we still love, but we love selfishly. We practise creativity and innovation and talents and abilities, but we use it for selfish means.

Instead, let's practise INSULATION & PENETRATION.

Insulation has two functions: To keep cold out, and to keep heat in.

Insulation is spiritual layering to protect from the averse external environment. We are to be in the world, but we must insulate ourselves with layers of truth, revelation & understanding.

As for "Penetration", another word for it is STEALTH. Stealth means "undetected by radar". We are to penetrate the world society and culture in such a way that we go undetected. People wonder: how to go about impacting culture, so as to redeem it and bring that culture to the Kingdom of God? The answer is: By education, qualifications, rise up in power and position to obtain that much required INFLUENCE in order to bring God into that society.

And yes, we will find it challenging to believe and live out the cultural mandate...it will take a lot of passion, hard work and persistence. And that's the reason we cannot do without maintaining our spirituality and intimacy with God as we engage as salt and light.

Rev. Dr. AR Bernard also mentions about his stance in this whole US presidential elect hoo-ha, since he would have a part in it. About PROVIDENCE which is something supernatural, and which is done by the hand of God behind the scene. So God is neither a democrat or a republican. He just uses people and events for His own doings in order to begin to set the world right once again. So even if Barack Obama advocates "spiritual puralism", God is still working behind the scenes to bring "Change" to the entire US.

And I agree with AR Bernard's message...I could sense something is different in this election campaign than from the past. What struck me was the whole idea about "Change". I admit i don't follow the elections quite closely, at most I read of them a little online and in the newspaper and some youtubing here and there. But I did catch a little bit about the general essence of the elects' movement, which is to bring change into the country. I bet US had never been closer to the reality of change coming than this year's campaign. But at the same time I had doubts about BOTH barack obama and John Mc Cain's ability to lead and to fulfil their promises since the beginning. I thought Hillary Clinton would be a better choice actually. But nevertheless I did feel that this election would be quite different. Open doors, I suppose that's what i felt.

And indeed....that's what it is. Dr. AR Bernard i pray will shine like Daniel, Joseph and Esther in the Bible. These biblical characters are the best examples for Christ in Culture: KRISTOS KAI KOSMOS.

All mothers will definitely feel a lot of emotional pain and hurt after a miscarriage, no matter how much is done to bury that past....unless something is done to lift up that pain and hurt to God, and let healing flow down from Heaven into the soul.

To me, the greatest reason to feel emotionally depressed for mums who lost children is that they carry alot of guilt and blame upon themselves for their failure in taking good care of the unborn child. And that is the self-condemnation that mothers need to release themselves from. It's definitely not easy, but with God, His healing will flow if we allow it.

Pst Chris was controlling her tears as she shared this message with us during lunch...it was really brave of her to be able to share something so painful in her life. But as she received God's revelation and healing, she is determined to share it with as many women with the same experiences as possible.

Her unborn child is named Jesse, a son. I want that book....I hope to be able to share this with my mum someday, when the timing is right.

3a. Elective: Songwriting for P&W

I felt that most of the stuff shared I kind of know already....I mean seriously. But going there and realizing that alot of things I have already known gives me the assurance that I'm on the right track.

But KC and Jeff Crabtree shared alot that's outside of songwriting but relates to songwriting. What stuck to me was:

1) Everytime you collaborate with people, always remember to CREDIT them!

2) Don't just think about having a nice melody. The lyrics is important too. ***

3) Song's tempo is like a human heartbeat. The song must reflect human condition, and therefore a tempo of 110-130 is liken to the heartbeat of a human dancing and exercising. Tempo of 60 is like a person on the bed, sleepy. But don't go below 60 cos that's like a funeral march for a funeral, not praise and worship.

*** KC shared something that really inspired me deeply. He shared about last sunday service weekend when Cheryl Fox, the news anchor of Channel News Asia (CNA) came to city harvest church to experience and do an interview on religion and music for the very popular programme called "Get Rea!". Essentially, she was bent on concluding that religion depend alot on music to attract people to come and join the faith. She went around to different religious institutions, some buddhists, some christians, etc.

But by the end of the praise and worship, she commented to KC who was beside her: "This is so beautiful."

Well, why did she say that? She happen to sit just beside the deaf and mute section, and by seeing them stand through the entire P&W for like 30-45mins without being able to discern any form of melody since they are deaf, she was touched and realized that our faith is really not dependent on music. Yes, music is partly the reason to attract people. But there are other reasons. music can NEVER be the one and only reason to make people stay committed and planted in the church.

So that really shook Cheryl Fox, and I hope that reflects during the "Get Rea!" programme. :)

3b. Effective counselling

I've learnt alot about counselling from this elective. I realize that it's not just my problem, but alot of people's problem who play the counselor's role that we tend to see the root of the problem of the counselee, but many times we TELL them what to do. But they really do not need that. What they need is care and concern, basically a listening ear.

One strategy is to use "What" and "How" questions, instead of "Why". Cos the people come to counselors to seek for answers! So if we phrase our questions in the "Why" form, they won't be able to explain. Even if they could, they would most probably choose not to unless the counselor is close enough to be trusted.

The most important lesson for me to learn is: It is the counselee's own responsibility to want to change. We can only explain the consequences and benefits of their actions. We can only encourage them and be positive, but we cannot help them make decisions. If they decide to continue in their ways, it is not within our control. All we can do is to pray for them.

4. Evening session with Pst. Kong

The title I gave to this message (it wasn't told to us so i just gave it a title) was: Redemptive value of our world & Eternity.

This message is about the Holy City which Isa 60 talks about, and is similar to Rev21 where the New Jerusalem was mentioned. Both are prophetic utterances. Heb 11:13 also says that Heaven is a Holy City and that we must "actively seek after Heaven".

Isa 60:14,19

Cedars of Lebanon - symbol of wealth power but also the symbol of a pagan world

Ships of Tarshish - symbol of military power (=greed)

These two items are historically really the symbols of power like today's gold bars and country's military power.

Question: When God judges, is it a judgment for destruction or construction?

Just like God's fire - is His fire to destroy or to form/mould us?

Isa 10:34, 60:6-7 Both tells us that God's judgment is contrary to a typical Christian's belief.

God cut down the trees in order to RESHAPE them in Isaiah 10:34!

Items of pagan worship and pride will eventually be used to beautify God's house in eternity! (Isa 60:6-7)

In fact, in v7, "Nebaioth" is the name of Ishmael's first born!! Rams are used for muslim worship. And v7 says "The rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you, they shall ascend with acceptance on My altar"!

Revelation HUH! ;-D

And Jesus will only come back the 2nd time after everything on Earth is restored to its original purpose. :)

Asia Conference Lesson 1: The 3rd Space

Rev Kong Hee shares this on the opening night of Asia Conference.

Acts 17: 16 (NIV)
"While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols."

So here was Paul, in the City of Athens and was deeply burdened by the state it was in. Now think for a moment.

Paul was in a territory where idols are everywhere around him, a situation which is full of religious activities. A City where he had to learn the language and the arts around him in order to communicate with the people of Athens.

In order for him to perform his ministry he had to learn their language in order to communicate with them, learn their culture basically. So Paul was culturally educated in the system of Athens.
Notice, he had to learn their culture but yet it does not affect him. Because Paul practiced Holiness. Being in the presence of idols does not mean your Holiness is diminished.

Now what is Holiness? Two things.

Holiness is ATTITUDE
and
Holiness is OBEDIENCE

These two things are the shield for Paul to put on. In order to be the Salt of the Earth, to Preserve Decay to the society as well as Light of the World, to be that light in the Darkness.

So Paul started to preach in the synagogue stated in Acts 17:16-17. A group of philosophers began to wonder of Paul's speech and they brought him to a place known as the Aeropagus.
Acts 17:18-19

Now the Aeropagus is located on a hill known as the Aeres Hill or Mars Hill. Yup its that name Aeres ring any bell? Or Athens? If you said Greek Gods then you are right!

So hang on a moment, the Aeropagus was like the head of the City State, the parliment house. Its the place where the elders of that city gather together to have counsel. So Paul was brought into the higher ups of the city.

Now check this out. Rev Kong Hee went on to his sermon. First, he shared that the church is known as the First Space, this is where we all feel safe and secure in the presence of God. There is a 2nd Space known as, The Marketplace where this is our Training Ground, our place where we work to earn our living and to do our job vocation. There is a 3rd space, this is where the higher authority of Society is located, the leaders to people with great influence to the 2nd Space.

Now most Christians will move from First Space to 2nd Space and then? BACK to First Space. Now there is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we will get discourage and hurt out there in the 2nd space after all we learnt certain principles in Church and the moment we arrive in the 2nd space the days working will sometimes get you discourage and thus you go back to the First place to find your comfort.

However, this is not where we can impact the society.

Instead our Goal, is from 1st Space, where we are filled with the holy spirit, move on to 2nd space and do well at it. After that you will arrive at the 3rd Space of influence, which is UPWARD MOBILITY. Its fine ministering to the needs of the people on 2nd space, but in third space, you can change the system of living, you can change peoples thoughts on it.

Now what does this have any relation to Paul's story? Well if you read on, Paul was in the upward mobility, in Aeropagus on Mars Hill. Here he spoke about God's goodness to them, he was ASKED to PREACH! Not Forced to Preach, but asked to share with them. This is the Upward Mobility. And from his preaching, he won over a man named Dionysius.

Now this mans name was named after the God of the Greeks for Entertainment and Music. Entertainment and music was paganized after this God named as Dionysus or Dionysia. Usually every performance have to be dedicated to the God of Entertainment.

So this man played the most important role of removing the pagan name Dionysus from all Entertainment and Music and thus the music today is because of the result of one man, who removed the paganistic view of music and it was turned around that music is sanctified and freedom was given to music and entertainement, meaning movies are not about Dionysus anymore but about the freedom it is today.

Praise be to God! So Upward mobility is the Goal and will be that christians in Asia will not just be "surviving" by always going to the First Space, but no, we are raising up a new generation that will take ASIA by storm, by moving to the Third Space!