Beware of chokes in your life

 Finally, we called the plumbers to clear the choke of our kitchen sink!

The Choke

Well, the kitchen sink was choked for a whole week. It’s perhaps the most frequently used area where we cook and do all the washing of dishes and utensils.

sink is choked

It didn’t happen overnight though. It just got worse overtime. The water-flow just get slower and slower. Initially, we improvised to solve the flowing problem with the help of a pump. This helps … but only to a certain degree. After a few more weeks, the choke set in and the pump could no longer do the job of making the water to flow down into the pipe.

Pump to clear the sink

As it was the Chinese New Year holiday period, we had to use a pail to collect the waste water and clear it whenever it’s full. Still, the sink could no longer served it usefulness.

Life is also full of chokes and cluttered rubbish. We listen to unhealthy music, watch destructive videos and saturated our reading with hurtful and self-centred comments and social media. After sometime, the minds sway and wander into worldly lifestyle. The voices of God could no longer be heard. The Bible that we read just don’t excite and illuminate our hearts anymore. Slowly, the choke of our hearts and minds set in and the Spirit could not flow in our lives anymore. Left unchecked, we drifted away spiritually and into worldliness. Until the time when pain and suffering, like a serious illness, bankruptcy, or a broken relationship happen to us would then make us decide to call in “the plumber” to fix our lives and bring us back to God.

No wonder many of us just could not experience what Jesus said in John 9:37,38:

“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declares ‘Rivers of living water will flow from the heart.’ “

We, who are Christians have come and drink from Him, Jesus Christ. Yet, most often we failed to experience that Rivers of living water flowing from our heart. The Spirit does not seem to lead our lives. We are still living in our old selfish ways. Nothing has changed in us after drinking / accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Why so? Because our lives are choke with many unpleasant worldly concerns – financial needs, health issues, relationship strain, etc. Or cluttered with many sinful habits and worldly pleasures. The Spirit just could not do HIS work in us to transform us into what God want us to be – holy (1Peter 1:15,16), & be a workmanship for God (Ephesians 2:10).

The Plumber

And so the plumbers came and also with their tools – a long flexible steel rope with a piercing head attach to a motor drilling through the flow of the pipe to clear away all the hard oily mud that stuck and obstruct the flow of the water. A tedious work indeed.  After more than an hour and many pails of water to flush through the sink, finally, the water flow through the sink and into the pipe and drain smoothly. Every obstructions were removed.

How about you spiritually? Is the Spirit flowing from your heart? Has God’s voice seem so muted? Has anything choked your life that the flow of the Spirit seem so impeded? Maybe you should call in the Spiritual Plumber also?

How? Start by calling … praying. Tell Him your problems. No one is listening other than God.

Then by reading … reading the Bible. Try Matthew 11:28-30.

 

Keep reading, and thinking, reflecting, meditating …

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light”

Agape

How to know you are filled by the Spirit

“Honk! Honk, honk!” the car on the right lane blasted away at me. He was quite a distance from my car as I signaled to change into his lane in order to make a right turn. Just a signal could agitate another driver, as if the whole road belongs to him. It was definitely an ungracious act. There is no need to vent one’s anger.

Calmly, I did not change lane. There was no unwarranted feeling in me. Maybe it was quite late into the night and I just don’t want any external situation to influence my peace. It was then that I recalled what Charles Swindoll wrote:

“Grumbling is a sure sign that the flesh in control. … Show me a grumbler, and I’ll show you a person who has distanced herself or himself from the Spirit of God. When we are filled with the Spirit, there is an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. We are not hard to please. We are happy to have whatever God provides.” – Embraced by the Spirit, page 84

I have always like Charles Swindoll’s books. His discussions center on the filling of the Holy Spirit. But not the charismatic type of signs & wonder, if you know what I mean. Typical of Charles, he talks to you as he writes. Then he anticipates your questions and answers them.

As you might have guess it if you know your Bible, the passage is on Ephesians 5:18-21

 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Base on this verse, we can know that we are filled by the Holy Spirit when our hearts are …

1. My heart is teachable
2. My heart is melodious
3. My heart is thankful (grateful)
4. My heart is humble (submissive)

As I evaluate these 4 points that Charles wrote, I began to understand why many a times, there is this soft humming (may be a song) inside me. I am not a “song” person, but more a “Word” person. I would rather memorise and recite Bible verses than sing a song. When I am at rest, I would recall a Bible verse than to sing a Christian song. But since sometime last year after an “Empowering of the Holy Spirit” seminar, the soft humming seems to come quite often. So my heart is trying to be melodious.

I have no problem being teachable and thankful. Now, the most difficult of all … be humble.

I am still working on this area.

Agape!

Can we trust our prompting Impression as God’s Voice?

There are 2 things I don’t do on Sunday. But I did both of them today. Call it psychic if you must but the two things seem like turning out to be telling me the same thing. Is that how God speak to me?


This early Sunday morning, I woke up with a strong impression to read and meditate on Luke 11:1-13. Devotion is not a norm for me on Sunday, but reading the Bible is one thing I response eagerly. Although Luke 11:1-13 is a passage about prayer, what really spoke to me this morning was that God wants me to live in the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit that He has given to me (verse 13 is a promise that God gives us the Holy Spirit when we ask Him). And so my mind lingered with this thought as I got to Church for Sunday worship.

Then, when I was worshipping at RiverLife Church, the sermon topic today was “Walking in the Spirit”!

When I read the Sunday Times in the afternoon, I don’t read YOUR STARS section. For some unknown reason, my eyes just curiously glance at it, since Aries is the first one:

Your subconscious mind is hyperactive, which could make life a little weird, but you should soon get used to it. All this freaky business is in the service of the greater good.

Now, what do you make out of this?

Sometime we do things that we are not really conscious about and this is due to the sub-conscious mind working at it. OK, so my sub-conscious mind is hyperactive! Sure or not?

But I like to saturate my sub-conscious mind with Scriptures (by memorizing Bible verses) so that in times of emergency, these verses just come out and prompt me to act in a “Spirit-led” decision.

So, for once, I LIKE THIS “STARS” thingy!! :))

Agape

Be broken – A fragrance of Christ

Friday 18/5/12 6:25 am

“blonk!” The bottle of 100ml perfume slipped and spilled all over the floor. How careless of me to drop it, even though it cost me only S$2.90. The whole toilet smelled good, but I smelled bad inside me :( As I picked up the broken glasses, I carelessly cut my right thumb! Cleaning up and bandage myself took away the time for my short early devotion.

So my reflection and meditation as I drove the girls to school was on brokenness. “I break, and I cut myself.” In my quietness, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting - To be an aroma and fragrance of Christ, I need to be broken. What an irony. Who want to be broken? It is painful. Yeah, I hurt myself you know, LORD! The last 3 weeks was good, the Presence of God is real. Since the David & Greta Peters’ seminar, I have encountered the filling of the Holy Spirit. It’s amazing to truly understand how to Walk in the Spirit. Now, it seems that God is telling me to move to being brokenness. I am afraid … and the pain of my  right thumb lingers …

…

Friday 18/5/12 8:05 pm

Should I attend the leaders’ prayer meeting? It’s for leaders and core servants, not for me lah. Perhaps I can learn something? Well, might as well just go and see since I am new to this church.

Interesting, they allowed time for leaders who felt a word from the LORD to stand up and share. A sister stood up and felt God wanting her to tell all who were present to be broken! We need to (1) Allow God to Break in; (2) Be Break through in our life; (3) Enjoy a Break dance like King David (2Sam 6).

A mere coincidence that I choose to come and here is what I heard? Isn’t that what God is showing me in the morning and kept me thinking about it all day? And yet at night, when I think I want to hear and see something different, it is still the same message even though I am not suppose to be there. It’s for leaders and core servants of the LORD.

¹⁵ For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; ¹⁶  to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? (2 Cor 2:15-16 NASB)

Amazing how the Spirit leads.

Agape

What happen after “zapped” by the Holy Spirit?

Two Sunday ago, I got “zapped” by the Holy Spirit!


Nope, I am not going to discuss how it happened or why it happened. Or even is it biblical? This is always the contention between the reformed and the charismatic churches. I leave that to you to figure it out, or to take your side.

So what happened to me after that?

Well, ever since (even till today), there is always a song ringing in me, humming inside me. It’s weird for me as I am not a “song” person. I don’t think this happen to others, but I guess, I need to learn to sing more songs from now on. Then yesterday as I was reading Psalms 42,

I come across this verse (eight):

By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

Perhaps, that song inside me is a continuous prayer for me?

Those who know me would know that my job is always stressful. I deal with technical problems. If there is no problem, I make problems because I develop products and during the development phase, I always see problems. Living in this kind of work-life, it is difficult to have real peace inside me. NOW, I see things very differently. The PEACE of Christ is inside me even when unpleasant things happen. I could feel it because coming to work take on a new perspective. The word “never-mind” becomes my familiar phase.

When face with obstacle, it’s always, “what is HE teaching me?” It’s so easy to give praises and thanksgiving. Complaining and grumbling no longer exist.

The greatest transformation is the sensitivity to impure thoughts and unwholesome talks. You know it is coming and nip it in the bud before it appears in the mind or blurt out in the mouth. The presence of the LORD is always there throughout the day.


It is like Colossians 3:15-17 becomes real and alive in me:

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wonder how long this situation will last?

Agape