Searching for the Presence of God

“How do I sense the presence of God?” My daughter asked, as we were jogging towards the beach late last Sunday night.

She was leading the worship during her cell group meeting the day before. Many of those at the service felt the presence to God, but she didn’t. She wondered why, even though she was much prepared for the worship.

It is good to know that there is this desire for her to want to know God more intimately. It shows that she is searching for God. We have this meaningful discussion whenever we go jogging together.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Jesus said.

“We need to understand first that God is every where” I explain. (Psa 139:7,8)

But God is holy and we are sinful, we could not sense His presence even though the Holy Spirit is in us (Rom 8:9). So for me to develop this awareness of God’s presence, the starting point for a beginner is to memorize the Word of God, meditate and ponder over it. Start with the LOGOS. (when I became a Christian, my Follow-up Leader asked me to memorize Bible verses, so that is how I grow with it)

“Since, the human mind is always thinking, why not put our thoughts on His Word, and breathe (pray) out words to Him as we reflect on these verses.” I always carry Bible verses in my wallet so that I can just go through them whenever I miss a word or two from the verses, I told her.

Also, whenever we encounter something or face some situations, just say a short prayer. Like this morning, there was a massive traffic jam due to the heavy down pour. Instead of getting impatience (or curse and swear at some inconsiderate drivers), why not pray for the situations, other drivers and safety as we navigated out of the situation. Learning to pray in all situations helps me to be aware of God’s presence at all times.

After doing this for many times, soon we develop the sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit. He will use God’s WORD – the LOGOS within us, to speak God’s WORD – the RHEMA to us. That is when I start to sense the presence of God and be able to hear Him. He can speak through vision/dream, imagery words and feeling. Most of my encounters with God are usually imagery words and feelings, which are usually proven true later. Usually when such a RHEMA comes to me, I just obey and act according to what is shown to me. I usually keep it to myself until it is proven to be true later. – This is call “walk by faith and not by sight” (2Cor 5:7).

Every Christian has his own way of meeting God, which may be different from what I have done and describe above. Do drop a comment and share with me. Thank you.


For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him… (2Chron 16:9 NIV)

Agape

Devotional Thoughts: Having my Sword ready at all times

“Every good Christians bring along their swords!” My Bible study and follow-up leader used to tell me when I was young.

Indeed, the sword of the Holy Spirit which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17) is the only offensive weapon that Scripture tell us how Jesus Christ defeat the temptations of Satan during his 40days fast in the wilderness. If the LORD uses Bible verses to overcome temptation, how much more I need to follow in HIS steps.


Today’s Quiet Time from the Daily Bread (Psalm 119:33-40): http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2009/10/22/devotion.aspx

reminds me again of Scripture Memory and its power to shape my life. I remember when I first started Bible study with my leader, the first thing he did with me was to memorise Bible verses. We did that for one year, covering over more than 60 verses. These verses are the pinnacle of my Christian foundations which become my sword ready for all times of need. Since then, I have moved to keeping important passages like Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 121 and 1 Cor 13 into memory. They are in my sub-conscious mind. Often times, they surface in my thoughts unknowingly and suddenly to remind me to take a certain cause of action. I take this as the Holy Spirit using His word to prompt me to move towards His direction.

It is a pity that I see the younger generations of Christian not being trained in Scripture memory. In our Singapore education system, every students must memorize the 26 alphabets, the multiplication tables, the periodic tables (Chemistry), and if you are good at mathematics all the differentiation and integration in Calculus. I still remember them till these days.

How much more as Christians, we need to memorise the names and order of the 66 Books, important verses like John 3:16, 1John 1:9, Prov 3:5-6 and many more.

Have your sword ready at all times – in the head and heart!

Create an environment for Spiritual Growth & Reproduction

As I listened to the Prime Minister’s National Day message concerning Singapore pro-creation policy, many thoughts crossed my mind about why people choose to remain childless and Christians cease in spiritual reproduction as well. Political leaders and Christian leaders are both concern about raising the right kind of leadership and population growth. I shall share my experience on raising leadership some other time.

Singaporeans are busy people, those of us who have traveled or stay aboard will agree. We are busy with our career to the extent of neglecting our social lives and are not ready for marriage. Then there is another group who is married but for personal reasons, chooses to remain single. Parenting is a burden and a hindrance to their career path and freedom (to travel, leisure, etc). This is a sign of immature thinking. The third group chooses to remain childless are usually because of health reason.

As Christians, we too need to ask ourselves honestly why we are not reproducing. Witnessing, evangelism, reaching out to others for Christ, are hard work. If we are not clear of our faith, it can be a burden and hindrance to our comfort zone, a sign of spiritual immaturity. Reproduction is God’s way of creation – “Be fruitful & multiply”. All living things (plants, animals, organism and humans) reproduce as they mature. Then there is another group of Christians, who are not spiritually healthy. These are the one who will give up their faith at a sign of crisis or trials. We are busy Christians with our job, family, church and leave little time to make a conscious effort to reach out to our friends and colleagues. We often use the word “fear” to describe our feelings. For the older ones, we may be now “spiritual menopause” Christians.

Thank God, for this year, we started building a “women court”- a ministry for the ladies in our church, after 3 years of voicing this out in the committee. I have received some encouraging feedback from visitor. Although it is important to build up our “Holy place” and the “Holy of Holies” – worship ministry, as a church, we need to continuously enlarge our “Gentile court”, creating an environment where we feel at ease to invite friends into our midst. Are our Share Groups “non-Christian friendly”? Are our ministries meeting the needs of the community? The Church exists for the world, because Christ came for the world (John 3:16). What ministry or projects will meet these needs? A discipleship/evangelistic environment is one where the norm is to share our lives, how we live in the awareness that God is with us, with one another – to Christians by our encounter with God, to non-Christians by our testimony and Gospel. My first 3 years as a Christian was in such a discipleship environment. It was where sharing daily devotions, loving and caring for one another was the norm for a Christian community. This naturally led to witnessing for Christ. Maybe, we were young then, and also homogenous, we were all students. Can a church create such an environment? Yes, but it is difficult as we are busy Christians. I have thought of many possibilities. It is not just about providing a training evangelism program. You may want to think about it also.

We need to raise up Christians with a mindset of spiritual growth. But it can never be an individual effort. We must create an environment such that it is a norm to grow & reproduce. People must see that not to grow and bear fruit is abnormal. We have not created such an environment yet.

Let us be like a good Jew, who is taught to do 3 things in his lifetime – Write a book, plant a tree, raise a child. For me, a Christian - write my thoughts, bear spiritual fruit, raise a spiritual child.

Mark Lim

Christian Discipleship is not an option

Am I a disciple of Christ?

The message during the Church Camp @ Cinta Ayu, Pulai Spring Resort in JB on 8 June 2008 was on John 15:1-17. Abiding in Christ is not an option. In verse 6, Jesus said that whoever does not abide in Him is thrown away. Without abiding in Him, we can't bear fruit. Only by bearing fruits would we prove to be His disciple (v8). These words tingle in my mind - abiding in Christ, bear fruits, what fruits?

What is abiding in Christ?
One that lives in obedience to Christ and follow Him (Mt 4:19). Am I obeying Christ? In what ways and how obedient am I?

Bearing Fruits
What fruit is Jn 15 refering to? It is bringing non-believer to come to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord? Or Spiritual Fruits? Or both? Reflecting on this, it is harder to get people to accept Christ now than when we were students. Try as I may, the respond from colleagues are usually apathy and disinterested. I have tried to invite them to church, talk to them about our lives but they don't see the need for God. This is because there are no problem in their lives. Perhaps, it is good that crisis does occur to make us see how vulnerable life is and we need God. I just have to pray for them. So, still no fruits!

Discipleship loves one another (Jn 13:34,35)
Yep, I need to love other Christians in speech, thoughts and action.


Mark Lim