Grace Cannot Be Comprehended With Our Minds

A note written by "Rabbi" Andrew Ho in his Facebook page.

Grace cannot be comprehended with our minds. It is meant to be comprehended with our hearts.

For many years, I have always understood grace as a theory and knowledge in my head. No doubt, I could have explained this gospel very accurately and well put together. I could even go to the extend of explaining how grace can produce holiness. Yet, if you were to ask me just a year back, I would in theory told you the same thing. But if I were to be very honest, I have never really experienced it myself. The problem was I never did believed "grace" through my heart, I was merely keeping them as a knowledge, doctrine, theology in my head. Therefore the fruit were not evident.

  

Christian likes to talk about faith, hope and love. In that order, the greatest of these is love. When they talk about this, a sub-standard preacher will generally tell people to "love!" That "love" is the most important thing, we must love others! Yet in imposing a requirement to love is just as good as focusing on works and the doing of things. We have forgotten that the only 'work' the bible requires us to do is believe. To believe is faith. When you start believing, only then hope ensued, and when hope that is in Jesus Christ is alive, only then love grows out of you.

  

Many people falls into the trap of understanding through the mind. There will be a lot of reasoning, a lot of intellectual discussion so called. Yet in all these things, it produces absolutely nothing. For as long as these knowledge are thought just as another piece of doctrine, it is of no power unto your life. I have a friend that came to understand the gospel of grace almost the same time as I do (9 years ago). As a matter of fact, he knows much more than me. He would have listened to more sermons and read the bible more, and understand them better too. Today, I don't even know if he still goes to a church.He perhaps had more understanding than I do, but one thing he lack. He had tried to reason out the gospel with his mind, but never let his heart receives it. He had probably a lot of head knowledge. Therefore, the gospel did very little in helping him change.  If you sit through with him through a sermon, he would have so many criticisms on the preacher's message. So much so, you'd feel stress even hearing about them.

It is only in recent months, when I am faced with a worrisome situation, difficult people or temptations. I started to keep reminding myself of the grace of God, Jesus' sacrificed and love. I kept telling my heart such as and be reminded in every way. Every time I am faced with a situation which I would, in my previous self take things to the extreme. I later found out that I have a greater capacity to overcome them as I do so. Then I started to realize that in the process of such, I am actually becoming a quote and quote "holier" person than I was. I may have "overcame" sinning. I was surprise, I was very surprise. What I have been telling people it is possible, I am now experiencing it myself.

  

I have also the privilege to sit down with people who thinks they know a lot about the "gospel of grace". Sitting with them, they would love to think that I am a humble student, looking to learn from their infinite wisdom. Of course, many times I would just sit and listen while nodding my head going "yes, yes, I agree with you. I can understand where you're coming from". Me being as lowly as I can get, I don't get a lot of talk time when I am with adults. They would love to be on the talking side and I do just listening. If I can offer to you a tip about ministering to people, it is not about imparting knowledge to the head. You try to teach people something, they get it, they keep it in mind, they forget it in time. But when you are able to touch their hearts, that, they remember for a long time.

  

So I am not looking to tell people more about what I know in the doctrine. I am looking to share to people and impart it to their hearts. I do not seek to tick people off with more knowledge or doctrines about Jesus. I relate it to them in a way they can grasp with their heart and encourages faith, encourages them to believe. I find that much more powerful than another theological lesson. For Grace cannot be comprehended with our minds. It is meant to be comprehended with our hearts.

  

For some of you, perhaps you may not be able to understand what I am saying. It took myself a long time to come to realization of where I've gone wrong either. If Abraham had always been a picture of righteousness through faith, than Sarah was the picture of Grace. While king Abimelech and the pagans fell for the beauty of Sarah, grace. They never accepted Abraham, signifying righteousness through faith. Yet we have to understand that grace and righteousness through faith goes hand in hand. If you take just a side, Isaac will never be produced. This is what I coined as the "fascination of grace". Where people are impressed, intrigued by such a beautiful gospel. However they never really receive it into their hearts. They kept it in their head, like a masterpiece in a museum - for display only.

  

How is it possible for us to understand anything if we do not reason it with our head. This my friend is how God works that is far from human wisdom. We would have thought that only when we understand then we are able to believe. That is absolute garbage. If we had understand something so thoroughly, we would not need faith to believe in it. It doesn't take faith at all.

  

When you receive him and believe His grace through your heart. That is faith in action. Then you will find yourself receiving revelations that strikes as divine understanding. A much more superior form of knowledge, that is wisdom. The Holy Spirit will come and reveal to you more things than you had thought, and when right believing is involve, the right doing will follow suit. Only then the fruit will be evident. God bless.

Which Table Are You Partaking From?

In my previous post entitled "Confusion", King Nebuchadnezzar has been exposed of his conspiracy to confuse the redeemed. From his table, he lavishes his royal food and wine! Be discerning enough not to feast from his table. His table is called the table of confusion. The royal foods and wine is the teaching with the  mixture of law and grace which in one hand disarms the purposes of the law was given for and on the other hand neutralized the resurrection power of God’s grace.

Before us in the presence of our enemies, our Redeemer prepared the Table before our enemies.  We are partaking His Body and His Blood from His Table. This table is victorious, full of undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor of God. We come to our Lord's Table to enjoy and celebrate His victory and all that He had done for us! 

Before we continue, may I ask whether which table is your "Jerusalem" partaking from?  What is the difference between these two tables? Well, This king Nebu prepares his table before of our own weakness. When we come to king Nebu’s table, we need to legalistically confess all our sins and this is an insult to our Redeemer's finished work! This king Nebu is trying to copy the way our Redeemer prepared the Table but he leads us to eat and drink in an unworthy manner and as a result, many are weak and sick, and many sleep.   But when we come to our Lord’s Table, we partake with thanksgiving and acknowledgement of our Lord’s finished work in remembrance of Him. Because of  His grace, His body had open up a new and living way. The more we come, the more we live! Our Lord’s Table is full of solid truth which is His broken Body and His Blood!

Daniel the Prophet is the picture of the redeemed. He had the wisdom to resolve not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. He asked the official to give them vegetable and water instead and test them for 10 days.

Have you resolve not to eat from king Nebu’s table?

The root word for vegetable here is seed. Jesus mentioned about the Word of God as seed in Matthew 13. He also said in one of the parables that He is seed and unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now with this compilation of the New Covenant truth on seed, we can see that Daniel by then had already been feeding himself with the New Covenant truth, for the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is not ordinary Word but the resurrected Jesus Himself. As for water, we can easily connect water with the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, He only comes to glorify Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, Who is the Only Truth. That is why Apostle Paul preached in the Book of Romans that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. The Christ here is the resurrected Jesus. Apostle Paul himself received revelation from the resurrected Christ and  with his revelation, he was able to write two third of the New Covenant. 

By the way, as I was writing this post, I was fascinated by the statement that my wife wrote on her Facebook wall. She wrote: No man understands the Scriptures, unless he is acquainted with the cross! What about that?

Well, after ten days of testing, Daniel and his gang looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. This is the consequence of the right nutrition for the spirit man… After sitting under a ministry that preaches only the grace of God for eight years, I noticed that those who are in the Grace ministry are healthier in their physical and spiritual life. They are better nourished as the Bible says they are eating meat, not drinking milk because they understand the teaching on righteousness. The newly converted in our midst know more fundamental truth than those “old” Christians who sit under a ministry that preach the mixture of law and grace. 

I am now convinced that Daniel who was in his dispensation already had the wisdom to prophesize on the coming of the Messiah and the end time events because of his  resolution to partake only vegetable and water. What about us, the redeemed who had resolved not to defile ourselves with the royal food and wine from the table of king Nebu, the king of confusion?  We have the vegetable (seed, the Word of Christ) and the water is in us (the Holy Spirit in us)… Wow!

Which table are you partaking from? Is it king Nebu’s table or our Lord’s Table?

A Bunch of Rubbish or Jesus?

"Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ's praise as we do it. We couldn't carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book. 

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

Read More >>>>

Outside The Box

The new covenant of grace had opened up an ultimate gateway for the gentiles to approach God without having to observe Jewish Law. The Gospel was designed to bring good news to the poor in spirit, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, bring freedom to the oppressed and to claim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Luke 4:18 ~ 19  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Ironically, despite of its harshness, the law offers the proud religious people the opportunity to sing their praises to their self-righteousness. To these law observers, the notion of free grace is far too cheap and is “outside the box”. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were a good example of this scenario. Bold souls who think "outside the box" have often been dismissed as eccentric, burned as heretics or even "stoned to death". Even in our time, those sincere and good intent Christians appear to have little tolerance for those who stray too far from their denomination traditions - no matter how biblically sound their arguments are…

To many, the offer of grace seems far too confronting to their logical mindset. They are reluctant to be reminded of their own spiritual nakedness and poverty. Like Adam, they look for fig leaves to hide themselves from God and creating religions to make convenient fig leaf.

In fact, it is observable throughout Church history and even it is observable in our day. Time and time again when God’s grace has visited the Church, the church institution has often either neglected it or sought to nullify it. They have paid too much attention on signs and wonders; their self-righteousness blinded  them from seeing that these signs and wonders are the pointers to His grace!

The Gospel of grace has not been fully realized widely by many Christian. Though shafts of light have periodically cut through history, the Church has remained in the shackles of mixture of law and grace, plus unhelpful traditions and denomination rulings. As such, the Gospel of grace which make up of two third of our New Testament Bible, remain classified as “outside the box” in many churches.

Fruits

Religious people are more concerned on bearing fruits than the condition of the root. Their religious minds have been blocked from seeing that the law demands bearing of fruits while grace graces the condition of the root. The famous passage from John 15 is therefore causing a lot of concern among the religious Christians and therefore had been frequently used to demand fruits from their followers.

John 15:5 ~ "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15:6 ~ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

My friends, plants do not strain and struggle to produce fruit. Instead, by planting them on good soil, with adequate exposure to sunlight and water, fruits are produced effortlessly. Same thing happen to us as a born again Christian, with adequate exposure to the SON of Righteousness, with the constant irrigation of the living water from the word of Christ and planting ourselves in the soil of grace (good soil) instead on the law (soil mixes with stone), good fruits are produced naturally in our life without any effort. 

Jesus is grace personified. He is the mediator of the New Covenant and He is the vine. If bearing fruits is our concern and our duty, then this branch of us is definitely not abide to the vine and is withering. We, as New Covenant believers are spiritual being and should never try to justify ourselves by law… or else we are alienating ourselves from Jesus and we have fallen from grace. Jesus is then becoming of no effect to us because we are  now what John 15 verse 6 says, and no more in the vine….

Galatians 5: 4 ~ You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

My friends, Galatians 5:4 does not say when we sin we are alienated from Christ but when we try to obey the commandments. Abide in Jesus give us victory over every situation. So is His grace because He had conquered everything for us. Our victories in every situation are fruits, our success in every area of our life is fruits, our well being is fruits, our health is fruits, and family harmony is fruit…

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace and if anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned...

Intense Prayer

By Mick Mooney of Searching For Grace

What’s Really Going On?
By mick on September 30th, 2009

The last conversation Pastor Moses had with Eric, he told him “While you’re doing all the annoying jobs around the church, I’m praying intensely”

Unfortunately, Eric doesn’t know that ‘Prayer’ is Pastor Moses’ code word for ’sleep’

What’s really going on?

Ya Eric, I agree with you. Your Pastor is actually praying in “NOSE” right now, and is indeed, intense...

Religious Obligations

I just love this comic strip from Mick Mooney... Though we may live in different part of the world, from a different social background, brought up from a different culture..., it seems that we are walking through the same Christian path...

I'm convinced that this spiritual influence is from the same religious spirit, and this is happening in different parts of the Body of Christ! Therefore, if we are not of GRACE, we are of the work..., if we are not of FAITH, we are of the Law..., if we are not of the SPIRIT, we are of the flesh...!

If we are not being enlightened in GRACE and established in Jesus' RIGHTEOUSNESS, we will never understand what kind of message Mick is trying to bring across...

By Mick Mooney of Searching for Grace

Religious Obligations
By mick on September 25th, 2009

Pastor Moses often talks about how Christianity is not a religion, but John is a little confused. It seems Pastor Moses likes to the idea of Christianity not being a religion, but he’s still preaching about religious obligations every week?

Nemo Knows, Do you...?

Have you ever thought of those fishes in the ocean? Even though the water in the ocean is salty, the bodies of these ocean fishes are not affected by the sea water. Their fleshes are fresh and not salty. When we cook them for our meals, we still need to put salt to make them tasty. Hmmm… interesting right?

For all I can understand is that, these fishes are alive! They just live out their life as fishes in the ocean! Nobody ever taught them on how to be fishes in the ocean. They just have the ability to pursue life in the ocean because they are not rebellious. They obey the instinct given by the Creator!

Christians are the same. We are righteous because of Jesus’ Finished Work. This mighty divine exchange had already happened at the cross. If we are believers, we are new creations. As new creations, we just need to live out our righteous life, the abundant life given by our Lord.

We do not need to perform to deserve our righteousness anymore! To be radical, we don’t even need to be taught on how to live a righteous life; because the Holy Spirit is already in us convicting us of righteousness! If we are those Christians who still choose to perform to deserve our righteousness, we just promote among ourselves another form of religion. We are worst then those fishes in the ocean, as we are rebellious to our Savior. It is sad to see that majority of the body of Christ today still try to live like a Christian (be righteous) instead of living out their Christian life (righteous life)!

If those fishes are trying to perform to be fishes in the ocean, life will be tough and they will end up dying in the ocean. Look at those dead fishes. In order to prevent them from decaying, they are preserved through seasoning with salt. This kind of fishes is called preserved salted fish! We can try our best to preserve them, but they are dead, being seasoned with salt, laid under the sun to be dried and end up hanging in the grocery shop for sales. Salted fish do not have the life to choose for themselves what they want and where they want to be. They are just helpless and being manipulated.

If we are Christians and still trying to be a Christian, we are as good as those salted fish. Religious people will try to preserve us through their religious teachings, demanding our performance to be righteous. We are being seasoned by their legalistic salt, laid to dry on the stones and bound by our religiosity from choosing what we want and where to go. We are also helpless and live a manipulated life in a religious kingdom…

Our Lord loves to use natural things of this world such as fish, bird, bread, stone, serpent, fig tree, lilies in the field to teach the mystery of His truth. His grace is ever present and fully lavished in our midst. Out of His outrageous grace, He lavishes His Spirit to convict us of righteousness. We need to come to our senses and respond to His conviction that we are righteous by faith not by work. Only through our establishment in His righteousness then we can start to appreciate His grace!

Romans 5:21b ~ so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace can only reign in a believer who is Christ conscious and righteousness conscious. If we are still full of sin consciousness, we have fallen back into law and we end up trying to justify ourselves through our law keeping and self effort.

Galatians 2:16 ~ knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Once we can understand that it is all about His grace, we will start receiving His abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness and we will reign in life through this one Man, Jesus Christ.

I do not want to be a salted fish. I do not want to be a Christian being preserved and manipulated by religion. I want to be those fishes in the ocean knowing that they are fishes belong to the ocean and just following the instinct given by the Creator. I want to be a Christian knowing that I am forever righteous and live out the righteous life that my Savior had given me! He had come to give me His abundant life and He had told me that His sheep knows His voice! I just want to click on to His frequency of Grace and receive the abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness.

Even Nemo knows that he belongs to the ocean not aquarium… As for me, I know I belong to Jesus not religion. Hmmm... what about you? Nemo knows, do you...?

Faith Without The Truth Is Dead!

Have you believe the truth to have the right kind of faith for your right work? Those who like to resort themselves with the phrase “faith without work is dead” is indeed religious and legalistic. It is clear evidence that they still have the mixture of old and new covenant mentality… most of all, their attention is not on faith but on the work. Remember, religion dealt with the fruit while Jesus dealt with the root!

The implication of work in its context is our spontaneous action from the Gospel we have heard but it has been religiously implied as our work for church and our work for God. That is why this verse is best used in a work oriented church environment. Faith without work is dead… so by hook or by crook, WORK!!!!... to show others that you have FAITH!!!! The MORE you work, the BIGGER your faith is!!!

John 6:28-29 ~ Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

With reference to the phrase "faith without work is dead" and in respect of this life threatening verse (at least it was threatening to me for many years), what kind of fresh revelation do I have after I have established myself on His grace? Hmmm... at least I have a platform to establish myself on… and I choose to establish myself in His grace for the rest of my life, for grace and truth comes through Jesus… and I suppose it is good for my heart to be established in grace too.

James 1:22-25 ~ But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James was actually talking about the spontaneous reaction of the hearer of the Gospel. The Gospel or the Resurrected Jesus Himself is our MIRROR. Every time we come to church, the preacher should take out this MIRROR and show Him to us. The MIRROR tells us that we are righteous, we are forgiven, we are blessed, we are prosperous, we are without sickness, we are free, we are precious in His eye… WE ARE IN CHRIST!

Before you question your own faith, ask yourself what kind of mirror have you been shown to when you come to church? Have you been shown with the mirror of Moses or the Mirror of Jesus? Have you been shown of your own sin, your shortcoming, your ugliness, or what you should do and what you shouldn’t do? WOW... That is not the right mirror! That is the mirror of Moses! If you have been shown to a wrong mirror, how are you going to have the right kind of faith? For faith comes by hearing, hearing by the words of CHRIST, not the words of Moses and also not the word of Elijah…

As I have said, it is not about faith that these legalistic people are concerned with. They are concerned with your work for their legalistic Kingdom. Our Lord Jesus is not concern with our work for His Kingdom for He said believe is the work for the work of God. He is more concerned with your WALK in His Kingdom!

Have you believe the right truth? (It is so sad that I have to add the word “right” in front of the word “truth”. Hey..., truth is truth, there is no right or wrong! But to certain people, we just have to add the word “right” there!) It is all about believing. When we believe right, our faith will be right and spontaneously, our work will be right. Please wake up from your sleep walking and come to your senses. Sleep walking cannot make you go far... you still have to go back to your bed and do your "waking up" there..., just like the Israelite in the wilderness!

Those who have ears, let them hear! This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent...

I Don't Care Anymore!

The other day I was chatting with Katherine Poon in Facebook and out of my good humanly intention, I ended the chatting with “Take care!”. By the way, good humanly intention is religious and is not Godly intention… so Kat replied: “I don’t take care, I cast out care!” Wow...! What a revelation! It was a zap from heaven and I was totally revived by her reply!

1 Peter 5:7 ~ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

The word “Care” means Merimna in Greek. From the word meiro, “to divide” and noos, “the mind.” The word denotes distractions, anxieties, burdens, and worries. Merimma means to be anxious beforehand about daily life. Such worry is unnecessary, because the Father’s love provides for both our daily needs and our special needs.

My spirit was quickened by this revelation to break forth the religious stronghold that was still in me. My religious mind (flesh) can never realize that even by taking care of myself is a self effort. Come to think of it, I realized that in the areas of my life where I don’t care much about, do not need much of my caring at all. But those areas where I care most need most of my caring! Dah... ! :) Hey, how come…? So, the revelation is... when I take care of myself, God’s hand is off me because grace cannot flow through my effort. Grace does not flow through my flesh but my spirit. Grace does not flow through my struggles but my rest in Him. Grace does not prompt me to perform but to rest in Jesus. Grace comes to my rescue and super abounding when my spirit rests in Him…

Religion is about a man with nothing trying to care for His everything in life! Life in Jesus is a man with nothing resting in the One who has everything! My flesh can never understand what Jesus had already done or even His cares for me since the foundation of the world!!!!

“Take care” is for those who do not have Jesus in their life because no one really cares for them! I boldly use the word “Jesus” because only Jesus cares and only Jesus ministers with grace, the unearned and unmerited favor of God. None of the religions care for us even in Christianity, if we choose to take good care of ourselves.

Maurice join in with his comment saying: “You still have cares mei…!” Yes Maurice, I still have because I'm not humble… not because of my action in front of people but simply because I still take good care of my situation and I did not cast my cares upon Him! For the verse before 1 Peter 5: 7 says: Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

So from now on, I am going to cast my cares upon Him one day at a time and will not labor to take care of myself but labor to enter His rest…

Do you “care” to join me…?

Lord, Can I Help You...? (Repost)

The people in Sarawak is celebrating Gawai Festivel on 1st and 2nd of June. On the first day of the Gawai celebration, we went to Kampong Chupak, 38 KM from Kuching, to visit my colleague. Kampong Chupak is a beautiful village with beautiful mountain range and Paddy field. On our journey to the kampong, I took a short video clip while I was driving and I want to share it with you... :)

Road to Kampong Chupak

During this holiday, I took my sweet time to read through my own blog again... and I was touched by this blog post and I decided repost it again...


Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking pass the hospital’s swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there… Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out.

When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act, she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered Edna to be mentally stable.

When she went to tell Edna the news, she said,
“Edna, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is you're being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and save the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displayed sound mindedness… and the bad news is … Jim hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry… he’s dead.”

Edna replied,
“He didn't hang himself; I put him there to dry....”
“Can I go home now…?'



This is not a real story; but a secular joke circulating through e mail. Well… have you heard of this joke before? If you had, never mind, my focus is not on the joke but on your reaction after you have heard of it.

Man… I laughed, I even shared with my friends and we laughed… but the Lord intervened by putting a thought in my mind in the midst of our laughter, i.e.…

“The accuser of the Brethren” has his influence over legalism and religious teaching. As such, a legalistic and religious mind is as good as a mind that is “mentally challenged”. Under that sort of religious influence, we ourselves tend to put people to dry without our understanding of the knowledge of God and still we thought we are helping God... and Lord, can I help you, is always our cry...!

It is sad to see that there are many Christian today still labouring to please God through their effort. These are sincere people but they just trying to reach God through their own approach… earn their righteousness through their good deeds and law keeping… without the knowledge of God.

And God by His grace and mercy does not look at us the way we look at Edna. Despite of our “insanity”, He is still faithful and patient to show His love for us, guide us and lead us out of our insanity. This is grace…

I was a victim like Jim in the story who was “put to dry” by legalism and religion. I was dried out totally… Praise God the dew of grace moisturized me and… I see Grace!


"Well, can I go home now...???"

Emmanuel

To strive to obtain love, peace and joy or to pray to God to give you these qualities is a wasted religious energy. Nothing you can seek to do or wish and pray for could qualify you more for life. Nothing can make your life more significant than to simply become aware of His nature and presence in you and His favour towards you.

Hosea 4:6 ~ My people perish through lack of knowledge…

To realize His presence and provision within you, is what sets you free to be who you are. The more aware we become of God in us, the more overwhelmed we are with a sense of total fulfillment and completeness.

Needs disappear into insignificance; He is not a God who is a far off; Emmanuel means ‘God with us′.

Francois du Toit of Thoughts for Life (Daily Devotionals)

Fasting

I was quickened by the Spirit to realize that I have been fasting for the past five years ever since the Lord has enlightened me with His teaching on grace. This revelation shocked me a bit but I was immediately comforted by a fresh insight on fasting.

Please bear with me for awhile and if you feel this is misleading, you are welcome to throw stone at me at the end of this sharing. So be cool…

With this fresh insight for a rather controversial topic in the body of Christ, I went around asking for answers from the average believers with charismatic background, the purpose for fasting. The answers I gathered are as followed:-

1) To restrain and weaken our flesh so that our spirit can grow stronger.
2) Spiritual discipline.
3) To be closer to God and hear His voice.
4) To obtain spiritual power.

Hmm… what is your answer?

I don't think fasting is what we used to think as restraining ourselves from eating our meals for certain period of time and achieve the purpose of weakening our flesh to gain spiritual power or to make God obligated to move in the area of our needs. If this is so, any other religion that practices fasting would also achieve the same purposes. In fact, they claimed to have the same result too!

The only thing that sets Christianity apart from the rest of the religions is God's grace. Grace is not natural but supernatural. We need the Holy Spirit to understand grace and most of all, Christianity was born by the grace of the Father through the death of the His beloved Darling Son. If only we can have the revelation knowledge of this truth, we will be led by the Spirit to understand more including the meaning of fasting.

Those of us, who are so much into grace, are very familiar that our flesh is edified by legalistic and performance oriented doctrine which is self centered and based on law abiding. It is this self righteousness doctrine that give strength to our flesh! The preaching of law is the food to our flesh!!! The moment we embark ourselves on Christ centered, grace based doctrine, that is the moment we start our FASTING!!! Because we have restrained ourselves from exposing to legalistic and performance oriented teaching, we have stopped supplying “FOOD” to our flesh. I think this is a more biblical way to define fasting in the light of the New Covenant.

Can you find evidence in the bible to support your claim? (You may ask…)

Let’s go on…

Matthew 4:1~4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.' "

So, after being baptized at the River Jordan and before Jesus started His earthly ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry…!

Jesus was born under the law and was brought up in a legalistic, law abiding Jewish society. This was the darkest era in the history of Jewish culture. After the baptism, He was immediately led to the wilderness to stay away from the law abiding, legalistic environment. He restrained for forty days and forty nights. John the Baptist was growing up in the wilderness and was isolated from Jewish legalistic society. Paul, the Apostle of Grace to the Gentiles, was led to Arabia to be away from Jerusalem which was their religious center and Judaism's stronghold.

The number 40 here is the representative number for one generation. It was not what we literally think as our forty days and forty nights. The Israelite were wandering in the wilderness for forty years while Moses was up in Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights.

The devil was quick to draw Jesus’ attention back to the “stone” again right after Jesus' fasting by saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus said, “It is written: ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

Do you think this kind of dialogues are dialogues of our human nature? I don’t think so… A spiritual being was talking to a SPIRITUAL BEING; I think these dialogues are spiritual!

The devil was quick to point Jesus in turning the Ten Commandments (Two tablets of stone) into His food. The devil was asking Jesus to feed on Law... How did Jesus reply him? Jesus said man does not live on bread only (the bodily man), but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (the spirit-man). As far as the devil is concerned, if our flesh is strong, our spirit will be weak. As such, Jesus expounded the existence of spirit-man in man that the spirit-man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. He was in the wilderness, being far away from the legalistic environment, He was there to receive words direct from the Father.

What kind of word did the Father minister to Jesus? At Mt. Sinai, God was showing Moses the beautiful story of the Tabernacle which is a typology of Jesus. The Father was ministering grace to Jesus in the wilderness just like Jesus Himself ministered grace to Apostle Paul in Arabia.

However, as I continue with this passage, the phrase “He was hungry” caused a bit of doubt in my mind… What about you? Hey, the Bible says He was hungry you know...? Well, I was "asked" to put this phrase aside and continue with the reading... So, let’s go on.

Let us look at what Jesus talked about fasting in replying to the Scribes and Pharisee...

Luke 5: 33~38 Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?" And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days." Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.' "

In this passage, Jesus interchanged in referring the man with flesh and spirit-man. Jesus was saying as He (the Bridegroom) was with them in flesh, it was time for celebration. How could the Bridegroom make them fast in the time of celebration? When the time had come for Him to be glorified at the Cross, they (their flesh) would have to fast because grace dispensation only came into effect when the Holy Spirit was poured out at the Feast of Pentecost. Under the grace dispensation, His disciples were already made righteous by His blood and were justified by His resurrection. They were to live by faith not by law. So by then, they were to fast from partook the Law and to live by the Spirit.

It is funny that Jesus did not continue to expound on fasting but changed the subject from fasting to the famous parables of new and old garment, new wine and old wineskin. Eh..., very interesting!

We all know that the parables of old and new garment together with new wine and old wineskin are talking about the doctrine on grace and law dispensation and is telling us that grace cannot be mixed with law. Jesus is not interested in how we abstain ourselves from eating our meals as a way of fasting. He is interested in the feeding and the health of our spirit-man. Babylonian teaching (confuse by mixing grace with law) mixes up our flesh and spirit-man which causes confusion in our Christian walk. While legalistic and law abiding doctrine edify and strengthen our flesh.

Christ centered, grace based doctrine is LIVING and ACTIVE (because of the witness of the Holy Spirit). The message of grace is sharper than any double-edged sword, can penetrate even to dividing our souls and spirits, joints and marrow and judge our thoughts and the attitude of our hearts. Grace divides our souls and spirits so that we can be sharp when Holy Spirit prompts our spirit. Grace divides the joints and marrow so that the life supply to our flesh is cut off. Grace judges our ungodly thoughts and the religious attitude of our hearts!

If the purpose of fasting is to stop feeding our flesh and build up our spirit-man, I think it is wise for us to sit under a Christ centered Ministry. In order to stop feeding our flesh, we are to restrain ourselves from sitting under a Ministry that emphasizes legalism with law abiding preaching and Babylonian teaching that causes confusion in our midst. As born again believers, we are Spirit filled and we need the Gospel of Grace expounded in the light of the New Covenant Spirit, as food for our spirit-man... Amen!

Oh ya... now back to my doubtful phrase: "He was hungry"…

The Lord told me, “You have been sitting under a Christ centered Ministry for so long, do you still feel hungry…?” Ha...ha...ha... If you know what He means…

So, how long have you been fasting? As for me and my household, we are not going to fool around but to steadfast with our FASTING for the rest of the "generation" and continue to sit under an anointed Ministry that preaches Christ centered message and glorifies the Finished Work of Christ.

Who say those who are under grace are not fasting?

Climbing Down the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Book of Romans has 16 Chapters and Chapter 16 is greetings from Paul. If we take the 15 Chapters and divide them by 2, half of this book has 7.5 chapters each. The first 7.5 Chapters has a revelation of Apostle Paul’s journey in climbing down the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the next 7.5 Chapters of the Book of Romans is Apostle Paul’s journey in climbing up the Tree of Life.

Law is good and Evil is sin.

Law is Good
Romans 7:7 ~ What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!...
Romans 7:12 ~ For the law is holy, and the commandments is holy, righteous and good.

Evil is sin
Romans 7:8 ~ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.

Therefore, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil means the Tree of the Knowledge of Law and Sin.

What kind of preaching will cause us to hang around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

- The preaching that is not Christ centered but self centered.

- The preaching that is not righteousness consciousness but sin consciousness.

- The preaching that is not emphasizing on resting in the Lord because of His Finished Work on the Cross, but emphasizing on working for the Lord as if Jesus had not died on the Cross.

- The preaching that is not pointing the believers to Jesus, who is all able, all powerful, and full of grace and mercy, but pointing the believers to themselves who are unable, powerless, and full of hatred and unforgiveness.

- The preaching that is not hot but lukewarm. The preaching is not of the Tree of Life but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

On the other hand, when grace revolutionizes our hearts, grace shall awake and edify our spirit. The preaching of His grace glorified Jesus and exalted Christ’s Finished Work on the Cross. It is food to our spirit and gives life to our being. This is the Good News that Apostle Paul was not ashamed of, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Romans 1:17 ~ for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.

The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came from Jesus Christ. When we know the truth and the truth will set us free. Paul, the Apostle of Grace to the gentiles, received God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of His righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ.

Apostle Paul realized the Tree of Life after his struggles in Romans 7 when he cried out “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” This reminded me of what our Lord says in respect of the tree and its fruits in Matthew 7:15~20, and in Proverbs 18:21. The word we say is the fruit of our belief. The fruit of Righteousness finally came out of Paul’s mouth with his utterance of “WHO” instead of “HOW”, “WHAT” or “WHERE” and worse of all “WHY”.

He had finally come to the end of his law keeping, self consciousness, self righteousness and self effort by not seeking HOW he is going to do with his struggles; and WHAT he is going to do with his struggles; or WHERE he is going to find help for his struggles or even WHY he needs to deal with his struggles. He cried out “WHO can rescue him?” The revelation of Righteousness, Peace, Joy, Wisdom, Prosperity, Healing, Abundant, Freedom… by His grace becomes alive as the Person of Jesus to Apostle Paul.

The revelatory knowledge of "WHO" is our answer will end all our religiosity. Therefore, renew our mind! In due time, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is no more our dwelling place and His grace will carry us down the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil unconsciously and effortlessly...

Spiritual Tour

I was touched by the Lord when He asked me to put my name in the first verse of Galatians Chapter 3 verse 1... i.e. You crazy Alan! instead of You crazy Galatians!

As I put my name there, the impact of this passage is directly on me instead of the Galatians. I could recall I used to read this passage and think that this passage is only meant for the Galatians. The Lord used this same passage to deal with my religiosity and set me free from the legalistic environment that I was in. This time around, as the Lord asked me to put my name in there again, my spirit is quickened and encouraged. My spirit-man gave praises to the Lord for He had called me out of that religious sheep pan ...!

Try to fill your name in the blank below and have a quick spiritual tour through this passage together with the Holy Spirit. Let Him reveals to you the status of your Christian life, so that you will know whether you are walking in faith or by the observance of the Law. You will also know whether you are depending on His grace or your own effort...

Galatians Chapter 3 ~ The Message

1 You crazy ________! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

7-8 Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed in you."

9-10 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: "Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law."

Faith is what we trust, not what we do...

I Believe

When we first believe in Jesus, we were running superbly! Due to our leak of knowledge, we were deflected from the true course in “the blind leads the blind” situation. We were zealous for God, but our zeal was not based on knowledge. Since then, we did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish our own righteousness through rule keeping system, we did not submit to God's righteousness. The truth is: Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Do we really believe in Jesus?

Christ had set us free to live a free life through His death on the Cross. If we say we believe in Jesus, take our stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on us through their religious teaching. Our Lord Jesus Himself is emphatic about this because when we abide in rule keeping system, we do actually believe in ourselves, not our Lord. The moment any one of us submits to any other rule keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard won gift of freedom is squandered. That is why we are repeatedly warned by Apostle Paul that: the person who submit to rule keeping system trades all the advantages of our Father and sons relationship in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. When we attempt to live by our own religious plans and projects, we are cut off from Christ, we fall out of Grace.

As born again, Spirit filled believers, we are to depend fully on His Grace and expectantly with faith that He is faithful, wait for a satisfying relationship through resting ourselves in the Spirit and abide ourselves in the new covenant truth, and for the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. In Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion means anything. What really matters is something far more interior: our faith in Christ expressing through love. Again this love is not our own love but His love manifesting through us when we appreciate His Grace. We love because He first loves us.

Do not be deflected from the true course of obedience by rule keeping system. This true course of obedience is "obedience by FAITH" not "obedience to MAN". This detour doesn't come from Jesus who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a small amount of yeast to permeate an entire loaf of bread.

Be sensitive to the struggles of your spirit-man. If you say you believe in Jesus, stop all your rule keeping activities that come from religious teachings. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. This is the evidence of His grace. His grace will melt your religious being (flesh) and strengthen your spirit-man. If your Christian life is full of religious activities, you are believing in the Pharisee not Jesus. The evidence of your belief in Jesus is that, knowing that you are the weak and the helpless one, appreciating His grace lavishing upon you.

I have seen His grace and I believe, what about you?

How God Managed His Anger?

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53 (NKJV)

Do not take pride in our law keeping. Our law keeping prove nothing at all. This religious act will not prove that we believe in Jesus. When we keep the law, we are actually believe in ourselves., our evil self! Our evil self think we can keep the law. We believe that by our law keeping and good conduct, we can earn the blessing from God and if we are perseverance, we can make it to heaven. For 1,500 years, none of the Israelites could keep the law including the best of them, King David!

Do not be bound by religious spirit and fear that God will punish you. God's anger is well managed for He had poured out all His wrath on His Begotten Son two thousand years ago. He chose to pour out His anger on His own Son. He is now absolutely at peace with you. Bohold the Cross, come and accept His GRACE. Believe in His Son Jesus and what Jesus had accomplished for you on the Cross. Jesus said, "It's Finished!" Let's believe it is finished and rest...!

Joseph Prince's Classic Sermon

The Lord confirmed the Gospel of Grace with miraculous sign as Pastor Prince preached his classic sermon eight years ago. The wind chimes played supernaturally in the background during the service as the following verses from the Book of Acts were proclaimed by Pastor Prince...

Acts 13:38~39 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Aleph Tav - The Signature of Jesus in the Bible

It is wise that we get rid of our religious belief and put our trust in His GRACE alone. When we are being religious, we are actually trusting ourselves not Jesus and we are believing in ourselves instead of Jesus.

Hebrews 13:9a ~ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace...

Lord, Can I Help You?

Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking pass the hospital’s swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there… Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out.


When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act, she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered Edna to be mentally stable.


When she went to tell Edna the news, she said,
“Edna, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is you're being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and save the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displayed sound mindedness… and the bad news is … Jim hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry… he’s dead.”


Edna replied,
“He didn't hang himself; I put him there to dry....”
“Can I go home now…?'

This is not a real story; but a secular joke circulating through e mail. Well… have you heard of this joke before? If you had, never mind, my focus is not on the joke but on your reaction after you have heard of it.

Man… I laughed, I had a good laugh... I even shared with my friends and we laughed together… but the Lord intervened by putting a thought in my mind in the midst of our laughter, i.e.…

“The accuser of the Brethren” has his influence over legalistic and religious teaching. As such, a legalistic and religious mind is as good as a mind that is “mentally challenged”. Under that sort of legalistic and religious influence, we ourselves tend to put people to dry without the understanding of the knowledge of God and still we thought we are helping God... and Lord, can I help You, is always our cry...!

It is sad to see that there are many Christians today still labouring to please God through their effort. These are sincere people but they just trying to reach God through their own approach… earning their righteousness through their good deeds and law keeping… without the knowledge of God.

And our Father God by His grace and mercy does not look at us the same way we looked at Edna. Despite of our “insanity”, He is still faithful and patient to show us His love, guides us and leads us out of our" insanity". I think this is grace…the unearned, undeserved and unmerited favor from God.

I was a victim like Jim in this story, but I was “put to dry” by legalism and religion. I was put to dried out completely… Praise God for His dew of grace that moisturized me and His dew refreshed me... and I see His Grace!