12 April 2020 | Day 12
NOT THE END, BUT ONLY THE BEGINNING
The reset that God is calling us to is not a reset to a new thing. Neither is this a reset for us to do nothing, or to do anything we deem fit. This reset is God’s beckoning for us to return to the primary thing that He has originally purposed for us.
It is our prayer that this 12-Day “One Thing” Fast will spark in many a lifelong pursuit of becoming a person of “one thing”. We want to encourage everyone on this journey to allow the Lord to fulfil His good pleasure and His work of faith in power in us, that we may be counted worthy of His calling (2 Thess. 1:11-12) for us to be men and women after His own heart.
The Bible records the lives of the people of “one thing” for us to emulate – King David, Mary of Bethany, John the Apostle, John the Baptist, Paul the Apostle and Daniel. They are ordinary people like us, but there is much we can learn from the choices they made to pursue the Lord with their all.
PURPOSE IN OUR HEARTS
King David’s life gives us the clearest model of the generation that God is raising up in our time (Jer. 3:15). From a young age, David’s primary goal was to be in ALIGNMENT with God’s heart. He was more concerned with growing his character, values and heart for God, than to be discovered and recognised. We can learn how David chose to set the Lord before him (Ps. 16:8, 25:15) and how he inquired of the Lord first (2 Sam 2:1; 5:19, 23) in every season.
David also purposed in His heart to live before God as His “Audience of One”. His heart was free from strife because He knew God was His source of promotion, provision, protection and direction (Ps. 31:5). As such, David found his identity and significance in his relationship with God. His heart was settled and satisfied in the Lord.
One of the key defining traits of David’s life was his wholehearted love and complete allegiance to God. He definitely had his fair share of weaknesses and sins, but was not casual with it but sought to deal with it radically (Ps. 51). He was described as one who had served the purpose of his generation (Acts 13:36) and one after God’s heart (Acts 13:22). Indeed, he was one who was sincere before God, loyal to Him and had great zeal to completely obey all of God’s commandments.
May we be like David – ones whom the Lord will find with hearts that are set on His purposes and lives lived before His gaze alone!
POSTURE OF OUR HEARTS
This season is one of LEANING IN into God’s heart where He is inviting us to withdraw into the secret chambers to meet with Him (Sos. 1:5). He delights to share the secrets of His heart with us (Amos 3:7), but we must take time to hear. As the people of God, we are called to be His prophetic Church – ones who understand Him and arise as His voices to give direction, light and hope to the world. Do we have clarity of what God is saying in this crisis?
This is the time to allow the Holy Spirit to sharpen our spiritual hearing and fine-tune our “spiritual signal-to-noise ratio”. We need to cooperate with Him to dial down the noise of this world and of our own hearts so that we can hear the voice of God.
This is a constant daily posture that we must have before the Lord and it was one that the people of “one thing” adopted throughout the Bible. For all of his days, David resolved to dwell in the house of the Lord to behold His beauty and inquire of His heart (Ps. 27:4); Mary of Bethany prioritized the good part by sitting at the feet of Jesus to understand His desire and will (Lk. 10:42); Apostle John leaned on the bosom of Jesus to receive the secrets of His heart; John the Baptist withdrew into the wilderness to unite his heart with God’s heart as a “friend of the Bridegroom”, and Daniel gained revelation and understanding of things yet to come (Dan. 9:22; 10:12) as he came before God in repentance, supplication, fasting and humility (Dan. 9:3).
We must begin cultivating a lifestyle of tuning in and leaning in to receive His heart as we allow Him to fashion in us a heart after His very own. God desires our undivided attention and devotion so that we can arise and fulfil His purposes for our generation.
PAYING THE “PRICE” OR RUNNING AFTER THE “PRIZE”?
Apostle Paul’s signature statement is found in Philippians 1:21 – “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”. He was not primarily consumed with his ministry or anointing, but His primary pursuit was to gain Christ – to know His beauty and worthiness. To die was gain to him because his heart was captivated by the reality of spending eternity with the most beautiful One. The prize of his life was Christ Himself!
What did Paul see that compelled him to count all else as loss for the sake of Christ? We can ask God to let us see this reality – a reality that will renew our minds and redirect the pursuits of our hearts towards gaining Christ as our ultimate reward.
Mary of Bethany was one who “wasted it all” on Jesus as she broke her alabaster jar at His feet. The time invested in the “good part” fashioned in her an extravagant devotion that compelled her to do this extraordinary work – a work that was costly to herself (it was likely her inheritance and one year’s worth of wages) and offended many, but one that moved the heart of Jesus deeply (Mk. 14:8-9).
The world may call our offering a “waste”, but may we grow to be ones who count it as “worth the waste”!
PERSEVERE
We tend to perceive the people of “one thing” in the Bible as being passive and gentle characters. However, they were far from being lazy, passive or “nua” (Hokkien – meaning “slack”).
David persevered through great turmoil in his life to become the one who wrote Psalm 27 as a declaration of who he had grown to become. John the Baptist was unrelenting as he took the kingdom by force (Matt. 11:12) and carried great zeal and desire for the fullness of the purposes of God’s kingdom.
Apostle Paul was so consumed with the beauty and glory of God, that he counted all else as rubbish for the excellence of knowing Christ (Phil. 3:10), while Mary of Bethany defied all social norms and in one moment, gave all she had unto the Lord (Mk. 14:3). Last but not least, Daniel pressed in with intense fasting and prayer until he received a breakthrough from God (Dan 11:20-23).
These people of “one thing” were passionate and on fire for God! May we too sign up to be people of “one thing” and spend the rest of our days giving our lives over to the intense pursuit of God!
CONCLUSION
Dear brothers and sisters, we are truly living in an unusual yet kairos hour today. God is knocking on the doors of our hearts. He desires to come in to enable and empower us to become the people of “one thing” that He has called us to be. This is a divine invitation to open the doors of our hearts and lives to Him to receive His promise of His work of grace.
As we are locked into our homes, let our hearts be locked on Jesus with undivided attention and devotion. It is our prayer that as you withdraw to the secret place to wait for God to speak, His Word will go forth and mark many of your hearts. May His grace abound in your hearts for the lifelong pursuit of Jesus Christ!
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…” (2 Chron. 16:9).
God bless you!
Verses for meditation:
Psalm 27:4, Acts 13:22,36, 1 Samuel 13:14, Jeremiah 3:15 (King David)
Matthew 11:12, John 3:29-30 (John the Baptist)
John 13:22-25; 21:20 (Apostle John)
Luke 10:42, Mark 14:3-9 (Mary of Bethany)
Philippians 1:21-22; 3:7-10 (Apostle Paul)
Book of Daniel (Daniel)
Matthew 6:33, 2 Chronicles 16:19
Final Exhortation
11 April 2020 | Day 11
WEARING THE CROSS OF GOOD FRIDAY
(by Gareth Chew)
“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree…” – Deut 21:22
On a day about 2000 years ago, it wasn’t just any man who carried a wooden crossbeam upon his shoulders. No, indeed not. This Man – Jesus Christ – was God Himself, and He carried the sin of the whole world upon His body on that pivotal day.
Ask anyone during the Roman Empire, and they would have told us that the cross was not a beautiful thing. It was the cruelest form of torture unto death in their day. Yet, we wear the image of this form of torture as an ornament. We wear it on necklaces around our necks and put it on the roofs of our churches. Why would anyone identify with this symbol of suffering and shame as though it were something worth celebrating?
It’s because on that day, Jesus Christ became the atoning sacrifice for the sins of humanity upon that cross (1 Jn. 2:2). He paid the debt that we owed a righteous God, for we all like sheep have gone astray (Isa. 53:6). He made a way for us to be reconciled to the Father (Col. 1:19-20). And He is beckoning us to follow Him, know Him, and to find abundant life in Him (Matt. 4:19, Jn. 17:3).
This is God’s amazing goodness shown to us on Good Friday.
This season, as we remember what happened – that Jesus died and rose again and gave us the victory over death and sin, let’s remember the curse of the cross as well. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deut 21:22), and upon a tree was where our Lord and King was hung. As we identify with the image of the cross, are we ready to accept everything that comes with identifying with the King who bore the curse of the cross (Luke 9:23)?
Let’s start where the rich, young ruler in Mark 10:17-31 left off. He had kept all the laws of the prophets but he lacked one thing, “…sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
What would you and I do? What are the treasures on this earth that we are carrying so dearly on our shoulders that there is no space for the cross? Where does our heart want to go, such that we have no desire to follow Jesus? It’s at times like these that I ask myself this question, “Where does my allegiance lie?” If my allegiance lies with Jesus and I know that He is a good God and a good Leader, what is there to fear in giving up what He says to give up? Therein lies our problem. We wear the cross but don’t necessarily carry it. We know about the Man who hung on it and what He accomplished for us, but don’t really know Him as a real Person in our hearts and lives. How can we give up everything and put our lives on the line for a Person we hardly know?
It is time to return to the basics of any relationship – knowing the other person intimately. It is time to take knowing Jesus, following Him and loving Him seriously. This Friday is good because besides paying the penalty of our sin, He has also showed us the way to life. He’s made it possible for us to scorn the shame of the cross and fix our eyes on the joy that is set before us – gaining Christ.
I will wear the ugliness of the cross because Jesus did the most beautiful thing on it – He laid down His life so that I may live and find true life in Him (John 15:13).
Verses to meditate on:
• Mark 10:17-31
• John 15:18-27
• James 4:4
• Luke 9:23-27
Becoming a Person of One Thing
10 April 2020 | Day 10
CEDING CONTROL TO THE MAN WHO HUNG ON THE CROSS
(by Annabelle Ng)
“He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” – Phil 2:8
It is sobering and unprecedented that this Good Friday, there are no physical gatherings of the saints in Singapore to remember His death (outside of households of believers). There aren’t the usual outreach activities such as stage productions or Easter services to invite friends to. Externally, this could probably be the lowest-key Good Friday most believers would’ve ever experienced. However, it could be a very meaningful one if each of us would take time to sit at His feet to hear Him and to let Him into our hearts (Luke 10:42, Rev 3:20).
Needless to say, It has not been an easy adjustment working from home. Human beings are creatures of habit and we don’t like major disruptions of our lives. Within the span of two days, I found myself more than ever reacting to technical problems that cropped up, fretting about things not going as smoothly as I had planned, and being sharp with my family members.
In the midst of the flurry of emotions and the noise of my own thoughts, it is so easy to keep Jesus out and work to “fix the problems”. We can so often lose sight of Him and miss the still small voice of the Lord knocking on the doors of our hearts to let Him in (Rev 3:20). In the midst of being confined physically within our homes, Jesus also wants to come into our homes and our hearts. However, whether He gets to depends on our response.
As I forced myself to push aside my fretting and anxious thoughts to seek His face, I began to hear Jesus’ call to die to self and learn humility from Him. The two are inextricably linked. Indeed, they cannot be separated. Phil 2:8 says, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Yes, while the death of Jesus paid the ransom for our sins, it is also a call to all who desire to follow Him to come and die. To ourselves.
This song by Chris Tomlin resonates with me:
O the wonderful cross
O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die
And find that I may truly live
As believers we often focus on His death as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (which is infinitely glorious and something we should never get over – 1 Jn. 2:2) and then skip straight to the resurrection life that can be found in Jesus (Eph 1:19, Phil 3:10), without realising that the way to that life is actually through death (Jn. 12:24). Death to our own sinful nature. Death to our pride. Death to our reputation. Death to our need for control. In fact, our Saviour modelled it perfectly for us when He hung and died on that cross.
Yet this is not something morose or morbid. In fact, Jesus promises an easy yoke, a light burden and TRUE LIFE if we would only come to Him, die to ourselves, and embrace humility (Matt 11:28-30).
Honestly, I have not yet “mastered” the art of “learning humility”, if there even is such a thing. However, I’m learning that a very crucial first step to being yoked with Him in humility would be to open our hearts to the Lord to let Him in. Oftentimes, we keep Him out due to our pride or fear. We prefer to relate to Him at a distance. We like receiving His gift of forgiveness on the cross but would rather not fully embrace His humility and all that it entails.
So what does embracing His humility mean? This is by no means exhaustive, but firstly, we surrender to the will of our Heavenly Father like Jesus did. We die to our “self” and embrace all that God wants for us. We lay down fighting for “our rights” and submit to Him. We pray, “Father not my will but Yours be done” (Lk. 22:42) like Jesus did.
Secondly, embracing humility means trusting the Lord and ceding our need for control to Him. Psalm 37:1-11 paints the exact opposite picture of what I have been going through the past few days. Instead of delighting in Him, I fret. Instead of trusting in Him, I try to control everything. I found myself praying in exasperation, “Teach me humility, for I really don’t know how!” Indeed, if we surrendered to the Father like Jesus did, the fretting will stop and we will find rest for our souls.
This Good Friday, may we take time to quiet ourselves down before Jesus and behold the One who hung on that cross and died for us. May we open our hearts to Him as we draw near and bow down in gratitude. Let us not just gaze upon the Humble One, but also embrace His very humility that He desires to bestow upon us. He is faithful to perfect us until we are yoked with Him.
Verses to meditate on:
• Philippians 2:8
• Galatians 2:20
• Matthew 11:28-30
• Psalm 37:1-11
• John 12:24
• Luke 22:42
A Great Need of This Hour
9 April 2020 | Day 9
STOCKPILING THE OIL OF INTIMACY
(by Faith Lim)
Having been a believer for more than two decades, I honestly thought my heart and mind would’ve been better prepared for a storm like this – a storm that has hit global shores and one that has definitely hit the shores of my heart. A phrase that has become a reality for us in the House of Prayer this year is this: “In chaos, there will be clarity”.
Through this pandemic, the Lord has mercifully surfaced the fault lines in the confidence I profess to have in Him. It makes me completely uncomfortable to admit this, but the reality is that I’ve grown all-too-familiar with songs, language and even Scriptures about God’s nature, His power and sovereignty, and the victory we have in Christ. Yet, these truths remain mostly only in my mind and on my lips.
I’m beginning to see that true confidence cannot be sustained by my own “gung-ho-ness”; neither can I “borrow” and stand on someone else’s confidence in the Lord. Instead, true confidence has to be cultivated from the place of personally encountering the reality of who God is. This is when truth makes a deep and personal impact on our hearts. It is in this hour that God is calling us to taste and see (Ps. 34:8) of who He is so that we will find stability in Him. We need to choose to take time to allow His truths to travel from our minds down to the depths of our hearts and souls. The cry of our hearts has to be, “Holy Spirit take us deeper to where we’ve never been before” (1 Cor. 2:9).
The stability of our hearts must not be founded upon the stockpiles of toilet paper, rice, masks and sanitisers that we’ve bought. Instead, an unshakeable confidence in the Lord stems from the place of stockpiling the “oil of intimacy” with God in the secret place (Isa. 33:6). God is jealous to be our sole source of confidence and strength.
A jealous and zealous God is beckoning us to return to cultivating a real, deep and authentic relationship with Him so that we can stand and overcome the storms that will continue to come with increasing intensity and severity. As the people of God, our primary response in crisis has to be to align with the patient One who is knocking on the doors of our hearts. God is after hearts that are fully locked in on Him with dove’s eyes. He is after mine, and He is after yours.
The lyrics of Misty Edward’s song “Mystery”, resonates deeply in my heart in this time:
I want to waste my life to search You out…
…I don’t want to build castles in the sand
I don’t want to live in a fairy tale
I want what’s real – the knowledge of You
I will remain forever, remain forever
I pray that as we spend this month at home, we will begin to prioritise “the good part that will not be taken away” (Lk. 10:42). May this be a season of “stockpiling” our oil of intimacy with the Lord and a season of cementing our feet on the rock of who He is. We must remember that we are doing this not just for ourselves as God’s people, but for others as well who will need the strength and hope we can bring in the midst of the current and coming storms.
I thank God for His patience in perfecting what is lacking in our faith in Him (1 Thes. 3:10). He is in the business of producing an immovable and unshakeable confidence in Him so that we will arise as His overcoming Bride! He is calling us to return to the place of cultivating a real, deep and authentic relationship with Him, that will see us through the hardest of storms (Ps. 40:2).
May we run to the place of sitting at the feet of Jesus, just like Mary of Bethany, to “stockpile” an unprecedented depth of personal intimacy with the Lord in these unprecedented times so that our light can shine brighter in increasing darkness.
Verses for meditation:
• Matthew 25:1-13
• Luke 10:39-42
• Philippians 3:8-11
• Isaiah 55:1-3
• Psalm 34:8
• Psalm 40:1-3
Commemorating Passover
8 April 2020 | Day 8
“WOE IS ME!” PRECEDES THE “WOW, GOD!”
(by Faith Lim)
“… Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” - Josh. 3:5
One of the most extraordinary accounts in the Bible where we see God’s wonders is in the book of Exodus, where He delivered the nation of Israel out of Egypt with His mighty hand. We often “wow!” when we see the miracles of God happening, whether in the Bible, throughout Church history, or in our midst today. Rightly so should we stand in awe and wonder. However, we must not neglect the response that God requires from His people even in the midst of His divine intervention.
All across Scripture, the principle that “human response precedes divine intervention” is apparent: the Israelites were commanded to sanctify themselves before He worked His wonders among them (Josh. 3:5); Isaiah commanded Israel to return to God so that they would find rest and confidence for their souls (Isa. 30:15); and Joel exhorted Israel to return to the Lord for Him to turn, relent and perhaps leave His blessing behind (Joel 2:13). As the people of God, we must not be casual in seeking a mighty wonder from a Holy God! God wants to give us fresh history so that the testimony of Christ is confirmed in us. However, He is first calling us to align to His standards.
In Exodus 12, God gave Moses specific instructions for the Israelites to prepare for the Passover and their eventual exodus out of Egypt. They were to take a lamb without any blemish as a sacrifice, put its blood on the two doorposts and on the lintel of their houses (Exo. 12:6-7) and remove any leaven from their houses (Exo. 12:15). It was a sober and solemn observance (Exo. 12:42) and there was no room for error in a time where complete obedience was a matter of life and death. We all know what happened next – the Lord passed through the land and struck all those who did not obey His commandment but passed over and spared those who did.
2 Corinthians 6:11-18 makes it clear that God can and will only dwell in His fullness among a people who are in 100% agreement with Him. In the Bible, God uses leaven as a representation of sin. Just as a small amount of leaven works through a whole lump of dough (1 Cor. 5:6), any ounce of sin in our lives will impact our holiness unto the Lord. Even as we cry out for His mighty wonders of healing to break out across the nations, let us turn to God in full repentance and rid ourselves of every compromise, compartmentalisation, and hidden areas of sin. We must not be casual but respond just like Isaiah did with a cry of, “Woe is me!” in deep repentance (Isa. 6:5).
The Lord is looking for a people who will set ourselves apart for Him and from the world. It is only when we come into alignment and agreement with Him that He can come close and glorify His name in our midst. As we come before God in deep repentance and rid ourselves of every area of compromise, may we have our “Exodus” – personal, congregational and global – in this hour of crisis. May we experience the Lord’s wondrous works and awesome deeds today that we may tell it to the next generation!
Verses to meditate on:
• Joshua 3:5
• Exodus 12
• 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
• 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1
• Galatians 5:7-9
• 1 Peter 2:9-10
A Word to Young People
7 April 2020 | Day 7
DID I MISS THE POINT?
(by Gareth Chew)
“The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider..” - Isa. 1:3.
It’s often said that how a man responds in crisis reveals his character; yet, character is not born but bred. In this time when things are going out of my control, I caught myself drawing up a battle plan to tide over this crisis. It’s a perfectly responsible and mature thing to do, but I realised it ended up distracting me from the most important question: why are you doing this God? God has made it clear that this crisis is a shaking and He wants His people to reset to the good part (Luke 10:42) and realign to His ways.
When it was announced that my physiotherapy clinic was classified as a “non-essential service” and had to stop operations, many thoughts ran through my mind about what had to be done to keep the business going. I also started thinking about how I was going to spend the 4 weeks at home.
It’s so easy to be caught up in the ways of the world when it comes to this – learn a new skill, clear the house, work for GrabFood as a delivery man to supplement my income loss and the list goes on… These activities are not wrong. Yet, what is the point of these 4 weeks? I had failed to consider that God, in His mercy, had forced me to this place where I now have no excuse to say I’m too busy to sit at His feet. He has blocked out my schedule. He has pressed the pause button in my life. He has booked an appointment for me to meet with Him. Time to learn from the ox and the donkey (ouch!) to recognise my Master and return to Him.
Isa 1:16 sheds some light on what God wants me to do these 4 weeks – “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil…” For far too long, my sacrifices to God have been defiled by the idols in my life – by the sins that I’ve chosen to overlook, by my weaknesses that I’ve rationalised away, by my laziness when it comes to the things of God. Eze. 14:3 reflects the very state of my heart – I’ve set up idols in my heart and yet I’m inquiring of the Lord expecting Him to respond to me. Thankfully, God is too good to leave me in this place of shallow Christianity.
I don’t want to fill up these 4 weeks with activities such that I miss the point of it totally! I urge each of us in these 4 weeks, as we work from home, to not waste majority of our time on Netflix, social media, playing games, cleaning our house etc. Instead, let us prioritise extended periods of time each day to come before the Lord and seek His face. Let’s do serious business with the Lord and ask Him some searching questions, “Why are you doing this God? What are the idols I have set up in my heart that need to be removed?”
Let us be like Mary of Bethany, choosing not to be distracted by what we can do, but instead choosing to sit at the Teacher’s feet to hear and consider what He has to say (Luke 10:38-42). This posture of waiting at His feet is a much needed one. It will root us deep in Him. It will prepare us to grow stronger, burn hotter, and shine brighter in God’s end time narrative.
Verses for meditation:
• Isaiah 1:11-20
• Ezekiel 14:3
• Luke 10:38-42
• Revelation 3:14-22
• Joel 1:2
See God, Find God, Know God!
6 April 2020 | Day 6
HUMILITY BEGINS AT HOME
(by Luke Lim)
In the comfort of our own homes, we often easily flare up, react, and argue. We tend to speak forth unpleasantries to our spouse, parents, or children when disagreements arise. Too often, the person we are at home and the person we are in Church are total opposites.
A few questions that have recently pierced my heart deeply are these:
If someone says something that is true about me, why should I react?
And if someone says something that isn’t true about me, why should I react also?
One of the aspects about humility in Christ is the denial of our fleshly inclinations to react defensively, especially when someone says or does something that pricks our pride. We are called to humility and often that means not fighting for our own rights in the same way that Jesus did not hold on to His, but instead submitted to the Father’s will (Phil 2:1-8). Humility definitely hurts. The essence of self-denial is not an enjoyable one and it’s meant to be painful – that’s when our hearts are rent.
Here are some questions I use to reflect on for myself:
- What does it mean to “carry my heart well”? What are the practical outworkings of it?
- Is the way I respond to others outside (especially in Church) the same as the way I respond to family at home?
- How can I respond better in unpleasant and tense situations?
It is important to remember that there should be no difference between who we are at home and who we are in Church. Proverbs 15:1 says that we can turn away wrath with a soft answer. This means that even when someone (especially those close to us) truly wrongs us, if we respond in humility towards the person, we can be the very peacemaker in the situation as we choose to forgo retaliation and not take personal offence. Then, we will truly be conformed to and reflect the very character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Take time to meditate on these scriptures today:
• Prov.15:1
• Matt. 5:38-40
• Eph. 4:29
• Phil. 2:5-8
Ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to the place of humility and to carry our hearts right before the Lord.
The Call To and Need For Deep Repentance
5 April 2020 | Day 5
RE-LEARNING TO LOVE
(by Faith Lim)
Back in January, when news of this Coronavirus began flooding local headlines, I remember my heart shaken to the core and full of overwhelming fear. It was an uncomfortable unsettledness which brought me to the place of crying out to the Lord. My attention was shifted to the One who will stop at nothing until our hearts are fully His.
I recall Joel 2:13, which prioritises the call of God to Israel through prophet Joel. It is first and foremost the call to return to wholeheartedness because God is primarily after our hearts.
In the midst this “divine pause”, one of the issues God has highlighted for me to examine, is in the area of my love for Him. Yes, it is as simple as this, “What does it mean to love God wholeheartedly? What does it mean to walk intimately with God?”
Haggai 2:7 talks about how God allows shakings to reveal and remove everything that can be shaken off from our lives. These shakings are meant to point us to the Desire of All Nations (Hag. 2:7). God is jealous and zealous for our wholeheartedness and obedience with a vengeance.
This has become a very personal statement to me. Why would a God who has no need of anything, zealously look for something from frail and prone-to-failure humans like you and me?
God revealed the controversy He had with my life through the book of Hosea. In His eyes, I had “made my love for hire on every threshing floor” (Hosea 9:1). I had craved for acceptance in all the wrong places and given away parts of my heart too easily where I should not have.
Yet, the Lord is faithful! In returning, we can find confidence in Him! With every setting of our hearts to love Him more, God awakens a greater desire in us for Him. When our hearts are rent, He takes it and carefully mends it so we can love Him more.
I believe that in this hour, an invitation from the Lord has been issued to our hearts. It is an invitation to repent of every misplaced affection to step into a NEW BEGINNING of wholeheartedness before the Lord. There’s no stopping ones with “lovesick” hearts from going “all out” for Jesus and this is the kind of people God is raising up as His End-Time army!
Let us “kiss the Son” (Ps. 2:12) and as a child, re-learn what it means to LIVE A LIFE that says, “Jesus, You are the desire of my soul.” (Isa 26:8)
Our Maker is a Lover. We are made for love. May the chorus of our lives be, “JESUS, I LOVE YOU!”
Verses for meditation:
• Joel 2:12-13
• Hosea 11:8-9
• Isaiah 26:8
• Psalm 27:4
• Matthew 22:37-38
Sacred Assemblies Rooted in the Joel 2 Lifestyle (Joel 2:12-17)
4 April 2020 | Day 4
HAVE WE ANY BOTTOM-LINES WITH GOD?
(by Annabelle Ng)
In this time of bowing before Him in humility and repentance, we need to ask ourselves the questions: Do I have any bottom-lines with God? Is there anything where I’ve said to Him, whether consciously or unconsciously, “God, whatever it is, You cannot touch this.”
It can be our bank account balance, our jobs, a certain standard of living that we aspire towards, certain relationships that we are unwilling to let go of, or even hobbies or forms of entertainment which we enjoy. These things in and of themselves are not wrong. However, when we have them as things that we cannot give up no matter what God says, we have placed them in a position that is higher than God in our hearts and lives, and these bottom-lines become our idols (Matt. 6:21, Isa. 44:9-20). We are in misalignment with the Lord.
One of the things that the Lord has been revealing to me in the midst of this crisis is that I want to have things my way, in accordance to the schedule that I’ve planned out – without allowing Him any room to change it for His purposes should He so desire. Indeed, this has always been the case in my life, but because our hearts are deceitful above all else (Jer. 17:9), it has taken an utter disruption of life as we know it to surface this idol in stark reality. Before this, I simply hid it behind the veil of “efficiency” and “it makes logical sense to do things this way”. However, His ways are often not at all like ours.
Thus, more than ever, we seriously need to put aside all forms of religious pretence, and be honest before God. We can no longer pray the following with just our lips, but with a seriousness and an openness in our hearts that is willing to hear and then obey whatever it is that He desires to speak to us, so that we can align back to Him:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
(Ps 139:23-24)
While some of us may face fear and apprehension praying such a prayer, this is where we have to fall back on the assurance that He is always good, always has the best plans for us, and will never shortchange us (Matt 6:33). Jerermiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” This word is always true no matter the circumstance!
May His grace be upon us to open our hearts and our hands before Him and increasingly align our hearts and lives to Him throughout this season.
Scriptures that we can pray and meditate on:
• Psalm 139:23-24
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Matthew 6:21
• Matthew 6:33
• Matthew 16:25
• Isaiah 44:9-20
What is God Looking For?
3 APRIL 2020 | DAY 3
BEND THE KNEE
(by Faith Lim)
In a society where humility is often misunderstood as being weak or without a backbone, it is a virtue that ranks high in the eyes of God and His kingdom. Peter reveals the heart of God in 1 Peter 5:6. He exhorts us to humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God for it is God who lifts us up in His time. However, our primary motivation for bending low is not the exaltation that eventually comes. Instead, it must first be driven by the desire to please and move the heart of God simply because this is what He is looking for.
Beyond just the physical act of bowing down, the Lord is looking for true humility to arise from deep within our hearts and souls. However, I’ve come to realize how foreign this is to my flesh. Yet, we have the Holy Spirit as our Helper! He will lead us to the place of humility as we yield to Him.
Jesus came in meekness and lowliness as the very example for us to imitate. In Matthew 11, Jesus exhorts us to be yoked together with Him and learn what it means to be gentle and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:28-30). Apostle Paul also exhorts us to let the mind of Christ – one of humility and surrendered obedience – to be in us (Phil. 2:5-11).
As we continue to posture our hearts in this time of fasting and prayer, let’s ask for the work of the Holy Spirit to perfect meekness in us (1 Thess. 3:10 & 13). As we see how much we need His help, may this realization of our own poverty in the spirit lead to spiritual mourning and a working of meekness in our hearts (Matt. 5:3-5). Let us clothe ourselves with humility (Col. 3:12) and be yoked together with the meekness and lowliness of Christ.
Meekness is the very magnet that attracts His presence (Isa. 66:2). What a reward! May the cry of our hearts be like John the Baptist, “You must increase and I must decrease!” (Jn. 3:30)
Verses to meditate on:
• Matthew 11:28-30
• Matthew 23:12
• Luke 9:23-25
• James 4:10
• Philippians 2:1-11
• Colossians 3:12-13
• Micah 6:8
Watch and Pray
2 APRIL 2020 | DAY 2
MORE LORD, MORE!
(by Faith Lim & Annabelle Ng)
One of the key things for us in this season of leaning in would be to see our true living condition in relation to what the Lord has for us. It is no wonder that the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) begins with “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
Being poor in the spirit means that we realize our spiritual lack and acknowledge our desperate need for God. We also recognise the disparity between our current state and the “so much more” that God intends for our lives. As we see the gap between where we are and what God has for us, a divine dissatisfaction should arise in us, leading us to the second beatitude of “spiritual mourning”.
In this divine PAUSE, it is time to seriously re-align our lives, desires, and pursuits back to what God has for us. As we come before God, allow the Lord to search our hearts to surface any spiritual pride or passivity present in our lives.
- Are we of the attitude that we have enough of God?
- Have we measured our spiritual condition with wrong benchmarks of ministry impact, growth or material riches?
- What are some things that are robbing our attention and wholehearted pursuit of God?
- Are we too easily content with the things of God?
Having more of God in our lives cannot be something that is merely “good to have”. It has to be a “must-have” in our lives. May we be ones who are not easily content with how much we have of God, but press in hard for what God has for us in this hour.
Take time to meditation these Scriptures today:
• Matthew 5:3-4
• Matthew 11:12
• 1 Timothy 6:6
• John 10:10
Let’s ask the Lord to reveal our living condition to us and create in us a spiritual mourning as we recognise our desperate need of Him.
Storm is Coming! Storm is Here! (Luke 21:36)
1 APRIL 2020 | DAY 1
ASSEMBLE O SOLDIERS OF GOD!
(by Faith Lim)
The “divine pause button” of God has been pressed. As the people of God, it is the hour to humble ourselves before God and get our lives right in His sight.
In the next 12 days, we are intentionally dialling down the noise and distraction in our hearts and lives to LEAN IN to the heart of God. As we embark on the first day of this “One Thing Fast”, let us lay aside all personal agendas of getting a quick-fix answer from God but come before Him with an open and unguarded heart. We want to intentionally position our hearts in humility before the Lord of hosts.
Joel 2:13 talks about a “rending of our hearts” which depicts a figurative tearing of our hearts in repentance before God. This is one of the responses that God requires in a time of crisis. Acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s work to surface the areas of misalignment in our hearts. Rather than just lip service or “rending our garments”, we are reaching for true and deep repentance to be awakened in our hearts as a new norm.
Take time to meditate on these scriptures today:
• 2 Chronicles 7:12-14
• Joel 2:12-17
• James 4:6
• Psalm 139:23-24
We need to ask ourselves how walking in humility looks like in our lives. What are some areas of pride that we need to deal with? Let God do an honest evaluation of our:
• hearts
• mind
• motivations/intentions
• desires
• values
We can be confident as we stand vulnerable before the Lord for He gives grace to the humble but He opposes the proud.
