Moved By The Father, Not Moved By Needs

Jesus was not moved by needs.

Jesus was moved by the Father. (Jn 5:19)

Since Christ is in us (Col 1:27) and we are to follow His example (Luke 9:23; 1 Jn 2:6), we must not be moved by needs, but we must be moved by the Father.

In other words, we must say "No" to meeting every need in order to say "Yes" to meeting the Father's assignments.

During the pandemic period, there were many needs. People asked me for help. 

One asked me to transcribe university's lectures (a few lessons) from audio to written words so that she could read them. She's deaf but resisted other forms of help.

Some asked me to transport food and goods to a few people in needs.

One asked me to assist in his job.

Some requested financial assistance.

Many requested healing and some, hospital visitations.

And the list went on.

I'm only one person. I can't meet all their needs. I am not supposed to be moved by needs. I am supposed to be moved by the Father.

𝐈𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬 (𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟔:𝟖; 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥 𝟒:𝟏𝟗), 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲. 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡.

You don't have to meet a need by demand, regardless of its urgency. You meet the Father's assignment and He will meet that need by His grace.

The Bible says that God knows all the needs and will supply for all the needs. You and I are not God. Neither was Jesus omni-present. Our job is to be moved by the Father, so that He can meet all the needs through us individually and corporately.

P.S: The next time when I say "No" to you, it's not because I reject helping you, but because I choose to focus on the Father's assignment.

Working Hard, Or Not?

Working Hard, Or Not?

It really is senseless to work so hard from early morning till late at night, toiling to make a living for fear of not having enough. God can provide for His devoted lovers even while they sleep! - Psalm 127:2 (TPT)

There is nothing wrong to work hard. The Bible teaches us to be diligent. But the motivation is MORE important than the action.

The fear of not having enough causes one to worry. Worrying means division and distraction. When we worry, our attention and desire for God will be divided and distracted.

In fact, worrying is self-centred. Resting, on the other hand, is God-centred. When we rest, our attention and desire for God will be directed and focused.

Worrying causes us to provide for ourselves as we live in the absence of the Father. This is why you toil from early morning till late at night for fear of not having enough.

Resting causes us to trust God to provide for us as we live in the presence of the Father. This is why a child is always at rest when it comes to finances, because he knows that his father will always provide.

God provides for us while we sleep. Resting releases God's providence, because Grace is received through Faith. You either worry and hinder the grace of God in your life, or you rest and accept the grace of God in your life.

Worrying is self-centred as you depend on yourself.

Resting is God-centred as you depend on Him.

Before your child, be a father.

Before your Father (God), be a child.

A Generation Transformed By Fathering

Nobody expects to sit at a spiritual reading booth hearing about their relationship with their father.

But today's central theme is on that.

A generation is not transformed by signs and wonders, though I love these. A generation is transformed by fathering.

This is why tremendous miracles often take place in Indonesia but there isn't much transformation. Because we are focusing on the wrong area.

Fathering is the key to a transformed life. I believe this is why the enemy focuses on distracting the fathers from their highest call, which is fathering.

To learn fathering, we must first learn to be sons. Sonship is the most important aspect of a Christian.

You can perform miracles, signs and wonders. You can give to the poor and needy. You can move strongly in the prophetic. But the moment you don't comprehend sonship, your actions might appear right but your motivations will always be wrong.

Without sonship, one cannot be a good representation of the Father. Only fathered fathers father.

You can share tons of testimonies to me about the works of God and I will not be moved by you unless you are a father who walks in sonship identity.

The works of God do not prove that you are a man of God. Anyone can be a miracle worker. But only sons can father like Him.

The day you lose communication with your kid is the day you need to re-evaluate your understanding of sonship.

As a father, today is a reminder that I must stay in communion with the Father so that I can stay in communion with my son.

Seeking What You Want

Seeking What You Want

If you seek after something, you desire it. You crave for it. You want it.

For the Gentiles 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤 after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 them all. But 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. - Matt 6:32-33

The word 'seek' in v32 is to desire, to crave and to want. The Gentiles WANT material things. God is not saying that we should not have material things. It says that He knows that we NEED them.

If we seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, all the material things that the Gentiles WANT will be added to us because we NEED them.

The word 'seek' in v33 is different from v32. The Greek word 'zéteo' means 'to seek with earnestness and diligence, with the intention of finding it'.

I like to read a verse from a 'backward' or an 'opposite' perspective. 

If we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, but not FIRST as the order of priority, then the material things will not be added to us. If it is NOT ADDED to us, it means that there is NO INCREASE, and our own hard work, toil and labour is fully necessitated to see them.

If we seek (desire, crave, want) the material things, His Kingdom & His righteousness will be 'subtracted' from us.

This is why a Mammon-focused industry has many Christians living in unrighteousness. Not because they intentionally wanted to, but because the order of priority is in a wrong order. Thus, His Kingdom and His Righteousness cannot be manifested. On the contrary, the enemy's kingdom and the enemy's unrighteousness becomes manifested through their lives.

Sometimes, we think that we have the capacity to do both. But He Himself said that it is impossible to serve two masters (Matt 6:24).

The moment we go after material things (in the name of 'for the sake of my family' and/or 'for my retirement' and/or 'for financial freedom'), we choose the Gentiles' ways.

The Kingdom's way is always upside down. It often defies the logic of this world. It often reforms the patterns of this world.

What do you seek FIRST? It is revealed through your priority and your actions, not your words.

The Gift Of Communication

Connecting and communicating with the Japanese uncle about his Rubik cube and trying to use his newly learnt Japanese vocab with him.

On his van journey back, we wanted to give the US guy some rest. So we insisted that J gave him a break.

He was a tad sad, so we let him sit beside this Japanese uncle. You can see him beaming from ear to ear.

This Japanese guy is one of the rare few who grew his own coffee beans in Tokyo (not a suitable climate) using AI and greenhouse effect. Wow!

J simply loves people. He has a heart to connect with people of all ages and countries. God has given him the gift of communication. We pray that this remains permanent for the rest of his life.

A Word for Parents

A word for parents whose kids are entering into the teenage years...

Do NOT deal with their behaviours.

Deal with their identity.

This is especially so for boys, since girls are generally easier in their teenage years.

Their behaviours may frustrate you...

Their behaviours may surprise you...

Their behaviours may confuse you...

But they are NOT their behaviours.

If you deal with them according to their behaviours, you will lose them.

If you deal with them according to their identity, they will draw close to you..

Going Before Your Son

One of the things which a father does is to empower his child.

But empowerment doesn't necessarily mean risking one's safety.

We chose to live near MRT so that J can be empowered to be more independent. We are not going to spoil him by driving him everywhere he goes.

Today's generation has an entitlement mindset. And we do not wish that J walks in that kind of mindset.

He travels to some of his classes on his own, provided that the journey is not too crowded in terms of road traffic (if he has to cross the road), and that the demographic in that area is reasonably decent.

Afterall, he is our ONLY child.

Today, his karate location officially changed. After dropping him by car, I searched for the route to walk to the MRT.

Here I am, doing a recce of the route, checking out the car traffic and the demographic. 

As a father, I'm going before him. Before he goes.

Verdict: Not safe.

In this case, we will travel with him by the MRT until we are ready to let him be on his own.

The Father in heaven always goes BEFORE us. Wherever we go, He was already there. This is why Joshua 1:9 is a timeless principle.

People sometimes ask me to pray, "Can you pray if this place is where God wants me to go? Will He be in it?"

Well, there won't be a place where He wasn't there and there won't be a place where He won't be with you. Since He lives right on the inside, where you go is where He goes.

The Next Generation

The Next Generation

Alot of God-things ended with the first generation. The second generation often dropped the baton.

I believe the main key lies with fathering. This is why the Old Testament ended with the hearts of the fathering turning to the next generation and vice versa.

So many God's generals (Roberts Liardon) didn't have a second generation who walked in the same power or surpassed the first generation.

What is warred and fought for is usually stewarded better than what is simply handed over. Similarly, our first generation of leadership in the nation had to war and fight for the nation. But the next generation of leadership was simply given the power and privileges.

Moses fathered Joshua well, though Joshua didn't have his next generation. Yet we see a similarity. Both Moses and Joshua had to war and fight. It wasn't enough that Joshua witnessed Moses warring. Joshua needed to have his own warring (i.e. Jericho).

Fathering is not merely nurturing. We need to train our child to war and fight in the spiritual realm. We need to prepare them for battles. At times, we will need to let them go through battles without interference so that God-things do not end with the first generation.

Today's kids are given many privileges. These are not going to help them rise above us unless they are put through warring and fighting. 

True fathering is empowerment.