NEVER EVER BE TOO BUSY TO PRAY

This afternoon while doing the study on Biblical Purpose during the Roots and Wings session with our DG group, the following scriptures really jumped up at me:

Mark 1:32-38

"At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 

The He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and case out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him. 

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You". But He said to them "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth".

The truth just hit me like a ton of bricks:

1. Jesus was a very busy man. In fact He was ministering till late at night healing the sick and casting out demons. The whole city was gathered to see Him.

2. Jesus slept very late. He was doing God's work.

3. Despite sleeping late, He woke up while it was still dark and went to a solitary place to prayed. He did not laze around on His bed and gave excuses of a busy night keeping Him from prayer.

4. After a time of prayer and hearing from God, He received instructions from the Father to go on to the next towns to preach the Gospel for that was the purpose He came forth.

One thing struck me clearly - the Lord led a busy life. His life was so much busier than mine. So busy was He that He ministered late into the night. However He still found the time to wake up early to pray!

Why am I complaining when Jesus Himself could wake up early in the morning even though He had a busy night the day before!

Why was His morning watches so important? It was important as Jesus received clear guidance and direction from the Father for His life and ministry at that particular point in time. Although many (including His disciples) were clamouring for Him to continue ministry in the same place, the Lord heard from the Father to move on to the next towns to fulfil His call.

My fervent prayer: 

Lord please give me the grace to wake up early the following day even after a late night and a busy day. Amen.

G.S.T

April 2015 is significant because of GST which came into force on 1 April.

However we need not fear the physical GST on our bills if we keep on focusing on the spiritual GSTs and keep building up ourselves in them:

1. GST - Glorious Strengthening Time

The time spent during the morning watches are Glorious Strengthening Times for me enabling me to face the challenges of the day ahead.

Time spent reading the Bible are also Glorious Strengthening Time for me. I love writing scriptures and memorizing them. These are times when I feel I am gloriously strengthened.

2. GST - Great Strength in Trials

As I go through the day and face all kinds of difficulties at work, I will experience Great Strength in Trials especially when I have had the Glorious Strengthening Time with JESUS in the morning and in the Word of God.

3. GST - Gospel Sharing Time

What a wonderful weekend of sharing the Gospel we had last Saturday. We were witnessing and sharing the 4 spiritual laws with my cousin at one of the rest stop all the way to Penang and back. Listening to Cho Yonggi's message and worshiping in the car, I believe that we had left seeds of the Gospel to germinate in her heart.

When we reached Penang, we were surprised to learn (although I suspected it) that my cousin was marrying a Christian! However what I did not know was that she was a pastor's daughter. 

My auntie and uncle had not been receptive to the Gospel all this while but the wedding of their son that Saturday must have changed things for them. In fact the whole clan turned up (on my mother's side) and they heard the message on the marriage covenant preached from the book of Ephesians. 


4. GST - Godly Supplication Time

Supplication time has to be godly because God's eyes are upon the righteous and His ears open to their cry. Before we come to prayer, we need to cleanse ourselves of our sins and forgive others so that God will hear us when we pray.

5. GST - Generous Sowing Time or Giving & Sowing Time

Offering time will always be Generous Sowing Time when we regard our giving as being used by the Lord to bring about/facilitate Gospel Sharing Times for us through the various community projects embarked upon by our church.

Amen. 

Why I pray for my church using the prayer booklet

This message will be preached on May 3.

5 reasons for praying through the booklet:

1.   Delight & love

Belum rasa belum tahu, sudah rasa lagi mahu

Award winning Fanta slogan. 

In order to participate in the Fanta Grape contest offering as first price a free trip to Disneyland in US, I had no choice but to drink as many Fanta drinks as possible in order to collect the inner caps. In the process of drinking Fanta drinks, I developed a likeness for the drink.

Belum doa belum tahu, sudah doa lagi mahu. This applies very much to my prayer life too.

Falling in love with HGC is falling in love with God

I realized that this slogan reflects my approach to the prayer booklet and the church (because the booklet contains many prayer points on the church).

If I did not pray through the booklet, I would not have developed a delight or love for the church! 

You have to pray through it to experience falling in love with the church. You have to practice doing something over and over again before you fall in love with it or become attached to it.

Ask the exercise, hiking and marathon kaki, you will know the importance of doing something over and over again until it becomes like a second nature to you!

When I fell in love with this church praying for the church using the prayer booklet, I fell in love with God all over again. Why? Because God loves this church so much. He gave His life to save each one of us. We are so precious to Him, so greatly loved by Him.

This is what I call a delightful obedience. An act of obedience soon becomes an act of joy and a delight.

Delightful obedience – obedience blossoming into a delight and love for the church and God

To me praying through the booklet is DELIGHTFUL OBEDIENCE. It started with obedience, an intentional act but it blossomed into a delight, a joy and a love affair. 

It started as a task but it blossomed into a delight. 

It started as something structured but it blossomed into a joy.

It started as a task but it blossomed into a joyful assignment.

Praying through the booklet will cause us to fall in love with the church. Falling in love with the church is falling in love with God. This is because the church is God’s idea in the first place. The church is His Bride. The church is His hope to reach the perishing world. The church is precious and important to Him.

If you feel nothing for this church because you are new here then take this spiritual prescription - pray through the booklet following the prayer focus for each day. In just a week, you will fall in love with God and with HGC! Guaranteed!

Praying for someone we hate will fill us with God’s love for them

Obedience brings about great spiritual breakthrough and deliverance!

In the same way, when you don’t seem to like a person in church or a person in your family or even your colleagues or bosses, there is a simple solution. Pray, pray and pray for them. 

Pray positive prayers; pray prayers of love and blessing for them. The next time you see them, you will find the feeling of dislike gone from you! I would even say that you will begin loving them with the love of God!

2.   Deeper insight

Deeper insight into the prayer needs of the church

I find that when I actually pray through the prayer focus for the church, God will show me more things about the church. It has to be in that atmosphere of prayer that God gives us deeper insight of spiritual things.

Praying for the vision and mission of HGC

One morning I was praying for HGC to fulfill her vision and mission. Suddenly God showed me the vision of a huge eagle – one wing is vision and one wing is mission. The eagle can fly higher and stronger when both wings are in sync with one another. 

The church vision and mission statement is very important for the church. A people without vision will live carelessly. I later saw this giant eagle leading other smaller eagles all over the sky of Ampang.

With us propelled by the vision and mission that God has given us for HGC, we can be a blessing to our community.

Pastor’s deep insight on Joseph like a father to Pharoah

When pastor prayed for Christian leaders following the booklet, he received the insight that Joseph was like a father to Pharaoh.

I thought to myself, I cannot imagine myself being like a mother to my boss! It seems impossible because of the age gap but all things are possible to those who believe in prayer!

Old Folks Home – a house of prayer

There was also a time when Pastor was praying for the Old Folks Ministry and he received the insight that it was to be a house of prayer/a prayer altar for Ampang.

Mark as a father to the children in CC

One Saturday morning we prayed for the CC and pastor also received the insight of praying for Mark and the other youth leaders in the CC being like a father to the little children! I recalled that we were praying for more men teachers for the CC.

Insight on the Chinese Church 

When I pray for the Chinese Church I can see that God is so pleased with me. I receive the insight of God’s great desire to see true spiritual unity in the church.

Insight on the church kindy

I love praying for the church kindy because many insights will flow:

- Parent’s salvation (the kindy being like a place for the parents to seek for answers to life for themselves and for the children)

- Children’s salvation to stay with them until adulthood

Insight on the Community Center

The vision of the Community Center being a place where sweet food was available that will attract ants to come was received during corporate prayer.

Ants speak of hardworking young people who will come to learn at the Center and to receive coaching. They do not come just to play but they come to work because ants are diligent insects.

 It is indeed exciting to receive vision and insights during prayer time. It is fresh and refreshing and assures me that God hears our prayers.

On this rock I will build my church

Scripture insight on Matt 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”. I received an epiphany (a spiritual inspiration) when praying this scripture for the church. 

Today the church in Malaysia may be under attack by demonic forces from the pit of hell but no matter because of this scripture which assures us that JESUS will build His church despite the onslaught of the enemy.

3.   Determined to pray

Luke 18:1 – Men ought always to pray and not grow faint

We know the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18. She was determined to get a breakthrough in her prayers so much so that she kept coming again and again to the unjust judge to present her petition for help against her adversary.

We have an adversary, he is the devil

The enemy seeks to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly.  His influence in our lives and the lives of the members in our church can be pushed back and nullified through prayer and our faith in the Word of God. 

Share Matthew 16:18 – “On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.

When you think about this, we can rest securely in the knowledge that God will advance and grow His church even when the gates of hell and all manner of demonic forces is unleashed against the church!

Qualities of the widow

She was determined and desperate. She was sincere and fervent. She was full of faith and persistence!

Story of Joash and Elisha

2 Kings 13:14-19

^"Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the east window”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.” 

Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”

I realized the symbolism of this story when I was praying through the booklet a 2^nd time and a 3^rd time. Time and time again, this story would come back to me.

Joash only struck the arrow 3 times and stop. He made Elisha angry as Elisha’s instructions to him were “you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them”.

Noticed that Joash had not even gone out to fight the Syrians yet, he was only instructed to strike the arrows on the ground but he only struck it 3 times. Even in carrying out this simple act, he had already shown his true colors.

He was not desperate enough.

He was not determined enough.

He was not persistent enough.

Elisha was so angry that he declared that Joash would only be able to defeat the Syrians 3 times.

The enemy will come in to attack us time and time again.

When we defeat him in prayer and the word of God one time, he will find a chance when we are weak to come and attack us again. He will do this relentlessly as we can see him doing so in things happening in our nation.

Let us be like the widow who will pray until something happens.

Praying through the booklet 3 times

We started in February, praying through the booklet 7 days a week, 4 weeks in a month, 28 days in total. At the end of May, we would have completed praying through the prayer booklet 3 times.

Praying through the 2^nd edition of the booklet another 3 times

Lest we become like Joash and strike the arrows only 3 times on the ground, we will strike our arrows on the ground another 3 times till the month of August thus fulfilling what Elisha said to Joash “you should have struck 5 or 6 times then you would have destroyed your enemies”!

Theme of the 2^nd edition – praying for the community and flowing with church activities

The 2^nd edition of the prayer booklet may be different from the 1^st edition in terms of the prayer items but the overall emphasis is the same – praying for our church and the community/nation.

This time our arrows will be sharper as we will flow with the daily activities of the church for e.g. on Friday we will be praying for life groups, on Saturday for KENG youth, on Monday for our response to the Sunday sermons.

The emphasis on the Ampang community in this 2^nd edition is to align our arrows to flow with the church theme for 2015!

4.   Designed for spiritual unity

How do we esteem others better than ourselves?

Practicing humility through prayer

This is a verse on humility.

I often wonder how this verse works for me. How to work it out on a practical basis?

It dawned upon me while praying through the prayer booklet that we need to start with prayer. Prayer for others will give us the grace to esteem better than ourselves.

Praying for a wide variety of prayer items

Imagine for a moment – youths praying for young adults, youths praying for children, youths praying for the elderlies. The English Church will be praying for the Chinese Church and the Chinese Church will be praying for the English Church. Imagine the blessings that will flow as declared by Psalm 133 “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity….”

Yes, the booklet will soon be translated to Chinese and the Chinese Church will join us in praying for our beloved church. The same prayer items will be prayed over on the same day simultaneously up to 28 days by both Churches.

Unity through prayer

Can you imagine the strengthening of the joints and the unity that will come about as a result of this simple act of prayer?

Humility = Unity

While praying for the church anniversary, I saw this vision of a huge earthenware with the words HUMILITY & UNITY written on both sides of the pot and water flowing from this huge earthenware flowing into the smaller pots all around the huge earthenware.

It speaks to me that if we walk in humility and unity, the anointing of God will flow down from the top leadership of the church down to the ordinary members of the church.

5.   Destined for glory

Do you believe that prayer will prepare you for the return of Christ?

 Prayer is an act of faith

As I read the parable of the persistent widow, I was puzzled as to its ending “When the Son of Man comes back to earth will he really find faith on the earth?”

How come the return of Christ is mentioned in the same breath as the parable of the persistent praying widow? It seems that the Lord was trying to link the preparation of His return with persistent prayer.

Church core values

I remember when we were developing the Church Core Values at one of our Leaders’ Retreat that the Lord dropped into my heart to highlight that one of our Core Values should be to value the Hope of His Return.

If you have been praying through the booklet you will note that one day is set aside to pray through the church core values.

Watch and pray for you do not know when the time is

Mark 13:32 - 37

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.  It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

I invite you to take up your prayer booklet (2^nd edition) one hand on it and the other on your heart….let us pray….

On this rock I will build My church

I was praying through the prayer booklet for the 

third time.

On day 1 of week 1, this scripture zapped into 

my heart “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”. It was the scripture to back up the prayer focus for the day which was praying for the protection and growth of churches in our nation.

The word “rock” in Matthew 16:18 is “petra” in 
Greek. Jesus was describing Peter (whose name is
Petros meaning rock or stone) as a man whose 
spiritual stature is like a rock by reason of the 
firmness and strength of his soul.

God spoke to me that morning that if the church in
Malaysia were to build strong on the “rock” which is Jesus (and Jesus is the Word become flesh), then no matter what kind of attacks that will come against the church (even if the attacks were like attacks from hell) the church will continue to grow and advance.

Indeed in our nation, it has been like a time of the
unleashing of demonic hordes from hell assaulting
the church in various forms. Yet the Word of God is eternal and unchanging. 

Come what may, the church in Malaysia as long 
as it is build upon the “rock” it will not be shaken. And what is this rock? It is symbolic of 
our faith which has to be build strong upon the 
Word of God and on prayer.

Prayer in the early church (embedded in a lifestyle of fellowship and sound doctrine) 
strengthens the church and causes it to thrive when
faced with tough times. The best example is the early church.

In Acts 2:42 the apostles and the early believers 
continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and 

fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Sound doctrine, close fellowship and praying 
together on a daily basis brought about the rapid 
growth of the church. Even as persecution and 
pressure grew, the Word of God thrived rapidly 
and did not waver in the midst of the opening of the “gates of hell” during those days.

Before the revival in China, darkness was so 
thick that it could be literally felt. You could slice 
it like a knife and you could still feel a thick blanket of darkness. Chinese Christians gathered in house churches and prayed and fasted. Despite the “gates of hell” attacking the church in China, it grew like willows at the watercourses and multiplied in hundreds of thousands.

Brother Andrew once said “The underground 
church prays for things Western Christians would
never think to pray about, such as strength to
never deny Christ under torture or to be blessed 
with a Bible. In keeping with Jesus’ command, 
the church also prays for those who persecute them”

In Indonesia at the time when churches were
under attack, many believers stood firm for Jesus. Today the churches are thriving and 
growing all over the nation despite the pressures they faced from outside forces.

In one incident of a church building being closed
by the government, members of the Indonesian 
church still met to worship in front of their church building. 

They were forced to endure harassment from 
people who passed by and who threw cow dung and dirt at them as they worship outside. It was reported that although “dung and dirt was thrown at the Christians making everyone, including children, very uncomfortable, one could sense that their spirit was really high. They sang praises and danced to the Lord joyfully” – Christian magazine on prayer for the persecuted church.

I was really blessed whilst attending the overnight
prayer with leaders and members of various 
churches in the Klang Valley. 

From the time we started we were worshiping and praying, worshiping and praying and declaring the Word of God for our nation. We heard all kinds of reports but each time the reports were shared, it 
was always followed with a time of intense prayer and intercession. There was a sense of unity and strengthening in the Spirit. We were building our faith on the rock who is JESUS through the united prayers!

Our part is to build our faith on the rock who is 
JESUS. God's part is to ensure that the gates of 
hell will not prevail against us. Its just as simple as
that.



May we continue to build our lives strong in 
prayer, the Word of God and fellowship so that 

the ‘gates of hell’ will not prevail against the church!