EASTER • 7 (Testimony)

19 May

John 15:26-27; John 16:4-15

Thinking back on my formative years as a Christian, things were somewhat simple when I used to take my reference of what it meant to follow Christ from others who were more matured in the faith. The fork in the road came when different Christians that I respected had differing views on things that I was trying to work out. I remembered approaching my mentor then for advice because I really wanted to do what was right but was confused by the differing views (each had their merits and wisdom).  After considering for a bit, he simply told me not to be so worried about what was the ‘right’ choice, but that I should seek the Lord and decide for myself. He told me that if I sought the Lord in the sincerity that I had, the Lord would definitely lead and guide me even if I made the ‘wrong’ choice. While I did not fully understand it back then, my mentor wisdom came from His knowledge of who God is and also the Holy Spirit was present as my guide even though I had not learned to identify His guidance then. I remembered walking away with a sense of strange freedom and also unknowingly began a shift in my journey to learn to hear the Lord’s leading personally besides hearing Him from others.

While the manner by which the Holy Spirit works personally may differ from person to person, John makes it clear that the Holy Spirit will always testify about Jesus (15:26), glorify Him (16:14), and make known to us all truth and what He receives from Jesus (16:13-15). John also included some of the specific works of the Holy Spirit (i.e. conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgement) mentioned in John 16:8-11 with the person of Jesus Christ remaining as the reference point for these things.

20 May

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Quite recently, I was assigned to volunteer manage and lead a group of church volunteers (not from CNL) to shift gears in their approach to community outreach work that had started the year before in the form of COVID relief aid. It was really heartening to see that so many from the church (over 300 volunteers) had availed themselves in the work of adopting a few rental blocks to distribute monthly relief in the form of groceries, masks, sanitizers and other varying necessities over the course of the last 6 months of 2020. Another church staff and I had been just one of the facilitating and supporting staff in those initial stages of the work but now had to stand in for two of our my predecessors who had wonderfully helmed the work in 2020 because they had to be rotated elsewhere.

As I contemplated the point of time and the gear-shifting-point that I was entering into, I quickly felt overwhelmed by the challenges of the daunting work ahead of us. The strategic gear shift was one of shifting our recommitted volunteers and new ones to take ownership of deepening their relationships with the residents and to meet the various organic needs of the community out of their own expense, talents, and resources (the ministry team helming this initiative had previously provided, coordinated, and arranged for most of the work in 2020). I recognized quite quickly that this could be a costly endeavor that required the volunteers to pour out more of their time and resources for this deepening work to happen. I remember how unhealthily burdened I was leading up to the briefing for the launch of our work in 2021. Thoughts flooded my head that questioned my adequacy to lead such a transition, to manage the precious burden I was about to lay on them, and champion the charge for a people who were mostly years ahead of me in seniority and leadership.

I had my own mini-doubtful-Moses episode till God led me to the ‘staff’ in my hands which was His Word. I remember being led to turn to the book of Acts 2:42-47 and reading a description of the life of the believers in the early church and realizing that this call to His people to go and deepen their work in the community was not mine, but God’s. I was to be but His vessel to speak what had been His vision all along. And that as it was with the early church, it would be His Spirit that will move and cause His people who were called by His name to go out and love the community gladly, sincerely, and practically.

God’s calming and humbling hand was over me, reminding me that He is Lord and will do what is His to do. I had to but take courage and faithfully speak what He had put in my heart. The night of briefing there was a peace that transcended all understanding knowing who was truly the One raising up His vast army for His purposes and the rest is still another story in the making.

The account of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 reminds us that it is truly not by might and not by power but by His Spirit that He will accomplish these things (Zechariah 4:6)! It is His Spirit alone that can give us life, renew hope, and raise us from our graves with strength and vigor. It has been months since and numerous challenges, but I take heart in this one reality - that in these last days His Spirit has been poured out on all flesh and is at work fulfilling God’s purposes (Acts 2:17) and that I am but am a unworthy but privileged partner and witness.

21 May

Acts 2:1-21

One of the most formative parts of my faith journey as a young Christian was my time at Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) Melbourne University campus in Australia. Though I did not think much of it and took it for granted at the time, OCF during my time there comprised of a diverse group of students from all kinds of denominations including Catholics, Anglicans, Methodist, Assembly of God, Bible Presbyterians, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Independents, and the works. As I continue on further in my faith journey, I realized that such a coming together of people from such diverse backgrounds was actually quite a miraculous feat.

Reflecting on my time back there, I remembered times where strong difference and debates happened according to one’s upbringing and teachings. However, one thing that often kept us together was that most of the people there acknowledged and recognized that we all wanted know Jesus and see Him glorified despite our differing personal outworkings. Though some may have been uncomfortable with different interpretations of some parts of the bible, or the manner by which one worshipped or prayed, or the outworkings of the Holy Spirit, we largely recognized and could come together in common desire and longing to know Jesus, recognize and submit to His Lordship, and see Him glorified. This miraculous phenomenon, I realized was only possible because of the Spirit’s work in each of our lives that allowed us to have a wonderful Spirit-enabled unity centered on the Jesus.

While we maybe at different places in our journey with the Holy Spirit, our reading today shows us an extraordinarily beautiful picture that emphasizes the vital role of the Holy Spirit in bringing about true unity. What amazing unity in the Spirit there was despite the lack of humanly coordination. It was like an impromptu flash mob of people from different tribes and tongues that was totally synced and pointed to God! Peter explained to the bewildered crowd that this was the outworking of the Spirit of God that had been poured out on all flesh (Acts 2:17).

22 May

Psalm 104:24-35 – The Holy Spirit brings enables us to contemplate God and His works, and to praise and worship Him!

One of my greatest struggles in my early faith journey was about whether I have truly been accepted and forgiven by God. And if He had accepted and forgiven me, whether I may have subsequently fell out of grace and He had left me. One of the stories in the bible that that I frequently thought about was how the Holy Spirit left King Saul after He was rejected by God but Saul remained unaware (1 Samuel 16). This struggle ran deep and took quite a few years for God to deal with in me before any major breakthroughs. One of the ways that my struggles and doubts manifested was the frequent wonderings of whether I had received and been filled with the Holy Spirit and subsequently whether He may have left me. I remembered responding to almost every altar call to receive the Holy Spirit because I often doubted if I received Him the last time. I had trouble exercising and receiving the gifts of the Spirit because I always wondered if I even had Him or whether I am worthy of Him.

In this long journey of working out my insecurities before God, one helpful insight that a mentor shared with me was to realize that the evidence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is not just in the ‘flashy’ gifts of the Spirit like tongues, healing, miracles and etc. but especially in the simple often neglected things like our ability to see and contemplate God’s works, presence, and goodness in our lives and creation. Our ability to praise God, to sing of Him, and to worship Him. Our ability to sense and feel holy discontentment, injustice, and conviction for things or when we have sinned against God. These outworkings were covered in our readings earlier this week where John 16:13-15 recorded Jesus teaching that it is the Holy Spirit that leads us in conviction of sin, in the ability to affirm God’s righteousness, and our ability to judge the evil in our world.

Its always nice reading Psalms and remembering that these were all personal and emotion filled songs and poems onto the Lord that the Holy Spirit has definitely played a part in enabling the Psalmist to even do so. Afterall, all scripture is God inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) by the Holy Spirit and it is Him who gives breath and life in and to all things.