India Mission Trip Day 1

India! A country with a rich heritage and culture. The 2nd biggest country in the world.

It's really a long story how I chose India as the destination of my mission trip, but I sure did not regret this decision. It was an amazing time filled with great company and the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit.

In the next few days, I will be blogging about the different days in which I was in India. This is Day 1.

Before embarking on the journey, I was already having butterflies in my stomach. At the airport, it suddenly dawned upon me that today was the day of the mission trip! Arriving at the budget terminal, I saw that it was packed with people who were returning to India as well. This shocked me abit and it made me a little agitated in my spirit.

I was starting to have self doubts over myself and my abilities. Could I really be used by God in a powerful way? However, once I saw my fellow team members who were going on the trip, I was encouraged. Seeing how excited they were brought joy to me as well.

Apart from my team mates,  I received messages from Tsoon Liang and a call from Wiki which really encouraged me further as well. Slowly but surely, the sense of nervousness left me and I became very excited about what was to come for the trip.

While we were queing up for the flight, Cathy told us to make our last calls. Lamely, I made a call to Gek Shan and she actually answered my phone! It was sort of a joke but yeah it did ease some nerves.

While on the plane, there was this little girl on the plane who caught our attention. She was quite cute and we thought that surely, the flight was going to be a good one as we had the company of this cute little girl! How wrong we were...... it ended up that this little girl kept on crying throughout almost the whole flight. It was truly a test of patience! but I thank God that grace really came upon me and I began to understand that it may be her first flight and she may not have experienced the discomfort that comes with flying before...

 After a 4 hr flight, we arrived in India. The pastors were really hospital, picking us up at the airport even though it was close to 3am. They even brought us to a 24 hr restaurant which was our first encounter with Indian food! 

I must say the first meal we ate was really delicious ! the meat was very tender while the fries tasted exactly like Macdonalds!

My first meal buddies in India!

While at the restaurant we were introduced to some of the Pastors. They told us uplifting testimonies about how God impacted them and that left an impression on us that God was in India!

Amazingly, the 2010 best SOT student was one of the Pastors! His name is Sam and he actually shared with us his story on how he got the best preacher and best student award. He was completely humble about it and it and that it was God who chose him to use his testimony in preaching to be a blessing to others. He was once from a poor family who had no money to even eat. But indeed God cared for him and gave him break through after break through for his family.

He also told us that his recorded preaching during the SOT graduation was brought back to India and it was a vessel in which other people were touched by the love of God as well. An inspiring start to the mission trip!

End of Part 1

Moving in the Holy Spirit (An adapted sermon from Pastor!)

The anointing of the Holy Spirit

It was such an honor to have my Zone Pastor Ya Lan to come to our cell group meeting last week. She really did bless us all with a very powerful message that impacted me deeply.  I would like to take some time to note down some of the points she made in order to bless you readers!

The anointing of God has to always abide in us. This is as God loves to be in partnership with us. In fact, Paul even says that we are ‘co-creators’ in Christ. So why should we have the Holy Spirit in us?

Well, with the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish things way beyond our natural ability. Lester Sumrall was a highly anointed preacher who moved in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He was such a passionate individual that he never stopped serving God till he was 80 years old. In 1 John 2:27, it says “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him.”  He had the anointing of God and in fact, most of the time, he would only sleep for a total of 2 hours! And yet still be recharged to do whatever he needs to do to fulfill his kingdom purpose. (Wiki mentioned here that she needed 10 hours). Why could he do so? Because had the supernatural anointing of God that he constantly desired for, and this gave him energy for his ministry! 

You see the anointing gives us wisdom and access to the knowledge of God. With this knowledge and power we are thus able to minister to others. Luke 8:45 talks about the women with the issue of blood. When she touched Jesus, she was healed. The key is that in this incident, Jesus felt a portion of his anointing leave him. Although we can’t see the anointing, we can certainly feel it and know when it has left us. Thus, we must be very careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit as the anointing can just freely disappear from our lives.

The story of Kathryn Kuhlman spoke a lot to me during service is that the moment she decided to be with ‘mister’, she felt a very strong prompting of the Holy Spirit. Despite of this, she continued to marry ‘mister’ and this led to her having no peace for the next few years, until she decided enough is enough and left to continue her amazing ministry which indirectly led to the Charismatic renewal in Christianity! If we choose to follow God and the Holy Spirit, He said in Matt 28:20, “behold, I will be with you always, even until the end of the world’ (If anybody has the repentance prayer she made could you email it to me thanks! )

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is like oil from heaven, straight from the throne room of God! And oil lubricates. It can remove frictions of trials, tribulations and conflicts. Here are a few pointers about the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit ! 

1.       With the anointing oil, complaining dies! We become do-ers of the word and not complainers

2.       We will have a more positive outlook to life under the anointing 

3.       Anointing oil burns, and we draw the anointing by fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit! That is how can we constantly keep the fire burning so that we will not feel dry or burn out. Instead, we can do mighty works for God! 

Isaiah 40:31 says “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.”

What does it mean to wait? It means to look for/gather. When a soccer player is anticipating a pass, he would naturally look at the ball and wait with anticipation so that he can catch it. In the same way ‘to wait’ means that we should gather all our senses on the Lord in order to draw the anointing. 

An illustration Pastor Ya Lan did that really impacted me was that she told us the importance of lifting up hand in worship. It is not only a sign of surrender but it is also signal of desire for the anointing! During Joshua’s battle against the Amalekites, Moses hands were always lifted up and this made the difference between defeat and victory. 

Drawing into the presence and the anointing of the Lord always us to exchange our own strength with God’s strength! 

The anointing oil moisturizes and makes us clean from our unwanted attitudes. The oil also amplifies flavor (highlights our strong personalities). This means that when people are near us or when we are around people, the anointing allows our strengths, talents and good character to be amplified so that we can impact lives for Christ! 

Therefore, it is very important to build a relationship with God. One way to always be on your guard is to check on yourself before others check on you. Don’t be someone you do not want to become! If you feel bitter or negative, don’t let it affect you. Check on it at the slightest hint and deal with the issue head on! With the Anointing, we can overcome! God is always waiting for us as it is in the cultural mandate to ‘subdue the earth’ and the great commission to ‘make disciples of all nations’ We must be ready, we must be equipped, we must learn to wait upon the Lord for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which allows us to accomplish things way beyond our natural ability. To bring GLORY to God! 

This post is adapted from the sermon courtesy of Pastor Ya Lan, adapted to be a blessing !

Regards,

Daniel Foo