The Pentecostal Experience

The pentecostal experience is real, and as believers in Christ with the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit, this experience should be very ordinary and normal and regular. But such experiences does not make one a "pentecostal christian?", that would be division in the Body of Christ. We need the reality of experiencing the Holy Spirit's working within as the "pleroo" for our daily living and His working without as the "pletho" for accomplishing God's eternal purpose. Otherwise, a christian life would be just a life without any function, experience and enjoyment. It is as good as religiosity in form without life in reality.

This pentecostal experience does not need a special conference with a special "gifted preacher?", it does not require any gifted singer with musical band to sooth or stir one's emotion, nor any of the spiritual gimmick of fake tongue speaking nor any professional acting performance of the self cloaked under the banner "praise and worship", for genuine worship is in the spirit, not in music or christian entertainment. All these are non nonsensical. It doesn't even behoves a background of religiosity nor spirituality. The only prerequisite is to be an open vessel before the Lord, yes, not only open, but sanctified for the Holy Spirit to fill into. One can be such by exercising his mingled spirit to touch the living Lord as the Spirit. This can be simply and easily experienced by prayer, hymning, psalming, calling on the Lord's name etc., in any place at any time personally or corporately. What an enjoyment such an experience gives! May all children of God enjoy the Spirit's filling,, moving and working day by day.

As the Lord in His mercy bestowed me such an experience, my inner eye could see how subtle the enemy is to robe the believers of their portion of this enjoyment. He, Satan, is defeated at the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an accomplished fact, nothing under the sun can reverse nor diverse. I saw this, not that I didn't know this before. The Lord enlightened me to see this fact again more vividly. Oh Christ is Victor! Let's take our stand at the rightful position with and in Christ. Then, the victory is ours, as we take this stand as the Body, in the Body and for the Body. Some ignorant believers often try to take this stand in themselves just to be taught a horrifying lesson of defeat, again and again. Today, Christ is in His heavenly ministry carrying out His heavenly ministry through the Body, the church. Outside the Body, all claims will be nullified. Christ does not work without His Body. So we must take the victorious triumphal procession in the Body.

I truly agree with M E Barbar who penned a victorious hymns "Halleluiah! Christ is Victor!" Verse 4 says ,

"Hallelujah! Christ is Victor,

No defeat nor fear
Evermore must dim thy vision!
Christ the way will clear.
Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/890#ixzz1lsgr0JYC"

I could now see, there's no need for beggarly prayer, but praise-full proclamation!. Declare the victory and claim it! Do it all in the Body of Christ! The land is already conquered, possess it! Our duty is, as apostle Paul rightly wrote, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place. 2 Cor. 2:14", wherever we are, whatever we do, whoever we meet, whatever time it may be, manifest the savur of the knowledge of Christ! Hallelujah!

Psalms 16 (1)

Never have I been impressed so much in the Psalms as of 16 till today. The fresh speaking of the Lord is very soothing and nourishing.

Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You(v. 1). I find and I have no other dwelling place other than my Lord, and where do I go, if not to the Lord? My only and only refuge. You are my Lord; No good have I beyond You(v.2). Even my very best and if at all there is any righteousness, is just filthy rags.Nothing of me is worth comparison, not even worth considered comparable. As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent; All my delight is in them (v.3). Yes, the saints are excellent, whether weak or strong, good or not so. Only the self is ugly. In the eyes of the Lord, all the saints are beautiful, they have been washed by the blood and covered by the blood. That's why they are called "saints", and have been qualified as saints. So the Lord delights in the saints! Jehovah is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; You maintain my lot(v.5). What a blessing, God is my inheritance, He is my possession! I own Him! He owns me! Can any mind believe that the Creator of the heavens and the earth is mine! Yes, all the believers! If not for the devil's blindfolding, all believers should rejoice in the fact that God is their possession. Yes, indeed, He is!

Making every faithful saying of the Bible mine, and subjectively experiencing them is wonderful and joyous. The Word, the Bible is so real and living. O how I love it. There are treasures within every word, only in spirit with the Spirit, they are discovered and partaken of. Read, read, read the Word. Eat, eat, eat the Word everyday. There's no better bread under the sun except the bread of life in the Word.

And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Genesis 17:8

The Word of God in its rhema aspect is very subjective and personal. God indeed speaks. To an objective legal theologian it may be "out of context?," however to whom God indeed has spoken it is very real, very very real, the Spirit anoints and make it very living. Such, is what happened today as I read this verse. Personally it was very vivid to me on what angle and for what purpose He spoke such a rhema Word. Praise be to Him! What He has spoken is already fulfilled! The practical execution or application is present continuous.

Sovereignly, this happened just after the Winter Training on Psalms (2) on Psalms 119 which is fully focused on the Word. O how I treasure the Word! To the living is very lively, to the hungry and thirsty soul its very satisfying. And I fully agree with brother Abraham Lincoln when he said "the Bible is the best gift God has given to man." Hallelujah for the Holy Bible, the very Word and the very breath and the very speaking of God!

The Tree of Life

Christ is so real to me this past week, and the tree of life is no doctrine, its real. Just in pray-reading the Word with my wife and prayer with my family, supplied me a lot. Not a matter of the content of the prayer or the Word I read, but the touching of the divine life in every simple sentences of prayer and in every line of the Word. The chewing of the Word, just a verse, is sufficient to ignite the flame to burn within me. O what a blessed simple practice of eating the tree of life! What a shame on all religious rituals that never get connected with the divine life supply.

In my reading of the Word, I go very slowly, sometimes just a single verse, and enjoy the Word and praise the Lord for the deep revelations of just a verse. The Word is indeed life, life is God Himself who is eternal. The deeper I delved into it the more life it sprang out.

The speaking of the Spirit too is very real. This week I needed to decide on important matter, and as I brought the matter before the Lord, the answer was very instantaneous. Immediately, I was clear what to decide and had perfect peace. The Lord is sovereign.

The Truth

The Word of God is the truth, the ultimate truth in life fattened with experiences and enjoyment. Truth is not merely a doctrine objectively, but very much confirmed by subjective experiences. Once one is constituted and grounded on the truth, the enemy hardly has any ground for deception. For the knowledge of the truth sets one free from the bondage of religiosity or superstition due to ignorance of the truth. As the Lord said, 'You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." What a freedom indeed is in the knowledge and experience of the truth! If it had not been for this, I myself would have fallen into the condemnation of Satan and my own self. The truth rescues me. Halleluiah!

Experiences may fluctuate, feelings may change, circumstances may whirl up and down, but the truth remains the truth, ever steadfast and ever it will be. This weeks' experiences could have succumbed me into introspection of the self, however, the truth stands a strong pillar to lift me up and encouraged me to go in the path of life. O what a blessing! This truth is a Person, Christ Himself living in and through me. The path I tread may not be a bed of roses, but the truth I live and abide by surely is my rod and staff in the valley of the shadow of death.

Church Life

Church life is not merely a meeting, much more it is a fellowship in spirit as the issue of the living in the mingled spirit day by day and the outflow of this living by flowing out the divine life of the Father in love to one another for the building up of the Body of Christ.

This week the Lord convicted me of putting my personal needs before His own. I had cancelled a group meeting because of a personal affair, without much consideration. The result, no peace. Immediately, I rescheduled the meeting for another day, which turned out to be a very enjoyable one. The new ones, though from a very staunch atheistic philosophical background, they hungered for the milk of the Word. What a joy to feed, and be fed by feeding the Word of God!

The Lord also exposed me of my lack for genuine love and care for the saints. The nourishing in divinity with the high peak truth that I have been doing is very good, but better would be to balance with the cherishing care in humanity. Saints are human beings with human feelings. They need tender care and love. Though I cannot solve any of their problems, at least I can care for them and do my best to help in whatever way possible with discernment.

As member of the Body even my personal experience of the Lord should be attuned with, to and for the Body. Its easy to be individualistically spiritually, even experiencing the Lord in many aspects, day by day , moment by moment. However, this can all be aloof from the Body. If so, it easily leads to selfishness and pride. Even the devil can make use of our spirituality to meet his own need. After all, true and genuine spirituality is only in the Body and is for the building up of the Body. I thanked the Lord, He balanced me in the Body through the brothers' fellowship.

Praise the Lord for a wondrous week again.

A New Beginning

Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ!A wonderful new beginning by abiding in the Vine. Yes, as a branch to draw life juice from the Vine, and grow and spread and climb over any obstacle that may come my way.

I personally experienced and enjoyed the living Christ as I prayed through the night of the transition of the year. New light dawned into many avenues of my inward being. New direction for my living and service. New clarity in matters beyond explanation. And renewed consecration of my life to the Lord. Amen, altogether a new beginning.

This new week began with a re-reading and re-studying of the Bible with intense care, digging into the verses as deep as I could go, and musing upon the divine word enriched with revelations and visions according to God's eternal economy. And this being complemented by the timely holy word for morning revival on "Eating the Lord as the Tree of Life and Living on the Line of Life." What a blessed beginning in newness!

Specifically, the Lord touched me on the matter of eating as portrayed in the book of Leviticus 11 concerning the clean animals and the unclean. My contacting people is also a matter of eating. What I eat determines what I am.

Negatively, unclean animals are those people not on the line of life, however good or ethical they may sound to be. They just spread death and darkness. Some of them may be legally right but all in darkness. Neither should I contact such in any form or media nor should I spread the same. This is a warning to all, including me. Not to contact any "unclean animals", nor be such.

Lord, have mercy on me and the saints in the church that we may eat the tree of life daily and only. Lord, preserve us from the "unclean animals" for your corporate expression as the golden Lampstand where we are.