21 April 2013 - Matt & Laurie Crouch (Trinity Broadcasting Network)

Church service started exceptionally late today. Waited exactly one hour before service actually started. There was no announcements and no one really knew what was happening until we saw from afar a group of people. It was Pastor Prince and his pastors coming in with what I thought was a guest speaker. Was starting to get restless with all the waiting until it was finally announced that the "guest speaker" was none other than Matt Crouch and his wife from Trinity Broadcasting Network. And so, it was indeed a very distinguished guest we have here.

Well, I have to say it is a privilege to see Matt and his wife live at the Star. They cracked up the audience and finally brought Pastor Prince onstage for what seemed like a live interview.

Took some awesome pics for your viewing pleasure.

Welcoming Matt and Laurie on stage for the first time in Singapore.

Pastor Prince coming up right away.

Here we go, all 3 on stage.

Special song item just before the service starts - I See Grace

Beating to the beat with the big drums.

Everyone comes on stage for an explosive praise and worship session.

Praise and Worship: Sean leads the church with some great songs today.

Lord Of All My Days: (Video not available)

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/lord_of_all_my_days_new_creation_church.html

Topic: You Are Accepted in Christ Through His Obedience

It is the power (dunamis) of God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God. Today we are not hearing the gospel of what Paul preached. This gospel gives you the wholeness, health and preservation. In this gospel, righteousness is revealed. Today we are hearing many different gospels. Whenever we preach righteousness by faith, many Christians agree but usually associate it with works.

In John 20, fear is sin. When the disciples cried out due to fear of the howling winds when out in the sea, Jesus appeared in their presence to give them peace.
All of Jesus' disciples have real problems. Matthew is a tax collector and back in those days, they were labelled as outcasts. Yet Jesus said, "Follow Me" to Matthew. Jesus has come to be with you forever. If you have challenges in your life, He will be with you and He never forsakes you.

Romans 16:25-26
Verse 25 & 26: God commanded for the revelation of the mystery kept secret to be manifested today. The result is for obedience to the faith. Under law, obedience is the root for all blessings. Under grace, God blesses you first and obedience becomes the fruits. It is never giving people the license to sin.

You are not righteous by your own obedience. You are righteous through His obedience. The righteous shall live by faith and right believing. When you believe the true gospel, you will have the right results.

Romans 5:19
Verse 19: It is through Adam's disobedience that many were made sinners. But it is through one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. Pastor jokes that in heaven, Adam's mansion is in a far away place and well protected since he was the one who introduced sin. Well, that's just a joke and there is no hatred in heaven.

When the Samaritan woman offer Jesus a drink, Jesus told the woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water". Jesus then slowly revealed the woman's sins tenderly. He exposed her sins so that she would then know how much she is loved. When a person keeps a part of himself (secret/dark side) from someone, he will not feel loved.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
Verse 5: The obedience of Christ. The devil wants you to take your mind off from the obedience of God to point you to your own obedience.

When you partake His body, you need to discern His body and not partake it unworthily. This context is referring to your action. The bible did not mean that unworthy people cannot partake of His body. The context in this verse is referring to the action.

Do not receive negative thoughts or take responsibility for it. It can come from your thoughts or from your flesh. The flesh is crucified but the lifestyle of it still remains. If you accept such thoughts, everything will go down in a spiral. The highest form of resistance is to ignore the devil.

Pastor shared how he tried very much to confess every of his sins in his younger days. Until one day, God revealed to him that it is through His grace and obedience and not depending on his own efforts.

The bible says we are of sweet fragrance to Him.

When Pastor was delivered the wrong belief, he curiously asked God if there were anyone in church history who went through the same. He then came across a book by John Bunyan which talks about his struggles throughout his walk with God in his autobiography. He also talked about all his comfort taken away from him. At that time, Pastor appreciated the fact that he was not alone in this spiritual warfare.

1 John 4:17
Verse 17: ".. because As He is, so are we in this world." Remind yourself that as He is crowned with goodness and seated beside God, so are we in this world. As He is healthy, so are we in this world. The more we behold His name, the more we see His goodness.

The way to have more grace in this life is to know more of God, revealed in 2 Peter 1:2. It is through seeing Jesus more and also every pastor has the responsibility to reveal the beauty of Jesus to the people. The more they behold the glory, the holy spirit transforms them more and more.

When you take your eyes away from Christ, everything became natural. When Peter looked away from Jesus, he started to sink into the water. When he locked his eyes on Him, he was able to walk on water. The holy spirit does the work when you keep your eyes on Jesus.

As the high priest goes, so does the nation goes. The high priest is appointed by God for the people. He goes into the hollies of hollies and if he comes out alive, the people can look forward to a great year. It is not how good the nation is, it is based on how good the priest is.

Pastor welcomes the high priest - Deacon Matthews on stage.

The names of Israel are engraved on the precious stones and carried on the breast of the high priest. This is a representation of His love. He has you in His heart.
Shoulder represents strength. When Jesus found the lost sheep, He puts it on His shoulders. Notice you don't have to carry yourself, you just have to rest on His shoulders. The sheep did not have to do anything. The sheep repented by allowing itself to be carried.
The moment you are born in this world, your name is already on His heart. But if the people of the world rejects Christ at the end of their life, their names are then removed. God does not remove the names of His children.
But why precious stones? God wants you to know that you are unique in your own beauty and He sees us in our beauty. The Lord loves us all individually. You are not just a face in the crowd.
When you come to God, you are presented to God (who is light) and the precious stones reflect the beauty of you. Don't be afraid of the light. It just shows how perfect His blood that cleansed you.

Exodus 28:36-38
Verse 38: Aaron is a high priest. The words on the forehead are Jesus' thoughts. God accepts you not based on your thoughts. God accepts you based on Jesus' thoughts. God is not rejecting you because of your thoughts. As He is, so are we in this world.

Some of you are worried about tomorrow. Stress came in when sin first came in. Sweat is a picture of stress and self efforts.
Luke 22:44
Verse 44: Sweat became great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Because of the redeeming blood of Jesus, He has redeemed us from sweat and stress. As the blood fell to the ground, everywhere you go, you will experience the favour of God.

In closing,

Back to Exodus 28:38, the high priest bears the iniquity of the holy things. Even holy things has iniquity but the high priest take cares of them. As long as the high priest has good thoughts, you are accepted in Him.
Accepted - ratzon which means favour.
His favour is like dew on the grass. The word "favour" in this verse is also ratzon.

When we think of God's love, we are overwhelmed. Wherever we turn Jesus, we see only beauty and His excellencies. When He is kind, He is not soft. There's a hero above all pop singers. Jesus tops it all.

My Doors of Favor Where No One Shuts

It was a long and busy week last week that I had to work over the weekends for a project. Due to that, I missed church and tuition for my boy. Most of all, I guess my avid readers must be disappointed.

However, it seems like I have something to share about myself whenever I miss out on one contribution on my blog :)

Pastor shared about God opening doors for us where no one else shuts in our New Year message of 2013. Since then, I trusted God to open the doors of favor for me and there were manifestations here and there but none beats the one I am going to share next.

Two weeks ago, I went for a client meeting at Sentosa. Well, if you haven't been there some time, you might like to check it out and be surprised at the extent of development today. The meeting took probably an hour and I went to the roadside to hail a cab. If you know, it isn't easy taking a cab at that time and that place where I was is off the tourist spot and very out of the way. Without thinking much, I stood there for a few minutes.

Then came a BMW 5 series which pulled over in front of me. I looked up to see a middle aged man waving for me to hop on. I was surprised and my first instinct was to wave a "no no" in return. It was just automatic and I suppose this is the Singaporean spirit and something we would all do naturally here. He winded down the windows, told me that he would drop me outside and pointed out that it is impossible to get a cab at this spot. Guess what, I hopped on.

Throughout the journey we chatted and introduced ourselves. His name is Leslie and has a family business owning a chain of laundry shops in Singapore. They are expanding and are presently looking to list their company on the stock exchange. After understanding what he does for a living, I then asked if he was at Sentosa for business which he replied saying he stays there. At that moment, I was probably just pure innocent and I asked, "How many days?" I know this question must have tickled and got you laughing because he laughed too.

"I stay there (Sentosa Cove)", he explained. I finally understood what that meant now and I was so embarrassed.

In the end, he gave me a lift to my office in Raffles Place before heading to his destination at Marina Bay Sands.

After alighting, I felt so blessed and couldn't believe this would have happened to me. Like what I told Leslie, this doesn't happen in Singapore. There's no such thing as hitch-a-ride here as far as I know. But he told me, "See, but it has happened to you". I was so thrilled and shared with everyone who were in the office about this experience. All of them were so amazed, just like me.

What was also interesting was that when I was sharing this to my team during lunch the next day at Goldenshoe Food Centre, there was a bird sh!t that landed 2 centimeters in front of me. My shocked colleague who witnessed that repeated many times that I was really really lucky.

For this, I learnt from Pastor Prince's teachings that this is not luck. The world uses the word "lucky" for blessings. Whereas for us believers, we know this is definitely God's favor and protection in our lives.

As long as you are a child of God, you are already more than a conqueror in whatever you do! Expect more good things to come your way. If you would like, you may even share your very own testimony in my blog under the comments section and I welcome all of them.

Be very blessed this coming week!

7 April 2013 - Pastor Ray McCauley

Praise and Worship: Today's worship was longer than the usual Sundays and towards the end Pastor Prince came up to lead the church in worship. It was really good as it has been a while since we had Pastor leading praise and worship. Some great songs include Lord of All by Hillsong and Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin. For the last song, we sang You are My Hiding Place which I believe it is a few of Pastor's favourite. Uploading this great song for all to enjoy.

Pastor Prince leads the partaking of the holy communion today.

In the old covenant, the blood was put on the doorpost and everyone inside the house fed on the lamb. The next day none are sick and feeble. I say unto you, when you partake of the Lord's supper, you will be healthy and strong tomorrow. If the shadow can heal the people in the bible, we today have the substance of His body. The answer is found in His broken body.

In John 6, Jesus says the life He will give to this world is His body. The more you partake, the younger you will be, the stronger you become. Get ready for a new deliverance. When you look at the bread, Jesus calls it His healing. God uses a piece of bread to put that tumour to nought.
The blood of Jesus is the new covenant. In this new covenant, Jesus says "I will I will I will" to you. You never have to work. He is your rest.

Topic: The I-Can-Do Spirit

Today, we have a very special guest with us and he is none other than Pastor Ray McCauley, the Senior Pastor of Rhema Bible Church. Pastor shared about his ministry in South Africa and that it has impacted lives all around the world. It was revealed that Pastor Ray McCauley came in 3rd place for Mr Universe Bodybuilding Championship in 1974. Guess who came in 1st? Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Pastor Ray McCauley received a very warm welcome and he goes on to share about how the grace message has really impacted the world. He shared about having the opportunity to listen to Pastor Prince when he was there to preach last year and he heard truths that he has never heard before in his entire 35 years of tenure. He pointed out that he is not saying all these about Pastor Prince because he wants to pump him up and make him famous. In fact, he had the privilege to preach and pray to 7 ministers in Africa and knew many famous people. Therefore there is no need for him to promote Pastor Prince. After hearing the grace message, he finally understood grace and tells the church that he will be sharing something which happened to him in 2010 later on.

The grace of God is not contained in the bible. The grace of God is the gospel.

Pastor wants to minister to you today the "I can do" spirit.
People are blessed to be part of this nation. In this church, there is a spirit of humanity and the I-can-do spirit. This is a miracle in itself.

2 Corinthians 4:8-13
Verse 8-10: The verses of the spirit of faith.
Verse 13: Faith and grace goes hand in hand. We need a spirit of grace and not a formula in our lives. Some people make faith as a formula. It is the spirit of "I can do all things in Christ".
Declare "I am a priest, I am a King, I am seated in heavenly places". When you get born again, you are already seated at heavenly places. You don't have to work to sit there like how some christians think.

Hebrews 12:2
Jesus is the developer and finisher of our faith. Keep looking to Jesus. As long as you keep doing so, the inside of you will manifest. It is His shield of faith. We need to realise that it is His faith and we establish in His grace. We need to apply the grace of God in every area of our life. Always run to God but not away from God because He is the god of invitation.

Romans 5:17-18
The reason why Pastor is sharing these scriptures with you is because of the testimonies he shared during midweek service. He thanked God for the gift of life and how God spared him from danger.

Pastor shared about an experience of a pain in his chest one day. He brushed it aside thinking it was the usual ailment but it did not occur to him this was serious. His doctor examined him and advised him to go see a specialist. In fact, he asked if he could go next week as it was a very busy week for him.

The doctor at the hospital put him through some tests and when the results came out, the doctor was astounded how he could still be alive at this stage. According to the results, his heart had burst in 12 different places. Surgery had to be done almost immediately.

At the operating bed, Pastor Ray held the doctor's hand who wasn't a believer (with doctor's initial resistance thinking he wanted to lead him to the sinner's prayer) and prayed "Father, I pray that you work through him throughout this operation. The doctor opened him up and when he saw what he saw, he said there was literally no hope and he proceeded to close the wound.

Just as he was doing so, he heard a voice clearly saying "Carry on". In fact, this operation was recorded in the medical field as 3 people suffered the same condition and none survived. Praise be to God as Pastor is the only one who recovered fully. When the operation began, doctors froze his brain and worked on it. Halfway through, he died and went in the presence of the Lord. He shared that the light, glory and beauty is an experience that you can only experience in that experience. At that moment, he thought to himself if he was worthy and whether he had did enough.

Jesus said to him, "It is not about you. It's about Me. You are worthy and you are accepted in Me. All you have to do is to believe in Me. That is all you have to do". Jesus continued to say "My grace is everywhere. It is not by works, not by your flesh and it is only through the grace of God".

When you see His grace, you begin to rest and see His perfect work. We can never finish a finished work. It is already done. Pastor pointed out the verse in Romans 8 saying, therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
You can walk in the love of God but it is an extension of the love of God. Because of the extension, you can pray for those who don't like you.
You are not here today to defeat the devil. You are here to enforce his defeat. All we do is to enforce it through the blood, the name and the person of Jesus.

After the operation, the doctors gave him just 1% survival. He recuperated in coma for a month. He was discharged and asked God if he would ever preached again. Soon it was time for him to preach for the first time and when he stood at the pulpit, the Holy Spirit came upon him and in an instant, all bible verses returned. He could literally snap his fingers and tell you the exact chapter for a particular verse. He then realised he was flowing in the spirit.

Trust is resting in Him that He will never forsake, turn away and always reaching out for you.

Hebrews 4:16
Verse 16: Come boldly to the throne of grace. You can walk in all humanity and still have that godly attitude.

David looked at Goliath and did not see him big. Whatever Goliath you face today, through Jesus Christ you too can have the victory. Whatever pain you have, He can give you the victory. Add on to your half filled cup and don't let that great attitude be suppressed.

Say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Keep that spirit strong because a lot of people do not want you to go where God wants you to go. Don't let anyone rob or suppress you.
This ministry will keep growing not because God wants to make Pastor Prince famous. He wants everyone to walk in His grace. Visualise yourself seated in heavenly places.

God is the miracle working God. God can split the red sea for you in your life.
"But Pastor you don't know what I am going through".
"Praise God" Pastor says. It just means you are going "through it".

Romans 5:20
Verse 20: The law entered so that grace superabounded. One translations say whenever you fall short of it, His grace superabounds.
Even in your life you fail, grace will pick you up and make you more Christ-like. It is never a reason for you to be bad.

In closing,

Pastor says a prayer for everyone:
Father, to all those in all services, thank you that there's no distance. I pray Lord that they won't leave with an attitude of failure. Thank you that you pick them up today if they are down. We come today, God we come today. Thank you for provision. Thank you for victory. Thank you that we are going to the other side. Thank you that there's no condemnation and defeat to neutralise us. I pray that the spirit of Christ will rise and they will be strong. From the top of their heads, to the soles of their feet, may you touch those who are weak, in Jesus name, Amen.