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The Lord declares, “I have plans to prosper you”—what does “prosper” mean?

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The Lord declares, “I have plans to prosper you”—what does “prosper” mean?

Jeremiah 29:11–12 (NIV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:11–13 (ESV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29 verse 11 says for I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and the future. That were prosper you has been linked to prosperity doctrine or some Christians were the pastors are not call it as an internal peace and joy and tranquility for the meaning of prosper and not the external. I looked at the Hebrew word for the word prosper basically they can be summarized as:

  • #1peace, friendship, reconciliation
  • #2 good health
  • #3 Well-being, peace, health
  • #4 to remain intact and to be in good health
  • #5 healthiness, completeness,
  • #6 Salaam to become in good condition, be intact, be in good health, stay well, be successful
  • #7 prosperity, success
  • Personal safety, welfare, state of health.

So you can see that when God said plan to prosper you means God has planned to give you good health, well-being, peace, completeness, prosperity, safety, welfare, state of health. All this includes the external well-being and internal well-being and healthiness. In other words to say that it is only for internal prosperity is missing the meaning of the original Hebrew word Shalom. When God said plan to prosper you he means all that. Esv calls for plans for welfare, king james version says plan for peace, NSB version says plans for prosperity, NLT version says plans for good.

Conclusion to his prosper you is the internal external Shalom the holistic wholesomeness.

Now I think the more important point is God’s says, “ I will prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope & future”, this is to assure the people of Israel in exile at that time to the nation of Babylon that God will continue to watch over them in fact even in spite of the circumstances of exile in the enemy’s camp, in the midst of godlessness and idolatry, God promised that he will continue to prosper, give them welfare, give them health and peace and prosperity. That is a huge promise to make sure we know that it is the Lord and not the world that gives us success or prosperity or peace and healthiness and well-being, but it is definitely the Lord our God. So you can apply that to your life your circumstances in New York City or wherever you are. Because the Lord our God often contrasts the brokenness and the depravity situation and circumstances with the glory of his grace.

I think next verse, verse 12 is even more important because that explains the purpose why God is sending them to exile and promising them to wholeness, healthiness, peace and Shalom in the land of exile in the first place:

Jeremiah 29:12–13 (NIV)

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

The reason for promise to prosper or welfare or peace and Shalom is so that the people of God will call upon God and pray to God and God promised to listen to them. And God said “you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” That is the purpose and the goal of God’s exiling them to Babylon and promised to look after them and bless them prosper them and give them peace and Shalom so that they will learn to pray to God and listen and call upon God and pray to God. And what’s even more beautiful God promised that he will listen to their prayers so that they will seek God and find God but the condition is they will have to seek God with all their hearts.

So folks, God wants us to seek him not just flippingly or shallowly , but seek God with all our hearts! The key is all our hearts and not half of our hearts. So if you haven’t heard from God anything yet because you have not sought him with all your heart it doesn’t mean that he is not responding, but it merely means he’s waiting for you and I to seek him with all our hearts. Amen Shalom!

Jeremiah 29:10–14 (ESV)

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The idea to prosper you or to give you welfare is God’s promise that, “You will seek me with all your heart and I will be found by you.” I think that is even more profound statement in that it is relationally;  that prosperity must be centered on God and who he is. Without finding Jesus, what’s the point of finding all the material benefits, internal peace and tranquility?

So God promised to bless us when you seek Him with all our heart and the reason God is saying that it’s because we have not been seeking him with all our hearts. God promised that he would be found by us and what’s more verse 14 God promised to restore our fortunes! Folks I don’t know about you? But I have lost in my spiritual warfare and you know general welfare of my family and etcetera ministry and I’m looking forward for restoration of my fortune 2025 and beyond. And that is what it means to prosper and that will only happen if we follow the lord’s way even in times of exile or downturn, so long as we seek God with all our hearts we’ll find God’s prosperity upon our lives and restoring our fortunes. In fact, as this matter of fact, God often uses our turn down our downturn or exile to make us to seek him with all our hearts. Because we need to be humbled so that we will turn to him with all our hearts Amen.

Hebrew meaning of “Prosper” Jer 29:11 (NIV)

שָׁלוֹם, שָׁלֹם (237 times): שׁלם, Bauer-Leander Heb. 469e.

Inscr. 1: p. 37, 38, 43, 47; שלם in good health[1]

salīmu(m) peace, concord, friendship, reconciliation (AHw. 1015f; CAD S, 100b); cf. Noth Ges. Stud. 1: 148; Ph., Neo-Punic šlm well-being, peace, health[2]

C. General remarks: —šalāmu(m) to be (become) in good condition, be intact, be in good health, stay well, be successful (AHw. 1143b; CAD Š/1, 208b).[3]

Accordingly the basic meaning of שָׁלוֹם is often taken to be completeness, intactness,

—1. prosperity, success: a) Lv 26:6 Nu 6:26 Dt 23:7 Is 48:18 60:17, 48:22 = 57:21 52:7 = Nah 2:1 שְׁלוֹם הָעִיר Jr 29:7, מַחְשְׁבוֹת שָׁ׳ Jr 29:11 (rather as 7b).[4]

—4. personal safety, welfare, state of health: a) שְׁ׳ אֶסְתֵּר Est 2:11, אַחֶיךָ and שְׁ הַצֹּאן Gn 37:14, in reply to the question הֲשָׁלוֹם לוֹ is he well?, the answer is שָׁלוֹם Gn 29:6; הֲשָׁ׳ אַתָּה are you well? 2S 20:9, הֲשָׁ׳ is everything all right? 2K 5:21 cf. 9:22a, מָה הַשָּׁ׳ how can things be well? 2K 9:22b; (הֲ)שָׁלוֹם לַנַּעַר לְאַבְשָׁלוֹם 2S 18:29, 32.[5]

[1] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–2000, 1506.

[2] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–2000, 1506.

[3] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–2000, 1507.

[4] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–2000, 1507.

[5] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–2000, 1508.

Islam & Christianity’s Response to the decadent morality of the West

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Al Ngu,   December 25, 2024

Peter Riddell has written on page 159 in his groundbreaking book “ Islam in context past, present, and future”, a hugely interesting perception and understanding of the interaction between western culture and Islam, and in some ways you can apply that to Christianity. What I’m trying to bring up is there is some similarities and contrast between Christianity and Islam in facing the Western culture.

Riddell expounded,  “the perception among Muslims on Western culture would be decadent and debased is fueled by regular statements in the Muslim media, both in the Middle East and among mostly minorities in the west, that reflected and often exaggerated moral decay in Western society.”[1]

The following quote from Invitation to Islam encapsulates the view: “Man in the West feels no obligation to protect women from the harms of society. This is why a man will allow his wife to be a stripper, a call girl, and even a prostitute. Honor knows no place in the West.”

A startling alarming cutting statement of the West. What we see is not representative of the Western society at all of course, but nonetheless, these films are spread all over the country, continent, and in reality the followers of these movie culture FAR exceeds the number of Christ followers, Christians today! The point is, it’s gigantic influence mental, cognitive, intellectual on the society is beyond the grip of society perception and understanding of Christian influence hands down. Imagine in Genesis 11-God told Abram to “Walk before me faithful, and be blameless”, and here we are in our generation or before, we totally butchered many of the commandments of God thru Moses, and ‘blameless’ is a vocab that’s hard to find.

Genesis 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Now there is some truth to it that it is true Western culture has become so liberal that especially in the Hollywood movies and media that actually promote promiscuity of women and movies essentially play on the lustful desire of men in our society. What’s worse media like Disney who has been famed to promote children’s wholesome activities, now promote LBGTQ agenda and themes on that line. Go figure? That is a degradation of moral values. Of course we are not talking about regulating movies so that none of those will come forth, but excessive sensual stuff needs to be curtailed to say the least. In fact, the wind of Hollywood depends on the mood, political power, and the Christian influence on the society as a whole. They are all interlinked. The last straw is the blasphemous show what they did in the Olympics opening ceremony 2024 in Paris, totally obliterated any sense of good faith and sense in France, with putting the abomination figures on the most holy sacred “The Last Supper” of Christ to be turned into some LBGT transgender table! It’s that dark and irreverent to God that’s akin to the abominatio figure that’s prophecies to stand in the most holy place in the Temple as prophesied by Jesus himself in the bible.  You can only believe when you see that. Try that on the Islamic faith teaching with Paris done to Christan faith, there will be uproar even a jihad! I heard that some decent actors like Mel Gibson and the like are putting together a new Hollywood broadcast to challenge the downright filth of the present.  What we are seeing is just not good to promote a healthy wholesome society. So in that sense, I will agree with what invitation Islam mentioned.

Riddell writes, “ no doubt Hollywood has a significant role in this process of stereotyping through his worldwide distribution of films, including sexually explicit material. However, this does not justify the broad extent of negative stereotyping on the west of the media around the world.” [2]

To ascend you at the point that the movie and films influence on the minds of the population, including the Christians has far reaching impact and effect. We will be naïve to think they’re going to this movies will be just fine because for the majority of this movies they are all lean towards very, very liberalthinking and philosophical war view.

The Bible says in Phil 4: 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

That’s it! Whatever is true, noble, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. Do you see a lot of this in modern movies? That’s a problem because the Bible emphasizes think about things that praiseworthy not to think about the decadent morality lifestyle stories as we encounter in most of the movies. That is a huge impact upon a mind of emotion in self to go to such movies for example unfortunately, we are surrounded all over us and bombarded with such things, and if men are not cautious and careful will fall into the traps of this immorality unholiness. And that’s why it is important to stay far from this things for the focus on praise worthy and excellent things in the Lord. And you won’t be able to find them in Hollywood largely not available. So on the contrary, seeing those movies with such decadent movie moralities, we are doing a huge disservice to ourselves in our families and our church.

Everything is a balance, right? Yes I agree that the cultural backdrop of the west does not justify a total negative stereotyping on the West but mostly media around the world however there is definitely valid point, which in contrast Christianity has remained very silent and feeling helplessly in actuality in reality pretty much catapulted to the vast influence of Hollywood.

Riddell writes, “Western phobia refers to entrenched and endemically hostile attitude to the West, and to perceived cultural traits of the West.” He is right to say that this hostility to the West because of the downfall of moral values precisely.

Riddell  writes, “ The phenomenal phobia is encapsulated in common printed in common sense, the newsletter of Islamic party of Britain: “there’s nothing in western societies… The remotely resembles good behavior. They all walk in Haas, vanity and pump: insolent, arrogant and boastful.”

So I just thought about what Jesus said on exposing them.

Eph 5:8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

Granted Paul was talking about having nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather exposing the deeds of darkness amongst God’s people in the context of Ephesians 5. But if you look into it, it’s not going to be too big to extrapolate that to this world outside the church, although I wouldn’t do it in the exact same format, nevertheless, the principle of doing that remains unchanged. Jesus rebuked Pharisees of their hypocrisy with some strong blatant words:

Matt 23 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

This is definitely something good serious reflection for all Christians today you find that the one is protesting about immoral deeds of a society mostly from the Catholic Church if there’s anything, for example the abortion issues on the public arena, bravo to them, as much as evangelical disagree their doctrines. But we Evangelical have remained pretty quiet sadly. But take it to a step further looking at what Islam has done even though the principle of such is definitely a doctrine issue. We are disagreeing with them on a whole host of things and how God is different from theirs, nevertheless, there’s something to be applauded in the conviction and bold speaking out in the public square, which is sadly much of a silence among the evangelicals, and reformed world.

[1] Peter Riddell, Islam in Context, (Baker academic, Grand rapids, Michigan:2003)  159

[2] Ibid

Religious faith’s view of moral values of the West

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Al Ngu,   December 25, 2024

Peter Riddell has written on page 159 in his groundbreaking book “ Islam in context past, present, and future”, a hugely interesting perception and understanding of the interaction between western culture and Islam, and in some ways you can apply that to Christianity. What I’m trying to bring up is there is some similarities and contrast between Christianity and Islam in facing the Western culture.

Riddell expounded,  “the perception among Muslims or western culture would be decadent and debased is fueled by regular statements in the Muslim media, both in the Middle East and among mostly minorities in the west, that reflected and often exaggerated moral decay in Western society.”[1]

The following quote from invitation to Islam encapsulate the view: “Man in the West feels no obligation to protect women from the harms of society. This is why a man will allow his wife to be a stripper, a call girl, and even a prostitute. Honor knows no place in the West.”— startling alarming cutting statement of the West. What we see is not representative of the Western society at all of course, but nonetheless, these films are spread all over the country, continent, and in reality the followers of these movie vulture FAR exceed number of Christ followers, Christians. The point is, the gigantic influence mental, cognitive, intellectual on the society is beyond the grip of society perception and understanding an beats Christan influence hands down. Imagine in Genesis 11-God told Abrahm to “Walk before me faithful, and be blameless”, and here we are in our generation or before, we totally butchered many of the commandments of God thru Moses, and ‘blameless’ is a vocab that’s hard to find.

Genesis 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Now there is some truth to it. It is true Western culture has become so liberal that especially in the Hollywood movies and media that actually promote promiscuity of women and movies essentially play on the lustful desire of men in our society. What’s worse media like Disney who has been famed to promote children’s wholesome activities, now promote LBGTQ agenda and themes on that line. Go figure? That is a degradation of moral values. Of course we are not talking about regulating movies so that none of those will come forth, but excessive sensual stuff needs to be curtailed to say the least. In fact, the wind of Hollywood depends on the mood, political power, and the Christian influence on the society as a whole. They are all interlinked. The last straw is the blasphemous show what they did in the Olympics opening ceremony 2024 in Paris, totally obliterated any sense of good faith and sense in France, with putting the abomination figures on the most holy sacred “The Last Supper” of Christ to be turned into some LBGT transgender table! It’s that dark and irreverent to God that’s akin to the abominatio figure that’s prophecies to stand in the most holy place in the Temple as prophecies by Jesus himself in the bible.  You can only believe when you see that. Try that on the Islamic faith teaching with Paris done to Christan faith, there will be uproar even revolution! I heard that some decent actors like Mel Gibson and the like are putting together a new Hollywood broadcast to challenge the downright filth of the present.  What we are seeing is just not good to promote a healthy wholesome society. So in that sense, I will agree with what invitation Islam mentioned.

Riddell writes, “ no doubt Hollywood has a significant role in this process of stereotyping through his worldwide distribution of films, including sexually explicit material. However, this does not justify the broad extent of negative stereotyping on the west of the media around the world.” [2]

Everything is a balance, right? Yes I agree that the cultural backdrop of the west does not justify a total negative stereotyping on the West but mostly media around the world however there is definitely valid point, which in contrast Christianity has remained very silent and feeling helplessly in actuality in reality pretty much catapulted to the vast influence of Hollywood.

Riddell writes, “Western phobia refers to entrenched and endemically hostile attitude to the West, and to perceived cultural traits of the West.” He is right to say that this hostility to the West because of the downfall of moral values precisely.

Riddell  writes, “ The phenomenal phobia in capsule in common printed in common sense, the newsletter of Islamic party of Britain: “there’s nothing in western societies… The remotely resembles good behavior. They all walk in Haas, vanity and pump: insulin, arrogant and boastful.”

So I just thought about what Jesus said on exposing them.

Eph 5:8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

Granted Paul was talking about having nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather exposing the deeds of darkness amongst God’s people in the context of Ephesians 5. But if you look into it, it’s not going to be too big to extrapolate that to this world outside the church, although I wouldn’t do it in the exact same format, nevertheless, the principle of doing that remains unchanged. Jesus rebuked Pharisees of their hypocrisy with some strong blatant words:

Matt 23 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

This is definitely something good serious reflection for all Christians today you find that the one is protesting about immoral deeds of a society mostly from the Catholic Church if there’s anything, for example the abortion issues on the public arena, bravo to them, as much as evangelical disagree their doctrines. But we Evangelical have remained pretty quiet sadly. But take it to a step further looking at what Islam has done even though the principle of such is definitely a doctrine issue. We are disagreeing with them on a whole host of things and how God is different from theirs, nevertheless, there’s something to be applauded in the conviction and bold speaking out in the public square, which is sadly much of a silence among the evangelicals, and reformed world.

[1] Peter Riddell, Islam in Context, (Baker academic, Grand rapids, Michigan:2003)  159

[2] Ibid

Choosing the lesser of two evils

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Choosing the lesser of two evils is really an exercise of wisdom in the normative priority, situational priority, and existential priority. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus criticized the teachers of the law and Pharisees as hypocrites, as they gave a tenth of the spices but they neglected the more important matters of the law call mark justice, mercy and faithfulness. So clearly there’s a different level of priority in the duties and the laws of God.

So choosing the lesser of the two evils is a very situational situation. For example Jesus said the Sabbath was made for men, not man for the sabbath so the son of man is the lord even of the sabbath in Mark 2:27-28. Situationally Jesus broke the sabbath to eat in the sight of the Jewish pharisees. And also in Acts 15:20, the Apostolic committee told the gentiles that they should abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the strangled animals and from blood which is not part of the law, but a situational priority.

Now we can apply the comparison contrast for “less than two evils” for example Nazis at the door knocking at the door, “would you hand over the innocent Jews?” You either lie or protect the Jews. It’s a matter of prioritizing seeking the greater good and the higher law. In the same situation in Exodus 1, Frame wrote about the Hebrew wives lied to Pharaoh in order to save Hebrew babies. And God praised the Hebrew midwives for saving the Hebrew babies, but if you look at it, the Hebrew midwives lied which is supposedly a sin. This clearly speaks of the lesser evil of the two, either to lie or kill the babies. Same case for Rahab who lied to the army of Jericho about the two Jewish spies that hid in her artic, because she feared God of Israel. It’s a common sense to know that killing babies is a far greater evil than to lie. If we extend that to the election we get to look at the casting our vote for example, for the lesser of two evils, and coincidentally, we are faced with policy of killing babies by abortion or looking at the character of another candidate some decades ago.

This is a well framed answer, but as a response, how do you ensure this approach is not susceptible to pragmatism or avoid the charge that it selects its ethics on the basis of each person’s situation?

Clearly there are different levels of sin, some sins are worse than the others. (Frame, Doctrines of Life, 225). Westminster larger catechism 151-52 tells us that some sins are worse than others. Jesus also said in Luke 10: 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Luke 12:47–48 (ESV)

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Therefore we can legitimately argue for the lesser of the two evils and its completely found in scriptures, in fact, both from the Lord Jesus himself.

So this is clearly beyond just the situational perspective. Interestingly, the just concluded presidential election has torn Christianity apart in supporting them. I would argue we should vote for the lesser of the two evils. In terms of policy, one has only good and hardly any evil, and the other is literally overflowing with evils form abortion till 12th week, to transgenderism using tax dollars, and cheating using illegals to bolster their vote, of a level unseen or heard in any country that I know of.

The Supernatural Power & Providence of God

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Church must be built in the supernatural power of God. And I added ‘providence’ of God, that’s reformed redemptive theology, the ‘power’ of God is more Pentecostal or charismatic.  Regardless, whatever tribe you are from, it’s time to see all that God has for us, and indeed church planting growth, evangelism, and personal walk with God, we have to see our lives, and the kingdom of God moving forward in the lens of spiritual warfare, though not all of it, but it has to be pretty much front and center. This is a tremendous faith uplifting passage in facing war of Israel:

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (ESV)

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

This is right after the amazing exodus of Israel out of Egypt, through the raging Red Sea, and they were now in the wilderness led by Joshua getting ready to conquer the new land, Jericho. And of course, this is one event, albeit huge climatic one after the Red Sea Miracle, of huge miracle as Jordan River was similarly cut off for 3 million Jews to walk across on dry land like Red Sea. Can we say that for our daily life today? Not exactly, but the principles of facing daily life warfare remain, which I will expound later. But most importantly, I want you to see the words, “. 2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

Facing a larger enemy army than ours

2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

The first thing that hits me is that you see an army larger than your own. Frankly that’s how we feel many times, when we are facing an uphill task, a challenging life story, or trying to live close with the Lord in a very hostile society. Things do come up, and sometimes they do disappoint us, and at times we just feel exasperated looking at this mountain, this larger army. But this is precisely what God told us, when we go to war. This actually sets up the glorious opportunity for God to show forth his glory, as He said, “you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And God said it to give us heads up, its coming, and its larger than our ability. How far we have fallen in our weakness, our struggle thinking we can handle it, and how many times we have failed miserably and disappointed ourselves and others. All we need is God is with us. That’s all. That’s all we need to face however large an army facing us. No matter how strong and evil and powerful our enemy is, we have no fear, because the Lor dour God who brought us out of Egypt the the raging Red Sea, will do it again, and its nothing.

We are living in a spiritual warfare

2 “When you go out to war against your enemies”

It’s not if you go out to war, but rather it’s when you go out to war. For Israel that’s their specific mission to get into their promised land, Israel, but on the way, they are called by God to destroy and annihilate a bunch evil nations that have been bent on idolatry, evils, and godless like even child sacrifice. God uses their journey to destroy the evils. And seriously, on the way, it’s how God trained their hands for war (Psalm 144:1)[1], and emboldened their faith for the bigger work ahead of them. Nothing happens by accident, the fact that you go through some parts of life, that you find uncomfortable, don’t faint, because it’s precisely this moment, God is refining the crucible for purity and beauty.

Psalm 66 For you, God, tested us;
    you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
    and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and water,
    but you brought us to a place of abundance.

The God that doesn’t show his supernatural power, is not the God that we read from the Bible. Old Testament is absolutely full of the miracles of God, and indeed the New testament are also full of the miracles and signs of God, especially through the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus raised the cripped, raised the dead, walked on water, opened the eyes of the blinds, cleansed the leper….and the list goes on.

The point I am making here is that Christians will live in a diminished worldview and hence experience of the supernatural, if our minds are bound to the traditional thinking of all signs and wonders have ceased, and so have the spiritual gifts. And what is happening is that we have thousands of millions of evangelical Christians walking in a subterrain of sub-supernatural, while we have a pocket of them walking in faith and proclaiming the power of God.

The point here is that we are now living to take the eland as Joshua generation were called by God to take the land. For them is the actual physical land, for us it’s to take and win souls that the Kingdom of God come on earth as its in heaven.  Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

No one thinks that God’s kingdom can come without a fight. As Jesus said: Matthew 11:12

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Warfare takes force, spiritual force, not a spiritual weakling. There are truly moments of strong force needed, which in our case, will be our prayers, evangelism, discipleship. Mainly warfare seems to be won on our prayers. That’s why I believe it’s good to pray 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening. Muslims pray 5 times; Jews pray 3 times a day. Not to be sucked into legalism, but some structure helps us to focus. Jesus frequently withdrew to quiet places to pray especially in the morning. To move into the realm of supernatural, it will require a humbled soul, and soul that hungers and thirsts for the move of God. Paul prayed unceasingly for the churches. Paul is not only mighty in deeds, signs, supernatural, but primarily his prayers go deep. Jesus obviously prayed with loud cries of tears even to the Father, frequently, what a solace full type of life. Such dedication produces the powerful breed of the supernatural. Jesus in fact, fasted 30 days before tempted and tested by Satan, and then, only then, launched into the public ministry. If Jesus needed that, what more to say about us mortal feeble beings on earth following Christ?

To bring to our modernity, scriptures clearly say we are in a spiritual warfare, and we need to move in the supernatural. And that’s half of the book, the power of the Spirit, the charismatics gifts and the reformed teachings.

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We should not go crazy in signs and wonders, admittedly, the apostolic signs and wonders and of course Jesus’s miracles, are not replicable in our days and age, although Jesus did say:

The Expectations and faith to move in the supernatural

John 14:12–14

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Burge commentary writes, “It is of utmost importance to note that the astonishing promise of 14:12 points to the future. Jesus must first go to the Father before the promise of remarkable works and realized prayer can come.” [2]

That means after Jesus been to the Father, we will see the promise of the remarkable and realized prayer come to pass.

Burge writes, “Note that the promise of 14:12 does not simply point to miracles. What Jesus has been doing includes deeds of humility, service, and love as well as miraculous signs. Jesus’ followers will do works that are “greater” even than these.” [3]

The “greater works” here not only means miracles, but also service, humility, love on top of miracles. This is a ‘wow’!

Burge writes, “This promise can hardly mean that the efforts of disciples will exceed those of Jesus, who, for instance, provided the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. What is “greater” is that these works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. This is why the departure of Jesus is crucial, for only through that can the Holy Spirit become a reality to all who follow him (7:37–39).” [4]

These works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. How much and how depends on his calling and our seeking Him. The point is, it is there: we should seek him and ask.  Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[1] Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

[2] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (pp. 393–394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[4] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

Chasing after the Promise of Christ in Acts:   the power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us

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Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

I think the number one obstacle for Christian Church growth, expansion and advancement of the kingdom of God, is the lack of the excitement for evangelism in our churches today. And that results in a number of undesirable consequences: 1) No motivation for evangelism, 2) Nobody is even talking about Church growth or church expansion, 3) Even if anyone desiring to start a new church, he’s probably not looking at evangelism by some other church transfer growth. If it is goal of evangelism, there will be minimal. And that’s a sad state of the church completely different from the book of Acts early church pattern.

The reason for lack of evangelism today is due to a number of factors. First, it’s the fear of rejection. Somehow today it’s just not conducive for talking about God, and with the enlightenment and the secularized culture so strong in anti-God And the antichrist forces at work, we can’t even mention God or discussion of God in our corporate workplace, etc. There is just not a sense of excitement and openness for the gospel in our daily lives today in most places, especially in the city where we live, case in point, New York City. That openness and hunger is seriously lacking, and that really handicaps our effort for evangelism. If church growth or expansion is by transfer growth from other churches, and not primarily from conversion and salvation of unbeliever’s background or atheist or secular or backslidden Christian background, there is really no net growth of the kingdom of God and that is very alien to the call of God in Christ. Jesus Christ called us to make disciples of all nations. It does not mean to make disciple and re-disciple those who are already disciples.

There’ s a dying need to discover something, the potency and the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised us in Acts 1:8 that you shall receive power from on high.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We need to honestly question ourselves why we are not experiencing the power that Christ promised us before he ascended back to heaven, and sent his Holy Spirit to us. And you can see that the promise of receiving the power comes when the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and we see the purpose of the power is to be witnesses for Jesus in Judea, Samara, New York City, and all over the world. The fact that majority of us Christians and churches are struggling to reap the harvest of souls does make us wonder what happened to that promise. Or what happened to us? Many of us have given up and just gone on a non-power mode of living day by day. And that makes fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations incredibly challenging, if not downright impossible. And because Jesus said, unless the “Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain”, that adds more to the futility, and also frustration and a sense of helplessness.

Frankly, that explains the state of the church today in America and many parts of the world. The only thing that brings in new growth, sort of triggering into the church is more for people invited to come to church through friendship, persuasion, through prayer and nothing straight through evangelism and reap in the harvest like what we see in the book of Acts by Paul. That’s why I am very intrigued and interested to analyze the life ministry of Paul in the book of Acts and to glean how God worked through him and pray that God will do likewise through us today.

(to be continued…)

How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day?

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How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day? How could the WCF’s teaching on the Lord’s Day be applied to your life, or the lives of those in your church to help in seeing the beauty of the Sabbath?

I will admit that it is a challenging and difficult process to take delight in the Lord’s day in the sense of what Westminster confession talking about keeping the Sabbath holy unto God By making preparation of our heart and ordering our common affairs beforehand, and observe a holy rest all the day from our works, words, thoughts and our worldly employments and recreations. But also, to be taken up the whole time in the public and private exercise of his worship in the duties of necessity and mercy.

This is a very strong dedication and setting aside the Lord’s day as a Sabbath day holy unto God that require essentially almost a complete holy rest from all our works so as to be taken up in worship on the Lord’s day. This practically is almost impossible because of the heavy schedule of bi-vocational seminary student and a full-time job so as to catch up all the assignments and paper and preparation on the weekend is crucial just to barely stay on top of it.

I would say Isaiah 58:13-14 helps me a lot in the perspective in terms of the word “delight”. Isaiah writes that if we turn back our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on God’s holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if we honor it, not going our own ways or seeking our own pleasures then we will take delight in the Lord, then God will make us ride on the heights of the earth.

To me this is insanely motivating and powerful to make us ride on the height of the earth just by putting pleasure on God’s Sabbath as a day of the Lord. I see this as God wanting our heart for a day that He sets apart every week instead of taking our own ways, this surely bring much pleasure to the heart of God. It’s like my way of God’s ways and if I submit to God’s way on the day of holiness called Sabbath day, He promised that we will take delight in him. I think it is more than just honoring the Sabbath day, makes us delight in the Lord, but it is the process of setting our time for God weekly is in in itself taking delight in God!

I believe we will grow overtime in it. Now the question of how we do that practically on the Lord’s Day i.e. Sunday is that I quite agree with Dr Duncan’s lecture saying that a great way of spending Sabbath day is have two worship services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, that pretty much fill up and dedicate the day of the Lord and keep it holy to the Lord.

I look forward to writing on the height of the earth in the Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV)

13    “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

       and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

       if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

14    then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

       I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

How to explain and actually use “Election & Predestination” in our thinkings and ministry

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Some have argued that the topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature, and even that they are a hindrance to evangelism. Do you agree or disagree? Provide rationale for your position.

I would say that it is not easy to talk about election and predestination in our evangelism correct, however there are some phenomenal truths that can be very appealing to the non-believers in evangelism. For instance God from all eternity by His most wise and holy council of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass and yet he is not the author of saying, and also he does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established. That to me is a very appealing voice of the attribute and the character of God. Because he’s totally in charge in control and yet he gives us the free will to respond he doesn’t control his creation robotically. And also the liberty or contingency of the secondary causes are not taken away but rather established. That means what we do matter and we are not going towards fatalism.

JI Packer also expounded that the whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring. I think that’s a really appealing message that in this broken world which non believers will acknowledge, to know that God is currently restoring the world, it is a real message of comfort and encouragement and relevance of God. And the purpose of all this restoration is the endless expression and enjoyment of love between God and his rational creatures- love shown in their worship, praise, thanks, honor, glory, and service given to him, ending the fellowship, privileges, jaws, and gifts they give to them. Bible tells us that what God has done to advance God’s redemptive plan for sin damaged planet earth, and they look ahead to the day of its completion, when planet earth will be recreated in unimaginable glory. They proclaim God as the almighty creator Redeemer and do all constantly of the multifaceted works of grace that God performs in history to secure for himself a people, a great company of individuals together, with whom his original purpose of giving and receiving love can be fulfilled. God has shown himself absolutely in control in bringing his plan to the point and working out everything according to his own will and completing his redemptive project.

Considering the area of pastoral care alongside of preaching/evangelism (you hint at an answer, but aim it toward this question): How might you discuss election & predestination with someone faithfully attending your church, who did not grow up in a Reformed church, but who wants to talk to you about how they believe “election and predestination don’t have any practical use,” instead, they say: “these doctrines just seem to make people complacent in their faith”?

Topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature?

I would say that while election and predestination is highly mysterious, and we cannot deny it as its plainly written in the Bible. And WCF has really articulated it beautifully, though, hard to swallow sometimes, because, the reality is its still hard to understand fully, but we have to remember that we are his creature, and He is God. And He reserves the right to mystery that He hasn’t revealed, and He has the perfect right to reveal what He chooses to His creatures, as in: Deuteronomy 29: 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

An important point is that God doesn’t violate our free will. WCF: “God does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established.”

That settled, I would then focus on the restoration of this broken world, as JI Packer puts it, “The whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring.”

God’s sovereign purpose and work now is the work of redemption that’s currently restoring what’s been destroyed by sin, and it’s that restoration, we believers in Christ, we are honored and called, to take part in. And it’s the highest calling for all of us all.

God’s covenant with us enables us to experience Christ’s salvation for us

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First of all the distance between God and humans is so great that we can never have any fruition of him as our blessedness and reward except by God’s condescension upon us, which he has expressed by way of covenant. So, God has chosen to relate with us and to reveal himself to us through a covenantal way like the Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic covenant, and eventually the new covenant by the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ himself. All these covenants are in fact the covenant of grace not of law. So, covenant is the means whereby we enjoy God as our blessedness and reward. Therefore, our justification and sanctification in life completely depends on the revelation and the relationship of God with us through the covenant which is the only means we can enjoy his blessings and reward.

Our justification is completely dependent on Christ’s fulfillment of the covenant works which is the first covenant God made with man whereby life was promised to Adam, and in him his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. That covenant of works points to the terms of conditions on which the blessings of the covenant continues. Man by his fall has made himself incapable of life by that covenant of works, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; Whereby he freely offered unto sinners life in salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring them of faith in him, that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those who are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. Now this is a huge promise because fallen man like all of us will not be able to be willing to believe in Christ if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, those of us who are the elect. In the covenant of grace, there is blessing despite disobedience. The covenant of grace conditions are fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf. Our faith is required of us in the covenant of grace but it is not the basis of salvation. It is merely the means to receive the blessing which Jesus has obtained on our behalf. Therefore our obedience is tied up with Christ’s fulfillment of the conditions.

The only way we can go on in our lives sanctified is by and through the mediator of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay in grace. Like Westminster says we are brought into this covenant by grace and stay in it by our mediator our Lord Jesus Christ. Our ongoing sanctification depends on our obedience to Christ. Our obedience can only follow from the active and passive obedience of Christ because Christ fulfilled the conditions of the covenant of works, our salvation is by grace alone and by faith alone in Christ who has obeyed perfectly the covenant of works on our behalf.

This is hugely encouraging to folks in church to understand that it is not by our effort to continue to be sanctified and walking with Christ but it is rather Christ has already won the battle on the cross by his perfect obedience, and that we are drinking in that benefit and walking in him by the Holy Spirit, commonly called abiding in Christ. And then we are justified by Christ because he fulfilled all the conditions of the works of covenant which our forefather Adam failed. And now we can continue to be sanctified because of his complete obedience that our obedience is tied up with Christ fulfillment of the conditions and because he has fulfilled it, we can be overcomers in our Christian walk with God.

My cultural conditioning and cultural context in church planting

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I come from a culture in church upbringing of charismatic evangelical church background, and later in involved in planting churches. From the childhood days, I grew up in a Methodist church background with my mom. I would say the charismatic worship in churches have impacted me a lot since university days.

My wife and I have sensed the call of God in planting church and pastoring. It has been a real joy and challenging in the midst of it.  It is without any shadow of doubt it is the Lord who directed our path as a family in doing rather radical things. We are from an international church planting movement, and we have planted churches back in Malaysia, and then God called us to come over here in the US to continue the ministry as a bi-vocational ministry , very much like what’s called tent-making ministry of Paul in the NT. We have seen churches successfully planted and pastored, however the latest one in Manhattan has stalled. So with that background, I have struggled to understand the culture here in New York, and also what I should be doing.  Saying all these we with our children had moved from Malaysian culture to Californian culture, and just over 10 years ago, to the New York culture, it has to be the Lord who strengthens us and been our hope.

In trying to reach out to New Yorkers, it really depends on which part of the city you live in. The city is notoriously expensive, and for any church planting, finance is of the utmost in one’s head immediately. From what I see, most church planters raise funds, forgo their own vocation professional jobs, and heavily depend on the more lucrative income from their wives., without which it is undoable for the cost of living.  I will list down some of the major cultural adjustment contextualization.

The Culture of Bi-Vocational Ministry

That’s my background and working as an engineer and doing weekend pastoring. Coming to do that in NYC, I can see why church planters flopped. First, it is such a vast city, the transportation commute just takes too long to do any ministry, and hence Keller in City to City has emphasized the need of cultural immersion, i.e. living in the neighborhood where you want to plant. And that’s also in full time capacity, and I see that that’s beyond my reach, just because we are not financially able to do that also considering the school factors for children. So we ended in Long Island to pastor a weekend church in Manhattan, it has been not the most effective. I struggled in this church plant model. I think if we live among the people neighborhood, even with just mainly a weekend ministry, it would have been much more doable. The cultural be with your people is so very important.

Theological & Philosophical Understanding & Equipping

This has been a real joy in worshipping the Lord in the house of God and sustained me a lot in facing setbacks, struggles with ministry, work, relationship etc. It’s the source of encouragement and strength in worshipping that I would never forget.  In the midst of struggling , I have to say the church planting culture that my church movement sent me, is not in line with the style in New York, because you need finance and group support for launching a church, which I have neither. So I was kind of parachuted into Manhattan, and living far away in Long Island, making that church plant incredibly challenging. That’s a huge cultural shock for me, although we had some college students who came and started our church together, but the theology and philosophy of church plant was largely absent from my mind in the American context.

But I would say the lack of theological understanding especially the sovereignty of God in reformed tradition and to be able to see and preach the redemptive narrative of God in Christ are the two most important transformations I received since coming to New York and having met Tim Keller whose sermons are full of these two. After listening to many of his sermon for years, I began to see why it’s so attractive and compelling for people to come to church.

First the divine sovereignty of God

This subject is not something I have ever heard or learnt from my cultural background. My background belongs to the Arminianism theology, with a passion to spread the love of God in Christ and making disciples. And pastors, almost all, do not have formal education training in seminary schools. It’s all about your calling and in trusting God, to plough the land for sowing the seed of the gospel and nurture a church.

Since coming to NYC, I heard enough of Keller’s sermons that I sensed that aspect of who God is missing with me. To see God as sovereign brings a lot of fresh air, comfort and edification to my heart, because I being to realize that, even in the time of failure (my church plant failed), and time of waiting, there is a sense of which, I can rest in Him, and wait for his timing and way to launch. That’s what calmed me down, given me rest in Him.  And that’s the divine providence of God out of his goodness and grace. This changed my outlook tremendously, about life, ministry, and families. It’s hard for people not to be hardened and discouraged at times when things are going tough, without the assurance of the sovereignty and divine providence of God. That’s why many blame God when they don’t get what they asked for after long time, without such understanding and hence trust in the almighty God and all wise God.

Second, the entire theological education

From my culture background, theology training is not held high, because its very practical driven theology, and  experiential type. As long as you love the Lord and serve him, you are good to go, regardless of whatever your theological trancing is. While heart condition is number one in all things with God, knowledge of theology is right there  number two, and without the word of God theology, a good heart can only operate on a far diminished form from the richness of the word of God which has great transformation power. I would say therefore this has brought tremendous blessing to my life. It’s also about that time, Tim Keller brought in RTS to New York city, and when I heard that, I was overjoyed and joined the 3rd cohort. It’s an incredible blessing that I could get my theological training in the fold of Tim Keller. I would say that’s really the divine providence of God, and looking back, that’s probably the best thing happened to my life for a long time. To me, that’s really a turning point tin my life and our ministry. And above all, my own relationship with the Lord has taken on a breath-taking wider horizon, simply because I now know Him much better.

Thirdly on the area of worship

I see that my background worship differs quite substantially from reformed worship which is generally the case with most professors and student in RTS, though there are some charismatics, and Baptists etc. I would say, this is a strange culture, and I do see the beauty of singing hymns, as theology is rich, and combining it with the more contemporary songs with hands lifting and expression of celebration is what I look for. Worship is a place of where we meet God corporately on Sundays, and this can be the most beautiful moment that can be and should be built upon. I do know the regulative worship in PCA, and certainly some charismatic worship songs tend to run too shallow theologically, and this is where I, after all my training in school, would be able to discern and adapt what’s best theologically, and worship tune wise. I think my desire and planning is to see a church that combines both styles of worship, Word based centered, and Spirit empowered.

Fourthly the New York culture is really a very busy hectic culture driven by work in an expensive city.

So for us to reach out to them, I love the most from what Keller teaches as in adaptation to the culture (seeing the common grace), and later the confrontation of their culture idols to meet their real needs. To bring in the redemptive messages to show them what they hope for can never be fulfilled by their normal ways unless they come to the God who created us. This is easy said than done, and requires a lot of relationship building etc. As all known too well, work is among the idols

I do see the possible opening of the gospel and that’s through the daily burdens of life.  There is value system in my background that’s totally different from the post Christian America today.  And to meet the New Yorkers, the personal touch of it doesn’t come easy, obviously a lot of community building is required, and this needs manpower and time.  

Fifth is the area of prayer

This is an incredibly important and powerful area form my church culture background. I see there is hardly any organized meetings for prayer. In our backgrounds, we hold prayer meeting once a week, and we poured our hearts to God together and believe God will do the rest. It’s a real uplifting times as we spend time together and humble ourselves before God. People see the hearts of leadership, and that goes a long way. I would love to gather folks together regularly for prayers. Prayer needs to be seen by people and so we can all ray together, instead of just listening to one person praying. The corporate prayers, or break into small groups prayers, has been. So conducive for church growth and touching the people outside.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I thank God for my upbringing culture. To be able to continue to develop the call of God and in the culture, God has put us in, is the most exciting thing and I look forward to what the Lord has for us coming up. I see the charismatic spiritual gift culture that I received will fit in very well, if operated like 1 Cor 13, coupled with good God centered expositional messages, I foresee a great future reaching the folks right in New York city or anywhere else.  The strength from my cultural background has propelled me and family gone that far with God in this land, however, it will take the next move of God to see the Spirit of God working .