“Beloved” means to be dearly loved. No one loves us more than God and the sincerest expression of His love for us is by giving us His Son, Jesus. Yes, we are undeserving of His great love and sometimes, we live with this undeservedness in our minds. This sense of self-depreciation and self-rejection causes us to reject the extended hands of God’s love, grace, and mercy.
EARNING YOUR RIGHT? God calls us His beloved children but are we willing to acknowledge Him as our beloved Father in heaven? For some people, their self-rejection does not allow them to accept God’s unconditional grace. In their minds, they are questioning, “How can God accept me? This is too good to be true!” They want His grace to be conditional so that they may have a chance to earn it. The compulsion is to prove themselves to God and also to others that they, by our own efforts, have become spiritual enough to earn the right to be the children of God.
Let’s look at Jesus – the beloved Son of God and see how He responded to His identity:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
When Jesus prayed, He was not trying to achieve spirituality. When He preached or taught, He was not trying to gain popularity. When He did miracles, He was not trying to impress anybody. He did all those things simply because of who He really was – the beloved Son of God. How about us? We are also God’s beloved – children of God.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” 1 John 3:1(ESV)
Once we fully surrender to God this erroneous idea of self-rejection that leads to self-condemnation, the shackles of guilt will fall off. The truth that we are the beloved children of the Most High God will descend upon our hearts. We have to embrace that truth. We have to cherish it like a priceless treasure. It is only then, we can be fully liberated to be used by the Lord to authentically share the Good News of this newfound liberation.
ACTIVITIES BECAUSE OF SPIRITUALITY Claim your identity now and refuse to let anyone tells you that you need to earn your “worthiness” and “spirituality”. You no longer need to keep proving yourself to be worthy of God’s love. You can just be yourself as the beloved of God.
Let’s take the example of a newly wedded couple. They will never need to struggle hard to “get married” or even prove that they are married because they are already married. As a married couple, they set time aside every day to know each other better and love each other more. These activities must never be confused as activities to earn their marriage but rather activities that come out of their marriage. Similarly, you are already the beloved spiritual child of God, you set time aside each day to express your gratitude, joy, and service to the Lord. All these spiritual activities must never be confused as activities to gain spirituality but should be seen as activities because of your spirituality.
CLAIMING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY By rejecting the wrong teaching of having to earn your “spirituality”, you are no longer condemned because there is “therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1 NKJV). It is my hope that you will treasure your true identity as a beloved child of God and dedicate yourself to spending more time with your heavenly Father. You will know Him better and will love Him for who He really is. You can now serve Him without ever having your identity falsely defined by the “misinformed” or the world. May the Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bring to your remembrance that you are God’s beloved and His cherished child, purposed for all His blessings. Here is a message that explains the Sanctifying Process from the position of a beloved child of God.
At a restaurant in Kota Damansara, Malaysia, a restaurant owner was suffering from pain in her leg. Grace and I knew this woman and upon seeing her painful condition, we offered to heal her in the name of Jesus. To our amazement, this Buddhist woman accepted our request because she somehow believed that such supernatural healing could happen.We promptly healed her with the authority and power given by our Lord Jesus Christ. After approximately more than a month, we visited her restaurant again and asked about her condition. She said ever since that day she had no more pain in her leg. This healing has made it easier for us to share with her about Jesus Christ and the salvation provided by the Lord. This is the “Two-hand Punch” of the Elijah Challenge Ministry – heal the sick and preach the Word.
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH Today, most believers are aware of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The time for obedience is even more critical because there is still much work to be done. Jesus is very concerned about our obedience: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Doing what Jesus instructed is crucial to our spiritual growth. We cannot choose to obey only portions of His instruction. Servants must submit to the Master and do what the Master desires. To obey only when it is convenient is not the correct attitude of a faithful servant.
Sadly, many Christians, who have said the sinner’s prayer, but have no idea what power evangelism is all about. They have been taught the doctrines, gone through water baptism, and even attended cell meetings week after week. They were taught about bearing fruits so that there is a transformation in their character, and they were even trained to share the Gospel with the unchurched. However, to those who are diligently sharing the Gospel, they soon discover another area that they have not received training in – healing the sick and casting out demons. The lack of knowledge in this area has caused the Church in general to avoid the works and activities of the demonic world.
One believer told me that she would not touch the demons with a ten-foot pole because she was afraid of them. Another said that she would not lay hands on the sick and command healing because their diseases might jump into her. A brother believes that in this day and age, one does not really need to cast out demons or heal the sick so as to share the Gospel. A theological student pointed to the fact that no demons were being cast out in the Old Testament and therefore all these demonic kinds of stuff must be created during the second temple period and adopted by the New Testament. Some believe that demons are not fallen angels but just the “ghosts” of those of dead Nephilim and their giant-clan descendants and so they are quite harmless. Some even challenge the idea of Satan as a fallen angel and whether he is just a myth created by the imagination of man.
THE POWER TRANSFORMATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Before we talk about power evangelism, we need to talk about power transformation. This is the “journey inward” so that we would be transformed internally to become more and more like Christ. This is crucial in that this “journey inward” would affect our “journey outward” and that is facing the world and confronting the enemy.
This is not a journey to become “spiritual” but allowing the spirituality of Christ in the “Born-again” you to flow out. It is like a marriage – you do not work out so hard to be “married” if you are already married. What you are doing as a married person is to work out your married commitment of love, care, and attention to your spouse. You allow that love for your spouse to become tangible actions and events in your marriage. Have you ever noticed that most older loving couples actually look alike in their mannerism and even in their look? That is the result of years of dedication and commitment to each other.
Similarly to become more like Jesus, we need to acknowledge His holiness and Agape love. The Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in us is vital to remind and enable us to allow that holiness and Agape love of Christ to flow through us. We are able to do this because we have been Born Again and have the spirituality of Christ in us. We just need to give the Holy Spirit the liberty to flow like “rivers of living water”. The disciples who walk closely with Christ will soon, just like those loving old couples, behave and look like Christ.
ARE THE MODERN DISCIPLES REALLY HELPLESS? Some churches have taught that believers are helpless but they have forgotten that believers are empowered by Christ in all things. An important aspect of the Christian life is to fulfill the Great Commission to disciple all nations. Once again, the Lord does not leave this major task to the disciples without the accompanying power and authority.
In Luke 9 and 10, Jesus commanded His disciples to preach that the “Kingdom of God is near.” Accompanying this message, Jesus also gave the authority and power “to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” We can see that whether it is in the area of sanctification or fulfilling the Great Commission, the Lord has made sure that His disciples have the capacity to achieve them.
The Great Commission has to do with a strong message of repentance and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. Just like the time of Elijah, the Lord is now challenging the Church to return to Him in all aspects of obedience and ministry. The spirit of Elijah was that of courage and confidence in God’s manifested power. The fire came down, and the half-hearted non-committed people turned to the Lord.
In the same manner, when believers preach repentance with manifest healing miracles, many believers and pre-believers will respond positively to the Lord. The objectives of the believers in the End Times is three-fold:
To fulfil the Great Commission by sharing the Gospel with power.
To challenge the backslidden believers to return to the Lord.
To empower the restored believers so that they can in turn fulfil the Great Commission.
To reject the supernatural does not make the evil spirits go away. Western missionaries who come from secular societies have a rude awakening when they come to the Far East and Third-World countries. They expect to teach the Christians in those countries but instead, they have to learn about real demons and spiritual warfare from their “less-sophisticated counterparts”. Soon they realize that the Gospel is not merely about teaching good Christian values and behaviors, but real spiritual warfare against principalities and powers of darkness.
The evil that many in the Third-World encounter is not mere human weakness but actual demonic power. Unbelief is a dangerous thing. Like the Pharisees of old, the modern preachers and theologians from the West are seldom trained to deal with actual demons and diseases. Everything is reduced to the natural realms and many of these ministers do not even believe in the existence of the supernatural. Their ministries are utterly ineffective in the frontline of spiritual warfare.
In one evangelistic meeting, a girl who was only 16 years old who had black lipstick, black painted fingernails, black clothes with black shoes, suddenly manifested demons. As I rushed forward to confront the “enemy” and cast it out, the American pastor who was me, ran to the back of the sanctuary and hid there. After the event, I confronted him, asking why didn’t he come to help me. He said haltingly that he was afraid. He had never encountered a demonic case in his life and that first encounter threw him into a panic. He did not realize that the demons would be so ferocious and he was absolutely terrified to the point of being paralyzed. That was when it dawned on me why the Great Commission is slow to be fulfilled. All these preachers and teachers may teach and expound the Bible with intricate theological expositions but they lack the frontline experience. It is like a man who writes and gives talks about fishing but has never fished once in his life.
How to fulfill the Great Commission when demons terrify the believers? What is the use of theological prowess when theologians are powerless in spiritual warfare?
Please do not get me wrong here – I am not against theological training and good Bible exposition. (I am a postgraduate from a Bible Seminary and I fully encourage every full-time minister to get a Bible School education). It is a “both-and” rather than an “either-or” approach that we have adopted. We believe that every practitioner should have a sound biblical and theological foundation along with his or her faith to utilize the authority and power to heal the infirm and cast out demons in the name of Jesus.
Here is the link to The Elijah Challenge website where you can receive teaching on healing and casting our demons. Everything is free there. You can also learn directly from the free training videos produced by my mentor, Rev William Lau, the founder, and director of The Elijah Challenge.
The Three Authorities of the Church The Church has been given three authorities – Priestly Authority, Prophetic Authority and Kingly Authority. For the purpose of this article, I am going to share about the results when you apply the Kingly Authority in your life and ministry.
The Priestly And Prophetic Authority The Priestly Authority is for entering the presence of God. That is the place where we talk to God and so strictly speaking, it is not a battlefield but more like the throne room of God. The Prophetic Authority is used to minister to the people of God. It is applied after we have spent time in God’s presence. It is in this place of prayer where we apply the Priestly Authority to receive direct instructions from God for His people. Then we turn around and face the people to deliver God’s Word with the Prophetic Authority.
The Kingly Authority The Kingly Authority is different from the first two authorities as it is for spiritual warfare, attacking purposes and is confined to confronting the spiritual enemies and engaging diseases. This is primarily for invasion purposes. We do not pray or preach when we are engaging the enemies in spiritual warfare. We command the demons and diseases to leave in mighty name of Jesus. In spiritual warfare, we take on the role of a spiritual warrior and attack the domain of darkness. In the frontline engagement, whether we are healing the sick or casting out demons, we are representing the kingdom of God, coming in the mighty name of Jesus and utilizing the Kingly Authority that Jesus has given us.
Here are some of the results when we believe the promises of God and apply the Kingly Authority.
GREAT COURAGE – Like young David who faced Goliath, people who recognise their Kingly Authority have Spirit-empowered courage. Peter, who denied Christ three times, applied his Kingly Authority and he was able to confront the kingdom of darkness with unprecedented boldness. Being full of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached with great courage, confronted the spiritual forces with the Kingly Authority that produced great signs and wonders and continued to do so until his martyrdom. Today, the same Holy Spirit plays a very important role in providing divine courage to all who believe.
UNSHAKEABLE FAITH – When filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, a believer is firm and fearless in his confrontation against the demonic power. He knows his God-given authority to command and he will not request or beg the demons to come out. He is unshakeable in his faith as he takes authority over the demons and like those early ordinary disciples who came back from their mission, he can declare that even the demons submit to him in the mighty name of Jesus (Luke 10:17). In the same manner, you can exercise your God-given power and authority against all demonic activities and diseases.
DIVINE CONTROL – During the time of ministry, the Holy Spirit is in full control. He will give you a calm disposition and full control of your emotion and mental faculty. You do not need to become hysterical or behave as though you, yourself, have been possessed by an evil spirit. I have seen that happened before. The minister was inexperienced and got caught with the emotion of the situation. He was screaming and ranting, behaving worse than the one who was possessed. My mentor, Rev William Lau, has been my primary model of what a true power-packed minister is all about. During ministry, whether it be healing or deliverance, Rev William is always calm and confident. He is not pretending because he has the fullest confidence of the promises of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
TANGIBLE POWER – Jesus promised that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us (Acts 1:8). The Greek word for power is dunamis, which refers to the inherent power of the Holy Spirit residing in us to preach the Gospel with signs and wonders. This power continues to abide with us and lives within us.
On many occasions of ministry, I could feel the power of God being imparted from my body and touching the infirm. There would be a warm sensation or something that felt like an electrical current that travelled through my arms and palms. There is nothing mystical about this. Jesus, Himself, had experienced tangible power leaving Him. When the woman with the issue of blood touched Him, Jesus exclaimed, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
In most instances, the people, whom I laid hands on, were healed instantly. However, having mentioned that, we do not need to have this type of tangible feeling or sensation for the power of God to flow and heal the infirm.
INTRINSIC POWER – In a house church in Shanghai, my body was very tired after ministering the whole day. As I sat and rested on a chair, a tall young man approached me to command healing for his chronic headache. I had seen him seeking healing ministry from the other trained believers but to no avail. As I was about to stand up to lay my hand on his head, the young man asked me not to bother standing. Instead, he bowed his head to the level where I was sitting so that I could lay my hand on it. He further added that he would receive his healing from the Lord that way. What faith he had! Hence, I laid my hand on his head as he bowed low. I did not feel anything during the command for his healing. He suddenly raised his head and shouted that the pain was gone!
Another healing miracle happened in Johor, the southern state of West Malaysia. Grace and I were ministering in a Church when during the healing session, an elderly man, with a deaf ear, requested for healing ministry. We usually allowed the trained participants to do the healing but at that moment, I was passing by this man when the request was made. I simply put my finger into his ear and commanded in Mandarin, “Ear, be opened”. That was it. There was no sensation of warmth or electrifying current in my hand. Absolutely nothing. The most exciting part was that the man was instantly healed. He could hear and repeat every word when I tested him. At that time, I was so fascinated by this instant miracle that I tested him a few more times just to be sure that I was not mistaken.
These incidents only confirm the fact that the Holy Spirit’s power can work miracles with or without any intense physical sensation. The Lord had honoured the pure simple faith of this young man and healed him instantly. And in similar vein, the Lord had healed the elderly deaf man because of his faith.
The HEM Seminar is a 6-day stay-in intensive training seminar. It would resume in 2022. For further information, please contact the blogger.
Failure to Exercise Kingly Authority
Many churches today seldom apply their Kingly Authority because they have placed great emphasis upon the Priestly Authority and the Prophetic Authority. This means that churches spend a lot of time praying and preaching but hardly any time encountering the enemies.
Jesus prayed and preached much, but He also spent much time engaging the demonic forces by casting out many evil spirits and healing the sick. Therefore, to restore their ministry balance, the believers in the Church need to reach out to the community and exercise their Kingly Authority to heal the infirm and cast out demons.
These miracles and the message of the Gospel will point people to Christ. The Elijah Challenge is a ministry that focuses upon this Kingly Authority. To date, thousands of believers are able to heal the infirm and cast out demons as they exercise this Kingly Authority in the name of Jesus. The Healing Encounter Ministry (HEM) is also getting very good results. Many of those disciples who have received our training are themselves ministering with power and authority. In fact, healing the infirm and casting out demons in the mighty name of Jesus has become second nature to them. Praise the Lord for the revival of this ministry of Power Encounter.
If you need further information about The Elijah Challenge ministry please go to our website: https://theelijahchallenge.org/
Here is a video that might help you understand more about the Three Authorities of the Church.
During her teenage years, a lady became a believer after her parents got divorced. She learned about her father’s infidelity and felt betrayed. However, she found comfort in God who became her loving and perfect Father. Her cell leader taught her about forgiving her father, and she did. For twenty-plus years, she lived with that belief that she had forgiven her biological father. However, in a recent counseling session, the Holy Spirit revealed that her forgiveness for her father was done in a self-centred, condescending and judgmental manner. She was focusing on all the wrong things that her father had done instead of the love of God for her wayward father. Her forgiveness was clinical or legalistic but without true Agape love.
In fact, hidden within this sister was lots of unresolved anger. Her way of retaliation was by making a personal vow to succeed so that she and her mother would never need to depend on her father or any other men. As she grew into a young adult, she had many failed boy-girl relationships. The primary reason was because she had lost trust in men. Somehow, she got this notion that all men would behave just like her father. She vowed to take care of her mother all by herself and never allowed her mother to be bullied by another man. All these resolves had made her a very hard person. Little did she realize that she had allowed the devil to build spiritual strongholds of pride, self-idolization, self-dependence and bitterness in her life.
How A Spiritual Stronghold Is Being Built A spiritual stronghold may be referred to as a bad attitude, negative habit, harmful idea or distorted belief that has dominated one’s life to a point that one continues to make wrong choices and ungodly decisions. A stronghold often begins with an inner hurt or a disappointment that the victim has experienced. When this hurt is not quickly handed over to the Lord in “Handing-over Prayer” then after a long time it begins to grow deep roots. This discrepancy in life becomes the foundation upon which the enemy will build the stronghold. Brick by brick of misinterpreted ideas and distorted concepts will cause the wall of this stronghold to steadily rise and strengthen. For example, the sister whom I mentioned above, believed the lie that all men would be like her wayward father. As she listened and read more news about wayward husbands, her mind began to justify her misconception. What was her mistake? She had taken the “part” to become the “whole”. Her spiritual stronghold had almost become an impregnable defensive structure of justification in self-preservation.
What Does A Spiritual Stronghold Do To You? A spiritual stronghold is powerful enough to modify the way you behave and respond to normal situations. The same sister did not respond very well to suitors and even though she did like some of them. Her belief that these men would ultimately betray her had caused her to turn them away. The lie about all men being unfaithful had become such a stronghold that it was producing a deep anguish in her soul. Her ‘perception of reality’ contradicted with the ‘actual reality’ and that caused confusion within. She went through unimaginable mental stress and emotional turmoil. She was angry with herself because she did have some positive feelings for some of these men. Then she blamed her father and was very bitter about his past sins. Ultimately, she was upset with God for creating all the unfaithful men like her father. She was in a catch-22 situation – her heart desired to have a male companion or husband but that same heart distrusted men.
Is Having Spiritual Strongholds Similar To Demonization? A spiritual stronghold is more like a demonic oppression but not to the point of demonic possession. The mind, emotion, and will are being trapped by the continual bombardment of fresh lies or memories of old lies. Daily, all these negative thoughts become fodders for the human reasoning to chew upon. The enemy is working overtime to help the victim justified why he or she has the rights to be remain hurt and disappointed.
We notice that even though the victims are believers, when they are in spiritual bondage, they suffer spiritual blindness too. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this age [a reference to Satan and his demons] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” It is not just the unbelievers who are blinded by the devil but the disobedient believers are also afflicted in the same way. For example, there seems to be a persistent hindrance in preventing these people with spiritual strongholds from fully accepting the Word of God. Apart from that, they are basically blinded to the truth, facts and reality. Some actually get very angry when we try to present these to them.
Here are five practical steps that you can take to demolish all spiritual strongholds in your life:
1. Finding The Root Causes – Before you can demolish your spiritual strongholds, you have to know the the root causes of these lies. You cannot remove the strongholds with changed behavior alone, you need the power of the Holy Spirit. It is never about behavioral modification but identity transformation. First, allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the root cause of your spiritual stronghold – like the sister mentioned above, her root cause was that of rejection and insecurity. Some have strongholds because of unforgiveness and others because of hatred. Whatever it may be, hand it purposefully to Jesus in your handing-over prayer. As we have been forgiven by God for all our sins, we have to learn how to forgive those who offended or hurt us.
2. Handing-over Prayer – Handing-over prayer is a really good tool to use in forgiving the people who have hurt you. As the Holy Spirit reveals different people who hurt you, all you need to do is to surrender them to the Lord. Literally hand them over to the Lord. If the hurtful memories come back and mess up your emotion again, calm down, hand them over to Jesus again. You can do this type of prayer wherever you are and whenever you have time. For example, I do my handing-over prayer while cleaning the house, driving a car or simply relaxing. Whenever any unhappy thought comes or judgmental spirit attacks, I just whisper a prayer to hand all these to the Lord. Keep handing over until your faith and emotion catch up with your handing-over prayer.
3. Taking Every Thought Captive – Paul says that – “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). All these strongholds of harmful thoughts, when not contested, will affect your life and destiny. Watch how Jesus prevented a God-contradicting idea that was hurled at him when His own disciple, Peter, suggested that He should avoid the cross. The Bible says that Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’ ” (Matthew 16:22–23). That was a decisive and clean move. It instantly took the “crossless” thought captive. As a former military man, that temptation was tantamount to the enemy trying to establish a beachhead onshore. And Jesus used the biggest canon to blow it away.
4. Appropriating The Name of Jesus – I like to share a technique that I use when negative or angry thoughts want to take over my mind and cause me to hate or criticize someone. I declare out loud, “In The Mighty Name of Jesus!” You will notice that these words have eight syllables and it should take you less than eight seconds to declare these words. Why is this important? The reason is that when those negative thoughts come, they want to enter into your basal ganglia that is the part of your mind where you are entertaining all your hurts and disappointments. And if you do not rebuke those thoughts in eight seconds, they will become a part of your misery. When you open your mouth to take authority in the mighty name of Jesus, you bind the strong man and prevent him from pushing all these unhealthy thoughts into the region of your self-doubt, worries, inner hurts and disappointments. Immediately after your – “In The Mighty Name of Jesus!” – you are pulled back from the twilight zone of demonic influence into the present moment where the Spirit of God is. You can then immediately hand all those negative thoughts and ideas of hatred over to Jesus. [see Handing-Over Prayer),
5. Meditating Upon The Scriptures -If the feeling of anger and bitterness continue to grip your heart, it can only mean that there are still vacancies and voids in your life. Your life is not fully transformed as it may still have rebellion, immorality and corruption. The Bible says to not “give place to the devil” (Eph. 4:27). The next thing that can definitely help you will be meditating upon the Scriptures. Let God’s Word fill the voids and vacancies. Our church has prepared a series of scripture-meditation videos that are no longer than 15 minutes each. You can get started immediately by watching these free videos.
Submit yourself to the Word of God and let the presence of God saturate you. You do not resist the devil by sheer will power but by the Word of God. The more you submit to God’s Word, the lies of the devil will have no place in your heart. The devil does not like yielded disciples of Christ who humble themselves and obey the Word of God. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
A constant meditation upon the Word of God will also give you the assurance of who you are in Christ and what your real identity is in the kingdom of God. This truth alone will nullify the persistent lies of the devil which include self-doubt and self-rejection.
All spiritual strongholds can be destroyed but you need to take those drastic measures mentioned in this article so as to get rid of them. You can be victorious and live in peace, joy and blessings!Here is a helpful video for you.
For many years, I longed to have that moment when I feel that I have achieved a certain sense of “spirituality”. I had read many books and articles about personal revival, listened to many sermons about this mysterious state of well-being or spirituality. How various “spiritual giants” attained their spiritual heights through intense discipline of long prayers and meditations. With my background in Buddhism and Chinese polytheism, the emphasis on self-discipline and self-attainment appealed to me. The image of me as a holy man sitting on a mountain top in deep meditation often came to mind. It was a funny image if it wasn’t for the fact that I took it so seriously at that time. However, little did I realise that I had mistaken the intimacy with the Lord to be an activity achievable by my own self-discipline. I had adopted the dangerous philosophy of asceticism – a belief that if I really wanted to have the fullness of the spiritual life in me, I had to deny the pleasures of my body since they were often the source of my temptation. That was why Christianity became such a struggle for me. At one time, I prayed for God to remove all the women from this world because I was often tempted by them.
WORKING HARD TO BE SPIRITUAL You may be able to identify your experience with my struggle in the past. This compulsiveness may have given you a sense of direction and keep you busy. But after all these years, you may wonder whether you will ever reach this spiritual height or not. That is the reason why you tell the people around that you are far from reaching that mystical spiritual level and how you regret it. They applaud your sincere confession and humility. You feel kind of happy with your honesty and continue with your journey. However, I must burst your bubble because this self-made pilgrimage of yours will end in spiritual fatigue or burnout. You may not agree but allow me to explain.
Since the time of the early Church Fathers, many believers have sought monastic life so as to attain this mystical level of spirituality. Others have left the faith in order to try and find the answer through mystical religions. Rev. Dr. Rob Apgar-Taylor, the pastor of Grace United Church of Christ, is one of those who found his “deeper” spiritual experience in Tibetan buddhism which is taught in Kopan Monastery situated in Nepal. He said, “I have noticed a whole bunch of younger people, particularly LGBT folk but not even, also straight folk, young folk who say, ‘I used to be Christian. Now, I’m more Buddhist.’” (Source). Why is that so? Is it because the dependence of self-effort to achieve spiritual reality is more conducive than merely believing that Jesus has done it all for us? To many of us, ordinary folks, we are most probably throwing up our hands in frustration and say, “This is beyond me. I have tried my best.”
SPIRITUALITY IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE ATTAINED The truth of the matter is there is no spiritual height to attain. As long as you are struggling to achieve, struggling to accomplish, struggling to be somebody spiritual, you will soon realise that innately, within your spirit, you will become anxious and restless. In your subconscious mind, you will always be comparing, evaluating and judging whether you are better than the other brothers and sisters. You will not be fulfilled because you know the truth about your own spiritual condition. No matter, how you justify your pursuit, whether you borrow the idea from another religion or develop the idea of spirituality through what you have read, you will never be fully satisfied.
This kind of “spiritual” quest also reveals a darker desire that is embedded in the carnal or soulish self. As you know, the soulish self is self-centred, self-promoting, self-asserting, self-willed and self-reliant. Such “spiritual pursuit” is a hidden form of “humanism” in spiritual garment that focuses on the human efforts. This approach reveals a mistaken notion that is rooted in the fallacy that one would be more lovable to God when more efforts are made in all these religious activities. This endeavour may look spiritual, sound spiritual, and even feel spiritual but it is a “religious facade”.
MY DISASTROUS “SPIRITUAL ACHIEVEMENT“ I experienced it myself – there was a time when through sheer discipline, I was able to consistently perform all the “required” routine of praying long hours, fasting for 40 days, reading 40 chapters of Bible every day, etc. All these were good if my motivation of doing them was in alignment with the Holy Spirit. However, the truth is that when I had “achieved” this perceived religious standard, I became “humbly” proud. I began to compare my “spiritual” standard with those of others by contrasting my own religious routines with theirs. Whenever I met another “spiritual” believer, I would immediately judge the person in my mind – How spiritual is this person? How many chapters of the bible has he read every day? How long has he prayed daily? How many days has he fasted? How much money did he give to the poor? How many orphans has he fed. How many ministries has he served, etc.? All these revealed my deep insecurity that was further enhanced by my total misunderstanding of what praying, reading the bible and fasting are all about. At that time I really thought that I could earn spirituality and climb up to the spiritual height.
DOING VERSUS BEING Well, thankfully, you and I can avoid all these pitfalls. You may have realized that what I really desired at that time was intimacy with God. What I have learned through all these years is that firstly, we have to realise that we do not need to exhaust ourselves by trying to BE spiritual when we are already BEINGS of spirituality.
There has been too much emphasis on “DOING” that we miss out on who we really are – our “BEING”. So what is the difference? Do we not do anything any more? The difference is this – you can DO without BEING but you cannot BE without DOING. For example, if your “being” is the sun, then naturally, your “doing” is shining. Once you focus on your BEING, you will find that your DOING is an expression of that innate realization.
As a young child, I was unhappy when my father asked me to help him at his chicken rice stall. When I reached 15 years old, I willingly went to help my dad. Before, that age, I was helping my father but reluctantly. Was I still his son? Yes, of course. But a very reluctant son. What happened at 15? I suddenly realised that my father had worked so hard for the family and I, being the eldest son, should be responsible in helping him. That realization of my BEING activated my DOING and changed my attitude, values, characteristics and behaviour towards my father and my family members.
Realization Makes The Difference When you realise who you are in Christ and that you have been intimately loved by the Lord long before you have ever experienced any human love, that should blow you away. Especially when wave upon wave of love keeps coming in spite of all the sins and mistakes you have committed, then you know that you have encountered the unmerited favour of God. This grace of God, in the midst of total human failures, completely demolishes any human idea of meritocracy. Suddenly, counting your achievements and calculating your accomplishments become absolutely meaningless.
Intimacy is defined as having a close familiarity, emotional connection, experiential bonding and even a spiritual unity in a relationship. And the intimacy that all of us need is that wonderful closeness with God that is experienced only through God’s unfailing love. It is by grace alone. With God, we can be completely truthful and vulnerable. This is the truth that you and I must treasure in our hearts because it is the basis of our relationship with Him. By that same love, the Lord revealed Himself to us and became our Saviour. His “DOING” was by coming to earth, living an obedient life, dying on the cross, coming back to life through resurrection, so that we can have our “BEING’. This is our true identity as beloved children of God. Once we fully comprehend this truth, we will never need to strive to be “spiritual” but live out our “spirituality” as BELOVED CHILDREN OF GOD.
THE RESULT OF INTIMACY WITH GOD The outcome is that my “DOING” is being poured out of my “BEING” – when I pray, it is because I enjoy talking to God. When I do my “handing-over prayer”, it is because I want to have an uninterrupted time with Jesus. And moreover, I can pray like this 24/7 (“Pray continually” -1 Thessalonians 5:17). I pray both in the Spirit and with understanding because I really enjoy the fellowship with God (“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” -Ephesians 6:18). I don’t feel guilty anymore if I were to spend a shorter time in prayer or pray later in the day. It is not a chore. It is a privilege. When I read my Bible, it’s because I enjoy reading His love letters. I have nobody to impress and no achievement to accomplish. When I preach a sermon, write an article or publish a book, they are all results of the intimacy that God has granted me. It is most comforting to know that I can come to God as I am, vulnerable and weak in many ways because He is my Father. And if you are a child of God then He is also your Father. You can trust Him.
Here is short video clip (8 minutes) on Handing-over prayer that dispels the myth that we need to be goal-oriented so as to achieve a certain spiritual height when we pray:
Albert Connect 