Sunday, 11th March 2018
Rev Daniel Poon
It’s often quite hard to take the first step of faith. In the book of Joshua, the Lord asked Joshua to tell the priests to carry the Ark and step in the Jordan River. It must’ve been such a challenge to take the first step into Jordan River, because they were stepping into the unknown, going into the unseen, which requires great faith. Our faith moves the Lord so His promise will happen, as Christians, faith is a key.
1. Not By Sight
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1 )
Why do people fear to dream? Because facts tell us we are powerless and fact always puts us down. Rev Daniel shared a miracle that through prayer, they had a house in Central Auckland with zero mortgage. But of course, when we pray, we also need to seek what is the will of the Lord? Jesus came to the world to show the Father, whoever is willing to listen, Jesus will share the truth with them, the truth that does not belong to this world, the impossible, the supernatural, the miracle, which we cannot see at first.
Clair London once said, “Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. You can’t see the future, yet you know it will come; you can’t see the air, yet you continue to breath.”
Our Heavenly Father prepares a lot of blessings for His children. People often ask why there is so much suffering in this world, Rev Daniel said he cannot answer every question, but he believes that as long as we don’t give up, at the end we will see the blessings, because our Father is good and in His heart there is always blessing, not curse. This morning the Lord is telling us that we are His children and He is our loving Father, we need to stop listening to the devil’s accusations and to believe the Lord has the best in-store for us!
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:16-17)
Elisha prayed for his servant so that he may see what Elisha saw. Rev Daniel shared that he also had a vision from God, and we should also learn to see what our leader sees, to dream what our leader dreams. We are not a church with closed door, but a church that will influence the city. God has shown Rev Daniel a vision of building a 100,000 people church, and the gospel will go out to the nations from the bottom of the world. When God’s timing come, His promise will come true.
2. By Action
“You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” (James 2:22)
Faith is not just a knowledge or a feeling, but it’s our choice of taking actions. What do we choose? To have an easy life? Or to follow the truth like Jesus did. Jesus said that He doesn’t belong to this world. We are constantly struggling about things in this world: our job, future, finance, marriage, etc. The Bible said that everything is in the Lord’s hands. When Jesus called Peter, he didn’t think much about his business or his household, but responded to Jesus’ calling by action.
Rev Daniel encouraged to keep on praying and dream with details, don’t let the devil lie to us that our Father has forgotten about us, in fact, our Father remembers everything we ask for, it’s on the way!
3. By Being Tested
“He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.” (John 6:6)
The Lord already has a plan in mind, but it’s our faith that needs to be tested to grow stronger. Jesus also tested the disciples by giving them a difficult task. When Jesus asked them to get the donkey before the Passover, they did it without doubt.
“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.” (Luke 19:29-34)
We need to step out by action and our faith must be tested. It’s easy to say, “if God ask me to do then I’ll do it”, but how many of us will say, “if my leader ask me to do then I’ll do it.” We all need to be tested and the miracle will happen.
4. By Prayer
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)
Prayer is the key in the journey of faith. However a lot of people think that when we pray, we tell the Lord what we want, and He will make it happen. It does not work like this. Rev Daniel shared with us a story, in which the Lord asked a man to push a big rock everyday, and he grew tired of pushing the rock and complained that no matter how hard he tried the rock didn’t move. The Lord responded, “I only asked you to push but I didn’t ask you to move.”
Our prayer is to ‘push’ the Lord’s promises, but it’s Him who makes the ‘move’. When we know this secrete, we will no longer feel tired, and our faith will grow stronger knowing that the Lord is in control.
In order to dream with God, we need faith, and faith is shown:
- Not by Sight
- By Action
- By Being Tested
- By Prayer
Our Father in Heaven loves us and knows our situation, He knows our every struggle about our life, our decision, our direction… everything will happen according to His timing and His will. So today, Rev Daniel drew our focus back, instead of looking at our struggles, we should really ask ourselves, ‘What God wants us to to?’ and ‘Who God wants us to be?’
In faith, nothing is impossible, have faith, and dream with God!