Pastor Benjamin's Blog

Extracted from 14 Jan 2012 Arrow Service by Pastor Benjamin Lim

Meditation

“And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” (Joshua 10:14 [NKJV])

 

How many of you want to be like Joshua, whose voice God heeds? The man in this verse is Joshua, for whom God caused the sun to stand still when he spoke. We know that earlier on in his life, God told this same Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8 [NKJV]). Joshua was a meditator, a man who pondered on and muttered the Word, and my, what fruit his ministry and leadership had. God heeds the voice of the man who heeds His Word!

You see the Word of God expresses the will of God. It shows us what God is like and what His desires towards us are. When you know the will of God for you, which is exceedingly good, you begin to have faith. Don’t look at whether you have faith. You might feel that you do not have faith, but the moment you go into the Word and meditate on it, you begin to understand His will. And as you understand His will, faith comes effortlessly. The Lord gave Joshua this key of meditation that caused him to be able to lead successful campaigns against the enemies and bring the nation of Israel right into the Promised Land.

This year, like Joshua, you may be facing the unknown. You know, maybe you feel that the Lord wants you to go in a certain direction but you are not sure about how to do it. Many a times we like to ask the question, “God, what should I do? God, I feel this desire. God, I think I have this calling; I was given a word. Lord, what should I do? What should I do? What should I do?!” But when you look up back to Joshua 1:8, it says, “you shall meditate on the Word day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” You will know what to do when you meditate. As you meditate on the Word, beloved, you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

And not just success at the very end, but also success during the journey. You won’t just be the kind of person who says only at the end of the school term or of a project at work, “I now have good success. I got all A’s! The project was a success!” But the Lord wants to make your way prosperous as well. God wants you to enjoy your journey as you’re arriving at your good success. God does not wait for you to celebrate your good exam results after you finish them. God wants you to enjoy from now! Every day, every hour, God wants to make your way prosperous.

Head knowledge becomes revelation when there is meditation. You see, knowing the Word of God is not an intellectual exercise. It is an exercise of godliness. It’s about chewing, pondering and musing over His Word and letting it bring life. When there’s true revelation, there will be a revolution in your life.

The Bible says that angels heed the voice of His Word (Psalm 103:20). Angels move into action when they hear the proclamation of God’s Word. Let’s say for example, you’re supposed to make a presentation. As you’re feeling nervous, and negative and fearful thoughts are coming, say to yourself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 [NKJC]). I can do all things, not by myself, but through Christ—why? Because it is Christ who is strengthening me!

You know as you meditate like that, you find the power of God released and your thoughts begin to change. It’s not just about the replacement of negative thoughts with positive thoughts. You are replacing them with the Word of God that endures forever! The Lord says that when He sends His Word, it will accomplish what He pleases and will not return to Him void! (Isaiah 55:11)

Moreover, you are releasing grace when you meditate. In fact, Peter reminds us that grace and peace are multiplied to us, in the knowledge, not intellectual knowledge but intimate knowledge, of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:2). As this intimate knowledge of Jesus springs forth as you meditate, you are turning on the tap of heaven’s inexhaustible grace!

Meditation is not work, because it is the very thing that brings us rest. And as we meditate on Jesus and His Word this year, we shall surely enjoy and experience all that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us.

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Extracted from 20111008 Combined DARE-Arrow message by Pastor Benjamin

Live a Favour-Filled Life

You are a generation that God has raised for such a time as this. You are a generation not just for the future, but for the present – right now. God wants to use your life as a platform for His favour and power.

Daniel Chapter 1 describes the youths who were chosen to serve the king. They were “young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.” We all love the description, don’t we? We all want to be like them – flawlessly good-looking, smart, talented, and capable. But the focus here is actually WHO they are – children of Israel. Descendents of Abraham. God’s people with whom He had a covenant. That is why they were so gifted. Do you know that today, as the seed of Abraham through Christ, that is your portion as well? You are geniuses because it is in your genes! Right now, as the seed of Abraham, you are in a place of blessing, a place of wisdom, a place of gifting and a place of anointing. If as the natural seed of Abraham, these young men were so blessed, then how much more we, who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, have God’s hand of favour upon your life?

In Romans 4:13, it says “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” To be the heir of the world is to inherit the world – it is to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. It is to ace your exams and top the cohort. It is to prosper in every area of your life. This promise is ours to claim because we were born again by the blood of Jesus as the seed of Abraham to inherit this blessing.

The best part about this promise is that it is unearned and undeserved. It is ours “not… through the law, but through the righteousness of faith”. It is ours not through the law. This is so important because it takes all demand off us. We don’t inherit this promise by our performance or achievements. We claim this promise by the righteousness of faith. It is purely by believing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Being the righteousness of God in Christ goes far beyond high moral quality. When God clothed us with His robes of righteousness, He put His own nature on us, His God-like nature. This is why “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). As Christ is the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath, so are we!

As we read on in Romans 4, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect”. So don’t try to earn it. It is by your right-standing alone. When you read the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, believe that it is by your right-standing that they are yours. Believe that it is because you have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus that you are blessed coming in and blessed going out (Deuteronomy 28:6). When you go into school, you are blessed. When you leave school, you are blessed. Whether you are at youth service or on campus, you are blessed. The blessing goes with you because you are righteous! This is your inheritance!

“But pastor, I don’t feel like I’m the head and not the tail. I’m not on the mountain, I’m in the valley!”

Yes, there are times we face trials. In Daniel 3, three of the gifted young men who were serving the king faced fiery trials (literally!). But let me assure you, favour can withstand any fiery trial. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were thrown into a fiery furnace that was made seven times hotter than usual, because they refused to bow to the king’s statue. The reason they refused to compromise was that they knew who gave them their wisdom and knowledge. They knew who gave them their position. They knew that if God had carried them this far, then it would be God who would carry them through whatever was to come. And He did.

We all know how this story ends: the king stared in awe into the fire he had the three men thrown into and said, “Look! I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” This is why I say favour can withstand any fiery trial! The Son of God is with you. No fire can burn Him, and so no fire can burn you. Don’t believe the lie of the enemy that God is not with you. You may be facing a family challenge or a financial need, but you are not alone. The Fourth Man is with you. Believe that Jesus is with you, especially in the fire, and you will see the power of God released in your life! Because when Jesus is with you and for you, you win hands down.

Every test that comes, God plans to turn into a testimony. Every stumbling block in your journey, God turns into a stepping-stone for your promotion. You have a good God, beloveds. He is the God of unmerited, unearned, undeserved favour.

The wonderful thing about God pouring His favour into your life is that the good results are not for you to maintain. If it is by His grace alone that brings the blessings, then it is by that same unmerited favour that the blessings are sustained! If God gives you a good position in school, He knows how to keep you there. If God gives you good grades, He knows how to keep those grades constant. It is effortless!

Believe that you are called and set-apart to showcase the favour of God in every area of your life!

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Extracted from 20110910 Arrow message by Pastor Benjamin

Righteous and Peace

Jesus said, “Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and He will give you everything you need” (Luke 12:31 [NLT]). So what is the kingdom of God?

“Oh Pastor, is it about serving in the ministry? Is it about making a difference?” The answer would be, “No”. Let’s look at how Jesus described the kingdom. “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!’ or “See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20,21 [NKJV]). The kingdom of God is inside you! Don’t be focused on external things. I don’t mean look inwards in an introspective way to the point you become melancholic and “emo”. Paul defined it this way, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17 [NKJV]). It’s about realizing that God reigns from within you. Everything you’ll ever need in this life as a believer is all inside you.

When Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”, He meant that we should seek righteousness, peace and joy. In fact in Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. There is a double emphasis on seeking righteousness. Righteousness today for us is not out of our right doing, but in believing what He has done right for you at the cross. We today have right standing before God because Jesus gave us His righteousness.

Righteousness is a gift. It is free for you but it’s definitely a gift that you need. God doesn’t just want you to know that you’re righteous; He wants you to use this righteousness. Having the gift of righteousness is like having a quick pass into the presence of God. It is for you to enjoy a deep relationship with God. With this gift, you can come boldly into the presence of God and ask Him, for “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16 [NKJV]). And especially when you make a mistake, that is the time to use the gift, to remind yourself of it, that “Oh God, I can come before Your throne of grace because it is not right standing by my own actions, it is right standing by Jesus and what He has done for me at the cross. And therefore I can come to You and still deserve an audience.”

After righteousness comes peace. In Isaiah 32:17 [NIV], it says that “the fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” Wow! People are always looking for peace but they don’t realize that righteousness comes first, and that when you know that you have a right standing with God, then comes peace. You know, most people are not at peace because of their conscience. That’s why our conscience needs to be sprinkled with the blood. Belief in His finished work brings peace. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1 [NKJV]). When you seek after righteousness, you will have peace with God, and there will be a quietness and confidence about you unlike those who are anxious to get good things which we know only God can bless us with. And when you have peace with God, you will then have the peace of God.

One more thing about the peace of God is this: that today, God leads us through the absence or presence of peace inside us. You can feel peace because you are a spiritual being. “Pastor, I want that peace but sometimes I don’t know whether there is peace or not. Sometimes I feel like I’m not in peace, I’m in pieces!” When you’re faced with a major decision or even daily decisions and you do not know what to do, just go into the presence of God. In making decisions, it’s not about seeking the presence of peace. Seek righteousness, use righteousness, and then you’ll find that you’re flowing in the peace. Peace comes after you have been perfumed with His presence, but it is the gift of righteousness that first gives you access into His presence.

Don’t be led by your raw emotions. Don’t sit there and think and think and think and let the matter go over and over again in your mind. That’s called worrying. Worrying is meditating on man’s solution. Cast your worry on Him by meditating on God’s solution. Just enjoy God’s presence and in that wavelength of peace God will speak.

Jesus, the King of Righteousness and Peace (Hebrew 7:2), came to die for us to give us His very own righteousness and peace. The best thing we can do in response to His love for us is to use that righteous everyday to come into His presence. Let the perfume of His presence so intoxicate us with His love and so change us with His peace that when we leave from that, we leave strengthened in our hearts, less anxious and with peace in our hearts knowing what decision we ought to make. Amen!

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Extracted from 20110827 Arrow message by Pastor Benjamin

First Love

In chapter 2 and 3 of Revelations, Jesus talks to John about the seven churches and the first church that He speaks to is the church that John pastored, the church at Ephesus. The Ephesian church was planted by Apostle Paul but church history tells us that John spent many years there.

In verses 2 and 3, we see that the Ephesian church was a wonderful one – they were diligent in serving Jesus, had perseverance in their labour unto the Lord, and were wise and discerning. In fact, they say that the church of Ephesus was a very spiritual church.

And yet, we find Jesus saying this to them in the following verse, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelations 2:4). Wow, that must have been a slap to Apostle John, because he was the apostle of love and yet Jesus said to him that his church had left their first love! And this is all the more significant because this was the very first message that Jesus gave to the very first church in Revelations. They were doing very well outwardly but what matters to God is your heart.

Beloved, God wants you to hold on to your first love.

But whose love does ‘first love’ refer to?

Growing up, there were many times I heard people preaching that we shouldn’t leave our first love. Their focus was always on our love for God. “You’ve got to love God red hot!” To them, leaving your first love meant that you stopped being passionate about God. But let’s see what the Bible says about ‘first love’.

The Greek word here for ‘first love’ is ‘agapé protos’. ‘Agapé’ refers to the God-kind of love, benevolent love, love that is given by someone greater. How can we be greater to love God first? “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). ‘First love’ is God’s love for us and the Ephesians had forsaken God’s love for them.

Although we may let go of our first love, our first love never lets go of us. However, I’d like to draw an analogy this way. With my youngest son who is two years old, I am obviously the greater, older and stronger one. If I hold onto his hand, he will never fall. Although I don’t let go of him, he may however let go of me, or he may choose to grip my hand. If he doesn’t hold on, he doesn’t enjoy the walk; if he grips onto me, he walks in confidence.  In the same way, God will never let go of you. But when you let go of Him, you don’t enjoy your journey of growth because you are not flowing in the same direction that His love is leading you.

We can never be truly satisfied or contented until we feed on His love. God wants to fill your heart and your life today with His love. I’m not just talking about making Him your Saviour, I’m talking about making Him your first love, letting His love be everything.

And you are not on your own in this! Today, the Holy Spirit Himself works to fill our hearts with His love. The Holy Spirit is not here to condemn us or point out our faults.

“And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love” (Romans 5:5 [NLT])

If you feel any condemnation this day, we know from 1 John 3:20 that it is our own heart, not the Holy Spirit, which condemns us. Every time you feel unworthy and unclean, feed on the love of God for you, love that gave despite your shortcomings, and let the Holy Spirit do His work. And as you are convicted of His passion for you afresh, you find an effortless hope toward God for whatever you’re facing that will not disappoint.

Likewise in the area of temptation, fill yourself with your first love. At one point or another, all of us struggle with temptation, with a desire for the things of the world. The solution is not in running away from these temptations but in running into the arms of Daddy God. In 1 John 2:15, we see that “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Conversely, as you come back to your first love, and let yourself be soaked up in all that He did for you, the desire for the things of the world falls off like dried leaves. It is not about saying no to the temptation but it’s about saying yes to the love of God.

That’s why Jesus exhorted the Ephesians to come back to their first love. Beyond all their labour and service unto God, their perseverance, wisdom and discernment, holding on to their first love was the most important thing. Beloved, come back to your first passion, where it’s not about your love for God but God’s love for you.  And you shall find the basis and strength for every good work, and effortless victory over temptation and condemnation!

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Extracted from 20110813 Arrow message by Pastor Benjamin 

Jesus Be The Centre

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

Colossians 1:16

Through Jesus, God created everything in the heavenly realm and on earth, the things that we can see and the things that we can’t see. Everything was created through Him and for Him. In the Message Bible, it says it this way, “We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels–everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” The purpose of every creation is Jesus. We begin to understand the purpose of our life when we make Jesus the centre.

When you make Jesus the centre of your life, your studies start to have purpose. Your church life and ministry start to have purpose. Anything you do that is apart from Jesus is just plain ambition. And if it’s just human ambition, you are headed for a meaningless and empty life because Jesus, in Whom everything finds its purpose, is not in it.

As you make Jesus first in everything, God will not short-change you. When Jesus is the ultimate motivation for what you do, the natural becomes supernatural. You are no longer absorbed with self and you do not have natural priorities which lead to natural results. Instead, you will have supernatural results because God will back you up with supernatural strength and supernatural resources.

But you know what? Even in making Jesus the centre of your life, God wants you to do so not out of your human strength but in full dependence on Jesus and His finished work.

In 1 Chronicles 13-15, we find the story of David, whose desire was to bring the ark of the covenant back to Zion, to make Jesus (the true Ark) the centre of his nation. However, the first time David tried to bring the ark back, he failed. As they brought the ark back on a cart, one of David’s men, Uzzah, died because he had put out his hand to steady the ark when the oxen stumbled. ‘Uzzah’ means ‘strength’ and he represents human effort, which is based on the belief that you need to draw upon your own strength to serve or even ‘help’ God.

Instead, the Lord wants you to depend on Jesus even in making Him the centre of your life. The second time David brought back the ark, as they followed the Lord and carried the ark in the ordained way – on the shoulders of the Levites – “God helped the Levites who bore the ark.” As you cast aside human effort, you shall find that the Lord will help you.

And not just that, David this time offered sacrifices every seventh step that the ark moved forward. The sacrifices speak of Jesus’ perfect work at the cross that justified you and me, and made us righteous sons of God. As you see Jesus’ sacrifice for you, you can’t help but want to make Him the ultimate preoccupation of your life. But it is when you try hard by your own will and strength to place Jesus at the centre of your life because it is the ‘right’ thing to do, that you are bound to fail. Depend on Him and there will be the grace, especially when you find neither desire nor strength in yourself to give Jesus central place. Beloved, even the strength to make Jesus the centre of your life is from Him.

At the very end, when the music has died down and all is stripped away, what finally matters is that you have Jesus and that He has you. When He becomes everything, nothing else truly matters for He is all in all, and all hope, meaning and life are wrapped up in our beautiful Jesus.

May Jesus be the centre of our lives. Amen.

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