Entering the presence of God

Did I become a spiritual being through fasting (water intake only)? On the first day, with a dull headache, I was somewhat surprised. On the second day the ache left. All physical discomforts left by the third day. I had a bowl of vegetable soup on the second evening. By the third evening I had to break the fast by eating a light vegetarian broth. What did I learn?

I was out of practice. I had not done the exact Esther’s fast (three days no food or water/drink) for years. I assumed that because I have been practicing light weight intermittent fast I could handle the Esther’s fast. I was wrong. I had not prepared myself prior fasting. My body was not prepared to co-operate with my spirit as required. Of course I have no excuse. I would not encourage anyone to do the intensive fasting without prior preparation.

Most time I had to lie down and rest. Because I was doing this alone I did not have the corporate presence wherein the like-minded believers could worship, pray and read the Word together, encourage and motivate one another, allowing the Holy Spirit to move and quicken us.

Spiritually I did manage to watch/read many videos/books on the Holy Spirit, of men and women of faith who walked in the Spirit and lived in the Spirit. I have mentioned Kathryn Kuhlman and some other names in my previous blog, about teaching and testimonies on miracle healing. In addition, for the entire April, I was led to read and repeatedly watch Benny Hinn’s (and others’) ministries specifically on miracle healing, relationship with the Holy Spirit and entering into God’s presence. I copied down and checked through the many Bible verses quoted and explained. I meditated on them and asked the Holy Spirit to explain to me too.

The following are what I have received and believe in my own words.

The Holy Spirit is the One who delivers the healing to manifest in our body.

The Holy Spirit is the One. He is the Lord. It is the Spirit who gives life.

When the Holy Spirit moves, things change.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty from sickness.

The Holy Spirit is the One who change us to be more and more like Christ.

Without the work/power of the Holy Spirit, no healing can manifest/take place/be evident on the body. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The Father (God) sent the word and healed. The Son Jesus accomplished the Father’s healing order on the cross. The Holy Spirit delivers the healed manifestation to our body.

One powerful wakeup call that really makes me think hard is the statement that “when Jesus becomes more real than your disease, then you will get healed”. The key question is how real is Jesus to me? The Holy Spirit can bring me into the spiritual realm. When I am in the spiritual realm, Jesus becomes real to me. The emphasis is therefore to first seek God’s presence and not the healing. Be still. Wait upon the Lord is a bridge between the body and the spirit. This is how the Holy Spirit brings us into the spiritual realm:

Be still. “Be still and know that I am God.”

Wait upon the Lord. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

Worship. In Spirit and in Truth.

When we do that we could experience these (quoted): have a melody in our heart, sway (a bit), become light (like a feather), spiritual tongues become precise, and Jesus becomes more real than life.

For me, It means having a close relationship with the Holy Spirit (like your closest One) with daily communion with Him, talking and asking Him as naturally as you do with your best forever friend. At the same time because He is God (the third Person in the triune God), we reverently respect and honor Him. Because he dwells in us (our body being His Temple), we live His life, joined to Him, listened to Him, submit to Him, be transformed by the renewal of our mind, living the good and perfect will of God. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, yield to Him, cooperate with Him, let Him do His work, He is able to put to death the deeds of the flesh/body (e.g. a tumor). He changes us into the glorious image of Christ (spotless/without blemish) -we being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Prayer: Dear Lord, Holy Spirit, you have the liberty to change me, bring my body into subjection, mortify the deeds of my body, so then I may become more and more like you.

Did I become a spiritual being through intensive fasting? The answer is no. We are born again to be spiritual and the Word and the Holy Spirit makes us spiritual. The fasting sharpens our sensitivity to spiritual matters, things about God. Fasting denies the body its usual attention as scheduled. Fasting breaks a vicious circle of bodily demand. I believe personally that something broke through in the spiritual realm when the body is subdued and is required to subject to the Lord Jesus, His Spirit, His name, His Word, His presence.

Some Bible verse to meditate upon:

Exodus 15:26, Psalm 107:20, Isaiah 11:2, Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 40:31, John 6:63, 2 Corinthians 3:6, John 3:5, 1 Peter 1:23, Romans 8:16, Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 8:15, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 6:17, Romans 8:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Romans 12:2, Romans 8:26, John 14:26.

kainotes, 2023-04-30

memory of two Lents with a decade and half in between

There are those who have their own important dates fall into the Lent period. I am one of them. My conviction and conversion by the Holy Spirit was in Lent several decades ago. It was a time of both tears and joy, which words cannot express. Today I read and listened to the reading by Charles Finney on how he encountered the Holy Spirit on October 10, and remember how I too was miraculously transformed by the mercy and love of God.

I therefore borrow below excerpts of Finney’s rich account of his encounter with the supernatural God:

“There was no fire, and no light, in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary it seemed to me that I saw him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at his feet. I have always since regarded this as is most remarkable state of mind; for it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me, and I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears; and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect...

No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, “I shall die if these wavers continue to pass over me.” I said, “Lord, I cannot bear any more;” yet I had no fear of death. . . .”

“In this state I was taught the doctrine of justification by faith, as a present experience.” ~Finney 

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What are some of the things participating Christians do? Fasting, praying, giving up some of their favorite activities/food or anything that they would otherwise enjoy. Please note that the actions do not give us merit. It is not a form of exchange with God for something we want. But it does benefit us in self-disciplined and an increase in awareness and sensitivity to the matters of God.

Some believers practice Lent as a family. Instead of focusing on an expectation of the excitement of hunting for Easter eggs, why not change our focus to looking at the Lord Jesus? In mission high school days, we had an event called, watch-night, to attend a Bible reading communion service on late Maundy Thursday night, to keep vigil and watch. The chapel remained opened throughout the night for those who chose to stay awake the whole night. Very few stayed. I did try to stay as late as possible to focus on the Lord. The memory of a few tiny persons in the empty chapel with the cool night air, alone sitting there, watching and waiting for something we did not understand then, is like a scene out of some movie. If I go back in time, would I do that again? I believe I would. Whilst I did not know Him, the Lord knew me even then.

The magnificent cathedral, the mission school boarding houses, and the weekly chapel duties, the class of 67. No one at that time would have thought of what we have each become today. Is this what the verse had meant, that whilst many were called few were chosen? Looking back, I cannot recall encountering God then. And yet, walking thus far, I now realize how close God has always been! He waited fifteen years to draw me back into His fold.

καί notes, 2023-03-07

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Lent is a Christian annual period that starts on Ash Wednesday February 22 (2023) and ends on Maundy Thursday, April 6th, for 40 days (not Including Sundays) representing the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. It is practiced by some Christians, fasting and praying during the 40-day period of Lent to honor and remember the suffering of Jesus in the weeks before His death and resurrection.

Here is a list of days which signify important events in this relation:

Important Dates of Lent in 2023:

Important Dates of Lent	Brief Overview of Significance	2023 Dates
Palm Sunday	Celebrates Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem	April 2, 2023
Holy Week	The week leading up to Easter	April 2 – April 8, 2023
Maundy Thursday	Commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles	April 6, 2023
Good Friday	Commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary	April 7, 2023
Holy Saturday	Commemorates Jesus’ body resting in the tomb	April 8, 2023
Easter Sunday	Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his victory over sin and death.	April 9, 2023

2022 (a different drum beat)

“Consider not”, “Fear not”…The watchman’s list of random words and verses received chronologically this year.

3/11 Numbers 21:9 When he looked at the…he lived. (John 3:14,15; Hebrews 12:2) “Intense looking unto Jesus, fix our eyes on Jesus, abandoning all else, only He matters!”

What are you considering?” Abraham considered not his body. He did not waver at the promise of God. He was fully convinced that God was able to perform. The same applies to us too–made righteous by faith in God. (Romans 4:18-20) Sarah too. (Hebrews 11:11)

Consider this truth instead of the symptoms: God is good, powerful, faithful to perform His words. Healing is God’s love language!

4/11 Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you.” So I ask, “What is possible?” Answer: Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

5/11 How do we know God loves us? 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

6/29 read and meditated on God’s created “family” in Genesis 1-11. Last night I finished another blog on Adam’s family–Seth’s lineage. How God had to find one man in each generation to carry on the lineage of mankind until Jesus was born.

Genesis 6:3 “Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” God spoke of normal human lifespan.

7/7 Talked with the Father. he said, not to worry about tomorrow. Reading “the Power of Imagination” (Andrew Wommack) I tried to visualize God. Then I was led by the Spirit to read Romans 8, on the Life giving Spirit, the life of God in us.

8/21 (a week) It is the position of my heart, not about a technique, to have the presence of God (to see, sense, recognize). Righteousness, peace, and joy –reveal the kingdom of God inside me.

Reading Isaiah 34-49. 34:16 search from God’s book and read; 35:5-6 healing; 38:21 healed; 40:1 comforted; 40:31 strength renewed;

Isaiah 41:10

¹⁰ Fear not, for I am with you; (Fear not 41:13,14; 43:1,5; 44:2)

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Isaiah 45:11

¹¹ Thus says the Lord,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
“Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons;
And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

Isaiah 48:11

¹¹ For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.

My conversation with God: reading Isaiah 49:1-4

Isaiah 49:4

⁴ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord,
And my work with my God.’ ”

Prayer: Abba Father, please show us how to walk the next step, fearless, let Your perfect love cast out all fears!

8/28 Calm, at ease like normal living. How do I see myself? See how God see me. My value and my work in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:9 received twice for best friend. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Hebrews 10:23 ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Read healing promises: God wants you healed, Jesus is your Healer, freely receive your healing, see His grace and be healed, rest in His finished work! Hebrews 12:2 Fix your eyes on Jesus! 12:1 let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us!

8/31 Romans 5:17 ¹⁷ For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

God listens –we are listened to, because of Jesus! Hebrews 4:15-16 ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We live in the light. The light shows that the terror of darkness and chaos have no objective reality to them. Light is the fundamental reality in which we live. And God is light. We are not cursed. We are blessed. We have the light of life. (John 1:5; 8:12)

“Christian spirituality does not begin with us talking about our experience; it begins with listening to God who calls us, heals us, and forgives us.” God not only is. God speaks. I need to learn and practice listening spiritually.

Jesus says, ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

September 1-3 (three days fast and pray): read and meditate Bible verses as led by the Holy Spirit, pray in Tongues. (to continue in next blog)

Kainotes, 2022-12-31

Christmas joy: grace, grace

What greater gift than this can ever be given to mankind? Love, Joy, Peace! Grace! Grace!

Zechariah 4:7

⁷ ‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ”

Nehemiah 8:10

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

John 1:14

The Word Becomes Flesh 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:6

which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

2 John 1:3

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Acts 20:24

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

καί notes, 2022-12-24

the gift in a song: listen

https://youtu.be/0TQBujm45WQ
This is Grace | 20schemes music

A Christmas gift: Our Father which art in heaven

Here is the good gift for this time! Thinking of God as our Father in heaven. Reading the Gospels about Jesus and His Father (God) always gives an imagine of the two as Father and Son doing things together, God teaching and showing how He does things, and Jesus observing and listening with full concentration and admiration. Jesus, the Son of God was born to this earth as a human baby. He had to learn how to live His natural life on earth from His earthly parents, while simultaneously learning everything supernatural from God. The Gospels recorded Jesus speaking of God as “My Father” 56 times. And these were recorded during the short span of three and half years of Jesus’ ministry.

John recorded the most number of times. Let us read and ponder what the Lord Jesus is saying to us about God, His and our Father in heaven. We can notice the close relationship. We can also note that Jesus is telling us a lot of things about the kind of relationship God wants to develop with us as His children.

Jesus has declared that He and His Father are one. Jesus also says this of us (His believers): “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” And His Father is our Father. This is the greatest assurance today. As we are united with Christ and God, we have nothing to fear or worry about. His house is our house. His lives in us and His divine life is our real life. He does things with us, speaks to us and teaches us. He gives us all good gifts. He loves us to the extent of giving His Son to us, to redeem us so that we can return to Him and be reconciled with Him as His children. He sent His Son to purchase our life, pay for our healing and divine health too.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17

John 2:16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

John 5:43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

John 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

John 6:65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

John 8:19 Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

John 8:28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.

John 8:38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

John 8:49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.

John 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.

John 10:17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

John 10:18 No one takes it (life) from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

John 10:25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.

John 10:29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

John 10:30 “I and My Father are one.”

John 10:32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”

John 10:37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;

John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

John 14:2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:7 The Father Revealed “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

John 14:12 The Answered Prayer “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

John 14:20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

John 14:28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

John 15:1 The True Vine “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

John 15:8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

John 15:23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.

John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

John 16:10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;

John 18:11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, …‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”

2022-12-20