Jesus’ teachings on prayers (Luke 11:1-13) [Part I]

In Luke 11:1, the disciples of Jesus asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In the next 12 verses, Jesus taught about:

1. Praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4) - Lord's Prayer
2. Praying for another (Luke 11:5-10)  [covered in Part II]
3. Praying for the Holy Spirit to be given (Luke 11:11-13) [covered in Part III]


For this first part of a 3-part article on this portion of the Scripture, I going to write on the first item covered by Jesus – praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4).

Praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4)

He[Jesus] said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us each day [today] our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.' "

What we should understand:

1. First we address God.
For Jesus, naturally He addressed God as the Father. Jesus is the Son, and God is His Father. I believe we can pray to the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, or collectively, God. You can even use your own endearing terms like Abba and Father God. Some people use Lord Jesus or Almighty God.

2. Second, we honour God with our greetings.
Jesus said, “hallowed be your name”. I use “blessed be your name or blessed be the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. You may also want to thank Him for his work in the previous day/your life.

3. Third, we acknowledge God’s desires, before ours.
So I would follow Jesus’ words on this, “your kingdom comes, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

4. Now we petition for our needs.
If we look carefully at the Lord’s prayer (this is called the Lord’s prayer), we find that Jesus is trying to teach us to look at a day at a time, asking for what we need for the day. Jesus is saying, “Do not worry about tomorrow”, we just need to address this day. We are to address each day as it comes. I am quite sure many of us do not follow this. Almost all of us, and that include me, failed in this, it is not whether or not we failed but how badly we failed. God tells us not to worry (Mathew 6:34), yet almost all of us still do it. To worry is not trusting God. Another reason why we are “covering more than we should”, I believe is that we do not pray daily. And the reason for not praying daily can be one or more of these:

a. plain laziness
b. thinking you can/should handle “your life”
c. “too busy”
d. “too tired”
e. “why so troublesome”
f. so “cartoon”
g. thinking it is hypocritical

We should stop finding excuses for our failure to come before God each day.

There are different views about what “daily bread” mean in the Lord’s Prayer. Whatever the view, the daily bread is a need (not a want, and I know there are those who would like to say, “come on, our God is more generous than that, surely He grant not only our needs! That generosity is spelt out elsewhere, not here. I am also not saying you cannot tell God what you would like to have [a want]).

I also do not see anything wrong with the straightforward interpretation of daily bread as our basic needs – food, clothing and shelter. I know in Mathew 6, God asks that we do not worry about what we will eat and what we will wear, but do you know that our asking for just the daily portion is an acknowledgement on our part that God is provider. Even as we are gathering, we must always remember it is God who gives us the capacity to gather (Deuteronomy 8:17-18). If you want to interpret daily bread to mean more, like it should include His word, wisdom, “presence”, etc, I think it is fine, so long as the list represent your “needs” and not “wishes”.

5. Ask for forgiveness.
I view God’s forgiveness as a need just as I need food. We need food for physical life, forgiveness for eternal life.

I want to say that Jesus is telling us that we need to ask God for forgiveness daily (in fact every time we have sinned). Brethrens, be careful not to believe the preaching or teachings about God loving us so much that He will forgive us (Christians) whether or not we ask for forgiveness, or such things as there is not even the need for repentance since God loves us (Christians), or that we belittle the Blood of Christ when we repeatedly ask Him to forgive us.

Bible is very clear about the consequence of sin – the wage of sin is death. If I may be very blunt, it may be if we do not repent and have our sin forgiven of us, Hell we go, regardless we are a Christian. If the outcome is any different, it is because of God’s grace.

God’s Word says that there is a narrow door (Luke 13:24) for us to enter, yet, what many Christians are trying to do, instead of taking the already narrow door, is to take the chance and hope that they will squeeze through a tiny crack in the wall, greased by the grace of God.

I do not believe in auto-cleaning by the Blood of Christ. If you believe in that, you are implying that the Blood of Jesus is the license to sin. Or do you think that sin committed by you after acceptance of Jesus is any different from the same sin committed before you become a believer? Already many people are not accepting Jesus because they said Christians are so hypocritical – using the Blood of Jesus as the license to sin. So, don’t you go round propagating that Christians can sin and get away with it without even seeking forgiveness from the Lord. Please, if Jesus himself taught it, that we have to ask for forgiveness, it must be necessary; and He was not talking to non-believers, He was teaching the disciples.

I am saddened that “spiritual leaders” do not emphasize holiness and righteous living enough to the flock, and instead drop “contradicting” words/phrases here and there without proper explanations leading people to misunderstand the importance of holiness, repentance and seeking of forgiveness.

For example, a sharing about Christians loving the sinners but not the sin, if not done properly, can mislead people to think that repentance is not required.

Recently I had a first-hand encounter of this. A highly regarded preacher/pastor shared about how he continued to love a person who had sinned greatly against his son and had brought shame to his (the preacher) family. While the preacher’s love was commendable and perhaps when the sharing was done in a different context or done with more sensitivity as to avoid misinterpretation, it would have been excellent, but in this case, it was not. Subsequent to the sharing/preaching, a brethren spoke with me and reiterated that he was right about repentance being not required; he said the sharing confirmed he was correct about his interpretation of a certain parable in the Gospel, in which he said that no repentance was required.

I can agree God can work with very little, that a small step on our part can trigger a big move from God but we really have to be careful to say that God does not require repentance. I did not feel good that this brother's view had been reinforced, although I have to agree, preachers always run some risks that their messages may get misinterpreted.

If you are still not convinced that repentance is required, consider what was the mission of John the Baptist (Mathew 3:2), what were Jesus’ very first sermons about (Mathews 4:17), what Jesus said to the adulterous woman who was spared the stoning (John 8:11), and how Jesus taught about forgiveness (Luke 17:3b-4).

6. Forgive others when we want God’s forgiveness.
There are "requirements" for God’s forgiveness? I think the word “grace” has been overused, so much so that people subconsciously think that they have to do nothing! Christianity is not about doing nothing. Do not say, “It is grace-what, I do not need to do anything”.

I can name a few things you have to do for God’s forgiveness. First you have to ask, that is what Jesus said, the other is repentance, which has been touched on, above. Another is the forgiveness of others. In Mathew 6:15 it is clearly stated you need to forgive in order to receive forgiveness from God (The Lord’s Prayer is also found here – Mathew 6:9-13).

From the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mathew 18:23-35), it is clear that if you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. It is that serious, this is what verse 35 says, “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”(Mathew 18:35 KJV). [The lord of the unmerciful servant delivered the servant to the tormentors]. You can read the whole story at: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018:23-35;&version=9; [I am giving here the King James Version reference because it still retains the use of the word “tormentors”. Newer translations of the Bible tended to use “torturers” instead. We will look at this word, “tormentors” or its root word, “torment”, in a while].

I propose below the explanation for the seriousness of unforgiveness in the eyes of God:

From verse 32 of Mathew 18, we can see God equate the unwillingness to forgive with wickedness – “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee…”. Wickedness is direct contrast with holiness. God is holiness. Holiness is the most fundamental attribute of God. Wickedness is unholiness and it violates holiness, God cannot have that. Wicked people cannot enter the Kingdom of God [God cannot have Himself violated] – 1 Corinthians 6:9a (I recommend you read my writings on holiness at: ). But you might say, “What is so wicked about not forgiving someone?”. Let me explain:

When you sinned against another, say, you slandered another. What will happen to you? If the person whom you sinned against, in this case, the person you slandered, does not forgive you, that unforgiven sin of yours hinders you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven, unless you yourself ask God to forgive you directly and He forgives you (Because we do NOT know if someone we have wronged, forgives or NOT, us, the posture is always that we have to ask God for forgiveness for the wrongs or sins we have committed, in accordance to 1 John 1:9). Yah, slanderers will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven – 1 Corinthians 6:10.

If the person whom you sinned against, forgive you, the sin you committed will be forgiven by God. Not enough preachers preach about it or explain this. It ended up so many people do not clearly understand this. I did not say you have the power to forgive, Jesus said it. Jesus told the disciples when He appeared to them after his resurrection. It is recorded in John 20:23 - If you forgive anyone his sins [against you], they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Understanding this, now can you agree that you are wicked if you will not forgive another - you "are sending" him/her to hell, when in fact, you yourself are asking God to forgive you of your sin so that you are spared from having to go to hell.

[added 17/01/2011: I am aware that there is an alternative rendering to the verse, John 20:23 in which interpretation within the context of the preceding verses could mean that Jesus was speaking of the sending of the disciples, complete with the empowering (indwelling) of the Holy Spirit, to preach the good news, which is essentially is about God’s forgiveness of one’s sins through the faith in the works of the Son of God, Jesus, on the Cross. When we preach the gospel, we preach forgiveness of God (not our forgiveness) for those who believe, meaning we are agreeing with those who would believe, their sins are forgiven them. And when they are not believing, we are in effect, witnesses, to their sins are not forgiven them (their sins stay, and they stay condemned).

But I assert that the alternative rendering of John 20:23 above, is without contradicting the authority to forgive, as coming from God. When a believer forgives, the authority to forgive does come from God, for the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. In any case, it applies only to sins against us.

Furthermore, if God would ask us to forgive one another as He forgave, which is by grace, why He NOT forgive the offender if we have forgiven in the same way that He would like us to forgive - by grace.  Imagine if you have forgiven the person, God would NOT?!]

So if you do not forgive, you are wicked and what will happen to you who will not forgive. God does not forgive you either.  People without forgiveness from God, go to hell, eventually. In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant above, what happened to the wicked servant? He was given over to the tormentors, i.e. he ended up being tormented (afflicted with acute and more or less protracted suffering). Think for a moment, what happens to people who end up in hell. Yes, they get tormented. See the parallel?!

Specific to unforgiveness, is it possible that tormenting may happen in this life? Some of what I am going to say in this para. and the next, is little subjective, not (yet) fully referenced to the Word of God but I believe they are valid.

I believe in some cases, people with combinations of unforgiveness, resentment and bitterness may actually be tormented in their present lives. I believe that wicked people, including wicked Christians may not have the full covering of God (by this I mean, as Christians, by default, God always “watches over” us – using angels, the Lord’s army, Holy Spirit, even men; yes, God uses men).

When “God withdraws” (partial/complete) his covering, from say, wicked Christians, the principalities of darkness (Satan, evil spirits, etc.) know and they will attack. It is as if now they have a right to torment you.

It is like when you received God’s forgiveness, you crossed over to God’s side of the battlefield and when you refused to do the very thing that God did for you (to forgive another by grace), you have done a mutiny and the enemy knows it and comes for you. We need to understand that God’s covering for us is a grace from God.

When it is grace, it means we do not deserve it, yet He extends it to us anyway. So, He is completely justified to withdraw his covering at any time. This idea is illustrated in the Book of Jonah, God caused a vine to grow to provide Jonah with a shelter from the heat, even after he (Jonah) was unreasonably angry with God, but only to take the vine away the next day. The specific verses are Jonah 4:5-8, but you really should read the whole Book of Jonah, it is a short book.

Here, I use the words, “God withdraws” but I believe, often we are the ones who “force” the hand of God. I believe that when we read in the Bible that people were “given over” to or “delivered” to (yes, sometimes, this word is used; in fact it is used in the Parable of Unmerciful Servant above), say, the enemies or tormentors (or more modern translations, torturers), it really means God lets go, letting thing takes its course, which often in this fallen world, can be pretty awful.

A man reaps what he sows (Galations 6:7c). Romans 2:9a says, “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil”. God does not cause you to be tormented. You suffer the consequence of your sin (refusal to forgive).

Always remember God is good, yes, He does chasten but He cannot think and plan evil against you. [By way of mention, it is possible also that wicked people may still enjoy God’s covering as a result of imputed covering (that of righteous husband over wife, for e.g.) - covering accorded to them by God because of intercessions of protection by kind souls (eg. A mother’s persistent prayers of protection for her wicked son). But if they (the wicked) die unrepentant and unforgiven, hell may well be still their destination.].

So, in real life, we do find people, including Christians tormented for years but not able to receive breakthroughs, until the issues of unforgiveness, resentment and bitterness are addressed properly in their lives. Because of failure in this area, some get demonized, saddled with sicknesses that do not seem to have any cures (sickness does not go away or keep recurring), aches and pains all over, emotional instabilities, and loss of effectiveness in living normal lives.

7. The 3rd part of the 4-part verse 4, “And lead us not into temptation” is one of those difficult verses to understand.
Up until now, I really do not know how to interpret this. Even what I am saying now, may not be what you would agree, but I believe enough to think it is an acceptable interpretation.

It is difficult to interpret it on face-value because there is another verse in the Bible that put it very clearly that God does not tempt people.

James 1: 13-14:
When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Then why did Jesus ask us to ask God not to lead us into temptation. Yes, God does chasten us and test us, and the Bible explains why God does the chastening and testing. In short, it is to help us to grow and to be refined. So, it cannot be that Jesus is asking us to ask God not to chasten or test us. Also, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that we will not be tested beyond what we could bear and God will provide a way out. There is no need to pray for avoidance.

I want to submit to you that this part of the verse may simply mean “Help us not to sin”. If you look at 1st 2 parts and the 4th part of verse 4, it would look like it makes sense – in 1st 2 parts we ask God for forgiveness as we forgive others (people sinned against us, we forgive so as to NOT sin [to NOT forgive, is sin], and we ask God for forgiveness for our own sins), then we ask God to help us not to sin and deliver us from the evil one. Jesus knows human weaknesses, and when He said this, He was walking the earth with the disciples; and the Bible said this of Jesus:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy {including forgiveness for our sins} and find grace to help us in our time of need {including the time that we are tempted}. (Hebrew 4:15-16)

8. Lastly, we ask God to deliver us from the evil one.
The evil one here can be simply evil men or principalities of darkness (Satan and evil spirits). The latter often perpetuates their evil schemes or plans through evil men. I often plead with God to hold onto me, not to let go of my hand even if I slip and fall, even as I want to “hold the hand that holds the world”.


God, may you help me to put into practice what you have shown me,

Anthony Chia, high.expressions - to practise what God has shown is high expression unto Him

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com.
Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

More of “O”, less of “I”

Phil 2:4 NIV: Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

The word son is spelt as s-O-n whereas the word sin is spelt as s-I-n. Herein lies the attitude that we should all try to have more – think of others more and less of ourselves.

The Son of God, Jesus has the welfare of others in mind when he walked on the earth. Sin, on the other hand, is almost always about “I” – what I want, what I can benefit, how I can be gratified, how I can have the upper hand, how I can be number one, how I can be richer, mightier, stronger, why am I not the leader, the CEO, the President, why am I not the award winner, why must I give in, why must I forgive, why must I share, why must I let go, where is the honour and prestige I am supposed to have, where is the big house and car that I am supposed to enjoy, where is the power that I am supposed to have, to do what I want. “I” also speaks this way, I am rich what, I am smart, I am gifted, I am strong what, I have many supporters, what can they do to me, I can never be caught, nobody will know, what. It may come as a surprise to you, “I” also speaks this way, I am too poor, I am too stupid what, I am too weak, I am not loved, I have no supporter at all, they will all laugh at me, they are all going to eat me up, it is no use and I might as well give up.

So when you make “I” very big, you are going to attract temptations of all kinds of sin – covetousness, love of money, self-centredness, pervertibility, pride, haughtiness, unforgiveness, oppressiveness, wickedness, lawlessness, poor self-image (does not glorify God), sexual immorality, anger and suicide.

One of the practical ways to counter selfishness is given by Hebrew 10:25 –

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Firstly, we must gather often. A Christian is not meant to live alone. Go to church, go to a home cell, gather with other fellow Christians.

Secondly, when you gather, consciously, try to replace the “I” with “O” often. It defeats the purpose of gathering, if you are going to emphasize “I” all the times (It is not to say you should not address the struggles that you are having or it is wrong for you to want others to pray or help you. In fact, sometimes and in some struggles you really need others to help you for breakthroughs). Putting on the “O” as in Son means having the heart of Jesus, have the welfare of others at heart and encourage others. Often people go to a gathering/meeting only when they have needs. When their needs had been met or currently they have no needs, they will not go anymore. Or some people would stop going to regular gatherings/meetings because they feel they are not benefiting from the gathering/meetings. At times, this is very sad when such attitude comes from supposedly matured Christians and for regular gatherings/meetings which require help from more mature Christians. If we are indeed more mature, we should ask ourselves whether or not it is time for us to serve and help others, instead of leaving a group because we think we are not benefitting from the group, especially we think more can be done to improve the sessions of the gathering. If you do not need an encouragement in the gathering/meeting, encourage somebody who needs it, since God already has encouraged you by letting you to come to a state of not needing an encouragement. By consciously replacing the “I” with “O”, you keep sin at bay. On the other hand, if you emphasize “I”, temptations of sin come clinging to you, and when you commit sin for more times, you will get more and more dull to holiness, your heart will get more and more hardened.

Can you encourage one another without physical meetings? Yes, but it is much more effective if the people concerned have met before. I know physical gathering takes up more time. But making time for others is, replacing “I” with “O”, so please make time.


Just made time, so that you may be encouraged.
Anthony Chia

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com
Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

Be holy because I am holy

Can we ever be holy?
What does it mean, practically?
What must we do?

Way of Holiness
Isaiah 35:8a - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
I have expounded this on my blog entry:  Way of Holiness - The Way of the Lord. I encourage you to read this entry to appreciate why holiness is so important.

I will just summarise the key reasons for holiness:
1. God is holy and unholy cannot be with holy
2. When we are holy, God will receive us
3. Without holiness , you will not see God

Can we ever be holy?
1 Peter 1:14-16 - As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he[the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

I believe that many things are always, either right or wrong, i.e. one way or the other, no two ways about them. For example, for Christians, you cannot worship another god beside the Lord God Almighty.

On the other hand, there are few things that can be viewed in a spectrum kind of way (although, it may be possible to break down the thing into all its components and look at each and every component individually, to decide whether it is right or wrong). Holiness, for example, is one of them. You can view holiness from a scale of say, 0 to 10; where 10 is the holiness of God, perfect holiness. This being the case, one may be tempted to say that it would be alright to score 2, and be contented with that. But for any endeavour, if 10 is the perfect score, would 2 do, especially, if you are going to be contented with that? Where will it lead you to? Another may ask, then can I ever achieve 10 for holiness? For that matter, is it possible for man to achieve any holiness?

I believe if it is not possible for man to achieve any degree of holiness, God would not ask it. I also do not believe once you accepted Jesus as the Saviour, you straightway become holy to the degree of 10 and remain so, all the time, kind of auto-refreshing by Jesus. I accept the holiness of Jesus is 10, and the suggestion that on imputation of Jesus’ holiness upon a person, the degree of holiness imputed is to the degree of 10; but I do not believe the state remains at 10 without maintenance. I can accept that each time all your sins are forgiven you and you are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, your holiness can reach 10, by virtue of the imputed holiness of Jesus but that holiness can fall. Does that then mean, it is not our business or our fault if we are not having a high score? No, God said “Be holy, because I am holy”. That means we are accountable.

What does it mean, practically?
The next gives us the big picture:
2 Cor 6:16 - 2 Cor 7:1
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Cor 7:1 - Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

From the above text, we can see God promised to be our God and Father, and be with us, and we, be His people and children on the conditions (v17) that we stay off unrighteousness (be separate from the unbelievers or be no longer of the world, and “touch” no unclean thing), and to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to the body and spirited soul, in our perfecting of holiness in the fear of God (KJV uses "fear of God", instead of "reverence for God").  We need to stay off unrighteousness, and we need to have ourselves cleansed of contamination to our body and spirited soul.

The Apostle Paul was urging us to perfect holiness.  So, we must try to remain in the high end of the spectrum with an eye for perfection, i.e.  stay high and aim for 10.  Ask Jesus for forgiveness, each time we faltered, try again and try harder, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  One important difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the former has the Holy Spirit while the latter does not.   I think the more holy you get, the more sensitive to the Holy Spirit you become, and the easier you get a conviction that something is not holy.  But be careful not to hide under the excuse of “I did not feel any conviction” and refuse to repent and leave an unholy situation.  Very often, it is not that you did not feel any conviction but it was that you ignored it when it first came to you.  Believe me, when you did that for another time or two, often you would no longer think the particular situation was wrong; you have numbed your conscience.

Grow, you must
Recently, an itinerant preacher of many years said a very important thing to me, he said that God can even use a person with poor spiritual state to do his work but for continual moves in the Spirit for the Lord, the person must grow. I think he hit the nail right on the head. Jesus came into our lives when we were yet sinners – in poor spiritual state.

Also, from time to time we heard of or even witnessed isolated but unmistakable moves of God through certain individuals (God worked through them) when such persons apparently were not “very righteous”. I think in many cases, such moves remained isolated (i.e. God did not move through the individuals anymore or on a consistent basis) because the individuals did not grow in the areas that God expects.

Holiness is one area, I believe we must grow. That we are not yet perfect, God knows, but Paul is right to say that we are to perfect holiness. I now believe that if we want God to use us consistently in supernatural work (in particular), we have to be perfecting holiness. A person who “does” supernatural work consistently, bears the name of God all over him, do you think an unholy man will be allowed to be the bearer of the name of the holy God?

Also, God does allow us to go through situations which we may not like, to cause us to grow, including in the area of holiness. Hebrews 12:10 - Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

What must we do?
Firstly, we need to understand what falls under the area of holiness. Secondly, we need to know how we could get defiled and guard those gates. So, there will be a 3rd article on this subject of holiness.

For now, let us “chew” on this subject. For a Christian, I am saying there is no-auto refreshing of holiness. If you faltered, repent, get refreshed, try harder to stay holy with the help of the Holy Spirit. God expects us to grow but not necessarily expecting that you have arrived (we all grow at different rates and are at different stages of our growth, God may expect more from certain individuals, but the same is not expected of you, at least not yet). But do not take the grace of God for granted. Do not give up trying either, that is what the Devil wants you to do. You are on the way of Holiness, do not let anyone or anything get you off the highway. If you are not yet a Christian, you need to be one before you can travel on this Way. Talk to a Christian on how to know Jesus.


Not that I have achieved perfection, but that we may all learn and press on (Phil 3:14),
Anthony Chia, high.expressions - perfecting holiness is a high expression to God

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @high.expressions@gmail.com. Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

Way of Holiness - The Way of the Lord

Holiness - fundamental nature attribute of God
What is the most fundamental nature attribute of God?
I believe it is holiness.

In the Book of Revelation, last book of the Bible, John, the author, was taken up and brought before God in His throne room in Heaven. This is what he said he saw, “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle” (Rev 4:6b-7).

What were the creatures doing, day and night, before God? In verse 8, we read, Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

To me, this painted to us, holiness is one of, if not, the most fundamental nature attribute of God. Just imagine, day and night the creatures never stop saying the words, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah witnessed the same
In Isaiah Chapter 6, this is what we read,
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:1-3)”

Although, in this case, it may not be in Heaven, all the same, when God is on His throne, the creatures are there saying the same thing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord [God] Almighty”.

Woe to me!
How then must we respond to this knowledge?
Isaiah’s cry gave us the clue. This is his (Isaiah) cry,

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (Isaiah 6:5)”

What happened afterward was this:
“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (Isaiah 6:7)”

[It is interesting to note that before Jesus became the Atonement by dying on the cross, during the time of Isaiah, guilt could be taken away and sin atoned for, in this way. In our time, it is best to leave any other way apart from the atonement by Christ, Jesus, to the prerogative and sovereignty of God.]

Revelation changes life
This revelation changed Isaiah’s life. With this encounter, God commissioned Isaiah as one of the most important prophets of Old Testament times. Isaiah also went on to prophesize about the Messiah (Isaiah 53 for example).

Way of Holiness
I believe Isaiah also prophesized to us the way of the Redeemed of the Lord. This is found in Isaiah 35:8-10

And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it. [a]

No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,

and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

a. Isaiah 35:8 Or / the simple will not stray from it

It is interesting to see what, some of the Bible scholars said concerning the verses:

Wesley's Notes
A way - The high - way and the way are not to be taken for two different ways, but for one and the same way, even a cause[wa]y, which is raised ground, and a way.  Holiness - The people (walking in it) shall be all righteous.  For those - But this way shall be appropriated to those persons above - mentioned [earlier verses]; the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save. Though fools - The way shall be so plain and strait[straight?], that even the most foolish travellers cannot easily mistake it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
highway-such a causeway (raised way, from a Hebrew root, "to cast up") as was used for the march of armies; valleys being filled up, hills and other obstructions removed (Isa 62:10; compare Isa 40:3, 4).

way of holiness-Hebraism for "the holy way." Horsley translates, "the way of the Holy One;" but the words that follow, and Isa 35:10, show it is the way leading the redeemed back to Jerusalem, both the literal and the heavenly (Isa 52:1; Joe 3:17; Re 21:27); still Christ at His coming again shall be the Leader on the way, for which reason it is called, "The way of the Lord" (Isa 40:3; Mal 3:1).

Mathew Henry's Concise Commentary
The way of holiness is the way of God's commandment; it is the good old way. And the way to heaven is a plain way. Those knowing but little, and unlearned, shall be kept from missing the road. It shall be a safe way; nothing can do them any real hurt. Christ, the way to God, shall be clearly made known; and the way of a believer's duty shall be plainly marked out. Let us then go forward cheerfully, assured that the end of this way shall be everlasting joy, and rest for the soul.

This is how I view the Way of Holiness
1. I do not think the word “Holiness” is just a name, i.e. it is not just to name the way. Rather, it tells of how the way is to be, i.e. the way is about holiness.
2. It is the way of the Redeemed of the Lord, i.e. the way of the Redeemed is holiness.
3. It is the way travelled by the Redeemed of the Lord. The unclean do not journey on this way. Neither do the lion or ferocious beast (you can call them, the principalities of darkness) travel on it.
4. Even the simple can journey on it. Everyone just need to (& must) follow Jesus who is the Leader on this highway.
5. Even though the unclean, the lion, the ferocious beast do not journey on this highway, they are trying to get you off the highway.
6. The destination of this highway is the Kingdom of God in Heaven, the New Jerusalem, the everlasting joy.


Holiness is reiterated in New Testament
1 Peter 1:14-16
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he [the Lord] who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

What are “these promises”? The preceding verses tell us that if we separate ourselves from wickedness, from darkness, and from idolatry, God will receive us, and God will be a Father to us and we will be his children.

Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:10
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

Conclusion
Are you journeying on this highway – Way of Holiness? If you are redeemed, you ought to be on this highway. If you have not accepted the Lord as your personal Lord and Saviour, you need to do that first before you can get onto this highway. Talk to a Christian if you have not yet accepted Jesus into your life. Do not let anyone or anything get you off the highway. Always remember, God said, “Be holy, because I am holy”.


Reverently,
Anthony Chia, high.expressions – Not that I have arrived, but that we may encourage each other to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14). In fact, Lord, help me to be holy as you are holy.

PS1: How come this article is here? I believe the practice of holiness is a high expression to God. If it is in the will of the Father, maybe I will write more on this subject in the future.

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com.  Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

God also exercises faith!

Whilst writing on another topic, I sensed that the Lord is giving me the revelation that God also exercises faith in us, even as He asks faith from us.

God expects faith from us
Firstly, we must accept that God does expect faith from us. The word of God is very clear that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Abraham was justified by faith. "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Rom 4:3).

Abraham’s exercise of faith: By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him[God] faithful who had made the promise (Heb 11:11). By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." (Heb 11:17-18) Abraham believed that God knew what He was doing, and that if God so desired, He could provide His own sacrificial animal, in place of Isaac; but even if he indeed had to sacrifice Isaac, he was willing.

David - the man after God's heart
Why do I say God also exercises faith?

King David is so well known to many of us because of these verses in the Bible:
1 Sam 13:13-14 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said [of King Saul]. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command." (NIV)
Acts 13:22b 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (NIV) or 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.' (NKJ)

There are 2 interesting points to note:

1. It is quite obvious that God implied obeying His commands as one of the reasons David was a man after His own heart, especially if we look at the circumstances (1 Sam 13:13-14) in which God first said David was a man after His own heart.

2. If you look at the timing of the declaration, God did not say David was a man after His heart at the end of his life. I do not think the declaration was an after the fact statement. i.e God did not say this, after witnessing the entire life of David. I think it is likely to be along the following lines:
God had watched David from young, even as a shepherd boy, as a young man and then "by faith" He said David is a man after His heart and would do everything He would want him to do (NIV) or would do all His will (NKJ).

We will return to King David’s story a little later. Now let us look at another character in the Bible.

Job - the man who refused to curse God
If we look at the case of Job, who suffered greatly at the hand of Satan with the consent of God, we will find God’s expression of faith in another man at a stage in the man’s life and not at the end of his life. This is what is written of Job before Satan started testing him:
Job 1:1-2 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

You can read the entire story of Job in the Book of Job but it suffices here to say that progressively Job lost almost everything – he lost his flock, his riches, all his children, finally his health. His friends accused him of wrongdoings, his wife told him to curse God and die. Job hung on and refused to curse God, and eventually God more than restored him (except for the children, doubled the rest).

The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years. (Job 42:12-17).

The interesting thing here is that either Satan was stupid or there was a real challenge/wager. Satan surely would be stupid to challenge God if he knew for a fact that God would influence Job (his volition) in his reactions to the tests that he(Satan) threw at Job. Satan would be equally stupid to challenge if he knew God already knew the outcome. I believe that God trusted Job for the outcome; it was NOT the outcome was already fixed, and so, correctly, God did NOT know. If God had known the outcome, I believe Satan would have known. If you believe Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18 refer to Satan, you would agree that Satan was not stupid. I believe God exercised faith in Job – God believed in Job. Satan challenged God’s faith in Job. God took the risk.

Had Job caved in and cursed God, God would have been shamed. But God’s faith was not misplaced.

Satan still challenging God's faith in men
I believe Satan did not stop challenging God’s faith in men. Take King David, for example, God said David was a man after His own heart before David was made the King after King Saul. David did face many tests and challenges in his life, subsequently, and in some of which, he did falter. Indeed, it was an expression of God’s faith in David (and NOT an after the fact statement) when God told Samuel that David was a man after His own heart and would be made the next King, replacing King Saul, because we know from the Bible, King David did falter a number of times in his life when he was tempted.

King David was a man after God’s heart yet he broke NOT one or two but 3 of the 10 commandments of God at "one go" when he (1) coveted another man’s wife, (2) slept with her and (3) planned the death of the woman’s husband (You can read the full story in 2 Sam 11:1-26). This is just one of the occasions that King David had faltered. There are others. Although there was no direct wager between God and Satan in this instance (unlike the case with Job), I believe God was “shamed”, and rightly, the Bible recorded in 2 Sam 11:26 that what David did, did displease God.

Interestingly, God still allowed the inclusion of “David, a man after His own heart”, in the New Testament, in the Books of Acts. We need to study more into the life of David to see what David did right that God still held him in honours. One thing we can conclude here is that God does not necessarily write off a person just because he faltered. We should all take heart in this.

God - not poor judge of characters
When we look at King David, and we have looked at a bit of his life above, what are we to say; God has a poor judgement of character? God can be wrong? No, to me I believe it only goes to show 2 things:

1. God did not create us as robots, preprogrammed us to act in a particular and exact manner. Instead God created us with a free will (volition), a will to obey him, to resist temptations, etc

2. God does not control every of our moves, even though He can control them. In this regard, I cannot agree with people who said that since God already know what they would do in the future and yet He still allowed them to be saved by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, they would surely enter the Kingdom of God when Jesus returns, no matter what sin(s) they had committed (since accepting Jesus) and are unrepentant of it/them. The fact is that a Christian can still choose to sin. I think it goes against the very basic reason for Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, if we say that sins after accepting Jesus do not lead to eternal death (which is living in Hell). The word of God is very clear that the wages of sin is [eternal] death (Rom 6:23). That is why Paul emphasized that we [after accepting Christ] cannot let sin reigns in our mortal body so that we obey its evil desires. (Rom 6:12). Nowhere in the Bible is it said that sin committed after accepting Jesus as the Lord and Saviour is any different from the same sin committed before accepting Jesus, nor is the consequence of sin said to be different.

No auto-wipe
Some believed that the blood of Jesus is so powerful that it auto-wipes all sins, the moment they were committed. So according to this school of thought, you would never be caught on the “wrong side”, whenever you die, you die righteous. According to the advocates, to look at the power of the blood of Jesus any differently is to belittle the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. To me, if this were the case, why would there be any need to talk about so many other things in the New Testament Bible; and that would include Jesus himself, who talked about so many other things. If this were the case, the New Testament Bible should only need to tell about the death and resurrection of Jesus (3 pages would be more than enough!), and then Jesus would be a license to sin – just accept Jesus and then do whatever you want.

But God is faithful to forgive
I believe it should rather be, accepting Jesus will clear you of the Original Sin (of and from Adam and Eve) and all your sins committed up to the point of accepting Jesus, and then thereafter, you have to do your utmost, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live a righteous life. When you falter, and sin, you repent and ask for forgiveness (no auto-clean but God is faithful to forgive [1 John 1:9]), and you resume (your walk with the Lord). If you falter again, you repent again and ask for forgiveness and try harder to walk straight. In this journey, God is expressing faith in you. So if you are faithful in the things that God has laid upon your heart to do, God’s faith in you is NOT profaned. He trusts that you will be dependable when He has a task for you to complete (but you can still choose not to do it). Or if you have been consistently careful to obey God’s commands, His faith in you that you will not sin, when tempted, is NOT profaned (but you can still disappoint Him if you choose to sin by giving in to the temptation).

It's a journey
The journey is a moulding process, and when taken correctly by us, will purify us, make us spotless and refined. 1 Pet 1:6b – 7 - though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

In conclusion, I want to say God is prepared to have faith in us or trust us, prepared to lose “fights” here and there (because we faltered, not Him), faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9), and He will destroy Satan, ultimately. I hope this writing will remain in the heart of readers so that the next time, he/she is about do something he/she knows is a sin or against God’s will, he/she will recall that God is trusting him/her to do the right thing. Does this article strike a chord in your heart? Is this a revelation to you, that God is exercising faith in you - one who may falter? Are you doing likewise, exercising faith in God who never falter? Are you not trusting God enough? Pray and tell God, you now understand and thank Him for exercising faith in you or trusting you. Tell Him that you want to trust Him more, and continue the race to win the prize (Phil 3:14).

Run to win,
Anthony Chia, high.expressions  – Eternality is more important

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me at: high.expressions@gmail.com. Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

A special Resurrection Sunday indeed

Readers, I trust that you have had a blessed Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Indeed this 2009's Resurrection Sunday had been a special one for me.

I serve as an altar minister in my church, a good spirit-filled church. For some months now, I have been moving in the gift of words of knowledge and prophesy. I also regularly prayed for the sick in altar ministry. I believe that last Sunday, at a 10.30am service, the Lord had broken new ground with me in using me in these areas of ministry.

I believe this was the first time the Lord gave a word of knowledge to me upon "contact" with people. Previously, only under “instructed scenario” in group setting, did I ever receive words of knowledge in close contact with one another. I had been receiving regularly words of knowledge for people without "close contact". For example, I would receive words for members of church congregation before services, during services and between services, always with me referencing the congregation as a whole. Of course, the words would apply to particular people in the congregation. What happened in this particular instance was that when I re-entered the sanctuary after an earlier service which I had also attended, I stopped to talk with a lady - the mother of a little girl whom, on a previous occasion I have had the chance to minister to. There was still follow-up ministry to be done in relation to the little girl. During the short conversation about the status of appointment fixing through the church, I suddenly felt an unmistakable pain sensation on my back. It came for a brief moment, and when I acknowledged in my heart that it was a word of knowledge from the Lord, it left. The praise and worship had started during the conversation, so we stopped and I walked to my usual seat in the front of the sanctuary. I started to sing and then a thought just came into me that the word was for the lady I talked to, in addition to it being applicable for other people in the congregation. I walked back over to the lady, who was at an aisle seat, and asked her if she had a backache. She answered immediately that she had the backache for several years now. I then told her that she should go out to the altar area for prayer later, in the service's usual time allotted for ministry time after the release of words of knowledge by those used by God in this area.

For this particular service, I also received other words of knowledge for healing conditions. I had words on hip pain, knee pain as well as "pain" in the thigh (on the "inside"). Just that you might know, for my case, often the words of knowledge come in the form of sensations on my body, sometimes in the form of pain, sometimes in other forms of sensations. For example, I received the distinct hip pain sensation after the earlier service (8.30am service), just after I left the sanctuary to get a hot drink at the church's hospitality corner. I received it while walking to the hospitality corner, and when I acknowledged it, it was gone by the time I reached the coffee table. I thought in my heart I must release these words and expected God to move. I was excited. Whenever, the Lord did a new thing I would be excited. Perhaps, in another entry, I would talk a little about the attitude of a servant in moving in the Spirit.

In this spirit-filled church where the Senior Pastor endeavours not to quench the moves of the Holy Spirit, we typically would have praise and worship followed by a time for release of words of knowledge and prophesy under the discernment of the church leadership, and then as the members of the congregation respond to the words and come down to the altar area, pastors and altar ministers would minister to those who come forward. However, for this particular service, to my great disappointment, no time was given for the release of words of knowledge (The reason was our invited speaker had asked for more time and that in this particular service, a team was going out for a short-term mission trip and the church would like the congregation to pray for the team). I felt "stranded". Of course, such situations where I received words of knowledge but without the chance to release them, happened before, and at times, I would let the words went unreleased after talking with the Lord (Maybe, in another entry I will talk about this a bit more). But this time I just felt I could not let it be.

But I could not disrupt the service, you should know I was not a pastor or a staff of the church. I was just a member, used by the Lord regularly in these particular works. I was and is still very thankful for the church leadership, especially the Senior Pastor of the church, for believing in me and "risked it" with me, especially in the initial weeks that the Lord had used me in these areas. I had 2 choices, one was to just let it go, the other was to stay until the end of the service and wait for an altar ministry time, hopefully, at the end of service, which was reasonable to expect since it happened in the other two services that I attended for this particular invited speaker.

What do you know! This particular Resurrection Sunday was also my birthday; yes, this year my birthday coincided with Resurrection Sunday. My elder sister had earlier confirmed with me that she had arranged to celebrate my birthday with a lunch at a restaurant. This lunch would have my mother and my siblings and their families attending, also my children too. I told her I would be done by 11.30 am in the morning as I expected words of knowledge and ministry time after praise and worship which typically would end by that time. My children were already waiting outside since 11.00am (they finished serving in Sunday School of the church). So, if I wanted to stay behind and wait for the end of service altar ministry, I would have to firstly get my children to wait for another 1 1/2 hours, secondly tell my sister that I could not meet her at 11.30am to go to the restaurant (without meeting her, I would not know where the restaurant was. I only knew it was at Joo Chiat, on the east, far away from the church), and thirdly I would have to sit through the same Resurrection "testimony sermon" for a third time (Mind you, sometimes, even pastors did not want to do that). On top of that my cell-phone had gone flat on me, which meant I would have problem communicating with my siblings after service. The other alternative was to choose the first option, i.e. to let it be and leave for my birthday lunch. But that would mean I would not get to see to the conclusion, the new thing I believed that the Lord was doing. In addition, I had already suggested to the lady I talked to, earlier, to go out for prayer.

By now I have already learnt that, at times, when the Lord wants to use us for some tasks, it would not necessarily be the most convenient time for us, or that we would be in the best of mood to serve (Maybe, more of this, in another entry, in future). I chose to stay. I went out of the sanctuary for a brief moment, just to tell my children who were waiting outside the sanctuary and made a final phone call before the phone battery went flat on me, to my sister to tell her that I could only leave after the service, probably after 12.30pm. She was protesting, but I told her I could not talk, and went back into the sanctuary.

At about 12.00 noon, when I felt the speaker was about to end her message with an altar call, I approached my Senior Pastor and told him that I have had words of knowledge that I had to release.

I did get the chance to release the words to the congregation. As soon as I finished releasing the words, people started queueing in front of me for prayers. At the corner of my eyes, I could see many people have come forward on my left side for prayer, and there were ministers praying for them. I prayed for the people in front of me, one after another. After praying for 2 or 3 people, I realised there were more still waiting for me to pray for them. I was thinking then that I must pray for the lady I talked to, earlier but she was too far on the left and when I looked to the left, I could see so many people (people who came forward for prayer) blocking my view; I could not see her; and there were still people in front of me waiting for me to pray for them. I reached into my pocket for my bottle of anointing oil.

A week earlier, while waiting upon the Lord in my quiet time with the Lord, I believed the Lord wanted me to minister sometimes with anointing oil. I went into action and search for a suitable bottle for putting the oil in. Subsequently during the week leading to Good Friday, I bought a bottle of olive oil and prepared the anointing oil which I carried in my pocket. I remembered praying to the Lord to anoint the oil for use.

This was the first time I used anointing oil to pray for people. With the anointing oil I prayed on, for more and more people. For some of the people I prayed for, I could feel heat when I laid my hands on their foreheads. For some, I could see them swayed a little back and fro under the power of the Spirit, although none of them were slained. It might as well, because there were no "catchers" for the people I was praying for (Sometimes, this happened, but often we would have catchers). Some of them had tears running down their eyes when the Spirit ministered to them. I prayed for the lady I talked to, earlier, last. She told me that while she was waiting for me, she could feel a weight had left her. And when I was finally with her and talked with her before praying, she said she could feel "an air" between us. I believed that, that was the Spirit's presence. This was after about an hour of ministering/praying for people. I could not believe it, time flew, and later when I tried to recall the number of people that I had prayed for, I could remember at least 7 people. I knew I could not remember a few I prayed for, especially the first few. So all in all, I could have prayed for maybe 10 or so people in that period of time. All the people I prayed for, as far as I could remember, had one or more of the conditions I released words for; and all the conditions released were accounted for. I marvelled at the conviction of the Holy Spirit that came with the release of the words of knowledge. 10 or so people, were only those whom I prayed for, there were many more who were being prayed for on my left and on my right by other ministers. The faith of the people who came forward were strong, imagine, some of them waited for more than half an hour if not more before they got their turns to be prayed by me. 2 ladies I prayed for, actually waited, not for themselves but for someone else, i.e. they stood as proxies for others - one was for her mother, another for a friend - a church member who was not at the service. One person I prayed for, was a lady I prayed for, a couple of months ago at a "Matthew and Friends" party (an outreach party). She was the interpreter for the outreach. She told me before I started praying for her hip pain, that her tearing eye condition which I prayed for her at the outreach party, never came back since that night I prayed for her. There was another lady, she had bad knees. By being able to walk as soon as she got up from a sitting position, which was something she could not do previously, I believe she had been healed. I told her that she must thereafter believe and behave like what she had just done twice, got up and confidently just walked. I look forward to hearing testimonies from the people who have been ministered.

I finished at about 1.00 pm, and right about that time a sister of mine came into the sanctuary and said that she had come to guide me to the restaurant. And so, I drove to the restaurant, following behind her car, and got to the restaurant quickly. Perhaps, a few at the lunch were a little upset but I told them I had no choice, God came first. We had a good meal.

If you are a pastor reading this, please pardon me if you feel what had happened/written here are too minor to talk about; I am no pastor and value the privilege and honour of being used by God in this manner, and believe that if I am faithful to my duty, greater things will He enable me to do for His glory. Perhaps, this write-up would either encourage some brothers and sisters or give some understanding to them regarding how God might choose to minister and that God could use them too. To God be the glory.

In His Service,
Anthony Chia, high.expressions

To hear the actual words of knowledge:
First, click on the player once, to "lock it" in.
Then click on the play button (twice).


Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: ... {click on it to reveal complete address}
Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.

What is high.expressions all about?

Yah, What is high.expressions all about?
What is this blog for?

high.expressions is first of all about expressions.
What is an expression?
The adopted meaning here is the outward manifestation of a disposition.
For example, my tears are an expression of my grief.
It follows then, making music, singing, reciting psalms and hymns, dancing, clapping of hands are expressions.
So are words of encouragement, rebuke, even chastisement.
It will also include words of knowledge and prophesy. Even testimonies glorifying God.

Does it not then, also include vulgarities, condemnation and the likes?
Yes, but these are excluded here because we are interested only in high expressions.

By high I mean, exalted in rank, station, eminence, etc.; of exalted character or quality; pure, praiseworthy; even noble, sacrificial;

This is a Christian blog, so high.expressions is about our high expressions to the Lord and/or His, to us. For example, our sincere praise and worship weekly unto the Lord is one of our high expressions to the Lord; and the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ on the cross is one, if not, the highest expression of God's love for man. Also, God's dealings with man is in itself, God's high.expressions.

Although I might allow anything concerning the Christian faith to be expressed here, I am starting this blog with the hope of having more writings of the high.expressions made here. I am not sure myself how much of what I will write on this blog would fall under high.expressions proper, I will leave it to... (you know who!).

What if "out of topic" issues are written here. Well, I get to decide what will stay on and what will not. You have to accept that, that prerogative is mine.

May this blog be used by God to minister.


Anthony Chia

Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com
Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list. To go back to blog main page, click here.