Judges series - Judges 5

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
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Judges 5

[The Song of Deborah – The entire chapter 5 is a long song, called ode by some. An ode is a poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form, and expressive of exalted/enthusiastic emotion, and it is intended to be sung. I would not “sweat” over it too much, although I have spent quite a bit of time to put in the commentaries. I think it suffice that we understand that we should be quick to give thanksgiving unto God for exploits God done on our behalf, and keep an account of the occasions. Probably, nobody would write odes except a select few, but testimonies are good replacements.]

1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
2 "When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer themselves—
praise the LORD! [In this thanksgiving song, believed to be composed by Deborah, it started with offering praise to God for readying the hearts of the Tribal {tribes of Israel} princes and the people of God to offer themselves.]
3 "Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I will sing to the LORD, I will sing;
I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.
4 "O LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook, the heavens poured,
the clouds poured down water.
5 The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai,
before the LORD, the God of Israel. [Deborah began to magnify the Lord. “All kings, all rulers (of the Canaanite land), I will sing to the Lord, I will make music to Him, the God of Israel. To the God who when He went from Seir, marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured, the mountains quaked. These things must have been witnessed in the past, and through these narrations, Deborah was exalting the name of God]
6 "In the days of Shamgar {the judge before Deborah} son of Anath,
in the days of Jael {wife of Heber}, the roads were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.
7 Village life in Israel ceased,
ceased until I, Deborah, arose,
arose a mother in Israel.
8 When they chose new gods,
war came to the city gates,
and not a shield or spear was seen
among forty thousand in Israel. [Around those times, under oppression of Canaanites, roads or highways were not used by the Israelites, fearing harassment from enemies, travelers had no choices but to take the by-ways; village life ceased, until Deborah arose like a mother (defending and tending to the welfare of the children) in Israel. People turned to deities, but it did not help, enemies still warred against the Israelites, and the latter was afraid or NOT willing to fight.]
9 My heart is with Israel's princes,
with the willing volunteers among the people.
Praise the LORD!
10 "You who ride on white donkeys,
sitting on your saddle blankets,
and you who walk along the road,
consider 11 the voice of the singers at the watering places.
They recite the righteous acts of the LORD,
the righteous acts of his warriors in Israel.
"Then the people of the LORD
went down to the city gates.
12 'Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, O Barak!
Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.' [Deborah said her heart was with the tribal princes and all those who volunteered to go to war. Deborah paid tribute to those who volunteered. She cited that these rode on white donkeys and walked along the road, passed by the watering places, encouraged and cheered on by the crowd, and eventually got sent off, out of the city gates.]
13 "Then the men who were left
came down to the nobles;
the people of the LORD
came to me with the mighty.
14 Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;
Benjamin was with the people who followed you.
From Makir captains came down,
from Zebulun those who bear a commander's staff.
15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
yes, Issachar was with Barak,
rushing after him into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
16 Why did you stay among the campfires
to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben
there was much searching of heart.
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
and stayed in his coves.
18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
so did Naphtali on the heights of the field. [It seemed that Deborah was here recording the account that all of Israel was made aware of this battle but not all the tribes were willing to go to war on the account of Deborah’s words. Ephraim tribe was mentioned here, so were Manasseh (Makir – the son of Manasseh) Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, Reuben, Gilead (Gilead of itself is not a tribe of Israel, but Gad, Reuben and particularly Manasseh inherited Gilead, as a place{Num 32}), Dan, Asher and Naphtali. It seemed that only the Naphtali and the Zebulun tribes were the ones who went to war, risking their very lives. Maybe of significance was also that Deborah was also pointing to the insufficiency of much searching of the heart without leading to positive actions for the Lord – noticed she repeated the searching of hearts by the Reubenites but made no mention of them going out to war.

{{Inserted: 16 June 2010}} The alternative rendering for Gilead in verse 17 is this: Gilead was the son of Makir who was the son of Manasseh (Num 26:29). In verse 14, Makir or Makirite clan joined in, but not the younger Gilead or Gileadite clan (verse 17). Each Israelite Tribe could have several clans. In the case of the Manasseh Tribe, Makirite and Gileadite clans were just 2 of the clans.]
19 "Kings came, they fought;
the kings of Canaan fought
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo,
but they carried off no silver, no plunder. [It looked like some other Canaanite kings also came to fight, but they were without victory]
20 From the heavens the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21 The river Kishon swept them away,
the age-old river, the river Kishon.
March on, my soul; be strong!
22 Then thundered the horses' hoofs—
galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds. [A poetic account of the battle at river Kishon]
23 'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the LORD.
'Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the LORD,
to help the LORD against the mighty.' [According to Bible Scholars, Meroz was a village. Deborah mentioned it that the angel of the Lord cursed its people because they refused to come to help the Lord in the battle.]
24 "Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
26 Her hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workman's hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 At her feet he sank,
he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell-dead. [In her ode, Deborah gave an account of how Sisera was killed, by Jael, wife of Heber, the Kenite, a tent-dwelling woman who gave the commander milk when he asked for water, only to kill the commander later in his sleep by driving a tent peg into his forehead.]
28 "Through the window peered Sisera's mother;
behind the lattice she cried out,
'Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?'
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
30 'Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
a girl or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck—
all this as plunder?' [The commander (Sisera)’s mother, Deborah was picturing, would be waiting in vain for his son to come back. Deborah was putting herself in the shoes of a mother {figuratively, the mother here could also be referring to the one who oversaw Jabin’s people, much like herself (v7), was a mother to the Israelites}, longing to see the victorious return of her son with great spoils of war, but that would never to come anymore – Sisera was dead]
31 "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
But may they who love you be like the sun
when it rises in its strength."
Then the land had peace forty years. [Deborah concluded her song/ode with the wish that all the enemies perish, and the people who love the Lord will shine like the morning sun.]

Points to note:

1. “We should be quick to give thanksgiving unto God for exploits God done on our behalf, and keep an account of the occasions. Probably, nobody would write odes except a select few, but testimonies are good replacements.”

2. Although this song is not about intercession, it is interesting to note that at the opening, Deborah gave thanks to the Lord for the people coming forth to go to battle. One gives thanks to another when the latter contributed to whatever that the former is giving thanks for. So what was implied here is that the Lord does work to ready the hearts of people for a cause. Though not all the people responded to the call, but enough were ready by the Lord. As ministers of God, we must {because at the least, we cannot do everything ourselves}, and as even ordinary Christians, we can {even if you cannot take part} intercede for God to ready more people for any God-worthy {for lack of a better word} causes.

3. I repeat here another line from the above commentary that we may want to ponder about: Maybe of significance was also that Deborah was also pointing to the insufficiency of much searching of the heart without leading to positive actions for the Lord – noticed she repeated the searching of hearts by the Reubenites but made no mention of them going out to war.

4. It is very interesting to find recorded in this Song of Deborah a curse of God on the village of Meroz. Firstly, we Christians, just have to accept that there was sovereign corporate predestination of the Israelites as the chosen people of God. As such, men who were enemies of the Israelites as a people, were enemies of God. In other words, the implication was that if one was not for God’s people, one was not for God. Secondly, if you are not for God, then you are against God. In both the Luke and Matthew’s gospels, this is clearly spelt out - He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters (Mat 12:30 & Luk 11:23). We are unclear if originally Meroz village was an enemy of the Israelites. But since it was not mentioned we can assumed that it was not, but when the time came for side to be taken, apparently, sitting on the fence was not an acceptable choice as far as God was concerned (I believe it is still the case, today), Meroz was cursed for not coming over to God’s side, to take arms and fight God’s enemy. Are there any Meroz among your loved ones? Intercede that they come over to God’s side. Some Bible scholars believed that there was no more remembrance of Meroz because of this bitter curse of God.

5. Four long verses were devoted to Jael’s killing of the Commander of Jabin. This honor was supposed to be for Barak. We read that in Judges 4; but since Barak hesitated, perhaps not trusting fully the prophesy of Deborah, the honor went to Jael, a tent-dwelling woman. This story tells us that if we are not willing to act according to what God wants, God can choose another to do the task He has in mind, giving the honor away to another, in the process.




Anthony Chia – No odes, perhaps, Lord, but I will keep account, give you thanksgiving, and testify of your goodness, even as you bless me and deliver me.

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I too must testify to the goodness of God

Some previous articles did not make it
It has been some time since I last I put up an entry on myself. Actually, I think I have written an article or two, but they were “curfewed” because certain things, on second thought were best not publicly made known as yet. So this is a fresh new article. As I write I hope this will get onto the blog and it will not suffer the same fate as the other one or two previous articles.

It is still on
Am I still doing the little “ministry” thing? The answer is yes. In fact, ministry time after the praise and worship in my church services has become a more or less permanent feature. That is good, and I hope it stays that way. There are 2 reasons for it. Firstly, this is where I “work”. If this “working place” is gone, where would I go to work, without working what will happen to the spiritual gifts endowed. Ministry gifts are for ministry to others. If not ministering, why would there be a need for the gifts. If I still want the privilege and honor to exercise His gifts, I better want to minister. Secondly, there are many needs simply because there are many members; who have no problem? In fact, often I kind of wish I was more “powerful” so that people were helped more, more instantaneous reliefs could come to people for their problems; but I am not the God, He is; I am not the Doctor, He is; I am not the Deliverer, He is. What about the weekly Full Gospel Businessmen Meetings? Yes, that is still on-going. How much do I do there? Nothing much, but I thank the Lord for the occasions He used me there to minister in word of knowledge/prophesy, and in praying for people.

Tiny testimonies of others
Before I go blah-blah-blah again, let’s get to testimonies. As to other people’s testimonies as a result of my little “ministry”, no big testimonies to share, not even 1 big one, Lord. Maybe it is telling something! The only noticeable sign of late, was that more people voluntarily said that their conditions got better – shoulder pain/discomfort gone, leg got better and gave visiting the doctor a miss, backache from fall left over time, foot pain relieved, knee problem got better. I want to say they were all small ailments yet I also think it is not right to say that. Some of these physical ailments could really be quite a nuisance if not a torture, to the sufferers. Yes, I still witnessed people being slain under the power of God when I prayed (Of course, not very often). Some others, though did not fall, could be seen to experience touches of the Lord. I mean you could see one swerving under power of God, another, trembling, others staggering backwards (no deliberate pushing, of course); still others broke down (crying), ministered of their emotional hurts, etc. There are those who fell to the ground the moment I stretched out my hand (usually right hand) over their temples. There was one occasion, I ministered to a man who did not want to tell me his prayer need, I just held up both his hands, after a while he still got slain by the Spirit and fell like a tree to the ground.

Dream and believe
How about myself? Have I ever experienced healing from the Lord since my little “ministry” tended to be in the healing area. Foremost, I want to thank God for keeping me healthy. Except for occasional food poisoning, I was rarely sick. Well, I “cheated”, sometimes I would ask the Lord to let his healing anointing healed me first, preventively. Elijah had a cloak that carried an anointing (In 2 Kings 2:8, he parted the Jordan with it). Elisha caught hold of Elijah’s cloak and received a double portion of Elijah’s anointing. Well, between the Lord and I, I asked for the “cloak of Jehovah Rapha” (Remember, Jesus had a cloak on, when the woman with the blood issue touched Him). From time to time I would ask the Lord to charge this invisible cloak with the healing anointing. Of course, sometimes I would ask that the anointing from the cloak to heal me first-lah. No, I am not crazy. I only dream with Lord, there is no cloak on my back? It is invisible, you cannot see, can you? I say there is a spiritual healing pool at the front of the sanctuary of my church, people cannot imagine it; I can. I often prayed for angels to surround me. You cannot see my angels but that does not mean they are not there. I have seen one of them, many years ago, in a dream, an incredible creature, logic defying. So, recently when I prayed for a brother, he said he sensed angels around, perhaps one huge one at the back of me, I just looked at him, but I believed him. I did (and still do), from time to time, feel “heat” on my back, sometimes a very strong one, maybe the huge angel was pressing too closely!

Out of the blue pain and discomfort, finally gone!
There was an occasion I believed the Lord healed me. Not too long ago, for some 2 weeks I had, out of the blue, discomfort and pain in my thigh and side of my knee, on my right leg. In case, someone from the church tries to link this to one of the words of knowledge I gave in church, I want to say I had not given the “false” word of knowledge. It was “out of the blue” because it could not be due to any food I had taken; I was fasting when it came on. I was attending a 2 ½ days weekend International Disciple Making Conference. I fasted over the conference, and the discomfort and pain set in during the conference. I also did not do any strenuous exercises that could have caused it; I was at the conference (full 2 ½ day). It continued after the conference. Because I had it almost continuous throughout the days, of course when it came to weekend church services, I would not give any word of knowledge on pain/discomfort at the thigh or knee. On the 3rd weekend while in church, in my usual waiting upon the Lord for words of knowledge, I felt the pain and discomfort had left my right leg. Instead, on my left knee I felt a “pain” sensation. The latter was a sensation for a word of knowledge indicating that the Lord was desiring to minister to people with knee problems, and my right leg problem was healed by the Lord. The Lord was marvelous wasn’t he? Sometimes, this was how things worked, in one church service, I would have the sensation on one side, say, on the leg or the arm, then, at a subsequent service, the sensation jumped from the earlier one side to the other. In this way, I knew the Lord wanted also to minister to some people with the same conditions as the ones in the earlier service. Some might have thought that I merely repeated the word of knowledge for another service, but it was not like that, there was a sensing, at the least.

Lost and found
Another testimony that I want to share has nothing to do with healing. I want to thank the Lord for enabling me to get back my wallet with all the content intact. On 10/10/09 weekend, between the church and the nearby supermarket (NTUC), I lost my wallet. I was at church for the Saturday evening service. The supermarket was only a short walking distance away, next to the multi-storey car-park where I parked my car. Almost in all services, I would normally sit in the first row, but that day I sat at the 2nd row, just behind my usual seat. A slightly autistic youth was seated next to me, at the 2nd seat from the central aisle. I was at the 3rd seat. On that day the church service ended early but with an altar call that had many people going forward to the front of the sanctuary for prayer. As a voluntary lay Altar Minister, I readily went forward to minister to people. I was very hard-working that evening, I ministered to several people. Even when it was done, I did not go off immediately. The next service was the church’s youth service, and the youths had begun to stream in. I saw a youth in a wheelchair being pushed in by his mother. I had previously seen this youth before, and had on an earlier occasion prayed for him for his “condition”. This youth, I had learnt from the previous occasion, had his brain affected because of a drowning incident. In fact, the first time my anointing oil was used, it was used on this youth, not by me though, but by an overseas lady speaker who ministered to this youth, and had asked for anointing oil. I asked the mother whether I could pray for the wheel-chaired boy. The mother gladly consented. I squatted to pray for the boy, and after that the mother said she wanted prayer. She started to break down and cried as she shared of her desperations. I listened and prayed for her. After this, I went over to my seat where my belongings were, took the belongings and left the sanctuary. I walked to the supermarket to pick up some stuffs, I did squat to get some biscuit from a low shelf, and proceeded to the cashier to pay. The moment I reached for my wallet in my back trousers pocket, I got a shock, my wallet was missing. I first re-traced my steps in the supermarket but I could not find my wallet. I thought if I did not get pick-pocketed in the supermarket, I must have either dropped my wallet or got pick-pocketed in church. I doubled-back to the church. I went into the sanctuary which by now was having the youth service on. The youths were having praise and worship with free movements – for our youth service’s praise and worship, many youths would gathered at the front for worship. I went to 2nd row, to the seat that I sat earlier, spoke to a few youths at the seat and seats nearby. I looked, the youths looked; at least two youths went down to floor to see if the wallet was on the floor. I remember seeing some bags on the seats, and I counted to the correct seat that I previously sat, it was upright (the chairs were of the kind that were joined together, with common arm rests, and would flip up when no one was sitting on a seat, like those you commonly find in some cinemas). I flipped that seat just in case the wallet was sandwiched between the seat and the back of the seat, since nobody was seated down on this seat. No one could see any wallet.

My wallet had in it, my identity card, driving licence, credit cards, ATM cards, quite a bit of cash (much of it did not belong to me) and 2 important cheques; it was an “out of shape” bulky wallet. The money that did not belong to me, and the 2 cheques, they belonged to the Full Gospel Businessmen Chapter I was involved in. The cheques, one of it for an amount of $5,000/=, were for contributions for an Israel fund. Was I in deep trouble!? I checked with the church’s lost and found, it was not there. I had no choice but to call up the institutions from my sister’s house (nearby) to cancel my cards, and made a police report at the nearby Queenstown police station.

Prior to this, when I was at the supermarket picking up the stuffs that I wanted to buy, I was thinking to myself, I was very hard-working, I prayed for so many people, even for the boy on the wheel-chair and his mother when they were not even part of the adult service that I attended. Compassion moved me to pray for them. This loss of wallet shock was really a nasty one, especially I had extra money and cheques that were not my own. When I called my sister who was living nearby, she told me that “so and so” was saying there were pick-pocketers operating in the area, and could had even mingled into the church. It was upsetting, to say the least. I wondered whether or not I was pick-pocketed at the supermarket while squatting and choosing the biscuit I wanted to buy. I also wondered whether or not I was pick-pocketed at church when I was squatted and praying for the wheel-chaired boy.

At the police station, a Christian police officer attended to me. He was from the same church where I attended the Disciple Making conference mentioned above, and he too had previously functioned as Altar Minister! He kept repeating that he thought I would get my wallet back; he repeatedly said also the money and the cheques were the Lord. I told him that judging from my previous experiences of these sorts (not that I had previous case of missing wallet, but about occasions where “bad” events unexpectedly happened), the Lord was going to do something more powerful, if I kept my spirit up.

When I got home that night, I told myself not to be affected by the loss. I still had the next day to contend with. You see, weekends are serious business for me. Why? Because it is the time when I will work for the Lord. In case, there are others who had not been following this blog, I do not work in the church, I have a secular job; I go to church on the weekends for all the adult services, serving as a voluntary lay Altar Minister, giving words of knowledge and prophesy and praying for people. I watched a little TV show and then prayed and went to bed.

The next morning, as usual, I was at church early, about an hour before first service started. I saw a pastor and related my loss to him, went to the lost and found section again to see if anyone had found and surrendered the wallet there. No, no wallet was found. I went into the sanctuary. As usual, the praise and worship team was already on stage for the practice before the morning service. I looked at the 2nd row from the central aisle. The seat in question was only the 3rd seat from the aisle. All the seats were flipped up, very clearly nothing was seen except the chairs. Nevertheless, just in case the wallet got stuck at the legs of the chairs, I bent down to the floor to make very sure no wallet was there. I still remember when I did that, the papers in my shirt pockets fell out on the carpeted floor. I then moved to 1st row, to my usual seat, also 3rd one from the aisle, directly in front of the seat I sat the previous day.

I told the Lord I had to do all the things that I normally do. The hour before the first service is the time I would spend doing prayer-walk around the front of the sanctuary, around the spiritual healing pool I talked about above, interceding for the services (for the praise and worship, inclusive of the team on stage, the speaker for the day, the ministers who would be ministering at the front, etc), as I walked. I would also pray for my own little “ministry”, and intercede for some people after the prayer walk. These things I must do and I must keep my spirit up, I told myself. In fact, that morning before leaving home, I told my son that I thought of staying until the end of 2nd service because the speaker looked like he would be doing altar calls at the end of services (he did the previous day). I normally stayed until the end of the ministry time after the second services’ praise and worship; I would not stay to listen to the same sermon for a 3rd time (I would have heard the same sermon on the Sat evening service and Sunday’s 1st service), so staying until the end of the 2nd service on Sunday was not normal practice for me. Of course, I could also use the loss of my wallet as an excuse and leave after the 1st service that Sunday since my son also normally finished his service in the Sunday School Ministry at the end of the 1st service. Also, since no time was allotted for word of knowledge/prophesy and ministry, after the praise and worship on that Saturday service, I could just assume that it would be so also that Sunday morning, with the same speaker on (I go for multiple repeated weekend services for the purpose of working for the Lord in these time slots – no time allotted, means no need to work.). But in my heart I was telling myself that it was not right that I was extra hard-working the previous day and was initially glad that I did so (before my discovery of my loss of wallet), and now would think of skipping the same when the only thing that had changed was that I had lost my wallet. I decided, wallet or no wallet, I would do the same, stay for the 2nd service, and stay until the end, to minister at the end of sermon altar call, if any.

And so, in the 1st service, I kept my head up and did my usual things. There was even an unexpected twist, there was a time for words of knowledge/prophesy and ministry thereof, before the sermon, different from the previous day’s proceeding. I was prepared. I had words of knowledge, gave them and ministered. I was happy I did not fail the Lord. I had long understood it was my job to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit for words of knowledge in a service, whether or not, I would have the opportunity to release the words. The service also had another twist compared to the service of the day before – the speaker did not ask that the people who needed prayers to come forward to the front of the sanctuary, at the end of his sermon, instead he asked people to lift up their hands, and asked that people seated around those with raised hands to pray for them. This struck me as there was no pattern here. One, of course, can reason this way: since it was probable that the original intention was not to have a word of knowledge/prophesy cum ministry time (but somehow we had it in this 1st service) for this weekend services (sometimes it could be due to the speaker wanting to do a ministry time at the end of a sermon), and since it was also probable that the speaker had abandoned his original intention of getting people to come to the front of the sanctuary for ministry, there was not a need for me to stay for the second service (these situations do happen, ending up with me sitting through a 2nd Sunday service with no “actions”). Did this thought cross my mind? It did but I brushed it aside because I wanted to be there if actions were needed, consistent with the decision I made in the morning while still at home.

At the direction of the speaker to look around to pray for people with raised hands, I looked back and I saw behind me, all the seats in the second row, as far as my eyes could see, were filled, including the seat (3rd seat from the central aisle) that I had sat on, the previous day at the Saturday 4 pm service.

After the Sunday’s 1st service, I walked over to a pastor and told him of my loss. He suggested that I ask the speaker to pray for me. The speaker was right there in front of me, having a conversation with a member of the congregation. When the speaker was available, I told him of my loss. The speaker, for the weekend, spoke on the topic that God can do the seemingly impossible things. He shared on Jesus feeding the 4000 men with 7 loaves and a few fishes. The speaker said he understood how I felt; he said it happened to him several months ago, also. This speaker had spoken about embarrassment in his sermon – that he would not be surprised that one of the disciples of Jesus had been embarrassed by the sight of nothing happening when Jesus prayed and gave thanks for the food, before passing the food around (it was only later, as the food was being passed round, that it became more than sufficient for the crowd to eat and be satisfied). The thing was that he did not hesitate to ask the Lord to get the wallet back for me the very same day with ALL the content intact. In my mind, I thought this man prayed his talk. Did I pray such a prayer too? Of course; it was my wallet what! - that same morning I asked the Lord to have my wallet returned to me with content intact, but I must confess that I deliberately did not say “today”, and I did not use the word, “all”. I thought I had to expect cash to be gone, maybe it served me right to have been not “more careful”.

This is the part you are waiting to read, but I tell you, then I still did not know how I lost my wallet, whether I dropped it or I got pick-pocketed. After that 1st service which ended at 10.30am, and after the prayer by the speaker, I went out of the sanctuary for a coffee break at the hospitality corner (with the intention to return to the sanctuary for the next service). I had wanted to see if I could see the man who wrote the $5,000/= cheque that I referred to, above. This gentleman worshipped in the same church. I had wanted to confirm that the cheque was a crossed cheque. I did find him and told him if, after some days the wallet was not returned, he might have to re-write the cheque. I also saw and spoke to the drawer of the other cheque (there were 2 cheques in the wallet; this other cheque was for $1,500/=). With that I went back into the sanctuary, to my 1st row seat. And I saw the slightly autistic youth who sat next to me in the previous day service. He was at the same 2nd row, 4th seat. I asked him if he had seen a wallet the previous day. He did not seem to understand what I said. I only noticed he repeated his swinging of head to the back. Remember now, I was at my 1st row, 3rd seat from the aisle; I looked towards the back, at the 3rd row, 3rd seat position, a young lady was standing there, we were all standing because praise and worship had started, the 2nd row, 3rd seat (in seat in question) was empty, and flipped up, and was between me and the lady standing in the 3rd row. She just pointed her finger to the wallet underneath the common arm rest between the 3rd seat and the 4th seat (the flipped up seat of the slightly autistic youth) in the 2nd row. The arm rest was hollow and narrow, yet my wallet was right there, in the hallow, sandwiched by the 2 flipped up seats. The young lady reached for it and handed it over to me before I could reach for it. Everything in the wallet was there, intact. How elated I felt!

How could it be that the wallet was there all those time, and did not fall out over the several services, had I dropped it while sitting down at the previous day 4pm evening service! Afterwards, some people said it was possible, wallets getting caught between the common arm rests. I say the Lord was at work. You see, I checked the evening before, a few youths of the youth service checked, there was no wallet. In a typical service in this church, a person sits down when he enters the sanctuary, gets up to do praise and worship, then sits down, and then only to get up again when the offering bag gets passed round, accompanied by singing, before finally he gets up to leave the sanctuary at the end of the service. In the youth service, they may do more, they do leave their seats to move around or gather at the sanctuary front. Even if we ignore the 4pm service in which I sat, there was the youth service that evening, and the 1st service of the following day; remember, I saw at the 1st Sunday service, the seats on that 2nd row were all taken. The repeated sitting down and getting up at the 2 relevant seats would have dislodged the wallet even if indeed the wallet was somehow caught there when it dropped out of my back trousers pocket. Remember, quite a few people checked and rechecked the seats, although I did not specifically looked at the particular spot where the wallet was later found to be at; you see, it was an “one eye, see it all” kind of scenario. You remember, I even flipped that particular seat on the evening of the wallet loss when I came back to look for it. It was an over-stuffed, out of shape wallet, if I put it on a flat surface, it would not even stand. How could it have stayed in the hollow of that thin arm rest, and not dropped out to the sides of either seats, or onto the floor, I really cannot comprehend. On top of that, no one saw the wallet the whole time, and this young lady at the 3rd row, at the start of this 2nd Sunday service could just see it. To me, this was unbelievable, yet true!

Are there lessons here about the wallet? If it were not a case of my wallet simply dropped out of my back trousers pocket while I was seated at the chair, it would be an even more incredible miracle - from where did the Lord bring the wallet back from? And how did he do it? But if I assumed it was simply the case of my wallet dropping out whilst I was seated there, why was I not allowed to see the wallet by the Lord until it was pointed out by the young lady? Why did the Lord block even me from seeing the wallet? I could have saved myself some trouble – the cards cancelling, and the reporting at the police station! Perhaps, the Lord wanted me to be more careful, the hassle involved would make such a “wake up” call stick. Perhaps, the Lord wanted to see I would still keep my head up, and continue to serve Him. I have had these testing before, though, and yet the Lord was still testing. I suppose the Lord will keep pruning.



Anthony Chia –Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2)



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Thank you Lord, for the affirmation again

Preamble
The purpose of this article is not to boast of what I have done. For what I have done, was done through the Lord. Apart from him, I can do nothing meaningful(John 15:5). The glory is His. I am just a willing vessel at the appropriate times, and that at those moments He was pleased to use me. This blog, and this entry served as a personal journal for me, in some way, a record of some of the things the Lord has done in and through me. In addition, it is my desire that it, including this entry, will bring encouragement to readers, especially when you see these things are happening in and through a lay person. Although I am an altar minister in my church, I am actually only a lay altar minister, I am not a staff or a paid pastor of the church, I am just a long time member of the church, doing the things I do on a volunteering basis. Of course, without the consent and support of the pastoral team and staff of the church, I would not have been able to do some of the things that I am currently doing. Still I must say, I cannot just write about everything I want since this is a public domain, and that people’s privacy must be observed. Also, I do not want the church to get any wrong idea and think that what I am doing in the church is for getting things to write about in this blog.

The 3 visions
Sorry, for the long opening. Actually, I just want to write about several things that happened over the last weekend (25-26 July 09), which I found to be noteworthy and comforting. Firstly, I released 3 visions over the weekend, one for each of the 3 weekend services. This is a first for me. Two of them were pictures/words of caution, one about our negative attitude towards expressions of worship. This one was more of a mental picture. The second one was a picture of a stretch of fence with a sudden jumping of the fence by someone, seen by me (in the vision) at the corner of my eye accompanied by a stir in my spirit. This was to be a caution to someone(s) who has(ve) overstepped/comtemplating overstepping the precepts of the Lord (the fence represented the precepts of the Lord put there to protect us). Words of caution/warning/rebuke are difficult words to release, especially for a lay person, to a congregation. I am grateful to my Senior Pastor for allowing me to release the word. May the Lord continue to bless him with discernments in the things of the spirit. He is a courageous man of God. The third was a picture of a young lady bound, possibly by excessive/unusual fear or guilt, and there was also a flight of stairs in the vision. It was that, perhaps, the Lord wanted to minister to people with excessive/unusual fear or guilt or suffering from compulsive disorders, like anger, etc. I also released some words on physical healing conditions for the services.

Spiritual Bethesda Pool
For some few weeks now, I have been witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them at the front of the sanctuary. I believe this place in this church is a very special place. I believe it has been designated by God to be a place of healing, a spiritual Bethesda Pool. Whenever I can, on every Sunday morning, I would do “prayer walk” around this “pool”, praying for God to continue to use the place for healing and ministry, continue to pour forth his anointing into this pool, that His angels would continue to form “angel arch” over the pool, dropping healing essence or anointing into the pool. I once had a word from the Lord to form human arch over the pool. Because I was doing this “prayer walk thing” all by myself, each Sunday morning, about an hour before the first service, I was unable to do the arch. I told the Lord, to continue to do weekly prayer walking around the pool was ok for me but to involve others would be a little difficult for two reasons - one, that I believed what I believed about the area was because I had believed and appropriated a word of revelation released by one of the former pastors of the church but others might not believe, two, that it was not my intention to attract attention to what I had been doing, lest I be labeled a Pharisee – praying and doings things at front of the sanctuary that all may see and know. Of course, it was not that people could not see I was there, kneeling and praying, Sunday after Sunday, if they turned up a bit earlier, before the first services began, but at least I was doing things by myself quietly. In case you want to know what I did during the time of about an hour, I first prayed that the Lord would prepare me for the hour, do the prayer walk around the pool (there are 2 red lines, some 5 to 6 feets apart on the carpeted floor, marking the long “pool” at the front of the sanctuary), praying for God’s continued designation of the place, for the anointing to be poured forth, for the angels (healing ones, ministering ones, and even warring ones) to come, for the forming of the angel arch, for empowering of the ministers who would be ministering at the area (I must confess that at the beginning I only prayed for empowering for myself, how selfish!), for the worship team on the stage, and for the speaker of the morning [R. Watson, God used you to remind me to pray for speakers of the services]. When I finished the walk, I would kneel on the spot in front of where I normally sit (I normally sit in the first row, in front of the sanctuary), pray for my ministry (actually too big of a word to use for whatever that the Lord is doing through me, but what the hack, nothing wrong with thinking big and dreaming big with the Lord for things of the faith, and of the spirit, right?), intercede for some people (I make it a point to do this), and finally round off with asking the Lord to prepare me for the services of the morning - to worship Him, to serve Him in words of knowledge, prophesy, and be a vessel for Him to use in altar ministry time, also to feed on His word spoken through the speaker. By the way, from time to time, I do receive words of knowledge during this pre-service time. Oh, before I forget, I actually want to say that the church did eventually do the human arch around the pool – sometime this year, the church did a Fire Tunnel exercise as a finale of a series of teachings on supernatural living. I have the privilege of writing an email to the Senior Pastor, suggesting the sites for the tunnels; yes, you guessed it right, at front of the sanctuary between the 2 red lines. I did not receive a reply from the Senior Pastor or know whether he did read the email (sometimes, emails do get filtered by secretaries, you know) but all the same, 2 tunnels were formed on that occasion, one on the right and one on the left, from the centre of the “pool”. And the people proceeded from the seats via the central aisle, walked to the centre of the “pool” to enter either tunnel. For a few weeks prior to this, I had also been extending my prayer walk into the central aisle. I did not know why then, but on the night of Fire Tunneling, I knew why – the central aisle was to be used (In my usual prayer walk, as in currently, the central aisle is not included). Another thing, for readers from the same church, now you understand why I ministered so confidently at the front of the sanctuary – I believe I have the Lord with me, and I have the “home ground” advantage! Oops, Lord, a whole long para. ended up devoted to your spiritual Bethesda Pool in this church!

People slain
Ok, back to the things that happened. Yes, I was saying that I was witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them during the altar ministry time at the front of the sanctuary. A couple of weeks before that the frequency was about every other week, one or two persons would be slain in one or more of the services. Then it went from every other week to every week, one or two persons would be slain when I ministered. I generally give words of knowledge and prophesy, and perform altar ministry (praying for people in ministry times). Of late, more got slain by other ministers as well, at the altar ministry times. Do I feel pressurized or jealous? Honestly, no but I care about whether or not I am still being used by the Lord, and I want to see growth in my “ministry”. I prayed for power and anointing for other ministers, didn’t I? I want to spur others on, don’t I? Yes, I just do not want to be “left behind”. I have come to believe and I think I still believe that when we “empower” others and spur others to greater heights, God will empower and anoint us further if our hearts are right. In any case, in all things, the prerogatives belong to God – if you do not want to intercede/pray/empower/impart/anoint, God could get someone else to do it. When we say we empower/impart/anoint, actually we really do nothing of the sort, it is God who does it, the source and giver is God, not us, we are just the vessels, and I believe it is a blessing that you and I can be willing vessels. If you are willing, you are already blessed, for being willing to be used by God is a blessing in itself. In another article, Trials and Temptations (James 1:2-18), I said that with godly wisdom for execution, we should always focused on the end result. I think it is not wrong to say, that’s how God is, God looks at the end result. He looks at what is going to be achieved at the end of the day - that is what is important to Him. Why do I say that? It is because He has the wisdom for execution all the time. When you have the wisdom for execution, what do you look at? Yes, you look at what you desire to achieve. Of course, for God, the end results of everything that He does are good because God is good all the time. What is the good end result here? People be healed, delivered and ministered to, the name of God be lifted up and glorified and men are drawn to God. Whether it is through me or through other ministers are matters of execution.

Take note of what is/isn't happening
Ah, so what happened last weekend, apart from the 3 visions given for the services? Another set of 3 things happened, even though for this weekend despite the fact that some people got slain by some other ministers but no one fell under the power of the Spirit when I prayed for the people – a surprise break! I am going to digress again, but bear with me. I think it is important that we be sensitive to what is going on, in and through us, in relation to our walk with the Lord. When we take note of what is happening we would be able to constantly check ourselves, do self-reflection to see if there are anything that went amiss (maybe our attitude was not right, our motive was not right, pride has gotten the better of us, maybe we have sinned, disobeyed God and God isn’t pleased about it). I am constantly reminding myself what Wilfred, a veteran itinerant preacher, said concerning moving in the supernatural –God can use anyone in the supernatural, even a sinful man or woman, an unwilling vessel, a baby or young Christian, but to continue to move in the supernatural with frequency and consistency, one has to grow. God expects the person to grow. If you are living in sin, you have to leave that sinful life, if you are an unwilling vessel, you have to learn to be willing, if you are a young Christian, you need to grow in the Word, etc (By the way, no one can claim that he/she has arrived), and we must all try to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16 and 2 Cor 7:1). Although, Wilfred said He has no theological degree or formal paper qualification, I believe his insight is correct. I now tell people that when you do natural things well, people may not attribute them to God because you maybe naturally endowed but when you do supernatural things consistently, people attribute them to God working in and through you – you have God’s name written all over you; in a way you represent God. Do you think that God will allow that if you still remain in your “undesirable” state? Or that when you allow yourselves to deteriorate into the “undesirable state”, would the Lord still continue to let you be his representative? Whether you are a prince or a princess, it is the same. Knowing your identity in God is important, but it doesn’t mean as a King’s son or daughter, you can do whatever you like. I know some of the readers are from the same church I am attending, and they have been exposed through overseas speakers, the importance of knowing our identity in God. Let us all bear in mind that [as we are taught and believed] all Christians are princes and princesses, and if that is so, then when one does not walk right with God, we just get, instead of a so and so commoner, a so and so prince or princess, like a sinful prince/princess, an unwilling prince/princess, a young prince/princess, or a prince/princess who is unwilling to practice holiness before the King whose is first and foremost, God the Holiness. Before God, our status of being a prince/princess is the same for everyone, when we are disobedient, we are just disobedient children. It is in relation to those outside, like the non-Christians and Satan and the principalities of darkness that our status as princes and princesses become very crucial and our own knowledge and belief in that, are very crucial. If you think that just because you are a prince or princess, you can call down fire and brimstones, you are mistaken. The Chinese has a saying that sounded something like this, “If royalty breaks the law, he/she gets the same punishment”; what more when in our kingdom of the Christians (Kingdom of God), there are no commoners! So, let us be obedient children before God, the Father, honour Him, please Him, bring Him joy, and share in His work.

Finally, the other set of 3 things
Sorry, folk, ok, I come back, get to the point and finish this off. The other set of 3 things are that I received 3 feedbacks. You see feedbacks/report-backs/testimonies are precious to us, who ministered in faith. They assure us, affirm us, increase our faith, spur us to do more for the Lord. Seeing some people slain maybe encouraging, getting feedback that people are healed or ministered to is even better. Thank you, Lord that you, not only give one but 3 feedbacks/report-backs at one go.

Firstly, a young man, a poly undergraduate whom I counseled and ministered to, for several Saturday evenings some months back, who had become a Christian but was holding onto the notion that being a Christian, one needn’t necessarily go to a church [representing fellowship and body], has now started going to church. After I stopped the counseling sessions several months back, I continued to intercede for this young man on Sundays. Yes, you read above that I intercede for people on Sundays, in the hour before the church first services. Last weekend, I saw this young man coming to church, I asked him about it, and he said that he had been coming to the church’s youth services, for 4 weeks already. I kept asking God to bring this young man into the fellowship of the church, now a breakthrough has taken place.

Secondly, a man I ministered healing to, several weeks ago at the altar ministry, came up to me at the church hospitality plaza last weekend and told me that his doctor had said that everything was alright for his colon. I could remember this man because of something he said. You see, if you give words of knowledge and prophesy regularly and prayed for many people regularly, you will not remember the words or the people particularly unless you made a point to remember the words or persons by recording them down or something peculiar happened. This man mentioned more than once, the previous diagnosis by his doctor that the “tube” was too small and he had problem moving his bowel. He was complaining about problems with his colons and bowel movement, but the word “tube” was kind of a strange term to use, and I remembered that. He told me then he would be re-visiting the doctor for further examinations. The man was happy and I was happy that his doctor has since cleared him.

Lastly, a woman told me that the Lord had given her a word for me, and that she had carried it for some times but had not had the occasion to give it to me. She said she even shared it with her children. This sister and her husband are somehow “special” when they got prayed for, by me. Actually, I do not get many feedbacks on people being healed when they are being prayed for, by me. I wish I get more of that. Well, Jesus, on one occasion only got one out of ten, so I should not complain. In Luke 17:11-17, we read:

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (Luke 17:11-17)

There must be times when I prayed for people, people do not get healed even subsequently over time, but when Jesus prayed for people, people got healed (v 17a). Yet we read that only one out of the 10 lepers came back to report of his healing, the other nine did not (People, what must we do when we got healed? Report back and give praise to God. Maybe some of the people do report back, to the church, and I was not aware). So, if people do not report back, I will still pray. Even if only one out of ten or more, gets healed, I will still pray. I prayed for this sister before, for her tearing eye conditions and she was healed (I shared this before, because she reported back, in a separate article – A Special Resurrection Sunday Indeed) several months ago. More recently, I prayed for her husband for pain and discomfort on the shoulder/shoulder blade area, and he experienced healing immediately. I remembered this occasion because, firstly, his wife was healed before, and secondly, the setting was not in church and a person received instant healing when prayed for, by me. Last weekend this couple came up to the front of the church sanctuary for prayer of resolve, to spend time with God as a family unit. I was actually far away from where they were standing, and for that particular session I was thinking that I could just pass, i.e. not going forth to pray for people (remember, I do what I do on a willing basis, I am not “on duty” as such). Then suddenly, I just felt I should pray for the couple. I quickly made my way to the couple and prayed for them. I felt “heat” when I lay hands on the couple’s foreheads, particularly for the husband. In fact the heat was so strong, I told the brother, the Lord’s anointing was upon him. It was after this that the wife said that she had the word for me sometime back. She kept apologizing that she did not tell me earlier. She said that the Lord’s word was that I was sincere when I prayed for people, and the Lord being pleased with my sincerity, heard and answered my prayers for others. What comforting words to hear. Thank you, Lord.

Pray for me
This is really a very roundabout and long-winded way of saying 2 sets of 3 things – a set of 3 visions and another set of 3 feedbacks/report-backs; but I hope you have enjoyed reading this and know a little bit more of me and what I do. There are reasons for the time being, for not being a little more personal, like publicly showing my photo on this blog site, revealing my age and where exactly I worship, etc. I hope those who read this blog, would pray for me, pray for my protection, pray that I can break all undesirable habits, be more holy as the Lord is holy, and not function in the flesh, and deliver only what God wants delivered, particularly in times of release of words of knowledge and prophesy.


Anthony Chia - Lord, may I always remember that much is given, much is expected (Luke 19:25-26)

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