Teachable Spirit

Yesterday Rev Col Stringer preached at New Creation Church as Pastor Prince was away with his family for a holiday and one of the main theme that he touched on was the topic of having a "teachable spirit"

You know, as we all grow older, many of us will be saddled with this thought that we have learned everything that needs to be learnt and therefore there is nothing more to teach us. How wrong can we all get! In fact we should continue to adopt this attitude of continuous learning as we can never possibly learnt everything there is in life. There will always be things that we can pick up every day and add onto our database of life-skills which will stand us through the daily tests of living.

Now I know that I am beginning to sound like a Singapore government propaganda machine dishing out slogans after slogans. But hang on a minute - when we were much younger and hungry to pick up life-skills and we kept asking questions, did we not appear to be likeable to whoever we were trying to learn from?

I should know because I was a lean and mean trader back in the late eighties/ early nineties. I recalled one of the money brokering houses was trying to assign me a very senior manager to handle the hotline between the house and the bank and this gentleman had this attitude of 'I know the market and therefore can give you the best deal in town'. How wrong he was because there is no way a broker can know what a bank's position and perception was; only the bank knows what sort of risk aptitude it wants to carry. And so I ended up literally banning him from entering my line - not even in the absence of the other broker who was finally appointed to service the bank line.

I recalled telling the director of the brokering company that I wanted someone who is hungry to learn and who has a teachable spirit and I remembered the director telling me in a very apologetic tone that he could not find anyone of a certain calibre except a very junior broker (you might even call him a rookie). And so I accepted the challenge and after a day or two I actually found this bloke a likeble person as his hunger for knowledge did not seem to be satiable and that pleased me so much that I resolved to show him more of the ropes of the market.

To cut the story short, after eighteen months, he was so well trained that he became my eyes and ears especially when I wanted to trade in the US markets from home and I simply did not have the infrastructure set up at home. After each important piece of economic or political news, he could even read my mind just by listening to my breathing and he was able to crystallize what I eventually wanted to do in reaction to the news.

And so when I was listening to what Rev Col was saying, I began to reflect on my own experiences and told myself, "Andrew, you are never too old to learn new things; maintain that teachable spirit for that is very pleasing to Abba Daddy!"

My Break-Through Is On The Way

A couple of months back I shared with a few of my friends how I was waiting for the break-through in my business and that when they come I will be so busy.

Just the other day, I decided to list down all the projects/ assignments that I had been working on and waiting for the green light to come on.
- 5 teaching assignments
- 6 projects waiting for approvals /budgets
- 6 potential projects in the horizon
The list does look impressive by all standards and I should be happy with all those work...except that I am still waiting. Two of the projects could not be started because of budget reasons while another two are still in the review phase and I should know the fates soon.

Nevertheless I am believing Abba Daddy for the harvest soon and I am so looking forward to that. And right now I want to prepare myself for the tide of blessings pouring in. My break-throughs is on the way - just round the corner. All praise to Abba Daddy for His blessings. Amen.

Special Favor From Abba Daddy

In my last post I was referring to a situation in my work where two conflicting demands existed for my time and attention and one party demands contractual arrangement so as to block out the second. Yesterday I met up with a friend who is in exactly the situation as I am and we discussed how we should approach our mutual friends to resolve the issues at hand.

We felt that we cannot be held ransom by either party and we are convinced that we have better bargaining power as both sides needed our services and collectively we could be the king-makers and determine their business fates. And so we will announce next Saturday to the difficult party that we do not wish to be tied down to either side and that we want to maintain independence in our choices and I believe that we will come forth victorious because of favor from Abba Daddy.

I would rather that both sides go along with us and continue our cordial relationships than to burn bridges in our relationships for that would make the situation very ugly and hurtful.

So Abba Daddy, grant me special favor when we discuss our positions and decisions to that difficult company and that they would work together for a common good rather than become vindictive and be really hurt in the process.

Give Me Wisdom Please, Lord!

Ever had the situation of having to make unpleasant decisions? Early this morning, as i was doing some housework for my wife, I received an overseas call inviting me to be an instructor in some training course in 2008 and I felt elated as I was convinced that my breakthrough had indeed come.

Well, this afternoon I went for another meeting with a different vendor and I felt uncomfortable because of one clause in the notes - that the instructors are not supposed to be involved in the training in both camps as both offer certification courses; both companies do not see eye to eye on many things. And so now I have to make a decision - choose one and ditch the other or else I wait and watch the scenario play out and then make my choice.

Meanwhile I have advised both parties to resolve their differences for the sake of the industry - it will not look good for everyone if the tussle continues indefinitely. They should bury the hatchet and move on and save embarassment all round.

Beware Fraudsters!

Last week I received two business proposals at my company email address, both reeking with suspicions right from the start.

Proposal 1
Father passed on and left him with a USD25 million fortune but estate can only be claimed outside his country and hence need external business partner to help him get the wealth...some of which is in gold! sounds familiar?

Proposal 2
Guy in UK wanted an external partner to be the middleman to buy a specialized oil that is used to clean diamonds (I did not realize there is such a thing) and because of the price differential he wants me to buy from North Korea (hmmm what do they know in North Korea except nuclear fuel!!) and Malaysia and resell back to his company and take a cut of the differences in pricing...Sounds a scam right from the start..the guy is an internal person and wants to cheat on his own company...

Of course I refused to respond to proposal 1 and told proposal 2 politely to 'take a hike'. Certainly goes to prove a point; we need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to lead us daily in our walk and to sound the alarm wherever necessary. Here's to walking with You in close fellowship, O Lord!

Looking Unto Jesus

Recently I commented to my caregroup members that we needed fresh injects into our group as the regulars seem to be having lifestyle changes and work commitments and could not join the fortnightly meetings and we decided to commit the challenge to our Abba Daddy.

Guess what? On Tuesday we had two new members and we are believing the Lord for more in the coming weeks. You see, Jesus rebuked His disciples for their slowness of heart to believe (Luke 24:25) and for not asking Him anything (John 16:24). It is as if they did not believe Him that He is able to do what He said He came to do and that He will give them whatever they asked of Him.

Which reminds me of one church member who came for prayer after the 4th service two Sundays ago. He asked for prayer for a friend and just before I started praying for him, I sensed in the Spirit that he needed more than just prayer - he needed to have a good dose of Holy Spirit power inside of him and so I laid hands on him and prayed for him to received the gift of praying in tongues. And then I proceeded to pray for his friend and yes, you guessed it - halfway through the time of prayer, he was already praying in tongues to the glory of Jesus.

And I am very confident that this church member will be using this newfound gift regularly as he goes about his daily life. Many times we think that the Lord only has great things for specific people to do and that He does not use ordinary folks like you and I to accomplish that. No, we cannot be more incorrect. In fact Abba Daddy is looking for people who are constantly looking unto Jesus in their daily lives and we will move mountains through Him.

The Holy Spirit moves in ways we cannot understand

This past week had been amazing for me for various reasons: -

1. I finished one short project with one bank here in Singapore and we did a 2-hour review on Monday of the lessons learnt and it is amazing how many things we came up with just 8 hours of exercises two weeks earlier; I actually wrote a 28-page report on the observations and recommendations;

2. The Business Development Manager of one major IT firm met up with me on Thursday and we discussed business partnerships in exactly the areas I needed help;

3. I received a call from a Korean brother on Thursday evening and he was excited that there could be opportunities for me to do some BCM training and consultancy in Seoul where he is living. He has always desired in his heart to see me personally especially in Seoul and this could be his answer to his prayer;

4. Another friend had been working out some details on our business partnership and it is coming along fine. Interestingly enough there are a number of consultants like me trying to offer services to the market but I am the only one he felt comfortable engaging in partnership to market my courses - special favour from the Lord;

5. And then Alice and I met a friend and his wife (of all places) in a hawker centre and they were just talking about us when he turned around and saw me ordering our brunch. Later, during the conversation, his wife held back on something she was not sure whether she should bring up as conversation and I spoke out exactly what was on her mind. That was Holy Spirit spooky and they were amazed.

Now, why am I sharing all these with you here? Alice and I had committed my business to Abba Daddy and we told Him we are expecting His supplies and boy, WILL He supply!! Yes, more than over-supply - super-abundantly overflowing with baskets left over for us to bless others too. When we walk with Him, great things WILL happen to us and around us and we just have to get ready for the overflow! Amen Daddy! Hallelujah.

The world is getting darker BUT we will shne ever brighter!

In the Israel Today newpaper on Monday Nov 12, there was an article by one of their staff writers stating that some Israeli scientists at the University of Haifa had made some astonishing discovery - Microsoft's Windows2000 Operating System had many security flaws and this can potentially result in computer hackers being able to go through your firewalls and access your systems and steal anything they like including your personal profiles (userids and passwords) and thereafter commit cyber crimes.

In that article it was reported that the same scientists gave a presentation recently with the findings and had urged Microsoft to quickly come forward with solutions to plug the hole(s) in order to minimize potential damage. What is also alarming is that they said that WindowsXP was written using Windows2000 as the base for its new scripts and hence the flaws are also replicated into WindowsXP. How many of us are still using WindowsXP or Windows2000 on our computers simply because Windows Vista is still experimental and not many other software can work on Vista.

The other noteworthy point to bear in mind is that Windows2000 had also been used by a number of organizations on their servers to run some of their software programs. Now that is scary to say the least especially when these same servers in our offices are never powered off and is virtually connected to internet; so hackers galore!

Why am I saying this?
The prophet Isaiah, proclaiming hope for the Exiles, wrote in Isaiah 60:1-2
v1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
v2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
The world will grow darker and darker because of the evil around us but there is hope for Believers - because of our righteousness in God through Jesus Christ our Lord, our blessings will become more and more glorious and this will differentiate us from the world.

Why should the Lord bless us?

The lesson for caregroup on Tuesday centred on "Walking in the blessings of righteousness" and I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to ask the group this question, "Why should the Lord bless us?" Of course the immediate response would be to say that as children of Abba Daddy, it is natural for us to receive His blessings. Sure, I have no doubts about that and I would say unequivocably that it is true. However, that evening the Lord showed me something else.

Has it occurred to you that your blessings from Abba Daddy is to provoke non-believers into jealousy to see us so blessed and they not? The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:11, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentile." (here Paul was referring 'they' to the physical Jews by birth)

Salvation comes with its benefits and one of the benefits of being a child of Abba Daddy is material wealth so that the world can see it for themselves. Lets face it, the world will not recognize blessings in the spirit realm but they will definitely not miss seeing the material blessings we have on account of Jesus. Such is the richness of His blessings toward us.

The devil has to pay back what he stole from me!

Over the past few months my water bill had been escallating - and I do not just mean the dollar amount, but the volume of water consumed in my household shot up from a mere 30-35 cubic metres per month to a whopping 125 cubic metres over a period of about six months.

True, we did a major home renovation - change out the toilet seats in the house and re-sited some taps and also put in a booster water pump - back in late May/June period and I kept thinking that the pump was faulty, running at odd hours of the day and not as on demand. And so I 'summoned' my contractor and insisted that he fixed my pump issue because the water pressure did not improve and still water usage went skyrocketing. And the innocent man kept insisting that there was basically nothing wrong with the pump.

Well, my patience ran out two weeks ago when I received my last water bill for October and i was totally disgusted - metre read was 165 cu metre for October and 85 cu metre estimated for September thus averaging 125. So, enough is enough and I decided to alert the PUB (Public Utilities Board) to complain that they were overcharging me. The lady at the call centre suggested that I contact the PUB Water Leakage Detection Department and have their technicians come in and do some detective work to establish where the leak was.

For a certainty the leakage was not within the house otherwise all my cupboards, concrete walls and flooring would have been thoroughly soaked but this was not so. And true enough, the technicians detected a very loud gushing sound in the garden area but they were not confident to pinpoint the location. So, here we go and activated the contractor who sent two of his workers to dig up the garden up the the place where they could see some exposed pipe but on close examination, the copper pipe was dry as a bone on the exterior.

Back to the drawing board and the PUB guys were called in for a second time to locate the leak. This time the technicians not only brought in their 'hearing aid' (one long pipe with an enlarged earpiece) but a water 'stretoscope' and hooked up their computer to locate the breaks in the water flow. Guess what, they located the spot but off by 60cmn and they were so confident that they found the spot that they wanted to leave but I held them back so that they could brief my contractor the location.

When the contractor came after 10 minutes, I had the PUB guys replicate what they did to show the spot again but the euphoria was short-lived. They did not get the same results but tried to explain what they did and the results. But my contractor was not satisfied. He basically did not want to break up the wall to locate the leak as that would have been very messy and so, after after 10 minutes of useless discussion and speculation, he decided to dig at a particular spot to check one pipe and, bingo just 2 cm down the punctured pipe was exposed and it was a huge leak and so the repairs were done that afternoon itself.

You know the power of prayer says it all. As the PUB guys were discussing with my contractor, I was busy praying for wisdom for my contractor to locate and quickly fix the leakage. I was very confident that the leakage was not in some place concealed behind walls as the sound certainly did not match and praise the Lord for the quick locating of the spot and the fixing of the pipes.

As I thought about the whole incident, I am claiming restoration from the devil. he stole 95 cu metres of water over the past nine to twelve months and multiply that with a rough price of S$2.20 (including water levy charges) and the wastage is well over S$2,500. And I am claiming a sevenfold restoration in accordance with Proverbs 6:30-31.
v30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
v31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay SEVENFOLD, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

So devil, it is restoration time and I am expecting the money to come in very shortly! He should know better than to touch the anointed child of Abba Daddy for he can never win.

Days Where I Have Mixed Feelings - Nov 07 & 08

Yesterday Nov 07th was the first anniversary of my mother's passing and up to today, I still could not understand why she was taken away from us just the day before my birthday. Yes, I have mentioned how she went home exactly seven months after my father departed but still...the feeling remains.

Since her passing last year, my birthday will never be the same as I will be tossed between memories of her life and my own future. I guess I will have to acknowledge that I cannot change history but I can change my attitude towards my circumstances and be grateful to Abba Daddy for the opportunities given and the blessings ahead of me.

The Wisdom of the Lord

Ever wondered how at times we struggle to get things done or organized but don't seem to get results?

Well, it happened to me recently and I must admit I was trying to do things my way without seeking Abba Daddy for direction. For one I went into some business arrangement with a friend thinking that he had a large enough database of clients that my company may tap into for leads but not realizing that the type of business I was going into was not the major strength of the company that my friend is working at and therefore when we went into discussions with a number of the clients, we appeared as strange bed-fellows together and it raised more queries in the minds of these clients than before. And that hurts because it meant I did not have much ammunitions left in my pocket.

But Abba Daddy is merciful and gracious. He not only continued to supply my needs on a daily and even monthly basis but he sent openings along the way and that revived my spirit and taught me many lessons and for that I want to praise and thank Abba Daddy for these valuable lessons.

Growing Younger By The Day

I used to wonder, when I was much younger, how Pharoah would want to take Sarah when she was already close to 75 years old into his harem and then Abimelech also when she was close to 90 years old. What did they see in her that they wanted her as their playmate? their eyes must have failed them - i used to wonder. And I could not understand why the Apostle Peter wrote in 1Peter3:6, "like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."

What exactly did Peter mean when he wrote, "Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him her master"? What is so difficult about that? Does not the maids do that and yet they did not grow younger? No, I submit to you that Sarah, knowing her condition, completely trusted the Lord and kept faith with Abraham that whatever Abba Daddy promised him, He will deliver. She aligned her faith with the good opinion Abraham had of Abba Daddy and the Lord acknowledges that and He renewed her youth to the point that the aging cycle was reversed and instead of looking older by the day, she grew more and more youthful and beautiful by the day and that accounts for the harem membership. Both Pharoah and Abimelech are not blind and they have the whole nation to choose their concubines but their eyes fell on Sarah.

So if Sarah can have her youth renewed, does that mean we can also enjoy the same process? Yes, but of course! The Apostle Peter wrote that we are her daughters if we join her and put our trust in Abba Daddy and not give way to fear. Do you know that it takes more muscles in your body to work a frown or carry a grudge than the be relaxed and smile? And don't forget what Abba daddy promised in Psalm 103:5, "who (He) satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's".

So do not be surprised that your friends and relatives will comment to you the next time they meet you that you look younger and when they do that, be sure to testify how Abba Daddy did that for you and that they too can enjoy the same effect of renewal of youth.

The 5 Blessings of a Child of Abba Daddy

I am reminded of what King David wrote in Psal 103:1-5
v1 Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name
v2 Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits -
v3 who (1) forgives all your sins and (2) heals all your diseases,
v4 who (3) redeems your life from the pit and (4) crowns you with love and compassion,
v5 who (5) satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Is it not exciting that when we have the Lord with us, we can enjoy all five blessings in this earthly life? I am excited and I hope you are too!

Blessing of Abraham

Ever wondered what the Bible means when you read that we, the children of Abraham, will inherit the blessing of Abraham? note it is the 'blessing' in a singular form instead of the plural.

Genesis 15:6 tells us that when God showed him his inheritance in the stars, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness and because he was righteousness in the eyes of God, Abba Daddy blessed him with gold, silver, cattle, servants, the works. So we need to recognize that it is the believing in the goodness of the Lord that brought about the blessing of righteousness for Abraham and for us today, when we put our faith on Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have a good opinion of Him and that will attract all His blessings for us.

Romans 4:23-25 -
v23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him (Abraham) alone,
v24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
v25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Galatians 3:14 - He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

So we see that this blessing of Abraham that the Apostle Paul talked about is none other than the blessing of the promise of the Spirit. And when the Spirit comes upon us, the same Spirit will therefore become a magnet in our lives for the other blessings from Abba Daddy to flow naturally to us - blessings of health, wisdom and prosperity - and we do not need to feel apologetic about them as these are the natural inheritance from Abba Father. Which earthly father does not want to see his own children provided and cared for?

Blessings on the way

Yesterday I shared about my speaking to my mountain of challenges on Sunday and that there are already signs of blessings on the way. Indeed the fact that we are the blessed of Abba Daddy speaks volume to our challenges. Certainly I will say that the devil will still try and throw lemons at me but I need to remain focused on who I am - the righteous one in Abba Daddy.

So often many of us forget that the Holy Spirit is inside of us the moment we believed and received the Lord Jesus into our hearts. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is referred to as the Spirit of God but in the New Testament, He is called the Spirit of Christ and so when Christ came into our hearts, He came with His Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit is inside of us, then why are some of us still in fear at some time or other? I submit to you that our understanding of the position we have in Christ need a fresh drop of wisdom.

And when we fully appreciate who we really are in the Lord, we will have the boldness to stand up to the devil and brush him off. The bible tells us that '"no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants (sons and daughters) of the Lord, and this is their VINDICATION from Me," declares the Lord (Isaiah 54:17).

So if the devil is not able to stand in my way, then pray tell me, how can the blessings not come my way. Hallelujah Abba Daddy, send forth your blessings (or as my friends would say, 'Ship it in!")