How Do You See Yourself
(This Weekly Prayer Summary was written by Lisa Ang, assistant director of the CBC English Prayer Ministry, and edited by Brigitta Tedja)
Watch the sermon here
James opened the service by embracing the atmosphere of praise, worship, and prayer. He reminded us on how important God’s Word and the revelation of His Word are our lives.
During the month of November, our Church has been talking about vision. Pastor Paul started our Church in this journey on how we see God, how we see ourselves, and how we see others. James shared his own experience while preparing for this Sunday sermon. He was 90% done with his preparation, when he felt that God just wanted him to rely on the Holy Spirit and set aside everything that he had prepared.
What God wants to highlight today is so simple. It is just His Word. While preparing for the sermon, James heard the word, “My Word will cause My people to see.” There is such a depth of revelation in just that one sentence that God is unveiling to us today as we go through the list of Bible passages.
Jeremiah 1:4-10 NKJV
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I KNEW YOU; Before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then said I: “Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
7 But the Lord said to me:
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.
9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
As we read through, we can see there is a back and forth between God and Jeremiah where God showed Jeremiah something and ask Jeremiah a question, Jeremiah answered and so on.
Jeremiah 1:11-13 NKJV
11 “The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
“I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.
12 The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”
13 The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?” “I see a pot that is boiling,” I answered. “It is tilting toward us from the north.”
14 The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15 I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah.
16 I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made.”
There is something about these conversations between God and Jeremiah that stood out. Let us look at verse 11 and 13. Several times God asked, “What do you see?” We are talking in the context of vision and what God has been speaking over this house. God is causing us to step into His vision; declaring over us as a people and as a Church. There is a grandeur vision that God is having us buy into as a generation, as a people. There is a vision of what the Lord is doing, that cannot be accomplished by a single person; that cannot be accomplished even in a single life time. There is a greater work of the Lord that He is doing.
Let us look at King David’s life as an example. David bought bronze, silver, and iron to build the temple of God, yet who was the one who actually built the temple? It was David’s son, Solomon. David bought into the vision so much so that he gave extravagantly to God’s vision to build a temple; but he never saw the fulfillment of that vision during his lifetime.
There is something that God is calling each and every one of us to do. He is saying that He has a greater work that maybe the next generation or the next generation after that or maybe the next 200 or 300 years after we are long gone; maybe that is the generation who will accomplish these things. But God is setting things in motion today. God is saying that He needs each and every one of us. It is the Word of The Lord that causes something to stir up inside each of us, that will cause us to just open the eyes of our spirits and begin to see as Jeremiah saw.
It is the Word of the Lord that He began to speak to highlight the connection between what you hear and what you see. God is saying that His Word, when you hear, listen to, digest, you go out and live and do His Word. When you let His Word take a grip of your life, that is when your vision will be transformed. That is when He begins to change the course of your life. The trajectory of the path where we are going will change as we hear the things that He has planned and declared over our lives. Our path will begin to shift back into alignment with the Word of God and with God’s vision that He has declared over you as an individual and over us as the body of Christ.
Going back to Jeremiah 1:5:
“Before I formed you in the womb, I KNEW YOU.” If there is any question of when life begins, then Jeremiah 1:5 could not be clearer. At one point in the womb, life begins. God was the One who formed Jeremiah in the womb of his mother.
“Before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Sanctify means to set apart for a purpose: to be a prophet to the nations.
The Word of God may be for Jeremiah, but the Word of God should stir something in each of us that causes us to cling into the Word and claim it as our own.
“Before I was born, before I was even a thought in my father and my mother’s mind, before I was ever in my mother’s womb; Lord, you knew me!”
God knew you. He knew exactly what you are going to do, who you are going to be and every single moment of your entire life; He already knew before you were even formed in your mother’s womb.
The same is seen in Jeremiah 29:11; to whom God said:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
It is the same God who was speaking to Jeremiah and it is the same plan that God has spoken to Jeremiah in chapter 1.
When we go through our lives, as we go through challenges and difficulties of life, God needs to remind us as He reminded Jeremiah that He has a plan and purpose for each one of us. A plan and purpose that have been spoken over our lives even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. God has sanctified and ordained us for a cause before we were even in our mother’s womb.
There is a reason God put those Word in the Bible; so that generations later, the Word of God continues to carry on. Thousands of years after Jeremiah, the same Word is still being spoken today over our lives. It is still being fulfilled in this generation.
Galatians 2:20 NKJV
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
There is a drastic change when Saul transitioned to Paul. It was because of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus that Jesus got hold of Saul’s life and the man that he was ‘Saul of Tarsus’ was no longer here. God had to change his name from Saul to Paul and he became a completely different person.
There are several examples in the Bible where God changed a person’s name (another example is God changed Simon to Peter). There are times when Jesus had to declare a Word over somebody, not just a new name but a new identity; a new Word for that person to transform the vision and direction of our lives to be what God wants us to be. Yet in all of that, there is a question, “Do we see Christ over our lives?”
The vision God has in your life is not about your accomplishments, not about your strength or talents and all the things you can do, but can the glory of God rest upon your life? Can He exalt you so that He can be glorified?
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
James shared his personal testimony of how busy him and his family were this week, leaving him little time to prepare his sermon. There is a faith journey for every preacher before they speak; that is to know what it is that God wants to speak. A good preacher knows when he needs to get out of the way and let the Word of God speak and minister to the congregation. You cannot use the wisdom or eloquence of man, but the power of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-14
9 “But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
There are things that the Spirit of God wants to speak and declare into your lives. It is not something that the natural man hears and it becomes knowledge in our heads. There is a revelation and impartation of the Word of God that God wants to release to His people, and we need to be open for it.
Per 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” The plans that God has for us, we cannot even fathom or imagine them in our minds unless they are revealed to us by the divine impartation of the Spirit of God. It is important to understand the role of the Holy Spirit. As you read the Word of God, the Holy Spirit needs to teach you and bring you into understanding. If you only listen to the Word of God as a head knowledge, it is going to go in one ear and out the other. It needs to be revealed to you by the Spirit of God.
Judges 6 was the story of Gideon. The children of Israel were being oppressed by the Midianites and God raised up this warrior: Gideon. Gideon was in the wine press, and he was threshing wheat instead of pressing wine. To thresh wheat you need wind, there is no wind inside the wine press. Gideon was doing something somewhere he should not be doing. Gideon was hiding from the Midianites; he was so scared of what the enemies might do.
In Judges 6:12, the angels show up and said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
God never said “A mighty man of valor, hiding like a coward from the Midianites”. God sees one thing in a situation. God also sees who that person is called to be. God sees beyond the reed in Simon; He sees Peter the rock. God sees Saul; but beyond Saul that persecuting the church; He sees Paul, the man who was going to be the apostle to the gentiles and wrote 2/3 of the New Testament. God sees the destiny and purposes over your life that He knew even before you were formed in your mother’s womb and that is what He declared over us as His people.
Judges 6 NKJV
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
As you read through Judges 6, you will see how Gideon made excuses and complained. God is calling Gideon to do something great, yet the first things that came out from Gideon’s mouth was all of the disqualifications. How many of us has done the same thing? You know that God has called you to do something in your life, but the first utterance out of your mouth or thoughts are disqualifications? “I am not smart enough; I do not have the skills to do it”, etc.
Our role is just to get hold of the Word of God that He is declaring over us and believe it and run with it; more than believing the voice of disqualifications that sometimes come from ourselves or people around us.
His power is made perfect in weakness. Every time we say we are not good enough, not strong enough and whatever excuses you can come up with, God is saying "Good!! Then my glory can be manifested in your life!”
God is looking for the foolish things to confound the wise in this world; so that He can show the world that it is not about its wisdom or strength. We do need to get ourselves equipped, trained, but we also need to understand that is not where the power of God rests. God can flow and operate through and use of our skills, but that is not where the power of God comes from. Apostle Paul was an educated and trained man, but he understood where the power of God rests. Paul boasted in his weakness and infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on him. All of his knowledge and training that he has equipped himself with is all rubbish compared to the glory of God upon his life. Equip and educate yourself to the fullest extend to equip yourself to do the work of God that He has spoken over your life, but understand that the power and Spirit of God is what counts.
Going back to the story of Gideon, he raises an army starting with 32,000 people but God said it is too many.
Judges 7 NKJV
2 “And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
God brought the number down to 10,000 and then to 300 people. God orchestrated the battle for Israel to defeat the Midianites with lantern, trumpets, and an army of 300 men. They did not have the physical natural might to accomplish what God has set them out to do. But God wants His glory to rest upon them, so He needed to take out the things that will hinder His glory to be manifested. It is up to a point where we have to say “God, this cannot be me, it has to be You!”
Another person who spoke and disqualifies himself instead of heeding to the Word of God is Moses.
Exodus 4:10-12 NKJV
10 “Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
11 So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
Acts 7 NKJV
22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.”
Moses disqualified himself because he had a stutter, but the evidence in Acts 7:22 showed a different story. We see this all the time. Self-disqualification!
Be wary of the voice and the words that are being declared over your life. What you are feeding yourselves; what is the narrative; what is the image of yourself that you buy into. Who is it that you see yourself as and who is the person you are called to be; the plans and purposes of God in your life needs to be the truth and the plump-line to which we measure and align ourselves with.
Isaiah 60
1 “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.”
4 “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
5 Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.”
How do we see and change our perception? It is by nothing else than by the power of the Spirit of God and the Word of God that He is revealing to you.
Prayer Points:
Pray that we have a new hunger to read God’s Word (Bible) because in it contains the purposes and plans God has over our lives.
Pray for each of us to be more sensitive to hear God’s voice and for the Holy Spirit’s presence to be more tangible in our lives.
Pray that we can see the plans and purposes of God in our lives.
Pray that we can be a part of what God has set in motion today.
Pray that we have the revelation and understanding on how great God’s plan is over our lives.
Pray that we no longer self-disqualify ourselves, but we will have alignment with how God sees us.
Pray that we have the strength and perseverance to overcome challenges that come our way; and keep our eyes set towards God’s plans and purposes that He has spoken over us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb.
Pray so that Christ lives in us and manifest through our lives; more of Him, less of us.
Pray that we do not become proud and rely on our own talents and strength but we learn to rely on God instead.