Manifestations of The Church by Ps. Ong

Weee, its a lengthy one :) So long that my sms became a mms.

I wished I could take notes and right stuff together at the same time, then my phone would upload it straight to my blog, so need for so much hassle. But I guess everything needs a bit of working.

John 3:5-6 (New King James Version)

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

What is life? We all have our different definitions of life but the most simple definition is by looking at a person's life. Usually we would say, "Oh, then it should be my grandfather or some one old, because he has lived throughout his life and has great experience!"
That is true, if your considering wisdom and experience. But the wisdom and experience of some one older is already tainted by the world.

Real life is found by looking at a baby, the innocence of a newborn. Its innocence is life.
Why? Because flesh is flesh like in the scriptures. If a man that has lived his life on earth is bound to be bounded by things of the earth. Whatever is of the Spirit can't be with the flesh, Spirit is spirit and flesh is flesh.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (New King James Version)

⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

A baby is not messed up by the world's failures, adultery, sins, temptations, all in all bad stuff.
If you depended on yourself , you get what you yourself(Wahaha thats intensifying, a pronoun use. Learnt from English ^^) can produce. So flesh is flesh, and whatever is spirit is spirit.

So what is manifestation of the Spirit? Manifestation is from the Greek word Pleroma which means fullness. When the Spirit of God expresses Himself through us, its like a when a ray of light goes through a prism and rainbows comes out the other side. When the Spirit of God manifests us, great things will come out of us : miracles, healing, prophecy, etc.

When we go to church we wonder why those incredible miracles and healing don't happen. We know we read our Bibles and pray, we worship and live right. So why doesn't it happen?
Is it cause the church is not teaching us correctly?
If you think that way then you better really read this post well, if you don't and you know that you can't blame the church but theres something in us we need to realize or correct then good job! =)

The church's responsible to why these things don't happen. The church's true responsibility is to make sure that we continue in the spirit. It has to make sure that there is a continual manifestation of God's Spirit through us. Thus greater things will come.

Four practical stages of the church's manifestations. We are gonna us Mary's and Jesus' lives as examples.

Luke 1:34-38 (New King James Version)

³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

1. Receiving Through the Divine Manifestation. Verse 35

We wonder why the word is not working, why even though as we worship nothing comes forth from it. The reason is because as we receive the Word in an atmosphere of worship, it has to also stick in us together with God's presence. The Word and God's presence goes hand-in-hand. He overshadows us, and we receive the Word.

Pastor Ong said this, "For the last 2,000 years the church has never lacked the understanding of God's Word, but the has church has lacked the understanding of God's Word."

He wasn't trying to contradict himself, lol. What does he mean? His trying to say in simple that, "We need both knowledgeable people and people that brings manifestence."

The church never did lack in understanding God's Word, because it had people with great knowledge, but it lacked the understanding of God's Word because many people didn't have the manifestation of the Spirit. Marry the manifestence together with the Word.
Let God overshadow us, let Him marinate us.
Pastor said in South America, overshadow means marinate. So let God marinate us. yumm =)
Receive the divine manifestation and the miracles with happen.
Its alright to question God for clarity. To why the miracles are not working, but know when to trust. Because trust is where we grow, and how we learn. Be like Mary, she trusted and said "Let it be done."

2. We Must Protect the Ways of God through Decerning.

Matthew 2:12-13 (New King James Version)

¹² Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

The Flight into Egypt

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

Discerning is very important, Pastor told a true story of a church in Nigeria.

There was a pastor there named Lagos and he had been doing great miracles in the church, healing many people. Many Christians from all over the world and even some great pastors Pastor Ong knew went. They saw him perform the healing and many people believed. Pastor Ong also almost wanted to see him, once when he visit Singapore. But he didn't get to.

Then some really bad news came about. It was about the man Lagos and how he didn't not believe in God and not even Jesus, that his belief was in witchcraft and that all the healing he was doing was through it. Pastor Ong warned everyone to discern well. Because most of the time life is never what it seems to be.

How To Discern Well?

Simple! Back to John 3:5-6. What ever is of the flesh is flesh and what ever is of the Spirit is spirit. Fleshly analytics are of the flesh, Spirit is spirit.

An old man's wisdom and experience will be fleshly. His experience is based on what he has been living through. To discern well we need to fill ourselves with the Spirit.

Hebrews 5:14 (New King James Version)

¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Train ourselves well in the Word. Read from the Word, learn from others who have done that. Learn and ask people who are wise in discerning. Ask for advice.

Acts 5:1-3 (New King James Version)

Lying to the Holy Spirit

¹ But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. ² And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. ³ But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?

Ananias and Sapphira were godly people but because they were not strong in their discerning they had sinned terribly.

3. Nurture Our Inner Life and Character

God's plans are not always inspirational or exciting plane(I don't get what exciting plane means but I'm sure Pastor said plane not plan >_<>

Like Jesus' family, Jesus was just born instead of being able to settle down and relax. God asked them to flee to Egypt. He will like the Israelites, bring us into the wilderness. He tests us, that we might be nurtured in our inner life and character.

But do not let doubt come into our hearts, because when we doubt that it all crashes down like the stock market. I just learnt this from my History & Geography.

Lets use the Stock Market as an example. When times all so good, people are really happy. But when the good is too much.... then people start to doubt, and Correction takes place. People think the market needs to slow down and take a rest, which is correction, so they start to pull out of it. When people start to pull out of the market, what happens? In one word, it Crashes.

Luke 2:40 (New King James Version)

⁴⁰ And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

We grow in the wilderness. Like how Jesus grew, we grow too.

Luke 2:52 (New King James Version)

⁵² And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

We need to allow God to nurture us.
We must have the character that can carry us, where our gifts can shine.
That statement is very true, and I like it. Our gifts are from our character and to let it shine we must have the correct character.

4. We Must Release That Power by Relinquishing Control.

John 2:11 (New King James Version)

¹¹ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

Like how Mary raised Jesus. When Jesus was ready to leave for His ministry, she didn't stop Him. As a mother she could, but she knew that she had to let Him go.
We must learn to try our very best, then trust God.

The walk of faith is always uncomfortable to release control, but when we do our life can become as great Jesus'.

So, receive divine manifestations, protect it by discerning well, nurture it, and release our control.

Isaiah 26:3-4 (New King James Version)

³ You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴ Trust in the LORD forever,
For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.

Yeah wooot I'm done! Takes me 1 hour to do this types of post. Very hard but worth it ya kno :).