Heightened Awareness

 

Have you ever just thought of someone you wanted to call or visit. And when you call them, and you find out it was a miracle moment that God actually directed you to make that call. You realised that the person was going through a rough patch and suddenly you call them. Jesus made a statement he said my sheep know my voice. Amen. There's a familiarity to the voice of God to the life of a Believer so much so that there are times where I would have thought it was simply my desire to call a person and later, I find out afterwards it was the voice of God, living immersed in Christ, puts us in a place where we constantly are hearing that familiar voice. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27)

 

During our choir practice, our leader asks "do you know this song? and name the song". Without the song being played, but as soon as they mentioned that song you could hear it. you weren't aware of it. Your awareness became suddenly heightened to that sound when somebody mentioned, and you could hear it. God is looking for us to have a heightened awareness of His presence. He is constantly talking to us. The noises around us are restricting from hearing Him. The surroundings deafened us.

 

it's like Jacob said when he woke up from that dream he said God is here and I didn't even know it (Genesis 28:16). Heightened awareness to a reality that existed before he was aware. It was made aware by the Holy Spirit lives in you. He's also called paraclete. I've had certain things happen to me through the years where I became unusually aware of of him and it's terrifying and wonderful all at the same time. The word of God is perfectly fit to speak into any and every given situation.

 

May the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus and we are always aware of His presence.

Focus

The more you focus on the difficulties or your hardship or even your pains, the more u focus, the bigger it gets.

I am going through this, am going through that and if your friends listen to this, “oh boy, sorry for you, so hard, isnt it?”. The more sympathy they give, the more it grows and the more you doubt God.

So what we need to do is focus. What we need in our life is the simple trait of Daniel. The bible says Daniel slept with the lion. If he has been focusing on lion, am sure he would not be sleeping with them. It brings it back to the days when God did something very personal during one of the difficult times of my life.

During my first day chemotherapy under the supervision of Prof. Mark Rosenthal at Royal Melbourne Hospital, I met this gentleman Ben who was also diagnosed with Testicular cancer with same prototype – non seminoma teratoma and started the treatment one week ahead of me. So I was also put under the same schedule of three months of daily chemo as Ben, just one week behind though. Every Monday I meet Ben at the consultation room. We used to share our previous week experience and we used to laugh it out. As we progressed with the treatment, weeks later laughs became groans. I soon realized that I was having the same symptoms and experiences which Ben had the previous week. Week pass-by and I know what days are going to be ahead of me with all those excruciating pains of spasm. I was focusing on the pain which Ben faced and I invited those into my life. If Daniel was focusing on the lion, he would not be sleeping with the lion. It’s a simple truth. Daniel doesn’t have his eyes on the lions, but on God.

That was one of the biggest revelations I received during my chemo days and got a nice hug from my God. I was separated from my family during the period and had no access to my son. Living away from my three year old was more painful than the terminal illness. God said, "Son,but Daniel didn’t focus on the lion". From that moment on, all my fears disappeared, all of my uncertainties, all of my anxieties disappeared as He got my focus right.

When you focus on the trouble, burden, the pain , it grows bigger and we feel less confident, less significant and overwhelmed. Daniel looked at the God who created the lion. God will acts on those who wait for Him. Trust in God, do what he ask us to do and leave the consequences to God. Then we will have peace, sense of joy, confidence and assurance.

Understand this, only thing that will happen in your life is what God allows. If we are the child of God, what He allows, He allows for a reason. Trust in him and focus on God. Eventhough I don’t like the way the event keeps hammering my life, I want His way no matter what.

Stay focus.

The Good-O-Meter

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man." (Matthew 15:19-20) 

"There is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10) "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). Salvation comes by the grace of God.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast.

(Ephesians 2:8-9)