Weariness & the Anointing

I give glory to You, O Lord for the anointing I felt and the words You put into my mouth over the course of my preaching. Truly it was as if borne by the wind of the Holy Spirit. I spent several days meditating on what I was going to say and prayed hard that the Lord would grant me words to declare the mystery of Christ with boldness and wisdom. But I paid the price of exhaustion and this morning I am still tired from yesterday's exertions and I may take another day or two to recover.

But Friday I am travelling to a nearby District and the traffic should be clear as it is a public holiday so I shall be driving under less than an hour but coming back on night may take longer because my eyesight is not great for night travel. Then Saturday I drive back to the same place for another long session with a work shop and then finish by noon. 

It is almost settled in my mind that my next move won't be far from Kota Kinabalu as I look for ministry in the city and the occasion travels to nearby districts of less than 90 minutes' drive. 2 hours' plus drive is bit taxing for me now given the uneven roads and potholes every where. 

It must be from a movie about Chinese warlords' history when I learned a saying about 15 years ago - "40 to 60 conquer under heaven" and in Cantonese it sounds good. Even an experienced soldier will only fight from 40 to 60 years old and after that at most an adviser to the king or the General. I had fought battles for the Lord in His mission fields in the interior of Sabah. Just a few months ago I travelled to Entilibon (4.5 hours' drive from KK) and a village 90 minutes' drive from Tenom (4.5 hours from KK). I was already 61 years old. 

The question came out again how many churches I had preached in as during last Wednesday's home group of 25 people, as the former Children's ministry chairman for Sabah who just retired in the last AGM two months ago had travelled to 520 churches out of about 600 local SIB churches. 

Three or four years ago I asked him how many and he gave a number close to 400 churches. He would be the most travelled servant of God by a big margin. On invitations, I had preached in about 130 SIB churches, 10 non-SIB churches in Sabah, about 15 churches in West Malaysia and 40 churches in Singapore and a few more in Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and New Zealand. My number would be just over 200 churches altogether which is an amazing number. If you asked me when I began serving God 31 years ago, even 50 churches would be a huge number for me. 

But I am wearied and the anointing was strong yesterday. I put in a lot of effort into the sermon as it was my first public speaking on a Sunday after I ended my tenure as pastor in a SIB church last month. May the name of the Lord be glorified. Amen.