Yahweh is One

I have had a wonderful Sunday, preaching at my homechurch. The Spirit moved powerfully throughout the service and as there were a number of events scheduled for Fathers' Day, I did not get to preach until 9:12am after an 8am start. I preached for 42 minutes until just before 9:55am and we sang a song of response from Hillsong's "Hosanna" (Hosanna Termulia) in the Malay version. The Spirit moved powerfully in the midst of the congregation and as I asked people to come forward for prayers, about 30 people came forward and we spent about 10-15 minutes praying for each one of them. The two church pastors and a few elders whom I called upon assisted me in praying. A number of them fell to the ground with wailing and tears and the deaconesses came forward and prayed for the women concerned.

My sermon text was from Isaiah 28:9, "Whom shall he teach knowledge?" and I spoke about the importance of the knowledge of God, beginning from the name of God, YHWH. I read from Exodus 3:14-15, Deut 6:4 and explained how God is One but yet three persons in the New Testament. I used texts from Matt 28:19, that believers were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I also spoke about how the Son came to reveal God as Father with texts from John 17:6 and 17:11.

When I sensed the time passing by (40 minutes), I stopped instead of finishing two more slides which I had prepared. It's important to keep track of time, though one felt the anointing flowing but given the attention-span of the congregation, one must be careful at all times to seek for maximum effect. If I had gone on preaching longer, I would not have time for prayers. In fact, I was reluctant to call for prayers as I saw the clock was past 10am, but the Spirit urged me on and the people responded.

It's interesting that for more than 5 years since I left as pastor of my homechurch, I had not preached on a Sunday until last February and now I had preached for a second time in 2013. I felt more and more church members began to warm up to me and a few even hinted that I should return as senior pastor. But my response was this: "Unless I receive a specific leading from the Lord, I am staying put in Singapore for now." Even during the Sunday service the week before I had this vision during worship where I knelt before the Lord, "Lord, I am ready. I wait for your royal command." The Lord is king and He is highly exalted.