Doing the Will of the Father

My last sermon in July spoke of seeking and doing the will of God the Father. Especially for His servants, we must seek to do God’s will above all else. I shared how I sought His will after 5 years pastoring a church in 2008 and I resigned, convinced that God would lead me to a new ministry. It was only after four months after my resignation and just a couple of weeks of me going to New Zealand that the opening in Singapore came up and I still went to NZ but returned 3 months later to take up a teaching position at Trinity Theological College.

When things were going really great and all seemed rosy I felt the stirring of the Spirit once more and I left Singapore and returned to Sabah in 2014. Every time I left a position and ministry it was by faith not knowing where I would go and serve next. It was seeking and obeying God’s will that mattered most to me.

Now, I am at peace. In a way I was in demand with the qualifications and books I had published. My former Seminary just had a few PhDs but about two-thirds of the faculty only hold a Masters degree. I realised that higher qualifications or pursuit of higher degrees in theology are not what they appear to be in Malaysia. Too many focus on getting the paper qualification without desiring to seek the truth and earn the degree in the right manner with hard work.

There were just too many compromises everywhere and I am not going to simply pass a MTheol or DTheol student unless they can achieve a certain standard. A few months into teaching last year, again I resigned after seeking God’s will and obeying His Word. He spoke to me from the Septuagint LXX Prov 24:27 to “prepare my work for departure” and I had a good 10 months to do so. I truly believed I did God’s will despite what others might say. A spiritual man judges all things but he is not judged by anyone. It means that if we are led by the Spirit we will judge all things, discerning God’s will for ourselves whilst others who might not have such spiritual perception cannot judge us. 

Then in the past few days having completed 27 pages of commentary writing on John 13, I realised that it was God’s will for me to write without distraction. It is ironic that I was over qualified to teach in my former Seminary (a MTheol would do, it seems) and many more can also pastor churches (a BTheol would do) but I doubt many can write a commentary in Malay. Even writing in English is a big ask. When my friend from KL asked me if there was anyone else in my field (Revelation) I thought for a moment and I realised that in Malaysia I can’t think of anyone. God has His servants in every place and every nation but one needs humility and discernment to know His will and receive whom He has sent.