Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 364 - Listen. Obey. Victory! (Please click here for English podcast)

Monday, November 2, 2015

OT DAY 364 - Listen. Obey. Victory! (Please click here for English podcast)

Please click the link below to my new 40 days Break.Build site any time you like to having a 40 days "Break.Build" daily devotion with one to two people as a discipler to help those Jesus prepares for you to disciple. You need to know that the call and purpose of my Break.Build and this Discipler123 blog/podcast is for you to become a discipler to help more people to have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus and then they can become disciplers too:
http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Please click these links to the app. Andy Ng wrote if you have an Android cel.:

Discipler123: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

Break.Build: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.bb.app

Silence

1. Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2. Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1. Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2. Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3. Open your heart to praise the Lord

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 125 :2

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html)

1. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

“Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2. Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Judges 7:19-25)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges 7&version=ESV

19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.

24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.

Judges 7:19-25

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
How do National leaders tackle with a military act beyond their capacity? Well, many secret meetings and preparations. How would those leaders feel before they launch their operation? Many sleepless nights, doubt, worries and pressure.

How did National leaders as Moses, Joshua and Gideon did that? Two words: Listen, obey. What happen after their listen and obey? Victory!

You may want to say, then I just follow their listen and obey. Yes, perfect! If you just follow that then you will experience the fruit of listen and obey and that is victory. But, can you see how God has been training His servants to listen and obey? Do you have that kind of faith and trust to do that crazy military operation as God told Gideon to do? 300 soldiers to confront thousands and thousands of enemies!

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

God's way of deciding whether and how to fight battles is quite different. You couldn't blame Gideon for thinking it was rather crazy….
God's reducing Gideon's army to three hundred obviously means it will take something like a miracle for them to dispose of the huge Midianite army, but God does involve them in bringing it about. Yet they carry no weapons, only the means of performing a silly trick. They shout, "The sword for Yahweh and for Gideon," but the only literal swords employed in the battle are the ones the Midianites use on one another.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.116.

Are you facing with something that is beyond your capacity? I do have quite a number of those things I need to accomplish beyond my capacity. I have seen and experienced numerous times that God acted because I just listened and obeyed by doing something "silly" like Gideon. But, those "silly" things is to exercise my listen and obey to God's command, like three days of complete fasting, 40 days or 100 days of fasting one meal a day, doing my blog/podcast non-stop for the past six years daily, copying the Bible and now 40 days of 7a.m prayer meeting at REC. Last Saturday we had Rev. Peter Klenner came to join us to pray. Today we had Rev. Dr. Ed Hird to join us to pray. Why we do that? Listen and obey! Today Rev. Ed told me that he got a very strong urge from the Lord to come to pray with us this morning at 7a.m. And, he is going to come to pray with us in our monthly 1st Tuesday night 7:30p.m. Soaking Prayer tomorrow night. To some people, may be that's "silly" acts. To us, it is Listen and Obey! We have lots of track records of our success and victory by doing that. How about you? Still using all kinds of human effort to do things causing fatigue, burnout and depression or using God's strategy by just humbly listen and obey!

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be able to learn to listen and obey and to have the courage to really listen and obey to your sometimes out of the box command so that we can have that victory to glorify your Holy Name. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Have you experienced this kind of "silly" listen and obey before?

2. How can today's example help you to have a new understanding of God led strategy?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading that I recited loudly and copy the Bible is:

Psalm 119:89-96

Ezekiel 3:16-6:14

Hebrews 4:1-16

Proverbs 26:27

Photos of my copying the Bible using Time with Abba passages

Golden Verse