God showed up yesterday.. did you? =)

Hello and hello again…

It’s been a few months! Again! Hahahaahha I’m really not very up to date with my blog updates… oh well!

Had to reformat my hard disk etc etc… aiyah… the hassle of reinstalling everything…
Ok I think I’ve complained enough…

But I do have good things to blog about.

Y’see, in the past few weeks, there’s been more changes going on in the youth ministry. First things first… we are not punkt.com anymore… well, we’ve kinda dropped the shortform of POINT COMMUNITY in favour of our full name.

WHY? Because the church is returning to the building we left about 40 months ago… yeah, it’s time to RETURN!

So as Chapel of the Holy Spirit returns to its home, Point Community is also coming home and we are expecting great things from God.

And God has been showing up at youth service these past weeks.

Take yesterday for example, we kinda turned our order of service around where we had our pre-service prayer and preparation song but went into a time of teaching about the Tabernacle of Moses and the picture of worship it represents.

We learnt that it is imperative we enter into the Holy of Holies to meet up with God whenever we come together to worship. Sometimes we lose sight of what it means to gather together as a congregation for a worship service. The whole works from the opening prayer, through the praise and worship, the reading and sharing of God’s Word, to our response, ministry time, closing song – everything happens so that we can meet up with God.

We gather and prepare for service – through repentance and cleansing = Outer Courts where the Bronze Altar and Bronze Laver are.
We praise, worship, prayer, (read the Word –sometimes)= the Holy Place where the Golden Lamp Stand, Table of Shewbread, Altar of Incense are.
Then we enter the Holy of Holies = when we go into High Praise or ‘free worship’ and wait upon God to speak, and when we listen to the Word of God preached to us.

Well, with that in mind, we practiced entering into God’s presence through Praise and Worship.

Sam Tan was the worship leader with Rena co-leading on the keys. We had Justin on lead guitar and Cindy on rhythm. I was on drums. (heh, we need to pray more drummers into serving – ok ok… they’re on their way)

Things started slowly (ok that’s a bit of a contradiction coz we start with Praise songs eh?) but I mean in a spiritual sense. Sure there was singing and clapping and lifting of hands but nope, we weren’t really getting in the flow of the Spirit.

But then after a while, we kinda broke through. Y’know its been said (and its true) a bunch of experienced musicians can manufacture a feeling of flow and euphoria but we gotta learn to differentiate between a good feeling and a real sense of the Spirit’s flow.

So yeah, I didn’t even feel a musician’s flow at first. But well, going into the Holy of Holies is a journey eh? We keep pressing in.

The congregation was asked to stand on the steps toward the back of the L.T. instead of at their seats. Then they were encouraged to sing praise and as they gave their praise to God, to move forward down the steps toward the front. And as they felt led, slowly people started moving to the front until we had a breakthrough and some people came right up to the front signifying they have entered in.

And as we went through worship and high praise and went on to songs not on the song list, we just worshipped and worshipped. And then I felt the Lord say that He was going to do ministry to the people and I told them that. And God ministered to them without me laying hands on them. And God moved people to pray for each other. Cool!

So we just let God do His thing.

Things that were shared:

The River of Life was flowing and we needed to get in the flow. 3 people confirmed this.
Time of refreshing was there for us, we needed to get right with God and let go of our burdens. This word from the Lord was confirmed too, through scripture like Romans 8
Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches, we have to remain connected, rooted, plugged into Him so that we are continually fed, continually recharged – John 15

Many times its when we feel inadequate and like we cannot make it that God steps in and does the ministry. The idea is to prepare ourselves but submit to His leading. Sometimes what we plan isn’t what God wants to do exactly so we have to go with the flow!

It’s really an experience serving God in this way. Exciting! Last week, I prayed over the people who were at the front and actually I was led to pray for everyone present and I felt a kind of electricity around my hand… wah, something new really…

I really pray that you guys will continue to grow and experience God in real ways. So that your worship will truly be in Spirit and in Truth – in the reality of your lives. One day, each one will find your place in God’s plan and you’ll be used mightily by God. And you’ll have your own stories about electric current flowing through you and other exciting events that take place when you surrender to God and let Him lead your steps in life.

Of course, I am committed to praying for and raising as many of you to the place where you can serve the church wherever the need may be.

Let’s look forward and come with an expectation every week to meet up with God and hear from Him. And I hope those who weren't at the service yesterday will be down at the next one coz i'd really hate for you to miss out on what God is doing!

Point Community – you are a great buncha youth and don’t let the devil or anyone else tell you different. =)

(btw, in case any of you don’t know, this Saturday 26th August, we’re going out to play! So we won’t be meeting in school. Check with your cell leaders for details!)

Till the next time I blog…(I dunno when!) God bless and keep walking with Him!