Chapter Ninety-six: more on manifestations of The Holy Spirit

As Jack continued to seek God and wait upon the Lord, he brought the class to ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit by faith based on the following verses:
1 Corinthians 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
Galatians 3:5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
For the first lesson on this subject, the class practiced their faith by asking the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself through His gifts as described in 1 Cor. 12:8, "for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit". The class then divided into two persons per team and took turn to practice the gifts.
The goal of the class was to edify and encourage each other to build up the body of Christ in the most holy faith. The participants were encouraged to pray in the Spirit while waiting upon the Lord to reveal His word of knowledge and word of wisdom. Where they did not receive any specific revelation in the form of Bible verses, they could follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to speak words of comfort and encouragement.
At the end of the practice of faith in action, there were some encouraging feedback. The Holy Spirit responded to their prayers and revealed His knowledge and wisdom to the encouragement and edification of the participants. Some participants were able to receive verses from each other which confirmed their specific situations.
The exercise helped the participants to experience the faithfulness of God and the reality of God's words.
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Personally, Jack has been blessed with a family who share the same zeal in seeking God and wanting to know God and His will with the heart to obey. When they gather together, they could pray and intercede together. They prayed in the Spirit and listened to the still small voice. Recently they met and prayed for a number of people (mostly family members not present) and it turned out to be a Spirit-filled meaningful session.
They took turn to name someone to be prayed for. Then they prayed in the Spirit. When the prayers in tongues stopped they took turn to report what they had seen or heard from the Holy Spirit and what they were led to pray for, or what Bible verses they saw. There were four participants. Each one saw a different mode of presentation of the same message! For example, one saw a verse, another saw a vision, yet another sang a hymn, and another received word of knowledge. When they compared notes they found that the same message was imparted to them. They continued to intercede for people in need as well. It was a wonderful time interceding as led by the same Holy Spirit in them.

Management for Christians (3): how are you managing?

How are you managing? We always ask others this way. Often, the reply is, “Just/barely managing.” A Christian will reply, “Praise the Lord, we are managing.” (Often the reply does not reveal the real situation. Managing has become a cliche.)
1. The word ‘managing’ refers to ‘living’. Managing is synonymous with living.
2. There is no other word which so boldly claims its importance in daily living. We therefore need to learn effective management in all aspects of life.
3. Management is all about living your life. How you want to live your life will affect how effective your management will be.
4. Your values impact your management of life. Do you know your values? Why do you live?
5. Management is based on the ‘why’ and then works on the ‘how’. When you know why you live, you can then work on how to live an effective life.
6. How to manage effectively? You need a management road map.
7. A Christian management road map includes the following navigation tools:  a Bible, a heart that is willing to listen to the Holy Spirit, an attitude that is open to learning.
A. Bible: you need a New Spirit Filled Life Bible -Kingdom equipping through the power of the Word (Thomas Nelson Bibles)
B. Holy Spirit: you need to pray to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
C. Open attitude: An attitude that submit totally to God and resist the devil daily.
8. Be prepared to receive revelations daily from the spiritual realm. Your road map is a living reality. A dynamic force.
9. Be adventurous as you will be required to sail into uncharted waters and break into new territories.
10. Be hopeful for a life that will not be the same once you are on course on this new management journey!

Revised February 2013: towards ‘the end of a journey’ in the Spirit

Revised 2013 February: It is always with good purpose a man ends a major episode or starts a new episode of his life with a resolution.

At the time this blog was written on May 20, 2010, the spiritual man was at a cross road not really knowing where to go next but he believed he would follow the Holy Spirit. Now that quite sometime had passed, he realizied that the Spirit of the Lord did lead him through management-God's Way, but not exactly in the way he thought he would be doing. It transpired that he did not go beyond a few episodes on this subject. The major discovery he found was God's Way is the only way. God does not need man's input in any ways at all. So he abandoned his quest to write a management manual. On the other hand, he was led through end times visions, dreams, and words in the Bible. He became a prolific blogger in the things that matter to God during the last two years. Life in the Holy Spirit means sailing onto deeper waters, living a life which hitherto was deemed impossible in the flesh.

The revelation shows how little he knew the Lord before and how far more he needs to go in his new journey to see God!____________________________________

Original Blog on May 20, 2020: Indeed, as Jack approaches the end of the series on ‘One man’s journey in the Holy Spirit’ which he intends to end by the 100th Episode, he asked the Holy Spirit what his next assignment would be. Of course, it does not mean that he will no longer be walking by the Spirit, it would only mean that he would no longer write so much about his experience in seeing visions, dreaming dreams or hearing God through His words.

He had no clue until yesterday when he was urged to write a bit about management. After he got down to writing two blogs it dawned on him that he was led by the Spirit to write about ‘Management -God’s way’ (Management by the Holy Spirit)!
There had been a number of similar occurrences lately in his own household. A close one (a medical professional) had been led by the Holy Spirit to ponder on and now teaches ‘Healing -God’s way’. Her sister (a professional mental health counselor) was led to ponder on the topic ‘Counseling -God’s way’. And now it is his turn to look at ‘Management -God’s way’. He also knows of many Christians business men doing business -God’s way. The list of practical living -God’s way is practically endless.
It is indeed a very full life living by the Holy Spirit! It is like sailing in uncharted waters, fresh, revitalizing, renewing, transforming!

Management according to Jack (part two)

What are some essential requirements for effective management? Here are some tips:
1. Effective management works on the assumption that resources are scarce and limited and valuable.
2. Effective management's success does not depend on the dead know how (systems, records, files, figures, practices). Effective management's success comes from the availability of and effective use of dynamic living things: e.g. people who manage and are being managed, and other essential resources (tangible and non-tangible: opportunities, time, money, premises, equipment, technology, creativity, relationship, distribution channels etc.) that can produce, create values and contribute to desired growth.
3. Effective management means using available and limited resources in optimum combination to produce maximized results/targets as expected.
4. A primitive man with the basic essential resources can still produce something even when he has to start from zero with no figures, no files, no records, no established system etc.
5. In a modern organization, management system is created or adopted to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of management, often with the objective of maximizing and optimizing the use of limited resources for improvement and expansion of desired results (in quantity and quality).
6. Management system changes overtime like a live creature, adapting to various forces (internal and external environment) working for survival. It therefore requires to renew and often transform, to keep up if not move ahead of its competition for scarce resources.
7. Effective management system aims to be ahead of the pack, based on the assumption that desirable resources are scarce.
8. Christian management system is different from others. The main distinction is the management manual (the words of God).
9. When Christian manager follows God's management manual, he can only succeed. This is guaranteed by the ultimate Authority Himself.
10. Effective Christian management practice requires: faith in the unseen God, supernatural belief in all His promises, knowledge of and adherence to the words of God, submission to His will and being led by the Holy Spirit in all aspects of decision making and operational execution.

Management pearls for Christians according to Jack

Background
Jack has been practicing management since 1970s. He has been through many facets of various management fields. To him, management is like a part of life and indeed encompasses many daily living aspects whether one knows it or not.
After his career as a corporate employee he has branched into training and coaching others (business owners and employees). He also did postgraduate studies in health (physical, emotional and mental) and social behavioral management. All this while, he has been active in church (organizational and spiritual) and other similar non-profit organization management counseling as well. Due to the nature of his job, he has had numerous encounters with public sector management/administration practices.
He has now sensed an increasingly urgent need to put down some of his thoughts (in bullet form) on the management of life in view of such a lot of management messes out there even for Christians. 

 Management according to Jack (part one)
1. Management is part of daily living. You can live on comfortably by managing effectively.
2. You manage effectively by identifying values, setting goals and priorities, and act on them accordingly.
3. The most important thing is to identify your values. If tomorrow is end day what would be the one thing you do today? Give top priority to do that one thing.
4. Focus your resources on doing the one thing that guarantees to bring you to your goals.
5.  Do not manage by documentation or theory. Manage by practice (e.g. act on your faith, be doers of the Word, walk by the Spirit.)
6. Manage lives (people) and not dead things (system).
7. Admit that there is no perfect plan or program or man (woman). There is only one perfect Savior (God).
8.  Build on solid foundation. Who is your foundation (your real Rock)?(Don't be like the foolish man who built on sand).
9. Use one management manual that lasts, the Word of God.
10. Be accountable (to yourself, family, human authorities, and the ultimate Authority in heaven).

Chapter ninety-five: a prophecy of ‘times’, one dream and one vision

Last night Jack pondered on the vision someone saw last weekend, of gray fishes from the sea, touched by the living fountain of Jesus, at first swimming in circle, eventually breaking out from frozen state (Luke 19:43), swimming up an ancient waterfall, breaking and shattering stone lion mouth and granite wall, into uncharted waters (the source of living waters). After worshiping interspersed with prayers while walking on a treadmill, he finally rested on the floor. He asked the Lord what the vision meant. Was it for his church or was it for other church? He asked why he was not able to hear from the Lord. Then he was reminded that he was too busy talking all the time so how could he hear? So he kept quiet for sometime. When he was about to give up he heard the prompting to read Micah 4.

But he had an urge to go out into the garden. He went and walked about in the cool night breeze under a clear sky. When he was about to go inside, he saw a patch of light so he rushed into his house, changed his glasses and took his mobile phone camera. The edge of the sky was bright like day with white rolling clouds like sea. He tried to take picture but the camera did not work. The sea of cloud moved on and left behind a clear sky.When he looked into his camera he saw spots of golden lights dancing. He took pictures and found that the photos showed only his own garden structure and not the light spots. By the time he realized he could try to video the light spots, he managed to capture some distant white light spots only.

Then he read the Bible. He quotes below what he discovered: Micah 4: 1 “BUT IN the latter days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it.” (also read Isa. 2:2)

From this verse, he was led to read Jeremiah 30:8 ^“For it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break [the oppressor's] yoke from your neck, and I will burst your bonds ; and strangers will no more make slaves of”

But how did he know whether the vision was for his church? He was then led to read Daniel 10:14, “Now I have come to make you understand what is to befall your people in the latter days, for the vision is for [many] days yet to come.”

The amazing thing was that on the previous morning he was woken in a dream in which he was urged to get up and intercede, with this verse, from  Micah 4:13 “ Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; For I will make your horn iron, And I will make your hooves bronze; You shall beat in pieces many peoples; I will consecrate their gain to the LORD, And their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.” (Continue to equip the church to be house of prayers and faithful intercessor for all nations! Luke 19:46; Isa. 56:7)
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Today he woke up and continued to ponder on the vision and the related verses he was led to read in Isaiah, the theme of the sign of ‘times‘. Then he received an urgent message to intercede for his kinsmen (two nephews who are currently dwelling in comfortable and happy homes in big cities of a rich country). Someone had a dream about the need to intercede for them urgently. When he looked at the Bible passage he was reading this morning, he saw a clear prophecy for the ‘time’ of the day. The full prophecy was in Isaiah 32 but he would quote the very verses that caught his spirit.

Isaiah 32:10 In a year and some days  You will be troubled, you complacent women; For the vintage will fail, The gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists.
12 People shall mourn upon their breasts For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 13 On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
14 Because the palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
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But the solution for God’s peoples are there too in the following verses. These are the verses that Jack had been praying over and over in times when he was asked to pray in public. He did not know why then.
V 15 Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is valued as a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation) will abide in the fruitful field.
17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.
18 My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
19 But it [the wrath of the Lord] shall hail, coming down overpoweringly on the forest [the army of the Assyrians], and the capital city shall be utterly humbled and laid prostrate.

What is required of the peoples of God? The answer is as follows:

20 Happy and fortunate are you who cast your seed upon all waters [when the river overflows its banks; for the seed will sink into the mud and when the waters subside, the plant will spring up; you will find it after many days and reap an abundant harvest], you who safely send forth the ox and the donkey [to range freely].

The seeds are the words of God watered by the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Sow the Gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Set the oppressed free just as Jesus had done. (Isa. 41:17-18; 44:3; Mark 16:15-18,20; Luke 4:18-19).

The vision and dream brought the urgent communication that the Bible prophecies will soon come to pass. Jack prays that his own household will not live as those who do not know or believe in the living God.

O, be the doers of His words (James 1:22). Be the men of faith (Heb. 11:6). Be the called ones who live and are led by the Spirit (Romans 8). Be focused. Focus on Jesus, the Lamb of God who is the author and finisher of our faith. (Heb.12:1-2) The just shall live by faith. (Rom.1:17; Hab. 2:4)

Chapter Ninety-Four: More on Prophetic Acts and Faith in Action

The more Jack reads about the prophetic acts carried out without fail, birthing miraculous results in the Bible, the more he is convinced that this is an important end times survival key.
The historical events and requirements agree what he has been learning, teaching and practicing with amazing results. The combination of four main ingredients are required for every prophetic act:
1. Faith
2. The word of God
3. The Holy Spirit (presence of God)
4. Praying in the Spirit
Doing prophetic acts requires supernatural mindset. Only a person who is led by the Holy Spirit (under the anointing of the Holy Spirit) can boldly carry out the assignment which may seem unnatural to those of the flesh and not of the Spirit. A believer may worry, there may not be enough Biblical prophetic acts to go around for end times. When one encounters a tough situation and runs out of prophetic acts, what then?
So Jack has been reading the Bible with this concern in mind. Having carried out one in which he was greatly edified, he too wonders where would the next one be? However, the more he reads the more he understands how amazing and limitless the Holy Spirit works. There is indeed a rich source of miraculous supplies that cover practically every aspect of life in this world in the Bible, for example, food and drink, healing and deliverance, safety and protection, health, comfort, wealth and prosperity. There are even big battles won without human efforts. Indeed, there are so many that he just does not know what to enact next with his class!
He needs not worry about not having enough prophetic acts to act on at all. What he needs to do is to continue to seek God, through worship, prayers, reading God’s words and living by the Spirit, abiding in Christ. Of these requirements, he finds that he needs to spend more effort in memorizing God’s words as well as practicing faith in action to build faith.
Worshiping God and praying in the Spirit can be done anytime. He does them in the car, in the garden, in the room, in his office, in church, and anywhere. But reading the word of God requires a place and a dedicated time. So he makes sure he has these set up in his daily life schedule. In addition, reading Bible can be done during all fillers’ time as well. Instead of reading something else or chatting on the phone or on internet, just pick up the Bible and read. When he has acquired the habit not taking lunch he uses the time to read God’s words and pray as well. It is often a rewarding time.
Practicing faith in action remains the toughest part. When he first started he had no clue. He merely carried out God’s words by faith. Later he was able to listen to the Holy Spirit more and more and his assignment becomes easy and enjoyable. He enjoys most the company of the presence of God.
It is rewarding to be a teacher of faith in action. He gets to practice what he teaches and witnesses miracles. Deep in his heart he knows he is not the real teacher. The real teacher is the Holy Spirit Himself. Otherwise, the words are mere utterances and could not cause any ripples in the deepest part of the soul.
How does he prepare for the faith in action class?
The following is based on his own experience as led by the Holy Spirit.
After reading and re-reading the lesson, he meditates on the verses. Then he spends a number of days fasting lunches to sharpen his spiritual discernment. He prays a lot in the Spirit. He prays that the Holy Spirit intercede for him and give him dreams, visions, signs and words in the Bible to guide him. Often he receives the answers.
He prays for the class. He asks that the Holy Spirit prepares them according to their needs and His plan for them.
On the day of the class, he fasts the two main meals. He maintains his spiritual alertness. Fasting and praying in the Spirit raise his faith level and enable him to receive fresh revelations and prophecies. It is truly wonderful and beneficial. He believes in the power of God’s words and had experienced the reality of them.
So it is a wonderful life even when preparing for end times.