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.

Chapter ninety-three: An evening of Prophetic act and faith leaps!

On the evening Jack decided to carry our the prophetic act as lead by the Spirit, the sky was dark with thick clouds. It then started to pour when he was on his way driving. He had never seen such heavy rain since he attended this church. This rain was really heavy.
Prior to this event, he walked about in his own sunny garden and spraying water, praying for a cool evening for the class to carry out the prophetic act in the church compound. Towards the evening, the church technical assistant called him and told him that it looked like a ‘big’ rain was coming there. So he told the brother to prepare the water containers in the covered porch instead of the garden. On his way in the car he prayed that the rain would be delayed and that they could continue with the teaching plan as earlier decided when he was sure of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
By the time he reached his destination the heavy downpour was like torrents of mighty rivers from heaven. However his spirit was lifted up and he gave thanks and praised God for pouring down His blessings even before the class had started pouring out themselves in an act of faith to totally submit to God!
He started the teachings in the sanctuary and explained to the class what they would do and why. He read with them the Bible verses in 1 Samuel chapter 7. What they would enact by faith would be 7:6, “So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.”
Then he took the class to the front porch where they carried out the prophetic act by faith. Amazingly the rain had suddenly stopped and the garden and driveway down slope looked washed and clean. The sky was still bright and it was indeed a refreshing, cool and very uplifting evening!
As they were doing this as a learning process, he asked them to let the Holy Spirit lead them to pray as they poured themselves out before the Lord. They could confess, repent, and renounce their sins, give supplications, petition and intercessions as led. He encouraged them to pray in the Spirit after they had prayed in understanding.
The class scattered and each one carried a small container of water up and down the garden path and driveway. As each poured out the water before the Lord each prayed and interceded as led by the Holy Spirit. It was quite a sight with people standing or walking and lifting up their hands towards God, pouring out themselves, crying out, making supplications and petitions, casting down their burdens at the foot of the Lord Jesus, singing, praising and worshiping God. There was a powerful anointing and prayers were answered.
A number of edifying testimonies were given after the class. For Jack, it was a worthwhile lesson. He learned the lesson of faith in action too. During the downpour of the torrential rain, he was not dejected or depressed. He persisted with the teaching and reading of the word of God. Then he took the step of faith by leading the class outside to carry out the prophetic act determined not to look at what can be seen, i.e. the heavy rain. Instead, he kept focusing on the unseen, i.e. the spiritual realm where his prayer had already been answered.
His faith was raised to a higher level when he witnessed the event being carried out and accomplished as led by the real teacher Himself, the Holy Spirit.
He prayed that all followers of the Lord Jesus who read this would have faith to carry out these acts of faith too. You will be blessed!

Chapter ninety-two: Prophetic acts for end time survival

Jack senses in his spirit the increasing intensity of the end time and the urgent need to prepare for its arrival. So he decided to continue to write on this theme.
He has previously written a number of basic survival kits on the key – living by the Spirit (“Chapter Seventy-Six: A Watchman’s Vision of End Time Survival Kit” onward). Here is a summary: putting on the whole armor of God. Action One: Seek God diligently daily. Action Two: Read the Bible and believe every word of God by faith and act on them. Action Three: Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Practice by faith praying in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jack has discovered that living by the Spirit requires learning entirely new living principles and skill, centered on God’s word, faith and the Holy Spirit. Only a supernatural person can live and walk according to the Holy Spirit: by faith and by the word of God. He learned how God’s words filled his hunger during fasting. Fasting sharpens his spiritual discernment.
A supernatural Christian seeks God constantly. Seeking God means meeting Him, seeing His glory, worshiping Him, being in awe of Him. It also includes seeking to hear God and obey Him (in practice). When he obeyed the still small voice he encountered wonderful experiences in his garden.
Lately he has been pondering on the spiritual weapon in the form of prophetic actions by faith. He has always wondered why the prophets and men of God carried out certain symbolic action. What mattered was that the actions by faith resulted great success.
During intercessions he was led to do certain simple symbolic acts based on the word of God too. He did not know the outcome of some intercessions, but some he knew. They worked. He was encouraged and knew that he was on the right path in submitting to the Lord’s promptings.
These are a few of the symbolic acts that he has done by faith: the Jericho March, the washing of feet (like what Jesus did for His disciples), the pouring of water on the ground (to signify the pouring of the Holy Spirit on thirsty land), the proclamation of the pouring of the Holy Spirit (in the form of wind), the opening of heaven in an oppressive night when he was hindered in his prayers, reading and proclaiming God’s words, taking the Holy Communion, applying the blood of the Lamb on his door posts (symbolically), using the anointing oil, singing hymns, praises and spiritual songs, raising his hands to bless prophetically, raising his hands to submit to God’s presence, praying in the Spirit (for warfare intercessions) and many more.
He believes these acts of faith are essential for spiritual training. Today while driving, the verse on the symbolic act done by the Israelite in 1 Samuel 7:6 about how the people gathered at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord came to him.  He pondered over it and thought he could enact it with his class on the next day.
However, after he has spent the whole afternoon reading the event and its history, he wondered whether it would be appropriate to do so. He could foresee the immediate difficulties:
1. They need a Samuel, a man who hears God and is heard by God.
2. The people who take part need to be representative of the corporate body of Christ there.
3. They need to be aware of and fully repentant of their sins and are willing to confess and renounce before God.
4. They need to fast on the day of enactment.
5. The goal of the act of faith must be agreed upon.
On the other hand, he noted that this act of faith before the Lord was indeed powerful in overcoming the enemy. After the children of Israel had done it, Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. (1 Sam. 7:9)
“Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel.” (1 Sam. 7:10)
“So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. (1 Sam. 7:13)
(Reading: 1 Samuel 7: 1-17)