Acts 13:22
Sunday Morning – 14 Apr 2019 10:50:24 am – Pastor James Yang
“And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’”
Acts 13:22 NKJV
To believe in the Lord, we have to put our thoughts down.
When Peter tried to catch fish and toiled all night and could not catch fish, Jesus said to him to cast his net down into the deep. For Peter to listen to Jesus’s words, he had to put down his thoughts. Leaning on the Words of Jesus, he let down his net and that day, he caught excessive amount of fish. Then, Peter knelt before Jesus and said “Lord, I am a sinful man, please depart from me”.
Before I could not bend my heart down. After I married, it was difficult for my wife and I to live together. This was because we just could not agree on things. For instance, I feel hot and she feels cold. So she would turn off the air conditioner that I turned on. However, now, I am able to bend my heart down and so can she. The result is we can get along well together. Likewise, before God, it is important that we also bend our hearts down.
“(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”
Romans 4:17-19 NKJV
Consider Abraham who could not conceive a child at all. But in the Words of God alone he believed.
As a child, I used go to church. I learnt a lot and experienced a lot. I thought I was believing God. In the church I used to go to before, I was so hypocritical. I saw how outwardly, I was so proper but inwardly, I had so many dirty things like lustful heart and so on. I felt this was not right and this afflicted me so much inside.
Real gold is just pure gold inside and out. Fake gold however is only gold on the outside but inside it is made of other metals.
When I was young, no one every complimented my looks, except for my mum. However, there was a chubby girl in my neighbourhood. She used to smile at me, wave and at times, wink at me. I was so embarrassed. Then, in school, when I tried to study, I would see her face. One day, in the church dawn service, I confessed about my lustful heart. I would also go to the prayer houses up in the mountains. For a year and eight months, I visited a number of prayer houses. There are many pastors from different denominations who would preach there. However, the words I heard were exactly the same.
One of the pastors asked me to write down all my sins on a piece of paper. I wrote down as much as I could remember. Then he asked us to burn off the paper. This meant our sins were burnt off. However, I did not feel so as I kept sinning again in the future.
I was so afflicted that I questioned the pastor how my sins could be washed off. The pastor recommended me to go to the seminary school where my sins could be washed off and all my answers could be obtained. But he did not tell me the answer to my question. So I suspected all the more.
I then went into the army as a registered soldier. There, I met a man who is now pastor Kim Hak Cheol who is ministering in Thailand. I learnt that trusting in myself was sin. Trusting in my own heart is sin. Then after that, I could receive salvation through the gospel that pastor Kim preached to me.
I discovered I am someone who from the core of my heart could not believe, trust and pray to God. I tried to follow God but I could not. I did not know exactly who I was and what I was capable of. After I received salvation, my heart and God’s heart because one. From then on, it was God leading me. Spiritual life then became very easy.
“Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.””
I Samuel 14:6 NKJV
When Jonathan received the heart of God, he came to realise that war belongs to the hand of God. Even though he was outnumbered, the heart of Jonathan was one with the heart of God. Thus, God could work for him.
God says that we are justified and so are we. Having same heart with God about this is faith.
Once the former president Hyundai was so impressed with one of the janitors who greeted him that he promoted him to a manager. Since the president said so, so he became.
Likewise, if God says so then so it is.
“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”
Romans 4:5 NKJV
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31 NKJV
No one can go against God. If God says so, then it is so. If God says one is justified, the no one can object it.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”
Romans 8:32-33 NKJV
God says to us that we are justified. So we are. Period.
To connect our heart to the heart of God to believe in this means we are now one with God. It does not matter what we think. As soon as we discard with our heart and align it with the heart of God, then we are connected to God.
When you receive the Words of God, then amazing works come about.
My wife was once diagnosed with cancer and about 80-90% was cancerous. The specialist in fact, even showed me what was a cancerous tumour and what was not. My son was 8 and my daughter was 5 years old. So I had the heart that if she dies, I would not be able to continue with my ministry. From Monday to Friday that time, my wife cried. I searched for faith from Genesis to Hebrews at that time but I just could not accept the word in my heart. The most difficult time is this – when we do not have the Word of God in our heart. Even though I tried to look for faith, I could not find it as much as I tried. And then, 2 Timothy 2:4 struck my heart and came to me.
“No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
II Timothy 2:4 NKJV
The soldiers here are the people who preach the gospel. God had enlisted me as a soldier. Thus, a soldier is not entangled in the affairs of his life. So if I am entangled in the affairs of my life, then God is not pleased. God is only pleased if I am not entangled or concerned with the affairs of this life. And so I gave it all to God. I gained faith now…that it is all in God’s hands and not mine.
It was around Friday 4pm. My wife asked me, “Do you have faith, honey, that I would be healed?” And I replied “Of course! Yes, I do! You are already healed”. With faith, folks, we can say such things with absolute clarity.
On the following day, we went to the specialist’s office. My wife was checked up and I was sitting in the corridor. I overheard the conversation between the nurse and the speciality.
“Doctor, the tumour is gone!” The nurse said.
“What? Impossible, search for it again!”, the doctor said.
And when the nurse gave the same answer, the doctor took over and examined the chart for himself. He looked and looked and then came out to confirm the details.
“Ma’am…you are Mrs. Kim so and so, right? You are female and aged so and so right?”, the doctor asked.
As much as he checked, the tumour was no where to be found. And I gained this heart, “I knew it already yesterday at around 4pm”.
And indeed, the specialist confirmed that day that the cancer was all gone. He said that he had never experienced this and was very bewildered.
When the Word enters your heart, you can say things that are very clear. You would not say “Perhaps I am healed”. You can say “I am healed” with a definitive sense.
When Jonathan had the same heart as God, that was the time God worked – and gave the earthquake to deliver the Philistines into their hands.
In our daily lives as well, our thoughts is what keeps us away from God.
We are people who have been swept from God since the time we have been born.
We often get deceived that we cannot live by faith. Satan condemns us through our actions. But before the Words of God, God says that we are perfect nevertheless.
Satan deceives us with so many voices “No! It won’t work. Don’t witness. Don’t preach the gospel. Etc. Etc.” If we receive the heart of God then we can step forward and experience the works of God.
As long as we travel with God, we cannot be restricted by our circumstances. All we have to do it just have the same heart.