Journey of Transformation

20 Aug 2013 by Adeline Lum CM-

 

The Full Gospel Christian Church (FGCC) had one of the liveliest and most genuine worshippers. Even their ‘Amen’ was enthusiastically proclaimed!

 

 

A medium-sized congregation of about 150 people, Pr Vic Lumanglas was an engineer when he received a vision to start FGCC in Brickfield at Kuala Lumpur 16 years ago. As a pioneering church, many churches were established in the Philippines and other nations. In the past, the church had many believers from the Philippines.

“But since the beginning of this year, the Lord has given this church a fresh vision of having people from all nations to come,” said Sr Pr David Koay of FGCC.

 

 

Pr Rev Jai Kumar, advisor to FGCC, preached the word recently on Sunday, Aug 18.

“God is very specific. How do you know that God speaks differently to different people?” asked Jai.

When Paul was traveling with his men to Damascus, all of them saw a very bright light but only Paul heard the voice of God (Acts 9). Have you notice why only Paul heard the voice of God?

“In this morning, you may feel the tangible presence of God in your midst because God will speak to you individually, specifically, relevantly, and according to your circumstances,” said Jai.

 

 

 

Continuing to the parable of talents (Matt 25:14-30), Rev Jai talked about the process of transformation in our lives. Everything has to go through transformation before a growth can happen; a seed is transformed into a plant, a caterpillar to a butterfly, a child into an adult, and a sinner to a saint.

The life we have is a gift from God. If we do not transform to what God has given to us into something better, we are held accountable to the Lord. Like the parable of the talents, the servant who did not transform or multiply his talents was called a ‘wicked’ and ‘lazy’ servant (Matt 25:26). His end was to be taken to into the gates of hell, or the place of ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matt 25:30).

This transformation, according to Jai, is visible through our character (2 Cor 5:17).

2 Cor 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

“But the problem is when we limit the potential that God has deposited into our lives because of our mentality and small-mindedness. Many times, we underestimate ourselves,” said Jai.

 

 

We are stewards of God’s gifts and we need to give account to how we handle these gifts. The one-talent servant refused to take risk or take a step forward. His fear paralyzed him, kept him deceived, and ultimately destroyed him. He had the ‘I can’t make it’ mentality, the ‘making excuses’ mentality, and the ‘ I refuse to face challenges’ mentality.

“We kept waiting and asking God, ‘Give us gold! Give us gold.’ But God said, ‘They are just under your feet.’ If you want to grow, you need to be able to stretch yourself in faith.”

“If there’s no pain, there’s no gain. Before you’re entrusted with power, you have to go through pain. Remember there’s a cost in discipleship,” said Jai.

The more we surrender ourselves, the higher the blessing. If we never surrender anything that is good or comfortable in our hands, we will not receive what God has for us. And God only has the best for us.

“Unless you let it go and let God take over you life, you will remain stagnant. We are born into this world to discover the journey that God has chosen for us. You may delay your destiny but you cannot change it,” said Jai.

 

 

We can delay our destiny by being stubborn, clever in our own ways, and rebelling against God. God has purposed each one of us to start our journey with him at one point, and end our journey with God at another point.

“Sadly, there’re many people who started at one point and die at the same point. That is the real tragedy of a Christian life. They lack discernment and ended up messing God’s destiny for them,” said Jai.

The journey of transformation is also called as a process, which is necessary for us to live beyond our limit. Any significant ministry that God has called us to would require us to go through a preparation process. Like how a raw material needs to undergo a process before becoming a finished product that is valuable and useful, we need to go through a process to be useful and valuable to God.

 

 

“We cannot neglect the process before we reach our destiny. In other words, we cannot reach the mountain-top before we go through the valleys. But many times, all of us want the mountain-top but not the valleys.”

“We want the prize but we don’t want the work. Many people hate the process because it involves pain, hurts, sacrifices, and a very uncomfortable experience. You are changed in the process through the pressure, stretching, breaking, crushing, and molding, before you grow from immaturity to maturity,” said Jai.

How many of us know that Moses went through a process of transformation before God gave him a mandate? Out of his zealousness over his people, Moses killed one of the royal guards. Moses could have brought out the people from Egypt during then but God thought that Moses was not ready. Hence, Moses was placed in the wilderness; stripped from his royalty, he worked as a shepherd for 40 years! And in those years, Moses never heard from God.

“Every day, Moses went through the same scenario of shepherding and going through the same smell. He got married to Jethro’s daughter and he became contented. What happened to his education? What happened to his zealousness for God?” said Jai.

 

 

Suddenly, God called out to Moses for the first time out of the burning bush. For 40 years, Moses thought that God has forgotten His mandate but God did not. Moses lost his self-esteem and thought that he could not lead the people out from Egypt. But after talking to God, he comprehended and realigned himself back to God’s mandate.

“A process can be negative. When you’re in a process, the enemy will attack your mind, showing you your past failures and your impurities. And making you feel comfortable and contented with your spiritual life.”

“Moses was contented with his life, this is what we get when we get comfortable. When you and I miss the preparation of God, it can be a negative and destructive force. You need to understand the process and plan of God,” said Jai.

Another person apart from Moses who had a dream or mandate from God was Joseph. He dreamt that he would become someone great. But before he became the second person in command to Pharoah, he was unfairly treated- being sold into slavery and thrown into the prison. Nevertheless, Joseph never gave up his dream.

 

 

“Joseph understood the process. Do not run away or avoid the process because it is unwise, no matter how difficult it becomes. When you run away, you would need to go through this again.”

“Have you noticed… we want the blessings that are resting on other people but we forget the things they went through in their lives before reaching their goal or arriving at their destiny?” Jai said.

Sometimes, we see the anointing or blessings on other people but we fail to understand that these anointing or blessings are a result of a process in undergoing the fire.

Also, there is no shortcut to any blessings and anointing. We cannot neglect the process that God has already destined in our lives. When the process becomes painful, many of us are tempted to quit due to its demands.

“If you’re running away from a problem because you’re not happy, you will go nowhere. A teabag will not release its flavor until it goes through hot water,” said Jai.

A disciplined life of doing the same thing repeatedly brings out our capability. No matter who we are, God has given us as believers an anointing, a given empowerment inside each of us. Every good tree produces good fruit, and God will bring out our potentials in you, into becoming capabilities.

 

 

“God is committed to your development. I see and meet people who are supposed to be in the body of Christ but because something happened during the process, they retreated and they never allowed God to take them through,” said Jai.

Many years ago, Jai was also in the transformation process. He was in multiple ministries, meetings, and seminars, from morning until evening. The enemy started attacking and he wanted to run away. He backslid and retreated because he was unable to go through the valley.

“But God said, ‘Come back. Come sit at my feet and I tell you, I tell you the process.’”

“Have I gone through a different process, I won’t be standing before you but because I know that God has a better plan for me, I allow him to take me through the process,” said Rev Jai.

Would you let God take you through the process of transformation?

 

 

 

 

Note: Are you interested to join FGCC? They are having their morning service in Hotel Sentral in Brickfields (30 Jalan Thambypillai  50470 Kuala Lumpur) every Sunday at 10 AM.