From 1st to 3rd of October, Rev Damien Chua shared ways to be a supernatural and victorious Christian in the Exponential Combined Young Adults Camp at Taiping Golf Resort to more than 60 young adults.
Charted (Harvest Christian Assembly Klang Young Adult) spearheaded the organization of the camp, supported by Convergence (Full Gospel Young Adults network) and Crossroad (Kingdom of God Young Adults network).
Rev Damien shared that there are three types of Christians including the poor Christian, the good Christian and the supernatural and victorious Christian.
These three types can be clearly played out like a play, in the book of Acts.
The poor Christian
When Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray, a man that was lame from birth begged at the temple gate called Beautiful (Acts 3).
A poor Christian only thinks of his or her self-interest. They have no room in their hearts for the poor and needy, because they are unaware of the rich inheritance they have in Christ (Ephesians 1:11-17).
If Peter and John were poor Christians, they would have said to the beggar, “Filthy beggar, I got no time for you, I only got time for church,” shared Rev Damien.
“Maybe we think that we are not able to help others, so we stay away from helping others. But that is a ‘slave’ mentality, not the ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ of God’s mentality. God’s power and provision belong to us,” he added.
The good Christian
The second scenario would be Peter and John offering to give the beggar money instead. This is what good Christians will do.
“Many times, we help others and serve God out of our own human effort and resources. This is commendable. But yet God wants the best for us. He has a better way”
The supernatural and victorious Christian
Peter and John operated as supernatural and victorious Christians. Peter commanded the lame man to walk in Jesus name, which the man rose and walked (Acts 3:4-7)!
Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:4-6)
On that day, the number of men who saw the miracle and believed grew to about five thousand (Acts 4:4)! Now, that is supernatural and victorious.
Peter and John could heal the lame beggar because they were led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They did not simply rely on their own resources or lack of it. They became a channel of blessing to the beggar because they learnt to hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. They serve God and others through the wisdom, strength and anointing of God. This is called the victorious Christian life!
Hunger and Thirst must be present before being Supernatural and Victorious
“God is in the business of changing lives. He is looking for people who will seriously follow Him.”
Only the hungry and thirsty for God will find Him. Rev Damien Chua shared how God showed up in a youth camp, where only a handful of hungry and thirsty youths came. God does look not at the size of the crowd, but the size of our hunger and thirst.
“These youths were so poor (in material) but they were so rich in Christ. God is roaming across the earth to strengthen those faithful to Him.”
Word and Spirit must come together to being Supernatural and Victorious
“The Word of God and His Spirit must come together in the Christian life to produce power. God speaks to you primarily through His Word, ninety per cent of the time. Ten per cent is through direct inspiration through prophecy, or dreams and visions.”
The Word of God is likened to the solid harness of unchanging truth and wisdom.
The Holy Spirit is likened to the fire within the harness. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses for God (Acts 1:8). He also comforts (Acts 9:31), reminds us about the Word of God and teaches us about all truths (John 14:26).
“The Holy Spirit empowers the Word of God and quickens the Word for miracles to take place in difficult situations of our lives. Our faith must be directed to the will of God abiding in His Word and empowered by His Spirit.”
Through the Word and Holy Spirit, we can be supernatural and victorious Christians.
The Holy Spirit gives us gifts and fruit to being Supernatural and Victorious
“While we can operate in all the gifts of the Spirit at different times as the Holy Spirit leads, we need to ask God what He wants us to specialize in.”
The gifts of the Holy Spirit includes wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking different kinds of tongues and interpreting of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10).
Rev Damien shared how a young Christian student was walking around in a university campus looking for fellow students he could evangelise and pray for. As he walked around, he began to ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit. Upon receiving a word of knowledge, he ran after a college girl going down the stairs. He told her how much God loved her even though she was pregnant out of wedlock. This astonished the girl as nobody knew she was pregnant and troubled by it. Touched by God’s love, she accepted Christ!
Because he was yielded to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God could use him to bless the girl. The student became a supernatural and victorious Christian. Each gift is given for the sole purpose of serving others (1 Corinthians 12:7).
“When you spend time in the Presence of God, learn to let the Holy Spirit pray through you. We can do this by practicing praying in tongues daily. When we pray in tongues, the devil doesn’t understand what we are saying. It’s like a secret code language which the Holy Spirit communicates with God through us so we can experience His supernatural answer to our prayers!”
The Holy Spirit also bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us as we walk with Him and surrender our lives daily to Him. This includes love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). We become like the character of Christ and an overcomer in life.
Obedience to the Holy Spirit makes us Supernatural and Victorious
When we spend time and listen to the Holy Spirit, we learn how to partner with Him in life and ministry.
“Early morning before sunrise, Jesus would often go to a quiet place to pray. In prayer, God would speak with Him and show Him things that would happen that day. That is why Jesus was not lead by the demands of human needs and activities. He knew God’s will in every situation and He never worried about anything.”
By being willing and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we become supernatural and victorious Christians.
Rev Damien shared how obedience to the Holy Spirit is better than our fleshly sacrifice for Him. For example, if God’s will for us is to be a doctor in Malaysia, it would be a lost cause to be a missionary in Africa. God would rather us obey Him as a doctor, than sacrifice as a missionary in Africa. What counts is obedience to His will.
He shared how Heidi Baker was a supernatural and victorious Christian when she learned to daily obey the Holy Spirit. She grew her ministry to having founded over 5000 churches in Mozambique, with a total of over 10,000 churches affiliated to her ministry in more than 20 nations.
Rev Damien shared that when we obey the Holy Spirit, we enter into a ‘no-sweat ministry’. Jesus’ death on the cross also put to death the painful toils of work of the flesh (Genesis 3:17). In Christ, we are now fruitful trees that bear fruits in all seasons (Jeremiah 17:8).
The Word of God gives us right understanding to being Supernatural and Victorious
We want to be supernatural and victorious only of the God we know in the Bible. And to be able to discern His Voice, we must know His Word.
Rev Damien shared how a sister-in-Christ felt that God wanted her to divorce her husband because he was not a good husband. This was clearly wrong because the Word of God says that He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16; Matthew 19:6; 1 Corinthians 7:10). God’s voice never contradicts His Word.
He also shared an experience of his mother-in-law’s experience as a new believer. One day she shared with Damien how a voice prohibited her from getting out of her house during the religious chanting of a neighbour, lest an evil spirit would attack her. She believed it was the voice of God speaking to her. But Damien got concerned as the Word of God clearly says that we are not given a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). Clearly, that was not the voice of the God we know. When Damien cautioned his mother-in-law that it was not the voice of God, she began to seek God in prayer. Suddenly the voice that was speaking to her turned nasty and started speaking vulgarities to her. She instantly knew that it was actually demonic voices lying to her and pretending it was God speaking to her!
That is why it is so important to meditate daily on the Bible so we know the nature and will of God.
Reading the Word builds our character to being Supernatural and Victorious
God uses His Word to build our character in Christ. Rev Damien shared how some ministers demonstrated poor character even though they were anointed with gifts. Their character became a poor testimony of who God is to the people around them, despite their anointing.
“God is interested in your character. When you spend time in the Presence of God, you will discover your identity as a son or a daughter. He will begin by dealing with the broken areas in your life. God will bring healing and restoration to your soul. Hurting people tend to hurt other people. Some people minister out of their past hurts, which causes problems in ministry because they have not learnt to go to God and allow Him to heal and restore them.”
He continued, “Depression and low self-esteem had gripped me (in the past). I began to look for satisfaction in food, pornography and lust. A lot of divorce happens because of this. It’s a spirit that will never be satisfied. The things of the devil bring temporary pleasure but long term bondage.”
He shared how God released him from bondage, to become a supernatural and victorious Christian, freed from all kinds of hurts and addictions.
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