Author andrewong2024

The New Era of His Church in Asia

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Wow… I am still reeling with the Spirit’s fire from last week’s smashing Asia Conference.

It was an awesome privileged to be part of this historical 5-day event and to be imparted by some of the world’s servant leaders of God.

Their sessions (including the controversial Benny Hinn’s) really expanded my paradigm of God’s word and God at work. 

The rising of His Church

For certain, God is rising His Church to a whole new dimension of anointing that many of us have not seen  or experience before. The kind of anointing that we only read in the book of Acts and only heard about at the Azusa Street in the early 1900’s.

The era is coming where the Church will no longer be regarded as an out-of-touch or irrelevant religious white elephant that has been confined to the ‘back of the room’ of society for too long.  

The Church will come in such power in the coming times that our world will start to pay attention to what She will have to say pertaining to every matters in the arena of government, education, business, arts & entertainment and mass media. 

Getting ready for this rise

What our governments of Asia have failed to do, the Church will succeed; in uniting Asia as one. In time to come, Asia will be one people with one mandate. Through that mandate, economies and political borders will be flattened.

The question for many of us is to what part do we want to play in this? Or will we let this slip through our fingers and leave it for the next generation to take responsibility.

I for one aspire to do my part and fulfill my responsibilities of His mandate in my generation. I do not think there is always an opportunity where we can be part of something great which will leave a mark in the history of mankind for His glory.

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.

Isiah 54:2

Brace yourselves and get ready to catch the next wave of the Holy Spirit’s wind.

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My Doodling:

I’ll be taking a short break from here to focus on the ASIA CONFERENCE over these couple of days. Will be back next week with more to share. Btw, the first day of the conference has not been disappointing and certain to only get better! Catch the latest trailer here>>>

With Authority Comes Great Responsibility

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We have heard the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 being preached many times and often the final line, “Go and make disciples” is emphasized.

Without a doubt, that’s the mandate for Christians- to extend the frontiers of the kingdom through discipleship!

However, the problem of giving this charge is that we often overlook the process of getting there. And this process denotes that we need to be a true disciples ourselves first before becoming a disciple-maker.

Creating more value in discipleship

Discipleship is a process of reproducing more disciples. In doing so, we are reproducing more of ourselves and it is safe to say that a disciple can only get as strong as his mentor.

No offence to anyone but can a person with a highest education of PSLE be an educator for a university? Or can a person who doesn’t know how to swim coach others in swimming? Imagine the consequences.

High likely, the university students would not be adequately equipped and enter the workforce poorly informed and unable to perform to the market’s demands. In the case of swimming, chances are that those students would not be top swimmers or worse, some might even drown.

Similarly, if we truly want to participant in the Great Commission and make true disciples, then we should first resolute to be a credible disciple of Jesus as we embark on being a disciple-maker; one that walks the talk in obeying all of God’s commands in our lives before teaching others to do so.

Qualities for value-add

Albeit discipleship is a tall order,  we need not be perfect before we can start discipling others. Cos we can never be fully perfect, but we can work towards perfection in our obedience and faith in God.

In working towards being a disciple-maker for Christ,  we should exhibit some minimal qualities as a disciple below:

  • A unwavering passion for God, His Church and the lost
  • Good knowledge and understanding of His word
  • A healthy self-esteem in God to lead and serve
  • Having some basic counselling skills
  • A sound and balanced worldview 
  • Ever-learning and desiring to grow
  • Good basic inter-personal skills


Responsible discipleship

Discipleship is God’s business and is a serious business cos it concerns lives of people that God had redeemed. Their destiny and future are many of times shaped by what we teach (or don’t teach) on important areas such as marriage life or BGR matters, our careers, finances, ministry etc…

For that reason, I believe the responsibility rests on our shoulders as a disciple of Jesus to develop and train ourselves fully towards being a relevant and value-added disciple-maker in our lifetime.

Let’s aim to be a ‘springboard’ and a platform high enough for others to take their growth to the next level. If not, we will become a ‘stumbling block’ or a ‘glass ceiling’ in stunning their potential and growth.

andrewong2024 1 Comment

My Doodling:

If you have not heard about it, there will be a huge event happening next week from 19-23 November 2008. The ASIA CONFERENCE, the first-ever of its kind will be held in Singapore to touch Asia to transform the world and it is incredibly FOC for all.

A Reputation that Matters

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“Guilt is banished through love and truth;
   Fear-of-God deflects evil. 

When God approves of your life,
   even your enemies will end up shaking your hand. 

Far better to be right and poor
   than to be wrong and rich. “

Proverbs 16:6-8 (The Message)

Developing Your Reputation for Christ

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Many of us overlook the importance of developing our reputation. This reputation should be one that displays a strong character and a sharp mind; one that adds to our value in the eyes of those around us.

If we believe we are ambassadors of Christ, we are to be conscious of our reputation because it can either be good or bad.

Being ambassadors of Christ

According to some definitions, an ambassador is a high ranking official representative of their country. He is someone who clearly understands the value, history and philosophy of his nation and puts his country’s interest above his own. 

Likewise, as Christians we need to imbibe the spirit, the power, the philosophy, the sense of purpose and the mission of the kingdom of God. We are sent out into our world to represent that kingdom.

This leads us to some hard questions we need to ask ourselves:

“What reputation am I building within the marketplace?”

“Am I known to be reliable or unreliable?”

“Does my reputation enable me to effectively bring the gospel across to others?”

“Or are my words and actions a constant stumbling block that hinders others from approaching Christ?”

Like it or not, we all have a responsibility as individuals to strive to grow and develop ourselves in all areas where required such as our character, intelligence and competence related to our profession. Even more so a greater responsibility for us Christians who are called to represent His kingdom.

Living out this privileged responsibility

As famously quoted from St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times and used words only when necessary.”

In order to win people to Christ, we first have to win them to us. We can’t expect others to want to know more about our faith if we cannot even get them past who we are and what we stand for.

So let’s live out our responsibility and not let reputation ‘just happen’ to us. We need to build it intentionally; knowing the kind of person that we want to be and going to work on being that person.

If we want people to trust us, then we need to work on our trustworthiness as someone who gets the job done. Credibility comes from reputation which instills confidence towards our words, actions and choices.

Your reputation is a revelation of your character.

More about Achievers

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Zooming in on Achievers, Dr Adele Scheele further explained that they have three qualities that set them apart from the Sustainers.

These are:

1. Self-Presentation

Success breeds success. Employers want proven winners. But Achievers are also able to demonstrate how their past knowledge and experience can be useful in their new assignment.

They are able to do this by translating skills and aptitudes- even when the past experience is not directly related to their present opportunity.

While Sustainers wait for opportunity to knock on doors- and it does not happen; Achievers have perfected the art of catching fireflies of opportunity- before the brief life of a firefly comes to an end.

2. Positioning

Achievers have the “knack of being at the right place at the right time”. Others may attribute this to luck, but it is not as simple as that.

They have a goal or goals. They know where they are going. They have a plan- sometimes unconsciously. Therefore, when an opportunity arises they are able to grab it and make great use of it.

Sustainers believe in a fair system- and they remain timid, on their best behaviour, waiting to be rewarded. And it does not happen.

3. Networking

Achievers have good people management skills that enable them to motivate, inspire and to lead people.

They understand the art of good human relations which depends on two important requirements- the ability to use empathy and the ability to communicate.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and see the problem from his perspective. And the ability to communicate ensures good relations.

Our World of Sustainers and Achievers

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If we truly resolute to live a life that is full and making it count, I believe we (especially Christ-followers) need to move towards being Achievers.

In a book written by Dr. Adele Scheele, our world of working people divides into two distinct groups of Sustainers and Achievers.

As Achievers, we display a life of value-add and success (in stature and competence) as the head and not the tail; above and not beneath; victorious and not defeated.

Below is a brief description of the two:

About Sustainers

  • The consist of the majority in our world
  • They spend 70 per cent of their work life doing their job well- and 30 per cent unconsciously waiting for recognition for what they have done
  • They have the “school student mindset”- we work hard; we wait for compliments from our teacher; we get high marks as a result of our hard work; we get promoted to the next class; we win awards for our proficiency. There is a smooth flow; a direct resultant output from the input
  • Sustainers have ‘tunnel vision’

About Achievers

  • They are fewer in our world and they are more successful
  • They might be working as hard or even harder but better and differently from Sustainers
  • They do not fall inito the deadly trap of watching others move up (the corporate ladder)- and watching them with both envy and contempt
  • Achievers create a climate of what is now called ‘constructive disobedience’. They don’t just work harder- but look for innovative ways of doing the job better or easier or faster
  • They have ‘helicopter vision’

Making Every Point Count in a Race

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It is commendable that despite having more popular votes in snap polls against John McCain, Barack Obama never rest his laurels.

He was not never waiting for chance to repeat what his former Democrat presidential nominee, Al Gore had experienced during the 2000 Presidential elections. Back then, Bush narrowly won with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266.

As this week’s election results showed, Obama fought hard for every vote from Americans including territories that were traditionally Republican dominated. And he managed to achieved a winning feat of 349 electoral votes against McCain’s 174.

Winning is the name of the game

Are all these hard-pressed efforts necessary?

Well think Felipe Massa, the Brazilian Ferari’s driver. Early this month, he lost the Formula One (F1) World Championship title to Lewis Hamilton by a mere one point.

That same mere one point also made Hamilton the youngest ever F1 Champion at 23 years old.

In the 1998-1999 season of the English Premier League (EPL), it was one point that gave Manchester United its most successful season as treble winners. They edged Arsenal with 79 to 78 points to end the season as EPL champions.

In all races or games, every vote or point matters; that one point might just differentiate the winner from the losers.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize…  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:24,27

Living all the way for the Lord

Though the chances of us being presidential nominees or sportsmen to not come by all the time, but as Christians how are we making every minute, every day and ounce of our energy count for the Lord and His will for our lives?

For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation…

Acts 13:36

Taking our cue from both the Apostle Paul and King David, both are great examples of a Christian’s life that made sure every ounce of God’s grace upon their life was well-spent despite the adversities.

Both not only ended the race well, but from the start till the end, they did what they did with passion, excellence and purpose.

Likewise, I believe each of us need to know the race route that has been marked out for us and complete it in our own generation.

With understanding who we are in Christ- our identity; our destiny; His presence, His promises and the Holy Spirit- we can be confident of achieving all that we need to for His glory.