RISING FAITH

The Faith of Abraham

"The stars were too many. They were simply innumerable. I can't count them all", Abraham thought to himself as he looked at the vast night sky. He was simply trying to obey what God had told him to do. Why did God ask him to count so many stars?.....

At that very point the word of God came to him. "So shall your offspring be." Then realisation dawned upon him. God is promising that his offspring will one day be as innumerable as the stars!

Faith began to well up in his heart and he believed the promise of God. And God credited it to Abraham as righteousness because Abraham had trusted God (Gen 15:4-6).

Hearing the Word of Christ

There had been points in my life where God had dropped words into my heart that stirred me to rise up in faith. Just as the Scriptures say in

Rom 10:17 (NRSV) "faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ."

Taking steps of faith

As I looked back, those moments had become defining times in my ministry. Where I had taken a new step of faith, or stepped into another level of faith. It is such steps that helps us make significant progress in our journey of faith with God. I have learnt that I should not squander those moments.

At such moments, we are always left with a couple of choices...

• To trust God,
  
• To doubt God or
  
• To procrastinate.
  

To doubt God often leads us backwards in our journey. To procrastinate often causes us to miss the growth opportunity. But when we trust God, it often takes us a big step forward.These steps are not always easy. At times it comes with a great cost. Yet what glorious outcomes!

The prophetic words at Oceania Convention

Even as such moments occur for individuals, God presents such times for whole communities. I sense that we are in such times as a group of churches in Oceania.

With the recent conference in Philip Island, God is stirring in us to rise up in our faith to believe for greater things. The prophetic words speak of great enlargements to come in our ministries.

This is our moment to grasp the prophetic stirring and rise up in our faith.

Moving forward with God's promises

When we receive the prophetic words and make it our own, as we rise up in faith to trust God for the enlargement, it will lead us to a new level in our journey with God. It will certainly bring new challenges in our midst even as we confront the old barriers. Yet I believe there will be victories and new anointing that will flow.

I am believing for leadership to rise up from all our churches. New and perhaps renewed ministries to rise up and breakthrough in different fronts, so that together we might move forward aggressively.

New territories, new opportunities lie ahead of us. Let us take hold of God's promises to us and bring it to reality through faith in God. Let us rise up in faith.

Believing with you,

Dr. Wilson Lim
Chairman of Hope Oceania Churches