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Audio Message

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5

Last week, we kicked off 2013 with the core intercessory team giving thanks for the past and blessing what is to come in the future.  You may listen to that powerful time of prayer offering through this link.

This week, we press onto the second of the 6 messages God gave us as heart preparation for the upcoming year.   This message is:

• God will reveal to us new insights in what it means to inherit the earth, opening our eyes to His heart for heaven-earth connection – Matthew 5:5.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19-21 to store up our treasures in heaven and not on earth.  For many years, taking this passage “as is” has caused me to feel “out of the game” for storing up treasures in heaven because my golden hours, as a market place Christian, are trapped in the world for creating earthly value.  I believe that many others have similar experiences of confusion and frustration – in considering their earthly gains to have no eternal significance and feeling like second class Kingdom citizens compared with those who can do “God’s work” full-time.

But when we look at Matthew 6:19-21 in the context of Jesus’ entire mountain side sermon, in light of Matthew 6:10, 6:32-33, and most notably 5:5, we then can see how God is doing a “new thing” of connecting His heavenly Kingdom to earth.  The earth is important to God.  So important that He will entrust authority and jurisdiction of the earth only to the meek & gentle – those whose hearts are sensitive to the Master.  Understanding this principle will open our eyes to what it means to store treasures in heaven as we labor to create value on earth.

We would like to share 5 points for you to ponder on, hoping that they may provide deeper insights on what it means to inherit the earth.  You may also link here to hear the audio message.

1. The earth was and still is important to God because He created it as the universe’s epicenter of enjoyment and pleasure (Genesis 1); the earth was and still is God’s intended dwelling place to interact with people for value creation – to be “fruitful and multiply” in earthly things that are useful, enjoyable, and meaningful (including people);
2. Genesis 1-2 shows us that God designed the physical domain to be subjected under the confines of time, space, and inefficiency (or unpredictability); He created that environment to enable us to enjoy the pleasures of satisfaction;
   • The pleasure of satisfaction comes from a fulfillment of desire in our senses – and desire can only be actualize (made sensible) in the barriers of time, space, and inefficiency;
   • Because sin has corrupted our desire, we tend to see the physical limitations that actualizes our desires in a negative light;
3. God designed the physical world and all its limitations as a place for us to dwell with Him and enjoy its pleasure; God loves the world and has sent Christ to save it; He will one day completely renew the earth and expand from it into eternity the pleasure of His Kingdom, the splendor of the Lamb and His wife (Revelation 21);
4. The earth – the pinnacle of God’s creation and the epicenter of pleasure – will be given to the meek because:
   • Meekness is strength and power under control; it is not weakness;
   • Meekness is heaven’s value system manifested on earth;
   • A heart without meekness will seek to control and hoard the “pleasures of the physical”;
   • A meek heart can be entrusted to govern the economies necessary to manage the unlimited demand for pleasure in a physical environment with limitations;
5. The key to understanding Matthew 6:19-21 is to see God’s heart for connecting heaven and earth;
   • Storing treasures in heaven means to bring about earth’s value creation under heaven’s Kingdom agenda, under heaven’s value systems – such as meekness;
   • It is not just about doing the work of ministry; but is about seeking first God’s Kingdom and righteousness in all our work of creating earthly value – as we have been created to do;
   • Earthly treasure will decay by moth and rust if they are separated from God’s heavenly will to restore Christ’s earthly Kingdom;
   • Like our perishable bodies becoming imperishable when the physical is connected to the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-58), so will our physical treasures become imperishable when they connect to the spiritual, when earthly treasures are created for Christ’s Kingdom agenda.

We hope that this message has provided you a clearer view of God’s heart for the earth and how to store up heavenly treasures in our daily work.  The content is very rich and we would be glad to hear from you deeper insights through your study and prayer.

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Audio Message

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.  But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.  Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.  – Luke 24:9-12

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sigh.  – Luke 24:30-31.

This week, we dig deeper into the first of the 6 messages God gave us as heart preparation for the upcoming year.   This message is:

· God will be doing a new thing such that we must be of a pure heart and simple faith to see – Luke 24:1-49

As a believer, one of our greatest “faith assignments” is to keep in pace with God’s work of “new things”.  God’s acts of great transformation often surprise us because they lie so far from our realm of expectation.  Even Jesus’ disciples, who followed Him everywhere for 3 years, did not grasp God’s agenda for manifesting heaven on earth.  Despite Jesus’ numerous proclamations of His impending resurrection, they still thought that the women’s account – of the Holy Spirit’s heavenly power reversing death in Jesus’ physical body – was “nonsense”.

Jesus teaches us to pray for a heavenly manifestation on earth.  Scripture also shows that as we near Christ’s return, God will manifest Kingdom authority through His people in unprecedented measures, bringing transformation to the world’s market places like history has never seen before.  We believe that through an end-time storehouse strategy, God will establish through the church a Kingdom economy as one His most powerful testimonies of mercy and compassion.  In order to not fall into disbelief and mistake God’s great transformational work as “nonsense”, we must heed the call of Isaiah 43:19 to “perceive the new thing” God is doing.

Luke 24 shows us how we can prepare our hearts and establish our faith to perceive God’s work.  These principles are:

1. We must identify the “women of faith” who are carrying God’s most forefront Kingdom messages.  We may tend to write them off initially as “nonsense”.  But if we want to keep pace with God’s “new thing”, we must come to recognize them as God’s vessels for early disclosure – as people with advance knowledge of His workings.  Therefore, we need to seek to purify our hearts with humility and learn to hear God’s message through these individuals.
2. By establishing our faith in the Father’s love, knowing that all things will eventually work for the good, we can avoid falling into the trap of doubt which leads to fear.  Just like Peter in verse 12, God will give us time to reflect, process, and eventually catch-on and catch-up to His awesome heavenly work on earth.
3. Just as the disciple’s eyes were opened by Jesus’ breaking of bread in verse 31, we, too, should expect to receive a deeper revelation of Christ and His Kingdom agenda through the worship of the Lord’s supper.  In it, God has embedded a manifestation of heaven on earth – connecting us to our heavenly destiny through Christ’s physical body, connecting us to our heavenly covenant through Christ’s physical blood.  Communion is more than a ceremony of remembrance.  It is also a gateway to opening our eyes to a greater revelation of Jesus Christ and perceiving His “new thing”.

Market Place Reflection and Prayer

Lord, our hearts long to see Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  May that longing be founded on a pure heart and simple faith.  May we perceive your transformational work in our generation.

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Audio Message

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert

and streams in the wasteland.

– Isaiah 43:19

On 12/12/12, I attended an incredible summit for ministry and market place leaders from throughout Asia.  As I ministered with some of these leaders, the Holy Spirit impressed upon us a message of Isaiah 43:19 that may speak of God’s heart for 2013.  These words speak of God’s agenda for doing a new thing, to bring a manifestation of heaven on earth like never before.  They reveal His desire to transform the church such that the world will recognize us as “the way in the desert and streams in the wasteland”.  The Holy Spirit gave us the following 6 messages as heart preparation to perceive His work for the coming year:

1. God will be doing a new thing such that we must be of a pure heart and simple faith to see – Luke 24:1-33
2. God will reveal to us new insights in what it means to inherit the earth, opening our eyes to His heart for heaven-earth connection – Matthew 5:5
3. God will breathe into the church a new life that will awaken us to our Kingdom destiny – Genesis 2:7, Ezekiel 37:1-10
4. God will bring an unprecedented increase of the shepherd’s anointing in wisdom, restoration, and abundance – John 10:11-18
5. God’s release of Kingdom authority will demand us to offer up our “Isaacs”, putting to death our ambition – Genesis 22:1-19
6. God will raise the church to a level of worship expression beyond that of the Israelites by the Red Sea – Exodus 15:1-18

We will expound on each of these messages in the weeks to come because they speak deeply on the theme of “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.  Please pray with us and share with us any insights that the Holy Spirit may grant you.

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Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. – Matthew 6:10

…to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. – Ephesians 1:10

Greetings,

As we flowed from a powerful MTC 2012, the Lord did not allow us to miss a beat as He immediately imparted to us the theme for the coming year.  From the life renewing flow of “The River of Water of Life” (2011), the Lord opened our eyes to the “The Joy Set Before Jesus” (2012), the vision of Christ’s bride and wife, the New Jerusalem manifesting heavenly Kingdom authority.  In 2013, we sense the Holy Spirit leading us to not only see that heavenly Kingdom authority, but also to bring that authority to earth.

The theme for the coming year is, “On Earth as it is in Heaven”

God’s heart is not just about heaven.  His burning desire is for a Kingdom that encompasses both heaven and earth – for the spiritual and physical to intimately connect as an expression of the relationships between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus wants our prayer, our attention, our longings to bring His will of heaven to earth.  He loves the world and has come to save it.  In fact, God has such zeal for the physical earth that He will one day regenerate it into a “new earth”.

In the coming months, we will dig deeper into the significance of the heaven-earth connection, into the exciting practicalities of how heaven manifests in the physical.  Just like our past themes, we expect God to reveal to us unexpected richness and insight into His heart for the market place, into how He intends to work through our family, career, and ministry to bring about the greatest Kingdom manifestation in history.