11am - 1pm
7 February at PPBC
Pre-LYPG:
A few days before LYPG, I (Eunice) was praying about LYPG because I was scheduled to facilitate. I had a mental picture of a spade digging dirt in darkness. My first thought of course was "Huh?"
What is God trying to say?
The first interpretation that came to my mind was repentance. Perhaps a time of digging up personal dirt was on God's schedule for LYPG. Not the gotong-royong kind, but the one with tears and tissues where we come bare before God and let Him do heart surgery. You know what I mean?
Next came a Scripture from Jeremiah 18 - The potter at the wheel.Again, what was God trying to say?
The verses that stood out to me were verses 4 - 6:
"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?"
Shaping, moulding, re-modeling. How did this fit with repentance?
More clues:
A few days later, the newspapers gave me a clue. As I read about what was going on in Perak, I had a burden to pray for that state. To pray that this work at the wheel, no matter how marred, can be made whole in God's hands. That this vessel of silver can be remade as pure as it's meant to be.
But before we could step into praying for our nation (the potter part), we would have to deal with repentance in ourselves (the digging part). That was my Plan B agenda.
Of course there's always Plan A - which is when God shows up on that day itself and does the leading.
Confirmation:
However, no matter how sure we can be of hearing from God, we must check it with others who are hearing from God. In this case, Esther Wee helped confirm the direction for that afternoon. And so we set out to navigate through partly uncharted territory... Using the Bible as our map and Holy Spirit as our compass...
What transpired:
Japh set the first landmark by leading us into worship repentance. We "bowed our hearts and bent our knees" as the Spirit took over. From there, we flowed into personal repentance, taking time alone with God, followed by a time of confession. All this took about a good half an hour.
Next - sharing in a group. Although many of us barely knew each other, everyone took a minute or so to express what God had spoken to them during the time alone with God.
A few themes repeated themselves:
- First, the call to trust and rest in God instead of doing things in our own strength.
- Second, the call to return our focus back to God and tear ourselves away from distractions.
The "firegunning battle" part:
Before we moved into praying for Perak, Timothy gave an overview of what's going on in the political arena. There is more than meets the eye, or even the newspapers. We prayed for the following: Hope, exposure, Christians in politics and for the church to speak up. Ended full circle by coming back to worship.
Impressions:
- (Someone) saw himself draped with a white cape, which represents honor. God saying - despite the sins of your past, "As you honor me, I will honor you."
- A vessel full of holes, which are the hurts and wounds in people
- "How hungry are you for God?"
- LYPG is not just to pray for the nation, it's also a place for us to refresh, so we can go out and impact others.
- Holding up a cup to God saying "Please can you fill this?" And God replying "You want me to fill that cup? I have an even bigger cup for you that I can fill!"
Of course after that everyone went for lunch at a special placed dubbed "Under the Tree" by the PPBC people. Thank you guys for being such great hosts!
Next LYPG: 21 Feb at PPBC
Next facilitator: Esther Wee!
Pray for Esther as she waits on God for this week's agenda. And come armed and prepared!
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