Chronicles with God 1: He Spoke. I Wrote (Volume 1)

By Christopher Raj

This book is all the sermons I heard coming from the pulpit of the Church. Messages from the sermons could mean many things to people according to each person’s walk with God, meaning in all theses there is always a still voice of the Holy Spirit who speaks specifically to current situation and or your walk with God according to the purpose in which God has called you. I always had a desire in my heart to share that word of God to people who wants to hear him. I know with reading of this book you will be edified. There is no meaning to life unless it is purpose driven. Have a fulfilled life as he speaks to you as he did with me. We must learn to listen to that still voice of God. What I have written, is all about that still voice of God coming from the many man or Prophets of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Oct 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543755084

Christopher Raj

Currently since 2008 the Area Director of Human Resources-Industrial Relations for Shangri-La Hotel and Resorts, Malaysia.(based in Shangri-la , Kuala Lumpur.) Basically overseas Industrial Relations operations in Malaysia Has been involved in Industrial Relations line for 37 years He holds Bachelor’s Degree in Science with a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations. • President, AHE, Association of Hotel Employers • Council member MEF (Malaysian Employers Federation) • Board member MEF Academy • Member of National labor Advisory Council (appointment by the Minister of Human Resources) • Certified trainer for many programs

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Copyright © 2019 by Christopher Raj.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgement

Prologue

Chpater 1    The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our God is a Generational God

Chpater 2    Glory of God

Chpater 3    Why the Early Church Grew Rapidly

Chpater 4    Your Faith Is the Foundation, the Seed That Produce Fruits

Chpater 5    Ignite the Fire of God

Chpater 6    Know Your Destiny in God, Dreams and Vision

Chpater 7    I Will Make Rivers Flow on Barren Heights

Chpater 8    Rebuilding the Human Personality

INTRODUCTION

The greatest commandment, your basis for your life’s journey.

A s the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. ( John 15: 9-17 )

God is love. The Father loved Jesus, yet He gave His only Son to die for our sins because He also loved us and calls us His friends and not servants. Jesus said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. God’s greatest command is to love each other with no conditions, but in order to do this consistently, we need to experience the Father’s love by accepting Jesus as our Savior. We can only give love when we know that we are loved by God.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

If you are a true disciple or follower of Christ, you must bear the trademark of unconditional love for people wherever God has placed you.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:36-40)

God’s command is straightforward. You cannot claim that you love others if you do not love God. You will only know true love when you love and experience the love of God.

In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. (Luke 10:30-37)

After telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said to go and do likewise. Let us be the Good Samaritans in this world whenever we see need around us.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:18-21)

Perfect love drives out all fear. Loving people who know the love of their God should have no fear; otherwise, we are liars.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)

We fulfill the Lord’s command and will when we show perfect love to our neighbors.

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet. In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)

We were created a little lower than the angels, but God has crowned us with His glory and honor, and He has made everything subject to us. What is mankind, that He is so mindful of us? The answer is simple: God created us in His image and loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

1 Corinthians 13 is the perfect description of love. Let us not be a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

This book is all about the love of God.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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I am grateful to Metro Tabernacle A/G, Kuala Lumpur and especially to Rev. Ong Sek Leang, the senior pastor of the church who is also the general superintendent of Assemblies of God Malaysia for the privilege to call it my home church – a place where I grew as a child of God is the most holistic way.

All messages written in this book are how I received them through the anointed preaching of the Word of God from that same pulpit in all services that I have attended. I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the other pastors and visiting evangelists who have in their own way contributed to the writing of this book.

I especially would also like to thank my beloved wife Molly, children Deborah and Noel for their unconditional love, support and prayers in this journey called life.

I thank God for the wonderful parents he gave me. It is their love that made me what I am today. I would want to remember my late father B.A.R. Joseph and my late mother Reginah Lalithawathy Joseph whom I dearly love.

Last but not least, I would also want to thank my siblings Britto, Philomena, Jacintha, Patrick and Isidore for their support over the years.

Christopher Raj

December 2015

PROLOGUE

W ith the writing of this devotional book, I don’t claim to be spiritual or claim to know all about the Bible. My journey as a Christian started when I was born into a Catholic family with God-fearing parents who I loved dearly. I remember when I was nine years old, I had to travel by sea, spending seven days on the ship going to India for my studies. From the age 11 until I was 24, I studied in India – staying in boarding school and college run by Jesuit priests called St. Joseph Institution. During those days, I remember going to church almost 365 days serving as altar boy or scripture reader.

It was in the year 1984 that I became a born again Christian. My association with the churches throughout this journey has been an enriching experience knowing God through good works and understanding the mercies of God in my walk with him. My father has also been a great influence as well as inspiration in my life, making me understand what the love of God is all about.

When my mother passed away in the year 2013, I decided to embark on this project to write this book with single finger typing. I developed a burden to build a charity home for the poor and needy using the jewelry, which my mother handed over to me while on her death bed as the seed money for this project.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, What does this mean? (Act 2:5-12)

Since 2006, my family has been attending Metro Tabernacle. Every message that was spoken through the pulpit, spoke to my situation and I decided to write them down as I understood them similar to the above scriptures.

… and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. (Luke 4:17-19)

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:4-5)

Reading the above scriptures, it is abundantly clear that our primary purpose in this world is to reach out to the needy. Jesus came to fulfill exactly that as what the prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61 and finishing the purpose for which he was sent.

The other mission of this project is to bless the body of Christ by the inspirational message that can help us face the challenges in our daily walk. As I have mentioned before I do not claim to hear the voice of God but it is very clear in my mind that God will be pleased with what I have launched to do because it is line with what Jesus came to accomplish.

This is my chronicle with God. He spoke through his servants on the pulpit and I wrote it down as I understood it.

1

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our God is a Generational God

Walking in Generational Blessings – The Mandate

W e are all similar. No matter where we all come from, the only difference is our cultural background. It is very important that we understand our purpose. Let us examine the original covenant God made with men when we were created, as it is the starting point for everything we do in our lives and for the understanding of the rest of the Bible.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Genesis 1: 27-28)

It is very clear that man and woman reflect the image of God. It actually takes both to reflect the image of God, as verse 28 says, Be fruitful and increase in number. There could be no multiplying or increase if man and woman did not become one flesh. In other words, unless man and woman become one flesh, the covenant of God could not be fulfilled. The mandate is to fill the earth, to subdue it and to rule over it.

First Step

Marriage is the foundation of realizing God’s covenant with men. Marriage is also the foundation of all cultures and civilizations in this world. Any country or church is only as healthy as its marriages. When Adam was alone, the Bible does not record the devil tempting him. By himself, Adam was harmless and of no threat to Satan. It was when Eve came into the picture that the devil came to destroy their relationship with God.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:1-7)

The devil is crafty, and he knew exactly what he was doing and is still doing in the lives of people. In verses 5 and 6, he created doubt in the minds of men by asking a single question. He then fed the eyes and created a desire in the heart, setting a clear pattern for temptation.

Divorce rates are peaking in many countries, especially in the United States. When families are destroyed, the country is gradually destroyed, and so are its churches and institutions. Satan destroys marriages so that mankind cannot reflect the image of God. To destroy God’s domain on Earth, Satan targets marriages.

Second Step

In Genesis 1:28, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, or increase. The meaning is very simple: We need to have as many children as possible, both biological children for the married, and spiritual children, which are the secondary meaning to the mandate. Paul never had children, but Timothy was his spiritual son. It is important that we do not disconnect ourselves from the next generation. This life is not about you; it is about your children. We need to get away from the individualistic mindset and adjust our minds to the covenant relationship, which God established with man.

Third Step

Be fruitful and multiply or increase also means that we must teach our children to get married and reproduce to have more children. Our teaching or preaching is sometimes all about the individual blessing, but we need to have a generational mindset. When Moses asked God to reveal Himself in the burning bush, as to what he should say about the God he now represented, God said, Say to the Israelites ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

Our God is a generational God. The Father is the first generation, His Son, Jesus, is the second, and now, you and I are the third generation. Jesus said that we can do greater things than Him. That is God’s greater purpose. Our destinies cannot come true through our churches or families if we do not disciple our children. We need to cultivate a nest that can bring forth the next Billy Grahams and great presidents or prime ministers.

Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. (Exodus 3:13-15)

Fourth Step

Replenish or fill the Earth. We need our children to be the best in every field to which they are called. The Great Commission is not only about the fivefold ministry; it is about excelling in every field – scientist, businessman, artist, and so on. How can we replenish the earth with only pastors? We need to engage the earth – only then can we establish God’s dominion. Encourage your children in their gifting to be the best in their field.

Fifth Step

Subdue the earth. Our children should put on the armor of God in order to subdue the earth. When God is with us, we can take control of the earth. He has given us the mandate, the authority and the blessing to do so. The armor of God is His righteousness and holiness as described in Ephesians 6.

Sixth Step

Having dominion also means having influence over everything on Earth. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. He who serves will lead. According to Christ’s principles, when you serve people with sincerity, they will likely want you to become their leader in society. Joseph, Daniel and many more people in the Bible have illustrated this process. They were given total dominion and authority over their countries even though they were in a foreign land.

It is a process; we need to be the greatest force on the earth.

God Made a Covenant with Man

Genesis 1:27-28 is a cultural covenant as well as a mandate. Every book in the Bible talks about managing the earth and the kings. It is all about stewardship, stewarding the earth. God said that we should be the light and salt of the world. Therefore, our ministry is not reserved for Sunday; on Monday, we should concentrate on how to take dominion in the earth. The Church has to get involved in community engagement, and we need to make an impact in the marketplace. Let us review the cultural mandates described in the six steps:

Marriage: This is the basic foundation for all culture and civilization.

Children: We are called to have many children, raising up the next generation.

Multiply: We are called to multiple or reproduce, and then consecrate our children and teach them to become holy. This occurs in a generational context.

Replenish: We need to fill the earth by excelling in every work field in order to establish God’s dominion.

Subdue: We must take back the Earth from the enemy and take control.

Dominion: We are called to have influence in society.

Revival

He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John? Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. (Luke 16:15-16)

The above scriptures talk about revival. Revival takes place in the Church, starting with individual to families in marriage and to children, and the process continues.

Reformation

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Matthew 28:19-20 tells us that we should make disciples from all tribes and nations. This is a call for reformation. Reformation takes place outside the Church.

Re-populate, subdue, have dominion, reform, establish systems, become the army of God.

The Church is the macro view of a family, and family is the center of the Hebrew culture. One of the Ten Commandments is, honor your mother and father.

The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every