The church camp ended with the journey continuing from the mountain-top experiences to the valley realities. Evereyone had their personal highlights. Let me share mine. One the final night, I called the people to the altar to receive an impartation of the Holy Spirit, expecially when we had felt unqualified and inadequate in the assignements that God is giving us in the marketplace, in the ministry and in our studies. The pastors and I went around praying for about 200 people at the altar! It was an unhurried time of praying into the lives of the people and it took us nearly an hour to pray for everyone. Later, when we sat to share the leading of the Lord at the ministry hour, we discovered that God was giving us words and pictures and prophetic insights specific and unique to different individual. There was the flow of the prohetic gifting to build up the people of God for the common good.
This morning in my devotion, I was reading from John 1:43-50. Let me share some of the insights I gathered as I focus on Nathanael.
John 1:43-44 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
This is a bold claim, and given that, you can hardly fault Nathanial for his response, he was a little sceptical. Here’s what he said in John 1:44,: "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. And here’s Philip’s response: "Come and see," said Philip.
John 1:47 says , "When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."
What a fascinating statement! Especially given who is saying it. What a statement! And Nathanael’s response is so classic:
John 1:48
Nathanael doesn’t even act surprised! No false humility here. But I think he never forgot what Jesus said to him. These words were locked in his auditory cortex forever. Has anybody ever said something to you, maybe a teacher or a parent, and the words make all the difference in the world? Have you had one of those moments? Can I share one of my moments?
I remember when I was teen, there was this missionary lady who lived in Penang who came to our town in Alor Setar to speak to the youths. At the end of the series of meetings, she pulled me aside to pray for me. She asked me about my family background and I told her that I lived with my grandmother and adoptive mother and that my father had died when I was thirteen. She looked into my eyes and she said, “I believe you will a great father one day.” It kind of shocked me because I had never ever thought of fatherhood. I was only about 15. But a seed was planted in my heart – a seed of greatness.
I don’t know that I totally believed it, honestly, I didn’t really care whether she meant what she said or what, but I just needed to hear that, I needed someone to speak into my life. And I tell you, there were many moments in my life as I transited into adulthood where the Spirit of God would bring those words back to me. The Spirit would surface something deep in my spirit, “you will be a great dad; you will be a great father” and it did something to me.
Then I realized that as I became a father, that those words was coming to pass – not only in my biological family but in my spiritual family. I had become a spiritual father to many.
I believe God wants us to speak words of life, words of encouragement and words of hope into each other’s lives and you never know when something you say to someone else can make all the difference in the world.
This is that moment for Nathanael. I don't think he ever forgot what Jesus said. Jesus gave him something to live up to. I believe there were moments where he was tempted to compromise his integrity, then he must I remembered, " but Jesus said, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false,” I better live up to that."
A few years ago, I read a book by Lori Beth Jones entitled The Power of Positive Prophecy and in the book, she said that 40% of our lives are based on personal prophecy. Not someone saying ‘Thus sayeth the Lord,’ but people just speaking words into your life, like ‘You’re never going to be good at that’ or ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘you can do that.’ Now, you can’t quantify 40%, I don’t know where she came up with that number but does that not bear witness with your spirit, like, wow, a lot of my life has a lot to do with the people that I’ve surrounded myself with that are speaking either positive or negative things into my life. We need to surround ourselves with the right people to speak positive things into our lives so that we can have a positive effect.
But more importantly, when someone under the unction of the Holy Spirit speaks something that is from God into our spirits, that prophetic seed is a picture of the future. It becomes a defining moment in our lives. Many had that experience on the last night of the camp. Beyond that night, many others had received words from the Lord throughout the camp. These are precious defining moments that the Holy Spirit uses to transform our lives.
Let me continue with this in the next post....
