It is so easy to live life apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit.
… apart from the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
… apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

I can actually go about my day doing things for God not realizing I am doing things without God.

From being a husband to being a dad.
From being a Victory Group leader to being a pastor.
From working in the office to going to the mall with my lovely wife.

The Bible says in Acts 19:11 that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul…

It didn’t just say miracles. The Bible said “extraordinary” miracles as if miracles are actually ordinary.

Note that a few verses earlier, Paul was just talking and preaching about the person and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then immediately after, it talks about God doing extraordinary miracles through him.

I’m reminded of what Francis Chan said in his book, Forgotten God.

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that am desperate for him to come through. At if He doesn’t come through, I’m screwed.

Lord teach us to always move in the power and presence of Your Holy Spirit that we may bring honor and glory to you every moment of our lives.

I worked as a guidance counselor in a school for several years.

One morning, a young girl in grade 3 came to my office crying. Immediately I asked her what was wrong so I could bring comfort.

She told me that she was just told by her parents that if she didn’t get at least second honor, they would not go to their family trip to Hong Kong.

Wow. The pressure of your family vacation not pushing through because of you.

My heart went out to her and prayed for her.

I thought about many kids and adults alike who bring this
performance orientation into their relationship with Jesus.

“If you don’t do this, if you can’t make this, if you can’t perform well then you’ll miss out of My blessing.”

How many people think this way today?

I obviously don’t mean disobedience and rebellion against God. But what I’m saying is that many think that after giving their life to Christ, they need to continue to earn God’s favor.

We already have His favor through Christ.

Read what Tulian Tchivijian says in his book Jesus Plus Nothing = Everything.

The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and his performance for us. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better, we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with our effort instead of with God’s effort for us makes us increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective.

But in our recent trip to Jakarta to attend the World Prayer Assembly, I was privileged to travel with a man with such as servant attitude.

He would offer to take the pictures for us.

When Nano, one of our Indonesian brothers from Every Nation’s iPhone was low on battery, this guy offered to turn on his MacBook to juice up Nano’s phone.

I was his room mate for a few days. He noticed that I would roll up the comforter to make it an extra pillow since we only had one. The next day, he requested an extra pillow from room service.

Maybe it was because Jonathan Camcam worked in the hotel industry for years (Opryland Hotel and the Radisson in Nashville)?

Probably. But I think he just understood firmly what Jesus said in Mark 10:43.

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

I’m glad he’s part of our team as one of our discipleship pastors and the one who leads our intercessory prayer team.

I’m also glad because I will have a consistent example before me of what it means to serve as Jesus served.

He has prayed to God several times yet seemingly is not getting any answers.

1. Does God answer prayers?

Jeremiah 33:3 says to call upon Him and He will answer.

The Bible doesn’t say that He might or He probably will.  The Bible says He will.

2. Now if God answers prayers, does He answer the way we wish Him to?

He always answers but the manner that He does may be different.  In fact, the answer we get may not be what we expect it to be, but He does answer.

Isaiah 55 tells us that His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are way beyond our thoughts.

We ask Him to open a door, yet the door He opens may be the one on the left, not the one on the right.

Last question…
3. If He does answer, will it be good.

Actually, when He answers, it is much better than we ever expected.

Ephesians 3:20 says that “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.”

In other words, when He answers, it is way better than what we expected.

Does He answer prayer? A resounding yes!
Does He answer the way we want Him to? Not necessarily.
If He does answer, will it be good? Actually, it’s way better than what you’ve ever imagined or expected. Trust Him and see what He does. 

Here are some of the snippets.

To see what you’ve never seen, you’ll have to do what has never been done. (Ed Silvoso)

God has given us the mission mandate and the prayer mandate.
The mission mandate —> Matthew 2818-20. Go and make disciples of all nations.
The prayer mandate —> Matthew 9:38. Pray … to send forth workers… 

This generation has become a fatherless generation.
Today’s modern day orphans are those that are being parented by iPads, cable TV and Facebook. (Jerome Ocampo) 

The title caught my attention and I’d like to share a few quotes from the book that hit me hard.

“I believe that this missing something is actually a missing Someone – namely the Holy Spirit. Without Him, people operate in their own strength and only accomplish human-size results.“

“The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation.”

“Even church growth can happen without Him. Let’s be honest: If you combine a charismatic speaker, a talented worship band, and some hip, creative events, people will attend your church. Yet this doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit of God is actively working and moving in the lives of the people who are coming. It simply means that you have created a space that is appealing enough to draw people in for an hour or two on Sunday.”

After reading these, I quickly was moved to pray in my heart…

Lord, help me to never operate in my own strength thereby only accomplishing human-size results. I want to believe you for greater things and trust you for infinitely God-size results for your honor and glory.

5. Decay of religion.
4. Unsustainable buildup of armaments.
3. Hunger for pleasure.
2. Increased taxation.

Interestingly enough, the top in his list was the “breakdown of the family.”

You would think that it would be a problem in the leadership or an invasion by another empire.

1. Breakdown of the family…

Hmmmm…. interesting.

As the familiar saying goes, “Everything rises and falls in leadership.”

Husbands have been given the task to lead the family.

The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing… (Eph. 5:23, Msg)

The Bible tells us in Eph. 5 how we are to lead…

1. Lead lovingly.

Husbands, love your wives … (Eph. 5:25)

We are called to lead not in an authoritative or domineering manner, but lovingly.

One of the best ways to lead the family is to love your wife the way Jesus loved the church.
You want to see your kids grow up secure?
One of the best ways the Bible tells us is to love your wife unconditionally.

2. Lead sacrificially.

Sacrifice is giving up something you really really want.

… just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her …. (Eph. 5:25b)

Too many marriages are filled with “I”, “me” and “myself.”

If you’re not ready to give up ‘self’, re-think marriage. It just might not work.

3. Lead spiritually.

…to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word… (Eph. 5:26)

The word ‘husband’ means ‘to cultivate’, ‘to till’, ‘to take care of.’ In other words, the husband is a gardener.

If a garden is dry and dying, we go to the gardener and ask what’s the matter.

In a marriage and in a family, when things are dry and dying, the final accountability that God has ordained is with the husband.  He is the leader.  He has headship, therefore with it comes responsibility.

Seems impossible? You bet!

But God doesn’t tell us to do something without giving us both the grace and the ability to fulfill what we’ve been called to do.

In Christ, we can do all things … and He gives us the strength.

Have a great week ahead!

Part of generosity is trusting God that He can and will provide which is why we can hold on to stuff loosely.

This evening, we gave Ryan with 500 pesos because we’ve been blessed with his attitude – how he’s been very patient with Joaquin, teaching and helping him during the Family Camp.

After going around Toys R Us for many minutes, he chooses an action figure – HULK – which costs 500 pesos … which was Joaquin’s favorite.

I was surprised when I asked if he wanted it. He said no because he wanted to buy it for his younger brother Joaquin.

To this he responds, “I feel so happy. It feels good.”

This left me flabbergasted.

I’m so happy to see Ryan learning this very important principle on generosity:

It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35b)

The theme was “Family of Supers”. Pastor Juray and his family spoke.  Deah, his wife shared with the wives while TJ and Iya shared with the kids.

Times like these are important to slow down, re-assess priorities and make the necessary adjustments.

Special thanks to Pastor Mark Tusoy, Gepay Bautista and Pastor Larry, together with the team for excellently executing this year’s camp.

Family Camp give aways. Pastor Mark, Pastor Larry and the team is so excellent.

Pastor Juray Mora shared a powerful message on God’s design for the family. Another blog on the way to share with you what he shared.

Costume night was fun. Here’s Thor (Richard Medina) and Captain America.

One of the highlights was releasing the lanterns. Here’s Jenn and Janina, seconds before releasing their lantern.

Here are the lanterns starting to fill up the skies.

With Joaquin before riding the boat.

Jenn, Janina and Joaquin with friends.

Ryan and Joaquin excited for the activities.

Janina with one of the volunteers at the Family Camp, Mikkie Regalado.  Janina got to back up for the Praise and Worship with her.

Jenn with Nove Tan, one of our very good friends.

More pics here by Alfred Albarracin.