A Breakthrough Fasting Testimony

It has been more than 2 months. And yes, like many characters in the bible who retreated into the desert for a period of time, I also went for a retreat. In fact it was more of a "trial" in life. However things have been clearer now compared to the "stormy" weather that clouded my life over the past many months. Read on:

A Breakthrough Fasting Testimony of mine begins here:

13th Nov 2005 (SUN) - First Day Of Fasting begins.

First week into Fasting:

15th Nov 2005 - First Day of Healing Seminar – Pastor Dennis from Hope Kuching revealed a prophecy to me regarding Business Life Ministry.

16th Nov 2005 - Second Day of Healing Seminar – Achieved spiritual breakthrough.

16th Nov 2005 - Major quarrel erupted with one of my designer which resulted her from resigning the following Monday (21st Nov 2005).

18th & 19th 2005 - God blesses me with 2 last minute jobs for me to tide through Nov 2005.

2nd week into Fasting:

22nd Nov 2005 - Spoke to my photographer regarding a merger, but could not find a breakthrough during the discussion.

25th Nov 2005 – God is once again good as I was able to collect a bad debt of around $2,800 after 1 year of chasing payment.

3rd week into Fasting:

2nd Dec 2005 – Received a lawyer letter against us.

4th week into Fasting:

7th Dec 2005 – Stress crept into my business and spiritual life.
Ø Sales have not been good over October and November period and the legal issue is making the whole situation looks really bad. To make matter worse, December and January were the worst months in our business as clients were going on leave.
Ø Difficulty hiring someone as good as my ex-designer as we cannot rely on fresh graduates. On the other end, hiring a professional is costly.
Ø Cost regarding the legal cost is also a worry.
Ø CG activities are troubling my spiritual life as it was always about sowing. It has affected me personally and spiritually, mainly due to the problems I was facing.
Ø Sleeping difficulties as I was totally lost and had no one to turn to.

Eventually I wrote an email listing out all my problems to my CG, & Shepherd Soo Guan for help!

5th week into Fasting:

12th to 18 Dec 2005 – Move my focus on to evangelistic activities.

6th and last week into Fasting:

19th to 25th Dec 2005 – Begin to participate on reaching and the Christmas party as I was one of the organizing members for the combined CG Christmas party. In the end, I managed to bring 3 friends for the Christmas party. Praise Lord!

Coming to the end of the 40-Day Fast, not much breakthrough was achieved. In fact, many things seemed to go wrong as I was faced with mounting problems. Ironically whenever I felt God is near, something bad would happen to draw me away from him.

7th week into fasting (Break Fast period):

28th Dec 2005 – Received an enquiry over some licensed images worth $25,000 per image. This was a lifeline as the sales for December was very bad. And also, I was faced with the challenge of hiring a designer, Christmas spending and attending to the legal case, henceforth this deal could bring my business back on track.

30th Dec 2005 – Told CG and Shepherd over this enquiry and solicit their prayers. Soo Guan volunteered to do a prayer fast for me. I was humbled and was really touched by his sacrificial life. We begin our second round of fasting the next day. Please note that Soo Guan was also preparing his wedding as his wedding day is on 14th January 2006. Also not forgetting that this time round, fasting was without deadline.

8th week into fasting (Second Fasting period):

Soo Guan and myself meet up over lunch regularly to pray for a direction over this project. At this moment, I was thinking of teaming up with a photographer or to be independent, if so I need a major breakthrough, as the business does not really have a big budget to hire experience designer.

06th January 2006 – Client replied that they had no budget over this job, hence we had to look at alternative images. They were trying to find Royalty Free images which means images that cost less than $1,000 an image. However we continued praying over the deal and I spent the weekend doing researches for the client.

9th week into fasting:

09 January 2006 – Client finally replied cost of project approved and they confirmed buying a total of 4 royalty free images and 2 licensed images. Total package deal after negotiation was worth more than $20,000 and above. For those who were not sure how big this deal to us, I started this business with $20,000 one and a half year ago. Indeed closing this deal was like having gaining faith to move mountains… however I got a full realization of what had happened during this testing period.

A KEY FOR BREAKTHROUGH FASTING

I have come to realize that a lot of us are not really enjoying our life as a Christ follower. Prophet Isaiah is right when he prophesied about us: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by man.” Isaiah 29:13

Over these few weeks, I have managed to receive a key to unlock Breakthrough Fasting and the stress we experienced as Christians. Despite all the praying and fasting and all the other holy things that we do as Christians, we have forgotten 1 thing. It is “The Greatest Commandment”. It is found in Mathew 22: 37-39 when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees which (of all things that you have taught) is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on to these two commandments.”

On the 4th of December 2005 I remembered given the opportunity to do ushering for the church. It was the week when I received the lawyer letter. I was very troubled at that moment. However I put all the problems aside and focus on serving the Lord like how He would serve us. In return, I managed to find Joy while serving the Lord as I received a lot of smiles back from those people I met during my ushering. It was genuine Joy and one that has been missing over the past weeks. From that moment onwards, I decided to turn to the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. This allowed me to move my focus onto sowing and Christmas related activities with the CG.

Since then I did 2 more ushering, one on the 18th December 2005 (1st Christmas service on Sunday) and the other one was on the 8th January 2006. In fact, all of you could have been a witness to my life.

The service on the 8th of January 2006 was the most memorable one as I was tasked to station at the glass door. I remembered a lot of the church’s members were late that morning due to the nation’s Total Defence’s Drill as some of the MRT’s routes were affected. It was also the day when some Hope Kids joined us at the glass door and we had so much fun greeting the guests. I hope some of you remembered it.

One only needs to take a look at Jesus’ life to find out how He overcomes the stress of going to the cross. The night before, he took Joy in washing His disciples’ feet, even the one who was going to deny Him 3 times and the one who was going to betray him as well. He is teaching us to focus on the little things that can bring Joy, rather than dwelling on the problems in life. By following His teaching, I can assure you that the time will eventually come when you look at everything and you can say, “It was very good.” This phrase can be found in Genesis 1:31 after God has created everything on Earth on the sixth day. God has intended our life to be very good…

Thinking back, the day when I was having so much fun doing my ushering on the 8th of January 2006 was actually one day before my big deal was closed - on the 9th of January 2006! Indeed, all was very good! This deal straightened out all the obstacles I had. Praise the Lord!

In fact, I have intended to end my testimony here initially, but God has installed a bigger surprise for me. As I am still recovering from my great joy, God has given me an opportunity to become one of the 4 emcee during our church’s first ever Event Support Appreciation Night on 20 January 2006, Friday. Though I was running my business alone during that time and had a lot of agendas to attend to, I am willing to sacrifice everything that I have to serve the Lord. In fact, it was a last minute arrangement that we only left with less than 1 week to prepare and there were only 2 days to meet up for discussion, scripting and practice. However God was so good that we managed to pull it off on the actual day and everything was smooth and tidy. We had so much fun. In fact it was a great memory for me as I have never been an emcee before and I guess no one would put a single cent to bet on me as I stammered when I talk.

Let me tell you something when you serve the Lord with all your heart, your soul and with all your mind - God will reward you abundantly. I fully understand 1 Timothy 12-14 when Paul says, “ I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” During the Event Support Appreciation Night, I know God has anointed my lips to speak. In addition to this and to my utmost surprise, I was awarded The Most Promising Usher in the entire Adult 1 region. This was a special award to affirm a promising usher who has served less than a year. As for me, I just joined Ushering for less than 2 months and served only 3 times. What have I done to deserve this award? The grace of our Lord is indeed abundant and generous…

Finally two weeks ago, I managed to get in touch with one of my business associates ex-designer who went China for exploratory trip for 2 months. I had once invited him to join our company few months back but he had other plans. However, this time round he seemed open about his options and when I extended my invitation to him again, he accepted with great enthusiasm! He had just signed my Letter Of Appointment on the 26 January 2006. For those who do not know what kind of catch I have got, this is someone who not only has several years of experience in this industry as a creative designer, he can do Digital Imaging, animation and web designs as well. In short this guy can value add to the company’s existing services. Praise Lord for him!

Looking back at the past two weeks in amazement, I must say that God indeed has shown great mercy unto my life. All my problems are beginning to straighten out one by one. The grace of our Lord was really pouring out on me abundantly. Praise God! Let me encourage those who are facing with life’s troubles. Take heart, as we have Christ Jesus as the SAVIOUR OF OUR SOUL! Move your focus away from the troubles and start doing those little things that can bring Joy, to others and to yourself. You shall be delivered through the grace of our Lord too!


Amen,
Jon