Kong Hee, senior pastor of City Harvest Church, shares three important revelations from the book of Ephesians.
“Faith comes by revelations from God; revelation brings light into a believer’s heart,” said Kong Hee to his congregation on the weekend of June 11 and 12. He preached about revelations of faith as a key to releasing the blessings of God.
Kong began his sermon by reminding the congregation that God’s blessings have already been given to His people. Ephesians 1:3 says that God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Reading from Galatians 3:8-9 which says, “…those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith”, Kong shared that the blessings of God are activated through faith.
There are two important points about faith: firstly, faith is the currency of God’s kingdom. Kong likened faith to the world’s currencies which are spent on physical things. Reading the story of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 15, Kong explained that she “spent” her faith on Jesus as she reached out to touch Jesus’ robe in hope of healing; this led to her healing.
Kong shared a testimony from Wesley Ng, a pastor of Faith Harvest Church in Klang, Malaysia. Three years ago, his sister-in-law Sarah Chew was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. It later spread to her liver as well. Ng prayed fervently for her, and during a prayer meeting, he received a vision. He saw Jesus taking out all the cancerous lymph nodes from Chew and healing her completely.
In faith, he prophesied to Chew, “Jesus is healing you!” Chew felt tremendous pain and she cried out, “Jesus, I trust You!” Their faith led to God’s miracles—during her scheduled operation, doctors found no sign of cancer, and all her sentinel nodes were clear. Chew had been completely healed. Following this testimony, Kong reminded the people, “To receive miracles, you have to believe and expect it!”
Secondly, faith comes by revelation. In Ephesians 1:17, Paul’s primary prayer for the Ephesian church was that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The Amplified Bible version of Ephesians 1:18 compares understanding God to “having the eyes of (our) heart flooded with light”. With revelation from God, a believer’s faith is built up.
What revelations does God want His people to receive? Kong drew the congregation’s attention to three main points in Ephesians 1:18-19: “…that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”
1. “To know the hope of His calling”
Kong reminded the congregation that life is about more than just working to pay the bills. He said that people tend to worship whatever meets their needs, and as a result the world serves and toils after money. Speaking of disillusioned working adults who sacrificed their spirituality for work, Kong’s advice to this group was that they should start seeing God as their true source of providence instead of money.
2. “To know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints”
The very idea of “inheritance” implies that believers are not slaves but children with their portion of blessings from God. In Psalm 103:2-5, David reminds himself to “forget not all His benefits…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Kong encouraged the members to build up their faith by acknowledging God’s promises, just like David did.
3. “To know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe”
This is the most vital revelation. Kong emphasized that God’s power working in us is “according to the exact degree and proportion of the power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.”
He suggested that the fear of failure stops Christians from stepping out in faith. Failure is associated with death. Kong gave the example of how financial failure is seen as the death of a business. However, he reminded the people that with God’s resurrection power—which raises the dead and defeats death—failure can no longer hold believers down.
The senior pastor concluded his message by reiterating the importance of the three revelations in understanding God’s blessings. He says, “Knowing the power of God is vital, because a vision can show you the plan, but the power of God fulfills the plan.” He encouraged the congregation to constantly pray for new revelation because with revelation comes an awareness of God’s power and a strengthening of faith.
The service concluded with an altar call for people in need of physical healing. Cell group leaders and pastoral staff ministered to hundreds who responded.
Student Cindy Leow, 17, told City News, “Nowadays, we are so focused on earthly things. Today’s sermon was a reminder that it takes a conscious effort to remind ourselves that we live for a greater purpose: we live for what God has called us to do.”
“The promises of God have already been given to us,” said 26-year-old student Eddy Tan. “What’s left is for us to dig deeper into the Word, activate our faith, call forth the invisible into reality and live a God-led life.”
