Over four sermons, Kong Hee preached on the power of having visions and dreams.
The congregation of City Harvest Church started 2017 learning to focus on their visions and dreams. Senior pastor Kong Hee launched the first message of the year, on the weekend of Dec 31, 2016 and Jan 1, 2017, teaching church members the importance on having heavenly visions.
DETERMINE YOUR DREAM
“Without vision, the people perish,” he reminded the church. “Visions and dreams propel us and increase our faith. We become creative when we have faith.”
Kong encouraged the congregation to purify and sensitize their hearts to align with God’s heart. “Our spirit has no problem receiving the Word of God but it’s our mind and flesh that struggle,” he said. “That’s why we need to keep renewing our mind.”
He challenged the congregation to consider four things in the New Year: how big they want to dream; how much they want to envision; how hard they want to work and how much of the past they want to let go.
LISTENING TO THE PROMISES OF GOD
The next instalment of the series focused on the faith element in a vision.
“We receive prophecies and prayers all the time but until you believe in those prophecies and prayers, nothing will happen,” Kong said as he opened the message on Jan 7 and 8.
The Bible tells believers to walk by faith and not by sight. To “walk” in the Bible means to live life a certain way and to “walk by faith” means to live life by faith.
“The more we exercise our faith, the more we will grow and mature spiritually. The more faith we can exercise, the more God’s possibility can happen to us,” said the senior pastor.
He urged the church to listen to the promises of God instead of listening to the world. He gave the example of the children of Israel: when they came out of Egypt, their mindset was not renewed. Instead of seeing the promises of God in the Promised Land, all they could see were the natural circumstances, which were the giants in the land.
“It was one thing for them to come out of Egypt and other for Egypt to come out of them,” Kong said. “Egypt is a type of limitation and the children of Israel lived in that limitation for 40 years in the wilderness.”
To be free from the limitation of world, Christians need to listen to the promises of God, Kong reiterated. “Your feet will never take you where your mind has not been, and your mind is always thinking about what you believe in. Your life will not change until your thinking starts to change.”
A person’s thoughts relate to their dreams but their imagination determine their vision.
“Imagination is the most powerful weapon God gave us. If we imagine the wrong things then we are going to head that way,” he warned.
In Genesis 11:6, God said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” This means that if a person can imagine himself doing something, the resources that he needs will start presenting themselves to him.
Referring to Isaiah 46:10 which says, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’” Kong encouraged the church to declare their end from the beginning.
“God always starts with the end in mind and He wants us to expect our ending to be good,” he said.
HOW TO BE AN EAGLE
Over the next two weekends, Kong preached on the topic using the Eagle as a focal point. The eagle, the “king of the air”, has three characteristics that God wants His believers to have.
Firstly, the eagle has matchless vision. Its eyesight is four to eight times better than the average human and it sees the clearest among all the animals created. The most amazing thing about the eagle’s eyesight is the fact that it has two sets of eyelids. It has one set that acts as wipers when rain or dust hinders the eagle’s vision.
“Like the eagle, we have two sets of eyes,” said the pastor, “our natural eyes and the eyes of our mind where we dream and imagine.”
Secondly, the eagle soars in the storm. It is not afraid of rainstorm; in fact, the strong wind gives the eagle the opportunity to rest its wings and glide. Therefore, instead of stressing out in the storm, it is resting.
“This is how we win in life,” Kong pointed out. “We don’t possess our Promised Land by flapping our wings vigorously. We possess it by resting on the Word of God.”
Thirdly, the eagle looks up to the sun. Kong encouraged the church to be like the eagle and to look up and see that their help comes from God.
When the eagle engages in a battle with its enemy, the condor, it turns its eyes to the sun and flies towards it. The eagle knows that the condor cannot look at the sun.
“No matter what battle you are fighting, it is not against flesh and blood,” Kong reminded the people. “Don’t go down to the other person’s level; look up and keep your eyes on the Sun of righteousness.”
On Feb 4 and 5, Kong taught on having the right focus in one’s vision.
“Once the eagle focuses on something, it locks onto the target,” he said. “Even when it is swooping down at a high speed, it maintains razor sharp focus on its target.”
But the thing that makes the eagle the most majestic animal is its matchless ability to soar towards the sun.
Psalm 84:11 says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield…” Like the eagle, Christians need to keep their focus on God, Kong said. The most important vision that they should focus on is Jesus and the things He has done on the Cross.
RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST
Kong expounded on Romans 5 to explain the concept of righteousness. Verses 1 and 2 say, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
The word “justified” means to be declared righteous by faith; and the word “peace” means to be secure in the midst of turmoil or wholeness.
“When we are convinced that God has already declares us righteous, we can get ready to rejoice because we will be able to see the glory,” said Kong. “This glory is the manifestation of what we’ve been praying for!”
Referencing verses 17 and 21, Kong taught that when a Christian receives the gift of righteousness, he rules and reigns in life over sicknesses and disease by the supernatural power of God.
Satan, however, will come against the Christian with condemnation and guilt. He will tell Christians that they have done wrong and cause them to doubt the righteousness they have received.
Yet the Bible says in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
“This means that John is asking Christians to remember that Jesus is their righteousness when they sin,” said the senior pastor. “So you must keep coming back to the fact that ‘Jesus is your righteousness’.”
He reminded the congregation that God knows everything that will happen to them—the good, the bad and the ugly. He already knew the mistakes they would make and He has prepared everything to help them become victorious. All they need to do is to keep trusting God and not give up.
Reading Romans 10:6, Kong taught the members to speak out their righteousness in God. “Speak out your righteousness of God. Because of Jesus, I have the right to healing, restoration, deliverance, abundance, peace and love!” he said.
Kong drove home his message by asking the church to not just to focus on what they need, but to focus on Jesus.
“Because you can be praying and confessing for something, yet you may not really believe that you have a right to it. You are still grappling with guilt and feel you don’t measure up.”
Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
“Don’t just focus on ‘all these things’, focus on Jesus and His righteousness in you. Then you will have whatever you ask because you now know that you have a right to be blessed.”
