“The anointing is looking for a vessel,” said CHC pastor Wu Yuzhuang on the first night of the Emerge Conference.
Emerge Conference 2017 started with much anticipation last Friday night (Jul 7). It was just the start of the weekend, the young people of City Harvest Church gathered in Suntec Singapore with enthusiasm and ready to meet with God.
The evening opened with praise and worship led by the Emerge band, many of whom were on the church’s main stage at Suntec for the first time. The presence of God was strong as the youth reached out their hands in worship.
Emerge is a youth movement started by CHC in 2003. Its purpose is to inspire the youth, between 13 and 25, to live their dreams for God. Traditionally, Emerge holds a number of competitions to showcase the talents of the youth. One such competition is Emerge’s Got Talent.
Friday night marked the finals of the talent competition. The crowd went wild as the three acts performed, vying for top position. Duet Tan Lay Chuan and Eunice Oh and soloist Malcom Tay performed medleys of popular songs while drummer Jedidiah Campoy showed off an impressive self-composed drum solo.
WILL YOU BE THAT VESSEL?
The highlight of the meeting was the message given by Wu Yuzhuang, the pastor who oversees Emerge.
God’s anointing is looking for a vessel, Wu said as he began his message. Reading from 2 Kings 4:1, Wu told the story of a woman lamenting the death of her husband who was a servant of the Lord. She was full of misery, anger and disappointment because the creditor was coming for her sons.
Wu highlighted that, at times, bad things happen to good people. This got the congregation thinking about their own reactions if serving God did not bring them what they want.
“Like the creditor, the spirit of the world is knocking on the church door. The devil is trying to turn the hearts of the youth towards him,” warned Wu as he showed alarming statistics of raising teen crime, teen suicide and pre-marital sex in Singapore.
Wu continued the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4:2, “So Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?’ And she said, ‘Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.’”
The miracle you are looking for is in the house, Wu said. However, like the woman, many Christians feel that they have nothing, they despise the oil—they despise the Holy Spirit.
“Sometimes when we go through a hard time, we reduce the presence of God to nothing,” Wu said. “The widow said she had nothing but a jar of oil. The oil is the Holy Spirit and that is the anointing that always breaks the yoke.”
Elijah told the widow to gather more jars and keep filling the jars with oil. She obeyed and the supply did not stop until she ran out of jars. Wu pointed out that God’s supply of the oil is unlimited. The problem lies not with the oil, but with the vessel.
“If you bring the vessel, God will supply the oil. The provision follows the demand,” Wu said. “Where there is a thirst, there will be an infilling. You determine the level of your miracles, your revival. The anointing only stops when the vessels run out.”
The oil is important but the vessel is just as important, Wu pointed out. If there is no vessel, there is nothing to carry the oil. Wu illustrated his point with the help of a pizza box and a cup of Starbucks coffee. The cup alone is worth little, but once you put coffee in, its value goes up.
“You may feel you have no value with nothing to offer, but when you allow God to fill you with His glory, your life goes up in value,” he encouraged. “It is not about who you are, it is about who He is.”
THE CRITERIA OF THE VESSEL
The anointing—the Holy Spirit—is looking for a vessel but He is not just looking for any vessel; He is looking for a vessel that is clean and empty.
“It matters that you stay pure,” Wu said. “Just as you will not pour fresh milk into a dirty bottle, God will not pour His fresh oil into us if we are not clean. In order to be filled by the Holy Spirit, we need to be clean, empty vessels. To do that, you need to take out the trash that is taking up space within you.”
Wu closed with this: “The devil thought he had destroyed the vessel that was Jesus Christ but now there are hundreds and thousands of vessels that God can fill. Now that Jesus has resurrected—you and I—we are the vessels to bring His miracles into this generation.”
