In last weekend’s sermon, Pastor Derek Dunn taught about moving in the supernatural and three levels of supernatural that Christians should move in.
Derek Dunn is no stranger to City Harvest Church. The senior pastor of CHC’s affiliate church in the US, Orange County, returns to CHC Singapore to share a message on moving in the supernatural on the weekend of Feb 26 and 27.
Before he began his sermon, Pastor Derek’s wife, Susan took to the stage and prophesied a word over CHC. She shared that the Holy Spirit would bring CHC as far as the church can believe for and encouraged the members to receive from Him.
“If you look at the Jewish calendar, 2020 is actually a new era,” Pastor Derek shared as he began his sermon. “It was the start of the decade of ‘the voice’”. He explained that the decade of “the voice” meant that Christians need to prophesy and proclaim the Word of God, and go deeper in Him.
However, COVID-19 caused an interruption. “Now we are wearing masks and it is hard to sing, hard to worship, hard to do things; but God does not want us to lose our voice,” Pastor Derek reminded the congregation.
WE NEED FAITH TO MOVE IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
God gave Pastor Derek a word saying that 2022 will be a year of outpouring and the church needs the power of the Holy Spirit like never before. Just in the last few years, the world has been shaken by the pandemic and many are struggling. “However, the Bible says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of the living God. We may be shaken, but we will arise in faith,” Pastor Derek proclaimed.
Romans 8:19 reads, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” Pastor Derek explained that the “sons of God” refer to mature Christians who are led by the Holy Spirit. Similar to the children of Issachar, Christians need to be discerning of the times and the seasons to know what they ought to be doing.
Pastor Derek warned against becoming like the Pharisees who knew the Word by heart and were yet without the power and discernment of the Spirit. “Jesus stood in front of them and what did they do? They came against Him and eventually crucified Him,” he preached. “We do not want to be a people that have a form of godliness, we deny its power.”
He reminded the church that it is not information that will bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ. Rather, Christians need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the kingdom. CHC was founded on such power and built upon encounters, prayers and transformed lives.
The Christian faith is to be based on the power of God. However, many Christians substitute faith with enthusiasm, optimism or motivation. While faith can resemble those things, faith is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Derek recalled that when he started off as a missionary with only US$800 to last him for six months, God provided for him. The righteous will never beg for bread (Ps 37:25). “Why? Because we have faith. It does not always make sense in the natural, but God has called us to be supernatural people,” Pastor Derek preached.
Human beings are naturally drawn to the supernatural—that is why most of the highest-grossing movies have to do with superheroes and the wizarding world. The word “supernatural” means departing from what is usual or normal, transcending the laws of nature. God is calling Christians to live beyond what is normal. It is normal for a person to be promoted when he puts in long hours at work. What is supernatural is when he gives his time serving God in church but continues to do well at work.
People who have had a taste of the supernatural and the power of God behave differently from what “happens naturally”.
With this, Pastor Derek shared three levels of supernatural that everyone is called to move in.
The First Level: Faith
Faith is not about positivity or denying the natural. It is not denying that one is sick when his nose is running. Rather, faith is declaring that “by His stripes, I am healed”. “Faith is when we begin to see what God has for us and is wanting to do (Heb 11:1). We sense it in our heart, and it might not make sense,” Pastor Derek explained.
He went on to teach that faith is in the “now” and not “someday”. Even when the breakthrough cannot be seen in the natural, one has to first receive it in the spirit, and carry it until it is birthed forth in the natural.
Mark 9:23 tells Christians that “all things are possible to him who believes”, and Pastor Derek reminded the congregation that believing begins with a thought. With that thought, one has to start visualising the things God has spoken. After that, he has to declare and speak it out. “What you sense in your heart; you speak in the realm of the natural what you carry in the realm of the spirit. And it will come forth,” Pastor Derek encouraged.
He also urged the church to live not just by their physical senses but by their spiritual senses (1 Cor 5:7)—to see, hear and be sensitive to where God is leading.
The Second Level: Anointing
“Anointing is when you spend time with Jesus and He rubs off onto you,” Pastor Derek taught. “Because we’ve been with Jesus, what happens is that our nature begins to be transformed to His nature.”
In Psalms 92:10, “the horn” symbolises how a Christian receives the anointing. “A wild ox” refers to a beast of burden that keeps moving forward regardless of circumstances. With the anointing, Christians can push forward because the joy of the Lord gives them strength. They are not worried about their enemies or circumstances because God gives them the strategy to solve every problem.
Reading from Psalms 92:13, Pastor Derek taught that when Christians gather, they flourish in the presence of God. In God’s anointing, they grow stronger and start to bear fruits. Conversely, a Christian that leaves the presence of God gets cut off from the vine—it will then be easy for them to grow bitter about life.
In the anointing, Christians can experience the heart of God. It enables one to move with compassion and miracles will flow; that God may be glorified. God wants to pour out fresh oil on His people. Without it, Christians will burn out. “When you are in the anointing, you move out of your limitation and step into God’s ability,” Pastor Derek preached.
The Highest Level: Glory
“Finally, we need to move to into the glory,” Pastor Derek taught in closing. This is the weight of God’s presence manifested. Habakkuk 2:14 speaks of the great awakening that will come as Christians continue to seek God earnestly.
“In faith, you work. In the anointing, the Holy Spirit operates through you. But in the glory, God does the work, and we just respond,” Pastor Derek shared. In meetings when the glory of God blows in, healing and deliverance flow naturally.
At the end of the service, Pastor Derek prayed that the church would continue to have great expectations to see revival and the strong moving of the Holy Spirit just as the church had experienced in the early days.
CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS: REACHING THE ELDERLY, DISABLED AND SEX WORKERS
Earlier in the service, Kong Hee, CHC’s senior pastor invited representatives of three Church Without Walls projects to share some praise reports from last year and new initiatives for this year.
The church first watched a video testimony of Dennis Teo and his wife Doris. Dennis shared that stress at work had caused him to lose confidence in life. At his lowest point, God reached out to him and encouraged him. He started serving in the Dialect Service, visiting the elderly in their homes and busing them to church. Seeing the joy of the elderly members encouraged Dennis greatly. Doris soon joined him to serve in Dialect Service and both of them are now reaching out to the elderly.
Maria Tok, the pastor that oversees the Dialect Service shared that 19 individuals and 47 Cell Groups had served 878 elderly persons last year. This year, they are looking for 50 volunteers to conduct outreaches and befriend the elderly in the next four months. They are also looking for 40 cell groups to serve in a new project known as Serve and Knit Together. This project will see volunteers befriending and connecting with the elderly.
Next, Anson Ang, a pastoral supervisor shared about a new initiative, +Able, which aims to reach out to those with physical disabilities. Through this initiative, +Able aims to reach out to 10 disabled persons in the next four months. The outreach is looking for 10 volunteers to help disabled individuals in their job search, as well as those who need help with their studies. Pastor Kong also appealed to business owners to give the disabled a chance to find employment in their company.
Pastor Glordia Goh, then shared about her outreach to the sex workers under the Street LIGHT initiative. Together with her team, she reached out to 80 sex workers last year, praying for them and blessing them with hampers and bento sets during Christmas last year; and gifts during Valentine’s Day this year. Pastor Glordia aims to reach another 10 sex workers in the next 4 months. She is looking for 35 female volunteers to befriend the sex workers, conduct English lessons and give Bible Study in Mandarin.
If you would like to sign up as a volunteer, please sign up via www.chc.org.sg/cww.
