As I write this, Senior Pastor Nina and I, together with a team of pastors from FCBC, are currently in London attending the Empowered21 Congress, which opened on Wednesday night in one of London’s oldest theatres. I was told that it was once the favourite theatre of Queen Elizabeth II’s late grandmother, and has now been bought over by Ruach City Church and transformed into a place of worship. The story of how the Lord orchestrated the circumstances so that its Senior Pastor, Bishop John Francis, could buy the property is nothing short of the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand.
Interestingly, the opening message delivered by Dr George Wood, co-chair of the Empowered21 Global Council, was on the miracle of feeding the five thousand. He challenged us to never fear the vastness of the task nor the smallness of our resources when it comes to fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives.
Bishop John Francis followed with a message about changing our spiritual culture. Through Scriptures, he showed that God’s mandate for man is to be an agriculturist. Since the beginning, man was put in the Garden of Eden to till the land and maintain the beauty of God’s creation – just like an agriculturist who cultivates the soil to its optimum condition for seed-planting. Likewise, we have been given the power and mandate to cultivate the culture of our environment so that life from God may come forth. We have the power to change the spiritual atmosphere where we live, work and play if we dare to live for the Lord and move in His powerful Spirit-empowered prayer and ministry.
These messages challenged all of us to believe that God can change the spiritual atmosphere and reverse Europe’s culture. This challenge touched me and made me believe that we too in FCBC can be ‘counter culture’ – where we arise to change the spiritual atmosphere of our home, workplace and nation through the G12 Vision. There is no excuse. God has given us the Spirit of Power to become good spiritual agriculturists. May the Lord be glorified in our life and ministry!
- Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong