How Perfect is His Love for Us

by James Fung (Dec 24, 2017)

Every time I shut my eyes

All I see is His Love

How deep

How wide

How low

How high

How rich

And beautiful

How perfect is His love for us

And it is us that He loves

Not just me or you

How wonderful

How lovely

How sweet

How joyful

This peace

This compatibility

How perfect is His love for us

Wrapped in perfection

We’re perfectly speechless

How free

How true

How easy

How fun

No bullshit

All freedom

How perfect is His love for us

He is the Vine

That entwines our branches

How natural

How nourishing

How filled

How connected

We overflow

This House of God

How perfect is His love for us

Philia Love

The first love you learn about as a Christian is probably Agape Love, the love for all people, Christ-like love, unconditional love. But a lesser known word for love that Greeks also use is Philia, family love. It is also a word that one would use with friends that they are intimate and vulnerable to one another. And so lately, I've been learning about becoming open, honest and vulnerable in my love for those around me. With family and also with others. And it's been refreshing.

The thing is, most people have an open personality up to a limit. They let you know what they are comfortable with letting you know, and always seem to have a wall, and you can spend years at the wall and maybe never ever get inside, because inside, we're all vulnerable. But that's how misunderstandings, gossip and broken relationships come, when you can't see further than a certain point, and you start questioning, judging, losing understanding for that person.

And so, even though it might hurt initially to open up and become vulnerable to people, it won't hurt as much as not being vulnerable in the long run. Open, honest relationships help you to see, to love and to relate. That is why it's called family love, because you're more likely to have this type of honesty with those that you grew up with, that you have nothing to hide from.

And in the process of becoming more open, I find that after we grow up, we often try to build a wall around our choice of lifestyle and block important people out, people in our family even, and it's a sad choice that I have made in the past, but I've been brought to see that it doesn't help me or anyone to keep these walls, and so I'm tearing them down and investing in family, in philia again. Ultimately, family is a Gift from God, an unconditional source of love that empowers you and supports you to experience more of the world God's created and also helps you to love and live more at ease. It's evident that people with great love with their families are more joyful and have more peace. When you're not at war with someone so close, you don't lose energy in that fight every day in your heart, but rather gain every day that you are loved, and it's where it should be.

Of course, some families are harder to love, but every bit of love is a choice, and an investment, so I would encourage you to redeem and restore your relationship with your family with the love that you receive from God. It's a worthy investment, and it will help you to learn to love even more, and to be able to do even greater things once you have peace inside of your home, the very first community that God gives us, and the closest one at heart even when you don't feel it. Then you can understand even more what it means to love, and it will be a blessing to all your relationships outside the family.

As I'm also starting to take up this quest, to restore the philia in my life to which God intended it to be, I expect to gain much from it, more understanding of love, of God and of what life is all about. I can't wait. I know it will be difficult to restore, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is far too bright to not desire it. I want to have open, honest, loving connections with those in my family, and I sure will put in the effort to restore and build them up again. I can't wait!

Here's a prophetic picture of what I feel God is going to do with the hardened hearts and broken relationships in my life. The sword of God is going to strike down on the hardness, and we will all have breakthrough, and glory after glory. Painted by someone in the Incubator Ministries. 

Side note: I find that I might become a bit more vulnerable on here as well, since I'm being renewed and transformed in that direction. Which isn't a bad thing at all.

Perfect Creation

After a season of self-doubt, I had a conversation with God in the shower.. Funny how most good conversations with God happen in the shower, but I figure there's something beautiful to do with meditating next to water. So in the conversation, I was processing my problems and God raised a question..

"James, what do you like about yourself?"

Well, I said "Thanks for asking, well.." and it began an unravelling process which was very loving and affirming, and I discarded the lies of the enemy by separating the truths of God. Seeing that I have the mind of Christ, my thoughts will be similar to that of God's for myself. So I started listing out all the things I liked about me..

• I'm a very loving person. I love how I love, I don't look at a person through the specs of the world, but at what I can love about them. Sometimes it's difficult, but I know I will always love because God first loved us.
• I love how I am a humble person. That I always have open ears to listen, and learn from people, even people that I don't always expect to learn from, I will be willing to learn from. And it's helped me grow a lot as a person, as well as in my character. And there is somewhat scarring from an old church saying, that says "if you say you're humble, then you're not." because you should acknowledge yourself in honesty, and humility is neither overvaluing yourself, nor undervaluing.
• I love how much I stick to God's plan and God's will. We all try our best to do that, and so at any point of time, when we are walking with God, we are actually perfect for His plan for us for that day, every single day, we are perfect because we are loved, we are redeemed through Christ, and we are becoming who He made us to be, which means we are who He made us to be now at this present time. Hence, perfect! 

Then, I asked Him.. "Sometimes I get criticized a lot at work, and I make mistakes.. And I don't feel so perfect then, and it happens a lot. What is that about?" And He answers me.

It's just how I perceive it. And of course, other people aren't perfect either, and they can have bad attitude or tones, but really, what their role is isn't to push me or shame me or guilt me or cause me to have doubts about myself. Rather, they remind me of the direction I am taking, and help to keep me on the path. What they provide are reminders, and not criticism.

And so, you and I, we all are a perfect Creation.. Not just a work in progress, but perfect in every way, in our spirit, in our body, in our soul, and in each and every day, we are special, we are awesome, and we are just what God intended to use to bless the world today! Sometimes we need to figure things out, but that's how we are made to function, and it doesn't take a penny away from our worth in God's eyes, and definitely we are priceless regardless of what the world thinks.

So embrace who you are today, because you are a Perfect Gift from God to the world each and every day!

The Adventure of Love

I recall a little more than a year ago, someone prophesied over me that they saw Jesus like a knight on a horse, holding out his hand, and was going to take me on a new adventure. It's all true! As I continue to use these new gifts of love that God has given me, two things really stand out for me:

"Love the person in front of you." 
This has got to be the greatest blessing I have ever received, to not need to choose who to love, or why to love, but just to love the person immediately before me as much as Christ loves me. We love because He first loved us. That is all the condition we need to love with unconditional love! I am so glad to finally reach a point where I can start doing this. It took so long, but I'm so glad to be finally free! I love it, absolutely love it. Because when you can truly love any person that stands in front of you, you already know what God wants to do with them, what God can do with them, and what God will do with them, and all that's left is to let Love do what Love wants, can and will do!

Clearly hearing from God
Whether it is when I pray, when I hear the Word, when I prophesy, the Words of God are crystal clear! Because my desire to love is so strong, and so close to what's in God's heart, that there are no longer hiccups in this.. and because I've been so obedient to seek Him when I pray for others, deliver what He has to say, and meditate to know His heart, that everything is just crystal clear! It's amazing because we are way past bragging rights.. actually doing what God wants, when He wants, and seeing the results of it immediately is absolutely amazing!

I am so excited to love, to go on this Love adventure! I am beside myself with joy and exhilaration! I cannot wait to love, I cannot wait to pray for people, I cannot wait to build others up, I cannot wait to open the Word, I cannot wait to see lives changed, because I assure you.. Lives will change! God wastes nothing! So stoked!

From Squire to Knight: My Story of Faith.

I updated some of the information on this blog to better reflect my understanding of my calling and my current state of being. And with that, the title and introduction of this blog have changed, and the description or blurb is now a poem.

From Squire to Knight: My Story of Faith.
by James Fung (August 3, 2017)

My spirit shines and my soul roars in fire,
As I fortify my stance and raise my sword.
But let not the world see me in all this splendour,
And miss the reason for my Cause
This banner of love, this Cross I bear
Points the way out to the Perfect Saviour.

New Desires

In the past two weeks, I've been reminded once more through meeting up with a few friends in ministry and discussing possibilities: What is God's desire for me? What has He put into my heart to do, and pursue to the ends of the earth and to my very last breath?

Looking back at the last six months, I realised that God has been putting new desires into my heart. Desires that every Christian wants, but rather than simply wanting them, I now have it rooted in my heart such that I cannot shake them easily even if I try. Some, you have already heard of, and some are new discoveries in even the last two weeks.

New Desire #1: Wise Stewardship
Over the last few months, I have become a better steward of God's resources to me. Not just mammon but also my time, my knowledge, my gifts, and my attitude towards financial stewardship. Not only have I started tithing the correct amount, I have also started choosing to be wise with every dollar and checking all my assets and liabilities, to ensure that every dollar and every cent of my past, present and future are accounted for. And when possible, I would actualize benefits that can be used to give God even higher glory. Even in the smallest amounts, such as my Air Miles, if I can be a more knowledgeable steward of these, even when I fly or spend very little, I can definitely gather more flying opportunities and touch lives outside of Hong Kong whenever I can. Or how I eat, how I spend, how I give and how I treat money to represent a generous God, not out of vanity, but out of deeply rooted faith and truth. I believe if I followed the Bible to the dot on how to manage my resources, I will be trusted with even more, and will be able to bless even more people in the process.

New Desire #2: Thirst for the Word
As you know, I've started meditating on the Word seven or eight months ago, and initially, it was just out of curiosity. After learning the revelations that others, Mike Bickle and Andrew Wommack, receive from meditating over Scripture, and seeing the proof in Scripture itself, I decided to take a leaf from their books, and do likewise. The result is eminent. I started loving the Word, desiring the Word even more than anything else in life, and started receiving a deeper understanding of the Word, and clearer revelations and closer partnership with the Holy Spirit. It was a complete breakthrough and spiritual upgrade!

New Desire #3: Unconditional Love
Over the past year, I've learnt to be as obedient as possible to the Holy Spirit, even when there are things that I'd rather do another way, I'd attempt to listen and do as I'm told first, and evaluate the difference, and always, with the Holy Spirit, the results are ideal. So during my trip to Vancouver, I followed every stroke every dot of His instructions, and quickly discovered that He intends to upgrade my love. Up to this point, I had been persevering to love, especially people that require extra grace due to different circumstances; personal differences, communication difficulty, misunderstandings, preferences, attraction, etc. And it's always been a thorn on my side that I don't love as equally and evenly as I should. Well, this time I knew that the Holy Spirit wanted to show me and surprise me, so I persevered and loved exactly who He had instructed me to love. As a result, I was able to see what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives, what He wanted me to do, and what blessings followed when I obeyed. And needless to say, it was amazing, unbelievable and life-changing. And now, I desire to love more people, more deeply, and less selectively, because I know now that every thing I do is a seed, and every seed I sow will be reaped! And I just desire to love each new person deeply, because I can really feel God's love for them so much more.

New Desire #4: Mentor, Uplift and Breakdown the Word
This is as new as it gets, a revelation that I received only between Wednesday and today, as I have been attending some new Bible studies with completely new people, and as I've explained, there's an insurmountably, overwhelmingly, gushing amount of love that's just flowing out of me to every single person that I'm meeting, that and together with my love for the Word has combined and made a new spiritual gift baby, and the wondrous revelation that I would love for everyone to be as blessed as I have been through understanding the Word. And so, I have the greatest desire to dramatize Bible reading, pray before and during Bible studies and fellowship, etc. in order to ask the Holy Spirit to breakdown and pour out any Word that He may have for each one, and with every Scripture being used, I receive instant revelation and application for various people around me, and has been desiring so much for them to see the beauty in these Words! Reminds me of a Word that I received in March 2016, when a spiritual mentor had discerned for me that I had a pastoral gift, and could possibly consider becoming a revival pastor. On top of this, a Word that I received recently and confirmed over several occasions from different people, is that I generally speak to the heart, and somehow through discernment, knowledge and wisdom, am able to mentor, empower, uplift, complete people through normal mundane conversations. And so this really then, gives me a spark of encouragement and inspiration towards what is to come!

So after seeing all of these new desires, I ask myself a question that I have often asked: What would I want to do to impact this world if money was not an issue? What do I think is the desire that God has created in me every since He formed me in His mind? Is it still teaching? Or is it a means to an end? I think New Desire #4 is pretty darn close to what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I want to be walking with people, loving them unconditionally, and teaching the Word more than anything else in the world.  There is at this moment, nothing I love more than this. In fact, there were times when I meet new people, especially Christians who are on fire for God, that I would wonder.. if I'd be meeting my future wife sometime too, but in this past month, this concern did not bother me, but rather the desire to love unconditionally has been so strong that nothing else really did matter, except for me to love on people, and to help them experience that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God through recognizing Him in his Word and in their experiences of Him. 

And so, seeking after God's own heart has become my one and only desire and motivation, and it's exciting to see where this leads! I still don't have a solid answer as to what my calling is, but these are some darn good hints! Stay tune for more.

Adventuring with God in Vancouver

I recently got to go back to my hometown: Vancouver. The last time I was back I was still a teenager, so clearly a lot has changed. I never had the autonomy of choosing what I wanted to do while I was there, and I never was a adult in Vancouver on fire for God. So clearly.. there was a lot to do in shortly 2 weeks.

A couple of years ago, I had started experiencing what travel means when you're going with God, and as I have grown to walk in the Spirit for ministry, I have learnt that there is no adventure too big for the Spirit, as long as you solely (and souly!) let the Spirit lead you. And thus that is exactly what I did.

In my preparation, I had decided to go to a few meetups and to get connected with the local community, and it's funny, because when I drop by to visit churches, people (even pastors) give me weird looks as to why I'd like to plug in when I'm only visiting for 2 weeks, and really only there for 1 Sunday. It was because I feel that it is important to have global support for what I'm doing in Christ, and clearly, I have already started reaching and touching lives all over the world these past few years. So I am psyched and stoked and thrilled and smashed and totally down for what was coming, what surprises the Spirit was going to give me, and what lessons there were to learn, because surely there will be upgrades for my coming year! And boy, was I right!

Starting in Hong Kong, we were running seriously (1 hour) late for our flight, but got notice that our flight was delayed while we were on the bus, and instead, we had time for dinner, and it was pretty awesome. The flight was really good, and when we landed, the sunset greeted us in an amazing view of the sky. It was like someone took the frame off of God's canvas, aka Hong Kong's high-rise buildings. And it was good.

Second or third day after arrival, I went to my first meetup, but I had arrived 90 minutes before the meetup was to take place, and I had received a lot of warning from my friends on what type of area I was meeting up in, as it was W Hastings and Cambie, and apparently, it wasn't a pleasant street to be on. One look around gave me all I needed to know about it. There were angry people everywhere, people deprived of home, food, and safety, and a guarded drug store, and a rough, if not crazy and unwelcoming crowd. Holy Spirit said I should go on a prayer walk, so I did. I bought an excellent burger from a burger joint nearby, and a drink, and gave them to someone in need, then walked around the whole block praying in tongues and interacting with people that I discerned to be safe but needed love, and stayed away from people who were unsafe, and it was all a new experience for me, but I had timely advice from a missionary friend on how to pray and love in slums, and that's what I did. It was great knowing that every seed I sow will be reaped, and before and after each encounter, I would pray for God's provision, God's love, and their eventual salvation knowing that the God I pray to loves them even more than I. This sort of activity, I continued to carry out whenever possible, and also from this experience and another significant one, I realised that God wanted most to teach me how to love unconditionally in various contexts during this trip. He was going to double, triple, expand, overflow the capacity of my heart.

Then I started forming bonds with people, relating to them with only God's love for them, love that is kind, gentle, patient, that perseveres, hopes, trusts, is not rude, and does not demand its own way. And in the entire time I was there, I constantly prayed for them, asking God to continue to sow and continue to reap these fruits that I have planted even after I leave in shortly 2 weeks or less. And if possible, create opportunities for me to speak into people's hearts, as well as create bonds that would last beyond this visit. And as I had only the desires of God in my heart, they were given to me. I met and touched the lives of 13 individuals whom I connected with on this trip, through various settings, Meetups and churches, and continued fellowship as I made sure to find time to invest and love on them at least 2 times before I left, and thanks to God's grace and provision, I was able to share valuable memories and impart inspiration, love and some wisdom unto them. And it was good.

I went to church events with the agenda to only do what Spirit asks, and speak when the Spirit speaks, and pray for people when the Spirit prompts, and that led to some pretty cool adventures. I first met a Korean girl at CityLights church and somewhat asked a guy at the church to guide us both to the Skytrain, and as we were walking there, we realized that the Spirit had arranged this encounter as this guy had a Korean wife and a daughter who weren't attending church, and so instead of just going to the Skytrain, we went up to visit, and some seeds were planted. Next, I went to Broadway Young Adults service, and there I met a couple of people that I needed to prophesy over, encourage and break down the Word with, and it was also very encouraging for all of us. Despite only having spent 2 days with them, I felt closer with them than anyone else, because we had broken bread and broken Word together. The next church I went to was Coastal Church, and there I was led to pray for a few broken ankles, saw some unbelief and prayed to intercede, and also imparted upon a young girl God's vision or desire for her to go into ministry in the Middle East. And when Spirit leads, it's not about thinking about what to do, even though you often then you need to think to find out. It's more praying and waiting until something catches your eye or something happens. And that's mostly it.

So I had a really amazing 2 weeks in Canada, catching up with friends, and family, and also walking in the Spirit and learning how to love, and I will write more about how this ties into what God has been working on with me these last few months.