PASTOR SIMON ENG MESSAGE
[Hope Santiago, Chile with Ps Jeff Chong]
I want to share some things on my heart. First of all, I would like to read Joel 2. Some of you are familiar with this passage; I have previously preached on this passage. I will just share from Joel 2:28:
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
Pastor Simon Eng Video Message
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
More and more, brothers and sisters, as we head into the years ahead, we know that God is going to pour out His Spirit. This is going to be so relevant for all of us. As I share about these different things that I feel for our movement, we want to believe for God’s outpouring of His Spirit. We want to believe that the young men will indeed see visions and some of us older men will dream dreams as well. Hallelujah! Don't laugh – in 20 years time, you are going to be the old men too.
The theme of our conference was New Generation Leadership and I want to share from my heart on a few areas:
Church Planting in 40 Nations
Twenty years ago, many of us took on God's vision and that changed the course of our lives. And over these 20 years we have been impacted by God's vision so much that we have accomplished some reasonable and commendable results for the Lord. We have seen church planting in many nations – in all; we have planted churches in 40 nations. We have many people attending our churches in various parts of Asia and other continents as well. However, we want to admit that we have made mistakes. Maybe it was because of overconfidence, maybe it was immaturity or it could have been pride or things from our flesh. Brothers and sisters, we want to learn valuable lessons from our mistakes from those 20 years.
[Hope Seattle, USA Church Anniversary]
Be empowered by the Holy Spirit
Moving forward, I would like to share with you about the next 20 years. We believe that God will help us. We want to believe firstly, that God's Spirit, God's power and God's presence will continue to anoint every single one of us. What we have been able to do is all for the glory of God. As we charge into the future, the next 10 or 20 years is unknown territory. We are going need the power and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit upon us in ever increasing measure. But it is God who is going to work in our midst. We are the available vessels; the available people that God will empower. In order for the Holy Spirit to come, we need to seek God and come close to God. We need to move into a new dimension of experiencing so much of God's presence and power within us. For some of this, we endeavor to learn from others who are ahead of us in these areas: moving of the Spirit, exercising signs and wonders, receiving a greater anointing from God. So brothers and sisters, we are opening up ourselves to be able to relate more strongly with the Body of Christ and with people who have giftings which they are able to impart to us.
Spirit of cooperation and love
For the next 10 or 20 years, I also want to encourage our new generation leaders. We want to encourage those of you who are in your teens, those of you who are in your 20s, please rise up because you are going to be the leaders of the next generation. You are going to be the ones that will have more opportunities, a larger realm and experiencing bigger things that God wants to do in His kingdom, in this church, in this movement. For those in our 30s, 40s and 50s, I sense that there is going to be a strong spirit of cooperation and unity between the young and old. The wisdom of the elders will guide and lead and help the younger ones. For you younger ones, although you think you know everything, look to your elders. They can hold your hand and they will give wisdom and counsel. This is a joint venture. Together in cooperation in love and in unity, we will be able to see greater victories in God. I sense that there is going to be a spirit of working together more and more to tie into the future for our movement and what God desires to do.
Moving forward, I would like to share with you about the next 20 years. We believe that God will help us. We want to believe firstly, that God's Spirit, God's power and God's presence will continue to anoint every single one of us. What we have been able to do is all for the glory of God. As we charge into the future, the next 10 or 20 years is unknown territory. We are going need the power and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit upon us in ever increasing measure. But it is God who is going to work in our midst. We are the available vessels; the available people that God will empower. In order for the Holy Spirit to come, we need to seek God and come close to God. We need to move into a new dimension of experiencing so much of God's presence and power within us. For some of this, we endeavor to learn from others who are ahead of us in these areas: moving of the Spirit, exercising signs and wonders, receiving a greater anointing from God. So brothers and sisters, we are opening up ourselves to be able to relate more strongly with the Body of Christ and with people who have giftings which they are able to impart to us.
[HIM Covenant Church Worship Concert, Bangkok]
Spirit of cooperation and love
For the next 10 or 20 years, I also want to encourage our new generation leaders. We want to encourage those of you who are in your teens, those of you who are in your 20s, please rise up because you are going to be the leaders of the next generation. You are going to be the ones that will have more opportunities, a larger realm and experiencing bigger things that God wants to do in His kingdom, in this church, in this movement. For those in our 30s, 40s and 50s, I sense that there is going to be a strong spirit of cooperation and unity between the young and old. The wisdom of the elders will guide and lead and help the younger ones. For you younger ones, although you think you know everything, look to your elders. They can hold your hand and they will give wisdom and counsel. This is a joint venture. Together in cooperation in love and in unity, we will be able to see greater victories in God. I sense that there is going to be a spirit of working together more and more to tie into the future for our movement and what God desires to do.
[Hope Indonesia Annual Camp]
For our existing churches, I believe that we want to continue to glorify God and bear fruit and bring results in these three areas:
Building the kingdom of God
Firstly, we want to continue to glorify God by saturating our cities, regions and nations. We have already planted quite a few churches in many countries. Let us follow the covenant of Abram: fill the whole earth. We want to extend Godly, wholesome, Christian communities. We want to be people who bring Christ, who bring God's wholesomeness to many areas of our community.
Expanding our boundaries
So as we prayed, Pastor Ian and Pastor Lance said, “Let's expand our boundaries – more than just local people.” Our sister May encouraged and challenged us to be global Christians. Although we are localized in many ways, we want to have a global perspective, we want a global vision. So let us continue to grow. Let us continue to mature and to take on the challenges of God upon our lives and saturate our regions. Let us continue to multiply more than just our local church.
[Hope Manila Mother's Day]
Multiplication of churches
The second area concerns our existing churches where we will continue to prune our current churches. I take this from John 15. We will continue to allow God to develop us. Sometimes He takes certain things away; sometimes he plants new shoots in us. These shoots could be new people, it could be new ministries. Let us continue to allow God to prune us so that we will be strengthened and be even more fruitful for the Lord. Now for the application of this principle, let me just talk on a global basis. We have churches in many regions. For example, we have churches in some of the most populous nations and continents in the world: China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Africa and other countries. In the highly populous nations of the world, brothers and sisters, we want to continue to develop our churches that we will be able to touch multitudes of people. Can we believe God for that in the next 10 or 20 years? By the glory and grace of God, we will see our churches multiply in at least these five highly populated nations and regions of the world: China, India, the Americas, Indonesia and Africa. Maybe as you watch the World Cup held in South Africa this year, you can lay hands on the whole continent of Africa and say, "God, let this be more than just the World Cup. Let this be the beginning of the Gospel for the whole of Africa." Brothers and sisters, we want to allow God to continue to develop us and prune us to be more and more fruitful.
When I was in Australia, there was a wonderful Aussie brother who came to me, a man who was sensitive to the Spirit, and he said God will add people to our churches. And He was not just talking about Oceania; not just Australia and New Zealand. He was saying that God will add people to our churches in our movement. It will be by the power of God. It will be by the grace of God. It will be by Him working in our churches. So we want to allow God to continue to prune us, strengthen us and develop us further.
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[Hope Kuching Church Camp]
Planting new churches
The third area for our existing churches is based on the parable of the sower: we want to continue to take the seed of God's word and of the Gospel and plant new plantings for the Lord. We want to see new shoots. We want to see new churches; we want to see new communities. We want to touch regions, cities, places where there is not a church or a community yet. We want to be able to see new communities arise that will have God's grace, God's authority and God's power on them. Brothers and sisters, we need God to be with us as we charge into the next 10 or 20 years. We are going to believe God, we are going to depend on God, we are going to see the power of God and we are going to see the provision of God upon us.
Work together with the body of Christ
Lastly, my final thought is about our future plans. In our future planning, we are endeavoring to network with the body of Christ. We are endeavoring to be friendlier with other Christians, leaders and churches around us. We want to unite together according to Christ’s prayer for the church: that we would be as one. 20 years ago, I was proud. I thought that we would be the best in the world. Since then, God has humbled me and made me realise that without the others, we will never be perfected in Christ. We need others to perfect us and together we will be collectively perfected. So we will open our hearts, we will open our movement as well, so that we will be able to grow together, network together, and work as one in the body of Christ. In the future, by the grace of God, we are going to develop more and more ministries such as church planting ministries, Christian ministries, family ministries and children ministries. We are going to believe God to be able to develop these ministries.
And, finally we are going to believe God for being able to manage our movement. We want to manage it in a way that will glorify God. We want to manage our manpower and giftings correctly. We want to manage the resources that God has given to us. Brothers and sisters, exciting things are coming for us. This is all for the glory of God and all through the grace and the power of God. Amen.
Pastor Simon Eng
President of HIM
www.byhim.org
