Follow-Up on Saturday

Guess what time I woke up today? Give you a clue. I usually wake up at 11am. Serious.

Ok another clue. I woke up at 1030am yesterday.

So what time did I wake up today? It's 9am now.

I woke up at 6am today!!! Wa!!! Today is the 1st time I look at lao gong sleep instead of the other way round. I can't remember the last time I looked at him sleep le cos he always wakes up before me. And I finally understand what he means when he says he just likes looking at me sleep. Haha

God has been doing something really wonderful ever since I recieved a touch from Him on Saturday after the crying incident. He spoke to me about my lost passion for Him and how I haven't really been living for Him the way I did when I first found Him. So I've been praying for a rekindling of that passion and love for Him. The love that could make me read His Word till late and night and wake up early in the morning to spend time with Him again.

Then on Sunday onwards, I started waking up at weird times. I set my alarm at 9am to wake up in time for service at 1115am but I woke up at 8am which was a surprise. I wondered whether it was God waking me up to spend time with Him so I did the 'lazy wife's excuse' trick.

I asked lao gong to wake up and told myself,"If he wakes up, then I'll also wake up and spend time with God. If he doesn't, then I shall go back to bed and enjoy my sleep with hubbi." Haha and yes he didn't wake up so I slept again and woke up at 1035am to our horror. We were going to be so so late for church. And we were supposed to meet Yining at 1020am. We still needed to let the dogs out, feed them not to mention wash up get changed etc.

I thought to myself, "See! If only you woke up at 8am!" Then we tried to get a cab but to no avail. Can I mention here that God usually answers my prayer requests for cabs. When I'm in an emergency, there will be a cab at my doorstep. When we didn't know whether we should take a cab and asked God for signs, He would give us very clear signals. There was once I asked God to give me a mercs cab if He felt that I should take a cab home rather than public transport. The next minute, i saw a mercs cab coming towards us.

Then I realised I preferred the new Comfort Sonata cab cos the rides were smoother and much more comfortable. So when I saw the mercs cab, I quickly told God, "Sorry I forgot I prefer Sonatas. Please give me a Sonata." And the next minute a Sonata cab came towards us and it was for hire.

From then onwards everytime I prayed for a Sonata we got it. Until recently when I stopped hearing from God.

Instead of Sonatas, I got those black cab, old kind. No label, (don't even know whether it was City Cab or Comfort) kind which still operated on manual operator radio calls where you can hear the static and everything that goes on between the operator and the driver. And the leather seat was torn! Not that I'm picky but no one would mind a luxurious ride especially when you know your God is a God of abundance. [img extraced from http://www.streetdirectory.com/]

Yup so on Sunday, the day we woke up super late, we didn't get a cab. Which was very out of the norm cos usually God sends us cabs when we pray for them. We waited for close to 15mins and even had to walk away from the comfort of the bus shelter to the cross junction in the hope of a better chance to get a cab.

And guess what? Shortly after we walked away from the bus shelter, someone in a Sonata cab alighted there and another person, who came much later than us got the cab at the shelter.

So lao gong said,
"God must have really not wanted to answer our prayers for our cab that the cab got to stop right at the place we just walked away from!"

Me: "But this time I started praying for the cab even before we left the house!"

Usually I just pray on the spot when we start looking for a cab.

Lao gong: "But this time it's too ridiculous. We have been late for church 3 times in a row and this time it's too ridiculous. God must be speaking to us."

Me: "But our God is a gracious and forgiving God. Ok I repent now. "Sorry God I know it's our fault for waking up late. I promise to be committed to being on time and not give excuses anymore from next week onwards."

Within the next minute, a silver cab came towards us! And it's the Sonata kind. I've never taken a Silver Sonata before. I don't even know whether it's called Sonata but it had the same elliptical shape. And for those who delight in trying all the different kinds of cabs, you'll know how it feels to get a new cab.I was so excited! God is really a gracious and forgiving God!

Then at night when we were having a nice quiet dinner at Jack's Place, the very carnal me started to wonder, "These few weeks we have been spending alot on food. Last week we spent $70 on Shashlik, the day before we had a feast at the restaurants at Serangoon Garden and today we're having osyters and steaks again."

Then the faithful spirit man in me said, "Don't worry. God is a God of abundance and He will provide abundantly for you if you put your trust in Him."

The waiter placed the half dozen oysters we ordered on the table. Would there be an extra oyster? I thought quite unlikely since it's so easy to count half a dozen, Instintively, half a dozen is two pairs of 3s and the chefs count dozens everyday. Moreover oysters are expensive, it's not like vegetables so the chefs probably wouldn't be so careless when dishing out oysters.

I sneaked a look at the table and thought I saw a 4 on one side and a 3 on the other. Then I counted 7. I couldn't believe my eyes and asked lao gong, "Lao gong do we have 7 oysters? The chef gave us an extra?" [img extracted from forums.egullet.org]

And yes it was 7! The excitment isn't in getting an extra oyster for what you paid but it was as though God was indeed reassuring me that He was a God of abundance. When I went home, I told meimei about it and we couldn't stop giggling over it.

Ok back to the waking up stories. Saturdays when I cried and cried, lao gong confessed to God that it was his fault for not making the commitment to pray with me every day, and for pampering me so much that he always allows me to sleep till we don't have time to pray and worship together. Lao gong then made a commitment to wake me up earlier to pray and worship together, in addition to our separate QT with Papa.

Monday I opened my eyes at 8am. Again. And wondered whether it was God who woke me up. Actually the answer was pretty obvious. God was answering the prayer I prayed so hungrily and desperately on Saturday. But lazy old me decided to nua and dived back into bed before the Holy Spirit can persuade me further.

Actually at 8am I was pretty well rested already. It was just the love for sleep that made me go back to bed. Then at 10am when lao gong woke me up, I felt so super tired. Finally I dragged myself, with lao gong half carrying me out of bed at 1020am to do our morning QT together.

When God woke me up, the anointing was there and if I had really woken up, I wouldn't have felt tired. But because I gave in to sleep again, instead of having a good restful sleep, I felt even more tired and woke up with a slight headache.

Then last night as I was spending time on my own with God, and feeling very sleepy because I had woken up half an hour earlier than usual in the morn, I told God I really wanted to spend good quality time with Him like in the beginning when I first knew Him and was really hungry to know Him better.

As I made that prayer and that silent re-commitment to Him, my spirit started to feel more refreshed. The tiredness lifted from me and I was able to enjoy spending time with Him and dwelling upon His word. That communion felt so good that this morning when I got woken up at 6am, I decided that's it! I choose God over sleep.

And know what? The devil tried one last attempt to hinder me. I felt the slight headache again. But the still small voice deep in my spirit man said, "You will find rest in God. If you truly commune with Him, the headache will go away."

So we (me and the Holy Spirit) won the war and I have been up since 6am till now. I managed to spend 2 hours in the word, pray in an unhindered manner (cos it was still early and I still have alot of time to do my work later on) and update my blog!

Wow God is really faithful and He will answer our prayers if we really want to pursue Him. I want to have the burning consuming fire for Him again. To want to be so close to Him and delight in Him. It's so much better than the TV cos it's not a life of fantasy acted out by others but it's my own personal reality and when I am close to God, I can lead a victorious life, unhindered by worries and fears. A life walked in the super wise and perfect will of God that leads to abundant joy, success, prosperity, and vision!

Home cell hasn't been really fruitful recently and this morning, God led me to pray for a new vision for us. I still haven't gotten the vision yet but I believe the vision is coming soon if we continue to dwell in God's presence and commit our ears to hearing from Him and our time to fellowshiping with Him. Yeah so exciting! Haha!