Hello, HIM. Welcome to the new year of 2024. You know, I believe it’s so important for us to really focus ourselves in this new year. Perhaps the year 2023 was a good year. Perhaps for some of us, 2023 was a tough year. But either way, let us continue to give thanks to God and choose to look to the Lord for a better 2024.
And this year I want to encourage us to really catch hold of God’s heartbeat, to realign ourselves to God’s heart, to really look at His priorities, His calling, His mission for us. Perhaps this is the year that we can choose to yield ourselves even more to His touch, to His purpose for us, to allow Him to transform our lives inside.
I believe we can be more deeply transformed in our hearts in order that we may transform lives everywhere. Now, because this is so important, the more we are impacted, the more we are liberated from bondages, vices, insecurities, fears, and so forth, the more we can experience God intimately. And the more we ourselves will be transformed. And so think about this, the more we reflect Christ in our lives, the greater the influence and impact we can have on people that are around us and the more we will be able to serve God as well with a greater effectiveness and power. So this year we are emphasising on INSIDE OUT, on God’s grace working in our lives, that it may overflow out. Just as Jesus grew in Luke 2:52, it says,
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
Luke 2:52
So in the same way, we too can grow. We can be transformed in greater and greater ways to grow in different aspects of our lives.
Over 35 years ago, I was inspired to grow in wisdom when I studied Proverbs 2:2-5. It says,
Turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry out for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:2-5
And ever since then, I have sought diligently to find godly wisdom. I asked God a lot of times for more wisdom. I searched His Word like precious treasure in order that I may gain more wisdom. I applied my heart diligently to understanding and living out the biblical principles. And as a result of that, I have really grown tremendously over the years in wisdom and in knowing God better as well. I pray this will inspire you for yourself to seek more wisdom from God this year.
And also more than 30 years ago, I also sought to find favour with God. And so, I was determined I should walk rightly before God. One of the first things I did was I said, “Well, help me Lord to be obedient to Your word, even though it may involve personal sacrifice, even though it may involve cost.” I read God’s Word that I should tithe, so I decided to tithe. I read God’s Word that I should share my faith, so I did that. There are many different things I did, and it all started from there. Then, few years later, I resolved that I would never say no to God. In other words, whatever You say to me, oh God, I’m not going to reject it. I want to be able to say yes to You. And then after that, I determined that I needed to hear God’s voice better because I wasn’t very good at it. There was another area for me to develop. Later on, I realised too, I needed to step out into the supernatural area to allow God to do miracles and different things through me.
And so, this was part of my journey in growing before God. And I want to encourage you, let this year of 2024 be a year of growth where things are happening INSIDE OUT, then there’ll be greater impact. And as you do that, God can use you to transform lives everywhere more and more.
Also, can I just update you? There’s some exciting things happening in 2024. Our Global Leadership Conference is happening together with the Thai Camp in Chiang Mai. On May the 2nd, it will be open to life group leaders and above for our Global Leadership Conference. And the Thai Camp from the 3rd to the 6th of May is open to every member of HIM. The early bird rates will end on the 29th of February. So make sure you sign up as soon as possible. There’s more information on the HIM website. Another key exciting thing is our Leadership Development Programme with six new wonderful Breakthrough 50 courses. So those courses, what they are, the outlines, the dates, the time, and how to register, you can find it all on our HIM website.
I look forward to seeing you there. May God bless you in this year of 2024.