Loving Heavenly Father
The $100,000 dollars was exactly the sum of the 500-times and 100-times return of the pledges I made in two nights.
Testimony: Loving Heavenly Father
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38)
I’ve given up a steady income and kept my living standard to a minimum for the past three years. I have set up a company in the hope and mission to help people improve their health at good standing. I felt compulsive to institute the knowledge to those around me because I am a nurse and a christian too.
I have once prayed to God that I wanted to give up when I hit the bottom financially. My husband kept reminding me every month to fulfill our tithes to the Lord. He sometimes told me the amount of money to set aside. He had limited income and we usually would have not much left after all the expenses. I thought the reason of his insistence was that he was afraid of losing his dignity. So I refused his suggestion on the tithes at first. The sermons from the church also have touched this topic several times. I became very irritated. I fully agreed on the concept of tithes; but I didn't see it as responsibilities. I believed our Heavenly Father would not make such request when I was in shortage financially. Yet I choose to obey my husband and fulfilled our tithes obligation anyway.
It was during early March, 2015 that Reverend Rachel Hsu conducted a three-day class, “From Blessings to Destiny,” in the International Leadership School at Agape Center Hong Kong. Due to the financial shortfall, I stopped all classes temporarily so that I could work as a nurse at days. I felt thankful that starting that season, there would be a public seminar open for everyone at night after each class. All were welcomed, not limited to the registered students. I have never known Reverend Rachel. I was new to the school; but I felt prompted to join the public seminars. I was exhausted after work and stressed out by the problems from the company I set up. If it wasn't my husband, I would probably give up. He normally would choose one meeting per week to go to. This time, however, he attended for three nights continuously.
It never occurred to me that I was able to enter into rest and peace once the seminar kicked off with declaration and prayer. My mind felt so different that I was refreshed and relaxed. Reverend Rachel made a brief introduction on the topic of the promised land. It was similar to what I have heard before; most Christians in Hong Kong were still wondering in the desert. They didn't truly enter into the rest, blessings and abundance promised by God even though they were very devoted to the beliefs. I started to realize the cause behind it was the inadequate and incomplete understanding on the Truth. Thanks to Reverend Rachel’s teachings!
Reverend Rachel shared her testimony on offering during the seminar and I wasn't much impressed. But while the pledge was about to begin, she taught briefly the true meaning of offerings and mentioned once more about her testimony. My tears bursted out immediately. I didn't know what had happened; but I believed this was the work from the Spirit. My original plan was to make a HK$20 offering. (I usually would do HK$100.) Somehow there was this voice inside of me encouraged me to offer HK$100. I struggled a bit for I only had HK$150 in my pocket and my next wages wouldn't come in until next day's afternoon. I didn't want to bother my husband for this. The work scheduled for next day was a side job. Sometimes I had to pay beforehand to the taxies if the workers got hurt on the site and I needed to accompany them to the doctors. Yet I was so touched by the Holy Spirit that my tears unstoppably and uncontrollably kept pouring out. My clothes were wet. By faith, I made a HK$100 pledge. After the offering, Reverend Rachel made a prayer and felt led by the Spirit to proclaim that God would bless us 500 times in return. I thought this was a very unique declaration and I, out of curiosity, calculated that I would have HK$50,000 back eventually. The HSBC bank in Hong Kong happened to issue the commemorative bills the following day. I estimated that each set could bring profits as much as HK$25,000. I wondered if this is the way God would reward me back by getting me two sets through lottery. No one except me in the family was interested in this. It turned out I was the only one to register. I was a bit disappointed. But I felt God had His own way to accomplish His promise. Thus I didn't persuade my families to participate.
I went to the public seminar at the 2nd night. I had my wages with me. I had one HK$500 bill and two HK$100 bills. I felt led by the Spirit to make HK$500 pledge. I was a bit hesitant; but HK$200 seemed not enough in proportion. I felt not being thankful to God. Once again, I made an offering of HK$500 by faith. Out of my anticipation, Reverend Rachel proclaimed again that God would bless 100 times in return. It was fewer than yesterday; but better than nothing, I thought. I didn't do the calculation this time.
I received a phone call from a returning customer in late afternoon the next day and I have totally forgotten the promises from God from the previous two nights. This client hasn't been ordering anything from me for over 6 months. I thought he just needed to add a few products usually worth around a thousand dollars. I’ve never expected him to bring me a big order. After calming down, I remembered the declaration from the first night proclaimed by Reverend Rachel. The profits from this order was roughly around HK$50,000. A voice inside kept telling me that there would be more. I then recalled the 2nd promise from the second nights. I thought this was impossible after some number crunching. My rationale told me that God would provide through other ways. But somehow this order brought me a profit of HK$100,000 in total. The biggest reason for all these was the discounts I was able to get from the manufacturer. Thanks to my new supervisor who was positively aggressive and willing to support me. It took about two weeks to have this deal closed. There were some problems occurred during the process; but the Holy Spirit has strengthened my faith and led me to offer my tithe by faith to the Lord before this order was closed. The HK$100,000 dollars was exactly the sum of the 500-times and 100-times returns of the pledges I made in two nights. All thanks and praises go to our God! It was His grace that we could be led by the Holy Spirit to make our offerings by faith. It was help from the Spirit and act from God that I could understand offerings are His way to bless His people.
I suddenly realized that the decrees and laws from the bible are pathways to receive His blessings. It was such a pity that we didn't get to know the true essence of His words to follow through in our life. Our God is more than willing to bless abundantly. We need to learn to receive these blessings through the Truth. He is truly our loving Abba Father. Thanks be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Linda Lee July 2015