Do you want to take root below and bear fruit above?

 

 

Please click this link for the video version of today's blog :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9tADAnEss4

Bishop Silas conducting Vancouver Oratorio Society, VOS Chamber and Schola Cantorum singing Parry's I was Glad:

https://youtu.be/Qr4RThsdEjY?si=wh3sT_i3QE8kTgX6

Bishop Silas conducting Schola Cantorum Emmanuel and Vancouver Oratorio Chamber Choir singing Palestrina's O Beata Trinitas:

https://youtu.be/O4wiyr8oa_Y?si=l_cp4aRfVMRzaL6b

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

      2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

     Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile. 

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.          **Sing a song to praise the Lord

      Please click this link to worship with us - 

      

       Be with You: City Harvest Church, Singapore

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epkh71WTUFs&list=RDEpkh71WTUFs&start_radio=1

      10,000 Reasons

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3K3roEF36k

      

     Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

      https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

**Please click this link to read how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Today's Time with Abba: Psalm 105:37-45, Isaiah 37:1-38:22;  Galatians 6:1-18; Proverbs 23:24

Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link:http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

Key passage:  

 “  This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:

          “This year you will eat what grows by itself,

    and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
    plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
    will take root below and bear fruit above.

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
    and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:

   “He will not enter this city

    or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
    or build a siege ramp against it.

By the way that he came he will return;
    he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.

“I will defend this city and save it,
    for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

                                                       Isaiah 37:30-38

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through today's TWA passages we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.

The topic I received today from Jesus is: Do you want to take root below and bear fruit above?

      "Take root below and bear fruit above" is what many Christians want to happen in their lives and their church!

    But when God told Isaiah to prophesy to King Hezekiah, Judah was in the brink of being totally destroyed by Assyria after Assyria destroyed Israel not too long ago!

    More than that, King Hezekiah was under those terrible threatening words from King Sennacherib and his officers, the painful and desperate situation is beyond what we can think of!

    If you were King Hezekiah, what would you do?

    He chose to ask for the help from God's servant Isaiah! 

    

    He chose to cry out to God in the temple of God in Jerusalem to lead his people to repent, to fast and pray!

    He chose to trust in what Isaiah said and not King Sennacherib and his officers said!

    Then, God sent one angel and the next morning 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died and no one knew what happened! The consequence of the pride of King Sennacherib was the death of his vast army and himself!

    If we choose to repent and to return to God, to trust in God's servants and not to other threatening words from other people and circumstances, we can enjoy "take root below and bear fruit above"!

    How about you? Does your choice make you to take root below and bear fruit above?

    If not, I think you need to be more closer to Jesus!

     Dear Lord Jesus,  

    Help us to be willing to listen and obey to your words, to follow you so that we can enjoy your promise to take root below and bear fruit above .  In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:    

1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

     2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus, to be holy - that is to do what Jesus wants you to do and not to do what Jesus wants you not to do?

    

     Family Corner:

     Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

       

       Please click this link to Old Testament Psalm 105 blog: 

       https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2021/05/day-105-2021-make-known-what-he-has.html

       

     

       Please click this link to today's Old Testament Isaiah 37:1-38:22 blog and video:

https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningenglish.blogspot.com/2025/09/watch-out-your-pride.html

       Please click this link to today's Old Testament Proverbs 23 blog:  

       https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2021/08/day-173-2021-money-will-fly-off-to-sky.html

   For the Chinese version of this daily blog and video, please click this link (中文版請按此連結):

    https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningchinese.blogspot.com

     

     

       My first blog "Devotion on Fire"  was written in English only  (July 17, 2009年7月17日至November 22, 2012年11月22日). Each day one chapter of Bible, from New Testament and then Old Testament. Completed in four months and three years:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/blessings-from-rev-dr-john-stott.html

My second blog "Discipler 123"  was written in both Chinese and English (March 6,2011to December 31, 2016 ):

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-1-choose-light-away-from-darkness.html

and "Time with Abba" blog and video (January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2024): 

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2017/01/1-2017.html

 

 

Connecting Workshop 2025(Session 2)

Bishop Silas Ng on Three Streams

 https://youtu.be/xiSOSFF9Iw0?si=puDWFD9Cx01ADm-o