Born in Taiwan but left when I was 8y.o., lived in 5 different countries by 18y.o., Christian, full-time General Practitioner in Eastwood! Loves travelling&adventures. Master of Divinity graduate.
台灣出生，八歲出國，十八歲時已經長期居住過五個國家，基督徒，道學碩士，在澳洲依士活作全職家醫科醫生，喜歡旅遊探險。
First time to encounter ear wax explosion when syringing ear wax! I
think I will continue to wear face shields when I syringe people’s ear wax in
the future!
16May, 2020
The city starts reopening. First time to eat seated inside a restaurant
since the shutdown.
29May, 2020 The Pentecost
At 2:15-3pm, there were no patients, so I joined the online ICEJ
Pentecostal Global Prayer meeting. It happened to be Australia's turn when I
joined in, and Vanuatu was next. As soon as the Vanuatu session finished, the
patients started to come in again. At 4pm, I finished work on time and it was
Taiwan's turn, so follow along and pray. I packed up and left the clinic at
4:45pm. Walking towards the parking lot, the sky to the west was just golden in
colour, similar to the "Golden Jerusalem" I saw in Jerusalem before.
I have never seen such a golden sky in Australia. As soon I drove out of the
parking lot, I saw a very clear rainbow on the eastern sky! But it is against
the law to touch the mobile phone when one’s driving, so I didn’t have a chance
to take a photo.
https://youtu.be/E_GsKLJcum8
31May, 2020 Pentecost Sunday
Lots of beautiful autumn leaves around. The 7th anniversary since my father’s sudden passing post coronary artery stenting. 31May was also a traumatic day for my paternal grandfather, who witnessed thousands of dead bodies during the Taihoku Air Raid on 31May, 1945, and developed PTSD as a result. This in turn resulted in the dysfunctional family which my father had grown up in. I pray to God that this cursed day ceases being cursed in my family from my generation onwards.
10June, 2020
As winter approaches, our clinic principle doctors are becoming more
cautious and got protective screens for everyone! Meanwhile, the face shield’s
uneven refraction is making my eyes deteriorate, so I have swapped to wearing
goggles.
22June, 2020
The situation in Melbourne is not looking good. There’s been some
spillages of COVID19 from hotel quarantine, due to the usage of poorly trained,
subcontracted security guards. However, there doesn’t seem to be any plans for
NSW to close its borders to Victoria, and the school holidays is coming soon. I
have a bad feeling about what is to come.
7July, 2020
NSW closes its border to Victoria. I think it’s a bit too late.
10July, 2020
QLD opens is border to NSW.
14July, 2020
Some Victorians got into NSW before the border closure and the disease
is spreading fast! Four days after opening its border to NSW, QLD shuts border
to 77 Sydney suburbs!
Oh, no! International studies suggest those with blood type A have a
higher risk of contracting and being hospitalised with COVID19! My husband and
I will get wiped out by the process of natural selection if the COVID19
continues to run rampant!
19July, 2020
The Victorian Premier announced that face coverings would become
mandatory in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire in three days’ time, with people
caught without them facing a $200 fine. Wearing a mask is like, a common sense
thing to do when there is a pandemic happening! Why does it take so long for
the leaders in Australia to figure this out? I still haven’t diagnosed anyone
with COVID19 so far. Not sure how long that record will last. But there is free
entry for frontline workers to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Sydney. Might as well grab this opportunity to go out and do something, in case NSW shuts down again.
The Justice League is sending out a CALL FOR LOCAL HEROES!
The Justice League wants to invite all our local heroes to have FREE
ENTRY from July to August 3! Our heroes choose YOU to enjoy a day off and be
the VIP as a thank you for all the support provided to our community.
With the COVID19 shut downs, this year’s Passover is more similar to
Exodus 12:22 than the usual Passovers. “…None of you shall go out of the door
of your house until morning.” Tried celebrating it the “Messianic Jew” style
(=Christian Jews)!
Looking at Exodus 12 in more detail, there seems to be some parallels
between the Passover, the Christian life, and the current COVID19 pandemic.
1. Israelites must stay home when disaster struck Egypt: people must
stay home to avoid catching COVID-19.
2. Eating lamb: “eating Jesus,” where we study the Word of God and
developing a closer relationship with Christ. If we don’t spend time connecting
with God now, when the pandemic is over, we will “remain in Egypt,” as we will
not have enough strength to “leave Egypt”. (In the bible, Egypt is often used as an metaphor for the world.)
3. Eating bitter herbs: For the Israelites to remember how their
ancestors endured hardship in Egypt and thank God for delivering them.
Christians should be prepared to face hardship and learn how to depend on God
in these difficult times.
4. Eating unleavened bread: During the Exodus, it was because the
Israelites did not have enough time to wait for the bread to rise. Yeast as a
metaphor of sin: getting rid of sin, living a simpler life with a greater
appetite for spiritual things over materialistic things.
5. Sojourners: Like sojourners, our stay in any one place is transient.
The world is not our home.
6. The ten plaques forced the pharaoh to let the Israelites go, so they
can leave Egypt and serve God: The COVID-19 pandemic shakes us as we are forced
to adjust to a different way of life. This can result in a shift in our mindsets
and make us see things from a new perspective. Some of us begin to reflect more
on our relationship with God and issues related to life and death.
7. Judgement on all the gods of Egypt: The COVID-19 pandemic impacts
the world in many ways. It has already adversely impacted global economy,
disrupted education and work, and even caused several countries’ health systems
to collapse. With the social distancing rules, people have to change the way
they socialise. Church buildings suddenly became empty: state of the art church
buildings and concert-like worship no longer seem to be of any use in the
current situation. It is a time for people to reflect on whether their lives
and ministries are built on a solid rock. As people are forced into isolation, away
from the noise, some people find that they can better hear God’s voice when
they seek God in a quiet space.
The Exodus vs today:
Israelites: The preparation of the people of God so they can enter into
the promised land.
Christians: The people of God, learning to relate with and serve God,
and experiencing revival (individual, local, national and global level).
In the Passover custom, the Jews try to get rid of all the yeasts in
their house, as yeast is a metaphor for sin. Rather than getting rid of yeast,
I got rid of moulds over the Easter long weekend! When I was sorting through my
clothes in my closet, I discovered that the wall behind the clothes became
moulded! Took the opportunity to reorganise my clothes and pack up some of the
clothes that either no longer fits or are too old. Realised that my buttocks
had grown so big I could no longer fit into most of my jeans! Reorganised many
things in my house. Finally had the opportunity to clean my room to the point
where it is the cleanest it’s ever been in my life! I also YouTube searched
ways to fix my Nespresso machine, which broke many years ago, and got my
husband to fix it according to the video.
Watched a few episodes of “The Chosen,” starting off from the episode
five which is on the Wedding in Cana (I had already watched the first four
episodes last year).
This Jesus series is quite different from the usual movies about Jesus
in that the followers of Jesus were illustrated in a more 3D fashion in their
character development, which makes the whole thing seem a lot more personal.
23 April, 2020
The Australian COVID-19 graph have stayed pretty flat for quite some time (very few new cases each day).
This could be one of those rare opportunities where we could get a property for
a bargain price. And so that was what we did. Life suddenly flowed into my
husband the moment he signed the contract, turning from sleepy to manic. He
began drawing all sorts of impressive pictures of the dream home, both 2D and
3D, on the computer! And not just some random sketches, but very professional
stuff!
28 April, 2020
Thank God things didn't turn out so bad in Australia. The NSW premier
has announced today that the NSW coronavirus lockdown will be relaxed slightly
on Friday, 1May, so that groups of two adults will be able to visit other
households for social gathering. It is great to see that we will soon be
"passing over" April, into the Pentecost in May! And it will be
nice to catch up with some people.
Completed my MDiv April 2019 and waited nearly a year for the once yearly graduation ceremony. Glad that the Morling College graduation ceremony happened before all the shut downs.
21 March, 2020
The weather was >30oC yesterday and photographers captured photos of
Bondi Beach being filled with people. What’s going on? Did these people think
that high temperatures will kill the virus? Anyway, the beach got shut down
today.
I’ve also been seeing ambulances on the road more frequently than usual
in the last few days. The number of people infected in Australia has exceeded
1000 today! But I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, because based on
the previous coronavirus swab testing criteria, many mild community acquired
cases have slipped through undetected.
I wonder if Australia will start shutting down states and even suburbs
soon…
Church service has been changed into online-mode!
Tried doing body combat in my room, but the room is too small and I
kept bumping into things accidentally. Got a big bruise on my arm now!
23 March, 2020
People swarmed to Centrelink due to unemployment. People seemed to be
standing very close to each other as well!
So many people also swarmed into the clinic to have flu vaccine or do
some "last minute things" in relation to their medical conditions
that I felt like I was about to have a heart attack! Fortunately, our
clinic is in the process of transitioning into telephone consultation for the
majority of our patients, especially since we already have a few
"vulnerable doctors" who are allowed to do phone consultations for
all of their patients via Medicare. It might be a good time to get pregnant!
25 March, 2020
Free coffee at McDonald's for healthcare workers! Got one today!
Normally I'd rebuke my hubby if he gets something from Mackers, but I really
gotta thank Mackers for this one!
Coles opens up special shopping hours for health workers and
firefighters, thanks Coles!
From next week onward, all patients can call their GPs for phone
consultations under Medicare. I gotta thank the government for protecting GPs
from COVID19 so the GP workforce don't get wiped out by the virus! Vaccinations
can't be done over the phone, and this strategy better enables us to do vaccinations
on healthy people and reduce people's risk of catching COVID19 when they do
come in.
I'm feeling quite worried for people working in the
ED/ICU/Anaesthetics/Respiratory medicine/Infectious disease/ENT though... May
God protect these people!
I think social distancing and home isolation where possible is a very
good thing for the human population! Not only does it make COVID19 die out, it
makes many other types of viruses die out too! And with less people out and
about, the earth actually gets a bit of a break from pollution!
I am surprised to learned that Australia has one of the highest testing
rates for COVID19 in the world! I thought many community acquired cases could
be falling through the cracks, but we are actually doing quite well! That could
be why our death rate is pretty low... Maybe countries like Italy have a much
much higher number of infected people than the numbers we have seen in the
statistics!!!
I think most doctors would have emphasised to the patients undergoing
COVID19 testing to self-isolate until their results come out, but it seems like
some patients just don’t comply! I think people booked in for COVID19 swab test
appointments should be entered into a registry and tracked by the police to
make sure they do not get out of their house until they receive their test
results via the phone! And they should get fined if they go out!
Spain has now become badly impacted by the coronavirus, and there are
people there who pretend to be dogs so they can get out and walk about! How
stupid can people get?
Today is exactly two months since I first started wearing masks at work.
It’s been a tough two months so far. There has been a significant financial impact
on GP practices in Eastwood since January, when this suburb became very quiet
due to people’s fears about the COVID19. No patients = no income for me, as I
earn a percentage of billings. If the government hadn’t allowed us to bill telephone
consult via Medicare, I would have had to seek for locum jobs. I am thankful
that the principal doctors in our clinic had been very forward thinking: quick
to secure some masks, quick to convert to telephone consultations early on, and
quick to organise flu vaccines for patients in a very systematic way.
Been sending more patients to 4Cyte pathology to get COVID19 tests.
People getting tested do not need to get out of their cars, and the results
come out very fast! Now that’s efficiency. I’m still quite amazed that our clinic
has not diagnosed any positive coronavirus cases despite the vast amount of
testings done.
28 March, 2020
Completed the COVID19 infection control training. However, I disagree
with the recommendation about the masks in there. It’s common sense that masks
do have a protective effect. I think people who have to go to places known to
have community outbreaks should be wearing masks!
These days I feel like I’m going off to war zone every day, armed with face
shield, mask and scrubs. My husband is the domestic one, and his belly is growing
bigger and bigger day by day.
29March, 2020
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined in with the National
Day of Prayer and Fasting Zoom Prayers.
On 18 March, I read the news about doctors being stranded on a CPD cruise
ship, including famous ED doctor Dr Fulde. I wondered what will become of them.
Well, the ship had returned to Australia. Doctors in quarantine got
placed in nice hotels but are not allowed the access the nice facilities. "My
Muscle Chef" meals are left outside their doors. The doctors talk to each
other via Whatsapp. Some doctors started doing telehealth consultations whilst
in quarantine. No maintenance staff are allowed in, so people are just washing
their clothes in sinks.
With the shutdowns, people are not allowed to leave their houses unless
it is for essential travel, or to exercise. Saw someone I know out for a
morning walk when I drove past Corunna Road on my way to work in Eastwood… Wait
a sec, Corunna? Sounds very familiar… similar to a word which we kept hearing
in the news lately!
3 April, 2020
Glad I didn't have to do this for my MDiv graduation ceremony, because
this thing they’re doing in Japan actually looks like an Asian funeral:
Taiwan has been amazing in the way it managed the COVID19 crisis.
Although researchers at John Hopkins had predicted that Taiwan would be the
second most severely impacted country due to it’s proximity to China, it is
actually one of countries with the lowest rates currently. Initially, I felt
pretty proud about the good job my home country had done.
However, now I think Taiwan is getting too arrogant about this success.
There’s no social distancing rules in place there. People in Taiwan have just
had their long weekend holidays, and people have been CROWDING to various hot
spots! This is a very worrying sign.
Meanwhile, the COVID19 curve of Australia seems to be flattening.
9 April, 2020
There is a new respiratory clinic close to where I live: The WiSE Respiratory
Clinic has been operating in Macquarie Park since 21 March. They had seen
approximately 500 patients since first opening, and only had to do physical
examination on 10-20% of the patients seen. People coming via cars arrive at
the boom gate at their designated appointment times and are let in. They wait
in the car. People who did not arrive by car just wait in a tent. There are
four consultation rooms: Two green ones where you can potentially do physical
examination on patients who you deem as low risk. Two red ones where nurses do
swabs on because you have a stronger suspicion about them having COVID19. It is
meant to be a GP clinic where interested GPs participate in the roster. You can
participate in as little as one shift only, or you can take on regular shifts. But
you can only do one four-hour shift a day as a maximum. The PPE is pretty good
there and some GPs actually think it’s safer for them to work in this clinic
compared to their own clinics. The current roster is already full until May.
Returned to work after a wonderful Australia Day long weekend in
Adelaide. First time during my 10+ years of career as a GP in Australia where I
had to wear a surgical mask! This is because our clinic is in Eastwood, a
suburb with a high population of Chinese people. This busy suburb has just
turned very quiet... looks like it's gonna be a cruisy week at work?
4 February, 2020
Seems like some people are started come back to Eastwood… At least the
car park is no longer empty.
7 February, 2020
First time trying out the N95 and goggle combination gear (usually just
consulted in a surgical mask)! Man, this thing is supposed to be really tight
so there is a good seal... felt totally deoxygenated and became dark in the
face! Wore it for less than 10minutes! After taking it off it left imprints on
my nose bridge and cheeks!
1 March, 2020
People started panic buying toilet papers. Some people started exhibiting
violent behaviour, requiring intervention by police.
6 March, 2020
Levelling up on eye protection today using a dentist’s face shield I
borrowed... on the brighter side, lobsters are cheaper in some restaurants like
the Taste of Shanghai (but not in the Fisherman's Wharf Seafood Restaurant).
7 March, 2020
A GP in Melbourne with mild cold-like symptoms who don’t even fit the
criteria for coronavirus testing tested himself for the sake of completeness actually
tested positive! His name and his clinic got written all over the news and he
got abused by politicians who exclaimed that they were “Flabbergasted.” This
type of abuse will just discourage GPs from testing their patients or
themselves for coronavirus.
9 March, 2020
Pathology labs are getting so busy with coronavirus testing that it
takes a few days just to wait for an appointment to get the swab done, and 3
more days for results to come out. People are meant to self-isolate if they go
for testing. Looking at how slow the testings are being done, people might as well just
self-isolate for two weeks! Furthermore, the current Medicare testing criteria
doesn’t cover for mild community acquired cases anyways, and these people will
just slip through the system undetected.
10 March, 2020
Things are getting quite hectic in the highly multicultural city of
Ryde, which is the epicentre of the coronavirus community outbreak. There are
100 confirmed cases in Australia today, with 55 being in NSW! The Ryde Hospital
doctor who caught the coronavirus actually tested negative twice. However, his
symptoms had been so severe that they tested him a third time, and the third
test was positive! We had lots of people flooding in on Monday panicking about
their cold-like symptoms. It’s a bit better today. I don’t wear glasses but
need eye protection during consultations. If I must spend money on buying
goggles, I should just buy a face shield instead. Still contemplating on
whether to freeze my gym membership for a few weeks or not.
Tom Hanks and his wife tests positive for coronavirus, making him the
first famous actor to be diagnosed with this disease. Hmm, I was just watching Contagion
with my husband two days ago. He quizzed me about who the main character male
actor was. I knew it was Matt Damon but the words “Tom Hanks” came out of my mouth.
A gift of prophecy?
13 March, 2020
Froze gym membership.
My middle school classmate shares his experience in the epicentre of
Korea:
People started emptying supermarkets. In retrospect, I was lucky to
have made a visit to the supermarket the night before. The thing about panic buying is, all these panicking people squeezing into confined spaces are just gonna increase their chance of catching the virus! It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy: they are really going to need those things they buy very soon.
A sudden jump in numbers of infected people in Australia: 100
overnight.
16 March, 2020
More coronavirus clinics open up in the public hospitals. Panicking
people crowd into hospitals because they want to get tested. Doesn’t all that
crowding just increase people’s chance of getting infected?
Just got told that our clinic will run out of face masks very soon. My
husband’s company allowed him to work from home. He is a lateral thinker and
decided to go to a paint store to see if there could be some face masks. Turns
out there were plenty! He bought two painters respiratory kit with replaceable
dust filters. In other words, these are reusable. They look ridiculous, but I
guess they could be useful if we really do run out of face masks.
Eastwood is now crowded with people, all wearing masks. Maybe people
feel safer in masks?
Went to the graduation ceremony for my MDiv. Completed my MDiv April 2019 and waited nearly a year for the once yearly graduation ceremony. They had to modify the
ceremony quite a fair bit due to the coronavirus: no worship singing, no shaking
hands, etc.
19 March, 2020
First attempt to do body pump exercise in my room. The space is too
small and I don’t feel very motivated.
Hospitals don't let staff wear masks:
A RN from Ryde hospital nervously told me hospital pathology wouldn't
let her get the COVID19 test when she had mild cold-like symptoms in early
March, because they think she “didn’t have any symptoms.” She mentioned that
when the nurses tried to get the masks, the NUM angrily threw the whole box of
masks on the floor and went hysterical. Now, the city of Ryde is the epicentre
of the community spread COVID19 in Australia, and many hospital staff got
infected. I think I am lucky to work in a private clinic, because there's no
one stopping us from wearing masks, and no one in our clinic got infected so
far.
20March, 2020
Australia has shut its borders. From 9pm tonight, only Australian
citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members will be allowed
to enter the country (note: "immediate" meaning spouses, dependents and legal guardians, not parents who are non-dependent of you!). There are now 756 people infected in Australia.
Unfortunately, the death toll in Italy surpassed that of China as of
today, even though the number of people infected is only half of China. Many
Italians regretted laughing at people who wore masks.
I believe the best way to protect yourself is to avoid touching your
mouth, nose and eyes. Be very conscious of what your hand has touched and wash
your hands frequently. Avoid crowded enclosed spaces: if you must go to a place
like this, it’s better to have masks (surgical, N95 or P2) and eye protection.
It’s also important to live a healthy lifestyle to keep up your immunity: sleep
and wake early, eat healthily, do some aerobic exercises to increase your lung
capacity, take vitamin C. And if you develop cold like symptoms, then stay at
home and don’t spread it to other people. And remember to get your flu vaccine.
Telehealth services will be available to:
people
isolating themselves at home on the advice of a medical practitioner, in accordance
with home isolation guidance issued by the AHPPC, and people who meet the
current national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection
after consultation with either the national COVID-19 hotline, state COVID-19
hotlines, registered medical or nursing practitioner or COVID-19 trained health
clinic triage staff.
1) Travellers from overseas with onset of respiratory symptoms or fever
within 14 days of return
2) Close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases with respiratory symptoms
or fever within 14 days of last contact
3) Healthcare workers with recent onset of respiratory symptoms AND
fever irrespective of travel history. Healthcare workers who have fever OR
respiratory symptoms should be assessed for testing on a case by case basis
4) Patients admitted to hospital with acute respiratory illness or
unexplained fever
5) Patients with acute respiratory illness or fever in high risk
settings such as hospitals, aged care facilities, residential care facilities,
boarding schools, cruise ships
6) Patients with acute respiratory illness or fever presenting with
reported links to settings where COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred
7) Patients with unexplained respiratory symptoms or fever in
Aboriginal rural and remote communities.
Vulnerable
people:
1) people aged over 70
2) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 50
3)people with chronic health conditions or who are immunocompromised
4) parents with new babies and people who are pregnant.
People in isolation or quarantine for COVID-19 can see any eligible
health provider through new telehealth items.
Patients in vulnerable groups can additionally see a health provider
via telehealth for a non-COVID-19 matter if they have seen that provider
face-to-face at least once in the previous 12 months.
The criteria listed above comes from the official information from the
Australian Health Department Area Health Network, which is general in nature,
and not individual medical advice.
My husband has been in Melbourne most of the time because of his job and
comes back to Sydney on alternating weekends. I sometimes attended Hillsong
Macquarie during the alternating weeks when he’s not in Sydney.
I’ve been feeling quite suffocated and fatigued over the past few
months. The air had been very bad during the months when the bushfires got
really bad, which made my eyes, nose and throat very uncomfortable. Then came the coronavirus.
I work in a location with a high percentage of Chinese Australians, and all the
staff in the clinic started wearing surgical masks since late January. I never had
to wear face masks all day for work in the past and this is making me feel very
suffocated and deoxygenated. It’s been a month since I’ve been wearing masks at
work and it’s starting to drive me nuts.
The theme of Hillsong Conference 2020 will be “Breathe Again,” which is
really referring to Wind of the Spirit. The recent sermons I’ve listened to are
particularly focused on the Holy Spirit. They also mentioned that they are
preparing to get a church building for Hillsong Macquarie.
Recently I’ve just spoken to someone from Taiwan who’s working in
ministry, and she raised a few points about the churches of Australia:
·Although there had been many bush fires burning physically
in Australia, the spiritual situation of the churches of Australia is lacking
in the fire of the Spirit. It is in a lukewarm situation.
·There is a lack of unity amongst the churches of
this land. Churches of different ethnicities operate independently, and churches
don’t seem to be coming together/ networking together to intercede for the nation
(which the churches of Taiwan is doing a lot of these days). When she asked for
information from the Chinese churches in Australia about updates on
intercession requests for the Bushfires in Australia so she can send the
information to the prayer network in Taiwan for intercession, there seems to be a lack
of such information.
·There is a lack of “career missions,” or
ministry in the workplace. People tend to be “Sunday Christians” here.
·There needs to be a strong desire for the
presence of God. We should remember to pray for the presence of God, God’s
protection, and revelations from God.
·Keep praising God in all circumstances. (Which,
by the way, seems to be a recurrent messages that I kept hearing lately from various
different sermons and exhortations from brothers and sisters. I think God is
reminding me not to grumble too much, as I am starting to become quite grumpy
about some of the bad things that’s been happening recently nationally and
globally.)
The road to holy ghost power (Hillsong 12Jan 2020 https://youtu.be/I1tk99fWNak)
Jesus: Isaiah 11 says holy spirit will rest upon him (the Messiah)...
descending, filled and lead by the power of the spirit etc
Resurrection
Gushing wind
Unity, in one accord
1) The hand of God is on your life: If you know that, spend a season of
your life to go deeper into the word of God in bible college
2) Descended: when Jesus was being baptised. The heavens open over you,
the holy spirit descends on you, you know something big is about to happen.
Pray for the open heaven, over our lives and over our church.
3) Filled with the spirit and lead to the wilderness. Why does Jesus
need to be filled with the Spirit? God in the flesh can be tempted and
persecuted. If God in the flesh needs the Spirit, how much more do we need it?
To be filled is a radical transformation. There's that power which comes from
the Spirit when you are living in the fullness of the Spirit.
4) A demonstration of the Spirit of the Lord in our lives. Why lead us
into a dessert? When God leads you, he never leads you away from God's best for
your lives. The Spirit saves us from ourselves. The Spirit of God in you leads
you. God leads you both from the outside and inside.
5) Returned in the power of the Spirit. Back to Galilee where the huge
majority of Jesus' miracles happened. The Holy Spirit is not whimpy. There is
power in the name of God.
6) Ascending into heaven: a new era where the Spirit of God has been
unleashed, poured out, and the birth of the church happened at that time. Acts
2:16. This is what the prophet Joel said.
Losing momentum like an old dog would be awful.
Don't Trip the Switch (Hillsong 23Feb 2020 https://youtu.be/1HgXJ4smOfs)
Ezekiel 37:9-10
“Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man,
and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the
four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied
as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on
their feet—a vast army.”
Wind of the Spirit.
East wind: Seems to bring problems, famine, locusts, etc.
West wind: Brings deliverance.
North wind: God's majesty and splendour.
Can you read the winds? On what God is doing in your life?
Song of Solomon 4:16
“Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that
its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and
taste its choice fruits.”
The garden represents life.
South wind: Fragrances and spices. A spiritual awakening: God's majesty
awakes. Heaven's fragrance.
If we are rightly positioned, it doesn’t matter where the wind blows.
Everything changes with the awakening. The awakening comes from heaven.
The north wind first then the south wind.
Fragrance of fruitfulness in spring time. Roses, jasmine, etc. God's
majesty breathes fragrance of the garden of our lives.
Song of Solomon 1:2-4
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more
delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is
like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! Take me away with
you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.
Friends: We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love
more than wine.
She: How right they are to adore you!”
The kiss of heaven. God's favour brings blossom. It's His name that's
the power behind the fragrance and favour. God's majesty in the north breathes
life to the south.
Ecclesiastes 1:6
“The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round
it goes, ever returning on its course.”
For the circuit to continue, it needs to turn to the north, to heaven.
The wind comes again on a circuit.
Psalms 142:7
“Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the
righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.”
Don't break the circuit.
There are circuit breakers, that breaks the circuit when there is a
fault. Don't flick the switch.
Trust in God, whatever He brings. You wouldn't even have breath if it
wasn't for God.
It all started with the Garden of Eden. It was always His garden.
Genesis 2:9
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees
that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden
were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Central in the garden: tree of life.
Genesis 2:15-17
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work
it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to
eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.””
Keep Him central.
Acts 27:7-15
Our lives can be slow sailing and there can be shipwrecks. In those sailors' experience, they believe a good
harbour has a southwest and northwest exposure.
They tripped the switch, trusted their own experience, and didn't
listen to Paul or to God.
A northeaster brought about a shipwreck.
Ecclesiastes 10:1
“As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs
wisdom and honor.”
Dead flies putrefy perfumed ointments.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13
“My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come
with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and
gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has
come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines
spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come
with me.””
A declaration: Let's not turn a good smell into something putrid. It's
a declaration from the bride in the Song of Solomon. Use me, and do something
significant through me.
