“The first call of the Kingdom is not to advance the Kingdom. The first call of the Kingdom is to abide in the King”: Rev Edmund Chan at Banking and Finance Fellowship

In life, our orientation is exceedingly important.

When we look at the topic, Together in Godly Transformation, there are two horizons.

The first is within ourselves, and the second is within our world – I call it the mandate and the mission.

The mandate is our walk; the mission is our work.

Very often, we reverse the order, emphasising the work while missing the walk.

But the first call of the Kingdom is not to advance the Kingdom. The first call of the Kingdom is to abide in the King – that is our mandate.

4 key principles for godly transformation

These four foundational principles will revolutionise our walk and our inner transformation.

• Don’t lose heart
• Don’t lose ground
• Don’t lose momentum
• Don’t lose hope

All four keys are rooted in one of the most prominent chapters in the whole Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:58:

“Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast (don’t lose heart), immovable (don’t lose ground), always abounding in the work of the Lord (don’t lose momentum), knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain (don’t lose hope).”

1) Don’t lose heart

1 Corinthians 15:58 is telling us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ – because Christ is risen, don’t lose heart. Be steadfast.

Satan attacks the body of Christ so that we are compromised in godly transformation. How does he attack us? By deception and by discouragement.

When we are discouraged, we lose heart. The apostle Paul says: Be steadfast; don’t give up.

One of the poems I find inspiring is entitled, Don’t Quit.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill
When funds are low and debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit

Satan attacks the body of Christ by deception and by discouragement.

Some years ago, I gathered three men – highly accomplished business leaders. And I asked them the question: In your years and experience of business leadership, what is one critical lesson you have learned?

And here’s the amazing thing – all three of these accomplished leaders gave the same answer: Resilience.

They shared the challenges they have faced in the business world, the ups and downs, the terrain full of ambiguity. But their key was the steadfastness of knowing God is guiding and leading.

Don’t lose heart. Have that resilient capacity built into your life and your leadership.

2) Don’t lose ground

If discouragement causes us to lose heart, distraction causes us to lose ground.

We need to keep our focus on God. Keep looking up, don’t look at the circumstances, no matter how difficult or discouraging.

In our darkest days, God does his deepest work.

If discouragement causes us to lose heart, distraction causes us to lose ground.

On February 20, I was in Dubai. I had been asked to be the final plenary speaker for the Impact Day of a gathering of key Christian leaders in the Middle East.

I was supposed to speak at about 4pm to close the entire gathering. But at lunch time, the organisers hurriedly called a meeting and said: “Pastor, can you go off script, and just share with us 15 minutes, because we received a police report that a war has erupted in the Middle East, and the police asked us to dismiss the group as early as we can.”

That was a Saturday. By Monday, with the Middle East being in the war zone, 251 ballistic missiles were fired from Iran over to the UAE with an additional 541 drone attacks.

The airport was closed. I had a problem – my wife Ann and I were due to go to Los Angeles, Houston and Fort Lauderdale. But we were told: Do not come to the airport if you don’t have a confirmed ticket.

So we prayed.

Whenever we are in difficult circumstances, whether in the marketplace or in the war zone, the fundamental principle is: Be immovable by keeping your focus upon the Lord.

The Lord will never lead us where His Grace cannot keep us. And therefore, we anchor in His grace and His leading.

We were on the 39th floor of our hotel, with drone attacks flying day at night – we could hear the boom, boom, boom of missiles being intercepted.

As we prayed, “Lord, would you guide us”, I heard very clearly, the Lord say: “Tomorrow, go to the airport.”

We didn’t have confirmed tickets. Even if we went to the airport, the Dubai flight to Singapore had been cancelled four times, and alternative tickets straight to Los Angeles had been cancelled twice. But we prayed and God gave us the peace to go to the airport.

At lunchtime, we were having a meeting with four couples in the marketplace. I was sharing that our flights had been cancelled when one of them said: “Let me make a phone call.” Then he put down the phone and said: “You are waitlisted on the flight to San Francisco. There’s no flight to Los Angeles – from San Francisco, you can take a domestic flight.”

At 5:30am, before the sun rose, we left the hotel. We got to the airport before 6am – it was filled with thousands of people.

We were on standby, and there was a long queue waiting for the ticketing. So we joined the queue with our waitlisted ticket. While we were queueing, I received a call: “The manager of the airline will come and bring you in.”

We were ushered on to a dignitary lane with a red carpet, we breezed through security and flew to San Francisco. It was only later that I saw CNN’s report that on that first chartered flight out of Dubai to San Francisco, there was even a fighter jet accompanying us out of UAE.

The Lord is faithful! Be immovable. He will never lead us where His Grace cannot keep us. And therefore, we anchor in His grace and His leading.

In my life, I have faced airports being closed a number of times. Once, the London, Heathrow, airport was closed for three days because of a snow storm. My flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was cancelled because of a typhoon. Same with my flight from Hiroshima to Sapporo. (Don’t ask me why typhoons follow me.)

Each time, our notification was: The airport is closed, your flight has been cancelled.

In Hiroshima, even when the plane took off, the pilot announced: “Good news, we can fly. Bad news, we don’t know if we can land.” I had never heard this kind of announcement!

Each time, Ann and I joined hands and prayed, and then as the Lord led us, we went to the airport, and the doors opened. God is faithful.

I have seen so many other challenges, whether it was a potential kidnapping in Sao Paolo, Brazil; a bomb threat in Nairobi, Kenya; an Ebola outbreak in Africa; a security clampdown in a restricted country, and more. But every time the Lord opened the door.

3) Don’t lose momentum

Be always abounding in the work of the Lord.

The obstacle to abounding is when we are stuck in our own ways rather than allowing God to lead.

Our source code of life, our authority, is the Word of God. The problem is that, when we are distracted, we can drift away from the Scriptures as the fundamental authority of our life.

The result is that – in the contingent realities of life, in its existential challenges – we can make decisions based upon our feelings rather than upon the Word of God. Our wants, desires, insecurities, choices governed by our feelings, go on to form habits, which create in us a new source code.

The human soul cannot have two source codes. Is our source code based on Scripture as our fundamental authority?

Now, your computer and your phone cannot have two source codes; they cannot have two operating systems. Similarly, the human soul cannot have two source codes.

So what do we do? There are three responses: One, we backslide, saying that the Word of God is too demanding, it’s too hard. We walk away.

Or two, we return in repentance, saying: Lord, I’m sorry, I have drifted from the foundation of your Word. Re-anchor me in Your Word.

The problem is, there’s a third response. And in the global church, many Christians have chosen the third response: They don’t backslide, they are still in church, worshipping God, joining cell groups, attending seminars. But they have not really returned in repentance to reestablish God’s authority in their lives.

In this third response, we pay lip service to God. And the minute we do that, we are still operating on two source codes. It does not work for the soul. The result is that we are not able to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, because what we are within is already compromised. There is no transformational power within.

So re-establish God’s authority in your life through His Word – it is true, it is authoritative.

4) Don’t lose hope

“In the Lord, your labour is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:5)

God is faithful to His promises – they do not have a shelf life or expiry date. Hold fast to His promises.

Let me share a true story of Elder Aldwin from Davao.

Elder Aldwin came to the Intentional Disciplemaking Conference Singapore (IDMC) , saw 5,000 at the Singapore Expo, and he was inspired.

He said: “Lord, I want to bring something like that to Davao.” So he rented the SMX Auditorium for 5,000, and organised a discipleship IDMC conference there.

Two weeks before the conference, only 1,300 had signed up. So he prayed very hard, and his co-labourers and organisers said: “Maybe we should have a smaller venue.”

He said: “No, God told me 5,000.”

The key to godly transformation is the presence of God.

One week before the conference, there were 2,005 sign-ups. His co-labourers said: “Maybe we should have 3,000.”

“No, no, no, the Lord laid upon my heart, 5,000,” Elder Aldwin said.

He went around to different churches and missionary gatherings. At a missionary conference, one of the missionaries said:”There are many conferences in the Philippines. Why should we attend this one?”

Elder Aldwin told me: “I could have told them how important discipleship is. I could have told him we have world-class speakers. But I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I just said: ‘Because the presence of God is there.'”

One day before the conference, the churches were registering for 100, 200, 50 places at a time. On the day of the conference, 5,000 showed up.

At the end of the conference, the missionary went to Elder Aldwin and said: “You are right. The presence of God is here.”

The key to godly transformation is the presence of God.

There is something powerful about coming together in godly focus, to realign to Him and re-submit to His Word. In re-establishing His authority over us, we can be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord: “For as much as we know, our labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Each time the pages of Scripture are open, God summons us to a response. God is calling you to come to Him with faith and anticipation.

This article is an excerpt of Rev Edmund Chan’s message, Together in Godly Transformation, which he delivered at the third Banking and Finance Fellowship at Wesley Methodist Church on July 22. 

Related stories:

“Rest, don’t rush,” God said to Rev Edmund Chan as he tried to leave Dubai

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“From working for a living, to working with a calling”: Banking and finance professionals find community and purpose through G.R.O.W marketplace groups

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