We often want to look back and compare our present situation with where we were 10 years ago. But God is more interested in where we will be 10 years from now and how we will get there. In order to get there, we must address the things in our past and present that keep us from moving forward into the future destiny that God for us. When we exchange the yoke of the world and connect ourselves with the yoke of Jesus, He gives us great boldness to pursue the preferences He has for our lives.

What do I do when my depression persists? Is God enough for depression? What do I do when my poverty persists? What about my loneliness, my failing career, and the promises of God that haven't come to pass in my life yet? What about pain, suffering, tragedy, oppression and death? What does God have for us when these things persist?

There are certain troubling situations that we face that require more than what we know or have experienced. We may have well-crafted words that we can speak, but if we remain at a distance and don't engage with God in the troubling situation, we will lack the substance required to see the power of God manifest. In order for us to know for ourselves the power of God, we must sink in with God. We must descend into the mud.

When you descend into the mud, you do not know what God is going to do. You are determined to see what God has, so you take the journey in with God. You are not in control and you cannot rely on what He has done, or what you have done before - at all. You are shut in with the darkness. You experience the darkness in your physiology and you don't know whether you will come out alive or not. This is the most profound journey, since there are no maps. It is when you go in, that God begins to do things. You will know for yourself the power of God and His resurrection.

All of us want to do great things, but we don’t all have the depth to do them.

It is in the deep room, the consecrated time we spend alone with God, where God gives us the wherewithal to do great things. It is a painful room where God stirs things up for us. It is a costly space where we go through our distractions until God comes through. It is in this place that God builds up who we are. The things we are going to do will not come easy. How we face difficult situations will depend on how deep our room is. It is important for us to know that hard things are costly. It is the deep room that causes us to not be afraid to do hard things.

The deep room brings us to silence. Silence is different than being quiet. We like it to be quiet so we can be peaceful. But when God says silence, He means it over and against our proclivities and tendency to disobedience. It has to do with stilling our own will and desires. It is an obedience thing rather than a technique thing. In the silence, He impresses Himself upon us.

People who do great things plunge into hard situations. What are your resources for that? What is your God like? How present is He to you? How immediate is He to you? How deep is He to you? He is going to send you to do great things, and that means going into dangerous or scary places. In those places, God will call you and say let’s see your room.

What’s happening in your room?

How do we move from an intellectual, abstract knowledge of God to an intimate knowledge of God and His power to transforms lives? We must experience it for ourselves. If we stay at a distance, in a place where we maintain control and stability, we may have an intellectual grasp, but we really know nothing. Rather, we must enter in and fully engage ourselves in what God is doing. God has a tremendous treasure for us. As you enter in, you may not know if you'll make it out alive - but God is there and you will come to know Him.

Will you take the plunge and cross over to what God is doing, or will you remain at the outskirts? We can pray for God to shake the earth, but it may be possible that the earth will not shake until we cross over. Are you up for it?

Pastor Michael Koh shares a message from 1 Samuel 14...

We may have been abused, hurt, or disappointed by others in ways that have caused us great harm. As a result, we may carry a grudge and want revenge against them.

However, carrying unforgiveness is like living in a tiny room where you cannot breathe properly and it's very hot. That becomes the state of your heart. When you decide to forgive, you open big windows and the air begins to blow in and circulate. Then you are able to enjoy life.

God has forgiven us so many things. We should also continue to forgive much. Jesus tells us that we must forgive not seven times, but 70 times seven. It may be painful, but with the help of the Spirit of God, you can surrender every grudge and hurt to the Lord. The enemy used those people to do what they did, but God used the very things they did as your training for greater things. Trust in the Lord that He may set you free and have His way in your life.

May God help us forgive one another.

Many people are not willing to be committed to experiencing the power, presence, reality and wisdom of God. They are willing to know things about it, but there is some barrier that is preventing them from being committed. It is a commitment to the thing that God is calling you to that is important, that will cause you to really know it. We have to commit ourselves to a relationship with God in which we can hear His voice.

This commitment is really a key thing. Without commitment, you actually will not lose yourself in it. You will always stand at the outside, and you will use the formal knowledge in your head to keep you at a distance. You may be surrounded by people who move in the power of God, but never experience that yourself. You could be surrounded by people who talk about testimonies of how they were transformed, but you are never transformed because you have never immersed yourself into the power of it. You need to immerse yourself in God. For you to immerse yourself, you need to leave your life and die into him. You have to let go of control of your whole life and commit yourself to this thing that God is doing.

When you take the plunge, you will be free from the previous imprisoned life that you had. If you stay and don't give up, God begins to open up the spiritual realm and suddenly you will see God at work.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches from 2 Kings 5...

The Kingdom of God comes as a seed. If you can detect the seed when it is small, and you grow it, you will see the seed get stronger and stronger. The things of God are built up incrementally. Invest your time in prayer, your devotional life and fellowship. You will build yourself up. In life there are many destroyers, but your builders will outpace your destroyers. God is training us to hear His voice amidst all the other voices. The voices of the builders will become stronger than the voices of the destroyers. You will feel the hand of God upon your life and experience His peace.

Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. To wait is to give your full attention to the one you are waiting upon. When we give God our full attention, we set our heart towards God and praise Him for God Himself. We give up the utilitarian ways in which we praise God so that something good will happen. We will never be free if we use God to get a good life. God is not to be subsumed under the American Dream. God is God. Everything else is to be immersed into Him, surrendered to Him. When we praise God for Himself, the gravity of God's weight begins to pull us to Himself. We don't worry about circumstances any longer. We will be dead to all else, and our minds will be free. We get to a point in which we know that whatever God says, we will be okay. The voice of God gets stronger and stronger in us. We can say, "God, I just want to be in you, whatever you do in my life." When we pray to God for God's sake, not just for a desired outcome, our hearing becomes pure. Whenever negative things happen, we will be able to trace the movement of God through them.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches from Luke 18 on January 6, 2019...

As we enter 2019, we may feel nowhere nearer our destiny and the goodness of God. When we think of tomorrow's prospects by today's calculations, we can get really hopeless. We may feel depressed that year after year we have not moved and can't crossover. We may feel that nothing will happen unless our circumstances change.

In the year ahead, there are many invisible crossings. If you go by feelings, observations, calculations, circumstances or a ledger-like thankfulness - you will not get across; you'll just feel the distance. The Kingdom of God - the activity of God - will not come in ways that can be observed by circumstances or through our senses. You have to know it in a different way. The Kingdom of God is in our midst; it doesn't matter if you feel it or not. It is still true. If you go only by the way of observation, you won't find it. When the Holy Spirit comes into our midst, we can experience a crossover. Nothing is stuck anymore; all the fixed things are up for grabs. Anything can happen. You are on the verge of God working. God wants to make us aware of how close He is, even though we may feel He is distant. God wants to make us aware of invisible things.

How can we be aware of God and how He moves? It is simple; by praising God until thanksgiving arises in us. You have to let go of everything and give thanks to God. Gratefulness takes the focus from your experience of good to the One who gave the good. It is refocusing our attention from ourselves to be completely set out towards Him. To surrender to God is to surrender to Him in thanksgiving and grab hold of being thankful for the small things. If you can be thankful for the small things of God, and allow thankfulness to consume you, you will be absorbed into what God is doing. It is the heart of thanksgiving that frees us up from ourselves. Thankfulness breaks the darkness. Wholeness will come. Faith will enter. As we praise Him and give thanks without calculating, God gives us a foothold to take us out of our stuck places. He is here, moving in our midst.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches on Luke 17...

Christmas tells us that God is not going from us; He is coming to us. We have to know how to respond to His coming. If we focus too much on our own shame and reproach and our past experiences, we will be cynical and skeptical and not believe the great things He wants to do through us. Jesus comes to not only remove our reproach, but also to heal us and prepare us for the immense thing that God is doing. We may need to keep silent and keep our eyes on Him for awhile, but the immensity of God will grow and be born in us. Praise God!

Many of us may feel so far from Him, so far from joy, that there is a crumbling that has taken place. We may feel barren and fruitless. We don't see how things can change. We may feel specially chosen not to be chosen.

If you identify with this, the coming of Christ is an invitation to come into a path where God will restore your life. He is born unto you, in a way that is intimate to you - not in a bulk, one-size-fits-all, kind of way. He changes your heart and sets your heart free. Your longstanding, unfulfilled yearnings are met in Him. God's goodness rests upon you, no matter what your circumstances. He will change your inside, and there will be external signs as well.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches on Luke 2...

We are called to be servants of God. Our ultimate purpose in life is to be His servant, not just a successful version of ourselves. The good news is that God is committed to awakening us as His servants.

In the process of awakening, God first prepares us by giving us seemingly menial tasks for which we may receive no external validation. If we take delight in what God is calling us to, he will make us into servants of Him. God next activates us by speaking to us. To hear what He is speaking to us, we must be alert and understand the spiritual significance of the assignment He has for us. With hearing, boldness comes and we can overcome fear and barriers in our path. God then uses us to bring His salvation to the ends of the Earth.

Jeehong Min preaches from 1 Samuel 17...

When God speaks a Word to you, it has power. No word uttered by God is devoid of power. It is filled with God himself. The word will not return void. It has trajectory and will accomplish the purpose for which it has been sent.

How do you receive the Word? You prepare room for it by letting the Holy Spirit overshadow you. The emphasis is not on us, but on God working. Even our own goodness has to be overcome. We allow God, through the cross, to bring us to nothing. When we worship God, we worship until we have nothing left and are not aware of ourselves, then we become free and God does amazing things. God will free us from fears and give us the power to do that which we cannot do.