Introduction

Today is Sunday. We will continue on the Sermon from last Sunday. We have talked about life as a spiritual matter. Everyone wants to live well, be healthy and wealthy, but the problem is "how"? Do you want to travel to the moon? Yes, we want to see the Earth from the moon. But the problem is: how do you travel to the moon? You want many things, but you need to know how to get these things. When we talk about the doctrine of Destiny or the doctrine of Ming Ding in Chinese, Ming Ding is much stronger than the English word "Destiny". I will use both terms interchangeably until we all know what Ming Ding means. Destiny or Ming Ding is about what you live for; why you came to this world; what you want to die for and what you want to live for. It is all about know-how.

We Need a God Who Loves Us and Has the Power to Love Us

We are talking about life as a spiritual matter. If you want to live well, you need to know spiritual things. Once you know the spiritual matter, you will realize that you have no power over it. Spiritual beings like angels and the devil are so real and they play an important role in our life. When there is a disaster, you might think it is just an accident. But sometimes we call them the Act of God. Natural disasters are the Act of God and insurance companies do not cover that because they are spiritual matters. If we know the spiritual world, then we will know that we need God.

Many years ago, I turned my life over to Christ. Do you know what is in my mind? I have a good knowledge of the spiritual world. When I was young, I already started to get in touch with spiritual things because I have seen them with my own eyes. For example, fortune-tellers were so accurate and some people were possessed by the devil, etc. There are many different kinds of spiritual things, and I realized that I need a God Most High. I do not want to worship a "God", who has a low ranking in the spiritual world and can only solve some minor issues but has no power to fight against the devil. I kept asking myself: "I need a God who can love me with no condition. God is a God Most High. He owns the whole universe; He is wealthy and powerful. God doesn't need me, but I need Him!"

That's why I turned to Christ. I asked myself: "Which God is better?" There were few "Gods" in my mind. The first one I tried was Jesus Christ. When I entered the church, I started to know one thing: "God is a great God! He is wealthy and I do not need to feed Him. I need a God who loves me and has the power to love me!" When I encounter problems, I need a God to rely on. My mom also loved me, but at the time when I was facing problems, I did not even bother to tell her because she could not help me anyway. That's why I started to look for a God and learned one thing: we need to live by faith to gain access to the grace of God. I have explained what is faith. Fortunately, our God doesn't require great faith from us. God only needs a little faith and He had created a path for us to exercise our faith. We start to know God. Even it's just a little bit each day, our faith will grow strong and become greater faith.

Gaining the access to the promise of God by faith

In the last lesson, we were talking about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The moment you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will have no more faith. Yesterday, one of my friends whom I have known for a couple of years. He has been a Christian for years and he listens to my Sermon quite often. He called me yesterday, and I got to know that he was tortured so badly. Do you know what happened? He has a daughter who is 30 years old, and the daughter has an eight months old baby.

After she finished drinking with a friend, she started to suffer from certain mental illnesses as she was talking so loudly, talking nonsense and talking endlessly. So, her parents took her to a mental hospital. They called me. I started to pray with them and tell them: "God is a great God! He doesn't need anything from us. We just have to trust in Him and pray." Do you know what happened? His daughter was not able to sleep and kept on making noise, both her father and mother were suffering a nervous breakdown. He knows the God I know and the God I serve, then we prayed for the daughter for about 8 to 9 hours. We did not do anything to God as we are simply gaining the access to the promise of our Almighty God. Today, his daughter can sleep for long hours. Last night, when I was preparing my Sermon, he called me around 4:00 AM. I picked up the phone, and I was told that he is suffering from a nervous breakdown. I told him: "Be strong! Trust in the Lord! Anyone who comes to Jesus will be healed!" Today, the result is so amazing!

Let me tell you something in life. If you believe in God, you will obey the word of God. If you don't believe in God, then you will treat the word of God as nonsense: "Why should I follow the word of God? I have my thinking and approach." It is all about obeying and or disobeying. In the last lesson, I was talking about blessings and curses, which are the two most important concepts we need to learn. If you observe people around you, you will see some people are living under a curse and some people are living under a blessing, they did not do much but they are living well. In Chinese culture, if you don't want to have anything, then the best thing is that you don't have any sickness. If you want to have anything, the best thing is to have the money.

I have changed it because the best thing is to become a blessed person. How nice it is to have a blessing from God! But you got to know-how. If you ask me to put it all together, what is belief and what is unbelief? Belief means you will obey the word of God. If you don't believe in God, you will disobey the word of God. Some people might say: "Oh I don't believe in God, but I still obey." This is nonsense. Brother and sister, the doctrine of Ming Ding is telling all of us to start from a little faith, grow up a little more and become greater faith because man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

God’s Love is Unconditional, But Blessing Comes with Conditions

Blessing is one of the most confusing words. There are a lot of people who concluded blessing as: "God's love is unconditional; God is supposed to bless me with no condition." That's not the word of God. But many people got confused with the word "blessing", God loves us with no condition, but blessing comes with conditions. God loves us! That's why when we have not done anything to Him yet, God has first loved us. We turn our lives over to God and we want to gain access to the blessing. Even with little faith, you can see God is working with you and God will bless you. After that, you need to keep on exploring and gaining access to the promise of God.

This is the faith we are talking about, from the little faith of beginners to greater faith at advanced levels. We are different from many other religions that claim that if you cannot get the result, that means your faith is not good enough. But what kind of faith is good enough? Do you need to knock your head on the floor until your head starts bleeding? No, Our God is not like that! God will walk with you even if you have little faith; your faith will grow up and you will start to rely on God more and more. This is Lesson 6 which is part of the 101 Course. 101 is a popular word because it is for beginners. This course is talking about how to become a blessed person. I am not just telling you about blessings and curses but also knowing how. I have tried it and it works. It has been proved according to the Bible. Do you know what is the key to having the blessing? The key is to be an overcomer. For God to bless you is very easy, but you need to become an overcomer.

God will test you before blessing you

I have talked a little bit about this because I want to lead to the contents related to this lesson. The topic of this lesson is: "The key to getting the blessings: Become an overcomer." When God wants to bless you, God will give you a test, it is just like an exam with challenging questions, but the level of challenge or difficulty is just about your level. You are supposed to go through from this level, when you passed this exam, you will go to the next level and so on. In the end, you will be blessed.

So today, I am going to talk about the blessing and I will start with the Book of Genesis. Do you know when opened the path of blessing? This path was opened by Abraham who was a well-known figure in the Bible, both New Testament and Old Testament were talking a lot about Abraham. Abraham was a great guy who discovered the path of blessing. Do you want to know him? Although Abraham lived 4000 years ago, his story was recorded in the Bible. How did Abraham get the blessing? It was because Abraham was an overcomer.

The two key elements we need to know are blessings and curses. But now, we got to know where the blessing comes from and who opened the path of blessing. It was Abraham who started the path of blessing, you better know and remember Abraham who discovered the path of blessing, then he started to know God. The first overcomer was Abraham, do you know what was the first test for Abraham? Abraham realized this when he was 75 years old: "If you live, sooner or later you will die. People came to this world, live for several tens of years and pass away." Abraham started to search for a meaningful life.

If you are someone who is not searching for a meaningful life, it will be very difficult for you to get blessed. You may not agree: "No, I saw a businessman who is wealthy and bought all the properties in the city." Do you think that is a blessing? No! If you observe long enough, you will know that is not a blessing. The first test was for Abraham to look for the meaning of life. If you're not looking for this, then you have not found the right path yet. What are we living for? Some people might say: "I don't care about this. It's not a big deal. I have three meals a day." Oh my God, you are just living day by day until the day you pass away. What I am telling you is that you need to think like God in the beginning, and ask yourself a question: "Why did I come to this world?" If you are not questioning this and you will just live day by day until the day you die, there is no meaning in your life.

When I was the age of 17, I asked myself a question: "Why am I here?" I started to question the meaning of my life. I was a top student and I got into a good university, but I started to wonder: “What am I doing here?” Just live and live, I will die one day!" There was a monkey called Sun Wukong in the Journey to the West who was also having a similar question to me. I did not know if I learned this from him or not. The Journey to the West, one of the four Chinese literature classics, tells the story of Xuan Zang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, travelling with his disciples to ancient India for Buddhist scriptures. One day, Sun Wukong saw another monkey died, and he was crying and thinking in his mind: "All of us will die one day!" Many other monkeys never even bother with this kind of question, what kind of monkey are you?

I was like that monkey. My question was what was I living for? Was I living just to make money? Was I living just to study? Was I living just to work and work till one day I am finished? Then what is that? The longer I lived, the more suffering I had and vice versus the lesser I lived, the lesser would be my suffering. Do you know this conclusion was a horrible conclusion? Then I started wondering “Ok lah” leave as how it was as I had no control of my life. I was born without my permission. I came to this world without my permission. I did not have the chance to be asked for an agreement to be born into the world.

Never mind. I did not give up and kept on searching until the age of 30 years old, I got to know God. When I got to know God, I knew the meaning of my life, what I was living for, and what I was dying for. I was so excited to find the answer. Abraham was similar to the monkey of the Journey to the West. You will be asking what kind of comparison? Never mind, I am not saying Abraham was like the same ranking as the monkey but all of us will ask questions like this.

The Entry-level Test is Accepting Life is Meaningless

This is the Number One test from God and is also the entry-level test. If you do not bother with this test, just submit the answer sheet, and walk the way you desire, if that is your choice, you do not need to do much and you do not need to do anything. But you will get cursed. Abraham was a wealthy man. He had many male and female servants. He had many camels, donkeys, cattle, and sheep. He was so wealthy but yet he found that was not meaningful. He did not think life was interesting and that was the reason he searched for God. Whoever seeks for God, you will see God answering you. God will answer you.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. “Genesis 12:1-3 NIV

God answered Abraham in chapter 12 verse one to verse three. Abraham at that time was not called Abraham yet. That was his new name. Never mind. I did not want to confuse myself so I just called him Abraham anyway. You know who I am talking about. Abraham was called by God and God spoke to him. I do not know how God spoke with him whether with an audible voice or saw a vision or met God face to face but I do not bother. What bothered me was the content God spoke to Abraham. The content was not about how Abraham got the message from God. The content God was speaking to Abraham was “I will make your name great or I will make you a great nation?” Oh my God, that is what I want.

No, no, no, no, no, the content of the last sentence was the content “I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Oh yes, all because Abraham was searching for the meaning of life. He wanted to have the meaning of life and God gave him the meaning. That is the reason we called the Doctrine of destiny or the doctrine of Ming Ding. We want to become a blessing to many people and to become blessed just like how many people were blessed through Abraham. That was so amazing.

Do you know it is just like a bank with lots of transactions going through the bank? The bank is a very big business. A bank is a very wealthy and powerful institution. Abraham was running a bank of blessings. Do you want to own a bank with people banking in and out of blessings? Abraham was the one running the bank of blessing and the boss was our God. God was running the bank and Abraham was assigned to look after the bank. Those who blessed Abraham would be blessed by God. Those who cursed him would be cursed by God. Oh my God, the people of the world would be blessed through Abraham. That is the reason, I have to walk along this path with God. I read the Bible very carefully and I said to myself that I want to be like Abraham walking with God.

The Second Test: To Overcome Our Fear and Habit of Complaining

Abraham was asked to move away from his hometown and that was his second test. Do you trust God will turn you into a blessing for many people? Many people will be blessed through him and that will be his meaning in life. Now the second test came to Abraham again and so he went. He had to sell all his properties and no inheritances. It was so troublesome to load everything onto the donkey and the camels with a big group of about 1000 young and old people walking toward the land of Canaan.

Finally, they reached the land of Canaan. Do you know what happened? There was a famine and this was a test. A test which you and I are worthy to be tested. Are you worthy to be an overcomer? We have to fight against the devil and every now and then I saw tests and traps all around. Do you want to fall into the trap or do you want to be an overcomer? You are like a student studying in school. Are you an overcomer when you faced a problem? Are you a coward whenever you faced a problem and you ran away? What kind of people are you? If you are the type of person every time when you faced a problem, you gave up then you are not an overcomer and you will not get any blessing.

You need to train your character to be an overcomer when facing a problem. I will have my resources and I believe that one day I will fix the problem and become an overcomer. If today you fix any problem or issue you are facing, let me tell you, that is the test for you. If you do not have the license of running the bank of blessings, how do you get the blessing? In order to acquire the license, you are required to go through many certificate tests and it is a test of faith. Whether you obey the word of God or follow your own word, or you follow Microsoft word or you follow other words. Right? It is so challenging and why getting a blessing is so difficult? “I hate exams and testing. I hate answering testing papers” I am telling you that you better passed the test. The way I explained the concept was very easy and straightforward.

There was Abraham facing famine and he did not say “oh what a place? God said it was supposed to flow with honey and milk but now it was flowing with famine?” One day, Abraham went to Canaan, and God brought him there. Abraham saw the famine in Canaan. Then he ran to Egypt and came back. During the whole process, he did not comment or gave a negative comment. You better follow this path. Don't be a complainer. Are you a person who likes to complain? Did I hear it properly? Is this the promised land? How come is like this and that? Why did it happen? If it happened in this way, So what? You need to be an overcomer. Overcome your fear, your complaint, and your habit of complaining. Overcome many things you need to overcome. That's how it works.

My brothers and sisters, probably you studied primary school level one for many years as you did not pass the exams. Years after years you were unable to pass level one and you studied with people who started level one with you who passed and got into secondary school. You are probably as tall as your teacher and taller than your classmates in primary one. That will certainly put me in shame. That is so shameful. Do you want that? Only your age grows but nothing grows and that is a big problem. Whether you like it or not, you better pass. It is not so difficult. So trust in the Lord. If you trust in the Lord it is not so difficult to pass.

Do not complain. Do you know that Abraham came back and became wealthier? Oh my God, wealthy, I like to be wealthy and I do not want to be living in poverty.

The Ultimate Test: Willingly Giving Our Lives to God

Abraham trusted in the Lord and after years, he finally got a son named Isaac. After 20 years Sarah and Abraham had a son at the age of 90 years and 100 years old. They were past the age of giving birth and Isaac was the promise of God for Abraham. When Isaac grew up, do you know what happened?

God commanded Abraham to offer his grown-up son, Isaac as a sacrifice. If I were Abraham, I would negotiate a little bit with God saying that” my son is still young and I am old enough so you take my life lah” with the Singapore accent. God would say no, “You are too old and useless. I want to take your young son and his skin is still shining.”

Oh my God, not many people would do like Abraham, he did not discuss it with his wife. If you discuss this with your wife and build a family altar, prayed together, and would say perhaps we heard wrongly or rightly. The wife would lock up the son and you would have no chance to offer him to God. Abraham did not bother to tell his wife. He secretly led his son away so the wife would not be able to catch up with them easily after 3 days of walking away from her.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (Genesis 22:9-12 NIV)

By that time if she discovered would be too late for her as it would be 3 days later. The son would be put on the altar, the sharp knife would be ready to cut the son into pieces and be ready to be burnt as God’s offering. God halted Abraham from killing his son and said “Stop, I know you did not withhold your dear son and your only son. You did not keep him for yourself and gave him to me willingly. Now, I know you and I was just testing you.” Oh, what a test! It was so scary, so scary and my son was almost killed. What a close call? God prepared a lamb for himself and the bible said because Abraham did what God told him; the blessing God gave him would be the biggest ever. He would give him the biggest blessing. Amazing! An amazing overcomer.

Tell yourself “I want to be an overcomer. **God, you are God who tests me and I will surely pass the test and be blessed. I will surely get the license to run the Bank of blessing.**” How nice it is! It can be called Blessing Pal instead of PayPal. Alipay should call Ali Blessing or Pay Blessing. That is so great. You need to get a license if you want to live well. Do you want to live well? You need to get a license to live. If you do not have the license to live, you will have no license to run the blessing. You will only have the license of the curse, passing in and out the curse and collecting the curse. It will have no meaning at all.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. (Genesis 22:6-5 NIV)

His son was at the age of 30 years old and asked him” The wood is here and where is the sheep or lamb?” Abraham was walking with his son and wanted to offer his son to God. The son started to ask where was the lamb? If I were Abraham, I would cry “Oh, my son you are the lamb.” Abraham said to him “God will prepare”. But in fact, he was bluffing him. When they reached the mountain, Abraham started to bind the son. “ Oh, I am the lamb.” Do you know father and son were amazing figures? The father wanted to offer the son and the son wanted to offer himself. Do you know what kind of education they had gone through? They had gone through the education of blessing.

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22: 17-18) NIV

Today, I am giving you the training of blessing so you better listen carefully. This is the training of blessing and I better listen carefully. “Overcoming” You know God is a good God. When you compute the command of God and compute the promise of God, God said through your son Isaac, there would be coming out a great nation as well as the king would come out through him.

Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the dust on the earth. Abraham was confused if that was God’s promise to him and why God asked him to offer Isaac and burned him as an offering. He believed God could bring his dead son, Isaac through life and death and when he died, God could turn the dust into a living Isaac again. I would see a resurrection. What kind of faith is this?

Abraham had the faith: God is the God who turned the dead into life again. Do you trust that? God prepared his own son Our Lord Jesus Christ to carry our sin, to carry our burden, and to bear all our sufferings on the earth for all our curses. Praise the Lord! Our God is an amazing God. You and I have to be amazing people who are willing to offer ourselves to God like Isaac. Looking at the whole life of Isaac, you could see he was blessed and his life was simple and straightforward. There were not many chapters talking about Isaac as he got his license in one go. Isaac was so easy; he did not go to Egypt or here and there. Isaac offered himself willingly.

Do you want to be blessed? Years ago when I was praying, God spoke to me. “Do you want to die for me?" I said to God: "That is what I want.” Now you know why I am a blessed person. I have acquired the license to run the bank of blessing to train all of you. All of you owed me a favor because your blessings come from the way I follow Abraham and I got the license to run the bank of blessings. Passing on the blessings to all of you. It is not because of me, it is because Jesus Christ is the owner and I am merely a servant.

Do you believe God is a good God? Do not be suspicious, God is an amazing God. He offered his own son, not Abraham’s son, not your son, and not my son. When you are healed from your sicknesses, Jesus’s body will take all your sicknesses. The body of Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us that is why we received our blessings. That is called the doctrine of destiny or the doctrine of Ming Ding. Do you want to be blessed? You have to be an overcomer. The foundation of the overcomer of the faith.

Do you trust in God in this way? You would be probably wondering if God asked if you would die for me, you will say let me consider it. What are there to consider? Dying for God is one of the best options in our life. That is what I live for and that is exactly what I die for. **I did not come to this world for a woman, for a son, for being a wealthy person, or to live for myself. I live for God and that is my destiny. **

Another Overcomer: Jacob

Do you want to hear more stories about overcomers? If you read the book of revelation, God is looking for overcomers. Overcomer is not so difficult. Just trust in the Lord, then you can become an overcomer. Isaac had twins sons called Esau and Jacob. Jacob came in 5 minutes late as they were twins; Jacob became the younger brother and Esau was the older brother. As the younger brother, Jacob did not inherit the covenant of God. His father, Isaac, and grandfather Abraham had a covenant with God.

Above Jacob was his older brother Esau and he had the faith to turn the sequence of the birth. Do you know turning the sequence of birth is very challenging? The faith in Jacob was even greater than his father and grandfather's. He left his home after getting the blessing from his father. After receiving the blessing from his father, Jacob had to leave and walked to his uncle’s place because his elder brother Esau wanted to kill him.

At the age of 70 plus years old like his grandfather who came out of Harran as a wealthy person. Jacob was an amazing person walking away from home with only a staff in his hand. And after 20 years he finally came back from his uncle's place and he became a wealthy person. If you are looking for blessings, you will become a wealthy person. But if you only eye for becoming a wealthy person, probably you can't get that because you are looking at the wrong things. This is like switching on the light: If you want to switch on the light, don't just touch the light itself; You got to find the switch and press it. If you can find the switch, the light can then be switched on or off. It's not going to work if you touch any other place other than the switch. If you want to light up the room, you'd better figure out where the switch is.

Life is similar to this: if you want to be wealthy, you need to find the button of blessing. If you want to be a blessed person, then wealth and health will follow you. Of course, tests will also follow you. Then you got to go through the tests and eventually become an overcomer! There is no other choice. Either you become a winner, or you become a loser. You know, some people like to wear T-shirts with these texts: "I am a loser." Don't do this. Do you want to be a loser? No! you need to be a winner. You need to be an overcomer.

A lot of people like to label themselves: "OK, I'm just a mediocre person. I'm not a top student at school. I'm not that intelligent. I don't have that talent. I just want to live as an average person." No! If you only set a goal for average, you will fall below average. But if you set your goal for the top position, probably one day you can reach the top. Especially the young people, I encourage all of you to be stronger. Trust in the Lord! You can reach the top not because you have the talent or you have the capability. It's not because of your caliber or because of your muscle. It is because you trust in the Lord! The Lord can reverse the birth sequence. The Lord can turn the staff you carried when you are walking away from the family into a fortune of thousands of sheep, cattle, donkeys, and camels!

Submitting Yourself to God Is An Overcomer

And this is Jacob. One day he was standing by the ford. He was about to cross the river of Jordan. But he dared not to cross the river because he knew his brother Esau brought 400 men to come and kill him. He had kept informing his brother: "I'm coming back, my brother!" And the brother brought 400 men, all riding horses, to come over to kill him. Oh my God! Jacob was so worried: "Am I going to fight with my brother? No, no, no! How can I fight with 400 strong men!" You and I probably get confused: "I thought God had blessed Jacob. How come his brother became much stronger than Jacob? I thought Jacob was supposed to be stronger than the brother, right?" No, no, that's not the case. Fortunately, God made the brother Esau become so wealthy and powerful that he was able to keep 400 men in his household.

Why do I say "fortunately"? Do you know why? My analysis is like this: if the brother became poor, even became a beggar, then do you know what would happen? He would definitely cross over the Jordan and look for Jacob at their uncle's place and kill him. Is that so? I'm sure that will happen. But after becoming wealthy and getting 400 men, Esau would now think: "Cheating for the blessing, does that work? That's nonsense! Obviously, Jacob didn't get my blessing!" And especially when he saw the younger brother walking while pulling a limping leg.

You know in the night, Jacob did not want to cross over the Jordan River. He was staying there because he was so scared and distressed: "Oh! My brother brought 400 men with him. He wants to kill me! Oh, God, you had promised to me that I will go back to the land of Canaan. And you're supposed to give this piece of land to me and my descendants. But this time I'm going to die. God! I'm going to die!" Then God sent an angel to come and say: "Get across! Don't worry! Move! Go! Go forward!" But Jacob replied: "No, I don't want to get across! My brother wants to kill me! My brother is coming to kill me! No, I don't want to get across!" Then the angel said: "Go! Go! Get across!" The fear was so strong in Jacob, even greater than the faith! So Jacob started to wrestle with the Angel. They kept fighting until daybreak. The night was going over. The darkness was going over. The dawn was coming and the brother probably was getting quite near already.

Then do you know what happened? The angel touched Jacob and Jacob immediately fell to the ground, holding his leg. He was defeated by the angel. He wrestled with the Angel until such a time when his leg was touched by the angel and his hip was wrenched and couldn't move anymore. For the rest of his life, his leg was lame and he could not walk properly or run properly. In his earlier days, he could run on and he was healthy. But now he could not run anymore. You know what? He still said: "Bless me. Bless me." And from then on God gave him a new name called "Israel". It means he had struggled with God and with humans and had overcome! He became an overcomer and a winner!

But the question is how to become a winner? Jacob was defeated and injured. How can he be called a winner? Being defeated by the Angel is called an overcomer! Submitting yourself to God is the overcomer. Submitting yourself and trusting in the blessing of Almighty God is the overcomer. Come on! We got to give a clap to Jacob. You and I are supposed to inherit this kind of character.

The next day, Jacob walked all the way in the front and put everybody and everything behind. He got to confront his brother! Yes, you want to come and kill me because the promise of God is with me. I'm running a bank of blessings. I need a license. As the brother came and saw him, about one kilometer away, he was still thinking: "Kill this guy! This stupid Jacob cheated me and cheated my blessing!" But as he walked nearer, probably 300 meters away, Esau saw his brother, thinking: "Oh, my brother, walking with the limped leg. That's so difficult!" Then he saw Jacob falling down to the ground, and said to him: "My Lord." And Esau was then confused: "Look! I have 400 men with me. This guy is supposed to be blessed. But how come blessings are like that? Blessings? What nonsense! Actually, blessing doesn't work! Blessing is useless!" The mind of Esau suddenly changed. "Why should I kill him?" Then they hugged each other, wept together, and kissed each other. The two brothers were reconciled.

Becoming An Overcomer

Who had done the job? God did the job. God changed the mind of Esau! God can change the mind of your boss. God can change the mind of your enemy. Are you with me? That's called the blessing! It's so amazing! That is called the overcomer. Joseph is an overcomer. Everybody of us is an overcomer! All of us are overcomers! Do you want to be one? Do you want to run the bank of blessings? Join me! Join me to be an overcomer! If you have study problems, what's the big deal? Studying is not a tough job! You just sit in the aircon room or there is a fan blowing and you just need to look at the computer. So what's so difficult about that? It's so easy! You've got to overcome it.! If you say: "Oh, I got problems overcoming it." With God, nothing is impossible. With God, nothing is impossible.

When I was preaching this lesson, I feel excited. I feel so excited! And this is the time we're going to declare that we are overcomers. If you are an overcomer, you will be getting the blessing. And there are tests of your faith. If you go by analysis, you may get into the field of the knowledge of good and evil.

So next lesson, I'm going to talk about how to be an overcomer: changing your level. If you level yourself up to the level of God's strength and stand beside God's throne, looking down on the earth, looking at the universe, looking at your own life, the life of only 70 or 80 years, what do you do? You will see totally different things. Then you would be an overcomer as you know more and more of the truth of God. If you know God more and more, the truth will set you free. The truth will make you an overcomer. Don't just stand in the lower place. Stand at a higher place and watch far as the eternal. That iswhat I'm going to preach in the next lesson.

Shall we give gave a clap to our God? Yes, our God already guarantees you and me to be winners. To be an overcomer, you and I need to trust in him. That's all we need to do.

May the Lord bless all of you. Amen!