supernatural reality

i don't wanna read nor listen about it anymore. studying it isn't even enough. I WANT THAT SUPERNATURAL, KINGDOM REALITY NOW! lately the Lord's been stirring up a hunger to go out and bring His Kingdom into the streets. there's a thirst to see what's been written and preached by other ministries about what God is doing in their midst. healings break out, supernatural happenings and a greater measure of power in their meetings.

what is the prerequisite then? is it more intimacy with God? kairos moments? more prayer and intercession? Lord, what is it then? there must be more than this. i really want to see a change come into my nation more than anything. what kind of change? righteousness in the government, real grassroots poverty alleviation programs that will really help the masses, and more opportunities for those who have been marginalized. i want people to know Jesus. we were discussing last friday before cell group that God promised that if we lift Jesus He will draw all men to Him. that's the answer to calling out the multitudes. only when we allow Jesus to be lifted high in our hearts and lives, churches, cities and nation will the multitudes come.

yep, the solution is not political, economic nor more education. rizal wrote and prescribed that over a century ago but the philippines is still the same. it's JESUS this nation needs. we need a Jesus Revolution. i'm just waiting out for the blueprints and practical solutions on how to do it. the solution is already plain but the ways have yet to be defined. hmm...i guess finishing my thesis is one step. hahahahaha Jesus and finishing my thesis are my priorities in this season. hehe nangatawa ra ba silang happy and mitzil ani when they saw it on my phone. :-) ako sad i realized how amusing but oh so true it was. i must focus on what God wants me to do at this time.

This was a verse which kept coming back and i had to ask happy where it was found...voila! Acts.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay...acts 13:36

Find out what God is doing in your generation and put your whole life into it. - Lou Engle

change the status quo!!!

a news item on the philippine economy (Philippine rice crisis due to bad policies, not shortage: economist) struck me because it spoke truth in volumes and put it really bluntly. with all due respect, i do not completely agree with economist rolando dy that this is a matter of "income crisis" but a crisis of the hearts - i put mine first on the judgment block.

the philippines does not have a dearth of brilliance, "wisdom" or good ideas. what it lacks is good governance rooted in righteousness and justice which are the foundations of God's throne. the nation does not even have a scarcity of pundits and good economic advisers and highly intelligent politicians; what it is in dire need of are people who are righteous and are willing to do what is right instead of just settling for the good thing. people who have encountered God if i may put it bluntly. not religious people because the philippines has an overdose of religiosity that may be its own undoing.

i am just stirred up - honestly - and mad. not mad at people or GMA for that matter or her minions (sorry, Lord) but at the generational bondages and shackles that have enslaved this nation that for the majority corruption is the norm and the "political 10%" is a given in many government transactions. we have come to accept a lie and exchanged truth for deception. we have come to believe that it is "normal" for a nation to have corruption when, in fact, there is no corruption in the Kingdom of God. there must be a stirring up and a cry inside of us that will say "I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THIS IN MY NATION AND IN MY GENERATION!" if jeffrey sachs can write that it is unjust for poverty to exist for such a time as this then we must also say that corruption should not be the reality or the standard. it must not be the norm!

studying the literature on the times of hunger and subsistence crises in the province of cebu and hunger and poverty has convinced me that what is needed is not more laws, policies or programs or more aid that will end hunger but righteousness and justice in the hearts of men. will durant wrote "Julius Caesar sought to change men by changing institutions BUT JESUS CHRIST CHANGED INSTITUTIONS BY CHANGING THE HEARTS OF MEN."

the solution is not more aid from multilateral institutions nor more harvard and UP graduates but men and women who have been changed because they have encountered the Truth, the Way and the Life - Jesus Christ. men and women who have laid down their lives for the One who laid down His life for them and people who will lay down their lives for others. the way to end poverty, eradicate hunger and stop corruption is only JESUS. there is no other way and no other solution. we've tried everything in the past but they have all failed.

i remember my brother-in-law, nap, saying "as you go, preach" and i believe that is what we need to do as sons and daughters of God. we must proclaim His good news that Jesus came to give life and life abundantly, that He came to destroy the works of the enemy and that He came to set the captives free and to heal the sick and free not just people but nations. we have been called to disciple nations and generations. the earth has been given to man and we can contend for the philippines in the throne room of God! what God has spoken over the Philippines must be proclaimed to the north, south, east and west! it is time to rise up and bring God's Kingdom out into the streets.

excerpts:

"The so-called rice crisis is really an income crisis," said Rolando Dy, executive director of the food division of the Manila-based University of Asia and the Pacific.

The Philippines could raise productivity but it had not properly invested in agriculture or its support infrastructure like irrigation and farm-to-market roads, Dy said.

He said the government was investing little in research and development, building sub-standard rural roads and not putting enough irrigation into potential growth areas like the southern region of Mindanao.

Graft and corruption also hurt the agriculture sector with rural infrastructure being built to poor standards.

the end of poverty

okay, okay, it took me a year and two days to be exact to finish jeffrey sachs' riveting work about ending poverty in our lifetime. i'll chalk it up to the good ole reason that it wasn't the season for me to finish it when i bought it.hahaha

but seriously, swimming through the alphabet soup (as singer bono calls it) of acronyms, multilateral organizations, donor orgs and financial institutions, i told my brother-in-law that sachs' book could be summed up in two words: righteousness and justice plus one new word i just realized now: LOVE.

scholars would probably say that this "review" is simplistic and not entirely academic. yep, it sure isn't one. reading sachs gives us a glimpse on how the world and policymaking would look like if policymakers and think tanks had the heart and the passion to really, and i repeat really, help improve the lives of the people they are serving. not just improve their lives but really help them come out from the depths of despair, hopelessness, hunger, poverty and disease.

i remember jaja telling me that it's not true that the philippines is poor. it's just that there's too much money inside too few pockets (or shall i say bank accounts). unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities as the cliche goes.

while some of his critics would say that the book is filled with sachs' mentioning his advice there and advice here and his highly technical solutions i still say that his book is noteworthy for the fact that it is filled with hope for the hopeless and the disenfranchised. it is filled with compassion for those who cannot even help themselves. and it is full of practical ideas though i would dare say that he is simply a technocrat who has a strong faith in science, medicine and clinical economics. haha

but the one thing that kept running through my mind is this: what would it be like if a policymaker who has been in the courts and throne of heaven would write about God's strategies for ending hunger and poverty in our time? i can only imagine. i believe the answers are already in His Word plus a whole lot more in the Glory realm. what would it be like if we had leaders who were servants first and foremost, people who run for office because they know they have been called to serve?

the new york times called sachs "the most important economist of our time" and i see why. he calls for the rich world to care for the less developed and developing nations in the world. he calls for you and me to care for the people in africa, india and in other less developed parts. sachs puts faces to the cold statistics of poverty and hunger in our time. he sounds like a john the baptist in the world of economics and policymaking calling for the G8 countries, the UN, IMF-WB to redo the way they help, give aid and rethink their development policies and poverty alleviation. his is a radical and passionate call not only to change society but a paradigm shift with a big dream: to end poverty.

bono writes in his introduction of the book that...

"we can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies - but will we be that generation?"

that got me thinking of a paraphrase of that statement that i asked myself: "we can be the generation who will declare that these (hunger, corruption in the philippines, injustice, etc) will not happen during our watch - but will we be that generation?" it is an answer that probes us deeper and examines our hearts, me first.

i believe we can be the generation for such a time as this. there is a cause...and it's not just to end poverty but for His Kingdom to come.

This is our moment, this is our time, this is our chance to stand up for what is right. Bono from the Be A Hero website