How the Trinity works is like the BMW car chase scene in Tomorrow Never Dies

The way the three members of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) work together is and forever will be a mystery. Even when we get to heaven, it will be a mystery and we'll never fully understand how these three persons are distinct in personhood, yet unified in substance. We will never fully know how they are three in one (not three and one).

The Bible never comprehensively explained how this 3 person-community of the Trinity fully works, and I don't think it attempts to explain it fully, because I think the Bible intentionally leaves some room for mystery (it is only our recent western minds that try to rationally fit God into a box that have treated the Bible like a science textbook, or financial tax auditing manual). I personally engage in the Bible with more of a mystical mindset now. I am not a relativist, or an extreme mystic in the sense where I think there's no absolute truth, or that we can't know anything about truth. I've just developed the view that I think we don't know nearly as much as we think we know about God. And my attitude towards this fact is actually positive. I have positive reactions towards this limited knowledge we have of God. I don't anguish at theological mystery. I delight in it. Just like how a character might delight in the "magical mystery" of the world of Middle Earth or Narnia instead of dreading it.

With that being said, I have one disclaimer to say before I continue with this parable of James Bond. It, just like any parable, is not meant to exhaustively explain the things of God, or in this case, the Trinity specifically. It is not meant to illustrate ALL there is to know about the workings of the community of the Trinity. There is still a ton (and this is an understatement) to know about the Trinity that falls outside this parable. Nevertheless, parables were used by Jesus to borrow phenomena from the physical world in his culture to explain the "spirit" (pardon the pun) or essence of things in the spiritual world. This parable will attempt to illustrate a bit about how the Trinity is three in one, one with three and how the three members work together in a unified manner yet remain distinct from each other at the same time. Once again, it is not meant to be exhaustive, I cannot stress that enough. This analogy, like all analogies, is not perfect and does have its flaws. Nevertheless, here it goes.

Okay. So ladies and gentlemen, the Trinity is like the BMW car chase scene in the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies".

(slight modifications will be made to the car chase scene to illustrate more biblical truths)

In the BMW car chase scene, James bond is the Father. Anything that "controls" the BMW (whether it be the phone, steering wheel, weapons switches etc.) is Jesus the Son. The system in the BMW that enables itself to respond towards any controlling apparatus (whether it be the phone, steering wheel, weapons switches etc.) is the Holy Spirit. The BMW is the child of God aka living disciple of Jesus.

We start with James Bond who represents the Father of the Trinity. The Father is the "instigator" of the Trinity. He originates the "will" of what the Trinity will do. Jesus obeys the Father by "completing the work" that the father wishes (John 17:4). Other references referring to Jesus doing "nothing on his own" by doing/speaking only what the Father tells him to do/speak are found in John 5:19 and John 8:28-29. So Jesus obeys commands that originate not from him, but from the Father (John 15:10). In this parable, Jesus is the BMW's controlling apparatus. When Jesus was physically on earth, he told his disciples what to do directly and they generally attempted to follow (although far from perfectly). He told them to love each other, be each other's servants/slaves, not to worry, to bless those who curse you etc. In this sense, Jesus was the "steering wheel" in the BMW that directly told the BMW what to do. Notice that James Bond (the Father) was still controlling the "steering wheel" (Jesus was relaying instructions to the car that came from the Father) that, in turn, controlled the BMW. The BMW imperfectly responded to the steering wheel's/controlling apparatus' commands, which perfectly responded to James Bond's commands because the problem was not with the steering wheel/controlling apparatus but with the imperfect/flawed/sinful response of the BMW to those commands. This illustrates John 17:6-8.

Then Jesus died, resurrected, and "sent his disciples the Holy Spirit" (John 16:7). Jesus is now "out of the car" physically, just like how James Bond is out of the car physically.

(Here is where the clip somewhat deviates from the analogy, because James Bond hops back in the car for a while during the car chase. But the point is that James Bond could have perfectly given the car instructions without any restraints, restrictions or difficulties outside the car [with the remote control phone] just as he could have "in the car" [with the steering wheel]. For the sake of the parable, just pretend he was outside the whole time)

Yet we see that when the steering wheel of the car was no longer in use, a remote "steering apparatus" still existed that could nevertheless be used to send driving instructions to the BMW. This remote control telephone that is the BMW's steering apparatus is Jesus, because Jesus in heaven is still obeying the Father, and directing the BMW (his disciples). How does this remote control telephone control the BMW? Technologically speaking, there has to be a "response machine" or "response system" that exists inside the BMW that responds to the remote control's "signals" which is the Holy Spirit. Without this, the BMW could not intelligently "pick up" the signals and understand driving instructions from James Bond. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 it says the Holy Spirit is actually "in" us.

I think at least some of what Jesus meant in John 16:5-6 is "I, the steering wheel, am leaving the BMW now. And it is for your good that I am leaving the BMW. Because when I leave, you'll have the response system (Holy Spirit) installed in you so that you can adequately respond to James Bond's (the Father's) commands relayed through me remotely that enables you to respond in a way that you couldn't on your own without the response system's (Holy Spirit) help." This is because Jesus is the "mediator" who "mediates" our interactive relationship with the Father (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15)

This BMW inner response system has a role to "guide us". It does not "speak" or instruct on its own. It only instructs what it receives remotely (John 16:13) from the remote control steering apparatus (John 16:14-15).

In John 14:26, it says the Holy Spirit is like a "counselor" who teaches us and reminds us of what Jesus (the messenger/prophet of the Father's words) has said to us. But the Holy Spirit not only counsels us with wisdom, he also strengthens us with supernatural power that we wouldn't have on our own through the Father.

Using this analogy as a framework to understand Ephesians 3:16-17, we can see that James Bond will strengthen the BMW through the installed inner response system which enables it to respond to the signals given remotely from the remote control telephone. In this way, we can understand how "Christ can dwell in our hearts through faith", because although he's not with us physically, he is with us in a way, because he can direct the BMW with the exact amount of precision and skill remotely just as he could have if he were with us physically, and that is how he "dwells in us through faith" with love that "surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19 [we can't fully understand how the heck it works]). This is how we can understand how in a way, Jesus is not with us, but in a way, he totally is. Even though he is not physically with us, the "spirit" of him (pun intended) is in us, and therefore the "spirit" of him driving the BMW can be accessed anytime if we obey the promptings of "the Spirit". In this way, James bond is "with" the BMW and can have communion, fellowship, interactive relationship, as well as co-labour together with the BMW. The only way the BMW can screw itself over is if it "jams" the signals between the Spirit and the remote control, and/or if it sinfully disobeys the Spirit's guidance/convictions/callings/promptings. The sanctification process is a lifelong process of clearing the signals between the Spirit and the remote control, as well as obeying the guidance/convictions/callings/promptings of the Spirit.

Even though the BMW will be attacked by the enemy on all sides, it will be okay if it allows the inner response system to respond to the remote control telephone that responds to James Bond from a remote location. Although the BMW, will go through many attacks, trials, and tribulations, it can "take heart, because Jesus has overcome the world" (John 16:33).



And now, the clip



Notice how at the end of the clip, James Bond and the remote control telephone send the BMW and the inner response system into "the world".

"As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." - John 17:18

Being filled with the Spirit is like drunken boxing

"Being filled with the Spirit" is like drunken boxing.

In Ephesians 5:18, Paul tells the Ephesians to "not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." In the previous 2 verses, Paul gives 2 additional "don't do this but do the opposite" instructions (not to live as unwise, but wise, not to be foolish, but to understand what the Lord's will is). Therefore, I think it is reasonable to assume that "getting drunk on [literal] wine" is the opposite of "being filled with the Spirit. It is not only an absense of something bad, it is the "good version" of it. Just like how the opposite of "using words to curse your enemies" is not only the absence of using words, but instead "using words to bless them".

Now, let's see what usually happens when someone gets intoxicated due to the physical act of drinking too much alcohol. (I am not speaking from experience since I've never been drunk.) Drunk people lose control of themselves. They have less inhibitions (both socially and physically). They can take physical pain better ("can take more hits"). Sometimes, they're more creative (I heard of a story once where a person aced a university exam because he got drunk, and I hear stories of freestyle rappers being able to freestyle better when they're drunk because they have better "flow").

Now what is "the flesh"? Biblically speaking, it means "without God" in the sense that God is not the center of purpose, nor is he relied on for power to achieve certain ends. Now this capacity for ourselves to be "under the influence/control of a substance foreign to ourselves" is in itself neutral (in my opinion). However,  the influence of alcohol, or any other foreign substance, if it makes one lose control of oneself so that one cannot submit to the will of God better, then there is a problem. Because ultimately, sin is the failure to submit to God's will. And due to the aforementioned effects of being drunk on alcohol, it is so much harder (if not impossible) to submit to God's will each moment when one is intoxicated.

However, there is a flipside to our human ability to be "under the influence/control of a substance foreign to ourselves". There is a way to "tap" into this neutral ability of ourselves in a way that not only doesn't inhibit us from submitting to God's will better, but actually helps us submit to God's will better than we can without it. That is "being under the dynamic and organic influence/control of the Holy Spirit". What are some of the "flipside" effects of this? We actually have "better" self-control under this "foreign substance" (Galatians 5:23). We have less inhibitions that stem from being timid and shy (2 Timothy 1:7) so we can "courage it up" to do the right thing even against social/cultural pressure. I personally (this comes from my own collective interpretation of Scripture) think that "being filled with the Spirit" makes us more creative with "flow" in a way that gives us ideas to fulfill God's will that we couldn't have come up with ourselves. In John 3:8 Jesus tells us that the Spirit is unpredictable in which direction He goes, like the wind. In another passage of Scripture it says that when we are questioned in front of authorities for our faith, the Spirit will tell us what to say. In Acts 23, Paul creatively "Jack Bauered" himself out of the situation, possibly due using creativity being filled with the Spirit.

Last but not least, being filled with the Spirit allows one to "take spiritual hits/attacks" better. In Proverbs 23:31-35 it talks about the effects of being drunk. In verse 35 it says:

"They hit me," you will say, "but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"

In the Holy Spirit version of being "drunk" spiritually, it allows one to persevere fighting the good fight, and to "take beatings from the enemy" supernaturally without staying down, wailing in pain and tapping out. One can just get back up... sometimes miraculously, after years of training (I'm not speaking only from personal experience, but just from the stuff I read from the spiritual drunken masters of spiritual giants in church history).

Elder Jacob Knapp, a spiritual giant full of the Spirit in church history, himself said "It is really surprising what a small amount of sleep and food we can get along with, and how much we can endure, when we are filled with the Spirit. Machinery well oiled can be run day and night for years together with but little friction." There are many others (i.e. John Wesley) that have testified likewise from their personal experience of divine intoxication.

How does one practically learn how to be filled with the Spirit? Speaking from my very limited personal experience, I have to say that in a way I can tell you, but in a way, I can't. In a way, I can teach someone how to learn Mandarin, but in a way, I can't. There are simple basic things one can do (play the Game with Minutes [try to be aware of God's presence every minute without a legalistic attitude taking over]) as well as "pay attention and do experiments on one's consciousness like a metacognitive scientist". But explaining how to become "fluent" in those skills is like trying to explain to someone how to become "fluent" in Mandarin. There are certain prescribed exercises that one can do. But in the end, the mind has to inexplicably "figure it out" and "learn the language itself". Just like how I can model Chinese to you, but I can't learn it for you. I can model being "filled with the Spirit", but I can't learn it for you. The latter for both depend on the digestion, processing, and growth that transcends any exhaustive person-to-person verbal instructions or descriptions.

The effects are supernatural.

*Note: This analogy, like all analogies, has flaws in it. I recognize that there are some difference between "being filled with the Spirit" and "being influenced by alcohol to fight better in drunken boxing". If taken too far, the analogy crumbles. However, the heart of what I'm trying to communicate is that being under the influence of practically being filled with the Spirit, like a foreign substance that influences the physical body, allows us to achieve effects in spiritual warfare that we cannot achieve without the influence of this "extra-human substance" aka the Holy Spirit influencing our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls.

Everything before 5:00 of this clip illustrates Romans 7. 5:00 - 5:12 is John 3:7. 5:12 onwards is Romans 8.

Emotional Programming 101 (v1.0)

Although us followers of Christ may know some of the answers, we must not neglect finding out what the questions people have are.

1)"Christ died for your sins."
2)"The power of the Cross saves you from guilt."
3)"You don't need to feel bad anymore, Jesus sacrificed himself for you to take the penalty of your sin in your place."

These are common things we hear in our Christian circles. They're also true and fundamental to the Christian faith. But I dare to say that sometimes these answers aren't relevant to the questions people have on their hearts. These facts do matter and are extremely important. But people just aren't inquiring about them.

Statements #1, 2, and 3 assume that the question on the listener's heart is "How do I get saved from the guilt of sin?". But quite honestly, this is not the immediate question on people's hearts a lot of the time. Especially for the Christian who knows that he/she is not guilty and is innocent in God's eyes if one accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The question in a lot of people's hearts, I dare to say, is "How do I get saved from the power of sin?". A lot of our Christian resources kill tree after tree printing books about the first question while neglecting very concrete help for the second one. I am not saying resources should stop in addressing the first question. However, I do think that there needs to be a balance of resources that focus on both questions, and that a disproportionate production of one at the neglect of the other is a dangerously imbalanced state for the Church to be in.

Proportionally speaking, we have enough books that talk about Romans 7. But, I think, very few books comprehensively, practically, and crisply talk about how Romans 8 can be concretized in one's own life, without resorting to mere "flowery" abstract images and pretty words about sanctification that have no concrete anchoring in the hour-to-hour "mundane" and "everyday" existence that comprises most of our lives outside of our Sunday services and 1 hour devotions from Monday to Saturday (which are good things in themselves).

I am going to be very blunt.

A lot of things we do and promote don't change us to be more Christ-like. I'm not talking about external behaviour modification so that the external forms of our behaviours fits in with what Jesus' external behaviour would do. I'm talking about a divine metamorphosis in the deepest core of one's being so that one's deepest insides where Christ resides in undergoes a "holy mutation of one's spiritual DNA" so that one's fundamental desires are changed from Galatians 5:19-21 into Galatians 5:22-23. As Dallas Willard says, just changing the external behaviour of a person from "unrighteousness" to "righteousness" really doesn't make one more righteous any more than tying apples to the branches of a live orange tree makes that orange tree turn into an apple tree.

I am not trying to say this with a critical spirit, I am just trying to save people (at least those who are willing to consider what I have to say with an open mind) some time, heartache, and disappointment. Based on my observations, research, and personal experience:

-just listening to the best sermons on "living for God's glory" won't produce this type of change
-just doing an hour devotional every day won't produce this type of change
-just going to good God-glorifying Christian conferences won't produce this type of change
-just reading good orthodox/exegetically and hermeneutically sound theological textbooks won't produce this type of change
-just having group inductive Bible studies/group discussions on "the Cross" won't produce this type of change
-just playing and singing worship songs all day won't produce this type of change

Ouch. Someone had to say it

What, then, will produce this kind of change?

Hour-by-hour die-hard discipleship to Jesus Christ that consists of training to live like Jesus more hardcore than an Olympian trains for the Olympics.
Training to fast like Jesus. Training to meditate on scripture like Jesus. Training to pray like Jesus. Training to engage in solitude like Jesus. Training one's thoughts, feelings, will, physical body, and social life to become more like the thoughts, feelings, will, physical body, and social life of Jesus. Training to listen to the Father's voice every minute like Jesus. Training to be filled with the Holy Spirit every minute like Jesus.

I've learned that entire universities should be erected based on the pursuit of experiential knowledge of Christ-likeness. There are so many categories of discipline in the quest of following Christ, some of which are mentioned above (e.g. praying like Jesus prayed), which could be further broken down into more specifics within the Christ-like discipline (e.g. Protestant prayer, Catholic prayer, Eastern Orthodox prayer), which could then further lead to specialization in the sub-field (e.g. how to learn to literally pray without ceasing so that one calls upon God literally as often as one takes a breath, even while one is sleeping [it is possible I have learned!]). After a while, people can come up with their own "PHD"s in Christlikeness that will be their unique contribution to the greatest pursuit ever pursued. There could also be interdisciplinary subjects within this university of Christlikeness (e.g. how to love God with the will while engaging in fasting).

"But why go through all the trouble" one would ask? Aren't we saved by God's grace already? Yes, we are. But returning to the questions above, I would say that although God's grace has saved us from eternal damnation in hell, if we are passive, we will continue to be harassed, self-destructive, and miserable the rest of our lives on earth, everyday being tormented by the self-destructiveness of the POWER of sin.



Sin is self-destructive. It is very foolish to pat oneself on the back to think "I'm not sinning as much as he/she is in this area." Why is it foolish? Because sin is self-destructive precisely. If one guy's stabbing himself with a swiss-army knife, and is happy that in comparison to the guy standing next to him, who is stabbing himself with a butcher knife, he is not "that bad", he is foolish. Who cares what you're stabbing yourself with? The point is, you're stabbing yourself and causing yourself pain! Another vivid image of how ridiculous this is would be to the analogy of sticking our face deeply in animal feces (which is what sin is like). If I were to think I'm "better" than you because I'm sticking my face in human manure rather than you, who is sticking his face in horse manure and pride myself upon that, how insane would I be? In reality, who cares? The point is we're both disgustingly sticking our faces in fresh manure.

As Dallas Willard once said, one of Satan's tricks is to get us to think how "miserable" die-hard discipleship to Jesus would be like and at the same time get us to forget how miserable we are right now in our present state.

Jesus said he came to give us life to the full, to give it to us abundantly. He said that all who come and "yoke" themselves with him experience the restful, gentle "easy yoke". This is not just empty rhetoric without any concrete effects. Jesus doesn't just throw in pretty words without substance. He was either lying, insane, or he was actually telling the truth.

Let's just take 2 examples to illustrate the kind of life Jesus is talking about here:

1) Worrying. We Christians know in our minds that we shouldn't worry about things outside of our control. We have this "truth" in our heads. However, when we come across a "worrisome" event in our lives (e.g. possibly getting fired from work, possibly arriving late for something important, possibly losing a lot of money etc.), just mechanically reminding ourselves "not to worry about things outside of our control that are in God's hands" is, for all practical purposes, virtually useless. We just keep worrying, it affects our sleep, our well-being, our ability to relaxfully enjoy things we normally enjoy. The bottom line is that the problem is not an ignorance problem, namely a "lack of data". The problem is also not a lack of on-the-spot willpower. The problem is a lack of training. And the perpetual lack of training leads to ever-exacerbating self-destructiveness that spirals messier and messier by the month.

2) Caring about what others think more than what God thinks. We Christians know we shouldn't do this. We have this "truth" in our heads. However, when we come across an incident where we immediately become embarassed, nervous, and care immensely about what others think of us (e.g. being at a social event where we are publicly misunderstood for something "wrong" we did which we know we were really not at fault, being criticized by others whether justly or unjustly, talking to attractive members of the opposite sex) just mechanically reminding ourselves of these truths in our heads is, for all practical purposes, completely useless. Once again, the problem is not an ignorance problem, or a will-power problem. But a lack of training. And like the above example, a perpetual lack of training leads to ever-exacerbating self-destructiveness that also spirals into messier and messier patterns by the month.

I'll say it because someone has to say it. Based on my research, observation, and personal experience the life that is not hardcore in hour-to-hour discipleship to Jesus is a miserable life (in the long run that is). No wonder Jesus labeled that sort of life a life of "weary" and "burden" (Matthew 11:28).

Practically, why is this the case? There are many angles to answer this question. But the one I'll tackle in this entry is the neglect of being aware of and training one's "emotional programming". Emotional programming is the "fixed system of emotional responses to events that have been habituated over a process of established patterns that run regardless of one's immediate conscious consent".

You see, if we don't control our emotional programming, our emotional programming will control us. In order to temporarily enjoy the positive opinion of others, we must "put the opinion of others on the throne of our hearts" aka care about what they think of us. But very quickly and surreptitiously, this originally innocent looking ruler of social opinion turns into an autocratic dictator who refuses to be dethroned off the throne of our hearts whether democratically, or through forceful revolution. It makes our heart care about what others think, without being able to "turn social opinion off" and not care what others think of us during times where we're being looked down upon. And this evil dictator soon takes over the whole regime of structural emotional programming of the system into a totalitarian government that oppresses, destroys, annihilates, leaving everything in disorder.




Our emotional programming will either become conformed to the world's emotional programming or the emotional programming of Jesus Christ.

Just like a professional athlete. If we are strenuous in training/discipline, then during "showtime"/critical moments performance will be easy. But if we go easy on the training/discipline, then during "showtime"/critical moments performance will be strenuous.

If we just spend 1 hour a day in our devotions, while the other 23 hours are spent "letting the animal of our emotions loose" without discipline, then it will definitely conform to the patterns of this destructive world. But if we train ourselves to proactively interpret every situation and circumstance we are in as a God-engineered, ordained, and orchestrated event that is customarily designed to make us more Christlike for our own good by giving us an opportunity to uniquely conform us to Christ-likeness tailored to our personal situation, then we will slowly, indirectly, but surely, bit by bit, conform our emotional programming to the emotional programming of Christ through disciplines such as this. Once we become so accustomed to training in this aspect of Christlikeness, we will eventually be able to react to have the spontaneous emotional reactions to all types of events that Christ had when he encountered similar stuff during his years on earth (he was sound asleep on a boat in the middle of a raging storm that made his disciples scream their heads off [I have not reached this level yet, and am extremely far from it. However, I am closer to it than I was last year])

But if we fail to take charge of our emotional programming and let them destructive programs run at high-speed unchecked (e.g. interpret the majority of our daily events the way an actual atheist does), our naturally destructive emotions will get locked into a fixed unhealthy pattern, much like a train locked into a set path of tracks, headed straight towards collision, mercilessly bulldozing anything that is in its path (e.g. panic on negative outcomes and try to secure acceptable outcomes with our own finitude without God's sovereignty and goodness in the picture and worry whether our efforts are adequate in securing what we self-absorbedly want). Someone's general emotional trajectory is not that hard to predict if one knows how one has been arranging (or neglecting to arrange) the train tracks of one's emotional programming during the "23 hours outside of quiet time" for the average Christians, and I guess the whole 24 hours for the average non-Christian. We will sooner or later encounter a crisis and literally have an emotional train wreck.

As Iron Man sharpens War Machine, so one die-hard disciple of Jesus sharpens another

Proverbs 27:17 says

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

I experienced this today.

I just came back from 4 hours with Jesse at Second Cup where we engaged in a time of mutual sharing, encouragement, strategizing, and dreaming together about how things could be in Toronto.

It's so refreshing to be with another brother who is so passionate, radical, and willing to not only die for Christ but live for Christ. God has given us similar passions, similar experiences growing up in the same Christian sub-culture of Toronto CBC spirituality, similar experiences living an extended time out of Toronto to learn more about the world as well as about Toronto by being outside of it. God has given both of us a heart for Toronto. While we're not sure whether or not he's gonna be in Toronto soon, it was refreshing just to dream with a fellow spiritual Jack Bauer.

Spiritually refreshing. emotionally motivating, intellectually stimulating, strategically innovating. Invigorating on multiple dimensions. I really appreciate this brother of mine.

It's not that I don't know any other passionate Christians in Toronto my age, I do. But I don't know too many who have the same commonalities in the following respects:

1)from personal experience, being somewhat disillusioned with "traditional North American church"
2)who have lived outside of Ontario for a long period of time
3)who are convinced that spiritual formation (understood biblically) can change the world
4)who are initiative taking/proactive "Jack Bauers" for Christ

This brother is, and I was greatly blessed catching up with him today. I really hope I get to work with him in the future. It would be a dream of mine to collaborate with him. He's gifted in ways that I'm not. He's experienced in ways that I lack. He can see potential blindspots in idealistic dreams. He's not afraid to straightforwardly challenge my ideas/thinking/strategy when he sees potential implications of my train of thought.

There is a certain type of brotherhood that one can only experience when one is in the trenches together with a fellow soldier, where both are fighting and sacrificing for a cause that is greater than themselves. Although I do not know this brother too well, I feel this way when the Lord blesses me with opportunities to go to war against the enemy with him.

Because Jesse has "been in the game" longer than I have, I feel like he's iron man, and I'm war machine.

He has had experience "putting" and "being strong" in the full armour of God to struggle against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world, and using the power of various portions of God's spiritual armour to engage in the invisible warfare against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-12)

I would be privileged to collaborate with him like the following scene with iron man and war machine and to take a stand with him for Christ "when the day of evil comes" (Ephesians 6:13). When it comes to the spiritual armour of God, intentions aren't enough. One cannot just have good intentions, put on the armour of God and passively sit there without training oneself how to use it. One has to be trained how to use the armour, and to proactively "be on guard, stand firm, and be strong with courage" like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:13. For example in meditating on the Word of God, there is a world of a difference in mechanically saying verses like a spell Harry Potter style and expecting that in and of itself to expel demons compared to using creative/novel/deep ways of actively meditating in the Spirit on certain verses in certain ways in certain contexts to ward demons off.



God has given me a vision to raise up a spiritual army of soldiers of Christ to combat evil, hate, destruction, with Christ's power of love. Spiritual warriors well trained in the experiential use of God's spiritual armour. God has given me the passion to raise up a generation of spiritual "iron mans" for Christ who put on armour that enables them to engage in spiritual warfare in ways that would be impossible without it, just like how it would be impossible for iron man to fight the bad guy in iron man 2 without his iron man body suit. Just like iron man, we soldiers of Christ must not passively put on the suit and do nothing, but learn how to work with the suit to fight evil. The suit of armour is grace. God has given it to us, and we do not deserve it. Nevertheless, we must learn with hands-on experience how to navigate, work with, and control each part of the suit until it feels like each part of the armour is like part of our body itself. I have a desire to be trained in as well as train others how to consistently have the armour of God with us, so that when the day of evil comes unexpectedly, we may be able to take a stand our ground against the enemy, not by our own ability, but by proactively working with the grace of God's armour and his mighty power. Demons can attack us at any moment. They come and assault unexpectedly like thieves. And when they come, we have to have the armour of God with us on hand and fight.

With the belt of truth, we can do more than just "memorize and recite to ourselves what is true". We can also take lies in our head (it is important to get what I want right now) and extend those lies all the way out to their logical conclusions in our imaginations to show their utter absurdity (I don't know what's best for myself and I have regretted what I wanted a lot in the past, and God in "birds eye view" knows what's best for me and looking out for me, so I don't have to look out for myself).

With the breastplate of righteousness, we don't just merely remind ourselves that "Jesus makes me righteous" (although that's true). But we create habits of righteousness with our bodies (Romans 6:13) so that our physical bodies end up with embedded righteous habits and rid themselves of destructive habits [such as holding our tongues {our tongues are so powerfully influential on our whole being like what James says in James 3:5-6} when someone disses/insults us rather than naturally just responding back in direct or indirect retaliation with it, and blessing those who curse us by natural instinct due to bodily training of the tongue].

With the Gospel of peace, we do not merely intellectually remind ourselves of the gospel, but we walk, jog, and run according to the rhythm and "spirit" of Good News that makes us more agile in battle, since we take ourselves lightly and live in an attitude free of self-condemnation due to deleting the "negative emotional programming" of getting down on oneself when one fails, and in turn installing the "positive emotional programming" of not putting one's hope for success in one's own efforts/abilities, but in God's providence. This gives one spiritual agility.

With the shield of faith we, on the subconscious level, learn to live with an interpretive framework that makes sense of all of life's events in light of Romans 8:28 (and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose) and use our imagination to imagine how the huge rocks that Satan throws at us to prevent us from crossing an uncrossable river get caught by the hand of God, and placed in front of us as the next stepping stone to cross on.

With the helmet of salvation we learn to live all of life in the psychological context of eternal life, which defined in John 17:3 by Jesus himself as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. We recognize that the "knowing" that Jesus himself is talking about here is not intellectually acknowledging the existence of God like Judas, Pharisees, and demons also did, but actively engaging in interactive relationship with God every moment of life. With training in putting on the helmet of salvation, our minds are protected from the dangerous tendencies to encounter life's events without acknowledging the concrete/social/immediate presence of God with us in whatever circumstance that we're in and instead we have the attitude of "wherever we go, God will be right beside us to experience everything with me inside of me."

With the sword of the Spirit, we learn to meditate on the word of God in creative ways appropriate to different circumstances that require flexibly prescribed methods that change hour to hour. Just like playing different piano keys at different times on the piano according to the "will" of the song's notes at certain times, we meditate on different scriptural verses of the Bible at different times according to God's specific "will", or "chapter"/"mood"/"spiritual weather" at the time. The Word of God is living and active. If something is living and active it is organic/dynamic/spontaneous to a certain degree. This is far from being like Harry Potter's wand.

We also learn to pray in the Spirit. There are probably over a thousand ways of praying. A lot of us western churches only regularly practice 2-3 methods.

So learning how to apply the God's gracious tools of spiritual armour and becoming familiar with how to use them in active combat, we will be able to deal with unexpected spiritual terrorist attacks when they come at us without warning by having the armour of God with us wherever we go. So when the day of spiritual terrorism arrives, we will be able to stand our ground, and after we have done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:13)



Just imagine a whole generation of spiritual iron mans who can do this!







***






Since I want to become a cop, I've been trying to equip myself in multiple ways which I think would come in handy if I do get hired as one. Therefore, I've been researching and applying ways to read people's microexpressions (what emotion psychologist Paul Ekman is known for researching and specializing in [i.e. the book "emotions revealed") more in social situations. I've also applied some of the stuff I've read about body language in Joe Navarro's book "what every body is saying".

The results are shocking (assuming that I'm applying the instructions properly). It's like I can (sometimes but not always) see more through people's smokescreens of false/artificial facial expressions (especially false smiles). What subtle giveaway signs of masked emotions that used to escape my awareness are starting to register on my "social emotion radar" and its shocking! What a deceitful world we live in!

The Kingdom of God is like Batman begins to Chris

I've lost count how many times I've rewatched my favourite clips of Batman begins on my laptop. I think out of all the movie characters I relate to most, Bruce Wayne (in the newest batman series) is the one I relate to the most. It's crazy how much I identify with his character in Batman begins. So many parallels between his life and my spiritual journey the past couple of years ever since I went on my 2-year trip to East Asia.



In Batman begins, bruce wayne is fed up with Gotham and just wants to leave it, go to the East for a while, and fight crime there. He goes around, studying the world of crime and comes upon a school of crime fighting masters, who train him how to fight crime effectively.

"You know how to fight six men. We can teach you how to engage six hundred." *swords clash*

The spiritual version is:

"You know how to fight six demons. We can teach you how to engage six hundred." *swords clash*

After he's done training (for 7 years! I was only gone for 2), he boards the plane back. On the runway Alfred greets him with the words "Master Wayne, you've been gone for a long time." Bruce replies "Yes I have." and boards it.

On the plane ride back, Alfred asks him "Are you coming back to Gotham for long sir?"
Mr. Wayne replies "As long as it takes. I want to show the people of Gotham that their city doesn't belong to criminals and the corrupt." He also adds later on that "People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy."


This is more or less what I've been going through spiritually the last 2 years or so. I was fed up with the spiritual state of the church in the West, Canada, and Toronto. It seemed so apathetic. In the spiritual realm, it seemed ruled by spiritual criminals (that break God's spiritual laws) and the spiritually corrupt (Go against God's Kingdom and his governing). I wanted to go where the spiritual action was, in East Asia. I sort of unexpectedly came across Christian spiritual formation masters that taught me the ways of the spiritual realm, how the spiritual world worked, and how to fight "spiritual crime". My spirit was trained, not so much with intellectual facts, but with hands-on engagement of spiritual sparring with sparring equipment.I learned how to use the sword of God. I learned that it's not good enough to just hold the sword of God (the Bible), but one must know how to wield it effectively in live battle (meditate on it skillfully and prudently during heated situations/circumstances). I was taught timeless principles of spiritual warfare not through second-hand downloads of armchair theological books, but through first-hand experience.

After I felt I had enough training, my heart wanted to go back to Toronto, to contribute towards the spiritual revival of a sleeping city that's been in a spiritual slumber way too long (we even have a company called sleep country Canada). I believe God, the storywriter, is the one who has returned this burden for Toronto in my heart, to see spiritual revival here, just like how Christopher Nolan returned a burden to redeem Gotham in the character of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.



When Bruce Wayne first reappeared in Gotham, he had compassion on the people in it, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. But he didn't just impulsively go in right away and start the action (this is something crucial that I'm learning right now). He started to plan his courses of action, design equipment, and strategize how to strike. He understood his culture well. He understood specific conditions of his city as he gathered intelligence about how things were going. And he started to design his Batman equipment in a way that would allow his principles of crime fighting that he learned in the East to be effectively applied to his own Western city. He took time and effort to do this.

I feel like I'm in this stage right now. I'm learning (sometimes the hard way) that I can't just impulsively jump into things without any thought and planning right away. I need to figure out the conditions of this city more. The state of spiritual allies and enemies and the status quo here. I need to design my "equipment" that will help me to apply the timeless spiritual principles effectively when things start rolling. Just as how Bruce Wayne used scientific gadgets and technology to help him navigate and strike in the physical realm and work with the physical laws (e.g. gravity) and not against it, right now, I am trying to learn about the "psychological realm" of our age in the West, understand neutral laws of psychology and construct and equip myself with psychological tools to effectively and relevantly apply these timeless spiritual formation principles in spiritual warfare here. I should not rush this. Practically, this includes how the process of digesting concepts and ideas affect the human, how images have a subtle yet strong effect on the mind, the power of analogies in how they help the mind organize and arrange seemingly mutually irrelevant data, the power of connotations from carefully chosen words, the power of hidden assumptions in images etc. I feel like I am renovating my "psychological batcave" right now.

I also thank God for mentors that act as my "spiritual Alfreds" as well as various resources that resource me like "Lucius Foxes".

I sense a few things happening in the future that happened to Bruce in his journey of returning to Gotham and fighting crime in it.

I feel that I will fall down many times in the future (like Bruce) and will need Alfreds to pick me back up.

There was a part in the movie where Bruce Wayne felt like he failed to save Gotham.

“I wanted to save Gotham… I failed” - Bruce

“Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up” - Alfred

“You still haven’t given up on me?” - Bruce

“Never” - Alfred

I already kinda felt that I fell down a few times.

Also, just like how Batman has some people that don't like him as well as another bunch who do like him. He gives a mixed impression, and is portrayed as a controversial figure. Some ppl support him. Some ppl are against what he does. He doesn't abide by the human-made laws just for the sake of abiding by the human-made laws. He doesn't purposefully go against them just to be a jerk, but when he sees higher principles that supersede human-made laws, he sticks with the higher principles, and by doing so, offends the traditional cops who "go by the book" in every single case just because that's the way how they've been doing it in the past. He sees flaws in the human-system of crime fighting so he doesn't wait for the traditional law enforcement guys to do their thing. He starts his own "unauthorized" crime fighting. He is a vigilante not for the sake of going against the cops and doesn't try to stop what the cops are doing. He doesn't disrespect the cops for pleasure. He just sees more effective ways of doing things and therefore does his own thing.

In some ways, I can identify with Bruce in this respect as well. I know (and am starting to prepare myself) that not everyone who wants to see spiritual crime abolished in Toronto will agree with my non-traditional means, but I will continue to start a grass-roots spiritual crime fighting movement. I know I will encounter opposition from others on the "same team" as me in the future. I think it would be naive to believe otherwise. I should just psychologically prepare myself for it.

I find so much inspiration from this Batman begins movie that I find myself rewatching my favourite motivational clips from it about once a month (at least). It's crazy how many spiritual parallels I find with Bruce Wayne. Or perhaps maybe it's becoming more of a self-fulfilling prophecy ever since these parallels entered my mind a little over a year ago.

I feel God speaking to me sometimes as I watch this movie. Of course the analogies are not all perfect with lots of flaws, but nevertheless it really concretizes a lot of things I feel in my soul as I journey in this chapter of my life.

Plus, I believe that God speaks to his people not outside the cultural symbols of the person's own culture, but within them. In the Gospels, Jesus always used cultural symbols inside of the culture of the person he was talking to illustrate Kingdom principles in a very relevant/real/immediate way. He did not use Chinese illustrations to a Jewish audience. Nor did he use African analogies to the Romans. He used cultural symbols originating from the Jewish culture to communicate Gospel truths to the Jews. He used Roman terminology to illustrate Kingdom truths to the Romans.

I strongly believe that if Jesus were living in the West today, he would use symbols within the Western culture to illustrate the unchanging truths of the Kingdom of God. He would totally say stuff like "The Kingdom of God is like McDonalds because..." or "The Kingdom of God is like the White House..." or "The Kingdom of God is like the TV show American Idol...". With his wisdom, he could take any everyday object in his sight and illustrate profound spiritual truths from it, like an SUV, or a bowling ball, or a 747 in our culture.

With that in mind, I feel God speaking to me a lot in modern day movies. By that I don't mean that he tells me new apostolic truths through them. But I mean that he really fleshes out abstract principles that appear far away from my soul in a really in-your-face realism through modern day movies that contain modern day symbols/analogies. Of course the truths being fleshed out are (or should be) in line with the truths and the general direction of the truth laid out in the Good Book.

Yes, the Kingdom of God is like Batman begins.

Oh yea. And I do plan to work with "Commissioner Gordons" (people who feel called to remain working "within" the traditional system to continue capitalizing on the strengths of it in ways vigilantes can't) in the future. Batman can't crime fight without Commissioner Gordons that work with him. I don't feel that it's an either/or distinction of God redeeming Toronto EITHER through non-traditional grassroots spiritual movements OR traditional systems. He can, and I feel like he will use both to team up with each other, each with their own calling.


*The final action scene where the bad guys want to poison the entire Gotham hydro system by sending a train full of poison into the main city's water supply*

“The narrows is tearing itself to pieces” - Commissioner Gordon

“This is just the beginning. If they hit the whole city, there’s nothing to stop Gotham from tearing itself apart from mass panic” - Batman

“How they gonna do that?” - Commissioner Gordon

“They’re going to use the train. The monorail follows the water mains to the central hub beneath Wayne Tower. If the machine gets to the station, it’ll cause a chain reaction that’ll vaporize the city’s water supply. “ - Batman

“Covering Gotham in this poison” - Commissioner Gordon

“I’m gonna stop him from loading that train, but I may need your help” - Batman

“What do you need?” - Commissioner Gordon

“Do you drive stick?” - Batman

signs of the Kingdom in the last century

While I was in Hong Kong 2 winters ago staying with Johnny, I picked up the book "Rumours of Another World" by Phillip Yancey that I found lying around his house and read it. Among the many amazing stories that Yancey briefly described one in particular captured me. I ended up buying the original book online immediately which was written by someone in the middle of the original story. Since I have a ton of books on my ever-increasing to-read list (one distinguishing hallmark of a bookworm), I only got around to reading this book I got from Amazon last week. I finished it yesterday. Since Yancey does a way better job of condensing the main storyline than I would ever do, I'll just type it up here verbatim:

Another story with poignant parallels comes from World War II. The classic movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" Starring Alec Guinness, gave some of the background, but not until recently did the book and movie "To End All Wars" fill in details of the extraordinary life of Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer captured at sea by the Japanese at the age of twenty-four.

Gordon was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway line that the Japanese were constructing through the dense Thai jungle for possible use in an invasion of India. For labor, they conscripted prisoners of war they had captured from occupied countries in Asia and from the British Army itself. Against international law, the Japanese forced even officers to work at manual labor, and each day Gordon would join a work detail of thousands of prisoners who hacked their way through the jungle and built up a track bed through low-lying swampland.

The scene was straight out of Dante. Naked except for loin cloths, the men worked under a broiling sun in 120-degree heat, their bodies stung by insects, their bare feet cut and bruised by sharp stones. Death was commonplace. If a prisoner appeared to be lagging, a Japanese guard would beat him to death, bayonet him, or decapitate him in full view of the other prisoners. Many more men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease. Under these severe conditions, with such inadequate care for prisoners, 80000 men ultimately died building the railway, 393 fatalities for every mile of track.

Ernest Gordon could feel himself gradually wasting away from a combination of beriberi, worms, malaria, dysentery, and typhoid. Then a virulent case of diphtheria ravaged his throat and palate so severely that when he tried to drink or eat, the rice or water would come gushing out through his nose. As a side effect of the disease, his legs lost all sensation.

Paralyzed and unable to eat, Gordon asked to be laid in the Death House, where prisoners on the verge of death were laid out in rows until they stopped breathing. The stench was unbearable. He had no energy even to fight off the bedbugs, lice, and swarming flies. He propped himself up on one elbow long enough to write a final letter to his parents and then lay back to await the inevitable.

Gordon's friends, though, had other plans. They built a new bamboo addition onto their hut on high ground, away from the swamp. They carried his shriveled body on a stretcher from the contaminated earth floor of the Death House to a new bed of split bamboo, installing him in clean quarters for the first time in months.

Something was astir in the prison camp, something that Gordon would call "Miracle on the River Kwai." For most of the war, the prison camp had been a laboratory of survival of the fittest, every man for himself. In the food line, prisoners fought over the few scraps of vegetables or grains of rice floating in the greasy broth. Officers refused to share any of their special rations. Theft was common in the barracks. Men lived like animals, and hate was the main motivation to stay alive.

Recently, though, a change had come. One event in particular shook the prisoners. Japanese guards counted tools at the end of a day's work, and one day the guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He walked up and down the ranks demanding to know who had stolen it. When no one confessed, he screamed "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to fire at the first man in the line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward, stood at attention, and said, "I did it."

The guard fell on him in a fury, kicking and beating the prisoner, who despite the blows still managed to stand at attention. Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high in the air and brought the rifle butt down on the soldier's skull. The man sank in a heap to the ground, but the guard continued kicking his motionless body. When the assault finally stopped, the other prisoners picked up their comrade's corpse and marched back to the camp. That evening, when the tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made: no shovel was missing.

One of the prisoners remembered the verse "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Attitudes in the camp began to shift. Prisoners started treating the dying with respect, organizing proper funerals and burials, marking each man's grave with a cross. With no prompting, prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves. Thefts grew increasingly rare.

Gordon sensed the change in a very personal way as two fellow Scots volunteered to come each day and care for him. One faithfully dressed the ulcers on his legs and massaged the useless, atrophied muscles. Another brought him food and cleaned his latrine. Yet another prisoner exchanged his own watch for some medicine that might help the infection and fever. After weeks of such tender care, Gordon put on a little weight, and to his amazement, regained partial use of his legs.

The new spirit continued to sperad through the camp: [Gordon himself writes]

"Death was still with us - no doubt about that. But we were slowly being freed from its destructive grip. We were seeing for ourselves the sharp contrast between the forces that made for lief and those that made for death. Selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, greed, self-indulgence, laziness and pride were all anti-life. Love, heroism, self-sacrifice, sympathy, mercy, integrity and creative faith, on the other hand, were the essence of life, turning mere existence into living in its truest sense. These were the gifts of God to men....

True there was hated. But there was also love. There was death. But there was also life. God had not left us. He was with us, calling us to live the divine life in fellowship."

As Gordon continued to recover, some of the men, knowing he had studied philosophy, asked him to lead a discussion group on ethics. The conversations kept circling around the issue of how to prepare for death, the most urgent question of the camp. Seeking answers, Gordon returned to fragments of faith recalled from his childhood. He had thought little about God for years, but he would later put it, "Faith thrives when there is no hope but God." By default, Gordon became the unofficial camp chaplain. The prisoners built a tiny church, and each evening they gathered to say prayers for those with greatest needs.

The informal discussion group proved so popular that a "jungle university" began to form. Whoever had expertise in a certain field would teach a course to other students. The university soon offered courses in history, philosophy, economics, mathematics, natural sciences, and at least nine languages, including Latin, Greek, Russian, and Sanskrit. Professors wrote their own textbooks as they went along, on whatever scraps of paper they could find.

Prisoners with artistic talent salvaged bits of charcoal from cooking fires, pounded rocks to make their own paints, and managed to produce enough artwork to mount an exhibition. Two botanists oversaw a garden, specializing in medicinal plants. A few prisoners had smuggled in string instruments, other musicians carved woodwinds out of bamboo, and before long an orchestra formed. One man blessed with a photographic memory could write out the complete scores of symphonies from composers like Beethoven and Schubert, and soon the camp was staging orchestra concerts, ballets, and musical theater performances.

Gordon's book tells of the transformation of individual men in the camp, a transformation so complete that when liberation finally came the prisoners treated their sadistic guards with kindness and not revenge. Gordon's own lief took an unexpected turn. In an about-face from all his previous plans, he enrolled in seminary and became a Presbyterian minister, ending up as Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University, where he died in early 2002, just before the movie about his life was completed.

Two worlds lived side by side int he jungles of Thailand in the early 1940s. The miracle on the River Kwai was no less than the creation of an alternate community, a tiny settlement of the kingdom of God taking root in the least likely soil, a spiritual fellowship that somehow proved more substantial and more real than the world of death and despair all around.

...

Perhaps something like this was what Jesus had in mind as he turned again and again to his favorite topic: the kingdom of God. In the soil of this violent, disordered world, an alternate community may take root. It lives in hope of a day of liberation. In the meantime, it aligns itself with another world, not just spreading rumors but planting settlements in advance of that coming reign.


I had the privilege of reading the full book this past week. It was very moving. There was actually a point where Gordon was shifted to another Japanese prison camp for prisoners of war where it was also originally bleak as well. Then, long story short, something similar happened where hope, love, joy was cultivated and grew amongst the prisoners of war in that camp.

It was so inspiring how Gordon's life after the war was so thoroughly transformed. It was no short-term/"moody" temporary change of feelings. This guy's spiritually DNA underwent a holy mutation. He was a completely different being after those few years of experiencing a raw and living "valley of death" right in front of his eyes. Other former POW in that camp also were thoroughly transformed, both in terms of length as well as depth of character change.


I am discovering more and more, as each month passes, that God has done tons of similar things in North America (and Europe) as recently as the past few centuries! I mean, when I think of the Church explosions of growth (real spiritual growth, not those Crusade abominations), I usually think of stuff that happened before the 17th century after all that Enlightenment stuff. That's because the popular media doesn't talk about this stuff. They hide it from us. Man... I'm realizing one just has to do a little research to see the fingerprints of God move through every century in church expansion ever since it started 2000 years ago.

If God can, does, and will bring revival (seemingly so casual for an omnipotent Being) for the church around the globe in all time periods without temporal of geographical restriction, I firmly believe with all my heart that He can TOTALLY bring about revival to Toronto in the 21st century. Heck, if he can do it in a world war 2 prison camp, he can definitely do it here. Perhaps Toronto needs to look a little more like that prison camp first to get us desperate enough to fully bow ourselves to the very inch of the ground, but God can do it!

Oh God! PLEASE DO IT! People are so spiritually hungry here.

I recently bought a used book from Crux called "A survey of 20th Century Revival Movements in North America." by Richard M. Riss. The title caught my eye and it totally jives with the theme that God's been putting on my heart more and more recently: city-wide all out spiritual revival for Toronto, something like the scale of Pentecost happening in the 21st century. On the back there is an endorsement that says:

"A welcome addition to the growing literature in the field. This little volume will be particularly helpful to those who are interested in understanding how a variety of lesser known movements - such as the Latter Rain revival of 1948-1952 - are related to more familiar events."

Part of what it means to be a "body" of Christ means to get encouraged not only from God directly, but from other parts/members of the body, through their lives, words, as well as sincere confidence in God. In my university years, my mind increased in its confidence in God as a result from reading apologetics stuff. However, now, it is my heart that is increasing in more and more confidence in God and his power to induce revival as I read more and more accounts of these true stories of supernatural revival happening to modern man and modern societies. As time moves on, it sometimes may make one feel that the portal to the Kingdom of God that seemed wide open to the 1st century early Christians seem light years away from us. I am learning that that is a flat out lie. It's as close to us as the wardrobe in our own house.


I learned today (in a security guard course I'm taking) that there's 3 elements required for the existence of fire. Oxygen, fuel, and heat. It hit me very quickly.

God is like oxygen. It's practically everywhere around us. The only thing missing for this fire is fuel and heat, prayer and action. Although God is Sovereign, he has chose to exercise his sovereignty in cooperation with human free will (I'm Arminian). Although humans cannot control things, we can nevertheless influence how God implements his will. Under certain conditions, we can "change God's mind" just like how Moses changed God's in Exodus 32:11-14. Also, our actions also affect the destiny of other humans (1 Timothy 4:16).

I believe God wants to bring revival to Toronto. The oxygen for the fire is here. The oxygen is just waiting for fuel and heat (both prayer and action, for one without the other is useless). Oh Lord, I want to be part of the Christians in Toronto that faithfully produce the fuel and heat to spark a supernatural fire to sweep Toronto, Ottawa, New York, and the ends of the earth!