(#2 5985) Like the Men of Issachar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZb5b7SOU8

FIRST POSTED ON 15 JULY 2018.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

In our last session, we spoke about how God has an urgent Word for His people today, and explained it in terms of the concepts Rhema and Kairos. I then gave examples of how God’s Rhema and Kairos apply in our personal lives.

However, what we want to discuss here is not about how God speaks to us personally but collectively as His people. In fact, the Bible is primarily His message to Israel, the Church and the world. His purpose is so that we, as one Body of Christ, understand the times we live in and know what we together as one people of God should do.

There is an example of this in the Old Testament. In 1 Chron 12:32, when King David was rallying for support from the people to bring Israel under his rule following the death of King Saul, the men of the tribe of Issachar acted decisively to join him because they understood the times - meaning, God’s will for the nation then - and knew what Israel should do. Similarly, we believe that God is speaking to His people today and we, like the men of Issachar, need to hear, understand and act decisively as one people of God in light of His Rhema and will.

I cannot overemphasise this point, especially in this day and age when we tend to focus only on ourselves and God’s calling for us as individuals. Yes, God may have different callings for different people, but there is also a general calling for all of us as believers together as part of the one Body of Christ. Just like the men of Issachar - I am quite sure not everyone was called to support David as warriors; some would have contributed financially or helped in other ways. The point is that they united as a tribe behind the nation of God in alignment to His will.

It therefore also means looking beyond our church, which is the local congregation of the Body of Christ, and even our denomination and indeed the worldwide Church itself, to recognise that God’s Word is for all of His people today. Now, who are His people? We shall consider this question again later. At this point, I just want to emphasise the need to have this global perspective that is more than us individually, local church denomination etc to see who are God’s people as God sees it. Let us be like the men of Issachar, who not only saw things from their individual point of view, not even as a tribe, but as the entire nation of Israel.

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.

(#1 5985) From Now to Eternity - Rhema & Kairos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGUCoafEMbQ

NOTE: I WILL BE UPLOADING MY BLOG POSTS ON A WEEKLY BASIS EVERY SHABBAT (FRIDAY 7PM). FIRST POSTED ON 1 JULY 2018.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to the Issachar B7D Fellowship!

This is the first of my Shabbat YouTube blog posts and I am so happy to be with you here today. I have named my YouTube blog “From Now to Eternity,” because I believe that the time has come to proclaim God’s living word, His Rhema, in this, His Kairos or appointed time. I pray that this will be an ongoing journal to equip and encourage all of you who are tuning in, all whom the Lord calls, to keep the faith until He returns to bring us all back to eternity.

Now, in my welcome video, I said that God has an urgent word for His people today so that, like the men of Issachar, we understand the times and know what we should do. What He wants to speak to us is apparent in the Bible when we consider it through the perspective of the 7 Days of Creation.

Let us now try and unpack this a bit more, starting with the words, God has an urgent word for His people today.

Here, we need to understand the concept of Rhema and Kairos.

Rhema literally means an “utterance”, God speaking to us. This is different from Logos, which refers to God’s written word that became flesh in Jesus. So whereas Logos is in a sense eternal, Rhema is very specific, at a particular point in time. Often, we experience God’s Rhema when the Holy Spirit prompts or convicts our hearts during our Quiet Times. So for instance, we may have read a Bible passage many times before, but one day the words from the passage suddenly “jumps” at us. That is Rhema, God speaking to us at that particular point in time. When God speaks, we are always touched and transformed in some way, because we know that God’s word never returns to Him empty (Isa 55:11).

Kairos meanwhile refers to that opportune time, usually for some form of action to take place. As we will see in our later sessions, it is that appointed or we could even use sacred (set apart) time. This is very different from Chronos or linear, historical time. So for instance, when God released His Rhema to you, that particular time was His Kairos - His opportune, appointed and even sacred or set apart - time for Him to release His word to you. In a sense, we could say that God acted at that point in time to speak to you, because we know that God’s word brings about change and transformation in our lives. Often, it also leads us into action as we respond to His Rhema.

So, let us summarise this - first, we are talking about God’s word, not my word, not my theories, theology, doctrine or perspective. It is not one among many. We are talking about what God is saying. Next, it is what God is saying to us today, not at any particular point in time, not the eternal word of God but what He wants to speak to us today.

So the key message here is that God wants to speak, to say something that is specific to us, at this particular point in history. That is what Rhema and Kairos is all about.

The Question is - do we believe?

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.

Annual Introduction - AM 5985 (22 September 2025 - 11 September 2026)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VVXIfYtTqw

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to the Issachar B7D Fellowship!

Jews celebrate the Feast of Trumpets at sunset today by blowing the Shofar to mark the beginning of a Jewish New Year. We are another year closer to the end of the Sixth Millennium before Yeshua returns to usher in His Millennial Sabbath Rule as symbolized by the Seventh Day of the original Creation account. Until then, we pray for the day when Israel will celebrate this Feast recognizing Yeshua as their promised Messiah who will return at the Last Trumpet.  

This year marks my seventh annual introduction since 2019. I think all of us agree that the world is getting darker, where order has given way to chaos, logic to madness, where wrong is now right and right is now wrong, and everything just seems to be totally upside down. And the darkness is not just out there. To be honest, this has been a dark season in my (Stephen’s) life, both professionally and personally. Even now, I struggle to pen down this short introduction, to be faithful and authentic in what is said.

But through all this, there is a quiet assurance and peace within me that God is in control. He always is. He is the God who never fails. His word and His will always come to pass. In Isaiah 55:10-11, God reminds us that “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s Rhema as shared here does not depend on me, but on Him alone. It is His word. 

And I also know that God will never fail in my own life, regardless of how bleak it seems right now in my eyes. I am reminded to “be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified … for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut 31:6). When I was fifteen, a brother who had prayed for me before I left Malaysia for studies in Singapore received a vision of someone walking down a flight of stairs into darkness, but he was accompanied by a Man who held a book and a shepherd’s staff. I was immediately reminded of Psalm 23, that “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” It has been over forty years since that vision was given to me, and the journey has not been easy to say the least. But I want to declare like the Psalmist, “my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73:26). 

This year’s introduction is not about the signs of the times around us. It is dedicated to those who are currently in a dark place, who are struggling and in despair, where there seems to be no light and hope ahead. You are not alone. You are not abandoned. You belong to a God who never fails. There will come the appointed day when love, peace and joy will rule in our lives. 

God bless you and God bless Israel,

Stephen & Wei Ling Lim

Song credit - Yamma Ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnkb7...)

Link to e-Book - https://5722a1c4-623d-4701-a1bb-fc17c...