Everybody wants to live longer.

Do you choose organic and expensive foods to avoid toxins and carcinogens? Work out diligently to keep your body fit? Lather yourself with beauty products and creams to prevent aging?

People try so hard to manage their health to live a long and happy life. But humans have a life expectancy. No matter how diligently you take care of your health, you will age, and you will die.  There is nothing to stop aging and nothing to stop time.

But it’s not just about living longer. Would you want to live longer if you knew you would suffer from severe dementia at 65 years old? Would you want to live longer if you were so old and weak that you needed somebody to accompany you to the washroom?  

By living longer, people mean they want to accomplish things and be fulfilled. Whether it is leaving a legacy, doing work for God, or seeing your grandchildren grow up, you want to achieve a lot while you are living! When you lose the ability to do this, you see that living longer for the sake of living longer isn’t really what you want!

Let’s say you decide to take advantage of time. You think to yourself, “If I wake up 3 hours earlier than others for 10 yrs, I will be able to live so much longer!!” Our Lead Pastor thought exactly that. He then spent several minutes trying to do the calculation of how much longer he would live.

But then he received God’s inspiration telling him, “If you calculate using the wrong method, your answer will be wrong.”

Ah! It was so frustrating doing the math!  3 hrs X 365 days X 10 yrs = 10950 hrs divided by 24 hrs/day = 456.25 days divided by 365 days/yr = 1.25 yrs longer!  (1 year and 3 months)

Compared to spending several minutes, God was able to give him the answer in just 10 seconds. It was all about ratios. 3 hours is 1/8th of 24 hours (1 day).  Therefore, for 10 years, he will live 1/8th longer, which is 1 year and 3 months.

At this point, it dawned on our Lead Pastor that even if you were to struggle with all your might, with your own wisdom alone you’d only live an extra 1 year and 3 months. And, if you don’t have God’s wisdom but do it your own way—such as with his calculations—it takes that much longer to accomplish what you want, and you end up with less time.  Our Pastor received the answer from God in 10 seconds compared to several minutes by his own method. How many times faster is that?

By receiving God’s wisdom and living with the knowledge of the Word, you can act upon the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.  You can derive strength from God if you are doing work within His will.  Work that normally takes you 10 days might only take you 5 days.  Now you have twice the amount of time remaining and can therefore live with double the satisfaction, accomplishing twice as much. When you know by receiving God’s wisdom, you can take action ten times ahead of other people. You can do things ten times faster, so it’s as if you are living longer.

“If you hear the Word of the new time period, believe and follow, then you have already taken action many times more than others.” 

(Article based on Sermon, May 14, 2017)

-Z.Y.