Date: 09-02-25
Preacher: Mrs Dorothy Kao
Title: To Be Alive is a Miracle

To Be Alive is a Miracle

Sister Dorothy’s message this morning was based on James 5:13-16. She established that although as Christians we enjoy abundant grace and God’s mercy while we are alive but how often do we even pray when we should use every minute to ascribe to Him great testimonies and to glorify Him? Do we only remember Him when we are going through hard times but forget Him when we are cruising along just fine?

Hence in our gratefulness we should pray or be prayerful and she listed 3 qualities that must be present in effective prayers. The first is an attitude of supplication. Here she shared the anecdote of a Christian brother who brought another who was suffering from stage 4 cancer to her church. Although the cancer patient had lost hope and purpose, he didn’t mind hanging around her church office to help out. Once he called her from the 12th floor of a building to end it all but did not have the courage to take his own life so Sister Dorothy called him to return home and he accepted Christ after that. At another time he had severe stomach pain and was hospitalized. The doctor called Sister Dorothy at 3am as he had no one to turn to because he was on bad terms with his relatives. His x-ray showed that he had many holes in his intestines and his doctor could only give him a 50-50 chance of a successful surgery. As he had no one to turn to, he left it in the hands of Sister Dorothy to decide for him. She told him to leave it in God’s hand but she prayed fervently for him that night. 3 days later the doctor discharged the man as there were no more holes in his intestines. He survived for 4 more years and during that time a few of his relatives accepted Christ because they saw the change in him.

The second is to be persistent in our prayer. Here she shared the life of George Muller who made it a point to put on record when his prayers were answered. Some were instantaneous but some took decades. Sister Dorothy shared how she herself had to be persistent in an application to apply for a change of use for her church premises to the point that the person whose signature was required found her too bothersome. In fact her own lawyer gave up prematurely but she persisted. With her persistence she was not just able to successfully apply for a change of use but also exemption from property tax.

The third has to do with praying for one another. Here she shared a case of a brother who went with her mother on a holiday to China when he was possessed by evil spirits and had to be admitted into ICU. Sister Dorothy’s contacts in China were activated to pray for him and not only that, they then contacted the brother of the man possessed. At that time he was a pastor in Japan. The pastor based in Japan then did a video call and was able to cast out the evil spirits ’online’. The doctor couldn’t believe his own eyes. He was discharged 3 days later and returned to Singapore. The first thing he did was to destroy all semblance of idol worship in his house.

In Sister Dorothy’s conclusion she said that as Christians we have a powerful weapon and that is prayer. She then asked where our weapon is kept. I certainly like that question.