A supernatural encounter turned the predictable
life of this plastic surgeon upside down. He realised that God had called him
to initiate a movement to build authentic disciples.
Birth of a Vision
Into the deep
Dr
Charles Lee led a comfortable life as a plastic surgeon running his own clinic
in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. As a church member, he ticked all the right boxes his
faith in God expected of him. He could recite the Nicene creed and had a head
knowledge of God.
But
his beliefs had hardly impacted his character. He was still hot-tempered. But unknown
to him, his mother had been praying earnestly for him.
Dr Charles Lee
Visitation
Visitation
That
was the old Lee until that memorable day — February 11, 1995. At 530 am on that
day, he had a dramatic vision from God. He broke down and wept. His whole body
was shaking in fear but he had the reassuring comfort of God’s presence. “Why
did You choose me, God?” he asked. It
was not that he was seeking Him earnestly. Deep inside he knew he was a sinner.
Later, he realised that this personal supernatural visitation was probably the
only way to make a sinner like him seek God.
He’s alive!
A
few months later, a father brought a child with severe burns to his clinic.
Immediately he assessed the child and told the father that the child was in a
serious condition and surgery was not possible. After asking permission from
the father, he prayed for the child’s recovery.
Miraculously
the child recovered over a period of ten days without surgical intervention. Deep
down, Lee knew that it was impossible, medically-speaking, for the child to
recover — her burns were severe and septicaemia (secondary bacterial infection
of the blood stream through the broken skin surface) had already set in.
Jesus
is alive! That was what reverberated within him after that incident. He was in
jubilant spirits wherever he went. “I just wanted to declare to the whole world
that Jesus is alive,” said Lee. “I was totally sold out for God.”
What
was God trying to tell him? On hindsight, Lee shares that God was teaching him
something very significant: “My son, I want you to know that there are some
things which you cannot do, even with all your knowledge and training.”
Hunger
The
following year, Lee developed a deep spiritual hunger to know as much as he could
about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. He studied about Hebrew culture and
religious practices during the time when Jesus walked on this earth. “A renewed
understanding of the Hebraic roots of Christ enables me to follow my Hebrew Lord
more closely,” Lee shares with a sparkle of enlightenment in his eyes.
One
day, when Lee chided his son for watching too much TV, the latter retorted, “What
the TV has done to me is nothing compared to what you have done to me.” To his
son, the evils of watching TV pale in comparison to his father’s influence on
his life. This was a wake-up call for Lee which spurred him to control his
temper. He realised he had to walk the talk both inside and outside his home.
His character had to be transformed into Christ-likeness.
Back to basics
God
showed him that the vision of a basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1) was a sign
that God’s end time judgment of His
people has come, and they must repent and seek His face. Furthermore, there is
great urgency to go back to the basics — even to the Hebraic roots of
God’s Word. This is because of an impending ‘famine of hearing God’s Word’
(Amos 8:11).
Lee
believes God’s truth must once again burn
in our hearts as it did in that of the believers as Christ expounded to them
the scriptures while they were walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32). A
superficial understanding of the Word will not do. We need to reexamine many things we often take for
granted as the truth:
- How many believe that
“followership” is needed before leadership? (If leaders do not make
following Jesus their priority, how can they be effective leaders?).
- Often we are exhorted to have
faith even before we repent. (Actually we need to repent first).
- Church activities often replace
in-depth study of the Bible. (That should not be so).
Birth of a Vision
In
1997, he had the opportunity to attend the Haggai Institute in Maui, Hawaii.
There he met Dr John Haggai who issued him an unforgettable challenge: “Attempt
something so great for God that it is doomed to fail unless God is in it.”
After
the Maui conference, Lee was all fired up to discover how to be an authentic
disciple of Jesus and how to be a disciple-maker. He had a pulsating vision to
see believers bearing fruit for God’s glory through Christ — out of changed
hearts and renewed minds.
Inspired
by Haggai, he wrote down a vision of what he perceived to be God’s strategy of building
disciples. This vision was foundational in the birth of the Asia Pacific Consultation on Discipleship (APCOD). Every three years, he would organise an APCOD
conference where prominent Christian leaders from all over the world will be
invited to speak on various topics touching on building authentic disciples.
APCOD
serves as a strategic platform to build kingdom-minded disciples for Jesus in
the Asia Pacific region. Incorporating both Hebraic and Christian perspectives, it shows believers how to live a Bible-based, Christ-centred
life in the real world.
The
first APCOD conference in 2001 saw more than 650 Christian leaders from 28 nations
meeting in Kota Kinabalu to ‘Bring the Light of the Word of Life into the 21st
Century’. Since then similar conferences were held in Colombo(2003), Auckland(2006)
and Chennai (2010). The next APCOD conference will be held in May 2012 in Kota
Kinabalu.
Over the past 10 years, APCOD has had the privilege to
refresh, challenge, and equip more than 2000 leaders from the clergy and laity,
including businessmen, professionals, academia and para-church ministry
workers. Many participants have testified that their walk with Jesus has become
more meaningful, that APCOD has enriched their faith beyond measure.
Into the deep
Just
as the discouraged fisherman Peter was told by Jesus to “launch out into the
deep, and let down your nets” (Luke 5:4) for a haul of fish, we too must not
remain mired in shallow waters. “How deep we go spiritually is much dependant
on how far we would allow God to take us,” shares Lee.
“Discipleship
will remain a distant ideal to those who want to have spiritual blessing
without paying the price,” emphasises Lee. “Jesus wasn’t looking for disciples
among the masses who merely wanted miracles and healing from Him. He is looking
for disciples among those who dare to ask, What
can I do for You, Lord?”
“If
you really mean business with God, if you want a transformed life and impact the
community, you’ll need to rediscover what it means to be an authentic disciple
of Jesus,” adds Lee. “And APCOD is one of the strategic vehicles to help you do
that.”
The above article was first published in
Asian Beacon magazine, October 2011, issue 43.5.
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