Dancing with Jesus and Angels (Part 1)

My little house church took place on Thursday in view of the Hari Raya Haji holiday on Friday. It was a small group that night, only four of us when we started, with Jessie joining us later on. The rest were travelling during that long weekend.

As a relatively young church, we don’t exactly know the art of pressing into deep worship and I have never been interested to do so until now. Like I have mentioned before in my previous posts, I believe I have recently started walking closer to God.

It was last Tuesday (read here) that I first experienced being transported to the heavenly realms and to stand before the throne of God during praise and worship. So, being the worship leader that night, I was determined to advance the group a little higher up the holy worship mountain of God.

I didn’t feel any spiritual breakthrough in worship until the third and last song. Even then, the beginning was a little bit flat, but I persevered. And it wasn’t long before I felt it, that release. I sang my heart out and in the spirit, releasing whatever sound or words that came from my spirit-man. The experience was a little bit different from the one on Tuesday, though. I don’t think we went on long enough to be brought before God’s throne but I could definitely feel God’s glory being present. It was such a wonderful time, at least for me, to be singing praises unto the Lord.

Something noteworthy: As I sang, I felt both my hands becoming numb. Nothing I did with my hands was numbness-inducing. Sure, I lifted my hands to God but not for long periods of time. Furthermore, they weren’t only intensely numb, they were also extraordinarily heavy. I felt that shortly on Tuesday too. In both cases, I just dismissed them.

Now, here comes the interesting part. We have a seer-in-training in our church, Jenn. She’s extremely sensitive to the spirit realm and is able to see Jesus, angels and even demons. After worship, I asked her whether she saw anything. She didn’t during the first two songs but during the third song, she saw Jesus in the living room. In the spirit, she saw herself running over to hug Him. He then told her that a leader would emerge to lead the church forward and also that some members would be reluctant follow suit. But Jesus also comforted her by saying that they will eventually be influenced or magnetised by the rest to move forward. Just like atoms, when one vibrates, the rest in the atomic structure will do so too. (I have underlined words that she heard Jesus speak)

After that, she saw a black hooded figure standing before Jesus who then cast it out. According to her, there were other dark figures in the periphery but they were warded off by angels. She then saw me holding hands with Jesus (to my left) and an angel (to my right). She herself was on Jesus’ left. Together with other angels (not as big as the one written here) we all formed a circle that covered the entire living room. She described my attire to be white with a golden sash at my waist and my hair was let down. All these she saw with her eyes closed, but she felt that angels were dancing around me.

So with all that, I conclude that the numbness and heaviness I felt in my hands were because I was holding on to Jesus and an angel! The sensation only left after she concluded her seer account. Praise God for new experiences every time we press in harder.

There’s more to the night. Will update again…

We’ll Be Blessed Because We Came!

Tuesday was the second time I attended the weekly Shalom Prayer Fellowship at Metropolitan YMCA. I was initially reluctant to go because I was sleepy and had a very sore back. But I knew I had to because I was starting to lose focus on God and I wanted to be disciplined in this respect. And boy, am I glad I attended!

Here were some of my experiences:

Deeper Level of Worship

Rivers of praise and worship flowed from deep within my inner man resulting in beautiful sounds that could only originate from God’s spirit living in me. Like I mentioned here, I could not sing in the spirit at all before. And just a mere seven months later, I am able to sing such glorious and spontaneous tunes.  It didn’t come immediately, though. The first 3-4 songs were unfamiliar to me and the height of the experience only came towards the end of the last song. We were all spending some time just worshipping the Lord in our own words and suddenly from deep within me gushed forth songs of the Spirit. I felt like I was being transported to another realm of deeper worship. I just left all my inhibitions aside and sang as the Spirit led. Gosh, the experience was just so awesome! I must add that it helped to have an award-winning concert pianist playing the keyboard! She really helped usher in God’s presence.

At one point, I felt my knees buckling. My body was summoning me to bow down before God’s throne. But at the same time, I could sense that the worship session was ending so I resisted. And it did end soon after. If only the worship leader knew that deeper worship had only just begun!

Physical Sensing

We had a prophetic activity where people were supposed to pray and ask God for a word of knowledge to bless the people in attendance. I asked God to give me a word via physical sensation just because I have never really felt it before. Okay I have felt joy, loneliness and other emotions but nothing concretely physical. And soon after, I started to burn neck-up. You know when you drink alcohol and you get hot flushes?

I asked Mark to feel my neck and he was taken aback by how hot it was. Okay, I chickened out and didn’t share my “word of knowledge”. No one looked like they had fever and I wasn’t even sure it meant fever. For a moment there, I was more focused on the manifestation rather than asking God what it meant and who it was for. Bad, I know. It lasted about 5 minutes before the heat subsided back to normal.

Second Healing Experience

I had been suffering from a sore back since a week ago and have been nagging Mark to accompany me for a massage (nag because Mark dislikes massages as he gets ticklish). The pain intensified so much that even lying down incurred pain. So Mark prayed for me before we slept. Lo and behold, I woke up healed!

I must add that he did pray for healing to happen a few nights before but with no effect. I think God allowed healing to take place specifically after the prayer meeting because our hearts were focused on Him, because we sought Him out. And I think the anointing from the prayer meeting just stuck on to Mark. Or maybe he has the gift of healing? I sure hope so!

God is just so awesome, isn't He?

Cultivate Excellence in Serving God

New Creation Church was the first church I attended on a consistent basis. It was there that I had my first taste serving in ministry. Many people perceive ushering to be a simple and menial job, but New Creation ushers will tell you otherwise. As one of the Royal Stewards, I took great pride in my duties, even if it were cleaning toilets. We were required to report for duty at 1pm to prepare the room for 5pm service and often stayed later than 9pm to clean up. Furthermore, there were strategies involved in greeting the congregation and getting them to fill up the seats promptly and efficiently. Lead ushers even used high-tech communications systems to ensure good and orderly flow. It was in New Creation that I learnt excellence in serving.

Many do not realise that we Christians have the best reason for pursuing excellence because whatever we do, we do unto the Lord. What more church leaders? Unfortunately, the pursuit of excellence is missing in many churches.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  (Colossians 3:17)

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24)

I am against mediocrity when it comes to serving in ministries. We must eliminate this “as long as it’s good enough to get by, it’s fine with us” mentality. What frustrates me is tardiness and half-heartedness coming from servers. Being volunteers doesn’t give us a free pass to serve with that kind of attitude. In fact, as volunteers in the local church we ought to show double the dedication and commitment because we are God’s representatives there! 

We don’t do it for our pride’s sake, but we do it because we serve a God who deserves nothing but our best. And there is a side benefit to serving God with excellence – people notice excellence. We can draw people in because of the excellence we exude for God and in so doing, we draw them to God.

I acknowledge I am not perfect. But I try my darndest when it comes to fulfilling my promised duties as a church leader. I pray that every church leader in my church, including myself, and in every other church will rise up and humbly serve with excellence to bring glory to God.

Don't Let the Devil Deceive You

If you have been following my past several weeks’ blog posts, you would know that God has blessed me with so many great and real encounters with Him. Because I know full well that I used to be a proud person, I am always fearful that I may allow those blessings go to my head and thus become puffed up. And in many ways, I did. I permitted disappointment to seep in when more and more people from my church received the same glory dust manifestation and at one brief point I even reasoned that they were experiencing it because of me. And when the personal prophecies I spoke forth were accurate, I had urges to broadcast just that.

It is important that we serve God for the right reasons and with the right motives. If it is for our glory, then we are liable to be tempted into manipulation and deceit by the devil. He will unquestionably manipulate us and destroy our destiny. Whatever area of the believer’s life he is unwilling to turn over to the Lord is where the devil is most likely to attack. He will exploit our old passions, nature and weaknesses. Although he cannot touch the believer’s will, he can (and will) influence it, if the believer allows him to do so.

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)

“Awake! Be on the alert because your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, eager to devour you.” (1 Peter 5:8)

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." (Ephesians 2:1-2)

An undisciplined mind is an opening for the devil. Therefore, we must choose which thoughts we entertain. Our thoughts influence and change us and, they can make or break us. Do not let any ungodly thought fester. If we allow a single thought to develop into a train of thoughts, it will ultimately affect our reasoning and become part of our belief system. Subsequently, ungodly speech and action will follow. The devil gets us to act by our own free will on his suggestions! He is man’s “tempter” and then he becomes man’s “accuser”.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV).

“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Matthew 12:34)

 

Strongholds such as pride, fear, worry, bitterness, anger, shame, control, etc. need to be removed and replaced by Christ’s thoughts. God has made us guardians of our own mind. We decide which thoughts are allowed entry and which ones refusal of admittance. Resisting the devil is not automatic; it requires conscientious efforts.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.” (Romans 12:2)

“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” (1 Peter 1:13)

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-17)

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

If we fall, be quick to seek God’s forgiveness and repent of those thoughts, like I always try to do. As we repent, God will refine us.  

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

 

God’s Message to the Church (Confirmed by Angel Sighting)

Church started without me on Friday as I had to attend my company’s annual dinner at Equinox. I tried my best to leave as early as I could, in fact I was the first one to leave the room, as Jessie was going to talk about new directions for the church and I knew something big was going to happen. I reached home around 10.45pm to find that church was still ongoing and EW was sharing about our God-experiences in Kota Kinabalu. After that, we moved into prayer. Jessie called for the kids to come downstairs to be prayed for. I believe the adults were already prayed for by EW and Jessie before I got home.

As EW moved around praying for them and their parents, I sat down and prayed and I received an image-instruction for the church. I saw our church members linking arms with one another, forming a circle. And we were ascending upwards as a church in the sky, with clouds around us. However, I also saw one of us being weighed down by an invisible force and it looked like she was giving up and letting go but in the nick of time, I saw her neighbours re-linking their arms around hers and pulling her back up with us. As we were about to close, I gathered our members nearer and conveyed God’s instructions to them. EW immediately took the initiative of linking arms as a prophetic act. I cautioned every member to not be left behind; to not let go of one another. For those in spiritual dryness, allow water from others to overflow into their cups; to set aside any issue of pride, insecurity, defeat, unforgiveness, lethargy etc. that could potentially weigh them down and/or keep them from asking fellow brothers and sisters for support. After I was done, Jessie closed us in prayer whilst our arms were still linked up. It was such a perfect way to end our ‘first’ service (after new directions were set).

Later on (many of them stayed back to chit chat), I found out that Jenn, our resident seer, saw a 2.5m tall angel standing behind me, slightly bent over my head, when I was praying (most likely the reason I received the message-instruction above). How exciting, right! Although she doesn’t remember whether it was a closed or open vision, she recalls going over (still in the vision) to touch one of his wings and noted it didn’t feel like feathers! (Ok, although some might argue angels don’t have wings, I believe God sometimes uses our imagination to send his messages across and in any case, she says it doesn’t feel like what it looks) She described the angel to be wearing a shining garment with silver glitter. Maybe that explains my gold dust manifestation? =)

 

I’m so joyful that God allowed Jenn to see the angel. It confirms that the message I gave the church was indeed God’s very own instruction and it is encouraging that God chose to give His message through me. You see, I worry that it would be harder for God to use me as I get sucked back into the realities of life in Singapore. Anyways, I am going to press in even harder now to ensure that I continue to avail myself to God!  

Shekinah Glory Dust Miracle – A Personal Testimony (Part 1)

I talked about my experience of hearing angels sing during a prophetic activation workshop in KK last week here. That happened on 3 October 2012. On 10 October 2012, exactly a week after, God blessed me with another manifestation of His Glory – shekinah gold dust.

I have been yearning for such signs and wonders for a while now, as shared here. And it is partly because of these desires that I set up this blog – to be able to one day share about my own supernatural encounters. I thought I would have to press in for at least two years before I could have such experiences.  But God is so gracious.

Mark and I were in bed, listening to the following recordings of angelic worship on YouTube:

Revival Alliance Conference, UK, 31 Aug 2012

Patricia King Glory School Conference, Singapore, Apr 2011

I wanted him to have an understanding of what I had heard in KK. The singing I heard is very much like the ones in the videos but clearer and very much more audible (not so much in the background like these). When I went to the washroom to clean up before bed, I checked my hands for gold dust out of habit. I must have been doing this on a consistent basis for at least two months now.  Always nothing but not this time! I saw very fine specks of glitter on my palms. By the way, I absolutely, without a doubt know how to identify glitter from my own make up. I rushed to Mark’s bedside lamp to take a better look and Mark confirmed it was gold dust. I went back to wash my hands numerous times to authenticate the manifestation and the gold particles came back every single time. It has been three days and I still have them on my hands! Praise God!

The glitter isn't so apparent in pictures and I can't seem to insert my high reso videos here. It's basically a very thin layer of glitter-like substance. They are pretty well-spread out throughout my palm area and finger tips.

What is God's purpose for allowing this manifestation, you may ask? I strongly believe it is for the following reasons:

1)      to assure me that my angelic encounter in KK was authentic (since I received the gift while focusing on angelic worship)

2)      to confirm my new ministry in counselling

3)      to encourage me to keep moving in the direction of praying and pressing in

(There are certain events that validate the inclusion of Points 2 and 3)

God is so awesome! Every one should desire to see more of His glory! I can't get enough of it now! =)

UPDATE (28 Nov 2012): Please see my latest blogpost on God's manifestation of gold dust here for my embedded youtube videos.

Encounters with God at KK (Part 4)

Here's the continuation of my encounter with God on Day 3:

Speaking Only God's Words

After the workshop on Friday, Jessie, EW and I joined Pastor Ong (Jessie’s husband and also our Pastor) at SIB Metro as he preached to local students and young working adults there. We were brought in to assist him and five of his team members to give personal prophesy to the attendees. I had such an amazing, God-filled and life-changing night! And to think I was thinking of worming out of it just a few hours before! I’ll tell you why:

I was fearful blockages. After our hospital ministry the night before, we attended Maranatha Church where Apostle Ron Sawka (a disciple of Bill Hamon and also our workshop mentor) was invited as a guest speaker. At the end of his sermon, we were asked to give personal prophecies to the church congregation. Hundreds lined up to hear God’s messages and I drew blanks most of the time! I was so stressed out; the more I pressured myself to get something from God, the emptier my mind became. It was a horrible time where I had to depend mostly on my partner, EW for something.

I remember vividly the first person who came to us – R. EW and R already knew each other, so I was asked to start. Under pressure and conscious of potentially letting people down, I released something that could be perceived by many as generic – to go deeper into the word (I had the mental image of an illuminated bible). When I finished, I looked at her and I saw disappointment plastered across her face as she looked towards EW to add on something concrete. That image and self-condemnation latched onto my spirit until the very end of the night.

I believe that it is also important to find the right partner for such activities. Don’t get me wrong, EW and I form great partnership when it comes to certain activities like praying and worship but the jarring difference in our delivery styles when prophesying became a stumbling block for me. When she prophesies, her warrior anointing comes in strong; she commands for the awakening of man’s spirit, she calls forth God’s fire, she orders the breaking of man’s sinful nature etc. I, on the other hand, tend to be softer in approach and prefer to have some time ministering to the people I prophesy over.     

At the end of the night, a girl came up to EW, thanked her, hugged her and asked for a photo together. I instinctively withdrew myself from their midst but EW sensing my dejection, called out for me to be in the picture. I guess the girl and I had no choice but to oblige. A little bit later when we were saying our goodbyes to some local people, R who was in their midst looked like she was trying to avoid my eye. I am not sure whether she is just naturally shy or what, but I was definitely affected by it.

So, you can imagine how utterly down I was by the end of the night. I knew for a fact that Jessie would never allow me to worm out of Friday’s session so I had no choice but to leave all my disappointments and fears at Jesus’ feet. I told God my desire to bless others; to accurately communicate God’s words to the people so that they can be encouraged, edified and comforted. And I prayed hard for Him to use me to activate giftings in the young ones I minister to on Friday. Apostle Paul writes that prophecies help equip one for ministry:  

 “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.” (1 Timothy 4:14)

I didn’t feel any zap of supernatural confidence from God but I knew that because my longing to bless others was pure, God would answer. As we were praising and worshipping God, I asked God to show me the potential in every single person there. Of course, I couldn’t sense anything for anyone at that point in time but I rested in the promise that God will give me the right words to say at the appropriate time.  

After Pastor’s message, we helpers went to the front of the room to help arrange chairs for ministry. Pastor had already arranged for Jessie to team up with V and for me to partner with M right from the start but because M was out of sight and EW had no idea of the arrangement, she nudged J to team up with me but before I could say anything, I saw J openly telling EW that she liked her better. Now, this came from someone I didn’t know so I couldn’t have had offended her. So I assumed she caught wind of my ‘non-performance’ in Maranatha Church. R, from the night before, started inching away from me. One minute she was next to me and the next she was pretty far off. Boy, did the devil know how to discourage a person! But this time, I dug my heels in and refused to give in to his mind games. Not long after, M joined me.

By the time the first person took his seat in front of us, I had totally abandoned every hurt and insecurity and focused on nothing else but God. And boy oh boy, did God use me! M and I prophesied over at least eleven persons and not once did I not know what to say. Here, we were allowed the opportunity to talk to and also minister to the people. Because I availed myself as His spokesperson, I became a first-hand witness to the His awesome power; I saw Him comforting those with anxieties and fears, rebuking some bad habits in others, confirming the ambitions and callings for spiritually mature ones and giving specific directions/instructions to ones that need that guidance or extra push. Three girls cried because our inspired words spoke directly to their troubled situations. It was definitely not us because we had never seen the people there in our entire lives.

God also answered my desire to activate the giftings in His people. We encouraged one brother to instantaneously move into his gifting of prophetic song writing and he sang a new song right before us; we encouraged one to exercise his prophetic gifting over us when he told us he had a vision of honey pouring over our heads; and I nudged one girl to activate the gift of prophetic dancing in her and she danced so beautifully before the Lord that it brought tears to my eyes.  Oh, how the Holy Spirit moved in that place!

It was so wonderful to witness how God moved amongst His people that at the end of the night, I told Jessie this: “I have often asked God for signs and wonders (read: gold dust, gem stones, feathers, etc.) but tonight, the most important of them all took place – being used to speak life into His people.”

Encounters with God at KK (Part 3)

There is so much for me to share just on Day 3 alone. So, I'm gonna break it up into two parts. Here's my God encounter in the moning of Day 3:

Insights into God’s Heart

On Day 3, we had a short prophetic exercise in the morning. We were asked to find a partner and to release prophetic words over our own nation. After that, Ps. Serena instructed us to each pick a country from a particular region she gave and to prophesy over it. I became rather nervous because I really didn’t know much about the country I picked. So, as Albert prophesied over P, I prayed in tongues to tune in my senses to God about SA.  Something new happened as I did that – my tongue/language turned heavy and became like groans. The groaning felt so sorrowful and full of anguish. The tongue/language was still the same one I had received two nights ago but the words were pulled longer until they sounded like groaning. The Holy Spirit allowed me to understand God’s feelings towards SA through my utterance in tongues.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)

The groaning represented God’s pain and aching for that nation to see the Truth. I then used that insight into God’s heart to prophesy over the nation and as I did that, the emotions I had felt earlier on when I prayed in tongues overflowed into my prophetic utterance. It is just truly amazing when we are allowed access to what God feels.

To be continued...

Encounters with God at KK (Part 2)

Here's a list of Day 2 God encounters in Kota Kinabalu:

(Temporarily) Carrying God's Burden

On Day 2 of the workshop, our first prophetic activation activity was to group ourselves according to similar prayer burdens. Naturally, some of us Singaporeans came together to prophesy over our nation.

When we started praying in tongues, I immediately saw God's Spirit, in the form of an eagle, flying over a map of Singapore, surveying a place to land. But I sensed that He just could not find a landing spot. And the ground below Him was dry and cracked, which I believe symbolise spiritual drought. 

Now, having a few seasoned pastors in my midst, I tried to quietly fade into the background (unfortunately, I am still rather conscious of how lackluster my vocab is when it comes to praying or prophesying). Have you ever experienced pockets of stone-dead silences during prayer meetings, where everyone waits for everyone else to pick up from the last person? Well, this was far from the scenario I was in. Everyone was so involved and intense when giving their prophecies. One after another, they just kept on going! Everyone else had finished their first round of prophesying and some, their second round whereas I still hadn't said anything! I felt Pastor Mary's fingers brushing against my leg, urging me to say something but I just could not find an entering. That was how intense the whole group was! A little while later, Pastor Alice (who is 82 years old btw) fully aware that I hadn't had a go at it yet, started telling people around just that =).

So, I had no choice but to inject myself in the next moment I could. As soon as I opened my mouth, God's words and emotions just flowed forth from my entire being. Before I opened my mouth, I was like a dry riverbed but as I opened my mouth in faith, God's anointing just rained upon me causing words and emotions to overflow and gush forth. It was exactly like what Jesus said in John 7:38, "Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water." As I spoke about God's eagle having no place to land and about spiritual deadness in Singapore (I believe my exact words were 'zombies' and 'rotten flesh'), I started hearing wailing from the people around me. Well, I know for sure Pastor Mary was crying and calling out for God to not turn away from Singapore. The group just instinctively huddled closer together and Pastors Mary and Alice pulled me in closer to tighten the circle. I could feel that we had struck something in the spirit realm.

To be honest, I am not one who carries a natural burden for any community/group of people or any specific nation. That was why I chose to remain quiet as long as I could. I had no burden to speak up. But, I believe that as I availed myself to the workings of the Holy Spirit, He just caused this dry riverbed to swell up with His living water. In addition to that, I believe I was operating under a cloud of anointing of the people around me. So, the Holy Spirit could more easily operate through me.

An Increase in Compassion & Prophetic Singing
In the evening, we made a visit to the hospital where Janet's sister, Cecilia was being warded. I ran into a problem of over-spiritualising things, which I will talk about in a separate post because I want to concentrate on godly encounters here. Jessie, EW, Janet, Janet's niece-in-law and I were brought into the ICU to pray and lay hands on Cecilia. We took turns talking to her, praying over her and Jessie encouraged me to sing prophetically over her. When I received the gift of singing in tongues, I also received the gift of prophetic worship. At the hospital, it was only my second time singing a new song as the Spirit led. Now, I can only recall that it was about inviting Jesus, our Saviour and Healer, into our midst and asking for His mercy and healing to flow in Cecilia. Tears just started streaming down my face and my whole face was wet in no time. I so badly wanted Jesus to come and heal her; to wake her up from her unconsciousness; to see life restored to the listless woman in front of me.

I was shocked at my display of emotions but didn't think much of it after that until Jessie told me that she sees God increasing my capacity to love others or developing compassion within me for others (you see, I have always struggled with my lack of compassion for people and have occasionally asked God to help me see others through His eyes). When I sang in that hospital ward, I came to love a stranger...


Stay tuned for Day 3...

Encounters with God at KK (Day 1)

I had such an amazing time in Kota Kinabalu encountering the glory of God! I was given new experiences every single day I was there. Asking to encounter God in a more tangible manner was on my praying and fasting agenda for weeks leading up to the workshop and God graciously answered it. Below is my account of Day 1:

Gift of Interpretation of Tongues (1 Cor 12:10)
Before the workshop began on Wednesday, we had some time catching up with friends we have not seen since the last workshop in March. One person that I was particularly excited to see was Mary, who had given me a copy of her self-penned book narrating her face-to-face encounter with Jesus and her visits to Heaven. She had heard God instructing her to give me a copy on the last day of the workshop half a year back and the book had indeed blessed me tremendously. One very evident blessing was my receiving of the ability to sing in tongues and it happened just from reading her own account on the matter. Before that, I could try my darndest but it would come out painful to the ears! Anyways, after I shared that with her, she said that I also have the gift of interpretation of tongues. I was shocked she remembered her prophecy for me from six months ago, but she clarified that she doesn't and it was in fact a there-and-then 'download' from God. So far, I have not seen this gifting come into operation yet but I'll continue to ask God to stir it up since I received confirmation!


Hearing Angels

Yes, I heard angels sing! It was during the first activation activity where we were required to sing prophetically over our partner's "goliath" in life with keyboard accompaniment. I had finished my turn and it was midway through Annie's prophecy for me that I heard beautiful singing coming from about 5 metres on my right. At first, it sounded like only a single woman singing very professionally to the tune of the keyboard. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised that anyone in attendance could sing so beautifully and so perfectly to the background music (it is especially difficult to sing melodiously to tune when you are required to prophesy). I turned slightly right to the direction of the singing and thought I saw one of the ladies mouthing the words I was hearing (ok, I didn't exactly catch any of the words being sung but it looked like it could match the movement of her lips). So, I refocused my attention to Annie, who had her hand on my back and head bowed near my left shoulder. A little while later, the mysteriously beautiful singing caught my attention again and now it didn't sound as if it was only from a singular source; it sounded as if two or three women were singing in harmony with one dominant voice leading them. This made me crazy curious and I turned around, as subtly as I could (I didn't want to appear rude towards Annie who was deeply committed to her prophecy for me), to see who had been influenced to sing to the lady's tune. I must say that at this point, I was already highly doubtful it could be from any of the participants there. There was a couple of participants in between me and the source of the sound. I recognised one of them to be Jessie, one of my church pastors. It didn't look like she was doing the prophesying, so if anything it would have to be the other lady. The singing was just so glorious and it went on for 5 minutes! Immediately after the activity, I rushed over to Jessie to check whether 1) her partner could sing like a trained singer and, 2) she had heard any extraordinary singing, all to which she answered no. I had heard nothing else but angels singing! Hallelujah! It was audible voices singing! What a wonderful experience!  

I believe that this is my fifth experience with angels. I will share my earlier experiences in another post later on.

 

Gift of a new language (1 Cor 12:10)

Jessie, EW and I were resting in the hotel room when EW received an sms from a Sabahan friend, Janet, asking us to pray for her sister who had been in the ICU for several days already. They were afraid that she wouldn't be able to pull through the night, so prayed we did. We started by praying in tongues, and I realised that I had received a new one. A little history here: I was baptised in the Holy Spirit about  9 years ago and ever since, I could only speak in one tongue/language. For the first 6 years or so, it sounded weak and the words lacked strong distinctiveness from each other. Because of these reasons, I was never too keen to pray in tongues. Yes, bad attitude, I know. Anyways, I pressed in a little bit harder in recent years and the words did become a little bit more distinguishable from one another but still weak. So, the number of distinct words in this new tongue/language is clearly more than the previous one, the words are markedly different from one another and the tongue/language sounds strong. So, thank You Jesus for confirming that I have indeed grown spiritually through this gift.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that a new tongue/language is conditional upon spiritual growth, it is just that I sense it is in my case.

Discerning of Spirits (1 Cor 12:10)

Ok, I am not sure whether it is accurate for me to term my experience as the above but I'll headline it that first until I fully understand it. When we were praying for Janet's sister, my new tongue/language began to sound sinister. I could sense some hissing and sneering when in uttering the words. I was so bothered by it that I had to stop Jessie and EW from their praying to communicate my predicament. I was asked to pray in tongues out loud and the moment I started, the rest immediately could sense something was amiss. Jessie started rebuking a snake/serpeant spirit (she had a mental image of that) and EW felt goosebumps travel up her skin and it brought to surface her warrior-like tongue/language. After Jessie rebuked the spirit, I could feel the hissing and sneering dissipate. This manifestation that God allowed was confirmed by Janet - when she was praying over her sister at the hospital a few days ago, she also saw something serpeant/snake-like in the spirit. We aren't sure what it means exactly or which spirit we were dealing with, though. But we believe that God was telling us something about the spirit behind Janet's sister's affliction. Furthermore, I sensed something about a time of/for mourning and I couldn't sense any peace in the situation. I felt as if the sister has yet to receive salvation and that some curses have been uttered against her. Later, Janet confirmed that she isn't convinced her sister is saved, although she was a Christian once upon a time, as she believed that she had been patronising bomohs (local language for witch doctors), thus confirming the curses I sensed. And that some of her other sisters had wanted to take her off life support but was denied permission by the doctor. So, Jessie took my sensing of mourning to mean that her sisters were already in mourning for her even though she had not passed away yet. I didn't tell them this, but I felt that the mourning part was in fact pointing towards a definite death. Like there was no escape from it. And unfortunately, she did pass away two nights later. I am not spiritualising her illness (which is a viral infection in the blood stream - EW had received this word of knowledge from the Lord) but sometimes some illnesses are caused by certain demonic spirits and it would be good if we could discern which ones so that we can pray against them or cast them out in the authority that we have in Christ Jesus. From the experience, I am thankful that God used us to pray against the viral infection, the curses uttered against her and most importantly, to pray for her salvation.

Stay tuned for more of my God encounters....

Off for Advanced Prophetic Workshop

I'm off to Kota Kinabalu from 2-6 October for an advanced prophetic activation workshop organised by Arise Malaysia. I was there in March for Level 2 where an estimated 50 participants spent five days prophesying over each other. There, we stirred up our gift of prophecy (2 Timothy 1:6). The longest time we were asked to prophesy over one person was half an hour! I wonder how long it will be this time.

I am excited but at the same time concerned that my spiritual senses cannot measure up to the rest. I want to be able to encourage, edify and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3) those I prophesy over with greater accuracy and impact, which requires both sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and also wisdom in making sense of the message given. I know what it feels like when receiving generic prophecies. I am not discounting them, but it would be great if prophecies could be more precise to the person's situation / need at hand.

I have been praying hard over the last few weeks for a greater encounter with God during this event. I pray that to see more clearly into the supernatural, to hear Him in a more audible voice and to feel what He feels. Would be great too if I could catch a whiff of the supernatural or even taste it (to be substantiated with examples when I get back). Above all, I pray that God will use me mightily to minister and bless others there!

The Angel in Black

I intended to attend Che Ahn's "Hosting the Holy Spirit" conference on Sunday and Monday nights but in the end, I was only there the first night. Pastor Che Ahn shared his testimony and spoke a little bit on how to initiate church revival before going into a time of ministering.

The interesting thing that happened for me was, seeing an angel dressed in black standing at Pastor Che Ahn's right hand. It happened within just a blink of an eye. I immediately shrugged it off as I couldn't discern for a fact that it was from God, the fact that the angel wore black and it wasn't accompanied by awe and wonder. Furthermore, I had been yearning to see much more of the supernatural for quite some time now, so there was that possibility of my own spirit conjuring up that vision.

So anyways, a little bit later into the conference, Pastor Che Ahn shared about his moving to Pasadena. He said that he had a dream where a "black angel" called him to go to Los Angeles as there was going to be a great revival there. Oh boy, when I saw the angel in black, I thought to myself, "black angel?" Exact same words Pastor Che Ahn used to describe the man in his encounter! Of course, I later found out online that the angel he was referring to appeared to him as a black man. But come on, how coincidental is that, right?

Now, I think that my vision of the angel dressed in black could be from God. Because I am not very good at noticing details, God had to show me the angel in black robes for the 'black' to jump out at me! Hence, the term "black angel" I used to describe that vision even before Pastor Che Ahn shared about his dream.

I called my Pastor on the way home and he asked that I pray about the purpose of seeing such a vision at this point in time. At that, I scratched my head and said, "It's for my own encouragement and edification since I have been asking God to open my spiritual eyes?" But because my Pastor has an apostolic calling, he views things in a bigger and wider light. He wonders whether it has anything to do with our church direction since the angel encounter represented the start of a major shift in Che Ahn's ministry or church planting life. Will have to pray for greater discernment of spirits and also for interpretation. But, I am excited!