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....