Our First Soaking Session

Unable to get enough of worshipping God together with my fellow brothers and sisters, I organised a soaking session for the church last Saturday. But in the end, I think it was more of a worship session. I don’t think we persevered long enough to quieten our flesh to allow our spirit-man to emerge. Nevertheless, God saw our hunger and allowed us to experience His mighty presence through worship.

God’s Joy Filled the Room

Many received visions/mental pictures, many danced and sang prophetically. On two different occasions, when I was seated down worshipping, I felt water rise up to my nose level. Do you know the floating feeling you usually get after swimming? You feel as though you are still in the water although you are already out of it? Well, it was exactly like that. In one of those occasions, Jenn saw the water and was trying to make eye contact with me to confirm but unfortunately I was too immersed in the new experience to notice! In a separate experience, I felt very light drizzle on my hand as we called for the Holy Spirit to rain down.

Others danced with so much joy in their movements. They were completely stripped of all shyness and just danced for that audience of one. I honestly have never seen them so free and uninhibited. The joy of the Lord is just so amazing!

God-Planned

You know, I really cannot thank God enough for sending Charles B to our first attempt at soaking. He is a missionary Pastor from West Timor currently studying theology here in Singapore and an amazing amazing musician/worship leader. The church had invited him as a guest speaker in late February this year to share about his passion for and experience in the mission field. Not only did he share, he led in worship too! He played the guitar and we worshipped non stop. That night was the night I received my first physical healing and I believe Charles B’s worship anointing had ushered in the healing I needed.

When I first had the idea of organising a soaking session, his name popped into my head the same night. I ignored it. The next day it happened again and again I waved it off. A few days later it came back so I decided to take that leap of faith to invite him. He had already promised to attend a birthday party but asked us to pray for God to make a way for him to come. I was a little crushed, just because I had thought it was God nudging me to invite him. That was Tuesday.

On Friday, I got a message from him saying that he would be able to attend! I found out later that he and his family decided not to attend the aforementioned birthday party because one of his daughters was coughing and so needed rest. So it was indeed God’s will for him to come and I believe the daughter’s coughing must be gone by now.

We were able to have such wonderful and anointed music because of him. I had only prepared four songs for him and other guitarists to play. I know, how silly right? But to be fair, I did prepare another four songs for the pianist to play (didn’t happen cause having Charles B playing was sufficient). He just played other songs as the spirit led. I didn’t even have to prompt him. He was so in tune with the Spirit that whatever he played was apt every moment.

Encouragement for the Night

Me, worship anointing? Charles B back told me that in the car, whilst we were sending him home. I knew I could sing prophetically but having the worship anointing? Wow….

 Towards the end of the soaking session, he turned to me and strummed a tune and asked whether I knew how to sing that song (Jon was playing back-up, so the rest of the church was still busy dancing away). I told him it was only very vaguely familiar so not to rely on me to lead. And then he turned back and started strumming. And rather automatically I burst into a melody. No words just plenty of pum pum pum, pah dap pah dap, pum pum pum…. I have no idea what technique this is called. It was absolutely lovely! It surely wasn’t me, so I am not boasting in myself; I am not so creative. In the past, I could try as hard as I might to harmonise with others or fill up parts of songs where vocals are absent but they would always turn out DISASTROUS. So all praise goes to the Holy Spirit!

What I found out at the end of the session was that he was playing to my melody. And there I was thinking it was the other way round. I thought it was the song he had strummed earlier on. So, apparently there was a partnership between us in the spirit realm – he would anticipate my next line of melody and on my end, I would anticipate what he would play next. Somehow his music and my singing just clicked and we flowed so well. He told me to sing with words next time. Haha I’ll definitely try to listen more closely to the Holy Spirit for the words!

But it isn’t only that. Now, whenever I sing, the Holy Spirit will have a tune for me to either harmonise with or sing alongside the melody. It’s just such amazing gift. It is such an honour to be able to sing such beautiful tunes to the Lord. But it is so humbling at the same time. If by my own might, it is totally not possible. Praise God for the gift.

I have lots more to share about this new gift of mine. Wait for it in the next few posts.

Conclusion

It was a successful worship session. I thank God for His mercy and grace. It’s just so wonderful to be able to bask in God’s love and glory.

God, You are so lovely…

Dancing with Jesus and Angels (Part 2)

Continuation of my account of last Thursday night...

My Unbelief

I assume some of you may be thinking that my church’s seer-in-training has a very active imagination. To be extremely frank, there were fleeting moments where I had my doubts too. But God dealt with my unbelief, no matter how brief those thoughts were.

After service, we went into a short prayer. And as I started praying in the spirit, I asked the Lord what I should be praying for and I saw stage curtains being drawn open. I didn’t exactly know how to interpret that mental image so I just kept praying.

Jenn interrupted us midway to convey what she saw in the spirit for another church member, YY, who was not seen in her earlier vision (see previous post). I won’t dwell much on the vision here since it wasn’t meant for me. All I will say is that it was a beautiful vision that showed how much Jesus loved YY. So, back to Jenn’s vision. The last thing she saw was stage curtains being drawn close! It clicked! I saw the prelude and she saw the body and the ending.

There, no more unbelief!

Thank You, Jesus for being ever so gentle in rebuking my negative thoughts.

Leading a Choir of Angels

Back to when we were still praying. I had progressed into singing in the spirit after a while. I noticed I was singing to a new tune with short intervals between “lines”. Then I saw myself standing some distance from God’s throne, clouds at my feet. Golden hues of light illuminated the background. What I saw was so beautifully captivating.

As I continued singing, I saw hundreds of thousands of angels appearing some distance behind me. They echoed every line I sang with their magnificent choir-like singing. It was so glorious! I then understood why there were unavoidable pauses when I sang. It was for the angels to follow after me. I was leading angels in worship before the throne of God!

I have never been a true worshipper. Praise and worship before service was mostly done out of obedience and routine. I would go through the motions of weekly worship service with boredom in my heart. I sometimes would feel guilty that I was giving half-hearted praises to God. I knew this had to stop because I couldn’t truly love and experience God if I was doing it drudgingly. So, in March during my first prophetic activation workshop in KK, I asked God to make me a true worshipper. And I am glad I can say that I love worshipping Him now!

Yippee, soaking session this Saturday! Can’t wait to experience God in deeper ways!!

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!