Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thank you Lord, for the affirmation again

Preamble
The purpose of this article is not to boast of what I have done. For what I have done, was done through the Lord. Apart from him, I can do nothing meaningful(John 15:5). The glory is His. I am just a willing vessel at the appropriate times, and that at those moments He was pleased to use me. This blog, and this entry served as a personal journal for me, in some way, a record of some of the things the Lord has done in and through me. In addition, it is my desire that it, including this entry, will bring encouragement to readers, especially when you see these things are happening in and through a lay person. Although I am an altar minister in my church, I am actually only a lay altar minister, I am not a staff or a paid pastor of the church, I am just a long time member of the church, doing the things I do on a volunteering basis. Of course, without the consent and support of the pastoral team and staff of the church, I would not have been able to do some of the things that I am currently doing. Still I must say, I cannot just write about everything I want since this is a public domain, and that people’s privacy must be observed. Also, I do not want the church to get any wrong idea and think that what I am doing in the church is for getting things to write about in this blog.

The 3 visions
Sorry, for the long opening. Actually, I just want to write about several things that happened over the last weekend (25-26 July 09), which I found to be noteworthy and comforting. Firstly, I released 3 visions over the weekend, one for each of the 3 weekend services. This is a first for me. Two of them were pictures/words of caution, one about our negative attitude towards expressions of worship. This one was more of a mental picture. The second one was a picture of a stretch of fence with a sudden jumping of the fence by someone, seen by me (in the vision) at the corner of my eye accompanied by a stir in my spirit. This was to be a caution to someone(s) who has(ve) overstepped/comtemplating overstepping the precepts of the Lord (the fence represented the precepts of the Lord put there to protect us). Words of caution/warning/rebuke are difficult words to release, especially for a lay person, to a congregation. I am grateful to my Senior Pastor for allowing me to release the word. May the Lord continue to bless him with discernments in the things of the spirit. He is a courageous man of God. The third was a picture of a young lady bound, possibly by excessive/unusual fear or guilt, and there was also a flight of stairs in the vision. It was that, perhaps, the Lord wanted to minister to people with excessive/unusual fear or guilt or suffering from compulsive disorders, like anger, etc. I also released some words on physical healing conditions for the services.

Spiritual Bethesda Pool
For some few weeks now, I have been witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them at the front of the sanctuary. I believe this place in this church is a very special place. I believe it has been designated by God to be a place of healing, a spiritual Bethesda Pool. Whenever I can, on every Sunday morning, I would do “prayer walk” around this “pool”, praying for God to continue to use the place for healing and ministry, continue to pour forth his anointing into this pool, that His angels would continue to form “angel arch” over the pool, dropping healing essence or anointing into the pool. I once had a word from the Lord to form human arch over the pool. Because I was doing this “prayer walk thing” all by myself, each Sunday morning, about an hour before the first service, I was unable to do the arch. I told the Lord, to continue to do weekly prayer walking around the pool was ok for me but to involve others would be a little difficult for two reasons - one, that I believed what I believed about the area was because I had believed and appropriated a word of revelation released by one of the former pastors of the church but others might not believe, two, that it was not my intention to attract attention to what I had been doing, lest I be labeled a Pharisee – praying and doings things at front of the sanctuary that all may see and know. Of course, it was not that people could not see I was there, kneeling and praying, Sunday after Sunday, if they turned up a bit earlier, before the first services began, but at least I was doing things by myself quietly. In case you want to know what I did during the time of about an hour, I first prayed that the Lord would prepare me for the hour, do the prayer walk around the pool (there are 2 red lines, some 5 to 6 feets apart on the carpeted floor, marking the long “pool” at the front of the sanctuary), praying for God’s continued designation of the place, for the anointing to be poured forth, for the angels (healing ones, ministering ones, and even warring ones) to come, for the forming of the angel arch, for empowering of the ministers who would be ministering at the area (I must confess that at the beginning I only prayed for empowering for myself, how selfish!), for the worship team on the stage, and for the speaker of the morning [R. Watson, God used you to remind me to pray for speakers of the services]. When I finished the walk, I would kneel on the spot in front of where I normally sit (I normally sit in the first row, in front of the sanctuary), pray for my ministry (actually too big of a word to use for whatever that the Lord is doing through me, but what the hack, nothing wrong with thinking big and dreaming big with the Lord for things of the faith, and of the spirit, right?), intercede for some people (I make it a point to do this), and finally round off with asking the Lord to prepare me for the services of the morning - to worship Him, to serve Him in words of knowledge, prophesy, and be a vessel for Him to use in altar ministry time, also to feed on His word spoken through the speaker. By the way, from time to time, I do receive words of knowledge during this pre-service time. Oh, before I forget, I actually want to say that the church did eventually do the human arch around the pool – sometime this year, the church did a Fire Tunnel exercise as a finale of a series of teachings on supernatural living. I have the privilege of writing an email to the Senior Pastor, suggesting the sites for the tunnels; yes, you guessed it right, at front of the sanctuary between the 2 red lines. I did not receive a reply from the Senior Pastor or know whether he did read the email (sometimes, emails do get filtered by secretaries, you know) but all the same, 2 tunnels were formed on that occasion, one on the right and one on the left, from the centre of the “pool”. And the people proceeded from the seats via the central aisle, walked to the centre of the “pool” to enter either tunnel. For a few weeks prior to this, I had also been extending my prayer walk into the central aisle. I did not know why then, but on the night of Fire Tunneling, I knew why – the central aisle was to be used (In my usual prayer walk, as in currently, the central aisle is not included). Another thing, for readers from the same church, now you understand why I ministered so confidently at the front of the sanctuary – I believe I have the Lord with me, and I have the “home ground” advantage! Oops, Lord, a whole long para. ended up devoted to your spiritual Bethesda Pool in this church!

People slain
Ok, back to the things that happened. Yes, I was saying that I was witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them during the altar ministry time at the front of the sanctuary. A couple of weeks before that the frequency was about every other week, one or two persons would be slain in one or more of the services. Then it went from every other week to every week, one or two persons would be slain when I ministered. I generally give words of knowledge and prophesy, and perform altar ministry (praying for people in ministry times). Of late, more got slain by other ministers as well, at the altar ministry times. Do I feel pressurized or jealous? Honestly, no but I care about whether or not I am still being used by the Lord, and I want to see growth in my “ministry”. I prayed for power and anointing for other ministers, didn’t I? I want to spur others on, don’t I? Yes, I just do not want to be “left behind”. I have come to believe and I think I still believe that when we “empower” others and spur others to greater heights, God will empower and anoint us further if our hearts are right. In any case, in all things, the prerogatives belong to God – if you do not want to intercede/pray/empower/impart/anoint, God could get someone else to do it. When we say we empower/impart/anoint, actually we really do nothing of the sort, it is God who does it, the source and giver is God, not us, we are just the vessels, and I believe it is a blessing that you and I can be willing vessels. If you are willing, you are already blessed, for being willing to be used by God is a blessing in itself. In another article, Trials and Temptations (James 1:2-18), I said that with godly wisdom for execution, we should always focused on the end result. I think it is not wrong to say, that’s how God is, God looks at the end result. He looks at what is going to be achieved at the end of the day - that is what is important to Him. Why do I say that? It is because He has the wisdom for execution all the time. When you have the wisdom for execution, what do you look at? Yes, you look at what you desire to achieve. Of course, for God, the end results of everything that He does are good because God is good all the time. What is the good end result here? People be healed, delivered and ministered to, the name of God be lifted up and glorified and men are drawn to God. Whether it is through me or through other ministers are matters of execution.

Take note of what is/isn't happening
Ah, so what happened last weekend, apart from the 3 visions given for the services? Another set of 3 things happened, even though for this weekend despite the fact that some people got slain by some other ministers but no one fell under the power of the Spirit when I prayed for the people – a surprise break! I am going to digress again, but bear with me. I think it is important that we be sensitive to what is going on, in and through us, in relation to our walk with the Lord. When we take note of what is happening we would be able to constantly check ourselves, do self-reflection to see if there are anything that went amiss (maybe our attitude was not right, our motive was not right, pride has gotten the better of us, maybe we have sinned, disobeyed God and God isn’t pleased about it). I am constantly reminding myself what Wilfred, a veteran itinerant preacher, said concerning moving in the supernatural –God can use anyone in the supernatural, even a sinful man or woman, an unwilling vessel, a baby or young Christian, but to continue to move in the supernatural with frequency and consistency, one has to grow. God expects the person to grow. If you are living in sin, you have to leave that sinful life, if you are an unwilling vessel, you have to learn to be willing, if you are a young Christian, you need to grow in the Word, etc (By the way, no one can claim that he/she has arrived), and we must all try to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16 and 2 Cor 7:1). Although, Wilfred said He has no theological degree or formal paper qualification, I believe his insight is correct. I now tell people that when you do natural things well, people may not attribute them to God because you maybe naturally endowed but when you do supernatural things consistently, people attribute them to God working in and through you – you have God’s name written all over you; in a way you represent God. Do you think that God will allow that if you still remain in your “undesirable” state? Or that when you allow yourselves to deteriorate into the “undesirable state”, would the Lord still continue to let you be his representative? Whether you are a prince or a princess, it is the same. Knowing your identity in God is important, but it doesn’t mean as a King’s son or daughter, you can do whatever you like. I know some of the readers are from the same church I am attending, and they have been exposed through overseas speakers, the importance of knowing our identity in God. Let us all bear in mind that [as we are taught and believed] all Christians are princes and princesses, and if that is so, then when one does not walk right with God, we just get, instead of a so and so commoner, a so and so prince or princess, like a sinful prince/princess, an unwilling prince/princess, a young prince/princess, or a prince/princess who is unwilling to practice holiness before the King whose is first and foremost, God the Holiness. Before God, our status of being a prince/princess is the same for everyone, when we are disobedient, we are just disobedient children. It is in relation to those outside, like the non-Christians and Satan and the principalities of darkness that our status as princes and princesses become very crucial and our own knowledge and belief in that, are very crucial. If you think that just because you are a prince or princess, you can call down fire and brimstones, you are mistaken. The Chinese has a saying that sounded something like this, “If royalty breaks the law, he/she gets the same punishment”; what more when in our kingdom of the Christians (Kingdom of God), there are no commoners! So, let us be obedient children before God, the Father, honour Him, please Him, bring Him joy, and share in His work.

Finally, the other set of 3 things
Sorry, folk, ok, I come back, get to the point and finish this off. The other set of 3 things are that I received 3 feedbacks. You see feedbacks/report-backs/testimonies are precious to us, who ministered in faith. They assure us, affirm us, increase our faith, spur us to do more for the Lord. Seeing some people slain maybe encouraging, getting feedback that people are healed or ministered to is even better. Thank you, Lord that you, not only give one but 3 feedbacks/report-backs at one go.

Firstly, a young man, a poly undergraduate whom I counseled and ministered to, for several Saturday evenings some months back, who had become a Christian but was holding onto the notion that being a Christian, one needn’t necessarily go to a church [representing fellowship and body], has now started going to church. After I stopped the counseling sessions several months back, I continued to intercede for this young man on Sundays. Yes, you read above that I intercede for people on Sundays, in the hour before the church first services. Last weekend, I saw this young man coming to church, I asked him about it, and he said that he had been coming to the church’s youth services, for 4 weeks already. I kept asking God to bring this young man into the fellowship of the church, now a breakthrough has taken place.

Secondly, a man I ministered healing to, several weeks ago at the altar ministry, came up to me at the church hospitality plaza last weekend and told me that his doctor had said that everything was alright for his colon. I could remember this man because of something he said. You see, if you give words of knowledge and prophesy regularly and prayed for many people regularly, you will not remember the words or the people particularly unless you made a point to remember the words or persons by recording them down or something peculiar happened. This man mentioned more than once, the previous diagnosis by his doctor that the “tube” was too small and he had problem moving his bowel. He was complaining about problems with his colons and bowel movement, but the word “tube” was kind of a strange term to use, and I remembered that. He told me then he would be re-visiting the doctor for further examinations. The man was happy and I was happy that his doctor has since cleared him.

Lastly, a woman told me that the Lord had given her a word for me, and that she had carried it for some times but had not had the occasion to give it to me. She said she even shared it with her children. This sister and her husband are somehow “special” when they got prayed for, by me. Actually, I do not get many feedbacks on people being healed when they are being prayed for, by me. I wish I get more of that. Well, Jesus, on one occasion only got one out of ten, so I should not complain. In Luke 17:11-17, we read:

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (Luke 17:11-17)

There must be times when I prayed for people, people do not get healed even subsequently over time, but when Jesus prayed for people, people got healed (v 17a). Yet we read that only one out of the 10 lepers came back to report of his healing, the other nine did not (People, what must we do when we got healed? Report back and give praise to God. Maybe some of the people do report back, to the church, and I was not aware). So, if people do not report back, I will still pray. Even if only one out of ten or more, gets healed, I will still pray. I prayed for this sister before, for her tearing eye conditions and she was healed (I shared this before, because she reported back, in a separate article – A Special Resurrection Sunday Indeed) several months ago. More recently, I prayed for her husband for pain and discomfort on the shoulder/shoulder blade area, and he experienced healing immediately. I remembered this occasion because, firstly, his wife was healed before, and secondly, the setting was not in church and a person received instant healing when prayed for, by me. Last weekend this couple came up to the front of the church sanctuary for prayer of resolve, to spend time with God as a family unit. I was actually far away from where they were standing, and for that particular session I was thinking that I could just pass, i.e. not going forth to pray for people (remember, I do what I do on a willing basis, I am not “on duty” as such). Then suddenly, I just felt I should pray for the couple. I quickly made my way to the couple and prayed for them. I felt “heat” when I lay hands on the couple’s foreheads, particularly for the husband. In fact the heat was so strong, I told the brother, the Lord’s anointing was upon him. It was after this that the wife said that she had the word for me sometime back. She kept apologizing that she did not tell me earlier. She said that the Lord’s word was that I was sincere when I prayed for people, and the Lord being pleased with my sincerity, heard and answered my prayers for others. What comforting words to hear. Thank you, Lord.

Pray for me
This is really a very roundabout and long-winded way of saying 2 sets of 3 things – a set of 3 visions and another set of 3 feedbacks/report-backs; but I hope you have enjoyed reading this and know a little bit more of me and what I do. There are reasons for the time being, for not being a little more personal, like publicly showing my photo on this blog site, revealing my age and where exactly I worship, etc. I hope those who read this blog, would pray for me, pray for my protection, pray that I can break all undesirable habits, be more holy as the Lord is holy, and not function in the flesh, and deliver only what God wants delivered, particularly in times of release of words of knowledge and prophesy.


Anthony Chia - Lord, may I always remember that much is given, much is expected (Luke 19:25-26)


PS: Comments/feedback are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me at: high.expressions@gmail.com. Or just email me so that I have a record of your email address to inform you of any updates on this blog.

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