The Lord as the papa eagle – a vision of faithfulness, comfort and assurance

Today, I want to share about a vision I had at the end of October 2009. It was in the early hours of the morning. I was up praying for what the Lord wanted to say through me through words of knowledge for my church weekend services.

It started in a room
The vision started with me in the vision itself. In the vision I was in a room, and there were two other persons in the room. One of them I could recognize was a long time church friend, the other was a unknown young man. This long-time friend was at one corner of the room and was not involved with the rest of what happened. As to why he was in the picture I was not sure. Possibly it was to be consistent with my asking, i.e. an asking for the body of Christ - he is a Christian and is a member of my church. Also this brother had gone through much in life, especially in his career, worked for others, was in businesses for many years, been through business partners’ squabbles, had much ups and downs, and then went back to employment, and then finally out , and was on some multi-level selling late in his life.

The conversation thereof
The interesting thing was that the young man in the vision engaged me in conversation. I am a fairly old man! What would a young man converse with a much older man about? Young men are enthusiastic, and this young man talked about his plans, about “conquering the world”, how he mapped out every things, step by step how he would steer himself into positions beneficial to himself, to get into business settings, and then into business, and be successful in it. This young man was a Christian too. I could tell by his making reference to the Bible. Although not intentionally trying to dampen the young man enthusiasm about life, I said that if he had gone through as much in years that I had, he would find that things did not always worked out exactly like what he had intended. You see, I too, have had my fair share of upsets in life, career or otherwise.

Ceiling no more
Then suddenly when I have finished saying something to the effect that my setbacks, even the current one, did not necessarily spell the end of me, my eyes looked up and saw the ceiling of the room was no more there. Instead what I saw was the foliage of a tree top. The young man began to look with me, at the tree. This young man thereafter was just there watching with me. We both just watched and did nothing. The room no longer featured in the vision; the concentration was now on the tree and what happened there.

Zoom, zoom, zoom
I first saw an eagle coming into the tree top, onto a section that looked like a nest. The picture began to go on a zoom, i.e. it began to get bigger and bigger. The eagle got larger and larger. Then I saw one of its wings was placed right in front of its body. Then I could see an eaglet behind the large wing of the big eagle. This eaglet was hovering up and down behind the wing, kind of attempting to fly but was faltering. I could see the eaglet popping up and down the top of the held-up wing in front of the big eagle. Then the eaglet got hidden under the wing when the wing was brought close to the body of eagle, and the picture got into greater zoom mode. The close-up was so near that now I could see that the big eagle was really majestic, with full colors – with whites and shades of brown feathers. When I saw the body of the eagle in a close-up shot, I could see that the eagle was clothed; it had a colourful vest on, there were white as well as red stripes. Then I saw the eagle was wearing a tie (neck-tie with blue and white colours), and the impression that came with that sight, was that it was a papa eagle.

Papa, and it unzoomed
The moment the thought of the eagle was a papa eagle came, the picture went into a quick “unzoom”. This is to say that suddenly I was again looking at the spot on the tree from a further distance. I could no longer see an eagle at the spot anymore. What was there a moment ago was an eagle, now was only a coat which surprisingly still retained its form. As I was wondering where the eagle had gone, the large collar of the coat moved, and the thought that came, was that the eagle was still there, it was just that I could not see it (invisible). And with that, the vision ended.

What is the interpretation of this vision?
First, I believe this is a vision of faithfulness, comfort and assurance, and I believe it was meant for the body of Christ, in the first instance, meant for the body in my church, secondarily for the general body of Christ, and this is why I have it articled here. I have had previous dreams of assurance of similar kinds, for myself. I have one of them written up at the end of this article (see Appendix), just to encourage along the same line.

But now for the interpretation of this vision, the eaglet represented children of God. Everyone, at salvation, became a child of God. At salvation, we are adopted as children by God through the Holy Spirit. All Christians, young (represented by the young man in the vision) or old (represented by me and the old church friend of mine, in the vision) are still children, like little eaglets, to God. Some of us may have grown much older since salvation but we are really never fully grown, in the eyes of the Abba Father. I believe the young man’s referencing to the Bible in his conversation with me, was deliberately put in by God so that we know that children of God were being referenced to. And the conversation on life, the journeys and the ups and downs, and the faltering, pictured by the faltering eaglet, and the coming of the papa eagle, was to symbolize the coming of Father God to his children’s aid when they faltered in lives, regardless of whether they are young or old. When I asked the Lord for the meaning of the vision, I came to Psalm 17:8. In this portion of the psalm, King David said this: Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. This verse is spot on for the vision.

The apple of the eye, although could generally be translated as someone’s beloved, it is actually more than just that. As my Senior Pastor rightly pointed out the apple of the eye is the pupil of the eye. The pupil of the eye is rather unique in that it has autonomy to regulate itself; when it is dark, it will open the aperture bigger to admit more light; when it is bright outside, it will reduce the size of the aperture to regulate the amount of light into the eye, all involuntarily – doing it, of itself. But when there is a danger coming to the pupil of the eye, the eyelid will come down to cover it, you might tilt your head away, hold up your hands to block the danger, or do whatever needed to dodge/ward off the danger. As the apple of God’s eye means you are given freedom (your free-will not taken from you) yet when there is any danger, God would protect you at all cost. As apple of God’s eye here in the vision, whether it is represented by the eaglet, with freedom to try to fly, or by the young man and I, with freedom in our engagements in life, when we get into trouble, afflicted or faltered, Father God comes like the papa eagle to hide us in the shadow of His wings.

Therefore the message in this vision is that as children of God, young or old, as apple of God’s eye, papa God is faithful to come to our aid, to protect us. The ending part of the vision is really showing us that God is faithful; we may not see God, we may not feel him, He is there watching over. The Lord brought to remembrance one of the trustworthy sayings of Paul in 2 Timothy 2:

if we are faithless{believe not}, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13)

With much regret, I did not manage to deliver this vision to my church congregation over the weekend. As a matter of arrangement I have with the Lord, words of knowledge received prior to the first weekend service, would be for that first service, unless there was a sensation of otherwise. But I could not release this vision because of time constraint. In the first service (Saturday evening service), we were running out of time, and visions such as this one tended to take more time to be fully released to be understood. I had no choice but to skip it. It can be argued that this vision was meant for the entire church congregation and therefore should still be released on the next service which was the Sunday’s first service. Actually it turned out that this service did not suffered from the lack of time. But the session for the word of knowledge came on too soon in the service, and it caught me off guard; I ended up not releasing it, and was praying and ministering to people instead. Maybe I failed the Lord there, I am not sure. But one thing did happen though, a sister, from the congregation gave this word (in its place?) from Deuteronomy:

10 In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions. (Deuteronomy 32:10-11)

I decided that in the 3rd service, Sunday 10:30am service, I would release the vision. I stayed but no time was allotted for words of knowledge for that service.
I believe visions, words of knowledge and manifestations of the Holy Spirit can be spiritual food for us (if you want to catch a exposition on what constitute spiritual food, read this article – Spiritual food), and anyone reading this vision can claim the goodness, assurance and promises in it.



Anthony Chia – Lord, this vision has left an imprint in me of you as the PAPA, may you still use this write-up of the vision to speak to many.

Appendix – saved by the Lord’s golden sash:
This was a dream I had quite a number of months back. In this dream there was no one else in the picture. I was just me in a room, much like in a room of a posh hotel. The room, very well furnished, had glass walls. There was a low cabinet against one of the glass wall, and on top of the cabinet was a black luggage. In the dream, I reached for this luggage. Unexpectedly, I ended up giving a push to the luggage, and before I knew it, I was slipping along with the luggage over the cabinet, and into the air outside of the room! Apparently, the glass could be pushed opened, and somehow, not knowing to me, the wall was not there, the glass was pushed opened. I fell from the room, and then I realized it was a tall building, and I was in free fall. It was a long drop. Just before I hit the ground, suddenly, I went upright. My hands stretched out, and around one hand, and extending to the other hand across the chest was a golden sash, and I began to rise and rise, all the way back up to the room I fell from. I can still remember when I got back into the room, I hung the golden sash on a clothes pole.

Personal to me, as this is clearly a personal dream – no one else was in the dream; I was not particularly praying or interceding for another, and the only character in the dream was me. This dream spoke of the assurance that my God was watching over me. Even if I unwittingly stumble, God is there to save me. The moving back up through the air to the room has the connotation of restoration. So, it is not only that God saves, He will restore. How do I know it was a dream from God? We read in Isaiah 11, the sash represented faithfulness of God (Isaiah 11:5b - … and faithfulness the sash around his waist). In fact, Isaiah 11 is a prophetic description of the Messiah, Jesus. In Revelation 1:12-16, John gave a description of the one “like the son of man”. I believe Jesus was being described there. Notice that verse 13 said that He had sash around His chest. In that dream, Jesus took off His sash, wrapped it around my hands so that I could be propelled up in the air by His sash. This is how personal Jesus can get. This is how faithful Jesus can get.

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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)

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More Lord, More

Since May 2009, I had had few occasions where I could release words of knowledge particularly, on healing. Also, along with that, fewer occasions for praying for people for healing (For an idea of how I function, see: http://high-expressions.blogspot.com/2009/04/special-resurrection-sunday-indeed.html ). My main place of ministry currently is really in church, during church services. I regularly attended all the 3 weekend English services of my church in which I function as a lay Altar Minister. A much smaller setting which sometimes accorded opportunities to minister, is the regular Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship weekly meetings. For various reasons, no times were allotted for release of words of knowledge by members of congregation (I am being one) in church for the most of the several weeks since May 2009.

It kind of trouble me a little, because I believe we must try to put into practice the things we learnt in the faith, we should all exercise faith and move in the spiritual gifts that we newly “acquired”. Exercise of faith and faithfulness are pertinent to the growth in the new spiritual gifts. Apart from the gift of tongues which is for self-edification, the rest of the gifts are ministry gifts. This means that we are to minister to people. Power gifts (gift of faith, healing, miraculous powers [gift of working of miracles]), revelation gifts (gift of distinguishing spirits, words of knowledge, words of wisdom), and oral gifts (gift of words of prophecy, interpretation of tongues, [gift of tongues is a self-edification gift]) are ministry gifts. Common sense tells us that we need to use them to minister/bless others, otherwise why would God gives us the gifts. If we are having them and we are not using them, why would they (the gifts) grow in depth and power.

It is really not fruitful if we attend various “power” seminars and afterwards not put into practice at least some of the things we learnt or gifts that we “received”. In my view, churches that organize these seminars/workshops should try as far as possible to encourage the putting into practice of these things. I feel paying lip service to such calls is pointless. The church leaderships themselves must be prepared to take some “risks” and allow members to practice these things in church services, cell meetings and various ministries and settings of the churches. Allowing times for and incorporating these things in the various settings of the churches are important. We must be prepared to change some things in the existing framework of things to accommodate the new things, otherwise each of these seminars would be another “let’s do it and then forget about it” project. I am not saying we cannot encourage people to try out these things in their “marketplaces” but be realistic, how many of us do not need “warm-ups” in these things? How many of us are that gung-ho to exercise spiritual gifts unsolicited in MacDonald, Starbuck or a supermarket?

Nevertheless, I want to encourage people who want to rekindle the “flame” of their faith to firstly, exercise some faith, step out of your comfort zone a little, secondly, worship the Lord more and lastly, instill in yourself a desire to glorify God, by doing things that do not benefit you directly but which glorify God. In this way, may you experience God’s moves through you. A small candle flame that flickered and went out and the acronym, “FWD” was what I received last year at the end of a series of teachings, including seminars, on moving in the supernatural with the Lord, with the renewal of the mind. I believe this is the interpretation of this vision that the Lord gave me (it was meant for the church congregation, but it is applicable to anyone who can identify with the vision of the candle flame) - “That there are those among us whose flames are dying out, to move forward, we need to step out in faith (the “F”), we need to worship the Lord a lot more (the “W”) and lastly we need to have a desire to glorify God (the “D”)”. When our flames are dying out, these 3 things, Faith exercising, Worship and Desire to glorify God, are things that we are reluctant to do/have. Yet, these are the very things that we have to tell our mind to do. We have to repeatedly tell our spirit man that, to move forward (FWD), we must exercise (F)aith, (W)orship God and do something to concretize our (D)esire to glorify God.

I have put into practice what the Lord had shown me, and I believe today my flame has been rekindled. For the few who know my situation more closely, things had not been going well for me for the last few years. Literally, my world crashed on me in early 2008. I hit my “most difficult patch” in my life. Now is still not the time yet to share the details of the “lowest period” of my life. It suffices to say that at one point, I literally did not know whether or not I could ever worship God. What faith was there to talk about? Kind souls then kept telling me to think about Job of the Bible, how he suffered at the hands of Satan and how he refused to curse God. How to sustain a desire to glorify God? For a moment I became like the Rachel (Jeremiah 31:15) of the Bible, weeping and weeping and refused to be comforted.

Today I am still not out of the patch that I had entered, things could never be the same again, yet I have gained – experiencing more of the Lord moving through me. More Lord, more. I want to experience more of you in my life. Thank you Lord for seeing me through, and for the spiritual gift experiences you brought into my life. Thank you Lord that despite the lack of opportunities to exercise the gift of words of knowledge in the recent weeks, you continued to show me that you are still moving through me by letting me experience about two weeks ago, for the first time, 2 consecutive slayings by the Spirit (falling under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit) of 2 persons I laid hands on, consecutively. Also, another who said she felt great anointing upon her when I laid my hands on her. Thank you Lord for the privilege of leading a man through the Sinner’s Prayer on the 2nd night of that 2-nights meeting.

Lord, I want more; more opportunities to experience your moves through me. Lord, I want to see the gift of the words of knowledge in me used and grow. I want your healing anointing in me to increase, Lord so that more people will be healed or ministered. Lord, let me not take pride in your moves through me but even as you raise me, may your name be raised high and you be glorified.


Lord, may I grow in favour with you,

Anthony Chia – may this meditation of my heart pleases you, Lord

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