So before being evicted I had four dogs and in a way they become my closest earthly companions. One became very ill with tick fever, which to dogs is like malaria to humans maybe. This was Ivory and he was well, more trouble than all the other dogs combined—times maybe four. But that didn’t matter; I loved him and by this time he really was one of my only daily companions. He first began stumbling one day. Then the next day his hind legs seized up. By the time I realized he was in trouble the vet was closed for the night and the next day was their day off. He deteriorated so fast he could not walk or use his front legs already by the next morning and began to have difficulty breathing by noontime.
I had no medicine or understanding of how to care for him so I prayed for his healing but Jesus asked me to give Ivory to Him instead. So I did. All I could then do was to just take him into the back garden to let him rest in the grass under the wompei fruit trees and kept checking on him every few minutes to comfort him the best I could. When he began really struggling just to breathe, I just sat with him continually and held his head in my lap and stroked him, talking kindly to him. He was such a pretty dog but very high maintenance but was also the dog I trained to jump trough a hoop in only about ten minutes. He did tricks and was very smart but also yes, a lot of trouble actually. But in this moment as my heart opened up to him, just loving him, I could suddenly understand him talking to me, spirit to spirit. He said, ‘I’m sorry for being such a bad dog.’
“Oh, no,” I said, and I’m crying trying to share this, “No, Ivory, you’re my little buddy. You’re one of my closest friends. Don’t say things like that. You are NOT a bad dog! There’s nothing to forgive. Don’t say things like that. I love you, Ivory. You were such a GOOD dog!”
But then he said, ‘Can I go now?’
Jesus’ presence was there so I just said, “OK. You can go,” and he breathed one last breath—and died in my arms. I then saw him in the spirit running circles around Jesus so happy and excited; he’s in heaven waiting for me! Jesus asked me to give Ivory to him. He just looked so happy!
My second dog, a large big black dog, Ebony, was poisoned by the landlord. A third dog I had just taken in from a shelter to help a friend but I had to return him. She was not too happy, I mean the friend, well, probably the dog as well. My fourth dog, Sheeba, was part Chow and who was not fully convinced she was actually a dog after all. So I took her with me all the way to the Philippines. I wanted her to see my horses, but she died before we got that far. She died a lovely, fluffy, well-loved companion of mine throughout many struggles and victories.
I moved out of the old shack up in Kau Tsuen where God had spoken so much to me and where I spilled so many tears and so much blood from the assault, then stayed three days at a friend’s house, then moved to the City in Jordan, staying at a boarding house with some Philippine ladies for a few more months until my retirement funds were returned as I prepared to leave Hong Kong for good and move to the Philippines. My daughter was kicked out of her mom’s house, again, even with nowhere to go, and just then was invited to visit Manila by a pastor we had met a few years before and he ‘just for no reason’ wanted to invite her to visit and also offered to pay her way!—don’t tell me that’s a random coincidence!—She arrived in the Philippines a few weeks before me but in Manila almost 500 miles north of Bohol where I was headed!!
I had by now been around Filipinos, but mostly ladies, so Filipinas, for several years already but on the plane on the way over God said, “You have never met people like you are about to meet in the Philippines.” It seemed like God has created them as a special people; he seemed to take pride in their uniqueness and traits so I began watching people closely.
Hitting the Ground Running
I’m not going to tell the story of How I Learned About Missions, or the Bohol Vision in detail, not here anyway but I want to resolve a few issues I raised before so you can see that God is faithful and will fulfill every word he speaks, even when it makes NO SENSE to us! And even when it takes over 20 years for it come to pass. So I’ll just try to quickly and briefly wrap up a few loose prophetic ends before I finish.
Yes, I had a vision of two people carrying the Glory of God from our training on Communion in Hong Kong and they went ahead of me in small boats to the Philippines. The wake of their boats was made of gloriously colorful light! One went out of my vision, but the other stayed in focus in the dream as I myself slowly sailed there on a large passenger boat that looked like the local ‘roll-on-roll-off’ ferries so common there.
I did soon arrive in Bohol alone and God said to just take a few days to settle down before I got started so I did and then soon began meeting with people and planning seminars on teaching people to hear God’s voice. It was hard but the people were SHOCKED that they could actually hear God speak to them in conversation in person. And that lady I had met back in Hong Kong during the Prophets Training School, Ann, who called me twice at my very lowest ebb, was now in nearby Mindanao and God spoke to her to come help me. I realized she was the small boat alight with God’s Glory who went ahead of me because I taught her about Communion and she was carrying that revelation with her. And when she arrived at the ferry pier in Bohol to help with the first seminar, I was nearly overwhelmed with emotions—I felt like I was being rescued. I didn’t but I nearly hugged her in spite of myself!
I was focused and prepared, rearing to go! But the emotional toll on me was obvious. I tried to photograph myself for the promotional fliers but try as hard as I might, I could not make myself smile—I could not even force myself to smile. The Lord told me so many times that my wife would ‘come back’ so despite the offers from three or four of some of the most attractive women I’d ever seen sometimes EVERY DAY and how lonely I was, I was just going to keep myself focused and wait.
But when I got down to less than one dollar, I think I had 14 pesos left and the bus to town was 15 pesos, which would be about US$0.25 but I didn’t even have that much money anymore—suddenly a friend I didn’t talk to in over two years emailed me asking how I was. Actually I’m in trouble, I said! How so? I’m on mission and totally broke and … well, she immediately sent US$2,000 and it arrived within a few minutes via Western Union and she even kept sending me support like that for about six months! Don’t tell me that was a lucky break!
Local people and especially young girls are often ready to scam any rich Westerner, and a few times I saw Ann’s special wisdom and tact in action—I myself was shocked! She first dealt with local red tape and government leaders in ways that shocked me. A lot of things shocked me—I‘m not overusing this word, and yes this word means what I think it means. God was introducing me to things I never even dreamed of. Before I had trained Ann, now she seemed to be training me!
Meeting the Angel of the Revival
So I began training a few people to help me run our first seminar and during one of the training sessions I suddenly saw something like an open vision and what I saw was an Angel walk up to me. He was one very serious operator and he seemed like he was a combination of every military general I’d ever heard of, all rolled into one! He walked in straight lines, turning corners at 90-degree angles, like solders do during marching drills. He came up to me and gave me a crown and spoke a few things but I just stared at him understanding somehow that he was assigned to run the coming revival! He seemed extremely capable; one very serious dude!
Our first seminar was held in a university and it blew people’s minds and God said to get a second one ready but to hold it in a church this time. But somehow the second seminar seemed off—it was odd to see so many Christians in a church venue and the Holy Spirit so unable to flow. I later realized it was the affliction of the Religious Spirit they were suffering from, a counterfeit Holy Spirit, and it was blocking the flow of the presence of the true Spirit of God—maybe offending him is a better way to think of it.
Our third seminar, this time in the center of the Island in Carmen, was wildly powerful. God has some special plans for this location he told me and this is where I was in 2009 when I climbed that Chocolate Hill and saw the Three Eagles and God said I would Conquer Bohol. Later I saw a giant Throne in the Heavens nearby and it was the seat of authority over the Island that was empty and it seemed like God was offering me this seat. I also saw a House of Healing being established thereabouts where maybe hundreds of orange birds were sitting all over the lawn, healing angels I assumed. There’s a special plan for this place, that’s all I really can understand so far.
But the more I worked with Ann the more God revealed her special nature and it left me in awe so many times. It turns out she began missions work right here in Bohol when she was 13 years old with Florida-based Teen Missions International. Her mom took care of many street kids; she herself was trained as a nurse, and worked as a social worker in a very tough neighborhood in Iligan City, a few miles from Marawi, well, what’s now left of it after the siege.
So seeing Ann dealing with children and poor people in remote villages I could not understand her extreme genuine kindness. God then showed me a vision of her heart, and it was about three times bigger than normal people. It was so big it would not fit inside her body! It reminded me of that old cartoon about the Grinch and where he finally understands the true meaning of Christmas and his heart enlarges with love so big it breaks the x-ray scope. That’s like what God showed me about her. God then said he made her special. No doubt—I was witness to it!
And I was funding everything we did and ran out of money a few times, and it made her laugh! “We have five pesos left! Hahahah!” Not always like that but enough times that I noticed it!
Overture in Anda
Then I wanted to really get moving with the revival so I invited her and another pastor who I met back in 2009 to pray with me in Anda. I felt there was something God was going to open up there so we went there to pray to find out what it was. God had already given me some vague prophecies about this place and I asked for some confirmation of his plans, as people do. But He said simply, “I have a plan for Anda.” OK, so maybe I was not ready to hear any more and so I just needed to trust him. Asking for confirmation is fine, until it isn’t. You can ask for conformation he said, but there comes a time when you just have to obey! I think sometimes people ask for ‘confirmation’ as a way to tell God to stop talking to them! I don’t like that attitude. He has a plan, I just want to know what it is! If I still don’t know and he asks me to go!—that’s OK too! I do trust him! But the way he was talking about Anda just made me curious. The first time I saw Anda in person I was driving to the fish research station in Ubay as God asked me to start a large-scale fish farm and I was doing research and when I saw Anda peninsula across the bay the Spirit said excitedly, “There it is!!” He still didn’t explain why it was so exciting to him or to me! But yes, there it is!!
So Anda is quite remote and is known for two things: beautiful white sand beaches and witches. Ann has a cousin from there. But as Ann is from a medium-sized clan, and she has hundreds of cousins and everywhere we go she seems to meet someone who just happens to be a cousin! I’m not exaggerating!
Anyway the three of us got to Anda and late at night we three were praying in a kind of dorm room with many bunk beds in it. The town was asleep quite early to me at 9 pm and the streets were perfectly silent already. By midnight I had pressed in and went very high up in the Spirit and was talking with the Father about his big plans telling him, “I’ve come all this way as you said to. So … let’s get started!”
I was so deep in the Spirit I was only vaguely aware of my physical surroundings and then I heard some loud commotion in the room but I was able to ignore it until I felt a rush of wind and it seemed like someone had rushed past me. I finished telling the Father what was on my heart and felt I should go see what was happening around me physically, so I came back to my physical senses and Ann was now standing in the back corner of the room by the washroom. The wind I felt was her running past me to get away from something … I looked around outside and saw a cat catching bugs outside by the sliding glass door.
Why would a cat scare you? I asked, but she said no, it was because of the man! And Ann went on to describe who she saw banging furiously at the door with wild anger in his eyes. She could describe what he was wearing, his hair like this, his black t-shirt like that, and his wildly demonic eyes. I said, “You’re seeing things. It’s a cat!” So I went to the balcony, but there was no one there! The narrow balcony walkway and stairs down to the ground floor were empty, and it was impossible for anyone to get so far away in those few moments that I could not still see them. The street was deserted. It made no sense. There was no one there!
But then the other pastor said casually, “Oh, it’s a witch,” like it happens every day. To them it probably does. To us it did later too. Yes, it was a witch. He manifested in human form and started banging wildly at the window to disrupt us from praying. It partly worked!
I wasn’t scared one bit however since I had been openly fighting demons day in and day out in Mui Wo for several years and I’m just not scared. I respect the battle and the danger but actually if I am not standing far outside my assigned tasks I just knew FAR GREATER is HE WHO IS IN ME than any of these monsters who are in the world. My confidence would later be greatly tested as we woke to being choked, saw apparitions, had bizarre arguments and irrational fears invade our home; the kids would see witches walk around, one had an open vision of a demon dog attacking him, for others it was demons of perversion in the house or whatever. Yes, we fought long and hard to bring freedom to the people we were called to help. I thought it was going to all be administrative duties and handing out gospel tracts. Not even close! We had to fight the kingdom of darkness for every inch of freedom that so many other churches and minsters later enjoyed without knowing what went on behind the scenes to allow them to have that freedom.
Well, anyway the three of us all went home separately that day, a Sunday. I stayed the longest and spent hours just walking and beach-combing a few kilometers down the white sand beach shoreline by myself—it was beautiful and relaxing but which God said I would never be able to do again. Monday I rested and began to write up some ideas for tourism development for the small town of Anda, as God had said we would work with the town government in various ways in the future and we had even met some of the local government officials and spent a few hours with them learning about their quaint little down during our visit. So the next day, Tuesday, I already had ten ideas written up in a proposal, as an American lawyer would probably do, and I had just handed it to Ann who had come over and I asked her to read it and tell me what she thought. It was just after 8 am in the morning … and the power went out. It was actually exactly 8:12 am on October 15, 2013.
Shaking, Yelling, Breaking, Cracking, Shouting
As the ground began swaying like we were on a floating dock in the ocean surf, the sound unlike anything I had ever heard began to rip through the house. Glass and steel being crushed in a huge grinder would give you an idea of it, and the floor, the very ground, was moving up and down just like ocean waves—it was an earthquake.
An hour away from us one church which was just a few meters from the epicenter near Carmen and Sagbayan had been warned by God a few days ahead of time that a great shaking was coming but God said they would be OK. They had almost so visible damage to their buildings! But only a few tens of meters away from them hundreds of homes were completely flattened. In all I think 15,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Back in the main town where we were we ran up a nearby hill in case there was a tsunami. There wasn’t but it was a precaution we took anyway. We were told Bohol was special because it never had severe typhoons and never had earthquakes. Well don’t believe everything the locals tell you I suppose!
But still many other people had the same idea we did and soon hundreds were gathering up the hill where we were as a safety precaution. I saw one lady proudly carrying her huge idol of Mary to safety and I asked, Who has to save who? If your idol needs saving, it’s not much good in a crisis! Ann shusshed me!
Later I asked God, What on earth had just happened? And he showed me a vision. It was like an egg, I mean the island had been inside something like an egg shell, under a shell-like covering that was pitch black on the inside. But the top was now broken off and the BLUE-BLUE sky was shining down but I could see the edges where the egg shell remained in jagged broken fragments and that’s where I could see the very black color of the inside of the shell that used to cover the island in a demonic religious prison.
The Lord said, the principality of religion, which used to have the whole Island in bondage was now dethroned. “Next,” he said, “the witches are going to fight you. Are you ready?—Remember, Elijah fought a priesthood.”
The electricity was out and phones were down for a while but maybe ten days after the earthquake I actually got a phone call! It was my estranged wife, who if you remember I was waiting for to return to me. I was actually in two minds about this because I felt it was unfair that God would simply forgive her after all the damage and trouble she had caused and how much I had to endure to obey his word. But OK, she was called to serve God here, she had been here with me in 2009, and we needed her to do her part. But God needed to make this right, I said. She’s done so much to abuse and ruin his work and I’ve been so faithful to continue even when it’s been so hard, for her to come now and just escape all the hardship but get the same reward, like I said I felt it was unfair to me. But OK, the Lord will make it all right. I’ll just forgive it all … but it was a premature celebration.
She didn’t call to see if we were OK, she called to yell at me because me and my daughter made her worry. She heard a few days after the catastrophe that there was an earthquake somewhere in the Philippines and a few days later still she began to wonder if me and our daughter were affected, and then after a while more she realized we were in the most affected zone but news could not get out very quickly! Then she said she began to be worried. Why didn’t we call her sooner she demanded! She was upset that we made her worry. Well, for one, we had no power and no phone signal until just that or the previous day. Not that we had phone call load for any international calls anyway. But Two, WE WERE THE ONES IN THE EARTHQUAKE, not her! We were now helping the recovery, delivering food, delivering water to remote areas … many people died! Oh, by the way, our daughter is fine. Yes, yes, how is she? ….
But then I asked her in all seriousness when was she coming to the Philippines as God had called her to, to join me on this mission. Maybe I’m not the best with my timing, but she’d been estranged from me for three years by now, and I said maybe it’s time we work things out? No, it’s only been a little over a year, she insisted. No, I clarified, it will be three years in just a few weeks—Halloween was the day you left. She did the math in her head, I mentioned events year by year and, “Oh correct, correct! We’ve been separated three years.” Glad she almost noticed. But I continued:
“Sooo … don’t you think it’s maybe time to … come back. Join me here?” And then God then said, “Listen carefully to what she says.”
“Oh no! God never asked me to go to the Philippines,” she said firmly. “God never told me that. He never spoke to me about that!”
We had been together in this very city in 2009, and over a dozen of the early prophecies of this mission were from her. She had several of the confirmation visions and words of clear and specific direction. How could she now say it never happened? But God was listening and spoke with finality and said, “Do you hear that? She is renouncing her calling. I release you from her.”
Great! Now what!? I not only needed her as my wife, I needed her help with the ministry, her gifting, her part of the anointing to help with the mission. I didn’t think I could do it all by myself! She used to hear God so clearly, better than me back then. But God knew my thinking and said, “I will give her gifts and calling to someone better than her.”
She then said it was best for everyone if we finally got a divorce. Hearing God’s word, I agreed in word, but thought maybe it would buy me some time and let her reconsider, you know, call her bluff.
Was it a bluff?
God, Your Promises Failed!
So without air-conditioning, which we call ‘air-con’ for short, we drink a lot of iced drinks here to stay cool. Here’s a recipe you can try! Take ice, sugar, local calamansi lemons (or calamondin as they are known in Florida), squeeze out the juice and put it all into a blender. Add water and your confusion about prophecy not making any sense, pour in your relief of God’s justice, but then add a hearty dose of your fear of the unknown, lack of money and abundance of people in need … Mix a heaping spoonful of loneliness, squeeze out your PTSD into the jar and shake it all together with a 7.2 earthquake as you try to steel your mind against the coming witch attacks—and there you have it! My emotional state in a cheap plastic cup!
Bottoms up!
I was confused, consternated, confounded and ready to give into my anger and fears. Were we really getting a divorce? I had been waiting for her to come back to me (and the Lord) for THREE YEARS already and she didn’t even notice how long it had been! At some point I actually got upset at the wild ride I was on and told God so. I said, “See! Your promises … they failed! You gave me promises for my marriage and it’s all failed!”
But God, ever the gentleman, kindly replied to my painful accusation by saying something like, “Not remotely. My promises … have not yet come to pass.”
“I wasted—WASTED 15 years with her—”
“You wasted nothing. You needed to mature and you should have known she needed you to carry her.”
I was so upset I wasn’t really listening but what echoed in my mind was the phrase that his promises had “not yet come to pass” … I calmed down enough to ask him, “Not yet come to pass? What? That’s impossible!”
He promised me he had a Special Woman for me! But she was now divorcing me!
I could still quote the whole prophetic poem:
A Special Woman for You
You can hear her name in the Breeze
as the Holy Spirit whispers “I know You.”
You can see her face amongst a million Flowers—
She’s as bright as the sun and as pure as the light,
don’t try and figure it out because its not your fight.
I must take you to the Valley of Loneliness,
for the season of the Flowers is still away.
You’re still a child in a Man’s world—
slow down, don’t run, I want to teach you to have fun.
There’s plenty of time for building
and plenty of time for work,
but to be a Masterpiece of a sculpture
you must be putty and a pliable piece of clay—
For I am the potter and you are the clay,
I have plans for you to prosper and not harm you.
Let go and let me work on you,
just believe, receive and rest with assurance
that I know her too!
—God.
OK, I can’t really say that resembles my soon-to-be ex-wife. She was a good woman but “as bright as the sun and as pure as the light”? Not really. It was just one more of the mysteries of God we never figure out! … but did God just say, “My promises have not yet come to pass?” Whaaat?
During the relief efforts driving through damaged towns, bringing relief food and water, much of it that we had bought with our own small amount of money, and doing so to help people we had only just met a few weeks ago but who now were cut off by broken bridges, we got stopped at a damaged bridge at one point in Calape town along the coast, about 30 kilometers from our destination, and the local official would not allow us to pass in the pickup truck.
Without pause Ann jumped into action, calling the man ‘brother,’ and ‘handsome’ which is a kind of local salutation, ‘Kuya … Gwapo’ … and being so friendly and accommodating like she’s used to dealing with these Little Emperors and handled him with such tact and respect, I was amazed! But I remember seeing in the car headlights late at night in this moment of national crisis and when I saw her, she was beaming, yes of course cute but oh no, she was also … attractive—I mean in a womanly way. No, no, no! I’m not doing that! I never looked at her like that before and I’m not going to start doing it now! But at that moment I saw her and yes, she really was a good looking woman. Good for her! I’m busy!
Well, What About Me?
Then I met an overweight lady from the US helping a small Vineyard affiliated church, same color eyes as me, not attractive at all, but familiar and I asked Ann to pray about her and told Ann I was alone for so many years, turning down local women left and right—what if my wife, my possibly soon-to-be-ex-wife was really not coming back to me? What if she went through with the divorce? Maybe I needed to consider other options? Local girls are just so pretty so I felt it’s not smart to start looking at that! This lady I met was a ‘safe’ option. Not attractive, just … safe. But maybe my wife would still come back? I was confused but Ann … was just silent.
We were still organizing relief and back at my house there were many kids around, some of my daughter’s friends from school, and it was hectic and I asked Ann if she prayed about my ‘situation’ to help me with God’s direction. I trusted her objective view but what she finally said was something I never even considered. What she said was, “Well, what about me?”
Oh, no, no—NO! I got instantly overwhelmed with emotions and walked away quickly upstairs nearly in tears that fast. I was struggling to keep it all together and the last thing I needed was real temptation. I needed to clench my fists to steady myself and I said through a cracking voice, “I’m really trying hard to walk a straight path here.” But I suddenly knew Ann knew something I didn’t, a few things maybe. She had a funny, knowing look I recognized.
I often said how hard it was and how unfair it was that my soon-to-be-ex-wife was acting so badly but she would come back, and God would just forgive her despite all the damage she’d often intentionally done, but I would forgive her as well, and put it all behind us and God would have to just figure it all out—the divorce was maybe a bluff? I knew it was not but I was confused and just needed clear direction … but finally Ann spoke. “I know you have been waiting for her to come back, but you are wrong. She will come back to the LORD—but not to you.” God had already told her this … only she never told me!
That stopped me cold! My crying stopped too.
It’s funny but it bore immediate witness with me and it made perfect sense and brought instant relief to my tormenting confusion. It was like a true vision of hope—hope I was very short on for so many years! That was the justice I felt was missing in this situation. Not that I wanted her punished—I didn’t, but there needed to be some form of recompense. And she was still raging against God’s work—how could she be trusted to help me with it? This word rang true to me. How foolish and stupid was I for not seeing it myself, Mr. Prophet. It gave me a real sense of freedom and peace and humility.
But then I asked Ann, “But why did you ask me about you? What do you know? What has God told you?”
But instead of speaking she kept perfectly silent but also kept looking straight at me—I knew something was up.
Looking to God for help to understand the cascade of revelation suddenly burst open as God confirmed a word he gave many years ago and I didn’t have a vision—I had an interpretation.
Promise Kept
This was now 2013 and way, way back in 1994 God gave me a vision of the Promise of the Sun that I waited for to be fulfilled while I faced West but the Sun just set instead and vanished. I waited steadfastly ALL NIGHT LONG to see it rise, to see the Promise come to pass, but the Sun does not rise in the West where it sets, it rises in the East. It rose on my back and I brushed it away! Leave me alone, I’m watching for the Sun! Until I felt it’s undeniable warmth again and finally looked behind me and there it was already risen up in the morning sky shining onto me! Oh, no! At this moment I saw this scene from the vision in my spirit. I didn’t remember it, the Holy Spirit brought it to mind but this time with understanding.
Then Barns on a Hillside, and I remember that I saw my pastor’s daughter and I having relationship trouble while her mom was running interference between us—and then the scene changed and I saw the woman who was like skin and bones. Did I recall the last time I saw my soon-to-be-ex-wife a few years ago when I was looking for my daughter? She lost so much weight she was just skin and bones and I suddenly recognized her from the second part of vision. The vision however still made no sense—until right now.
I told you this before but this was the moment I suddenly realized it was not three scenes with one woman, I kind of knew it was at least three scenes with two women, but the third scene made so sense, unless it was … three scenes with three different women.
Then God spoke, “Ann is your reward for all the years of your hard service.” I began shaking.
I went back down the stairs and she had walked away into the kitchen and God said, “If you step forward, there is no turning back.”
I don’t think I paused more than a heartbeat. I was definitely ALL IN.
She was standing in the kitchen, facing the sink, praying and I softly kissed her on the top of her head.
“That’s what my father used to do,” she said. And then she turned to face me and said, “The day I met you God told me I would one day marry you. I rebuked that thought in Jesus’ name! But I now know it’s true. I am going to be your wife someday. Jesus already told me.”
“You heard God say so many years ago that we would get married and you REBUKED IT?!”
“I thought it was Satan lying to me.”
“And you mean ALL THIS TIME you knew we were going to get married! And you NEVER SAID ANYTHING TO ME!?!?”
“I thought it was Satan. But God just told me it’s true. We are going to be married someday.”
Then I heard God say, “Take her to yourself as your wife.”
Well, I forget all the details … or maybe it’s none of your business! I was only supposed to share with you how I learned about prophecy, and I had to share a lot of embarrassing personal details about my private life along the way to help you understand what God told me, what it meant and how it played out. So I don’t need to tell you any more! So there!
I’ll mention there were all those words about God giving me abundant wealth but I had so little for so long, so many years having so precious little to live on, and he turned it all around.
He said he would give me money to start a fish farm that would earn US$4 million per month then later it would double then triple in income; then he said to make a hotel he named the Ambassador and showed the design to my daughter; then to buy more land and make a new town with six blocks and roads that radiate out from a central area like rays of Glory; and a theme park he named Sympatico, a large one! To start manufacturing, a media company, build 50 luxury houses, make a charity village for 10,000 children, another one for the elderly, a new university with free tuition since I can afford it, a new ministry campus, be busy in global ministry, operate an ocean shipping fleet, breed Gypsy horses in a riding school, mint coins, grow food and finally start a motor-sports racing series as the LAST THING we do before the end.
“But why God? I don’t need all this money! I just want enough to pay the rent. What is all this money for?”
That’s when He got very somber and said, nearly in a cry of pain, “Edward … I want you to SAVE MY PEOPLE!”
He normally called me Eddie but this time, with the seriousness and weight of the situation he used my formal name. It’s serious!
Several times when the weight of his plans bore down on me like a ton of bricks, he said, “You will DO ALL THESE THINGS!” He told me that often, strengthening me, encouraging me: “You will accomplish them all …” but one time added, “… BUT SO WHAT!?”
But so what? SO WHAT?? I’m straining to carry the load like an over-burdened pack animal and So What!?
“It’s the PEOPLE I care about,” He said. “It’s the PEOPLE that matter to me.”
All this success and promises of wealth has a purpose. There is a reason behind it all; that’s what he said. It is all to fund me so I can do my part to fund end-times ministry and help Save His People! Yes, Lord. Amen.
And About My Writing…
And you of course remember God told me back in the 1990’s vision of Barns on a Hillside that ‘I needed my wife to be with me’ to be able to write more than stories just about ‘barns and silos.’ Well, during my courtship with Ann God was working with me to plan the theme park. The main castle was triangular and in a Medieval European style. He named it Symaptico; he named the walls.
There is a second castle, the ‘White and Steel’ Crystal Castle which is a 110 meter tall work of art: gems, angels, horses, water drops, flowers, crowns and butterflies are worked into the design motifs. This ‘Women’s Castle’ is a work of art that sits in the center the of “Domains” which is an area of approximately 100 hectares (maybe 240 acres) which are comprised of Eight Themed Gardens of about four hectares each, and Eight Themed Lands, also about four hectares each. The Newgardens that surround the Crystal Castle are primarily walk-through spaces but each is very unique. And 300 meters or so from the castle’s perimeter is a two kilometer long circular belt road beyond which the area is divided into Eight Themed Lands each with one main park ride the Lord said, explaining other themeing to me in some detail.
One of the Lands the Lord said would be an indoor snowy village. Most Filipinos have never even seen snow! Another would be a handicapped children play area he named The Refuge. Another would be for Balloons he said, so for that I designed a steam-punk style floating city in the clouds; another would be a space town.
The back-story for the space town needed to be developed so I started writing a new novel, not set in 1930, or the 1800’s but set far into the future and in outer-space. The working title is Starquake! Genetically modified animals team up with a clan of Christian space gypsies to battle a crazed AI warlord and his pirates in the hinter reaches of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the LMC. It’s Star Wars meets Narnia!
The Holy Spirit not only helped me write it but asked me to write three books in the series. Ann, a Special Woman, now my wife, never helped me do that: she’s a Filipino nurse and social worker by training, a prophet and mother of nearly a dozen, over a dozen if you count the kids we care for and have adopted. What I needed was not advice or editorial help, but her love to enable me to do this. That’s what Jesus sent me to empower me to write stories of the future, to see my future, to leave the past behind me!
The Puzzle Gets Solved
And I already shared about the vision of the purple puzzle in the sky being revealed.
It was more than a year after the earthquake when we stayed for a few years in basically a huge hotel: nine bedrooms, floor-to-ceiling glass panels for walls that led out to the wrap-around balcony decks overlooking the tropical bay. And I was photographing some visitors one day and had my back to the sea but in the reflected image of the ocean (reflected in the floor-to-ceiling glass panels) I immediately recognized the two distinct bays from this vision so many years before! It was the view in front of my house which I had been staring at for months but I now saw it in reverse in the reflection in the glass panels and yes, it was the exact scene from the vision of the puzzle in the sky all those years ago when I was still in Hong Kong!
The Fulfillment didn’t happen all at once, in fact God’s blessings kept being delayed and diverted for many more years, but if you remain faithful the promises of God MUST come to pass. HE WILL FULFILL EVERY WORD—EVERY WORD HE HAS SPOKEN! Just stand in faith: it’s patience with the right attitude. Fight the good fight of faith—faith is the fight against fear! And don’t just wait for the destination—some day you may understand that the journey and destination are one and the same. That’s what Jesus told me! I struggle to do it some times, but his teaching is as clear as it can be.
So don’t just wait around—stay busy serving God and his people—it is the people he cares about—these people are the treasure and reward of all his suffering on the cross. They are the joy set before HIM that he was willing to endure the shame of the cross for. I for one am GLAD to be able to show him my appreciation and do my small part in his grand plan—He has a plan, and even when or ESPECIALLY when you just understand what is going on, just trust him! He knows what he is doing!
Amen!
