The next week I went to meet with the pastor God pointed out to me, pastor Mike. He was a high level materials engineer with a very well-known international architectural firm, Ove Arup, in fact the firm that built the mega mall in Kowloon Tong attached to the university I briefly worked at which I mentioned before, and that was where his office was.
The Tree of Life Church was a large international church of hundreds of locals and expats: so there were local and ‘overseas’ Chinese as well as British, Americans, Australians, a few South Africans, professionals, young adults, and dozens of Cathay Pacific staff, a few Indians as well and many Filipinos and an increasing number of refugees from Africa, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Attending the Tree of Life was where you would expect people like us to go and yes, we did soon fit right in. They also had several people prophetically gifted or what they said were ‘prophetic voices’ or people ‘gifted to prophesy’—they didn’t say they were actually ‘prophets’ but several of these people were from the US, and as God said to me a few days later, we were home!
The first sermon I recall was on David and Saul, a topic God had been talking to me on for many years. Saul being the flesh and religious spirit group, and David being the spirit-led and Kingdom group. The sermon was, ‘How long will you mourn Saul? There is a David in front of you; let go of Saul!’ This was truly where I belonged!
But my old church was none too happy with us leaving and made their displeasure abundantly clear. But God had spoken and I obeyed but I soon was lured to a meeting far out in the New Territories to discuss supporting my ministry, and pastor Mike was asked to come as well … but actually it was a secret council called together to rebuke me for rebellion. It was very bitter and it became clear the real reason was more likely simply to ruin any chance we had of making the magazines work and to sabotage my standing in the new community at the Tree of Life—especially my relationship with the new leaders, which is why they requested for Pastor Mike to come—but they didn’t need to work so hard to stress our relationship—prophecy would do it for them soon enough. But they tried their best anyway. God bless them!
Serving the Filipino Ladies
Within a week or two of joining the Tree of Life we were invited to oversee the Tree of Life’s Filipino ministry because the previous Filipino pastor had just left and took all the people with him to make his own Filipino church … and so we inherited a ministry of the five or seven middle-aged Filipino ladies (Filipinas) who stayed with the Tree of Life but who now all wanted to be in charge. So to model servant leadership we refused to be called ‘pastors’ but just taught them, loved them, served them, and soon led them all to hear God’s voice the way we were learning to. God told me each week we needed to have five things: Food, Music, Testimony, Teaching and Prayer, and we ran it for about four years. It was a good time and very fruitful and they became like family to us.
I also joined the early Sunday morning gathering of intercessors to share prophecy and pray for the church during the morning service. Faithfully in attendance every week was Eunice (not her real name), me, my wife, another Indian lady, and a few other people who came occasionally.
And we also attended EVERY church function they hosted, every leadership meeting, every outreach, and since the church was so big and well-known they were host or co-organizer of every international event and visiting minister coming to Hong Kong. Whatever they were doing we were there to help!
Home
Home. Prophecy. … You can be a prophet if you want to! Now you are Home! What does the Bible say about ‘home’ and ‘prophets’?
In fact if you have one of those Bible search programs, look up two words: Home + Prophet, and tell me what you find. That’s right, I was home, but God was training me as his prophet, and then would soon release me and use me as a prophet in their midst. How wonderful! Only a prophet has no honor in his own home among his own people. The honeymoon was short.
This was a self-proclaimed prophetic church and they taught almost the exact same things I learned back in New Hampshire about prophecy: we had nearly identical doctrines, we quoted the same verses as you do: Numbers 11, Amos 3, 1 Corinthians 13, 2 Chronicles 20:20, etc. There was no sharing of prophecy during worship however, as God often leads and many churches allow. They had a very highly developed music team and they had recorded several quite good worship albums. Maybe they didn’t allow people to give prophecy during the worship in church services because the music was so highly produced? I don’t know. But many people were gifted and it was a good community.
Gates of Provision Shut
God soon confirmed the word from Prophet Jim that things would be delayed but breakthrough would follow. It was a month or so later in February 2006 and I saw a line of gates, like water sluice gates, and they were all closed to me. One was open but it was only allowing a small trickle of water to come out. I then knew the water was money, or cash flow, and what was coming through was barely enough for a person to live on. Why were all the gates that were supposed to allow provision to flow to me closed like this? It was very worrying and I just stared at the vision for a time … until something like a HUGE TIDAL WAVE of water towering overhead burst over the scene! If the gates were three feet high and the trickle was barely enough money for a person to live on, then the wave of provision that finally came was hundreds of feet tall, and surely in the multiple millions of dollars.
But for the time being the gates were shut. I didn’t get any explanation as to why. Was it stubborn people, or stubborn me? Or was it because I would not seek God deeper if I had money security, or was Satan just blocking it all? Maybe all of the above? But I didn’t get any explanation but the vision was clear: after a time of barely getting enough to get by, A FLOOD of money would come. I just needed to be faithful and keep serving God until the times of refreshing came.
I was still wrestling with unspoken but deep doubts and disappointments, confusion and big questions regarding what happened back in New Hampshire and his words that seemed like they failed, but then the Holy Spirit even told me at that time, quite sternly that, “I will fulfill every promise that I have made.” He sounded disappointed with me for my lack of trust and my doubt and yes, sounded a little upset.
But I just couldn’t face all the issues or understand my past. Why did he let them hurt me so badly? He warned me not to take offense but I could not help myself. But I was the one who finally just got up and left. Yes, but his plan just seemed impossible! They hated me! It wasn’t my fault. Or well, maybe it was? OK, just forget everything—I don’t want to talk about it! I was going through so much healing and maturing and was calming down in my anxiety over not understanding everything. We know in part and I was going to try to trust God with the part I didn’t know and so I just kept going forward day by day, keeping my head down: learning, growing, healing, just hoping it would come right later.
But then I also heard God say, actually it was Jesus, and yet he spoke with a real tone of disappointment in his voice, “You don’t let people believe I provide well.” I still read that and just shake my head … I’m sorry, I really am. I’m trying! But so much just didn’t make sense to me. The gates were shut, we had no income, it was so hard to know what to do. Is faith really that hard? Sometimes maybe. To me it was.
People really don’t like it when I share things like that and they say it’s not God because it’s not the way he talks: he’s always encouraging, happy and positive they say. This voice they say was condemning, harsh and mean. But first, it wasn’t any of those things at all. He was sharing his emotions to me in the way I probably needed to be encouraged to step up and stop doubting. You don’t understand it maybe, but it’s what tugged at my heartstrings the most.
In the Bible Jesus vented his frustration and even mocked people a few times; why? It was the only way to get through to them. He loved the people, even the Pharisees, only they rejected his love and plan of salvation and the Kingdom it was meant to lead them into—so he had to treat them in the way they needed to be treated—maybe it was the only way to help them break free?
Second, people who’ve never heard God speak and never had a long, emotional talk with him, never heard him cry, speak in pain, speak in frustration and are now telling me how they know God does and does not speak, always and never—and it’s all based on their doctrines with ZERO experience—and every time I can find specific examples in the Bible where God does the exact opposite of what they insist he will never or always do. All I can say is well, maybe just don’t cast your pearls before swine? Maybe God only reveals his heart to people who are close enough to him to be willing to understand Him? He once told me if people won’t ‘wrestle’ with him he can never really free them or mature them or use them mightily. I don’t know how else to understand why he spoke this way to me, but I do know this for certain, our God is an emotional God.
HKI—Journal of Prophecy and Intercession
So I had just printed three entire magazines and almost finished a fourth and I felt like God was talking to a lot of people, sometimes about important prayer direction we ought to share and I remember thinking what we really needed was a prophecy magazine. So I asked God what he thought about doing something like that. My habit was to ask God before I did anything! And He said Yes, to do it. To ‘lay the foundation’ by March, make it a monthly publication, and make it available for free.
But I had no funding and we were still struggling for food and rent and so I figured I needed to show people more clearly what I was talking about so I first made a mock-up and overview, we call it a dummy sometimes in publishing—it’s like a concept brochure representing what the final publication would look like. I laid it out, showed a few people who were prophesying or in intercession what they thought about a monthly prophecy journal and the response was unanimous—it won’t work.
Mostly they all said it could not be done simply because there was not enough prophecy to publish in a monthly newsletter.
But I got Rick Joyner’s publication back in the early 90’s a few times and I knew by now so many years later that there must be even more prophecy being shared by God, surely enough to make a monthly publication of—not only that but God had begun to openly talk to us about prophecy from his point of view, teaching us Himself and these were things people would benefit from learning—not only that—Jesus asked us to do it! What really perplexed me was that no one seemed to understand the value of such a thing, even people who were prophesying on a regular basis!
I kept showing people the idea but there was just no interest. Before I knew it a year had gone by with no progress! But I’ll get there in a minute.
More Than You Can Write Down
So I was hearing God so often, and mostly he was teaching me who He was to me, who I was to him and things about my walk. I still kept a very accurate record of his word to me but at one point he even said He would soon give me so much prophecy I would not even be able to write it all down. That soon began to happen. Hearing God speak was daily and sometimes I heard multiple short words a day. I was filling up a 200 page journal in a few months and trying to reflect, record and share it when it was important was very time consuming.
Some of the things I heard him say in this early time at the Tree of Life included:
In January I had dreams where God was teaching me about hearing him, how prophecy works, how hearing him in ‘communion’ worked. I can’t share it all now, but being taught by God about prophecy is the best teaching you can have.
God said the blessings that he has given me have been held back by the enemy and they will all be released in a flood. It was almost the same word as the Gates of Provision Being Shut, and what Prophet Jim said, which I now heard three or four separate times already.
He said, it was ‘Blindness in the body’ that was making believers unable to see their need for good Christian media. He illustrated this concept to me in great detail.
He said, the main opposition to our ministry is coming from the Demonic Spirit of Traditional Religion (what we call the religious spirit), which prevents all new ministries from coming forth. This was also against God TV (a new ministry at the time) and other media ministries.
He said He will release supernatural covenant provision to our ministry in a mighty way that everyone will know it was God. Amen!
He said, “I am making Faith for the End Times in you. … My grace for the end times includes your wife.” Later he explained, “Faith is the fight against fear.” Much later he explained what Grace actually is, it’s Paul’s word for the anointing basically, which I’ll share shortly.
Then I saw a vision that up to the borders of my life were in full growth. This is Psalm 16, saying something like, ‘The boundary lines of my inheritance fall in good places.” That’s what I saw!
He said success will only come when we work with many other ministries. So I kept trying to find people to work with but we were unfortunately unable to really find anyone for many years who valued what we were doing and hearing from God to do next. It was quite frustrating!
Then he said, “From now on you will have rent money.” But for a very long time I didn’t. But he said I would! It was confusing. I still didn‘t understand how to stand on a word in faith and claim his promises. I know you will remind me God TOLD US THIS a few months ago and yes, He did but I still didn’t understand it!
Then we were trying to deal with a large Christian bookstore to revive the distribution of our magazines and I had a very detailed dream of them being an Aircraft Carrier, but with so many internal problems they could not function. I heard they could be repaired ‘in three days’ and sent back out. I shared this with some people casually and one was a young lady, whose parents I didn’t realize owned that bookstore and she said it was uncanny! How I did know all the things that were going on with their company! I didn’t take credit—I was asleep! God knew. Later we were asked to pray for people during the service but it was very rushed and they asked people to just stay in their seats so we walked aisle by aisle and just prayed for everyone very quickly where they were. I prayed for her and felt there was something to do with a pregnancy, and that’s all I said, “God said something about a pregnancy.” It was personal and not very clear and I was rushing but she looked at her husband in total shock! How did I know she had just gotten pregnant!? She only found out herself just a few days ago and didn’t tell anyone yet!
It was around this time that I had at least TWO dreams of NOT BEING A LAWYER to help settle some questions I still had in my heart about my career choice serving the Lord as being the best one for me, which despite the learning curve and money stress definitely was and is still!
Not Ready for Mature Intimacy
Then I had this adult-themed dream and I’ll share it but it was not like a normal sensual dream. It was a prophetic picture of my (im)maturity.
In the dream I was a young girl being undressed by her lover for the first time. In fact it was Jesus and as he began to undress me I felt exposed and it was like I wasn’t ready for this. It seemed that I was attractive to him, but I was thinking, Is my body really attractive? Am I ready for this intimacy yet? And I was not! Then he put his hand on my inner leg, and ran it right up my inner thigh, the whole way up, up, up until … I SLAPPED HIM really, really hard! And yelled, “No!” And then he said, “You are not ready for mature intimacy yet.” In the dream I felt, ‘Well, maybe we’ll try again tomorrow!’
When I woke up I felt so bad. Am I STILL not ready to be close to the Lord in my heart? That’s pathetic! But God had a remedy!
Later I heard him say to me, “I accept you.” Still later he said, “I will give you your own Empire.” He confirmed that a few more times before making it clear he was speaking literally—it is literally true! That has to do with the forty or so development and ministry projects in the Philippines he would later ask me to do! More on this maybe later.
He said I “will help people sit on their thrones.” Then he said, “I will do to you what I am going to pour out all over the earth.” Later when we were fluently leading people in hearing God’s voice in ‘communion’ as we called it, which he calls just having fellowship with him and he said this was going to become widespread all over the Earth and what makes us special now will no longer be so special. I’m glad for the warning, and also glad for the global spread of that prayer discipline; we discovered it on our own and have our own take on it but many are discovering the same thing and it is for EVERYONE to hear God’s voice! This happening all over the Earth is going to be awesome!!
And He did say I would get more visions than I could write down, and I am just trying to skim over a few of the important ones in these few months. Oh, this stands out in my mind: I remember money was still so tight and I made breakfast and had a little cheese and some Indian herbs and was very careful to make an omelette just the way I like it which was hard to do. And as soon as I was done he said, “Now are you going to throw that away?” Oh, no! My mouth was already watering—it’s watering again just sharing this—and I was hungry and this was a special meal to me. But if he wants me to, I’ll throw it in the trash right now. But then he gave me the verse from Isaiah 66:9
“‘Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?’ says the LORD; ‘shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?’ says your God.” (ESV)
I understood what he was saying; he was preparing me, he was going to use me! Amen! I ate the omelette!
You Should be Ministering
And there were visiting evangelists at the big Hi-Tech convention center in June and it was bi-lingual (English and Cantonese) and drew a huge crowd of youth in the many thousands and when I was there the Lord said, “Look around. What do you see?” I opened my eyes and saw thousands of youth worshiping God and he answered his own question, saying, “It’s the Body of Christ.” Then he added, “You should be ministering, not being ministered to.” Then thinking of trying to find a way to let these established people give me an opportunity to share it was disheartening. They are always so protective and never like what I share. But then he said something like, “I allow a measure of disunity within my Body. It keeps the sheep safe from leaders who will try to dominate and take control.” Even when I try to share THAT people get upset, but it makes sense, but anyway that’s what He said.
So there was just so very much going on, with new friends, new activities, great music, the Filipino group, which was hard to manage at first but things soon settled down and we became close friends to so many ladies from the Philippines. That was also a kind of test-bed ministry for us to experiment with hearing God’s voice, training people to hear him themselves, doing inner healing, deliverance, and we learned so much together.
For example, this was when God explained his meaning of Grace to me, which I had never heard another human teach before. I now meet people who do understand it this way, maybe you do, but it was God himself who first taught this to me.
Grace: Strength to Overcome, Not Permission to Sin
What happened was we had a very bossy lady in our Filipina ministry group who lived near me and Adrian. She had been married to a Westerner who ran a very popular bar in Wan Chai; she was now widowed, was older than me and she wanted to run everything on her own. One day she decided she would undermine us and destroy the group to take everyone away to follow her instead of me and my wife, and so she began to sabotage the meetings and spread gossip and slander about us. Very hurtful lies and wild rumors began spreading about me in the small community; many of these things were not half truths, they were outright lies.
And because I had helped her out so much for so long that this was a personal insult to me. I felt her loneliness, broken-hearted jealously and other unhealed heartache was behind it but it was causing real damage to our small group and threatened the flow of the Spirit bringing freedom to these broken lives.
So I prayed and prayed and God said something like, “If you play things right you will come out of this smelling like roses!” Several times when I was just too angry and could not understand what to do about her I just went up to pray in the forest under a footbridge over a mountain stream where it was cool and quiet and I just prayed until I calmed down enough to be able to handle myself properly.
Once doing this I saw a vision of the Throne of Grace which I write about often. It was yellow and there were a lot of people there and he said, “You have now come to the Throne of Grace … Bring people here!” He said if you’ve ever asked for strength this is where you’ve been, but also that you don’t usually see it, but this is where you’ve been and from where he empowers his people to have strength to do any good work, to have or use any gift, to do any ministry, to mature, to overcome sin or hardships or whatever—there is NO Strength without Grace, he added later. I had other visions on ‘grace’ but didn’t really understand it yet, and I had to look it up and realized this word, charis, does not mean forgiveness, favor or kindness as many people often teach, in the Bible Paul used it to mean the empowering flow of God’s Spirit—it’s basically what we call the anointing.
I write on this a lot and you can look up my articles on-line for a more detailed explanation of this very often misunderstood revelation. I began to teach this and employ this revelation and it is so important God included it as one of the main chapters in the teaching The Foundations of the Kingdom which he asked me to write and share.
Simply put, people who are misbehaving lack the grace/strength to act right. They often KNOW what they ought to do but don’t have the STRENGTH of character from God to act it out. Grace is not permission to sin, but the power given by God to overcome it and stop sinning. Healing, deliverance, prophecy, wisdom, maturity all come from receiving from the flow of his nourishing Spirit of grace. Like I said it is the word Paul used for the Anointing. This is an incredibly important revelation but still, the real thing I want to share about over this time was receiving inner healing and how it so greatly affect my prophesying.
Cleansing Stream to Hearing God in ‘Communion’
One of the elders, Eunice, was from Guam but whose ancestors were from Xiamen in China, on Gulan Yu where I used to work actually! What a small world. But she was gifted in several ways and brought in an international ministry based in California called Cleansing Stream. They still function I think and are a deliverance ministry disguised as a personal inner healing and cleansing course and retreat. They lead entire communities into a preparation period of several weeks where they attend small groups, watch videos and pray together before a retreat where every one of the several hundred attendees will get personal prayer for inner healing and deliverance for seven or ten different but specific issues.
The Tree of Life Church asked all ministry leaders to go through the seminar and I gladly did, and the second time I led my entire Filipino group through, which needed special arrangements since they were all domestic helpers and only had Sunday off and could never attend a weeknight preparation session. And then the third time I co-led a normal small group with Pastor Mike, as he observed me, and then I think I even led a group myself another time, but I forget, maybe it was just three times. But I also did things like run the sound board, cue videos and whatever they needed help with really.
And for me the effect was profound. By that time I had my prophecy gift reactivated and I was having dreams and words during worship the same as I used to back in New Hampshire but more frequently; I was praying more and getting more words in prayer and just during the day in general, and I had a certain spiritual sense of what was going on around me, a sharp kind of discernment as I still called it.
Only when I went through the seminar the first time the way my ‘gifts’ operated changed. I could still sense what was going on around me, but it was fainter. I needed to be more quiet and focused to hear the same way I used to, but if I would sit in God’s presence, which I could also do for longer periods of time now, I was also more able to hear him talk the way my wife discovered previously.
The second time going through the seminar it was the same effect. My ‘gift’ got dialed down again and I needed to draw nearer to God, to be a more active listener to hear God the way I used to. But when I did draw near it was much more interactive than ever—better than only hearing him with the gift. I was becoming friends with a God whom before I only heard from, or knew about but never actually knew personally. The Inner Healing affected my heart attitude towards God the most. I distrusted him less, wasn’t so scared of him knowing my inner heart and secrets, and I just felt like he understood me more and more.
Then the third time around doing the seminar and it was like my gift was switched off. I even started saying that in surprise! That shift took about probably 12 months in total and it happened in clear stages as I went through that inner healing seminar. So my ‘gift’ seemed to be off, but what I found instead was what we called ‘communion’—live fellowship with the Holy Spirit—interactive two-way conversational fellowship with God via the indwelling Holy Spirit—or maybe you can think of a better way to describe it? But it was not talking to God with a gift, which Jesus said is nevertheless important. What I understood is that I was simply communicating with the indwelling ‘abiding’ anointing of the Holy Spirit who was always with me. This is 1 John 2!
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
—and—
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie [some versions say is not a counterfeit]—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (ESV)
This verse describes a reality I was now becoming very well versed in. ‘Communion’ is what happens when the Veil that separates Man from God is truly removed. For many people that barrier remains in their minds, they maintain their ignorance, the separation in their hearts. This is what 2 Corinthians 3 says also: a veil covers the hearts and minds of many people reading the Bible, not just Jews reading Moses, it happens to Christians reading the New Testament as well. Their hearts are hard and dull. But when they turn to face the ‘Lord,’ by which he means the ‘Spirit,’ that ‘veil’ of separation and ignorance is removed. The text actually says that the word ‘Lord’ here means the ‘Spirit.’ So it is when people turn to face the Lord in Spirit, or to face the Lord AS the Spirit that the veil is removed! Wow! And it continues, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM. In this case, specifically, it is freedom from ignorance, blindness and darkened sight of being unable to see the Lord who is right there with them all the time. Finally in verse 18: (ESV)
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Being able to ‘face the Lord’ in Spirit and open one’s spiritual eyes to BEHOLD him is what causes us to be TRANSFORMED into his image, from Glory to glory. It’s just so obvious! This is the effect of enjoying mature intimacy which I could do only after my broken heart was healed.
And no, it does not matter what you call it—we called it ‘communion’—Jesus calls it simply having fellowship, people say its Soaking, some call it Journaling, but whatever you call it, it allowed us to experience a direct fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit that was simply beyond anything I had ever imagined was possible!
Oh, wait! This is what the Irish were doing all those years ago when they visited us in New Hampshire! This is why Paul Kelley was in constant two-way conversation with the Holy Spirit! Wow, we actually found it!! My wife did first and I never even told her about the Irish!
And yes, I wanted to have a clear scriptural explanation of what God was doing so I used the Greek word koinonia that in English is ‘communion’ to describe what we had discovered. But like I said Jesus said, “You call that communion, but I just call it having fellowship.” Whatever you call it, it is a true Gem of the Kingdom!
40 Days in Heaven
I then found a great testimony on a website of supernatural experiences. He had Sahdu Sundar Singh’s materials, Watchman Nee and Ian McCormack and this testimony in particular with a long, awkward title. I loved it! I printed it myself on regular paper, and then later made a homemade bound book for myself so it was easier to read. One day I was just reading it and the Lord spoke saying, “You don’t need those chapter divisions.” The chapters were divided by the interview with the man not by topic or plot. I looked up to where the Lord spoke from and said, “Why? I already have a copy. Oh! What do you want me to do?” He said, “I want you to republish that book and make it a first-fruits offering of your book publishing ministry.”
It was very hard to do for some unknown reason, and at one point when I was almost done both my hard drives failed within four hours of each other! Then I had no money to print it but God provided that much at the last minute, just in time to have it ready as a gift for the church members at Christmas. I asked to give everyone a copy who wanted it, for free, and the church obliged—but failed to mention it was a book I made and paid for, leading people to think the church had done it and funded it themselves. We had no offering or collection to help us with food costs or publishing costs. But good! That made it all the more pure an offering from me! People not only didn’t know it was from us, but the church didn’t even allow it to be for sale on their lobby book shelf next to the book the pastor’s daughter-in-law made on ‘worship through arts and crafts,’ etc.
Later one man sought me out and asked for a box of books for his colleagues and ministry workers in China or North Korea and he gave me an offering that recouped pretty much the bulk of the cost of printing all at once! That’s how God so often moves in my experience!
So I had renamed the book 40 Days in Heaven and I published the full book text on-line for free to read: no gimmicks, no tricks to boost sales. I in fact LOSE sales that way because people can not only read it for free, they can get the pdf and make their own copies … and people have! I ask people to please share some royalties with us, we are missionaries, especially if they sell copies and earn money from it, but so far I know of many sales this way and yet I never got any money from anyone. It’s OK, I tell the Lord, if I am owed money, please just make it up to me directly and forget those debts! The gospel, and such testimonies going out is more important than getting an income. He told me that and I agree!
So people can buy it on Amazon too if they want a printed copy. God said, yes, we can sell it and earn some money from it, and even promote it a little, “Just don’t PUSH it!” he said. I am not very active promoting it because even how much we’ve struggled as missionaries, it’s a holy thing to me and I need to err on the side of caution on this one. But it’s really such a wonderful story!
Class is OVER!
I’m still listing the dreams and visions from that Summer of 2006, and that’s when I dreamed I was in class, so bored with the classwork that I began hacking through the forms, getting past them, looking at how the whole thing works underneath the surface and people said, Don’t do that! But I was doing it!—then people began to get up and leave and there was a loud announcement: “CLASS IS OVER!”—as a huge rushing wind filled me and I sang to God, “My identify is you.” [End]
Oh, too many dreams I have to skip over. I saw a bus terminus and my daughter and wife and I were there, but we went different ways. My daughter and I got on the train and the Russian Mafia were trying to kill us! We evaded them and I climbed the mountain above the terminus to see where my wife went. Oh, there she was, waaaay out in the ocean! She left us and went so far, far away, but well, it seemed she could still make it back if she wanted to. And I could hear her saying things about me, some of them good, like she was telling people I was indeed a prophet of the Lord, but nevertheless she was no longer with us. I stomped on the soil I was standing on and it squished and oozed water like the mountain was made from a huge sponge. The water was the Holy Spirit. [End]
And I dreamed I learned to use a motorcycle and it was faith—all you do is turn the throttle and the machine moves for you without any effort on your behalf; I had several passengers. Faith doesn’t require my actual effort to move things. Yes, the faith requires some effort itself, but it is only the effort of turning the throttle. The effect it produces however is like using an engine to drive. And I then saw a cement truck skip the curb. I saw and heard it before it happened. It was supernatural discernment. [End]
Then another bus dream, entering the Bus of God’s rest which I published in the HKI journal. I won’t share it now but the Kingdom is made for children and some people just can’t enjoy it. [End]
Then another dream of being in exams and being SOOO BORED but also so impatient to just leave! School was already over and I just wanted to get my exam results and Go! You know that feeling of the last day of school of senior year? I was in line for my exam results and my wife was there but would not stand near me and was no longer even talking with me, but she still respected me as a prophet and would not speak badly about me in public. I didn’t understand it at that time. But suddenly my name was called out! I grabbed my results—I didn’t even care what my grades were. I passed! Let me out of here!!
I pushed open the double doors and there in the parking lot was a huge bus, like a bus converted to be a tour vehicle for a band or something. The engine was on, the door was open, they were waiting for me and I JUMPED in—they slammed the doors shut and we were off!!
The driver was Jack, the son of pastor Henry Greenhurst, and he was weaving a little in traffic, a little inexperienced, but it was OK, we were safe. Then the driver changed to a young Chinese boy I did not know. Then a storm hit so I opened the sliding door on the side of the vehicle to look out while we were still moving. The rain water was high in the street, maybe already six inches high, but the bus was so big and powerful it just didn’t matter! We kept right on going right through the storm! [End]
I saw a vision of a pile of Books. These were the IDOLS of Man’s doctrines and beliefs of the Bible based on Man’s ways that were not only wrong but were also Idols of people in the Church. God spoke solemnly saying, “These books never should have been written.” [End]
I had a dream of being denied a ‘church covering’ because I had no money. If I had money or was famous they would ‘cover’ me—the covering was just fabric and nothing important, supernatural or special in any way. There was more but that was the main thing. [End]
Then five dreams in one night: 1. a thick leg bone, balancing up on another, it was my grandmother’s ‘bones’ and it was the passing of a generational blessing to me. Promises given to her that she could not lay hold of somehow would now pass to me; 2. the Current of Holy Spirit flowing through me like a river; 3. me and my daughter were sailing, but my wife would not join us and in fact she was holding the boat’s rope to shore to prevent us from sailing. It was a little dangerous and I could feel the tension because the Wind was blowing quite strongly and was pushing the boat out—but she was holding it back and everything was shaking under the strain. I think she finally let go and the boat took off into the wind without her. Two other dreams I’ll skip. [End]
You are Released!
And so finally I’ll add this, really skipping over so many words and anything not useful to show how I understood Prophecy as a gift and ministry. But our church was very musical. They were founded by a few friends who were all musicians and had cut many CD’s of their own worship music over the years. So there was a dance video performance the week we joined and now about 10 months or a year later there was going to be a huge live CD recording with video and everything, (so I guess a VCD). We rented the ICA church since it was larger and was an actual refurbished movie theater. This was the same ICA where my wife got Spirit-filled. It’s a small town!
So I asked who was on the prayer team, who was going to pray for the event and no one really was. I was alarmed so I volunteered and that drew some interest from a few other people to cover the venue with prayer for the event where thousands would come from all over the city.
So it began and I was singing and running around praying, praying in tongues, proclaiming, binding, loosing—you name it! I was going up to the main balcony, down to the main stage, anywhere I felt the Lord ask me to go to pray, and then suddenly when I was on the way back up to the balcony again I heard the Lord speak. “You are released.”
Did I Just Get Fired?
I was confused and nervous. Did God just fire me? Maybe the recording was half over and it was enough prayer and I was taking it all way too seriously? Maybe I wasn’t really praying very effectively? Was I discerning things right? Why am I being let go? Why am I being ‘released’?
Then it began to click. Released!? I was being Released! Not fired, but ‘released into my role as a prophet.’ I gasped! It was so ingrained in me not to ‘blow my own trumpet’ or ‘put myself forward’ that even when God said this I was slow to catch on. I wasn’t doing a bad job, I got promoted!
I then reflected on the recent word that I should be ministering not being ministered to, and that Class was Over! Was it true? Am I now the Lord’s Prophet? So no certificate, no ordination ceremony, no lapel pin or name tag given to me to wear at church breakfasts. No human even knew about it—and actually that was just perfect with me!
This was so cool! And scary! But I bet it’s going to be a lot of fun though, right? Right? I forgot he said the price/burden would be high, not that it would have mattered to me anyway!
Meanwhile we kept leading the One Body Filipino ministry and so were a part of all leaders’ meetings and were so eager to serve we attended every event we could just to help out. It didn’t matter if we were needed to serve food, handle the sound board, tidy up after people but always we were there to intercede and pray for the Lord’s will to be done.
Soon I went on my first mission trip to the Philippines! I want to share on that now but it’s not about prophecy. There was a lot of prophecy to guide us but also warfare and if people are not ready for stepping into spiritual combat they tend to act quite badly sometimes! Even leaders!—but that’s not about prophecy so I’ll have to skip all that right now!
You Said You Wanted to be a Prophet, Right?
So I was adapting to my new spiritual environment where the inner healing I went through allowed me to communicate with the Lord quite freely. It took all-in-all over a year and maybe nearly two to complete the transition fully but meanwhile many sometimes turbulent things were still going on around me.
I said I wanted to be a prophet right? Is it too late to change my answer?
In fact yes, many are called, gifted, invited, empowered, but it is a choice—a daily choice—to continue serving the Lord in that often stressful way. God won’t force us to do anything: he won’t force us to stop sinning, to repent, to seek the hidden manna, to persevere in trials, to serve him—especially to serve in such a difficult role as this. I chose to stick with it even when the going became so difficult; I just set my face like flint, determined to not give up. The price was actually quite high.
“2008 by 2008” Church Vision Was Not From God
So at the turn of the year 2007 the church had a vision-sharing theme of sermons, which was usually done in January to give people a focus for the New Year. This year it was ‘2008 by 2008,’ which meant their goal was to increase church membership to 2008 people by the year 2008. They were outlining some steps they wanted to take, such as starting a Bible school, and other things.
I was very excited when I heard talk about a Bible school and hoped to be involved in that since it was exactly what my skills and desires were.
A few weeks went by and no one mentioned anything to me, then there was another vision sharing meeting and they presented the person chosen to lead the Bible school initiative and it was not who you would think of as a good choice. But I recognized him! He was the guy who ran the coffee shop by my old office in Fortress Hill. This was the man personally responsible for addicting me to coffee!!
He introduced himself and openly said he had no experience or background in education or ministry and didn’t have a higher degree or anything like that but was willing to try. What he was an expert in … yes, was coffee. And surely a nice guy, but … well, I was crestfallen. Even with several YEARS teaching experience, they didn’t want me involved at all! Then they floated the idea of making a kindergarten too. Eyebrows raised with hmm’s and ohhh’s across the room. A kindergarten in Hong Kong is a serious cash cow. The general consensus was that it was a very smart direction … a financial boon mostly … but then God spoke.
“Do you know why you can’t see yourself in their vision?” he didn’t wait for me to answer and continued, “It’s because it’s not my vision. It’s man’s view of their own progress.” Then the Lord showed me somehow without speaking that there was a path set before the church and they had a choice to make, to either go their way and follow their plans—or go the other way and follow God’s plans. This was primarily regarding education-type activities, but these were somehow mutually exclusive directions—I mean if they did one they could not do the other. If they chose to do their Bible school (and kindergarten), that it would mean they would not be able to follow God’s plan for them which seemed to also be something similar and about training or education. God didn’t tell me what His plan was, but it seemed like it would take the exact same resources or time or people to do. But what was clear was that God was saying it was one way or the other!
It was around that time, maybe at the same meeting that I heard God say, “Many opportunities have passed them right by,” since they would not listen to the Lord’s direction and so would not position themselves to be able to act on God’s will when the time came to move. Lord, how to MAKE people listen?
And God didn’t tell me I had to share this word so I kept it for a long time to myself and that let me also think over my own feelings of being passed over—what were my true motives in sharing this?—but then I felt, well, it’s better to simply share it. Ezekiel 33 and all that. OK, some people may not be familiar with the verse. In KJV it’s this:
2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
I prepared myself to be calm and not emotionally invested. I then told the two leading co-pastors that I had a word I wanted to share because it seemed they ought to know what God was saying to help them make the right decisions. They scheduled a private meeting and it was not warm and friendly. Mike was a reserved and thoughtful engineer from England and his foil, Henry, was an extroverted insurance executive from Australia. Henry had 2,000 friends on facebook by 2007, and seemed to know everyone, EVERYONE in town. Not that he seemed to, he did. Mike was quiet and more introverted.
We sat down and before I even shared the word they began to tell me that I was just saying these things to try to take over the church! They said I was really just ambitious and simply not fitting into their ‘DNA’ but instead just following … ‘Jesus’—saying it like it was an insult and I was a fool.
I then took pains to explain that I was a lawyer and gave it up to follow the Lord’s calling, not always willingly but God helped direct me and closed many doors, but I still have choices. This obedience has caused me so much stress and lack and disrespect and did they think I liked living in a shack in the forest when I could live like any of them in a luxury high-rise in town?
If I was really so ambitious why would I sit there in a small room in private with a hand-full of domestic helpers from the Philippines dealing with their myriad personal problems week in and week out—was there anything any of those ladies could ever give me? Money, a job, respect, success? Why would I not instead just join the ‘real’ leaders—the businessmen’s group; why be a missionary at all? Why not just go back and get a corporate job like I did before? Did they think I have no job because I’m too stupid to know I need money or I’m too incompetent to find work? I’m suffering to do God’s will and I don’t care if you make a Bible school or not! I actually want you to make a Bible school, all I really want is to be a part it, but God said if we do that we can’t at the same time follow his will. It’s the only thing I want to do, to be a part of a Bible school program and it’s the very thing God said we should not do. I’m on your side actually—but I’m just sharing what I heard God say.
Henry retorted, “But we don’t even have a Bible school! We didn’t start it yet. It’s only talk.”
“I know, and like I said, I actually want to be a part of it, but it’s what God said we should not do if we want to follow his plan. We can’t do both.”
“What is his plan?”
“I have no idea. He didn’t tell me what TO DO, only what we SHOULD NOT DO if we want to find his will. It seemed like his plan was very close to our plan in a way and it would take the same resources or something so we could not do both.” I said what I knew. It seems God did this so it would now be up to them to seek God himself what he wanted them to do! That should be easy enough!
I finally convinced them that I was not there to try to and ‘take over their church’ … but then the discussion became why if God is speaking to me do I seem to always hear things that no one else hears? And why is it that I hear always ‘negative’ words. That was a real damning label in their teaching, to give a ‘negative’ prophetic word to someone, because they felt God only spoke ‘positive’ words. They openly taught this.
I said, No, that’s not true and listed several instances of people in their close circle who were hearing the exact same things I was sharing but those people wouldn’t tell them!! There were six or seven specific cases I mentioned. And I said, “You can ask them why they hear all these same things, sometimes the exact same phrases, but keep silent.” And I also didn’t want to share this word but it may help them make the right choices in their leadership decisions.
Also I said, “And it’s not a ‘negative’ word to tell someone they are driving too fast with their eyes closed and will crash if they don’t slow down and open their eyes. A warning word is not a ‘negative’ word; it’s life if you obey it.” I just thought of that for the first time just at that very moment! Thank you Holy Spirit!
OK they said, What was the word?
It said it again, it was very was simple, we had the vision sharing and I was so excited to be a part of the Bible school but was not chosen to be involved even though I am so skilled. They didn’t know my CV very well and I explained I was three years in seminary in New Hampshire, then my English B.A., then my Juris Doctorate…
“You have a Ph.D?”
“Yes, a doctor of jurisprudence; we call it a JD in the States, but yes, it’s a doctorate degree. And I’ve been a teacher in University for several terms, as well as secondary school and even did a year as a Government English teacher in primary school, plus I did private tutorial classes for corporate clients for many years, so yes, I have many years teaching experience as well, making my own university curriculum, and materials and everything. I also have studied the Bible in about seven versions and am very well versed in history, geography and theology.”
“Why didn’t you tell us? Were you just waiting for God to say something to us?”
“Yes, of course.”
They shook their heads.
But I wasn’t on a job interview so I repeated, “The word God told me was simply this. ‘Do you know why you can’t see yourself in their vision? It’s because it’s not my vision. It’s man’s view of their own progress.’ And then He showed me that if we do the Bible school and go in that direction we won’t be able to follow his will, which like I said, I don’t know what he has in mind yet, so we need to seek it.”
Things calmed down and we prayed and I left feeling like I had actually given a prophetic word and stuck with it until they actually took it to heart. But no, a few months later they announced yes, they were going to do a Bible school, they called it the Manna Program, completely ignoring my prophetic word, and they were already working on getting it started under their coffee expert, the guy who ran the little coffee shop, Just Java, outside my old office in Fortress Hill.
And as a footnote, no we did not get 2008 people by the start of 2008, nor by the end of it either. It simply wasn’t God’s plan.
“My People Do Not Know How To Repent.”
Later I came across some random verses one Sunday morning but it felt like the Lord was highlighting them to me maybe. It was Jeremiah 6:12-15, and then 8:4-13 and the key phrase, repeated twice is,
“They have healed the wound [or brokenness] of my people lightly [or superficially], saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.”
It was just a curious passage to me really until later that day during Sunday worship when the Lord showed me his grief.
We were holding a joint service at the fancy Shangri La hotel, this was in 2008 I believe, and the venue was supposed to be large enough that everyone who attended any of the various services could all come to one place at one time. I was on the prayer team interceding for the service and we were loudly singing our happiest praise songs—but it felt like the Lord was unhappy. So I tried to rebuke that feeling and maybe it was pollution from the hotel venue, so I kept pushing to cast out that heaviness but finally, finally, I realized it was actually coming from the Holy Spirit himself and I lowered my hands and just said, “OK, Lord, what’s the matter? Why are you so unhappy?” And he immediately spoke, “My people do not know how to repent.”
No explanation; that was all.
HKI Launch 2007
So after winter I looked around and realized it had been an ENTIRE YEAR since God asked me to make a journal for prophecy and I realized I had to just start it somehow on my own. He said it needed to be monthly and for free, and without any money to print it, I realized it would have to be a digital publication, at least to start with.
So in March a year after his first instructions I made the first issue and published it at the start of April 2007. I worked with what I had, which was a lot of words from ourselves, but I soon found a site where a man was collecting prophecy from every website and chat-room he could find and just posting it in text format on his own site. The main concern people had was that there was not enough prophecy to print in a monthly journal. I was now myself in 2007 reading through over 500 pages a month of new content, just in English, to narrow down the key words to publish in a short journal of 24 pages or so. Yes, it was often the same authors who made the cut but about half of the words I published were from people who posted once, and never again. So I felt I still had to read everything to make sure I wasn’t missing anything!
It was very hard and drew a lot of warfare I had no real back up to deal with. But it was very well worth it. I did it for several years until I just no longer had the strength, my assignment changed and I was deployed to the mission field. It was such an important service the Father Himself told me how important it was to HIM to do this!
More Than I Can Write Down
He had said before that he was going to start talking to me so much that I would no longer be able to write it all down. This now began to happen very obviously. The volume of revelations, words, visions and dreams increased to a point that I could only keep up with the things that I felt were the most important. So many things that I have to skip telling you here as well, but they are either lessons on other topics or words about people or ministry in general. There is just too much to share.
God was showing me his secrets all the time, some of them not very flattering, but these were necessary to refine me and bring other people back to the right path. It was God’s love and mercy to show them their, or even to show me my errors, so we could be corrected, freed from deception and find the way he will prosper. I was not yet grasping the deep issues or seeing the Kingdom, but he was preparing me by showing me many building blocks of spiritual truth step by step.
Jesus, The Word, Speaks NON-STOP
People say they don’t always hear God speak so much and often ask, Does God really have so much to say?
Well, one Sunday I was walking to church from the ferry and was on the very busy elevated walkway which we call a flyover, and I was about to enter the mall. It’s a main walkway in the city and very crowded with people when I just suddenly ‘tuned-in’ to the voice of Jesus like turning a radio dial and finding a radio station and Jesus was just talking about EVERYONE and EVERYTHING all around me NON-STOP. People walking by going the other direction, total strangers to me, and he was talking about their lives, their feelings, their struggles; the lady in front of me, people behind me, people I would see soon at church, and others I had never seen before and would never see again, and he knew EVERYONE and every detail of their lives and was just talking non-stop about what they were going through and what he wanted to do for them—so much to say!
Then as suddenly as it started I ‘tuned-out’ and could no longer hear his voice. It was overwhelming but now I knew him in a different sense. He knows EVERYONE and EVERYTHING about them, and really has so much he wants to say! He really is the Word of God!
Vegetable Words and Fruit Words
Or can one person hear all God wants or has to say? Well one evening He said He was going to show me things beyond my wildest dreams: things I never thought of, and beauty I never dreamed about, only because he knows I appreciate it, but which is also how he made me.
The next day, I think it was just as I was waking up, I had two sudden revelations in the blink of an eye! One: “to the pure all things are pure” and Two: “the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet.”
‘To the pure all things are pure’ surley means many things. One of them had to do with learning, revelation and understanding. Regular people learn about the Lord in a very human way of reading books written by people, listening to sermons and teachings given by preachers and teachers, etc. These teachers were also taught by other people, by reading books written by other humans, and so on. Eventually it goes back to the Scriptures themselves. Specific words were heard by a prophet such as Moses for example, and written down but then were translated into some other human language. But what did he mean in ancient Hebrew? Could he even express what he heard God say accurately back then? And so what are the best words to describe this now in a modern and often vastly different but still human language? Then again it all goes through books and teachings and sermons, on and on and on. What they learn goes through many filters, layers and opinions and may not be exactly what God said or what Moses heard or what he wanted to convey.
However, there are people whose hearts are pure and they can learn from God directly and will know with certainty what God meant and what Moses tried to say, even to being able to explain nuances between different word choices and concepts. We actually need the Spirit to teach us accurately, but not everyone has a pure heart to allow Him to do this. It was more specific than that and I can explain it in more detail maybe, but the Lord says to skip it.
The second idea was that as God speaks his prophetic word over the Entire Body each one only ‘hears’ one part of the overall message because each has their own ‘zone’ or ‘department.’ The same way that in a large grocery store he showed me one section has vegetables, but another has fruit … they are very similar but are not the same. And so when the delivery comes some things go to the vegetable section but others go to the fruit section.
This is like prophets he showed me.
God speaks his Huge Word and it spreads out over the whole community of the Body but some of it goes to the ‘vegetable’ prophets, some of it goes to the ‘fruit’ prophets—meaning plainly that not all prophets are ‘fruity’—some are more like ‘vegetables’—I couldn’t help myself with that one, but yes, that is what he showed me.
So the delivery of the Whole Prophetic Word is much bigger than people in either of those specific areas can hear, receive, handle or steward. God made the Body with various parts that are all a little bit different so collectively we can handle his larger message—we prophesy in part. So people in those areas are responsible or able to receive only their part of the Body-Wide Word, but we need to work together to get the whole, complete message that He is actually speaking to the Body at large. Cooperation in the Spirit brings a special kind of blessing.
So in a large meeting you may get a word that is connected and a part of what other people are hearing, and what they hear may be the exact same thing, the same thing in a different explanation, a connected idea a step or two removed—or something completely different still.
But this is all a part of what the Spirit is saying to the Church and Body at large. And we should let everyone share what they hear so we can receive all of God’s intended blessings.
So I saw those two ideas in a flash—like in the blink of any eye!
Authority to Forgive Sins
And how does God teach us? Must we always do things the old fashioned way? Or can he somehow teach us directly? Well, one day I heard God say, in modern speech, “I will show you things that will BLOW YOUR MIND!” He was quoting Jeremiah 33:3 but in the vernacular. I understood. Later I was ready for sleep and flipping through the Bible I read the story in Mark 2 about the people who lowered their paralyzed friend through a hole they made in the roof.
Jesus said, Son, your sins are forgiven. Some people didn’t like that and Jesus knew the reasoning in their hearts and said like, Whaaat?! Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk,’ BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
I didn’t know it meant anything special. Jesus said you are forgiven and it healed the man and I don’t know, maybe it didn’t mean anything? I just closed my eyes to go to sleep but within a few seconds—BANG—I sat straight up in bed! I KNEW WHAT IT MEANT!
BUT MORE THAN THAT when I sat up and opened my eyes I saw clouds in my room—not like that, I saw that I was looking into a cloudy sky but from the point of view of being up in the clouds myself! It was more real than normal reality. There were several billows and their edges were very distinct and they stretched for what seemed like miles but the best thing was the STAR. It was a point of light, like a star, moving away from me and through the clouds. I was seeing a vision with spiritual eyes into the spiritual realm! Later God told me that the ‘star’ I saw was my angel that had just delivered the revelation to me! God taught me by depositing a revelation into my spirit by angelic delivery. Incredible!
But what was making my head spin, wasn’t the vision of the angel, but the understanding of this verse. WE ACTUALLY HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE SINS! It’s like a grace you can release, an anointing that will wash away any lasting effects of sin or any of Satan’s works in a person’s life: it can dissolve the anchor of a curse, it can heal a wound, break bondages and any stubborn residual effects of sin. And you can minister it by laying on hands! When my angel delivered this revelation to me, it literally BLEW MY MIND, just like God said it would!
Then I got nervous thinking of having this kind of power! What if I forgive someone’s sins and they don’t deserve it? I can’t simply dish out the judgment of God! But Jesus calmed me down, saying, “That’s not your responsibility. You pray to release forgiveness when I prompt you to, and I’ll take care of what happens next.”
Now it’s funny to me to think I was concerned about praying for forgiveness of sin for people who ask for it: that’s the very basis of the Sinner’s Prayer in fact, asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins, for whosoever and just because they ask! But I just didn’t see it from that point of view yet and just never heard about laying on hands and ministering to release the grace of forgiveness until Jesus showed it to me by personal divine revelation via angelic delivery service that night!
Small Beginnings and God speaking through T-shirts
And I simply can’t count the number of different ways God speaks to us. I like the deeply intimate ‘communion’ the most but sometimes it’s hard to be that open and vulnerable in heart. I also remember several times when God spoke to me from t-shirt slogans.
I was getting McDonald’s one Sunday after church service and my thoughts were wandering about my personal situation. God kept saying he would use me, and I was getting profound insight but I was being increasingly ostracized from the very people I felt like I was called to teach. I was getting older and older and it seemed increasingly futile. I was in line thinking about these things and the Lord said, “Look Up. Look up!” I looked up and the man in front of me was wearing a t-shirt and printed on the back up by collar was a phrase in small letters. It wasn’t printed on the front or middle of the back, but in small text, less than an inch tall up by the back collar by his shoulders and it said, “Do not Despise the Day of Small Things.”
I knew the verse, kind of, ‘Who would despise the day of small beginnings?” But it was also exactly what I was worrying about at that very moment!
Around the same time I was also worried about becoming 40 years old. Leaving my career path and all family and friends, I felt like I was still immature, like I was barely 30 years old yet, like I was missing in action for a decade, but in fact, I was now over 40. Have I really just wasted ten years of my life? And the Lord said, “Look over there!” I looked and a person had a t-shirt on that read, “Life BEGINS at 40!”
Then a young lady from Mainland China asked for prayer at my house and it took hours. She had many strong delusions and irrational fears, mostly about romance and identity and things. I led her to see Jesus in visions and he ministered to her directly but it took many hours! The thing is the day after she left the demon that was harassing her came to my house—it was probably over 12 feet tall, and was shaped like a giant gorilla. It was the same size as the principality of lust I broke down over the village of Mui Wo which I’ll share later. This was the demon making the girl crazy over boyfriends and her identity and life decisions to the point of being suicidal, which is a common affliction of young people in Mainland China if you didn’t know. I rebuked that thing and asked Jesus to fight for me and asked the angels to do the same.
But so now it was a year or so later and I met her downtown and she asked to pray for me! She had a strong feeling from the Holy Spirit that I needed prayer and she had a word for me. So we sat by the waterfront in a quiet place and she saw a vision of a big ship that was getting maintenance. It was in dry-dock and being cleaned, refitted, getting repairs, being fixed up and soon would be ready to go back out to duty at sea, “But God,” she kept asking, “What is this ship?”
My eyes were closed praying and at that point God told me, “Open your eyes.” I did and just at that moment there was a young lady walking by—I did a double take when I realized she was wearing a t-shirt with an English phrase in large letters which read, “You are my Ship.”
It’s not Arguments but Love that Opens the Heart
And I’ll just share a nice conversation I had with the Lord about my attitudes, fears, worries. I’m being a little vulnerable, and it’s personal, but I hope it blesses you. I was just asking him to talk to me and help me with different things and this is what he said:
The Lord: “I will help you get out of the mire. Place your trust in me … Let go of your fear.”
Me: “What fear?”
The Lord: “Your fear of abandonment.”
Me: ??!!
The Lord: “You are still fighting my acceptance of you.”
Me: “Jesus, I don’t want to be having this problem anymore. I don’t know what I have to learn but I want it to stop.”
The Lord: “Then let go of your pride, ego. Just let it go.”
Me: “What are you talking about? How?”
The Lord: “Embrace humility. Let’s face it, you’ve backed yourself into a corner trying to protect yourself—from Me—Yes, you think I am a harsh authoritarian. I assure you I am not. Taste and see that I am sweet as honey.”
* * *
Me: “OK, let’s deal with this … Dad: (and now I understand the jealousy people have about getting spiritual gifts like prophecy from you. Without the gift of prophecy I would not have known all these things…)”
The Lord: “No, you don’t understand this. They think a gift is God’s way of saying ‘I love you,’ but it is not true. I love all Mankind and I am not a respecter of persons. People think I play favorites because they do and their parents do—even you think that—but I don’t.”
Me: “Jesus, how can I be healed and set free? I WANT TO GET THE BILLS PAID!! I’m really sick of this!”
The Lord: “Open your heart to my love … It’s been a process.”
Me: “Help me get out of this prison of distrust. Perry Stone said be humble, do an act of trust, pray fervently. I understand there is a root … which means it’s hidden, deep, but something shows on the surface to reveal that it is there.
[Then I prayed to know His promises are really for me, and I realized I was distrusting Him. I then saw the presence of something dark in me.]
“I see a bad attitude (deep inside my heart).”
[Then I saw God moving within me to begin healing me of it.]
* * *
The Lord: “Do you want the [provision] delivery truck now!?”
Me: “So much inner healing is needed.”
The Lord: “Once you are born again many blocks need to be dealt with. The Promised Land has walled cities in the best locations.
“It’s not a question of BLAME!”
Me: “I’m so sorry God, what has been wrong with me?!”
The Lord: “You had the wrong image of God in your heart. Your pain blinded you to my Love. That’s why arguing won’t help—it never does—because it does not deal with the reason why there is a block to seeing a particular truth.”
Me: “Can you give me an analogy?”
The Lord: “A light switch.”
Me: “A light switch???! Can you explain that?”
The Lord: “It turns on and off the light but it’s just a mechanical switch. It has nothing really to do with the electricity. If the light won’t work, if there’s a short circuit, a blown fuse, a burned out light bulb, or a broken wire, flicking the switch won’t help. Yes, if there is a problem with the switch being in the right position then flicking it back and forth can help, but trying to fix the fuse, circuit, bulb or wire by flicking the switch is pointless, meaningless, useless. Arguments align the mechanical switches in people’s minds, but if there is a block in the heart, arguments do no good. People argue when they are only focused on what they can see and do themselves. It’s not argument that opens the blockages, but prayer, love and compassion.” [End]
Bring All Ideas Before The Elders
And God spoke this to me on February 21, 2007 I believe. I was struggling to separate His voice from Mine, and wavered back and forth between these two. You can see what I mean. I finally felt comfortable to just let him speak freely and it begins to flow better towards the end.
But what he said was,
“to bring all ideas / direction before the elders / directors. Let them mull it over. Tell them my ideas, but be quiet and let them give their input because they will defer to you, thinking you are a prophet and know it all. Do not debase yourself, but be humble. Let them steer the direction of the ministry under you and your wife. I have chosen you to handle this part of the work, not all of it, but his task has fallen to you. A seat of Honor, and of Temptation—temptation to be proud, arrogant, know it all, show off, all the sins of the flesh will want to manifest through you here—do not let them destroy MY work, Edward, or [your wife].
“Always be humble of mind, of spirit, of tongue, of attitude, of temperament, of style, of life, of mind, of will, of heart, of advocacy, of ***lies*** [even errors/jokes must be humble]—even your flesh must be humble to carry this torch and ride this horse, to carry the flame of this burden / torch to nations.
“The enemy is against all works of the flesh, to destroy them, corrupt them. That was not how it was supposed to be, but since he has access to the flesh through sin he has dominion over all works of the flesh. You have something more noble, works of the Spirit. Done through you these are incorruptible, pure, like silver refined in fire of trial and affliction; what you hold onto will be left pure, handling the world of life. Like a doctor cleaning before surgery, it is not a burden when you consider the work that has to be done after you wash; so do it; do not be afraid of the fire that will purge your works of the flesh because all must go through the refining fire to be used mightily of the Lord God. Rush into the breach and I will save you, every time; it is my covenant between you and me, my son. Empty yourself into the breach, heal the narrow wall, strengthen it, support the weaklings, for they are my sons born of my Spirit.” [End]
And before I share the words God gave me for that church as his Prophet in the next few chapters, I’ll just add three more points:
Starting ‘Prayer Mountain’ Ministry
and the Discovery of The Mind of Christ
God asked me to start a training and equipping ministry and he asked me to called it Prayer Mountain. It’s funny because when he first told this to me I was standing at my house up in Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, at the foot of a very large mountain, one that was nearly impossible to climb from my direction and I asked him, ‘What? Do I have to climb the mountain to pray!’ No, thankfully the mountain was in the Spirit. But climbing the physical mountain might actually be easier to do!
So while seeking the Lord one time for the program of an upcoming training and equipping ministry night, I heard Him say it was going to be an impartation meeting. After more prayer and searching I finally heard the Lord say He wanted to impart the Mind of Christ. I was unsure what this meant, but to answer my hesitancy He then said, “You have it.” And later, not as a question, He said, “You will impart it.”
So now I heard Him give me my directions, but I still didn’t understand what the directions meant. So I spent even more time in prayer to get a grasp of what this thing was he was calling the Mind of Christ … and how to impart it! The Lord is ever faithful, and He showed me by prophecy, illustration and by explaining some personal experiences I had, what the Mind of Christ really is. And it is positively amazing!
The Mind of Christ is a mystery. It’s actually like a supernatural organ—a spiritual Mind, and it’s linked to a spiritual Heart—the Heart of Christ—so it does not function in us like a gift of prophecy does, it’s more like sharing Jesus’ ‘limited omniscience’ within us—our thoughts and Christ’s thoughts are ONE and we literally THINK his thoughts in our own minds. He does not ‘tell’ us anything (prophecy), we already ‘know’ it (omniscience). And the Heart of Christ is the same thing but for supernatural emotions.
People do have an internal dialog, but looking around the room you don’t tell yourself what you see—oh, the cat is orange and asleep on the rug, the window light is dim but it’s 2 pm so it’s going to rain, my arm itches—you don’t need to SAY these things to yourself, you just KNOW them and THINK them without the internal dialog. Well, the Mind of Christ is that intimate and God is not telling you things, you just know his divine thoughts about the things that concern you, what’s going on around you and in your area of service to him.
By this we can know solutions to problems without having to analyze them—but again, it’s not like a word of knowledge, it’s more intuitive.
Then what I experienced was having a kind of x-ray vision where I could SEE what the Father was DOING in a kind of blue highlight, like augmented reality, but it was a supernatural sense of vision—I could literally SEE what the Father was doing.
And notice how this verse of John 15:9 is so often quoted right but actually so often understood and explained wrong where Jesus said he only did what he SAW HIS FATHER DOING. Then when people explain it they usually say he only did what the Father TOLD HIM TO DO, which is not what he said, and not what he meant, but it’s because they only understand prophecy. But the Mind of Christ is a higher union than this. You see what he sees, you know what he knows, you think what he thinks and can see what he is doing around you before he even does it.
If there were a separation of speaker and hearer there would have to be a message transmitted between them: a word, a prophecy, a vision, a conversation—but when the separation becomes UNITY there is no more need to speak a message, one already knows the message, since speaker and hearer are united as one in mind and in thought.
He then told me the Christ, the Son, is in a certain relationship between the Father and Holy Spirit—he said the Son is always focused on doing the Will of the Father THROUGH THE POWER of the Holy Spirit. The Mind of Christ therefore is the ‘supernatural organ’ as he called it that enables us to connect to the Father and know his will and then to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it. I think people can operate in this without knowing what it is. I certainly did at first and when I prayed for a famous prophet to impart it to him he even said, “Oh is that what that is!” He experienced it often but didn’t know what it was called.
When Jesus ‘knew their thoughts’ it is not prophecy but this ‘limited omniscience’ at work. And yes, people do often experience this. My wife Ann often hears the prayers of people, and yes, often even knows their embarrassingly intimate thoughts. God is not always speaking to her telling her these things, often he is letting her know his omniscient knowledge of what concerns her going on around her. (This is Ann I’m talking about, the Special Woman he promised me 30 years ago—but I’ll get to all that in just a second.)
So the Father has unlimited omniscience for every atom in the universe, but the Son does not need to bother with such details right now; he is on assignment in a specific location, for certain individuals or purposes and so his range of omniscience is ‘limited’ to the tasks at hand.
For more, look for my article on-line or in the book Foundations of the Kingdom where the Lord asked me to include that as one of the chapters.
Learn about it, ask for it, receive it, and start to walk in it! Amen!
And at another one of our meetings at Prayer Mountain we discovered one of the underlying bases for ‘communion’ because every person visiting was prophesying and I did not understand how everyone could have the gift of prophecy, but Jesus then explained it was not because everyone did, it was because there is a realm beyond the gifts. Hearing God is not only about gifts, which are still important he said, but we can interact with the Lord directly because his Spirit dwells within our spirit and he said actually everyone can hear God speak to them if they would just quiet themselves down and listen. My sheep ‘know’ my voice. Ye all may prophesy!—But all creation can hear when he speaks!
The Perfect Storm
So the Tree of Life Church was actually very suspicious of this ministry work because they assumed I was spreading criticism about them behind their backs but I never did that. I didn’t share publicly the things God was telling me for them. I was careful how I shared.
But God was in a season of exposing the hearts of everyone in his Body, purifying them, and if people were under a religious spirit or had adopted a Pharisee attitude or had embraced the flesh they were always drawn to chafe against me.
And after a few years the church reached a point of no-return and I felt I would stop going to the intercessors’ meeting Sunday morning. It was increasingly futile and one of the ladies was always striving against me. I even heard Jesus say that the intercessors were defending the very thing He was trying to remove. I’ll share later the dream of the lead intercessor NOT killing the Bears (attacking the large demons) that were embracing the pastor, perverting the church, and only she had the weapon to do it. I gave the warnings God gave me to share but NO ONE stood by me to confirm or collaborate what I said God was saying. And when I did give words others also had, there was still a spirit of deafness to them.
Soon afterwards the church lost two elders, people who were more sincerely trying to follow God than some others, and they ‘appointed’ two young investment bankers to be ‘voted in’ to replace them. They then held an elder’s meeting to vote on whether to move the church to an old theater used for pornographic films in Wan Chai, the Imperial Theatre, near the prostitution district, and the meeting was marked by a kind of unity they said they never had before—the elders were 100% unanimous that this was the right direction to take the church in. Never mind that it was only a 15-year lease and the evil unsaved owner retained control over the property and oh, the renovations would cost HK$50 million, 50 times what the church was taking in from total tithes and offerings in a month.
It was a few months after I stopped attending the intercessors’ meetings and I remember hearing that the lady who always fought against me in the intercessors group confessed that when I gave the word about the church going into the wilderness, the one that caused so much backlash, well, she had the exact same prophetic word and at the same time but would not tell anyone and also would not back me up. She even said this, “When the leaders were all against Ed, I didn’t support him but God told me the same word! Now it’s too late, they’ve already signed the lease.”
The Great Falling Away—The Apostasy
Tragically my then-wife was also hearing many personal warning words about her own falling away. In one there was a tree in a plant pot by a sand dune, which prevented it from ever growing to its full potential. She knew it was the ‘religious spirit’ that had bound her but we ministered against this counterfeit Holy Spirit so often! How did this happen to her?
She then had a vision of the ground splitting, dividing the remnant sheep from the goats in the church. She was standing with the sheep—but her heart was anchored with the goats. God told her this himself.
I’ll share some of these words in a few chapters in more detail but not to embarrass her—I never mention her name here to protect her identity—but this is a very real danger we are all facing right now and I want to warn you.
God often spoke of this season as the Great Falling Away and gave many detailed words about it in general and for her personally, but even with almost 40 warning words, her falling away from the Lord was so unexpected to me, so complete and so painful for us—I was still caught off guard. I think I was just in denial, or just trying hard to not entertain the voice of the enemy that was trying to pull me down as well.
I just wish these ample warnings had been able to affect the outcome of her decisions. But like Jesus said, it’s the Great Falling Away and these people are becoming apostates, no longer trying to solve problems or understand what is wrong, but now only looking for someone to blame.
I later dreamed I was crying in anguish over the people in the community who were not going to make it to heaven. My crying disturbed a lady who only wanted surface talk … I told her, “HALF the people here will die!” She didn’t want to hear it. In the dream I shared this with the pastor’s son, Kurt, who was a worship leader but he strongly explained away every part of it, and would not hear any warning or anguished concern. I had a similar revelation a year later, that Kurt will not hear the Lord’s word and so I was not to share anything else with him. [End]
Around that time there was a very good and powerful youth retreat where a city youth leader, Jack Y., got a very serous warning. He’s the son of one of the major ministry owners in Hong Kong and he’s a nice guy but comes off as being very shallow and fake. He himself shared at that meeting that God told him personally that the DEATH of many people in the community was going to be on his hands. What a tragic landscape.
And no, I never shared most of these smaller visions or dreams with anyone. It may have just been for me to know to help me to pray and know what to do with the words he did ask me to share. I’m just sharing many of these things now publicly for the first time but only so you can get a better context for that I am about to share next: three chapters of the actual prophetic words for the Tree of Life Church.
But I first need to begin to mention Bohol.
I’m Inviting You to Bohol—You Will Conquer Bohol!
We gave a prophecy to an investment banker about a coming economic downturn in 2007 or early 2008. He got a confirming dream and planned his investments for a bear market as they call it. His friends mocked him, then the market crashed and he made a TON of money. He then gave me HK$100,000 as a gift to say, ‘Thank you.’ But I told God, I don’t prophesy for money! God said it’s OK. It’s a gift. Keep it—we really needed it too!
It was WONDERFUL! We asked the Lord if we could go on a family mission trip with Adrian and a few others over Christmas 2008 to the Philippines and God said OK, but afterwards our family needed a rest God said. Adrian suggested we go to the Island of Bohol, near Cebu. It’s where he goes to rest, and it‘s one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines, and that says a lot!
After training many ‘traditional’ pastors to hear God’s voice in Negros Island we then arrived in Bohol on January 1, 2009, and went SCUBA diving and had a great time. But God then began speaking about his plans for us there! He said he was inviting us to Bohol, something he did not do often. He said I had to come back as soon as I could to learn the need of the people on my own.
So I came back by myself in late March for a week and in that week God gave us over 100 prophecies, visions, words and insights. Some of these prophecies and prophetic words came through my wife of course!
I cannot share it all now but you can look for it on-line if you want the full story of the Bohol Vision with the revival, theme park, new town, etc.
Well, during that week I felt the Lord leading me to go to the middle of the island to the Chocolate Hills in Carmen to pray and got a few pastors to go with me the next day. God moved supernaturally to arrange this.
The Chocolate Hills are unique geographic features that Carmen, Bohol is so famous for. They are conical limestone hills which are 30-meters tall or so and are all quite steep. The surface is loose weathered limestone rocks and gravel topped with very sharp cogon grass, (also called sword grass, for good reason) which turns chocolaty-brown in the dry season. There are over 1,000 of these hills and they spread into nearby towns like Sagbayan also. And well, God said that day to wear my sport sneakers but I didn’t think it was him—it’s too hot! Well, we got there and to climb the hill we wanted to pray atop we had to borrow a machete, a bolo, and hack through the tall, razor-like grass on a nearly 45 degree slope that had no pathway! And I was wearing beach slippers! I know, next time, Listen!
I later realized I had seen these hills in the vision from Jim Smith!
When we got to the top and I saw THREE EAGLES, very rare actually, hovering stationary in the strong wind so close it was like I could reach out and touch them—three eagles and we were three pastors! And God spoke. “You will CONQUER BOHOL. Do you want the rest of the vision now or when you get home?” I already had dozens of words and was so tired I asked could he please tell me when I got home? But when I returned to Hong Kong we suffered a complete blockade on our finances and it was brutal! But also, God told me almost nothing about the plans for several more years! It seemed like maybe he was waiting for something to happen to tell me more? But anyway I was busy with so many things the Bohol plan was just put on the back shelf for a long time!
Hope Restored
It was not all warning words in this season by far. I once dreamed I was talking to a lady who used to give me a lot of corporate work, and whose family name is Keys. She had been married to my friend Michael who died of cancer around that time and in the vision she was trying to court me! I also saw my wife who was no longer with me and who jumped off the pier to harm herself just to get attention, which was completely unnecessary and also inappropriate. But I didn’t want to be involved in any of these dramas, so I turned around to follow the Lord.
A friend wanted me to follow him, he knew the way! But he took a very treacherous path—didn’t he see I had kids with me!? That’s incredibly dangerous! So I just went straight forward on my own and had to climb over many obstacles but once over them I saw an angel holding a large set of keys. He handed them to me saying, “Nothing has been lost; everything has been preserved.” These were keys I lost or gave up to follow the Lord! I looked and there was a luxurious black BMW executive’s car, almost like a limousine. I took the keys, got into the car—My car—and drove around to test it out! Everything was perfect and so I took off! God has a plan, a beautiful way out, a future and a hope! Amen! [End]
But still, I need to get back to the main focus at this time which was the prophecies for the Tree of Life Church.
So these next three chapters have some of the words the Lord spoke to me over that season to help steer that church back onto His path. These are serious words, serious topics, and there are high stakes. Please be mindful that I am not sharing this lightly.
This helped me see the main difference between a Prophet and ‘those who prophesy’ which may have nothing to do with gifting after all. It may simply have to do with obedience, being willing to stand in the gap and pay the price, being willing to give the word no one else dares to share.
Anyway and however you see it, these next three chapters is much of what the Lord walked me through to serve him in this way.
