The other visions and words I had are much shorter as you will see. For example, praying for the church in 2008 I saw these two visions: the Abusive Gorilla, and Remove the Idol (or I will come and strike with a terrible plague!). And I also heard this short word, ‘They ask for a sign.’ These are very serious warnings.
An Abusive Gorilla
First, I had to leave during service one week as the spirit during the music was so polluted and mixed it was making me feel sick. I went to a mall tower nearby and went up to the roof garden and prayed and I had a vision of an Abusive Gorilla. I heard, “This is a ministry heavily geared toward ‘marketing and media’” … so it’s a ministry that is turning ‘church’ into a marketable product for entertainment, but also not focused on more important matters of the Gospel or Ministry. And I felt it was a word for more than one ministry but definitely he meant it for the Tree of Life Church first. The Gorilla was about four or five stories tall and the left arm was a tree trunk that was attached to the ground. The right arm had a boxing glove on and was furiously POUNDING the very ground (the people) that supported it.
When I saw it, the violence of it’s abusiveness and beast-like character was more than deeply distressing, it hurt me to watch it, and with such pain and grief in my heart I asked God something like, “What can YOU do about this?”
Then suddenly a crack appeared on the left shoulder and the arm that looked like a tree trunk was severed! At losing the supporting trunk (their cash flow / support I think) the gorilla suddenly keeled over and actually died—I mean it just fell over and disappeared. But soon a few smaller gorillas appeared on the landscape but they were not as big, and none had boxing gloves on—obviously to me this is the people from the Big Gorilla who wanted to carry on its doomed, carnal legacy, and copy its style of church being a marketed media event, a business selling entertainment.
NOTE: When I published this in HKI I tactfully did not say or even hint it was the Tree of Life Church in question, but it clearly was. I assumed the leaders were reading our publication, if for no other reason than to see if I was slandering them publicly, which I would never do. But I assumed they read it and anyway this vision surely applies to other churches as well. People need to read it, share it and pray about it. That’s why we made the HKI, to share prophecy to the intercessors so they could better direct their prayers. God does not take striking down an entire church lightly because it scatters the sheep so harmfully.
And when I published this the Lord gave me an accompanying prophetic teaching about ‘Emotions, Covering and Submission to False Spiritual Authority,’ which is such a powerful teaching I am including it afterwards in Chapter 19: Being Taught by God, as “Emotions, Covering and Submitting.” They are related topics but I want to focus here on what Jesus actually told me concerning this specific church at that time.
Remove The Idol!!
Around this time I had heard God say that it was for the sins of Jeroboam that he was angry. But I had no idea what that could possibly mean! I looked into it … and found this referenced a time when after Solomon died and the Kingdom was split into two and Jeroboam Son of Nebat took 10 tribes and there are two real sins …
First, he made idols in Bethel and Dan and competing religious feasts to prevent people’s loyalty from going back to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, which was under the control of his rival, Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. So he set up idols to take people’s loyalty away from the Lord. But I couldn’t understand what idols our church had made.
Second, Jeroboam allowed anyone to be a priest to serve his idols, so he set up a false priesthood of anyone loyal to him who would follow his new direction, probably ‘yes men’ and hirelings no doubt—and not exclusively Levites or Cohen priests as the Law of Moses clearly commanded—we might say today that he allowed anyone loyal to him to be a leader in his church and was not mindful to only let people called and anointed by God to teach and minister to the people.
I still didn’t understand what idol our church had made, and also how were there priests, or ministers, but not ones God had ordained who were teaching people and so leading them astray.
But then just a few minutes after seeing the Abusive Gorilla vision I saw another picture of the huge idol platform for the Big Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong that now has the cable car going up to it—but in my vision the idol itself was missing—it was just a mount with many stairs going up to a big empty space. I hoped He was going to say He would take down Hong Kong’s idols or something like that, but when I asked Him what it meant, He instead said, “Remove (take down) the Idol you worship or I will come and strike with a terrible plague!”
What is this idol? I then thought it was the man-made, media-focused Ministry Brand itself, the trendy church “DNA” that was a platform built with slick marketing and professional entertainment—they made their ministry brand into an Idol.
They Ask For a Sign, the Sign is … Someone Will Die ‘In a Day’
Then He spoke about the people who hear His word but want a sign before they believe and repent.
I actually had lunch with an elder that week, the same person I gave the Pergamum word to who refused to even read it. I had seen a vision of him in the grip of a giant hand and God said he can free himself if he can just see what binds him. He was a Californian, an American! A pilot in the same airline my wife worked in for many years, and to me we were cut from the same cloth. That he was now inviting me to chat and be a friend could mean a door was opening to actually embrace us, befriend me, was this maybe even an opening of the gates of support for us finally? But as I was so isolated I was mostly eager and happy to be invited to hang out and get to know each other better as friends, of which I really had none.
We went to a trendy sandwich shop near all the Grade-A executive offices in the big mall, IFC, right by Exchange Square. My old stomping grounds in a way. I felt so happy. Maybe I could share some of the deeper things God was teaching me!
But instead of friendship, as we sat down he actually directly accused me of being a satanic false prophet, right to my face and like if I really was a demonic liar I would just confess and give it up over a sandwich. He then said he does not think the spirit in me is God, it must be Satan, because God does not tell him the same things I claim He tells me. He then demanded I produce a sign to prove I am a real prophet of God right there in the sandwich shop!
I pointed out that he was quoting the Bible alright, but the accusations of the Pharisees as they attacked Christ and blasphemed! I was very upset and left angry and just so very disturbed.
These visions happened that very next Sunday and this is what I heard God say next … it is so terrifying I never shared it in print until much, much later.
After showing me the Gorilla, and the Idol Platform, Jesus said, “And for those who are given the word of God but want a sign before they believe it and repent … the sign is that ‘Someone would die ‘in a day’” … Monday the old Tree of Life pastor’s son had a bad rollerblading accident in Australia and was hospitalized. That helps us know the date. But the next day, Tuesday, a church member, Ben S., was walking downtown with a lady friend from work. They both worked at the main newspaper I think and they were just getting lunch when she just suddenly fainted and died that night of un-diagnosed leukemia; she just died not the next day but all ‘in a day.’ You can ask Ben about this although I didn’t dare until many years later when he collaborated it, but he didn’t know it was a sign of course. I never told most anyone that word! Would you have? But God also never told me to share it either. I can’t even share this now without feeling sick to my stomach.
The Time Has Come To Be Holy
Then there was a monthly prayer meeting where everyone was asked to come and pray for the church and we were given three specific church goals the pastors wanted us to come pray about. They seemed very trite and when I laid them before the Lord he ignored them completely—I mean he did not want to even comment on them at all. Instead, He gave me this word, which I publicly shared in tears that night.
Thus saith the Lord:
“The time has come to be holy as I am holy. The onslaught has come. It will destroy all Sand Castles, all things made on the sand. Things built by your imagination will not stand. People’s very salvations will be TESTED and many of my beloveds will fail; they will fall away.
“Now man’s work shall be tested. What have you built with? Wood, hay, straw? Or have you been wise enough to SEEK me for MY WISDOM, knowing your strength shall fail you in the day of battle—My strength does not fail. It is unconventional strength. It cannot fail because Love cannot fail—not even in the end times.
“Yes, things are now in motion that cannot be taken back—The end times are upon you—Don’t look back to what used to be, to what once was—much of what you have seen and believed in was (and is) an illusion—don’t look back at failures, short comings or successes—it is a new playing field, a new day.
“You say hindsight is 20/20 vision—that means you think you always see things clearly in the past, but that is not true. You still only see what you want to be true.
“I say, DISCERN THE TIMES AND SEASONS through my Spirit at work in you. I say, look up!—above the roar and rattle of your everyday battle and you shall see ME coming to your aid—I ride a white horse in the clouds—purity and strength—and I am coming to my faithful ones. DO NOT be found wanting in MY SCALES. I tell you, many shall be found wanting—many on that day shall walk away. I did not say I would leave them—but they would walk away. Many here today, many in this room, many hearing my voice say these very things will face that. And many shall fall away.
“I love my beloved children yet many shall fall away. Many of you standing here today do not possess what it will require to see yourself through the end days.
“Do you think that is you?
“What should you do?
“YOU SHOULD RUN TO ME, that’s what you should do!! I AM the starter (the author), as well as the completer (the perfecter) of your faith—so just come to me and let me hold you in my loving arms. I can make everything you fear go away—I can lift you up out of the mire and set your feet upon a rock. How else will you stand?
“There is a house that is built upon sand. And there is a house built upon a rock.” [End]
“The Tree of Life is Going Into the Wilderness.”
I also heard this word from the Lord … five months later on February 16, 2009. A long time before others picked up on the problems surrounding the decision to move into the new building they were calling the ‘Tree of Life Center 2’ or ‘TLC2’ for short. I briefly mentioned above that the church leaders wanted to expand their building and were debating what to do. An option came to renovate and rent an old theater, the Imperial Theater, that was notoriously used for ‘blue films,’—pornography. It was near the infamous Wan Chai prostitution district. Well, the renovation cost was several million dollars, I think it was a fifteen year lease at a cost of renovation of HK$50 million (about US$7m) plus the cost of rent. I think the church had a revenue of about HK$1 million per month and some money on hand but not that much! But they said very loudly that they would let God provide, and would not borrow and not cut their aid to the hundreds of refugees they were caring for, etc. In the end they sucked every bit of money from the whole community for this one project, borrowed a lot of money and cut their programs so tight many ministry activities were stopped.
God said the ‘TLC2’ was a ‘perfect storm’ to chastise them, and let them know they have insulted the Holy Spirit and followed their own will. So I got this word many months before the other intercessors even began to ask if people should maybe pray about the decision to relocate the church at such a high expense into such a dubious neighborhood. They didn’t know God had been speaking openly about this for more than a year?
By the time I got this word, well, it does not sound conditional to me. Two or three months later the other intercessors started to seriously pray for the decision to embark on TLC2. God had already told them several things that were ignored which I knew of. Also that was when the Lord said that the intercessors where defending the very thing He was trying to remove or take down. Anyway, here is the word…
The Lord: “Read Ezekiel.”
Me: “Oh, my old friend!”
The Lord: “No, it’s not like that.
“Hard times are coming to the *Tree of Life Peeps* [Tree of Life people]—“I’ve warned them but they will not heed the cry of one calling in/from the wilderness—so into the wilderness they shall be led of my Spirit of hope (the hope that they repent).
“OF OLD I have told Man not to trust his own reasoning or lean unto his own understanding—yet here we are again—a dead end as they say, spiritually speaking.
“Now I will come and drive them from my [tabernacle / habitation / dwelling place]—into the wild—the wilderness.
“They shall know how to call on the name of the Lord before they emerge, unscathed, but having lost all and everything.
“NOW IT BEGINS”
Me: “And what Lord, would you have me say and do?”
The Lord: “Watch. Be ready to forgive my wounded sheep when they come back, lest they be lost forever.
“The times of the great falling away have come.”
[End]
The leadership were oblivious and it was just so upsetting. A few days later one of the elders, John M., saw me in the lobby deep in thought and he asked me what was bothering me. I first looked at him. He won’t listen to anything I say. So instead of pleading with him to repent I just said, “Well, going into the wilderness is a GOOD thing really; it’s where you become intimate with the Lord,” thinking of the verse from Song of Solomon 8:5, ‘Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?’ He asked what I was talking about, he obviously didn’t hear me share any of these words.
So I told him honestly, “The Lord said the Tree of Life is going into the wilderness.”
“Wilderness! Wilderness!” he said incredulously, “That’s the Old Testament!” like a ‘wilderness experience’ was somehow bogus theology for Christians! Ha! If I had quoted Psalm 91, or Psalm 23, or Genesis about Abraham’s Blessing, or any number of other verses he’d say they were valid promises of God, but the “wilderness” was no longer a valid season because we are now in the New Testament?! How dangerously ignorant some of these Bible teachers were. He was in charge of teaching the new believers and all the refugees! Just incredible!
It Will Delay No Longer
In 2008 or early 2009 I recall Eunice, the lead intercessor, saying that my visions are always a year or ten years down the road, meaning they are not important and really need to be shelved! But within just a day or so the Lord gave me a verse from Ezekiel 12. I shared it with her.
26 The word of the LORD came to me: 27 “Son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.’
28“Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign LORD.’” (NIV)
Kurt Tomlinson’s Vision—the Tree of Life Church
is Built on Quicksand and is Sinking
Then the Lord asked me to go to a specific ‘Leaders’ Meeting’ in June 2009 but just to watch. It was a total waste of manpower, let alone the manpower of all the Tree of Life leaders and ministry heads! We sat in a circle and started to “invite God” to talk to us about “our plans” for moving into TLC2 at the Imperial Theater. When people began to walk around and pray in tongues and ask God to come, first the spirit in the room was NOT the Lord. I then saw a picture of many monkeys babbling. Then we sought God for a time and people shared what God told them.
The first to share was a totally make up word by Mr N. It was absolutely fake. A FALSE PROPHECY! No one cares!
Then others shared, but nothing to report. The son of Pastor Henry, Jack, one of the trendy youth leaders, had a word I think, which he started by talking about the new video games he bought for the youth ministry, and how he knows he is not supposed to entertain but to equip, and he saw an airplane, a coffee cup and a great sword cutting the earth in two … There may be something real in that, I’m not sure. Then Kurt Tomlinson shared.
Who is Kurt Tomlinson? He’s Pastor Mike’s son and the face of the music ministry which by all accounts is the most professional and well rehearsed band in Asia save Hillsongs and other megachurch bands. They are a very good church band and have made several recordings. Kurt is gifted by the Holy Spirit in ways I personally can’t even grasp—really a chosen vessel for a specific task. But also a part of the corruption and worldly ways that were eating the church. But twice God told me in dreams that he always refused to listen to God’s warnings. I may have shared above but God told me I was no longer to share any revelations from the Lord with him. Soft spoken and likable, he was the face of the band and so the face of the Church to the young audience. Actually God told me the ‘key’ of the band was someone else who was truly a professional musician but also barely saved and immoral. But that’s neither here nor there.
So in this meeting, Kurt shared he also had a word.
First he heard the verse, but he said he didn’t know why he had that verse. It was, “The wise man builds his house upon a rock, the foolish man builds his house upon the sand.” That sounds familiar!
Second he saw a picture of the Tree of Life building … it had large pillars that were ALL SINKING INTO THE QUICKSAND! On top the people were busy building something new and modern, not knowing the whole thing was sinking, and when he described it he even said it was not just sinking in sand, but in quicksand!
He then said he thinks what this means is that we need to change our perspective to see the foundation as well as the top floor, and then build as God said we should, and do it well, and do it with a spirit of excellence!
OK, anyone else? Good. Now let’s plan how we are going to move into the new building. They totally ignored Kurt’s word, but it was the same thing God had told me before: there is a house built upon sand, and there is a house built upon a rock! And this time it came from KURT, not me, so how could they say it was a false prophecy or me trying to subvert their goals or ‘take over’ their church!—But they just ignored it anyway.
Two Giant Snakes in the New Building
I also had a vision of the new building they wanted to move into but I didn’t share it yet with anyone. What I saw was TWO GIANT SNAKES in the rafters of TLC2. They were GIGANTIC, bright green color, like neon green plastic and they were just ENORMOUS! I mean probably two meters around at the belly, and maybe 20 or more like 30 meters long! If they were demons they were big ones, not just ones that harass a person but what we would call territorial demons or principalities! Ones that would control a city or a town! And they were spewing venom down onto the people worshiping below. Jesus told me to pray for those people. He later said the Tree of Life spiritual protective covering was broken and all manner of filth was attacking his people. He later also said the covering of the Tree of Life, meaning their ‘covering’ that overshadows their people … was now something like a mushroom, and ‘everything under the Tree of Life umbrella would fail.’
So I knew, yes, they would get the theater, and yes, they would move into it, but no, it had not yet been cleansed from the demonic powers that still claimed it and which would pollute all the people who were unable to discern the spirit, protect themselves but still go there to worship.
The pastor noticed I was unusually quiet. He probably knew I was unhappy, but I did tell him God told me to come and just to watch. But he leaned in and asked pointedly, “What would you pray for about moving into TLC2?” I thought about it. Should I share? I finally said, “Well OK, I’ll tell you. … I would pray to cast out the two giant demonic snakes that live in the building which will spit venom onto everyone worshiping there. So yes, you’ll move there but you need to conduct proper deliverance of the demons first.”
Another elder, John M. again, was sitting by and heard this and said, “No, they already prayed for it; there are no demons there anymore.” That was the same guy who felt a ‘wilderness’ was no longer a valid season because it’s from the Old Testament.
Later still when they were doing fund raising to build the TLC2 and having a lot of stress to find that much money, I heard the Lord say he was not going with them. They were leaving his presence / sanctuary and he would not follow. That’s actually the moment when I heard him say, “The TLC2 is the ‘Perfect Storm.’”
What It Will Be Like If You Stay
I knew the Lord would eventually ask us to leave and had something planned for our future, but it was still not clear what it was, or when we should leave the Tree of Life Church.
And then I had a personal dream of trying to do a ministry meeting there but everything was going wrong. First I saw the pastor there who in reality NEVER came to any of our meetings, and I said, “See, people think we’re not with Mike, but he is here every meeting.” It seemed in the dream he was ‘present in every meeting,’ but only ‘unofficially’ and I realized later they were actually spying on me the whole time.
In the vision the music was playing backwards, then in fast-forward, then the wrong song—I was embarrassed in front of the pastor that I could not even run one meeting!—there was no peace, no ‘groove,’ no atmosphere of the Holy Spirit’s presence!
Then four people came in from the refugee ministry to help but only had African DRUMS! We wanted to lead people to hear God’s voice and needed something like soaking music, but it was such a worldly atmosphere with so many disturbances it would be simply impossible to do that here like this.
Then I just fell on my face crying because nothing was working but mostly because God’s presence was missing! “Why are you not here?”
Waking up the Lord said, “This is what it will be like if you stay.”
