The Australian national co-ordinator of JGLM, Enzo De Vincentis, will be in Singapore (or around this area) from around 16 to 25th March 2012 or so. As my readers know, I’ve been hugely impacted by Curry Blake and JGLM and I’ve written a lot of blog posts on the teachings by Curry Blake (Overseer of the John G. Lake Ministries) and JGLM. It’s been 1.5 years since I first heard the 19 mp3 series Divine Healing Technician (DHT) by Curry Blake which transformed my thinking on (and practice of) healing and my life. I’m a huge believer of drawing from different people and not following just one and I’ve drawn from many other teachers / practitioners when it comes to healing – people like Joseph Prince, Roger Sapp, Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson. But if I had to choose one message on healing, the choice would be easy. It would be by Curry Blake and JGLM. When it comes to healing, I do feel his message is the most biblical one. If you want to know why, you can read my previous posts like Why You Should Eat Your Curry (Blake) Before Paying The Bill (Johnson), Bruce Latshaw On Vineyard’s vs. John G. Lake’s Healing Model, Two ways to minister? – Part 1, Curry Blake of John G. Lake Ministries and Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training course – Part 1.

The reason why Curry’s and JGLM’s healing message has impacted me so much is because it’s different. I’ve been around charismatic circles for a while but I’ve never heard healing taught the way it’s taught by Curry. It’s radical. Most healing messages are NOT like what you’d hear from Curry. In fact, Curry destroys a lot of sacred cow teachings on healing or related to healing that is prevalent in charismatic Christianity and which has held a lot of us back from moving in the power of God. It’s Curry’s message which has challenged so many people to step out and practice healing. Curry is not a big name simply because a lot of people cannot accept the message he teaches and the way he destroys a lot of sacred cow beliefs. So he doesn’t move in the big name circuit like Bill Johnson (who, by the way, I love) but over the last few years he’s slowly built a following because of the impact the message has produced in people’s lives. One of the areas where his impact has been felt a lot is on Facebook where hundreds of people all over the world are connected because of their passion for healing which, for many, first began after having heard Curry.

Having said all that in praise of Curry Blake’s ministry, let me just say I’m not affiliated with his ministry in any way and I’m sure I don’t agree with everything that he teaches or says – I think if anyone agrees with everything that any other person teaches, it’s either because the person isn’t very smart or doesn’t have a mind of his own. I know some stuff I would say differently or even believe differently. But I love JGLM because I have not heard as biblical a message on healing (overall) as I have from there.

Anyway, I wrote all of the above because many have not heard of Curry. If you haven’t, you need to listen to his 19 mp3s on healing (see above). You may not agree with everything, but you’re guaranteed to be challenged to think more about what the Bible says about healing.

Hosting JGLM in Singapore

OK, anyway, the main point of this post: In March 2012, a group of Australians led by the Australian national co-ordinator of JGLM Australia will be coming to minister in Singapore. Because Curry or JGLM isn’t yet well-known here, I’m helping them to find ministry opportunities here. If your small group or your church is interested to find out more about hosting this group of people from JGLM Australia, let me know and I could put you in contact with them. The dates again are 16th to 25th March. I’m trying to arrange for a trip for them to Johor and Batam during that time. But Singapore comes first! They can do a 1-2 day healing conference. Regarding expenses, I probably can get some people to cover most, if not all, of the expenses, so this shouldn’t be a great concern. So you can contact me at jonathan at stillhaventfound.org to find out more and I’ll be glad to chat more and share with you more about Curry Blake and JGLM.

Grace-Based Pastors Conference in India

Hello guys, some members in my cell group are organizing a Pastor’s conference in India in February 2012. My cell group is made up of Christians from different Churches, though most or all of us have been impacted by the message of grace – and most attend New Creation. We are all just ordinary Christians who have been impacted by the revelation of grace and the love of God. We also believe the days of the “big men of God” – specially anointed and holy servants of God that Christians ought to look up to because they have something special that we don’t have – are dying and instead all the saints are called to do the work of the ministry. The grace message has often been accused of producing passive Christians and to a certain extent that has been true. However, for us as a cell, we don’t believe in being passive, but in demonstrating the love of God to this world in an active manner. The grace and love of God empowers us to live for Him and bless people and our heart is to go out into the world and make an impact on peoples’ lives. I think two ministries / churches that we really identify with in terms of getting that message and ministry balance is Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson.

Therefore, though many of us in the cell are not pastors or big leaders in Churches (none of us are actually) – and we still face many challenges in our own lives and are definitely “not there” yet (as Andrew Wommack would say, “I haven’t arrived yet, but I’ve left”) -, we challenge ourselves to step out and share and minister.  So with this Pastor’s conference, we are collaborating with a good Indian pastor friend of ours who is doing a lot of good work in one part of India.

We are holding this conference in a Seminary and targeting over 100 pastors from all over India (though mainly the Southern part). The focus of the conference is going to be on the gospel of grace and the love of Daddy God. All of us are united on this, having had our lives transformed, and thus this is the message we want to share to impact the lives of many pastors and their congregation.

This is going to be an exciting conference. I’m in charge of the curriculum and making sure all the messages are in line and flow from one to another. About 8 people from my cell group are going and 5 of us are going to share about 8 messages in total. We’re going to share on interpreting and preaching the Bible from a New Covenant perspective, righteousness-consciousness, grace, Sonship, union (identification) in relation to overcoming sin and ministry and the practical message of Spirit, Soul and Body and living it out from our spirit. Some of our influences have been people like Pastor Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson.

Three of the 8 of us are pretty new to sharing – two of us only shared our first message in 2011 and one I think hasn’t really shared before. Some may be thinking how we can organize a pastor’s conference when many of us are so inexperienced. Perhaps that’s so. But I hope we’re not going into India thinking that India is a developing country and Singapore is a developed country and therefore we can do this because we’re somehow superior to them and they would respect us because of the fact that we’re out of town and thus know more. Definitely not! I don’t think we presume to go there thinking that we’re somehow better or know better than them. Both sides will learn from one another. For us, we have a very personal message and revelation that we want to share – something that has transformed our lives and we believe will transform the lives of the pastors and their congregation. And we really believe in getting to know the pastors there and not acting like we’re some big shots from out of town. In fact, most pastors would be traveling from afar off and will be sleeping on mattresses  in the Seminary. Our cell group wanted to live with them rather than stay in a hotel – because we truly want to interact and get to know the people and we don’t see ourselves as different or on a higher level than them – but for some security and other reasons this could not be arranged.

Donating Grace-Based Books to the Seminary (and maybe the Pastors too?)

Anyway, so this is what’s happening in February 2012. Actually the main reason for this post is to appeal to people who want to contribute books to the Seminary there in India. The Seminary is new and so they have need for books. I’ve given about 100 or so of my Christian books to the Seminary. They are a portion of the books I’ve bought since 15 years ago. But most of them are not very grace-based. The reason why my cell group is very passionate about organizing this conference is because it’s about teaching and transforming the thinking and hearts of pastors. If the pastors catch the loving and gracious heart of Daddy God and the message of the New Covenant, they will share this message to their congregation. The potential for impact is thus enormous. And that’s why I also believe in investing in books for the Seminary students to read.

So for those who want to be part of donating grace-based books to the Seminary, you can donate through me through the Paypal button below. I will use the money to purchase a list of different grace-based books I know (I haven’t read all of them, but I know they are good). Below is my compilation of various life-transforming grace-based books which I will get with your donation – feel free to comment below and point out some books I’ve missed. And if you want to donate to purchase a specific book, then let me know too. For those in Singapore, you can contact me if you want to physically pass me one of your books. If there’s enough money, I’ll think of purchasing one good grace-based book to give also to the pastors at the conference (maybe 100+). That’s only if we have enough money because we want to be fair and give all of the pastors the book and not just some of them.

Donation amount

Donate $5.00 USD Donate $10.00 USD Donate $20.00 USD Donate $50.00 USD Donate $100.00 USD

1) Books by Bill Johnson of Bethel Church (I put Bill Johnson’s books first because for those who are wary of the grace message, he’s probably the least controversial, and most influential, leader of all names here. While his books don’t address the message of grace directly, I believe his theology and his books, like that of the Vineyard (at least in the past), ASSUMES the foundation of the message of the love and grace of God. He uses a different language and doesn’t get caught up in all the controversies, but he’s definitely grace-based in most senses and his Church even sells Pastor Joseph Prince’s books. I first heard of the message of the Father heart of God through Vineyard and the Toronto Blessing was mostly about that message, which to me is a message of grace using different terms)
2) Destined to Reign by Joseph Prince
3) Books by Andrew Wommack
4) Books by New Nature Publications
5) It is Finished by Nerida Walker (just got this book and it looks interesting)
6) Books by Elyse Fitzpatrick (Elyse is a good Reformed author. My background is in the Reformed tradition and even though I don’t agree with a lot of beliefs in that tradition now (and I think it’s too legalistic for me in general), one section of the Reformed tradition has a very strong “gospel-centered” focus which is very grace-based and which I think a lot of grace-based Christians can learn a lot from.
7) Books by Mark Hankins (good identity in Christ stuff)
8) Books by EW Kenyon (good identity in Christ stuff)

[I don't have time to complete my list, but I will keep adding books when I have time and will continue to welcome donation for these books even after this upcoming trip because the team may plan to go there regularly in future and work with the Seminary and pastors there and the Singaporean pastor we work with goes there quite regularly]

It’s the end of the year again! This year, I’ve written very little – only 7 posts before this one. But there’s been a lot of stuff that’s been brewing in my mind that I will share a bit here, but will do so more hopefully next year in longer posts.

Street Healing in Singapore

I started to get serious about healing early 2010 after listening to Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technican (DHT) course (go to my Healing Resources to get the course) – and having read Bill Johnson for a few years previously. Most of my posts have been about healing since then. A group of us Singaporeans passionate about healing soon got together (we’re now on the Singapore Healing Room Facebook Group) to meet from occasionally to regularly. We met pretty regularly the 2nd half of 2010 (up to weekly in some months) but slowed down starting from 2011. In April, we invited Roger Sapp to Singapore, Malaysia and Batam early this year. Before that in March, some of us attended Randy Clarks’ mini School of Healing and Impartation at Cornerstone Community Church. By the way, Randy Clark and Bill Johnson will be in Singapore for a full School of Healing and Impartation next March (2012) – find out details here at Kingdom Invasion and many of us are excitedly looking forward to it.

As mentioned here on a post Street Healing in Singapore, a group of South African youths came to Singapore to visit New Creation Church in January. We met up with them and also spent time doing a treasure hunt at night in Geylang. This led to contact with some migrant workers we prayed for who got healed there. They contacted me July this year to pray for their friend and we went to a square in Little India to pray for them and saw literally dozens of people flock to us for prayer for healing.  Since August, the group has met about 8 times from August to December to minister to these migrant workers in Little India and organized a BBQ for about 20-30 migrant workers on Deepavali. You can find out more about this ministry at Singapore Healing Forum.

In 2012, we’re planning to meet alternate weeks: one week to minister healing in Little India and the other at a member’s home to discuss healing, study the Bible on healing, pray for people’s healing and just grow in our ministry of healing. This group consist of Christians from various Churches and some of them are helping out in different “Healing Rooms” in Singapore. You are definitely welcome to join us.

I know at least two other groups who go to the streets of Singapore to minister healing and also prophesy. God is indeed doing something new these past few years and it’s wonderful to see the Church go out into the world and the streets to demonstrate the love of God as Jesus did.

Preaching and Teaching

I wrote last year that I hope to start preaching and teaching to young people this year. I specifically said “young people” because I’m not that old and I guess I feel more comfortable relating to young people and also because of my relative lack of experience. Well, I actually preached a total of 4 times this year – ranging from 10 minutes to about an hour to between 15 to 100+ people – but the crowd was a normal crowd, not specifically a younger crowd.

It was definitely a challenge for me to preach – but a challenge I gladly took because I love to challenge myself and I know this is something I want to do more of in future and something I do believe God has called me to. I prepared a lot and was definitely a bit nervous as anyone would be! But I do enjoy sharing what I’ve been learning – I have received a lot over the years throgh many people’s teaching and preaching and I want to give out through the same way. While I still have so much to learn in terms of how to preach and share, I am happy to have gotten started.

I know I have my own unique way of approaching preaching and teaching. My Christian journey has allowed me to appreciate very good solid theology because of my non-charismatic Reformed background. I’m also an Arts and Social Science graduate who loves to do research and understand different perspectives and who  has written lots of argumentative essays. In other words, I’m very left-brain dominant and a perfect candidate for membership in any non-charismatic church whose messages are comparatively more theoretical, intellectual and theological than sermons in charismatic churches. But I’m not like that.While I do find a lot of charismatic teaching and preaching too shallow for my liking, I also find a lot of non-charismatic and Reformed teachings too theoretical. So I’m very much in between, appreciating the strengths of the charismatic and non-charismatic worlds of Christianity. And I’ve been like that for 15 years and many times I’ve felt like a misfit where I am. But I’m already used to that.

While I can’t stand a lot of charismatic teaching and preaching, that’s not to say I don’t listen to them. I listen to all kinds of charismatic teachers and preachers (although I’m selective) because I think I can learn from everyone and everybody has different gifts. And I also don’t think the way I like to learn (as a left-brain dominant person) is a holistic way. We all need to be balanced in terms of functioning in the left and right brain. Because I’m left-brain dominant, I’ve been trying to be more open to functioning with my right-brain. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere (Hearing God’s Voice Again), I believe prophetic people and those who flow more in the Spirit tend to be right-brain dominant. And that’s why I want to be open to tap on the right-brain. Prophets and prophetic people, because of their inclination to being right-brain dominant, also tend to be really bad teachers and preachers. This is of course not always true – I think Kris Vallotton is a good preacher.

I’m also more postmodern (or maybe more accurately critical-realist) in outlook in that while I believe in absolute truth, I also believe we human beings interpret the Word through our own biased lenses. I don’t just accept anything taught by anyone (even my favourite preachers/teachers). I find many Christians (especially charismatics because of their bent to the anti-intellectual and anti-theoretical) too accepting of teachings they’re taught by their pastors or favourite teachers. Because of my background in Reformed theology and my reading of many different Christian traditions, I tend to be more critical and I would acknowledge different perspectives and views and the fact that I don’t know many things. God’s truth is absolute but our interpretation can easily be flawed. I find no place for a lot of dogmatism I see in the Church today, which to me has sparked the growth of the emerging Church movement and the anti-institutionalism of many modern Christian movements. However, in relation to preaching, while I understand a lot of it is our interpretation (and I don’t want to mistake my view of things for gospel truth), I know many times in teaching and preaching (especially) you sometimes have to speak in absolutes if not you don’t really get anywhere.

Anyway, out of all the ministers who have influenced me in recent years and who hold on to beliefs that are similar, I think Andrew Wommack is one of the best teachers of the Word. He’s charismatic (in beliefs), yet teaches in a very solid, logical and organized way that has benefited many people around the world. I think the organization of his teaching is one of his great strengths and the reason why so many have benefited from his ministry. I think Joseph Prince is one of the best preachers. His teaching is also very good, although many times it tends to be very disorganized. However, when he preaches a message that is more or less organized, he’s one of the best preachers in the world. Joseph Prince is probably more holistic in his balance of preaching/teaching skills, though I think Andrew Wommack is more holistic in his message (he touches on many important topics and not just focus on grace). By the way, I’m defining ‘teaching’ here as something that’s slightly more left-brain oriented that appeals more to the mind and logic and ‘preaching’ as slightly more right-brain oriented that appeals more to the emotions.

I’m still very new in teaching and preaching but I do want to improve. My strength is more on the teaching and left-brain organization and logic (as people can see from this blog and my writings) and I want to improve more on the right-brain aspects to sharing – appealing to emotions, using stories, being led by the Spirit, prophetic preaching, etc.

My heart has always been doing ministry full-time. And I do intend to move into that in future after prospering in my businesses. I don’t want to work for a Church or ministry and be beholden to the politics of institutional Christianity. I want the financial freedom to be able to minister where I feel God wants me to go – and to minister freely especially to the marginalized and the poor and disciple them in their identity in Christ. Now is the time of learning and applying what I’ve learned. The essential message that’s been brewing in my heart these few years is “identity in Christ”. Topics like grace, new creation, new covenant, finished work, sonship, Daddy’s love, etc., is all related to that. And this message of a new identity in Christ ought to be applied in all areas. I want to focus on the healing ministry in future. But right now, I want to apply that message in my life especially to prosperity and my businesses. Eventually I will do more preaching and teaching and I can’t wait for that to happen, but I’m enjoying my time right now too.

On Dr. James B. Richards

I’ve learned many things this year. I continue to encounter new ministers to learn from. Before 2011, the people who have had the biggest impact upon my theology and Christian life in recent years have been Joseph Prince, Bill Johnson, Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Roger Sapp and Dave Roberson. Probably the person who has had the biggest impact upon my Christian life and theology this year is Dr. James B. Richards of Impact Ministries. I’d seen his book Grace: The Power To Change around in various bookstores for a few years but never picked it up. I knew he was a grace-based preacher, but I thought he was probably like others and maybe didn’t add anything radically new to what I’ve already learned from others so I resisted getting into his teachings. Actually, right now, though I love his teachings, I still haven’t read that particular book. But I’ve read and listened to dozens of hours of his teachings and interviews and have gone through his Heart Physics program.

I think the first teaching of his I got into was his Anatomy of a Miracle which touches on Quantum Physics. I had been interested in Quantum Physics and its relation to faith and miracles and his book was all about that. I’ve become interested in recent years in the relationship between science and the Bible and Quantum Physics has a lot to say about this. So I read that and went on to his other materials. James Richards is definitely very different from many grace-based preachers. He has degrees in theology, human behaviour and medicine and thus he brings  different perspectives to things and that sets him apart. I’m someone who reads widely myself and thus I love it when people brings in the perspectives of other disciplines as I think it makes things more holistic and it gives us greater insight to the workings of the world and humans.

I do plan to write more fully (and also do an email interview) with James Richards in 2012 so I won’t write much here except to say that I think he’s brought in a missing piece to the faith message and that is the importance of meditation, which to him consist of physical relaxation and using of imagination. Anyway, I can’t say I agree with everything he advocates (I’m not sure yet) and some of his stuff is pretty controversial. But generally I like what he teaches and I think what he specializes in (his essential message is about the heart and the use of meditation to persuade one’s heart) is something that would really bless many Christians.

Other teachers

Having a similar message (on meditation and persuading the heart) to James Richards is Dave Martin. I’ve listened to a lot of his stuff and also do his meditations. I started to read the books of Jay Snell this year after having known of him for a while but not having the motivation to finish reading any of his books. I don’t know much about him but his first book on Abraham’s Blessings is a book to re-read and study. His other books are quite hard to follow. I’ve started to read E.W. Kenyon and listen to Charles Capps’ stuff. Both are from the faith tradition. I actually got more into Kenyon’s stuff after I read Donald Mann of Covenant Peace Ministries.

Donald Mann is one interesting guy. As James Richards majors on meditation (imagination) and really believes in that, Donald majors on meditation in the form of confession/affirmations and really believes in that too such that he advocates confessing Scriptures at least 2 hours a day. Like James, Donald also brings in the science of the mind. I got to know him recently and communicated a bit with him through email. I want to follow up with him to get to know him more and also read his 3 books which look really good. He’s been influenced by Curry Blake I believe and his books are full of mainly Scriptural confessions. All about good identity in Christ stuff. He also seems to have ministering healing working well in his life.

The Exchanged Life tradition

One Christian tradition that I found this year which is very grace-based is the Exchanged Life tradition. This tradition is all about union with Christ and is very grace-based. It is a pretty non-charismatic Christian tradition, but I’m interested to learn more from it because unlike the many grace teachers that’s been impacting the world recently, this is a tradition that’s been established longer and consist of non-charismatics – which generally means they handle the Word of God better. As a more established tradition/movement, there’s a lot to learn from them. For example, Steve McVey, who is a big name in the grace movement, I believe has benefited a lot from that tradition. I really like the writings of John Best of Abundant Living Resources. He’s written a lot of solid theological books that relate to many topics related to grace. While I do appreciate a lot of the new grace-based authors that having been writing good books, I’m a big believer in also drawing from the Christian tradition and understanding the perspectives of the past and building on them. To ignore how much we can learn from the past is being really stupid – because truly there’s nothing new under the sun. I learned a lot about grace from the Reformed and Lutheran tradition (there’s a lot of mixture there too) and also the Redemptive-Historical Biblical-Theology tradition. The important thing is to draw from as many people and be aware of the different arguments because all this has actually been around for a long time. There’s a lot of good stuff in the newer authors and preachers and they bring their unique gifts and interpretation of things. But it’s best to combine the new with the old – building on the foundation of the past, yet not letting it restrict you.

Fahkram Church after the floods in Thailand

Hi to all who read my blog (not that I’ve been writing much lately!) or who have stumbled upon this blog. I wrote a post a while back on Fahkram Church which I’ve gotten to know over the past year plus. If you read the post, you’ll know why I think this is a very unique and amazing church – I encourage you all to read that post if you haven’t.

I’ve gotten to know some people there pretty well. I’ve visited the Church about 3 times over the past year or so and twice I stayed within the Church compound (they put me up in a nice air-con room for free). They are a church that has services every day because maybe 50 or so people live within the Church compound. The pastor has helped many people to get jobs and make money. He preaches a message of God’s grace and love and God’s desire to prosper His people. Yet he also lives the message of generosity out by helping and blessing his people. I know his sheep come before him. Even though he teaches his people to give to God and he could become pretty rich through the church tithes / offerings, he actually lives within the church compound with some of the members. He doesn’t live a better lifestyle than them. I think a person who truly understands our God of love and grace will not focus on his own self, but on other people and helping and blessing them. Demonstrating the love of God to others will become (effortlessly) more important to us than just focusing on ourselves and our wants as we conform more and more to the image of our Saviour. While I believe in prosperity and God prospering us, I’ve seen too many who preach such a message for themselves and not understand that God desires to use them to be a blessing to other people too. That’s why I admire someone like Andrew Wommack who I believe truly lives that message out. I know the pastor of this Church and I know he’s someone too that lives out such a lifestyle.

The reason for writing this post is that I want to provide an opportunity for my readers to help this Church. As you know, floods in Thailand have caused a lot of damage to the country. And it has caused a lot of damage to Fahkram Church too as you can see from the above picture. You can also see more pictures of damage here (their facebook account). Also, a list of damage done to the Church provided by Anne is listed below this post.

During the floods, the Church actually went on one of their mission trips to the north of Thailand. I think they stayed away from their Church for a month or more as the Church was flooded about 40 days. You can find out more about what happened to the Church and how to help them out here: Fahkram Church. There you’ll be able to see some pictures and get the contact numbers and email of the Pastor and one translator who speaks English. You’ll also get the bank information if you desire to transfer some money over.

I’ve set up a PayPal (you can use credit card) donate button (actually it’s a PAY NOW button coz it’s not easy to get a PayPal Donate button as I’m in Singapore) for those who want to contribute a bit of money to the Church. You can contribute as little (even $5) or as much as you want. The little donations add up. Do note that the money will go directly to my PayPal account, not theirs.  The reason I’m doing so is because I know a lot of people will probably not go through the trouble of Telegraphic Transferring (TT) money over to the Church. PayPal and using one’s Credit/Debit Card is so much easier and quicker – especially if you want to donate just a small amount. For big amounts, I’d encourage you to contact the Church directly. For small amounts, you can use the PayPal button below. Of course, this will be based on trust – for those of you who know me or are familiar with my blog, it’s your judgement to make if you want to go through me.

I will be TTing some money over this month or next month so I’ll transfer your money along with mine. You can also email the Pastor or Anne (the translator who speaks English) at the above email address to make sure they get the money from me if you’re concerned about it – in fact, I encourage you to do so. I’ll also get them to email you an acknowledgement of your donation when I send the money over. Please note that it is NOT their idea that I help them raise money through my PayPal account. It is my idea because I know how easy it is to transfer money using PayPal. It’s actually more of a hassle for me to organize this, but I think it’ll encourage people to give small donations they may not give if they had to TT the money (the cost of TTing is probably around US$5-10 or more per transfer which is a lot if you want to transfer a small amount).

Donation amount

Donate $5.00 USD Donate $10.00 USD Donate $20.00 USD Donate $50.00 USD Donate $100.00 USD

PS: There seems to be a problem with the donation amount. If it shows US$5 on the next screen, just change the QUANTITY to make it add up to the amount you want to donate.
PPS: Thanks to those who have already donated very generously through PayPal. I’m pleasantly surprised yet very encouraged. And the Church will be too! :)

A list of damage (and cost) caused by the floods provided by Anne, the translator (note that US$1 = 32 Thai Baht)

1 A fence are damaged now we brought corrugated iron to make the fence temporary from now on.
2 The motortri-cycle for the need peoples in our church 68 motortri-cycle have to fix it because stay in the water for 40 days
it’s cost to repair per motortri-cycle is 3,500 bath total 238,000 bath
3 The water main,pipe it’s break down water can’t run down.
4 The wall must painting new again inside and outside door 15,000 bath
And other rooms inside the church is
5 The kitchen room
5.1 A refrigerator 1 = 16,990 bath
5.2 Machine cold water 3,500*2 = 7,000 bath
5.3 The Kitchen cabinet 5,000*4 = 20,000 bath
5.5 The Gas and Gas tank 2,750*2 = 5,500 bath
5.6 A bowl,cup,pot,pan,glass total =30,000 bath,P.S The stain of the oil can’t remove.
6. Storage room
6.1 Cabinet device performance 5000*2 = 10,000 bath
6.2 Equipment performance 50,000 bath
6.3 Instrument 12,000 bath
7 Praying room
7.1 Clothes closet 4000+5000 = 9,000 bath
7.2 T.V.cabinet 3,500 bath
7.3 Sofa 15,000 bath
7.4 The Table and chair 4000 bath
8 The worship room and office room
8.1 The table computer 2900*2 = 5,800 bath
8.2 Steel filling cabinet 5,000 bath
8.3 Table Mixer 3,500 bath
8.4 The carpet on the stage in worship room 7.50 * 3.20
8.5 The curtain in worship room
8.6 The books cabinet 5000*3 = 15,000 bath
9 The Audio mixer rooms
9.1 sound proot wall lining
9.2 Microphone condenser
9.3 Speaker mix down
9.4 Cutting computer
9.5 table mixer
9.6 Equipment mixer cabinet
9.7 Ground
10.The Toilet
10.1 The door for PVC 1,500*2 = 3,000 bath
11. Air condition repair and change equipment,clean up =11,500 bath

A group of Singaporeans before embarking on a night of Street Healing (6th August 2011)

Introduction

I thought I’d provide a little update on what’s been happening over the past 6 months regarding Street Healing in Singapore. For those not familiar with all this Street Healing business, the Street Healing movement has exploded all around the world in the past year or so – about the same time I started to get involved. I, along with many people in Singapore and around the world, took a huge leap into practicing Street Healing after listening to Curry Blake of John G. Lake Ministries (JGLM), whose teachings I’ve written quite a bit about on this blog. Since the middle of last year, a group of Singaporeans from different churches have gotten to know each other through mutual appreciation for Curry Blake’s teachings and our desire to pursue and grow in the healing ministry. We’ve met to discuss and practice healing (i.e. pray for each other and our friends who need healing). We’ve also attended healing events in Singapore like Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation at Cornerstone Community Church in March 2011 and The Elijah Challenge in October 2010. We’ve brought some friends over to Singapore to minister and learn from like Jessie Campbell of Australia in November last year and Roger Sapp in April this year.

South Africans ministering healing in the streets of Geylang

South Africans and Singaporeans in a restaurant in Geylang before our Street Healing / Treasure Hunt adventure (January 2011)

In January this year, a group of about 20 young Christians from South Africa came to Singapore and we had a great time of fellowship with them too. I’m going to share a bit of what happened here because I haven’t done so in this blog before and the testimony below is sure to encourage many. In addition, what we did with this group of South Africans that day eventually led to what the group of us are doing in Singapore now, which I’ll share later on.

Anyway, it started when I got to know James Preston, a pastor in a South African Church, last year. Both of us are bloggers and we have similar beliefs, having been impacted by Christian leaders like Bill Johnson, Andrew Wommack, Rob/Ryan Rufus, Joseph Prince and Curry Blake. We were (are) grace-based and into the supernatural (healing and the prophetic) and believed in Street Healing. We also had a mutual appreciation for a theologian called Michael Eaton. That was how I got to know about him: he wrote about Michael Eaton on his blog and I wrote him about it. I read Michael Eaton’s book No Condemnation about 13 years ago and it impacted me a bit. The book is a very scholarly take on some important aspects of the grace message – the doctrine of assurance and also the role of the 10 Commandments in the Christian life. Michael Eaton is the kind of theologian I like a lot as just like his good friend RT Kendall, he’s scholarly and yet charismatic – combining the best of Word and Spirit.

It’s amazing how God connected us. James was planning to bring a group of about 20 young Christians from his church to Singapore for the primary purpose of visiting New Creation Church. So we arranged for the South African and Singaporean group to meet up together for fellowship and some ministry. So in January this year, a group of us Singaporeans met up with their group and had a good time of fellowship, discussion and prayer one night. We thought of bringing them to Geylang the next night to eat and do some Street Healing. So the following night we all met up again and did some Treasure Hunting / Street Healing after dinner.

I want to share this testimony provided by James, who partnered with one of our Singaporean friends Joseph when walking the streets in Geylang:

Did Joseph tell you what happened at the Massage Parlour with him and I? It was amazing, and actually one of the most powerful encounters I have had doing such ministry! I hope you don’t mind, I will get into some detail here…

We saw the wavey blue neon lights Graham had prophesied about earlier, and we hovered around waiting because we knew God wanted to do something.  Nothing happened.

So we walked around the block again, and on our second time coming up to the restaurant with the wavey neon blue lights, Joseph spotted a lady sitting at the counter of a massage parlour wearing a pink shirt and with black hair and a pony tail. With 4 of the words of knowledge confirmed (Blue lights, pink shirt, black hair, pony tail) we knew God had an appointment.

So we stepped inside saying we had a “message from God”. We were immediately greeted with a cold response saying “massage only” as obviously Western men have a bad reputation around there. With a big smile we assured her we didn’t want her services, but wanted to bless her with a message. (At this point I had no idea what the message was, but I knew for sure God had one, as He set this up, so I spoke as though I did have a message, because God did.)

She was still very reserved, and then her boss walked in, a Chinese doctor. He took a seat behind the counter, and she moved over to a smaller chair. We said we had a message of blessing for him and his business. (This was the first thing that came to mind, and I know that as a Son of God a business should naturally experience blessing if I speak it out over it. Whether this is conditional on what type of business it is, I don’t know. I was going with what I was feeling.)

The doctor asked how much we would charge, or what we wanted in return. I assured him we wanted absolutely nothing, and that we were messengers from God with a message of blessing for him and his business. At this point the lady in the pink shirt (who was completely switched off) started looking a lot more interested. Let me just say everything was being translated through Joseph. Without him I doubt we would have seen the same results. I was blessed to be partnered with him.

Anyway… so the Chinese Doctor was quite surprised we wanted nothing in return, and openly received prayer for his business from us. I asked if we could all hold hands, which him and his pink shirted assistant agreed to. We held hands and I started praying over the business (without translation if I recall correctly). As I started drawing the prayer to a close, I had a word of knowledge (by way of impression on my heart) that the assistant had pain in her left leg in her thigh area. She looked totally healthy and around 20 something yrs old, so it certainly wasn’t by looks. She said she did have pain and that she had a sort of rheumatoid arthritis which caused her pain down her left leg, so this opened her up. It’s amazing how the prophetic does that. I guess that’s what the gifts of the Spirit are for!

I then felt to pray for her legs, to see if one was shorter than the other. Which was interesting for me, because I have never done that in ministry before! But did it, and it seemed like one was just slightly shorter than the other. So we prayed, and when we opened our eyes, it looked as though they were completely in line! Even the “DR” inspected it and seemed amazed! So this naturally built faith for her leg. So I asked her to lay hands on her leg where the pain was, and I would lay hands on her hand. I didn’t want to lay hands directly onto her leg (even though she was wearing jeans) our of respect.

So we prayed, and declared the pain to go and the life and power of Jesus to flow through into her body. She started giggling and saying she could feel heat going through her body and tingling! We told her that was the Power of God flowing through her and healing her. By now she was smiling and laughing, and full of faith. So much so that she asked us to pray for her left arm, because she had injured it and she couldn’t move it above half way behind her back. She had seen and felt God heal her already, and so wanted full healing in all her body!

So Joseph and I laid hands on her left arm and prayed again. Very simple, declarative, authoritative, loving prayers, and she felt the same thing. Heat and tingling. She tried to do something she couldn’t do with her arm, and she was completely healed! Praise God!

By this time, the DR had seen all this and was stunned. He then mentioned Joseph that he had had a stroke 2 years ago and the right side of his body had become lazy. So we sat him down, and we prayed with him, Joseph taking the lead here, and again just declaring all pain to go and life and healing to flow into his body. We asked him to stand up and walk around a bit, which he tried to, but he said he was only “a bit” better, so we prayed again. Short and sweet, and he started walking again, this time better but saying he was about 50% better. So we prayed again and he tried to walk again and this time he said he felt much better and stronger!

I don’t always make a call or suggestion to receive Jesus, but we both felt like Jesus had something further to do, and so Joseph asked them if they knew who healed them. He told them it was Jesus, and he asked if they wanted to receive Jesus into their lives. With big smiles on their faces they both agreed! It was such a privilege to lead them right there and then through a prayer of accepting Jesus as their Saviour, and then praying for them to both be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

We left it at that.  By then it was half an hour over time to meet back, so had to get going, but took their card to hopefully stay in touch with them in the future. What a testimony of God’s goodness! God loved these two so much, and he had a plan to meet with them that night. And they were both so ready to receive the Love of God!  For me, this is what it is all about!

Street Healing in Little India

There were other testimonies also of healing and God’s love being poured out in Geylang that January night. Esther and I ministered to many Bangladeshi migrant workers on the streets of Geylang. We approached a couple of people sitting down and asked if they had any pain. As they had pain in various parts of their bodies, we laid hands on them and prayed for them. Pain started to go away and other Bangladeshis walking by who saw this unusual sight of Chinese Singaporeans laying hands on their fellow countrymen started standing still and observing what was happening. When the Bangladeshis told of their healing, more people asked for prayer and we managed to pray for others and see quite a few healed.

We kept in touch with these people and told them to call us if they have any problems or need any healing. In June, one Bangladeshi called us and invited us to his apartment in Geylang to pray for his friend’s sickness. And then another Bangladeshi called us in July and we met up with him in Little India. We ended up praying for his friend for a long time as the pain wasn’t going away. Gradually, many migrant workers started observing us close by and we asked if they had any pain in their bodies. Many of them had pain because a lot of them were involved in physical labor jobs. For the next 45 minutes or so, Esther and I prayed for between 20 to 30 migrant workers and the majority of them had their pain healed. As it was getting late and we didn’t prepare to pray for so many people, we had to leave with dozens still left not prayed for but we promised to come back the following week.

Since that time, we’ve been to little India three times in the past two months, bringing other Singaporeans. Each time, it’s been very exciting and we’ve gotten to see many migrant workers healed. We’ve also been able to make friends with many migrant workers and thank them for their services and work in Singapore. Some Singaporeans in the group came for the very first time to see what it’s all about and they went beyond observation and got into the act of praying for the sick and actually saw God use them to heal people in the streets for the very first time in their lives – and that’s been exciting for them. We believe that every Christian is called to heal the sick and resurrection power is already within them (Ephesians 1:18-19) to do so. A lot of us (all ordinary Christians and not pastors) have gone through this journey of ministering healing for the past year. We’ve still got a lot to learn and grow in this area, but we are glad to come alongside other Christians in Singapore to encourage and empower them to begin this journey of healing.

I believe God is restoring the supernatural and healing to His Church as the end draws nearer. His Church was always meant to move in the supernatural and even do greater works than what Jesus did (John 14:12). The Church was always meant to go out into the world to demonstrate God’s love to the world and do the works of God, and not just rely on bringing the world into the Church. This Street Healing movement that’s been sprouting up all around the world in the past year or so is something no one could have fathomed 5 years ago. God is doing something powerful and we want to invite any Christian in Singapore reading this to join us. You’ll definitely be transformed by the experience of praying for these people. And you’ll realize how easy it is to see God heal many through your hands. By no means do we get everyone healed, but we have seen so many healed and we’ve begun an exciting journey.

Let me end with 3 testimonies from various ordinary Christians who have been praying for the sick in Little India the past month or two and seeing results:

Testimony from Esther:

…after i’ve prayed for a few people, i believe some got healed. i was honestly SURPRISED that they got healed. HAA! but that encouraged me and made me see that wow… if i can do it, ANYBODY CAN!

this sat i prayed for a girl with pain from her calf down. after prayer, she tested her leg out and without even speaking to me, she went straight out and spoke to her brother (who brought us to her). she was completely healed and was surprised that the pain would leave her completely

there are still many who didn’t get healed and i know its a journey, to learn to have faith even when healing doesn’t happen, and to discover why they don’t.

and its only gonna get more exciting!

Testimony from Robert:

Hello, I wanted to share a little bit of my experience. As I began to pray, there was actually a feeling of unworthiness inside, but I just continued to see my righteousness in Jesus Christ. Anyway, it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus and His love for them.

I did not listen much from Curry Blake, but learning from Roger Sapp and Jon, I started the prayer with a reminder of Jesus’ work on the Cross not only for them but also for me, as it could be my faith also that will heal them. And then I started commanding the pain/sickness to be gone as what Jesus taught about commanding to the mountain. And then I ended with again a confirmation that healing belongs to the person.

About 90% whom I prayed said they are getting better/healed. Many answers not in a very convincing way,as if they are also unsure about it. But at least there were 2 instances where I really see a big smile after I prayed for, one when I prayed with Esther, and another when I prayed alone. The person even saying with a big smile, “It is good!”

The challenging one is when a person is asking for a prayer where there is a bone coming out a bit in his hand, while there is no pain at all. I am not so sure either, I was praying for something similar with my own hand, but did not see the result yet. So I just kept convincing myself that nothing is impossible in Christ. I even prayed that God’s power comes so that the people can see how great He is. Nothing happened, and after two to three times, the person’s friend asked him to leave.

I was not sure what to do when healing did not come, I saw how Jonathan did and I think it’s a good way to end with the faith that God is still working and the healing could happen tomorrow or the day after, so we should keep on believing for the healing to come!

It’s an awesome experience, more people should join us and experience it. God is working!

Lastly, a testimony from Michael:

Praise God Praise God! I am writing this to encourage all who had not turned up for the healing prayer at Little India. My wife Sandra came with me for the first time and nothing prepared us for the surprise God had for us… :D

… We prayed for a young man who complained with a toothache which to his surprise (and ours) left almost instantly! And he started to shared excitedly with his friends… :) There were many with back problems and GOD IS SO GOOD…….He healed them!

One had pain on both heels……Tony, Sandra and I took turns to pray for him. When the pain from one heel (foot) left he was quick for the other to be healed (by laying of hand). And we claimed healing for the other as well and Jesus healed that too! To make sure he did not politely fake it, I got him to walk briskly with me…

“Any pain? “……”No pain!” By which time I was over the moon! I was rejoicing and thanking God for His amazing love…..

There was one guy who in his broken English asked…..”What profit you to do…… this?” It is the love of God for them to see them free from pain…… we replied.

I am sharing this to testify of the goodness and awesome love for people….. For all we know, some of these workers may be living in sin….. our own lives may also be altogether with doubts and unbelief…… even.

Yet God in His love and sovereignty sees beyond all that.

HE IS FAITHFUL to what His Son Jesus Christ has done ! And he healed more than 90% of those who came forward to be prayed for.

Indeed the name of Jesus was magnified and glorified that night……All Glory to Him

I was so happy when the Holy Spirit turned up with so much love and power!

Just to encourage anyone who is wondering if God will use him/her. I was like that once. Remember this God IS good….and that is His glory….. Exodus 33:18-19.

…God heals not because we are good but because He is good. We obey by being available for His goodness to flow through……… with His love, His joy and His peace….. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches……. John 15:5

For those interested in coming alongside us, growing together in the healing ministry and loving and blessing the people in Singapore, we welcome you! Drop me an email at jonathan at stillhaventfound.org.

I recently purchased some of Steve Thompson’s messages online. Really good stuff! Thanks to Brandon Lee who put a lot of Steve’s videos up on YouTube which got me interested in Steve. Good grace-based, supernatural stuff!

One thing that really struck me was his description of MorningStar University’s “faith courses”. In the first part of his first message in his “Developing a Sustainable Supernatural Life” series, Steve said regarding these faith courses:

We don’t push people, we gently encourage them and we provide an opportunity for them. But we provide increasingly significant and risky opportunities. We would send our students out on what we call our “faith courses”. Faith course 1 required them to go really around the city and to attempt some different kinds of ministry or some different types of exploits. They would have to go out and to prophesy to someone at the bus station. Or they would have to go and pray for somebody. We weren’t looking for them to have success to begin with, just that they could step out and attempt something. Because for a lot of people who have been caught in fear, the attempt itself is the success they need to have at that point.

Faith course 2 – they would go out maybe 1 hour / 1.5 hours away.

Faith course 3 – we would send them out in teams of two or three into cities within about a 6 or 8 hour drive of the city. They would have a list of items they would have to complete over about a four or five day period. They had to prophesy to a government official. They had to heal a homeless person and record the healing either on audio or video and bring it back. Now, not pray for their healing – they had to heal them. Other things they had to do. They had to get a hundred dollars worth of groceries for a needy family and then get the name or the address of the needy family by prophetic revelation and go and deliver it to them and then tell them that was from the Lord and encourage them, bless them. They would also have to get two or three room nights at a three star hotel or better for free – in other words, without using their own money to pay for it – while they were on the trip. Breaking and entering was not allowed!

It was a very cool sort of environment. How many of you would say, “That would make me nervous a little bit”? Ya, sure it would… We consciously set an environment that was helping people confront and get past their fears, and to develop an understanding that God would show up on their behalf. That God would meet them if they’re willing to take some risks. (2:43 onwards)

Wow! This is the first time I’ve heard of these “faith courses”. Friends from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) tell me there’s a culture of encouraging the supernatural and risk-taking like people going up to you to give you a word of prophecy, etc. It’s a culture of risk, yet also a culture of grace because people fail and you’re still accepted. And that’s really cool because I do think it’s important to have an encouraging, challenging and grace-filled culture in order for people to grow in their faith in these areas. Such a culture will enable people to overcome their fears and take the risk to do crazy stuff like prophesying over strangers – because you know that if you fail badly, there’s always grace available!

MorningStar’s “faith courses” and the assignments the students have to do really challenges me to believe God in a greater way! I mean, getting a two or three nights stay at a three star hotel for free!!?? That’s outrageous! But that’s totally possible – everything is possible for him who believes!

Since listening to Curry Blake on healing and being with people in the United States doing the stuff on the streets last July, I’ve grown in my faith to pray for people for healing on the streets. I’m no longer afraid of approaching people on the streets and praying for their healing. I’m starting to slowly move out to prophesying to people and I hope to improve in this area over the next year. It’s still something that’s a challenge for me especially since I’m not that much into “general” prophecies (vague ones which you don’t know whether are inspired by the Holy Spirit or just something anyone could probably come up with that would apply to most people because it’s so general and hard to miss) and so I do have high standards for myself in this area. And now I hear of these “faith courses” and some of the ridiculous stuff that people are asked to believe God for!

Being in the charismatic church for a long time, you hear a lot about people sharing about how God told them to do this or that. Which is really cool! But all this also kind of makes you feel that unless you have some specific direction from God, you shouldn’t do things that require faith like trying to heal everyone you see or believing God for something big. Last year when I encountered Curry’s teaching on healing, it made me realize that you don’t have to have a so-called “rhema” word from God to pray for someone’s healing and expect them to be healed. You can just lay hands on the sick and believe God wants to heal this person and that the person should get healed based on His eternal and unchanging Word (i.e. the Bible). Since then, my paradigm of what we can do in Christ has shifted and is continuing to shift. I’m learning we don’t have to have some clear word or direction from God to do crazy and ridiculous things. God sometimes does give us a clear direction but I’m starting to think that he gives clear direction not because that without it (i.e. the clear direction) He wouldn’t show up if we had mere faith alone (and no clear prophetic revelation) because somehow our faith wasn’t based on His “rhema” word… No, I believe He totally would show up! After all, the Word of God says everything is possible for him who believes. It’s about faith.

Of course, sometimes God does give us clear directions, but that’s probably just to encourage us in our faith and prod us on. Without them, we could achieve the same things if we could believe for it. That’s what the Bible says, after all! The people whom Jesus praised for their faith didn’t get their healing because they had some “rhema” word that said, “Go, my child, to Jesus and He will heal you.” On the contrary, they went by faith based on their knowledge of how good Jesus was and in response to what they have been hearing about how Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. God didn’t give them a word to go to Jesus! There was no supernatural leading for them. Just as in their day they heard reports about Jesus, in our day we go by the eternal Word of God.

These faith course assignments confirm the fact that it’s about faith. We move by faith. God will honor our faith. The fact that the MorningStar leaders decided that they’re going to challenge their students to believe God for some crazy stuff speaks volumes. In the first place, the leaders seem to believe that everyone can achieve the assignments. Of course, no condemnation if some groups don’t. But the assignments are there to be achieved. I’m sure God didn’t tell the leaders, “OK, for this upcoming faith course, I want you guys to get the students to do these assignments…” (If God did tell them, it was probably to tell the leaders about what kind of assignments would be at the students’ level of faith so more would be successful, rather than anything else) These assignments probably weren’t based on specific revelations from God, but the general principle in the Bible that everything is possible for him who believes. They could have come up with different crazy assignments. It wouldn’t have mattered because I’m sure the assignments weren’t based on supposed specific revelations from God of what God will do for these students.

Seeing what we can do for God from this paradigm and perspective is very liberating indeed! We don’t need specific revelation from God to step out in faith. We don’t need specific revelation to pray for this person on the street and expect them to be healed. We don’t need specific revelation from God to rebuke hurricanes and storms and expect our words to carry authority and power. No, the Word of God already tells us we ought to be healing the sick, using our authority and power (it’s God’s but He’s in us!) for good and it also says everything is possible for him who believes. Everything includes believing God for a two/three night stay in a hotel for free! If we believe for that and it doesn’t happen, does that mean we were wrong to believe for it because God didn’t give us a specific word to do so? I don’t think so. I think it just means we need to grow in our faith. As simple as that. No condemnation and let’s slowly grow in our faith.

But what about Jesus saying the He “can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19)? Doesn’t this seem to mean Jesus (and therefore us) need to wait for specific divine directions everytime before we heal people or do something that required faith? Steve Thompson addresses this issue in his message “The Bottom Line” in his “Developing a Sustainable Supernatural Life” series:

I’m going to go out on a limp a little bit here. But this idea that Jesus only did what He saw His Father do. The Scripture says in John that if all the miracles were written that the world itself could not contain the books of the things that Jesus did… My translation is that Jesus did a boatload of miracles… He only did this stuff three years or three and a half. And so in a 24 hour time frame He couldn’t have been having this instantaneous vision all the time to do what He saw His Father do. Here’s what I believe. I believe Jesus would see somebody sick and He would go, “Oh, I could see my Father healing him.” And he just walked up there and healed him. Not that He saw it in a vision. But He could see His Father doing that because He could see His Father’s heart. (23:55 onwards)

I know many charismatics do have an interpretation of the above passage (and others similar) that makes them wait for God on some specific direction or revelation or vision or word before they act. I think that’s the wrong interpretation of the Bible and it contradicts what faith is all about and the power and validity of the written Word of God. It also doesn’t take into account the fact that Christ is in us and that we’re one spirit with Him. We’re united to God. God will back us up whatever we do because we and God are one! Of course this can be abused, but the abuse of this relationship with God doesn’t mean this relationship doesn’t exist. God is more gracious than we can think. Sometimes people use their faith for stupid and wrong things and God still blesses them. Why? I won’t get into all this but I do think God is more gracious than we could ever think. That doesn’t mean we abuse our relationship with God. It ought to make us want to please Him more.

Anyway, for those who have been through MorningStar University’s faith courses, I would love to hear from you guys. I love to hear testimonies of God responding to faith as it encourages me. So do share your stories in the comments section. Thanks!

P.S.: I was told by Tim Jorgsensen (who wrote a very good book entitled Spirit Life Training) that MorningStar got the faith course idea from Trevor Yaxley’s “First Wave Army” training from Lifeway College in New Zealand, where Rick Joyner and Steve Thompson also teach.

The First Wave Army training is described in their website as a “one year catalyst for the call of God on your life designed to challenge you physically, spiritually and mentally, preparing for influence in all spheres in society.” I think the training activities they do are very interesting – and not your typical stuff included in a Bible College. It includes “physical outdoor training and activities designed to promote greater discipline and character”. And it seems that students have to wake up at 5:30am every morning! :)

Listening to Curry Blake and then reading Tim Jorgensen’s book (forwarded by Curry) has made me think about the relationship between the physical and spiritual, and the importance of physical discipline in the pursuit of the spiritual.

Those who’ve followed this blog will know how much Curry Blake has influenced my thinking on healing in the past year. The other person whose teachings on healing have impacted me is Roger Sapp – I wrote a post about his teachings here. Both are similar in desiring to “train” people to heal the sick, rather than be seen as a great man of God who moves in healing that you and I probably can’t move in. Both also have a firm belief that it’s God’s desire to heal everyone all the time. And both also would disagree with the typical “list of hindrances to healing” that most charismatic churches would teach that tends to result in disqualifying ourselves for healing – rather than in what we should be doing which is looking to Christ and seeing how we’re 100% qualified in Christ to be healed. And from what I know, both seem to be very successful in healing the sick.

The main difference would probably be in emphasis: Roger focuses more on the finished work of Christ (and resting on that) while Curry tends to stress the authority believers have over sickness – and the resulting aggressiveness we need to have. Roger’s teachings focuses slightly more on the faith of the sick to receive healing while Curry focuses slightly more on the faith of the person praying for the sick – and how we should be able to heal the sick on our own faith.

I’ve learned from both and will continue to do so. One thing I really like about Roger’s ministry is his relaxing style which is really in keeping with his focus on the finished work and resting in that. Just watch this:

For where you can get more resources (some free and downloadable) from Roger, check out the “Roger Sapp” section of my Healing Resources page.

Roger will be teaching his Christ-centered Healing Seminar (and of course also demonstrating healing) in Malaysia, Batam and Singapore from 15th to 24th April 2011. For those interested to attend his seminars, here’s the information:

1) 15th to 17th April in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at The New Covenant Church.
2) 20th April in Batam, Indonesia. Singaporeans who wish to go to Batam can contact me – we’ll be in Batam the whole day for a teaching for pastors and leaders there.
3) 22nd to 24th April at Christian Gospel Mission in Singapore.

I’ll be there for all his meetings so anyone can contact me for more information if you’re interested to attend.

I’ll end with a testimony on Roger Sapp’s healing journey:

Testimony from Roger Sapp

In the winter months of 1972, I received Christ as my Savior, Lord and Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I can honestly say that I believed in divine healing from the beginning of my walk with Christ, and even had a number of personal healings and a few creative miracles of my own in my developing relationship with Christ in the two decades leading up to 1992. Reflecting back, I can see now that my theology of healing was very complex and impractical. I also occasionally suffered from sickness, and healing did not always seem available. My experience of healing during those two decades seemed mysterious, generally unreliable and unpredictable. This was true of my own experience as well as my prayer for others.

In 1992, I had a breakthrough in healing that transformed my thinking on this matter. In the summer of 1992, while praying about another matter, the Spirit of Christ unexpectedly said this to me:

Why don’t you receive Me as your Healer in the same way that you received Me as your Savior?

By asking me this simple question, Christ initiated in me a series of events and a renewed interest in what Scripture said on this matter. I began to meditate on Scripture and came to new conclusions on healing. I began to discover that my healing theology of twenty years was not really based on Scripture, but on my erratic healing experiences and what others had taught from their erratic experiences. Because my experiences had matched theirs, I accepted what I heard as being the truth, without serious examination and comparison with Scripture.

Because my experience of healing was unpredictable, unreliable and often seemed mysterious, I had adopted popular modern healing theology that reflected that experience. However, I was unaware that I had accepted many aspects of unbelieving philosophy on these matters that are common in western culture. I had socially acceptable, but scripturally wrong explanations for why healing did not occur. Inwardly, I knew there was something wrong with my experience. However, my intellectual explanations of healing, or why God did not heal, certainly matched my experience.

As I began to examine my beliefs in 1992, I could not reconcile what I then believed with Scripture. It was apparent that my beliefs were not in harmony with what Christ demonstrated and said about healing. I realized that my theology didn’t focus on Christ’s example and teaching, but somehow had set Him aside as a special example, one that could not instruct me. Because of this, my theology of healing relied heavily upon the Old Testament and a few New Testament verses regarding the lives of the followers of Christ. Subsequently, I knew more about Paul’s thorn in the flesh and Job’s sufferings than I knew about the many detailed Gospel accounts of healings and miracles in Christ’s ministry. I knew more of the cultural explanations for the value of sickness than I knew of Christ’s words to the suffering people He encountered.

However, Christ did not allow me to continue in that mindset. In a matter of a few months, not only was my theology of healing transformed, but my experience as well. First, I was completely healed of a thirty-year problem with chronic sinus infections and the blinding headaches they caused. Secondly, my wife Ann experienced healing of frequent migraine headaches that would last two or three days. She was also healed of severe asthma that required serious daily medication. My family’s overall health improved dramatically. All of us experienced a reduction of suffering from illness and pain.

Within a short time, I began to see healing and creative miracles on a much greater scale in my public ministry. In some situations in my traveling ministry to local churches today as many as 85% of the people attending are healed of some sort of condition. Many of the healings are visible to the congregations. Normally, in these kinds of meetings, I begin by showing Christ’s willingness to heal by praying for people with injured and painful bad backs. Most often, all are visibly healed and are then able to bend without pain for the first time in a long time. When others there see this, this normally releases faith for healing of physical conditions that are not necessarily visible. Some healings are minor conditions simply causing discomfort. Some healings are very serious conditions which are extremely painful and often life threatening.

While the Lord grants healings as I travel today, the main focus of our service to Christ today is not healing the sick, but is rather equipping others to heal the sick. Every equipped servant of Christ ought to be teaching, discipling and leading others into the experience of ministry rather than just demonstrating their gifts. If a minister knows how to heal the sick, then that minister ought to be teaching the people of God how to do this. If he knows how to cast out demons, then he should be teaching others how to do this rather than just doing it himself. If a prophet knows how to accurately prophesy, he should be teaching the people of God how to accurately prophesy. Likewise, the evangelist should be teaching others how to evangelize rather than just doing the work of evangelism himself. Therefore, I am focused on releasing believers into the Christ-like ministries of healing the sick and performing miracles. My hope is that those that we train will excel in helping the suffering find healing and therefore glorify Christ by doing the greater works that He speaks of in John 14:11-14.

The end of the age draws near. The Church must come to maturity and complete the harvest of souls. Christ-like power in healing and miracles must accompany the Gospel to bring the masses to Christ.

I just came back from spending some time (21st to 24th March, 2011) with an awesome Church – Fahkram Church in Bangkok, Thailand. I first went there 23rd to 29th October 2010 with an Indian evangelist who was doing some crusades in the North of Thailand with the Church. I didn’t know anything about Fahkram Church or what to expect. I only knew the evangelist and wanted to follow him. In the end, I got to know the Church people well and made some very good friends there! I returned recently to speak with some good friends about some business opportunities.

Fahkram Church is such an amazing church community that I want to share more about them here and encourage those who visit Bangkok to visit the Church. If you’re in Bangkok, you can do so because they have services every night – at least from Monday to Saturday! On Sundays, the people are at the Church from the early morning till about mid-afternoon. The services I attended during my recent trip there started at 9pm and ended around 10:30pm! Here’s a picture of worship at 10pm on 22nd march 2011:

This is possible because probably about half or more of the Church (total number of probably 100+ people) actually live within the Church compound! And even many of those that don’t live within the Church compound live nearby (many moved from far away to live near the Church) and attend the nightly services every day.

Right now (today) the church is “on tour” in Chang Rai, the north of Thailand. They traveled about 10 hours to get to Chang Rai on Monday. Going “on tour” is when the whole Church (or most of them) travel to another location together for a few days – something like a mission trip within their country. They do this a few times a year. They go with their mini-trucks that carry the stage, musical and sound equipment, etc. Last October, we went for about 4 days to the town/village of Phayao on the mountains in the north of Thailand. The drive took us around 12 hours and we went in a mini-truck like this (one of about 40 mini-trucks owned by Fahkram Church members):

What does the Church do “on tour”? Last October, the following day after we arrived at Phayao, the church people unloaded the trucks and put the stage up in a school field:

During the day, Pastor Chairat (Fahkram Church’s pastor and visionary) preached and shared with other pastors who came to hear him.

The nights were evangelistic events where there would be musical and Thai-dancing performances (see below), worship and a message. The Church people pitched tents at night on the school field to sleep in them.

As I reflect upon this really unique Church, I think three things make this Church very special:

1) Community: I already mentioned that about 50 people or so live within the Church’s compound. And they have services every night. When they are not working, these people would be hanging around the Church and having fellowship with each other. They come together to pray at noon. And when they are not doing anything, you’ll see a lot of them just sitting around reading their Bibles (wow – what a culture!):

There’s actually a church member who cooks for the people every day – the members pay her for their meals. Here are some of them eating lunch together:

Going on tour is a big event and so they also spend time preparing for it during their free time. For example, the ladies would be practicing their dancing and some of them would be sewing and preparing the costumes. The guys would be preparing their music.

2) Prosperity: Probably the most distinctive message of Pastor Chairat and Fahkram Church is that God wants to bless His people. They believe God takes care of His children and wants to bless them in all ways – including financially. I believe they have a very similar view of God’s desire to bless His children and prosper them as say New Creation Church. Pastor Chairat’s wife and some members of Fahkram Church actually visited New Creation Church about 4 years ago and they have mentioned appreciation for his messages.

I’ve written a bit about prosperity on this blog. I believe in God’s desire to prosper His children. I believe in prosperity with a purpose and the fact that we’re blessed to be a blessing. Yet I also think that many in the Word of Faith movement and many “prosperity” advocates have given these truths a very bad name because of their excesses – Kenneth Hagin himself would agree with this – read The Midas Touch. In my opinion, Andrew Wommack is probably the best representative of this movement. He’s someone who’s lived in the same house for over 20 years and believes that prosperity is about how much of a blessing you are to others. I also think Pastor Joseph Prince and New Creation is more towards the moderate spectrum of this movement as compared to the typical prosperity preacher you see on TV.

But going back to Fahkram Church, I think what the Church has done is worthy of a deeper study. Many people say that teachings on prosperity is an invention of the rich Western world and it won’t work in the developing world. That’s why it’s interesting to see what Fahkram Church has achieved. The pastor preaches a message of hope, joy and prosperity. The God preached is not that of a strict father who is quick to punish his children the moment they get out of line. It’s not a message that glories in suffering as though being a Christian is all about suffering and sorrow or being poor. Rather, he preaches that God will bless and take care of His children. And believe it or not, many members have prospered under his ministry. I’ve heard how people have gone from debt to prospering richly and how those selling the food on motorcycles earn more than those outside of the Church who are doing similar things. Somehow, God’s favour is upon the Church and its members.

The pastor himself lives out his message. He helps his members to start their own businesses. For example, he’s made about 50 of these shops on motorcycles for his members to sell food (e.g. Pancakes) on the streets:

Many people who did not have a job before now do. Most of the people who live in the Church (who are not studying) go around selling food and other things like the above. They earn (profits) probably at least 20,000 Baht a month (about S$1,000). And they’ve prospered so much that about 40 members own one of those mini-trucks that cost about S$25,000 – they pay by installments over many years. One of the main reasons they buy those mini-trucks is to go “on tour” with the Church as those trucks are able to transport all their big equipment.

Pastor Chairat himself earns probably between S$5,000 and S$12,500 a month. This is possible because many of the members now have a job and are prospering themselves and thus can give to the Church. He’s not afraid to reveal his salary because he wants other Christians to know that God can and desires to bless them and he wants the world to know that God blesses His children. He doesn’t believe in being dependent on foreigners for money – his church is self-sufficient.

Because of all this, he and his church have been persecuted a lot, yet many churches have also been won over by his message and what is going on in his church.

However, he uses the money for the expenses of going “on tour” and for the Church. He’s definitely not prospering at the expense of his members or living “above” them in terms of the lifestyle of his family – they all live in the Church premises too.

3) Worship – Fahkram Church has one of the best worship bands I’ve ever heard. They are quite famous throughout Bangkok and Thailand for their music and performance/dancing. Their pastor has composed some famous Thai worship songs and they sing a lot of Hillsong – in both English and Thai:

Yet beyond the performance aspect of worship, there’s a real spirit of worship, freedom, joy and dancing during their worship. The pastor himself is a musician and plays the electric guitar and normally leads worship. The rest of the musicians are guys with an average age of probably around 25 years old.

Visiting Fahkram Church

If any of you visits Bangkok (they are actually located just outside Bangkok), do drop by Fahkram Church for a visit! Not many people speak English well there. But normally there would be at least two good English speakers at the Church every night. Let me know in advance and I’ll try and put you in touch with them.

I know many of them do desire to improve their English. They would even welcome people who would want to stay at their Church and perhaps teach them English. If anyone (especially Singaporean youth) are keen to visit them for a few months for the experience and to teach English to their members (and also to unbelievers, reaching out to them through free English classes), this could be arranged. Just drop me an email.

PS: I hope I have all the information above correct. This is based on talking to my friends there. However, a friend of mine is going to write a bit about the history of this Church and when she does this I’ll have it posted up!

Most of my recent posts don’t have much to do with grace as they have to do with healing (mainly) and other charismatic issues. But I’m still very interested in grace. And even as I explore New Covenant messages and teachings on healing by Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Roger Sapp, Bill Johnson, etc.,  I learn more of how grace and God’s love for us is really a foundation for all the healing and supernatural stuff we do. Too heavy a focus on obligations and imperatives and we become sin-conscious, guilty and tend to disqualify ourselves from receiving healing/blessings and moving in the supernatural.

In my many posts on grace and New Creation Church (and Pastor Joseph Prince) in the past, I quoted many people from the Reformed (Calvinistic) tradition in defense of the message of grace. Michael Horton was the first person who actually awakened me to my understanding of grace and the gospel about 10-15 years ago as I grappled with the “Lordship Salvation” controversy. I’ve quoted Reformed authors in defense of my view of grace not because I think the Reformed tradition is very grace-based.  In fact, I’ve always maintained that I think there’s a large section of the Reformed tradition that tends to legalism. I say this from experience because before I read Michael Horton, I read many other Reformed and Puritan authors and they were saying really different things from Michael Horton! So there’s that divide in this tradition.

They say history repeats itself. And it’s true in this matter of grace, antinomianism and legalism. When people accuse New Creation Church and Joseph Prince and other grace-based preachers of “antinomianism”, guess what – it’s happened before. Down the centuries, people have come up on different sides in the Reformed tradition on these matters. And even as I speak, things are hotting up in the blogsphere and in the Reformed world. People (many Reformed Christians themselves) are challenging some Reformed Christians (like Michael Horton) on the way they preach the gospel and grace. Too much grace, they say. Gotta beware of antinomianism. Same charges that have been thrown at Pastor Joseph Prince and many others.

For those interested in grace and want to know what’s been happening in the Reformed world, the rest of the post deals with some stuff among Reformed Christians regarding grace and antinomianism that have been going around the Internet and blogsphere the past week:

It probably started with Jason B. Hood’s article in Christianity Today. Partly in response to Tullian Tchividjian’s article Don’t create a new law for yourself, Jason B. Hood wrote Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching in Christianity Today:

Antinomianism is lawlessness, believing and teaching an obligation-free version of Christianity. In certain quarters of the evangelical world, being accused of antinomianism is increasingly considered to be a symptom of a healthy ministry. This belief has a long pedigree; no less an authority than Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism.

Basically, Jason challenges Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ belief that there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism. I wrote positively about Lloyd-Jones’ belief in my Thoughts on New Creation Church – Accused of Antinomianism post – so obviously I disagree with Jason.

Two good responses to Hood’s article:  The Radical Gospel, Defiant and Free by Dane Ortlund and Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood by Tullian Tchividjian. I really, really liked portions of Ortlund’s response so I’m going to quote some chunks of it:

The gospel of grace is so radical, so free, so counterintuitive, so defiant of all the entrenched expectations of our law-marinated hearts, that it would be surprising indeed if our preaching of this gospel is not met with the objection anticipated by Paul—“are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (Rom 6:15; cf. 3:8; 2 Pet 3:15–17). The question is not whether Paul stood squarely opposed to “lawlessness” (your definition of antinomianism). On this you and I (and Paul, and Lloyd-Jones) are happily agreed. I am puzzled at the need you feel to explain at length that Paul opposed lawlessness. Of course he did.

…You underscore the way Paul vociferously refuted antinomianism, as if this refutation deflates Lloyd-Jones’s suggestion that charges of antinomianism may be compatible with gospel faithfulness.

Ortlund is spot on here. This is where I think Jason B. Hood misses the point. When Lloyd-Jones or whoever says that good, authentic and biblical gospel preaching will cause you to receive accusations of antinomianism, we don’t mean that we are for antinomianism or lawlessness! No, we aren’t. As Ortlund suggests above, being against antinomianism (lawlessless) is not inconsistent with your gospel preaching receiving charges of antinomianism. I know – this is profound. I’ll give you time to think about that…

We revel in that charge of antinomianism not because we advocate lawlessness, but because the radical preaching of grace and justification by grace alone through faith alone will make people think that we’re advocating lawlessness. But we’re not advocating lawlessness – just that you don’t get saved by your obedience or keeping the law.

Ortlund continues:

The real question is not whether Paul opposed lawlessness, but (1) why the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place, and (2) how Paul handled it. As for the first question, surely the answer is the sheer gratuity—the puzzling, head-scratching, wonder-producing scandal—of free forgiveness won for us by another. Forgiveness not only of our rotten badness but also our rotten goodness.

…The next and most important question, then, is how this radical obedience and personal holiness are to be encouraged. And here we come to the real crux.

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

So the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place because the radical grace and forgiveness offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ means that we don’t earn our forgiveness but Christ earned it for us! But how did Paul address this charge, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). Did he try to use a bit of fear so that Christians don’t be too lax and continue to sin? Did he try to balance grace with adding some law? That’s what many people think would cause Christians to flee sin. They think that too much grace and you’ll give them a license to sin. We need some godly fear to motivate them to live holy lives! John Wesley wrote:

If we took grace too seriously especially the doctrine of election it would undermine our only basis for pursuing a holy life, fear of punishment and hope of rewards.

But did Paul think like that? Did he try to temper the free love of God with a bit of fear and lots of focus on doing good? No! He actually counters charges of antinomianism by preaching more GRACE! This seems so counter-intuitive and backward. Surely we promote holiness by preaching holiness and the fear of God and all those kinds of things right? WRONG! As Ortlund wrote and this bears repeating again (bolds too),

The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Or as Michael Horton wrote in The Fear of Antinomianism in response to Hood’s article and also this recent attack on his teachings,

What’s striking is that Paul answers antinomianism not with the law but with more gospel! (Rom. 6:2-4)  In other words, antinomians are not people who believe the gospel too much, but too little!  They restrict the power of the gospel to the problem of sin’s guilt, while Paul tells us that the gospel is the power for sanctification as well as justification.

…The ultimate antidote to antinomianism is not more imperatives, but the realization that the gospel swallows the tyranny as well as the guilt of sin.  It is enough to save Christians even in their failure and not only brings them peace with God in justification, but the only liberation from the cruel oppression of sin.  To be united to Christ through faith is to receive everything that we need not only to challenge legalism but antinomianism as well.

Or as Tchividjian wrote:

The irony, in other words, of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ’s.

To summarize, the true radical biblical preaching of the gospel should (as Paul’s gospel preaching did) attract accusations of antinomianism. That doesn’t mean we’re promoting antinomianism or lawlessness. One can be against lawlessness yet be charged with preaching a gospel that seems to promote lawlessness. Paul is definitely against sin and lawlessness but he understood that true gospel preaching will attract such charges. When he was accused of antinomianism, he didn’t soften the freeness of the love and grace of God in Christ in order to prove that he’s against sin. He didn’t start balancing grace with law. He didn’t pull back and start to preach holiness or fear or whatever. Rather, he preached more grace and gospel. In fact, he preached identity and union with Christ (which is for another post altogether). He preached more indicatives before later going on to imperatives. But he preached enough grace and indicatives before he moved on to the imperatives so his audience clearly knew that all imperatives and calls to holiness are totally grounded in the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. As Horton wrote:

We need imperatives—and Paul gives them.  But he only does this later in the argument, after he has grounded sanctification in the gospel.

P.S.: For those who have read this blog and my many posts in the past regarding grace, you’d realize that I quote from a lot of Reformed Christians like Michael Horton on grace and the gospel – often in the context of demonstrating that people like Joseph Prince who preach grace and the gospel radically are not alone. However – and I’ve mentioned this before – that doesn’t mean I think Michael Horton and Joseph Prince would have a lot in common or that Joseph Prince is Reformed in theology! Not at all. Well, I do think Joseph Prince is teaching good Reformed and Reformation theology when it comes to the doctrine of justification. But other than that, Michael Horton would be against Joseph Prince’s view on things like prosperity and healing. Michael Horton, contra Joseph Prince but like most Reformed Christians, would also believe in the third use of the law, viewing the 10 Commandments as a guide for the Christian. However, in an essential aspect of the gospel and grace message (and the doctrine of justification, not sanctification), I would argue that Joseph Prince and Michael Horton are pretty much on the same page. In addition, I think both would be in agreement on the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ being central to Christian preaching and the whole Christian life, and the fact that it is the supernatural wisdom and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ (not good advice, psychology, principles or law) that transforms and empowers the Christian to live for God and man.

P.P.S.: The conversation continues with Jason B. Hood responding to Dane Ortlund with his We Who Have the Spirit Have the Power to Change and Dane having the last word with his Major Agreement, Minor Disagreement, Moving On. I hope to address these posts and this topic once again in a future post on grace-empowered sanctification.

This year (2010) has been a pretty awesome time spiritually for me. I started the year on a low note for various reasons, but everything slowly took off (spiritually) when I attended a small charismatic conference in February which was the catalyst in leading me to rediscovering the charismatic Christian in me and pursuing the things of God in a different way from previously.

The few years before this saw me deepen my foundation of understanding grace through attending New Creation Church and listening to Pastor Joseph Prince. It also saw me gradually hunger more and more for the miraculous as I read Bill Johnson’s books and became inspired by stories of the miraculous there. All this prepared me for 2010 as I started to really hunger for more of God and more of His power.

The charismatic conference got me further interested in healing and the prophetic. It got me thinking, it got me seeking and it got me practicing (healing, or at least praying for healing). Through meeting people at the conference, I got to know an awesome grace-based cell group where I’ve learned tons of stuff related to the prophetic. For the first time in my Christian life, I attended cell groups and events where people have prophesied over my life.

I encountered Curry Blake’s teachings around May and that impacted me a whole lot. It also brought me to know two other communities in Singapore that have been impacted by his teachings and are pursuing healing.

In June and July, I visited the United States where I attended a Bethel Church and Curry Blake conference. I met a few groups of awesome and radical young Christians who were going around healing people on the streets. When I returned to Singapore, I got to know a community of Christians that are now meeting regularly to encourage each other to pursue healing and pray for people on the streets.

This year, I’ve also been rediscovering my passion for missions and have traveled to countries like Indonesia and Thailand where I hope to do more in the area of missions in future.

I’ve been hugely blessed by the different groups of Christians I’ve met this year. I’ve learned so much from different people and various opportunities (business and ministry) have opened up and I know will open up in 2011. I’m excited for 2011!

Right now, I have a great passion to know God more intimately and to learn to move more in his healing and prophetic power and love. I’m learning so much, yet still have so much more to learn. While I’m still so dissatisfied by what I know and the experiences I have – and I’m hungering for so much more of God’s love and power – I believe in stepping out in ministry for you learn so much as you minister and teach and bless others. And as I grow more and more in these areas, my desire is to spend more time investing my life in young Christians and discipling them and sharing with them all I’ve learned about God’s love and power and moving in His power.

One other thing I believe God has brought me to start doing in 2010 is that of praying much in tongues. I mentioned a bit about Dave Roberson’s book on tongues here.

In 2011, I’m hoping to pray more in tongues, which I think is a very important key to my spiritual growth (including moving in the spiritual gifts and hearing God’s voice more clearly) that I’ve been learning about. I hope to spend more time hearing God’s voice for my own spiritual life, ministry and business. I hope to see greater healing/miracles as I pray for people. I hope to step out more in the prophetic (which includes getting lots of misses but also hits!) as I grow in discerning God’s voice. And I’m hoping to travel more for business and missions/ministry and start to teach/preach to young people.

PS: Oh… I also received a very special gift in 2010 – thank you Daddy! ;)