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| I wrote a blog a few days ago titled "A Dream from the Lord". After last night, however, I am convinced this dream was from the enemy. I will explain the reasons for my change of heart shortly, but in order to do this I must first illustrate last nights events. I had another strange dream last night where I was "evangelizing" to one of my colleagues. I have included the definition of evangelism below. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This Evangelism means to preach or promulgate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore true evangelism must have Jesus Christ in the center of focus. The preaching in last night's dream was not focused on the Lord, but was very twisted and rather accusatory of my colleague. I then awoke to the presence of an evil spirit around me, although I first mistook it as the presence of the Holy Spirit. The spirit I felt was not gentle and comforting like the Spirit of the Lord, but was instead forceful and arrogant. My first reaction upon awakening was to think the Lord was angry with me because of my warped evangelism (since I also felt wrath from this evil spirit), but as my mind cleared I remembered that the Lord will never accuse His children. I then thought about the "Dream from the Lord" I had a few days back, and concluded that that dream was also in fact from Satan. Why on earth would the Lord give me pornographic images in a dream??? Why would the Lord accuse me of sin in a dream??? By HIS blood our sins are forgotten, not highlighted! Realizing that this spirit was not the Spirit of the Lord, I began to praise Jesus. I began worshipping the Lord with my hands raised, although this not help dispel the evil spirit. I then thought to myself "why am I lifting up my hands to this cursed thing!", and then proceeded to roll over onto my stomach with my back towards the spirit, while continuing to praise and worship the Lord. I am sure my utterances and actions made this spirit both angry and jealous, because it pressed down on my even more forcefully as a result. I continued to pray and worship in hope that it would leave and the Lord would take its place, but instead I fell asleep. I woke up this morning and recollected that this was not the first time I experienced an evil spirit. I recollected that quite some time ago when I was laying in bed enjoying the Holy Spirit all around me and the pleasant thoughts and images coursing through my mind, there was a abrupt change in the spiritual atmosphere as the Holy Spirit was replaced with an evil spirit. Not only did this spirit FEEL completely different, it also gave me strange thoughts and weird sensations in my body. When this happened I was incredibly confused until I realized that the Lord may have allowed this complete and abrupt change in the spiritual atmosphere of my bedroom in order to highlight the vast difference between the Holy Spirit and the evil spirit. I remembered how I had encountered the same evil spirit in Yangon while I was fasting, and how I had mistaken it for the Lord at the time. I truly believe that Jesus is training and equipping me with the gift of discering of spirits as described in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11. Just as learning to differentiate the Lord's voice from the other voices we hear daily is a process of trial and error, so is the process of discerning the Holy Spirit from the other spirits out there. | | |
| The enemy has been attacking me for quite some time in the spirit realm; literally wounding me in my spirit over and over again. My response after being wounded is either to continue fighting for as long as possible until the pain is too much to bear, or to run to the Lord immediately for His love and healing. Either way the only remedy is to seek Daddy God! HIS timing is always perfect, especially since we are now studying the armor of God in the "Prepare for War" series at The Vine/One Eighty. I am certain that I have been fighting this war without the complete armor of God on, and the enemy has been shooting me in the areas where I am exposed in the spirit. Pastor John spoke a couple weeks ago about the belt of Truth, which as you know is part of the armor of God. He explained how we must know the truth in 3 areas: 1) Truth in word and deed - We must be honest in everything we say and do. It is best to hold our tongue ratger than to blurt out falsely. 2) Truth in heart - We must not be hypocritical and/or arrogant, which effectively unbuckles the belt of truth in other people! We must also listen to others with sincerity and humility. 3) Truth in God - Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. Jesus is also the Word, which is also the Truth. The Holy Spirit will also lead us to the Truth. Pastor continued to explain that if and when the belt of Truth cracks, we must not attempt to cover it up or fix it ourselves. We must confess the mistake before God and let HIM fix it. Pastor John suggested that we make it a daily habit to put on the belt of Truth through prayer and confession each morning. We must not let the devil deceive us, therefore we MUST put on the Belt. We must confess the truth about our sins before the Lord, otherwise we are giving the Accuser of the Brethren ammunition to attack us with. We must also praise God and confess the Truth about the Lord as proclaimed in the Bible. We must also confess the truth about our identity in Christ Jesus. How we are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony (Rev 12:11). Pastor reminded us to thank the Lord for our answered prayers. This sermon on the belt of truth is linked closely to the sermon preached by Derek yesterday on the Breastplate of Righteousness. The belt actually helps to keep the breastplate in place, otherwise we are fighting unprotected. The first thing Derek shared about the Breastplate of Righteousness was that it is God's righteousness that protects us, not our own righteousness. Self-righteousness is like filthy rags to the Lord and allows for sin to enter our lives. If we are self-righteousness, we are no longer protected by the Breatplate of (God's) Righteousness and are exposed. Derek continued that as a result the most vulnerable and vital area exposed is the heart. A direct hit to the heart can possibly kill us in our Spirit. As I said towards the beginning of this blog, I am certain that I have not been wearing the full armor of God. I have not been putting on the belt of Truth, and as a result Satan was able to feed me a lie (which I swallowed) about the wounds I am feeling in my spirit. I believed the Deceiver that the wounds were actually permitted by the Lord to highlight sinful areas in my life. Of course the truth, however, was that the enemy had caused the wounds due to my lack of spiritual armor. Because I believed Satan's lie that the wounds were allowed by God to highlight to me areas of sin in my life, I began to operate in self-righteousness and attempted to avoid these sinful areas own my own strength. As a result not only did I not have the Belt of Truth fastened properly, but the Breatplate of (God's) Righteousness fell off as I replaced it with the filthy rags of my own self-righteousness. As a result my heart lay exposed and satan shot me directly in it. I then began resenting the Lord as I felt the Lord was too harsh and expecting too much from me by allowing me to bear the weight of my own sin (which had actually entered as a result of the filthy rags I was now wearing). It even got to the point that I struggled to worship Him, which is my absolute favorite thing of all because it takes me into His awesome presence!!! At the 6pm service the Lord ministered His love to me through Tom and JP and healed my broken heart! HE restored me and it became clear to me how easily I had been decieved in one area of my Christian faith, and how this resulted in a downwards spiral! I love and praise the Lord for always being there for me as I cried out to Him as I suffered these past few days. HE is so amazing! His grace and mercy has no end. | | |
| Today I woke up with the Holy Spirit by my side at 7am sharp after having a dream from the Lord. It was not a pleasant dream, although I am nevertheless grateful to the Lord for giving it to me, because its purpose was to lay bare a sin in my life that I did not recognize for what it was... a sin. Below I have included the definition of the word "sin" from dictionary.com Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This sin1    /sɪn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sin] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, sinned, sin·ning. –noun | 1. | transgression of divine law: the sin of Adam. |
| 2. | any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle. |
| 3. | any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense: It's a sin to waste time. |
–verb (used without object) | 4. | to commit a sinful act. |
| 5. | to offend against a principle, standard, etc. |
–verb (used with object) | 6. | to commit or perform sinfully: He sinned his crimes without compunction. |
| 7. | to bring, drive, etc., by sinning: He sinned his soul to perdition. |
I, however, prefer the definition that is in DictionaryToGo on my PDA (which is a combination of definitions 1 and 2 above): Sin - Any act that is regarded as a transgression/violation of God's will The Dream The dream began with me waking from a bed and walking to a living room. My dad was in the living room watching a movie, so I sat down to join him. To my shock and surprise the movie he was watching was a pornographic movie. I did not get to watch the movie for very long (only a few seconds... praise God) because my mom then rushed into the living room and approached me. She was livid with anger at me for what I was doing. I then awoke. The Interpretation Upon waking I immediately knew this was a dream from the Lord because I felt a strong presence of the Holy Spirit around me. I was confused by the dream, especially because I had stopped watching pornography for good. Why would the Lord allow me to participate in the sinful act in the dream if I was not guilty of it any longer? I then assumed that perhaps the Lord was trying to tell me my dad was into pornography, which (thankfully) is not true. It's never good to assume. I then happened to do something very wise, and proceeded to ask the Holy Spirit what the dream meant. The Holy Spirit simply said, "HE is angry." I then realized that my mom in the dream was not really my mother per se, but was actually an angel of the Lord sent to personify the Lord's anger and judgement to me. Then the Holy Spirit supernaturally revealed the entire meaning of the dream to me because I suddenly understood exactly what the dream meant. My dad and I often watch movies and TV together. Although there is nothing wrong with this, we very seldom do so with my mom. Many a times my dad and I will be watching TV or a movie in the theater together, and we would leave my mom alone in the bedroom or the mall. The Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Father, was not happy about this. Actually HE is angry and adamant about it. The TV shows and movies were as detestable to HIM as pornography! I then saw my seemingly innocent entertainment activities with my dad from the Lord's perspective. HE does not enjoy my mom being left alone, especially given the nature of her current situation. She is usually alone in the house here in Hong Kong and does not have many friends in this city. She spends most of her day on the internet surfing around or hoping to catch a friend online to chat with. She is lonely and desperately hungry for some human interaction, and waits for hours each day until my dad and I return from work, so that we can spend time with her. But what do we do? Either we watch TV together and leave her alone... again. Or my father does his own thing and I do my own thing in my bedroom. Meals are the only time we enjoy together as a family, but there is often not much conversation until the end when we are full and satisfied. It is a very rare occasion that we spend quality time with my mom, and I have witnessed the joy she gets from this... her spirit soars! Mama, if you read this I would like to say that I am so sorry! The Lord loves you so much and I have failed to demonstrate His love to you. HE is always keeping His watchful and loving eyes on everything you do, and only wants to see you happy and encouraged! HE wants to spend time with you more than anything in this world!!! HE loves you so much that there are no words in any human langauge to describe HIS love for you. Papa and I also love you Mama, but our love cannot compare with the love of Jesus! | | |
| I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and body. Truly. I pray that we as Children of God share our love for the Lord and our walk with Him here in this Blogring. I pray that this Blogring helps us identify and hone our spiritual gifts, as we share our experiences - both our successes and failures. I pray that we are more excited about how the Lord is working in each others' lives than some of the other stuff out on the internet these days. I pray for God's grace. I pray for Jerusalem. I pray for the Lord to return and set things right. | | |
| Early this morning the Lord took some sinful part of me and nailed it to the cross! I am not sure exactly which sin He killed in me, but something definitely feels different (better... praise the Lord!) today =) This time it was in a dream unlike the last time He took me to His cross. Last time I was lying in bed in worship and had a battle with the part of me that was in sin and rebellion that refused to put Jesus first and in the center. The Holy Spirit has lead me to realize how important putting Jesus first is, and how it is fundamental to being a Christian! How can we consider ourselves Christians if we do not put the Lord first and foremost!!! Glory be to Him forever and ever! While I was lying in bed the other night, struggling with the sin within me to put Him in the center, the Lord suddenly took my soul to the cross. I felt like my soul was in Hell for a while and was wondering what I had done wrong!!! The Lord then in the fullness of His glory carried me out from that place in His lovely arms and I was weeping, thanking Him, and rejoicing in complete joy and bewilderment. It is hard to put into words this experience. Today was another awesome day as I am able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more and more! I am certain this is a result of the sins He has (in the fullness of His grace) nailed to the cross for me. I pray that He has mercy on me and nails the sin of blasphemy (I still curse in my head sometimes... almost involuntarily) and all other sin to Calvary's cross, although I have controlled my tongue and chosen not to swear out loud anymore. Today the Holy Spirit taught me about how important it is to thank the Lord for ever morsel of food that we eat. We should be thanking Him continually, but we fall short of this and are forgiven in Christ Jesus. He is the source of all that is good in our lives. Jesus thanked the Father in heaven before He broke bread as an example for us to follow. Today the Holy Spirit convicted me of how much this means to daddy God! The Holy Spirit also taught me about confessing the truth. Today I decided to quit drinking coffee and coffee products for good. I love coffee, but I love God more. When I got home the Holy Spirit prompted me to speak out in front of my parents that I have given up coffee. As a result they could not used by the enemy to tempt me with the coffee cake that I had bought, because they love me. The Truth sets you free! I think this example works for those people struggling to quit cigarettes. Once you tell all your friends and family that you have made this decision to quit, if they truly love you and support your desire to quit, they will not tempt you. I would be weary of those "friends" who tempt you and try to keep you from doing the right thing. The Holy Spirit spoke to me during my lunch break through a Word of Knowledge: "Bible Study" He spoke. The day before yesterday I had missed a God created opportunity to share with my mother why I tithe and donate money. I instead got agitated and spoke some harsh words to her, which I regret and apologized for saying. I could have used the opportunity to share the Gospel of peace with my Mom and enlighted her about God's views on tithing. I have promised the Lord to study about tithing and have been blessed by Him already for doing so! When the Holy Spirit leads me to share this knowledge with my mother again, I will be prepared. I also desire to share this Truth with my Christian colleagues in the workplace; especially the bellboys who are earning very little each month. I am certain this financial curse will be broken once they start bringing their tithes into the Kingdom of the Lord! After deciding to pursue this course and share this Truth with my colleagues, the Lord, in His grace, allowed for Satan to attack me (through other people) so that I may know I was on the right track. I honestly was quite agitated by the enemy's attack, until it dawned on me that my decision to share the Truth of the Word with my Christian colleagues was the reason behind the anger of the enemy! Praise the Lord! HE is allowing me to help Him set the captives free! How great it is to serve the Lord our God! On a more personal note... HE knows how much I have been wanting to buy a new Palm based PDA phone, and I now am certain HE has been leading me to purchase a new model that just came out which my father told me about but I did not pay attention to. I ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit that time, but HE never gives up... hahaha! Today HE spoke to me through Patrick this afternoon to let me know where to buy the phone, and this evening HE lead me to the website where I saw the phone (its pictures and features) for the first time =) Due to the sequence of these two events I was a little perplexed... but now I know what HE wants for me. I already know, in Faith, that HE has arranged a Palm Centro for me, although I have never even seen this model in HK or even on the web until today! God loves us so much and created us for having a relationship with Him. He wants us to love Him with all our hearts, soul, mind, and body... but it will never compare to how much HE loves us in Christ Jesus! On a final note, I finished reading a book titled "The Final Quest" by Rick Joyner, which opened my spiritual eyes in an amazing way. The Lord had given me the book a while ago, but I was not ready (spritually speaking) until now to read it. I pray that you read it; and pray that you will be Blessed by it. It is available on the following website: http://www.spiritlessons.com/Documents/The_Final_Quest/the_final_quest_vision_rick_joyner.htm | | |
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