The weekend had been incredible, especially Sunday. I really soaked in the Lord's presence when I got back to my room Sunday night and Monday morning, enjoying a level of intimacy with God and sense of His tangible presence on me. It was incredible and I prayed that I could stay there all of the live. I would love to live in that place. I knew that I probably would not live there forever, but I hoped it would at least last for the rest of this missions trip.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. I had a delightful time in the afternoon of fellowship with Deborah and some of the ladies from her church. It was fun, but as I fellowshipped, that strong and tangible sense of God's nearness slowly slipped away. I could sort of sense it lifting, but I also knew that this time of fun fellowship was in the center of God's will. Enjoying one another is part of loving one another, and God wants us to love one another. So I knew that I wasn't doing something wrong that was causing this wonderful anointing to lift off of me, God was choosing to remove it and allow me to go back to my "Normal" walk with Him.
I got a phone call about 4:00 PM, while we were in the middle of sight seeing in Hong Kong park. It was the pastor who's church I was speaking at that evening. I had been told that they would pick me up at 5:30 PM, and the plan was to have me back to the hotel room by 4:30 so I would have time to shower and change before they came. Now he was telling me they would be getting me in a hour. Oh my!
We cut our sightseeing a bit short and rushed me back to my hotel room. I was hot and tired as I got back. The person who had cleaned my room had turned the thermostat the wrong direction. Usually they turn it to 30 degrees Celsius, which is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a bit too warm for me. But this person had turned it the wrong direction to 5 degrees Celsius. (That is 41 degrees Fahrenheit). Walking into my room was like walking into an ice box! At first it felt really good and I think that the cool room was a gift from God to refresh me. But after I'd been in there about 5 or 6 minutes, I started to feel really cold, which is what prompted me to look at the thermostat. I usually keep my room at 23 (which is about 73 Fahrenheit), so I turned the temperature back to that.
As I was turning the thermostat, I was strongly reminded of a church I preached at in Singapore one Sunday morning about 2 years ago. The pastor's wife (who hardly spoke any English) had served as my interpreter. It had been a complete disaster. Just about every sentence I gave, she did not understand me and asked me to repeat it. It broke the flow and power of the message. Also I was told by an English speaking person in the group that about half the time what she translated did not match what I had originally said.
I thought maybe God was reminding me of this as a point of prayer, so I started to pray for the interpreter to do a good job. But God was not asking me to pray, He was warning me of what was going to happen.
I managed to get ready just as they arrived to pick me up--"they" being the pastor of Korean church I had visited and another Korean pastor who was going to serve as the interpreter. We went by taxi to another part of Hong Kong that was about 1/2 an hour drive away. When we got there, we had arrived about 1/2 hour before the restaurant opened. So we had to go to a coffee shop and have coffee.
The person who was the interpreter was giving me what felt like a hard time. He was demanding we go over the points of the sermon so he would be familiar with what I was going to say. He said that would give him time to look for ways to put my points into Korean concepts. But God had asked me to preach prophetically, so that was not possible. God had given me the gist of the word in the wee hours of the morning when He woke me up and I was saturated in His spirit. But the way the prophetic works for me, I don't give the same word twice. Once it is delivered, it is delivered. So if I went over the main points of the word with the interpreter, it would be like giving the word and I'd have nothing left to give when the service started. I would just have to go from memory from what I told the interpreter, and my memory wasn't doing very well on this trip. So I was not able to give him the "sermon" as we sat there having coffee. He seemed to be a bit upset with me about that and critical. He suggested that any competent speaker would do research and prepare and know what they were going to say before they got up to say it. I told him that there were times when I gave those type of sermons. For instance the conference that we had just finished was pre-planned and a set of sermon notes had been handed out to the people who attended and I followed those notes as I taught. But this was different, as God had given me a rather lengthily word for the Korean people in Hong Kong, and I needed to deliver that message in a prophetic way.
To my relief right then, another brother walked up and joined us. He was a Christian businessman. The flow of the discussion changed and a few minutes later, he told us it was time to go to the restaurant for dinner.
The dinner was phenomenal, but I was still full from my late lunch with the other group, and I could not eat very much. The stuff I did have was delicious. (We were in a very fancy restaurant, and I am guessing that the meal was quite expensive.)
They told me that I had the distinction of being the first non-Korean ever to speak in their church. I was sort of an experiment to see if it was OK to have non-Koreans minister to Koreans. I really felt the pressure go up when they told me that. (The congregation was composed mostly of Korean businessmen on a three year term to Hong Kong, along with their families. Most of them were not Korean immigrants, they were true Koreans who were just on a short stay in a foreign country as part of their job duties.)
"Oh Lord," I prayed silently, "please help me to do a good job there!"
I expected the Lord to give me a strong reassurance that He would, but He did not answer me at all. That was not good!
After dinner was over, I went to the lady's room. I was the only person in there at that moment, so I stopped to pray for a few minutes and ask God to fill and anoint me for the service. The Lord told me to trust the prophetic message He'd given me when He woke me up in the wee hours of the morning. I felt a light sense of His presence and anointing come over me. When I got back to the table, it was time to go to the church, which was a short walk from the restaurant.
They seated myself and the interpreter next to each other in the front row. the interpreter did not translate any part of the worship service for me. He did not tell me what any of the songs were about, he did not translate anything that was said from the microphone. I took that as a clue that he was not an experienced interpreter at all and I prayed that God would somehow cause him to flow with me and do a good job.
Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. About every 5th sentence or so, he would ask me to rephrase what I had said because he did not understand it. often there would be long pauses after I said something before the interpreter spoke in Korean. I guess he was trying to figure out how to translate it. Somehow God enabled me to keep the consistency and flow of the prophetic message despite the logistical difficulties.
Only about 25 or 30 people had shown up (they expected about 50). I was sort of glad that the turnout had been low since I was not flowing well with my interpreter. When I look back on it now, I realize that I should have began to talk more slowly once I realized that my interpreter was struggling to understand me. I know to do that, but for some reason, it just did not occur to me as I preached. Fortunately, about 1/2 of the group was able to follow my English. I don't know if they understood everything I said, but they laughed at my jokes and humorous ways of saying things. They nodded when I made a significant point, etc. I think that they got most of it. But the other half who only understood the interpretation sat there staring at me with glazed looks. I am guessing that my sermon did not make very much sense to them.
The prophesy God had given me had to do with God sending people out from Korea to carry the strong intercession anointing that God put on Korea to the rest of the world. He would send them out to different lands to carry that anointing to that land. God had sent these people who were in Hong Kong here to impart a higher level of prayer and intercession to the people of Hong Kong. God is going to send a major revival to Asia, and He is going to usher it in through the Asians. Honk Kong and Singapore are gateway cities for this. Asia and the Asian cultures were created to manifest God's glory and the devil had "stolen" them to be a stronghold of idolatry. God wants His Asian people back and He is on the move to send a great revival to sweep through the land. People are going to see His power and His glory demonstrated through His church. People who are spiritually blinded by the ruling spirits over Asia are going to have their eyes open to understand the Good News and they are going to give their hearts to Jesus.
Prayer and intercession are vital to this revival. That is sort of like the wind under a bird's wing that enables it to fly. And that is why God is sending out Koreans to many parts of the Asia on "short term" business trips (of 3 or 4 years). They are carrying this prayer impartation with them as they go. God is seeding Asia with His impartations to carry the revival. And one of the roles that Korea plays in this is in releasing the impartation for prayer and intercession that they carry to the rest of Asia. That is part of how God is seeding the ground in Asia for the revival that He is about to send.
After I finished the prophetic message, God told me that He wanted to break certain things off of the Korean people. The enemy was attacking them in certain ways to try and keep them from stepping up fully to their role of prayer while they were here in Hong Kong. First I spoke over them as a group, breaking off what God showed me to break off. Then God pointed out three people who were representative of what God is doing in the lives of Koreans in Hong Kong. The first was a man and God spoke of how the devil was loading him down with many cares and concerns and demands on his time, so he did not have enough time to pray and spend time with God. God said that He was going to bring him His rest and to refresh him, and then made some encouraging promises to him. The second person was a lady who had a lot of pain and sorrow in her life. God told her all the things he had seen her suffer and that now He was applying His healing balm and giving her peace and joy. He talked about turning her sorrow to gladness and turning her mourning to dancing. (I threw in a comment, "I hope you like to dance"). God went on to say some more encouraging things to her. The third person was a lady. God said she was hungry for more of Him and that He liked it that she was hungry. He told her to keep on asking and she would keep on receiving. He told her to open her mouth and He would fill it with good things. This word was a promising of anointing and empowerment.
It was a little after 9:00 PM and I asked pastor Ezra what time they normally ended. He said about 10:00 or 10:30. So I asked God what else I should do. God told me to teach them about authority His authority and how to move in it. Fortunately, I have that sermon outlined in my bible, so I was able to preach it even though I did not have any sermon notes.
When the teaching was over, I offered to lay hands on people and pray for an impartation or "quickening" of the authority of Jesus in their lives. They moved the chairs and I prayed briefly for each person. I also prophesied to a few of them. About 1/3 of the people seemed to receive, but the other 2/3 did not. When we finished we sang a worship song or two.
I was standing leaning against the wall near the front as we worshipped. Suddenly I felt a very strong anointing of God come on me. My hands were tingling and I could feel the anointing all over my hands. I asked God what was going on--was I supposed to minister some more? God told me no, the anointing I was feeling was for me. He just wanted to let me know that His anointing was on me and He was pleased with me in this service, even though it did not feel like it went very well. I told Him, "Lord, I felt like many of them just did not want to receive what I had to give them, and that leaves me feeling a bit frustrated."
The Lord answered, "Now you know how I feel with My church not wanting to receive what I have for them." He paused for effect. Then He said, "but that is not precisely what is going on here. I will show you what it is."
After the service ended, pastor Ezra asked me to prophesy to the two visiting Korean pastors and to pastor Kim who had interpreted for me. So I did.
When I finished a man from the congregation came up to talk to me. He was very polite and very respectful, but he was also upset at what I told his wife when I prayed for her. He said that I told her that she was not a believer and she needed to begin to follow Jesus. I was shocked when I heard that, as I knew I would NEVER say anything like that. I realized it was either a misunderstanding or an interpretation problem. So I called her over and explained what I had said, with her husband sort of interpreting for me. Again his English was not so good, but I think he got the jest of it to her. I had originally said something along the lines of "God is causing your faith to grow, and He is going to begin to draw you into place of close intimacy with Him." So I tried to explain that to her again in simpler terms. When I finished, she looked at me and made a gesture that she had not understood a word that I had said. So the husband tried to explain it to her. I don't know if he gave her any of the part about growing in faith and intimacy with God, but he did make it clear to her that I never said she was not a Christian.
In the taxi on the way back, the interpreter told me that he did not understand most of what I was saying, so he just sort of made things up, hoping the Holy Spirit let him get the gist of my message across. "Well," I thought to myself, "that explains why it seemed like so much of a disaster and about half of the congregation was not tracking with me."
I think my natural human reaction would have been to be upset with him for the mess this made of my teaching. But God is giving me His heart and instead I was filled with compassion for this man. Koreans very much want to do everything they do perfectly. They do not like to make mistakes or to look bad in front of others. It must have been extremely difficult for him to act as interpreter when he was struggling so much to understand what I was saying. I did not say anything to him about that because the conversation quickly turned to something else. Still, I was pleased that my reaction towards him was one of compassion and understanding instead of being upset at how the translation went. I was glad that God had given me His heart of compassion in this situation.
Still, when I got back to my room, I felt a bit slimed by the experience. It really did not go well at all and it was probably a frustrating evening for the Koreans who I was supposed to be ministering to. I went right to bed, but spent a few minutes debriefing with God before I fell asleep. I asked God why He sent me there, since He knew what a disaster the service was going to be. He replied that He did not sent me, He merely permitted me to go when I choose to do so. I thought back over how I got invited and I realized that He was right.
Pastor Ezra had asked me to come and minister at his church the first time I had been in Hong Kong a year ago. When I came back again in April, he invited me again, but I wasn't able to accept his invitation. Then he approached me at the pastor's luncheon again on Friday and asked me to come to his church. I was very mindful that I had already turned him down twice and I could not stand the idea of disappointing him a third time, so I said yes. I did not even ask God whether or not I should go, I just decided not to turn him down a third time. So I gave up the one free night in my schedule, which was supposed to be my rest time to go and minister. So I asked the Lord why He did not point out to me that I was moving out of my own heart/thinking instead of following His direction. God said that He permitted me to go because He liked my motivation for going, that it arose out of kindness and compassion for one of my fellow-servants.
God woke me up about 2:30 to seek Him. But I felt "dry" and could seem to sense His presence. I tried to push into Him and I asked Him to please come on me with His tangible presence once again. But it did not happen. I tried to press into God for half an hour and I felt frustrated because I was not making any headway. I began asking Him what He wanted me to preach this evening, but I could not hear any direction from him. This alarm shot through me, like maybe I'd somehow stepped out of His anointing and I began to tell Him about that concern and ask Him to help me. His reply was to suggest I go write this account of yesterday.
As I was writing it, I began to concentrate on it instead of on the frustrations I was feeling. Then God began to meet me as I wrote this. He spoke to me and gave me greater clarity and understanding about what happened. I realize that even though the service seemed like a bit of a disaster from my perspective, He did not see it that way.
First, it was not really a disaster--half of the people were ministered to because they could follow it in English. Second an important strategic prophetic word was released over the Koreans in Hong Kong. A spiritual empowerment was released through that word, and things on God's agenda were set in place. Third, God worked in both my heart and the heart of Pastor Kim who had to humble himself greatly to serve a interpreter to someone who he could not understand. That had been a difficult situation for him and God told me that was going to use it to mold even more of Jesus in his character. The evening was a "growth experience" for both myself and pastor Kim.
The three prophecies I gave over the Korean church members during the service were correctly understood and the entire congregation was blessed by them. Also, the three pastors who received personal prophesy at the end of the service were also blessed and deeply ministered to by their words. One of the Korean pastors asked me when I would next be in Hong Kong because he wanted to invite me to his church. God reminded me of that and said that if it really went as badly as it felt like it went, that man would have never expressed a desire to invite me to come speak at his church. Yea, God is right. The service was not really the disaster that it felt like it was. God is able to use it for His glory and to accomplish His purposes.
Here is the best part. The Lord began to fall on me with His anointing as I wrote this. I had to stop three different times as I wrote this because His presence came on me so strongly that I could not continue. Even right now as I am finishing this, I feel His presence strongly again. I can feel a light pressure on my forehead and it is like the Lord is resting His hand on my head. It is already 6:00 AM and it is starting to get light already. I guess most of the night is gone so I am not even going to try and go back to sleep. But I am going to go worship for a while.
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