Thursday, March 20, 2008

City Invasion + First Day

Just wanna share something funny that happened during City Invasion on Tuesday afternoon. Me and Tina went to the Ontario Mills, with no purpose but to relax a bit to start with. After walking around aimlessly for 2 or 3 stores, we decided to pray for people. Because that question that Jack/Annie kept on asking us is stuck in my head forever now, "What's your purpose?" Hehe. We started to pray and see if God wants us to pray for a particular group of people, and we both felt we should go pray for pregnant women. It's amazing how many pregnant women we encountered at the mall. I've never seen so many of them. It's as if all the pregnant women all planned to shop at that mall that day. lol. We were taking turns in praying for these moms, while one person is praying, the other one is being the intercessor. Ok, so then Tina spotted a woman paying at the cashier at a store, and she was like, "Hey there is one! Go pray for her!" So we waited for her to come out of the store, then I approached her and told her what we're doing and without giving her a chance to explain anything, I kept on going in telling her how much God wants to bless her and the baby in her stomach and such... when she cut me off... "I'm not pregnant...." *0* Oops!! That was such an embarrassing moment, my goodness!! Thank God the woman and her entire family are Christian, so then we get to bless the entire family. She has 6 kids! Wow, can you imagine that!! Anyway, that was Tina's first attempt of City Invasion, c'mon give her some hands! She was so brave and I didn't even know she didn't have any trainings. Couldn't even tell she was inexperienced. Tina you are one prayer warrior of God! Don't lose heart, keep running towards Him! And He will show you so much more! :)

Today... first day of the 20 Days New Song Project. Worshiped God in the morning with shouts of joy! (Played Hillson London DVD) For some reason I wasn't able to worship as freely as I could at the beginning, even though no one was home and I knew the neighbors' kids were all at school at that time. I guess it's because I had all the doors and windows opened, too much open space. That still is NOT an excuse!!! Anyway, later on I was just completely focusing on God and nothing else. Dancing and singing, shouting and praising the King! Wept as I sang with all my heart and soul for my God, asking Him to completely empty me and work in me and through me. The Holy Spirit gently pushed me down. There I was laying on my carpet, weeping. "I won't relent until You have it all." Amen, Lord. That is my cry.

Encouraged Crystal with this verse and she said "Thank you for being such a huge encouragement!!" Praise the Lord! I was just thinking about her in the morning when she called at noon. Prayed for her and all. She is coming to the encounter retreat, o yay! :)

I will write a song per day, using the verse of that day. Recorded today's little song. Pretty hillsong style, lol. Lord, give me the anointing to compose, and the ears of heaven musicians! Hosanna!!

Ps. Guess what? My mom is reading the Bible every day now, using the study guide Alice gave us at LTC!! She reads the Bible by herself!! Isn't that amazing? She has already crossed through about 7 or 8 boxes, and you know how much chapters are in one box... definitely more than 3. Amazing Lord, keep speaking to my mom, showing Yourself to her, moving her heart, and working in her. Hallelujah! Lord, let my entire family be drenched in Your rain! Amen!

Pss. IHOP sent me a book, "The Rewards of Fasting", don't know if you guys got it or not. It came at the perfect timing. This exactly what I needed right now, thank you God for this special and perfect gift! <3

-sala<3

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Love and Power

Went to prayer room last night. I was waiting upon the Lord when He revealed the theme of my next season, and how He will show Himself - as LOVE and POWER.

He showed me this chapter. The Lord is so amazing, this chapter pretty much summed up what I have been doing/praying for, and what He has done, and also what He is going to do. Power, Holiness and Cleanliness, Thirst and Hunger to lead people to Praise/Worship Him, His unfailing Love, "be responsive to God, and not reactive to the enemy", and His Faithfulness. Perfect chapter at the perfect time. Lord You are perfect!

What I'm gonna do...
1) Ponder and live out one verse a day. Starting today!
2) Sing new songs to the Lord with the verse.
3) Encourage at least one person with it.

Psalm 66

For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

2 Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious!

3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.

4 All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing praise to your name."
Selah

5 Come and see what God has done,
how awesome his works in man's behalf!

6 He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.

7 He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him. (lol, thanks Lord)
Selah

8 Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;

9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.

10 For you, O God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.

11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.

12 You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.

13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you-

14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.

15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
Selah

16 Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.

17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.

18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;

19 but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.

20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

Lord I pray that You would open my eyes and ears as I live with this chapter for 20 days. Reveal Yourself to me, my lover. Increase my hunger and thirst for you, that it would exceed my physical hunger. Lord, give me new melodies and the music of Your presence. I will sing and worship You all the days of my life. I pray for my heart to be tender and soft, and my tears to fall as You move swiftly in me and around me. Make me a soft clay of Yours, that's full of love and compassion for people. Make me wholly Yours. I love You Lord. In Jesus' Name I pray, amen.

-sala<3

Pathetic Confess

I'm on Spring Break already. Woohoo~ Time to prayMORE, worshipMORE, writeMORE, eatMore (spiritually, k), weepMORE, and loveMORE. (Do people still use this "MORE" thing? lol)

Recently I've been rebellious. No idea why all of a sudden the boldness in me turned not for Him but against Him. "How dare you disobey and turn your face away from God when He speaks to you???!!!" I felt I was going through that rebellious season of teenagers all over again, but this time, spiritually. Even though I ignores whatever God asked me to do, yet I long and hungry for Him. It's so ironic but that's exactly what's up. = =|||

"Sarah, go pray for that girl over there right now."
"No, Lord, I'm busy and have no time."

Something like that happened for at least 5 or 6 times throughout last week. I didn't go pray for any of these people the Lord asked me to go pray for. The last time that He urged my heart to go pray for someone was like this...

"Go right now, or else I will leave you."
"No!! Don't leave me, Lord!" (Still didn't go up to the girl)
.... I could felt God's Spirit leaving me....
"Noooo Lord don't forsake me!!"

I was scared. Lord, I'm sorry... Why didn't I go? Not enough boldness? Not enough faith? Not enough love? Lord I prayed for more of You and less of me, yet I was like a stubborn child who runs away from You when You called, and runs back to You asking for Your love afterwards. God, help me to GROW UP!! Pathetic Sarah!! Grrr.... So frustrated! I hated my guts!

On Sunday, I didn't go up there and pray. (Even tried to avoid eye contacts to avoid going up) What the heck was I doing?? The Lord asked me to go up there and pray, yet I disobeyed again. (slaps self) However, Jack's message of being cut and burn by the Lord if we don't bear fruits, and the burden to cry out to God in extreme hunger and thirst hit me later after Monday's final... It was just an afternoon/night of praying, weeping, worshiping, repenting before the Lord. At least 4 hours of crying out. I haven't wept before Him for a while now. The Holy Spirit filled me up and I laid there and couldn't stop speaking in tongue "loudly"for about 40 minutes. (Sorry Ruth, I didn't mean to disturb your beauty sleep. lol) I felt the burden to pray for Karen's increase in hunger and thirst for God, that she would HAVE TO cry out to Him and for Him. As I wept for her, the Lord touched her and she started to weep as well. Our house church is called GTM (God Thirst Ministry), yet, why aren't people THIRSTY for God??!! I am hungry for God, way more than physical hunger. If you know me you would know that I LOVE FOOD, but the hunger I have for God is way beyond food... I was a bit amazed too. Give me more hunger and thirst for You, Lord.

After being filled by the Holy Spirit, it's time to strike again!! Lord, fill me up with hunger, boldness, and love from above. Expand my cup and let it overflow. Amen.

Ps. MoMo's under spiritual attack severely right now. Please keep her in your prayers. Pray for freedom in the Spirit and restoration. The Lord is gracious, slow to anger, rich in love, and good to all! Amen!

-sala<3

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Three kids gave their lives to God!!

Short updates on Water Rangers.

In recent weeks, Jason, has grew so much spiritually. I am so encouraged by him. It's so clear that his interest and hunger for God has grew tremendously since I first met him. He would ask me many questions about Angels and demons, about heaven and hell, about God. You'd think he doesn't really listen to anyone, but he does. He hears and he learns to obey, to follow, and to walk it out. Last Saturday I was just asking him whether he has ever done the sinner's prayer before. He said, "I don't know." (As always. lol) I explained to him the reason why we say that prayer, and the difference between that and Baptism. Afterwards, he seems to be thinking real hard. You could tell from his expression. I left him thinking and said to him, "Let me know when you are ready." Then I shifted my attention to other smaller kids. Man, they have endless energy, it's unbelievable. 5 minuets passed and Jason said, "I will do the sinners' prayer next week." Jeffrey heard this, and he said, "I will do it with Jason." I turned to ask Irene if she wants to do it with them as well. She said, "Yea we will do it together." Then she said to Jason, "We will all baptize together when you are ready!!" I couldn't help myself from smiling and laughing on the inside. They are so adorable. I mean, if you have already decided to do it next week, why not do it now? Kids logic, I suppose. lol.

This Saturday, Maya(5 yr. old) and Haley(4 yr. old) both came. I was really surprised at their super good behavior that day. (Usually the little ones would not stop running around, talking to each others, climbing sofas...etc) Our topic was "Dreams". I had the kids draw out their ultimate lifetime dreams. Almost everyone's drawing included the word, "Love". Maya's drawing is just filled with the word, "Love" and, according to her, different flavors of hearts." Her dream was to have love everywhere in the world. Beckie (7 yr. old) wanted to become the best ballet teacher in the world and spread God's love to everyone. She wrote in very big letters on the back of the paper, "Rebecca love God, He is the best!" Jason drew himself with big wings holding a key to the heaven's gate, and there were many many people with wings flying to heaven. He wrote, "My dream is to go to heaven." Irene's dream is to end racism, that every single person on earth can love each other equally. Jeffrey's dream is for the ultimate LIFE to be brought to the world, that everyone will believe in God. (Even E.T. lol) There's something about Haley that I want to share. Whenever we talk about God, Angels, and heaven stuffs, she would smile and laugh with so much joy and excitement. It's pretty amazing. I'm not really clear on how little kids' spiritual connection with God is like. How God talks to them, how they can hear God just like that. I need to dig more into that, that's why I'm going to Bethel this Spring break to receive some trainings on pastoring kids. Yay! Can't wait!!

There's another thing that surprised me and boosted up my faith today. Towards the end of W.R. the little kids were getting impatient and wanted to play the "monster game". They were running around the sofas, screaming, playing. Jason turned to me and said, "We should do something to bring them back. How can we get their attention? Games?" Jeffrey also said similar things. We started to have this small discussion that's initiated by Jason! WOAH! You'd think Jason don't care, and Jeffrey don't like to have the little kids around. I mean, they were like that towards the little ones a few weeks ago!! I don't know what happened. They were suddenly so supportive and they were seriously thinking about ways to work things out together as a group! I'm so touched, and my level of faith increased a lot. Praise be to the Lord of Lords, King of kings!! Hallelujah!!!

After W.R., I reminded Jason, Jeffrey, and Irene that we're supposed to do the sinners' prayer today. Even though at first they were still kind of effy and wanted to do it next week, at the end they decided to do it today. Jeffrey led us to his room and we all kelt down on the floor. I had them repeat after me, and they all said the prayer with all of their hearts. After we're done, they were like, "What?? That's it? So short!!" Hahaha... I told them, "Yea, accepting God it's as simple as that!!" :) Hallelujah! I know God is totally throwing at big party in heaven for these three kids! Woohoo~!!

Keep praying for us if you will. Pray for Oscar, David, Linda, for they didn't come for two weeks. Oscar hasn't come for about a month now. It's just that his family really needs him there to help out these weeks. Lord, help and provide for this family please. Use me to bring Your kingdom down to their household!! My heart belongs to You Lord. Replace it with Yours. Amen.

-sala<3

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Jehovah Rafa



LET THE FIRE OF HEALING FALL IN THIS PLACE!! O LORD OF HEALING! JEHOVAH RAFA I CALL UNTO THY NAME!!!

Finally done with my paper. Whew. Here's what happened this week...

MONDAY
Crystal, the school newspaper journalist, came. We shared a lot before GTM began. After worship, I shared the message that Banning preached before, "Dreamers". We started to pray after the sermon. Three people got healed physically! Karen and Kathrine (our neighbor) were feeling very sick, and Kat. was having a huge headache. Crystal had a very bad stomachache. After we all prayed for them, Karen was completely healed after a while, Kat's headache was completely gone, and Crystal's stomachache, due to bladder infection, was totally healed as well! Praise the Lord! Something else crazy happened. We started to pray for Crystal's left hand's middle finger because 1/5 of it was cut off one or two years ago. At that time she was about to suicide by jumping out from her window. However, for some reason she slammed the window shut instead, and that cut off a part of her finger. The doctor said he has to cut off below the first knuckle in order to prevent infection from the wound to spread to the entire hand. If that happens, she would have to lose her whole hand! The interesting thing was, God gave a lady a revelation, that no knife shall touch Crystal's body, so her dad stopped the doctor from cutting off her finger. Crystal said the doctor was furious, and kept on telling them they are insane! Crazy! Then they found another doctor who was willing to try and save her finger by not cutting a big part of it off. The doctor sliced open the skin near her thumb and stuck the middle finger in there to do skin transplant. It worked!! Crystal said, many people, including herself, have gotten dreams or visions of her finger grew back completely. Then, I started to encourage everyone to have faith and believe that a miracle will happen tonight, that God will let Crystal's finger grow back to its original stage! There were 8 of us praying for Crystal. I think we prayed for about half an hour total, and in the middle of the prayer Crystal said the middle fingertip felt kind of weird and tingling. Many of us were weeping and crying out to God for Him to heal Crystal, when Brian asked her if there's anything other than the physical injury that we could pray for her about. God really opened up her heart, and she shared with us about something that we'd never thought of. I cannot share what that is, but basically she has done something wrong, and she could not forgive herself from it. (She didn't kill anyone, ok.) Even though she knows that God has forgiven her, she could not be set free from her guilt. We all prayed for her, many wept more, and afterwards. She said she has completely forgave herself!! It was totally God. Many of us gave her encouraging and comforting words. She shared afterwards, that she has realized no matter how hard she tries to be perfect, she can never be 100% perfect. And something else... I forgot. -_- (Will add that later) Anyway, the night was divine. Jehovah Rafa was totally there! Hallelujah to the King!

TUESDAY
We were celebrating Joe's new job at my place. Joe has found a place to live today!! It was their first attempt too! Praise the Lord!! Man, the goodies and blessings were just rolling in for Joe. Crazy good God! After dinner we were helping Joe to write down his testimony so we can record it, and had a Bible study on Colossians 3, which talks about the rules for the holy living. Brian explains to Joe patiently about why to forgive, why to love, and why to work hard for God, and not for people. We realized that Joe has never forgave himself from the death of one of his co-workers years ago. His co-worker was a drug addict, and Joe said, "I could've done something to stop his death from happening, yet I did not do anything about it." He has always been haunted by this memory, and it is because of the things he could not forgive himself that caused his inability to forgive others. We prayed for him, gave him words of encouragements, and he was able to forgive himself and move on without those baggages from the past. God, You are always good. You are always merciful. You are our provision. I love You! I showed Joe many testimonies that John recorded, and he was amazed at what God can do. lol. I left Joe with many questions to ponder on, and empowered him to dream big. Ex. When he plays music, people will be healed physically and mentally through the power of God. I love to encourage and empower others, it's becoming a habit of mine. Or hobbit. haha.

WEDNESDAY
I was taking a worship break from writing my paper for 4 hours when Brian called. He said that Crystal needs prayers right now so he'll bring her over right now. It was midnight already, but me, Karen, and Ruth were totally up for it. Crystal came and told us what just happened with her and her boyfriend-on-breaks, well, now her ex-boyfriend. They ended their relationship for good, so they could wholeheartedly follow God and seek after Him. Encouraged her with past experience, hope it helped her. Brian led us to all pray for one another. Ruth played the guitar and we sang. Ruth is getting better at playing guitar and leading worship by herself, I'm proud of her! I'm dreaming big for her, and constantly reminding her of the dream. She's gonna be great. At some point I played the guitar after Ruth, and I asked God to show us more, to bring the worship to the next level. The Lord's holiness fall in the room, and as we sang Glory Will Cover the Earth, Holy Spirit led us into a stillness to wait upon the Lord. Be still and know that He is God. We were still and quiet for about 20 minutes, well me and Crystal were. It's a deeper level of intimacy with the Lord, and the rest were not used to it, so they didn't stay still for very long. It's hard at the beginning to just be completely still before the Lord, I know. I used to fall asleep every time I tried to do that, but as I kept on practicing, I am able to focus on Him and be completely still in front of Him for a long time. I loved it. Suddenly I could not use any adjectives to describe God. Only one word can I use to describe His might, His justice, His love, His holiness, His gracious, His glory, His faithfulness and on and on... That word is GOD.

THURSDAY
Still trying to finish my paper, and Brian took Sylvia to our place tonight. She just moved to our apartment complex today, so in the future she could always join us on Monday nights! Yay! She cooked us very yummy curry, and shared with us about her life. I'm thinking of bringing her to the Encounter Retreat, for she hasn't been able to go to church because of her work schedule. Talked with MoMo, very glad that she called, and we get to encourage each others. Dream more for me, MoMo. Ya hear?! Haha. Before dinner, Brian and I went to class and he told me how stressed he is about Joe, because obviously Joe did not move into the apartment yesterday. It's either he didn't show up, or he showed up and didn't have enough money. We don't know where he spent that money, or what Joe's thinking. Once again, I encouraged Brian to dream big for Joe, and think about what kind of a person does he want Joe to become. I told him, discipleship is just a teacher teaching his student to become like him. You want Joe to become a certain kind of person, you have to be that kind of person first. Brian realized that the reason he has been so stressed and frustrated is because he was trying to use his own strength to make everything perfect. After we went back to my place, he went straight into my room to worship God and pray alone, cried before God. I'm praying for you, leader.

FRIDAY... yet to come.

Ps. I've realized how often people pray/worship in my room. Joe said it feels peaceful in my room. Wouldn't it be nice for it to be a 24/7 prayer room, and like what IHOP people said, "where prayers are, there God is. where God is, there Angels, signs and wonders will be." I wouldn't be surprised if I see diamonds on the carpet or Angel's feathers start to fall in the room, because this is a place of prayer, a place of God.

-sala<3