Alive and well, and living in ..

"How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news,

who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.' "

Hong Kong!

In case you're just tuning in, here’s the story so far:

?-2004
Why was I born into a family with so many connections to South East Asia? .. And why have I always felt so drawn to China? ..

2005
I arrive in Canada for training in linguistics, and soon find myself naturally bonding with Cantonese speakers .. I love the language and culture ..

2012
Many more connections with Cantonese / Hong Kong Chinese later, and now I’m ministering locally in Vancouver and living in a predominately Chinese area. The church I’m a part of includes a lot of Cantonese congregants as well, some of us start to meet together with a vision and heart for Hong Kong and China.

2013
Our church has the privilege of being part of the first missions team allowed into mainland China, with the full permission of the Chinese government, to evangelize, including public open-air ministry! The testimonies that come back are amazing! This isn’t simply praying with people on the street, this is transformative stuff, blessing leaders, businessmen, even government officials, and seeing many come to Christ.

Now I'm focused on the area where the team had gone, regularly praying over it and envisioning a move of God there. As I see more missions teams flowing into the same area where ours broke ground, I can’t help but ask: Where do we go from here? Where has this momentum taken us, and where will it take us next?

2014
I sit down with a group of friends and we begin to pool together our connections with churches in Hong Kong. I connect with one church and am told they might have an opening for me there. Not seriously considering leaving my home in Vancouver or joining another church, I feel called to minister to the people in the predominately Chinese area where I live, to me that is my “China”.

2015
I take steps to commit to this area of Vancouver as home, buying a car, settling into a career ..

2016
Having passed all my exams I am now fully committed to the career of financial planner. The very day that I decide to commit to it, God cuts in: “This is not it. Go. Now.” This comes as quite a surprise! Actually at first I have no idea where he’s asking me to go! .. Eventually it dawns on me .. I fire up the connection with the church in Hong Kong from two years prior .. and there is a position still open waiting for me there.

2017
I’ve been fully sponsored by a local church to lead several ministries (detailed in previous posts).

Every week the testimonies keep rolling in, salvations, people getting healed, relationships being restored! But then .. the testimonies start coming out of mainland China.

2018
Now I finally get a chance to see, and be a part of, the results of my prayers since 2013. The first comes from our ministry school, as students from mainland China begin to enroll! .. Yes, word has spread into the mainland to the point where we have students joining from there! This shift comes as a result of one of our students passing on some of our training materials to a pastor in China. That pastor is so inspired by what he reads, and begins moving powerfully in the Spirit. Signs and wonders follow his preaching and the Spirit breaks out in several churches around his area.

I reconnect with the group that led our 2013 trip, through their branch in Hong Kong: we hold a conference attended by 500 pastors and leaders from mainland China! Even aboriginal church leaders are represented! The time is full of glorious worship, heartfelt intercession, training, equipping, and empowerment. Well known ministers from North America, who have traveled extensively in China and seen both the underground and Three Self churches are present in these meetings. They share a prophetic vision God had placed on them for China, and declare that this is the season for Hong Kong as a gate to China. One church network from mainland China, after receiving training with this group, launches their own missionary initiative into Russia! Pretty wild to think of mainland Chinese sending out international missions teams, but it’s happening! This is a movement that goes beyond borders and can’t be stopped!

Now I discover that the group which led our 2013 trip has already been making inroads into China for years! They hold a smaller conference which is also attended mostly by mainland Chinese, about 60 are present. During this conference one of our team members gets a chance to mentor a leader of a church network in China with over 1 million people under his care! God is moving so fast at times it seems hard to keep up!

Sensing the time and season of harvest we’re in, I begin seeking God about sowing into some church plants here in Hong Kong. Two groups form. One is mainly composed of mature Christians with a hunger for intimate worship and intercession. There are about 20 in this group. The other group is made up of 8 newer Christians with more desperate prayer needs (coming out of demonic oppression, some new believers, and some still wrestling with their faith).

Excited by the fruit coming out of these involvements, I am now considering refocusing my efforts into a more active role in church planting and discipleship .. but to do this I first have to free up some time in my schedule to rest and seek direction from God. Praise God I was able to take this period of rest and was able to connect more directly with some of my heroes in bringing the gospel into China. One such hero was Dennis Balcombe. He had a calling placed on his life for China even at a young age, was one of the first to get into China when its doors opened in 1976, and has been involved in birthing successful ministries here ever since. The ministry he is closest connected with is Revival Chinese Ministries International (RCMI). An English version of their website is here: http://revivalchinese.wixsite.com/eng

To my amazement he invited me to meet with him and do some vision casting on my role here. He sees a place for me to disciple, and help to plant / grow churches here, but before that can take place I have to wait for his team to work out all the legal details. Please pray with me about this process.

I’ve also been connecting more with Jackie Pullinger and her group (see previous posts for more details or check out her website here: http://www.ststephenssociety.com/)

There’s sure a lot to do here, especially with the groups above I just mentioned, along with progressing further in my Cantonese, and my evangelist heart throbs every day for the lost in my city. But at this point I’m at sort of a crossroads, I believe God has more of a hands-on role for me now, but in the next few months I’m not sure which doors will open and which will shut. In some sense it’s a waiting game, for church boards and missions boards and other such things, but I believe in what God is doing here so much that I’m continuing the work anyway, relying on savings and the support of friends until the dust settles (and praying it does soon)!

I’ll post again soon to let you know which sponsoring organization I'm partnered with, or whether I’m kicked out of the country! Oh the suspense! 😆

All the best in Him! More to come!

Nathan

Hong Kong School of Supernatural Ministry, Year One class— John Thomas, The Art of Hearing God

Lots of prophetic games!

Blessing John and Josh

Hong Kong first visit, final post—Snapshots of life

View from the hotel when I first arrived: Night

And day

All you can eat breakfast! 😋

Quiet moment before the morning rush

Truth! (I think ..)

Studio Ghibli Store!

Hong Kong action hero!!

Climbing up Braemar Hill

Mix of urban sprawl and hilltop areas

Further up and further in

View from above

Hills further south ... some strange sounds from below .. on my way down, I met a wild boar!

HKSSM class learning about leadership from Kris Vallotton

"All day breakfast" at a hole in the wall near the Walled City

Would you like one of those things on my plate? It's got a taro ball taste!!!

End of the month hot pot!

When you're waiting to cross the street ... but a dragon has to cross first!

And a Merry Christmas to you, with coffee and Cates!

Spoil!

The people I've met here so far are amazing! It's such a joy to be running with people of the same heart and mind: sold out for God, radical in faith, aggressively pursing his kingdom!

One of the events that took place while I was there was a health seminar for the older generation. A team from the Healing Rooms would be going to praying over the people attending, in a prayer booth type of dynamic. This was a Cantonese speaking event, but I was asked to join. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to have been there, I had a prior engagement with some friends. But I was glad to hear that this type of opportunity was quite common; the prayer booth style ministry is an outlet I always enjoy, very similar to what we did at New Joy in the past.

Five from the Healing Rooms volunteered to go. As a group we prayed over them, and anointed their hands with oil. It was a powerful moment. We could sense that these five would be true representatives of the Father in that place. Our prayers and anointing would go with them that day.

And the joyful report soon came in: many were healed and touched by their prayers, and 10 gave their lives to Christ! We celebrated with heaven, rejoicing in his spoil!

Hong Kong heroes

But there’s something else special about Hong Kong too—it’s the land of two of my heroes: a courageous woman of faith named Jackie Pullinger (her dramatic story of a move of God in the Walled City of Kowloon is told in the book Chasing the Dragon), and McDull (麥兜), a pig philosopher and dreamer whose life’s story is told in the powerful film My Life as McDull (麥兜故事).

So I had set off on this adventure with those two on my mind. My traveling companion on the way was McMug—McDull’s cousin … he seemed excited for the journey, and also, it seems, to do some swimming ...

But he did enjoy some of the office life as well ..

 

The crazy part of the timing of this trip was it happened to coincide with Jackie Pullinger’s 50th Jubilee Celebration, and many old friends from Vancouver would be there!

Thursday was the opening night for a run of Chasing the Dragon, the musical, which was quite good:

and after that all day worship, prayer, and celebration, starting Friday afternoon, and going until Sunday night. On Friday my day began in Kowloon Park … 

where I saw the smallest McDonald’s I’d ever seen …

and I was able to pay tribute to my pig hero in the Avenue of Comic Stars ...

here he is!

then it was on to Jackie Pullinger’s celebration, at the Walled City …

here are some shots of the Walled City today … they turned it into a park:

 Here is David Ruis, Andy Park, and the band setting up …

 

And here’s a sample of some of the worship

The nights included a full orchestra performing several numbers … here is a special time in which the players were interceding for healing through the music of their instruments.

Many people were healed in many ways during these nights.  There was salvation, instant physical healing, and the healing of deep emotional hurts.  All in all, a taste of heaven!

Hong Kong

Hello you rusty old blog ... I've got some news for you: I'm moving to Hong Kong!

Yes, yes, I can hardly believe it myself! It seems quite random, I know. Where have I been all these years, only to show up now and announce this dramatic change? I understand, old blog, you're understandably a bit confused and bewildered .. so I'll try to help you with a little backstory:

You see, for the last, oh, decade or so, God has been preparing a place in my heart for speakers of Cantonese, a dialect group located predominately in south eastern China, which includes the area of Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, a big part of my circle of friends in Vancouver are Cantonese speakers, many with a heart specifically for Hong Kong.

So, over time I made some contacts with various churches and ministries in the Hong Kong area, including this one, International Christian Assembly (ICA). Their website is here: http://www.icahk.org.

But I didn't act on any of these connections, sensing the timing wasn't right, and God had other work for me in Vancouver. In this last stage of time, as things developed, I ended up in Richmond, British Columbia, a predominately Chinese area (so much so that it has been termed 'the most Chinese city outside of Asia'). So I was getting closer, both geographically, and culturally, to a place like Hong Kong. But what actually sparked the move? And wait, are you moving there for good? (These are your questions, probably, dear blog.)

Well, those are good questions, blog, because it could be argued that Richmond has enough Cantonese speakers to fulfill a call from God to that language group. And, for a while, I thought that might be the case .. but, crazily, these kinds of 'calling' thoughts were still way in the back of my mind .. I had hardly acted on them at all ..

Until one fateful day ..

In case you didn't know, within the past year or so I began work in Vancouver with a financial services company, and was positioned nicely to operate, not only in Canada (as a resident), but also across the border, in the US (as a citizen). I had just gotten licensed in Canada, and was all set to open up shop in the US as well. But God had other plans.

I arrived home one night, just after an inspiring session of strategizing and preparation for next steps in the industry to break into the US market, and as soon as I entered my room, something hit me .. though I would not say I often experience such dramatic encounters, I very clearly sensed God speak deep into my spirit, "this is not what I called you for."

I knew something was wrong, and if this was God, I didn’t want to miss what he had for me, so I immediately fired up one of my connections in Hong Kong again, with ICA, and asked if there were still any needs there. I immediately got connected with Pastor Lindy Heung-Shea, who heads up several ministries at ICA. Have you ever experienced an "open door"? Well, this felt like an "open vacuum"—suddenly I felt myself pulled forward powerfully into something it seemed God had prepared me for for a long time.

Random street in the Soho area of Hong Kong

Within the span of a few days I was boarding a plane to Hong Kong for a month-long introduction to ministries, quite literally, waiting for me .. by that, I mean that people had been praying for help and had sensed that someone like me was on the way .. how humbling to meet people who had been interceding for me without ever having met me! But I did seem to be fulfilling the words God had spoken to them! Amazingly, I found my plane ticket, my entire stay, even the income I would have made in Vancouver reimbursed! Not only that, but, (if you know Hong Kong, you know this is huge, space is at a premium here) a place to live was provided for me, a three bedroom flat, all to myself! At first, I thought, Wow, ok, rich church, I guess that’s how they do things here … but later, I heard from Pastor Lindy: "Nathan, you don’t realize the favor here, I mean, flying someone over like this, and everything is paid for, this is completely unheard of, this never happens!"

Part of the one month period was to see if the fit was right, if I was a good match for them, and they for me. 

one of my first in person meetings with Pastor Lindy (soon after my arrival)

Long story short, ICA and I got along quite well! I was asked to help Lindy head up three of the ministries she leads.

First, the Hong Kong School of Supernatural Ministry

(http://www.icahk.org/hkssm-overview)

This is a training and equipping center which raises up leaders in all realms of society, so far we've trained up pastors, business leaders, and lay ministers from 40 churches, in Hong Kong and beyond, to bring the kingdom of God into their various spheres of influence, and to inspire a move of God to ignite all of Asia, and the world!

As 'Ministry Coordinator', that's one of the ministries I'm helping to lead. The other two are the Healing Rooms (http://www.icahk.org/the-healing-rooms) ... the first nine testimonies you see there are new (I helped prepare them) and the Encounter Ministry (an inner healing ministry: http://www.icahk.org/encounter)

So there's a lot going on here, and so far, it's all very fun and fulfilling work! More to come! But first, some pictures:

The ICA Main Church on King's Road, seen from Kam Hong Street

Approaching the ICA Tanner Road location

Many small groups and other meetings happen here

It's also the location for The Healing Rooms

Typical sidestreet scene in many areas of Hong Kong

July 6, 2014—The church one

Sorry the volume's really low on this one .. this is New Joy Church: praying for a sprained ankle.
This may not be the most amazing video, but I love it.
The childlike faith in her is so beautiful—you can see it in her eyes. God is good! :)

Jenny

July 2014—The street one

Transcript of a testimony from the Richmond Night Market (recorded July 20, 2014):

—Is it recording?
—Yep.
—Ok. ... So I just texted him, like, hey, do you want to go to the night market tonight? Let's just see what we can see, see what the Spirit's gonna do
—Yeah yeah
—So he's like oh yeah, sure, but Kathy's really hungry, so
—Where is this?
—Well, we hadn't decided on a place, so we said well, let's go to the night market, so it was Kathy, Leona ...
—Leona?
—their baby .. and Dave and I, we all went to the night market together. And we asked for words, that God would show us a specific person to minister to, and then we went in there to find them. So, I got a pretty specific word, I saw a guy with a green shirt and a baseball cap, and I got the word 'armor'.
—Ok
—So, I went in there, and we were walking around, and I walked by one area and I saw a guy, green shirt, baseball cap, just like the word, and I felt the Holy Spirit drawing me to look closely at what was written on his cap, and ... 'under armor' was written on it. So I just went up to talk to him and just said, "hey," you know, tried to enter into conversation, but he obviously had difficulty, there was a language barrier and everything, so, I just kept on going, and I thought, maybe we'll be able to connect with him later. But as I was going around, I found Dave, and he said had a word as well and found his guy but was unable to connect with him, so then I clued in to what I thought the Holy Spirit was doing, which was just showing us that we were on the right path, and that we just needed to pursue him, and see the something else he had for us, we were just in the right place at the right time. So as we were walking around I noticed a woman with a cane. And I asked Kathy if she could approach her, and with Leona it was just very easy for her to make that connection
—Yeah yeah
—and it just so happened that the woman was at an eyelash booth, so Dave was like, "yeah, you should approach her, tell her you have fake eyelashes too!"
—Ha ha!
—So she went over there and started to talk with her, and in my mind I thought, this is never gonna work, she's not gonna be able to break this open for us, but suddenly she turned around and she motioned us over to pray, she was open for prayer! So what we discovered was there were three women in this family, and they were mostly nominal Catholic, first nations
—Yeah
—but they were open to receiving prayer. It was the woman and her aunt, I think, and her cousin that were all there. So we start praying for the woman's knee, and she gets completely healed right there on the spot,
—Wow.
—there's like a little crowd that's gathering around us by this time
—Wow, yeah.
—and so the other woman in the family, the cousin, she says, "me too, me too! I want prayer too!" she had a similar condition in her knee,
—Oh wow, yeah.
—So we started praying for her, and with the first woman I could just feel the presence of God just descend on that place, the second woman, nothing. I didn't feel anything at all. But, it doesn't matter what I feel, so I asked her how she was doing, and she was like, "no, nothing's happening, I don't feel anything at all." And then someone got a word—it might have even been me—it was about breaking off unforgiveness or something like that, so we just prayed into some unforgiveness she had from her past, she forgave whoever it was, and then, the healing just flowed. It flowed so powerfully it went—and she got healed ... this is the craaazy part—the other woman that was with them, the aunt
—Uh huh
—we were just praying for the cousin's knee, the aunt got her feet healed at that very moment, and her back, she had like a condition with her back and spine, that got instantly healed, just standing near where we were! It was so craaaaaaazy! I mean I just heard about it later and I'm like, what the heck? That's so wild!
—Yeah yeah yeah, just overflow
—Yeah, yeah! She was like, she wasn't even, she was like ... there was this woman, and then the other woman, and she was like way on the other side ...
—Did she know right away, like she felt that healing?
—Yeah! Yeah, she felt it right at that moment! And there was that whole crowd around us, we just started shouting praises to Jesus, giving him glory to him for the healings, and the ladies shouted and prayed with us, making deeper commitments to him in their lives!
—Wow
—So then we were going around and I was like ok, I kind of started playing a little game, like racking up points and thinking, this is one for Kathy, so now I want one for Dave, and so I was like ok what's next, Dave? He said, "I think we're supposed to buy some DVDs." I was like ok ... so he goes to buy some DVDs, and we start to talk a little bit, and just say hi to the guy, we buy some DVDs, and then Dave leaves! And I'm like, "Come on man ... this is what we were going to do, just buy DVDs?? Let's go back and bless the guy with a word." So we go back, and we both walk up to the guy with the exact same picture, the exact same word for him, it has to do with his relationship with his son and where he's headed in his life, and it was just like the perfect connection with the guy,
—Wow
—he was pretty much like the stereotypical stoic Asian, but you could tell that he was touched that we were speaking something into the destiny of his family. So we keep going and I'm like ok, one for Kathy, one for Dave, now I want one.
—Yeah yeah yeah
—So, we're going out, and I'm like, let's just go, like we can walk out and then we'll see what we see on the way out. So I'm walking by and there's those two women there selling mops, you know, and they're really aggressive, they're like "try the mops! try the mops!", so I'm like, "ok, we'll try your mops, if you try what we have!"
—Ok ha ha
—Ha ha, I don't know, those words just came out of my mouth, I honestly didn't know how I was going to follow them up!
—Interesting, yeah
—And so they were like, "whoa, what do you have?" like, "where is it?" and I was like, "it's right here, in our hands" ... I don't know ... I was just like speaking out of my butt, haha .. so then they started to give us the mops to try but then they pulled them back and they're like "but first we wanna see what you have", so I was like, "ok, hold out your hands", and the one woman just held out her hands, and I just put my hands on her, and just prayed the Father's heart and that the Holy Spirit would just fall on her ... and ... yeah so I didn't know if anything was going to happen, but she felt His Presence, she just felt like power surging through her, and she just felt a huge wave of God's love, and then the other girl, again, is like "me too!", so we prayed for her and she felt the same thing, again I didn't expect anything to happen, even at that point, but she received stuff as well, and then we were walking away, and Dave nudged me and said, "you gotta give them a New Joy card!" so I just got out a New Joy card and wrote a little note, like "God bless you, and have a great night", I gave it to the first mop lady and then she said, "oh, thanks for this!" and then she said, "I'm going to treasure this for the rest of my life!"
—Wow
—and I'm like come on, you're just messing with me, like what are you trying to say, and then she's like, "no, seriously, my husband and I are looking for a church, and this could be the church that we check out, so"
—Oh ha ha wow!
—So I'm like oh, that's awesome! And that's the story, yeah!
—Wow, one after another! Praise God!!

[Update from months later: I visited the night market again, and the DVD seller was still there. He totally remembered our prayer ... his relationship with his son had taken a turn for the better, and we gave glory to God for what he was doing in his life!

The first mop lady that we prayed for was still there, and she not only remembered me but was so excited to see me, she thanked me once again for the prayer, and then said the most amazing thing: "do you know what," she said, "it's crazy, but I can still feel that presence from when you prayed! It's been on me, and hasn't left me this whole time ... it's so good!"

Wow, all glory to God! More of you Jesus, I ask for your love and power to overflow, both in our city, and in whoever might be inspired by this testimony! Cheers!]

2013-2015—And part 2 and yeah ... all the rest.

So, yeah. And then a lot of stuff happened. A lot. I was going to write about it all, but ... yeahhhhhh ...there's really too much. ... Treasure hunting, praying for people at work, at church, you get the idea! I'll keep it to three more stories: one from the street, one from work, and one from church, and then we really gotta move on, ok? Alright!—Let's do it!

June 28, 2014—Summer treasure hunts, part 1

Today's treasure map:

• Minoru Chapel
• Black guy
• Shorts
• Red baseball cap
• Black raincoat

And here is one of our treasures— 

Byron

Sunday, Jan 6, 2013—Jesus, no distractions

Richmond, B.C.
After church
With friends at Tapioca Express

L is with us

She has pain in her neck from a recent skiing accident, and would like prayer.

Her head snapped forward and her neck got hurt, but miraculously she’s ok, she has a lot of pain around her neck though, some problems with mobility.  W and I (both of us on the healing team) sit on either side of L and began to pray.

As we pray, the pain begins to leave, and demonic spirits begin to manifest themselves in her mind.  She sees a spirit that had been waiting by her and causing a lot of the accidents in the past—this spirit comes closer and stares at her right in her face, it was there when she had her most recent accident too—it is the spirit of death.

We invite the Holy Spirit to come and fill the place, bind and cast out this spirit, and continue to worship and invite the Holy Spirit, contending for an open heaven around us and the entire restaurant.

As we are praying I share what I am seeing, L is entering into heaven, I see a door, I see her going through it, I see her meeting the Father.  Later she says that everything I spoke was happened right before I said it.

By her estimate she is 80% healed by this time.

W and I continue to pray, and by this time the spirit of death has fled.  L sees two angels with their wings spread over her.  I see W and I with our arms around her.

We are up to 90%, 95%, now 100% healing!

We have a group hug and I gave L a hand slap.  I think we were finished but in that hand slap L sees little spirits shooting out of her.  So I keep slapping her hand, kind of playfully, but excited God seems to still be doing something.  Every time I slap her hand it seems like more of God’s glory comes in, and more of the little spirits fly out.  But then she says .. “uh oh.”

There is a big spirit, she says, really huge, and she doesn’t know what to do.  What is it she wonders … So we begin to pray again, just inviting the Holy Spirit to come and fill her and the Father to walk beside her.  But instead of the Father walking with her she feels alone and confused, wondering what this spirit is and feeling like a little girl lost in the woods.  The way she described the spirit seems really serious to me so I text H for advice as we continue to pray.

Texts with H:

—Hey H! Can you stand in prayer as we’re praying for L … she’s had a dramatic healing so far .. many spirits have left her including a spirit of death that’s been plaguing her for three years … she was taken up into the throne room but she says there is a huge spirit still in her … what would you recommend?

—No need to go any further … just pray for peace .. can you explain a bit more in detail?  It’s very vague and hard for me to put together, can you explain how this all started?

—She wanted prayer for her neck …

—How did she manifest, did she have control of who she was?

—Ok it’s not manifest like taking control

—Ok good

—But it seems like every time we invite the Holy Spirit more stuff comes to the surface

—Does she know what this huge spirit is?

—No, but it’s big .. and she saw “shame” and “control”

—Ic … just bind them up, hard to say what to do next, sounds like God is moving though so it’s great news!

—Ok big one is bound, Holy Spirit working

—Is neck issue resolved?

—Yep, that’s long gone

—Ok great, no need for any more deliverance

—Got it, thanks .. really appreciate it …

First testimony from L, from my notebook:

Daddy’s awesome!  Daddy loves me, daddy cherishes me!  I went up into heaven and into a mysterious room.  He said “it’s yours.”  This room was really dark, I sensed that it was something more than healing, I had full access to the room … I don’t care about that too much but I saw Daddy and I was happy, but the love that came down was the best, I was just like a sponge filled with love.  Now my mind is completely clear and I feel perfect, like the accident never happened.   Something changed, something shifted in my life, and it has something to do with ungodly beliefs, lies that were cast out, delivered.   Daddy was showing me grace even though I wasn’t good … self-inflicted pain, “but I’m still going to pour out my blessing on you and even give you so much more, this is just the beginning” and now I have access to more rooms, now I’m seeing myself holding a bunch of keys to all these rooms in heaven, the first was a white door, the colors of the keys match the colors of the doors, I need to sort them out and explore these different rooms, and there are different colors of horses in heaven, they all belong to me [she said the horses represented resources available to her], open to different parts of heaven I can bring down to earth, full access, full authority, physically all the pain has disappeared, it was weird, like the pain flew out, I could see the spirits of pain like pssw pssw, a bunch of them, spirits flying out, and I received divine healing [healing we didn’t pray for] in the butt as well!  But there was a giant spirit … 

Second testimony from L, transcribed from an iphone recording:

So what happened was I thought that I was dealing with a spirit, because the spirit was really big, so I asked daddy, show me, what is this spirit?  If there’s something unclean, if there’s anything in my life that’s not of you, I want to get rid of it, I want to be radically clean and obedient, I don’t want anything to hold me back, but if there is a spirit that is stuck in me, yank it out, I don’t care, I’m not embarrassed, whatever it takes, I’m doing it.

And then as I was saying that, I just saw a vision, and this time around I was in the same place [walking through the woods], but I was not alone any more, I became like a little girl, with ponytails, like I was a kid, I was very little, probably about five or six, and I was wearing my favorite dress as a kid … it was white and red and it has like a strawberry in the middle, and that was the dress that I really wanted from my dad when I was a kid ... so I was wearing it and Father in heaven was holding my hand and it was on the same path, it was really dark and he was holding my hand, and we were just walking, and then the next thing I knew I went up to heaven with daddy … 

And then in heaven I saw this range of clothes and dresses, and I was looking through them but I couldn’t find something that I liked … I just couldn’t find it, there was like a huge wardrobe in heaven there were all these dresses in front of me but nothing caught my eye, but finally I knew what I was looking for, I was looking for a specific dress.

And then, out of the blue, I wasn’t a little kid anymore, I was all grown up, and I saw myself, and the next thing I knew I was clothed with a gold dress, it was all gold and it was beautiful, and I was like hmm, gold is not even my favorite color but it looks so good on me, the design, the fitting, everything was perfect, and my face was just glowing, and my hair was tied up, everything about me was done up, when I saw myself I was like … I look perfect!

I was like hmm, I actually look good!  I wasn’t even wearing any make-up or anything but my skin was perfect, and I realized this was exactly what I was looking for.

And then the next thing I knew I was in a wedding ceremony, I was still in heaven, and all the dresses and everything was gone, and here I am walking down the aisle and then I saw the groom just staring at me, like he has never seen anything more beautiful, and I could feel it, all eyes were one me, and then the next thing I knew I just couldn’t take my eyes off the groom, but the intensity he looked at me was like you are perfect, and I felt perfect, I felt whole, he was staring at me with an intensity to the point where was I was almost feeling a bit embarrassed, but when I looked at him I thought he is more perfect than me, like flawless

and then next thing I knew as I was walking slowing to him, the dress began to change from gold to white, it was almost like a wedding dress, but it was the most most beautiful wedding dress I had ever seen and it fit me to a T, but I saw the transformation as I was walking closer and closer to him, and with every step I took the dress became whiter and whiter and pure, love that is so pure, like nothing that we’ve got on earth, and I felt so loved, so pure, pure love, so pure,and then as I walked to the front of the aisle, the dress I was wearing was just pure white, and with little flower patterns and stuff, little laces, and some gold sparkles, everything was just perfect, and then I saw you guys and you guys were just sitting there, and then you started playing the song [some of the others in the group were playing worship music as we prayed], and it was just at the right time when the song started playing and you were singing and cheering me on, and I thought I have never felt such love .. 

the groom was looking at me, you guys were cheering me on, that I have been made perfect … and then I asked daddy—so random—like, what’s that spirit? I still want to get it out, and daddy was like that was a distraction, you’re perfect, there is nothing that is unclean in you, there’s no spirit that does not belong, it was in you, you are clean and you’re perfect, you’re pure ... and then I’m like ok, I’m getting married here, I’m perfect, who’s this groom, who are you …? [long pause, her mouth hangs open for 30 seconds ..]

he is Jesus! I am the bride of Christ, I was made perfect, every step that I took closer to him I became more perfect, it was nothing that I have done, all I did was walk down the aisle, and even the dresses were all prepared for me, he handpicked all the dresses, he basically prepared everything for me, and then he said you are my bride, my chosen one, you are perfect, you are beautiful, and then the next thing I knew you guys were singing and I was like yeah yeah it is done, it’s complete, it’s finished, I was just overwhelmed with love from you guys and Jesus my groom, my lover, that prepared the entire wedding procession and you guys with me, and I was like, "Can I just stay here?"

And I was like you know what, maybe I should just stay here … I don’t want to go anywhere else, and I don’t need anything, all I want is to lock eyes with him, just lock eyes with him for the rest of my life and I’ll be content, I don’t have to do anything for him to love me more, all I have to do is take a step closer and closer to him, and he has prepared the perfect dress, shoes, and hair ... 

oh! and then I saw the ring, and the gemstone was pink, and I was like that’s the gemstone that I want, and Jesus, my groom, was like "I knew you’d like it," and then he asked, "Will you be my bride?" and I said "Yes yes yes yes yes!" I just kept saying "yes", I didn’t know what else to say, everything was just so perfect—I got married in heaven!

And there were like blue birds flying and then the angels were playing music, songs, its almost like you guys were like the angels that were making things happen … I was—I am—perfect, there are no other spirits, just the spirit of God, in me.  And I'm pure, and God loves me, he is my lover, the lover of my soul, my husband, who has chosen me to be his bride.

And then I'm like "I want to stay here," and Jesus was like, "Do you want to bring this down on earth?" and he asked me and I was like "I do, I want to bring this down on earth, I want to share this with everyone, I don’t want this to just be for myself, I want to share it with everyone else." ... family ... family .... the perfect family of heaven to bring down ... family that is from heaven to earth .... to have a taste of what it is like to be the bride of Christ, to to bring down the most perfect family from heaven to earth.