13. Joshua & Flo - Testimonies from Down Under
Name: Joshua
Date: Apr 07
Location: Down Under
I was in Australia last week. I had some business to attend for two days after Easter, and had decided to join our friends Edwin & Janice, and another family for a short holiday at Hunter Valley over the Easter weekend.
I thought that we would have a good time of fellowship with Edwin & Janice over the weekend, followed by two working days, before we returned home. But the Lord has set us up for something exciting.
On Monday morning, the three guys played golf together. It was a beautiful course that gave a good view of some vineyards. There were three guys, so we were short of one on the flight. One elderly man joined us, and he was quite a nice guy. As we played, it started to rain heavily. As we did not bring any umbrellas, Edwin and I joked that we should pray for the rain to stop. We did so, and the rain stopped shortly without disrupting our game.
When I was teeing off on one of the holes, there was a lake down the hill ahead of us. I gave it my best shot but it was still short. It headed for the water and I thought I would lose the ball. But instead of going in, it bounced off the water and went back up to the grass. I was pleasantly surprised by that “miracle”. I had not encountered something like that before. Then that elderly man said, "We call this the Jesus walk, Jesus walking on water." I looked at Edwin and said, “Amen.” The man did not know that I had written a book called "Walking on Water". It was as if God was speaking to me through that man.
As we were going for dinner on Monday night, the Holy Spirit prompted in my heart that we would be sharing the gospel with Edwin's friends. In the natural, I wasn’t planning on sharing the gospel with them as I just got to know them. In addition, we were sitting on two ends of a long table. How could it happen? As Florence and I were exchanging testimonies of miracles with Edwin & Janice, they couple came over to join us. They were thrilled by our testimonies and started asking questions. That opened up the door for us to share about Christ. The Holy Spirit had showed me before it happened.
On the way back to the apartment, Florence said that she saw a vision of us praying for this wonderful couple. I thought I heard her say that she saw us sharing with the couple over dinner. So I was overjoyed. When we went back to our apartment, we continued sharing. As we were about to retire for the night, I felt led to pray a blessing over them. After that, I found out from Florence that she had said earlier that she saw us praying over them. I was dumbfounded. We didn’t plan for anything but the Holy Spirit showed us in advance and made everything happen. We were joyful to share God's goodness with this family. I am convinced that God really loves them so much to have made all these arrangements.
Now on Tuesday, I was busy with my work but the Lord opened the door for us to fellowship with Edwin’s pastor, Pastor Paul, a wonderful pastor of a young & dynamic church. I was initially concerned if my work commitments would prevent me from arranging a dinner appointment. The Holy Spirit told me that I would be free on Tuesday night to meet up with Pastor Paul. I told Edwin by faith that the dinner with his pastor would be on and the arrangements were made. As the day passed, events turned out just as the Holy Spirit had shown.
We had a wonderful fellowship with Pastor Paul. I felt led to share with Pastor about the system of the New Covenant, the topic of my second book called the “New Reformation”. His eyes lighted up. He was about to have a strategic meeting with his church leaders last week but it was delayed to the next week. And he saw that the system of the New Covenant is what he wanted for his church. I was excited because I had initially thought of edifying Pastor Paul, but now the message could potentially bless the whole church.
After we had parted, I received a call. Pastor Paul gave me an invitation to minister to his church during Wednesday night mid-week service (the following day). Initially, I thought I would just do some shopping & have dinner with Florence on our last night. But the Lord opened the door to share God’s Word with this wonderful church.
On Wednesday, while I was attending to my work, Florence has a day of shopping. As she was walking in a departmental store, a mannequin fell over and hit her hand. It was heavy and the impact was great. Under normal circumstances, her hand would soon be swollen. She complained to the store manager who said without apology that it has happened several times before! Anyway, Florence laid hands and prayed for her hand. She told the Lord that she would be well so as not to be inconvenienced for the meeting in the evening. Her hand never swelled; there was no blue-black, and she shared this with me after we returned. This was a miracle because I know that Florence gets blue-black quite easily.
On the way to the meeting, I felt impressed that I would minister the baptism in the Spirit to someone. I asked Edwin if all in the whole church has accepted the baptism in the Spirit but he wasn’t 100% sure. I told him that I felt impressed not to make an altar call, but an open invitation for personal ministry after the message. I sensed it may be just be one or two people.
In the evening, at the mid-week service, I shared the message on the New Covenant and some testimonies. After the meeting, people came to us to fellowship. We were glad that they were edified by the message. A dear sister who was recuperating from cancer was encouraged by the healing testimonies.
We opened up the floor for ministry. An 80-year-old lady came forward to receive the baptism in the Spirit - and she did instantly as we laid hands. She was groaning in the spirit (Rom 8:26-27) and her face was lighted up with the glory of God. Florence was there to minister with me. We prayed for and encouraged a few other people. It was beyond all our expectations to be able to minister to this wonderful church. God even showed us that someone would receive the baptism in the Spirit! How would we know? I told the dear lady how much God loved her.
On Thursday morning, we made our way to the airport. I recalled that a friend of mine, Kevin had asked me to buy him Tim Tam chocolates. I had no time to hunt for it. I didn’t want to disappoint this wonderful brother who loves chocolates. I only had 5 minutes to spare at the airport. As I made my way to the departure gate, I stopped and said to Florence, “Where can I find this chocolate?” I haven’t even seen or heard of it before in Singapore. As I looked up, it was on display in the shop right in front of my eyes! So I bought it with joy.
We returned safely to Singapore pondering about what God had done during the trip. We stand amazed and we give God the glory. We were encouraged by our fellowship with Edwin & Janice. They went through all the miracles with us. They are passionate ministers of the New Covenant who have been a blessing to their church. We were also encouraged by what God was doing in their wonderful church through Pastor Paul, a passionate preacher who preaches the gospel of grace powerfully. We fell in love with this church and we really look forward to visiting them again.
Joshua
Date: Apr 07
Location: Down Under
I was in Australia last week. I had some business to attend for two days after Easter, and had decided to join our friends Edwin & Janice, and another family for a short holiday at Hunter Valley over the Easter weekend.
I thought that we would have a good time of fellowship with Edwin & Janice over the weekend, followed by two working days, before we returned home. But the Lord has set us up for something exciting.
On Monday morning, the three guys played golf together. It was a beautiful course that gave a good view of some vineyards. There were three guys, so we were short of one on the flight. One elderly man joined us, and he was quite a nice guy. As we played, it started to rain heavily. As we did not bring any umbrellas, Edwin and I joked that we should pray for the rain to stop. We did so, and the rain stopped shortly without disrupting our game.
When I was teeing off on one of the holes, there was a lake down the hill ahead of us. I gave it my best shot but it was still short. It headed for the water and I thought I would lose the ball. But instead of going in, it bounced off the water and went back up to the grass. I was pleasantly surprised by that “miracle”. I had not encountered something like that before. Then that elderly man said, "We call this the Jesus walk, Jesus walking on water." I looked at Edwin and said, “Amen.” The man did not know that I had written a book called "Walking on Water". It was as if God was speaking to me through that man.
As we were going for dinner on Monday night, the Holy Spirit prompted in my heart that we would be sharing the gospel with Edwin's friends. In the natural, I wasn’t planning on sharing the gospel with them as I just got to know them. In addition, we were sitting on two ends of a long table. How could it happen? As Florence and I were exchanging testimonies of miracles with Edwin & Janice, they couple came over to join us. They were thrilled by our testimonies and started asking questions. That opened up the door for us to share about Christ. The Holy Spirit had showed me before it happened.
On the way back to the apartment, Florence said that she saw a vision of us praying for this wonderful couple. I thought I heard her say that she saw us sharing with the couple over dinner. So I was overjoyed. When we went back to our apartment, we continued sharing. As we were about to retire for the night, I felt led to pray a blessing over them. After that, I found out from Florence that she had said earlier that she saw us praying over them. I was dumbfounded. We didn’t plan for anything but the Holy Spirit showed us in advance and made everything happen. We were joyful to share God's goodness with this family. I am convinced that God really loves them so much to have made all these arrangements.
Now on Tuesday, I was busy with my work but the Lord opened the door for us to fellowship with Edwin’s pastor, Pastor Paul, a wonderful pastor of a young & dynamic church. I was initially concerned if my work commitments would prevent me from arranging a dinner appointment. The Holy Spirit told me that I would be free on Tuesday night to meet up with Pastor Paul. I told Edwin by faith that the dinner with his pastor would be on and the arrangements were made. As the day passed, events turned out just as the Holy Spirit had shown.
We had a wonderful fellowship with Pastor Paul. I felt led to share with Pastor about the system of the New Covenant, the topic of my second book called the “New Reformation”. His eyes lighted up. He was about to have a strategic meeting with his church leaders last week but it was delayed to the next week. And he saw that the system of the New Covenant is what he wanted for his church. I was excited because I had initially thought of edifying Pastor Paul, but now the message could potentially bless the whole church.
After we had parted, I received a call. Pastor Paul gave me an invitation to minister to his church during Wednesday night mid-week service (the following day). Initially, I thought I would just do some shopping & have dinner with Florence on our last night. But the Lord opened the door to share God’s Word with this wonderful church.
On Wednesday, while I was attending to my work, Florence has a day of shopping. As she was walking in a departmental store, a mannequin fell over and hit her hand. It was heavy and the impact was great. Under normal circumstances, her hand would soon be swollen. She complained to the store manager who said without apology that it has happened several times before! Anyway, Florence laid hands and prayed for her hand. She told the Lord that she would be well so as not to be inconvenienced for the meeting in the evening. Her hand never swelled; there was no blue-black, and she shared this with me after we returned. This was a miracle because I know that Florence gets blue-black quite easily.
On the way to the meeting, I felt impressed that I would minister the baptism in the Spirit to someone. I asked Edwin if all in the whole church has accepted the baptism in the Spirit but he wasn’t 100% sure. I told him that I felt impressed not to make an altar call, but an open invitation for personal ministry after the message. I sensed it may be just be one or two people.
In the evening, at the mid-week service, I shared the message on the New Covenant and some testimonies. After the meeting, people came to us to fellowship. We were glad that they were edified by the message. A dear sister who was recuperating from cancer was encouraged by the healing testimonies.
We opened up the floor for ministry. An 80-year-old lady came forward to receive the baptism in the Spirit - and she did instantly as we laid hands. She was groaning in the spirit (Rom 8:26-27) and her face was lighted up with the glory of God. Florence was there to minister with me. We prayed for and encouraged a few other people. It was beyond all our expectations to be able to minister to this wonderful church. God even showed us that someone would receive the baptism in the Spirit! How would we know? I told the dear lady how much God loved her.
On Thursday morning, we made our way to the airport. I recalled that a friend of mine, Kevin had asked me to buy him Tim Tam chocolates. I had no time to hunt for it. I didn’t want to disappoint this wonderful brother who loves chocolates. I only had 5 minutes to spare at the airport. As I made my way to the departure gate, I stopped and said to Florence, “Where can I find this chocolate?” I haven’t even seen or heard of it before in Singapore. As I looked up, it was on display in the shop right in front of my eyes! So I bought it with joy.
We returned safely to Singapore pondering about what God had done during the trip. We stand amazed and we give God the glory. We were encouraged by our fellowship with Edwin & Janice. They went through all the miracles with us. They are passionate ministers of the New Covenant who have been a blessing to their church. We were also encouraged by what God was doing in their wonderful church through Pastor Paul, a passionate preacher who preaches the gospel of grace powerfully. We fell in love with this church and we really look forward to visiting them again.
Joshua
posted by Joshua Lye @ 8:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home