message from God

God is truly moving among His people…

My last post was about our first breakthrough for this year, about the miracle we received regarding Joann’s diagnosis. Much has happened after that, which seems to overturn the previous turn of events…

After we received the good news 2 weeks ago about the disease being IN SITU, we decided to offer up a praise and thanksgiving offering to God. I asked our pastor if i could go back to the worship team and lead the worship as thanksgiving to God. He graciously agreed and i was scheduled the coming sunday.

The day after our pastor and i talked, the 1st pathologist (who read the diagnosis as invasive) called me up. He said he learned i sought 2nd and 3rd opinions who both diagnosed IN SITU. He took the remaining tissue samples, mounted them in slides and he wanted to show me what he saw.

He showed me that there is really invasion, much clearer seen in this new set of slides, and that there is even invasion seen into a blood vessel. Long story short, Joann and I were once again stunned at this development. I took the new set of slides and the old set of slides and sent them to UP-PGH for further analysis and testing. We’re expecting results this week, which would very well determine the need for chemotherapy.

I can’t describe how dissappointed we were. It’s like going through the process all over again. In my minute limited mind, i can’t understand what was happening. We already graciously accepted the diagnosis before, even prepared for chemo already. Then the diagnosis was turned and chemo was no longer needed. We already sent testimony to God’s goodness and power. And then this…is God taking back the miracle? Is He taking back our breakthrough?

In all things we ought to give thanks. Lowly hearted as we were, we decided that i continue to offer a sacrifice of praise and lead worship the coming sunday. A great struggle indeed, but God’s grace is sufficient.

After much prayer, and asking God for anointing, strength, faith, peace and grace…i submitted my line-up of songs, practiced last saturday, and praised and worshipped yesterday, sunday. Truly in God’s presence darkness flees, for in the time we praise and worship God, there is no fear, there is no worry, there is no darkness.

After the 3 services, i prepared to go home. A caucasian man i don’t know and never seen before walked up to me at the lobby and told me that he received a message from God to tell me. He wrote it down as it was not really a “short message.” As he began to read, my knees shook. He read as follows:

“You are a man of God and My delight is in you. As you have studied and examined my word you have discovered a treasure that has become a way of life for you. The persecution that has happened to you has been allowed for My purpose – just as iron sharpens iron, so am I sharpening you.

Be lead by My Spirit and develop the spiritual relationship I desire for your ways and your life are in Spirit and truth. Don’t judge and you won’t be judged.

There is another dimension of worship I will lead you into as you seek Me and especially the empowering and enabling that My Spirit brings.

Be not concerned about family members who are not walking with Me, surrender and give them to Me and I will open their hearts to respond and receive My engrafted word.”

After he read this to me, he introduced himself as John Cochrane, a national of New Zealand and his filipina wife. They have a ministry in sorsogon, a christian run orphanage.

I thank God for His message, which really encouraged me, my wife, my whole family. I wanted to ask John “so did God tell you up to when this persecution will last??” but i guess that’s up to God alone. It is enough for me that “it has been ALLOWED for HIS PURPOSE!” and that His delight is in me.

As we wait for the results, it could be that it is invasive and that chemo treatment would be needed. Or God can make it purely In Situ and that no more chemo is required. Although we continue to pray our heart’s desire that it is In Situ, we just trust God now. He alone knows what is best. May His will be done.

God be praised! We still face mountains. Sometimes, God removes the mountains in front of us. But more often, God simply gives us the strength to climb and overcome!

Healing Has Come

I can’t explain it.

Last friday, i cried in anguish, despair, desolation. It’s like heaven and earth came tumbling down on me and my family. It’s like the world stopped moving. Like the sun stopped shining. Like all the colors in the things i see have faded away. As I was driving home, i had to pull over 2 times at the side of the road because i was crying and shouting out to God…”AMA, AMA, AMA KO!!!…..AMA KO, AMA KO, …..MAHABAG KA!!! MAHABAG KA!!!” I didn’t have any more words to say. It’s all i could say really…

Thank God for the internet, cellfones, facebook. We were able to ask for prayer support from a lot of friends, family, even those far away. And some committed not only to pray, but to ask their prayer groups, their family, their church to pray too. I have asked christian friends coming from no less than 7 different churches, and I know there are more, to join us in prayer. I believe that there is tremendous power in prayer. And even more, awesome power in the corporate prayer of many believers. “A thousand men praying at the same time is equivalent to a man praying a thousand times.” This is the way to move the hand that moves the world.

As we continued to ask for prayer support, the word of God came pouring in…
Exodus 15:26 – ” And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I AM the LORD that healeth thee.”

Hebrews 4:14-16 – ” We have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens – Jesus Christ – so let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. We don’t have a high priest that is unable to sympathize with our weakness, Approach then His throne of grace so we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

John 14:1 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.”

1 Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

1 Peter 5:10 – “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

That same friday  night, as I was continually praying while holding our 8 month old baby daryl, a rush of peace filled my heart. I don’t know how, why, what, when… but somehow i was assured GOD HAS HEALED JOANN! I began to thank God! I don’t know how  He did it, and how He’ll intend to manifest it, but I know he touched Joann and healed her completely.

The next day, saturday, one of our friends whom I asked for prayer support confirmed that this is God’s promise. She said “Joann is healed, she is whole and her breast is in normal condition. She will continually see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Messages from friends continued pouring in…in texts, in facebook messages, in posts…ever since I posted “please pray for Joann”, the message has been the same. CLAIM GOD’S HEALING. HEALING HAS COME NOW. THANK GOD AND CELEBRATE GOD’S HEALING!!!” At this point, i stopped being pre-occupied about Joann’s condition, and started thanking God for His healing!

Jesus said, “if you have faith even the size of a mustard seed, you can move this mountain.” God has built up our faith through this. We asked God to increase our faith by His mercy and grace to overcome this disease. I know our faith still needs building up, but we believe it certainly is bigger now than a mustard seed. And to Jesus, a PUNY 2.5 x 2 x 1.5 cm breast mass is certainly NO MOUNTAIN!

As Joann and I were talking about the promises of God, she told me that earlier that day, as she was praying and crying out to God, she felt SOMETHING was being poured upon her…that God’s healing was penetrating every inch of her body.  We were amazed at the goodness of God.

As of last night, we were still able to feel the “lump”. But we are walking BY FAITH now. We continue to THANK GOD AND PRAISE GOD because we know and we declare, GOD HAS HEALED HER ALREADY. We are now praying that GOD WILL DISSOLVE THIS MASS so that her surgery, scheduled on friday, will no longer be needed. And we believe, by faith, God is crushing this mass in His divine hands as of this writing.

Above and beyond us, we know that God’s healing has come that His glory may be revealed. We are excited to see how God will use us to testify to His love, power, grace, mercy, goodness, kindness, tenderness and justice! We are humbled at how the God of the universe loves us and chose us to be His servants! We pray that lives will be turned to God and committed to Christ through our testimony.

So please, continue to pray for Joann and me and our entire family; that God’s healing would be made manifest by the dissolution of the mass and that surgery will no longer be needed. But i also ask you to pray with thanksgiving in your heart for GOD HAS ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS!

Today, as I drove to work, i was in tears again. But these are not tears of sorrow anymore. These are tears of AMAZEMENT AND THANKFULLNESS FOR GOD’S OVERWHELMING LOVE AND POWER!!! So please join us in praising God and in giving Him glory, FOR WE BELIEVE, CLAIM AND DECLARE GOD’S HEALING HAS ALREADY COME!
P.S. Please join us, wherever you are, for a time of prayer and thanksgiving and worship this wednesday night, December 9, 2009, begining at around 7:30pm. For those of you who can come, we’ll have this night of prayer and worship at our house in Marikina.

New Moon for the Believer…which Team are you?

so for my second post, i choose a controversial topic…the second in the twilight series, what is NEW MOON for the BELIEVER???

Let’s lay down some “disclaimers” for those who don’t know me…

1. I believe in the Almighty God and in His written word, the bible. I believe there  is a heaven and a hell as well.

2. I don’t believe creatures like vampires, werewolves or any such “monsters” exist. I do believe however, that the devil does, as stated in the bible.

3. I am not promoting that you watch the movie. But yes, I have watched twilight and new moon…

4. If you haven’t watched the movie, this may contain some spoilers…

5. I am neither team Edward or team Jacob; i am definitely team JESUS!

This is probably the hottest movie in the planet now, and in the secular world, a love story between a girl and a vampire may be appealing. But in the Kingdom of Christ, we know that this story is just that, a story.

Yes, i was curious enough to watch the first 2 movies, and probably curious still to watch the whole series.  But it is not for the faint of heart, nor for the wobbly faith. I am not saying that i am a mature christian, that i can handle such plots. In fact, it is best to stay away form these things altogether. For there is something “dangerous” about being an avid fan of the story line, both of the books and the movies. Have you heard of those edward-fanatics who cut themselves and show their bleeding wrists and necks to the movie star? Really weird. But that is not the dangerous stuff. What is dangerous, as promoted also in some other movies, is that “bad” is portrayed as “good”; that there is really no “absolute right” and “absolute wrong.”

In New Moon, it is “implied” that it is ok to be a vampire (as long as you don’t bite?); that it is ok to disregard the feelings of your parents for the one you love; that it is “ok” to lose your “soul” just to be with the one your heart desires. For fans, this may be the most “romantic” things, but in reality, this is all a lie.

The big lie of the story is (and there are other blockbuster book/movie series that promote this lie) practically the non-existence of God. No, it is not vehemently said in the movie that God does not exist. But to talk about immortality, eternal life and damnation in the terms of vamps is like saying “there can be a happy life with out need for God.” Other movies have portrayed this such as the one showing “witchcraft” as good if used for good. A movie that promotes “non-absolutes”; no true good, and no true evil, is definitely promoting the non-existence of God.

God is good. God is holy. God created all things good. God never created evil. His good creation fell and sinned, and that resulted in the evil in the world. God is absolutely good and holy. Things, principles and principalities against God is absolute evil. It’s that simple. There are only two (2) teams in reality, Jesus’ Team and the devil’s team. Which team do you think edward and jacob belong to? More importantly, which team do YOU belong to? You have to take a side, there is no neutral ground.

So why did i watch the movie? For curiosity? For entertainment? For research? It’s like watching starwars, superman, and even dora the explorer; it’s all fiction, but it’s amusing. It’s like bible students studying apologetics, how to defend the faith, by studying what the other religions believe in and practice. This is not to justify watching the movie. But before you watch this, and any other movie for that matter, ask yourself: What is your heart’s content? What is the condition of your faith? What is your purpose in watching this film? Unless you can glorify God in what you’ll do, then just don’t.