Journal of James's Journey with Jesus

I will attempt to record every event, emotion and edification for the past six weeks in chronological order in this blog entry. This six weeks have been really hectic, first with the mission trip, followed by the Encounter Retreat, Nissi Camp, Sentosa outing, Leaders' Retreat, Alive! Conference and my baptism today. The Encounter Retreat was pretty good, I learnt more about the different root spirits and also the prayers for delivering people from bondages, strongholds and yokes. I also learnt the prayers for spiritual breakthroughs. This teaching came timely; with a lot of us witnessing a demon manifestation in someone in my cellgroup just the week before. We managed to cast the demon, the spirit of fear, out after about 10 minutes of prayer. It seemed that the person involved was involved in learning Muay Thai boxing, a Thai boxing style that was obviously demonically rooted. This experience really reminded us of how serious taking part in occultic and New Age activities was. It widened our awareness of the spiritual realm and assured us that ‘He(God) who is in us is stronger than he(Satan) who is in the world.’ A lot of martial arts like Aikido and Tai Chi are occultic also. Their principles of using ‘qi’ or breathing techniques are actually techniques that open doors of your heart to demons. Pnuematology is the study of spirits and spiritual phenomena. ‘Pnuema’ stands for air or a short breath, which shows that the bodies of spirits are like air. Even entertaining movies like Harry Potter are occultic, stirring up the interest of the world in witchcraft. Even J.K. Rowling admitted she was a witch. The spells and demonic creatures she wrote about were real. Reciting or reading them can open doors to your heart to demons. However, witches and wizards are really sad people who are power-hungry. I just hope they realize that they and their spells don’t have any power. All the ‘magic’ is done by Satan and his demons, and witches and wizards are slaves to power and Satan. I say this with the full confidence that demons have no power over a son of Christ like me. It’s puzzling why people fear demons more than they fear God. After all, God did create these fallen angels and have the power to destroy them. This was the first time I witnessed such things but I was glad I saw it and had a chance to pray for the demonized guy. The Nissi camp was good too, with me having to teach on prayer and fasting. The amazing thing was that I only had a few hours to prepare the materials and the Holy Spirit did a great job in helping me in my research. The Holy Spirit’s guidance and anointing was never more real; I was putting doctrines on my notes that I didn’t know about fasting and prayer. And though I always had a fear of public speaking, God pulled me through, along with the support of my audience. The Sentosa outing with the Nissi cellgroups were rather fun though it was not as fun as the previous ones I’ve been to. The Leaders’ Retreat was pretty good too though I didn’t find the sessions by Pastor Christopher Long very beneficial, that is except the last one. But I’m really amazed at his ability to capture everyone’s attention for the whole time. Though he had to waste time telling jokes and funny testimonies, we got to know him better and also learnt well the lessons he was teaching. I didn’t get to know the other leaders better because I just didn’t like to mix around. I realized that I only try to know people when they are alone and have something in common with me. It was a good time of fellowship though. We went swimming every day for all three days. The Alive! Conference was extremely beneficial though it was not as glamorous as the Synergiz! Conference. I really learnt a lot from Pastors Daniel, James Singh, Steven Teo and Mark. The anointing and power of the Holy Spirit were so present in them. My pastor, Pastor Daniel, addressed the right and urgent issue of evangelism, which is still widely preached and rarely done. I learnt about the 5-7-5 evangelism tool. Pastor James Singh was really knowledgeable and wise in theology. He knew the Old Testament like we know the alphabet. Pastor Steven incorporated top business success secrets into his session and taught us how to use them in our daily lives to achieve spiritual and carnal success. Pastor Mark taught us how to be good shepherds. God spoke to me and a fellow leader in my cellgroup through his session. I was really inspired to follow in their footsteps. All these pastors took big steps of faith, sacrifice and commitment to enter into full-time ministry. Pastor Steven Teo was the CEO of a large corporate multinational insurance company called Zurich International for seven years and was earning thirty thousand buckeronis a month. God called him one day into full-time ministry and he obeyed. Pastor Steven also taught me to be ambitious in my dreams and goals. He started from lousy grades and background but managed to position himself in the corporate ladder with the help of the Holy Spirit. But my favourite session was the one where Pastor Yang from Cornerstone Church preached. He preached on the widespread worldliness of the church and the urgent need to revert back to the ancient devotion of the early churches. He has a knack of putting the Holy Spirit’s conviction on people as he preached. A lot of the people there cried, weeped or mourned because of the strong conviction of the Holy Spirit that night. I haven’t heard of such a powerful prophetic sermon in ages, and perhaps even never before. I really yearn for Pastor Daniel to preach more sermons like that; sermons that will move the brothers and sisters in our church to further spirituality. I had trouble entering into the mode of worship though. I can’t really worship in unfamiliar places as worship becomes really artificial and distracting. I didn’t feel very different after my baptism today, but I knew it’s significance. I was proclaiming to my fellow Christians and most importantly God that I am a child of His forever and have decided to follow Him, wherever He may lead. Also, I managed to understand more about sexuality and rejection in these past six weeks. I saw that everyone needs to feel accepted and to belong. However, you will never feel completely happy until you come into the house of God. God placed in us humans an emptiness that can only be filled with His love. Rejection are also one of the causes why everyone are desperate for love. I’m really amazed at the maturity and sensitivity my school friends showed four years ago. They saw me for who I was, though I didn’t realize it myself. They knew I needed love. And it took me God’s wisdom and such a long time to realize this fact. Rejection also leads to confused sexualities. Many homosexuals and people with confusing sexualities were hurt before or never experienced true love with the opposite sex. Past incidents, traumas and the environment you grew up in can also cause you to seek love from the people of the wrong gender. The lack of display of love from my father made me closer to my mother. This is why I am a little femininely inclined. My sister was closer to my dad and you can see her boyishness really clearly. But I have understood also that if God had wanted me to be feminine, He would have made me a girl. God makes no mistakes. Therefore, I am trying to be more masculine. Remember, God created men and women, and made no mistake. I hope this blog entry speaks out to you all. God bless you…