Are aspects of your life broken? Our Voice, Janice, shares a personal story of how God fixes the brokenness in us.
At church the other day, the speaker dished us a really interesting food for thought.
He reminded us that we have now come to live in a society where when something is broken, it’s cheaper to buy a new one than to get the old one fixed. I marinated on that.
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Our Editor Rachel debuts in WitnessLA with a story which brought her back to one of the darkest times in her life.
A few years ago, I was at the bottom of my career in Hong Kong entertainment. The company I joined was seemingly established with the biggest stars and 30 years of history but all of a sudden, it closed down. When I was drowning my sorrows in Shanghai with my friends, I met an accident which caused me to be hospitalized. That same weekend, I broke up with my boyfriend of three years. When I thought I was at the lowest point of my career, love and friendship, a close friend of mine sent me emails, asking me to come home to Malaysia, where she would be there for me. Her name was Shu.
Shu was the girl with the beautiful hair and features. She had a smile that would light up the entire college hallway. Even when she was going through tough times, she would tell me her stories with a great sense of humor. Her optimism was an inspiration to me.
Our Voice Sherea has a family history of cancer. She was recently tested for this illness. Her family and friends prayed the sickness would not go down the family-line. Please read the incredible story of how prayer helped Sherea overcome the odds.
Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there.
Most people, who know me, know that I absolutely hate everything about going to the doctor. I hate hospitals, medications, giving blood, tests, making appointments, co-pays and everything else that come with it. However, in the past year or so, I have been to the doctor more than I have in the last 10 years.
For many of us, the images of the 1992 LA Riots is something we will never forget. Its aftermath left our city wounded, scarred and divided, often on racial grounds. But 20 years later, God is reconciling what was broken.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots, a multi-ethnic coalition of faith leaders is joining forces to bring long-needed healing and forgiveness to our communities.
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Our friend, Kytia, parallels everyday circumstances, such as repairing a leak in the ceiling, to lessons that God teaches us, like healing our greatest pains from the inside out. Kytia’s testimony reminds us that God can use times of great sadness, confusion and struggle to break open our hearts and bring healing.
Recently, my husband and I had our first encounter with serious repairs to our apartment. Ever since the first time it rained while we were living on our own, we’ve been dealing with leaks here and there in our office. There was even an incident when I noticed a leak above my computer desk right before we were about to leave for a meeting. If we had left just a few minutes sooner, my keyboard might have been soaked by the time we returned home and that would have been a whole other problem.
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Here is a powerful story of how our writer, Ed, learned an equation that most find difficult to accept: Failure + Faith x Perseverance = Success. Sometimes we are so fixated on doing what is “right” or what we believe is pleasing to God that we overlook the greater purpose: Bringing Him joy. Then, when we wonder why our good deeds aren’t acknowledged, God reminds us that it isn’t about us. The fruits of our goodness will stir change, but we must have faith, patience and perseverance.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-5 NIV)
A lot of times we see and hear about amazing testimonies of God. What we rarely hear about is the journey that got them there. One day I was on the subway praying and asking the Lord for an opportunity to see somebody healed. I’d watched a lot of testimonies from Bethel Church and wanted to see it firsthand. After I finished praying the subway reached my station. The doors opened up and low and behold, a girl in a wheelchair with a cast on her leg was sitting outside.
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I stepped out and stood in complete shock at how quickly God answered my prayer. Completely paralyzed by fear, I didn’t know how to approach the situation. I was dumbfounded and as I processed the situation, the girl and a guy pushing the wheelchair went their way.
After they were gone, I was really discouraged by my lack of faith and felt like I had just let God down. God set me up perfectly to pray for a girl to be healed, but I didn’t do my part. I left the station and got on the bus to get home. On my way home, I decided that I was not going until I prayed for someone. On the way home, the busy passed by a hospital and I got off. Walking into the lobby, again I saw another man in a wheelchair who also had a cast on his leg. I sheepishly walked right passed him into the hospital as he rolled by. Sitting in the lobby of the hospital, I was so frustrated again and wondered why I was scared. I prayed and prayed and finally gathered enough courage to go and pray for the man. Going back outside I saw him from a distance sitting outside smoking a cigarette.
After buying a drink at Starbucks, I stood next to him and pretended that I was waiting for someone. 10 minutes or so went by before I finally asked him what happened to his leg. It went something like this.
Me: Hi… What happened to your leg?
Poor bystander in wheel chair: I got into a bike accident.
Me: Does it hurt?
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Yes.
—- Awkward silence- Another 5 minutes go by.
Me: Um do you believe in miracles? Because I do.
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Uh.. sure.
Me: I believe that God can heal people.
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Okay, I believe that people heal over time.
Me: Yeah, but I think God can heal you right now.
Poor bystander in wheel chair: (Grin)
Me: Can I pray for you????
Poor bystander in wheel chair: No
—- Awkward silence. As the two of us sit there, I tried to rescue the situation but all is lost. Another 5 minutes go by.
Me: Can I assist you and push you somewhere?
—- The man rolls away in his wheelchair.
Completely humiliated I walked home in defeat, feeling as though I wasn’t holy, “anointed” or gifted enough. I said to myself, “This isn’t for me.” I even said something along the lines of, “I am not Jaeson Ma…”
As I kept kicking myself and complaining, the Lord spoke to me. He gently showed me that it isn’t by my strength that people are healed. It isn’t because of how “clean” or how pure I am that God uses me. It isn’t by ANYTHING I can do. It is purely by His grace and my faith in Him. That day the Lord broke away the lies that put so much pressure on myself to perform the impossible.
A few weeks later, I met a brother in the church who had already actively been seeing people get healed and walking in God’s anointing. I talked to him and asked if he could show me how he prays for the sick. We went out onto the streets and this time I saw how differently he approached people. The way he talked to strangers and the compassion he had was so authentic. It was so casual and natural. This brother even shared testimonies with people on the street and encouraged them that God wanted to heal them.
Since that time, I’ve prayed for dozens of people on the streets and seen many of them get healed. What I’ve learned is that when we take risks and fail miserably, we have the opportunity into walk into success or doubt and become jaded. God is much more concerned with our character than he is with our comfort.
How badly do you want to see God heal someone? Will you be discouraged and give up after praying for a few people? I encourage you to proceed as breakthrough is right around the corner. Seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive.
Recently, a group called Youth With A Mission Denver visited Orange County to share the word of God to some of the OC residents. Many were exposed to God’s love and power, and a few even experienced healing through prayer. This video is a snapshot of what went down on the beaches of OC, and how God’s presence was felt by many who were there that day.
Never underestimate the power of prayer. Prayers are heard by God no matter where you are and in any form, whether by mouth or through Facebook.
We have here a short but awesome video from our Voice, Tony, the street evangelist. In this video, a friend of Tony shares her story of being instantly healed from sickness by simply praying a prayer that was written for her on her Facebook Wall.
Do you eat to live or live to eat? What if you stop eating altogether? Our courageous sister, C Chou found her answer in the midst of her battle with eating disorder.
Eating is special to me because I starved myself in high school.
At 15, I packed my bags and struck out to Aurora, IL where I attended a state-funded boarding school called the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA). At a very raw and difficult time in my family life, I flipped them all a very polite bird and peaced out. I was running away from problems, and they followed me. It was leaping out of the frying pan into the fire. And you can’t stop drop and roll for three years.
Without exaggeration I could write volumes about my adventures there.
I was a terror to the administration; it was a totalitarian school regime with anarchy always brewing: we were the bold sip of guerilla warfare. It was a noble affair to keep things awake. The academics were rigorous but rich; the social life was a very strange hierarchy of nerds and ubernerds and seminerds, milling amongst ourselves. To this day, my closest and dearest friends boast war wounds from those years. We wear our scars proudly.
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