Moving Heavens and Earth

Are you bold in what you pray for?  Recently, I’ve become absolutely convinced that God will move Heavens and Earth out of love for us if we just ask.  That He can - and will - do anything to show you His love, even change the weather.

Now before you strike me as some kind of radical or crazy person, Jesus himself said “With man this impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:26 (NIV)

I just got married on September 18th.  It was a Sunday.  For three or four days before the wedding, I woke up each day to dark grey overcast skies.  I checked the weather each day, hopeful there would somehow be sun for the biggest day of our lives…[click “Read More” below to continue]

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The Divine Mechanic

Lately I’ve been praying on anything and everything.  And God has been faithful to answer each and every time - it’s amazing.

I blogged recently about how God fixed my web programming bug after I prayed, and that experience has inspired me recently to start praying about everything, big or small, and even the little things that I used think were too small or unimportant for God to care about.

Today was another example of that.  I’ve been having this problem with my car for months now where this horrible exhaust / burning oil smell has been coming into the passenger cabin through the air vents.  It’s been giving me headaches, and my friends have been complaining that they can’t even ride in my car without the windows open.  It’s been such a headache (literally and metaphorically) that I’ve even taken my car into two different mechanics.  Both times, they basically gave my car a clean bill of health, more or less told me I was crazy or imagining things about any fumes, and then said, oh yeah that’ll be 200 hundred bucks for the diagnostic we ran.

But today, I finally got smart about it…

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God My Provider

Does God really speak to us?  How do we know how to hear His voice?  Our friend So-Young shares an incredible testimony of praying, waiting for God to speak, and acting out on faith when her prayers were directly and perfectly answered.

I have been traveling back and forth to Singapore from LA for about a year spending about 30% of my time serving clients and building my new business in Singapore. I was very happy to continue traveling back and forth until I started to get a bit tired of living on a plane and being “Up in the Air” (yes, that’s me). I asked God what He wanted me to do. You see, God was the only reason I was in Singapore in the first place.

Back in November, 2009, I was trying to see where to invest our time as a company in Asia. I used to live in Japan and have strong ties to Korea as a 2nd generation Korean-American so I naturally thought these may be likely candidates. God had a different idea. I stopped in Singapore and I felt God tell me to plant my feet and invest in Singapore. I just felt so strongly to “Invest in Singapore” so I have spent most of 2010 doing just that.

So I said “God, if it is YOUR will and timing for me to move to Singapore, please make it VERY VERY clear as you know I have no real desire to leave LA. I love LA. I love my home by the water which I believe you provided for me. I love my friends and the relationships you have provided. Please make it clear and if I have to move, please make everything EASY.”

In my heart, I wanted to continue living in LA so as I prayed for God’s perfect timing, I asked my Father to help me 1) find someone trustworthy to stay in my room, 2) help me pay rent (as I would not be able to afford 2 rents), 3) allow me to leave my stuff there in my room, 4) be ok with me coming back and forth, as needed, and 5) was flexible in terms of no set timeframes/leases or needs (since I wasn’t sure how long I would be in Singapore). I did nothing about this prayer. I told no one. Was just between me and God.

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About 1 week later, I received a facebook message from a friend in San Francisco who I hadn’t spoken to in about 8 months asking me if I was still looking for a roommate to share my place in LA.  I had asked around for a roommate almost a year ago.  Who still looks for roomates a year later?  He ended up introducing me to one of his SF friends looking for a temporary place in LA. We corresponded over email and I finally met her in person on Friday, September 24.

She loved the place, was trustworthy and listed out her needs. Check. Check. Check. She described all of the 5 criteria I needed. As soon as she left, I knew that was the God’s way of telling me the time for me to go was NOW. Within 30 minutes of her leaving my home, I called my team and my parents to let them know that I had decided to move to Singapore at the end of the month. Everyone was shocked because this is not something I had planned or mentioned to anyone. On October 25, I left LA and came to Singapore.  

If God’s provision and timing were not enough in LA, when I got to Singapore, I had temporary housing with some good friends. I was planning to move into another place that I thought was the perfect place for me so I told my friends that I would quickly check out this new place and would only stay with them for a few days. I thought this was God’s way of providing for my needs. With this new place, I would have to pay rent, of course, but I thought it could be ok given I was getting help with my LA place.

Amazingly God had an even better plan (as he usually does) than my own. When I saw the place I thought I was supposed to take, I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right. I was confused and bummed. I asked God “I thought this was going to be easy and smooth, Lord. I don’t understand. Lord, I know you know my heart’s desires and needs.” He must have smiled at me when I said this since He had something better in mind.

My good friends ended up asking me to stay longer and as long as I needed to as their guest. In fact, my friend cleared out the closets and their office for me to get settled in. And since I’ve been here, we have been blessing each other tremendously - spiritually (she comes to church with me now where she often couldn’t go), physically (we work out together every morning at their home), emotionally (she doesn’t have to be alone when her husband travels for work which is quite often), and mentally (we give each other business/life advice).

This has been such an easy, smooth transition and God has provided EVERYTHING - even more than I had even planned. I narrowly thought of just the financial stuff and housing. God’s plan included my material needs PLUS providing a unique chance to share life, build deeper friendships and become more disciplined (i have never worked out for more than 2 days in a row - i’m on day 9). When we allow God to take control over our lives, the great news is that He does. And He does it in a way that is bigger, better and more perfect than anything I could ever even dream of. Thank you Daddy for ALWAYS being my provider.

Wondering whether God hears you when you pray?  Or want to learn how to pray?  Connect with us here!

INTERACT with this story - How do you hear God’s voice?  We want to know!  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

A Threefold Cord Is Not Quickly Broken

“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken” - Ecclesiastes 4:12 (ESV)

There is something different about a God-centered relationship, something powerful.  Something so threatening that the enemy will do whatever it takes to try and undermine it.  Thankfully, the enemy will fail.

I’ve never experienced something like this before, to be with someone who loves and seeks God as much (if not more) than I do.  And when I think about that famous verse in Ecclesiastes, I love the image that it presents.  A person alone is an easy target.  Two together is stronger.  But it’s only when the two are tied together with God in between them - the threefold cord, that it’s hard for the enemy to break you.

I woke up around 3am for the second night in a row.  When I woke up, God had placed an idea on my head - that for some reason I should BBM my girlfriend in Hong Kong to remind her that she’s beautiful and that I was thinking about her.  So I messaged her.  Turns out, it was perfect God timing…[click “Read More” below to continue]

She wrote me back right away.  “You won’t believe it,” she said, “but this is such perfect timing.  Right when you wrote me, I was being spiritually attacked and discouraged.  For no reason, a guy friend on MSN was telling me how he didn’t think you were right for me - how it’s impossible for a cat to change its stripes, and if you were one way before you’re not going to be able to change.  How we wouldn’t make it to see even 3 months.  And not only that but my ex boyfriend had started messaging me too - completely out of the blue - and he didn’t even have my BBM anymore!  But your message broke me out of all that and lifted everything off of me!”

Apparently all of this was happening right when God woke me up with that idea to give her some affirmation.  I had no idea at all - but it was just the right message at just the right time.

I was in such a good mood from how God intervened to protect and encourage her that I started typing some nonsense on BBM, making a joke about how far away Hong Kong was from Los Angeles.

“You know that old Irish song,” I typed, “‘My bonnie lies over the ocean….my bonnie lies over the sea…”

But before I could finish she quickly replied “So bring back my bonnie to me!”

I was surprised.  “How did you know that song?” I laughed.  “That’s so random.  Didn’t you grow up in Malaysia?”

“My dad used to sing that song to me when I was little,” she said.  We laughed.

I couldn’t help but think - how amazing and tender and loving our God is.  That not only does He intervene to protect our relationship and ward off the attacks and lies of the enemy in His perfect timing, but out of nowhere - He gives me a song to sing to her that I hadn’t thought of in years.  And that song just so happens to be the one that her dad used to sing to her when she was a kid.  Out of all the songs in the world, this was the one God gave to me in that moment.

What a great reminder that God knows us inside and out, loves us to the last drop.  He’ll sometimes remind us of how well He truly knows us, remind us of things we don’t even really remember or think about anymore.  But our Heavenly Father is a doting one - He keeps a huge scrapbook of every last detail we grew up with, and on the cover there’s two huge words written on it “PROUD FATHER.”

And who better to look out for our relationship than that?

Questions? Want to know more about Jesus or go deeper with God?  Connect with us here!

INTERACT with this story: When has God stepped in for you just in your time of need?  We want to know!  Please share with us in the comments below.

Who Knew God Could Do Tech Support?

It’s amazing what a little prayer can do.  As the programmer and web designer for WitnessLA and WitnessHK, I have been in charge of coding and adding social plugins like Facebook and Twitter to our sites.  Usually everything works fine, but over the last two days I was dealing with an agonizing bug in the system that was causing all our Facebook “Like” buttons not to work.

I literally tried everything.  I must have rewritten the snippet of code 10 times.  I scoured the internet, read every forum, tried every “fix” people had talked about online.  I removed all the code and re-entered it over and over again, somehow in hopes that it would magically work again.  I even got to the point where I started posting on various developer forums, seeking help from others on how to get the bug to go away, all to no avail.

After about 2 days of banging my head against the wall, I woke up tonight at 3:45 am.  For some reason, I had dreamt that the Facebook bug had been miraculously fixed and that hundreds of people were using the button, and it was working just fine.  Elated, I jumped up from bed, and turned my computer on, convinced that somehow it would be working…[click “Read More” below to continue]

But when my computer finally booted up, I went to the sites and tried the Like button.  The moment of truth, I thought - this was why I woke up.  But sadly, it was giving me that same aggravating error.  It was still broken.

I don’t know what inspired me, but at that point I finally wisened up.  I asked my girlfriend “as lame as it sounds, I want you to pray that this Facebook bug will get fixed.”  Even though it seemed like such a small thing, she agreed.  After I got off the phone with her, I took a moment to finally pray and ask God for help.

“God,” I said, “I know that in the grand scheme of the world, with all that’s going on, my little Facebook bug isn’t that important.  But since it’s important to me, I know it’s important to you, and it’s close to your heart.  So God, I just declare that you’re going to fix this Facebook bug in Jesus name.”

Even though I prayed it, I have to admit I didn’t have a lot of faith I was going to be able to find the solution.  I almost felt like it was insulting to God for some reason, for me to ask him a simple “tech support” question - like I was treating the creator of the world as my personal IT support guy.  But God came through.

Right after I prayed, I was typing up the bug and issue on a Facebook developers forum when all of a sudden I got that familiar nudging of the Holy Spirit in my head - an idea popping out of nowhere that I didn’t plant myself.  “This whole time you’ve been using Firefox, have you ever tried looking at the problem in Internet Explorer?”  It never occurred to me to try that.

So I went to the problem page in Internet Explorer and found that I was able to click on a link that wasn’t accessible in Firefox.  That link told me exactly what the bug was, and in a matter of just minutes, I had found the solution.  ALL of the Facebook Buttons were fixed right then and there.

Imagine, I thought, if rather than banging my head against the wall for two days, I had just prayed.

Thank you, God, for being immeasurably large, the creator of everything, but for also being overwhelmingly attentive to my immeasurably small problems.  There is no “wasted” prayer with you, no matter how small.  Amen!

Questions? Want to know more about God?  Connect with us here!

INTERACT with this story: What’s a small prayer request that God has answered for you before?  We want to know!  Share yours in the comments below.

Simplicity

How do we reach those people who have no interest in hearing about God?  Our friend Niaisha shares a wonderful story of what’s she learned.

It’s hard sometimes to offer something once and get denied.

It gets a little harder to offer the same thing twice and get denied.

After the third offer and denial then usually the vault door closes and that offer is never made again. 

Ask a 4^th time 

As a friend was driving me home I shared about how I’ve tried having conversations about God with my roomie, “Betty”, and how I feel I have failed each time.  My friend then said something brilliant, yet so simple, “Offer to pray for her.”  Simple enough right?  Simple enough to formulate a plan around it to make the offer successful, and prevent my feelings from getting shot down, yet again….[click “Read More” below to continue”]

And then…. I walked into the apartment a few minutes later.  Betty eagerly greeted me and started sharing about her day and some health complications in her life.  As she paused and before I had a chance to think the words flew out of my mouth, “I would love to pray for you and keep you in prayer if that’s ok?” She paused for what seemed like forever, snickered, paused, and then said, “Yea, thank you.”  (Big smile; insert a happy dance (alone in my room of course) while excitedly writing it on my prayer wall.) 

Ask a 4^th time?!  Asking is such a simple thing to do and when we let god plan and prepare us it becomes just that simple in reality.  I planned and asked many times before, and it was only when I shared it with someone else that I invited God in to prepare me, plan, and be the guide when talking with Betty.  God took hold of the reigns of fear and filled my mind with boldness and confidence to speak only one necessary sentence.  Why ain’t he a great preparer/planner/speech writer?!

Want to Know More About Jesus Christ? Want to Talk to Us Anonymously? Connect With Us Here!

INTERACT with this story: Have you ever shared the gospel with a roommate?  What have you found works the best?  Share your story in the comments below.

“So You’re the One With the Back Pain?”

Do you believe in miracles? Our friend A shares an incredible testimony of how God instantly healed her back after more than 10 months in constant, overwhelming pain.

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate” - 1 Corinthians 1:19

It’s been a long hard 10 months of extreme back pain and not sleeping through the night… and as silly as it may sound, I knew there was something seriously wrong with my back pain issue when I had to stop wearing heels because my right leg became very weak and unstable.

My back pain stems from my past of extreme child abuse from my step-mom from the age of 5-17. Doctors have told me that every ligament that holds my spine together from the base of my neck to my tailbone is completely covered with scar tissue and therefore unstable.

At 17, I mustered up the courage to run away from home and soon became involved with humanitarian work and fought hard for children’s welfare issues; I helped build national campaigns for human welfare issues with organizations like The ONE Campaign, World Vision, Unicef, etc. A few years later, as a 3rd year undergrad at UCLA, I met God in power and truth and was baptized in the Holy Spirit….and I experienced a healing miracle - I was healed of asthma through a prayer from a pastor!

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Photos and Recap: Meet The Editors BBQ

Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday to make our first ever “Meet the Editors” BBQ such a success! 

We had over 80 attendees join us from as far as the South Bay, the Valley, and Orange County, and even had a few visiting guests from San Diego and the Bay Area.  It was wonderful day to fellowship, build community, enjoy the perfect weather, grub on Chef Jason’s gourmet BBQ, and throw the football around.  Sherea, Celine and Alex blessed us with their testimonies, and our video team was able to record some amazing testimonies and stories from more than 10 different people (will be posted soon - stay tuned as we launch our YouTube channel).

A huge thank you from all of us at WitnessLA to Grillmaster Jason K., our incredible welcoming and events team Quenna, Bonnie, Renee, Mary, and Daniel H., our tireless video team Jason W., Jeff, Ray, and Lance, and our friends and family at GBS for financial support and NewSong LA for promotional support.  This wouldn’t have come together without you!

[Click “Read More” below for more pictures]

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Tomorrow: Our First Ever “Meet the Editors!”

WitnessLA.org Presents Our First Ever “Meet the Editors” Event

For Facebook Invite / RSVP: Click Here

***FREE GOURMET BBQ FROM CHEF JASON KIM***

Have you ever wondered who runs the blog?
Want to meet some of the people behind the stories and testimonies?
Want to find out how you can get involved?

If you’re a reader, we want to meet you!

Please join us for free BBQ, games and fun in the park!
Saturday August 28th, 1-4pm
Roxbury Park
Room 103, BBQ Pits
471 S. Roxbury Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Some of our Confirmed Attendees:

Mylinh, Editor
Bonnie, Editor
Lance, Editor
Dan, Editor

Alex, author of In the Airport Security Line and Our Prayer Was Answered
Milton, author of A Life Without Purpose is a Life Without Destination
Roberta, author of A Peace Filled Communion
Sherea, author of The Return of My Father
Stacie and Cary, co-authors of God at 24 Hour Fitness
Karen, author of A Call to Prayer
Celine, author of Celine’s Testimony
Emilia, author of God’s Footsteps

…and many other contributors and special guests to be announced!

Divine Business Meeting at Fatburger

Our friend “M” shares about her struggles with her faith at work and how through truth of the word of God, prayer, and perseverance she begin to enter into the fullness of God’s calling for her. 

Last year my company was struggling financially so I began praying for it. God put *Spain on my heart as a potential source of new business opportunities.  Within two months of receiving this message, God brought two projects from Spain to my company! 

I started working on a proposal to expand our business development efforts there and set a deadline of 2 months to finish it, but the project ended up taking 9 months to complete because I had trouble managing my fears and doubts.  I had never done anything this ambitious and it scared me that I wouldn’t have the skills or work experience to put together a proposal of this nature, let alone the credibility to push it through to upper management.   The adversary used my fears to redirect my focus away from God’s calling and onto my insecurities, which resulted in me stopping work on the project because I was comatose with anxiety and fear.

Finally in May I had a spiritual break through. 

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