Dear Friend, Happy Friday! On March 31st, I had a dream where I got to know I had made an appointment with a Buddhist co-worker in my first company. In reality, he was interested in me, and after he left the company, he called me to go out for a dinner. I didn’t want to see him so that I ignored that. But in the dream, I got to be reminded by another colleague that I had planned to date with that co-worker without asking the Father. I felt I made a grave mistake, and I hated to see him, feeling disgust inside. Finally, I called him, to say I would not go to see him. He already seemed to be waiting for me, and he expressed how upset he was. Though I felt sorry for him, I chose not to feel even more sorry for myself later. When I awoke, I simply felt that it was a warning dream, and He wants me to ask Him before I meet anyone. Otherwise, I would regret, just as I did in the dream. Later in the evening, when I worshipped the Father and took some time, being silent, to listen to Him, He said, “My daughter, the dream was from Me. Ask Me before you try to make an appointment with any. It is to protect you from distraction. To be My priest, completely surrender to Me. Even if it seems weird to others and you feel uncomfortable about it, obey Me. You can still intercede for those whom I wouldn’t allow you to meet.” When I heard that, I was reminded of the testimony of the elder in my previous Seoul church, who used to be an ambassador to China, and wrote the book, The Ambassador of God. After retirement, whenever he got calls or texts from his ex-colleagues, friends, etc., he would ask the Father whether he should meet them. When the Father said, “Don’t meet him,” he wouldn’t even reply to that person. But he was not afraid of losing friends or being misunderstood or backbitten. He said that he actually interceded for those whom the Father didn’t allow him to meet. So, instead of seeing them in person, he kept them in his prayers, which is more important. Reminded of his testimony, I thought to myself I would do the same. Then, next morning, when I read Mark chapter five, I came to read the word, permit or permission three times. It was Jesus’ giving or not giving permission. The word, permission, was highlighted to me, and I felt the Father repeated what He said the other night, and reminded me that I should ask Jesus permission. Then, I found out I had received an email from Pastor John Fenn’s ministry and it included weekly thoughts for that week. I have been subscribing his monthly newsletter, but not weekly thoughts. I usually visit his website to read weekly thoughts. But, for some reasons, for the past 2 weeks, his weekly reports were not posted in his website. I wondered why. Then, I came to receive his weekly thoughts email for the first time, and got to know from the title that it was the last episode of the series with total 3 episodes. As I didn’t see the previous 2 episodes in his website, I thought I must search the same title in it. Finally I located the previous 2 episodes I had missed over the last couple of weeks. When I read through 3 episodes, I got to understand why He hindered me from reading them for the last 2 weeks, but gave them to me that day. The series of episodes timely explained why He wants me to ask Him permission before I would meet any. They were on Nehemiah, and the short excerpts are: “All of that happened because 1 man refused to be distracted, threatened, coerced, bribed, or manipulated by those who opposed him. That 1 man motivated others to join him, sharing the vision, and making it that each person had to rebuild the wall in front of their own house, making it personal, so that they were building to protect their own families.” He wants me to set a boundary, not to be distracted, threatened, manipulated, etc., when He does something new with me. I was amazed to read this explanation, only after I had the dream, heard His voice (Rhema) and read His confirmation through Logos till that morning. And I felt He orchestrated the time of receiving the weekly thoughts by email, though I didn’t subscribe it. After that, over the next couple of weeks, I had a couple of incidents where I applied my learning, i.e. setting a boundary. I might share part of them in later blogs. In the meantime, I would also like to share some excerpts from a Pastor Rick Joyner’s book, the Prophetic Ministry, I recently read. They gave me affirmation: The Protection of Prophecies Years ago I was given a prophecy that one of the greatest attacks against the church in the last days was going to come from false brethren. These are not false shepherds, false prophets, or false teachers, but false brethren. They are being sent to steal the children’s bread by consuming 90 percent of the leadership’s time, energy, and resources without ever really changing or producing fruit. This is part of the devil’s strategy in the last days to “wear out the saints.” This one word has probably saved my ministry, my family, and maybe even my life. I have watched those who did not heed this word pay a terrible price for it. As watchmen and shepherds, we must learn to spot these spiritual traps and avoid them. False brethren are “black holes” of self-centeredness and self-pity, who will steal the children’s bread if we do not recognize them and refuse to continue ministering to those who do not produce fruit in keeping with their professed repentance. … As we come closer to the end, it will become increasingly important that we not be distracted or waste our time, energy, and resources on problems that could have been avoided. For this we need dependable, accurate prophetic ministries. I was so grateful for getting to read this in the book. I felt as though He wanted me to be enlightened and equipped for my future house church as well as my future family. Interestingly enough, while I was writing the draft of this blog, I came to watch a Korean Christian TV show over lunch, and listened to a guest speaker’s sharing her testimony. After she had some supernatural encounters with the Father, and was changed, she didn’t want to waste her time any more. She used to have more than 3,000 contacts in her phone, as she was a people person. But, she started to ask the Father whether she can call or see her friends, etc. before she tried to call or see them. She ended up with losing many of them, but she knew she did the right thing, in order to closely walk with the Father. I felt Him affirming this subject, and I wanted to re-watch that part from her testimony before going to bed. Then, in that evening, my niece texted me to ask whether I would be available on this Saturday. Her mother, my oldest sister, and she would come over to my place on the weekend, to have lunch and hang around with our mom, her grandmother, since my sister came back to Seoul in late March. My niece wanted to give me a heads-up that she might have a reunion lunch meeting with some of her friends on Saturday, yet she was debating whether she would go to that meeting. And she also asked my opinion on another appointment during the week with her old friends from the USA, who are in town. Since she asked my opinion, I shared my thoughts, knowing the background of their relationship, and said to her, “Ask the Father, anyway.” Then, after re-watching the testimony, I felt the message of our being set-apart was supposed to be shared with my niece. So I shared it. Immediately, she replied, “That was literally just having this exact conversation with my friend!!! That simplicity of circles of friends is a much better way to live!!! Since Sunday I’ve been thinking how I used to be so addicted to social engagement but now I’ve become significantly more social minimalist. haha As in being intentional about who I give access to be part of my circles. Thank you for sharing! Always grateful for how He speaks through you!” Friend, I don’t know whether this speaks to you. You might think, “Should I need permission from the Lord, even for meeting someone?” I would do this, not because of religiosity, but out of my submission to the Father, and I’d like to share the excerpts from a Watchman Nee’s book, Worship God: What is the kingdom? “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” [see Matt. 6.10]. That means that there will be no human will coming out to limit Him. When the question of the will is settled, then the question of power is also settled. What is the secret of really serving the Lord? It is not doing a hundred and one things for the Lord. Service is really submission to the Lord—knowing the true meaning of that word, “to obey is better than sacrifice” [1 Sam. 15.22b]. Abraham was one who obeyed God’s voice; and the Lord is after such utter responsiveness to himself, so that He can have a free way unhindered. And I believe there is always a good reason when the Father tells us to do something, and obedience is from our total trust, even if we don’t understand why. But like Pastor Rick Joyner wrote, I think we shouldn’t be naive on false brethren. Not only some unbelievers, but false brethren would distract, discourage, threaten or manipulate us. It’s for close walk with the Father as well as protection of our family, our house church, and the work He would do with us. May He give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him and our eyes of understanding be enlightened. Have a bliss! Yunee I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1~2) Comments are closed.
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