Why Did I Go to Hong Kong and What Happened There?

So I have debated quite some time about whether to write this post or not for fear that I will open myself up to accusations of arrogance or on the other extreme maybe of extremism. But while we were at the "Grace and Glory Conference" in Hong Kong Rob Rufus taught us powerfully that mighty things can happen through the "word of our testimony" and so I am going to take the risk. I am persuaded that what we saw in Hong Kong bears the hallmarks of a revival and if it is fathered and not grieved or quenched could indeed see the whole earth covered in glory. I want everyone who can to know what happened!

Why I Went ...

Quite simply because God told me to. It was the most bizarre experience and I have never had such a direct calling from God to do something. I have been logging onto the "City Church International" website since Brighton in July and listening to and basking in Rob's sermons on grace then one day about 3 weeks ago, God spoke very clearly and said "I want you to go to the conference in Hong Kong". At first I dismissed it as ridiculous but I would never have dreamt of the financial burden of going. But then God spoke again quite clearly two more times and also confirmed His Word through some close friends who I trust and who walk in the prophetic and listen to God.

So I emailed City Church wondering if there were still places (that would be my final test!) and the wonderful Marike emailed back and said yes there were - and not only that she fixed up my accomodation at a ridiculously cheap price and also found me my new South African friend Allen who has been such an awesome joy to attend the conference with! While I was prepared to come alone, it meant so much to me to be able to share experiences with him and learn from his wisdom and see his passion for God. So I booked my flights (which were also a miracle - God got me them for 100 pounds cheaper than I first found) and got ready to fly!

So What Has Happened in Hong Kong?!

Well to tell my testimony properly I am going to cut and paste exactly what I emailed home to tell my close friends like Pete and Scott. Therefore I can't be accused of doctoring the testimony to make me look more "respectable" or "theological"! I have given up that idea for good now! The first thing that happened to me;

1. Visions of Angels and Heaven

Can I just state for the record that I am not really a "visions" kind of guy. I have had about one powerful dream before but have never had visions that I can remember during worship. So here's what I emailed the guys;

"As we were worshipping I got transported into the glory realm right to the throne room of God and I was alone in the Throne Room and could just see the feet of the throne and the blazing light coming from God and I cowered in the corner just feeling so small. But then I heard gentle, loving wonderful laughter!! It was coming from God!! And all He said was; "We've been waiting for you for quite a while!! What kept you!?!?" and I just fell on my feet in worship and tears. And as I lifted my hands in worship I suddenly saw that I was not alone in the throne room and that other believers were there!! You were there ... Allen was there ... all the conference people were there ... and as we were lifting our hands I suddenly saw crowns beautiful awesome crowns that made the Imperial State Crown look like a pathetic beret!! And all of us were crying and as the tears flowed down our faces they transformed into marvellous beautiful jewels!! Each of us had different jewels - mine were blue and white diamonds!! Yours were red crimson!! But each tear flew to the crown and attached itself. And my angel who was still standing behind me said;

"Every tear you shed in wonder and awe at God's grace and love - every act of pure kindness that you carried out motivated by love for God - everything comes together to become this crown. Nothing is lost".

And I said; "What do we do with the crown?" and my angel said; "You can do what you like with it" but even as he said it we were all casting our crowns at the throne of God in worship because what else could we do?!!? And as the angel continued to stand behind me he suddenly said;

"You know - we can't worship like you. The worship of the Redeemed carries a special place in the Father's heart. The worship of the saved grabs His attention like nothing else".

I didn't sense any jealousy in his heart at all - I sensed somehow just a wondering why we as Christians don't worship more!!

2. The "Fire Tunnel"!

Here's what I wrote in my email to Scott and Pete and the others;

Rob today preached a wonderful sermon really talking about manifestations in revival and how God moves and works and how we just musn't lock Him in!! It was totally biblical and absolutely amazing and I couldnt take notes fast enough!! :) But what he was doing was so wisely and so fatherly raising our faith and our expectation that these things were biblical and totally acceptable when of course you know that my whole background and history is towards caution and towards being careful!! Well according to what Rob said we need to only think about being cautious when we are exceeding and overtaking the Acts church and we've got QUITE a way to go then!!

Then ......... he announced that we were going to have a "Fire Tunnel!!" - now I don't know what that is and have never heard of it!! At first I thought that he was talking prophetically and that flames from heaven or something were going to come!! But then he got Fini de Gersigny up who has done these quite a bit and Fini organised the City Church International people into two lines facing each other - as though we were going to do country dancing!! Lol. And the idea was that all of us at the conference had to walk, stagger or crawl down the line and everyone we passed was going to pray for us!! Wow .... so you can imagine I started off by feeling very VERY nervous about what might happen!!

And then I felt God softly laugh behind me (or it might have been my angel!) and He said; "So what's the worst that could happen? You make a fool of yourself?! Everyone else is doing the same! Your life gets changed?!". So after that I felt better but then started to feel nervous that nothing would happen to me and I WOULD'NT get changed!! Lol!! But then God started to show me the people who were being prayed for and He said; "Look at the faces of the City Church guys" and I did and I saw such love and compassion on their faces!! And I just started to weep so much as I started to realise that this would be the first time that any Christian has laid their hands on me in love and prayed for God's blessing to fall on me - I think - since I got baptised in the Spirit when I was at uni!! I honestly can't remember anyone else laying hands on me!! I just couldnt get over the fact that these guys had freely received from Rob so much and were prepared to give it away so so freely and so so lovingly!!

There was some quite dramatic stuff going on!! Some guys were going into the tunnel and were literally falling down and were being thrown THROWN all the way down the tunnel!! By no one human I might add!! Other people were shaking, laughing, screaming, falling!! And so as I got closer and closer to the tunnel I could feel the Presence of God getting heavier and heavier and as though I was trying to walk through treacle!! I should add that I saw that Isi de Gersigny (the lady prophet who was speaking there at the conference) was standing near the front of the line praying for people and I was really excited about that and longing that God would give me a powerful prophetic impartation through her!! So as soon as the first two women laid their hands on me - I just began to cry and cry and CRY!! In fact (this is serious) I cried so hard that I could taste blood in the back of my throat. I think I burst a couple of blood vessels in my nose!!

And as I was staggering forward I suddenly felt Isi touch my hand with her hand and my chest over my heart. As she did that I felt an electric volt - literally - shock through her hand and go through my body and to my chest!! It was incredible!! When she did that I just found it harder and harder to stand up and the Fire Tunnel people were so so amazingly helpful!! They just gently and lovingly guided me forward and kept praying "More! More!" over me!!

About half way down the tunnel a guy laid his hand on my head (and mucked up my hair ... but I didn't care!!) and just yelled so loudly "YOU'RE A SON!! YOU'RE A SON!!!" and suddenly it was as though God just showed me so clearly what was wrong in my life - that I have an orphan spirit!! That because my earthly father was incapable of showing love and affection in a manifest way that I grew up never really knowing what it means to have God as my Father!! And suddenly I began laughing uncontrollably and calling out "Daddy!! Daddy!!" - which is what "Abba!" means in the Bible!! And it was though I could hear God standing there with tears in His eyes and saying "You've never called Me that before!!".

And after that I just couldn't stop laughing and snivelling (quite a pretty sight!!) and just staggered down the end of the tunnel and collapsed on the floor and just lay there in my sleeping position for about an hour!! Just couldnt get up because I was basking in the goodness and presence of God!! I have never felt so loved so accepted so wonderful!! That it doesnt matter what church people think of me, what my family think of me - all that matters is that God looks at me through Jesus Christ and says "Well done My beloved son!!" - me!?!! Beloved son!!?!?!? ME?!?!! :) WOWWWWWW!!!!"