The Best Satisfies

Something Bill Johnson once shared popped into my head:

If you have the best, there is no second best.

It's kinda like, "If you can win the first prize, why would you want second prize?"

I can tell the world that I have the best prize, and His name is Jesus. The flower loses its beauty, the mountain loses its glory, the canyon loses its splendor when compared to this God-man. We all can have the best, and we do not have to go for anything less than best. Nothing in the world can be compared to His glory, splendor, and beauty -- even the sun seems to have a lesser glow.

He is the best Father.

The best Teacher.

The best Healer.

The best Prophet.

The best Preacher.

The best Counselor.

The best Friend.

The best Lover.

So, tell me now, if we can easily have the best, why do we always go for second best?

Second best does not quench the thirst. It does not satisfy. The BEST satisfies.

Take this as an invitation of Jesus, the best this world's got, and He is desperate to be the best of your life. He paid the price so that He can be with you. And don't ever, EVER think that you do not deserve the best.

Johnny

IHOP plug + Identity

First of all, y'all need to go to www.ihop.org/watch to see what the Holy Spirit has been doing @ International House of Prayer in Kansas City! The Spirit just took over the entire house and healing, deliverance, laughter, tears just broke out like no tomorrow! GO THERE or WATCH LIVE! I got really filled by just hearing about the cool stuff God's doing there! Lord, I pray for an increase of Your glory upon IHOP and Kansas City and all over the world through web streaming! Praise God for internet!

Due to a move of the Holy Spirit, IHOP–KC is holding extended meetings from 6:00pm–midnight (CST) at the FSM building. Click on the player below to join us via the free, live webstream during these times. If you would like access to the prayer room 24/7, please subscribe to our Prayer Room webstream here.

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I still need to get closer to the Word and His Word. The more I come to Him and to the Word, the more energy I would gain, the more peace I would have, the more revelation I would receive, the more knowledge of Jesus I would gain.

Ever watched the movie "Fight Club" by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt? If you have not, you should definitely watch it; however, I'm going to spoil a bit of the movie for you. It turned out that Brad was an imaginary friend in the end. There. I just gave you in the ending of the movie. But you still need to go watch it.

It is definitely harder to make imaginary friends, especially with a sound mind. I'm not saying that God is an imaginary being; He just cannot be seen through our natural eyes. However, the same principals used to build friendships in the world works pretty much the same with Jesus: you meet Him, know more about who He is by spending more time with Him and His Words to an extent that you know He would back you up because He has become your Best Friend.

Paul wrote to the church of Corinth in 2 Cor. 1:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through Him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

I think that is just about the coolest promise from God. We are reconnected with the Father through Jesus. In other words, since all God's promises have been made "Yes" in Jesus, then it is through Jesus that God's promises are now made available to those who believe. Therefore, without Jesus backing us up, there is no way for us to receive the "Yes" part of God's promises because Jesus is the Way to the Father, His promises, His love, His mercy, His righteousness, and His glory. That is why God make us stand firm in Jesus Christ.

Lastly, we need to know that 1) We are anointed by God. 2) On us is God's Seal of Ownership. and 3) In our hearts is the Holy Spirit, a deposit that guarantees God's promises to be fulfilled.

That is the true identity of a Christian! We have authority and the power of God through Jesus Christ, and we should not be afraid of taking up that staff and start advancing His Kingdom -- that is what we are called to do! We have a REAL invisible friend be our side -- He shows us that He is real through words, revelations, dreams, people, circumstances, healing, signs and wonders! Let's keep pursuing the best friendship ever so that we can stand firm of who we are!

Thoughts?

Johnny

ps. The sunset sky was beautiful today.

Treasure Huntin'

Q: What can you do on Halloween night?

A: Go and pray for people! =D

12 of us were split into three groups.

Enoch, Alice, Kay (who turned 16), and I encountered this dude, JAMES, with a sling over his shoulder. He, a high school sophomore @ St. Francis High School, injured his left collar bone playing football. Alice prayed for him first. After the prayer, the pain was lessened by a little. So I shared a testimony to encourage him and told him that Jesus was healing him so let's pray again! After the second prayer, the PAIN WAS GONE and he took off his sling to start move around his left arm and held it way up high -- and it hurt just a little bit. So we only had one choice -- pray AGAIN! And surely enough, Jesus took away all his pain, and that guy left with sling in his hand, smiling and thanking Jesus for healing him from pain!

We had many things on our list, and mine was "BLACK BASEBALL CAP with a P on it". We went into the only hat store in the mall, which definitely would have some black caps with P's! As we entered in, this friendly salesperson approached us. I told him, "We're actually doing a treasure hunt and we're looking for someone who wears a black cap that has a P on it." He then lowered his head, and lo' and behold -- the BLACK CAP with a yellow P is on this guy's head! His name is Ben, and he's 21. So I told him that he was our treasure and God wanted to tell him something (which I did not know at the moment...). But then I started to tell him that God is pleased with his faithfulness, and he is faithful at what he does, and God would provide him because he remains faithful. For real, I did not know what I was talking about, and I felt like I was just repeating the same thing over and over.

So I asked him if any of the things I said make sense, and he said, "Yeah it made total sense!" We were all rejoicing and praising God; even the more, he told us that he is the YOUTH LEADER of his church and he needs God's provision and favor in this season of stepping up into his calling! We felt really connected with this guy and we all prayed and prophesied over him, and invited him to join us when we go out and do s'more treasure hunting!

ohhh just one more thing... he actually is an alumni of St. Francis High School, the school which JAMES, the guy who got healed, currently attends! Hmm.. maybe God's doing something over there! Come on! Jesus showing up on Halloween night! Too cool!

So... GREAT SUCCESS!

Johnny

ps. by the way, Michael Jackson's THIS IS IT is THE BOMB. Makes me wanna dance and sing during the whole movie. I am truly inspired by this musical legend.

Thoughts

We are instruments made by the Creator. Beautiful tunes come from us, yet our strings would get out of tunes as days go by. We always need to retune in order to play in tune once again -- back to the original purpose we are made for. Do we need to be retuned? Are we being played or left dusty in the basement? We need to know that we are made to produce frequencies, and retuning and string-changing is a MUST every now and then!

Tears are windows to broken hearts that will lead to the opening up of the door to the hearts, and be filled and saturated by the love for which the broken hearts have been searching. Jesus, only You can satisfy.

Johnny

Freedom + Musical Weapons

If you cannot see that the bridge is not connected to the

other side and you cross it, then either you fall or you stop at the edge of falling and start rebuilding that broken bridge.

...to be in need.

sometimes we don't even know we need to be set free from old habits and bondages because either we are used to them or they just appear out of nowhere without our notice.

and I was set free when this lady, Auntie Sharon, felt led to minister to and pray for me Saturday morning. I got to her house at 10am, and after the praying and setting-free was done, it was 1pm. Somehow three hours flew by without my notice--when the presence of God is so strong, time and space disappear because the realm of God does not require them. I only heard about her, and she only knew me through listening to my CD and praying for Jack/Annie, but she had a burden to pray for and minister to me. Pretty much everything she said to me were dead on, and I was just so amazed by God's timing and the surprise meeting with Auntie Sharon. It was God's timing, the best timing. I needed this and the things I received were totally what I have been praying for and asking for!

make the three-hour holy chaos short in a couple sentences: When she started praying for me, I began to cry uncontrollably. She sensed that I had a lot of burden and pressure on my shoulder and in my chest, so she started to pray for freedom, and I started to cough (I was not sick) because all the junk that's in my chest started to leave. After all those good ol' inner cleansing, the Holy Spirit started to fill me up with joy as Auntie Sharon proclaimed that I am a Happy Worshiper. She also said something about music to the nations or something like that, but basically about a breakthrough in leading worship as I constantly worship the Almighty, Jesus, and Holy Spirt in the Throne room -- there I will receive revelation and know God's heartbeat. Then as I lead worship, I too can receive revelation and be tapped into the flow of the Holy Spirit much much easier because I know Him and He would entrust me to release what He has in mind to the people during a worship session. That is my ultimate heart's desire in worship, and I know it needs to start with my daily life because I simply cannot give something which I do not have.

lastly, I saw two vivid visions: First, I saw myself, in a baby form with diapers, climbing up stairs towards this beautiful, opened gate. Behind it is LIGHT and it is impossible to look through the almost-blinding light. I was climbing and knowing where I as heading to, with a big smile on my face; I was laughing also. So when I finally entered the gate, I simply disappeared in the LIGHT, which is the glory of God.

the second vision has some connection with a vision I had during summer camp: I was taken to the Weaponry Room, and around me were all kinds of swords and shields for battle. As I turned to the other side of the room, there stood many musical instruments that looked nothing like any instrument in the world. Each one of them looks like a combination of multiple (maybe 5 to 8) different instruments. I wonder what they sound like, but the size of those instruments were fairly big because they make loud sounds I believe.

so on Saturday I saw a vision of a sword -- it looks like a regular sword for close-up battles; however, there are buttons on the hilt (the handle) which, after pressing them, cause the sword to "shoot sound" or "attack with sound waves". I found this "music sword" on google image; it's a children's toy and it has buttons on it that makes different sound and light on the sword... totally awesome! And the second picture is a guitar with a shape of a sword!

see the connection between those two musical weapon visions? I believe when worship music is played, angels would start picking up those musical weapons and begin to wage war with the enemy in the spirit realm, and we know the outcome already, so that'll make our job much easier =D

oh yes, towards the end of the prayer, she also saw me laying hand on the sick and see them healed! Hey how's that for an awesome confirmation =D Come on!

during David Nyquist's sharing on saturday night, I was so blown away by his words because many of them are pretty much what I received in the morning with Auntie Sharon! So there ya go, confirmation is God's way of telling me "hey you, pay attention, this is pretty important". And I am expecting more confirmation in the days to come! But for now, I just want Jesus and Jesus and Jesus, nothing else.

whether you play an instrument or not, we're all in this together. When you sing, dance, paint, tap, or play an instrument to praise God and give Him glory and honor, you are a soldier in the army of God!

so, Holy Spirit, I want to be filled up and charged up like never before... and help me to be sensitive of what You are doing when I hang out with You every day! Breakthrough, I am coming!!!

Johnny