blind eyes open
-1 Corinthians 6:19~20-

Where You Go I'll Go by Brian Johnson
Where You go I go
What You say I say
What You pray I pray
What You pray I pray

How could I expect to walk without You
When every move that Jesus made was in surrender
I will not begin to live without You
For You alone are worthy and You are always good

Though the world sees and soon forgets
We will not forget who You are and what You've done for us

****
It's 3:30am. I am about to head to bed after this entry.

Yesterday(Sat) I was looking for someone that I could pray for, but I didn't really find anyone. I was with Annie at McDevil...I mean McDonald's late at night after 12, wanted to get some food for we did not have dinner. The crazy thing was that there was only one worker and she looked like a college student, maybe a graduate. We weren't sure. But we were both surprised at her working at such late hours alone(she's got friends hanging out with her inside). But anyhow I felt this burden upon me and I prayed for that worker at my seat and so was Annie. As we were waiting at the drive-thru window and since I didn't have a chance to pray for someone that day and the McWorker did not seem to be the one, I asked Annie that whether I could pray for her. Actually, it was more like, "Annie, I'm gonna pray for you right now(the sixth person)." So I prayed for her career and her open houses coming up and all that jazz. 'Twas good. So that was that.

****

First of all I just want to praise that I actually woke up at around 8:30 this Sunday morning! For those who know me, when I sleep, I'm basically dead and nothing can wake me up besides some annoying alarm clocks. I did a simple prayer asking God to wake me up on time the night before! GIG!
Anyhow here comes the Sunday celebration. Right before worship, I suddenly found out that my top keyboard's effect PR-A 017 was altered in some way that I could not fix in 30 sec. I was like....what is going on here? I don't remember I did any changes to this really amazing effect. Oh well, worship had to start so I only used the bottom keyboard today unlike other times. Anyhow, the worship had to start. Usually I would started to feel His presence during the first song, if not, the second. But today was very weird. I really did not feel His presence AT ALL during the worship, even when Jack took over. I kept on looking at the congregation, thinking are they feeling His presence? Why aren't they dancing and shouting to God? If I'm not feeling God does it mean that the music was not helping people to feel His presence? Anyhow, the worship seemed quite short to me.
Before Pastor David Tai's message today, I shared the testimony about Jim, the really cool guy I prayed for--go check out the entry a couple days ago if you want to know what happened! So, as I was sharing, I felt a bit of Hie presence. After all, He was the One glorified. Good stuff.
Pastor David shared about Revelation Ch7 and Ch20--the end zones(the goal and purpose) of our lives. The sharing was simply mind-boggling. Such a radical thought yet a powerful revelation directly from the One to Come. If you wish to know more about it, go check out Alice's blog: She takes fabulous notes and post them on her blog every week afer service! A faithful note-taker she is.
It was such a heavy-loaded sharing that Pastor David was not able to finish sharing some details yet he still blew me away with his talk. I felt His presence in the room throughout the talk and my heart was stirred up once again. I haven't had a stirring heart for a while--I've always yearn for and long for God's presence yet nothing like this. A heart stirred by Him and Him alone. I started to understand the reason why I'm at what I am right now. I found out this indescribable end zone of my life and I am ready to go for the touchdown.
After Pastor's talk, Radical Jam went up and started to sing Where You Go I'll Go by Brian & Jenn Johnson. Through the words and the notes I once again commited in a relationship with Him--to love His presence and follw all His ways. Many felt convicted to come to the front and receive prayers for their hearts were also stirred. After praying for them, Pastor actually came and prayed over me as I was still playing. I really forgot what he said since I was just soaking into God's overflowing presence right then; he said something about the importance of the positions of the musicians at that time. The moment Pastor Tai laid his hand on me, I felt like every muscle and organ of my body was being stirred! After his prayer I started to pray in tongue and kept on worshiping. Man that felt so good. Suddenly a hand was on my back as I was playing with my eyes closed. The first thing the brother with his hand on me said was, "God says that His presence is with you. Somehow He entrust you with His presence. His presence is inside of you, for you to carry." Woah. I didn't realize how confirming the prayer was until I just typed it out. Totally insane. Woah. God, You entrust me with Your presence? Just two hours before I was asking God why I did not feel Your presence in the room?

I still don't know why. But one thing I know now is that I am humbled again because who am I that He is installing His presence in me? Moreover, He trust me! God You are simply out of Your mind(guess not!)!!! You are so good my Jesus. Anyhow, the bother then said to me that even I've playing other people's songs, I am using my heart to make them new songs to God. Yeah he was right. Since summer I've been wanting to compose and write more songs but so far all I have are fragments of different things...However I really do love and appreciate other musicians'/worshipes' works very much. During and after his prayer, my right wrist started to hurt so much that I could onlt play with my left hand for a while. Anyhow, I really pray that God would look over me and my hands--my worship instrument--to keep my hands from hurting when I play the keys.
Amen.
****

The service ended at around 4:30(crazy huh) but it ended more like atound 5 since many were still in the front. After that I offered a prayer to my bro Eric(my seventh person!). A wonderful guy who is always unexpected in some ways. I prayed for God's control of his life since he's been struggling within whether he should quit his current job and find a better one. I also prayed that God would keep him focused on what's important--His life purpose for him--and not to go off track. I just felt this heat around us as I was praying for and laying my hand on him. I knew God was there at the right moment to talk to Him through my prayer. Praise You Jesus. You are great.

ADD ON(thanks to Alice): Another part of Pastor David's praying over me--"the music you play will impact this generation, it will counter the satan worship during the end times..." Yeah. Whenever I worship, I just want to give Him the best worship EVER--and nothing can block me from doing that. I just want to praise You, Lord!

God thank You for entrusting Your presence to me. Surely I will cherish it with all I am. And I really don't have to worry about Your "not showing up" since I've got Your presence all over me already, right? =)

It's 5am. Time for bed. God is so good.
Johnny
****

Switch topic: today(Sun) was Northfield Mount Hermon's Christmas Vespers on campus!!!
I really miss it tons and tons. I bet the two concerts went smoothly and the singers were all proud of themselves! I can't wait to go back!!

Today has been quite a weird one, I'd say. From 2-5 I was stuck with Econ: TA section, then TA hours, then my last Econ lecture of the quarter. They were good and I was glad that I had a 3 hr boost of Econ. At least I understood more.

So before I went to bed last night at around 4am(children, don't learn from Johnny!) I was just meditating with music. And then suddenly my brother Brian came to my mind. He's the person who was with me during Supernatural conference. Anyhow, I immediately facebook messaged him (yay for facebook!) and I went to bed.

Here's what I wrote him:
Hey Brian I just suddenly thought of you and want to pray for you. God delights in you and He loves you with His everlasting love(right at that moment I was listening to Mark Hendrickson singing Everlasting Love!). He is Your Shephard to guide Your way. You are a faithful servant. He love You so much. You are His beloved and you have ravished His heart completely.
I don't know whether this prayer helps in any way, but I was just meditating and you came to my mind bro. Hope all is well and good luck with your studying. Peace and love, Johnny

And when I woke up today he replied:
Johnny !! :)
You're prayer is very prophetic! I am actually studying right now and a little stressed. Your prayer reminds me that God is real, and that He cares for me.
I'm pretty amazed that at this moment, 4 AM, while I'm studying I just get this prayer from you. :)
God unconditionally loves you Johnny. Just as for who you are. There is nothing you can do to make him love you more, nor make him love you less, nor nothing you don't do that will change how he feels about you.
He's raised you up as a warrior in his supernatural army.

******anyhow, let's talk about what happened later tonight.
I had a good dinner time with a great awesome bro Andy. He's just a great guy has a heart for prayers. A third-year who's now taking a year off and diving into Intervarsity ministry, and he's looking for his purpose that God has for him. After the dinner we went to Intervarsity's Christmas Party--gingerbread house, live music, cookies and snacks, make-your-own Christmas cards. All the goodies. Anyhow, I slipped out to attend the worship portion of Bread of Life fellowship, and it was great. God's presence was there with us as we were praying for the school, ourselves, and the fellowship. Anyhow, I went back to the party after the worship and joined the fun. Anyhow, after the party I walked back with Audrey(met her at the party tonight), Brian(doesn't really know him well), and Bryce. We all live in Revelle. My heart was longing to pray for Bryce but so many things were there to block me from talking to him one-on-one. So I was very frustrated and I asked God to once again let me pray for someone.

And I thought of Brian.

So outside of my dorm I called him up at around 12am, he picked up and we had a great talk. The first thing he said to me was, "hey Johnny thank you for the message. You really encouraged me! Today I just felt this energy upon me and I've been feeling less stressful. When you sent me that message I was just working on a final paper that was due today." Then we were just chatting more about how we've been and he offered to pray for me. As he started to pray for me over the phone, Rose walked out from the dorm. Rose is a friend who broke her ankle and then she has been using crutches for almost two months now. And today I heard that her bones are infected! So I wanted to just ran over and pray for her but I was on the phone with Brian. So I missed a chance. Anyhow, Brian saw a vision for me--a single blooming yellow sunflower. He told me that I am in the season of spring and many things would birth out. I then prayed for him and he was encouraged. We both praised God for His once again randomness and His awesome timing. So after I hung up I immediately prayed to God that His Spirit would fall upon Rose and she would be completely healed and would not have to stop school for next quarter because of her bone infection. Jesus thank You so much. I love You. You are just so faithful 24/7.

Friends please pray for me for tomorrow I've the most important final because if I don't get at least a C on it I would have to retake the class next quarter and it wouldn't be the thing I want at all. Pray for wisdom and creativity for I'll be writing an essay. Pray for efficiency and a focused mind. Pray for a body that's ready-to-rock. Pray for the Holy Spirit's accompany during my test.

Thank you my friends and thank You my Beloved One.
Can't live without You even for one minute.
GIGATT!!!!!!!!!!
I will keep all of you in my prayers and may God keep you focused right now on what's important. He's there. Just ask Him to reveal Himself to you once again.

Jesus is so good!
Johnny

Thank You Jesus that I got an A on my final project. It was shown today during the last class of the quarter. The prof even asked me to stand and be acknowledged!...Crazy stuff. Anyhow, the project is to make a clear and bold visual argument of my worldview. So basically I can do anything I want about this project. So I started brainstorming and Jack helped me a bit and we ended up talking about Apple--how it connects or separates people. My original plan was to have two people holding hands with an iPod on one side, and on the other side there are two iPods pulling two people away from each other, and with a big question mark in the center.
But after thinking about that, I didn't think that would be a strong statement; it would rather be very vague because I'm not taking a side.
So I decided to make Apple into a Nazi-like cult. Props to my great sister Annie who helped me to brainstorm my supports which I rephrase them into three parts: 1. iConize(ex.- Madonna), 2. iDolize(ex.- Hitler), 3. iDentify(ex.- Disney). I have to give props to my creative brain(Thank You God!) to make the three parts i_______.
The project counts for 10% of my final grade! Sweet.

***************
Anyhow, that's that.
So today after class(at around 2) I got a voicemail from Peter, a brother from Bread of Life Church SD inviting me to their weekly cell group prayer meeting. I've been there once and it was pretty awesome--in this small room with about 7 people simply giving Him praise and pray for the school and one another.

I didn't know why, but I started to text Peter back--"sorry man I don't think I can go I've got homew..." Then I paused. WHAT WAS I THINKING? WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?I didn't know. The next thing I did was to delete my "lying in progress without any specific reason" to "sure man when can you pick me up?"

Wow. That struck my heart. I believe it was the Devil who tempted me to reject a heavenly invitation. I was alone in my room, trying to find something to do. And no matter how small the space is open, the tempter would try to get into my heart in all ways. Praise the Lord that He saved me yet again.

So tonight we prayed for the campus and proclaimed victory over UCSD because this quarter has really been a chaotic one--with wildfire, weird weather, heavy storm, I-5 closure due to a bomb threat, and YESTERDAY's bomb threat on our Medical School Campus' closure for the day. Still I will praise You, for You are faithful and lovely. I know You're in control, my Lord and King.
And afterwards I went and grab a bite with Peter and another brother Michael. Michael then took me back to campus and I was on my way to Intervarsity's Midnight Worship from 10-12. I love "simple worship", as I call it--just one guitar with people singing aloud, and the room was big and had great acoustic so the sound of our singing echoed and echoed. A great night it was.

During Midnight Worship I got to met this guy Jon who was actually leading worship on the guitar. I got to pray for him--he's longing to know God's heart and what His plan for him is. He's on the badminton team and has started a bible study among his teammates, yet now he yearns for a breakthrough. Yeah God! You are the Lord of the breakthrough. You Love Jon and You know his heart; would you just take him and mold him again!

Praise the Lord I shall once again! It's day 4!
Johnny

ps. Good stuff always comes from the least expected place. That's how God tasted like today-a random flavor =)

O Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
-Psalm 34:8-

God might taste sweet like Kisses, or maybe bitter like dark chocolate. What does God tastes like to you personally? Or have you tasted God? I cannot tell you how something tastes like because you are not me. So if you don't taste something then you will never know what it tastes like, eh?

*****This is what happened tonight (wed 120507)

Woah God. You take my breath away yet again.
So today after a large group gathering I had a chance to walk back to my dorm with this awesome bro Tom(not his real name). I just started to share with him all the stuff that God has done in my life during conferences and the past few days, and about Jim, whom I prayed last night.

So here's the first big miracle tonight, ready?
Last night I prayed for Jim and I prophesied over him that he would not have to use crutches anymore after his check-up today. So tonight he left a voicemail on my cell telling me that he really appreciate my praying for him and HE IS OFF THE CRUTCHES!!!Just like the woman in Mark 9, Jim got healed!!!

Praise the Lord or WHAT?! Wooooooah! I just want to get up and dance around, ya know.

So I shared this testimony with Chris and many more about how I deal with my roommates since he is struggling with his roommates and suitemates who swear a lot and just simply worldly. I later on prayed that God would give Tom His heart to feel how He feels for others and His eyes to see the emptiness inside of them. This is the third day of my A Person A Day journey.

*****
And what's even more amazing is that he wrote a note on his blog an hour ago:

okay guys, so my hands are cold from being outside for too long, so i'm sorry if i have a bunch of typos in here...
so today is 12/5-6/07 and i just came from large group...
we heard testimonies from a fellow brother and sister in Christ and they were just awesome! They were so encouraging because it showed me that God is truly working in the lives of people. I always wondered where God was? maybe because i feel like he was never apparent in my life (which isn't true, i just never took the time to see all that God has done for me, so sad) but it was so awesome hearing Him work in the lives of others!
people's lives can be touched in so many ways, I love how God reveals himself so specific to everyone's needs...He doesn't leave anything out!

alright so after large group, I ended up walking back to Revelle with a fellow brother of mine and he just started sharing his testimonies over the summer. He told me so many stories of people's lives being touched through prayer, especially street prayer. It was so encouraging to see how powerful prayer is! I never realized how important it can be in people's lives, even those who aren't Christian.

Thank you God for just revealing yourself to me tonight! I pray that I will not forget these stories and experiences that i've been able to hear about. Thank you for such an amazing first quarter of college where i can grow and learn about myself and you God! I pray these things in your precious Son's name, Amen.

thanks for reading! I hope that you have an awesome winter break! God bless and Merry Christmas if I don't see you until after winter break!
*****

Jesus You are lovely. You taste like the best wine ever made(John2:10). Thank You for letting us taste yet another heavenly flavor of Your love and grace.

Anyhow, GIGATT! God Is Good All The Time!
Johnny

Before I get into tonight's testimony, I just want to share what happened yesterday(Monday). I told God that I wanted to start praying for a person a day on campus. I was sitting on the side of this big plaza and I had an urge to pray for this guy sitting on another bench that is next to me. So I went over and simply asked him whether I could pray for him. "I'm a Muslim," he said. I was a bit defeated yet he did not mind my praying for him. So I prayed for his Physics test coming up and also his health during the final two weeks. I didn't have enough time to share Jesus with him because I was heading to class and he was ready to take a nap before his test.

Anyhow, GIG! God Is Good!

--------------

My God is my Refuge and my Fortress, and I put my trust in Him. He will surely save me from death and cover me with His wings. I will find refuge under His wings, and His faithfulness will be my Shield.
~Psalm 91:2-4~

Tonight(Tuesday), I went to the Gospel Choir Concert alone, expecting a good time actually. Later on Casey joined me for a while and he left to study. This concert is full of God's blessings. The gospel music just turned me from sitting to swaying, then to clapping and singing along. These good ol' spirituals and hymns are still powerful nowadays. The simple words like I just can't stop praisin' had me gaze upon God's beauty once again right there as I sang along.

Gospel Choir, the only class that students can publically praising God without any burden or attack. The conductor is a great man of God, going around the world impacting people's lives with music.

Then he invited everyone to sing this hymn:

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee.
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee.
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Then this song turned into How Great Is Our God sung by two female singers.
I lifted my hands and once again was in awe of His greatness.

After the concert, I wanted to go up to the stage and pray for the percussionist, Bobby, who has cancer. However he was busy talking with many people so I prayed a prayer of healing for Him. I believe that God's doing His miraculous work in Bobby. So I was a bit depressed because I wanted to pray for someone. As I was walking back toward my dorm, I said to God that I wanted to pray a stranger before I sleep today. It was 10pm. I didn't have dinner so I walked toward the cafe and there in front of me was this guy putting down his crutches and taking a rest on the bench.
Right then I knew he was the one that God prepared for me to pray for. So I started the conversation by asking him whether he had just gone to the concert also, and amazingly he did! So we started to talk about music and how he's been playing viola for a very long time and wants to learn percussion. Then we introduced ourselves, and guess what's totally amazing? This guy, Jim(not his real name), who broke three of his left toes because of learning how to skateboard, lives in the same city that I live in, just a mile east to my house! So I talked about how I also write music mainly for God, and he showed interest in Christianity. "I'm looking into becoming a Catholic from a Buddhist," he told me. I asked him why Catholicism and he told me that he went to a Catholic school for two years when he was young, and he is not getting anything from those idols which his parents worship. Then I started to share what Christianity is all about--not about going to Hell or forcing people to repent and repent--but about love. This God of love. I shared my convertion testimony with him and also some stories in the Gospel to explain who Jesus is-the Way, Truth, and Life. I then shared the testimony at Supernatural Conference with him. He was very impressed of the depth of Christianity.
He started to share with me about his troubles. He once tried to commit suicide because he felt abandoned and unloved by everyone, even his parents since he has Alopecia, a disease that causes people to lose their hair and become bald. He was rejected and threatened and made fun of since 7th grade when the condition got very serious. He lost all his hair by 8th grade. "People in my high school were so materialistic. The entire school is based on lies," he said. I shared with him how in the beginning of October a good friend of mine called me from Wisconsin and devastated by the fact that his friends were all hypocrites and he was dumped by the clique to which he belonged.
I then shared with him the story of Jesus healing the sick woman in Mark 5:25-34. I told him how this woman was completely ignored and looked down upon. Women back then were deemed as the lowest of the hierarchy, especially a woman subjected to bleeding for 12 years. I told him that she was also rejected by everyone in town. Yet she was healed with a faithful heart. I told him that Jesus wants to heal his disease and have a personal relationship with him. I invited him to believe in Christ, but he chose to figure out more about it first. He was worried about his parents since they woship many idols like a traditional Taiwanese family would(and yes, he is a Taiwanese who grew up in the US yet speaks and writes Mandarin fluently). Anyhow, his friends took him to church when he was a freshman in high school because of his wanting to commit suicide. "No one has explained Christianity so clearly to me. My Christian friends always asked me, 'Hey are you converted yet? Are you?' and that's the only thing I've heard from them." I then told him that there is a difference between a Christian and a Chtistian-in-action. I shared with him that God desires to have a personal relationship with him because He loves him so much as His own. Furthermore I shared with him how Jesus ALWAYS went to the deserted, ignored, sick, lame, near death because they are the ones who cry out for Him. He loves to help out His beloved ones unconditionally.
I forgot what else we shared with one another, but I told him that I've found my purpose in God, and if he wanted to know what his purpose is, then he should totally ask God for it. God's the only person who never fails or deserts or lies. Before we started to head back to our dorms(we live in the same college!) I offered him a prayer of healing and blessing. He's having his left foot checked tomorrow and I prayed for God's complete healing for this awesome guy I randomly met. On our way back I also shared with him the testimony at Jesus Culture Redding about the knuckle that grew back. He was completely in awe.
I invited him to come to Impact's Christmas party on the 14th and I hope that he can make it and also sunday services.

************

I'm just speechless right now after typing what happened just a couple hours ago.
Isn't He great?
Father thank You for answering my prayer.
I prayed for a person before I go to bed tonight(I actually shared with him that I asked God to let me pray for a stranger before I go to bed tonight and he was like...woah that's crazy).
And Lord would You start stirring up Jim's heart and spirit that he would realize that believe in You would bring blessings to his family.

How lovely is Your Name, Jesus. Only You can satisfy my heart.
Can't wait for tomorrow!

Johnny

...can't believe it's 2:44am now. I started writing @ 1:09!
Time for bed!