Before I left to go to the Philippines, I had a sense in my spirit that God was wanting my itinerary to change. This was confirmed through Sharon when she told me that while she was praying for me the Lord said to her, “John will have to really listen to Me on this trip.” Then at the airport my friend Paulo said to me that if I had to forfeit any tickets for flights I’d previously booked, God would more than make it up to me.
Often we think that because we’ve already spent money on something, that we can’t change it even when we’ve come to feel like somehow we’d missed God’s mind when we planned it - and that’s where possibly we miss it.
(There’s a story in II Chronicles 25 where Amaziah was told by a man of God that he’d missed God by arranging to hire the military help of Israel. When the man of God told him not to let the Israelites accompany him as he’d planned, he asked, “But what about the hundred talents I’ve given to the army of Israel?” That’s $195 000! The man of God said, “The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.”
Besides money, it made the Israelites really angry when Amaziah obediently went back on his original intention and sent the Israelite army away. That’s another thing – sometimes it does make people angry when we change our plans to get in alignment with God’s will).
I was due to spend two weeks in the island of Negros Occidental then two weeks in Mindanao. But God changed all that!
In the first place, it rained constantly while I was up in the mountains preaching near the Guerilla hideouts. The river overflowed the bridge and we couldn’t leave!
Several days later I was determined to make an attempt to return to the city but the road was impassable by jeep. I wanted to walk, but the locals said it wasn’t safe because of the rebels, so they arranged armed protection for the group that walked with us (I didn’t want such measures, but I allowed it just because it made them feel better).
God had a good purpose for me to stay longer than planned in that area, but by this time, I’d missed my flight to Mindanao.
Next I went to Cagayan de Oro City where I preached at a youth camp. At the end of the meeting I promised them I would visit them in one year. I sensed this in my spirit and spoke it by faith. I thought I would be home in Australia then come again and visit them in the Philippines a year later. But God knew different.
Unexpectedly I was asked to Davao City. I thought this would be for two weeks, then I’d return to Australia. But when the day came for me to leave Davao, I had an uneasy feeling in my spirit as I was packing my suitcase. The feeling was so strong that I couldn’t continue! So I asked the Pastor, “Do you mind if I leave tomorrow instead?” Ofcourse he didn’t.
When tomorrow came, I dutifully began packing my suitcase but again, I had that nagging, uncomfortable feeling. I couldn’t leave! So I asked again, “Do you mind if I leave tomorrow?”
The next day, I had that gnawing feeling again. So I asked God to confirm it. That night we went to a church of 4000 people. I asked God, “If its really so important that I stay and not leave, surely in a church this size you have someone Spirit-filled enough to hear from you and come and pick me out of the crowd to tell me.” Then one of their leaders came to me and said, “You have a door that is open to you and it seems obvious that you should go through it, but the door that is not quite open yet, its just a little ajar – that’s the one God wants you to wait for and go through.”
Then in another church, a visiting speaker chose me out of the crowd and prophesied, “God is redirecting you. He wants to change your plans.”
In yet another church, a lady said she was praying for me and the Lord said, “Tell John he must not leave but stay.” Then in the same church a man prophesied, “God doesn’t want you to leave but to stay in the Philippines for a year or more and bring revival to the Pentecostal churches.” That was pretty clear. In addition to this, brother Nick showed me the scripture where it says Paul continued many days in a certain place to preach the gospel.
So I told the Pastor about it and he said, “You’re welcome to stay.” Immediately a peace that is so beautiful to describe filled my soul!
I stayed 19 months in the Philippines (even though I only planned to stay for 1!) and fulfilled a ministry which I never foresaw in my wildest imagination! It was a time filled with the Holy Ghost. Doors were flung wide open. We saw a visitation. Heaven was poured out.
Supernatural Provision
Right at the start of this new plan, I told God, “If you want me to stay a year or more bringing revival to the Pentecostal churches of the Philippines, I’m not going to accept any financial support from Australia.”
A lot of Western preachers travel to the Philippines to teach prosperity. After the visitors leave, I heard a local pastor comment, “Its ok for them to preach prosperity – they have American dollars, we only have Pesos.” So I wanted to be an example of faith that God can provide for their ministries in the Philippines just as well. In 19 months, I never accepted $1 from abroard (apart from $100 which Pastor Brent gave me when he visited me which I immediately gave to a Filipino pastor so as not to be robbed of this boast). God provided for me supernaturally. Here’s one example...
“Lord, I want you to bless the Pastor I’m staying with, and let him know that the reason you’re blessing him is because he’s looking after me,” I asked the Lord, because I’d been staying with this Pastor and his family so long.
Soon afterwards we met some fishermen from the village of Toril. They were complaining that they’d been at sea for weeks and caught nothing. Their boss was going to close the operation down. So I asked, “Would you like me to pray for you to catch a lot of fish?” I could tell they didn’t think it would work, but just to humour me they said yes.
So I prayed for them, and that night, after being at sea for only one hour, they caught so many fish that the boat was full and they had to return immediately! Someone estimated the catch to be around 5000kg. It was a type of fish that is normally caught only deep below below the surface, but they caught them on the surface. Its worth a lot of money in the markets. So overnight, these poor fishermen became quite well off. The next time I saw them, they had gold chains on which I hadn’t noticed before, and they didn’t seem to know what to do with the rest of their takings so they spent time gambling it. The next night they caught 4000kg.
After a while, the captain of one of the other fishing boats asked these men, “Why do you keep catching so many fish, when we still catch nothing?”
“Because of the prayers of John,” one captain replied. So he wanted me to come on his boat and pray for them too. To court my favour, and to celebrate the catches of fish, the fishermen kept sending boxes of fish to the house where I was staying with the Pastor and his family.
In this way, the whole family was fed for months. We even had enough to take to the church and give away.
On one occasion I told the Lord, “I think I’d like Tuna this week.” That afternoon a box of fish arrived, with one big tuna sticking out the top. “Surprise – we had tuna jump into the nets this week,” said the young boy who delivered it.
The fishermen were unsaved so I asked them, “Would you like me to start a church in your area?” From that point onwards we sent a team from the church in Buhangin to their fishing village to start regular meetings.
God had another miracle of provision in mind too.
I told Him one day, “I’d really like to preach on radio, my own program.”
Soon afterwards the Pastor and I, pastor Bobbie Abrina, were sitting at a pastors’ meeting when a lady approached me, “I have radio time that I’m paying for, and I want to start a Christian program, but I’m looking for someone to take the time-slot and develop a program. I can pay for it,” she said, “but I can’t do the preaching.”
So Pastor Bobbie and I started a one-hour daily program on the station with the largest coverage of the world’s largest city – all for free. People started sponsoring Pastor Bobbie for his efforts in this ministry by contributing some finances.
After preaching over the radio one night I decided to go door-knocking evangelism. We knocked on a door and the people had just finished listening to me on the radio. Now here I was standing at their door! The whole family prayed to accept Christ that night.
This continued for the 9 months that I stayed in Davao city. And the week I left, the fishermen stopped sending fish to the house and the association with the lady paying for the radio time stopped. Yet neither of them knew that I had gone. So in this way the Pastor knew that these (the fish and the radio sponsorship) were blessings that God had sent his way while looking after me, answering my prayer. After I’d left, the pastor sometimes rang me long distance asking, “When are you coming back? – we’re a bit short at the moment.” He told me, “I’ve learnt by experience that God blesses us while you’re with us.”
God has since blessed Pastor Bobbie with not just a radio program but a radio station and a tv channel – so he’s still seeing the gospel over Davao city.
It was only after 19 months in the Philippines, when I was just about to leave, that one local Pastor discovered that I hadn’t been receiving financial support from Australia while in their country. “You mean all this time you’ve been in the Philippines you didn’t receive any money from home – you just did it by faith?” he asked. “Oh now I really respect you.”
What God has done for He can and will do for anyone who puts their trust in Him.
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