And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
I write to you all just to share with you some of the miracles that God had shown to me in my short lifetime, to demonstrate to you the closeness of the spiritual world, the tangibility of the kingdom of heaven and of hell in our daily lives. I feel perhaps these things are sensationalistic, but I write to you to in spite of that, perhaps that they might help your faith. We are sure of the things unseen, of the hope that God has put in our everyday lives. Once again, I do not write to glorify myself, but to glorify God who has put these things in my life so that I might share. Perhaps it is a sin that I have not been more open about these things with you all before.
I remember before going to the summer retreat my sophomore year, asking God to give me just one sign, just one, to cement my faith. I wrestled with Jesus' words, "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believed," but I still yearned to see the power of the Holy Spirit at work. Here at Princeton, I think, we categorize the work of the Spirit only into the natural. Yes, Regeneration, Sanctification, and Salvation are all gifts and works of the Spirit, but because we have physical eyes and can only see actions and never the spirit, we are restricted in our perspective in the realm of the mundane. If we see someone come to faith, we see a new brother adopted by God. But, the only way that we see the Spirit work is through the physical person of the newly-converted, and all we "see" is the medium in repentance and conversion. But, the Spirit does not need to work through the physical. God is not in anyway limited.
The first miracle of the retreat was the words of knowledge and of wisdom. Our speaker, Joshua Tongol, graduate of Biola University and current M.A. student at Talbot, insisted that the Spirit is indeed alive and willing to work miracles. Words of knowledge/wisdom are words and/or images that God implants within people so that they may edify the church, whether individually or corporately. He paired us up with one other person and told us to pray for the other person, and to wait for God to implant some thought in our head so that we might better edify the other. After this long, awkward session, he told everyone who had some vision/image/word to come up and tell the rest of the team. The first time we did it, when my sister was praying for her partner, she saw "moles," like bumps on the skin, not the furry animals. Her partner had started crying, and told her that her sister had recently come down with a sickness that was easily diagnosed by the numerous moles that started appearing on the body. There were other people, but for the sake of brevity I will not discuss it here, feel free to ask me later.
One that was particularly hurtful to me was an obvious reference to a past sin of mine. I confess freely that in France I had lied to a priest, who had asked me if I was "Catholic." Without hesitation, I said yes, and received communion. This troubled me to no end, but I had (conveniently) rationalized it away. "Of course, I'm catholic, just not the big 'C.'" BUT, during this prayer session, THREE PEOPLE around me (seriously two to the right and behind me) said that they suddenly had the word FRANCE pop up in their head. Know this, that they did not talk about France at all prior to this, they did not know that I went to France, nor were they even close to me because I was there for the summer and had not yet become friendly with the church people. I confessed my sin immediately there. Now, I rejoice in knowing that God made me cognizant of that grave sin because his rebuking of me shows that he does indeed care for me and treat me as a son, one who should be disciplined, and not like a slave.
The other dramatic story is of two healings. One of a student and one of our pastor.
Our pastor woke up that morning with unnatural aches that started around her pectoral areas and that eventually made its way to her entire upper area. We, the church, a group of college students, all lay our hands on her and pray for healing. We also anoint her with oil. We pray for her intensely for 3 minutes or so. Only one area has been healed. So we shift our hands to another area and pray. That place becomes healed. This process goes on until she is healed. But, it is not a total healing, there are still some aches, but she is much better than before. We praise God for his power still.
The second story deals with an acquaintance of mine at that church. He was in a very bad car accident two months or so prior. It hurt so much that he could not bend down to tie his own shoelaces, and he had been going to therapy weekly for the pain. When he came in, we could see a pallor of death on his face, no joke. SO, we anointed him and prayed hard that God would heal him then and there. He started to confess his sins (without confession of sins, you cannot be healed, btw) and bawling his eyes out. After we prayed, Josh asked him to touch his toes, and he did so without any pain. Being the natural skeptic, I thought it might have something to do with psychosomatic processes. But the next day, I saw him carrying a younger student and piggybacking him around the outside paking lot. Praise God.
The following is a G-talk (I'm addicted..) conversation I had with my sister. It is about the exorcism experiences that she went through, and of the exorcisms that happened in my churches. I do not write this to sensationalize Christianity nor to scare you in any way. If you are a Christian, you will have to deal with the influences of the demonic at some point of your life. These are the intersections of my life and my sister's life with the kingdom of hell. In order to protect the people's identity, I deleted the names and marked them as X and Y. ZZZ's refers to my church names. If you think Im hiding something, come ask me in person and I ll tell you all their names, haha.
me: Hey Amy
do you mind if mention you in my blogpost?
Amy: what are you gonna say
me: Im writing a testimony of Josh Tongol's retreat
people are curious so I just thought I'd write out what I experienced there.
Amy: go ahead
me: yay
Hm
also, would you mind if I talked about the exorcism you witnessed in Seattle?
Amy: no
go ahead
there were several demons
me: but the girl in seattle was a real exorcism?
in X?
Amy: one said its name was "amphetemine"
me: ah
Amy: yeah seattle was real
Very real
me: could you describe it for me?
a bit more vividly
Amy: very beautiful, mid 20s korean girl
mom and she regularly went to palm reader
korean
me: i see.
Amy: did the whole ancestor worship thing in korea
you know
me: and the demon possessed her then
at the worship
Amy: i guess the demon told her that if she told her anything about it, that it was going to kill her
me: for 15 years or so?
Amy: so she was so scared
to tell others about it
i dont know
me: i see.
Amy: not sure
me: and you caught the end of the exorcism right?
Amy: yes
it took 3 nights
it was intense
me: could you describe the process?
Amy: appt last night was most mild
but to me, scary as hell
me: what did she do?
Amy: my college group from church (about 6 of us) and colege pastor and his wife
we heard that she needed prayer (and X's sister was friends witht the pastor's daugther of that church)
so we went
inside sanctuary around 8pm
went to near the pulpit
typical chuc
rows of wooden seats
we went to front
were about 40 korean adults
and the girl in the middle on lying on a blanket
and her mother holding her hand
and the pastor over her
we began to pray
hard
everyone's speaking in tongues
she starts SQUEALING
and screaming
body shaking like crazy
me: could you describe the squeal a little bit?
like a pig squealing?
Amy: i guess you could call it that
me: haha ok sorry go on.
Amy: but definitely unhuman sounds
me: k
Amy: the pastor talks to the demon
tells it to get out
they talk, i dont know what they say
all the while, my college gorup and i are at the edge of the blanket (blanket was huge)
praying
me: could you describe the voice?
Amy: (the whole thing alsted about 4 hours)
me: jeez.
Amy: she's screaming etc
stops
me: ahh
Amy: screams
and then one point
she looks at the huge cross in front of the pulpit
starts saying the lord's prayer in a singsong mocking voice
SCARY AS HELL
me: ah
Amy: as if mocking God
you know?
me: yea
I think Im going to just put this conversation in the post
I will edit out the things referring to name and people etc.
Amy: ok
umm
me: Thanks Amy 
Amy: her voice changes
me: yea
Amy: became
deep
you know like in the movies
me: yea
Amy: the voice changes
lieka demon
?
soudned exactly like that
me: and you're absolutely sure, that you were sane during this episode?
Amy: the movie got it right
hahaha
I WAS SANE?
me: You were not under halluncinations or anything, right?
Amy: of course I was sane!!!!!
me: hahaha thats all I need thanks Amy
Amy: i was scared shi * zless!
i was alert
me: keep going though
Amy: then we stop praying
b/c the poor girl is Exhausted
apparently exorcisms are very hard on teh body
me: yea
Amy: a pastor once told me it's like giving birth
you're letting go of something thats in you
that its hard
so we rest for a little bit
the girl is okay
back to her senses
she's normal
but tired
me: yea
Amy: then couple minutes later
we start up again
starts praiyng
ppl are holding her down
and she starts screaming again
everyone's praying like crazy, speaking in tongues
the pastor asks the college group that the spirit is moving, asks us if we want the gift of tongue
haha
nearly everyone got it that night
me: Iwant it
I dont have it
Amy: its ok
me: maybe i dont pray enough ahha
Amy: its not a big deal
anyway
me: haha thanks
Amy: we got back praying
i guess finally it was all out
she was limp
the pastor told her MANY MANY Times
i mean asked her if everyhting's out
all the demons
she said yes
he asked her
can you pray?
she nodded, limply
they say the lord's prayer
she can say it normally now
me: man
Amy: he keeps praying over her
(its cuz he said if she's not filled with the holy spirit immediatley after the demons left her, then she's going to be even more demonized)
me: right, thats in scripture.
Amy: he confirms over and over that its gone
and make sure she's filled with holy psirit
by prayer and prayer
and annointng prayers over her
(the whole time everyone is praiyng for her)
me: what do you mean anointing prayers?
Amy: like anoiting her with his words
me: k k
Amy: lord annoint her, fill her up with hspirit
etc
me: wow
Amy: and then yea
me: could you tell me a bit about the aftermath?
Amy: she was ok
the mother was shcoked
mother isn't really a Christian
me: ahhh
Amy: but apparently
after that whole thing
she became INCREDIBLY sensitive to the holy spirit
VERY holy woman
b/c she went through this
me: and who told you that?
Amy: X
(X's sis)
me: Ahh
Amy: b/c they talked
after
like couple weeks
and i guess that girl would have many visions
and words of knowledge
and just annointed
like it'd be so natural for her to see visions
as if its a normal thing every day
but its b/c she went through all that
me: ahh
Amy: i dont know how she's doing now
but i would imagine that she's doing well
me: hopefully
Amy: i g2g
me: THANKS AMY
Amy: np
me: Im going to transcribe this entire thing
Amy: ok
me: and delete the names.
Amy: ok
me: I love you!
Amy: and
me: pray for me
Amy: you can let ppl know that
i am reasonably sane, well educated, and know what i am talking about
me: hahaha
Amy: that i am a mental health professional
haha
me: Yay!
Amy: (i am! a social worker!)
a social worker!)haha
me: I think Im reasonably sane too
Amy: ok
lol
me: OKay thanks a BUNCH
Amy: np
me: pray for me
Amy: ttyl
me: pray for me
Amy: ok
me: bye bye
ok
Amy: i wll
me:
Amy: bye!
me: bye
Amy is busy. You may be interrupting.
Being a Christian is not just about faith and works, it's also about war. Don't actively seek that evil kingdom, but be actively against it. Of course, though I tell you all these things, I am not always a spiritual person and would also under the penalty of death if it was not for Jesus my savior. I confess I do not pray enough against these forces nor for people around me.
In Christ, who is powerful and is truly alive,
Jae Han
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