Chapter 32: Heaven on Earth
Hi Friends,
The Year of His Glorious Invasion
The year 2007 has been a year of great exploits and breakthroughs for all of Destiny family. A year crowned with His favor and goodness. Our theme Glorious Invasion for 2007 in all sense has become the reality we as one family and as individuals have experienced throughout the year. Truly, God invaded us with His Presence, His Love, and His Goodness and with more of Him. We, in turn, become invaders for His Glorious Kingdom in the different aspects of life.
The prophetic word released through the preaching of our spiritual father, Leif Hetland, during our anniversary celebration last December 2006 became the very inspiration and guide for us this year. Yes, indeed we experienced that the oil is in the house and the more we pour out to empty vessels around us, the more we see the anointing increase in our midst. Throughout this year, we poured out to the lost, the sick, the poor, the Body of Christ and the nations and we have seen how the oil tremendously increased in our midst as we poured out. The more we gave the more we overflow. We thank our God for the countless testimonies of healings, miracles and breakthroughs in different areas of life we have experienced throughout the year.
2008 – A New Season!
After a year, Daddy Leif came back to visit the Destiny Family last December 5-16, 2007. It was a phenomenal time. Leif kept on mentioning to us (Ahl and I) and to Destiny as a family that he sensed that we corporately have entered a New Season in the Spirit. Throughout his 10-day stay, each day that unfolded is filled with awesome things. Several prophetic declarations of great promises were released over individuals and over Destiny as a movement. We were so encouraged, refreshed and so overwhelmed in our spirits. It was a taste of what is in store for us in 2008. Above all, it was a family reunion- a time to bond and enjoy one another aside from doing ministry works.
Leif ministered together with Dan Hammer, the Senior Pastor of Sonrise Chapel and Tom Gibbons, an elder of the said church. They are both from Seattle, Washington. They were a great blessing to us throughout the length of their stay. Let me share to you the important highlights of their trip in the Philippines and my trip with Leif to Malaysia.
Kingdom Business Meeting
The first major event was the Kingdom Business Meeting held last December 6. It was the first Business Meeting organized by Destiny for the saints in the marketplace.
In the first session, Pastor Dan shared about the goodness of the Lord. That if we look for His goodness, even in the workplace, we would surely find it. People would be amazed because we focus on the things that God is doing. He shared about his experience in a business conference; he had the privilege of baptizing the business licenses in water. Of course, the licenses were inside a Ziploc (plastics with slide locks). A prophetic gesture that means the business died to its personal agendas and rose again as a business that is for God. He also shared stories of people who started small in businesses but soon prospered because they surrendered their businesses to the Lord. He exhorted the executives to experience the goodness of God and live with expectancy everyday. He then challenged them to overflow with goodness to others in their workplace because of God’s goodness poured upon their lives.
Leif shared on the importance of knowing one’s identity in the Lord and living with this revelation in the business world. As we continue to seek Him in our businesses, people will see that God is blessing our businesses because we are His children. He further explained that God is calling, preparing and releasing eagles in the Marketplace globally. He shared to the business people the Kingdom perspective regarding their businesses and professions inspiring them to begin to see themselves as the pastors in their workplaces.
The last part of the meeting was devoted to impartation. God moved powerfully. Everyone had a supernatural experience with God. Prophetic Words were released over individuals and each one received specific words from the Father’s heart. We were all undone with the Father’s goodness and glory. God did something new in our midst. Leif later said that this is going to be a start of something big. We are looking forward to a much bigger Kingdom Business Conference in 2008.
One particular testimony connected to the Business meeting was that of Edwin Pages. He is a realtor and a member of the Destiny Family. He attended the meeting and even brought with him two of his brothers who are also businesspersons themselves. After receiving impartation and prophetic word concerning God’s favor in the meeting, the following day Edwin received a call while he was still at home. He closed a 31 million peso (USD 775,000) business deal that moment. That is the favor of God!
Healing Crusade in Calamba City
A one-night healing crusade was held in Calamba City on December 7. More than 1,000 were present that night. It was a powerful meeting. Around 300 individuals received Christ for the first time. Mighty healings happened during the prayer time. Around 500 sick individuals came forward for prayer and God met them at the point of their needs. At least six individuals with visible goiters were instantly healed. Several deaf and mute received their healings.
One particular testimony that became the highlight for that night was about a 16-year-old young man who suffered from a stroke. Prior to the prayer, he could not speak nor walk because of the effect of the stroke. Afterwards, he spoke over the microphone; “before, I cannot speak…” the moment he said that, everybody shouted and praised our God! He walked straight and even ran several yards- completely healed! We heard more testimonies after the crusade that there were individuals who already received their healing even during the preaching of the Word.
The Leaders’ Conference
The whole day of December 8 was devoted to the Laguna Leaders’ Conference. Leaders from different denominations in the province came to experience God’s goodness. Leif shared on the Father’s love and walking in the spirit with a clear understanding of our position and privileges and the corresponding spiritual inheritance made available to us because of what Jesus did on the cross. He emphasized the importance of walking in the spirit and on how to live in alignment- spirit, soul and body to the Spirit of God so that we will be able to do His works.
Tom Gibbons shared on the spiritual inheritance we have in Christ and the importance of entering His rest. He further exhorted the leaders to lead based on compassion and love and to learn to support one another. Later Pastor Dan Hammer shared on the goodness of God. His famous line “God is not as good as you think…He is ‘gooder’!” opened a new dimension in understanding the depths of His goodness to us His children. He stressed that we have to live with an ongoing awareness that the whole earth is filled with His goodness and that He surrounds us with goodness every step of the way. One revelation that captured my heart from what he shared is that goodness is the door that opens us to greater experience of the glory of God. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God replied by making His entire goodness pass before him. We can never experience greater realms in the Spirit apart from the revelation of His goodness.
The highlight of the whole Leaders’ Conference for me was Leif’s message on impartation. He shared his life testimony of how the Lord radically transformed him from the impartation he received through Randy Clark and the Baptism of Father’s Love through his spiritual Dad, Jack Taylor. He also shared about Heidi Baker’s impartation through Randy Clark and the impact it made upon her life and ministry up to now. Leif considers Heidi’s life as a model to follow. In his preaching he made us realize the cost to consider, the price to pay and the cross to carry an impartation, a God-ordained vision and to guard and nurture it until we see it happen in our time. Using the metaphor of pregnancy, gestation and birth, he shared that God impregnates us with His vision and the way we carry what we have received determines whether we will be able to carry that vision to fruition or allow it to die. So many dreams and visions are being aborted because many do not want to go through the process. He specifically pointed out the process Joseph went through to be entrusted with such blessing, anointing, authority and favor to rule and be a blessing to the nations.
The Leaders’ Conference ended with impartation. God moved powerfully in our midst. Bodies lying on the floor overwhelmed with the power and glory of God. People were groaning, travailing as if giving birth, others bursting in joy and laughter and in deep worship. God’s river drowned everyone into the ocean of His Love.
Destiny’s 17th Anniversary Celebration
The whole Destiny Family celebrated its 17th anniversary at the DL Umali Hall, UPLB. The place crammed up with Destiny people from all over Luzon. Families from Destiny Manila, Alabang, Makati, Biñan, Cavite, Lucena, San Pablo, and Mindoro came to Los Baños to celebrate God’s overwhelming faithfulness through the years. This year has been the most extravagant of all the celebrations we’ve ever had. Glorious singing resounded as the worship team led the people in praise, dance and worship before our God.
Heaven on Earth- this is our theme for this year’s anniversary and for 2008. The celebration was indeed an experience, a taste of God’s supernatural heaven invading our natural world. The celebration started with over an hour of praise and worship. It was awesome to see the whole family of Destiny in extravagant praise, adoration and worship. The pastors, leaders and all members danced, shouted and jumped in thanksgiving of the goodness of the Lord over us. One line of the song that became real to us as a family was the line from Rick Pino’s My Romance. The line that said, “Unto You be all the Glory”. At one point, the four of us Pastor Carlo and his wife Zhaleen, Ahl and me stood on the stage and led our people in deep worship and gratitude for all He has done to us and for all that He is to us. As ever, we gave Him all the glory. The Manifest Presence of God was all over the place. It came as waves all throughout the auditorium.
Then, Ahl and I stood up to honor those who have been with us throughout the 17 years of Destiny’s journey and for all the leaders who worked with us especially Pastors Carlo and Zhaleen and the Pastoral Staff of the Main Church in Los Baños. Then just before our Daddy Leif stood to preach the Word, my wife and I with the whole Destiny family honored him for fathering us, believing on us, mentoring us and for all the love. It was so deep. We were all overwhelmed with tears as we honored him. This is family!
The River of God: Flowing from the Throne to the Nations
The Word Leif released over the Family gave us a clear prophetic insight of the kairos season of Destiny- the New Season we have entered in the Spirit, and the prophetic picture of things to come.
Revelations 22:1-2, he shared on the River of God that came out from the Throne. Wherever the River flows, there is life, fruitfulness, abundance and healing to the nations. Every aspect of what he shared gave us clear direction of how to prepare for greater things ahead. He inspired us to start seeing ourselves as in the River and not in a pool as in the Pool of Bethesda, waiting for some visitation. The key he said is to bring continuously the River to places away from the Throne.
As in Ezekiel, the farther the River goes from the Throne, the deeper it goes. He strongly exhorted us that we have passed the level of soaking our feet- our walk, into the place where are; our knees- our worship, our prayer, our surrender, have been dictated by the River. Now, he said, our loins- reproduction, multiplication for multitudes have been soaked. We are going to see harvest of souls in the coming days. He told the Destiny family to prepare because people from different nations will come to learn and ask for impartation. He challenged us to move on until such time we will be totally overwhelmed, drowned, and controlled by the River of Life. It was powerful word.
Together with this, he read the passage on Isaiah 54 to extend our tents and strengthen our pegs and that our descendants will possess nations as a prophetic promise over Destiny. God confirmed His Word with signs. Leif had to pause in the middle of his preaching three times because feathers dropped from nowhere thrice in different instances. Signs that made us wonder indeed! It was so awesome! Supernatural is indeed natural. Heaven invaded earth right in that very moment. Hallelujah!
At the last part of the worship service, Leif, Dan and Tom prayed for us (Carlo, Zhaleen, Ahl and me) as the leaders of the movement and they released prophetic blessings and directions over us. God’s glory came upon us heavily as we were being prayed over and received prophetic words. Later, Carlo and I prayed for Pastor Jimmy and his wife Susan and commissioned them to take the lead in planting Destiny churches throughout the nation. The whole event ended with a celebration of Destiny people and friends over a sumptuous banquet. Looking at the whole family, all of us were so amazed to see how we have grown in number, depth, passion, and wisdom together as a family. Destiny’s journey is a testimony of God’s love, grace, faithfulness and goodness.
The Malaysia Trip: More Open Doors to Southeast Asia
Leif and I went to visit the Destiny Family in Malaysia and to meet with some key leaders. In that brief meeting, Leif shared his testimonies as a Baptist pastor who received the Father’s Love Baptism and the impartation through Randy Clark concerning God’s call upon his life to be a “bulldozer to the nations”. For my part, I shared some of my personal testimonies and the impact of the impartation and the fathering we have received from Leif over our lives and the Destiny Family as a whole. It was a father-son tandem in that meeting. Although time was quite limited, we were able to establish important networks for future partnerships especially around the region. More doors are opening for Southeast Asia.
Aside from the meeting we had with the leaders, we spent time with the Destiny family. Pastor Lester, Jane, and some of the leaders from Singapore came. The prayer meeting we had together was the highlight of this trip. It opened something in the spirit. We sensed it is a new season in the land. There was something birthed in the Spirit that night concerning the land and the whole region and our place in God’s agenda in this region.
Family Time
Leif spent the last few days of his trip to be with us (Ahl and I). It was so precious to us- it is family time. We went to El Nido, Palawan. Together we laughed, talked and talked, shared our dreams and hopes, expressed love and support to one another and our commitment as members of one spiritual family. We began to “see” coming things that are in the spirit, at the same time we rejoiced in the goodness of the Lord for all that He has been doing in our midst. Those moments are so precious and we could really say we had an experience of heaven on earth in a family context. The serenity and beauty of nature around us made it very intimate and special. We were so recharged, encouraged, and our spiritual and emotional tanks are so filled up. We are ready to face the coming year and the new season we are in with so much expectancy and faith together as a family! We are looking forward to one day having our Mama Jennifer with us here in the Philippines too.
God is bringing us to greater heights every time and it is so evident with what we have seen happening in our midst. Healings after healings, breakthroughs in prayer and worship, exposures to greater glory of God and open doors of influence both in the national and international level, businesses that are being raised up for His Kingdom purposes, and people who are all the more growing to be more like Christ. God’s favor and goodness through us overflow to those around us. We are overwhelmingly being sweep away by His goodness on the Destiny family as days unfold.
Unto You be all the Glory!
Paul and Ahlmira