When God Reverses Men's Decisions

Yesterday my eldest son sent us his "last" message on Messenger before he said he'd commit suicide the next day (today) if his financial problems with Asian Hospital in Alabang are not settled today, July 24,2026. Asian would pursue their charges of estafa with fraud and have him jailed if he does not come up with the sum. He told us he'd rather commit suicide than suffer imprisonment.

Photo by Jason Wo on Unsplash.

It's devastating, to say the least, and hurts a lot for a father to have his son say this. Since he was a baby, I've been praying for him to be a dedicated Christian serving the Lord, up to this very day, counting deeply on God to have my prayers answered, and yet this is what happens. Since yesterday and especially today, I've been rattled. I don't know what's going to happen--I just know God can do anything. He can do all things, even make people decide according to his plan, or make them reverse their plan and make it favorable to your prayer. The Holy Spirit can make people at Asian take pity on my son and give him leeway on how he can pay in installments in amounts he can afford, in proportion to his salary. His sovereignty supercedes men's will and decisions.

Even stubborn Pharoah just succumbed to what God wanted him to do. He had no choice, although he had, but actually didn't. He gave us freewill but his sovereignty can easily displace it whenever he chooses. When we seriously consider the extent and power of his sovereignty we'd see how there's really no freewill--and still we're rightly accountable for everything we do. Yes, we have freewill, but we don't, but we do, but we really don't. Because that's how he makes all things work together for good to those who love him, and how his mercy and justice works. He can do all things for us, the parents, who intercede in behalf of our erring son.

Our son cannot pray to God and be heard because he's in sin right now, despite our many admonitions. We cannot force him to change, but we can intercede. Intercession is designed for those who cannot pray and be heard, or those who cannot pray at all. God has lots of promises and instances where intercessions were powerfully answered. And even Jesus and the Holy Spirit themselves intercede for us when we do not know how to pray. 

We're counting on God to hear our intercessions for our son. I'm sure God will:

1. Draw my sons to the Lord Jesus so they'll surrender their lives to him.
2. Always draw them to His Word and Presence so powerfully.
3. Keep my son from being imprisoned.
4. Hold Asian Hospital and command them to just take pity on my son and withdraw their charges.
5. Provide my sons good livelihoods, a work or a business ,or both.
6. Provide lucrative monthly incomes for my sons, especially my eldest.
7. Enable my eldest to pay all his debts, especially to Asian. 
8. That my sons live a life pleasing to the Lord and serve him.
9. Powerfully counsel my son not to entertain suicidal thoughts.

I believe these things are easy for God to grant, as his grace and mercy to us and our son. If you will, you can join us pray these requests. 

True believers can intercede for the sins of their fellowmen, especially their families, when they're in sin and are yet unrepentant. If they have a dire need but cannot approach the throne of grace, we who are able by God's grace and mercy can and must intercede for them, with all humility and thanksgiving.

Nehemiah 1.6-7: Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Then Nehemiah asked God to make King Artaxerxes favor his request. 

Verse 11: Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.

The kingdom principle is clear--God can make people decide according to his plan. Much better, God can make people act and decide according to how we ask God to have it happened. God allows us the privilege to decide what we like to happen in a situation, provided we don't intend it for harm. We can decide how things will happen and God will make it so. "According to your faith it will be done to you," [Matthew 9.29]. Here's another powerful word from Jesus.

Mark 11: 22-23: ...and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Believe that what you say will happen. No less than Jesus Christ said it. It will be done for you. It will happen. The only requirement is "Have faith in God." This is the faith I stand on, founded on Jesus' own Word, when I pray for my sons, especially for my eldest--that God will intervene and tell Asian to spare my son and just take pity on him and help him pay his debt to them. My son is willing to pay. Just enable him.  

God can make people act and decide according to how we ask God to have it happened.  

The powerful King Nebuchadnezzar, a non-believer, also had no choice. Against his will, God took him to the wilderness to live like a wild animal. He did so. He had the freewill to refuse, but God's sovereign power overruled his freewill even if he was the most powerful earthly king at the time. He lived like an animal. On the day and at the time decided by God, he finally admitted God's overall sovereignty because he had no choice but to agree with God and obey.

Once a child of God goes to the throne room and petitions God to do something, he will grant according to the details of the petition. It's because the grace to approach the throne of grace and the details of the petition are all also from God himself. He put the idea into the heart of the petitioner. That's the Word being sent into your heart, and then you are given the grace to either ask for it in prayer, or to declare it to existence.

Ezra 1.1: ...in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm.

Look at what Cyrus proclaimed and did in favor of Israel. Look at how extensive his edict was, providing for everything needed. God moved heaven and earth to fulfill the declaration of Jeremiah which God put in his heart to prophesy. 

"And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem."

The same kingdom principles apply when we pray or make intercessions for other people. And this is what I believe for my son. I know he is in sin and did terribly wrong things to Asian Hospital. But God's mercy is vast and extensive, applying to everything in all creation especially when petitioned by his child in Christ, a child whom God declares to be a co-heir with Christ. He will create miracles and wonders to reveal himself to us--in my case, to my son, to glorify himself in his eyes.

Romans 8.32: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

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Job's Prosperity in Suffering

Job was already greatly blessed prior to his great faith test. He was blessed spiritually and financially, had a blessed family. He was described as blameless. If we were the story writer, right there and then we'd say, "And they lived happily ever after." Humanly speaking, there was no reason for a tragic, negative turnabout because obviously Job pleased God. 

Picture source.

You'd be absolutely safe if you pleased God. That's what they say. That's what they preach in church. Something like, if you're faithful with your tithes and offering, God will rebuke the devourer. You'd be safe. You'd be well provided. You'd prosper.

But we find a different thing in Job. Faithful, blameless and all, his whole life changed for the worst. He lost everything, even his children. Often, we just read past this portion like it was nothing, like it was the most natural thing in the world to happen, losing your children. But if you meditate on it and put yourself in his shoe, it was probably the most painful thing that happened to Job. His children killed by a freak disaster. 

Reading it this far, we see only Job's tragedy, his tragic loss. But after we read the whole book, we realize his blessedness. He was actually being prospered by God when the bad things were happening. If you are chosen as an exhibit that God brags about to Satan, what do you call that? Curse? No, you call that honor. 

God's actually proud of you. And what do you think happens when he's proud of you? You think he just blesses you? No, he gives you unusual favor, one that the worldly always mistakes for misfortune. He prospers you with brokenness.

How do you define prosperity? It's when God's blessing on you is sovereign. Prosperity from God given to his favorite servant is not merely material wealth, but holistic and flourishing abundance—more than money, possessions, positions, physical health, family, and everything the world sees and values as crucial. It represents God's sovereign blessing upon an individual's faithfulness, which can be sustained, but which is first tested and refined, and then ultimately restored by God's grace.

During his sufferings Job was actually being "prospered."

It's hard to comprehend when we're so accustomed to realities confined to this world and programmed to think in terms of favor equals material rewards. When you're good and behaving properly, you are rewarded. If you're having a tough time---especially suffering lack and continuously at that---you're most likely doing something wrong and displeasing God. That's the idea today. It was the mindset of Job's three friends, and God later said they were dead wrong.

We need to understand more deeply how Jesus was born in a poor town and born to poor parents and later suffered rejection and crucifixion, crying, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" and yet earlier was declared to be the Father's "beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 

We need to re-define how we see and understand true prosperity from God. We need to discern who really is favored and being prospered, proving that the Kingdom of God is within you.

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It Pains Me So Much to See My Son Like That

Up to this time, a lot of my prayers have not been answered, though I believe God, in his faithfulness, is at work and will soon provide me and my family rescue. But when, Lord? We so badly need financial rescue to pay off our debts incurred by my eldest son's problems--and he's still threatening to commit suicide in his desperation. 

The total debt is almost half a million pesos now from different persons. Two private hospitals are after him because he did something dishonestly when he had his girlfriend confined in them, saying he had money to pay when he didn't. 

You know how it feels when you're supposed to be a servant of God but your son has been living a wrong life and is suicidal? All these though you've been praying for your sons since they were born, praying for them almost everyday, that one day they'd surrender their lives to Jesus, live righteously, and serve the LORD. But it feels like God didn't hear me. 

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Feeling that God does not hear your prayers—or worse, that He hears but remains silent—can be one of the deepest pains of faith. It is especially heavy when you're overwhelmed by debt, crying out for rescue, yet seeing no visible answer. The heart wrestles with questions: Where is the prosperity promised? Where is the deliverance? This silence can feel like abandonment, even though you still believe in Christ and cling to His promises.

Bible passages give me a lot of comfort, especially when it shows men of God similarly situated. Job cried out in his suffering, saying, “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me” (Job 30:20). David lamented, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). Even Habakkuk questioned, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2). These voices echo the anguish of unanswered prayers, showing that even the faithful wrestled with God’s silence.

But sometimes I wonder with deep brokenness why this has to be so. It hurts so much to see my son like that, lost and without hope, a stranger to the Lord. It pains me deeply. I prayed a lot that he would turn out to be a man of God. But now, this. 

Yet, bible stories also remind us that silence does not mean absence. Job, despite his despair, declared, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). David, after pouring out his lament, ended with trust: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). Habakkuk, though he saw no immediate rescue, resolved, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:18).

The pain of waiting is real, but worship in the waiting is powerful. God’s faithfulness is not measured by immediate answers but by His eternal promises. Even when rescue seems delayed, it is better to trust Him, for He is the God who hears, who remembers, and who, in His time, delivers.

Blessings and Lack Reveal Our Heart

A year has passed since my last entry here, and still our son's woes go on, and seem to even have worsened. He still has no job, though he tried several times to apply, but the training cost was too much (specifically the fare which was P1,500 per night) so he ended up skipping some trainings and getting kicked out. 

Worse is that two medical centers are after him for failure to pay for hospital bills when his GF delivered, one baby after another, almost just one year in-between. He said he did that for fear of being neglected in public hospitals or other private hospitals. So he opted to put his GF in renowned medical centers, which was foolish, of course. But it's been done and now they're after him. 

But he's willing to pay if given a chance to work and pay off the debts in installments he can afford. But the sad thing is, he finds it hard to be employed. His sad, problematic story goes on and my wife and I are so affected by it all. My wife especially. She bears the brunt of stress and pressure trying to look for money to borrow for our son. I keep telling her she should stop, but the heart of a mother seeing his son and grandchildren suffer cannot bear the situation. She sometimes suffers HBP because of it, and it's what worries me. So I'd give in. 

I keep asking the Lord to end this epsisode because my wife and I are very tired of it. I believe with all my heart that God can turn things around in an instant and make everything work out right. He can so easily touch my son's heart so he'd be drawn to Jesus, repent, and be genuinely born again. Is not that the work of the Holy Spirit? God can also quickly rescue my son (and us) from our financial woes and move things so that my son gets a good job or livelihoond and be able to pay all his debts. GOD can easily do all these things. 

I'm wondering why HE isn't. 

I now for a fact that it's HIS will that my son gets saved and born again and pay off all his debts and prosper. Without a doubt, I know it's HIS will. But why isn't HE doing it? Why does it seems that HE's just watching everything and doing nothing? Timing? Isn't this the perfect time to rescue us all? 

Now, as a result, I'm planning on stopping my pastorate for a while (or maybe permanently) because my testimony is ruined. It hurts me so much to see my son being like that and becoming rebellious. I know it's all his fault, but aren't we all prone to foolishness and stupidity and sometimes, rebelliousness, especially when we can't understand what's happening and how things are the result of our mistakes?

I see a lot of people around, even church people, doing lots of mistakes and foolishness and rebelliousness (that they're not aware of) but still being blessed by God tremendously. All blessings are by grace and the mercy of God, and not credited to any good work or correct performace. There's no such thing as "correct" performance in God's eyes. Only what Jesus did and does through His obedient servants are correct in God's eyes. And a lot of us (even active church people and those who "plant" many churches) are often guilty of disobedience and falling short of what God expects. But God still blesses many of us, more than usual, only because of his grace and mercy. 

Why does God bless them with more than is necessary? Because HE tests their hearts. God keeps testing our hearts. He tests those He gives more than enough, to make them see where their hearts are when it comes to giving up everything they have and giving to the poor. He also tests the hearts of the poor to make them see how far their faith can go even with the temporary lack. 

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Loan Woes Start

Previously

So my eldest son decided to live with his new GF (despite our protest) somewhere in Mandaluyong, but he often asked our help. We explained to him that leaving us meant he was going independent of us and should work to sustain himself and his new GF. He did so. He tried a lot, according to him. But for some reason he had problems getting a job or staying in a job. So he often still asked for our help. We would ignore him for a while, but what could we do? I and my wife (especially her) now realize it's hard to ignore your child even if he or she is gravely in the wrong. Not that my son is a criminal, but he has done something very irresponsible (and offensive to GOD), especially the time he got his two GFs pregnant and now living with his second GF outside marriage (but they want to get married as soon as their problems lessen). I had sternly warned him before that if he got any of his GFs pregnant we wouldn't help in any way, so he better made sure that no pregnancy happened. But it happened, while we were in the US helping out in a church ministry that provided some allowance.

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash.

I told him that was double stupidity. He should've learned from his first mistake of getting her first GF pregnant. It should have been a big lesson. But no, he did it again for the second time with his second GF. And this girl supposedly (sometimes I'm not sure if he's telling the truth) has heart problems that made her stop working and badly needed medical attention (according to him) so that he kept asking for our help for the medical treatments. Plus, he got her pregnant later. I kept asking GOD, what did I do wrong? I've been praying for my two kids since their infancy to be seriously devoted to GOD and His Word in HIS prophetic ways as they grew up, and my prayers were said every single day up to now. We exposed them to the Word each Sunday in church and during family devotions. But they just never showed serious interest in the Word or in GOD's presence. I don't want them just being active in church, that is garbage to me. I want them to be deeply serious about the Word of GOD and about His Presence, and in taking part in church, pursuing Jesus' glorious church, which is without spot or wrinkle or any blemish. This has been my prayer for them and my grandkids up to now.

Then my son took her new GF to a very expensive hospital known for being a hospital of the elite rich. I don't know why he took her there, even after we had strictly warned him not to. I told him we would not help if he insisted on taking her there. According to him, some friends cautioned them about taking her to a government hospital because a lot of people they knew died in government hospitals during child birth because of gross negligence. To cut it short, he took her there and incurred hundreds of thousands as bill because of cesarian birth---plus, they were held in the hospital for their inability to pay their bills. They were held there for 14 days against their will. 

A lot of people, even Christians, told us to disown him for the things he'd been doing, especially asking as money and getting almost everything we had worked hard for in the US. Indeed, he had used up almost 80 percent of it so that today we're in dire need of money for our own expenses. We're bankrupt, being so frugal even with our food expenses. Sometimes all we eat is small scrambled fried egg sliced into three---for me, my wife and youngest son who's in college and graduating next year. Sometimes I cook miswa soup with an egg drop. Sometimes, I fry three small fish. By the way, I'm the cook while trying to make a small living online and, by GOD's precious grace and mercy, my wife has been employed since August this year (2024) as school nurse in a neighborhhod grade and high school. She just walks for 3 minutes and she's at school. Thank GOD!!!

But the Word says that "while we were yet sinners (while we were downright EVIL and showed no sign of regret, remorse and repentance), Christ died for us. And HIS death is the greatest blessing of all. GOD never withheld that blessing even while we were unrepentant and kept sinning and loved the devil (or "married" to him). That's how GOD blesses people, even HIS church people, and that's the same blessings principle I and my wife are following. GOD blesses both the good and bad with their basic needs (HE makes the sun shine on both good and bad, as well as give them oxygen, rain, etc.) HE doesn't stop the blessings when we sin or even when we repeatedly sin. In HIS Sermon on the Mount, HE said "give to whoever asks from you." No ifs or buts. 

Because we cannot just ignore our eldest son and watch him succumb to poverty without extending any help to him, we give aid in any way we can until we find ourselves making loans for our own needs and for his. This started when we helped him and his new GF get out of the expensive hospital via a promisory note. We have to pay for the bill on a day decided by the hospital. My wife is a co-maker in the promisory and would face litigation with my eldest son if the payables (Php 280k) are not met. I'll discuss why we keep helping him in the next coming articles. I just want to put everything here so that one day my posterity would know why my wife and I did what we did for my eldest son. The loans started our bitter financial journey so that now we have some Php 500k plus loans from friends and a few lending agencies. Imagine, once upon a time excitedly praying for my sons to be anointed servants of GOD---my eldest as an apostlic servant and my youngest a prophetic servant---but then ending up like this. 

Continued here 

The Word has Brought Me Insult and Reproach

My quiet time: 

You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. 

Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. 

But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

- Jeremiah 20. 7-9

Photo above by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash. 

People just want to hear positive and good things from you. Even church people. If you say something about God's judgments and condemnation in the bible, they hate it and tell you you're judgmental and too negative.

But sometimes you have to declare what God shows you in His Word, especially about sin and repentance. And Yet, doing so brings you insult and reproach. 

Even your brothers, members of your own family, have turned against you. They plot and raise complaints against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak. [Jeremiah 12.6]

"Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. [Jeremiah 9.4]

What is God up to?

What is God up to? If these videos were real, and there are indeed weird objects out there near our sun--planet-size UFOs or actual planets--then why are they there? Why did you put them there, God? Are you up to something? What is God up to? Simply incredible. Like this video below, showing a "spaceship" something the size of mercury (probably what's shown is the UFOs apparent diameter size, which gives the illusion that an object is bigger than it actually is), and it's near mercury.

Heat waves from the sun hits the object and reveals it to the naked eye. Whereas without the heatwaves or heat energy, it's totally invisible. What if there are other objects or UFOs like this roaming around our solar system and which are "invisible" to us? That will be astonishing. Are you up to something God? What is God up to?

Here's something more weird--the sun "shooting" a fireball at a planet-like thing near it and which burns and disintegrates. Are these videos for real? If so, only God can let something like this happen, and most probably he's all behind it and up to something in these last days. What is God up to?

If it isn't a planet, then could it be hell? Is hell located somewhere near the sun so that it remained invisible to us until today, in these last days, when high-tech telescopes can spot things near the sun which were formerly unseen by the naked eye, even with powerful telescopes available then?

If you watch the video below closely, you'd notice that prior to the fireball hitting the object, it was invisible. You see that?

And then this video below claims that there is or are planets hovering around the sun but which do not get disintegrated or melted by the sun's burning flares and enormous gravity pull. Could they be different places of hell? But a bible verse says hell is in the heart of the earth, and that could mean the earth's core which science says is extremely hot.

Is God up to something in these last days? What is God up to? When I hate life and see something like this, I wonder if the end of these rotting world is near and the beginning of the new earth and new heaven is starting. When I see foolish things happening in this life and ask what kind of life is this, and then see videos like these, I wonder and ask what is God up to. Is he now about to unfold the things he said he'd do in these last days?

The Word says things happening in the sky and sea will make men uneasy and fear for their future. Look at the abnormal tsunamis and melting of the ice cap these past years, and now these activities near the sun. It further says in the Word of God, that the coming global stress is a lot worse compared to what's already been recorded in world history--especially the persecution.

Praise God, and all glory and power and dominion is his, in Jesus' Name! Come Lord Jesus, and help and empower us by your grace and through you, Holy Spirit, to prepare to meet the Lord Jesus with meek righteousness and perseverance to endure everything!