An Introductory Message from Pastor Ishmael David
The Main Character in Prince of Sumba – A Novel
This story is about a simple mission trip that turned into a great awakening as God poured out His Spirit on millions of Christians.1 He also poured out His Spirit on millions of new believers who follow Him today with an honest and good heart. Having heard the word, they keep it, and tell others about God’s love.2
There were some however, who called themselves brothers, yet like Jonah were angry with us enough to die and would have preferred to continue wasting water on a withering vine.3
But it came to pass that when the Lord’s Spirit was poured out on us, He softened our hearts so that we might take away the reproach of our women4 and prepare the way of the Lord.5
All of us who were there, wish to express our gratitude that we weren’t alone on our mission but that some of you prayed for us, as the miraculous events I’m about to describe unfolded.
To those of you who’ve thwarted us in this work of the Lord, the prophet says, come out of her6 for if you don’t know that it’s not the Lord’s will that anyone should perish, but everyone come to repentance then you’ve lost sight of the Lord’s love and of His patience.7
Let’s give thanks and praise to the Lord whose Spirit moved upon us, so that those who’d sought in vain to find a righteous witness were finally presented with His pure gospel, untainted by cultural bigotry.8
Let’s be thankful and in awe of God’s great mercy in that He has
been patient with our stubbornness so that we’ve lived to see the day that the Branch of the Lord would be restored.9
Let’s be thankful that after many years of hardened hearts, the Lord has seen fit to open us to His will, so that His Spirit could be poured out on our new brothers and sisters in the Lord as was His plan from the beginning.10
Finally, I praise God that He has seen fit to let me be part of that great moving of His Spirit. Singing praises to His Name in the presence of millions of newborn believers has left me with a most indescribable joy!
If you still have not come out of her, that great apostate church, that great whore of Babylon,11 which includes those who protest12 yet revel in her abominations, listen to the words of the prophet:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’13
Let the Lord judge your heart and find it true, for He has said, If you are not with Me you are against Me.14 Our prayers and the prayers of our new found brothers and sisters in the Lord, and there are millions, are with you who read these pages. May you be with the Lord as His plan continues to unfold, always guided by His holy Word, for He will lift you up.15
Footnotes
1. Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
2. Luke 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep [it], and bring forth fruit with patience.
3. Jonah 3:10-Jonah 4:1 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did [it] not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jonah 4:5-7 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made [it] to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
Psalm 37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
4. Isaiah 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Note: Mass conversions of women in the Philippines to Born-Again Christianity began in the 20th century. By the first half of the 21st century, there were more than double the number of Born-Again Christian women in the Philippines than Born-Again Christian men.
5. Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
6. Revelation18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
7. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
8. Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Jam 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
9. Isaiah 4:2-6 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth [shall be] excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, [that he that is] left in Zion, and [he that] remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, [even] every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory [shall be] a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
10. Joel 2:28-29 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Isaiah 44:3-8 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.
11. Revelation 17:5 And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
12. Those who protest yet revel in her abominations –
This includes any group claiming to have broken from the false traditions of man but that has taken up those false traditions once again. Some of the false, even blasphemous, traditions include the placement of graven images outside or inside the church and the use of Sunday school books that include such images or that even teach children to create graven images. Such things are found in nearly every Christian church. Other abominations include the rejection of God’s moral laws concerning chastity to replace them with government laws that permit every sin that the Bible forbids, and that forbid many things that the Bible commands. Such groups revel in tolerance, that is, they revel in these abominations.
13. Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
14. Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
15. James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
