We read the testimony of the Apostle Paul
three times in the Acts of the Apostles.
One is where Luke himself describes it.
Luke wrote Acts of the Apostles in Acts
chapter 9, under the scripture.
And then, twice, when Paul himself gave his
testimony, in Acts 22, when he was testifying
to the Jews, and later on, in Acts
26, when he was testifying to King Agrippa,
where he gave testimony concerning his salvation, how
he was initially saved on the road to
Damascus.
We don't see him giving a message there,
because his testimony itself was a message.
And then, particularly in 2nd Corinthians, and also
in some other passages of scripture, we find
Paul giving his testimony concerning his inner life.
2nd Corinthians especially, if you want to know
the inner life of the Apostle Paul, that
made him the man he became.
Mighty servant of God, you have the secret
in 2nd Corinthians, the type of life he
lived, the principles he lived by.
And other passages also, like 1 Corinthians 9,
2nd Thessalonians 3, Acts chapter 20, where he
gives his testimony concerning his attitude to money.
These things have encouraged me to give my
own testimony at different times.
I've usually been very reluctant to give a
personal testimony.
In fact, out of maybe nearly 2,000
tapes we have in India on different subjects,
2,000 of my tapes, different languages, I
don't think there's even one which contains merely
my testimony.
I've been reluctant to do that because of
one reason.
It's much more difficult when giving a testimony
to give the glory to God alone than
it is when preaching a message.
And I know that the most important thing
that every servant of the Lord who stands
up to preach the word has to be
careful about is to ensure that people are
not drawn to him, but to Christ.
If I have drawn people to myself, I
would consider myself a failure in my ministry.
But if I have drawn people beyond myself
to Jesus, then I have been a success.
I see a lot of people who are
drawing people to themselves, and it's the one
thing I have feared throughout these 29 years
of being in churches, and that's one reason
why we have about 70 elder brothers who
look up to me like a spiritual father,
and I almost never write to them because
I'm afraid of this one thing.
Lest they look to me for every little
thing instead of clinging to the Lord.
I say, listen, I'm available, but you don't
have to depend on me.
I want you to grow up quickly and
lean upon the Lord.
And so it's with a lot more fear
and trembling than in preaching that I stand
today to give a testimony.
And I want to say one more thing,
and that is another reason why I've been
reluctant to give my testimony is because some
people who have been tremendously helped by my
ministry, or who admire me a lot, you
can't help that, can make that like a
standard to follow.
And I wanted to say right at the
beginning that there's only one standard to follow,
and that's Jesus Christ.
Only one example.
And if you see something in a man
that helps you to follow Jesus, follow that.
There may be other things in that man
which you cannot follow because no man is
perfect, and if you know me close enough,
you'll discover lots of areas where you shouldn't
be following me.
But most of them could be areas where
I myself don't have light.
You know, all of us have got blind
spots.
We don't see ourselves in certain areas.
And the other thing is we're pressing on
to perfection.
Like I read somewhere, somebody said, if I'm
here, if I can teach you something, it's
because I've been a patient in this hospital
a little longer than you have been.
I'm not the doctor, I'm not the nurse,
but one of the patients has been here
a little longer, so I can show you
where the rooms are and where you go
for your x-rays and things like that.
So that's all.
Jesus is the only doctor who can help
us.
And no man's life is a standard to
follow.
God works in different ways.
God doesn't make people who look exactly alike,
like made out of cookie cutters.
When a man builds a row of apartments,
they all look alike, but along the same
road, when God plants trees from the same
type of seed, each tree is different.
That's the difference between man's work and God's
work.
Man's work is uniform and dead.
God's work is with variety, but with life.
So remember this, that it's the general principles
in any man's testimony, whether Paul's or anybody
else's, that we are to follow.
And God deals with each of us differently
because each of us is precious in God's
eyes.
Every single one of you is a special
child to God.
And no one is His special favorite.
I'm no special favorite, you're no special favorite,
but you're a special child of God.
And He loves you specially.
He doesn't put you in a classroom and
teach you all together like human teachers.
He gives each child individual attention.
He knows where you're weak, which subjects you're
weak in, and He helps you.
He gives you extra coaching in those subjects.
So if you find certain temptations coming your
way frequently, you know why it is.
Because God sees you're a little weak in
that subject, and He wants you to pass.
He wants you to come through.
He wants you to be a person.
I was born in a Christian family.
It was when the Second World War had
just started, November 39.
And my father was already born again.
But it was a family, I mean, it's
a church very similar to the Roman Catholic
Church.
It's called in India the Syrian Orthodox Church.
I grew up in the part of India
where, I mean, I belong to that community
in India where we've had Christianity for 2
,000 years.
The Apostle Thomas came to that part of
India in 55 A.D. He took the
command of Jesus seriously to go to the
outermost parts of the earth and be His
witness, and he came to India.
And he was killed in India.
But because of that, we've had Christianity in
that part of India for 2,000 years.
That doesn't mean that I can trace my
ancestry all that time, but I know at
what stage people became Christians.
I'm sure before Thomas came, they were all
Hindus, but they became Christians.
And it's mostly nominal Christianity.
But my father was a believer, and so
from my earliest recollection, when I was a
little boy, I grew up in the capital
city of India, in Delhi.
He sent me to a Sunday school where
I heard the Gospel, to a Brethren Assembly
Sunday school.
So I had the privilege of hearing the
Gospel from childhood.
And because it was a God-fearing family
and having heard the Gospel from childhood, I
didn't do any serious crime.
God protected me from the common sins that
many people fall into because of this type
of upbringing.
And so one of the problems that such
children have is they don't have a crisis
in their being born again.
Being born again is a crisis, but many
people like me cannot pinpoint the date or
the time or the hour.
In fact, I don't even know the year.
And the reason is because I must have
asked Jesus to come into my heart, I
don't know, 100 times, 500 times, I've got
no idea.
I've got no...
I lost track of how many times I
did that.
I don't even know from what age, perhaps
from the age of 13 or so.
And the reason I can't say is because
I was never sure.
I would go to a meeting, I'd hear
the Gospel that I'm a sinner, and I
had no problem accepting that, that I wasn't
this gross type of sinner like other people,
but I knew that I was a bad
boy inside.
And I knew that Jesus died for me
and I asked him to come to my
heart, but nothing happened.
You know, I heard other people speak about
lights and electric shocks, and I never seem
to get anything like that.
So I never heard a voice from heaven
or any such thing, so how do I
know?
How could I be sure?
So just to make sure, I didn't want
to go to hell.
So just to make sure, the next time
I was meeting again, I'd say, Lord, please
come to my heart.
And it went on and on and on
and on and on and on for years.
Now, I remember sometime after I was saved,
I attended a meeting where I heard a
murderer giving his testimony in India.
It was fantastic.
He said how he was a gang of
murderers and he pulled out people's intestines and
all that graphic description of what all he
did and then how he was going along
to murder somebody and he saw some girls
and he decided to follow them first.
They went to a meeting and he got
converted there.
I sat there and said, boy, I wish
I had a testimony like that.
I was young and I was stupid.
And, you know, because I was seeking honor.
You know, you got a lot of honor
if you get up and say you did
all that type of stuff and then you
got converted.
And I didn't have the wisdom that time
to think that that was just seeking honor,
that I wanted a testimony like that.
But later on when I got a little
wiser, I said, well, thank God I didn't
pull out anybody's intestines or do anything like
that or harm anybody in any way.
But, you know, some people are discouraged because
they don't have a spectacular testimony where they
had a great crisis and crash, bang and
all that and all of a sudden they
became new people.
Well, it didn't happen like that with me.
And, you know, through the years what I
discovered that a lot of people who hear
those type of testimonies sit and wonder, well,
what can God do with me?
And I don't have that type of conversion.
And I discovered through the years that my
unspectacular type of conversion where I don't even
know the date or the year helps a
lot of other people who are not helped
by that other type of testimony.
So, you know, God allows us to come
to Christ in our own way because there
are certain people whom only you can help
with your testimony.
And He doesn't want you to be like
anybody else.
So I learned that right at the beginning
of my Christian life.
I would say over a period of at
least six years I didn't know if I
was saved or not.
If you had asked me, I'd say I
hope so.
And so I can fully understand when somebody
says today I don't know whether I am
saved or not.
I hope so.
I can sympathize with that fully because I
went through that for years.
But I'll tell you another thing and that
is in all those years when I was
unsure I never grew spiritually.
I don't know whether I was saved or
not but I certainly didn't grow.
And then I can only...
I joined the Navy.
I joined the Navy at a very young
age.
When I was 15 years old I finished
school and joined the Indian Navy as an
officer.
And I was earning a good salary.
And I saw the emptiness of the world
and it's an amazing thing that because of
that that early Sunday school of teaching and
God-fearing home upbringing it kept me from
gross sins even when I was in the
Navy.
And even though I don't even know whether
I was saved.
But I saw the emptiness of the world
pretty soon and I was very thankful for
that.
Then one day, I still can't explain how
and that also I don't even remember the
date I've got a rough idea it was
sometime in July 1959 I was just reading
I had a habit of reading the scriptures
chapter a day or some passage of scripture
every day.
And that day I came to this verse
in John chapter 6 and verse 37 where
Jesus says All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me and the one
who comes to me I will certainly not
cast out.
And I've come to see something that even
faith is a gift of God.
Because I just got faith that day.
I don't know how.
I read that verse I've probably read it
before I've probably read it many times.
And as you read it today it may
mean nothing to you.
But to me that day it meant everything.
And I read it and I said well
Lord I've certainly come to you many times
just once.
And I felt as if the Lord was
saying to me Him that cometh to me
I'll never cast out.
And as if the Lord was saying well
if you've done your part you think I
haven't done mine?
I've accepted.
But it wasn't a voice.
You know I want to tell you for
encouragement in my whole life I have never
once heard the audible voice of God.
I've never seen a light.
I've never seen an angel.
I've never been taken up to heaven nor
had any of these experiences.
I'm an ordinary person just like you.
And the reason I've wanted some of these
experiences sometimes to tell you also just like
you.
And the Lord's as I understand it right
now I feel the Lord's allowed it like
this so that I walk by faith and
not by sight.
And you know one of the verses that's
tremendously encouraged me in this matter it's an
amazing verse.
In John chapter 20 it says when Thomas
said I will not believe unless I see.
And Jesus appeared to him and then Jesus
tells him in John chapter 20 and verse
29 Thomas because you've seen me you have
believed blessed are they who did not see
and yet believed.
And that taught me that a faith that
comes through hearing an audible voice seeing a
light like some people testify I don't question
them but maybe they did see a light.
The apostle Paul did.
So some of it is genuine some of
it is because they've got a very vivid
imagination.
But I discovered from this verse that it
is actually better according to Jesus you are
more blessed if you can believe without these
external you know voices and lights and signs.
And I think most Christians belong to this
more blessed category.
Because sometimes you can hear some great preacher
stand up there and say well he heard
the voice of God or he saw a
vision and you can sit there and feel
so inferior and say boy I wish I
could see that.
Remember this verse then, you are more blessed
because you did see and you still believed
not because you didn't see but you believed
even though you didn't see if you don't
believe you are not more blessed.
Please remember that.
It's a tremendous thing to live by faith.
Faith is a great thing.
So I said Lord I believe your word
that you accepted me and I don't know
what happened I had no experience nothing but
when I look back now over 45 years
it was like my dropping an anchor and
my ship has been moored to that place
never once have I doubted my salvation from
that day onwards.
I don't know whether you've seen ships that
anchor.
I've been in the navy you know when
a ship is anchored down there in the
rough sea the ship will swing right around
go in a circle around that anchor but
it never loses its grip down below on
the earth below.
So my life has also swung around there
have been a lot of tossings and turnings
and ups and downs but the anchor has
always held that I was absolutely sure that
I was saved my sins were forgiven so
that was the beginning and from that time
onwards God's been leading me step by step
through many things one thing I can say
that when I gave myself to the Lord
at that time it was total 100%
I didn't give myself a little bit and
then sometime later a little bit the picture
I got in my mind was that the
Lord had given himself completely for me on
Calvary's cross and I felt the least I
could do was to give myself completely to
Him I saw myself even though I hadn't
done gross external sins I saw that I
didn't see sin as clearly then as I
see it now, I see sin a million
times more clearly today and that's not an
exaggeration a million times more clearly today than
I saw it when I was first converted
45 years ago and that teaches me that
you don't need to see sin so clearly
you can't see sin so clearly when you're
first saved, you got to get close to
God to see sin clearly and you don't
have to see sin as all as gruesome
awesomeness, I mean wickedness to be converted if
you see that it was your sin that
crucified Jesus Christ on the cross if if
you can hear your voice among those people
who shouted crucify Him, crucify Him can you
recognize your voice there?
if you can see your hand hammering those
nails into His hands and feet by what
I mean by that is I'm just using
picture language that it was your sin my
sin because of which He hung on the
cross, I hope you know that it was
not the nails that held Him to the
cross but your sin, mine as He hung
there He thought of you and me when
He was in Gethsemane and He thought of
some other way of getting out of that
situation, Father can I escape this?
can you let this cup pass from me
and one hour He struggled with it the
thought that came to me was if I
go away from here what will happen to
Zach?
what will happen to you?
and He said ok, I'll go through it
have you seen it like that personally?
that He saw you you, you got to
see it personally Lord Jesus you saw me
you knew my name even though I didn't
exist then your Almighty God He knew my
name before you came from heaven you knew
my name and you thought of me when
you were in Gethsemane and you did not
take that escape route go straight to heaven
but you decided to go through the cross
for my sake and you gave all what
am I going to give?
50%?
10%?
I decided to give all and I don't
regret it I can say to all of
you young people to give your all when
you are young totally completely you won't regret
it I look back over my life and
I have no regrets I had great ambitions
when I joined the Navy my aim was
to rise up to the top and be
the Admiral of the Indian Navy and I
was working towards it I topped my class
and I said I'm going to get there
and then Jesus came into my heart and
changed the direction of my life completely he
showed me all this is empty it's vapor
you know like the steam that comes out
of your kettle you see it you look
this way and you turn back and it's
gone all the honor of the world is
like that all the comfortable life that a
man can live with all the money he
earns is like that all the pleasure you
can get with a lifetime of sin it's
like that in a moment it's gone if
you can see that when you were 19
or 20 like I was you are really
blessed because you got a whole life ahead
of you if you can just see that
when you are 70 that's also good because
you got at least a few more years
but it's much better if you see it
when you are a young teenager that all
of that is empty it's all empty it's
a tremendous deception of satan when he makes
you think that there is something in that
vapor in that steam vapor the bible says
what's your life?
it's like a vapor it's there a moment
and gone the next so I'm very thankful
I could see that all the honor of
the world and everything I was living for
aiming for, my ambitions my hopes, my plans
were all like vapor and I said Lord
I don't know what you are going to
call me to do but you can have
all of my life 100% from today
the next step the Lord that I was
told by others I should take is water
baptism I didn't take that for a long
time because somebody gave me this argument you
know first of all I studied the scriptures
I knew there are some people who are
baptized as children and some people are baptized
as adults and I said Lord I want
to see what your word says and I
read the word of God and I found
there is another verse about child baptism so
I knew that baptism was necessary but then
somebody told me hey listen in these churches
with baptized believers everybody is a believer but
in this church where you are coming from
they are all nominal Christians they are not
born again if you get baptized they will
throw you out and you will never get
a chance to witness to them over there
and the other ones who need to hear
not this group of baptized believers they already
say it I was young I didn't know
the verse which said trust in the Lord
with all your heart and don't lean to
your own understanding so I said hey that
is a good argument that that's right these
are the fellows who need to hear and
if I get baptized this church will throw
me out so I better stay here so
for one and a half years I didn't
obey God because of this human reasoning you
know very often I have seen believers who
they argue their way out of a command
of God with a human reason and if
they continue like that thankfully I continued only
for a year and a half I tell
you they are doomed I don't know whether
you are using your human reason to argue
against something which is so clear in God's
word I want to say you are in
a very dangerous position you probably don't realize
it that's the reason why you never seem
to progress I did not progress in those
one and a half years I had come
to salvation I was sure but there was
something holding up and every time I knelt
down to pray I felt God was saying
if you are not listening to me why
should I listen to you right that was
also logic if you are not listening to
me why should I listen to you well
after a year and a half I got
frustrated and I said Lord I don't care
which church in the world throws me out
I am going to obey your word and
that's been my attitude since then I began
to study the scriptures and I said Lord
if I ever see a single thing in
this book which everybody in the world says
it's different I will do what your book
says I don't care if every church in
the world teaches something else I don't care
if every Christian in the world teaches something
else and practices something else I am going
to follow your word and if there is
anything in my life any tradition that I
have got which is contrary to your word
I will throw it away in a moment
and I will do what your word says
and that's another thing I have tried to
follow for more than 40 years and I
want to say it's blessed me tremendously it's
made me experience some of these wonderful promises
in scripture and I know why a lot
of Christians remain frustrated even though they go
to conference after conference after conference and meeting
after meeting after meeting it's because they are
not quick to obey and if you don't
have that habit I want to encourage you
to develop it now be quick to obey
now if you are not sure whether God
has said it wait wait 50 years if
you like but once you are sure God
has said it some people say how do
I know this is the Bible is God's
word well if you got a problem with
that settle that first but don't be a
hypocrite and say this is God's word but
well I don't think I should do that
that's hypocrisy then say I don't believe it's
God's word we got to be honest or
you believe something there is not there are
people Christians who say that's not for today
that's for first century be honest and take
a pen and scratch out that verse and
say I don't that's not for today you'll
have a pretty scratched up Bible after sometime
I don't have anything scratched up because I
just want to be honest it's for today
so it's because of dishonesty God sees these
fellows are dishonest they say this is God's
word and they treat it so lightly you
wouldn't treat a court order lightly you wouldn't
treat a instruction from a sheriff or a
police person lightly or from the government or
the FBI or something sent you something like
an instruction you would obey it immediately oh
but this is God's word we say and
you don't tremble at it God doesn't even
look at you you know I want to
tell you a little secret it's not a
secret it's written in Isaiah 66 God says
I will look and the meaning is I
will look with favor Isaiah 66 verse 2
if you want God to look upon you
with favor I want God to look upon
me with favor all the time I know
I can face the whole world if God
almighty creator of this universe looks upon me
with favor that's the only thing I want
I can stand against 6 billion people in
the whole world they are like the dust
in the balance the bible says that all
the people of earth are like the dust
in the balance you know in a weighing
balance sometimes there is a little bit of
dust it doesn't even move the scales and
God says all the people in the world
are like the small dust of the balance
and if almighty God is on my side
I don't have to worry just make sure
God is on your side make sure God
can look upon you with favor and God
will look upon you with favor it says
in Isaiah 66 verse 2 when you tremble
at God's word you read something and you
tremble oh God I haven't obeyed that yet
what an arrogant person I am to think
that I can think about it whether to
obey you or not oh the number of
arrogant proud conceited snobbish believers who think that
they can question God's word I am not
at all surprised that God punished them saying
you will never grow in your Christian life
you don't deserve to grow if you don't
tremble at God's word you are a hypocrite
you say this is God's word and you
don't tremble at it then be more honest
like that atheist and say I don't believe
this is God's word there is just some
fellow called Isaiah wrote this or some other
chap called John wrote it that guy is
more honest he doesn't tremble but if you
say this is God's word I would recommend
that you start trembling at it and the
Bible says that demons tremble because they know
the reality of God you just start trembling
from today at the words of God that
you have not obeyed and see the difference
it can make in your life I guarantee
in one year you will progress more than
you progress in all your Christian life because
God will begin to look upon you with
favor any little thing don't bother about your
pastor or your preacher or your brother or
uncle or priest or XY or anyone else
believes it or not it's not important because
God said it that's it the same thing
with God's promises it's like one man of
God I heard he put it like this
God said it I believe it and that
settles it it's the end of the matter
no further discussion and that's why God used
that man greatly so that's one thing I
learned at that time that I had to
take God's word seriously and I had to
completely ignore what other people said and what
churches said and especially my own reason the
arguments of logic and things like that and
so I decided to get baptized and when
I got baptized immediately the Lord showed me
the next step see I've discovered that God
doesn't show us the blueprint for our whole
life he's never shown me the blueprint for
my whole life he shows me the next
step and I'll never see the second one
till I take the first one and you'll
never see the third one till you take
the second one and you'll never see the
56th one till you take the 55th one
and maybe there are a lot of steps
ahead of you that you could have taken
in the last few years and God doesn't
show it to you you think you can
see it yourself you'll never see it till
God shows it to you there are obvious
steps that I never saw till God had
mercy on me, showed me you want to
see the next step, I'll show it to
you, take this one first and for me
at that time the step was just simply
getting baptized in water and getting thrown out
of that church I belong to, that was
it I'm willing to be thrown out of
anything if God accepts me so the next
thing God showed me after that was making
restitution to the people I had wronged in
my previous life in my unconverted days I
had cheated the government of taxes and the
Lord said you got to repay it so
I sat down and calculated how much I
had to repay the government in taxes I
had cheated and I wasn't very sure I
was unsettled about two first one was about
20% more than the other and which
do you think I finally decided on like
you, the lower one I said I think
I'll you know our love of money in
our flesh makes let's choose the lower one
which is 20% less than the other
one one day I was reading my normal
bible reading and I read there in Numbers
5 verse 7 that if you do something
wrong and you make restitution you must do
it in full and add the 20%
and give it to the one who is
wrong how directly can God's word speak to
you it is absolutely amazing it is almost
as though Moses wrote that 3500 years ago
inspired by the Holy Spirit knowing that there
is going to be one fellow who is
thinking about whether to add 20% to
that restitution and he puts it in there
yeah I've had one or two amazing experiences
like that God's word is so powerful but
I'd never have seen it if I didn't
have a habit of reading God's word every
day do you have that habit?
do you know what you're missing?
just by not reading God's word every day,
letting God speak to your heart I thank
God that as soon as I was born
again I started crying out for the milk
of God's word like it says and that's
the thing that sustained me the milk became
meat after some time and it's made me
grow so if you don't have that habit
I want to encourage you to develop that
habit it says in Psalm 119 in verse
105 God's word is a lamp to our
feet and that means it's like you know
if you're walking along a dark pitch dark
road at night and you've only got a
small torch light with you if you don't
have a torch light you don't see the
whole road in front of you you just
see enough for the next step and if
you want to see further what do you
have to do?
you've got to take that step and then
the light shows you a little more then
you take that step and you see a
little more and progressively you go miles along
that road a thousand miles there's an old
Chinese proverb that says a journey of a
thousand miles begins with a single step and
then another and then another and so is
the Christian life and so has it been
with me step by step as I've taken
ones the Lord's shown me other ones and
I thank the Lord for the way he's
led like that step by step then once
I was witnessing to somebody, a fellow naval
officer and he began to ask me about
when I was witnessing to him he was
a Muslim they don't believe that Jesus died
they believe he just swooned on the cross
and that the cool air of the tomb
sort of revived him so he asked me
when I was witnessing to him, he said
was Jonah alive or dead in the whale's
belly?
I said he was alive well he said,
didn't your Jesus say that as Jonah was
in the whale's belly so he would be
in the heart of the earth so was
he alive or dead in the tomb?
I got stuck I didn't have an answer
I went back to my room and I
said Lord I am so ashamed of myself
there must be an answer to this I
don't know the answer this guy's really got
me and I decided that day that I
would study the scriptures and that if there's
an answer to any question in the Bible
I would know it and if there's an
answer to any question in my life for
which the answer was in the Bible I
would know it and I studied and I
never stopped you know it was a Muslim
man who challenged me to study the scriptures
how God used that it's really amazing I
know the answer today the heart of the
earth was not the tomb of Joseph of
Arimathea that's on the surface of the earth
the heart of the earth was where paradise
was located and that's where Jesus was alive
when his body died but his spirit was
alive with a thief on the cross in
paradise and the heart of the earth for
3 days and 3 nights however that's besides
the point but once I began to study
God's word I found a tremendous burden in
me to share little that I knew I
knew very little if I was in grade
1 I could teach those who were not
yet in grade 1 a little later if
I moved up to grade 2 I could
teach those who were in grade 1 it's
a progressive thing if you keep learning and
obeying God can teach you, God can use
you to teach many other people more and
more and progressively I saw that God was
giving me grace to understand scripture as I
spent hours and hours and hours everyday reading
his word meditating, studying using a concordance, studying,
studying, studying and I was doing a secular
job I've never been to a bible school
or any such thing, I'm thankful for that
but in the midst of my secular job
I'd get time to study the word and
obey it and little by little God gave
me understanding about many things and as I
during my vacation times from the navy I
used to travel to other places and preach
God's word along with other servants of God
and I found gradually that God was giving
me an ability to speak his word now
I didn't have that ability naturally I was
not the type of person who would get
up and take part in public speaking in
school or anything like that, I was very
shy, timid reserved, I'm like that except when
I had to get up and speak God's
word and I said Lord, I find I
know the word but I don't have power
I need power it's so difficult for me
even to preach a brief sermon, it's a
struggle I have to prepare so much and
with so much struggle maybe I can preach
half a sermon and yet your word says
rivers of living water will flow out of
those who believe in you and I knew
that I needed something more than the knowledge
of God's word I knew that I needed
the power of God's Holy Spirit if I
were to serve him, I saw that that
was what those early Christians had which a
lot of Christians around me at least in
the assembly I was in didn't seem to
have, they had a great intellectual knowledge of
God's word, they could explain this and compare
this with that and argue about this and
that and the other but they didn't have
the radiance of the beauty of Jesus Christ
in their life and they didn't have I
mean the sermons I heard in those assemblies
were so boring, absolutely boring, I went to
another assembly it was equally boring there, I
knew there was something wrong with, something is
wrong here this is not the way, we
can't say that Jesus is in a meeting
if the whole thing is boring you know
for example a television program how can people,
children even sit and watch a television program
for 2-3 hours and not get bored
who gave that television program producer that intelligence
you say that was your father your father
in heaven created that intelligence in that person
to produce such a fantastic program that grips
people's minds for so long and your father
will not help you to make church so
interesting that it will grip people for even
one hour, something is wrong your connection with
your father is wrong it's true that that
person's intelligence came from the creator who happens
to be your father and mine and I
thought if this creator could give that person
the ability to produce a worldly secular television
program which is mainly meant to lead people
astray and grip people's attention for so long
or a movie for example why can't this
father help me when I'm doing his work
to make church and a message and a
sermon more interesting than that TV program that
was the challenge that came to me and
that's the challenge that still is before me
that Lord, I want to speak God's word
in such a way that not even one
minute is boring and you can do that
because I know of a lot of people
who produce television programs for 2 hours and
not one minute is boring and if you
gave those people that ability of course it's
not the devil who gave them, the devil
they're using that ability which God gave for
the devil, that's another thing but the ability
was given by God and this God is
my father and this work that I'm doing
is God's work that fellow is not doing
God's work, he's doing the devil's work, I
don't know whether that challenges you but it's
challenged me continuously so many of our young
people, so many of our children are driven
away from church because they honestly say Dad,
it's boring and they're right, it is boring
don't you think we have failed our children,
we have failed our young people to catch
them by their neck and say come on
you gotta come to the meeting, you don't
have to catch them by their neck and
put them in front of a television to
watch that why is that?
I think we have failed the Lord because
we're too lazy to seek God for the
anointing of the Holy Spirit we think we
can do it we can't anyway I know
I need the power of the Holy Spirit
then people told me, oh you go to
this particular group they're always talking about the
baptism of the Holy Spirit I said ok,
I didn't know anything about them but I
went there it was like a lot of
noise and things that didn't particularly attract me,
it didn't seem to be the sweet gentle
spirit of Christ and I came away from
there and I I saw a lot of
them loved a lot of money too, ooh
what a tremendous love of money, and I
said that can't be the spirit of Christ,
Jesus didn't love money he never asked people
for money, when I see these fellows, they're
always asking for money so I don't want
that spirit, I don't want to get a
spirit that comes upon me that asks people
for money no, that can't be the right
thing you know if you keep your wits
about you when you go around to these
different Christian groups that itself will protect you,
you don't need great discernment or any such
thing and I came home and I said
Lord I don't want that but I do
want what Peter, James and John got on
the day of Pentecost that I want, and
I began to seek God and it didn't
happen overnight, but I can tell you that
over a period of time God met with
me and that changed the direction of my
life one of the things that happened at
that time was I had this great burden
and I felt a great burden to serve
the Lord full time, I was still in
the as I was reading scripture one day
the Lord spoke to me about Isaiah 49
that was my daily portion, it was such
a clear word to my heart where He
was calling me out to serve Him and
just when I was thinking about it and
another servant of God whom I respect very
highly in India came to me at exactly
the same time and asked me whether I
was considering quitting my job, it was like
a confirmation from outside of what the Lord
had already called me for, and I saw
something similar later on when I studied the
scriptures in Acts chapter 13, where you know
when they were all praying together, the Holy
Spirit said obviously through some servant of God
there set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work for which I have already
called them so Saul later on became Paul,
had already got a call from God, but
he was waiting for a confirmation and here
comes along another servant of God and says,
hey, I think you're called, which the Lord
confirms our call by a godly older brother
giving us advice and I'm very thankful for
that confirmation that came from another source and
that taught me more of my dependence on
the body of Christ that I was not
called to a lone sort of ministry so
I decided to resign and I put my
resignation to the Indian Navy and they refused
to accept it because when I said the
Lord Jesus Christ has called me for his
service, they couldn't care less who the Lord
Jesus Christ was, they said he trained you
to serve us, you've got to serve for
20 years so they said no and a
lot of other believers in my home church
there who didn't believe that I was called,
they said see Zach, you were wrong, it
was all your imagination, you're not called, you
just felt like quitting, that's all, and I
was absolutely confused, I was 24 years old
and I didn't know where to turn most
of the believers around me discouraged me but
there again, I found scripture helped me and
I sought the Lord, Lord what does this
mean, I thought you called me and I
felt the Lord say to me what did
Moses do when Pharaoh said no I knew
the answer, he went back again Pharaoh said
no again, he went back again, then I
knew what I'm supposed to do, there's an
answer in scripture to every single problem you
can ever face in life, I found that
in 40 years, every single problem, if you
know where to find it, and I went
back and after 2 years they let me
go it was quite a miracle and that
was 37 years ago it's nearly 38 now
and when I came out to serve the
Lord full time I thought full time workers,
Christian workers it must be, being in their
midst must be like being in heaven what
a shock I got when I came closer
to churches and all the politics and people
trying to push other people down and people
running out for money and I got a
rude shock when I saw all these things
and it was so difficult to find occasionally
I would see some really godly saint, but
they were so few, most of the people
I met were crooks I'm sorry to say
that, but it was true they were lovers
of money they were lovers of honor they
were seeking to make a living for themselves
and all these type of things and I
again became a very lonely person and I
was defeated by sin also at the same
time I'd go to different much older people
and say brother can you help me in
this they wouldn't give me an answer and
I didn't know where to turn I never
heard anyone preaching about victory and that's what
I needed I mean here were people on
speaking on what the tabernacle meant and all
this, that was not my problem I didn't
want to know what the tabernacle meant I
wanted to know how to get victory over
dirty pots, they said tell me that, don't
tell me what this high priest garments stand
for and all that so you know I
began to think boy these fellows must be
very holy guys, they don't seem to have
the problem I have but later on I
discovered it's because they didn't want to talk
about those things unless they were defeated themselves,
that's the reason I went to one older
brother and said brother can you just tell
me how to get victory over dirty pots
and he changed the subject immediately I got
the answer that means he didn't know what
the answer was and that's the condition with
a lot of people, I was a young
person and I didn't know whom to turn
to and I struggled and God began to
show me and the thing that finally changed
my life around was when I saw this
great truth, that Jesus became a man just
like me so there are two things that
have first was my assurance of salvation after
that there are two things that have really
changed my life I would say one was
the baptism in the Holy Spirit believing in
God for the supernatural gifts of the Holy
Spirit to serve him, for example the supernatural
gift of what I call prophesying, which is
what I'm doing right now, preaching God's word
in a way that edifies encourages builds up,
it's a supernatural gift, it's not given to
everybody it's given to those whom God calls
but everybody can have some gift in the
body in my case, the bible says covet
to prophesy and I coveted to prophesy, never
in my life coveted a house or land
or money, but I did covet to prophesy
and I've done that for all these 40
years if you don't value something, God doesn't
give it to you if God has called
you to preach, I would encourage you to
seek God for the supernatural anointing of the
Holy Spirit to be able to preach that
word effectively in a way which is more
interesting than any television program, it should be
like that, if it's a genuine anointing of
God's Holy Spirit and I long for even
a greater measure of that anointing in my
own life but it was not just in
preaching, that's one thing and the second thing
is the humanity of Jesus Christ the fact
that Jesus became a man just like me,
was tempted just like me and did not
use his resources as God though he was
God, he did not use those resources he
lived as a man, otherwise he couldn't be
an example for me so that he could
say follow me, he used the power of
the Holy Spirit which he offers me as
well these are the two things that changed
my life, the baptism in the Holy Spirit
and the supernatural gifts that accompany it and
seeing the humanity of Jesus that he was
just like me, and that's why that's been
the major themes of my message everywhere I
was in a in 74 I was at
the rock bottom of my I hadn't seen
these two things clearly, I was not really
fully baptized in the Holy Spirit I had
some measure of anointing but not as much
as I wanted I hadn't seen at that
time clearly that Jesus came in my flesh
and I was absolutely defeated I was preaching
but I was defeated and defeated and defeated
and I said Lord I can't continue like
this you've got to do something otherwise I'll
quit preaching altogether and go and do a
secular job, I'll still be a Christian but
I won't preach because I don't want to
be a hypocrite and that's the time when
the Lord told me, asked me whether I'd
be willing to get up in that Baptist
church where I was preaching every Sunday and
get up and confess that I was a
hypocrite publicly publicly and I said Lord I'm
willing, I don't care what anybody thinks about
me I want to finish this hypocrisy, I
don't want to pretend that I am something
which I'm not and that was the day
the Lord turned my life around January 1975
my whole life turned around that day and
it's never been the same since the Lord
met with me that day, filled me with
the Holy Spirit and then I began to
preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit in
that church and pretty soon they kicked me
out that is the best thing they ever
did and so I'm very thankful to them
and so I left and I didn't know
what to do my wife and I were
at home one or two other families decided
they'd also leave because they were blessed a
lot by my fellowship ministry and we started
a meeting in our home August 1975 I
didn't know what lay ahead we didn't plan
to start a church we were just a
bunch of people who were kicked out of
somewhere ok, we decided to pray and wait
on the Lord and from there through the
years God has our own church has grown
to over 200 people where we live and
to 40 other churches that God has planted,
particularly in remote villages in some places where
there's never been a church in 2000 years
so and I can tell you honestly you
folks may not believe it and it's not
false humility I know it had nothing to
do with me it was God working supernaturally
through His Holy Spirit for me that's an
absolute reality, every time I speak I know
it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit and
when I see what God is doing in
different places it's not me, it's the Holy
Spirit so I want to encourage you to
believe that God can do that through anyone
but God doesn't force you into anything at
each point He'll ask you, are you willing
to give up that I know at one
time what God had to give me to
give up was greatness in the world I
wanted to be a great man and that's
the time I got converted and I said
Lord I chucked that and after some time
the next thing God asked me to give
up was being great in the Christian world
because in India I was getting more well
known and all that and God said are
you willing to chuck all that and just
be great before me I said sure so
sometimes God may put a test before you
are you seeking somebody's approval are you seeking
somebody's honor are you trying to please some
man, some group of men some church, some
leader well God will never lead you forward
till you say Lord I don't care for
the approval of any human being Paul said
if I seek to please men, Galatians 1
.10 I can never be a servant of
Christ so that's the only thing we have
to do and God does not ask you
to be able but available if you are
available He'll give you the ability that's what
I've discovered through the years and so life
has been very exciting it's been very wonderful
how God led me to be married to
someone who had similar desire to follow the
Lord we have four boys all of whom
are born again and that also is not
because we did everything right I think my
wife and I did a lot of wrong
things as parents made lots and lots of
mistakes but we pray that we can say
we kneel down and ask God to forgive
us our sins our failures our failures as
husband, wife, father, mother and ask God to
have mercy upon us and bring up our
children for His glory despite all our mistakes
and that's what He did so I can't
say that I did it all perfectly as
a father I didn't I didn't know I
didn't have anybody to teach me when I
was a young father what I should do
or how I should bring up my children
I saw my need and I cried out
to God so you don't have to be
discouraged if you made a lot of mistakes
in your life I made lots and lots
of mistakes I don't have time to tell
you all the mistakes that will take a
few days but there were many stupid things
that I did as a young person many
many stupid things but God has been tremendously
merciful to me and all the time He
filled me with the Holy Spirit was when
I was at rock bottom to teach me
that God doesn't give the Holy Spirit to
those who deserve Him or who think they
deserve Him or because they have reached some
great peak I was not at a peak
when I look at my Christian life, God
filled me with the Holy Spirit when I
was at the lowest lowest lowest lowest point
in my entire life I needed the power
of the Holy Spirit God fills with the
Holy Spirit those who have a need not
those who have attained some great peak where
do they need anything I needed power desperately
and I want to say to all of
you if you are in a place of
desperate need and you are willing to acknowledge
it you are not bothered about the shame
of publicly saying that you have been a
failure you have been a hypocrite you have
been giving an impression to people who know
you that you are a great saint when
you are not one or you are having
a great marriage when you are not having
a great marriage fooling people I want to
say to you take the first step today
to be honest and take another step and
say Lord I will just do what your
word says and I am not bothered about
what any human being says and I believe
God can do a miracle with his life
if you will trust him honor the Holy
Spirit in your life seek his power don't
dishonor him by ignoring him in your life
you can't make it without the power of
the Holy Spirit no matter how much you
know his word you cannot serve God without
the power of the Holy Spirit you cannot
overcome sin without the power of the Holy
Spirit and I ask Jesus to show you
how he became a man just like you
to be an example for you I believe
that God can change our lives one last
thing don't be satisfied with just a good
Christian life God wants you to build his
church you may never be an elder you
may be a small little part in that
church but say Lord I want to do
my part to build a local church where
I am when Jesus said all men will
know you are my disciples when they see
you love one another how can they see
that if there is no local church in
your place this invisible church that people speak
about well how is the world going to
see this invisible church it's got to be
a local church of people who live together
and love one another care for one another
that's what the world is going to see
and that's why the devil is always hitting
at that bringing controversy and fights and quarrels
in there may God help us our heavenly
father we pray you take these feeble words
and help somebody through them this afternoon for
your glory we pray