Bold Christian Living

Scripture records both Jesus (Matt. 18:16) and the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 13:1) confirming the principle of "by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established" (Deut. 19:15). Thus I was delighted, recently, to receive an unsolicited confirmation of the reports of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the state of Meghalaya, India, that has been taking place in the last couple of months.

Barkos Warjri used to live in Shillong, Meghalaya, and now lives in Bangalore, in southern India. After reading one of Reuben Pradhan’s previous reports on my website, he graciously sent me a copy of an eye-witness account he had sent to someone else. Here is what he wrote:

My hometown is Shillong but I presently live in Bangalore. I know Reuben well, having visited his home church many times in the early nineties. It was great to read the news from him. I also visited Shillong in August and was privileged to be in a church where the revival fire was going on. From that point on I have been keeping a tab on the developments there. I am sending a copy of a letter I wrote to some friends recently. If you think it will be useful for others you can post it on your site.

Thank you very much for the wonderful time we had in your house sharing our joy about the miraculous work God is doing in our homeland and the surprises He has in store for us.

I would like to share with you some of the events and our thoughts which we are trying to document. Events of the last fortnight have gripped our attention. You may have not read of them in the news but they have been God's answer to the prayers of believers in Meghalaya, the NE Indian state we come from.

You may have heard of the Welsh revival of 1904. The same spirit spread to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya in 1906. My grandfather was born in that year and had some stories to tell me of the faith of our ancestors. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission had sent missionaries to these hills early in the 19th Century. They won the first convert about the year 1846 and then set up the Presbyterian Church, which grew to become the largest denomination among the Khasi-Jaintia tribe.

This church had been praying for another revival and in the centenary celebrations to commemorate that event, in a village called Mairang (where the revival broke out in 1906), in the month of March this year. There were fervent prayers accompanying these celebrations, apparently, with a strong hope among some, that God would indeed do something new.

Soon afterward, the revival fervour picked up in some of the villages. It did not move to the urban areas for several months. When I had occasion to visit Shillong for a week, in August, I heard some inspiring stories about what God was doing. There were some miraculous incidents which took place, encouraging many to a renewal of their faith.

On the 3rd August I heard of interesting developments in a church in Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya. Daily evangelistic meetings had been conducted in the church beginning on the 10th of July. From the 13th of July there was a preacher from the Mizo tribe (from the state of Mizoram). He could not speak English so his messages were translated into Khasi. (The Lingua Franca among the different peoples of NE India is mainly English among the educated or Hindi for the rest). The enthusiasm was such that the preacher was asked to continue for another week, which he did, having no scheduled programme then. From that point on, the daily services continued.

I visited the Laban Presbyterian Church on the 5th of August, 2006, and saw there a completely different service from what I had been used to in the Presbyterian environment. I was struck by the contrasts between the lack of a proper scheduled programme and the evident order. There was no confusion. The first thing I noticed on entering the evening service was that some people were standing while some were sitting as they were singing. It was evident that there was no rule to sit or stand or clap or raise hands, yet all was in order. Directions such as, "Let us all rise" and "Kindly be seated" were conspicuous by their absence.

Another thing was very evident, there was an unusually large number of children and youth for an evening service. They were the ones who were most active in the singing as well as the prayers. The singing continued for an hour, after which testimonies were shared, followed by a sermon. Half the congregation responded to the altar call. During the closing prayer I heard something that I had never heard before–an instant sound, which I thought was rain–so even, yet sharp and intense. I looked up and realized that all the people in the front of the church had simultaneously broken out in prayer. (Two weeks later I remembered scriptural references to the "voice of many waters" in Revelation 14:2 & 19:6). It felt like there was a spontaneous laying siege of heaven. (I was not really surprised when I read a description, a few days ago, in similar terms of events in a church during the Korean Revival of 1907.)

It was uplifting–and this, in an orthodox Presbyterian church! The praying and singing went on for another hour after the benediction, with very few choosing to leave at that point. During this extra hour the children were delightfully active in group prayers and singing, walking around in an open space in front, where several pews had been removed to make an open space.

Beginning 1st September, however God seems to have poured out His Spirit without any holding back. It looks like He has overturned the barrel and it has hit the church like a dam which has broken. Children are prophesying, young people are seeing visions. School administrators were shocked to see children break out in prayers, songs, or falling down unconscious. This happened in school after school, often during the morning assembly, or even during classes. Children were also taking their Bibles to school at no one’s bidding.

At one school (a Catholic school) a teacher (I know him well and spoke to him a few days ago), while taking a class, noticed that there were a few small slips of neatly cut paper with the hand-written words "Jesus Loves You." He asked who had done it and a boy stood up. He stated that he wanted to do it and that he wanted to pass on similar messages, which he had with him, to as many as he could. He could not say why he did it beyond the urge that he had, to do so. The teacher was taken aback for a few moments–the boy comes from a Marwari family, who are strict Jains and would not have heard the gospel in any substantially coherent form.

The demons also seem to have come out full force and the battles are raging. In school after school, and church after church stories of spiritual struggles abound. In one school, a girl who was undergoing such a test recovered only after her mother, a pagan, most reluctantly agreed to burn the amulet her witch doctor had given her just a few days ago. The burning was followed by frightful screams and wails by the mother. I heard this account from a pastor-friend who prayed for the girl.

Interestingly, the streets are peaceful. There are no drunkards, no fights, just young people singing, even rather late at night. The midweek meetings in the churches are full, with no place to sit. In fact all churches are now having packed daily evening meetings. A friend with whom I spoke yesterday said that they could not find even a place to sit, though he and his family had reached the church 15 minutes before the afternoon service, last Sunday (10th September).

Last evening I spoke with a girl who had just returned to Bangalore from Shillong, and she told of the reconciliation in her family. Such was their joy that she took two days off from college last weekend and flew to Shillong to join her parents and siblings. For the first time they were praying as a family.

There are countless such stories of repentance, reconciliation (a divorced couple close to our family got back together last week), forgiveness, and renewal. There are also the miraculous.

One thing I could no longer be skeptical about, was the unexplained illumination of the wooden cross at the church I grew up in, and where my parents still are. It happened on the 5th of September, early in the morning at about 0045 hours, when the church was full, with people singing. It sounds strange, but events had picked up in this church throughout the previous day so that it was not possible to stop the unscheduled singing and praying which started on the morning of the 4th of September from about an hour before noon.

My nephew heard a young boy shout "Jesus! Jesus! Look, Jesus!" He and his friends, who were sitting near the main door of the church building ignored the shout, thinking it was one of many people seeing visions. When an excitement picked up later, he looked up, and was shocked to see the cross above the pulpit shining and showing what appeared to be the form of a man on it. Stunned, he called his mother (my sister) who rushed immediately to the church, and who called me, dazed and shocked, at 0150 hours. (I usually switch off my mobile phone at night but that night I knew I had to keep it open.) I couldn’t get another wink of sleep after that. I was excited by the virtual running commentary I got after every half an hour.

I wanted desperately to see what would happen at daylight. If the illumination was caused by an effect of the lights it would be normal in the morning. Instead it became clearer as the sun rose and remains so even up to today.

It is a wooden cross, covered in sun mica and hollow behind. The bulbs behind it light up the background and silhouette the cross starkly against the wall. Today even as I write, it is not merely that background which is bright. The wooden body itself remains bright with the x-ray-like image still present. The view is seen only from the central door of the church and not from the sides or near it. From any other direction it looks as normal as on any other day.

It became, I am afraid, a sort of idol for some time, until the church leadership came out clearly on the matter. Even then it has not stopped countless people streaming in to see it, especially non-Christians. There are also several testimonies of people who have been touched by simply entering the church building and who know that it is God who has done something to them. I would be able to send you photographs if you would like so.

These events have opened my eyes to the immensity of God. He just seems to have burst out of the box. When God does His work, it simply floors us. He is beyond what we ever comprehended, and… beyond the boxes we tend to put Him in.

Pauline and I felt inclined to share our joy and, at times, our moments of sheer stunned silence, with you.

I am suspicious of such phenomena as glowing crosses, and yet convicted by the thought that I could, like the Pharisees, reject something God does because it doesn't fit my expectations (my box). Surely I must let God do whatever He wants to, without judging it simply because it doesn't match the limitations my traditions have imposed.

Yet I am alarmed at Barkos' report that some have fallen into a form of idolatry as they view the glowing cross. Would God allow such a distraction? I can't say for sure, but I have certain doubts.

What I am confident of is that the Lord wants to glorify Himself. He apparently uses manifestations of His power to draw people's attention to Himself. Whether or not a particular phenomenon is actually of the Lord, I believe God's people should exhort one another to turn our eyes on Jesus.

It is encouraging to hear of the spirit of repentance pervading the society there in Meghalaya. Let's pray that the Lord protects people from deceptions and glorifies Himself through all this. May multitudes of those Jesus died for receive true revelations of Him, drawing them to Him. And may the Lord let this move of the Spirit sweep across India and Asia to the rest of the world.

	1. Written by Mark on 27-08-2008 23:51 - Guest
	We need the holy spirit to move our chur everything that is posted above is very true and i bear witness to it myself as i was also one who was saved on July,2006. everything seemed so spontaneous then with service going on and on and people thronging the church relentlessly.sadly nowadays we have only about 40/50 who goes to the same church regularly.we need the holy spirit to re visit Laban Presbyterian Church again and move each and every sould that is part of the Church so that we can spread his word and the power and meaning of his salvation to one and all.it hurts to see the church so empty and honestly even i myself find it very difficult to attend church everyday .i know that i should go everyday as during the Revival i had learned to deny myself and go to church regularly.now i find excuses in the form of work at hom, etc etc.i sit and struggle with God everyday asking him to give me the power to do what i did during 2006/07 and i.e. to give it all to him without fail. i want nothing inlife but just to be able to please God which is easier said than done. i have heard about you but don't know you.all i can say is please pray for me and for the Laban presbyterian Church. we need another Revival ,we need the final wave to come and sweep us once and for all. NB-i have not back slidden but i need each and every one i know to pray for me as i want to be one with the Lord my saviour till i depart from this sick and meaningless world. i have an instinct that God wants to use me but i am still wondering how, where and when and in what capacity?Please pray for me.Thank you. God bless and peace forever. Report