Those living in darkness have seen a great light!

These were my opening words on Sunday night, as we continued in the theme of John 3:17-21 where the responsibility of man is to simply come out of darkness and accept His one and only Son. Before I go too deep into Sunday, Saturday has it’s own great stories to tell. The theme for that night came from vs. 20, where Christ explains that fear is the key to why so many stay in darkness. They are afraid to have their sins exposed. The light might make them see something they and others would be ashamed of, so people allow fear to control them and to stay in darkness.

Between Friday and Saturday’s message, there was plenty reason for people to need prayer. There was a genuine conviction on the grounds concerning the love of darkness and fear. Since we did not pray for the people Friday Night, they had a lot of pain to unload Saturday. So as the service concluded, I had the team stand in front of the platform and I joined them. My translator Marcus invited them to come up for pray that the powers of darkness and fear would be broken in their lives and they could find freedom. Now, many of you might think that a bit charismatic, but until you go to India and see it first hand with us, you need to simply trust me when I say that darkness and fear literally rule over countless peoples lives. They were ready to let it go and trust God.

At first they were very timid to come forward. No one there likes to be the first to step forward. But as soon as one did, we got flooded with about 1500 people to pray for. It was amazing. So much of their burden was lifted. demons manifest as well and were cast out. Think book of Acts here. One man, under the influence of a violent spirit tried to bite me, but we prayed for him and he was released. When he came up, he was ashamed, but I told him through a translator that today was his day of freedom… a day of shame. Awesome.

Sunday morning we went to two leading churches in Madhurangatham. Chris and I each preached and had a great service.

Then we come to Sunday Night. After the first two nights went very well, there was only one thing left to do. Encourage the people to come to the light (v. 21). This was their opportunity to step out of darkness permanently and receive God’s one and only Son. I talked about the history of world religion as well, citing the fact that early Hinduism, not unlike Judaism, predicted and longed for God to come in the flesh and offer Himself as a permanent sacrifice for all. While all religions have plunged into sin and idolatry at times over the centuries, the call to the light is God’s eternal call to return to the purity of true religion — namely, trust in God’s one and only Son. I felt that this message of redemption was well received.

We had over 400 decision cards that night (full count to be reported later) as so many came forward and prayed a prayer of repentance and trust in Jesus. The team and I prayed for so many more, seeing healing, deliverance and most of all the miracle of salvation pour out before our eyes. It was marvelous!

The pastors.. each and every one were excited and some were literally dancing with joy for all the great things that transpired. A people living in darkness, thanks to God’s grace and our partnership together in the gospel, have truly seen a great light.

We are headed home. Please pray for me, as I am very drained and I immediately have been thinking of all that awaits me when I return, including having to pay for all this ministry (well, most). I also went through the crusade nights fighting off a head cold, and I don’t look forward to flying back with the sneezing and runny nose thing. Yuck.

We all love you and the team is doing well. It was a challenge for them, but we are all coming out the other end stronger in spirit and with an expanded world view. God is too good to us. It is very humbling to see so many people face to face that are literally desperate for the things you and I take for granted.

Vannakum!

Indi-Andy

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under 2007 trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.