2nd Night. Thousands came to Jesus tonight. The Prayer Tent was full of demon-possessed who fell down screaming as I proclaimed the Mighty Name of our Lord Jesus. Many deaf people were healed. A Lady who was almost totally blind and could only see dimly about 4 feet in front of her received perfect sight. A little boy who was paralyzed and could only drag his foot behind him got up and walked. Many others were healed from different diseases!. Our Lord Jesus was Glorified!
Orissa in Northern India is one of the staunchest Hindu regions of India. This is supposedly the home of “Jagannath” (Sanskrit for “The prince of the world”), one of the major deities of Hinduism’s 330 million gods and goddesses. This is the State where Hindu fanatics have often burned churches and brutally persecuted and killed Christians.
I used to minister extensively in Orissa in the late 80’s, holding open air crusades and planting churches in unreached areas of the state.
This story is from when I went to hold a crusade in the town of Jeodegri in the Phulbani District of Orissa. The Hindu Extremist organization RSS had gone on a rampage and had beaten up and killed Christians and burnt around 20 churches in the area.
My team and I stayed in a crumbling old “Mission House” over 100 years old built by missionary pioneers of old. We realized that we were walking in the footsteps of men and women of God who had gone before us and had paid a heavy price sowing the precious seed of the Gospel in such a difficult and heathen land. Now it was our turn. We were there, sent by God over two centuries after the first missionary pioneers, treading on the very soil where the blessed feet of those brave men and women of old had once trod. We were there to reap with joy where they had sown the precious seed of the Gospel so long ago, and with so many tears. The harvest was ripe and God had sent us to the wild region of Phulbani to preach the Gospel of Jesus. He had sent us to proclaim the total victory of Jesus over all the powers of Satan.
This was the first ever Gospel crusade held in the area, and multitudes had come expecting great things from God. The crusade was to be held in the daytime, because most of the people had to walk through the surrounding jungles teeming with dangerous wild animals in order to get to the crusade from their homes, and then back home again. Many had come from afar, carrying their sick relatives and friends with them, and were sleeping under the trees and had decided to stay there until God touched them.
There was such faith and expectation there that it broke us, humbled us. The expectations of the impoverished people who had gathered there in Jeodegri were far greater than my faith.
This is a most important thing to understand. When God does great miracles, Christians often make the mistake of giving credit to the minister who God uses at the time. The truth (at least that is what I have experienced in my life), is that over 90% of the miracles that God does through my ministry are because of the faith and the expectations of the people. Less than 10% is because of the gifting of God upon my life. I am totally dependent upon the people seeing Jesus through my preaching. If I can only get them to the point where they only “see” Jesus and don’t see me anymore, THAT is when miracles begin to flow! It is Jesus and Him alone. We are merely servants and conduits of His power. Yes, God will give us all things, but He will only glorify His Son Jesus. He will never share His glory with another.
Yes, I believe in the boldness and confidence that comes by faith; but true boldness, confidence and faith spring forth only from the place of brokenness, when we realize and say that “without Jesus I am nothing!” Once we come to that place of death, we rise to life, where we can say, “But I am not without Jesus, I live in Him, and He lives in me. Because I am nothing, He is everything in and through me!”
Now, THAT is true confidence in God. We place no confidence in the flesh. That is why we must live in the place of brokenness and dying to self every day, so that we may also daily live in the resurrected, victorious life of Christ. O what a glorious paradox! THIS is the place where God can cause His power to flow through us and around us, bringing life and healing… And then we can say, “All glory to Jesus, because He alone is worthy!”
The crusade started with an explosion of God’s power. All kinds of miracles began to happen all over the crowd. Blind eyes were opened and crippled people got up and walked. The Holy Ghost moved over the people. God was all over the place! It was indescribable.
On the second day the crowd had doubled. We had a good crusade service with thousands coming to Jesus and many being healed from different diseases and infirmities.
Here I want to skip the details and go to the “Divine Fireworks” of the third day. A huge crowd had gathered to hear the Gospel. The presence of God was tangible and one could feel it in the air… I preached the Word of God and invited sinners to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Thousands responded. Then I began to pray for the sick en masse.
First were the deaf… many deaf people received their hearing as God healed them. Then the blind… people began to scream as they saw blind people around them receive their sight. Such is the wonder working power of our Lord Jesus!
And then I prayed for the lame, the crippled.
The power of God fell, and right in front of me I saw several lame people get up and walk. I saw a mother pick up her son who was born lame, and the boy began to walk. People were shouting and praising God all over the place.
Then suddenly I heard a lot of noise and commotion from the back of the multitude. The crowd began to part and make way for a man making his way to the front from the very back of the crowd. He was walking with his arms held aloft, shouting, “Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Alive.” People were shouting and crying.
When he reached the front he stepped up upon the platform and grabbed the microphone from my interpreter. The interpreter looked terrified. The crowd suddenly fell silent. The man now faced the crowd and shouted into the microphone in Hindi “Yesu Masih ki Jai!” which means “Jesus is Victorious!” He shouted this again and again. The crowd, upon seeing and hearing this man shouting the praises of God, came unglued. People were shouting and praising God at the top of their voices. Some were screaming, others were running and jumping. In moments, the place went from order to total chaos.
The man now stepped off the platform and started walking away, shouting, “Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Alive!” Thousands of people detached themselves from the crowd and excitedly began to follow the man, shouting and yelling at the top of their voices as he walked away praising God with his hands held high.
I had never seen anything like this before. After the service I noticed the unusual excitement among the pastors and asked them about what had happened. It was then that they told me this amazing story…
This man who was walking around and shouting “Jesus is Alive!” was the main leader of the Hindu-extremist RSS. He was born crippled and could only stand and move with a pair of large and robust crutches. He was the leader of the group that had terrorized Christians and burnt down churches. He had such a fearsome reputation for brutality that when Christian women would see him coming hobbling on his crutches leading his gang of RSS thugs, they would pick up their babies and run into the jungles. They would rather face the wild animals instead of this man.
He had heard about our crusade and that Hindus were coming to Christ. This had made him furious, and he had decided to go and see for himself. He had come to the crusade in a jeep with his RSS thugs following in a bus. He had stood at the back of the crowd and watched the service livid with anger. Soon he and his gang would make their move and spread mayhem and destruction.
And then came the time when I began to pray for the crippled and the lame. Totally unexpectedly, God touched him right where he stood. The power of Jesus Christ surged through his body like high-voltage electricity. His followers standing around him saw him shake and tremble violently. Then they saw his crutches go flying in different directions. He was standing on his own legs without support for the first time in his life. He was amazed, shocked and did not really grasp what had happened to him. Still shocked, he lifted his hands up in the air and began to walk forward through the crowd, shouting again and again, “Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Alive!” The people turned around and saw who it was. Stupefied and awestruck, they made way for him as he walked towards the platform.
What a wonderful Jesus we serve! There is none other like Him!
Revival broke loose in Phulabani District because of this. Over 70 churches were started in the wake of our crusade, and churches that that were dead and dying had received a fresh infusion of life and experienced a fresh move of God.
There is a heartwarming end to this story. Twelve years after this incident I was teaching at my friends Rev Sam and Dawn Taylor’s Bible School in south India. They had 700 students from all over India and from Nepal that year, and the classes were interpreted simultaneously into 14 different languages. Students from that school go out all over India and plant churches in many difficult places.
One morning whilst teaching, I encouraged the students, telling them that we should never fear what man or the devil might want to do to hinder us from preaching the Gospel to sinners. I told them that the RSS was nothing before the power of God, and that He who lives in us is greater than he that is in the world. I then related the story of the crusade in Jeodegri 12 years ago, and about how God had dealt with the RSS leader and brought revival.
After the class was over a student in his early 20s walked up to me with tears running down his cheeks. He said, “Pastor Christopher, I was there! I was a little 10 year old boy and my mother took me to that meeting. I sat on my mother’s lap in front of the platform. I remember all the people and all the miracles. A boy I knew who was born crippled got up and began to walk. I saw how that RSS leader was healed. It was at that meeting that I received Jesus, and then I heard the voice of God calling me to preach the Gospel. That is why I am here to learn the Word of God so that I can go out into ministry.” He then added, “There are 10 of here at this Bible School from Jeodegri. We were all small children, and we received Jesus at that meeting and we all heard the voice of God calling us to service for Him. Now we are all here together, preparing to go out to serve God.”
Tears came to my eyes. I looked at this young man, hugged him and we cried. I was greatly encouraged… Yes, it was all worth it. All the sacrifices we missionaries and our families have to make to get the Gospel out to the lost; it is worth it all!
One day we shall go Home to be with Jesus. We shall march in through the gates of Glory. What a joyous day that will be! We shall stand there rejoicing before the Throne of the Lamb together with millions of souls redeemed from every tribe, nation and tongue… the fruit of the labors of missionaries and of those who sent them out, prayed for them, supported them… all dressed in white, all washed in the Blood of the Lamb!
Yes, the price paid is worth it all!
Hallelujah to Jesus the Son of God!
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
This article is an excerpt from my book "All Things are Possible". If you would like to order a copy, please write to office@pentecostalfire.com or go online at www.pentecostalfire.com
Many Americans were moved by the Vietnam-era Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc (pronounced fuke), naked and horribly burned, running from a napalm attack. But for John Plummer, minister of Bethany United Methodist church in Purcellville, Virginia, that picture had special significance.
In 1972 he was responsible for setting up the air strike on the village of Trang Bang--a strike approved after he was twice assured there were no civilians in the area. In June of 1996 he saw a network news story about Kim Phuc and learned she was not only alive but living in Toronto. Plummer found out she was speaking at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He invited members of a Vietnam helicopter flight crew to attend the speech with him. As Kim Phuc addressed the crowd, she said that if she ever met the pilot of the plane she would tell him she forgives him and that they cannot change the past but she hoped they could work together in the future. Plummer was able to get word to Kim Phuc that the man she wanted to meet was there.
"She saw my grief, my pain, my sorrow," Plummer wrote in an article in the Virginia Advocate. "She held out her arms to me and embraced me. All I could say was, 'I'm sorry; I'm so sorry,' over and over again. At the same time she was saying, 'It's all right; it's all right; I forgive; I forgive.'" Plummer learned that Kim Phuc became a Christian in 1982. -- Evangelical Press News cited in Beacon (4/97). Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 4
Acknowledgement to Pastor Dennis Marquard
One of the jars had a crack in it while the other jar was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.
At the end of her long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked jar arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half jars of water.
Of course, the perfect jar was proud of its accomplishments.
But the poor cracked jar was ashamed of its own imperfection, and was miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of perceiving itself to be a bitter failure, the cracked jar spoke to the woman one day by the stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'
The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other jar's side?'
'That is because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'
'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table at my house.
Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'
My friends, each of us has our own unique flaw. But it is the cracks and flaws in our lives that cause us to throw ourselves into the Grace of our Lord. He then fills our lives and makes us Fruitful.
We just have to take each person we meet for what they are and look for the good that God has put in them.
SO, to all of my fellow cracked and broken friends, let us Serve the Lord with Gladness of Heart, and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path! 
As the old song goes “It’s the Most Wonderful time of the year”. I love the Christmas season with all it’s traditions and festivities!
I remember my very first Christmas. I had received the Lord Jesus in early December 1975, and not long after that I found myself in the Psychiatric Ward of a Military Hospital for leaving Islam and coming to Jesus.
Being a new believer, all I knew was that Christmas was the “Birthday of the Lord Jesus”. I had thus saved up a little cupcake and a couple of cookies to celebrate the Birthday of my Savior.
Christmas morning came, Dec 25th 1975. I took out the Cupcake, the cookies and a glass of “Rooh Afza” (A sweet fruit drink) to celebrate the Lord’s Birthday. I first read the Christmas Story from the Gospel of Luke, then I just “talked to Jesus” (I had not yet been taught on this thing called “prayer”, so I just used to “talked to Jesus”!), thanked Him for saving me. Then I sang “Happy Birthday” and bit into His “Birthday Cake” (The cupcake).
As I did so, the Presence of Jesus suddenly filled the cell that I was in. There I was, surrounded by iron bars, but in fact I was Free! I was soaring high above my difficulties; they seemed to be like nothing because Jesus had set me Free!
Today, 35 years later I have a home, a family and we are blessed to live in a land where nobody is going to imprison me for believing in Jesus or for preaching the Gospel. My circumstances have changed, and the Lord has blessed us with material things. I don’t have to use an old cupcake to Celebrate Jesus; I can go and get a nice Christmas Tree and cook up a big feast if I wish to.
But it was not in a nice home with a big Turkey on the table, but in a Cell in a Mental Hospital with an old cupcake that I experienced the powerful Presence of Jesus. It just tells me one thing, it is not material things or outward circumstances, but it is the state of the heart that God looks at. It is our love for Jesus, the passion and the zeal for Him that brings the Glory and the Presence down into our circumstances.
This Christmas is going to be a tough one for many people who have suffered financially. Instead of complaining, let us be Thankful that we are Saved, that we are Free! Free to worship Jesus! Free to serve Him! And after that, let us go a step farther and think of others. At Thanksgiving Dinner last month Britta and I sat down with our children and we decided that this year we would forego Christmas Gifts and instead give all the money to families in our church who I know cannot afford to buy nice gifts for their children.
You see, we are a Blessed people, we know Jesus, He loves us and we already have so much in this life. Let this be a time when we return to our First Love, when our hearts are re-ignited with a passion for Jesus and for His Gospel, when “things” don’t mean that much to us anymore!
Let us be thankful, thoughtful of others; let us rise up to take the Gospel of our Wonderful Lord Jesus to the ends of the Earth, to those who have never experienced Him, to those who have never experienced this wonderful Joy and freedom that Christmas brings!
Thank you for your love, prayers and generous support of our ministry this year
In Christ Jesus
Christopher and Britta Alam
With Immanuel, Gabriel, Victoria and Luke,
And our Teams and Office Staff in the US, Africa, Burma and Sweden
KADOMA, ZIMBABWE CRUSADE – THE GLORIES OF CALVARY AND OF PENTECOST!
I just arrived in Sweden after finishing our Ninth Africa Gospel Crusade of the year, held in Kadoma, Zimbabwe.
This was a very successful Crusade with huge crowds coming out to hear the Gospel, and with tens of thousands of people receiving the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior every night.
Many wonderful and remarkable things took place during this Crusade. On Saturday for example, it had rained for much of the day and when we had started the service, it began to rain again. In spite of the inclement weather there was great excitement and a huge crowd had gathered to hear the Gospel. As it began to rain, I was concerned about our Sound Equipment (which had been quite damaged by moisture a couple of years ago in Zambia after we went on with a service in pouring rain) and decided to cancel the service.
As Pastor Mavondo, our Director of Ops in Africa, picked up the microphone and began to make the announcement the crowd began to shout. “NO! NO! PREACH ABOUT JESUS!”….. the announcement turned into a loud forceful prayer and a command to the rain to stop…… as the people (mostly non-Christians!) shouted, prayed and yelled….….and the rain suddenly stopped! So we went on and had a powerful service.
I was humbled and felt small because I realized that everybody else’s faith was greater than mine, and yet I was the one there whom God in his Great Mercy had chosen to preach the Gospel with Signs Following.
That night we saw many remarkable miracles and two very special ones. One was a young man who was born deaf and mute; Jesus touched him and he spoke and heard for the first time in his life. The other was a blind and paralyzed man who was carried to the crusade by his family and laid down upon the ground. He had been totally blind for many years and had been unable to walk for about 3 years. Jesus touched him, and he stood up and walked, he could also see perfectly….. you should have seen this man dancing and praising God! I am posting both these videos on Youtube and on Facebook.
Every night we were blessed to see huge multitudes of people receiving Jesus (There were also these little things that touched me, like one night when we were singing and worshiping a man came out of the crowd saying that he wanted to be Saved right there and then!) God also confirmed His Word with many Signs, Wonders and Miracles. Every night we saw deaf people receive their hearing. Blind people received their sight. Large tumors disappeared from people’s bodies, one of being a little girl who had a huge tumor as large as a woman’s breast hanging from her tummy. The thing disappeared instantly leaving behind a faint mark like a bruise where it once had been! We also saw lame and crippled people stand up and begin to walk.
The on the last night the Holy Ghost fell with Pentecostal Power, with thousands Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. People worshiping God in other tongues, shouting, praising….. some falling to the ground under the mighty Power of God….
For all this, we give all Glory Honor and Praise to our Lord Jesus, who Alone is Worthy. What a privilege it is to preach His Wonderful Gospel.
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life”. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)
Thank you for your generous financial support that enables us to preach the Gospel; For your Love and your prayers!
In Christ
Christopher Alam
