From Spiritual Notes on Facebook
I was raised in a devout Hindu home, and my destiny was already set according to time-honored East Indian tradition: As the son of a Hindu from a high military caste, I was being trained to become a leader in the Hindu
community, and I was well-versed in the sacred Hindu writings.
Since one of the chief principles I had been taught from infancy was,“You are a searcher for the truth,” I obediently searched for the truth. My parents were from India, though I was born and raised in Kenya. I had won a number of awards, and even though my father died when I was five years old, I was still a member of a privileged class and a high warrior caste in the
Hindu world.
My diligent search for the truth took a sudden turn in a new direction on a hot day in 1962 when a Baptist missionary’s wife came to our
neighborhood to work with some little children. For reasons known only to God, this petite woman from West Texas was led to knock on the front door of a particular home where a devout Hindu family was living to ask for a
cup of cold water. I hap pened to be there, and I happened to be the one who answered the door, so I gave her a cup ofwater and she gave me a Bible.
(Little did either one of us know at the time that our simple exchange of water for the Word would result in the conversion of more than 700,000 people to Jesus Christ in the years to come. Sometimes even our most insignificant works of obedience are destined for far greater purposes than we can imagine!)
I started reading the Bible because, of course, I was searching for truth.
That was how I came across the strangest figure I’d ever read about. His name was Jesus Christ. As a searcher for the truth, I was captivated by this holy man’s incredible statement: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”31 said, “Yes, that’s right,” and read further in the Book of John.
When I read the passage where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” in John 14:6, the blinding scales fell from the eyes of this committed Hindu of the warrior
caste who was so proud of his traditions. I was searching for the truth, and suddenly I saw that Jesus Christ was and is the Truth. Yet even then I didn’t receive Him as Lord and Savior immediately.
The Price Was Too Great
Despite what I had read in the Bible, I was debating over whether I should become a Christian because the price seemed to be too great to pay.
If I dared to confess Christ, I knew I would be rejected by my family,including my mother, and my brothers and sisters; and I would lose any
status I had in the Hindu world. In fact, to my knowledge, I would be the first in my caste ever to turn his back on the Hindu faith. Finally, I said,
“I’m not going to read the Bible anymore. I’m not even going to think about Jesus anymore.”
Suddenly I went to sleep. I wasn’t knocked on the head, nor did I drift off to sleep. This was something out of the ordinary. All of a sudden my head dropped down on the table and I was instantly taken to a place where I’d never been before. I was walking on streets of gold and I heard the most beautiful voices rising up in harmonies, singing songs I’d never heard
before. I saw colors I’d never seen before. I was in perfect ecstasy (whichnmeans a lot to a Hindu!).
There was perfection all around me, but suddenly it all faded into insignificance when I saw the Source of perfection walking toward me. I saw a light brighter than 10,000 suns put together, yet it did not hurt my eyes. He came toward me, and somehow I knew that He was the person of Jesus. I’ll never forget His eyes. When I looked into their depths, it was asif He had felt every pain in the world and had shed every tear that had ever been shed on earth. Pure love shone from His eyes in perfect combination with victory and triumph. Then He came and put His hands on my shoulders and said, “My little brother...”
Suddenly I woke up and discovered that the Bible I’d received from the little Baptist lady lay open to the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler:
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:21-23).
I read the passage and realized that the rich young man who had come to the Lord ended up walking away because he thought the price was too great to pay . Then the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Are you going to be the same way?” I said, “No, Sir,” and immediately received the Lord Jesus as my Savior, breaking untold generations of strict family tradition
and devotion to Hinduism.
I moved closer to my experience with Stevie when I moved from East Africa to the United States and attended Bible school at a Christian
university. I earned my bachelor’s degree there and then went on to graduate school. I have to confess that I was proud of my intellect. I was
intent on earning my Ph.D. in literature, and I liked being “an intellectual.”
I was faithfully learning to make simple things complicated.
In the midst of my diligent pursuit of intellectual achievement and self-worth through graduate studies, I received the news that my mother was dying of terminal bone cancer in London, where the rest of my family had moved from East Africa. My mother’s doctors said that she was going to die in just a few weeks because she had a fast-moving and untreat-able form of bone cancer that was eating up her body.
I Had Come to the End of Myself
I didn’t have answers for myself or my mother, but she was dying and
was asking for me. I was just a poor graduate student in Texas, and I didn’t have money to go to England. It just broke me. I had come to the end ofmyself, and all I could do was weep uncontrollably. Finally, after three days of tears and sorrow, I had an unusual experience on the third night.
Again I went to sleep, and I was taken to that same place I had seen years before when I saw streets of gold. This time I found myself in a
grassy place kneeling before the feet of Jesus. I was looking into His face with my hands clasped before me, and I was singing to Him. Jesus had laid His hands on my shoulders, and I was surprised to realize that I was singing
to Him in a language I could not understand. Then I woke up, and I knew something had happened. When I felt the urge to pray, I obeyed and said,
“Jesus.” In that moment, a wind came into my room and took my breath away. Then I felt something bubbling up inside me. When I tried to open my mouth, a song suddenly came out in a language I could not understand!
The intellectual part of me said, “This is weird,” but the rest of me said,
“This may be weird, but this is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever felt!”
I just kept singing in this strange language for an hour and a half. The only spiritual person I knew at that time was a Catholic nun I’d met in
graduate school. I just couldn’t wait to talk to somebody about what had happened to me, so I ran to find Sister Marsha. I said, “Sister Marsha, let me tell you what happened to me today!” After I told her about my experience, I asked, “Am I going crazy?” I’ll never forget her answer. She put her books down and looked at me with joy and said, “Praise the Lord,
brother. You’ve been baptized in the Holy Ghost!”
The Holy Ghost became very real to me from that day on. He started speaking to me and I quickly realized that He is a Person. He started telling me about Jesus. He said, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I hadn’t read these words in Hebrews 13:8 yet, so I said, “Huh?” He said,
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Pray for Your Mother!
This time I said, “Yes.” Once again He said, “Jesus is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.” Finally I said, “Lord, what are You trying to
tell me?” He said, “Jesus healed 2,000 years ago. He still heals today.”
When I asked, “What do You mean, Lord?” He said, “Pray for your
mother!”
Since I didn’t know any better (I hadn’t been taught yet that healing isn’t for today), I prayed for her as I was told. A few days later I received
the news that my mother had been totally healed of her terminal disease!My mother lived another 24 years after that healing and received Jesus Christ before she died.
- Mahesh Chavda (The Hidden Power Of Prayer And Fasting)
- Spiritual Notes
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