Return to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India.

May-June 2019

Pastor Shadrach Joseph

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After the last trip to U.P. and Bihar in March, Pastor Rajeshwer had been overwhelmed with the work of God in those parts and the response from the people. He had immediately begun arrangements for more preachers and ministers to become aware of the Present Truth. He was overjoyed that the Lord was moving slowly, and in such a beautiful simple way - to clear away the century old traditional beliefs from believers’ minds. They have realized the move of the Holy Spirit in our age, and witnessed the mighty works that He had promised all His disciples.

So, a second trip was arranged hastily for me in May. Until I actually left Coimbatore, I was still waiting for confirmation from the Lord, and then I heard that small still voice in my heart saying, “Go, for I am with you.” And I went.

The last time there, we were quite apprehensive about extremist opposition, given our knowledge of the area. And so it was with a lot of trepidation, that I left my family this time round.
 

27 May

I left Coimbatore at 11:20 am by flight to travel to Varanasi - the land of Hindu mystics and spiritualists - via New Delhi.

I touched down in Varanasi at 7:30 pm, and just like the last time, Bro. Arpan who would serve as my interpreter this time as well, and Pastor Rajeshwer, were at the airport to receive me.

We had a train from Varanasi to Sasaram which was delayed, as usual, by one and a half hours. It was expected to arrive by 10:00 pm. So we grabbed dinner and then boarded our train. By the time we arrived in Sasaram, it was 3.00 am. We freshened up and then sank into out beds at around 4:30 am for a light snooze. We had to be up by 7:00 am for the meetings that day.
 

28 May

Even at 9:00 am the next morning, the heat was oppressive. It was 47 degrees C outside, and the sun beat down relentlessly as we made our way to the meeting place.

The meetings had been arranged in a hall which was usually let out for functions. We had expected a larger crowd, but only 30 people showed up, mostly women. Four meetings had been arranged in Sasaram.

The first session began at 11:00 am.
My message that day was about ‘The Newness of Life in Christ’.

We also had a prayer service after the message, and all the attendees were touched.

I was a little disturbed in my spirit, as I noticed a man come in at the back with a Bible in his hand. However, he was wearing an orange tilak (the sacred vermillion mark) that most Hindu devotees wear on their foreheads when coming from a visit to the temple. He kept talking over the phone while I preached and I felt something was not right.

The 2nd session would start that evening at 4:00 pm, so lunch was served and we adjourned to our lodgings.

Bro. Arpan and I decided to take a short nap, because the journey had quite tired us out, and we ended up oversleeping. By the time we rose, it was 4:30 pm, and we were scrambling to get ready to go to the meeting premises.

I guess it was the hand of Providence that made us to over sleep that day, because as we were preparing to leave, Pastor Rajeshwer came to our room telling us that the 2nd session had been cancelled, as 8 members of a Hindu extremist group had come to the meeting premises (just as the meeting was about to start) and had been asking to speak with him. He guessed that there would be trouble. He related what had transpired.

The Hindu extremist group had been asking the local organizer who the guest speaker was, where he was from, and what we had been preaching, why were we propagating Christianity, and so forth. The men proceeded to ask the people assembled there if they knew who and where we were, and the people said they did not. The group did not want to leave the hall, and were trying to prevent the meeting. Pastor Rajeshwer was called and informed about the situation. He told me that it would be better if Bro. Arpan and I remained in our rooms, as there was no telling what those men would do if they found people from other States coming to preach in their land, and would use this as an excuse to hype the propaganda of forced conversion in the papers. He added that he would go to meet those men as promised and face the problem head on. He was afraid, and so were we, as we knelt down in that hotel room and prayed for his safety and for the will of the Lord to be done. It was like sending Daniel into the den of lions.

Well, we spent several nail biting hours in our room. The churches in Tamil Nadu and North Bengal had rallied together to pray for us round the clock after we told them of the situation. Bro. Arpan and I went down on our knees praying for the safe return of our dear brother. While praying, I began speaking in tongues, and I understood in my Spirit what I had spoken. The Word of the Lord was sure and strong: “No harm shall come to my Bride. She shall overcome all things, for the anointing of Messiah now rests on her.”

After I finished praying, Bro. Arpan who had recently begun studying Hebrew, told me that I had been speaking in Hebrew. He had caught certain Hebrew words in my speech as I prayed, and it was a great encouragement to Him, that the Lord had been speaking to us. Shortly after we ended prayer, at around 7:00 pm, Bro. Rajeshwer called us and told us that he was now safe, and that he would be bringing us dinner later on. The relief on hearing his voice was huge indeed!

When Bro. Rajeshwer brought us dinner at around 8:00 pm, he elaborated on what had happened.  He had gone to the meeting place. There had been 8 men waiting for him, all of whom looked like thugs. When asked who the chief speaker had been that morning, Pastor Rajeshwer told them that I was his mentor, and that I had left the place, and that the preaching was about Newness of Life in Christ Jesus.

They began interrogating him vigorously:
“Why do you, being a local, bring these men from outside into our state to start something like this?”
“What are you preaching?”
“Are you converting people?”
“Why are you creating dissent among the Hindu population?
“In whose Name do you preach?”
“With whose authority do you preach these things?”
“Why do you not preach in the name of Lord Krishna (Indian Hindu deity)?”
….and so forth.

Pastor Rajeswher told us, it was not himself, but the Spirit of the Lord within him, that answered:
“We preach about Christ Jesus, and how he shows us the path to salvation, to do good, not to harm others, to leave our bad ways and turn to the good, to renew our lives and receive strength from him to live new lives…that was today’s message. Is it wrong to speak against leaving one’s habit of drinking, or smoking, or adultery? Is it wrong to speak out against sin? We have not forced anyone to convert. We are just preaching what we know is the truth. We are not here to create divisions among men, but to show them how to live right, and how to be saved from their sins. We preach in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the authority that He has given us on earth. We do not preach in the name of any other deity because He is our God, and it is He who has saved us. Would you have a Moslem preach in the name of Krishna? Or would you – a Hindu preach in the name of Allah? We have recognized Him as our God, and so we will preach only in His Name.”

“Speak no more in this Name.”, they said, and it was the spirit from generations past that had spoken through the Pharisees when they had Peter and John beaten for boldly proclaiming the gospel – that spirit was back again to crush the revival that the Lord had begun in His Church.

At that time two women came forward and testified as to how, after the morning message, they had gone forward for prayer and had been healed of their aliments, one of then  from severe migraine attacks, and the other from a serious back pain disorder for which she had visited numerous doctors but had not got any remedy until that day. They both confessed to being healed after prayer, and this seemed to catch the interrogators off guard.

And it was then that Pastor Rajeshwer began testifying of how the Lord Jesus had touched him, how he had been converted from a devout religious Hindu to a Christian. Miraculously, his interrogators silently heard the whole testimony. They video-taped the entire interrogation for their organization, as they claimed.

At the end they said, “We do not find you as trouble makers, so you can go. But whenever we call you, either to the police station, or to court, you will have to be present. And it is better if you do not continue anything in this place.” Pastor Rajeshwer replied them that he would be ready to go when called, and the men left.  Then he asked the organizer to have dinner served for the people, and concluded the prayer service.

When he related all this to us, we were filled with the joy that the Lord had proved His Word to us: The Bride shall overcome! The Lord was with us, truly and palpably, and we were surely doing His will.

29 May

Well, the next day’s meeting was cancelled, but we were not disheartened, because we knew the Lord was working. 12 people had given their hearts to the Lord after listening to the message the day before, and we set off for a planned baptism service at around 9:00 am.

The place for the service was The Karamchand Dam around 35 kms away from where we were lodged. Two auto rickshaws had been arranged to transport the people there.

In Bihar, there is no limit to passengers in an auto rickshaw. 2 men sit in the front alongside the driver, and around 6 people pile in the 3 seater space at the back, with children and luggage wedged wherever a gap could be found. It beat anything that I had seen in my own home state of Tamil Nadu so far.

The road to the area was so bad – it was like 9 bumps a minute. It was as if we were riding in a vibrating roller coaster, or over an everlasting speed bump. Bro. Arpan and I named it ‘Vibration Road’. By the time we reached the place our hands and feet were screaming and our jaws seemed to be relieved to be still, after the constant clacking of our teeth along the way.

After the long dusty, bumpy, and unbearably hot ride, the dam stretching out with all that blue water before us was like an oasis in the desert.

Five men and seven women were ready for baptism, and we began the service with prayer and a short message.

One of the rickshaw drivers who had brought us there looked quite peculiar. He was a devout Hindu by the looks of it. He had numerous religious amulets and threads around his neck, the usual vermillion on his forehead, and I was a bit concerned given the events of the previous day.

Now, the water was quite deep at places, and the rocks on the dam bed sharp and protruding, so some extra help was required to get the people out from the water safely after baptism, and this auto rickshaw driver volunteered. He asked us what we were doing there, and in simple terms one of the brothers explained to him that we were having a Christian bathing ritual to affirm our faith in Christ.

One of the younger brothers who accompanied the party posed a question in the water. He said, “I need to have this clarified. I know I am a sinner, and have a tendency to sin, and I know I need Christ, but how do you say that I have to repent of my sins if I have not committed any serious sins in my life?"

I then went on to explain that there was no comparison of sins in Christ’s view, about the sin in the garden, and why we all needed redemption, about the sin in the blood for which the blood of the sinless Lamb had to be shed to absolve us from all guilt, and how Christ had to pay the price to ransom us back and restore us to the glory for which we had first been created. Having clarified the issue, I reiterated the difference between Matthew 28:19 and Acts 2:38, to the others before they stepped into the water, they suddenly shouted out with joy for the revelation of the Lord’s Name JESUS CHRIST.

I began the baptism service.

After 3 of those gathered there were baptized, the auto rickshaw driver who was standing quite close to me said, “Guru, (meaning ‘mentor’) give me this holy bath as well”.

I understood he was asking me to baptize him I asked if he had understood what was going on. He answered, yes, that he had heard my message and was convicted in his heart; he had understood that he too was guilty and needed salvation, and wanted to live right.

Not fully convinced that he was sincere, I told him that if he was really serious about ‘taking the holy bath’, he needed to know that once he was baptized he could no longer go back to his old life, that he had to live straight from then on, he couldn’t smoke, drink, chew tobacco, live immorally, engage in any violence or idol worship; and only if he was ready for all this, would I baptize him. The man said, he was ready.

Then I asked him to take off his amulets and threads, and he did. The last thing that was left was a red thread around his right hand. This is something that many people in India wear to ward off evil spirits or for a certain cause like protection or success. The magicians in the temples usually cast a spell on it before tying it to the wearers hand for good fortune. And as it is a whole reel of thread, it usually is never taken off the hand, even while bathing.  However, I felt the Lord leading me to tell him to take it off, and so I asked him to.

Now, this was no easy matter, as the thread was quite tough, and woven together. No one had a pair of scissors or a blade on hand to cut it off. And the man asked me, “How should I?”

I told him that God had given him a sharp set of teeth to cut it off by, and that he needed to do this if he wanted baptism so badly. I later understood it was the Lord dealing with his faith.

He did cut of all the thread with his teeth, and then he was baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came out of the water, I could feel the presence of God in him. I told him that he was now a believer, and no longer a lost sinner, and he smiled the biggest smile.

The man biting off his religious thread.
(To see the video go to: https://youtu.be/gZ0A-775MQ8)

So 12 were prepared to give their lives to the Lord that day, and then suddenly there were 13.
 

The place where we had the baptism itself was a big risk. It was a known area, quite far from any essential facilities, quite in the middle of nowhere even if we needed help of any kind. I always had my eye on the auto driver because his look made me doubt if he was a member of some extremist group spying on us. But, whatever the case was, the Lord had touched him that day.

As he dropped us off at the hotel room, I advised him to buy a Bible and read it daily. He asked for instructions as to which church to go to each Sunday. Pastor Rajeshwer put him in contact with one of the pastors who had recently been baptized in Jesus Christ’ Name, and asked him to go there. I hope to see him growing in the Lord the next time I visit Bihar.

We left Sasaram for Buxar where we had had meetings the last time, by taxi. We left at 3:00 pm and reached by 6:30 pm. We had an early dinner and then retired for the night.

30 May

The next day, we left our lodges for a 10 to 12 km drive into an interior village in Buxar district where we were supposed to have 2 sessions with a break for lunch in the afternoon for two consecutive days. The meeting was held in a school room.

There were around 85 people assembled, and the service began by 11:00 am.

I spoke about “The Mystery of the Godhead”, and “Baptism”.

Lunch was served at 1:00 pm. It had been arranged for us in the local pastor’s home nearby. As we were sitting down to eat, two old women from the village entered the house entreating us to pray. One of them said that her grandson (in his late teen), who was in another village, was for a long time afflicted with deadly mouth disease. He had not been able to eat anything except liquids and that too with difficulty for the past month, and was growing sicker by the day. I asked her if she believed that Jesus Christ had the power to heal and she said yes. I then prayed over a bottle of oil and handed it to the old grandmother telling her to apply it in her grandson’s mouth in faith that the blood of Jesus would give her victory, and the Name of Jesus Christ would bring healing to her grandson. But that he would have to come to Christ and leave his old fleshly sins behind, once he received his healing.

(NOTE: I have now been informed that the young man has recovered from his deadly mouth affliction, and is able to eat. The local pastors are instructing him in the Word. Praise be to the Almighty God.)

The 2nd session began at 2:00 pm.

There was good response from the congregation, especially from the pastors who had attended, and who later said that they had received a clear understanding of the Apostolic doctrine through the message.

At 4:30 pm, we had a prayer service, and wound up by 5:00 pm.

At the end of the service, the principal of the village school where we had held the meeting, who was a Hindu, came forward and told me that he had been immensely touched by what he had heard, and expressed a keen interest to know more, and to attend any future meetings that we may have there.

15 people were ready to be baptized in Jesus’ name, including a few pastors. The baptism party was led to a nearby pond around 5:30 pm, and the service there wound up in an hour with great rejoicing.

I instructed one of the local pastors whom I had baptized in Jesus’ Name the previous time I was in Buxar, to baptize these new souls.

Five of the elderly pastors who had been at the forefront of ministering in the area had to leave before the baptism service to attend the wedding of a believer they all knew, quite a distance away. But they each told me that they had understood the truth, and that they were ready to be baptized, they and their entire congregations together.

31 May

Next day, the service began as usual, by 11:00 am. The message was centred on “Holiness and Sanctification” and about Traditional Indian Christianity’s leniency in the mingling of Hindu and cultural rituals in the believer’s life and conduct, and the move of the Holy Spirit in our times”.

We had a special healing and deliverance prayer service that day at 2:00 pm, and then proceeded to lunch.

A woman came forward with an unusual problem. She said that whatever livestock her family used to purchase in the market to breed and live by, died within 3 to 5 days of buying them. It was like a curse. None of her livestock would last. The Lord told me that there was someone who had cast a witchcraft spell on her that this should happen. So, I touched her hands with a few drops of oil, as led by the Lord, and prayed for her, and the Lord told me to tell her that in the future whatever livestock she bought in the market, she would have to lay her hands on the livestock first and pray, and then bring the livestock home, and the Lord would see that she prospered. She had accepted salvation in Jesus’ Name.

(NOTE: In the few weeks after I returned home I learned that she had indeed purchased livestock and claimed her deliverance in the Lord. All her livestock were now flourishing and are alive till date. She has purchased two cows and a buffalo and they have been giving a high yield of milk and are alive and healthy. This miracle has given her a chance to testify of the love of the Lord God, and what He had done for her through the power of Christ Jesus.)

We wound up by 3:00 pm.

Our train from Buxar to Etawah was at 7:40 pm, late as usual, and we would reach Etawah by 7:40 am the next day, at the latest.

(NOTE: Many of you who may have read the report of my earlier trip to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, may have come across the testimony of a man named Shivram, who had been blinded in both eyes due to cataracts. The last time I had been there the Lord has restored his sight in one eye during the healing service, and he had confessed that it had been one eye only, due to his disobedience in obeying the call of the Lord to be baptized. But Praise the Lord! one of the pastors who I had baptized the last time I was in Bihar, baptized this brother and he received sight in his other eye as well, just as he had confessed!)

To see a Video Recap of the Biharreport go to: https://youtu.be/TlcgapTZh9Y

1 June

The next day as soon as we reached our lodgings, Bro. Arpan and I freshened up and then slept off our tiredness. Pastor Rajeshwer saw to our meals, and we had some good fellowship together in our room. We discussed about the Infilling of the Holy Spirit, the Move of God in the Bride, and the Ushering in of Revival for the Bride Ministry to begin. Bro. Arpan was greatly encouraged with the ministry work in the State and also told us of the ministry goings on, and the difficulties he and his father had to face in their home State of West Bengal.

2 June

We had the meeting in the same premises as the last time. There were around 90 people present including ministers. The service began at 10:30 am, with a break for lunch at around 2:00 pm.

The 2nd session began at 4:00 pm and went on till 6:00 pm.

I preached on “The Mystery of the Godhead”, “Man’s Sinfulness” and “Mortifying the deeds of the flesh”.

I also cleared up any doubts that existed regarding baptism, and explained that there was only one true baptism, and that re-baptism was not a 2nd baptism but the rectification of an error in the way we had been led before.

At 6:00 pm we had a healing and deliverance service where many of the sick and afflicted came forward to be prayed over.

It was then that a young sister came forward for prayer to be delivered from an evil spirit that had been oppressing her from her youth. She was a Christian but whenever she desired to get closer to the Lord, or meditate, or read the Word of God, she felt an evil presence overpower her and something choke her throat so that she wasn’t able to make a sound – either speak or cry, and sometimes even breathe.

I prayed over the sister and she was delivered from her demonic oppression within minutes.

To see this video go to: https://youtu.be/Hzdz6fLTftw

Later Pastor Rajeshwer sent me her testimony video on WhatsApp. She has been reading the Bible aloud without any problems till date.

To see her testimony go to: https://youtu.be/dVWB9gxLTc8

Later I learned that a pastor’s son, also present that day, who had been suffering from the same kind of demonic oppression; and he too had been delivered by prayer.

There had been a few youth who had not been so focused on the message that day, and had been treating the service lightly; however after seeing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in healings and demonic deliverance, came forward and asked for prayer for their various infirmities and also for their spiritual growth.


3 June

The next day we had an early baptism service at 8:00 am before the main service started. 5 pastors and 10 believers were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.



The message that day focused on ‘Baptism by Fire’ and ‘Holiness Unto The Lord’.

After lunch, I introduced the ordinance of feet washing to the ministers who had embraced the truth, to be followed during their respective communion services in their churches.

We also had a simple Anointing Service for 19 pastors who were now ready to go and set Uttar Pradesh on fire for the Word of God.  At the end we had a Prayer Service for the sick and afflicted.



It was a time of great joy and blessing for all of us.

Everything was packed up by 4:00 pm, and we had to retire to our lodgings for a brief rest.
That evening we had dinner in Pastor Rajeshwer’s home and got in some rest before packing for our 2:00 am train to New Delhi the next morning.

Bro. Rajeshwer wondered as to how a simple conversation that had started over the phone just 3 months ago had begun a revival in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. When we thought about it, we saw that the last time we had baptized around 44 pastors in the Name of Jesus Christ, who were now grounded in the truth of God’s Word. These 44 were taking the message into their villages and among their congregations scattered around the State. This time we had baptized 13 pastors who had said that they would lead their flock according to the Original Truth of God’s Word. This meant that if each pastor has an average of say, 20 believers in their church at the very least, the truth has now been preached to 1,140 people in various churches, that is not counting the believers who had been baptized and had begun testifying, and the ministers who were yet to be baptized along with their congregation. God is moving among us, among His people in wondrous ways.

The never failing delay of the India Railways is something that one can most count on and so we boarded late and arrived at New Delhi by 8:30 am the next morning.

To see a video recap of the Uttar Pradesh report go to: https://youtu.be/V5hkUVHDLRs

4 June

Bro. Arpan  and I booked a room near the railway station where we could freshen up before our flights that afternoon.

My flight was at 1:20 pm, and his at 1:10 pm, so we both made our way to the airport together. However, due to some VIP entourage on the plane that day, Bro. Arpan’s flight was postponed to the next day, and so we parted ways.

I reached Coimbatore that night full of the mission trip’s news. It had been a successful mission, even though our meetings in Sasaram had been hindered.

We go to the Lord with our frailties, and our meager wisdom and strength, and he speaks to us just as he spoke to Gideon, “Go in this thy might,….. have not I sent thee?”

Do continue in prayer for the work in these two States in India, and for all the ministers who have embraced the Truth and are serving Him now.

The following testimonies were sent to me of a few healings that took place this time round, after my return to Coimbatore, TN. May the Name of the Lord be glorified.

I have also attached a few photos of how the ministry begun in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are carrying on from March of this year.