The Higher Call of Christ, Part Two — K.P. Yohannan

Living with Eternity in Mind, next on The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Ohanan. Welcome to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Ohanan, our president here of Gospel for Asia. Today, we're going to bring you the second part of a message that Brother K .P. began last time we were together.

It's entitled, The Higher Call of Christ. Now, in a look at Revelation Chapter 4, Brother K .P. is encouraging us to live out a greater calling. With this last time, you'll remember it's a greater calling than merely just satisfying ourselves.

Oh, and by the way, if you're not aware of the mission of Gospel for Asia, it's to support native missionaries to go into all the regions of India and share the good news of Jesus. You can find out more through our website at gospelforasia .org.

But for now, if you've located Revelation Chapter 4, let's catch up with Brother K .P. as he begins today's time together talking about the changed life of one native missionary serving in India.

The Cost of Following Christ in India

And his dedication to the Lord. Years prior to that meeting, he came to Christ and his parents disowned him, called the temple priest into the house, had the cow dung mixed with the water ceremony done to say that our son is dead.

He's no more our son. He walked away from his home having lost everything and came to our Bible school and studied there and graduated, went to the mission field. So when I saw this brother, the first thing I noticed, such glow on his face.

But then I saw the scar from this end to this end on the forehead, deep scar, the mark of stitches, but all kind of so vivid. And I said, whatever happened to you? He didn't say nothing, but the leader began to explain.

His mission station, he won a whole bunch of people to Christ. They were baptized and one day as he was teaching the Bible, a group of men came with iron rod and chain and weapons began to beat him up.

His collarbone broken, his hand broken and the deep scar on his head was the wound that inflicted and blood was oozing out on his face. And the left team saying, this is only a warning. We are coming back to bury you next time.

Don't stay here. Hearing about this, our leaders told this young brother, maybe it is better you don't stay here. Please go somewhere else and we will assign some other missionaries. His reply was not one sentence reply.

He went to the book of Acts and from memory, he caught the answer. Quoting Apostle Paul, when they said, don't go to Jerusalem, it's going to be dangerous. They're going to bind you up. They're going to beat you.

They're going to persecute you. Please, Paul, don't go. It was prophet speaking. The Holy Spirit says you're going to be bound and persecuted. Which means, if I'm telling you, I know 100%, if you get in your car and drive from here to Denver, when you get half of the way, you're going to have a car wreck and you're going to be killed on the spot.

If you really believed 100 that this is from God, would you do it? You're asking me if I would do it? I love my wife and kids. Paul responded, oh yeah, okay. Wherever I went, the Holy Spirit said the same thing, which means I affirm what you're saying is true.

Then I'm sure some other said, what a relief. After all, he believes this is true. That means he's not going. Paul responded, I know, but I do not regard my life dear unto myself. All I want is somehow let it go and fulfill what he wants.

So he took off. That's the answer this young 20 year old brother gave to his leader. He said, I am already dead. How can they kill me? My life is no more mine. Please don't ask me to go into anywhere else.

Kunjur and the Mission Field in Bihar

I want to go to the same mission field. He saw something that others could not see, seeing things from his perspective. One of our dear brothers, his name is Kunjur, a tribal convert who finished his studies and want to go to a mission field where our leaders thought it was a risky thing he's going to do because he wanted to go to a place to preach in Bihar, which is known as the graveyard of missions.

In one part of Bihar, 22 million people live without a church or missionary at that time. And they said, this place you're talking about is not good because the entire region is controlled by a priestess who had so much power through her supernatural powers.

She can kill people kilometers away from her through her witchcraft. But he said, Jesus wants me to go there. So he ended up in that place and found out that for the last three years, this Manjula, the priestess, was paralyzed, neck down, laying in her house.

Hundreds of devotees come and pray, but no good, nothing happens. So he went straight to her house, which I wouldn't recommend somebody to do right away, but he did. He didn't have a PhD to figure this out, time gone.

So he said to her, if Jesus would heal you, what would you do? She said, if your Jesus can make me well, all my gods, nobody can help. I will follow your Jesus the rest of my life. And he said, Lord, if you ever did anything like this, this is the best chance for you.

And he prayed and fasted, went back and laid his hand on the woman, prayed in Jesus' name that his name will be glorified. The Lord healed her miraculously. She was baptized. Can you imagine temple priestess getting baptized publicly?

Following week, another 25 people and more and more. And now within a four years time, he has five churches established in the neighboring villages. And when I heard this, I couldn't believe it. Hundreds of people following Christ.

Wherever you go, people are drawn to Christ. And I called our leader and said, what is the magic, what is the secret of this brother's life? He said, I don't know. He's just like any other brother. He's just preaching Jesus, living for him.

He doesn't have anything except his Bible. I said, anyway, he find out something about him that is unusual. Two weeks later, they called me back and said, we found his secret. I said, what is the secret?

Prayer, Scripture, and a Life Centered on Christ

He spent three hours every morning in prayer and one hour reading God's word and meditating. He never tells that to anyone. Very humble, simple young brother. Now it hit me and the Lord working with them.

It was not money and power and agendas and computer printouts. No, it is simply the invisible one. He just following after him and seeing things from Christ's perspective and just simply living his life for him.

When you are willing to walk away from your own self-centered, tiny world of me, mine Christianity, you will see something so beautiful. The door in heaven opened and Jesus says, come up and I will show you.

And you know what you see there? The values of heaven. Here on earth, we put gold on our head and neck and nose, everything, right? In heaven, gold is under our feet. Did you know that? If the heaven's value is right now in our hearts, gold will still be under our feet, not on our head.

Why heaven is such a happy place? Because no one is self-centered there. It says in Luke, the angels in heaven jump up and down and dance with joy. When one sinner, what brings you.

Abundance of joy? If the angels in heaven rejoice over the repentance of one sinner, then what should make us rejoice? You're listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Yohannan, the founder and director of Gospel for Asia.

If you're unfamiliar with the missions work of Gospel for Asia, please stop by our website at gospelforasia .org and find out more. It's there that you can order a free copy of Brother K .P.'s life story, by the way.

It's called Revolution in World Missions. Again, the website address is gospelforasia .org or call us at 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. As we return to Brother K .P. Yohannan, he'll tell us of one saint who found her joy in supporting the work of the gospel.

Once again now, here's.

The Joy of Sacrificial Giving

Brother K .P. Yohannan. Brother K .P. Yohannan She'd been supporting one of our native missionaries. All she could send was $10 a month. Then one day she wrote a letter saying, Brother K .P., she writes with a trembling hand, no more steady hand.

It's like kids drawing pictures, her words. I'm so sad that I cannot support my missionary anymore because the bills went up. The water bill and gas bill and all that, and I don't have money to send anymore.

But Brother K .P., can I keep the picture of the missionary I got so I can pray for the missionary, though I cannot send any money? I cried. Brought back and said, oh, please don't send any money to us.

You did so much more than anyone can think of. Yes, you can keep the picture. Oh, by the way, if you run out of money to meet your needs, would you please let me know? We'd like to help you in the future.

I absolutely detest and I hate when people go after those who don't have anything to give. They're poor. Some TV preachers, they were such wonderful, sympathetic faces. They say, please send your donations by faith and God bless you a thousand times more and plant your seed and all kind of things.

Oh, by the way, if you don't send any money, I have to go off there. And that's the time I talk back to the television, please go off there, don't bug me. It is asked that God is in some big trouble that he cannot meet his needs.

I'm telling you, we in our ministry never sent out a letter saying we are in such need, such emergency, please send money. We never ever did it in the 21 years of ministry. I don't believe in it. I was so relieved.

I was so relieved that this grandma will not send money anymore. Two weeks goes by, another letter comes, the same handwriting, but different words. Oh, brother KP, I thought about it. How can I stop supporting my missionary?

I will see the Lord soon. How can I stop supporting him? I just want to keep on supporting him till I go. And I decided to cancel my telephone so I can support the missionary. And I cried. I have to reconcile with this.

Martyrdom and Faithful Witness

She saw something that no one could see. Oh, by the way, she's no more here on earth. She went to be with the Lord. Five of our missionaries who were ministering in the state of Orissa, a very difficult mission field, a group of men, about 600, a mob came and took them and began to beat them up until they collapsed.

A few men ran in front to the outskirts of the village to gather woods, to burn them all alive. A school teacher who was going to the school on the bicycle saw what was happening from distance, rushed to the police station and told the police what was happening.

When the police came, they saw these fanatics who hated Christ and the gospel were dragging these brothers who could not even stand up on their feet because of persecution. The police rescued them. And including me, we, the leadership, said we should not go back to the place anymore because it's too dangerous.

This is where missionary Stain from Australia and his two sons were burned alive. They were born to death and these brothers pleaded with us, literally pleading, we will do whatever you brothers tell us to do, but for Christ's sake and for the sake of those people, please don't ask us to leave that mission station.

The day they beat us, each one of us made the decision. We are giving our life as martyrs and our blood will produce hundreds of churches here and we have nothing to hang on to. Please don't allow us.

Tell us to leave the place. Today, all those brothers are back in the same mission station working for the Lord, thinking this may be the last day of our life. Why is it? Is it a strange gospel only for Russians and Chinese and Romanians and Indians must have?

Are they not reading the same Bible you read? No, I'm not trying to put you on any kind of trip to make you go to India and get burned to death. No, that's not my agenda. I'm simply telling you, somehow when we understand Hebrews chapter 12 and see things from his perspective, it says, seeing the joy that was set before him, he embraced the cross.

Jesus saw you, my sister, my brother. He saw you beyond the cross and said, my daughter, Sarah, Ruth or Connie or Robert or Tim or John. He said, I see her. I see him and he embraced the cross and said, Father, it's okay.

I will drink this cup of joy. When was the last time you took a full day of fasting for some people in Afghanistan, some American Indian tribe, some Mexico, some in China that never heard Jesus name, some earthquake, some catastrophe, some tidal wave that killed half a million people.

When was the last time you wept and cried to God with your family for those people, for those nation? What is Christ all asking you is go beyond Bible knowledge and education and understanding of doctrines.

Following Christ to the Cross

Our lamb has conquered. Let us follow him, the motto of Moravians. No wonder two of those Moravian brothers said, we are going to the leper colony never to come out from the place, die as lepers so that we can win those thousands of lepers to Christ.

No wonder why two sold themselves as slaves to slave colonies to win the slaves to Christ. Let us follow him and his feet take you to the cross, to resurrection, to open door, to be different. I must conclude by saying one little thing.

Rejecting Self-Centered Christianity

When I was living in the midst of materialism, self-centeredness for myself, one of the incidents that Jesus did during those months of my journey through the dark night of my soul was this one day he said, son, I want to ask you a question.

How old are you? I said, you mean you don't know how old I am? No, no, no. I want you to know how old you are. I didn't hear any voice, but it was very strong. He's speaking to my heart. I was in my room.

I took the pencil and paper, wrote down my age. He said, add 100 years to that. I did. Then he said, son, what does it matter? These dreams and ambitions and your fancy clothes and house and cars and money and all this stuff you are living for, what does it matter?

It was as though all of a sudden I could see that pit was dug, the coffin being lowered down, the lid open. Laying inside was me. Naked, I came into this world. Here I go without anything. And he said, son, walk away from this plastic, superficial, self-centered Christianity.

Come after me. That was the beginning of Gospel of Asia. Today, 11 ,000 missionaries scattered in eight nations. Thousands getting ready to go to the field to lay down their life. Am I happy? I am. Am I sad?

I am. It is not easy. I must repent 10 ,000 times a day and get up and pick up the cross and walk again because my flesh, my ego hates the cross, but I must choose it. When my son went to the mission field at the age of 19, having been born and raised in America, a brilliant student, when he was going to a place where I was beaten, without mercy, abused, I sat in my room and cried bitterly saying, oh Lord, I didn't think he would end up in that same place where I was almost killed.

And finally I said, for you, Jesus, if my son get martyred on the mission field, my only son, I will not offer any complaint. I want to love you more than my life itself. Is it easy? No. Is there any pain?

Plenty of pain. Do I like it? I don't. But this is wonderful journey because I see him someday face to face. Meanwhile, I want to be living to reach the lost world. That's what he wants. Some practical application.

Praying for the Unreached Peoples of the World

When the Lord broke my heart, when the first thing he did was the world map came into our home. Why? I want to be consumed with the world for whom Jesus died. And even our shower curtain became world map.

Came out plastic. Take a shower, pray for Burma, Bhutan, China, India. I mean, do something really stupid and far out. It's amazing what joy you'll find in things like this too. We have a map. You see that the shaded area, 1040 window, some 3 billion people.

Just think about it. There is a heaven. There is a hell. And he longs for his people to come to know him. You and I should go in his place. How do we pray for this? Get this world map or get any world map put in your house and think about these nations and take one day of the week just to fast and pray if God give you the grace for some people groups, some needs and you can log on our website, all the information in the world for you to pray and all kind of stuff.

A Call to Reach the Lost

Secondly, you know, I spent a few months in the United States, eight, nine times a year. I'm going overseas. My staff in Dallas, they take care of the situations here. But the little time I have, I come to church like this, that I believe that you seek the Lord to plead with you, to ask you in Christ's name, would you please, even if you never go to China, India, Bhutan or Burma to live there, would you please look away from your world and see the lost multitude and do something to reach them with the gospel?

And you can do it, I assure you. A hundred years from now, what does it matter? And may the Lord draw you close to himself. May he allow you to walk away from your own life and see things the way he sees.

And may his love not only fill your heart, but flow through your life that this generation will be impacted. And when your journey comes to an end, you look back and rejoice for the privilege you've been given to know him and love him and care about things he cares about.

And finally see him face to face and hear those words. Wonderful. I'm happy you are home. You have done well.

Well, such a message should make us stop and reexamine our own hearts and see what our own priorities are. You've been listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Yohannan. We've been listening to a message from Brother K .P. entitled The Higher Call of Christ.

And if you would like more information on the work of Gospel for Asia or to begin supporting Native Missionaries, stop by our website at gospelforasia .org. I'm pleased to tell you also that Brother K .P.'s new book is available.

It's called Against the Wind. You know, we all face obstacles in life, be it sickness, disappointment. Now, in this eye-opening book, K .P. Yohannan challenges you to consider how you are running the race God has set before you.

Against the Wind encourages us to finish well in a world of compromise. You can order Against the Wind for just $15 through our website store at gospelforasia .org. It's there also that you can find other resources to encourage you in Christ, such as the book Brother K .P. mentioned a moment ago, The Road to Reality.

Again, you can get more information through our website at gospelforasia .org, or call us toll-free, 866-WIN-ASIA. And again, that phone number is 866-WIN-ASIA. The Road to Reality is sponsored by Gospel for Asia.

Join us next week, won't you, for the conclusion of this message. It's called The Higher Call of Christ. Until then, may the Lord bless you and strengthen you as you seek the high calling of Christ.