Invest Your Life in the Harvest, Part Two — K.P. Yohannan

Missionary Schools and Church Planting in Tripura

Some of our missionaries were sent to Tripura, one of the areas where people used to be headhunters. You know what that means? Just cut your head off and make you a hamburger, warring tribes in that area.

We sent our missionaries out there to plant churches. When they reached there, they found out people are so, I mean, they are not headhunters at this time. They come from that tribal background. No kids go to school, abject poverty, sickness, it's such a depraved condition.

Our missionaries began to start little schools for the kids. Would you believe if I tell you four, five-year-old little children come into our school totally naked? They are no clothes to wear, unthinkable.

So, our brothers started 50 schools in that region, little makeshift buildings, 100 students in a school, some schools 50 students, some schools 200 students, 11 months went by. Now, here, listen to this, within 11 months, 37 churches were planted in that region, 37 churches.

Hallelujah. You know what happened? These kids would come home and start singing, Jesus loves me, this I know for the, what are you singing? We teach them English, we teach them Bible verses, and the parents are so curious that their little kids are speaking English.

And then they came to our missionaries and said, first time in history, someone loves us, your God. Can you tell us about him? They opened their hearts. Some baptism services, 100, 200, 300 people at that time.

You talk about harvest, you talk about God moving in a mighty way. Oh, I was just talking to one of our brothers on the mission field and I don't want to forget it, so I wrote the story in the airplane, in American Airlines napkin.

Confronting Spiritual Oppression and Human Sacrifice

And, you know, I don't know how you understand it, can you imagine, two Bible school graduates sent to a place where no one ever heard about Jesus, yet the area is so controlled by satanic forces. This particular place, our brothers went to plant a church.

Something so sad happened that it is an exceptional story, maybe, there is a Hindu priest who had so much satanic power, he can kill people kilometers away from his house through his black magic. There was a family in that village with a whole bunch of children, seven or eight children.

They were going through a lot of sickness and problems and this and that, and finally they consulted this priest and asked, what shall we do? And he said, our gods are angry with you because of your past, previous life, sins, and all the other problems.

And they said, what shall we do? Think about it, they never heard about Jesus' name. This voodoo man, supposed to be a holy man, said, sacrifice your four-year-old daughter. That's the reason I said it's an exceptional story.

Human sacrifice still goes on secretly in many of these nations. A four-year-old innocent little girl to be sacrificed on the altar of their demon deity. I have two children. I would kill him before I do that.

Can you imagine a mother and father consenting to do that? They agreed. The date was decided, the full moon that following that month, and the dead darkness of the night, dying God. You believe in foreknowledge of God and predestination, this is beautiful.

It so happened our missionaries were sent to that particular village without understanding any of these things. One of the people they met and witnessed was this priest. The Lord so convicted his heart, he repented, wept, renounced his gods, and gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know what he did next? He said, I must tell you something that is so terrible. Please don't report this to the police or anyone. I did something so awful that this family is going to sacrifice their four-year-old daughter.

Would you please help to stop it? So our missionaries go with this priest to the house and witness to them, and the whole family give their life to Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And our brothers fast and pray for this family, their sickness that never leave their home completely gone.

The nightmares and the dreams and the disasters and satanic oppression completely vanished. The sun rose finally in that home. The story never ends there. They now were given full freedom, the priest, the gospel by the Hindu temple priest who gave his life to Jesus himself.

And a beautiful church was born in that community. You talk about harvest. Now look at that Bible verse, because here compassion, because, because they were harassed and helpless. Just think about that one family feeling so helpless.

The Privilege of Joining Christ in the Harvest

But thank God the Lord is able and willing to save the lost. Now Brother KP, what do you want me to do? Well I tell you what, you must know you are given the greatest privilege on earth right now to join with our Lord, to invest your life for something that never perish in time.

And you must act and do whatever you can to have a part in the harvest. Cursed, the Bible says cursed is that individual, that man, that woman that sleep in the harvest time. Have you ever seen some stupid people doing that?

Oh, I don't care. I'm going to sleep. No, they need a kick, get up, wake up and do something significant. But you know what? The enemy of God and enemy of mankind, Satan will deceive us. How? Oh, he's not coming with two horns and black tail and you know, no, he will deceive us by making our life become more self-centered.

Our enemy, devil is there, but the worst enemy, your enemy is your own self-centeredness. That is the reason why Jesus kept on saying to His disciples, love me more than you love yourself. This is the way to do it.

You know, every day we have some 16 churches are born on the mission field, but I must tell you something. If you are following our news on our website, you will know this. Not a week go by our brothers are not fulfilling the promise Jesus made in Gospel of Matthew chapter 10.

I'm sending you a sheep among wolves.

It's good to be reminded of God's power and grace, isn't it? And there is more to come in the next few minutes. You're listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Yohannan, founder and director of Gospel for Asia.

If you're unfamiliar with the mission work of Gospel for Asia, please stop by our website at gospelforasia .org. It's there that you can order a free copy of Brother K .P.'s life story called Revolution in World Missions.

Again, the website address is gospelforasia .org, or you can call us 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. And now, back to Brother K .P.

Persecution and God's Deliverance

Just recently, one of our pastor and his wife, they baptized some 40 people who from Hindu backgrounds came to Christ, and the following Sunday they were going to baptize 32 people. And the Hindu fundamentalists found this out.

They came and beat up our brother and his wife, and they tied them to a tree and declared 48 times, we are going to sacrifice you both to our gods for desecrating our village. And we sent the email out to maybe several million people, God, all over the world, asking people to pray because we knew it was a very dangerous thing.

But you know, God intervened. Amazingly enough, the Lord intervened and the lives were spared. But the pain and the broken bone they must carry now, and the scars on their body, the price they paid. In Bangladesh, in the southern part, one of our dear brother, a senior pastor who planted 24 churches, he was kidnapped.

You may know the story already. We didn't know what happened to him. He was taken to deep jungles in the border area. A week later, we get the message, you give this amount of money or he will be cut into pieces.

In a gunny sack, we will deliver him. What do you do? What do you do? Radical, extremist Muslims are doing that. And we send out information crying out, please pray for our brother. You know what happened?

It's a fantastic story to make a movie out of it. He was in the deep jungle, several weeks they were giving one piece of bread and glass of water a day, weak and worn out, tired. His wife and two kids have no clue what happened to him.

And finally, when they saw that nobody's bringing the money, we didn't have that kind of money to give. They said, you dig your grave. They gave him the shovel and he was digging the grave while seven men standing in circle with a loaded gun in the night.

Can you just imagine you are digging your grave? But you know what happened? As he kept digging, he said, Lord, I'm going to see you soon. Please take care of my wife and kids and finish my work. Obviously, that's what Lord, this is all in your hand.

You know what happened? Literally, and he kept digging and digging and finally, nobody's making noise. And he looked around, all these fellows are sleeping and began to snore. This is not a made up story.

And he got so confused. And then the Lord reminded him, I put them to sleep, don't worry. And he left his shovel, started running, took him a day and a half to get out of the forest. Thank God, the Lord spared his life.

Christ's Presence in Suffering

You know, when this wife and her husband, this brother told, they were tied up to the tree, one of the most beautiful thing I ever heard. When I asked to a leader, what was your feelings, brother, when you knew they were going to kill you both?

The last day, the husband turned to the wife and said, whispered, my wife, our journey on earth is over. We finished the work the Lord gave us to do. And then there's a pause and then she said, but there's somebody else standing with us.

He's also tied up. He said, what are you talking about? She said, can't you see him, how precious our Lord is. In their suffering and pain, he didn't sit in heaven and say goodbye, I'll see you later.

He came down and entered into their suffering so they could feel his presence. I do not know about Christianity, but when I hear stories like this, I feel so small. I don't have to get beaten up and abused.

I mean, it happened to me in the past in India, but I mean, I give gospel tracts to people when I travel, but nobody beat me up in America yet. My brothers and sisters, listen to me. If, if Jesus said, suffer for me, carry your cross daily and follow me, how do we do that and why we do that?

You know, recently I came to this conviction. It's an absolute thing. It's not gray area. It's not one of the wishy-washy thing. It's an absolute conviction. That is this, in our life, you and I will never accomplish anything significant that lasts in eternity without some pain, some suffering.

Oh, it is not physical necessary. The Welsh revival that broke out, that touched and shook the whole world. The story goes back to a prayer meeting in a university when nothing was going on. One young man, 21, 22 some young man standing there and the Holy Spirit came and asked him, would you give up your fiance for me and walk away from this relationship?

He had made his plans. This is what I want to do. This is what I want to do. This is what I want to do. And all of a sudden the Lord saying, that's not what I'm asking you. I have a different plan for your life.

Would you walk away from it? He slowly slipped his hand and pulled the ring out from his pocket and said, Lord, all that I am, every inch of my being, every drop of my blood, it's all yours. I give up all my plans.

He comes forward and he kneels and all of a sudden hundreds of people broke out weeping. Nobody knew what was going on with that one life, but God knew. My brothers and sisters, it is not living with our car and house and clothes and money and bank account.

No, sometime it is a decision you make to walk away from your personal ambition, your desires and your goals. Sometime it is you turn the alarm clock on and rings two in the morning, three in the morning and your body hates it.

I hate alarm clocks. I do. I kill so many of them already because my flesh like to sleep. But when a crisis in Bangladesh, a hundred thousand people dying and going to hell and millions left homeless, I must wake up and weep over the map and buffet to my body and bring in the subjection.

I hate fasting. I don't like it, but I must choose. Oh, my brothers and sisters, if only you understand the Christ or the New Testament who never loved himself, but he gave all to save the lost, including you and me.

And today he's asking us to follow in his footsteps. Brother KP, I hear you, but what do you want me to do? This is where I make some applications. If I were to tell you, give me a hundred dollars. If you have a hundred dollars in your wallet, I've got one here, put on this hundred.

And I say to you, Joe, give me a hundred dollars and ten years time I will give back a million dollars. If you believe me, if it's really true, what would you do? You would say, you mean only a hundred you'll take?

Can I give you 500? You see something beyond the present. I prayed a simple prayer 25 years ago, said, Lord, take eternity and stamp on my eyes. Let me make every decision, Lord, in the light of eternity.

And I pray you will choose that. That is reason one. Before GFA began, I walked away from all my dreams of life and I said, Lord, life or death, I am all yours. And that is how the ministry was born to begin with.

Choosing Grace, Prayer, and Global Mission

I invite you to join with me to reap a harvest that you never worked for. I invite you tonight to join with me in doing something that you will never regret throughout eternity. I offer you a privilege, not a duty, not you have to.

Oh, I have to? You say, I get to do it. I want to do it. I ask you, make some choices. One, ask the Lord to give you grace, not out of legalism and bondage and fear and anxiety, but grace and freedom.

Ask him. Ask him. He will answer. Lord, help me to spend a day or the week to pray and fast for a burden that, Lord, you have for the lost world. So much we can do. And I recommend people to get a world map.

You know, for God's love of the world, you can become a world Christian. Wow, this is cool. I don't need this anymore. See, when my kids were growing up in Dallas, you know, tiny little kids, you know, we had a world map by our dining table.

Our kids, three, four-year-old kids, they memorized the countries of all the world. We pray for those missionaries and all those things. And when they finished their studies in America, they ran off to mission field.

Eight years they've been gone serving God there. A world map did it, I must tell you. Hallelujah. And I can tell you, you get a book called Operation World, every country of the world is mentioned with the prayer request.

You can start praying. I said, watch man alive. This is the thrill of life to have your life revolve around the world because our Father is deeply concerned. Hey, listen, give up your little ambition about little trinkets and diamond ring and another car and stupid, all those, listen, come up and be a radical soldier for something significant.

You can. Oh, what a nation we are living in, especially now. Thank God this election helped us again to move forward. Hallelujah. You know, that little fellow standing there in the middle, his name is Simon Kunjur.

He went to a village and prayed for a Hindu priestess who was paralyzed three years laying in the house. She said, if your Jesus can heal me, I will, I will give my life to Christ. You know, five churches he planted through that one Hindu priestess who got saved and healed.

Our prayers will do wonders. Second, second thing I will ask you to do, half of the world go to bed with empty stomach and naked bodies. Please believe me, you and I are trying to figure out which shirt we must wear out of 10 million in the closet.

Listen, we are blessed so much. Listen, thank God for the house, the car, the blessings, and it's a privilege the Lord gave us. Don't feel bad about it. It's the grace of God. But to those much is given, much shall be required.

Let us be reasonable. I wrote a whole book about how to live now in the light of eternity called Road to Reality is the name of the book. But spend your resources to reach the lost world as the Lord directs you.

Don't live for materialism. You think about harvest. I pray that the Lord give you the grace to make the decision. Well, praise the Lord. It's been a good evening and whatever you do, do it because of him and no other reason.

May the Lord speak to us. Amen.

As you've heard in this message, the Lord is moving mightily throughout Asia and you can be a huge part of his work by partnering with a native missionary who has chosen to give his or her life for the Lord's service.

For more information on how you can sponsor a GFA missionary, visit gfa .org slash sponsorship. That's gfa .org slash sponsorship.