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My Testimony~~~ I have been coming to this church, together with my wife, since September last year. It was in this hall on 5 September that we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. You may recall that this was the second night of the Charles Doss crusade. I came to seek healing. Instead, I found salvation, and I came to know the true God. In fact, we were here on the first night also. I saw miracles happening around me when the Reverend Charles Doss laid hands on the sick and the infirm, people like me who had come for his healing touch. In my case, there was no miracle. There was no instant healing, and I told myself that I was perhaps expecting too much. My brother-in-law who had advised me to come to the crusade urged me to “try again”. So, I was here again with my wife on the second night. Still there was no miracle and no instant cure in my case. Something did happen though. The Reverend Charles Doss looked at me, touched my forehead, and said: “You are going to be alright.” That was good enough for me. He said in a matter-of-fact tone, “You are going to be alright.” These words from a man of God gave me a lot of hope, and I am confident that healing will follow salvation. With my salvation, I am quite certain now that I will be normal again in due course. I am quite certain that I will in time be healed, completely healed, with a combination of prayers and pills. This is a potent combination. I feel I have made very good progress so far. And the evidence of that is right before you. I believe there is another ingredient vital to the healing process. At the end of July and early August last year, I was laid up in hospital for 10 days with dermatomyositis. That means inflammation of the skin and muscles in layman’s language. It’s an extremely debilitating condition that weakens one’s muscles and leaves blotches on the skin. While I was in hospital, late one night, a young man, was led into the room and he occupied the other bed in the room. The next morning, I spoke to him. His name was Amos. He had migraine. It was so painful he had hardly slept. He also had difficulty keeping one eye open because of the agony. Later that day, a group of his friends visited him. They talked, they joked, they laughed, and they prayed for him to get well soon. I could see that this cheered him up. He got well quickly and was discharged from hospital the following day. I believe it was the caring, the fellowship and the prayers that made a difference. That these young men and women – they were all in their mid-twenties, I guess – came together and prayed for a friend, a fellow Christian, who was sick in hospital somehow touched me. After I got out of hospital, my brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law visited me at my home. They offered to pray for me. They didn't know then, but they touched me deeply when they offered to pray for me. I accepted their prayers. In truth, they have been trying for a number of years to lead me and my family to Christ. I understand they have also been praying for our salvation through all these years. For all that they have done, I give thanks. I also want to thank my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those in our home cell group, who prayed for me. I believe their prayers play a big part in the healing process. Now, I am not saying that the doctor’s expertise and medicines are not necessary. They do play a very important part indeed. But I hold to the adage that God helps those who help themselves, and I believe that in many cases God works in very subtle ways. So, we should help Him to help us by faithfully following the doctor’s prescriptions. From my experience therefore, I would like to offer this advice to anyone who needs medication for any condition: “Take your medicines religiously, and pray regularly”. Pray alone, if you like, during Quiet Time, or pray with your family, or let your home cell group members pray for you. As a new Christian, I have experienced some of the things that some of you might have experienced yourselves. Most of these were pleasant, some not so pleasant. Several times, I have fallen over backwards at altar call. That was pleasant. There was one night when I had a spiritual attack. Now, that was terrifying. I woke up the entire family, literally. That episode hammers home in an extremely frightful way the reality of the spiritual war going on around us. I spoke to people and I discovered that many new converts have had similar experiences. This spiritual oppression appears to be quite a common occurrence among new Christians. Thanks to Pastor Wah Lok and other friends, my wife and I have now learnt to overcome this sort of thing. Not long ago, I shared my experiences with an office colleague. I told him about my salvation. I told him that I had been “slain”. And I told him about the spiritual attack. You know what he told me? This is what he said: “You born-again Christians are so lucky”. At that moment, I didn’t quite know what he meant and I was taken aback by his remark. Later in our conversation, I learned that he had been born into a Christian family, unlike most of us here who are converts, or born-again. And I gathered that what he meant was that he admired the religious fervour of those who are born-again. They are “hot for God”. This is a new term I learned recently since becoming a Christian. And I also suspect that those who are not born-again miss out on things like spiritual attacks. Terrifying they may be, such experiences serve to strengthen the faith of those who are born-again. Looking back at events in the past, I am reminded of Pastor Hong Seng’s sermon some weeks ago. It was the one where he talked about God turning up the heat to “purify” man. Looking back at what I have seen and heard, it now appears to me that when God turns up the heat, born-again Christians just get hotter. They get hotter for God. In my case, I got fired up to the extent that I felt I had to do something. I felt compelled to do something in my own small way, or in a way that I know how. So, in early December last year, I built a website for new Christians. If this website manages to touch any soul in some way, then I feel that my time and effort spent on it would have been justified. In conclusion, I want to thank our church leaders – Pastor Hong Seng and Pastor Gek Sim; Pastor Hock Huat and Pastor Yoke Poh, Pastor Wah Lok and Bessie, and Pastor Jenn Bang and his wife – and also brothers and sisters in Christ for their prayers, for their care and concern, and for giving us a helping hand when help was needed, and also for their fellowship. Thank you. Thank you all for your attention. Praise the Lord! |
Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. – William Carey, |
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