I received an amazing testimony today from the country of Laos in South East Asia. A few months ago I received and email from a brother there to ask permission to translate our healing manual into their native langue. He asked to remain anonymous because of the persecution Christians are suffering there. Here is an excerpt of the testimony he forwarded to me today:
“Testimony: An unofficial translated manual of “Administering the Children’s Bread” was given to a new convert. In 3 months, over 3000 healings/deliverance were performed which resulted in the Chief of the village expelling the convert from the area. Persecution is real and thriving in Laos, but our GOD is fully aware. Please pray that the government will step in and allow the gospel to be shared in Laos”
1 New Convert.
3000+ healings.
3 Months.
No Bible school.
No church ministry programme.
No nothing.
Just a son on fire.
When I heard this I was (and still am) obviously extremely overjoyed. About an hour later I was walking outside when God asked me a question. He said this: “Son, would you give a new convert a Bible?”
At first my instant response was, “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
A few seconds later, the same question came, “Son, would you give a new believer a Bible?”
I have learned that when Dad repeats a question to me, my first answer needs to be pondered over. So I started pondering…
Why would giving the Bible to a new believer be a good/bad thing? Can giving the Bible to a new believer be detrimental to their spiritual growth? How did receiving the Bible influence me when I got saved? What would I have wanted to know prior to reading the Bible? Many questions started going through my mind.
I finally came to this. Giving a new believer a Bible can be detrimental. Firstly, there are 66 books, 1189 Chapter, 788258 verses written by 40 authors over a period of about 1600 years. This is a monumental amount of information. Chances are that if you just give the Bible to new believer they will come out very confused on the other side. Information overload.
Why? Because we have had the Bible for almost 2000 years now and there still exists a lot of confusion over it. This one single new convert, who I doubt has read much of the Bible, has managed to accomplish more in 3 months since being saved then what many veteran believers have accomplished through their entire lifetime.
This is not meant to condemn anybody, I am just thinking about how we go about equipping people. This new convert received the good news, believed it and got to work loving people with power and grace.
What is more important than giving a new convert a Bible? Introducing them to the Holy Spirit. The early church grew exponentially without ever having had a Bible. Most of them couldn’t even read, so it wouldn’t have helped them even if they did have one. They had the Spirit though. The Bible is a collection of writings expounding on one awesome story, but knowing the Person the story is about is far better.
This led me to ponder the following question(s), to which I would love to hear your input in the comments please, “If you could write a preface to the Bible, what would you write? How would you the tell the person to whom you give a Bible to read it?”
Cornel
3 Responses to Rocking Testimony Resulting In A Question
Leave a Reply
"Your life is transformed to the degree that your mind is renewed. Cornel's book goes a long way to removing the hindrances to that renewal."
-Curry R. Blake, John G. Lake Ministries
- A New Journey April 27, 2013
- Military Industrial Church – By Clint Byars March 25, 2013
- Rediscovering “The Way” of Jesus – Steve Hackman March 22, 2013
- The Simplicity of Christ & The Serpent of Hyperspiritualism Part 2 – Joel Marius March 20, 2013
- The Simplicity of Christ & The Serpent of Hyperspiritualism Part 1 – Joel Marius March 18, 2013
- Endure to the End and be Saved May 13, 2013
- 1 Corinthians 9:27 – Disqualified for the Prize? May 5, 2013
- Jesus Preached the Kingdom and the Law (Pt2) March 26, 2013
- Jesus Preached the Kingdom and the Law (Pt1) March 18, 2013
- The Justice Conference Asia 2013: Some Reflections May 18, 2013
- Finding God at The Movies: Iron Man 3 May 15, 2013
This is a question that has been trying to come into my consciousness for a couple of years. When I go to Uganda we always give out bibles and the people are really excited to receive them. But I have been worried lest they read things in it without understanding the progression through the bible and how different parts of it need to be understood.
I remember vividly a sermon a couple of years ago where an elder spoke from Gideon and taught all sorts of Old Covenant lessons. When I questioned him afterwards, his answer was that he was trying to be true to the passage. Though he taught and believed (or thinks he believes) in grace, he clearly did not understand how the cross changed everything!
If a Christian leader of 30 years can so hopelessly misunderstand an OT story, how much more a new believer.
So….
We understand the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament.
We understand Jesus’ teachings in the light of Paul’s.
The cross changed much that came before it, so ask whether grace and the cross changes the passage you’re reading.
We understand complicated passages in the light of clear ones.
The more a subject is mentioned in the bible, the more important it is.
In particular, the more of the four gospels a story of Jesus appears in, the higher it’s importance. (That is an exponential curve. Things that appear in all four are far more important that what appears in only three.) I am open to correction on this comment.
Know who a passage was addressed to and interpret it in the light of that. For example, Genesis was addressed to a people 3-4,000 years ago who did not have a modern Western scientific training. They could not understand concepts like ‘light years’. They thought the sun moved around the earth. So the bible is written with that false assumption. Do not read Genesis as if it is an alternative to Darwin’s Origin of Species. It was not written to be that.
Some parts are history, some poetry. Read it for what it is intended to be.
There is so much more to say. Things that those of us who have been in the church all our lives have absorbed and know without even realising what we know.
Don’t believe everything you are taught in church. All of us have got things wrong. We jsut don’t know which are the things we’ve got wrong!
This was an excellent testimony to read about. I wonder how many more of these are going on in the world and we never hear anything. The power of the Holy Spirit can be a very powerful thing however….that begs the question, why does it not seem to work that way in our modern society? Not of course saying It (the Holy Spirit) is not working at all.
With regards to the questions you pondered I’m not sure how or what you would preface in a Bible to cause the desired impact. Perhaps I would add to read and concentrate on the New Testament first. And initially only reference the Old Testament to verify the New Testament scriptures that reference or quote from the Old. Once a good understanding of the Gospel is understood then you can read the Old Testament.
I like how Kenneth E. Hagin describes how he started his walk in Faith. He chose to begin in the New and promised to believe what he read. He stuck with the New until it sank in to his mind/spirit.
This post brings up another thought. When I first read it I was thinking about passing out Bibles to all possible. I had thought in many ways it would be detrimental. This past Sunday(yesterday) I was sitting in church and was thinking on this very subject. I remember hearing Marilyn Hickey talk many years ago how her ministry was able to smuggle many, many Bibles into Israel. I think at the time they were illegal to bring in. Not sure about today.
Then I began thinking that we have not actually had our Bible for 2000 years. That number is in reality closer to ~500+ years. During most of the Christian/New Testament years most of the documents that made up what we call the Bible today were locked away for safe keeping by the Catholic church. Only the leaders and a few others of the Catholic church were allowed to view and read those documents. It wasn’t until around the 1500s when the printed Bibles first began appearing in numbers and were made available to the common people. With the printing of the KJV we really begin seeing those numbers explode. The NEW written Word now available to everyone caused the explosion of what I would call modern Christianity especially with the Protestant reformation. Until then the common man had only the knowledge that was allowed to be presented to them.
Which begs the question, where was the Holy Spirit during those 1200 or so years between the early church and the beginning of printing of the scriptures for all to read when there was very little to read? Now don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to blame God or the Holy Spirit here. Just an observation. Perhaps He was busy keeping all the scriptures intact for later. But then I look back to the early history when very few remained faithful like Noah, Abraham, etc. Perhaps God maintained a few faithful remnants throughout this period.
God’s Word sure was abused during this period. Crusades, Inquisition, etc All this really wasn’t fixed until the written Word was finally made available to all.
All this makes me wonder is there some special requirement, other than Grace/Faith and believing, where the Holy Spirit works in peoples lives? I mean it is obvious from this testimony He was working there. Was that some special anointing in operation or was it that person’s own Faith that allowed the Holy Spirit to operate as it did?
Good points. Thanks for sharing.
It was merely Christ’s anointing at work. The same anointing every believer has. There are no such things as special anoitings for miracles and healing or other stuff. There is one anointing, and Christ The Anointed One is it.
Another factor in things like this I have found is that in cultures where the supernatural is not made out to be fairy-tales like in the Western mind, people tend to experience more supernatural events like in this testimony. Personally I also see many more healed and set free when I go somewhere different. When I travel on mission and preaching trips I see so many more healed and set free than when I try to minister in my local fellowship with people who I know. Why? I don’t know.