Encounter God Personally

 Many years ago a nurse I knew told me of a very old lady dying in hospital. She was very lonely because she couldn’t understand English. She was Hungarian and she also knew German well. 

I wanted to help her, so I got the permission of the Anglican Chaplain to visit her and read the Bible to her in German, a language I know well.

I visited her every day and read the German Bible to her. She listened intently, although she was demented and her eyes and her mind would wander at times.

Finally, one evening I read her the promise of Jesus to give eternal life to all who believed.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  John 11:25-26 ESV

Suddenly her eyes stopped wandering and she became clearly focused on the question.

“Yes, I believe!” she answered in a strong clear voice.

I never saw her again because the next day she was dead.

A nurse told me the old lady appeared to be dying six months before but she started reviving. God preserved her life until she could hear the message of life and then He took her to heaven.

There are many people out there ready to believe the message of Jesus but they just need you or me to tell them in a loving way.

This old lady was a Roman Catholic, so she knew about Jesus, heaven and hell and eternal salvation. She just needed to hear a simple clear Bible message.

But there are also people who have heard but are not ready to believe.

Many have been abused or bullied by priests, pastors or religious teachers. Others have seen loved ones torn apart by unhealthy Christian religion.

In recent years bishops, priests, pastors and preachers have been ducking for cover because the scandal has been all over the media. You can tell many people about God, but they will not believe until they encounter God personally. 

God Answers Persevering Prayer

 Time and again, Jesus taught that our faith connects us with God, that faith releases God's miracle-working power.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. Mt 9:20–22 NIV

But is it true that you cannot receive anything from God if you do not expect God's grace and do not pray for it yourself?

The apostle Paul was not always the holy man of God.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 1 Cor 15:9 NIV

Did Saul, the brutal Pharisee, pray for God's mercy?

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest… Acts 9:1 NIV

Saul was authorised by the high priest to arrest the Christians in Damascus.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. Acts 9:3–5 NIV

God acts when people believe, but Saul only believed when he received a visitation from Jesus.

What role did faith play? Jesus taught that we must love our enemies.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Mt 5:44 NIV

Saul was the leader of the persecution and the Christians prayed for him. God hears our prayers for ourselves, but also for others.

In Islamic countries, Christians are cruelly persecuted, but millions of Muslims experience visitations from Jesus, mostly in dreams. Many believe immediately, but many believe later, sometimes only after years. Many probably never believe, despite God's grace. God respects our free will.

Why does this happen? Islamic countries are bombarded by evangelistic outreach, through radio, satellite TV and the internet. At the same time, millions of Christians are praying for Muslims and God is answering our prayers. The faith of Christians is sparking the intervention of God.

There was an Islamic preacher in Africa who was considered a holy fundamentalist, but he was a hypocrite who was secretly involved in sins. Then he reaped what he had sown and he was about to die with AIDS.

Then he saw Jesus next to his deathbed. Jesus healed him and he became a Christian preacher. The Christians had obviously prayed for him.

Do you have children who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs for a long time, or involved in prostitution? Please never give up!

I prayed for my family for years. My parents didn't believe until they were on their deathbeds. I have seen lost children restored after years of prayer.

Do you have enemies that torment you? Pray for your enemies. Jesus died for your enemies too.

Miraculous Death Bed Conversion

 Has your life never gone wrong? I've often messed up and often had bad experiences. You probably have too. When we seem like innocent angels as babies, we don't stay that way for long.

Before my conversion, I was in a fix with no way out.
Many people come to faith in a crisis.

But after we discover Jesus, are the crises finally gone for good? Unfortunately not.
But we have to learn to trust God even in crises. Yes, we can learn to thank Jesus for the hard times. Why?

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Ro 5:1–5 NIV

I came to Jesus at a traumatic time and I have also come closer to Jesus through suffering.
Jesus is very familiar with crises and trials and he knows very well how to lead us through the darkness.

Jesus was rejected, despised, lonely, tortured and unjustly executed. He understands all our difficulties and disappointments.

My father was 70 years old and his lungs were dangerously damaged. He had been smoking 40 cigarettes a day for years and he had been suffering from emphysema, where you slowly and irresistibly lose your breath.

The lungs no longer work and you are suffocated by the disease. My father had two older brothers who had the same disease. One died at the age of 59 and the other at 65.

He was not yet a believer and had no hope in heaven. I begged God to save my father. Finally, I began to ask God that mine would not die until he believed.

He retired at the age of 79. At 85, he had to be cared for in a nursing home. At 88, he believed and made peace with God.

When he was 90 years old, I asked God to finally let my father die because he was partially blind and demented and his life was full of suffering and pain.

When he turned 91, I thought of Psalm 91:16.

‘I will satisfy him with long life and let him see my salvation.’ 

Then I said to God, ‘What if you could take my father to heaven exactly 16 days after his 91st birthday.’

And that is exactly what happened.