Sixty Blessed Years of Serving the Lord Full Time

I want to share my testimony with you today, which I hope will help children and everyone. The reason is it was exactly 60 years ago on the 4th of May 1966 that I was released from the Indian Navy to serve the Lord full-time. And even though it's the 3rd of May here, it's actually the 4th of May in India.

So I thought it's exactly 60 years. And as I look back over 60 years where I never had to work, I mean, I had to do a lot of work, but I was not doing a secular job. I never received a salary, and I married and brought up four children without ever asking anybody in the world for any help.

It's amazing how God did for me what he did for those early apostles. It's a wonderful thing to experience in our life what we read of people experiencing in the Bible. So I'll just give you a few verses that the Lord has helped me with through the years.

See, I was born in a Christian family. My father was born again before I was even born. So from earliest childhood, he took us to churches where they preached about the new birth.

So I heard about being born again from, I can't even remember, from the earliest possible time. And like many people who've grown up in Christian homes, every time I heard a message about accepting Christ, I would accept Christ. I'd say, Lord, come into my heart.

And I, at least right up to the age of 19, I think I must have asked the Lord to come into my heart a hundred times at different meetings. But I was never sure. And because I was never sure, I would backslide and come back and backslide and come back.

So one of the things I want all of you to know is you have to be absolutely sure that Christ has come into your heart. So my life didn't even begin, my Christian life didn't even begin until I was sure. And I said, how am I going to be sure? But one good habit I had, which I would recommend to all of you, even before I was born again, was that I would read the Bible, something in the Bible every day.

I'd read continuously. You know, if I finished 10 verses, then the next day I would continue. And one day, I'd already become an officer in the Navy, because in July 1959, I was sitting in my room in the naval base.

And as usual, first thing in the morning, I would turn to the Bible and read the next chapter. And that day, the chapter I read was John chapter 6. I didn't just flip open the Bible. I'd finish John chapter 5 one day, and so I'd go to John chapter 6. That day, it was John chapter 6. And as I read through, I came to verse 37.

And I read there in the latter part of verse 37, John 6, 37, Jesus saying, the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Now, this happened 67 years ago, July 1959. And I may have read that before also, but that day, it really came home to my heart.

The Lord says, if you have come to me, I will certainly not cast you out. And I said, Lord Jesus, I've come to you a hundred times in the last six or seven years. At every meeting, I say, come to my heart, come to my heart.

And the Lord said, according to that verse, I have not cast you out. Now, I don't know how to explain it, but faith was born in my heart that day. As I read that, I said, Lord, today, I'm going to believe it.

And you know, in the ships, to prevent the ships from drifting, they would drop a thing called an anchor, and that anchor would go and hold under the ground. Then all the storms and the waves, the ship would not shake. For me, it was like this.

I dropped an anchor that day, 67 years ago. And believe it or not, you better believe it, my ship has not drifted. Not once in these 67 years did I doubt I'm a child of God.

Jesus has accepted me. I say that for some of you who maybe have asked many times, Lord, come to my heart, come to my heart, come to my heart. I did.

I did at least 100 times, I don't know, maybe 500 times. But I did not grow spiritually until the day I was absolutely sure and I said, Lord, thank you. So for those of you who are still tossed about, I hope you'll be sure to, if you come to the Lord, take this verse, which helped me.

So I had this habit of reading God's word regularly. And the next thing the Lord told me was to take baptism. So I was baptized as a baby in the Orthodox Church.

And the people in the Orthodox Church told me, see, people in the Orthodox Church are not born again. If you take baptism, they'll throw you out. Then you'll go to some church where everybody's born again and what do you, they're already born again, why do you want to preach there? This is the place where you need to be, where unconverted people are in this church.

Stay here. I thought that was a good argument. Stay in this unconverted church because these are the people who need to hear.

Why do you want to go to a church where everybody's born again? They're already saved. You don't need to preach there. So I thought that is a very good argument.

I'll stay where I am and preach. Of course, I never converted anybody. Sometimes the devil has arguments like that.

Anyway, so what happened with me was I studied the Bible and I found that there was not a single case of babies being baptized. So all these people were born again. So when I was praying once, the Lord said to me in my heart, if you're not listening to me, why should I listen to you? Is there something the Lord has told you and you don't listen? The Lord will say that to you.

If you're not listening to me, why should I listen to you? So I said, no, the Lord's not gonna listen to me. So I said, I don't care which church throws me out, I'm gonna take baptism. So that was one and a half years after I was born again.

I finally took baptism, and my spiritual growth began from that day. Even though I had assurance of salvation way back in July 59, it was not until I took baptism that my spiritual growth began. It was a step of obedience.

So when God tells you to take a step of obedience, obey, it'll make a big difference in your life. I'm just telling you a few things that I got from reading scripture. Then I'll give you another example, practical example of what happened was.

Then I left the Navy, and that was through Isaiah 49, one day. Now, it was just my Bible reading. I came to Isaiah 49, and I read there, the Lord has called me, verse one, from the womb of my mother.

From the time I was in my mother's womb, he called me and said to me, you are my servant, verse three. And your ministry is going to be like that of a sharp sword, verse two. Now, some people's ministry is not like a sword.

Some people's ministry is like putting a blanket over someone who's feeling cold or something like that. But the Lord told me my ministry was going to be like a sword that would pierce and cut and pierce and cut, because there were a lot of cancers in God's people that needed to be removed, and you can't remove a cancer by putting a blanket on top of it. So different people have different ministries.

So the Lord was telling me my ministry was this. But I didn't know clearly all of that at that time, but there's so many things. But there's another thing the Lord showed me here, and that is that it's in my ministry.

There are many things in this chapter that God showed me again and again that is going to characterize my ministry, and I read this chapter many, many times. And it says here, in verse 15, concerning trusting God for all my needs. Can a woman forget a nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, but I will not forget you.

That's been my experience for 60 years since I left Jidjom, that in no situation has the Lord forgotten me. Even after I got married and had children and so many needs came up, the Lord says, if mother will not forget her sucking child, neither will I ever forget you. Then I came out of the Navy, and I'll give you one instance of the Lord led me in another thing.

I once went, this was way back in 1967 sometime. I'd already left the Navy, and I was speaking at a conference in the middle part of India, a place called Gujarat. I'd gone there for a graduate's conference, and I'd taken the train.

It took two, I was living in a place called Vellore, and it took two days by train to reach there. And as soon as I reached there, it was a five-day conference, I had to speak every day. And it was in the end of October, 1967, I think.

And as soon as I reached there, I got a telegram. Those days, there were no phones and all like we have today. I got a telegram from my father, who was living in Vellore.

Please come back immediately, because the doctors have diagnosed me with cancer, and I have to be operated immediately. And here I had just arrived for a five-day conference, and they were depending on me to speak here. So I said, Lord, what shall I do? So, my daily portion was Deuteronomy that day, Deuteronomy chapter one.

And I read there, in verse three, on the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month. The Lord said, verse six, you have stayed long enough. Now turn and set your journey and go.

I said, okay. So I have to take my journey on the first day of the 11th month. At that time, it was the 25th of October.

So I went to the train station and bought a ticket for the 1st of November. Five days later, I sent a telegram back to my dad, saying, Dad, I can't come immediately, sorry. I'll start from here on the 1st of November, so I'll come there by the 3rd of November, okay? So I spoke for the five days in the conference, and I got into the train, and I reached home on the 3rd of November, about eight or nine days after my dad sent me the telegram.

And when I came there, my dad said, because you didn't come on time, I decided to get another doctor's opinion. So I sent my x-rays to another doctor, a specialist, and he said, you don't have cancer, you don't have to be operated. I said, praise the Lord, good thing I didn't come on time.

I'm just telling you how one verse in scripture, and my dad lived for many, many years after that, was saved from an unnecessary operation. I could tell you many stories like this. And then another time, I told you how the Lord specifically told me about leading.

And then another time, I was going to get married, and I thought Annie is the girl. I felt she was at the same type of opinion as mine and all that. But I said, Lord, I don't want to decide this.

You must tell me clearly that this is the one you have chosen for me. Because I'm very particular, I don't want to mess up my life by marrying the wrong person. I was 28 years old, and I turned to my usual, you know, I had the habit of reading one chapter a day.

And that day, I read that chapter. And it's amazing how the Lord said to me from there, Zach will marry Annie. I'm not going to tell you where it is, because it's very private.

But I'll tell you, it was such a clear word to my heart that I was sure, and I said, yes, I'm going to marry her. I'm telling you, God will speak to you in very specific ways sometimes. And the other thing the Lord's done for me in all these 60 years, I decided right from the beginning, what I read in Matthew chapter four.

That, I'll just show you two verses, Matthew four. Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon and Peter. And he said, follow me.

They left their nets and followed him. And then he went and saw James and John, verse Matthew 4, 21, and said, follow me. And they left the boat and their father and followed him.

So from that, the Lord showed me, now that you're going to leave the Navy. This is before I left. Sell all that you have.

Give, take all the money you have in your bank account and give it away for the Lord's work and start with zero, because I was single. So I said, okay, and I did that. As I told you, today is 60 years since the day I left the Navy.

And I've never ever asked anybody for my needs. I've never had to send a prayer letter to anywhere. I don't send prayer letters saying what work I'm doing.

There are a lot of preachers who send out prayer letters. I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing here. I've never done it in my life.

Because very often those prayer letters are hinting to people, hey, support me, man. I'm doing the Lord's work. And I said, I'll never do that, all those hinting methods.

And the only people with whom I share now what the Lord is doing is when I gather the elders of CFC churches, maybe five or ten of them I write to. And I share with them where I'm going. Otherwise, nobody knows what we do and where we go.

Even though the Lord's raised up so many churches in the last 50 years, most people don't know anything about it. Many people sitting here don't know anything about what the Lord has done. Because we don't talk much about these things.

It's only for the Lord to know. One day when Christ comes back, you'll see. But till then, it is enough that the Lord knows what he's done.

But the Lord has done so many miracles through these years, especially in planting churches, providing our need. And I remember when my own children had to, it was college expenses, college fees are very high in India. Anyone who sends people to, anybody who goes to college in India knows that.

And amazingly, God gave all my four sons enough intelligence to get scholarships. And all this is here in the United States, so that they could study here. And get a degree and get a job.

And even there, they're coming here. There were some miracles in the way they got their visas and all that. It is, what I say is, I proved in my life the reality of one truth.

Matthew 6 and verse 33. I say that for the encouragement of everyone here. If it works for me, it'll work for you.

But you have to believe God's word. Matthew 6, 33. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And all these things will be added to you. So that's what I've sought. The other problem I had for many years was, I used to frequently be discouraged.

And I was very inward looking, discouraged, condemning myself. I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough. Even after being born again, many years, even after leaving the Navy.

I used to say, Lord, I'm not doing properly, I'm discouraged. And the Lord solved that problem for me by baptizing me in the Holy Spirit. 51 years ago, I remember the date, January 12th, 1975.

Unexpectedly, the Lord just baptized me in the Holy Spirit. And I suddenly began to speak some words in an unknown language. And I stopped and I found myself again speaking that.

I had no intention to do that, absolutely no intention. It was just in the Lord's way of assuring me that he baptized me in the Holy Spirit. I don't use the gift of tongues in public.

It's a private language between me and my Heavenly Father. And I use it every day. But that's only between me and my Father.

But the baptism in the Holy Spirit delivered me from one thing, discouragement. Discouragement went away from my life, gone from my life for 51 years, what I was a slave to before that. The Holy Spirit can do something.

But before that, before the Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit, I used to spend some time in prayer and fasting and seeking God. And saying, Lord, I am desperately in need. I used to condemn myself and get discouraged.

And the Lord met with me. And about six months after the Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit, CFC started in our home. And that is another story altogether, how the Lord helped us to have first met for six years in our home.

And then the numbers became more and more, and we needed a better place. And there was another place that my father wanted to live next to us. He had paid an advance for a property nearby.

But then he was being sick, he couldn't come to Bangalore. And he said, okay, son, you can have that for your church. But I paid only about, what is it, about 20%.

You have to pay the remaining 80%, and you can take. The 20% I've given, I can donate to the church. The remaining 80%, if you can pay, you can take that property.

Now, we didn't have that 80% money. It was about a huge amount of money for us that we needed. And we didn't have, we used to meet in our house, we never took offerings.

We had a box there, and in all the years that we had collected for six years, we had not even half of that amount. But we said, Lord, if that is the place you want us to have a meeting place, you'll give us the money. If it is not the meeting place for us, we don't want it.

But we will never ask anybody for the money. We will never send any letter. I will not even tell the people in the church to give that money.

The Lord has to do it. And if you don't get it, you don't get it. The owner of that property had given us six more months to pay it.

And you know what happened just about, I think, two, three weeks before the deadline? I got a check in the name of our church for that exact amount that was left over, just a huge amount of money. A check for that from somebody I have never met in my life. And I've never met subsequently also.

I never met him before, I never met him afterwards. And he never sent any money before, and he never sent any money afterwards. Just that one time he sent this check.

And it's almost like fairy tales, but it's an absolute truth. So we had the money, and we got that property right on the main road. Our church building was there on the main road.

And I don't have time to go on and on, I'll just say one more thing. One of the advantages of being on the main road was, there was some, there was a group of five or six people who were attending a Catholic charismatic meeting behind our church building on another street. And they were getting fed up with the way it was compromising and going towards a little bit of Hinduism and all that.

That one day after that meeting, one evening, one Wednesday evening, they were so tired of that, what they saw there, they were born again. And they walked past on the main road, as they walked on the main road, they came by our church. And we were having a Wednesday evening meeting there.

And they said, this is a Protestant church, maybe we'll just go in and cleanse ourselves from all the filth we had over there. And they came in, and they all got converted. And they've been with us for the last 50 years.

So that's why we had a place on the main road. What I mean is, every little thing, and I could tell you many, many stories of the Lord provided for us, done miracles for us, and brought thousands of people to Christ. And many of them are non-Christians, at least 2,000 or more non-Christians.

And we have two churches that were planted where there was no church for 2,000 years, the first church in those two villages in India in 2,000 years. And nobody preached the gospel there. It's like going to a new place to preach the gospel.

So it's amazing what the Lord has done. And as far as I'm concerned, it all began with me and another brother baptized in the Holy Spirit. Just like on the day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit started the work of the church.

And that's what's happened to us, too. And I say that for the encouragement of everyone here. Read God's word regularly.

It's amazing what God can speak to you, and seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.