The Healing Grace

The Serenity of Life
By Abraham Israel

Have you ever experienced a situation which required you to trust in the Lord and believe Him see you through it, at the end of which it produced,
(1) Peace and Rest.
(2) Patience and Hope.

Peace and Rest

In my life when I was a very young child about the age of around nine, my ears got affected due to the reason of water entering in to my ear and staying in there for a long period of time to cause infection inside my ears. I got it treated for many months and nearly a year or so, finally the doctor said that my ear immediately needs an operation to get back to normal condition.
During that time period in my life I prayed to God and He gave me faith and I expected God honestly to heal me. The doctors gave some 1 week time for improvement. Praise the Lord! By the very next week the doctor checked my ear and told me that the operation was not needed because of a drastic improvement. After this incident, my faith got increased in God and I experienced peace and rest in God till the present time. My ears are working fine for the glory of God! Praise the Lord!

Patience and Hope

In another phase of my life when I was studying my engineering at the age of twenty, I got severely affected in my body due to hyper thyroid. I was severely afflicted due to excessive secretion and release of thyroxin [a body fluid used for digesting food] which would make whatever I ate to immediately get digested without taking in the nutrition in to my body. I was feeling very depressed and disoriented and weak during that phase of my youthful years. Then having no option, I turned to the Lord God of my childhood. This severe weakness and trembling in my body caused me to get angry and get irritated even for small things. This led me in to a lot of emotional problems and unforgiveness which made me miserable daily. But this was blessing in disguise that God used as a channel to develop my patience and build a strong hope in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.
During these days God reached out to me in His mercy and grace by His Spirit and quickened His word [the Bible] to me. His word moved in to the depth of my being as I started to read it continuously day by day and it began to penetrate in to my mind quickened by the Holy Spirit. This quickened word of God began to control my soul and it started to produce patience in me, and patience produced a very strong hope in God and this hope made the love of God to be poured out in to my soul. I began to be joyful in spite of all my afflictions and learned to trust in the Lord patiently day by day. After all these trials have come and gone, now I thank the Lord very much for having built a strong character in me through these things which will stay with me throughout eternity. As the psalmist David also wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:67-68,71).

My life and walk with God has never been the same after all these storms of life and God has lifted me in to soaring height and altitude as days passed by and has blessed me more than ever now. If you too are going through such trial, don’t despair but turn to the God of the Bible who will take care of you and will turn the curse in to a blessing as He did in my life! Praise the Lord!

Testimonies

Testimonies

The Saving Grace

My Father’s Testimony

My Testimony

The Healing Grace

The Saving Grace

The Saving Grace

By Abraham Israel

Date : 19/02/04

I had a dream in which I was walking in a dark big lake full of water with a few people with me. As I was walking, first the depth of the water was knee deep only. It was a lake in which the depth was increasing in the direction we were going towards. I was so cool and casual while I was going deeper and deeper in to the water not realizing that danger was ahead of me. Then I saw a lot of dead fishes floating on the water. Just then I asked the people walking with me what it means pointing to the dead fishes.

Before I could get an answer, in an instant I was trapped in a deep and dark abyss full of water and instantly I was gasping for breath and air. There were dark impenetrable thick wall all around me and I was realizing then only that there is no way out of this trap. I was struggling between life and death. Then with a big bang the wall was broken just near me and a heavenly light spread near me and I felt a hand out of the light snatching me through that thick wall making a hole in to it. I was called and was taken in to that light. At that time I did not understand whose hand is that which saved me, suddenly I woke up from my sleep and thanked the Lord Jesus for His saving grace which I never understood in such a way because of believing the Lord from my childhood and growing up in His love all through my life. Now I realize that if not for the hands of the Lord Jesus I would have forever been trapped in to that dark abyss forever as a penalty for all my sin which I have done. But I thank the Lord Jesus for rescuing me from such eternal death [separation from God forever and from His goodness] by forgiving my sins through His shed blood on the cross for me as my substitute. Glory to God!

My Fathers Testimony

My Greatest Finding In Life

[Testimony of Bro. Israel Ponnusamy, Evangelist, L.E.F Church, Erode, Tamil Nadu]

I was born in a staunch Hindu Family in a small village called Angurpalayam near the holy place of Hindus, Surulimalai in Madurai district. My father was a farmer. Once in every year we offered sacrifices at Surulimalai and proceeded straight to holy dip. Further I believed the words of my mother that there are thirty three crores of Gods. I stayed in a Hindu hostel and started my High School Education in a town near my village. There the teachings of Vivekanandar, Ramakrishna Paramakamsar, Mahatma Gandhi and the doctrines of Bagavat Geetha were taught to us every morning and evening. Even then bad words, lying, cinema going and the sins I learnt from the bad company grew in me slowly.

After my High School education, I joined the American college at Madurai. There I enjoyed the worldly pleasures and read many story books and novels and went to cinemas. My Father expired unexpectedly during my first year of college education. I discontinued my college study. That was a difficult period for my family. An evil power which tortured my mind, started to attack my brain. I felt that my brain was melting during the day time. A thirst to find real peace increased in my soul. In this state I was appointed in a temporary job under kuntha power project at Nilgiris.

The fear of death and a kind of terror took hold of me when I saw accidents before me. Once I drank liquor without the knowledge of others. I fell in to adultery too. My life was very bitter. Then I got a clerk’s post in the department of commerce and industries in Tamil Nadu Government. I thought at least at Madras [now called as Chennai] I could live a happy life. But my spiritual problems and sinful life increased day by day. I sought the help of astrologers. I liked to hear the politicians very much. I read filthy books. All these things did not satisfy me. Even the doctors did not give any solution to my disease. So one day I went to Marina beach where I had a thought to drown myself in the sea. Later I changed my mind and returned to my room and prayed thus before I slept: “If there is a real God, He must speak to me.”

At about 3 O’ Clock in the night I saw a dream, where men and women with sticks and poles came to kill me and I fell on the ground. But nobody beat me. They had disappeared. But I was holding brass-like shining feet. When I lifted my head I saw Jesus Christ. His face was filled with Love. Only afterwards I read the same description of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation in the Bible. Then I believed that the Lord Jesus would help me. Then I was transferred to Madurai. The owner of the room where I stayed knew the Lord. She introduced me to the Layman’s Evangelical Fellowship. I asked the Evangelist there, “Why God is so partial? He has given a good life to some and a life full of problems to others”. He turned to 28th chapter of Deuteronomy from the Bible and read out the blessings people get by obeying God’s word and the curses by not obeying God’s word. I saw my pitiable condition in Deut 28:28,” The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart”. This word touched my heart. I went to the Fellowship meetings. I deeply felt that I was sick and restless because of my sins. The Lord showed my sins through 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 which says, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

I confessed all my sins with fasting and prayer. I got rid of the story books, lottery tickets, pictures of idols and the horoscope. While listening to a message, God convicted me of some money which I have not returned to the persons from whom I had received it. I returned it. I was even convicted of envy. I asked pardon from them. I prayed to God to cleanse my sins with His blood. Many children of God prayed for me. The Lord spoke to me through Isaiah 44:22, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins, return unto me for I have redeemed thee”. I felt as though the current passed through me twice. My burden of sin rolled away. My heart was filled with the Peace of God, which the world could not give. Jesus Christ delivered me from cinema, cigarette, malice and greed. The disease of brain from which I was suffering for 5 years left me. I felt happy and it was so sweet to pray and read the Bible.

After my conversion the Lord blessed my Job. I was promoted to the post of Assistant Supervisor of Government Industrial Co-operative Society. I testified to Hindus and Christians. Then the merciful God called me unto His service. It was confirmed by Bro. Joshua Daniel, the servant of God. I resigned my Government Job and joined the Bible school of the Layman’s Evangelical Fellowship at Madras and was trained for 4 years. Since 1971 I have been working for the Lord in Erode, Tamil Nadu as a pastor and evangelist. “To Him be Honor and Glory forever and ever”.

For further information please contact the following address:

Pastor. Israel Ponnusamy,
694, E.V.N Road,
[Near Railway Station, Adjacent to T.Sivakumar Hospital]
Erode -638001.
Tamil Nadu.
E-mail: abrahamisraeli@yahoo.com
Ph: (0424)-2253174, (0424)-2263756

My Testimony

I Have Found My Purpose, Have you?
By Abraham Israel

I would like to share about my life and burden with you because I am led by God to write this to you. My father is a pastor and I have grown up from my childhood as a Christian and have been taught about the Lord from my early age in Sunday school and in the church. Even when I was a child I had a great desire to please the Lord, and live for Him. But as I grew up I thought about living a good life and to help the church monetarily because it taught me all the good things in my life. As I grew older to be a young teen age boy, the worldly desires and passions began to increase in me and I became bounded to various lustful habits. After I finished my schooling, I joined a polytechnic and finished my diploma and started studying Electrical Engineering degree. By the time I finished it, I wanted to pursue my career in software because of its boom in South India during the years 1998-2001.

As I was about to finish my Engineering, my body began to tremble and I got very weak and feeble. I got so weak that I was not even able to hold a tumbler in my hand with out tremor. As I was a fitness freak during my college days and represented my college for body building competition, I thought all these will go away. Things grew worse that I was hardly able to write my final semester exams without shivering, that the teacher who supervised the exam asked me about it. Any way I always managed through it because I was always self-confident during those days. But I got failed in one paper of my final exams due to which I missed to finish my degree in the stipulated time and I got second class. This was a great blow to me who planned for a successful career and gaining material wealth. Then the very next semester I studied and passed that paper and went on to join a software training institute to pursue my career and to travel abroad. But while I was studying and working in that place, my health got worse to the point ‘I told the company manager that I could no longer continue with my studies and work in the future’.

I returned back home in Erode which is a town that is 400 kilometers away from Chennai the capital of the state of Tamilnadu in south India. This was during the year 2001 end. When I came back home, I felt as though I had no future for me. As I was brought up in an evangelical church, so we had special revival meetings at that time of the year. So in my weakness I worked for the meeting and at the end of it, as a pastor’s son I had the privilege of meeting the man of God to pray for me. I told him that I felt that I have already wasted twenty years of my life in vain and he prayed for me.

The next day while I got up from my sleep in the morning all my muscles in my body got stiffened and I limped my way to even do my daily chores. Suddenly in that early morning, the first time in my life I felt that I was not in control of my life and I need to depend on others for my survival. While I was lying hopelessly in my bed, God quickened a word in my heart while I saw a calendar in the wall in which it was written, “Trust in the Lord at all times.” (Psalm 62:8). This was the first time I felt God speak in my spirit so clearly. Then I received the strength to go through the affliction from God (Psalm 119:67, 71, 75). All the people who thought that I would be earning a lot of money began to look mockingly at me. Then the doctors diagnosed that I had hyper thyroid three times more than the normal level and as a result potassium deficiency has occurred in my body. So I became bed ridden after visiting the hospitals for treatment. During that period of time I still wanted to pursue higher studies in my engineering and wanted to prepare for entrance exam. As usual I would take the Bible in the morning to read the smallest Psalm as a routine before starting to study for the entrance test, but I was not able to keep down the Bible.

During that time I began to understand the scriptures clearly. And I started reading and reading the whole Bible, it became like a honey in the midst of all my afflictions. It gave me comfort. It was a tough time for me and my family. My family members were not able to understand why I was reading the Bible all the time. I read the whole Bible in a matter of months and the desire to read and know it fully increased. Even I also was not able to fully understand what was happening in my life.

Then one day while I was sleeping in the afternoon, as I was slowly recovering from my weakness and was taking medicines, my mother and dad were praying in the next room as they usually do every Wednesday afternoon, I heard a voice behind me like the voice of the many waters as described in the Bible saying, “Do my work and I will bless you…..”. Suddenly I woke up and I was afraid. I did not tell it to anybody and that night while I thought about it, I became fearful and told my mother what had happened and then I felt a little bit relieved. My desire to know about God increased in leaps and bounds after that. I read voraciously all the spiritual books that my father had in his collections.

Then I asked my father a lot of questions about Bible and God. And he tried his best to answer me. I asked all my controversial but genuine questions about God. He even got upset because of some of the questions. From those days itself I felt a deep desire to commit my life fully to preach the Gospel to every one. But the irony was I have never been a person who could stand and speak before people, even before 2 or 3 people.

After that one day I went on to a small gathering to speak the word of God by invitation. As I stood up to speak I felt so fearful and inadequate to speak before the young people, suddenly in a moment of time God took away all my inhibitions that bound me, and I started to expound the word of God boldly and fluently. This in itself is the greatest miracle in my life.

As I started to pursue the call of God in my life, I was not sure whether I should be in full time ministry. Two or three years I was in dilemma about this matter. But the desire to teach and preach the word of God increased still more. After that I joined in a Bible college which God directed me to join. A lot of maturity and revelation came to me those days. God miraculously provided all the fees I needed to finish it. I found true joy and peace as I obeyed the voice of God. Praise the Lord!

Even from the day I heard God, the burden to reach out to the nation of India and China which are the most populated nations and to the nations with the word of God increased in me. And while I was doing my Bible college we went to a three day conference, during the meeting while the message was going on, the man of God suddenly stopped and prophesied that “God is going to use you in this nation as a leader, He has put in you the gift of pastoring and teaching, you will speak to people and they will be delivered and comforted….”. Then as I continued with my Bible College, the gift of God began to manifest in me. I became stronger and stronger in expounding the Word of God with authority. God became so real to me in a living way. Lot of revelations about the deep doctrines of the Bible began to be unveiled before me. Now I have no more doubt in the Word of God. Praise the Lord!

And God began to stir up in my heart and told me that I am called to be an apostle, still he witnesses it in my heart clearly. I visibly could see the difference and transformation that has taken place after that. God increased the desire for holiness in my life more and more. All the bondages have been broken completely by the power of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit has increased in leaps and bounds. I sometimes get baffled by the amount of revelation I receive from the word of God. God has put a strong desire in me to teach the word of God in all the churches and extend the kingdom of God through it.

God has shown me that as many as the stars are in the sky, so will be the number of souls that will be saved in this final coming harvest before his coming. I have always desired to live a life as an Engineer, in a solitary way, But God showed up in my life and has trained me to be a warrior, soldier and an apostle to His church. The last job I would have chosen in my life would be to teach, but God has called me to teach and have proved that in my weakness He is strong in me by His power that manifests. I believe that in our generation, we will turn the world upside down by His Spirit that works mightily in us. Grace and peace to you in Jesus name. God bless you.

If you have any kind of questions regarding God and your own life problems , please do send your prayer request and questions to the E-mail given below for clarification and guidance based on God’s Word,

For further information please contact the following address:

Ps. Abraham Israel,
Household of Faith Church and World Outreach,
#6, ‘Paradise Apartments’, 1197, 1st stage,
4th Block, 6th Cross, H.B.R Layout,
Bangalore-560043, India.
Ph: +91 (0) 9448988727
E-mail: abrahamisraeli@yahoo.com