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Shillong Revival |
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Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place |
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Eyewitness: Sheila Cherian - Part 3 |
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More on Personal & Social Transformation: In the revival sweeping through Shillong over just the past few months, I have heard both from innumerable credible first hand witnesses, church & community leaders & personally witnessed myself too umpteen life stories of a 360 degree change in lifestyle & life priorities. There are way too many stories that I myself have personally heard, to count & to remember, leave alone to record on tape! But I say this reverently because I well know from the Word of God how key/strategic a single individual life made in the image of God is & each one of his moral choices are noted, celebrated or mourned as the case may be, in heaven. The Bible tells us that ALL heaven rejoices at the return of a single prodigal back home to his Father’s home! I struggle to comprehend the place God has given us in His affections! But please don’t be concerned - I have videoed a fairly large number of first person stories (in the form of interviews) with youngsters & young adults & mature adults – boys & girls & men & women. And from locations as diverse as several churches in different locations, to schools in various locations, to colleges, as well as to homes … in both urban areas & rural ones. So there is a fair coverage of events to give a picture of what is going on. What is the fruit of this phenomenon labeled “Mass Hysteria” by the secular press? I’m fairly sure that like my own predicament, the secular reporters too are struggling to find a handle to describe what they are seeing, I guess – & in that sense my sympathies are with them. This phenomenon of a wave of dramatic individual personal life transformations spilling over into community; thereby causing an extraordinary level of social transformation is clearly acknowledged even by the normally highly skeptical secular news media in India. Secular reports on the after effects of what they have labeled “Mass Hysteria” in Shillong are an eye opener, to say the least! The Hindi television news channel “Aaj Tak” for example, reported on the phenomena currently sweeping Shillong. Friends who visited our home lately talked about having watched this particular program week end before last. Perhaps you could find out more on this from “Aaj Tak” & share the information with others like me who are very, very keen to know. Also look up for relevant news on: the BBC website, The Shillong Times archives, DNA India; The Telegraph; Pioneer; & many others. Like many other secular media reports, “Aaj Tak” also tagged the wave “mass hysteria”, I was told. But the report added that numerous alcoholics were chucking their addictions & that several dysfunctional families were getting back together again! How amazing is that for fruit or harvest of a movement of Mass Hysteria? The Bible says that we will know a tree by its fruit. So what does this rich harvest of fruit tell us about the tree that produced them? Also looked up the meaning for “Hysteria” & the words the Encarta Dictionary uses to describe hysteria are: “Panic; Frenzy; & Madness”. And could the end result of Panic, Frenzy & Madness be Restored Lives & Relationships? Who exactly are we fooling??? Like the song goes – a man hears what he wants to hear & disregards the rest. But of course – “Freedom to Choose” continues to apply. In fact those of you who want to read more on the net try a Google search with Shillong Revival & perhaps “mass hysteria”(!) to come upon a bunch of news! Social Transformation stories from Cherrapunji or Sohra While at Cherrapunji where I had the privilege of sharing a meal & some very precious time with Rev. Lyndan Siem & his gracious wife & fellow theologian, Radiancy – I heard from them that several liquor shops had closed down in Cherrapunji or Sohra as they locally call the place. And this in a place where alcoholism is a social problem!!! How wonderful are the effects of this Spiritual Tsunami! Yes! It turns umpteen lives upside down – but how gloriously upside down is this!!!!! Having been involved with NGOs & social work (directly & indirectly) ever since our student days in the late 70s, we know how time intensive social transformation is. And what is happening in Cherrapunji is just about 3 months! How amazing is that! Now why has the media not reported these amazing stories of transformation, rather than hype the sensational? Why indeed? Your answer is as good as mine! I also had the privilege of briefly meeting & listening in on a Sunday school teacher’s retreat that the respected Rev. Dr. M.J.Hynniewta was conducting at Sohra at Rev. Lyndan Siem’s request. Why would one extremely well - respected theologian take time out of a revival of such proportions to train Sunday school teachers? Why indeed??? Perhaps because Sunday school children are no longer asking for regular Sunday school children questions or stories! These children are now personally engaged in the very serious business of spiritual warfare & they want urgently to upgrade their Biblical knowledge & skills to do battle in the heavenlies on behalf of their loved ones! And what if most Sunday school teachers are out of their depth on this & need a crash course urgently? Which might explain why those as busy as Rev. Lyndan Siem & Rev. Dr. M.J.Hynniewta are taking time off right in the middle of emergency revival needs, just to invest into training these Sunday school teachers. They in turn are training the front liners in this current battle. Institutional & Public Leadership struggling to cope with the phenomena: The secular news media has picked up umpteen stories of this “fainting encounter/revival” occurring during assembly times; regular class hours etc & in educational institutions actually turning hostile to such happenings. And who would blame the leadership of these educational institutions, if they did turn hostile for lack of understanding & the fear of being out of control? I wouldn’t for sure! Think of what might you do if in a leadership position & faced with such a crisis situation? Think about when it is not a one-off incident, but fairly regular occurrences of this encounter keep happening during scheduled school & college times? Picture the confusion when you have a dozen (& sometimes way more numbers than that even) youngsters fall in a faint (keep in mind that it is winter in Shillong – & it most definitely is not the summer sun causing the fainting) right during assembly gathering time; or during regular class hours? Can you picture the disruption that would immediately follow? What would you do if you were in leadership in such an institution? Would you declare a holiday – as some schools felt compelled to do to cope with the situation? And if so, how long would you keep declaring holidays if it keeps on happening? What if it happened during a regular lecture or a class period - would you suspend that period? How could you keep teaching Psychology/Economics/Math/Geography, when students in the class are excitedly claiming that they can see Angels or Demons, or they are falling down in either a deep faint or in a struggling, violent, agitated screaming faint, or they are fervently singing in worship or praying??? Or how could you possibly continue with regular class as usual, when a bunch of kids are lying there in this fainted state, and large numbers of their agitated friends & other students crowd around them, wanting desperately to know what is going on with their fainted or struggling, screaming friends? Some schools have rushed children in this unusual fainted state to hospitals, & ECGs etc have been taken. Other educational institutions though, recognizing that this is a Christian phenomenon, have carried the affected ones to the closest church for prayer & they have recovered. In fact just a couple of days ago, I heard a friend (currently employed at St. John’s Hospital, Bangalore, but with roots in Laban, Shillong) say that when he called his buddy – a teacher in a local school in Laban, this teacher friend complained that he was getting tired of carrying students to the church every day, instead of just being able to teach & cover the portions for the exams! How strange is all this!!! Still other schools in a desperate attempt to remain in control have asked youngsters who have experienced this to leave the institutions & T.Cs/ Transfer Certificates have been issued to such students. In other schools, students exhibiting this behavior have been reprimanded & rebuked sternly, telling them not to over dramatize & make pretend stuff! Yet other schools, I have heard, have asked parents to have their children cleared medically & return with a medical fitness assurance certificate if the child is to be admitted back to school. Extreme reactions – yes – but in the face of extremely unusual situations. One newspaper correspondent from the Mumbai based newspaper, “DNAIndia” in the first week of September (post the X-Ray like image of Jesus appearing on the Malki Cross) in an interview with a top notch leader of Meghalaya asks him what action the state is taking in the light of all the unusual stuff going on in educational institutions around Meghalaya. And the minister replies that the government was watching the situation, but wanted the heads of institutions to handle the matter! The reality is that everyone is way out of their depth! Which head of which institution would qualify as the higher authority that would take action over what the Sovereign Lord, maker of Heaven & earth is doing??? Few prominent patterns noted in the Supernatural Encounters or 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc individual revivals (as they locally refer to these spiritual encounters): I shall share here my personal take-out post interviewing more than a couple of dozen & informally talking to several, several more youngsters & older adults who had experienced this current revival in Shillong, first hand. It is subjective & others might have a different point of view & I’m okay with that. But this is my personal & sincere understanding & learning. Interestingly, the handle they use at Shillong to describe this supernatural encounter/ experience/ spell of fainting/…. is “Revival”. So you find them saying things like – “I experienced only one revival, but he experienced 3 revivals & the other experienced 4 revivals etc. Then they say things like: “I experienced my first revival at the school assembly or in my college campus; then the 2nd one at home & the 3rd one while at church etc. What I am about to describe is not the sole content of the visions/encounters/revivals ….. but common/ dominant patterns. So here goes - In the 1st encounter, many youngsters & young adults say they unexpectedly fall down in a faint. They are not looking for it. In fact, secular news media has picked up umpteen stories of this “fainting encounter/revival” occurring during assembly times; regular class hours etc & in educational institutions actually hostile to such happenings. During this first fainting episode or encounter, they commonly see a thick dense darkness & an evil being in that darkness. Some describe the evil being as a deeply hooded figure with indistinct features. Others describe this evil being commonly as an extremely fearsome & red-eyed humanoid. Like I said earlier, always this encounter leaves the person terror stricken as the evil being or beings are encountered in 3 dimensional perspectives, dragging either the concerned person or beloved ones screaming & kicking toward the fearsome fires of hell. And like I said earlier, the experience is in 3 dimensional clarity, at a level of consciousness & quality that overwhelmingly underlines the level of the reality being personally experienced. It is like a tremendous impact on your inner spirit. How can you possibly keep from wildly freaking out in terror? The experience is as if the person has physically visited the verandahs (I’m doing my best to describe the experience, pardon the poor choice of words) leading to Hell & returns from a first hand visit there! Fear, horror, dread, fright, alarm & all such other negative emotions strike upon the person’s consciousness at this juncture. The struggles, pitiful cries, physical contortions & spiritual battles such individuals experience during such an encounter of spiritual warfare, are piteous to see. And once seen, it is likely to cure the most material/unbelieving skeptic of his unbelief in things supernatural ... in this case, demonic! In between this violent fearsome struggle, somewhere in the periphery of the person’s vision, they often see a very bright light & a Person at the epicenter of that light, that they recognize immediately as “Jishu” (or Jesus, in the local vernacular language of Khasi). This is absolutely irrespective of their religious background. And the instant they call out to Jishu, He is at their side & ALWAYS with words of comfort such as: “I love you; I have prepared a place for you; Come with me” etc. As an outside observer, what you now see is the person in the encounter/revival, stop agitating & wailing & contorting & instead a level of rest appears to descend on the person. When you later ask them about it they tell you that: what was actually taking place at the time was that Jishu was escorting the person to the beautiful gardens of heaven. These gardens are filled as I mentioned earlier, with innumerable fruit trees, myriad birds & animals & angels. Sometimes you see the youngsters chewing in this state & they later say that Jishu had plucked some fruit for them to eat. Some others you notice swallowing & they later tell you that Jishu gave them either water or some sweet liquid to drink. All of them are so blissfully happy that do not want to return - irrespective of how wonderful & loving the homes they belong to back on earth are! After a while (& this time period differs from person to person), Jishu tells them that it is time for them to return to earth. They ALL object, but Jishu is firm. One child told me that Jishu said,” you must go back, your mother is worried”. Yet another child told me that Jishu actually told him that he needed to go back to school! Of all the inane things! I had to laugh at this concern expressed by Jishu! And so they return. Some of them just return quietly returning to consciousness. Many others are observed waving energetically & boisterously to someone out there that they are obviously saying “bye bye” to very, very reluctantly & fondly. To describe this I would use the imagery of passengers in a train waving good bye to very close friends & family who have come to the railway station to see them off, craning their necks out of the window to catch the very last glimpse of them as the train picks up speed & pulls right out of the station. Again some return just waving & bidding bye; while others return with a cantering motion & some others with an exaggerated rough riding motion. These latter will say that some angels had put them on a horse on their way back home to earth! Two children I spoke to said they had returned on a lion’s back!!! And their return ride back home had a rough exaggerated riding motion – totally different from the cantering motion seen in some others! I really don’t have any explanations for any of these. Frankly I have no comment to add – except that having seen it with my 2 black beady eyes, I stand still & marvel at the glories of Heaven & God that we seem just unable to fathom. But I do report in perfect honesty what I myself have seen & experienced in Shillong. In the 2nd; 3rd; 4th & subsequent encounters, intense spiritual battle & intercession is the hallmark. The youngsters with great authority are acting on information & sights seen in their very first encounter. They are intensely involved with rescuing from the clutches of the enemy the loved ones they have seen being taken captive. The authority in Christ Jesus that these young ones exhibit has to be seen to be believed! They are obviously in the front line of battle. And doing a fabulous job! Does that mean the mature Christian leaders just stand on the sides & watch passively? By no means!
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 |
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· More on Personal & Social Transformation · What is the fruit of this phenomenon? · Powerful Social Transformation stories from Cherrapunji · Leadership Challenge in coping with the phenomena · Prominent patterns noted in the Supernatural Encounters
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