James Kumar
Initial Reflections
I had an interesting start to the
Navapur Conference 2013. I was
travelling from the Mumbai to a remote village called Karanji, aka Navapur, which
I had never been to. I was not sure what
to expect, but I was excited by what was going to come. As I
walked in to the village, it was a total contrast to what I saw in Mumbai. I saw people everywhere and lots and lots of
stalls and then a big massive tent with lots of colours on it. I rested for a few hours and then got ready
for the conference. As I walked in to
the conference tent, my heart started rising with excitement and I was nervous.
The moment I walked in, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Immediately my heart calmed down and I was filled
with peace. I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that this was not just an event
but an encounter with living God!
Coming to this conference was not just because
someone invited me, but it was a divine appointment for my life. I always had a heart for my own country India
and wanted to see something like this here.
I met Mrs. Mary Mathews, the co founder of this ministry and she invited
me to come and visit the ministry in India.
My holidays and conference days perfectly matched and I knew that this
was another God incident in my life. I started preparing my heart to receive
the word cleared my mind and I was glad there was no internet connection. With no distractions from the social media, I
was virtually fasting and I am happy about it.
First Night Rally
The first day evening at the conference started
with prayer and worship. The crowd was
building up and so was the pace of the worship.
I loved the songs. Most of them
have been written by Filadelfia worship leaders for this conference. These
songs were amazing and were filled with scriptures and a deeper revelation of
Jesus. Lifting the name of Jesus we
continued to worship his name with dancing and singing. This worship experience
brought me closer to Jesus like never before.
In the Inaugural address itself, Dr Paul
Mathews set our expectations straight.
We were told to
1.
Be hungry
for the word of God.
2.
Offer the
biggest praise 'gift' to Jesus.
3.
Meet new people and fellowship with them
4.
Pray like
never before
5.
Get a fresh
vision for 2014.
Soon afterwards, the guest speaker for the evening, Brother Tinu George came
to minister. He began to preach the word
of God with authority. While he was preaching I could feel the power of the
Holy Spirit. After the Word was over,
he offered to pray for the sick people and for deliverance. Hundreds of people came forward. My heart just broke looking at the huge need in
this nation. People were hungry for
Jesus and his touch in their lives.
The Glory of God filled in the place and people started crying out to
the Jesus and as Pastor started praying in the Name of Jesus, and declaring the
Blood of Jesus, people started getting healed and delivered. One partially blind could see, pains were
gone from the hands and legs, stomach pain disappeared ulcers and infections
healed. And I was a witness to this! Thank
you Jesus. Brother George encouraged the people to come and testify before the
congregation and many people did so!
DAY TWO
Beautiful morning amazing weather. I am ready to worship Jesus
today. The crowd is building up and I can
see people staying in the same tent and getting ready for the conference
sessions with Pastor S R Manohar.
He started the session with ''Jesus is wonderful''! From there all the
way till he finished, it was an amazing journey with the Holy Spirit. He started talking about the 'inside world', the
world that we hold inside us. He
explained that God looks at your heart and what is in your heart. I learnt that first God works inside of us,
then God works through us and then God works for us.
As the sermon was being unpacked, I could see Jesus being revealed more
gloriously and I could know that I was guilty of being filled with selfish
desires. I started confessing the things
that God showed me and I could feel him touching my inner life. In the next session, he took us deeper and
talked about what true success looks like in ministry.
Within two days I could see lot of transformation inside of me because
when we allow Jesus to work inside of us we will be changed and transformed
forever.
I had a great sleep that night and woke up in the morning filled with
new anticipation.
DAY THREE
The worship was lifted to a whole new level
today. Pastor Manohar started talking
about Perfect Love. It was a perfect start for the day. I learnt that when I love Jesus
wholeheartedly, I will not fear anything in this world, even ridicule or
persecution!
The evening session was just amazing as we had a new guest speaker, Rev.
K C John. He taught us through the scriptures, that Jesus was anointed in all
the three realms of the Old Testament.
First as a faithful prophet, then as a High Priest and then as the King
of Kings. It was really good.
It felt as if the days were going very fast. But I knew deep down inside of me that I was
making good use of every session, by taking notes, so that I could refer back
to this notes even later.
DAY FOUR
In the morning session I witnessed the graduation ceremony of the
Filadelfia Bible College. As I was watching this ceremony, I could see that all
the students were happy and excited about their achievements. It was moving to
see so many young men and women committing their lives to spread the Good News.
In Pastoral leadership session, Pastor Manohar challenged us to pray in
a new ways to God, and encouraged us to find new vocabulary and new sentences in
our communication with God.
Another powerful evening session followed. With more songs coming in ever powerfully, it
was a joy to witness people dancing and praising the Lord, with abandon. The crowds were getting bigger and bigger and
one could hardly walk around the field on the field or to the back of the
tent. There were lots of powerful
prophecies for the future direction of the Church. Personally, I received many promises and
prophecies in this session and in the whole conference.
FINAL DAY
The final day was here and I could not believe
it. I was well dressed for Church and
for Jesus and I was ready to receive what God wanted to talk to me though his
servants. Pastor K C John started with a
bang. He spoke of the blessed hope that
the church had, the return of our Lord Jesus. I was so excited about this that I serve and
pray to a God who is alive and coming back and I will see him one day, my hope
is in an everlasting God.
Then it was time to partake in the Holy
Communion. I had never known what it
would be like. But the way it was served
and the way the people honoured the elements was really a blessing to see. It felt as if the people knew more than just
the obvious.
If I look at the whole conference, it was a life changing experience for
me. I have been filled with Jesus and
hope and more faith for the future. I am secure in the arms of almighty God who
is faithful and full of new mercy and grace every day.
I did not count but I saw lots and lots of people everywhere. Maybe the number of people would have easily
crossed 50,000 or more. It makes me
happy that the Gospel is preached and people get saved because of the Name of
Jesus.
If God wills, I would like to
come back and contribute my bit in this
conference the next year. If you are reading
this article, I will encourage you to come and experience the work of Jesus in
this small village of Navapur and be blessed.
James is currently working
as Software Applications Operations Support in Sydney, Australia. He visited the Conference for the first time
and it was life changing experience for him.
I did not know anyone
in the village. But God gave me wisdom and I started using the tambourine and
go from house to house sharing the Gospel with the people. Pretty soon the
children began to recognize me and come to me to learn new songs. It was only
the beginning of what God was doing through me in a natural and simple manner.
I was familiar with the villages but had never gone into these with the Gospel
message. But God opened for me one home at a time and every evening the
children would gather to learn songs and through them I was able to pray for
the well-being of the family members. Today when we gather in the village, we
have over 60 people gathering out in the open to worship God.
God has confirmed His
word with signs and wonders. A sick
mother, who was bedridden for many months, was brought to one of these evening
meetings. One look at her did not convince me that she would live for long, but
as I prayed, God gave the faith and by the end of the prayer, the mother began
responding. It was a huge encouragement
for me. Two days later when I visited her, she was sitting up on her bed
finishing her liquid diet.
When the team visited
this place, they were amazed to find the kids praying passionately with tears
in their eyes. Their singing was also fully of energy and enthusiasm.