Signs and Wonders

SIGNS AND WONDERS


BY JOE JAYASURIYA






The story of a relentless search for the truth that lasted for 28 years…………….




‘And you will seek Me and find Me,
When you search for Me with all your heart’
Jeremiah 29/13


DEDICATION







I dedicate “Signs and Wonders to dear Malcolm
Who opened a hundred doors for me…………






  Comment by a Buddhist Friend
Jesus Christ must have walked under the orange trees in Galilee.
Christianity begins when John the Baptist initiates Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. Since that event in Jordan millions of Christians have blessed out with that experience according to the measure each one’s cupped hands could hold. As two leaves of the same tree are dissimilar though the two leaves look alike.
Joe Jayasuriya’s experience or “Signs and Wonders” is such a leaf. Just crush it and smell it, you will say the smell has the potential to bring forth oranges to satisfy the thirst of many, the people who pray for a miracle to happen in the name of Jesus Christ.
                                                 -Jagath Kumarasinghe
                                       (Winner of the Gratiaen Prize for 2004)
                                                 September 30, 2008


                                                                          Prologue


To begin at the beginning. In the nineteen thirties it was the custom among Catholics to bring a dove to church when they brought their child for baptism. The dove would be released after the baptism ceremony. Accordingly, my father had taken a dove with him when I was taken to church for baptism a few days after my birth. After my baptism he had released the dove and the bird had flown straight out of the church.
One year later the same custom was observed when Loku nangi was taken for baptism. But when the dove was released it had flown directly towards the tabernacle!
My father had then concluded that while Loku Nangi would join same religious order, I would leave the Catholic Church some day. The poor man would have been highly worried at that time, as what their church taught them was that only Catholics would be saved. In an amazing reversal of doctrine, their church now preaches that even Non-Catholic Christians would be saved if they live accordingly to their Consciences!!
Loku Nangi took the veil in 1957, while I left their church with my eyes open in 1972, after my father’s death in 1968.





                                                                          SIGNS AND WONDERS


This is the story of my conversion to the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission in 1972.
My people were simply astonished when I left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the CPM in 1972. They had always known me as a staunch Roman Catholic- one whose sister was a Nun and whose uncle (Father’s younger brother) was a priest. Most of my friends and relatives had also read my articles in the ‘Messenger’ over the years. What they did not know was that my conversion was the culmination of a 28 year old search for the Truth. And what set me on this search was a tremendous spiritual experience that I had in 1944 when I was only 10 years old.
As a rule it is difficult to write about one’s religious conversion, because a conversion is always too personal, and one has to look into one’s heat and write, as it were. As the saying goes, “The heart has its own reasons which the head knows nothing of”. In my case the difficulty is increased because of the fact that it was a spiritual experience that led me to the Truth.
However, I will try my best to describe this out-of the world experience.

                                                                                   The experience
This happened during a period of convalescence when I was at home. I used to walk a lot those days. I took a short walk every day after breakfast.
Just as I reached the gate that memorable morning something totally unexpected happened. A spark ignited within me and God’s immensity filled me up completely. It was the fullness of God with the fullness of feeling- an experience I had never had before.
                                       

The ecstasy was so intense that I was afraid to cancel my walk and go back home. Had I gone home I would have clapped and jumped about and my mother would have thought that I had gone mad


                                                 
And so I did the accustomed walk with my head bent low. This happened on seven consecutive mornings. I did not greet or talk to anybody on these walks. This was possible because Moratuwa was sparsely populated 66 years ago. And then out of the blue on the seventh day God spoke to me. It was like a baby’s whisper- the Bible calls it the “still small voice’.
“When you praise me, praise me for giving you life, because life is the gift of gifts”.
This surprised me very much indeed, for I had been led to thank Him for the many blessings received, but I had never praised Him. “God inhabits the praises of Israel”-it is said in Psalms.
When God speaks to man there is never any doubt that it is God who speaks. For with the divine utterance there is an assurance that the message is from God.
What he said wasn’t important, I felt. But it was important from God’s point of view. Praise is something that He loves to hear from us.
Since then God had spoken scores of time to me- in the “still, small voice” and notably in dreams. He has shown me the difficult path that I have to take if His own purposes regarding my life are to be fulfilled.
                                                 


What was the meaning of the spiritual experience? And why was it given to me? I failed to identify this experience at first and spent years and years searching for its meaning. For intuitively I knew that this was the Truth. And this Truth was not found in the Catholic Church- of that I was absolutely certain. It was as if God Showed me the Truth, but not the particular church to which this Truth related. The experience also held future implications for me, for in this very experience God made known to me my future “Ministry”- although He did not tell me when or how I was to set about it. The experience itself was so personal and precious that 28 years were to elapse before I was to say a word to anyone about it.

                                       
                                                                                Intervening years


Although my search for the Truth lasted for several years, I can’t honestly say that the search was a sustained one. There were times when I was searching, times when I was sinning. There was another factor- and that was my father. He was such an orthodox Catholic that he wouldn’t have even heard of my joining another church!
But as the years passed by, I used to think now and then of that soul-shaking experience I had had as a child. And I knew that if I ever came to identify that particular church to which my experience related, then no power on earth
                                                 
could stop me from joining that church, for ten I would have touched the bed-rock of reality at last! Till such time. However, I had to subscribe to Catholicism, because it was the only ‘light’ I had-though I could not help feeling that Catholicism was a beautiful shell-minus the kernel. After my conversion I realized that what was lacking in the Catholic Church was the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

                                                                                     DREAMS

From my young days I have been dreaming a lot. Invariably, all my nights have been filled with dreams. So much so, that as aunt of mine to whom I related my dreams in my youth, nicknamed me “Joseph the Dreamer”.
“You have been rightly named Joseph, my son”, the Lord was to tell me in prophecy after my conversion. “I will speak to you in your dreams”, The reference was no doubt to Joseph the Dreamer in the old testament. After this prophecy most of my dreams took on a spiritual meaning.
A dream reveals the dreamer’s state of mind. In some rare cases a dream can be a message from God. For according to God’s word, He has made use of dreams to speak to His children, sometimes. Dreams which convey a spiritual message are a little incomprehensible at times. Such dreams will go on repeating themselves till the meaning is understood by the dreamer and then the dream will cease.


                                                 


Having read Sigmund Freud’s “The meaning and Interpretation of Dreams” and other related books, I have been able to interpret my dreams to some extent. Only three dreams relevant to “Signs and Wonders” are mentioned here.

Dream (1)-The Train
In those early years there was a dream that occurred again and again. I would get into a train, travel some distance in it, and get down at a particular station. Once I got down from the train I would realize that the station wasn’t where I had intended to get down. The dream always ended at this point.

Interpretation
After my conversion I realized that the train which I saw, stood for the “wrong church”. The dream ceased after my conversion.

                                                                                                   My Prayer
It was the year 1971. Nearly half the year had passed by, but so far I had not come to the end of my search. I was worried about my spiritual condition. I had long given up going for confession, for although the Catholic Church claimed that this “Sacrament” gave grace to the penitent to avoid sin, no such thing was in evidence. Catholics confessed their sins, came back and committed the same old sins!
                                       



Over the years I had examined the doctrines of the Anglicans, the Baptists, the Salvationists etc, but had not found what I was searching for. The lesser denominations I had simply ignored. I had never, never heard of a “Pentecostal” church, or believers who called themselves “Pentecostals”.
I had also read a large number of religious and theological books in the course of my reading, but none of these books had provided me with a clue to what I was searching for.
Tired out at last by my own struggles and finding no consolation in Catholicism whatsoever, I spoke to God from my own heart thus, “I have known you intimately at one time, and Lord, but now I am completely lost. Please let me know you once again and let me love you as I should”.
This was the prayer that I went on repeating night after night, and unknown to me, the wheels began to turn, preparing me for the biggest surprise of my life!

                                                                                               Tongues?
One day in July 1971, Malcolm, my brother’s brother-in-law, amazed me by saying that he had joined a particular church, the believers of which prayed in “tongues”. He had been a Roman Catholic at first, but an inner thirst had driven him from church to church till he had found solace in this one.
“Do you mean to say that tongues are operating even today?” I asked him dumfounded. “I thought that happened only in the days of the Apostles!” It was as he told me about the CPM that I became aware for the first time that there existed such a thing as a “Pentecostal” church!
                                                 


I told him that I too had been searching for the Truth from my early days, but carefully refrained from telling him, about my childhood experience.
The very next Saturday Malcolm took me to a Tarrying Meeting in the International headquarters of the C.P.M. at Green Path, Colombo 7. After the Meeting I was introduced to the Chief Pastor and I had a chat with him.



Malcolm also presented me a Bible which he asked me to read. Till then the Bible had been a closed book to me, for the Catholic Church had forbidden  Catholics to read the Word of God.
One Bible verse that helped me a great deal at this stage was Romans 11/29:”For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable”.
The CPM headquarters being only about half a mile from the Town Hall, where I worked, I was able to drop in there from time to time and have discussions with the Pastors. Two things that struck me about the CPM at the outset were these- the stark simplicity of the Church and the masterful manner in which they explained the Bible.
It did not take me long to realized that I had been “filled” with the Holy Spirit several times without my being aware of it, 28 years ago! This experience is described in para 6 (page 1)



                                                                                         New Experiences

         It was after I began to visit the Headquarters that the wheel turned in full circle and God began to favor me with a new set of experiences! And what experiences they were! Experiences I thought never even existed! Though entirely different from my initial experience they were so fantastic and inexpressible that they strongly reminded me of Paul’s phrase:”Whether in the body or out of the body I do not know: God knows”-11 Corinthians 12/3. These experiences carried the unmistakable touch of the Lord.
         These mystical experiences gave me such transports of joy that like Peter at the Transfiguration, I foolishly thought to myself, “If I can always have these experiences, even food and drink won’t be necessary!”
Much later when I had grown a little in the Lord, I realized that God’s purpose in giving me those experiences was to show me that I was on the ‘right track’.
Now God can give mystical experiences to anybody, but a ‘thorn in the flesh’ is invariably added. This suffering can be very intense and it can last throughout life. In my case these experiences were pointers to something great in the future.
To cut a long story short- it was as I associated with the Pentecostals and read their books that I came to understand the real nature of my childhood experience. It was the Pentecostals who were able to explain to me the true significance of that experience and show me the bearing it had on my future. My childhood experience was the lock to which Pentecost was the key. I had come to the truth at last!
         But yet I hesitated. For changing one’s church is a very serious thing, I felt. At last I decided to join the CPM only if a CPM worker or believer told me about my childhood experience and what it was all about, without any prompting from me! A tall order, wasn’t it?

                                                           


                                                                            Sister Hilda
 
         Now, among the Sisters in the Colpetty Faith Home was one Sister Hilda, who functioned as the CPM Librarian. She was tall, fair and willowy. Malcolm who introduces me to her told me that she had an uncanny ability to give you just the book you needed for your spiritual development. But more surprising things were to follow.
         Yet Sister Hilda did not pay any attention to me at all: nor did I pay her any attention.
         As the ‘sign’ wasn’t forthcoming though the days went by, I said to her one day: “I had a deep spiritual experience in my childhood. It was as a result of that, that I came here”
         Sister Hilda took the words out of my mouth. “I know all about it, brother. I also knew that you would come here one day” she said quietly.
         On hearing thee words I nearly jumped out of my skin! The shock of surprise at her words was so great that I leant against a steel cabinet that stood by for support. Otherwise I would have fallen. She had revealed a secret that had lain in my heart for so many years!

                                                                               


                                                                                       Baptism
After I was fully convinced I accepted Jesus as my personal savior and requested Pastor Wijesuriya of the Moratuwa Faith-Home to make arrangements for my baptism. My baptism was to take place on the 10th of May 1972, at the Nugegoda Faith-Home.
Accordingly I took short leave from office on the morning of the 10th of may and accompanied by Malcolm, took the bus to Nugegoda.
                                       


Pastor Ranjit Ponnatyhurai (whom we had informed earlier) welcomed Malcolm and me that morning. He then made me recite Psalm 29- that beautiful psalm that speaks of the majesty of God, and begins this way:
         “Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,
          Give unto the Lord Glory and strength,
          Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
          Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”
(Later I found that the last line of the above verse is used in poster form in all our faith-homes)

                                                 


He then led us outside to a tank fill of water and baptized me. Malcolm witnessed my baptism.
As we took our leave of him, the Pastor said “Line 7 of the Psalm you have just recited, says: ‘The voice of the Lord divideth any suffering that we have to undergo”
Did the holy pastor receive a revelation that morning? I wondered.

*    *      *      *      *
         After office that evening I went straight to the Kollupitiya Faith home. And the Lord, speaking in prophecy, gave me a most loving welcome. The beautiful and poetic words of prophecy thrilled and thrilled me…………….
         “I have chosen you from the time that you were in your mother’s womb. I have now bound you to myself with cords of love, but those cords will bite into your flesh……”
                                                           

I have a great plan for your life; I will reveal this to you once you yield yourself to me and follow my instructions.
         I have waited and waited for you to come to this place *and now that you have come, you can’t leave this place, can you?”
“What do you think of Joe?” Malcolm had asked Sister Hilda a few days after my baptism.
                                                 

“He is a gem”, she had replied in her laconic fashion.
(A ‘gem’ only if the potential in me was realized, I told myself)
Soon after this I presented a religious book to Malcolm endorsed, “To dear Malcolm, who opened a hundred doors for me…”

                                       


*
Foot note: True even today-38 years later. A denomination is always referred to as a ‘place’ in prophecy. The Church being His Mystical Body.



                                                                          Dream (2)- The Seminary

It was after my baptism that I had this remarkable dream. I dreamt that I was inside a large garden, full of flowers. A wall went right round the garden. I looked
                                       
round, entranced. There were large flowering trees all round. There were also beds and beds of flower plants of the utmost beauty. The fragrance of the flowers filled my nostrils. I was all alone in the garden. In the middle of the garden stood a building that was locked and barred. All the doors and windows of this building were closed. I felt that it was a Theological College of some kind or other. Nobody was about the place.In the garden was a stand on which stood an hour-glass.
Overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the surroundings, I said to myself, “If the outside is so beautiful, what will the interior be?”

Interpretation:
This tantalizing dream foreshadowed not an actual Theological College, I felt, but rather a high spiritual state that had to be reached by me. I had entered the garden by taking immersion baptism, I believed. The hour-glass seemed to say, “It is only a matter of time”




                                                 


                                                                                Dream (3)-Christ as a Bishop

                                                 
The Seminary dream was followed by an equally remarkable dream a few nights later.”The Holy Emmanuel Church in Moratuwa is probably the largest Anglican church in Sri Lanka. It was built and endowed by Jeronis de Soysa of Moratuwa, who was one of the greatest philanthropists of Sri Lanka. The church is gothic in style and is 100 feet long. The roof of the nave  rests on 5 arches supported on beautiful columns. The stained glass has been imported from England”

And it was in this beautiful church that I found myself in the dream, kneeling at the altar-rails, flanked by other worshippers who were also kneeling. Jesus, dressed in the vestment of a Bishop, was standing in the middle of the altar, facing us. He had a chalice in his left hand. Soon he came down the altar-steps and walked straight at me. He dipped his fingers in the chalice. Took out some chrism and rubbing it affectionately on both my cheeks, whispered, “When you go home, apply some of this on your eyes”.

Interpretation
Although the idea of consecration is evident in this dream, the meaning of the words spoken by Christ baffles me still.

                                                                                                             Reactions
Soon my elders came to know of my conversion and they came and abused me and the CPM. Why throw pearls before swine? I said to myself and held my peace.
                                       

                                                 

Their boorish attitudes contrasted sharply with the gracious comments made by my sister (the Nun) and Mr. Emil Elias, the Secretary of the Colombo Municipality Catholic Guild.
I had been functioning as the Honorary Editor (English) of the Catholic Guild Bulletin when my conversion took place. I had no alternative therefore but to resign from the Guild explaining that my ‘religious convictions have changed’
Later Mr. Elias met me. “What is this Church that you have joined?” he asked me. “The Ceylon Pentecostal Mission” I replied with pride. The great lay-worker’s comment was, “IT IS A GOOD CHURCH”
My sister who came to know of my conversion, wrote to me saying,” IT IS BETTER TO BE A GOOD PENTECOSTAL, AIYA, THAN TO BE A BAD CATHOLIC” By ‘bad catholic’ I am sure she meant a ‘lapsed Catholic”. At least she did not condemn what she didn’t understand.

God’s handwriting
I would like to quote the words of an amateur palmist who read my palms one day-long after my conversion. The palmist was introduced to me by a relative of mine. The markings on one’s palms are sometimes known as the ‘handwriting of God’ and how one wishes that the deciphering were correct!
The palmist was a man who had studied Astrology in America. He studied my palms for some time and his eyes widened. “A hand in a million….” I could hear him muttering to himself. “The Ring of Solomon, the Mystical Cross and the star of Brilliance are all found in your palms. They were found in the palms of mystics. You can’t see them. But I can”

                                                 

                                                 
These words filled me with great joy and amazement-and a kind of uneasiness as well. I thought of the mystical experiences I had had in 1944 and 1972 and concluded that the palmist evidently knew what he was talking about! I have never met him since.

                                                                                               The C.P.M.
The Ceylon Pentecostal Mission was founded by Pastor Paul on a revelation of Jesus in 1925. Its aim is to prepare believers for the Second Coming of Our Lord-“That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”-Colossians 1/28.
This Church has been incorporated in Parliament by Act No.21 of 1970. It is the only Christian Church to have its entire origins in Sri Lanka.
The CPM has a wide reputation for divine healing and exorcism of evil spirits. Probably it is the only Church in the world where no collections are made in any form. The workers depend entirely on the tithes given by the believers.

                                                                                  Knowing God Personally

The late Communist leader Pieter Keunaman was once asked whether he believed in God. “Well, he exists somewhere in the sky,” he had given a tongue-in-the cheek reply. “But he isn’t interested in us or our problems”
According to the CPM the believer has to accept Jesus as his or her personal Savior at first. Then he has to take Immersion Baptism. Jesus was immersed by
                                                 
John in the River Jordan and came up from the water (Mark 1:9and 10). Infant baptism is unscriptural.

                                                 
Thirdly he has to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. When we receive Holy Spirit baptism, the Holy Spirit comes and abides with us forever. Evidence of Holy Spirit baptism is speaking and praying in tongues (1 Cor: 14-21&22)
Once these three steps are taken in faith, God will cease to be a ‘cipher in the sky’ and you will come to know Him on a personal level-‘not as someone terrible and foreign but as full of love and like to himself’

Try it and see for yourself!
The Lord sometimes calls me “Son of my heart” in prophecy
Some prophecies chosen at random:
“You must lead a life of absolute praise
Trials can be met only by praising me
Praise me day and night
Praise me in the fires!
Praise me in the waters!
Shout with joy!”

All quotations are from the New King James Bible)