The Torn Veil — Gulshan Esther

A Cripple Healed by Jesus

For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth (Psalm 37:9).

The Voice

“I want to die.” They were bold and honest words. “I don’t want to live anymore…” Crippled from the age of two and now bereaved of her beloved father, Gulshan—a Pakistani Muslim—unleashed her hopelessness. It was shortly after 3am.

In her grief and pain, Gulshan heard a gentle voice respond: “I won’t let you die. I will keep you alive.” “What’s the point of keeping me alive?” Gulshan asked. “You’ve taken away my father and left me with no hope…” But the voice spoke again: “Who gave eyes to the blind, and who made the sick whole, and who healed the lepers and who raised the dead? I am Jesus, son of Mary. Read about Me in the Quran, in the Sura Maryam.”

Gulshan obeyed that voice. As she read of Jesus the Healer in the Quran, a faith in her grew that He was alive and could heal her. Many times a day she began to pray a prayer of healing to Jesus. The more she prayed, the more she was drawn to this figure who had a power over sickness and death which Mohammed never claimed.

The Encounter

One night at 3am, Gulshan awoke as usual, the prayer for healing sounding out in her heart. But then she stopped: “I’ve been doing this for so long and I’m still a cripple.” At last in pain she cried out, “If you are able to, heal me—otherwise tell me.” What happened next is nearly beyond words.

Light—a powerful light—flooded the bedroom, surpassing the brightness of day. Twelve long-robed figures stood before her with a radiant, larger thirteenth. Gulshan began to pray, seeking to know who these people were. A voice spoke: “Get up. This is the path you have been seeking. I am Jesus Son of Mary, to whom you have been praying, and now I am standing in front of you. You get up and come to me.”

Three times Jesus commanded her—the crippled Gulshan—to stand up and walk. Strength entered into her limbs and Gulshan not only stood up, but ran and fell at the feet of the vision, bathing in its wonderful light.

Jesus placed His hand upon Gulshan. From a hole in His hand shone forth a ray of light upon her clothes: “I am Jesus. I am Immanuel. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. I am alive, and I am soon coming. See, from today you are my witness. What you have seen now with your eyes you must take to my people. My people are your people…” Jesus instructed Gulshan to pray a new prayer: “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 

There at the feet of Jesus, Gulshan had a live encounter with the Son of God. Her arm and leg were now covered in flesh. Though strength came to her hand, it was not perfect. “Why don’t you make it all whole?” she asked. Jesus replied, “I want you to be my witness.”

The Continuation

It was a costly decision to become a witness for Jesus. Gulshan began to pray about the question of who His people were, where they were, and how she could go to them in light of her family’s prohibition. The answer came as a voice: “If you’re frightened because of your family, I won’t be with you. You have to remain faithful to me in order to go to my people.”

When Gulshan daringly obtained a New Testament, she found spiritual bread for her hunger; Jesus as God was revealed to her in its precious pages. No animal blood could cleanse Gulshan from her sin; only the sacrificed flesh of Jesus can provide a way for us into the holiest place where He, after having “offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).

—See The Torn Veil, as told to Thelma Sangster

The Full Testimony Video Of Gulshan Esther

Faith Beyond Any Doubt! — George Mueller

The Faithfulness Of The Living God

Do you believe in the real and living God? If so, do you ever doubt His faithfulness? George Muller was a man who learned to take God at His Word. “Sell that ye have, and give alms” (Luke 12:33) and “[o]we no man anything, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8)—such were the commands he obeyed. In 1834, he set out to prove the reality and faithfulness of God by establishing (and then maintaining) an orphan house in Bristol by prayer and faith only—with no fund-raising and no loans. Muller did not expect God to create silver and gold for him, but he knew that the Lord could move the hearts of men to aid his God-given work. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10): Muller felt led to apply this promise to the orphanage work.

In 1845, God made it clear through various means that the time had come to build an orphanage. Premises for three hundred children would be needed, and a large piece of ground near Bristol for the building and a small farm. That would cost at least £10 000, and Muller would not enter into any contract until the sum had been received.
On the thirty-sixth day after Muller began to pray, he received £1000 for the building of the Orphan House—the largest single donation he had ever received. After six hundred and seven days of seeking the Lord and receiving His provisions, building work finally began.

One November, the boiler began to leak in the new house. To fix it, the children would have to suffer for lack of warmth, for the heat had to be shut off while repairs were going on. After the day was set for the repairs, a bitter north wind began to blow. Muller now asked the Lord for two things: to change the north wind into a south wind, and to give the workmen a desire to work. He remembered how much Nehemiah in the Old Testament had accomplished in fifty-two days while building the walls of Jerusalem because “the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6).
On the morning of the repairs, a south wind began to blow. No heat was needed, the brickwork was removed, the leak was found, and the repairmen set to work. At about 8.30pm, the manager of the repair firm paid a visit to see how the work was progressing. Muller went to the cellar to see him and his men. “The men will work late this evening and come very early again tomorrow,” said the manager. “We would rather, sir,” replied the foreman, “work all night.” By the next morning, the boiler was repaired. Within thirty hours, the brickwork which had been taken down was up again, and the fire was in the boiler. All that time, the south wind blew so mildly that no heat was needed. God had answered both prayers.

What were Muller’s principles in prayer? He knew that to have them answered, He must make his requests to God on the ground of the merits and worthiness of His perfect Son, the Lord Jesus. He could not depend on his own merits and worthiness.

Trusting in God meant more than just obtaining money by prayer and faith; Muller desired his faith to extend toward everything. By reading God’s Word and meditating on it, by maintaining an upright heart and a good conscience, by embracing trials of faith, and by allowing God to work for him, Muller found his faith greatly strengthened. And so might yours be.

The Daring Testimony About Jim Elliot As Told By His Wife

Giving What You Cannot Keep

‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’ Thus wrote a young college student in 1949 by the name of Jim Elliot. While on an expedition to spread the Gospel some seven years later, Jim lost his life on earth—‘what he cannot keep’—to gain a home in Heaven—‘what he cannot lose’.


A Heart for Jesus

One evening at about the age of six, Jim told his mother on the way home from a Christian meeting, ‘Now, mama, the Lord Jesus can come whenever he wants. He could take our whole family, because I’m saved now, and Janie,’ he said, referring to his younger sister , ‘is too young to know about Him yet.’ Born in 1927 to a Christian family in Portland, Oregon, Jim made an early decision to follow Christ and began ‘preaching’ to his young friends from the lawn swing.

As he grew up, Jim sought to honour Jesus in his daily life. Once while eating lunch in the high school cafeteria, the six-foot-three student body president approached Jim’s table. He was selling tickets for an upcoming student dance and was eager that Jim—an influential student—should purchase one. The president ended his argument by saying, ‘Jim, you’re in this student body as much as I am, and ought to support it.’ Jim’s answer was bold and straight: ‘Yes,’ said Jim, ‘I’m in the student body but not the way you are. I’m a Christian and the Bible says that I’m in the world but not of it. That’s why I’m not going to the dance.’

After high school, Jim studied in Illinois where he sought to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. Writing home in February 1947, he described how he had begun to pray with several housemates in their ‘den’. ‘[S]uch times we do have! The first fruits of Glory itself,’ he wrote, and ‘as soon as we hit a subject that has a need God can fill, we dive for our knees and tell Him about it. These are times I’ll remember about college when all the philosophy has slipped out memory’s back gate. God is still on His throne, we’re still on His footstool, and there’s only a knee’s distance between!’ As for the degree Jim was seeking, that was A.U.G., ‘approved unto God.’


A Heart for Missions

During his first two years at college, Jim became aware of the personal implications of Jesus’ command to go and preach the gospel. He noted down statistics such as the following: ‘There is one Christian worker for every 50,000 people in foreign lands, while there is one to every 500 in the United States.’ Jesus’ command and such facts combined to make an impression on Jim. If he remained in the United States, he would need to prove that such a decision was really justified. In 1952, Jim set out for Ecuador desiring to help spread the good news of Jesus.

On his twenty-sixth birthday, Jim finally married Elisabeth Howard in Quito after years of correspondence and a willingness to remain single in accordance with God’s will. ‘No one warns young people to follow Adam’s example,’ he once wrote to his parents, ‘He waited till God saw his need. Then God made Adam sleep, prepared for his mate, and brought her to him. We need more of this “being asleep” in the will of God. Then we can receive what He brings us in His own time, if at all. Instead we are set as blood-hounds after a partner’.

Jim and Elisabeth eventually made Shandia their home base in the eastern rainforest, seeking to reach out to the jungle Indians for Christ’s sake. In addition to other meetings, a small nucleus of baptized believers began to meet specially in a schoolroom of bamboo walls and backless benches for the ‘breaking of bread’, sharing bread and wine as reminders of Christ’s broken body and shed blood on the cross. They began to understand the meaning of worship, simply and sincerely offering their hearts’ love to the Lord. Often they ended the meeting singing ‘kirikgunaga, kushiyanguichi—Cristo shamunmi!’ (‘Be happy, believers—Christ is coming!’)

Soon several young Indians took over the task of the Sunday morning meeting, showing that God’s Word is God’s oracle—regardless of who was preaching it.

Ever conscious of lost souls, Jim had hoped some years earlier for Christian work among a tribe called the Aucas: they had never heard of Jesus, their only contact with white men had been by killing, and they were feared by other Indians. Then one day in September 1955, information arrived that a missionary friend (Ed) and missionary pilot (Nate) had spotted Auca houses a short flight from Arajuno. Jim was desperate to reach this savage people with the news of Christ.

After making friendly contact from an aeroplane for the second time, Jim noted in his dairy, ‘God, send me soon to the Aucas.’ God granted that wish when Jim finally shook the hand of an Auca man in early January 1956—but two days later, he and his four companions were killed. Although Elisabeth later laboured among this very tribe, for Jim, an earlier prayer he once wrote was answered: ‘God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.’

—See Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty

The Missionary And Witness to The High Call Of God

Henry Martyn...He Pleased God!

He is on of the best known nineteenth-century Christian missionaries. Martyn lived during the Napoleonic Wars, a period of great international upheaval as the British Empire clashed with its European rivals in a struggle from which it emerged as a world superpower.

"Now let me burn out for God! " exclaimed Henry Martyn when he arrived in Calcutta in April, 1806. But he probably had little idea how fast the blaze would consume him. He died six years later at the age of 31. Eager to devote his life to the Lord's work in India, with an incredible determination and unselfish dedication, Martyn compressed a lifetime of service into those six years.


Early Life

Martyn was born in Truro, Cornwall. His father, John Martyn, was a "captain" or mine-agent at Gwennap. The lad was educated at Truro grammar school under Dr Cardew and he entered St John's College, Cambridge, in the autumn of 1797, and was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1801. In 1802 he was chosen as a fellow of his college.


Divine Call

Martyn had planned to study law, but while at Cambridge, Pastor Charles Simeon of Holy Trinity Church stirred Martyn's interest in the Far East with stories of William Carey's work in India. The shoe cobbler Carey had gone to India in 1792, and within ten years had established a strong gospel witness in the region of Bengal. Martyn was also deeply moved by reading the journals of David Brainerd, the Puritan missionary in North America, who passionately labored among the Native Americans in the cause for Christ.

He resolved, accordingly to become a Christian missionary. On October 22, 1803, he was ordained deacon at Ely, and afterwards priest, and served as Simeon's curate at the church of Holy Trinity, taking charge of the neighbouring parish of Lolworth. He was about to offer his services to the Church Missionary Society, when a disaster in Cornwall deprived him and his unmarried sister of the provision their father had made for them, and rendered it necessary that he should obtain a salary that would support her as well as himself.


Mission to India

He accordingly obtained a chaplaincy under the British East India Company and left for India on July 5, 1805. For some months he was stationed at Aldeen, near Serampur. In October 1806 he proceeded to Dinapur, where he was soon able to conduct worship among the locals in the vernacular, and established schools. In April 1809 he was transferred to Kanpur, where he preached in his own compound, in spite of interruptions and threats.


Bible Translation

He occupied himself in linguistic study, and had already, during his residence at Dinapur, been engaged in revising the sheets of his Hindustani version of the New Testament. He now translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu also, and into Persian twice. He translated the Psalms into Persian, the Gospels into Judaeo-Persic, and the Prayer-book into Hindustani(Urdu), in spite of ill-health and "the pride, pedantry and fury of his chief munshi Sabat." Ordered by the doctors to take a sea voyage, he obtained leave to go to Persia and correct his Persian New Testament, whence he wished to go to Arabia, and there compose an Arabic version.

Accordingly, on October 1, 1810, having seen his work at Kanpur crowned on the previous day by the opening of a church, he left for Calcutta, whence he sailed on January 7, 1811 for Bombay, which he reached on his thirtieth birthday. In 1811 he left India for Persia, hoping to do further translations and to improve his existing ones, there and in Arabia. After an exhausting journey from the coast he reached Shiraz, and was soon plunged into discussion with the disputants of all classes, "Sufi, Muslim, Jew, and Jewish Muslim, even Armenian, all anxious to test their powers of argument with the first English priest who had visited them."

April 30, 1806, shortly after arrival in India, my soul was first sore tried by desponding thoughts; but God wonderfully assisted me to trust him for the wisdom of his dispensations. Truly, therefore, will I say again, "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shall become a plain." How easy for God to do it; and it shall be done in good time: and even if I never should see a native converted, God may design by my patience and continuance in the work to encourage future missionaries. But what surprises me is the change of views I have here from what I had in England. There my heart expanded with hope and joy at the prospect of the speedy conversion of the heathen! But here the sight of the apparent impossibility requires a strong faith to support the spirit.

Oct 6, 1812, Last written words: No horses being to be had, I had an unexpected repose. I sat in the orchard, and thought, with sweet comfort and peace, of my God; in solitude my company, my friend and comforter.

Having made an unsuccessful journey to Tabriz to present the shah with his translation of the New Testament, he was seized with fever, and after a temporary recovery, had to seek a change of climate. On September 12, 1812, he started with two Armenian servants, crossed the Araxes, rode from Tabriz to Erivan, from Erivan to Kars, from Kars to Erzerum. On the 16th of October he died.


"I see no business in life but the work of Christ." — Henry Martyn