I was born into an orthodox Sikh family and wore my turban proudly to identify with my clan. Because of our religious orthodox background, I was educated in a Sikh mission school. My family members decided that I should become a Sikh priest, so I had to study the holy book of the Sikh religion, the Shri Guru Granth Sahib, along with my secular subjects.
As I studied the holy book of my religion, a passion for God and a deep desire to find Him began to increase in my soul. There were moments I felt that I was about to reach God, but then my efforts would end in failure. In disappointment and frustration, I began to search for God in other sources.
Soon I started stealing money to buy alcohol, and then I
began to live an immoral lifestyle, but the more I wanted to find God and save
myself, the more I ended in despair.
Feeling doomed about my future, I concluded that God did not really exist and I
became an atheist. I wanted nothing to do with God. But even that didn’t give
me peace or purpose in life, so I attempted to commit suicide twice.
One night I was getting ready to watch a midnight show at the movies and since there was still some time before the movie started, I decided to look for a book to read. Suddenly I saw a book lying on the window sill with the title ‘Prem Da Saneha’ – The Message of Love. I thought it might be a pornographic book. I wondered how this book happened to be there but I was excited and opened the book eagerly.
But the first words my eyes fell on were, ‘For God so loved
the world….’ I banged the book shut and threw it down immediately. What the
h*** was this nonsense! Where had this book come from?
Then I remembered that my sister was a teacher at a Christian school and thought
she must have brought it home and that this book somehow was placed on the
window sill at the movie theatre. I rebuked my sister harshly and told her not to
take these types of books home as I had no interest in God.
The next day I was preparing to watch a worldly film again and this time I picked up a book covered in a newspaper. As I turned the page it read, “On the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of Living Water.” John 7:37
Suddenly, I heard a silent voice from behind me saying,
“I am that Living Water (Amrit Jal) and I want to give you eternal life.
Come and drink.’’
I placed the book back quietly and considered what that voice had just said. I
could not even watch the movie as that voice kept echoing in my mind. The next
day I returned early from college, searched for that same book, and began to
read it.
I then went to a Christian priest and told him, “I
want to meet with God. Can you help me because I have already failed in all my
attempts?”
The priest replied, “Come for the Sunday worship and you will surely find
God.” I attended the Church regularly for almost one year, but to my great
disappointment, nothing happened.
I did not experienced God at all. I then went to the priest again and
threatened him with my knife because he had not helped me to find God. He then
gave me a prayer scripture and told me to kneel down and pray it before going
to sleep. I went home and read the prayer twice, but nothing happened like I
had been hoping, and that made me angry again.
Finally, I decided to read it once more, this time from the
bottom of my heart. And suddenly I found myself weeping deeply with tears
rolling down my cheeks. Every scene from my life began to flash before my eyes,
and all the sins I had committed in my past life came before me one by one.
I became almost senseless on my knees. Suddenly I felt the manifest presence of
a supernatural being close to me. That night I found Christ and had a long
communion with him. This experience was so wonderful that I am unable to
explain in words.
Early the next morning my younger brother kept calling me from outside and knocking repeatedly at my door. That’s when I came to my senses and got up. I felt very strange within me. Everything seemed to be like new. I felt like new life had come into me and had a strong will to live. All my burdens had rolled away and my heart was filled with unspeakable joy. It was an absolutely mystical and inexplicable experience.
As soon as I opened the door my younger brother cried, “Oh, your face is shining like the sun, I am unable to look at you.” I went to look at my face in the mirror, but it looked normal. However, I was frightened. I went to the Christian priest and asked about the strange thing that had happened to me. The priest replied, “You have received God. Jesus Christ has come into your life.”
After a few months I got water baptised and immediately my
family members started torturing me. They tried to attack and kill me many
times. Even the Christian priest was tortured and a case was filed against him at
the police station.
My family members hated the other Christians and tortured them as well. But as
I looked upon the cross of Jesus, this suffering seemed insignificant. There
are many incidents of torture that have taken place in my life, and the Lord
has kept me alive thus far, but I would like to mention one such incident
below.
One day my uncle took his gun and threatened my life if I did not write down my
identity as a Sikh. I however wrote my testimony of a changed life and gave it
to him to read. He then gave me a few seconds to denounce my faith and he began
the countdown.
I told him, “If you want to kill me you can. If I die right now, I will be
with Jesus; if I am alive Jesus Christ is with me, there is no
difference.”
He began to press his finger on the trigger, but at that
very moment his son knocked the gun out of his hand and he missed his target. I
was saved. He then took out his pistol to kill me but his son interfered again,
and again I was saved.
But I could not get up from my bed for three days after that because of the
torture I suffered at his hands. That day, I had to also write off my portion
of property in favour of my brother’s name.
Meanwhile, my Pastor and other believers thought that I had
been shot and that I was dead, so they gathered together and conducted my
funeral service. Due to the intense persecution from my family and community,
my Pastor Rev. D B Lal and his family had to seek for religious asylum in
Australia.
I was barred from participating in the Roman Catholic Church service by the
authorities of the said Church for want of persecution hence I used to come to
Delhi every weekend, nearly 130 kilometres from my city. I used to sell
gospel-based literature in order to buy tickets, and sometimes when I did not
have money, I travelled secretly by hiding in the toilets of the train. But I
would not stop attending worship service.
In those days of the climax of the militancy in Punjab and
the surrounding provinces of India, there was a lot of uncertainty and none of
us were sure for our lives.
Many times during winter, I would be locked out of the house for the whole
night without proper clothes and twice with no clothes at all.
In August 1996, my family members made the fifth attempt to kill me. I praise
God that my mother helped me to get away from the house. She pushed me down
from the first floor and shouted at me to run for my life as my third elder
brother wanted to kill me with his sword. I ran to my friend’s house where I
hid myself for few days to get my wounds healed.
After that with the help of a Christian leader Rev. Dr. CSR Gier, I went into
hiding in the forests of Bihar in the Jharkand province of India.
As the days passed by, I started ministering to the Lord in
the neighbouring cities and adopted the lifestyle of a wandering monk by
wearing a saffron robe.
Due to the fear of persecution from my family, neither the Christian community
nor members of my Sikh community would accept me because of my excommunication
and hukam (order of murder from the Sikh religious body).
It was in 2002 that I stopped at the gate of the Southern Asia Bible College in Bangalore in order to get some food as alms. On the promise of provision of sufficient food, the President, Rev. Dr. Ivan Satyavarta enrolled me in the Master of Divinity theological degree program.
My wandering life had given me opportunities to move from
one city to another and totally depend on the Lord for my daily needs. I
realised that God had called me (Luke 8:1) to be an itinerant evangelist and
had given me the burden to strengthen the persecuted saints of the North Indian
Churches.
I returned to North India to concentrate on the Lord’s work of preaching, teaching
and training, to equip the saints of North India and to mobilise the Church to
fulfil the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I praise God that in April 2016, through my elder sister’s
intervention, a reunion with my family took place after long years of
separation. Even though none of them accepted the Lord, three of my four
brothers have accepted me by saying, “Since, you are a faithful follower of
your Master Lord Jesus, we have decided to accept you in our family.”
They have also helped me get my name removed from the “kafir” (apostate) list
of the Sikh religion, thus the hukam was rolled back and I was pardoned by the
Sikh clergy.
After nearly 16 years of following Christ, I am finally free to move wherever I want to without fear of persecution. I know that my Redeemer lives and that He has a purpose for my life.
Nothing will harm me without His knowledge. I would request you to pray for my unsaved family so that they may also know the Savior.
with deep humility from Jitender Jeet Singh Follower of Christ. Evangelist. Translator With A Burden For Transformation. Equipping. Mobilizing.
Jeet Chawla
Amritjal: Exploring Satguru Jesus through the lens of the Guru
Grantha is a website that aims to reach Sikh around the world. It is coming up
in 4 languages English, Hindi, Punjabi and Romanagari (Pinglish). Introduce
this to your Sikh friends.
Thank you Jeet for this inspirational message..Iam so humbled..to God be the glory and give you the desires of your heart