Flowing with Jesus

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This was an email update I wrote on my grandpa, just thought I'd blog it:

To first give some of my grandpa/family's spiritual context:
My two aunts have been staying with us, and they and my mom are all pretty hardcore Buddhists, so it seems since my grandpa's been ill their spiritual devotion has increased. Even my grandma has been playing Buddhist chants on a tape recorder into my grandpa's ear while he's sleeping. It seems my grandpa has also been in a state of desperation, calling out every few minutes for someone or something, but not knowing what he wants. He used to chant everyday with my grandma before he got sick, yet he doesn't seem to be very into religion. A little more than a year ago, a good friend came to my house at my request to try to share the gospel with my grandparents (I didn't know spiritual Chinese then), but my grandpa was very resistant and didn't want to accept. I remember he said, "they're all the same (religions/gods)." So knowing how indifferent my grandpa is to religion, I've been pretty worried since he got sick. My grandpa has had a huge part in raising me so I've been praying for him ever since I got saved, six years now!

But answered prayers tell the rest:
  • Last week, I prayed and fasted almost every day for God to open up an opportunity specifically that weekend for my sister and I to share the gospel with him. Because there are so many people in our house right now (my two aunts are here to take care of him), we have little private time with him, but sure enough, there was a strange occurrence Saturday afternoon where everyone was out of the house and it was just me and my sister and grandma at his bedside. So because I was hoping for God to answer my prayers, I had spent the whole night writing a letter to my grandpa sharing the gospel with him in Chinese, in case his hearing and my voice would not cooperate..which indeed was the case. So I gave him the letter and he started reading it very intently, but got tired (it was a long letter). So he flipped to the back prematurely and read the end, where I wrote, "if you'd like to accept Jesus, you can pray a prayer with me and Jei (my sister) right now." That was when he put his hands together, closed his eyes for half a minute, and gestured a cross with his hand. However, when we asked him if he believed in Jesus, he said he believes everything now, my mom and aunts' religions included. So I showed him John 14:6 in my letter, that no one can get to the Father except through Jesus. To that I showed him the sinner's prayer, and he read/prayed it.
  • My grandpa went back to the hospital on Monday for low blood pressure during dialysis, so I went to the hospital today to visit him. I've been itching for an opportunity to baptize him in the Spirit so He can continue working to make his faith more genuine and exclusive, but it seemed impossible for me to be alone with him today because both my aunts were there. One moment I was thinking, "God, please give me an opportunity to baptize him in the Spirit. But how is that going to happen...unless my aunt goes to the bathroo- (my other aunt was outside).." Even before I could finish my thought, my aunt says, "I'm going to go to the bathroom, open the door for me in 5 minutes." Haha, God is so funny. He immediately answered my prayer with 5 minutes of baptizing my grandpa in the Spirit-PTL! I was able to feel the Spirit's tangible presence afterward..which also gives me some assurance that my grandpa does have some faith, because the medium of the Spirit is truth in a believer, after all He's the "Spirit of truth."
Today it became more clear that God's actually pursuing my grandpa very fervently while I am just His instrument. A lot of the time it feels like I'm putting so much energy into this with praying and fasting and stressing out, but then I realize God aches for this more than I do, and He actually died for it. He's the one who puts this desire in me for his salvation, the need in me to pray for him, the idea in my mind to write a letter, the yearning to baptize him in the Spirit, etc. Without the Spirit I'd be completely apathetic. I need to just cast my burdens at His feet and flow with Him~
(written 9/23/10)

Please continue praying for the Spirit to work in him complete faith and salvation. My youth pastor may pay a visit to speak to and bless him, hoping God can use her mightily to win over Gramps.













This was him just last year! I had a dream that he was up walking around the house and whistling like usual..and then I woke up, sad :(.

Comments

Anonymous said…
we begin to understand His passion for us when we are most desperate and fragile... anyway hang in there =]
September 28, 2010 at 12:35 AM
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