I have read about people coming back from the dead. I have heard a few stories about near-death experiences, and God’s miraculous deliverance. But now I can say I have met someone who has come back from the dead. Twice.
Our contact this month, Pastor Yesudason, has a powerful testimony. He has been beaten, tortured, left-for-dead, and persecuted for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He suffers from tunnel vision and glaucoma, both as a result of his numerous beatings. Both legs have been badly scarred, and he walks with a perpetual limp. But nothing deters his spirit or his passion to share the gospel of Christ with the Tamil Indians of Malaysia. Pastor Yesu has a powerful joy that resonates from deep within his spirit, an undeniable testimony of the grace of Jesus.
Pastor Yesu’s first death experience actually happened while he was serving in church. He was preparing to preach, when he began to feel faint. Suddenly, he passed out across the pews. In that moment, he felt his spirit leave his body, and he felt himself ascending. It was as if his body was leaving the atmosphere and rocketing into the heavens. He heard a voice, “Yesu, your time has not come. I am not finished with you yet. Go back.” He felt his spirit reverse back the way it came, and the next thing he knew, he woke up to the faces of his concerned church members.
In 1990, Pastor Yesu was brutally beaten by a group of youth. Broken and bloody, Pastor Yesu managed to pick himself up afterward and walk a kilometer, before two more youth attacked him and left him for dead in the jungle. He passed out in the thick jungle, not knowing if he would ever wake up. By God’s grace, he DID wake up, in a hospital 40 kilometers away. A Malay man had driven past and seen the Pastor and had brought him to the hospital.
Later on, during an operation to repair some of the damage caused by the beatings, Pastor Yesu’s body suddenly gave out and his heart monitor flat lined. The doctors pronounced him dead, but God had other plans. People were praying, and God truly does answer prayers. Pastor Yesu once again opened his eyes as breath returned to his body. God was, yet again, not through with using Pastor Yesu on this earth.
Pastor Yesu’s life reminds me of II Corinthians 6:4-6, 9: Rather, as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and huger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love…known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and not yet killed.
I am inspired by this man’s testimony and faith. He has been called by name and been given life, again and again and again, to be used for God’s purposes. I pray that I, too, may learn how to live with that same kind of passion and faith.
