When I was nine years old, I spent one week with my grandfather, who lived far away in the countryside, and I listened to his sermons. Five years later, I again paid a visit to him, who had led a retreat that I also attended.
When I graduated from high school at seventeen, I lived for a week with him, who talked about the wonderful work God had done in his life.
I remember that my grandfather highlighted, "One thing that is very important is to obey God no matter what. Regardless of the circumstances, you should always obey God."
Only two years after my grandfather converted to Jesus, God called him without much real schooling to be a pastor. He wondered how he could preach from the pulpit when he couldn't read the Bible alone or recite the Bible because he was not well educated.
With difficulties in reading the Scriptures at first, when he insisted on reading, the Holy Spirit taught him and made him understand the Bible.
The principle my grandfather taught me was, "If you obey God, He will be responsible for all the consequences." As a result, God opened his mouth to let him preach the gospel in many churches and plant churches in different places.
He was still filled with great fear, even with the idea of submitting himself to God. So he cried out to Him that, as proof God had called him, He could make stars fall from the sky. It was amazing that when my grandfather finished praying and raised his eyes to the sky, shooting stars flashed by. The grandfather still had doubts in his heart, saying, "Lord, if I can see the stars fall again, I will follow You faithfully in my life, because I really know that You called me." Again, he saw the meteor passing by. So he went home to tell his wife what had happened.
Unexpectedly, a few years later, a similar situation happened to me.
One night during my senior year of college, I got down on my knees to pray, with a feeling that God was far away from me as if he had left me. On my way back from dining out with my classmate, he declared, "Look, two shooting stars. What a beautiful sight!" Two meteors falling together is a rare occurrence.
Back in the dormitory, I was about to brush my teeth. The moment I looked in the mirror, God spoke to me, "Have you seen the wonderful scene where two meteors flashed at the same time? This is something you have never asked for, but I showed it to you first." Suddenly it dawned on me that God knew my inner restlessness, so He appeared to me through this strange scene. I immediately went back to my room and kneeled down, saying that I was willing to dedicate my whole life to Him and let Him use my life.
One day, my grandfather was in urgent need of a tent because he was going to different places to do mission work. But he couldn’t afford it, so he kneeled down to pray.
While he was praying, the Holy Spirit moved him to a small jungle behind his house. He had never been to this place before, and then he found a rather old house there. After he knocked on the door, a woman came out and said she had something for him. Then she told him that God had moved her in prayer to give him an offering that was just enough to buy a new tent.
During a Sunday morning service, two drunken men walked in swaggeringly. Grandfather knew that something would happen sooner or later because they were both very drunk. So he said to them, "You are welcome to come here, but you must be quiet, or you will be asked to leave." They sat silently for about ten minutes and left.
When the meeting was over, some deacons came to him in a panic, saying, "Those two drunk men have appeared out of nowhere with knives, each with one in his hand, shouting that they are going to kill you. I think we should call the police.” The grandfather calmly prayed in front of the altar. After praying, he walked between the two drunkards. Looking fierce with knives, they stood still and did not hurt him at all. God kept the grandfather safe.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
