The preacher, R.W. Shambach, tells the following:
While he was ministering to a congregation in the early 1950s, they supported a missionary in India monthly for over 30 years. During this time, the missionary told Pastor Shambach that in these 30 years of missionary work in India, he had not seen a single Mohammedan converted.
This made Pastor Shambach wonder if a financial investment in such a person’s ministry was a good investment in the Kingdom of God! So, he decided to go to India himself to experience what was happening there.
Shambach recounts how, in 1956, during his first visit to India, he ministered to over 50,000 people. He visited all the markets there and was amazed at the thousands of beggars, blind, and paralyzed people around him. He had never seen so many sick and poor people. For the first time, he truly understood why people described India as one of the poorest nations in the world, where millions of people were homeless and without a cent of money sitting on the streets!
Shambach goes on to tell how they even invested thousands of dollars to build a structure that could protect the people from the hot sun while they sat and listened to the preaching of the Gospel.
Upon the opening of this structure, he preached there for two hours straight, while an interpreter interpreted everything he preached for the crowd in their language for another two hours.
In the end, the “sermon” with the interpreter’s contribution was a total of 4 hours long!
To his complete surprise, however, when he extended an invitation to the crowd of 50,000 people to accept Jesus as their Savior, not one person came forward to do so!
For the first time, he understood what that missionary had told him.
So, he prayed and said: O Lord, now I understand why You have equipped us with Your Spirit and with the gifts of the Spirit, and why it is not enough just to preach the Word. You have called us to demonstrate the Gospel message to the people as well!
Although the crowd anxiously awaited the “amen” of the preacher, Shambach told them, “No, I am not finished yet. My God has promised in His Word that He will confirm His Word through wonders and signs. Now I am going to do what God has instructed us to do as well!”
Shambach then invited 3 specific people to the stage. All of them were beggars. One was blind, the other was deaf and dumb, and the last one was a woman who had never been able to walk upright, but rather walked on hands and feet, like an animal.
50,000 people’s eyes burned at everything that was happening on the stage!
Shambach then laid hands on the blind man and said, “In the name of Jesus, I command these blind eyes to see!”
Immediately, the Lord opened her eyes, and she stood up, running into the crowd while crying out in her language: “I can see! I can see!”
Shambach then walked over to the deaf-mute man, put his fingers in his ears and put his thumb on his tongue, and said, “In the name of Jesus, I now command this deaf-mute spirit to come out and leave!”
Within a few minutes, this man began to speak in English. He did not know his language, but the Lord opened his ears and loosened his tongue so that he could speak in English.
It was time to pray for the crippled woman. Shambach then said, “Now I am going to lay hands on this woman in the name of Mohammed, and I am going to give him the same time as I gave Jesus to show what he can do!”
The interpreter, however, refused to translate it.
Shambach then said to him, “You will say exactly what I tell you to do. I am the man of God, and you are my interpreter!”
Shambach then laid his hands on the woman in the name of Mohammed and said: “In the name of Mohammed, stand up straight and start walking normally!”
Not one person in the crowd thought at all that this woman would stand up straight and start walking normally, because they knew that Mohammed was dead!
Therefore, Shambach continues: “You see, this is the difference between the god you serve, and the God I serve! I did not come to humiliate your god. I did come to honour my God here before you! You go to the tomb of Mohammed many times, but the tomb of my God and Lord is empty, because He rose and He lives! Today I am going to show you that Jesus lives and that He is still the same today!
With these words, Shambach lays his hands on the woman in the Name of Jesus, the Name above every other name, who died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, also for the people of India!
In front of the eyes of this crowd of 50,000, this woman suddenly stands up straight and can walk normally for the first time in her entire life of 58 years!
Do you want to know what happened next?
Suddenly, people in the crowd started running forward as one man. Poor Shambach went to hide behind his interpreter because he thought his last day on earth had arrived!
The people started to keep shouting the same words over and over again. Shambach then asked the interpreter: “What are they saying?”
The interpreter then replied: “They are shouting, Jesus is alive! Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is God! And they want Him to come and save them!”
When we allow God Himself to demonstrate the Good News of the Gospel to people through His power and His gifts, we will also see what we read about in Acts 3 and Acts 8.
This same Jesus is still the same today, and He will do what He promised! Also, through ordinary people like you and me!