"Fist in the Sky, Feet on the Ground!" Lessons in Prayer from Raj (Part 2)Rebecca Swarbrick - 9 Jul 2013
J Varada Raj is a remarkable man to meet, glowing with warmth and life, with a remarkable story. Born into a Hindu Brahmin family, a priestly caste, with much priviledge, Raj’s love affair with Jesus has led him to being rejected by his blood family, many nights of homelessness, sleeping on a park bench and onto becoming head of Alpha India (seeing around 800,000 people baptised last year alone) and a real man of prayer. In the second part of his interview with 24-7 Prayer Raj shares some of the lessons of prayer from his journey.
How did you pray when you had to leave your home and sleep in the park?
When I stayed in the park I had very little to eat and I didn’t know the art of this faith. I preferred to go hungry and drink water, plenty of time to read the bible. I didn’t know the word praying and all of that, for me prayer was simple talking to the Father. Sometimes I was angry and upset with him.
One day I was very hungry, you can’t believe how much the hunger was. My stomach was sticking to my back it was so bad and I thought I must deal with the Father about the issue and I was in the park and I thought that no one would be bothered with my talking.
I looked to the sky, supposing He’s always in the sky, and I spoke to him with my fists to the sky.
I said “Why are you doing this to me? All scoundrels enjoy best of food. Why on earth me, who you have chosen? Would you deny even my basic needs? What did I do wrong? Are you real? Where are you?”
Really I almost yelled at him, then I got tired with my crying and slept it off, I was very feeble.
After a while, a young boy woke me up. He was about eleven years old, a school kid and he was in school uniform. He came and he said
Today’s my birthday. My mum cooked a very nice special food for me, but my class mates took me out for lunch. If I take it back my mum would be very upset and I don’t feel like throwing it, would you mind eating it?
He was a Muslim boy and why I believe that God is for everyone. I was so grateful and I did not see the boy, I saw the hand of God. From that day I’ve never had a problem with food - it was once and for all dealt with by God the Father.
What is your preferred style of prayer now?
What I normally do daily is read a lot of scripture, as much as I feel my soul is satisfied, then I’ll wait for some time and I tend to hear something and usually my prayer for that day would be focused on that.
What I learnt is that it is not praying my burden before God, but praying God’s burdens - certain burdens are God’s and when we pray those burdens normally God answers those prayers.
You described your first encounter with Jesus. Have you encountered God again in a similar way since then?
In 1982 I had one similar experience. It was September 9th, I was in prayer. I used to fast and pray, it was the first day. Suddenly there was a light that came into my room and I saw the Lord and the Lord showed me that my mother had died and he showed me also the way it happened and how my brothers were discussing – one said that they must call me, another one said “If he comes, will he perform the rights?” I’m the eldest you see.
So, he showed me the date that it happened, about three weeks before – August 19th and I started crying because I was very fond on my mum. The Lord consoled me and touched me and this time it was not in an audible tone, but he seem to press upon my heart “Because you have lost your one mother, I’m going to give you more than a hundred mothers” and he literally fulfilled it. They take the liberty of chastising me, yes it’s amazing. The Lord has been more than faithful in keeping His word.
Read the first part of Raj's story.