The Power of One

The Power of One is an amazingly simple revelation that the Lord gave Randy McEwen and Michael Dant while on mission to India in March 2007.  

  On this trip, Michael Dant began using his magic tricks in a creative and fun way to share the Gospel to crowds of children and adults alike. Part of his routine involved this phase 'The Power of One.' This phrase stuck in my mind, and I was not sure why.

  Later in the trip, we split up and I headed north to minister to a Hindu family for several days. When I arrived at the airport, and we began heading on the 3+ hour journey to my hosts' home, I was burdened to turn around and look behind me. When I did, I saw a billboard in Nagpur, India that said, "THE POWER OF ONE." It was an advertisement for an Indian Communications company. I quickly snapped a photo of it to show Michael. I just thought it was a novelty. (It is amazing how God can speak to us if we allow Him).

  After reaching the home of my host, I was overwhelmed at the sheer enormity of the home; it was like a castle. The next morning they showed me around their home, the grounds and their factory across the street. Their family manufactures cigarettes. Later on, they would show me around the city and the two universities their family had built and given for free to the community. They were absolutely beautiful and quite large. That night, I was restless in spirit and prayed much of the night before sleeping. What God kept showing me while in prayer was basically 2 things...(1) all of the idols and temples I had seen, including the large shrine inside the home I was staying, and (2) then He kept showing me a giant.

  To put it all together for me, the Holy Spirit brought to mind the Scripture story of David and Goliath. As Goliath fell, so went the Philistine army. The point was that so many times we focus on numbers...in churches, in evangelism, in ministry, etc. Me included. We focus on building our church, not the church universal. We focus on building our ministry, not ministering to one person at a time. I was so overwhelmed in India just knowing that out of more than 1 BILLION people, less than 4% profess Christianity. For a man called to be an evangelist, that so burdened my soul to think of 960 MILLION+ people on a road to hell, and then to know that even if I lived 100 years, I could never reach even 1% directly.

 That was the point. I am not suppose to...THE POWER OF ONE. That's when the Lord spoke clearly to me. This family I was staying with are giants in their community. Their family is widely known and respected. Imagine the influence in their community if the Lord just saved them. Thousands would see the glory of the Lord through a changed life. The same for a friend we had met through our host in southern India. This man and his family had a large public temple where thousands worshipped at. Instead of an American just preaching at the top of his lungs in front of the temple, how powerful would it be if that man and his family were saved? And then the Lord moved in his heart to go to the family temple and stand there with a sledge hammer, and preach the Law and Gospel and testify of  his encounter with the Life Changing Savior of the World...Jesus...and then proceed to demolish the idols and erect a cross or church there?!?!

  While in India, we had been ministering for around 18 hours straight and were exhausted. We were finally heading back to our hotel around midnight, when our host, Ashok, received a phone call from some of his friends, a Hindu couple, that were trying to open a call center (an inbound and outbound telemarketing business). Ashok had been helping them as he is in the same business. They were calling because they wanted us (Michael & Randy) to come and pray for them for blessings from our God over their business. Our flesh did NOT want to go out and visit, we wanted to sleep, but the Lord some how squeezed 'Sure' out of our mouths before we realized it. When we got there, the couple greeted us, and we sat down. But I told them that I could not pray for blessings for them until I discerned where they were spiritually. I explained that if someone was in rebellion to God, praying blessings upon them would actually be against what God was trying to do in their lives.

  So, long story short, we stayed a long while until early in the morning going through the Law, exposing sin and idolatry and confirming the coming judgment upon all unrighteousness. We then walked through the Scriptures of how Jesus had fulfilled the Law and Prophets, and that Salvation was only through His name. They were so hungry for that message. They made no decision that night, but continued to study and read. I just learned through an email a few days after our trip that this couple, more giants in their respective community, had received Christ and disavowed their Hindu religion. PRAISE THE LORD! Also, the other family, that has the public temple, has been coming to services also seeking the Lord.

  Another part of the story comes from the airplane ride there and back. Michael and I had assigned seats together, yet we still ended up in separate seats. The young lady seated next to me on the way there was from Bulgaria, and she lives in the US just 2 hours from our home. On the way home from India, the same thing happened, and a lady from Austria sat next to me. After sharing the law and Gospel with each, it was remarkable to see God open small doors into so many countries. Maybe the Power of One is simply going to each country that God opens the door for and making one disciple at a time.

 

Above is a billboard in India I saw the Lord used to confirm this teaching.