Proclaiming the Name of Jesus

In celebration of SEAPC’s 30th anniversary, throughout the next 12 months, we will be sharing stories and testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness from friends around the nations! Each of these testimonies is like a stone of remembrance (Joshua 4) for all that He has accomplished. We are taking this year not just to look to the past, but also to praise God for what He has in store for us and those we serve in the years to come. We hope you enjoy these stories our friends have prepared each week!

It was cold as I laid in my heavy-duty sleeping bag buried under two horse blankets, clothed in multiple layers of clothes and a heavy jacket, but I still shook and shivered until it seemed my bones rattled.

As the hours of the night slowly passed, I could hear the 30-mile-per-hour winds whipping through the camp. I could hear the chomping of the yak herd as it fed on the thick Tibetan tundra, and I could hear the labored breathing of my tent-mate as he was dealing with a combination of food poisoning and severe altitude sickness camping at 16,000 feet. 

\”Steve, are you okay?\” I asked but got no response. \”Steve!  Are you okay?\” I asked again. No response. A third time I called out, he groaned as he commenced rolling over and laying his head right on mine. Steve and I are good friends, but not this good.

I rolled out of my bag and blankets and began to shake him, calling his name to get him fully conscious but to no avail. \”This is not good!\” I thought. Having my roommate die on my first prayer journey in a foreign land was not the experience I was looking for!

I jumped up to get help when I saw Mark Geppert walking by. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting yellow hues across our bright blue pup tents. I went over to Mark, trying to sound as calm as I could. \”Steve is breathing, but he is not conscious,\” I said.

Mark\’s eyes penetrated mine. \”Hmm, what to do?\”  He said in typical Mark fashion. He immediately rounded up our tour guides, who applied oxygen, and we managed to lift Steve onto a bus to be taken down the mountain to a local hospital.

As the bus lumbered away, I took a moment to look at my surroundings in the early morning sunlight. The snowcapped mountains in the background; with a herd of yak and sheep tended to by a few Tibetan nomads; a beautiful deep blue lake nearby was glistening with the early morning sun; the colorful round tents covered with animal skins that the nomads called \”yurts,\” were scattered across the green plateau…and looking at Mark, I thought, \”How did this guy get me to come out here to the ends of the earth?\”

Since then, I have realized that I am only one of a great cloud of witnesses to ask that same question!

I had met Mark a few months earlier when he came to Phoenix to recruit people to join one of his prayer journeys. Mark has been prayer walking the nations for forty years and is a legendary missionary to unreached people groups. He spoke of his work in Tibet, providing heart surgeries for children and planting house churches. That is all very nice; I attended this meeting as a favor to my friend Steve, thinking I would pray for him from Phoenix while he was on the trip.

Then, Mark spoke the words that would change my life. \”I would like to invite you to come on a prayer journey to Tibet and proclaim the name of Jesus where His name has never been proclaimed before.\”

His words profoundly startled me!  Are there still places that a Christian has never touched?  Places where no one has ever taken the Good News of Jesus before? Those words penetrated my heart like an arrow. The thought of being the first person to proclaim Jesus to those who had never heard and never even had a chance to hear overwhelmed me entirely. The thought of literally going to the outermost parts of the earth to advance the Kingdom of God completely captivated my heart. 

As I sat and listened to Mark speaking about doing raw pioneer work, tears began to stream down my face. Traveling to unreached people and going to a place like Tibet had never crossed my mind, but the Holy Spirit was squeezing my heart. I didn\’t even know where Tibet was.  Suddenly, it seemed the old church classroom was empty except for Mark, Holy Spirit, and me.  Every word he spoke profoundly affected me. Out of nowhere, Jesus was speaking. \”Daniel, I want to go to Tibet.  Are you willing to take me there?\’ All I could say was, \”Yes, Lord.  Yes, I will go!\”

My wife looked over at me and saw the tears that would not stop flowing. \”You are going to Tibet, aren\’t you?\” I nodded yes and kept wiping the tears.

Now, I was standing somewhere in Tibet next to Mark gazing at the incredible surroundings; I asked him, \”What now?  How do we reach these people with Jesus?\” Mark looked back at me and said, \”Hmmm, what to do?\” As I prepared to go into spiritual warfare to bind the spiritual \”strong man\” of the region, casting down spirits of false religion, attacking any dark spirit that I could think of, believing this would open the way for people to hear and understand the gospel freely,  I heard Mark praying a simple prayer. \”Jesus, you brought us here.  What do you want to do?\”

\”Okay, let\’s now wait and see what happens.\” He said as he glanced over at me.

\”What? Wait. That\’s it? No spiritual warfare? You pray that little prayer and wait?\”

\”Yep. Spiritual warfare was completed through the Cross. Colossians 2:15 tells us that every spirit and principality was stripped naked of their authority; he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the Cross. According to that scripture, there are no powerful demons, only those that Christ has defeated. Moreover, Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us that we have been seated with Christ at our Heavenly Father\’s right hand. That is a position of total, complete, absolute authority. We are here to enforce what Jesus has already accomplished. Why should I pick a fight with demons Jesus has already defeated?\” Mark went on to say that he learned that if he focused on Jesus and walked in His Spirit, demons would cower to the Spirit of Christ. The LORD would show Himself almighty in setting people free of sickness and disease.

I thought I was a seasoned veteran in spiritual warfare, but I had never heard this insight into God\’s truth before. \”So, no strategy? No agenda? We have no big plans? We pray and wait to see what God will do?\”

Mark laughed a little. \”Yep. Do you think you can come up with a better plan than He can?\” 

\”Hmmm, what to do?\” I thought.

Later that afternoon, a woman had come down to the lake to fill water bottles. She looked at our camp filled with foreigners with great curiosity. At 16,000 feet and hours from the nearest town, they didn\’t get many visitors up here. She must have wondered who we were and why we had come. A couple of ladies on our team greeted her with smiles which she returned; her bright smile made her dark weathered face brighten and glow. Our translator spoke to her briefly and then turned to me. \”Come, come!  She has invited us to visit her home.\”

With curiosity, I followed, knowing I was about to step into a new world and a culture that was utterly unknown to me.  As we entered her yurt, it took a few moments to see through the smoke of burning yak dung that filled the room. As I squinted through the smoke, I could see another woman sitting on the ground tending the fire.  She was a little older, with a weathered face that looked like tough leather seasoned in the sun and the many hard years in this high Tibetan altitude.

Our translators spoke with her asking if she had any pain and would like to receive prayer.  They had not mentioned anything about Jesus. They just said we had come to pray for people in pain. The woman quickly began to point to different parts of her body that were hurting. She stood in front of me, her eyes full of expectancy. I gently laid my hands on her head and released the Presence of God into her body. After I prayed, she chatted with our translators for a few moments, and we made our way out of the yurt. As we left, the woman came to me and pulled at my arm, then touched her head with both hands motioning for me to pray again. As I did so, the Presence of God came on us both.

Again, we said our goodbyes, and we began to walk away. Again, the woman pulled at my arm and touched her head, motioning me to pray for her. For the first time in her life, this woman was experiencing the Presence of God, and she wanted more! Finally, we made our goodbyes and went back to camp.

The following day, after another sleepless, bone-chattering, cold night, the sun began to come up over the mountains casting the soft morning light across our camp. As I crawled out of my cocoon of bag and blankets, I looked up and saw a group of nomad women coming over the hill into our camp. I watched as they spoke briefly with our translator. Quickly, the translator motioned for me, and I walked over, curious about what was going on. 

\”They want you to pray for them,\” she said. The woman I prayed for the previous day had gone from tent to tent, telling her neighbors about the foreigner who had prayed for her and that she experienced God. With great excitement and expectations, a number of us on the team began to lay hands and pray for these precious women. We called out for God to release His immeasurable love, His Kingdom, and His Presence upon these women and their families.

Our translators were able to speak to them about Jesus, the one true God who loved them, died for them, wanted to forgive them, and give them eternal life. After prayer, two of the women approached me. In Tibetan culture, it is their custom to honor someone by placing a white scarf around their neck. One at a time, the women stepped forward and placed a scarf around my neck, bestowing upon me their highest honor.

I could not help think how God had entrusted us with such a great responsibility being the first Christians they had ever met. What they now thought about Jesus would be based on what they thought about us.

We had prayed our simple prayer asking God what He wanted to do. We then waited, and He revealed His plan. He did what we could have never manufactured on our own. People experienced the power and presence of God and heard the message of Jesus Christ for the first time. In fact, at this same time, my friend Steve was back at the hospital recovering from his sickness and was praying for the sick in that same hospital. Our act of spiritual warfare was to apply the finished work of Jesus on the Cross and watch God do what He does best; show His magnificent Love and power to heal and transform lives.

I had just presented the magnificent love and power of Jesus where He was unknown before.  I\’ll never forget that moment; I experienced the presence and power of God in such an intimate way.  I felt like Jesus was saying, \”Thank you. I have been waiting to come here for 2,000 years.  Thank you for bringing me here and being My ambassador.\”

This time I did not even bother trying to wipe the tears that were streaming down my face.