a. Ian’s Info & Testimony

Ian and Sheela, August 2013.

Hi, I’m Ian Vincent, the owner of this blog. Welcome!

With my wife Sheela, and our 7 children, we live in Shillong, in NE India.

I’m an Aussie and i was visiting India from 1989 to 1992, then in 1997 Sheela and i got married here, she is an Indian, and we’ve lived here since.

I have published a book called REALITY CHURCH and it is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Church-always-supposed-have/dp/1491294027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378821757&sr=1-1&keywords=reality+church+ian+vincent

If you’re interested to see some old photos please click here: http://www.youareallbrothers.com/current/photos.php

Or more current photos on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ian.vincent.5

If you would like to know about our work in India then please mail me : ianvincent.india@gmail.com

Here is my website with my articles listed in chronological order:

http://ianvincent.com/

The testimony of Ian Vincent

Jesus saved me. I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ on Sunday night, January 15, 1987 at a Christian meeting in Hollywood, USA. I was twenty four years old and had made my way from Australia to Hollywood to have a crack at getting into the music business as a singer-songwriter. I was a lost soul, dead in my sins and cut-off from God. I had been playing the fool with God and was afraid of going to hell and my guilt was at times too much of a burden to bear. The thought of dying and meeting Jesus as Judge of the living and the dead terrified me. I tried to block that thought out of my mind, but I had a mother and auntie back home praying for me. But now I know I’m saved because Jesus saved me and it wasn’t of myself. Now I understand and know that He died in our place on the Cross and His death atoned for our sins, and that He rose and He lives, and I live in Him and He in me.

This is what happened at that meeting in 1987: A middle-aged lady preacher, Patti Damus, was preaching and I sat on the back row and I felt resentment rise up in my heart. What’s an old lady going to teach me? I thought. I was nervously looking toward the exit to see if I could slip out unnoticed. Then something happened to me. I began to physically shake and tremor. I tried with my mind to control the shaking but my body wouldn’t obey. I got scared. I knew that I wasn’t on drugs. What is it? Something has got a hold of me! I thought to myself. The guy sitting next to me looked worried and suggested that I go up to the preacher and ask for prayer. She looked into my eyes and told me that I had ancestral spirits.

Then I saw a vision. I could hear people around me commanding the spirits to go in Jesus name, but I lost all awareness of being in that room. In the vision I saw an indescribable scene of heavenly glory, of an unapproachable light shining brighter than the noon-day sun (Acts 26:13) and I was aware that a Person stood in that light before me and that He loved me very much. I couldn’t see His face because the Glory was blinding, but He spoke inaudibly to my spirit and He was beckoning me to come to Him. The realization that He wanted me melted my heart.

Then I realized that I must repent if I am to come to Him. I must leave my sinful life behind and not continue to be ashamed of Him, for I had been a closet Christian. It was like there was a line drawn on the ground between us and I just had to step across that line toward Him. I realized that I had been a fool, wasting the first twenty four years of my life by living for myself and missing out on knowing this incredible God, the Creator of the Universe. In the Spirit I stepped across that line from death to life, from darkness to Light, and yielded my life totally and unreservedly to Jesus and at that instant I was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Words cannot describe joy unspeakable. All I can say is that it was like receiving a transfusion of liquid love which spread to every extremity of my body, and it was like electricity; an incredible power surged through me that didn’t hurt me one bit. I went weak at the knees and fell down on the ground. When I got up around ten minutes later I was a new creation. Old things had passed away and everything had become new.

For the next week or so I was so enjoying being with my new friend Jesus that sleep didn’t seem necessary, there was such a supernatural strength. I had such a face of joy that people stopped and asked me what was up, and I was happy to tell them. All my fears had left me. I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear. That night Jesus became my LIFE and has been ever since and shall continue to be forever by the grace of God. I’m not talking about a one-off supernatural experience, but for me (and for all who are in Christ) that experience was the beginning of a relationship with the Lord Jesus: my whole life becoming more and more submitted to Him in love. Any experience which does not result in an obedient-love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ: that which doesn’t result in a full and unconditional surrender to Him in love, and full repentance from sin; and a genuine love for all people, any such spiritual experience is a false or counterfeit experience. (And false experiences abound in these last days).

The true Holy Spirit reveals the Jesus of the Bible and glorifies only Him, drawing people only to Him and to His Father, (John 15:26, 16:13-14) and progressively makes them just like Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18, Eph. 4:13-16).

I know it may be hard for some to accept that I had a vision of Jesus and saw the glory of God and was delivered from demons, because they’ve been taught that God ceased doing these things and only the devil does them now. Yes, there are counterfeits, and over many years experience I’ve encountered them, but counterfeits are only copies of the real, so if there is a counterfeit there must also be the real thing. But this one thing I know, that once I was lost and now I am saved by Jesus precious Blood.

Our family in 2008

Ian preaching in S India, 1990

Ian in whitewater slalom race, 1980 (NSW, Australia)

Our daughter Shmita

Our family at the wettest place on earth, Cherrapunji, in 2012

Ian paddling the Umiam Gorge, near Shillong, October 2014.

Our family, Dec. 28, 2014.

Our daughters, Becky and Lizzy