I grew up in a Catholic family. Even as a child I sought contact with my creator and talked to him. As a teenager I asked myself why in the church services respectively masses the preaching was mainly about topics of society, morality, even about politics instead of about the word of God.
In December 1986, in a personal crisis, I once again sought closeness to God. Suddenly I realized that if I had the right faith, all my problems would be solved. Since God has no problems, so me too would have no problems if I were looking at my life from God's perspective.
So I asked God for the right faith and was surprised when he told me that he wanted me to put my life in his hands. After a moment of reflection, I gave my life to him. I now knew I had done everything from my side and waited until God told me how it should go on.
Some time later, a friend of mine invited me to a Free Church community that was still very young. On August 28, 1988 I was baptized there into his death in the name of Jesus Christ.
In the beginning I received the spiritual nourishment I needed and had a wonderful time with many spiritual heights. Over the passage of time, however, I found out, that I was still hungry for the word of God and his truth. So I started looking for deeper truths to fill my inner vacuum.
I commenced a Bible correspondence course. I even attended Bible schools of the Evangelical and Pentecostal communities for several months.
Unfortunately, nothing changed with regard to my deep hunger for truth. I kept making uplifting, spiritual discoveries, but in the end, what I got taught was up on a few pillars of Christian teaching mixed with thoughts, experiences and evaluations of humans. So I continued to search for perfection, absoluteness and truth that came directly from God, and on which I could build my everyday life.
Again I found myself in a crisis. Nobody could give me one hundred percent true answers to my questions, which often only concerned practical life. During this time I became interested in doing missionary work among Muslims. I became a member of a mission society whose objective was to spread the Gospel among Muslims. At their main site there was a small library with Christian works. I was given the task of creating a register of the existing books and writing a short summary of the content of each of these books. So it happened that I found two books in which one and the same problem of a Christian was solved completely contradictory. I was appalled that people obviously interpreted God, his actions and his thoughts at their own discretion, means according to their personal views. I was furious at how they graded God down to their own human level, assessing situations and seeking advice on his behalf according to their own image they had made themselves of God. This experience was a turning point in my life. From then on I rejected everything people said or wrote about God. As far as Christian teaching was concerned, there was nothing I could or would rely on for my life. From now on my motto was “Just Jesus and me”.
But since Jesus didn't speak to me either and gave me no answers to my questions, at least not in a way that I could understand them, I was again at a dead end. I no longer knew how to live my life, how to live the life of a Christian. I was desperate.
At that time, while I was praying once, God told me to open the third drawer of my chest of drawers. I did as I was ordered and inside there was an information letter of a Persian Christian community in Hamburg, called “Jesus Christus Kontrastprogramm“. At that moment I knew that God wanted me to join this church community. I supposed that God sent me to them to get to know the language and culture of the Iranians in order to then serve God among them.
A few months later I moved from Austria to Hamburg. I supported the community in their service among the Iranians and Afghans. I learned Farsi, but it wasn't enough for a long time to understand the sermons. The simultaneous translations I got from one member only gave me a faint idea of what was being preached. So I thought about, at least for the first time on Sundays, to change to another German Christian community that was in close contact with this Persian community. In this situation a passage of the Bible came into my mind, which a brother in faith from my previous congregation had given me to take with me on my way to Hamburg and which I couldn't comprehend at first:
Ezekiel 17:5-8 (King James Version)
5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
... and so I stayed where I was.
Through the Bible studies in the church, in which I got a better translation and the conversations with Pastor Hossein-Ali Bahadori in German, I began to notice that the teaching in this church had something special. I asked more and more questions and was surprised that the answers were so natural and self-evident. I tested the Pastor with questions that I had been carrying around for a long time and confronted him with contradicting statements from the Bible. I had the testimony of the confirmation of the Holy Spirit in the conversations in me, but it took some time until I as a human being progressed far enough and also had the confidence of faith in me that his source was the Holy Spirit and that he only translated the divine messages he received as an aid in each and for each situation. But when I realized it in my faith, I had no more doubts and began to soak up the word of God like a dry sponge. Seven years of desperate search had come to an end. I had found my Shepherd.
From that point on, I began to grow in faith by continually getting validation from the Holy Ghost about what I heard from my Shepherd. So, I partially began to understand the Holy Spirit myself and to orient myself to his statements. In the course of time I was not only able to understand him better, but I was also able to pass on what he was saying and thus began my ministry for Jesus.
Hossein and I wrote several books that were almost entirely about Christian teaching in the form that we only pass on what the Holy Spirit wants to be passed on through us. Some time ago, we started to create teaching programs in Farsi and German together that were broadcast in various social networks. I am grateful that God saved me, led me to my Shepherd, and gave me a wonderful ministry. I am sure that I am at the beginning of my service to pass on the insight about Jesus Christ and his right teaching.
In the past more than 25 years, I have not even had the slightest doubt that Hossein-Ali Bahadori received the gift of teaching amongst others directly from God and passes on his words directly through him.
Christian teaching was and is the power that moves me. Amen