K. P. Yohannan. Revolution in World Missions. Carollton TX: GFA Books, 2004. Print.

I have know about Revolution in World Missions for a long time. Robert Finley expresses a similar thesis in many of his writings. I was surprised at the effect from reading this book: a discussion with friends and two dreams.

Yesterday as I write this, I was with three friends and mentioned the book, and how I believed it was really anointed. All three knew about the book, and two of them had read it. The book was originally published in 1986. It has gone through six updates and over thirty printings.

Mr. Yohannan heads an indigenous mission organization in South Asia. It currently sends out gospel workers in India and into some of the Himalayan and Southeast Asian countries. The workers are all indigenous. The live like the people they work among. They have most of the same values and customs of the people they are sharing the Gospel with. If they have to learn a new language, it is usually a dialectical variation of one they are familiar with.

What do his organization and similar ones ask of Western Christians? Support. That comes mainly in two ways, prayer and finances. Supporting an indigenous worker usually costs somewhere between $30 and $120US a month. Missionaries from the West would likely need twenty to fifty times that because of their travel, education for their children, and other expenses a local inhabitant would not have.

Besides, there is not any kind of nationalistic suspicion of an outsider if the person looks and lives like the people they are sharing the Gospel with. This “revolution” is much more efficient and effective than the pre-World War II mission model.

Yohannan does criticize Western (in this edition, mostly American) churches for missing his vision. He realizes that, sadly, many churches are not interested in the souls of the lost, and that others are still set in the old methods. However, Revolution in World Missions is meant to encourage the church to see things differently.

Yohannan does name ways that cross-cultural workers can help: short term projects, medical missions in some areas, Bible translation. Still, the best way for most nations is to let the Holy Spirit work with the people already in the country or, at the very least, people from an identifiable neighbor.

Yohannan is more positive than some socialist-leaning Christian writers who criticize Western Christians for being rich. Yohannan’s emphasis is, to quote Jesus, “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 6:20) Spending money to save eternal souls is never wasted.

The dreams?

One night while I was reading this book I had a dream. Like most of the dreams most of us have, I remember no details except that in the dream I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It was exciting, even heavenly. I knew that experience was from reading Revolution in World Missions. There was an anointing on the book.

The night I finished the book, I had a spiritual warfare dream. Usually in such dreams I will do something to oppose the attack, praying, saying the name of Jesus, something. This time I was not doing much of anything while a lion was chewing on my left arm.

A friend showed that the Bible calls the right arm the arm of power, life, and salvation. The left arm is the arm of substance or wealth (see Proverbs 3:16). The enemy was attempting to devour my wealth (and maybe my reputation). Perhaps the book was challenging me about the way I was spending my money. The book is anointed. It will challenge you. This reader has to continue to understand the Lord’s promise that he would rebuke the devourer for those who tithe. (Malachi 3:11) Let it be.