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Never Give Up
K.P. Yohannan is the founder and director of GFA World, an organization helping to bring the love of Christ to a needy world. He is also the Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, which today has more than 12,000 congregations throughout the world.
- GenresChristianNonfiction
235 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2020
About the author
K.P. Yohannan
41 books124 followersDr. KP Yohannan has been crisscrossing the globe for the past 40 years, challenging the Body of Christ to discipleship. His call to a radical lifestyle—with an all-out commitment to Jesus—has left its impact on nearly every continent. To the Church caught up by the tidal waves of compromise and self-preservation, Yohannan’s life message is a fresh word to this generation and yet as timeless as the scriptural mandate itself.
Yohannan is the founder and director of GFA World (formerly Gospel for Asia
aka GFA), a Christian mission organization deeply committed to seeing communities transformed through the love of Christ demonstrated in word and deed. He is also the metropolitan bishop of Believers Church , an indigenous church in South Asia.
Born in South India in 1950, Yohannan is the youngest of six sons. His mother dedicated each of her children to the Lord and longed to see one of them commit their lives to ministry. She secretly fasted each Friday for three-and-a-half years, praying, “Oh God, let just one of my boys preach!” Even as she prayed, her children were growing up, seeming destined for secular work. Finally, only the youngest, little “Yohannachan,” was left. Seeing how shy and insecure he was, his mother thought there was little chance that he would preach.
However, after Yohannan finished his schooling, he heard stories about North India from a visiting mission team, and his heart was gripped. His mother’s faithful prayers were answered as he immediately decided to join the mission movement and go to faraway North India to help bring the Good News to the multitude of villages that had never heard of Christ. While preparing to go with this radical mission team from Europe, the timid 16-year-old was challenged by a call to radical discipleship from missionary statesman George Verwer. That night, Yohannan couldn’t sleep. What if God asked him to preach publicly in the streets? What if he was stoned and beaten?
Suddenly, God’s presence filled the room, and he knew he was not alone. “Lord God,” he prayed in surrender, “I’ll give myself to speak for You—but help me to know that You’re with me.”
The next morning, he awoke with a supernatural love and burden for the people around him. The Lord gave him courage to speak to the crowds he saw that day, and he continued to preach for the next seven years in North India. As a field evangelist and regional coordinator, he was responsible for the members of his teams and the planning of each day. His future wife, Gisela, was also serving with the mission movement at the same time, and Yohannan felt through their brief encounters that he had found someone who shared his same vision and calling.
In 1971, Yohannan was invited to spend a month in Singapore at a new institute that had been started by John Haggai. Here, he was challenged by Haggai to do something significant with his life for God’s glory. His time at the institute produced a restlessness that eventually led him to leave India to search abroad for God’s ultimate will in his life. In 1974, he came to the United States, where he received his theological training at Criswell College. He and Gisela were married after his first term.
As a theology student, Yohannan was ordained and began pastoring a local church in Dallas, where he served for four years. While God blessed his pastoral ministry, Yohannan couldn’t forget the burden God had given him for those who had never once heard the name of Jesus.
Dr. Yohannan is a prolific writer with more than 200 books published in Asia and 11 in the United States. With more than 3.9 million copies in print, Yohannan’s landmark book, Revolution in World Missions, is an international bestseller that has literally changed the course of mission history in our generation. For his faithful service to the Body of Christ, Yohannan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hindustan Bible College in Chennai, India.
Yohannan is the founder and director of GFA World (formerly Gospel for Asia
aka GFA), a Christian mission organization deeply committed to seeing communities transformed through the love of Christ demonstrated in word and deed. He is also the metropolitan bishop of Believers Church , an indigenous church in South Asia.
Born in South India in 1950, Yohannan is the youngest of six sons. His mother dedicated each of her children to the Lord and longed to see one of them commit their lives to ministry. She secretly fasted each Friday for three-and-a-half years, praying, “Oh God, let just one of my boys preach!” Even as she prayed, her children were growing up, seeming destined for secular work. Finally, only the youngest, little “Yohannachan,” was left. Seeing how shy and insecure he was, his mother thought there was little chance that he would preach.
However, after Yohannan finished his schooling, he heard stories about North India from a visiting mission team, and his heart was gripped. His mother’s faithful prayers were answered as he immediately decided to join the mission movement and go to faraway North India to help bring the Good News to the multitude of villages that had never heard of Christ. While preparing to go with this radical mission team from Europe, the timid 16-year-old was challenged by a call to radical discipleship from missionary statesman George Verwer. That night, Yohannan couldn’t sleep. What if God asked him to preach publicly in the streets? What if he was stoned and beaten?
Suddenly, God’s presence filled the room, and he knew he was not alone. “Lord God,” he prayed in surrender, “I’ll give myself to speak for You—but help me to know that You’re with me.”
The next morning, he awoke with a supernatural love and burden for the people around him. The Lord gave him courage to speak to the crowds he saw that day, and he continued to preach for the next seven years in North India. As a field evangelist and regional coordinator, he was responsible for the members of his teams and the planning of each day. His future wife, Gisela, was also serving with the mission movement at the same time, and Yohannan felt through their brief encounters that he had found someone who shared his same vision and calling.
In 1971, Yohannan was invited to spend a month in Singapore at a new institute that had been started by John Haggai. Here, he was challenged by Haggai to do something significant with his life for God’s glory. His time at the institute produced a restlessness that eventually led him to leave India to search abroad for God’s ultimate will in his life. In 1974, he came to the United States, where he received his theological training at Criswell College. He and Gisela were married after his first term.
As a theology student, Yohannan was ordained and began pastoring a local church in Dallas, where he served for four years. While God blessed his pastoral ministry, Yohannan couldn’t forget the burden God had given him for those who had never once heard the name of Jesus.
Dr. Yohannan is a prolific writer with more than 200 books published in Asia and 11 in the United States. With more than 3.9 million copies in print, Yohannan’s landmark book, Revolution in World Missions, is an international bestseller that has literally changed the course of mission history in our generation. For his faithful service to the Body of Christ, Yohannan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hindustan Bible College in Chennai, India.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 22, 2021
A prideful pity party really.
November 18, 2020
This book tells how KP Yohannan read the Church Fathers and decided he needed to shape his life and his church after their teachings. He also gives a vague account of the beginnings of a large lawsuit against him and his work.
May 9, 2020
Once more KP Yohannan, a faithful Christian leader for 50 years, has written a book that challenges and stimulates every Christian to a closer, more intimate relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
KP Yohannan begins by describing the horrible years of false accusations and lawsuits faced by the Gospel for Asia organization and how he and people in his organizations suffered. Yet he doesn't argue on his behalf but instead uses it as a springboard to show how Christ suffered unjustly for us all, and many Christians are suffering far worse even to this day.
Further, he ties his suffering to his spiritual growth and exhorts every Christian to lay down his or her life for the sake of Christ. KP Yohannan urges us to examine the early Church fathers' behavior and teaching as guides for all Christians everywhere.
Finally, he advocates for silence as the proper response to false accusers, just as Jesus did not answer His accusers. In silence, we can truly meet God.
He warns all Christians that the time is very near to the return of Christ and the end of the age. He wants everyone to review Jesus' teaching about these times in the Gospels. He wants us all to live to show Christ to the world, knowing we are just a few minutes before midnight.
KP Yohannan begins by describing the horrible years of false accusations and lawsuits faced by the Gospel for Asia organization and how he and people in his organizations suffered. Yet he doesn't argue on his behalf but instead uses it as a springboard to show how Christ suffered unjustly for us all, and many Christians are suffering far worse even to this day.
Further, he ties his suffering to his spiritual growth and exhorts every Christian to lay down his or her life for the sake of Christ. KP Yohannan urges us to examine the early Church fathers' behavior and teaching as guides for all Christians everywhere.
Finally, he advocates for silence as the proper response to false accusers, just as Jesus did not answer His accusers. In silence, we can truly meet God.
He warns all Christians that the time is very near to the return of Christ and the end of the age. He wants everyone to review Jesus' teaching about these times in the Gospels. He wants us all to live to show Christ to the world, knowing we are just a few minutes before midnight.
April 29, 2020
In this book, K.P. Yohannan takes the reader on a journey through one of the toughest periods of his life. In 2017, Gospel for Asia was accused of mismanaging their donors’ money and thus began a three year court battle. Though ultimately cleared of the fraudulent charges, GFA decided to settle, and things are now calming down. But that doesn’t mean that the journey was easy.
Yohannan calls the trials of the past few years ‘the forest fires of grief’ and proceeds to talk about his personal journey through the flames. His pain bleeds through the pages, and I could sense a little of the pain that he must have gone through. Still, you can read about the growth that the trials of this life wrought in this godly man.
James 1:2-3 states, ‘My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.’ If you need assurance that the trials of this life will strengthen your dependence on God, pick up this moving book and get pulled into the mind and heart of a man who has faced a raging fire and come out the other side refined, not defeated.
Yohannan calls the trials of the past few years ‘the forest fires of grief’ and proceeds to talk about his personal journey through the flames. His pain bleeds through the pages, and I could sense a little of the pain that he must have gone through. Still, you can read about the growth that the trials of this life wrought in this godly man.
James 1:2-3 states, ‘My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.’ If you need assurance that the trials of this life will strengthen your dependence on God, pick up this moving book and get pulled into the mind and heart of a man who has faced a raging fire and come out the other side refined, not defeated.
August 29, 2022
This book was a disappointing read. Almost did not want to finish. I had wanted to read this book to see the response from the founder of the ministry and if any lessons were learned by the author and the ministry as I've followed the news and reporting of what was happening to the ministry of Gospel for Asia and the very serious accusations about the ministry. The author started the book by stating that he is following Paul's example of not defending or responding to critics and then went on to defend and accuse the critics of slander and part of a conspiracy movement. I found the author's attempt at sharing what happened to the ministry in the book quite misleading and deceptive. Quite a "spin", similar to the efforts by the ministry when the accusations first came out. The ministry had in fact spent alot of money and hired high power attorneys and publicists like Johnny Moore to deflect and squash information and reporting about its wrong doings instead of responding to accusations and opening up its records. It certainly sounds like the author (founder of the ministry), at a minimum, did not feel like he or the ministry has done wrong, which is contrary to what ministry oversight and auditing agencies had found and stated. Its quite convenient to state that everyone is against you as a defense and excuse to examine yourself and see if there is any wrongdoing against God and His church. I was grieved like many to hear of what had happened to the ministry and was grieved to read this sad book and sad attempt of deflecting and denying.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews