I’m going to tell you about four big lessons in my life. The first one is in line with the theme, and that is about living a life of purpose. At the age of 24, I read this book by Laurie Beth Jones called ‘The Path’. I was an anatomy student (MSc in Anatomy) at Manipal University, and I was just going through the motions until this book just transformed my life. It helped me write a mission statement. I had already understood what gifting was and how God had gifted me. I was gifted to teach, to preach, to lead, and to exhort. I was not gifted to give. God gave that gift to my wife, and so we are forced to give because she’s got the gift of giving. I knew what my gifts were, but what was my purpose? Through that book, God truly helped me define what my mission statement was.
So here’s my mission statement, and that is, “To inspire the next generation to gain wisdom and values”. Laurie says that during World War I, if a soldier was caught at gunpoint, he had five seconds to recite what his mission was, or he’d be shot. She says every single one of us should be able to understand what that mission is because the Word of God says that every one of us was created for a purpose. God has already designed for you the good works that you’re supposed to be doing, and God helped me understand that. Laurie also says that your mission statement should be so simple that you should be able to tell it to a five-year-old and she should be able to understand it. So I simplified it, and that’s my life mission: to make people wise.
Understand your divine purpose – I believe every single one of us must know that because that will help you decide on your job, your career, your location, even your spouse and your married life, and what you’re going to do in the church and in your personal life.
#1 Understand your divine purpose
I believe every single one of us must know that because that will help you decide on your job, your career, your location, even your spouse and your married life, and what you’re going to do in the church and in your personal life. Maybe some of you are already doing it even without knowing your mission. It’s perfectly fine, but it’s so good to define it. I’m somebody who finds it very difficult to say no, but now I’m able to say yes or no based on my mission statement. When I’m invited here or there, or when I’m invited to join this or head this committee, or do this or that, I go back to my mission statement and I’m able to say, “Yes, this is perfectly in line with what my mission is.” You must have that too. God has created you with that. That was my first big lesson at the age of 24.
#2 Live in service to others
My second one was to live to serve others. Why am I gifted? Why has God given you spiritual gifts at the time of your spiritual birth? God gifted you not for yourself. God gifted me not so that I can be lifted up, glorified, and edified. The Bible says it is for the building up of the church, and so I learned that I must live in service to others. I must spend my life blessing others. Why do many of us not have a wonderful church experience every Sunday? Because we haven’t come prepared to give. We all almost always come prepared to receive, to be blessed, to enjoy the presence of God, and to hear from the Word of God, but you can be purposeful on your Sunday mornings. Every time you come together, if you decide today, I’m going to bless somebody today. I’m here to speak to someone today. I am going to be an influence in somebody’s life. My wife and I were able to establish an open home because we learned from our parents what an open home is, and I learned it in the EU and EGF. We would invite young people from our medical school in Manipal to our homes throughout the day and spend our money, our lives, and our resources to disciple, mentor, and train them, and that’s my greatest passion: to spend one-on-one time with people and not talk in big conferences, to spend one-on-one time with individuals and minister to each one of them. Live in service to others! That is where nation-building comes in. When you invest in people’s lives, when you love people and you invest in their lives, you are building a generation that will serve others.
I’m young; I’m not old, as I’m only 50 years old, but in the few people that I have been able to minister to, God has inspired them to serve others and to live their lives to serve others. I think that’s the greatest heritage I can pass on. The greatest blessing, and for me and for my own daughter too, that’s my greatest prayer for her—that she will live her life to bless others and not about being successful in this world.
Live in service to others! That is where nation-building comes in. When you invest in people's lives, when you love people and you invest in their lives, you are building a generation that will serve others. -Dr. Jerry George Mathew Share on X
#3 Make spiritual decisions
I want to tell you about two big and important spiritual decisions. One is about my marriage. My wife and I met at a youth camp. Her mentor called me to Trivandrum to speak, and that was my December vacation as a lecturer in Manipal, and I just wanted to take some rest, and my flesh said, “Say no, because you just want to sleep and you just want to take rest,” but my Spirit said this: “You need to go, because if they’ve called you, if they’ve thought of you as a speaker, you should go.” I went, and I met my wife there. I did not speak to her, and I did not say, “Wow, here’s a potential life partner. Let me go and talk to her and find out about her.” I spoke to her mentor and asked her mentor about her, and I got a good report about her, about her gifting, about her service, and about her ministry in the church.
Men and women who are not married, I hope you are settled about what you are doing for the Kingdom of God and what is your purpose in life, as we talked about, before you get married. If you are confused about who you are and what you are meant to be doing here on Earth, you’re just going to lead another person into that confusion as well. You and I must know exactly what we are doing. Blessy was already serving God; she was already counselling and ministering to girls younger than her. We just spoke twice, and I had only one question for her. We are both from Kuwait; we’re both Malayalis; we’re both from South Kerala; and we’re both Brethren who were from the same church, but apart from that, I never knew anything about her. I had only one question to ask her, and she had a few questions to ask me, and then she took time. I already knew, but she took one month to fast and pray, and she said yes, and I said yes. We never saw each other during the time of our engagement; only on the day of our official engagement, May 17th, and on the day of our wedding did we see each other. That was a spiritual decision; it was a decision based on God’s choice for me, not on my choice for myself. It was not based on how she could make me happy.
Men and women who are not married, I hope you are settled about what you are doing for the Kingdom of God and what is your purpose in life, as we talked about, before you get married. If you are confused about who you are and what you are meant to be doing here on Earth, you’re just going to lead another person into that confusion as well. You and I must know exactly what we are doing.
I want to take you back to one of the most romantic stories in the Bible, and it’s not Jacob and Rachel, it’s Ruth and Boaz. When Boaz looked at Ruth in the physical, he saw that she’s a widow, and she’s got a burden, an old mother-in-law, tagging along. She’s got nothing to her name, and she’s a foreigner. From the physical eyes, Boaz would have seen that. Ruth looked at Boaz from the physical eyes and would have thought, “This guy is much older. He’s an old man who is 40–45 years old. Why should I marry him?” Boaz said, “You could have chosen many younger men, but you came and chose me.” With her spiritual eyes, Ruth saw this man as her “kinsman redeemer.” With his spiritual eyes, Boaz saw her and said, “You are one who honoured and took care of your mother. I’ve heard your testimony.” There’s a big difference between seeing with spiritual eyes and seeing with physical eyes, and when you do that, that’s the best choice that you can make.
There’s a big difference between seeing with spiritual eyes and seeing with physical eyes, and when you do that, that's the best choice that you can make. - Dr. Jerry George Mathew Share on X
The second spiritual decision was moving from Manipal to Clarence High School. I finished my PhD in 2010. What’s a normal young man supposed to do when he has finished his PhD? He’s supposed to go abroad, go and make some more money, go to the Caribbean, go to the US, go to Malaysia, and make double or triple my salary. That was my intention, and I had very good intentions because I thought I must support my family and my parents, who have supported me all this time. I had very good intentions of going and making money, and somewhere in the back of my mind I heard this very loud laugh from Heaven. God was laughing and saying, “Jerry, I have other plans for you. You keep all these big plans of making money aside because I have a place kept for you, and that place is Clarence High School.” When this call came to go to Clarence High School, I could only say this had to be from God. God, with a good sense of humour, gives me this PhD in Anatomy and says, “Come to Clarence School. I prepared you for that.” After I joined Clarence High School and I joined for half the salary that I was making at Manipal, I made that commitment to God and said, “God, if you’re calling me to this place, then I’m going to give up my desire to make money, but I’m going to ask you to take care of me and my family and whatever is going to come ahead.” God was continuing to laugh, and he said, “You don’t know what’s coming. You don’t know what’s coming.” That was a spiritual choice. When you have to make such choices in your life, make sure there’s a spiritual element to it and that you’re not just looking at the money and the position and the ease of living and all of that, but make sure that you’re going back to God’s Word and to godly people and asking their advice and counsel. Make sure that you are clear that this is what God has for you; make sure that it’s a clear spiritual decision.
# 4 Don’t be afraid of the fire
The fourth lesson I learned is to not be afraid of the fire God is going to take us through. Many many fires—not one, not two, or three—that He is going to take you through, and He took me through. But each time He took me through those fires, He only enabled me to trust Him more and more in my life. At the age of 24, just as I was fulfilling my purpose and my mission statement, my kidney started to fail. I was diagnosed with a syndrome called FSGS: Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. My kidneys started to die. It took 22 years for it to come to a point where both my kidneys were functioning only at 10 and the doctor said, “You’re destined for a life of dialysis or you have to find a donor, or you have to wait for the donor list.” Everything came to a standstill, and I thought my ministry was over, my job as a principal was over, and I was just waiting to die.
Through that time, God brought five people into my life who offered to give me their kidney: my mother, my sister, my cousin brother in the United States, my cousin sister in Bangalore, and a believer who is much older than me and who’s already serving the Lord and who said he was ready to donate. Do you know what God was doing? God took my wife into nights of fasting and praying to save me, and to her God said, “You are the instrument who will save my son,” and my wife said, “Jerry, I’m ready to donate.” She was the only person I could say yes to; I didn’t have the heart to say yes to anybody else. I said yes to her, and we went together, and you know the greatest miracle that God did? We were a perfect match! The match of blood and kidney, blood group, the Rh factor, and then there are some other factors, and we matched four out of five. Even identical twins will not match five out of five, and here we are from two different families, grown up in two different places, and totally unrelated to each other, but God brought us together. In 2001, when we got married, we never knew that was going to happen, but my wife had the kind of faith to say yes. Both of us went into the surgery together, and we had a five-year-old daughter that we left with friends. We had no idea whether we were going to come out together or alone, either of us coming out safe, or both of us not coming out or coming out. We were not sure, but we went in, and I’ve shared my testimony for the first time I went back to school, after two months post-surgery. I was able to write down the 20- 25 miracles that God performed during that dialysis and transplant season, which you can see on YouTube. My I.T. manager had the wisdom to press record when I shared that testimony, so I’m able to share that on YouTube.
When you have to make such choices in your life, make sure there’s a spiritual element to it and that you’re not just looking at the money and the position and the ease of living and all of that, but make sure that you’re going back to God’s Word and to godly people and asking their advice and counsel. Make sure that you are clear that this is what God has for you; make sure that it’s a clear spiritual decision.
I’ll share two or three miracles. Number one, my driver is a little over enthusiastic, and he skipped a red signal in order to enter the hospital, which is 10 kilometres from where we stay. The police caught him and said, “Come to the station; you have to pay a fine.” When he went to the station, the inspector recognized that this was the principal’s car, and he said, “I am a parent of Clarence High School.” He understood that I was in the hospital for a transplant, and he came running to me and said, “Sir, anything you need in that hospital?” He went to the PRO of the hospital and said, “Please make sure that this man is taken care of, whether it’s parking or visitors or anything else. Make sure that he’s taken care of. Please give him a discount as much as you can.”
The person who did the angiogram to check whether I needed a stent before the transplant said, “Uncle, do you know who I am? I was in your church seven years ago, and you ministered to me in Manipal.”
After the transplant, a person came running into my room, and he said, “Sir, do you know who I am? I am a parent, and my child is in your school. I am the Chief Dialysis Technician in this hospital, and I’m going to personally take care of your dialysis every time you come here.” A dialysis is something where your blood goes out of your body, gets filtered, and comes back in, and there’s every chance of infection with the plastic tube and the machine. Oh, God protected me so well because of that man, and so on and so forth.
The refiner’s fire is intentional, discriminate, and purifying, not destroying. - Dr. Jerry George Mathew Share on X
After the transplant, I was in 10 days of isolation, and God put an evangelist’s daughter as a nurse in that dialysis ward. God enabled hundreds of thousands of people all over the world to come to the throne of grace and to pray for me. That is the grace of God! Even in the finances, you remember when I said I left a job that was double the salary and I came here? Even that salary would not have been enough for the cost of this transplant, but God in this present situation provided insurance and people to just supply my need.
Today I’m perfectly healthy; yes, I have all these problems, but my kidney is working perfectly, and I give all glory to God and to the wonderful wife that He gave me, my helpmeet. My perfect helpmeet.
So don’t be afraid. I want to end by mentioning three types of fire. A forest fire is unintentional, indiscriminate, and absolutely devastating. What I mean by that is that nobody intends to start a forest fire; it just starts by itself. It doesn’t determine what it is going to destroy. It destroys everything, and it is devastating. It destroys literally everything. An incinerator fire is intentional and indiscriminate because whatever you put in it will destroy, and it is absolute. It will destroy everything. But the refiner’s fire is intentional, discriminate, and purifying, not destroying. Notice carefully the refiner’s fire. There’s somebody controlling it. The refiner is sitting, looking at the fire; he is looking at the silver or the gold that is in the fire, and he’s saying, “I’m waiting for something. I’m controlling the fire I’m looking at, and I’m waiting.” You know what he’s waiting for? He’s waiting to see his face in that silver. That’s the fire that God takes you and I through because He’s waiting to see His face in your life.
