“Sravani, how has your devotion to Jesus been lately?” Sravani sat quietly, reflecting to herself how she wanted to answer my question. She responded by asking me a question that surprised me. It didn’t surprise me because it was wrong or shameful of her to ask, but because Sravani and her mom had been following Jesus as his disciples for four years at this point in time. Her question quickly made it clear to me that there were still many layers of the good news of Christ that had yet to be uncovered or fully understood. She asked me, “Elise, the good and the bad that we do in this life comes back to us in the next, right?” It was apparent to me that my dear friend who had heard the gospel many times and studied much scripture alongside me was still operating out of a perspective about the afterlife that involved karma and reincarnation. After all, these are basic concepts the vast majority of Hindus are taught from an early age.

Karma, reincarnation, and dharm (duty) are key concepts of the Hindu culture that provide reasoning for life, death, and everything in between. For many followers of Christ from a Western Christian perspective, it’s difficult to reconcile that a person could be a follower of Jesus while also still processing through the concepts of karma or reincarnation. However, walking alongside unreached people groups requires a great degree of forbearance and reliance on the Holy Spirit to slowly open friends’ eyes to the endless layers of the gospel. Jesus models a kind of approach to relational evangelism with his closest disciples that starkly contrasts our Western fast-paced, results-driven evangelism and discipleship strategies. Our Messiah models relational ministry that is steeped in great patience, and reliance on the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Conversion Happens in Stages for Many Hindus

Dr. Martin Alphonse, in his chapter that addresses challenges of pastoring Hindu converts from Sharing Jesus with Hindus, points out that after the initial process of religious conversion, “It is not that every Hindu who decides to become a Christian abruptly walks away from all of his or her former beliefs of Hinduism and is transformed… overnight. It is quite a long process… it is a transformation in one’s worldview, which is the most difficult change to cope with.”¹ As a Western Christian who grew up within Christian culture, this concept of decades-long, perspective-shifting transformation was new for me. My close friend, Manasa, began exclusively following Jesus in 2017, and has been like a daughter in the faith to me, who has transformed into a co-laborer over the years. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that she mentioned to me in a conversation late one night that she wasn’t sure what happened to us in the afterlife. I was shocked. Not only had we often talked through the gospel and Jesus’ second coming countless times, but she had also preached the gospel to others many times. Yet, this was another facet to the gospel diamond that was being uncovered, seen, and understood for the first time.

It took us walking in a life-on-life discipleship relationship for over six years for her to finally grasp that night that as believers, heaven and eternal life with Christ are done deals. I remember reading Hebrews 9:27 together about how “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.” With tears of relief rolling down her face, she asked, “Is this really true, Elise?” While in many ways, I felt I had failed her in accurately teaching the good news of Christ in its fullness, God was also revealing to me that walking alongside unreached friends takes much more time and forbearance than I realized.

It has puzzled me for a long time why Jesus’ disciples were so confused when he was finally arrested, killed, and rose from the dead considering how many times he told them those events would take place over the three years of ministering alongside them. I can’t imagine the patience it must have taken our Lord to bear with the disciples in their consistent misunderstandings, doubts, and questions about what various parables meant, the reason for Christ’s coming, and even his identity as the Son of God. Tim Shultz, in his book, Disciple Making among Hindus, discusses how Hindus often surrender their whole selves to Jesus in stages. “The stages have to do with a growing trust or faith in Jesus as their exclusive Lord. They begin by praying to Jesus among their original deities. Then, they will pray to Jesus as their chief deity. At the next stage, Jesus becomes their Ishta Devata, their chosen and exclusive Lord, and, finally, they acknowledge him as the supreme Lord of everybody in the world.”² Patience while walking alongside Hindu friends makes possible the space and time for a message to be communicated in multiple episodes. Thus, we don’t have to be responsible to communicate everything about the gospel in one or two interactions.

Obviously, there are many examples in Scripture in which we see people completely grasp the good news through the power of the Holy Spirit when it is preached to them, and immediately determine to leave their life of sin or idols behind. Some examples like this include the demoniac, who immediately shares the news of how Christ healed him to people in the Decapolis (Mark 5); the woman at the well who excitedly shares with other Samaritans about the Messiah who told her everything she’d ever done (John 4); or Cornelius, who immediately asked that he and his entire household to be baptized (Acts 10).

Yet, there are also countless examples in the New Testament of followers of Christ who required authentic relationship, processing, patience, and forbearance to make the decision to fully trust in Jesus and surrender all to him. Nicodemus knew all the Scriptures backwards and forwards as a Pharisee, yet it took Jesus explaining what it means to be spiritually reborn for him to grasp what true faith meant (John 3). And while it would be easy to observe that so many of Christ’s closest disciples immediately left behind their careers to follow him, it’s also true that it took them years of walking alongside the Messiah in the flesh for them to fully grasp that he was the Son of God.

The Silver Bullet to Destroying the Ability to Witness

A grave mistake I made in my early years of walking alongside Hindu friends and sharing Christ with them, involved lacking patience. I remember sharing an illustration about finding life through the narrow road in Christ alone from Matthew 7:13–14. While what I shared with these friends was true, and spoken out of love, they were also the words that not only ended my friendship with these girls but also exterminated my ability to continue to minister or share truth with them. Anil Yesudas, in his chapter about Christocentric satsang from Sharing Jesus with Hindus, states, “It will take several episodes of communication before anyone can understand and appreciate the person and work of Christ… The Word must be patiently communicated over a long period.”³ Like Anil, I’ve seen a multitude of ways God uses a patient witness infused with humility to allow friends’ hearts to slowly soften to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

A good friend of mine named Priyanka consistently invited me over to spend time with her and her family. Throughout the course of our friendship, my devotion to Christ naturally came up. I began sharing the gospel, my testimony, and different New Testament stories of miracles Christ had done. She seemed warm and receptive for a season. Then, one day, she asked if I would stop talking about my devotion to Jesus with her. She communicated that she still cared for me and for our friendship but didn’t want to hear more about Christ at that time. Over the next several years, we stayed in touch. Her mom even regularly called me to catch-up. When my husband and I returned to India to host a wedding reception for my Hindu friends, she came. At the end of the reception, she came up to me and specifically stated, “Elise, I really enjoyed the worship to Jesus during the ceremony.” It was because I respected Priyanka’s wishes, and continued to love her, bear with her, and pray for her that I still can speak gospel truth into her life and her family’s.

One of my favorite examples of Christ, bearing in patience with his disciples as they grasp the full paradigm of the meaning of the cross and resurrection, is Jesus’ response to his disciple, Thomas. At this point in time, the disciples had lived with Jesus for three years. They had seen him do countless miracles and consistently reveal the Scriptures to them, and yet, even after he told them time and time again that he would die and rise again, they still doubted him when he came to them in his resurrected state. Jesus knows Thomas’ doubts, but instead of arguing with him, correcting him, or shaming him like he had every right to do, he humbly gave Thomas the evidence he needed to trust and believe. He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). As Thomas continued to seek Christ with his whole heart, Jesus provided the evidence he needed, and Thomas surrendered fully to the Messiah.

The Call to Patience in Sanctification

When unreached brothers and sisters come to saving faith in Jesus, God has revealed to them that Jesus is their Savior; that he is the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world and provides relationship with the Father and eternal life for all who trust in him. And yet, my Hindu friends often don’t know how to begin to pray to God; they don’t know what the Trinity or common grace is; they don’t understand the implications or intricacies of communion. But God grants them his seal of ownership and puts his Spirit in their hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor 1:22), and he begins the mysterious process of sanctification.

Anil Yesudas once shared the spiritual illustration of comparing our journeys with Christ to a car commute. He said, “People are all in different places. Some people know exactly where they’re going, and they’re rushing down the highway. Some people are going slowly in a neighborhood towards their destination. And some are parked along the journey.” Jesus entrusted the most precious message that will ever exist to eleven ordinary men who questioned and doubted him, abandoned him after his crucifixion, and struggled to believe. And yet, the very disciple who denied being a follower of Jesus three times is the one on whom Christ chose to build his church which would never be overcome (Matt 16:18). May we all humbly seek to walk alongside our unreached friends with the same patience and forbearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in order that he may receive the glory due his name.