About
Apostle Eric Melwani
My Testimony
My name is Eric Melwani.and I am a Former Hindu. I am so pleased to testify that Jesus deeply loves the Hindus and I love them, too. I respect and honor them as well. When I was a Hindu, the Lord Jesus came looking for me, while I was still praying to the Hindu gods. I was raised in a religious family that was very traditional. As a child, I would go to the Hindu temples to pray and worship the Hindu gods. Growing up, I had a great interest in spiritual matters and a heart for God. I have a wonderful family who taught me the importance of respect, honor and they raised me to be a good, moral person. I believed that there were many ways that led to God and different people came through different paths, but in the end, arrived at the same destination. I also believed in reincarnation, karma and practiced chanting, meditation, prayer and other worship rituals. I was very satisfied in being religious.
I will never forget seeing these words of Christ in Kolkata, India as I was walking to my destination one day,” I am the way and the truth and the life ….” These words spoke to my heart. At the age of fifteen, we moved to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. There I went to a church where someone prayed the prayer of salvation with me, but I didn’t realize the depths of what I had prayed. I felt the presence of God and was aware of God’s peace in that church. After going there a few times an offense came and I never returned to that church again. As time went on, I began to ask myself questions like, “If there is one God then why are there so many religious contradictions amongst different religions?” Or, “If all religions led to the same God then shouldn’t God be speaking the same message to everyone?” I was very proud to be a Hindu and held strong religious convictions. Yet, I began to search for answers to my questions.
I met a Pastor and became friends with him. One day while I was attending his service, he prayed for me. I felt the presence of God and it stayed with me for three days. It was amazing and I loved it. Yet, based on my personal beliefs, one time I decided to challenge that Pastor by trying to convince him about the doctrine of reincarnation. But, I was not successful.
As time went on, I continued to struggle between Christianity and my Hindu faith. In those days, I enjoyed watching a televangelist who was mightily used by God in the area of healing. I would sense the anointing every time I would watch his program and I began desiring speaking in tongues. There was also another ministry that was a blessing to me as well, and I started to call their prayer line too.
One day, I called the ministry prayer line and told the operator that I would like to receive prayer for baptism of the Holy Spirit and would like to be able to pray in tongues. So they prayed with me and I prayed with them over the phone. Then, I called the other ministry prayer line and voiced the same request as well. They would ask me each time if I was born again and I would say “yes”. In my mind, there was no difference, so I said yes each time because it was all the same to me. I did not believe that Jesus was the only way to God even though by this time I had prayed the salvation prayer multiple times.
I believed that Jesus was a God, but not the only way to God.I also believed that there were multiple ways to God. Finally, one morning, before I went to college I called the prayer line again and told them that I desired to be able to pray in tongues. I prayed the prayer of salvation all over again and they assisted me to receive my heavenly prayer language. Then suddenly in my room, I began to speak in tongues over the phone. I was so excited and happy to receive this heavenly Gift.
I began to attend a Pentecostal church in St. Thomas, but still held onto my Hindu beliefs. One day, we moved to Orlando, Florida. I wanted to find a church that believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and I started looking. During those days I was involved in palmistry, numerology and astrology and practiced it as a hobby and I did not see anything wrong with it.
One evening, I felt God speaking to my spirit to turn the television on and watch the Christian program. I obeyed and watched a familiar face who was talking about the occult. He said it was wrong to meddle with the occult. He made it clear that astrology and other occult practices were satanic and sinful. At the end of his program, he invited the viewers to pray a prayer of repentance. For the first time in my life, my spiritual eyes came open and Jesus gave me a supernatural revelation of what he said. I realized, I had sinned by meddling with astrology, palmistry and numerology. I got on my knees and I repented. Suddenly, the supernatural presence and power of the Holy Spirit came and completely filled me and delivered me. When I got off my knees, I had no desire for the occult. Right away, I took all my books dealing with these topics and threw them in the garbage.
As days went on ,I had no desire to worship the idols or their images. I had no desire to do meditation or yoga. Then, I found a Spirit filled church which I started to attend. There, I felt the power of God. Then as time went on, the Hindu beliefs I used to hold, began to fall away. Then came the day, I began to believe that Jesus was the “only” way to God and heaven.
I learned that salvation was a free gift and I did not have to earn salvation. I came to the full understanding that it is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and not about religion. All my answers were finally answered, and I found them in Jesus Christ. Today, many years later, I am serving Jesus and He is my Lord and Savior. I am still walking in my deliverance and today God is using me for His glory to reach others.