Why This Hindu Priest Left It All Behind to Follow Jesus
At 19, Rahil Patel says he flew to India and trained to become a Hindu priest. Instead, he had a miraculous encounter with God. He relayed his story to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in a powerful video.
“In my first month of training, I was in the temple upstairs praying, worshipping,” Patel says. “At that moment, I heard this very silent voice in my left ear say, ‘Have you made the right choice?'”
Patel began digging deeper and studying more and more of his religion, but he only came up with more questions. Every time he asked one of the scholars, he received unsatisfactory answers or they grew frustrated with him. Eventually, he confessed he felt he was being brainwashed, and he lost his peace with Hinduism.
“One day, I was buying books in a bookshop near the temple and I saw a children’s Bible and I opened it and I started reading it,” Patel says. “I felt a connection so quickly, so easily. I then had to shut the book quickly. It just represented something completely opposite to what I represented. The fear kept me distant from the Bible.”
He says these “secret moments with Jesus” kept happening. He began crying out to the “God who I didn’t know,” but he knew it would mean losing everything he had built up as a priest.
Eventually, he walked away—and walked into the doors of a London church.
“Soon as I walked through the doors, the presence of God just fell on me,” Patel says. “I felt this incredible peace and this very silent whisper again in my left ear said, ‘You’re home.’ … I gave my life to Jesus, which released a huge burden off my shoulders, and there was a deep sense of comfort. I realized that God was there throughout my life—knocking on the door of my heart, attracting me, guiding me. He valued my soul so much even though I was seeking out another religion. Jesus met me where I was.”
Watch Patel’s full testimony for yourself by clicking on the video above.
