I. Brief Biography of Fr. M. Devadas :

Father M. Devadas is the founder of ‘The Bible
Mission’, one of the largest and fast growing
denominations in South India. Father
Devadas 
 re-mained as a bachelor throughout his life of 120
yrs. He is a mystic with many spiritual experiences
which are very peculiar to common Christianity.
Father Devadas grew up in the humble and rustic
surroundings ofthe Godavari delta region of Andhra
Pradesh. His parents are evangelists.They are not
very rich in worldly matters. But they are far
wealthier in many spiritual aspects who used to
spend their time in prayer and intercessionevery day
till late night. As they did not beget children after
many years of their marriage, in their oldage God
gave them the glorious gift i.e. a boy child, whom
they named as
‘Devadas’ 
 which means ‘Servant of God’
1. Birth and Childhood : 
Fr.
Devadas
was born in 1840 to Jonah and Satyavatamma, in
Jegurupadu,
 a small village in East
Godavari 
 district of Andhra Pradesh.He grew up in the best
spiritual atmosphere which his parents provided.He
was always contemplative while his young mates
engulfed themselvesin playing and making merry.He
used to follow his parents, in their evangelistic tours
and strictlyobserve their meditative line up by being
straight on his kneels. He re-ceived God’s special
calling during these times.
2. Schooling and Education : 
He was sent to a small school in
Jegurupadu 
 by his parents for hisprimary Education. He is a
clever child and a spontaneous learner. Aftercoming
from school he used to help his parents in their
ministry and day today life. He was very active in
school and had inculcated a sense of pro-found love
for the nature and care for the living creatures.When
he was 6 years old, his parents took him to a pastors
get-together. When a missionary asked him to pray
there he prayed: “Lord Jesus,, Let me be like Thee
when you are in my age.” From then onwards
themissionaries had a special impression on child
Devadas.
. Missionary Patronage: 
After completing his primary education, his parents
took him to
theL u t h e r a n   M i s s i o n a r i e s   a t   ( N . M . E . L . C
)   N i g a m   M e m o r i a l   E v a n g e l i c a l Lutheran
Church, at Dhavaleswaram on the banks of river
Godavari, andleft him under their patronage for
further education and spiritual growth.There he
finished his 8th standard and qualified to be a
Higher gradeteacher. Having closely watched
his innate zeal and strong sense of de-termination to
serve the Lord, the Lutheran missionaries immediately
ab-sorbed him in the teaching faculty of their mission
schools.He is always loyal to his authorities and is of
excellent dispositiontowards his superiors. His ideal life is a
serene acme for the growing chil-dren to be punctual, sincere
and humble. He marvelled his authorities in allthe
challenging responsibilities that were entrusted to him.
4. Meditative Solitude : 
Wether at home or in missionary boarding, he inculcated the
habit ofmaking his mind quiet and silent, only to converse with
his Father. He be-lieved in these verses and
strictly observed them. “I am the
Teacher”Jn.13:13; “ And Learn from Me” Mt. 11:28. To
realize his objective, he spenthours of solitude both day and
night. This kind of habit later, paved the wayfor his mysterious
life of ecstasy. It also resulted in the visible experience
ofcommuning with the Lord, face to face, with
naked eyes. All his meditativepractices made him a perfect
seer. This is the internal dimension of his lifewhich remained
obscure to most of his collegues and superiors. Heavenlysaints,
holy angels, earthly saints and sages from Himalayas are his
regu-lar visitors in his meditative life of solitude.
5. Meek Mentor : 
Under the patronage of Lutheran missionaries, Father
Devadas 
 de-veloped his bodily, spiritual and mental faculties. There he
was in the pro-cess of becoming a great spiritual giant. His
personal fellowship with JesusChrist increased day
after day with mysterious experiences
concerningheaven, earth and the nether world,
resulting in an unequivocal under-standing and
analysis of the Scriptures in general and the deep
meaningfor the tough passages in particular. Thus he was
ready as a perfect Bibleteacher, trainer and mentor to
humbly discharge his duties at various lev-els to various
sections of people in India.
 

6. Spiritual
Life
of St. M. Devadas: 
 St. Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians in the 12th C
hapter givesa list of all the spiritual gifts and
virtues. St. M. Devadas possessed allthese gifts and
virtues. He was endowed with the gifts of healing, speak-ing
in tongues, interpretation of tongues etc. He even had the
experienceof receiving the communion directly from
the Lord. This event happenedon the 24th of April 1938
when he went to attend the communion service inthe
Lutheran Church. As the local pastor declined
to serve
the Lord’scommunion St. M. Devadas stayed behind in the 
pews and prayed. Laterthe Lord Himself appeared to him
and served the communion to him i.e.His own blood and
body which he named as “Internal Holy
Communion.” Dr. Nina Ottman a Scottish lady doctor esta
blished a prayer fellowshipin Berhampur,
Orissa State. St. M. Devadas used to attend
this prayerfellowship . The members of this prayer
group experienced the fellowshipof Heavenly Saints, Holy
angels and the Lord Himself. One day the Lordrevealed to
the members of the prayer group that He will ordain
St. M.Devadas on a particular day. On the revealed day the Triune
God laid Hishands on St. M. Devadas and ordained
him. As a result of this he wasconsidered as
an ordained minister. Later St. M. Devadas ordained
hisdisciple Mr. Vijayaratnam.
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(1)
Founding of The Bible Mission: 
On 31st of January 1938 while he was
meditating in his room inLuthergiri which is nearby
Rajahmundry there appeared to him the
goldenwords in Telugu 'THE
BIBLE MISSION.' These words were written by theLord
Himself in the mid air in broad daylight. On seeing this
vision St.
M.Devadas hesitated in himself to leave his moth
er church (that is theLutheran mission). Later, in the
month of February the same year the Lordshowed him the
writing 'Leave Lutheran mission.' In the month
of Marchthe Lord again showed him the words 'Come out as
the prince of an army.'Eventhough St. M. Devadas was
disinclined to leave Lutheran Mission, hehad to do so in
obedience to the commandments of the Lord. After resign-ing
from the Lutheran Mission he said "I am leaving my
'mother mission' to join my father's mission (that is
the Bible Mission). On 5th of May 1938 hefinally
established The Bible Mission which emerged to be one of the
larg-
 

est Indian Indigenous Missions. This is the time Lord is

looking for, to re-
veal His “Bible Mission” to this great man of 
God.Father Devadasfounded the Bible Mission on
the priniciples of absolute faith on God andbelieving in
Him as the sole provider and sustainer.Creating faith in the
Bible Mission among the Christians and the freshconverts was
the challenge, the mission had faced. The following lines arethe
only answer for all the challenges and woes of the Bible
Mission.1) “Lord Jesus Christ has established” -
“Lord Jesus Christ will provide” 
2) “Lord Jesus Christ has established” -
“Lord Jesus Christ will Prosper” 
3)
“Lord Jesus Christ has established” -
“Lord Jesus Christ will bring name” (2) Turning Points : 
In course of asserting itself in the main stream of
Christianity, theBible Mission has witnessed many
turning points. The peculiar principlesintroduced by Fr.
Devadas, formed majority of them. Since there are
nofixed salaries for the workers, they always looked to
Jesus for any smallhelp they are at need. This formed the
solid base for their life of faith whichanchored them to the Lord
against all tempests of this world. This was ledto the futher
mission expansion.The special Bible clases conducted by
him gathered all the workersand enriched their
understanding and experience on the themes of
faith,hope, witness, endurance and so on. Since the
Biblical teaching had itsdeep penetration into the mindset
of the workers, their commitment to min-istry became solid
and lasting. The special meetings for the anointment ofthe
Holy Spirit are very crucial in the early history of the mission.
The heal-ing campaigns paved the way for the people to come
in, and the Holy Spiritanointment meetings established
them in the mission as staunch believ-ers and later
turned them into faithful workers.
(3) Rajahmundry to Guntur : 
Due to the separatist turmoil at Rajahmundry, he had
to leave thatplace. In that sojournment, he came to
prathipadu and started a healingcentre. From there he
came to Eluru, West Godavari district and finally
toGuntur on 15
th
 February 1949.
 

This event had turned the course of Bible Mission’s history. In

Gunturhe came to “Bethel House”, the residence of
Rao Bahadur J. Raja Raowho voluntarily invited
him to be there. Here Fr. Devadas saw a
writtenvision on which was mentioned: “Lord,
Jehova had brought you to thisplace.” This vision was
fulfilled in course of 12 years, which he spent there,explaining
the meaning of ‘The Song of Songs’ and “The Book of
Revela-tion.’ This place witnessed the growth of the
mission and the fulfillment ofFr. Devadas’ vision.
(4) Proper registration : 
Guntur became the centre of the Bible Mission and its main
network.The fulness of the mission is slowly seen here. Here,
Fr. Devadas startedhis famous healing centre at Kakani,
near Guntur on ‘Monday’ the 16
th 
ofMay 1949. Since then he concentrated on the ecumenical
character of themission and published at least 40
new books on various new themes,concepts and
practices of Christian life in the Bible Mission. At last,
nearlyafter a full decade of growth and stability of the mission
at Guntur, he regis-tered his God revealed mission,
according to His original revelation, as“The Bible
Mission” in 1959, July 22
nd
. Then he praised God saying, “Lord,by now, I could able to
set up your mission in the manner. Thou hast re-vealed
me.”
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1) Stability and growth : 
Because of the unitary command of Fr. Devadas and his
teachings,though the mission expanded in terms of its number
of branches and mul-tiplicity of membership, since majority of
them primarily came from the tra-ditional Hindu
Communities, it was stable and free from all types of
internaltumults and external cleavages.Presently, the
Bible Mission had its own place and rank among theother
denominations of the Christendom. It was estimated as the first,
fastgrowing Church in the Indian Sub continent. The Annual
Convention of themission is the main attraction and
prime source of its growth. Nearly, 5lakhs of people
have gathered this year and were fed for three full days onevery
27
th
, 28
th
 and 29
th
 of January. These are the fixed dates of the
AnnualConventions.
 

2) Missionary Campaigns : 
Chiefly, the growth was observed from the various
missionary cam-paigns organized and arranged by Rev. S.
Samuel, the former president ofthe mission, to many capitals
and important cities of India. People who areinterested in
Gospel work and tract distribution were taken by him in threeto
four tourist buses, depending on the number, to various cities
only to fillthem with the Gospel messages that are typical of the
Bible Mission. Mostof the visited places now bear fruit for the
Bible Mission. It is he that soughtafter the mission’s
development, after the departure of Fr. Devadas. Here, itis note
worthy to mention the prayerful support of Smt. P.J.
Graceamma toRev. S. Samuel, in tune with the mission’s growth
and progress.
3) Widening Horizons : 
With these missionary camps the Bible Mission has
made known itsexistence, work and vision to the rest of
the Christian world in India andabroad. Now its network
has expanded even to other countries. Due to hisselfless
services in the mission, Rev. S. Samuel was asked to
the 1984world Christian leaders conference held at
Amsterdam under the leader-ship of Billy Graham. But he
sent Rev. P. Sajeeva Rao, the present JointSecretary of the
mission, in his place, to voice the message of the
BibleMission. That was the first Inter national appearance of
the Mission.From then on wards, it never looked back.
Many Gulf countries in-vited the mission speakers to
conduct meetings there. Most of the Africancountries
witnessed the glory of the Bible Mission. Now
the doors areopened for the Bible mission and they shall
never be shut.
4) The Executive Body : 
The Bible Mission has four executive members i.e.
The President,The Vice-President, The Secretary
and The Joint Secretary as the over-s e e r s o f t h e
mission activities. They are Rev. Dr. A.
J o h n , R e v . N . Satyanandam, Rev. J. Samuel Kiran,
Rev. P. Sajeeva Rao, respectively.They are assisted by nine
Governing Body members elected from the mis-sion
workers. At present there are 44 Reverends, 211 Pastors,
312 maleevangelists and 110 women evangelists in
the Bible Mission, working invarious states
of India. Primarily, much work is being done
in AndhraPradesh. All these servants of God under the
supervision and guidance ofthe four executive members.