He came to see there is a "gap" in Protestant history which can only be filled by being a part of the apostolic Church, he said.
"Studying Church history made me rethink the beliefs I had. Then… the theological, doctrinal unity made me think secondly about Catholicism and Catholic theology. So, my theological convictions made me come back to Catholicism and the Catholic Church."
What followed were four years of discussions with the bishops of Kerala, canonists, theologians, and eventually the Vatican, Joseph stated.
Joseph was born into a Catholic family, but when he was 16 years old his parents left the Church to join the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal ecclesial community.
Joseph was moved to become a preacher; by the age of 19, he was already preaching to small groups of people in Kerala.
He studied Protestant theology and became pastor of an Assemblies of God community. He taught at a Protestant seminary for a period, and started traveling to preach.
In 2011, he started Grace Community Global, which he led for several years before discovering that the unity he was seeking could be found in the Catholic Church.
Around the time he started Grace Community, when Joseph was 28 years old, he had a powerful experience in prayer, he said, including a vision of Christ crucified and an altar, which he believes was revealing to him the truth of what Christ suffered on the cross, and his presence in the Eucharist.
"As a Protestant pastor, I was not able to digest that image [of an altar]," he said, noting that he wondered why God was showing him this.
According to Joseph, this experience left him with "a great boldness to pray for the sick," leading him to start his healing ministry.
Fr. Theruvath said Joseph has the supernatural gift of healing, an extraordinary charism received through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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The priest said "the Holy Spirit is working through this."
"God is doing amazing things here!" Joseph rejoiced.
Editor's note, 2020 Jan 17, 0914: An earlier version of this story erroneously indicated that Grace Community Global had received a permission from the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, under whose jurisdiction it would fall. It has been corrected.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.