Hymn: Asking and Abiding

A fellowship with a brother on prayer especially concerning the words of the Lord in John 14, 15, 16, 17 where the Lord Jesus specifically asked his disciples to ask Him, "Ask Me." Based on this, the following hymn was composed.

Prayer: Abiding in the Lord

Tune: Sweet Hour of Prayer

Enlightened by and through the fellowship of Br. RC, and based on the fellowship today at Hyderabad 22 Aug 2026, this hymn was composed, a hymn on prayer.

1

(John 15:4,5,16)

"Abide in Me, Abide in Me."

Jesus, to us, Thy loving charge.

Cause us, Lord, to abide in Thee,

Deal our soul life, and our self purge.

Thou art the Vine, we are Thine branch,

Thou set us forth to bear Thee fruits.

Abide in Thee, Lord, cause us to

Bear remaining, abundant fruits.

2

(John 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23,24,26)

"Ask in My name, Ask in My name."

Jesus, 'tis Thine loving command.

In Thy Person, in life, nature,

Abide in Thee, as Thou demand.

In mind, in will, in emotion,

Lord, one with Thee, in one spirit.

We ask Thee Lord, gain us fully;

Abide in Thee, by Thy Spirit.

3

(Phil. 4:6, James 4:8; Col. 3:15)

We ask Thee, Lord, teach us to pray, 

According to Thy will, Thy words:

No anxiety, no double soul,

No doubting mind, no blabbling words;

In obedience, in submission

To Thee, Thy word, and Thy Body;

In discerning, in deciding, 

In one with Thee. Lord, we ask Thee!

4

(Rev. 8:3,4; 1 John 2:27; Matt. 11:28-30)

Teach us to pray, persistently:

Praying, asking, by inner sense,

Praying the burdens Thou bestow-- 

Sweet fragrance of burning incense,

Praying, caring the peace within,

Fill with insight, full of foresight,

Praying by inner anointing.

And thus, winning Thy heart's delight.

5

(Ezekiel 36:35; Isaiah 45:11)

"Inquire of Me, Inquire of Me."

Thou, Lord, command us to inquire,

'Tis to increase men like a flock.

Increase in us, Lord we inquire. 

Of Thy Son and work of Thy hands, 

Work Thyself into us th'roughly.

Do Thou through us, do Thou in us.

To fulfill Thy economy. 

Hymn: See God and Know God

On the first day of our fellowship with a brother, the Lord opened my eyes to see once again how much my eyes need to be opened to see God, and the result of seeing God is to see my self. Job was indeed perfect outwardly as God testified about him, yet, inwardly he lacked divine life and nature of God. Despite all the dealings he had gone through, he was not able to see himself. Therefore, he kept defending his integrity to all who debated or questioned him. This cycle of debate went on and on until God came and asked him questions after questions in Job 38-41 until Job realised he was nothing, knew nothing, and that God is everything. 

Job 42:1-6 RecVer

1. Then Job answered Jehovah and said,

2. I know that You can do all things / And that no purpose of Yours can be restrained.

3. Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? / Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, / Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

4. Hear now, and I will speak; / I will ask of You, and You shall inform me.

5. I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You;

6. Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent / In dust and ashes.

Based on the fellowship as the initiation, the following hymn was composed, with what I have understood of the word of God concerning seeing God and seeing one self.

Prayer: To See God and Know God; to See and Know Oneself 

(Enlightened by and through the fellowship of Br. RC, I wrote this hymn today, the 21 Aug 2026)

Tune: What a Friend We Have in Jesus Hymn 789

1

(Matt. 9:27; 7:5; 8:25; Eph. 1:18; John 15:26)

Son of David, Lord, have mercy!

Heal my sight that I may see!

Open my eyes, Lord, to see Thee,

All Thou art, see Thee clearly.

Son of God, enlighten my heart;

To know Thee and Thy glory,

To know the hope of Thy calling

To know Thee in reality.

2

(Psalms. 43:3-4; 133:3)

Lord, send forth Thy light and Thy truth,

Lead me to Thy holy mount.

Bring me to Thy tabernacle,

To Thy altar, to Thy fount.

Lord, there, to praise and worship Thee,

There, in oneness we're dwelling ,

There, Thy anointing bestowing,

There, Thou command Thy blessing!

3

(Exodus, Acts 7; Heb. 9-10)

Out of Egypt to wilderness,

Lead me onto Thy good land;

Red Sea crossed, then o'er to Jordan,

Lead through and through by Thy hand.

Outer court to the Holy Place, 

Passing through the riven veil,

Into to the Holy of Holies,

To live e're within the veil.

4

(Psalms 103:7; Rev.3:16-18)

Thank Thee, Father, for Thy mercy,

Revealing Thyself to me;

Thy way and Thy deeds to know Thee,

To know myself, and self to see.

Lord, I confess I am lukewarm,

Wretched, miserable, poor,

Blind and naked, I come to Thee,

Anoint my eyes, Thou to see.

5

(Job 42:5-6; Rom.8:13)

Lord, my hearing ear had heard Thee,

Lord, now, my eye has seen Thee.

Lord, I abhor myself and repent

In dust and ashes, unto Thee.

Lord, my end is Thy beginning.

Lord, my death is Thy living.

Through Thy cross by Thy Spirit,

Lord, Thou be e'er my living.

A Day in Mathura

Persecutions in North India have been gathering steam. In the midst, some of our brothers were affected while in a meeting in Mathura and were imprisoned and case filed. After over four months of imprisonment, they were bailed out. However, their belongings confiscated were not bailed out as these required another lengthy legal procedures. For these, there is a need for guarantor. 

To be one of the guarantors for one of the brothers, I was approached. I also readily agreed. Therefore, for this purpose, along with another guarantor and the brother concerned, we travelled to Mathura. 

It was a new experience for me to drive the car the Lord blessed me with, from Gurugram all the way to Mathura and back, picking and dropping our brothers in Delhi. This was an opportune time for a day's blending in the car. Meanwhile, I got to drive on the Jamuna Expressway at 100+ kmph, the permitted speed on this highway.

Yet, to our disappointment, our documents were not accepted by the court staffs with the excuse that our documents were based outside Mathura which needed a lengthy process of verification and that our original vehicle RCs were all smart cards which have no provision for marking as used, unlike the paper RC. After a long and hectic travel, our documents were returned back. It felt like our day was wasted, but the Lord gave us new experiences in standing one with and for the brothers. Though the legal purpose for which we came to Mathura was unfulfilled, the spiritual purpose of fellowshipping and blending with our fellow brothers were fulfilled. Praise the Lord!

Thank the Lord, all things indeed worked together for good.

New Experiences

On the 19th August 2026, as we drove to the airport to drop my wife and daughter for their flight journey to Taipei for our eldest daughter's further studies, as a family we experienced something new, never experienced before. Our three children had a good and sweet time of bonding while being in the car. The usually heavy traffic lengthened the journey of half an hour to more than hour, giving sufficient time for sibling bonding. This was the first time a member of our family is moving forward and be temporarily separated for a new beginning. 

As we dropped off at the airport, everyone of us were in tears. The first time I witnessed my chidren in tears of love. It even affected me for a while. But I could hold it back with a little struggling. By the way, we had sufficient prayers, fellowship, and preparation while on the way.

As my wife and eldest daughter were abroad, a new experience ensued at home. All that my wife used to do at home, now those things have to be done without her. My son and younger daughter were well prepared to fill up the "missing link." My cousins and niece came in to fill the gap too. With this new arrangement came also new learning. Things in the house were all taken care. Now, my chidren became more responsible to sleep on time and wake up on time without their mom's waking them up. And other household chores were responsibly taken care too. We learn to adapt with new environment. Praise the Lord for these new experiences! And our love for one another also grew much more.

Wedding Gathering

I received a last minute information about a sister's wedding in New Delhi just two days before the wedding date. I had no intention to attend as I had many things in store at hand. However, when my wife and my daughter spoke to me about attending the wedding, I responded half heartedly initially. Later, it was confirmed through a fellowship with a brother that it was good for me to attend. Then, I finally decided to attend.

As usual, the wedding meeting in the church life is simple yet full of content, especially in the ministry of the word. It was God who arranged the marriage and He did it in the best way. I was simply one of the witnesses to the Lord’s sovereign arrangement. The testimonies of the saints and the ministry of the word with a specific focus on the family members of the groom who were yet to be saved was simply amazing. The wedding meeting has served its very purpose; a testimony to the family and friends of the bride and groom, and also to the church.

When requested to be one among the brothers to bless the couple in prayer, the instant leading of the Lord in me for the couple was to bless them with the bkessing of the Triune God. The greatest blessing on the whole universe is the blessing of the Triune to be dispensed into the couple to make them one with Himself and one with one another, also and fill them with the divine love to love one another.

Besides, this wedding meeting also turned out to be our family gathering. After a long long time, we were able to take a family photo together with proper attire. As we graced the wedding, we also graced our own family gathering. The Lord was sovereign in leading us to this wedding meeting.

Sometimes, I may be complacent to something the Lord had in mind. Yet, He never left me to my own decision. He used the people around me to wake me up from my sleeper cell and venture out to discover what the He has planned for us as a family. 

What a blessing in disguise for our family in attending this wedding meeting! What a wedding gathering that also paved the way for our family gathering.

May the Lord bless the couple, make them fruitful and multiply.

God’s Timely Provision

As the Lord in His mercy has taught us lessons on prayer by leading us to pray for specific burdens and then answering those prayers, He also provided all the needs to meet the burden we prayed for. This was specifically concerning our daughter's further studies in Taipei. 

As the Lord has been leading us step by step, He also provided all the needs for her going abroad. At this juncture, the Lord provided in abundance the needed finance through the maturity of the Life Insurance policy I purchased fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, God already knew that I would need money and He led me to purchase a policy then. At the right time, fifteen years after, the policy got matured and I received much more than sufficient money to take care of all the needs at this time. Praise be to God who was and is and always will be; the all-knowing God!

With all the provisions, all that are needed for my daughter's going abroad were purchased one by one. Luggages, clothes, phone, laptop, and many big and small items, almost everything that could be purchased in India were all purchased. Even the finance needed in foreign currencies were all provided. Only that her scholarship could not be applied from India as the embassy has no department to handle the matter.  Nonetheless, the Lord provided all the needs. And I trust the Lord will also provide the best scholarship at the proper time as we also have been praying for this.

Praise the Lord, our Jehovah-Jireh!

Know God and Know Thyself

An enlightenment from the fellowship with a brother we enjoyed today at Hyderabad as we embarked one five days national brother fellowship. 

Spiritual blindness is not knowing God. As as result of ignorance of God, one is also ignorant of himself. In this case, ignorance is never a bliss. Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are groping in darkness, living in the wilderness, not knowing where they are, and to which direction they are headed to. One clear sign of such ignorance is to think highly of oneself, self glory, self boasting, pride, and foolishness. This was the case with Job and his friends in the book of Job, so is the case with many of us.

God in His sovereignty allow such ones to linger around in their blindness and then ultimately convicts them, leading  them to see themselves who they really are: ignorant, foolish, and blind. Job experienced such in Job 38-41 when God asked him thirty one questions of which he could answer none.  Such knowing of himself led Job to see God finally, then he declared:

Job 42:5-6 RecVer

I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.

Spiritual growth is to know what we are not and then to know who God is. Know God and know thyself.

When one knows who God is and gains God, perhaps, individually first, and then corporately, that is the blessing. God is the Blessing. This blessing comes as God Himself as the anointing Spirit. When we have this anointing, we have God. However, this gaining of God and His anointing comes with a price, the price of self denial through the experiences of the cross, leading to oneness and one accord among those who know God and know themselves.

To gain God, the self must go. For the self to go, one must see himself and know for sure that he is nothing and can do nothing. This will lead to self denial and allow Christ be everything. Thereby, always leaning and depending on God and God alone, never taking anything for granted. This is just like the experience of the Shulamite.

Song of Solomon 8:5-6 RecVer

Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, Leaning on her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree: There your mother was in labor with you; There she was in labor and brought you forth.

Set me as a seal on your heart, As a seal on your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; Its flashes are the flashes of fire, A flame of Jehovah.

This has been my personal experience these days, even in the past 9-12 months. By God’s mercy, I could see and know something of God, many things of myself, and desperately depend on the Lord.

This personal experience also led me to depend on the Body, on the brothers and sisters, as I also very much depend on God Himself. For the experience of God on Christ as the Spirit is also the experience of His heart's desire, His Body, His church, the many fellow believers whom He has placed me with. 

This dependence on Christ and His church, brings in the oneness and accord which is the key to all the spiritual blessings in the New Testament. When God blesses based on this condition of oneness as in Psalms 133, the anointing is the result. When God blesses, there is the anointing. This anointing is the Spirit. When there is the blessing, we simply must praise rather than pray. 

On the cautionary note, no one can fake the anointing. If there is the anointing, there is the anointing. If there is no anointing, there is no anointing. This is the simple fact.

Such knowledge of no anointing should drive one to desperately humble oneself, repent and abhor oneself in dust and ashes as Job did, and seek God to gain Him. Then, this exposure and merciful dealing will pave the way to turn from blindness to seeing, from darkness to light, and from self to God, issuing in the presence of God bestowed on us as the anointing Spirit, the Blessing. This is to know God and to know oneself. 

Know God, know thyself. 

God is and we are not. 

Where the self is, there will no God be. Where God is, there will no self be. 

More God, less self.

More knowing God, more knowing of the self.

More knowing of God, more knowing of God's will.

Know God,and know thyself.

Lord, cause me to know Thee.

Lord, cause me to know myself. 

Lord, cause me to know Thy will.

Lord, cause Thyself as the Blessing bestow upon me.