Perfecting Training

2 Corinthians 13:9,11For we rejoice whenever we are weak and you are powerful; this also we pray for, your perfecting. Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, think the same thing, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Note on "perfecting": Or, restoring. Implying repairing, adjusting, putting in order again, mending; perfectly joining together (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10 and note 4), thoroughly equipping, well furnishing; thus, perfecting, completing, educating. The apostles prayed for the Corinthians that they might be restored, put in order again, and thoroughly equipped and edified to grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Note on "perfected": Or, completed thoroughly. I.e., repaired or adjusted, put in order again, mended, perfectly joined together; thus, restored. In Greek this word is the root of the word for perfecting in v. 9 and in Eph. 4:12.

God needs vessel to corporately express Him. Man is created as earthen vessel, this vessel needs perfecting to be transformed to be useful vessel to the Lord. Every vessel, good or bad, needs the Lord's working into and upon to be able to contain God and express God. For this, growth in life and transformation is of utmost importance.

As brothers serving in the church in Gurgaon, we started fellowshipping and blending with the brothers in Delhi to learn from one another, and much more be blended and built up with one another. The Lord has sovereignly been showering His blessings upon the church in the capital city of India, New Delhi. In 2005 in New Delhi I first came as a trainee to learn and to serve, now the number of the saints have grown up from a mere 10+ to some 300+. Praise the Lord! At least for about two years I had the honor of serving in New Delhi, after which my service was transferred to Gurgaon. Now in Gurgaon I have been learning to serve and coordinate in the church service as well. 

With this impending need and burden of perfecting, we have attended the perfecting training with the brothers in New Delhi since last month. The ministry helps us to see and know the need of perfecting, and as such the training to be perfected. The apostle Paul's burden too was on perfecting the believers in the local church in Corinth. Perfecting implying repairing, adjusting, putting in order again, mending; perfectly joining together (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10 and note 4), thoroughly equipping, well furnishing; thus, perfecting, completing, educating. The apostles prayed for the Corinthians that they might be restored, put in order again, and thoroughly equipped and edified to grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ. And this is exactly our burden too, for the churches in NCR.

Following this training was the visit and fellowship with senior co-workers for two days. Every time we had fellowship, my inner being was in fear and trembling, receiving in submission, humility, and obedience, the practical fellowship of the brothers. Though I did not expressed it orally, deep within my being I expressed my gratitude to God for these brothers to whom I could look up to for learning, perfecting, and as my pattern. The Lord also anointed them with His Spirit to minister life to us, serving ones. What a privilege! Had it not been for the ministry in His recovery today, I would have lost myself in self-deceit and false spirituality. Thank God for such brothers whom the Lord uses to shepherd us even as we learn to shepherd the saints in the church of the living God. All these fellowship and experiences are indeed a practical perfecting training to me. And I need this perfecting more as I desire to be useful to the Lord and be a blessing to the saints and the churches.

Lord, perfect me... 

My life itself is a perfecting training; including my family life, service life, and church life.