SOS Calls

After all the day's work I was on my prayer walk, to pray and fellowship with the Lord, when I received a missed call from an unknown number. I sensed that it could be an important call as the timing was not that of a general call. I called  back, and a sister panicked and requested me to visit them as they were in a hospital in South Delhi because her husband temporarily fainted with breathlessness. Her husband before being administered oxygen asked her to call "brother Palmei" immediately. Later, when he recovered from the temporary breathlessness he spoke to me over the phone narrating his critical situation. I took that as the Lord's sovereignty and told the brother that it was the Lord's wake up call to him to be revived in his Christian life and be recovered back to the normal church life. For this brother had come to Delhi for some mechanical training and had not been in fellowship with any saint nor with the church in New Delhi. Even while back home in Manipur, he was not regular either, though nominally was still in the church life. After a brotherly nourishing word, I cherished and comforted him not to be anxious but turn to the Lord in prayer instead. I prayed with him over the phone and promised to visit him the next day.

As I visited his family the following day, I released the burden of shepherding them to live a normal Christian life in the normal church-life. I encouraged them to enjoy the Lord every day in prayer, in reading the word of God, in family prayer together as husband and wife, and in fellowshipping with the saints in the church. They both agreed readily and amened my brotherly fellowship. As an exercise, we pray-read a verse, John 6:63, together and prayed together. After such fellowship I realised it was all the Lord's arrangement for them to be recovered back to the church life.  They both also confessed that the Lord had caused such circumstances because He loves them and wants to recover them. The ambiance of the group meeting was full of peace and satisfaction. It was truly indeed a wake up call to both of them, and they both realised it fully. Of course, I also advised them to do a proper medical check up too and offered my help to introduce them to a good doctor. 

Another emergency call came as I still was spending time for prayer. A brother called to apologize first, as he had taken a long leave officially due to his family problem, and also requested for further help in accommodation for him and his mother when they would get back to Gurgaon after their hometown visit to handle family matters. As a brother caring for another brother in the love of Christ, I encouraged him not to worry about my feeling even officially or otherwise. I told him that I understood his situation and would render all necessary help. Then I offered to pray together over the phone. As I prayed for him and his family that Christ would be magnified through him, and that Christ would gain the whole family,  and that the peace and rest of Christ may rest upon them, He amened all the phrases and sentences of my prayer. But after I finished my prayer, when he was about to pray, he just could not. Rather he broke down in tears and could not even complete a sentence of prayer. I waited and waited for him to release all his burdens, though without words, but will weeping and groaning. I sensed the deep agony and pain he has been through in his life. My only response was, comforting him with the fact that that the saints in the church in Gurgaon are praying for him and standing one with him. He was so gladful for the grace of Christ in the Body. The following day in my time with the Lord in the word, I felt led to encourage him with the verse I just enjoyed, and texted him this verse. 

And indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 3:12

Both the distress calls, though serious in nature, were all the Lord's sovereignty for the gaining of Christ all the more. What was meant to be an SOS, save our soul, turned out to be SWOS, the Spirit with our spirit, for the exercise and enjoyment of Christ as grace. 

The Lord is exercising His multifarious wisdom to gain His beloved. And so He does things in the way He deems best. And to this, what can we say but Amen!