Shepherding: A Genius

Last week a brother who is known to me for over two decades texted me of his being in Gurugram and that he wanted to meet me. I replied to him with a welcome note and gave my address. He mentioned that he would come on Saturday and spend some time with me before he would leave the city. But on Friday afternoon, he surprised me by texting that he was on the way to meet me. I was not prepared to host him as it was a weekend when trainees would come and stay in the only guest room available. But since he already was on the way, I did not stop him but waited for him. He did come, and I need to make an impromptu hospitality arrangement. I only felt sorry that I would not be able to give him better hospitality beyond my capacity. Anyway, the arrangement was made for food and lodging.

As we fellowshipped, he opened up on his deep desire to come back home to the church life from all his roamings in Christianity and to be in fellowship with the Body of Christ. Then he narrated the major incidents that happened in his life, most of which were spectacular. His testimony itself is one of a genius. Since his childhood till date, he has been living a very disciplined life, as he was trained to be a Hindu Brahmin priest. On the physical side, he maintains a strict dietary regulation, a pure vegan, and eats only organic food, and mentally trained to be a priest until one day, he encountered the Lord Jesus Christ face to face in a vision and believed into the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he has become the real priest of the true and living God! On the academic front, he completed his matriculation when he was just a boy, not even a teen yet. To this day, he has 25 degrees to his credit, out of which 3 of them are PhDs, and he is also a very well-read person; a lover of books. On the religious front, he has been an "international preacher" who has visited 47 countries for "preaching." 

Two spectacular incidents happened in 2012 and 2013. In 2012 he was on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii, to give a lecture at Hagai Institute. One of the engines of the flight he was in failed. All passengers were asked to wear safety attires when he refused positively with the hope that nothing would happen as he was confident of God protecting him and the entire flight. He even went to the cockpit to pray for the flight after getting permission from the pilot. After he prayed, the "failed" engine "recovered" miraculously. This incident was reported to media and later published in the newspapers of the US. The following year, based on this real-life incident, the White House, under the presidency of Mr. Barak Obama Hussain, invited him for the National Day of Prayer on March 2nd, 2013. He did attend as per invitation and presented the Holy Bible, Recovery Version to the President of America, Mr. Barak Obama.

Now, this brother with all these spectacular and miraculous experiences came all the way to fellowship with me and confess that for 20 years he has been seeing and hearing enough of Christianity in its religious and spiritual aspects. Yet all this while there has been a vacuum in his being. He knows what that vacuum is, it is the hunger, thirst, and desire for the Lord's heart's desire, the genuineness of the church, the fellowship and oneness of the Body of Christ.

On the one hand, I was surprised that such a genius brother would reckon me as his brother to whom he would like to fellowship, yet, on the other hand, I appreciated the deep longing within his being for the reality of the Body of Christ. He even decided that, henceforth, he would stand for the Lord's testimony in his locality and that brothers would visit him for shepherding and fellowship. He decided that he would fully be one with the brothers and be recovered into the normal church life.

My only response was to pray with him and also to pray for him that the Lord would genuinely and fully recover him according to the burden he has, and according to the Lord for His economy on this earth. I did my best to introduce him again to the brothers nearby in his locality and also gifted him ministry books; The Orthodoxy of the Church, Shepherding Materials, and books related to the church and the Body of Christ.

May the Lord truly and fully recover him indeed!