His Presence

These days the Lord's sweetness was so dear and enjoyable. Yesterday, in my time with the Lord, He led me to a thorough confession to have a thorough and intimate fellowship with Him. The intensity of the prayer was so deep, I hardly sensed the passage of time. The same thing happened this morning. My heart was so hungry for the Lord's supply and His presence satisfied me. O the joy of His presence!

'Tis indeed an universal truth: Any insulation in our fellowship with the Lord hinders the supply of the Lord's sweet presence. Therefore, to live a joyful life, there has to be a thorough confession and application of the blood of the Lamb, a thorough and intimate fellowship with the Lord and a thorough prayer in oneness with the Lord.

This, the enemy is well aware and robs many Christian of their allotted portion by baiting them with the worldly pleasure and attraction for distraction, sins and their very self with the embodied sinful nature expressed in various forms.

However, the dealing with the world, sin and self will undo the enemy's tactics, and for this, the Lord's bountiful grace is accessible anytime with the exercise of the mingled spirit. Thus, the joy unspeakable is recoverable any moment.

Later, the Lord further enlightened me on the self. The self is the greatest enemy of the Body. If I ever have any problem with the saints, its not their problems, but mine; my self is not thoroughly dealt with. A good self is deceptive, but when the Lord exposes it, it is all for good, that the self be broken and Christ be gained.

This self, having been dealt with will usher into the living and working out of the New Jerusalem. All Christian works must take the New Jerusalem as the goal and the model to carry out the work.

Stanza 2 in Hymn # 477 impressed me deeply:
What e'er thou lovest, man,
That too become thou must;
God, if thou lovest God,
Dust, if thou lovest dust.
Go out, God will come in;
Die thou and let Him live;
Be not and He will be;
Wait and He'll all things give.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/477#ixzz2B4MItfD9

Being Vital

Contacting people for the preaching of the gospel for shepherding is a matter of living, and not merely of works. For the person and the work are one. If the person is not proper, the work will never be proper. Vital living is a must for the spread of the gospel.

Today, as we had the class on God-ordained way, the Lord impressed me so much on being vital to contact people:

Qualification to contact people is to be vital. To be vital, one must not only live an ordinary Christian life but an overcoming life. 

1 Thessalonians 5:

16 Always rejoice: Ordinary Christians may rejoice occasionally, but overcoming Christians must always rejoice.

17 Unceasingly pray: Ordinary Christians may pray occasionally, but overcoming Christians must pray unceasingly.

18 In everything give thanks: Ordinary Christians may give thanks occasionally, but overcoming Christians must give thanks for all things.

And be conformed to the death of Christ --

Philippians 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

Preparation to contact people is to have: 

a thorough prayer, having an intimate fellowship with the Lord

a thorough confession to the Lord and be cleansed from all defilement of sins, the world and the flesh and the natural man

a thorough and intimate fellowship with the Lord

Constitution needed is to be constituted with the truths of the Bible; the full ministry of Christ in three stages of incarnation, inclusion and intensification. For this, one needs to exercise daily to dive into the truths by pray-reading the Word, studying, reciting and prophesying. 

When contacting people, one should discern the need of the moment and minister the word from his constitution.

Lord, make me vital.

Human Care

Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.

Acts 20:28

The urgent and present need of the church, which the Lord deeply impressed upon me is "shepherding." Of late, the Lord burdened me for this and as I have been laboring in His grace, planting and watering faithfully, He causes the growth ( 1 Cor. 3:7). If there were none to plant and water, I believe God has no way to go on.

Brothers and sisters, though they are saved, they still need a lot of shepherding. As regeneration is not the end of a Christian life, but just the beginning. For them to grow, they do need shepherding. This need has been felt very much these days. As much as there is a need for shepherding, I myself need a lot of shepherding. And in shepherding, I am shepherded in return. And many fellowship during shepherding shepherded me too. An incident that touched me was what happened last Lord's day. 

After the table meeting, the Lord burdened me to spent another hour of free fellowship with new ones who came for the meeting. And He gave the utterance and released the burden. Praise the Lord! Still after this, two very new brothers in the Lord and also in the church-life opened up and requested for deeper personal time, which I obliged to. And they opened themselves up with much thirst and hunger for shepherding.

They both narrated their life stories and concluded that they really have been starved to spiritual death because of lack of shepherding in the denomination where they used to be. Recently, their introduction to the church-life was a matter of great revival in their lives. And both of them testified of the shepherding they received in the church-life. 

One of them have been struggling for 15 long years in the matter of baptism with many questions and doubts, but in the church-life in a small group meeting all doubts were cleared in 15 minutes fellowship on the truth of baptism. He later, got baptised and are now writing a new life story. The other brother opened up on may issues related to youth and their struggles in life, often times leading to depression and unwanted addictions.

To these brothers, exercising my spirit, I fellowshipped with them the need for personal and corporate enjoyment of the Lord and for this, the need for spiritual discipline in spending time with the Lord and eating the Word of God daily. Every genuine growth in life is a process and takes time. I encouraged them to come to the Lord and trust in Him only for every matter great or small; and if they need further fellowship and prayer, I offer myself to be available and contactable personally or at least over the phone. In our concluding fellowship we all prayed one by one. The Lord really worked in them and especially one of them, just confessed with tears and prayed and consecrated his life to Lord anew. Praise the Lord.

Today, when we had the God-ordained way class, this very experience was confirmed by the Lord's speaking through a brother. Shepherding is the need of the hour. May the Lord raise up many shepherds to shepherd the church of God.

The Attack - In the Soul

Be sober; watch. Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

He who hates the saints hate him to the uttermost; so when the enemy attacks he does in every areas possible. Apart from the attack in the body in physical sicknesses and weaknesses, he also attacks the souls of the saints. This "he" is the devil.

The experiences I have gone through confirmed of the enemy's tactic of causing misunderstanding among the saints especially among the weaker vessels, the sisters. The facts are fabricated with feelings of the untransformed minds caught unaware, and interpreted negatively to bring in grudges. This happens even among the brothers of which I am also often a victim of no exception. Forgetfulness is one of the sure symptoms.

Last week a sister's brother died and I was totally unaware of this fact though I was informed, I was of the understanding that it was her distant cousin of no importance.  Meanwhile I was so busy with my official duty and caring for the sick saints, and having ran out of strength I totally forgot to visit her family. However, only last night as we had a group meeting in her home, did I realise the seriousness of the matter. Instantly I apologised and comforted the family.

Similarly cases followed suit, even with my wife and even among sisters themselves. However, as we reconsidered the matter and prayed over it, it was so silly a matter even to reckon of.

A new brother was even so disturbed in his mind; this morning as I had morning revival, pray-read Bible verses together and fellowshipped with him, the Lord shone on him and he was so clear where he went wrong. Just a lack of living and walking in the spirit; a lack of exercising of the spirit. And delving further and deeper down, the main reason why some believers are so prone and vulnerable to attack is because of spiritual malnutrition.

The remedy is only in the Christ; to be rooted and ground in Christ by all means--by prayer, reading the Word, fellowship and more blending with the other believers. This is indeed the very need of the moment. Apart from this, there hardly will be any growth in life, any enjoyment of the Lord, any transformation and much less, maturity. O the need to have a deep root in Christ by being rich in Christ in the hidden life with Christ! May all saints be strengthened and deeply rooted in Christ and testify the victory of the Lord and turn the attack of the enemy into shame and manifested the manifold wisdom of God.

Lord Jesus, You are the Victor! You are the Lord! And You are still on the Throne! We are one with You and fighting the spiritual battle in victory! Hallelujah!!

The Attack : In the Body

Be sober; watch. Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

These days the attack of the enemy is rampant in every angle. No wonder, he is the adversary, anti to all and anything related to God. But the life we received of God in Christ is victorious, the harder the attack, the stronger the testimony of Jesus becomes. Hallelujah!

Like a torrent of rain, the attack came simultaneously, perhaps on the weaker vessels first? All the three mothers in the bungalow where we dwell got diseases of dengue, typhoid and the likes. Not sparing the kids too, and the brothers are busy either travelling or with the church related service. That's physical and the Lord provided the means to heal and recover them back, apart from prayer.

Psychologically,  a new serving one got an attack gripped with unnecessary doubts and fear, causing havoc to himself and others. However, the brotherly love in the church has a way to handle; with much prayer and fellowship.

Spiritually too, the saints seem to undergo a walk on the valley of the shadow of death. Nonchalantly, the Lord is the Lord of the saints and the church. The speaking of the Lord this week was just apt to the core. We need to realise the age we live in, as member of the Body of Christ, we must aspire to live an overcoming life by taking the overcoming way, to be an overcomer by the simple God-man living practices of calling on the Lord, pray-reading His word, praying unceasingly, not quenching the spirit and not despising prophesying. The Lord knew what was needed and spoke the timely word.

Besides, the entity the Lord entrusted me with is on time of business trials. This helped me turn to the Lord persistently. And the Lord's comforting word of "all is well with my soul" chimes through me. And He confirms further that "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply." 

Times like these are real testing time of our faith and trust in the trustworthy Lord. Praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity of experiencing Him in a personal and deep way. 

May my roots grow deeper and deeper to be deeply rooted in the Lord and stand as tall as the Cedar of Lebanon. Grace me Lord.

Heavenly Life

Christ is the heavenly Minister, ministering heaven, as a position, to us so that we may have the power to live a heavenly life. This is possible because Christ has ascended and enthroned to be Lord of all, as the Saviour and heavenly High Priest of the Holy of Holies, to bear us in the presence of God and care for all our human needs(Heb.4:14;7:26;9:11.)  As such He is ministering to us day by day. This is a real booster to me as I enjoyed the speaking of the Lord through the HWMR, that I can live a heavenly life in this worldly world! This is absolutely normal as Christ has accomplished all for this very purpose. It is no miracle nor any special spirituality needed. As much as Christ lives in us, so much the more we can live a heavenly life! Christ our life (Col.3:4) and Christ our living(Phil.1:21) makes us a heavenly man to live a heavenly life!

Two days ago I spoke this to a group meeting and the saints were really strengthened. As such a high Priest, He also called us to be His priest on the earth. Ezekiel 44:15b, 17b " they shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to present to Me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord Jehovah,..and no wool will come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and inside it."

The Lord calls us to Himself from everything else, good or evil; from all the preoccupations, so that we can minister to Him, not His works, even the so called spiritual works. No Christian work is as christian as Christ  Himself; no spiritual work is more spiritual than Christ Himself. Christ Person must be of utmost important than anything else. Otherwise, it might turn out to be idolatry in spiritual/christian cloak.

And to stand before the Lord, ever ready to heed His command, to whatever He has to say; to offer sacrifices of blood, taking Him as our redemption and covering, satisfying God's requirement for righteousness and holiness by dealing with all the negative things; and sacrificing fat, honoring, worshipping, praising and glorifying Him by offering Him the best we could for God's satisfaction and fulfill God's requirement for glory. This is an honorable and noble service indeed.

And that no wool will come upon the serving ones implies no sweating out of human labour be there in our service to God; our service should be in spirit out of the Lord, for and unto the Lord without any impure human effort and intention. Such is the High Priest calling for the priests.

Lord, may I be such a one.

Thus Spake the Lord...

An antique expression of the KJV jargon, "Thus spake the Lord..." has been very subjective. In the old testament time it was God who spoke directly or through the priest or prophet or king. Whereas, now , in this time of grace, all saints function as priest, prophet or king, in the spiritual sense, to convey the heart of God to His people, all in line with His economy for the building up of His Body. That was what happened last Saturday.

A brother's fellowship on being revived in simple and practical matters were indeed the speaking of the Lord. God's work starts from within our being in simple daily matters in rhyme with a childhood nursery rhyme, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." 

God ordained days and nights for works and for rest. This universal principle must not be violated. Satan eats people away by eating away their time with the latest gadgets and technology as TV, mobile or internet. Its so subtle that one only wake up to see that have been eaten on a gradual process. And his strategy is to make believers find no time for the basic practices of a Christian life. He makes them so busy in their jobs; even while not in job, lures them with relaxation excuse of snaring them with the latest technologies available mostly mobile, TV and internet these days.

All these are to rob the believers of their fundamental rights and duties as a Christian. Simple practices of calling upon the Name of the Lord, enjoying morning revival are basic and fundamental to a Christian life. Based on these simple things are the matter of preaching gospel and shepherding for the increase of the church. Otherwise, anything of Christian life and practices can easily be religious rituals.

As the fellowship went on I felt the Lord was speaking to me and to us, brothers in the church. The Lord wants to go on, and He is preparing us as vessels for Him to move on. Such fellowship was the speaking of the Lord, receiving and rendering spiritual help to one another.The Lord does speak and He speaks through the members of His Body. What a blessing to be in the Body and receive supply from the Body!

Lord, as Thous as spoken, do Thou speak again, and again...Amen.