Pray Toward the City!

"..pray to You toward their land that You have given to their fathers, the city that You have chosen, and the house that I have built for Your name;" 1 Kings 8:48b

When Solomon dedicated the  temple of God, which was God's heart's desire throughout the ages that pleased both God and men, his prayer has specific phrase repeated a couple of times in I Kings 8:29,30,35,44,48. This phrase is "pray toward this place or city." To paraphrase it, whatever happens with the Israelite for whatever reason, as long as they pray to Jehovah toward the city of God, Jerusalem, where the temple of God is, God would forgive their sins and recover them back to the chosen city. This is the reason why Daniel, while in captivity, prayed three times a day opening his windows towards Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). This is very significant in our Christian life today.

Our prayer must have a goal with a means and a source. Our prayer is not for ourselves, but for the Lord and His interest on the earth. His heart's desire is :

Firstly, Christ, typified by the land, the good land Canaan, the alloted portion to all the genuine believers in the new testament  as a type in the old testament signified by  "pray toward their land";

Secondly, the kingdom of God in Christ, typified by "the city" Jerusalem, the city God has chosen and;

Thirdly, the holy temple, signifying God's house, the church, on the earth, to put His Name and be His dwelling place and charged His children to come and offer worship at least thrice a year.

Therefore, to pray toward the city is to pray to God  toward Christ, the kingdom  of God, and the house of God. When our prayers are tuned according to this, God will listen to our prayers, as this kind of prayers are according to His will. Whomever or whatever we are praying for, our prayers must be one with God's interest, directed towards Christ, the kingdom of God and the church, then we are praying the genuine Lord's prayer, and these prayers will always be answered. Pray to Jehovah toward the city!

The Beasts

We need Christ to receive the kingdom from God and come to crush all the beasts and then to become a great mountain that comprises us and that fills the whole earth to be the kingdom of God. By terminating and terminating us and by crushing all the beasts in us, Christ is wrought into our being to become our centrality and universality.  

Life-Study of Daniel Message 12

The vision in Daniel concerning the beasts are the human governments of different ages and different nature but essentially the same in essence. The aggregate of all those beasts is the present system of government, inclusive of all human culture, social, economic and politic. These beasts will be crushed and terminated at the second coming of Christ. In fact, the process of this crushing is beginning to take place.

The outward crushing by a stone cut without hands would take place soon, and meanwhile the crushing of the beasts in us, the believers, must also take place as a part of our growth and transformation in life. Within our beings there are many hidden beasts. Any matter, person or things whose source is not Christ, whose means is not Christ and whose goal is not the glory of God is a beast. As a man with flesh and blood and fallen in sin, there are many yet to be terminated beasts. And daily we must open to the Lord to deal with all these beasts within our being, that gradually we may be replaced with Christ until Christ has the first place and be the preeminent one in our personal life, church life, family life and service life.

I personally was touched by this message and looked to the Lord for mercy that the Lord may, in His mercy, kill all the beasts within me. And my prayer is, "Lord, have the first place in me, make Your home in my heart."

Enlarge My Border!

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that You would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me! And God caused what he had requested to come to pass. 1 Chronicles 4:10

These days the Lord has been gracing me to hunger deeply for Him and His presence in prayer. And I enjoyed the time spent with Him in His presence. Last night as I was praying, and as usual, was beginning to intercede for DLF-1 where I live, even asking the Lord to release local people and families for the testimony in Gurgaon, but the instant speaking of the Lord  was that I would gain Him first, I  must minister to Him first and then to His house. 

Of late, I have been impressed by the significance of ministering to the Lord or to His house. In fact, I spoke regarding this in a couple of meetings. But it never struck me subjectively. But last night, the application came right away. Praise the Lord!

The Lord needs us to need Him; He wants to possess us to possess Him; He wants to gain us to gain Him. First, He must have the first place in our lives; then He can have His way to do what He wants to do through us. This has been my prayer too these days; to gain the Lord, to grow up to Him unto maturity. And this has been my burden. But I do not have the right verse to match this burden. But today, in our meeting, a saint quoted 1 Chronicles 4:10, Jabez's prayer,"Oh that You would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me!" To enlarge the border means the enlarging of our gaining of Christ and the enjoyment of Christ, to be rich, full and saturated with Christ. The Lord is speaking in the saints' speaking, supplying members of His Body with members of His Body. I was so nourished and later I echoed the same in the meeting and texted the same verse to few brothers.

Lord, enlarge my border! Gain me that I may gain you and minister to You as to minister to Your house.

Spiritual Babes

The Lord is sovereignly wise in His dealings with me. Though I was saved  a decade and half ago, still I need more growth in life. The Lord knows where I stand and I too know who I am in the Lord. As far as faith and basic understanding of the truth is concerned, by the Lord's covering, I may say the Lord has taught me. But as far as maturity is concerned, I am just "spiritual babe," learning to function as normal Christian. 

Even tonight as I was having my "pra-wlk" (prayer-walk), I could see how many things I need to learn from the Lord; His ways, His will and His timings. Time is the best test of what or how, who has become. Some of my discernment which I was even dead-sure of, were disapproved by the test of time; and I thanked the Lord for all that. My discernment has to be fine tuned and must be purely of the Lord without the contamination of the self. This is one of the proofs I am spiritual babe, needing more growth in life. And most of my improper discernments were in the matter of marriages,not mine but others'. Praise the Lord for these baby manifestations. Lest I brag about it and nullify the humility required of me and demands God's righteous judgement. 

Under the Lord's covering and trusting in the indwelling Spirit, the Lord has been gracing  me now and then to shepherd some saints in need. And all the time I helped them in the matter of growth by eating, drinking and breathing the Lord. Every time I did that, actually, I was ministering to myself as I ministered to the saints in need; the importance of spiritual growth from being a spiritual babe. And I too am still on the process of being trained. 

However, this matter of growth should not be overstretched to produce spiritual giants. Otherwise, it will be a sad repetition of history producing a lot of individualistic spiritual believers with no building up among themselves nor the Body of Christ. The growth in life of the believers is for the building up of the Body of Christ. Some believers have to be tampered, adjusted and shaped in many aspects, such as mine, to fit into the ongoing process of building up the Body of Christ. Minus these breakings and blendings, all spirituality will only divide the Body of Christ and God's desire in His economy will never be fulfilled.

Looking back, I thanked the Lord for all the mistakes and manifestations of immaturity I have committed. Lest I be blinded with pride and ignorance. Now I know what a wretched man I am, so my only trust and  hope is the Lord Jesus Christ, my only way is the cross and my only goal is to be builded up into the Body of Christ by being dealt with thoroughly until maturity for the preparation of the Bride to bring the Lord  back.

Lord, grow in me day by day. Never leave me as spiritual babe. Do all that You will, to make me a full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Do Not Give Up

A number of times I have been considering to give up some of the believers that I am caring for, for the sole reason that they do not turn out to be according to my expectation. I often wondered, if its really worth laboring on all these, spending time, money and energy? Don't I have any better thing to do? On examining some of the ones I am shepherding, directly or indirectly, they seems to be tough cases, either too extreme in some of their concepts or either too much into religiosity or even too less of God. 

However, as I come before the Lord and pray concerning these ones, the Lord reminded me again and again, "Do not give up." But how long until they reach the maturity expected from them of? Only the Lord knows. Sometimes, I am depressed by not seeing fruitful results. But when I prayed for them one by one, the Lord confirmed deep within my being that they all are on the process of being fully recovered. Some of these ones are real "hard case." There has even been a feeling among believers in the church that these ones are no good; even to the extent that they are hopeless. Perhaps, that may be the fact, but once the Lord burdens me with these ones, it may not be wise to naively collude with the un-burdened ones to give them up. Person to person, burden differs; and person to person, God's way of dealing also differs.

Amidst the hopelessness sometimes, I won't give in as a desperado. The Lord within me is alive, as long as He leads me, by His grace, I would ever embrace these ones on my heart and shepherd them as much as I am being graced. 

This morning as I prayed to the Lord specifically, I was encouraged by the Lord to even count them one by one, naming them. Its over a score! Once these turns out to be solid remaining fruits, even pillars and pillar builders for the church, its worth all the labor. May the Lord gain all these ones for His purpose. And this will the sure result be, only if "I do not give up." And as long as the Lord grace me, I will not give up.

Spiritual Superstition

This morning in my time with the Lord, certain spiritual habit distracted me from touching the Lord as the Spirit; and I would not have my "Holy Word for Morning Revival" without revival or being revived and renewed inwardly. I went against old habits and exercised my spirit and later enjoyed the supply of the divine life. This experience enlightened me to see the vanity and deadness of superstition in the cloak of spirituality.

Superstition among the heathen is condemn-able, superstition among the religious is very often justified because of the blindness in religion, and superstition in spirituality is mostly justified because it is superstition of the highest order. But the fact is, every superstition is superstition, whichever garment it wears. And Christians must be delivered from its bondage. Among all, spiritual superstition is the most subtle one and the most hidden one that though they being noticed they are justified as it has the name tag of spirituality.

A truly spiritual person is never superstitious. He lives and walks by the Spirit and lives Christ and magnifies Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. Sometimes many Christian habits and practices even among ardent lovers of the Lord are superstitious in nature and yet they are often overlook. Throughout the ages, many of them have been normalised as part of Christian living and practices. A good example is of prayer and how it is being prayed. Petitioning the Father God of all human needs and wants and asking all these "in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." This definitely is not what the Lord taught us to pray nor is it the way He taught us to pray. To pray in the Name of the Lord is to pray in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is to pray by being one with the Lord in Spirit. All such prayers issues from the Lord Himself and flows through the believers and back to the Lord. This definitely is the Lord's prayer, not my nor your prayer, but the Lord's and such prayers will always be fulfilled. This kind of prayer is just to be echo chamber, echoing the will of the Father to be done on the earth. This kind of prayer is in line with what brother Andrew Murray had defined a prayer, " The Christ in you praying to the Christ in heaven."

Lord, make me a person in Spirit, one with You; and deliver me from any superstition--religious or spiritual. May I simply live a life in You, with You and for You; and enjoying You, experiencing You, gaining You, growing in You and maturing in You.

Spiritual Side Effect

A precious fellowship with a brother enlightened my spiritual sight to see beyond the visible. It's not just a matter of being used by the Lord or even being ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but much more, what result does being "useful" or being "minister" ultimately yield? Is there any side-effect by such usefulness?

I was so much helped to see, that my service in the Lord should not have side-effects in any way. The Bible has a couple of examples with apostles being used yet having side-effects!

John, the Baptist was a forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ and his ministry was to usher in the Lord, and he was useful in that aspect, truly and spiritually useful, yet his service had side-effect. Later, his follower had a problem with the Lord and His follower. Likewise, Apollos in Acts 18:25, was a brother instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things accurately concerning Jesus, but he knew only the baptism of John. Acts 19 records of his deficiency. 

There are many good medicines for treatment of variety of diseases, yet many of them while being effective to the illness in turn have side-effects. Often the "side-effects" are more dangerous than the illness that was cured.

I was warned and adjusted, that I may not offer up a strange fire out of my natural zeal or talent or gifts, even  spiritually, and cause side-effects to the Body of Christ. I must wait upon the Lord, and be very exercised to be fully one with the Lord and His Body in my spiritual service, wherever I serve or in whichever way I serve. May the Lord grace me not to err in my service, and that He may prohibit me in His mercy, not to take a step ahead if that would cause any side-effect. 

The Lord's covering and the Lord's blessing is all that I need. "Lord grace me and keep me in you. If in Your mercy, I am counted worthy of Your use, please do so, within the limit of what You have apportioned, not beyond and not behind; and all these for Your building work."