Prosperity, Pride and Presumption

Lesson from the life of Uzziah

2 Chronicles 26:

5 And he set himself to seek after God during the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought after Jehovah, God caused him to prosper.

15 And in Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and at the corners for shooting with arrows and great stones. And his fame went out far abroad, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.

16 But when he had become strong, his heart became uplifted, to his own destruction. And he trespassed against Jehovah his God and went into the temple of Jehovah to burn incense upon the incense altar.

19 Then Uzziah became angry, and in his hand was a censer for burning incense. And when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of Jehovah beside the incense altar.

20 ......for Jehovah had stricken him.

21 So Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death; and he dwelt in a separate house as a leper, for he was cut off from the house of Jehovah. And Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

Uzziah began with seeking after God when he was in despair, and as long as he sought after Jehovah, God caused him to prosper. This should have continued all the days of his life. However, when he was blessed and became famous, because he was marvelously helped until he was strong, by Jehovah, he began to be proud; his heart became lifted up, and that was to his own destruction. And later, he became presumptuous by taking things in his own hand, usurping the function of the priests by burning incense upon the incense alter. The result was God's judgement by leprosy unto death. 

The life of Uzziah is a warning to me and to all the children of God. May the Lord have mercy on us. And always preserve us to live a simple life of seeking after God all the days of our lives. Our seeking the Lord is not for prosperity, even though God may still prosper us. Our seeking God is our righteous deed acknowledging that we are nothing and indeed nothing and that without God we can do nothing and are nothing and the meaning of our human existence is for God and His purpose alone. 

Let us be aware of two big sins: pride and presumption. In fact, the duo are just one; one follow the other and vice versa. The first sin ever committed was pride too. A proud person is a blind person; he is proud because he is blind to the fact that all that he has is actually from God, and all that he is, is of God's mercy and blessing. Otherwise, he would never presume to be anything nor presume to do anything.

What a lesson! What a warning! Yet what an encouragement of God's loving kindness and mercy! "As long as he sought Jehovah God caused him to prosper and will be marvelously helped until he becomes strong." Lord, all the days of my life, may I be such!

Favor and Bonds

Zechariah 

11:7 So I shepherded the flock of slaughter, and thereby the afflicted of the flock. And I took to myself two staffs; one I called Favor, and the other I called Bonds; and I shepherded the flock. 

10:8 I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them; and they will multiply as they have multiplied.

Jehovah as Jesus brought two staffs—Favor and Bonds. Favor refers to grace, and Bonds refers to being bound into oneness. Jesus came as the Shepherd to feed God’s flock with grace so that they might have oneness. (Zech.11:7,footnotes 1 and 2)

This excerpt from the ministry of the word nourished me in my time with the Lord. The Lord, the good Shepherd, has been shepherding me with His grace; day by day, grace upon grace. If not for his shepherding grace, I would have been by now, man, most miserable. This experience of grace even tuned my prayer up to give thanks to God for his grace. Everyday, whenever  I pray, what comes out is thanksgiving for grace and prayer for more grace. Through this kind of gracious experience and enjoyment of Christ, we are being brought into oneness; a oneness not of man but of God Himself who is uniquely one, which is the "bonds!"

If there is no enjoyment of grace among the saints, there will never be oneness among them too; where there is grace, there is oneness; for where there is grace, there is Christ and where there is Christ, there is oneness. 

Experientially, the more I prayed with brothers, the more I am blended into oneness with them. Since last year as I have been praying with few brothers in Shillong, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Guwahati, Khunti and Dimapur, I enjoyed the oneness in spirit among us; and the oneness even in bearing the same burden too, for the Lord's interest.

By this way of spending time with the Lord in prayer individually and corporately, the Lord is whistling and gathering us together which ultimately issues in the multiplication of His children. Growth in life comes by enjoying the Lord daily as grace and being gathered into His presence daily. The issue of the growth in life within is the multiplication in numbers without. When the believers are builded together into oneness(bonds), by grace( favor), they will multiply as they have multiplied. Hallelujah!

More favor, more bond; more grace, more oneness, Lord, for Your growth in us and increase.

Golden Oil

Zechariah 4:

3b: And there are two olive trees beside it,

12: What are the two olive branches that are the by the side of the two golden spouts, which empty the gold from themselves?

The churches are the golden lampstands, and the function of the golden lampstand is to shine forth as the testimony of Jesus to the world. In the old testament the golden lampstand in the holy of holies was to give light and the lamps should be burning all the time with the oil. And the function of the high priest was to trim the charred wick and fill the lamps with oil for the lampstand to burn brightly and illuminate the holy of holies. 

Today, we, the churches as the golden lampstands must ever shine in our localities as the many expressions of the one unique universal Body of Christ. However, the lampstand to ever shine, there must be two things happening regularly:

1. Trim the wick: To deal with our hearts, basically our conscience before God every day; to be deal with anything that does not conform with God's divine life and holy nature; by confession, application of the precious blood of Christ (1 John 1:7,9).
2. Fill the lamps: To contact the Lord everyday, spend time with Him to be infused with Him and be filled with the golden oil as the source for the lamps to burn.

The functions of the two olive trees, the two olive branches, are the means for the supply of the golden lampstand with the golden oil. Here the "gold" and the "oil" are used synonymously. For, the gold is God Himself and the oil is the Spirit who is the consummation of the processed God. Where there is gold, there is oil and vice versa. And this golden oil must be emptied to fill the golden lampstand; and be filled again. Signifying the need for us to be filled with the Spirit of God everyday and be poured out to supply the saints in the church for the shining testimony of Jesus. This is the meaning of our Christian life in the church life; to be filled with the Spirit and to supply the church with the Spirit.

There must be the lampstand and there must also be the oil. The oil without the lampstand is incomplete, likewise, the lampstand without the oil is incomplete too. Our Christian life without the church life is baseless; content without the container, and is incomplete and the church without Christians being filled in the Spirit is also empty; container without the content and also is incomplete. The two are equally important; Christ and the church; a Christian life in the church life. This is God's purpose and the meaning of our human life.

This is what the Lord spoke to us in the church today, and also the burden deep within each one of us. Lord, make me sons of olive oil to supply the lampstand; fill me with Your Spirit every day of the church life.

The Joy of Willing Offering

1 Chronicles 29:

6 And the leaders of the fathers' houses and the leaders of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and of hundreds with the overseers of the king's work offered willingly;

9 Then the people rejoiced because they offered willingly; for with their whole heart they offered willingly to Jehovah. And David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should have strength to offer so willingly in this way? For all things are from You, and from Your hand we have given to You.

17 I know also, O my God, that You try the heart and take pleasure in uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have offered willingly all these things; and now I have seen with joy Your people, who are present here, offering willingly to You.

For the building of the temple, the people of God offered willing with rejoicing. That was  the best example of offering in the Old Testament. God never demanded anything from us; in fact, all that we have and are, are all from God Himself as David rightly said, "For all things are from You, and from Your hand we have given to You."  What do we have that we do not receive? If one knows vividly who he is and what he is before God and in relation to Him, he would offer Himself and all He has, willingly with joy to Him who bestows all.

Once a sister asked me this question on offering whether it was a must to tithe or not. My answer was simple and clear: 

Firstly, we must realize that all that we have is from God, and apart from Him we have nothing and we are nothing. 

Secondly, as much as we enjoy the Lord's blessing it is righteous and honorable to offer back to the God of blessings out from His very blessing. 

Thirdly, understanding the above two, we must be offering willingly with joy. 

Fourthly, how much we offer to God is directly proportional to the condition of our hearts before God; the healthier our spiritual condition before God is, the more we will offer. The degree to which we can offer up what we have and are to the Lord determines our spiritual health before God. Tithe means nothing, just a mere 10%, when 100% of ours belongs to God.

Fifthly, offering helps us to love the Lord all the more and delivers us from the love of mammon.

Sixthly, by way of offering the Lord has a way to balance the saints and help them build up one another in love.

Seventhly, offering enlarges our heart, broadens our capacity and multiplies God's blessings.

Therefore, we must offer willing from the Lord's blessing with rejoicing and multiply God's blessings. 

Recently, in taking care of the Lord's need, the Lord in turn took care of my needs. I willingly spent and was spent for the Lord's work in Jaipur, Shillong and Guwahati; the Lord knew my needs too and provided a considerable amount through offerings, and I in turn offered back some to those in need and also invested the offering on buying the ministry books and sending them as gifts back to Shillong. O what a joy I enjoyed in willingly offering to the Lord and to the needy saints! This is one of the secrets of enjoying the joy of God! O the joy of willing offering! O that all saints may know this and enjoy the joy of willing offering!

God' Power and Wisdom

1 Corinthians

4 And my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 In order that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

These were the words the Lord spoke to me before I met different brothers in Shillong in past few weeks. It was also my prayer that the Lord's words only be spoken and the Lord Himself be my wisdom and words. When I actually met those brothers one by one, though they asked a lot of questions on various topics ranging from biblical truths to life experiences and even church practices, the instant and timely word of God just popped up. (I myself was amazed! I didn't know how that happened, anyway it happened.) All those proves that when we are one with the Lord, His present speaking and instant anointing will abide with us all the time. Because the Lord has to carry out His work through the Spirit, in power, through the vessel available for His usage. Not that the vessel itself is special, but of God who please to choose the vessel He uses.

6 But we do speak wisdom among those who are full-grown, yet a wisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nought;

7 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory,

8 Which none of the rulers of this age have known; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

9 But as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man's heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.''

10 But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

One whole week of my stay with the saints, day by day, morning till night, the grace of God was abundant. Every fellowship was full of life , and every question was an ignition for more light to shine forth, a subjective foretaste of the early days church life as in the book of Acts. Besides, there were forgiveness of offenses and debts among brothers; even confession of hidden sins, repentance and consecration to begin a new living. And a glorious baptism of a brother and a sister! Physically or psychologically too, the Lord preserved me. Though my family back home experienced some difficulties due to sickness, the Lord eventually recovered them all. All these were the manifestations of the power of God and His wisdom. What a mercy that I can have such a foretaste!

Lord, may my whole Christian life be an experience of Your power and wisdom.

Glorious Church

Last night as I was considering the local church where I am, Gurgaon, and the brothers who were recently recovered into the fellowship of the Body wanting to visit us to see the church life, I felt that the church life in my locality may not be as vital and impressive in many human perspectives. But the Lord immediately reminded me that the church is glorious, irrespective of the condition of the saints or the church per se. The church belongs to the Lord, and the saints are lovely and beautiful. Only the self is ugly.

I was rebuked by my own word concerning the church. The church in Corinth is of God and in spite of all their problems, it is still the church. The church in my locality does not have any of the problems as in Corinth; comparatively it is much much better. My natural consideration was a matter of the degree of "impressiveness." However, in the Lord's view, the church is glorious. I was so much helped and adjusted in my prayer.

Moreover, the Lord is fulfilling the burdens He has for the church to prepare pillars for the Lord's testimony. All the situation of the brothers considered to be potential pillars are confirming that they will be prepared and perfected as they are for the testimony of Jesus as the expression of the Body of Christ. The Lord is working all things together good for the gaining of His glorious church.

Today in the Lord's table meeting, as a confirmation of what the Lord spoke to me last night regarding the glorious church, my eyes were enlightened to see the saints in a very positive way. I felt all the saints were so precious, sweet and lovely. Every member was a treasure and precious to the Lord; and all members are pillars for the church. They are treasures as Christ is the treasure in these vessels.

Hallelujah for Christ the treasure in the earthen vessels for the glorious church! 

Forgiving

Almost two months ago I was in Imphal for the churches in NE India training. On the day of my arrival the first thing on my heart was to pray for the training. But the Lord reminded me to deal with a brother's debt and forgive him once for all, and forget the matter altogether. Initially it was hard, but as the Lord graced me, the blessing of the Lord has been bountiful to me. Then I told the Lord, I forgave. Following this I felt the Lord's anointing and His presence. Since then, beginning with the first message, the Lord's instant speaking flowed out like fountain of living waters.

The incident in detail was as such : 

The Lord reminded me of a debt that I have not forgiven nor are willing to forget. It was concerning a brother who could not pay for his flight ticket, yet still promised to pay and  never paid, nor the brother who arranged the trip for him paid either. Since none could pay, the lot fell on me and they were rescued. This has been going on for two years and yet no further development. Later, that new brother’s locality had some problems and the testimony was lost. Literally, there was no blessing in that locality; they could not withstand the tests.

On that day, the Lord reminded me that I need to forget about all the past and forgive the brothers who “cheated” me. I said, “amen.” The Lord is the Lord, He knows the best and His decision is final.

Further, the Lord enlightened me that His blessing was not there with those brothers and even with the “church.” For there is no testimony in their lives, of the Lord, nor the blessing of the Lord. Somehow, somewhere, something went wrong. That was the enemy’s subtle work. The Lord also reminded me to pray for those brothers that their functions may be restored and the testimony of the Lord Jesus be recovered.By all these incidents, the Lord was hitting two birds with one stone; on the one hand He was perfecting me and on the other hand He was trimming the burned wick of the Lampstand.  

Lord, have mercy on us; recovery the lost ones, strengthen the weak ones and supply the needy ones for the sake of Your testimony.