Fight for the Brother

I have been maintaining a list of prayer the Lord has specially burdened me to specifically pray an intercessory prayer for. The names of the list keeps growing by the day. Now and then, the Lord would remind me of certain person to add to this list. 

Three days ago as I was driving on my way to Delhi for a prayer fellowship, the Lord reminded me of certain brothers who needed to be prayed for. I literally conversed with the Lord in a friendly manner that I had enough on the list to pray for. Why He had to keep burdening me to pray for so many. I probably cannot handle too much. I am man too, with flesh and blood, who needed to be pray for too, as much as I do for others. I even reasoned with the Lord as these many on my list are mostly believers who needed to be recovered to a proper fellowship in the Body of Christ, I'd rather pray for more unbelievers to be saved, to gain the gentiles for the local church where I am in, in Gurgaon. Those on this list needs to see the Lord's further appearing and the revelation concerning His economy, why bother? But the Lord's burden is the Lord's burden; I should rather give up my opinion and thank the Lord instead, for such an honor and privilege to be able to care for these children of God who needed to be recovered back to the good land and build the temple in Jerusalem.

Last night, as we were entering into message five of the Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2) "Fighting for the Brother", the Lord confirmed the reason why He burdened me with those brothers who needed to be prayed for. I got my answer. It's no longer "Why?" but a "Wow!" A privilege indeed to be honored with the burden of praying for the brothers.

In Genesis 14 when Abraham received the news of Lot's captivity, he did not count on the weak point of his brother, nor did he take pleasure in his suffering and calamity. Rather he considered it a shame to see his brother being captured. Immediately he took his 318 men and fought against 4 kings and their armies, defeated them, rescued and recovered back his brother Lot. Behind the scene of the battle was a prayer to Jehovah and an interceding of Melchizedek. This settled all my natural opinions. Irrespective of the conditions, reasons for my brothers' failure and being capture by Satan, I cannot stand to tolerate the shame of my brothers being put to shame. Whatever may be the reasons behind the failures of my brothers, I must pray for them and fight for them by all means until they are fully restored and recovered for the fulfillment of the Lord's heart's desire.

Fighting for the brother is mainly by two ways. First, by interceding for them according to God and His economy. This is the reason why the Lord kept burdening me to pray for my brothers. The list keeps growing and thank the Lord that it grows. And may it grow as He will grace to pray for the growing burden. Second, by ministering the processed God into the brother for their overcoming supply and enjoyment. This is by shepherding them in all ways possible that the brothers may be restored to normalcy to live an overcoming life for the church life.

Now I am at ease and thank the Lord for such a blessing of burden to pray for. As burden grows, grace will grow much more to meet the growing burden. Faithfully and prayerfully, in oneness with the Lord, fight for the brother!

Prayer : A Vow

Never did I realize, as of lately, that my prayer life need to be prayed for. The real struggle in a Christian's walk, both of welfare and in warfare, is on the matter of PRAYER. I have been experiencing this very much in the gospel preaching. Factually, the spiritual battle was already fought and won at the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the subjective execution and experience of that victory depends on the believers' exercise and cooperation with the Victor Christ, as the indwelling Spirit. This experience is decided on the "knees." And Satan knows this too well that he will do his best to not allow the exercise of prayer. Prayer moves the Arms that moves the world. Therefore, prayer plays a very crucial role in the Lord's move, and Satan attacks the most for which we must persistently persevere in prayer. For this, even a vow has to be vowed for a prayer life.

As the church in Gurgaon, we were in the week of the holy word on "Spiritual Warfare." All the armor of God in Ephesian 6:10-17 are actually Christ in many aspects. As being just a member of the Body of Christ, I as an individual can never fully put on the whole armor of God. For the armor of God is for the Body of Christ. To fully be able to experience this, I must be in the Body in practicality. Only in the Body life can this armor be worn and experienced. And yet again, it can really be subjectively applied by prayer. So prayer is the key to apply these, and to have such a prayer life, a vow must be vowed - Prayer: A Vow.

Prayer in the Body can make us subjectively experience the whole armor of God for every item of the armor is Christ.

“Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth” (v. 14a): Truth here refers to God in Christ as the reality in our living, that is, God realized and experienced by us in our living; this is actually Christ Himself lived out by us (4:15, 21, 24-25; John 14:6).

“Having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14b; 1 Cor. 1:30; Jer. 23:6): Christ as the breastplate of righteousness covers our conscience, signified by the breast; in fighting against Satan, our accuser,we need a blood-purified conscience, a conscience void of offense (Heb. 9:14; 10:22; Acts 24:16). 

“Having shod your feet with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15): Christ has made peace for us on the cross, both with God and with man, and this peace has become our gospel; the gospel of peace has been established as a firm foundation, as a readiness, with which our feet may be shod (2:13-17).

“Besides all these, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16; 2 Cor. 4:13; Heb. 12:2; cf. Phil. 2:13): 

“Receive the helmet of salvation” (Eph. 6:17a): Christ is the salvation that we can experience daily against the attacked of the enemy in our mind. Only Christ can be our helmet of salvation.

“Receive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17b): Christ as the Spirit and the word furnishes us with a sword as an offensive weapon to defeat and slay the enemy. 

“By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints” (v. 18): Prayer is the unique way to apply Christ as the armor of God; it is prayer that makes the armor available to us in a practical way. 

-HWMR Entering Into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life, Week 5, II

The Lord strongly reminded me to make a vow for a stable prayer life. As much as I read the word, pursued the ministry and corporately prayed with the saints, so much the more, I must vow a vow to have a very strong prayer life. Often, there are many lame excuses of misusing 1 Thes. 5:17, that as long as I am in the spirit I am living a prayer life. That's not bad either, but a "set time" specifically for specific and solid prayer time, personally with the Lord is, of utmost importance. It is so easy to wade away this set time by habitually calling on the Lord now and then, few sentences of prayer now and then and reckon this as sufficient and a substitute for a set time of prayer. 

Not neglecting these, still there must be a set time, and a time must be vowed for this prayer time. This inciting of the Lord to vow to pray really helped me. I was reminded again and again to pray and the Lord has already burdened me with a long list of prayer points. Similarly, a corporate prayer time was also set in the church life here, after the general Tuesday church prayer meeting, where few burdened saints would continue to pray for some specific and intercessory prayer items. Since this set time of prayer has been vowed, my prayer life has gone much deeper and higher and sweeter. So is the church's prayer life.

Lord, strengthen my prayer life. Grace me to uphold the vow for my prayer life.

Greek : A Dream Come True

A decade ago, as a young seeker and lover of the Lord, I was undergoing a two-years full time training at Chennai in India. The revelation of the word in the Bible through the help of the ministry of the age in the Lord's recovery was so profound. Words would not suffice to describe the feeling I had and the joy of understanding the Lord's heart's desire in this age. Every class, to me, was an unveiling of revelation after revelation. The truths were not merely objective, but very simply subjective and were experienced right away, at least in part, here a little, there a little. After every class I would go through it again, study, memorize, recite and pray over it again. Many times, I would turn the truths I learned and enjoyed into my prayers and composed hymns out of it and later, sang them to the Lord in praise and worship for His marvelous speakings and doings. O what a blessing!

This love for the Lord and His word incited me to learn my "Father tongue" in which the New Testament Bible was originally written. As a trainee then, I reckoned it deemed that a class on Greek be introduced. One day I fellowshiped with a responsible brother for the same. But to my dismay, the answer was that due to the lack of qualified teacher for Greek class it was not even an option to think or dream about. Nevertheless, I determined to learn all by myself using all the Greek study materials I could lay hold of. However, due to lack of proper curriculum and schedule, consistency was a far cry. The result, a picking up and dropping it over and over again and I could never advanced beyond merely learning the Greek alphabet.

A decade after, the Lord finally opened the door for Greek class. Now, the time is perfect, with the burden to bring out the Recovery Version Bible before 2020 into some major Indian languages. LSM has graciously started a special online Greek class. Though there were some starting problems, once the "engine" started, the rest is applying the right "gear" and "accelerator" on a timely manner. Thus far, I have learned the basic of Greek, just beginning to read and write. In fact, the desire to learn Greek, is becoming a dream come true. 

The Lord may grace me to learn it well, fully and thoroughly, and indeed make this learning GREEK, a dream come true.

CA

Three weeks ago, when with the saints I went out to preach the gospel, the first person I met on the road was a very smartly dressed young professional. Handing out a tract, I spoke something like this, "God created the whole universe including you and me to fulfill His purpose...." That caught his attention. And I went on for a couple of minutes preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to him. At that moment he was in a hurry to attend to a meeting, so he gave me his name card and invited me to meet him in his office later on. 

Indeed, the son of peace he was, I waited as he wind up his meeting with a banker. Meanwhile, a traditionally welcome gesture of "masala chai" was offered, which I enjoyed on that chill morning. Yet all the while praying within. When he finally was ready, losing no time, I preached the gospel in a very detailed way, especially that Jesus Christ is the true and living God. The Lord opened his heart and he believed and prayed the sinner's prayer, calling upon the Lord's Name. I gifted him a Hindi pocket Bible and a booklet. 

He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and an ardent seeker of God and the truth. Gospel-wise, he is my brother since then, and business-wise, he is also my friend since then. As the responsibility the Lord assigned to me comprises many professional matters, he seemed to fit into it. Later when I met him again for official company-related purpose, I got to meet two other colleagues of him. After all the business talks, I preached the gospel to the three of them using my life-testimony of regeneration and some subjective experiences of Christ. They were so opened that every question they asked led the talk deeper to the truth of the Bible and the reality of the Lord Jesus Chirst. After all the talks and preachings, they all called upon the Name of the Lord, and once again I led them to pray to receive the Lord. (I believe they were saved and that was the turning point in their lives.)

So, as I came to meet the same CA again, of course, for business matters, the conclusion will always be a prayer for them and a prayer together with them. Every time I met, there was progression in the depth of the truth ministered. To me, they, especially he, the CA, are now my true associates in Christ. There is a deep confirmation within my being of the Lord's sovereignity over the meetings. They will be vessels for the Lord to bear His testimony. Thereby, considering this matter, I conclude, they are my CA indeed, Christ Associates. Now this professional Chartered Account is my Christ Associate! From CA to CA, and to another CA, Church Associate?

May the Lord fully save them and recover them for His purpose; CA for Christ and the church.

Negligence

Jeremiah 48: 10 Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently,

A couple of days ago the Lord shocked me with a verse of warning, "Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently." Recently I have made some lame excuses in not visiting the saints in their homes. I kind-of lethargically left it to others to do the home meetings with the excuse that more saints may be brought to function and that I better not replace their functions. But it turned out that the intended home meetings were not carried out at all. A couple of times, a brother reminded me to go to visit some families, but I silently ignored him with lame excuses. But praise the Lord, the Lord is the living Lord, He spoke and spoke again in times of need.

So I exercised my spirit and will power to visit these saints in their homes even without making prior appointments. One was a mother and a grown up son. Their faith was so weak that even the abandoned religion was invading them back. Though their faith in the Lord is still alive, they need much supply of healthy spiritual food. Our time together was so blessed. The other was a family who could not regularly come for the meeting for circumstantial reason. But our visit brought much warmth in their love for the Lord and the church life. 

True to the Lord's word, they were all in great need of shepherding. Shepherding did not entail any special qualifications. Just a simple heart of loving the Lord and loving the saints is sufficient. A visit in shepherding love is worth more than a hundred messages in the air. When in home visit, the saints' real situation were made known, their hearts warmed up and opened up to receive the ministry of the word. Thereby, paving the way for the Lord to recover them. First, inwardly and then their whole being too. 

I must not and cannot be negligent in the Lord's work. I must be diligent in carrying out the Lord's work. What is out from Him will be supplied with abundant grace to carry out His purpose. What I thought would be difficult was actually enjoyable as He supplied much grace. 

As serving ones and to all serving ones, let us not negligent be for "Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently." But rather be those in Mathew 24:45, "Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time?"

Strange Fire

Leviticus 10 :

1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them.

2 And fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Jehovah.

The work of God must be done in God's way and in God's time. The offerings presented by Aron according to the instruction of Moses in Leviticus 9 resulted in God's glory, Verse 6, "And Moses said, This is what Jehovah has commanded you to do. And the glory of Jehovah shall appear to you." Whereas, similar type of offering in Chapter 10 resulted in the judgement and killing of the priests. Because "Jehovah had not commanded it." What a striking incident!

These days, the speaking of the Lord to me is also such. I am alarmed and warned, timely. To confirm the same, a brother fellowshipped on the subject of "Serving According to Revelation." I was so touched by the brief overview of the recent coworkers' training in Taiwan.

Our service should be according to the revelation of God, otherwise it would just be an offering of a strange fire, ignorantly assuming that we are serving God, to please God, when on the contrary and actually, are offending God and commanding His judgement. We should never do anything out of ourselves, everything we do should be out from God. God must be our unique source, initiator, executor and accomplisher. We should not do things even out of a good heart, a good concern or even out of responsibility to meet the outward need, even if it is urgent. Lest, we be offering strange fire.

Whatever we do should be out from God, by receiving the burden from God out of our contacting with God and according to God's revelation. Ample examples are recorded in the Bible of our forefathers--Cain, Abel, Noah, Moses, Solomon etc..Some negative, some positive. Cain too did a good thing in offering sacrifices to God, but not according to God, whereas Abel did the same according to God's revelation. Noah built the Ark because God asked him to do so, similarly with Moses in building the tabernacle and Solomon in building the temple. They did what they did after God appeared to them, gave them revelation and burden. And the issue of doing things according to God was God's glory and God's blessings.

Saul, was a jealous religionist and wholeheartedly persecuted the believers because he thought it was that way he should serve his God as in John 16:2. But after God appeared to him in Acts 9, he took a 180 degree turn and persistently preached the very Christ he persecuted purportedly. Later, he was bold to death and proclaimed in Acts 26:19, "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He did thing according to God's revelation.

So must we, in all our services, serve according to the revelation of God on that particular things we are serving in. First of all, go before the Lord in prayer, looking away unto Him, giving Him the preeminence, receive burden from Him and serve accordingly.

Lord, preserve us and save us from offering strange fire. May all our services be out from You, through You and unto You.

"I Am Sorry!"

At times, setting priority right is a big challenge. Two days ago I decided to hit two birds with one shot. But practically it was taxing and not feasible. The things I decided to do coincided and I had to choose what should be done first. One was a Taiwan visa application and the other a regular weekly fellowship and prayer. As I was driving on my way scheming as to how to handle both wisely, I could find no way out except to sacrifice one. Though I was mentally prepared for both, I kept calling on the Name of the Lord and prayed through as I drove. When I reached the cross road, the driveways that would lead me to two different plans, I spontaneously decided to give priority for fellowship and prayer; yes, visa could wait. Then my divided heart was peacefully calmed to peace and settled at ease.

Yet, on may way for the fellowship, an interesting thing happened. On a jam packed road at high traffic time, a car beside me on my right was about to hit my right rear viewer mirror. My reflect action steered toward a jerking right that scratched another overtaking car on my left. Then the traffic halted. I had to stop and get down to see as the other driver too did the same. It was hard to reckon who was right and who was wrong, naturally I was blamed for the un-welcomed game. But the Lord within me immediately reacted to apologize and say, "I am sorry!". I repeated that sentence a couple of times both in English and in Hindi. That simple sentence, cooled down the high voltage temper that was to burst out on the middle of the Delhi jam packed road, with other cars just speeding away leaving just the two stranger cars; who cared, mind your own business. That simple but powerful "I am sorry!" just calmed my friend down and we proceeded on our journey.

Later, after a short while drive, he signaled me to take a side stop, perhaps, for a talk over again. I in no way would speed away; I am a person not to escape but to solve, if there be any dispute. I stopped and he too. I went to meet him and observed the scratches on his car. O my, he happened to drive a comparatively new, well cleaned, snow white car, now with a bruise of un-welcomed stranger touch! I explained the reason for the "accident" and apologized again, this time in a decent Hindi, "Bhaiya, mera galti hai, mujhe maap kardo!"( Brother, forgive me, it's my fault!) Initially, he was kind-of arrogant. But I maintained my calm and begged his forgiveness. Then I reached out my hand toward him to shake hand which he denied two times. But I didn't give up. I closed up further and stretched out my hand for a peace-shake. Finally, he succumbed to my gesture and shook my hand with a coercive, "Thik hai" (OK). And left with his countenance changed. I was even more calm and serene and thanked the Lord for this little experience of being human. Peace reigned within me, and I hope, within him too. This simple sentence is so wonder working, "I am sorry." 

Lord, be my patient and humility all the time.