Faithfulness in Prayer

When in Taipei, Taiwan, for a short family visit, the main burden the Lord gave me was to spend more time with my family, especially with my brother-in-laws'. Every time I prayed my heart was towards my brother-in-laws. During my whole stay, I could only spent three sessions each lasting about and hour or so. But before all these could transpire, I wasn't sure if I could discharge my burden at all. And that led me to pray faithfully and intercede for them, even with fasting and prayer.

My first meeting was all centered on the burdened of eating of the tree of life and living by the tree of life; not to live by the knowledge of good and evil, right or wrong. As I ministered on life and the Spirit, I enjoyed being ministered to in return by the Lord through my own speaking. However, meeting his better-half was almost out of question. But left the matter to the Lord and continued to pray for them.

Suddenly, on our last Lord's day in Taipei, in the afternoon, my wife received a surprise call from my brother in law that we would meet up somewhere in Tainan. My innate response was, though we had another appointment for dinner lovefeast with a coworker's family in Taipei, to agree to the impromptu dinner fellowship taking it as the Lord's answer to the prayers offered. And we did enjoyed few good hours of fellowship, again with much emphasis on enjoying the Lord by eating Him in the Word and drinking Him in the Spirit. The Lord is always faithful in answering our prayers, more faithful than our own faithfulness in prayer.

To me, we are no longer brother-in-law but brother-in-the-Lord. Though this experience seemed trivial, it indeed was an experience of faithfulness in prayer for the very burden the Lord had imparted.

This incident was reminded to me as I read the word in Daniel concerning Daniel's faithfulness in prayer.

Daniel 6:

4 Then the chief ministers and satraps sought to find a ground for accusation against Daniel from the perspective of the kingdom, but they could find no ground for accusation or fault, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or fault was found related to him. 10 Now when Daniel came to know that the writing had been signed, he went to his house (in his upper room he had windows open toward Jerusalem) and three times daily he knelt on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, because he had always done so previously.11 Then these men assembled and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God..13 Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, has not respected you, O king, or the edict that you have signed, but three times daily makes his petition.18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no entertainment was brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.

Daniel's faithfulness in prayer was tested even at the risk of his own life; he was faithful unto death in prayer. Even his opponents openly confessed that Daniel was a man of prayer for they all knew about it and plot an evil against it. However, whatever the decree, he was faithful in prayer at all costs. The adverse effect was, even the king could not sleep that night Daniel was persecuted for his faithfulness, instead he spent the night fasting.  

There are times one need to fast and pray faithfully. Certain spiritual warfare need such fasting prayer. And for the many burdens the Lord pleased to bestow me with, I trust the Lord's grace to be faithful in prayer.

Free Home Delivery

Shepherding the saints includes prayer and visiting them in their home to dispense Christ into them. Besides, taking care of them even in their physical needs. Last night the Lord gave us a wonderful experience of shepherding.

An unexpected rain and storm disturbed the power supply to the city resulting in many home without power backup to endure the city's helplessness in pain. A family we have been shepherding had been working the whole day, and with no power supply, they were  left with no option for cooking for dinner. However, before we went for the meeting, we came to know of their situation, so we decided to take dinner for them.

When we met them, the family of two were tired  and with no dinner, were basically getting ready to rest for the day. However, when we gave them the "free home delivery" dinner, their expression changed to exaltation. The mother of the family rejoice not merely for the food but that the Lord Jesus answered her prayer for food physically. She was so encouraged, her faith grew and was so glad that she was beginning to experience the Lord in small small things. By the way, this free home delivery was a simple Indian dinner of rice, chicken fry, potato fry and pumkin curry! A wholesome meal indeed.

In fellowship with a brother with whom I coordinated, we felt good to minister on the love of God. As we ministered on the matter of love as the spiritual free home delivery, she and her son, responded, "Lord Jesus I love You" with additional emphasis on "Lord Jesus I need You." The atmosphere of the meeting was so good; there was wholesome supply of healthy physical food and spiritual food. We all were encouraged to love the Lord more than anything as our first and best love. And the result of loving the Lord would be that we would love the word of God and love one another with the divine love of God. Then we all spontaneously pray together in love of the Lord. " Lord Jesus we love You!"

The Lord is perfecting me in many aspects of shepherding. Generally, I focused too much on the spiritual aspects, the Lord is adjusting me to be more human and take of the saints' need in genuine and proper human care. To feed the saints with proper and healthy physical and spiritual food, regularly as a "free home delivery!"

Lord, make me a free home delivery man!

Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:30a But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God:

Wisdom is Christ! This matter of wisdom has been deeply impressing me and it has been my prayers since I realised that only Christ is wisdom, and without Christ as wisdom in my life, I would be the greatest fool. In every matter of my Christian life, I need wisdom. Be it for personal matter or official or even spiritual, without Christ as my wisdom I would be snared in unnecessary labor and trouble. In my daily personal walk and work, experiencing Christ as wisdom is all rest and peace. So my prayer in the office or in some personal decision making matter has ever been to take and experience Christ as wisdom.

Patterns in the Bible

Daniel

Daniel 1:17, 20 God gave them knowledge and insight in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

It was God who gave Daniel knowledge, insight and wisdom. The source of wisdom is God Himself. Experiencing God as wisdom is the only way to be wise. Daniel acknowledged this and exalted God in every act of manifesting God's wisdom. He knew the source and honored the source accordingly. In Daniel 2:20-22  Daniel answered and said, Let the name of God Be blessed from eternity to eternity, For wisdom and might are His. And it is He who changes the times and seasons; He deposes kings and causes kings to ascend. He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals the deep things and the hidden things; He knows what is obscured in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him.

Solomon

And similarly, it was God who gave wisdom to Solomon. 1 Kings 3 :9-13 Give therefore to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. .. I now give you a heart of wisdom and understanding, 4:29-30  And God gave Solomon wisdom and very much understanding and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 1 Kings 10:23-24  And King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom. And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

In the New Testament, Christ is Wisdom. Any one who wants to be wise and learned must believe into Christ and receive Him into him. Whenever I got to fellowship with students and working saints I always ministered this  matter of experiencing Christ as wisdom. Every morning as I dropped my children to school, our prayer has been, "Lord be our wisdom and understanding." Similarly, in all our official planning and execution, our prayer has been, "Lord be our wisdom."

I need wisdom to shepherd the saints according to their need, I need wisdom to be responsible father in a family and in the church. In my going out and coming in, and in every matter, I need Christ as my wisdom. 

Lord, filled me with You as my wisdom for today and all the days to come.

Two Weddings

Last week on the 16th of March 2014, I and my family had the privilege of attending two weddings, one was one  of my wife's friends' and the other a brother in the church life. The contrast between the two was that of heaven and earth. It was indeed an experience of two realms. Nevertheless I bless both the couples equally.

The first wedding may be graded a 5 stars if the grading scale were physical; like the outfits, the ambiance, the food, the venue and the kind of people attending the feast. Indeed, full of glitter and glamour. My only wish and prayer is that the couple may get to know the true meaning of marriage and be saved to fulfill the reality of the type portrayed in human marriage; a marriage between Christ and the church.

The second weeding was of a brother who loved the Lord dearly and even served with me in the same locality in Gurgaon a couple of years ago. The testimony of the bride and groom was amazing. Both loving the Lord and giving themselves fully to the Lord; a wonderful pattern for all the young saints. Moreover, they both have the same burden to serve the Lord full time and even go abroad to preach the gospel. What a blessing!

The latter wedding is also a good testimony of parents loving the Lord and giving themselves to the Lord, with all their family. The parent's labor, shepherding and prayer for the children can in no way be set aside. In fact, it was the Lord's blessing out of the good heart of the parent; they basically commanded the Lord's blessing because of their love for the Lord. This reminds me of my own need to pray for and shepherding the three children the Lord has blessed me with. I have literally seen patterns right in front of my eyes. Now, it is my turn to follow the pattern and reap the same harvest of the Lord's blessings in the coming days.

This also is a reminder of the coming wedding day of Christ and the Church. As the brother and sister had been prepared by the Lord, there is an urgent need for the believers to prepare themselves for the wedding with Christ. The parable of faithfulness in Matthew 25:1-13 is a good encouragement, to be filled with oil in our vessels daily; to be filled with the Spirit daily in our being to be ever ready for the wedding day.

In Laws in the Lord

This time in my family reunion with my in laws in Taiwan, the Lord graced me a deeper experience of family life in the Lord. Universally, "in-laws" always has a problem, perhaps because it is in the law. And no laws under the sun is perfect. In fact, the laws only brings in death. However, being in the Lord is truly above the laws of man. My visit to and a family reunion in Taiwan this time is an enjoyable experience of the Lord, in the Lord.

I felt as homely, if not more, here even as it would have been in my own home in India with my relatives in the flesh. The secret is being "in Christ." All the fellowship and prayer, all the outings and blendings are just as sweet as it would have been with any other saints. Though in physical marriage we are in laws, but as being in the Lord we are all of the family of God. I can freely relate and fellowship as saints in the church-life. This indeed is a real blessing which the world is truly deprived of.

My father and mother in the Lord are real pattern for me to follow. Each of them unique and special in their own way, as God apportioned it to them. My dad is a century less a score year old now, still he does all the household necessity of running the family. He is well trained and disciplined to manage the household, everything from financial management to waste management. Everything is well preserved, and there is hardly anything that can be called waste as a waste. Herein is wisdom behind the scene, he will never be in lack as he really is today; truly self sufficient and in fact, in abundance. A deep lesson I have learned by my short while sojourn here.

My mother is a lover of Christ, a well attested lady, of good reputation and well spoken of by many. She has devoted her life for Christ and the church absolutely. And a lover of the ministry of the word, proven by the fact that the house is literally a library, full of the ministry books both in English and Chinese. Where have I found such a sister? No where except here, no one except my mom in the Lord. No wonder, her daughter is blessed as I am being blessed in a marital tie and serving in the ministry of the word!

My brother is a genuine and faithful person. Though a Stanford graduate engineer, he decided to serve a humble company with all dignity and faithfulness though qualified for a much better option. Through thick and thin, he chose to sail through with his boss when the world today is filled with "rat racing" for better pay and better fortune. Such a vessel is deemed to be honored by the Lord. As a seeker of the truth too, I had a sweet time of fellowship with him, as friend yet as brother. My prayer goes with him dearly.

This family reunion in laws in the Lord is a true blessing indeed. The Lord's sovereignity of making me a part of this family deserves praises to the God of arrangement; glory be to Him! 

Lord, bless our family.

Priest

Ezekiel 44:

15 But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, 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,

16 It is they who will enter My sanctuary, and it is they who will come near to My table to minister to Me, and they will keep My charge.

17 And when they enter the gates of the inner court they shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool will come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and inside it.

18 They shall have linen turbans on their heads and have linen trousers over their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.

All the believers in the New Testament are priests. This is our spiritual birthright. Though the reality remains the fact, the practicality of being a priest is not without conditions. As my Bible reading portion was on these verses, the Lord shown upon me to see something deeper and higher. Certain necessary conditions to be priest in practicality are:

1. Come near to Me to minister to Me : To live in the presence of God daily. There needs to be an exercise of coming to the Lord everyday through the exercise of the spirit through the word and through prayer. Many dear Christians have neglected this simple, basic yet crucial exercise, thereby, forfeiting the enjoyment of the spiritual birthright inherited of God. Time and again, my burden whenever I fellowship with the saints is this matter only, and ever it will be. How can a person be healthy without normal and proper eating and drinking of a healthy diet? None can break this natural law, so much the more, the spiritual law; of eating and drinking the Lord everyday. Our exercise to experience the Lord by eating and drinking Him is a ministering to Him. We can minister to God only what God has ministered to us. God minister to us when we eat and drink Him to enjoy Him.
2. Stand before Me to present to Me : Only after condition number one is fulfilled, can one be able to stand before God. Standing is a matter of readiness for service. Every spiritual service is the overflow of the enjoyment of the Lord's presence and His ministering into us as our life and life supply. Without being ministered we cannot minister, without being served by God by eating and drinking Him we cannot stand before Him to serve Him. The presents to be presented to God are "the fat and the blood". The fat signifies the preciousness of the person of Christ, our daily subjective experience and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. And the blood signifies the redemptive work of Christ through which we are saved, being saved and will be saved.
3. Enter the gates of the inner court : The inner court is the place of our priestly service. For this a proper attire is needed, "They shall have linen turbans on their heads and have linen trousers over their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat." Linen signifies a daily living and walk in the life-giving Spirit by the life of Christ which is pure, clean and fine. As a functioning priest, our living must be proper before God and before man. However, this is possible only by the Lord's life supply, therefore condition 1 and 2 must be fulfilled to be able to actually serve as priest. Moreover, one must be warned: No human effort is required to utilise. This is signified by the prohibition of the use of woolen garment that causes sweat. Our service to the Lord must be by the Spirit in the spirit by eating Him and drinking Him, not trying to do something for God and laboring and struggling in our soulish-natural man.
4. Prohibitions : Verse 20  They shall neither shave their heads, nor let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. This signifies the need for genuine humility before God and submitting to His authority, honoring His headship, giving no ground for pride, self-glory, self-dignity, ambition, position and leadership. Verse 21 And no priest shall drink wine when they enter the inner court.  This signifies, a functioning priest must be absolute for God and be separated and sanctified from all kinds of earthly enjoyment and pleasure. His sole enjoyment must be God Himself.  Verse 22 And they shall not take as their wives a widow or a divorced woman, but rather they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest. This signifies a normal and proper humanity having a good relationship with others, being pure and of good testimony.
5. Inheritance : Verses 28-30 And they shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance. And you shall not give them a possession in Israel - I am their possession.  They shall eat the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. And the first of all the firstfruits of everything, and every heave offering of everything, of all your heave offerings, shall be the priests'. You shall also give the priests the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house. God is the only sole inheritance of the serving priest. All the food supply and place for their living and service is God Himself. As a serving priest our true inheritance is the all-inclusive Christ with all He is.

What a blessing we have today as New Testament believers! Our spiritual birthright is to be priest and to function as priest we have all the life supply and inheritance of God in Christ as the Spirit! What a blessing! 

Lord, grace us ever to be functioning priest serving You in the inner court all the days of our lives.

Flow of Life

Today morning my enjoyment of the Lord is on the scriptures quotation below. The blessing of the flow of life; this flow of life is from the sanctuary.

Ezekiel 47

3 When the man went out to the east with the line in His hand, He measured a thousand cubits; and He led me through the water, water that was to the ankles.

4 Then He measured a thousand cubits and led me through the water, water that was to the knees. Then He measured a thousand cubits and led me through the water, water that was to the loins.

5 Then He measured a thousand cubits, and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be crossed.

The four measuring of the flow in verses 3-5 indicates the Lord leading us through different kind of situation testing us and training us and even judging us of the degree of the supply we can receive from Him. The flow of the river is out from the sanctuary, from the house of God, the church. As we are in the church enjoying the church-life the Lord will grace us many different experiences both positive and not so positive, yet always with the supply of life gracing us through. Stage by stage, He leads us till our self is dealt with thoroughly and till we are fully carried along by the flow of the grace of life.

7 And when I returned, there were very many trees on the bank of the river, on one side and on the other.

8 Then said He to me, This water flows out toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah and goes to the sea; when it flows into the sea, the water of the sea is healed.

9 And every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes shall live, and there will be very many fish, when this water comes there. And the water of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.

10 And fishermen will stand beside the sea from En-gedi even to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish shall be according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many.

As we experience and enjoy the flow of grace, there will be enlivening wherever the flow leads us to. This flow brings forth trees and when it flows into the sea, the water of the sea is healed. The death situation in our environment will be enlivened as we are in the flow of life. Death can never overcome life; and there is no human problem that cannot be solved. What is needed is life. This has been my experience too. Whenever I am in the flow of life, there is life wherever I go and there is a ministering of life to whomever I minister. Being in the flow bear forth trees bearing fruit for food; we become spiritual food supplier to others and can turn the dead situation into life!

The fish with the fishermen are for the increase. When in life, the manifestation will be fruit bearing. There shall be an increase wherever there is life. For life generates and reproduces. Barrenness in the church is a strong indication of the lack of life flow and life supply. Perhaps, the church is living, but may not be fruitful if the flow of life is not sufficient.

Warning: 11 But its swamps and its marshes will not be healed; they shall be left for salt.

Swamps and marshes are places which are neither dry nor wet; a situation of lukewarmness, compromise and lethargy. These places will not be healed. Though life can heal all and make all fruitful, the condition of the people is also a factor that determines if the healing and enlivening will be subjective. God's work is always in the principle of incarnation where He needs man's cooperation for Him to do His work. Man's thirst for God and supply of life is needed for God to carry out His work; a condition of absoluteness is needed. If a person's heart is half-hearted it is very unlikely he will receive God's blessing even though God always want to bless. This must be a stern warning not to be lukewarm but be absolute in our pursuit of life, of God.

May the Lord make me and the saints to be absolute under His divine flow of life from the sanctuary, in the church, for the bearing forth of abundant and remaining fruits all the days of my life. And that this verse be subjectively being experienced in my normal Christian life in the normal church-life. "12 And on the banks on both sides of the river will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail; but they will bring forth new fruit every month, because the water for them flows out of the sanctuary. And their fruit shall be for food, and their leaves for healing."