A Gospel Trip

As per the scheduled cycle of visiting the newly propagated city, Jaipur, last week was the Church in Gurgaon's turn. I was not mentally nor physically prepared for this trip, hoping that some brothers would pick up the burden and go. But at the last moment, none could make it. So I had no choice, but decided to pick up the burden myself and go, out of a pure sense of responsibility as a brother in the church. But when I was actually ready to go, it was too late to get a train ticket. My only option was to go by bus, and I dared to try out the public transport system.

However, after an hour's wait, no common bus were available, and I had to go by a special AC Sleeper coach, to be shared with a co-passenger. This also was against my wish yet, the Lord's special arrangement. As we began our journey, we slowly made friend and trip was worth the trouble.

This new friend became my gospel friend and for about an hour, I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, beginning with the plan of God in creation, the fall of mankind and the redemption accomplished by the only one unique and true living God, Jesus Christ, and also showed him how to believe into Jesus by prayer and that through faith in Jesus only his sins could be forgiven and that he could receive the life of God. A well planned gospel meeting on a surprise gospel trip indeed.

Looking back at what had happened, I realised the Lord wanted to save that man on the bus, so all the impromptu decisions had to take place. Even my going to take this gospel trip at the last moment though I had no plan for it whatsoever, was  God sovereing arrangement.

Even while in Jaipur, the fellowshipped I had with the new ones and especially with the brother's family serving there was really fruitful and enjoyable. We had solid hours of fellowship and prayer. In fact, I encouraged the brother and me to fight the battle on the knee, even with fasting at least once a week. This matter of spiritual warfare could not be taken so lightly. A specific, strategic and intercessory prayer must be offered up to conquer the dark city of idolatry. This matter, the brother agreed to continue; not too much of outward work, but more of the battle fought on bended knees. In fact, we started the warfare in prayer together.

Moreover, for me it was a "retreat" from my busy life in Gurgaon and I could enjoy some solid hours of prayer. In fact, the deep desire and burdened for prayer was ignited, and I could just release my spirit and my burden to the Lord in prayer. By the way, I was also saved from some busy schedule, had I not taken this gospel trip. Overall, it was a pleasant gospel trip, and a fruitful one, mutually helping one another of those of us who serve the Lord full time. Now I can joyfully say, "Praise the Lord!" for this gospel trip.

An Encounter

A rare but precious experience the Lord graced me last Saturday. I was in Jaipur to coordinate with the brother there. I had no specific agenda but submitted myself to the arrangement of the brother there. Since morning as we had fellowshipped, the Lord's anointing was sweet and dear. At about lunch time a new one came and that opened the door for a new experience of Christ.

He confessed that he believed in God, a generic God, the One supreme being and above all. As I preached the gospel systematically with the exercise of my spirit, from creation to the fall and to redemption, step by step, he could follow through and agreed without any doubt. And ultimately I asked him to pray and receive the Lord with me. At this point he was so reluctant, then I prayed for him and requested him to pray the sinner's prayer to receive the Lord, either by praying with his mouth open or in his heart silently. He preferred to do silently. But I was not satisfied and told him to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in his heart. To help him further, I called upon the Lord's Name out loud so that he could follow. At this juncture of calling upon the Lord's Name, "Lord Jesus!" repeatedly, something began to manifest.

Suddenly he changed his countenance and stubbornly denied the Name of Jesus. Then I discerned he was possessed by demons. But I had no fear at all, I looked at his face straight, eye to eye and asked him to call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus. The demon manifested in anger and lifted up his hand as to strike me, perhaps. But I was not disturbed, I repeated, "Jesus is Lord! Christ is Victor!" Then, as he would hit me, he hit at the table upon which we faced each other. And suddenly he laughed out loud like a fool and then suddenly turned violent again; arrogant and angry, the demon looked at me with angry fiery eyes, and hit the table again, this time the table broke at the central portion. This act provoked my spirit so much, and I shouted, "Satan, leave P.....p alone! I command you to leave!" Then he changed his mood as to torture his body and shyly stared at me. All the while I said, "Jesus is Lord! Christ is Victor!"

Then, finally, everything became calm and normal, and the new one stood up, apologized saying, "Sorry for whatever have happened" and left. This encounter gave me a deeper sense of awareness of the spiritual warfare we are engaged in.

Later, I felt the urged to pray for him earnestly and prayed that the demons would fully leave him. I only regretted that we let him go so easily. I felt we should have stopped him and helped him to have a definite breakthrough. Anyway, we prayed, even with fasting that he be fully delivered. 

The next day we called him if anything had happened the previous night, because we prayed for him during that time and I personally felt that something had transpired as we prayed. He told that, some ladies disturbed him the whole night and that he could not sleep. When we prayed, the demons were terrified and that he had to torture him. I wanted to meet him again, and called up. But he never turned up. I still hope and pray that the Lord would fully deliver him.

Looking forward for another encounter, this time with a definite breakthrough.

Dehydration

Last week I had a night long loose motion and lost a lot of water from my body. The next day, I was fully weak with lots of muscle cramps and headache. At first I did not know the reason for such pain and guesstimated instead that I must have been bitten by a dengue mosquito. Nevertheless, I mustered up my strength and still went for the meeting on the Lord's day. That meeting was important as it was North India Blending Conference where saints from North India came together for blending. A very rare and special occasion. I dared not miss it.

Inspite of the acute pain emanating from my body I still continued to stay till the end. Though I couldn't receive much, at least my presence was guaranteed. In the midst, a brother saw my weak condition and commented that I had dehydration and requested me to drink a lot of water. And later I ate some tablets and took rest. The following day too, I worked in the office till lunch and rested the rest of the day. And my only therapy was drinking water all this while.

I had consumed about 10 liters of water within 24 hours. I did my best to drink and drink in every possible way, in the form of juice or ORS or normal water. I became my own doctor. Quite naturally, I recovered speedily just by drinking water. This was a big lesson to me.

Often when our drinking of the rivers of living water is inadequate, we suffer from spiritual dehydration. Many murmurings, complaining, backbiting, etc are result of dehydration. So much pain within and without, because the healthy supply of life for the normal function of life is deficient. Therefore, for healthy and normal Christian life, we must drink the Spirit as the living water day by day. 

My wife's simple explanation was a revelation. When I had loose motion and my stomach was weak and empty, it cannot supply the life needed, therefore, the deficiency of life supply cause almost every member of my body to suffer. For the necessary life supply comes from my stomach.

This explanation registered in me a very deep spiritual lesson. Our spiritual life supply must be non-stop. We must take care of our eating and drinking. Eat and drink normally everyday and all will be well.

Trained Men

Genesis 14: 14 And when Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and pursued as far as Dan.

Abram fought for his brother Lot and recovered him from the captivity. That was a historical fact. But how could he do that? Yes, it was God's sovereignty behind the scene, a hidden intercessor, for both Lot and Abram. But more practically, in humanity, Abram had "trained men" whom God could use. Perhaps, one may argue that even without his trained men if God wanted to recover something He still could do it. Perhaps, yes. And may also be, no. God works in the principle of incarnation. He needs men to cooperate with Him, and very unlikely, God would do miracle in lieu of using men on earth. Therefore, for God to be able to use us anytime, anywhere, we must be "trained men" ever ready to cooperate with God in His move.

Today, we don't fight with flesh and blood, Ephesians 6:12 For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies. We fight the spiritual warfare by prayer. As Christ, our heavenly Intercessor, is interceding for us, we must cooperate with Him and intercede for the brother, fight for the brother by daily, intercessory prayer. We must be "trained men" of prayer for the sake of God and His eternal purpose.

The need of the hour is to be "trained men" including us and the saints in prayer to pray and intercede for the saints and the churches and the Lord's move on the earth. This matter impressed me so much, it became by prophesy in the meeting and also in the home meeting. 

Lord, train me to be Your "trained man" to fight for the brother.

Recovery : Lost and Found (Things)

This morning as we assembled together for brothers' fellowship I discovered that my official Transformer Trio Laptop was stolen. Immediately, we had a fellowship with the saints who took care of new ones' meeting last night. On detail investigation we boiled down to two "suspects" who also attended the meeting last night. It was a real life test of how we would deal with a situation like this. We prayed and looked to the Lord for wisdom how to handle this case, and that we may learn what the Lord wanted us to learn. Then we formed a team of four brothers who would further investigate and confirm the real culprit. 

Firstly we checked on the real suspect on his word last night saying that he had to submit official papers to his associate office and left earlier in hast. But on on-site visit and enquiry we confirmed that he lied. Then we went to a showroom where he claimed to work. There too we confirmed that he didn't turn up for work either. These two trials gave us enough evidences of who the culprit really was. Thirdly, we further went to meet his friend who was also present last night, and on frank conversation, he gave more clues that the former one was the culprit. Fourthly, we called this suspect from a different phone number which he didn't pick up, but he called back to find out who called him. Then having enough evidences, we spoke to him politely to return the stolen laptop. Though he tried to hide his identity, his tone and phone number matched him. Later, he called back another acquaintance, other brother, and we spoke and tried to convince him to return the laptop. Still he pretended as though he knew nothing about it. But the more he defended himself, the more suspicious he became to us. Left with no more option, we just politely requested him to return back the stolen laptop as we were very much confirmed that he was the one. Finally, we gave up all human method of recovering the lost laptop.

Along with the brothers in one accord we all prayed that the Lord would forgive him, convict him, and perfect us in dealings with case like this. We left the rest to the Lord. But deep within me the Lord confirmed again and again that the lost thing will be recovered.  I also left fully to the Lord's wise hands. Later, he called up to inform that the lost laptop was with his friend and he would bring it back. The Lord did touch his conscience and he decided to return it back.

In the afternoon, brothers went to meet him and he returned the laptop with deep regret and remorse. As fellowshipped, instead of accusing him, he was shepherded. And the laptop was recovered back, and on this same system is this blog typed.

This case taught us some important principles in propagation and shepherding new ones. The fault is on our side too as we have not been wise enough, and carelessly gave ground to the enemy by not securing things with us. This also taught us to be more discerning of all the new ones. When God blesses with spiritual fruits the enemy is not silent either. Along with the wheat also grows tares. We must rightly discern and take appropriate action.

Overall, it was an experience of recovery of things lost and found. Our Christian life and the church life will have many experiences like this; a recovery of what was lost, and now found, in persons, matters and things.

Firewall

Zechariah 2:5 For I will  be her wall of fire round about, declares Jehovah, and I will be glory within her.

This morning I was beckoned with the sad news of the enemy's attack on one of the our entities that serves the Lord. My innate response was that this was expected and it was the enemy's direct attack on the Lord's work. I was not peaceful within and groaned that the Lord would cover us with His blood. As I began to read the word as usual, the Lord's speaking was exactly on the same matter I was inwardly praying for. Zechariah 2:5 For I will  be her wall of fire round about, declares Jehovah, and I will be glory within her. This faithful soothing word was, Jehovah would be a wall of fire around us. And He indeed is and will ever be.

Come what may, we will march on as Christian soldiers as to war. The Lord is with us and no plan of the enemy will succeed. Only the Lord is our covering, and only He will triumphantly lead us through, against all odds. The best and only Protector is the Lord Himself, and in Him only we hide and abide. He is our firewall against "hackers and spammers, bugs and viruses." His blood will clean the "system" and normalized it. And all year round and all day long, He will be a wall of fire around us keeping us healthy and functioning for His purpose.

Recovery : Lost and Found (Persons)

Luke 15: 24 Because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.

In this journey of life, the God of Palmei, who has called me and led me step by step has also been leading me through ups and downs, passing through different phases of life experience; all the while, learning Christ, loving Christ and living Christ. All these precious experiences have been golden opportunities for me to gain Christ and be gained by Christ. What a blessing! Every situation is God's operation in me; every disappointment is God's appointment with me.

A couple of brothers who had been living with me for a while had left with a very negative note. This experience was very painful at heart and deep within I have been bleeding and weeping for these brothers. Their names have been wrought in my tongue and inscribed in the table of my heart. Almost every prayer I prayed are intercessory prayer for them, till today. Every time, I only kept hearing ill reports concerning these brothers which pained me deeply. Nevertheless, I never gave up on them as I know the Lord would never give up on any one however worst the case may be.  But the Lord is the judge and the perfect time keeper. He does all things good in His time.

Recently, while on my knees, the Lord led me to call one of these brothers. As I spoke to him the joy of the Lord filled me as the Lord confirmed that my prayer for this particular brother has indeed been answered. He narrated to me of all what transpired in his life, and how the Lord is now cooling him down to gaze on green pastures. With much concern, I encouraged him to enjoy the Lord by contacting Him everyday, coming to His word and into His presence by prayer. The fellowship over the phone in the humanity of Jesus was so sweet. Him, I though was lost has actually been found! Praise the Lord who is on the throne!

Another brother who had lived with us for his studies and who has become one among us in brotherly Christian love and also a distant relative, was also on my list of prayer everyday. Since he came to reside with us, the Lord began to work intensely on him; his love for the Lord, the word and  the fellowship and prayer of the brothers in the church life grew very much. The Lord began to bless him as his wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Gradually, the Lord led him to clear a very competitive exam, level by level. All the while in all the stages, we have often prayed together over the phone, claiming the righteousness of Christ and standing on the righteousness of Christ. Every time we conversed, we prayed together taking Christ as our all in all.  And finally, today he called to informed that the Lord led him to clear this tough exam to become a bureaucrat! What can I say except, "Halleluiah Praise the Lord!" 

Additional reasons for praise is, this clearance is very unique, free from the usual dirty practice of bribery at  the final interview stage, in Manipur! From the very beginning I have fellowshipped that no unrighteous means should even be considered. Better a loser in righteousness than a winner in corruption. Once the base is righteous, all that follows can also be righteous in Christ. He took the fellowship and did not succumb to the usual unrighteous approach of gaining favor from man, but trusted in the Lord only and absolutely. So, the Lord blesses...

My own brother too has gone for a while, but my prayer never left him. Personal or family prayer, his name will always flow out of our lips, including my wife and children of 6 and 4 years respectively, in our family prayer time. Occasional attempt to call him never worked, as my call would not be answered for some reason. But I kept messaging now and then whenever the Lord gave me specific verse for him. This time, my wife and I, in one accord wants to help our family in building construction and we agreed upon a large sum out of the Lord's provision and blessing. This matter brought all my family together. In fact, my prayer was that the Lord should bless us in one accord, to stand together in anything we do. Finally, after a long wait, the time has come wherein we can work together for the Lord's purpose through our family. As I fellwoshipped with my brother and prayed together, the joy of the Lord filled me. Deep within, the Lord confirmed too, that my prayer was answered. And to confirm further, the Lord spoke to me tonight from Luke 15: 24 Because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.