Preparation

“I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem…prepared as a bride”—Revelation 21:2:

The Lord's recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ. For the bride to be ready, the church, the bride of Christ must grow in the divine life unto maturity unto the building up of itself in love. The bride must not only grow unto maturity, but also must be beautified for the satisfaction and pleasure of the groom. Only with proper preparation can the bride be ready to marry the groom. This is God's heart's desire.

Practically, as I was under the dispensing ministry of the word, I was deeply impressed with this matter--PREPARATION. In every field of human life, there is a need for preparation. Be it short term or long term, be it in small things or big things, there is an urgent need for a normal, proper and thorough preparation; both in the physical and spiritual realm.

In my living, I must be prepared daily; to enjoy the Lord in the word and in prayer that I may grow and grow unto maturity. Personally and corporately, I must pursue the growth in life, by all means at all cost. Only such a desperateness will render me the adequate preparation I need to be mature in life, and on time.

Similarly, in my service, I must be ever prepared to meet all the business needs on time, and usher in a successful and fruitful corporate operation. Worldly and secular business men have sold themselves for "success", then why not for the Lord's move. But not in a natural way to produce Ishmael out of natural source and strength, nor in a presumptive way of using undealt natural wisdom naturally possessed of Eleazer, but of being thoroughly dealt by God, circumcised of the old man, and in resurrection of the new man trusting in God's grace, receiving the blessing of Isaac. This is the way I must take to prepare myself.

Preparation is a matter of growth in the divine life, and for such growth, there must be the daily eating and drinking of the word, here a little, there a little, now and then, again and again. And this will usher in the believers' readiness to be mature to bring the Groom back for the ultimate wedding day unto the ultimate consummation in the New Jerusalem.

Lord, prepare us!

Life Lesson : Water Scarcity

Today we had a shortage of water in our house, and in fact, the first time we were to live without it. The reason for the shortage was, the water pump could not be run during the water supply time slot as there was power cut consecutively for at least three slots. This lack of water threw the whole kitchen into a mess of used but uncleaned plates and utensils. A nice sight indeed, a memorable reminder.

In my time with the Lord, the Lord reminded me of many loopholes in my character. I could have avoided this scarcity of water, had I been more careful and concern about the whole situation. Actually, we had a bore-well installed which had not been working for long now. It got jammed somewhere in the machine or in the pipe. I had not taken a serious step to look into it and repair them. Had this been working well, this would have met all the scarcity, without having the need to deepen wholly on the public water supply. The Lord awoken me to care for all these small small things; He indeed is the God of small things. If one cannot be faithful in small things, can God entrust him with something big? Absolutely not.

Because of this lack, my whole family was suffering today. All the families who lives in the same bungalow suffered too. And the church meeting in the same building also was affected. From a small negligence, there was a big problem. Though this may not be as disastrous as anything else, but it indeed was a sure reminder to me, my need for more insight and care to be a faithful overseer in the things the Lord has pleased to assign to me.

In relation to this, the Lord reminded me also to consider and reconsider the best way to effectively serve Him, in the areas of service ordained to me. Many new steps have to be taken, in fact, a renewed vision and a new way of service must be implemented. The Lord wants to move fast but He cannot, if I am not ready to cope up with Him. May the Lord grant me the grace to be a proper person to care for all the minute detail in my living and service. May the lesson of life learned from water scarcity problem be not in vain, and may this not be repeated.

Protection

The ministry of the word is a real protection to me. These days I feel the enemy is not silent as the Lord is moving within and among us in an intensified way. Through the fellowship in the body, as the church here in Gurgaon, we recovered the weekly gospel preaching and encouraged all the saints to go out at least once a week to contact people and preach the gospel. On the one hand, we are revived, yet on the other hand I could personally sense the enemy is not happy either. The subtlety in his attack is a sure sign for more exercise of the spirit in the body life.

The speaking of the Lord through fellowship, training and conferences is a real all-inclusive protection to the saints. I have been experiencing this personally. Even this morning, as I was listening to the audio messages on God-ordained way, my eyes were opened to see many things I have not seen before. As I listened, a deep feeling arose from within, a feeling of deep thanks to the Lord for such a ministry of the word. I am protected, preserved and balanced in my vision and living.

The timely speaking of the Lord, the ministry of the word and the fellowship of the saints in the Body of Christ are the real protection. Particularly to me, a person individualistic by nature, need a lot of balancing, tampering and adjustment. And this is what I need most at the moment. My wife, my children, my coordinators in my service areas and the church are all blessings in disguise. Without them, I would be a hopeless blind hypocrite. 

Ever since, the Lord recovered me to the church-life, I have been experiencing this divine yet human protection; protection from Satan and his allies with their lies, protection from sin, self and the world with all its lusts, and also from being individualistic. What a blessed protection in the church life in the Lord's recovery! 

Lord, preserve me and protect me in Your recovery all the days of my life. 

Bezalel (2)

Our official truth pursuit on the Life Study of Exodus, message 170 was so enlightening, full of light and revelation. 

THE MASTER BUILDER

Exodus 31:2-5 speaks of the master builder of the tabernacle. Paul uses the term master builder in 1 Corinthians 3:10: “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation....” A master builder is a leader in God’s building.

Bezalel, the Son of Uri, the Son of Hur

Exodus 31:2 says, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.” Bezalel is a type in the Old Testament of the master builder. The name Bezalel means “in the shadow of God.” This indicates that as a master builder, Bezalel was altogether under God’s shadowing. He was a man under the shadow of God’s grace. This corresponds to Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 3:10, where he says that it was by God’s grace that he was made a wise master builder.

The name of Bezalel’s father was Uri, which means “light of Jehovah.” This name indicates that all the builders of God’s dwelling place should be not only under God’s shadow, but also full of the Lord’s light.

The name of Bezalel’s grandfather was Hur. Hur means free, noble, white. Not only should we be under God’s shadow and full of light, but we should be free and noble. Those who build God’s dwelling place are not low people. On the contrary, they are noble people doing a noble work. No other work is as noble as the building of God’s dwelling place. Furthermore, the builders of God’s dwelling place are “white,” that is, they are clean and pure. When we put together the meaning of the names Bezalel, Uri, and Hur, we can see what kind of person the builders of God’s dwelling place, especially the elders, must be.

Filled with the Spirit of God

Concerning Bezalel, 31:3 says, “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all workmanship.” If we would build God’s dwelling place, we must be a people filled with the Spirit of God. By our natural life and ability and in our natural man, we are not able to do this work. Nothing natural is capable of building God’s dwelling place. Only the Spirit of God can build His own dwelling place through us. We are the instruments, the means. The actual ability, capacity, strength, and power must be God Himself as the Spirit to us.

According to verse 3, this filling up with the Spirit of God involves four matters: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and workmanship. 

This has been my prayer time and again. To be filled with wisdom, knowledge, understanding... has been my personal prayer and the prayer I taught and prayed with my children every time I dropped them to school. As I have been serving, perhaps, learning to serve, for over a decade now, I sensed the need for more of God's wisdom. I do not believe in human skill and maneuvering though this may work in real-life work culture. My trust is in God to do the right thing at the right time, and this can happen only with the wisdom from above, God's wisdom, and the discernment and understanding to be able to co-work with God intimately, all for the fulfillment of God's purpose. And God's wisdom is experienced in being filled with the Spirit of God, the reality of all that God is.

Lord, fill me with Your Spirit. Be my wisdom, knowledge, understanding, discernment and workmanship.

Fellowship of the Body : LMA Conference

Fellowship of the Body : LMA Conference 2014, New Delhi:

Encouragement: The one day seminar was so encouraging to witness what the Lord has been doing in Asia and how the Lord led the saints to carry out the Lord’s work. Especially in India, I am so glad that the way we took is quite proper, solid and steady, the foundation is being laid well. We need to press on and speed up the work the Lord has begun in us and among us and through us.

Enlightenment through the Lord’s Speaking:

Inward Recovery: Before the Lord can have His outward recovery there must be the inward recovery of life. This matter brought me to go before the Lord, repent and confess all my sins, failures and weaknesses, and be judged and breathed into for God’s building. In pursuit of this burden, in my locality, I fellowshipped with the brothers to have more time with the Lord in the word and prayer, both personally and corporately. Outward blessings and recovery will be a result of an inward recovery of life and by life.

Glorious Vision: Seeing the glorious vision of the Holy Building is of utmost importance; for this will govern us, restrict us, control us, keep us in one accord to reach God’s goal. Apart from this vision, we have no way to be built up to fulfill God’s purpose. All our spirituality, living and work must be measured by the house of God, the body life, and must be for the house of God and the Body of Christ.

Fellowship with Brother from Taiwa was so nourishing and perfecting. They are real patterns for us to follow. Especially in my service area, I am helped in learning the following matters:

1. the need to produce more literature and with good quality, 
2. the importance of  having a sweet coordination with all the churches  
3. the need to consider a wise business model of having our own printer for small run
4. the need to promote readership through standing orders mingled with rewards and incentives
5. the need to encourage, train and perfect more saints in different localities for books promotion and distribution

Besides, our work is not "localised" nor "regionalised" nor "nationalised", we are for the Body. This LMA fellowship brought more reality and practicality of our being in the one work of the one unique Body of Christ in sweet one accord and coordination.

Romans 11:33

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and untraceable His ways!

Besides all these, through the fellowship, the church in Gurgaon has picked up the burden to have a proper structure of the church life, by encouraging all the saints to function at least by going out once a week to preach the gospel. Even as we actually started to go out, the Lord's presence and anointing was with us and we all enjoyed the blessing, a blessing through the fellowship in the Body. 

Lord, may this blessed burden continue to burden us until Your heart's desire is fulfilled.

City of Light

In  Revelation 21:2,11; 22:5, the New Jerusalem is a holy city filled with the glory of God as the divine shining light. And we, the believers today, are little New Jerusalem and the local churches, a miniature of the New Jerusalem. To be in this reality, I must live out and work out the New Jerusalem.

These messages on the "Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem" has wrought a revelation of a new and better living into me deeply. Since it is a "city", it implies a kingdom living. Meaning, the need for me to be regulated inwardly in the spirit to live a normal and proper God-man living. The Lord's speaking exposed me that I need the Lord's mercy to live the "Church Life" which is the kingdom life, daily. This entails a disciplined living in relation to persons, matters and things. Though I might have been living some aspects to a certain extent, I need the Lord's grace much more to be in reality living the church-life, the kingdom life, for God's purpose. This living is possible only by Lord's kingly life that can meet the kingly demand of the kingdom life.

This city is filled with the glory of God. I must be a person filled with the glory of God. Only God is light, apart from Him, who is the unique light, is all darkness. I have been so much exposed in this matter of light. It has been my prayer since long that I be filled with the wisdom of God. For in many matters I realized, without the wisdom of God, I would be wasting much of the Lord's time and my time. However, in a very real sense, I discovered, as the Lord began to shine on me, that I needed more light. Many of the "lights" that I thought I have are mere darkness in comparison to God's light. I had some discernment of certain matters or things or even persons, but the Lord sovereignly exposed me that all my discernment were wrong. This indeed helped me to know who I am, and where I am at, therefore, creating more hunger and thirst for the true light, God Himself.

In living out and working out the New Jerusalem, I must live the kingdom living by the Lord's kingdom life, and I must be filled with the Triune God more who is glory Himself, the source of the divine light. 

Lord, grace me to live such a church-life all the days of my life, to represent You and such a light to express You.

Golden Calf

In Exodus 32, the making of the golden calf was a deep spiritual lesson to me. As we pursued the Life Study of Exodus on message 174, the Lord enlightened me to see many things related to my living and service. 

The principle of the golden-calf idol is that wealth and treasures—gifts from God, both material and spiritual—are not properly used for God’s purpose. We need to be careful regarding both material things and spiritual gifts received from God, for we may not use these gifts properly for God’s purpose. 

The golden calf was made out of the golden materials brought out of Egypt which were meant for the building of the tabernacle of God. However, when Moses was communing with God on the mountain top, below the mountain was transpiring something of exact opposite. The high priest Aron made a golden calf! It's almost hard to believe it. But that was the fact, and spiritually is still the fact today.

Whatever gifts God gave to us must be used for God's purpose; be it spiritual or physical, everything is for God, out from God. But how many times did we use God's gifts rightfully as it should be? Any gift of God used for anything other than God or God's purpose is making a golden calf! And the one who misuses God's gifts is an idolater. According to this principle, I only have to confess that I need the Lord more to not misuse His gifts in any way.

Later, when Moses witnessed such idolatry out of the golden calf, he dealt with it in a very wise way. First, he petitioned God on behalf of the idolaters, reminding God of His promises, which even let God to repent of the evil intent he had upon idolaters. Second, he destroyed the golden calf, burning and crushing it into gold dust, and made the idolaters drink of this dust, perhaps as a chastisement and a negative memorable reminder. Third, he sanctified and separated those who were for God against those who were not, even leading to the killing of three thousand men, including the relatives of those carrying out the judging-killing spree. 

Once, one realises his being an idolater, all these dealings must take place to be fully delivered and completely sanctified. This message touched my being deeply. I am no exception as far as the principle is concerned, and I must deal with God's gifts abused, whenever the Lord shined on me. In fact, the Lord specifically led me to deal with certain "idolatrous" items, one by one, step by step. 

O may I be fully sanctified as those of the Levites! Lord, have mercy.