Life Lesson : Prayer and Preparation

After a decade of graduating from a scholastic life, the Lord has opened a decade's dream of learning the Biblical Greek. I took this as the Lord's provision and with much prayer and preparation I labored as when I was a student, decades ago. One simple rule of "success" that I always follow, "Pray and Prepare; Do Thy Best, God Will Do the Rest." This rule never fails me till date. I don't believe in superstitious and blind faith when what is due on our part is not done.  So in this Greek learning, I prayed and trusted the Lord for His wisdom, knowledge and understanding and the grace to be diligent, faithful and fruitful.

Every exercise, I have labored enough with revisions over and over again. And every test  I attempted till its a full score, not just for the sake of marks, but much for the learning of the Word of God. My recent experience was quite something. 

As the Greek first exam was due by yesterday, I tried my best to find time to prepare thoroughly well. But every attempt was distracted by something or the other. Many impromptu appointments broke my plan to study. But these were not lame excuses, they were genuine cases pertaining to the church life and the services I am responsible to bear in all faithfulness.  Finally, at the fag end of the dateline, I could steal time to study and study. Perhaps, revised it over and over again until I felt I am ready to be tested in all angles. 

Then came the due time, and confident in the Lord, I took the test. The prayer-preparation method I adopted was quite alarming, as it was a success. To my surprise, I score 100%! I almost can't believe it. Though I prepared well and knew almost all the questions asked, few questions were very doubtful. But as I attempted, I felt the Lord guiding me inwardly as to what the right answers were. Quite amazing! What my preparation part could not cope up with, the prayer part complemented it. The Lord knows the desire of our heart and out attitude toward everything. When our part is faithfully carried out, He is bound to bless by all means. Otherwise, He would be unrighteous in not blessing. 

This is a simple and small lessons learned, but the principle is applicable universally.

Lord, grace me be a faithful student of Yours; to pray and prepare and command Thy blessings.

Prayer : Training a Child

Train up a child according to the way he should go; Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

The Lord has taught us and has been gracing us to inculcate in our children the love of God, the reverend fear of God, the trust in God and the prayer in Jesus' Name from the time their conscience started functioning. And we have developed the practice of reading the Bible daily with them and prayer as much as possible; when getting up, before every meal, while dropping and picking them up from the school, before going to bed and literally, whenever there is an opportunity. These habits, whether spiritual or ritual, must be a living, a discipline and a character, I believe so. May the Lord adjust and correct me, if they are wrong. And we have been enjoying the Lord's blessings and presence in our lives.

My son is just four years old and first daughter six years old. They started experiencing the Lord in a very subjective way. Now, they know, there is a God called the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is none else. And they also are learning to trust in this living God and would not accept any other gods introduced in the school by their non-believer teachers. 

Today, my son and his friend were playing with his friend's cycle. And the cycle broke down with a bolt and a nut fallen apart. They both had been scrambling through the ground looking for the missing parts. Helpless and desperate to find them, my son asked his friend if they could pray together simply by asking the Lord Jesus to help them find. They both called upon the Lord Jesus's Name and prayed for the recovery of the lost and broken cycle parts. Quite encouragingly, they found the missing parts right away. Later, my son narrated his experience with Jesus to his mother, my wife, and then to me. O what a blessing to hear the testimony of our children experiencing the Lord!

My daughter too had been studying and laboring hard for her studies, especially Hindi, a foreign language to her. However, we always taught them to pray to Jesus for wisdom, knowledge and understanding. At the same time, help them to study on time and thoroughly. Then this week on two occasions she told me she scored 100% in the class tests in Hindi and other subjects too. To encourage her, I just treated them ice cream of their choice and promised them for a day out to a mall for lunch and for kids' day out.

These are just a foretaste. Still trusting the Lord and looking to Him for more grace to continue in His presence and His blessing, even unto all the days of our lives.

Lord, train us to train our children in Your ways.

Joyful Offering

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. 

Both riches and glory proceed from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all.

For all things are from You, and from Your hand we have given You.

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 willing to You.

1 Chronicles 29:9, 12, 14b, 17

What words of wisdom David had uttered in his good old age, full of days! Blessed are those who learn from the word of God and from the life experiences divinely recorded in the Bible. And blessed I would be to learn so heartily, as I read this verses today. Blessings and joy are all in our hands, only if we know how to realise from God's Bank of Blessings.

This lesson of willing offering the Lord has taught me since my childhood. Once the simple fact is well understood that all that we are and have are from God Himself, we would in no way withhold back from offering from the blessings of God. In offering, with deep spiritual realization, is great joy. Offering is never a burden nor a thing of struggling. Rather, not offering from the Lord's blessing is a big burden indeed. I have experienced this over and over again. Whenever we receive from the Lord, be it big or small, we do our best, trusting in the Lord's grace to offer. Such offering is always a joyful deed. For we offer only from what God blesses us! Apart from God's blessings, nothing we have.

Recently, the Lord's blessing has been very rich, and it has even become richer by the day. And it is even more a joyful thing to offer. My prayer and desire is that my offering may go up higher and higher. Having been blessed and offered quite an offering, I still look forward to the day I could offer a hundred times more, even thousands and tens of thousands times more. May the Lord grace me to see the day this can be a reality. May His mercy preserve me from loving anything other than Him. 

The verse in 1 Timothy 6:6, "Godliness with contentment is great gain;" was our topic of fellowship yesterday. And today is the Lord's speaking on "joyful offering." The two are quite related. When we realise everything positive is from God's blessings, and we are contented with it, then we will joyfully offer to the Lord with a cheerful heart. This pleases the Lord and pleases the giver too.

The goal of a joyful offering is for the building up of the house of God. Verse 16, "O Jehovah our God, as for all this abundance that we have prepared for building You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours." All blessings and offerings are not for blessings and offerings sake, but all for God Himself only, for the building up of the house of God, for his holy Name! This is how God takes care of His need by taking care of our needs.

Lord, grace me in Your blessings and grace me to be Your joyful giver all the days of my life. All for the building up of Your Body, Your House, for Your glory!

Strange Hand

Today, the Lord exposed me of my naturalness and oldness in handling things. Though negative it seemed, it was a life lesson for me to learn. To be in the Spirit and to do things in the spirit.

When the Lord's table meeting began today, I thought to add one more row for the sisters as I expected more would come. In the midst of the meeting, not caring for the Spirit's anointing, my natural goodness took over me and I arranged another full row when the remaining row was still not filled. Later, when the sisters started coming one by one, none went to the front row, rather they all took the last additional row. When I saw this I was convicted of my deed. Had I not arranged the additional row, they all would have had no choice but to fill in the existing first row first. Though this seems trivial, the lesson I learned was so profound. It was no longer a matter of good or better, but of the Spirit. I should not stretch my hand without the Lord's leading. Else it be just a strange hand.

Anything done, whether spiritual or good, does not really matter. But what matters most if the source of doing things. This for sure is in line with my Bible reading portion in 1 Chronicles 21:1 about David's last sin in numbering his people. The question was not in numbering. But the source that moved him to number. Verse one says, "And Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel." Numbering was not a sin, else there would be no book called, Numbers, the fourth book of the Bible in the Old Testament, nor will there be a counting of generations and genealogies in the Bible. 

Similar case in the New Testament, was my Bible reading portion too. The Lord's speaking is always timely and apt. Matthew 16:23, "But he turned and said to Peter, get Behind Me, Satan! You are stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men." The matter is the source of our doing things. Anything that does not have the source in God Himself is of Satan. Be it good or religious or even spiritual, if the source is not God, it is evil. This is the Lord's graceful word of love to me. I must be one with the Lord in everything, and exercise to be so ever. Not caring too much for right or wrong, good or bad, godly or evil, but determining the source of all things, God or Satan. If any matters or things does not issue from God, I better be warned and step behind, until I am clear it is truly of the Lord, the source must be from God. Else, all things will be the work of a strange hand. 

Lord, may You be my source of all my work, in my personal life, family life, church life and work life. And save me from my "strange hand."

Enlarge My Border

Oh that you would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me! And God caused what he had requested to come to pass. 1 Chronicles 4:10

The Lord's speaking was so living. As I was considering and praying to Him for the best way to be a care taker of His blessings, the Lord spoke to me from various verses on the matter of enlarging my border. Spiritually, this is the enlargement of my enjoyment of Christ as the Seed and as the Land for the fulfillment of God's purpose. Yet, literally true too. He wants to enlarge my border!

This prayer of Jabez is mine too. Every promised in the Bible can be mine as the Spirit shines the word into my spirit as the rhema word. Oh that the Lord would bless me! The Lord has been blessing me, it's all His mercy to which I praised Him. And that He would enlarge my border too! As this rhema word came to me, I was introduced to a physical piece of land by one of my spiritual sons. The manner and time with which this occurred was truly of the Lord. I could only "amen" the Lord's speaking and would pursue further trusting in His grace.

And that Your would be with me, yea, in all my undertakings according to Your leading. And would keep me from evil that Satan may have no way, no ground and no chance to touch me in any way. Lord, cover me with Your blood and be a canopy over me. And that I would not be grieved, but be joyful in You all the days of my life. And such prayer, the Lord would answer as He answered for Jabez. With this promise, I had the grace to go on and invest on the land shown to me. 

Lord, enlarge my border....Increase my experience and enjoyment of You and grow in me  day by day....Fulfill Your promises.

SOS

Last Wednesday I received an SOS call from one of the brothers whom the Lord graced me to lead to salvation few years ago. Discerning the tone of the call I sensed the urgency and made an impromptu appointment. The meeting that evening with this brother was an eye opener to the real situation one is facing as a believer.

Few years ago, this brother was an ardent seeker of God (whichever is true and real in this world of many gods.) When I first met him he was very sincerely seeking and would fold his hand, pause a moment, and bow his head in reverence whenever he passed by any religious site. On one such incident, I approached him and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to which he immediately believed and received the Lord Jesus Christ into him. Later, we lost contact as he lost my mobile number where he stored my number. However I gifted him a tract, The Mystery of Human Life. At one point of time he was struggling to be a successful man and though if he could succeed in winning a world record or a national record he would be satisfied. In fact, he laboured and tried hard for it.

He is by nature a genius in memory power, and practised sharpening his mind power. One time he went through a serious relationship problem and was in need of help. At that time he tried to contact me but could not recollect my number. After searching his house thoroughly for a trace to contact me again, he saw the tract I gave piously kept in the worship room along with his household, traditional and religious idols. Immediately he called the number mentioned on the back side of the tract. And then came to meet me. On that day the Lord burdened me to pray for him and speak to him biblically and strongly about baptism. After listening to his problems, I remembered telling him that his need was to fully experience the full salvation of God by being baptised following his repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. He received the fellowship and the Lord led him to be baptised. After his baptism he was filled with joy. With deep depression he came and with full of joy he left. Since then he prayed only in the Name of Jesus and called often to pray over the phone.

Later, on his first attempt for the National Record, he called over the phone and we prayed together over the phone asking God for wisdom and blessing.  When the result was out after months, he joyfully called to praise the Lord that God had blessed him a national record! Similar incidents repeated for another two more  national records and went on to win even an international record. Every time, he testified, all these successes were due to God's blessings and we used to pray together often over the phone. Success after success followed him. Now he is on Youtube, News Channel, News Papers and Magazines. But as successes were bestowed, he kind of drifted back gradually. the successes and glamour of the world clouded his sky. Slowly he drifted away from the normal and basic exercise of a Christian life.  His Bible reading was not regular, his prayer came down and his fellowship with the Lord and the believers minimal, and he was trapped in depression all over again. That's why the SOS call.

The fellowship we had was on the recovery of our normal daily eating and drinking of the Lord in reading the Bible, prayer, pursuing the truths and fellowship with the Body. He realised where he went wrong after the fellowship. The Lord had mercy on him, we prayed together and he promised to take care of the basic spiritual exercises of contacting the Lord through the word and prayer everyday and in fellowship with the brothers. It was a timely call and a timely visit with a timely fellowship.

O the basic exercises should never be missed. Come what may, our number one priority must be the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else; the reading of the holy word and prayer and fellowship, without which all else are empty. It is not a matter of balancing our time in a busy schedule, but a matter of setting the priority right. First for God and then the others. Then our SOS will be OLJ, O Lord Jesus!

The Hand of God

The Lord has marvelously blessed our family and He is still blessing, both spiritually and physically. He is indeed the God of blessing and He blesses for the Body of the Christ and His purpose to fulfill. Since the day I was born again, the hand of God has been directing all my steps; He is the God of small things as much as that of the big things too. His unseen Hands has led me thus far, and led me to the path He has chosen, step by step. Literally, its mysterious and inexplicable, yet wonderful and  marvelous!

Of late, as He has blessed us financially too, we were considering the best way to be a proper steward of His sovereign blessings, after all the offerings and needy saints' needs were taken care including our own family's need, we tried many options on investments but nothing really worked. Though we had some options, every time I was about to decide on some of these, something mysterious happened and it never went through. The matter got delayed and even further delayed with no proper reason, just only that neither I nor my wife, just did not have the peace. That was the hand of God.

My last visit to Chennai was intended just for official purpose, but in between I had fellowship with my first spiritual fruit who after a decade is now a real estate officer in a reputed company. As I inquired about his well being, he introduced me to what his company termed as a hot cake investment in newly developing area in NH4 Chennai-Bengalore highway. Though I tried to brush it off as less significant, I missed my train and had one more day extra. So I decided to check out on his proposal.

I had one half day with this brother and his colleague in the business to have the on-sight visit of the plot good for investment. On the way, I preached the gospel to his colleague and she received the Lord and prayed with me and surprisingly addressed me as "brother". Besides, we saw the land yet I did not make any decision as yet, for I wanted to pray more about it and fellowship with my wife, a deep lesson the Lord has taught me in marriage life. 

After reaching home, I took time out to go before the Lord and seek the Lord's leading concerning these plots of land for investment purpose. The more I prayed and considered, the more the Lord gave me immense peace and joy. Personally I was clear concerning this, and as I fellowshipped with my wife, she also felt very good and we in oneness and one accord prayed together for this investment. Then we decide to go ahead, and the Lord sovereignly arranged all things needed for the booking of these plots of land, basically three plots altogether. Never planned before, nor thought about it, but the hand of the Lord led us mysteriously through His anointing within and arranging the circumstances without. This is, indeed, the hand of God. 

And may this Hand of God lead me all the days of my life.