Not by Might, But by My Spirit

This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Jehovah of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

These days the gospel preaching in Gurgaon has been a real battle we are fighting in the Lord. The local people are very precious in the eyes of the Lord. With all their wealth, positions and possessions, they are like the Anakim, "nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are big and fortified up to heaven and a people great and tall". But we do not lose heart. For the Lord has defeated His enemy at the cross of Calvary. We are just proclaiming the accomplished fact of the Lord.

There has been quite a struggle inwardly and outwardly here in this city as far as the preaching of the gospel is concerned. There is a cloud of thick spiritual darkness covering this city. No matter, what one has attempted spiritually in this city, the land is just barren and dry. Only the Lord can water and turn this dry land into pasture beside stream of living water. 

Even in my own personal spiritual experience, I sensed such a strong spiritual resistance in this city. In terms of time spent on prayers, it is almost daily praying for this city for the past decade. Yet so far not a fruitful result. But I am not discouraged nor will I ever give up. In fact, I have told the Lord again and again, that I am willing to die in this land for His testimony. Only the mercy of the Lord can grant me this. Gurgaon for Jesus! This city should have the strongest testimony of the Lord as a pattern to many other localities. As much as the city is fast developing, the spiritual development should even be much faster. 

I know in His time the Lord will answer all the prayers offered to Him. And I feel that the time is coming.... All the baptisms, all the home meetings, and group meeting hardly survives long here. This experience of "bareness and defeat" will no longer be so... For the Lord is moving behind all the scenes. His Spirit is carrying out His divine works. Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Jehovah of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

And the time has come. 

Lord, bless the people of Gurgaon with Yourself and the divine, heavenly and spiritual blessing!

Propagation in Gurgaon

Year by year, saints who are undergoing the full time training have been coming to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ in Gurgaon. Every terms have experienced the Lord in different degrees. Some fruitful, in the sense of really gaining new ones for the Lord into the church life. Whereas, mostly is the gaining of the experiences of Christ through the preaching of the gospel. Everytime, we did set a goal but mostly in prayer and in paper. This time, we have learned to look to the Lord more for everything we plan.

When the information of propagation was fellowshipped to us, we were clueless to what goal and where we should preach the gospel. But as we came togheter for prayer and fellowship, the Lord gave us a clear cut direction.

Our goal is to spend more time with the Lord; even to the extend of formulating "rules":

1. The presence of the Lord
2. The exercise of the spirit

Instead of laboring outwardly, not that we should not, but we plan to spend more time in prayer and enjoy the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord is everything to us; our strength, our wisdom, our insight, our foresight, our way and our goal. And thereby exercise our spirit, to live and walk in the spirit, exercising to live in one spirit with the Lord. Everything we do in the spirit is OK. These are our "two commandments".

Our theme hymn is 643, "Take time to behold Him".  

1	Take time to behold Him,   Speak oft with Thy Lord, Abide in Him always,   And feed on His Word. Wait thou in His presence,   Submissive and meek, Forgetting in nothing   His blessing to seek.
2	Take time to behold Him,   The world rushes on; Spend much time in secret   With Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus   Like Him thou shalt be; Thy friends, in thy conduct,   His likeness shall see.
3	Take time to behold Him,   Let Him be thy guide; And run not before Him   Whatever betide; In joy or in sorrow   Still follow thy Lord, And, looking to Jesus,   Still trust in His Word.
4	Take time to behold Him,   Be calm in thy soul, Each thought and each temper   Beneath His control. Thus led by His Spirit   To fountains of love, Thou then shalt be fitted   His mercy to prove.

Our theme note is Joshua 7:4 Note 1 : 

The spiritual lesson to be learned from this account is that we, the people of God, should always be one with our God, who is not only among us but also in us, making us men with with God- God-men.As God-men, we should practice being one with the Lord, walking with Him, living with Him, and having our entire being with Him (Rom. 8:4; 2 Cor. 2:10; Gal. 5:16, 25). This is the way to walk as a Christian, to fight as a child of God, and to build up the Body of Christ. If we have the Lord's presence, we have wisdom, insight, foresight, and the inner knowledge concerning things. The Lord's presence is everything to us.

Our Scripture Readings:

Deuteronomy 9:
1 Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross over the Jordan this day in order to enter in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are big and fortified up to heaven,
2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakim, whom you know about and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the children of Anak?
3 Know therefore today that Jehovah your God is the One crossing over before you as a consuming fire; it is He who will destroy them, and it is He who will subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah has said to you.

Deuteronomy 8:
6 Therefore keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.
7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of water brooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains;
8 A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey;
9 A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity; you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you can mine copper.
10 And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you. 

Whenever we come together, our hymn, our pray, our practice are all on these themes. The way to preach the gospel has now taken a new turn. A turn to the spirit for the Lord to carry out His work in us and through us.

The World

As I observed in metro city like Gurgaon, the greatest hindrance to the Lord's move is "the world". The stupefying effect of the world is so much that it even affects the saints. The same warning has been experienced time and gain as mentioned in previous blog, "Love Not the Word"- http://palmeichung.blogspot.in/2013/07/love-not-word.html

These days the speaking of the Lord is also on this line of not loving the world. Sovereignly, my readintg of the Bible and pursuing of the Life-study messages are also on the same topic, "the world". Even last night, our group meeting was on bother Watchman Nee's "Separation From the World". What a timely message for all the saints and especially myself! 

Truths that impress me a lot are:

Once we are saved, we must leave the world. The blood of Christ has bought us and we belong to Jesus; we cannot remain in the world any longer. Our salvation is an exodus from Egypt, a leaving of the world.

The leaving of the world must first transpire within our being. There must first be a deliverance in our person, in our heart and in our spirit inwardly. Otherwise, the outward separation will result only in hypocrisy without any real deliverance.

The world is anything that quenches our spiritual thirst. Anything that quenches our prayer life, our Bible reading, our love for the saints, our attending the church meetings, our fellowship with the saints, our gospel preaching, our testifying , our prophesying and anything that needs confession are the world. This definition is astounding. It was my first time to see the world in such a clarity.

The world is also what the world itself condemns, what the unbelievers will not approve of, and what even a weaker believers will stumble upon. These things could be good things, but they are the world.

The world is anything that does not conform to Christ. Even religious and spiritual things, much less, philosophical and superstitious things are also the world.  

The world is also anything that does not glorify God. Many good things may be glorified by men, but there may not be an iota of glory to God. However much appraise it may be, talked up or acclaimed news headlines as good deeds, if no glory is to God, these are the world. The more the good they are, the more subtle they become.

To be separated from the world, the real solution is in the "growth in life" by eating, drinking and breathing the Lord, day by day. As the Lord grows from within our being, by the divine life growth, we will be delivered inwardly first from the love of the world and be ultimately separated and sanctified fully from the world. 

Lord,  grant us all the grace we need, to be fully released from the bondage of the world fully, and be  sanctified and separated thoroughly.

Hospitality

Two years ago, as a young couple with kids, my wife and I, was really struggling in the matter of hospitality. Facility wise and in man power, we were not just ready to give any hospitality to any saints. Apart from this, all the other activities like gospel preaching, shepherding, group meeting and church meetings were all attended well. Often, I used to wonder when we can grow up in this matter of hospitality. One of the characteristic of a serving ones is being hospitable. In 2013 December 31st night, I even shared about the weakness in giving hospitality, and the need to improve.

In 2014 December, the Lord enlarged our capacity so much. He graced us to be able to give hospitality to our parents, both my parent and my wife's parent, each for one month. And later, Saints from Shillong came and stayed with us for few days, and occasional love feasts for different saints. Physically it was busy-schedule, but we received a lot of help and blessings in giving hospitality. The Lord has answered our prayer and enlarged our capacity in this area.

Throughout the years the Lord has been leading us and blessing us, stage by stage. Still looking to the Lord for more grace to grow in every aspect of our Christian life and the church life. Even now with three kids, we are learning not just to manage our family affair, but much more to take care of the saints, the church and the new ones, besides my official responsibilities in the literature service. All these are carried out by the Lord's grace, wisdom and blessings. 

O for more grace, to me more enlarged in our capacities and functions! 

From This Day

Haggai 2:19 Is there yet seed in the barn? Indeed even the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit; from this day I will bless you.

In Life

1 Timothy 6: 13
God, who preserves all things in life

Genuine Care

Deuteronomy 15:

7 If among you there is a needy one amidst your brothers within any of your gates in your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart and you shall not close up your hand from your needy brother;

8 But you must open your hand to him, and you must lend enough for his need in whatever he lacks.

9 Be careful that there is not within your heart a base thought like this: The seventh year, the year of release, is near; and your eye be evil against your needy brother and you do not give him anything, and he cry against you to Jehovah, and it become sin to you.

10 You must give to him, and your heart shall not be displeased when you give to him; for on account of this matter Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.

11 For the needy will not cease being in the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, You must open your hand to your brother, to the poor one with you and to the needy one with you in your land.

These days the Lord's leading in me and in my family is to take of the needy saints. In fact, by the Lord's mercy, we have spent a lot for others and we are almost running out. Yet still last week, a family fellowshipped of their urgent need. Though we were almost running out in our liquid cash, still the need was sufficient. In fellowship with my wife, we had the grace to help them again. 

Immediately after this, I received a phone call from a distant uncle asking for my account number as his son wanted to offer some from the scholarship he received, to those from whom he received spiritual blessings. (I never reckon myself as any blessing to anyone, but someone feels so that must really be the Lord's doing. And I dare not go against the Lord's operation in people). Initially I thought of rejecting it straight away, but the Lord impressed me that it was His hand to provide me. Later, an amount was transferred.

Following this was another sister who was again in urgent need fellowshipping with me. We just got sufficient to meet her need as we received an offering. Again in fellowship with my wife, the Lord enabled us to help her. There was a lot of cash transaction and fellowship too. 

By the way, while all these needs were brought to us, the Lord's speaking to me was both from my Bible reading and the Life-study of  Deuteronomy. What I had been going through was just confirmed by the Lord's speaking in the ministry of the word. I just could not deny that the Lord wanted us to help.  Even after taking care of the needy saints, still we have sufficient to meet our urgent needs. In fact, we even booked a flat in Gurgaon under a Government's affordable scheme. This is almost like an impossible case becoming possible. If this is not the Lord's hand, it is none else. 

In caring for the needy saints, the Lord's blessings are even more in abundance. "v 10b for on account of this matter Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings." I confirm this verse in what we have been experiencing these days. This word of the Lord keeps ringing in my ear whenever needy saints comes for help, "You must open your hand to your brother, to the poor one with you and to the needy one with you in your land." Even when my wife commented that whenever any saint needs help they will always come to us and you will never say "no". To this I replied that it was not my natural goodness that helps, but the leading of the Lord through His speaking. I only obey the Lord's speaking.

What a mercy, and what a grace to be blessed by God to be able to bless others, especially the needy saints! We don't deserve this, but praise the Lord for His blessings! May we be preserved to be able to always care for the needy saints.