Ministry of the Word 2

Last weekend a brother and I had a very wonderful trip to Jaipur. Last year I did consider to visit Jaipur once a month but that did not work out. After a long wait of half a year I visited again. The main reason for the long wait was I never had the Lord's leading until this last visit.

The Lord was working on some of our contacts and somehow I have learned the lesson of not going ahead of the Lord's leading. This time it was well planned, by the Lord Himself. The main focus of service is the ministry of the word. Apart from the word, I find no ministry. Works with the Word is worthless. 

Acts 13:2 And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  

Ministering to the Lord issues in the move of the Holy Spirit, the following the move of the Holy Spirit issues in the ministering of the Word. This was my experience last week. It was when I was on my knees looking to the Lord concerning visiting Jaipur that he decision to visit Jaipur was made and confirmed through through persons and matters too. 

From 8:30 AM we set out in prayer in the car until we meet with a brother for fellowship at 9:20 AM. Then the Lord anointed all of us with His rich speaking, the ministry of the word just flowed without any interruption. All four of us were enjoying the rich speaking of the Lord. The word was so rich, so fresh and so nourishing. It supplied all of us and we didn't know how time flew. When we ended our fellowship it was about 4 PM. The ministry of the word was on "Priesthood", "Transformation", "The Bible and its Translation", "Prayer" and "the Church." Praise the Lord! It was a wonderful day!

Later we met two families and continued with the ministry of the word and prayer. The word of God is so sweet when anointed by and with the Spirit with mysterious revelation which only the Spirit can gives. This ministry of the word cherishes, nourishes and builds up the believers for the church as the testimony of Jesus. 

By this ministry of the word, the Lord is reconstituting few solid brothers for the testimony in Jaipur. We have no outward agenda, nor plan, nor goal. Our one burden is that the Lord must raise up His testimony in Jaipur, and we follow the Lord's leading, step by step; following where He leads and  ministering what He wants. We only pray that in His time, the Lord may recover His Lampstand; we are here only to cooperate and coordinate with Him.

By the way, this way of ministering is for my learning and perfecting as much as it is for the ones whom the words have been ministered. 

The Satanic Lies : Wordlessness

"Wordlessness," be it a new term coined by me, to mean the lack of reading, knowing, constituting and living out the word of God, the Holy Bible, is another subtle tool of the enemy. Though I have the grace to read the Bible everyday, still I need more light and revelation of what I have been reading, and also that they be my constitution and living. 

One thing the Lord exposed me is my deficiency in the full knowledge of the word of God. There are, indeed, many truths I have learned but I was exposed by a brother's fellowship on deriving spiritual light from the facts in the Bible. I hardly paid attention to the historical and geographical facts of the Bible, including the years and places. But I was so helped to see how these seemingly  "un-spiritual" facts are full of spiritual revelation too. The times and places of writing have many mysterious facts to reveal in regard to the progress and development of the written word.

Not only cutting straight the word of the truth, but also praying it over and over again and receiving the Lord's speaking straight from the word and through the word is another lesson I am learning. For this, we pray-read a verse in Ezekiel 1:4 "And I looked, and there came a storm wind from the north,.." To my surprise, we pray-read these few phrases for over an hour. As we pray-read, the Lord's speaking through the words like "looked", "came", "storm wind" and "from the north" became so rich. In faith, we had the assurance that the Lord had indeed sent the storm wind to blow all the negative things; all things that does not belong to Him nor are Him. And this wind that blows is from the "north", form the Lord Himself. The thick cloud of darkness hovering over North India has been blown away!

By such pray-reading the Lord taught me a new lesson of diving into the word and hearing the Lord's speaking through the word. Thank the Lord for such a lesson! What a blessing to learn from the Lord through a brother's fellowship. A timely word for my constitution that I may not be wordless. And be kept away for the Satanic lies of wordlessness.

The lack of the word is one of Satan's tools to blind people and confuse them with fear and anxieties of life. No wonder the  world goes crazy in all form of corruption and abomination. All due to the drought in the word of God. No wonder, many people including the children of God are kept away from the word of God. Many worldly things have replaced the word of God. And many have fallen in ignorance of the word of God. The panacea to these Satanic attack is to "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God" Colossians 3:16.

Lord, fill me with Your word!   

The Satanic Lies : Prayerlessness

When a brother who led me to the Lord told me, when he came to know that I am serving the Lord in North India, that we are fighting a spiritual warfare of Satanic darkness and blindness that grips the whole of North India in idolatry, corruption and sins. Little did I realise then the truth of his statement until I began to experience this battle raging as I have been in the North for about a decade now. The task though herculean, is not impossible. The Lord has a way to break through and display His multifarious wisdom. He will do it in His time as we cooperate with him in prayer.

A brother fellowshipped about how the Lord broke through in gaining increase when the leading brothers of certain localities seriously and sincerely prayed and prayed in one accord. The churches that have not had any increase for years, some even decade, when they turned to the Lord in prayer, the Lord gave them a marvelous breakthrough. In fact, it was always the Lord who wanted to bless the churches, but He needs the cooperation of the saints in prayer. The definite examples cited were the churches in Bangkok, Laos, Manila and Hong Kong. And the same must apply to the local churches in India, especially North India too. This testimony of prayer and ensuing blessing impressed me so deeply.

I personally was so convicted by the brother's fellowship. We have tried all ways except the right way, that is "prayer." In fact, it is true. The prayer life in my locality is weak, in fact, very weak. This is definitely a wake-up call, an alert from slumbering unconsciously. The Lord is recovering us by his speaking.

Even in prayer, it is not mainly to speak and intercede, but also to listen to the Lord's speaking through the saints' prayer. As the Spirit moves, the Lord utters certain prayer through the praying saints which was His speaking; better learn to listen and amen the Lord's speaking. This is the kind of prayer we, brothers serving in the churches, need. 

Prayer in the spirit is full of burden, which is the Lord's burden Himself. In fact, such prayer is the echo of Andrew Murray's definition of prayer, "Prayer is the Christ in you praying to the Christ in heaven." At times, genuine prayers are deep and long as the Lord's burdens are being released in detail. There is no short cut and quick fix "prayer." Prayer has to be released with burden from deep within in oneness with the Lord and with the saints.

With proper prayer in faith and in spirit, the Lord will "move the mountain." Sinners will be saved, seekers will be shepherded and there will be increase in the churches. Satan know this very well, and he induces sleepiness in prayer and makes the believers numb, leading to prayerlessness or no prayer at all.  This is the Satanic lies, and must be refuted, in deed, by praying unceasingly in spirit.

Thank the Lord for exposing the Satanic lie of prayerlessness through a brother's fellowship.

Lord, make me a man of prayer. Save me from the sin of prayerlessness.

Fellowship : The Lord's Speaking

Last Monday and Tuesday was very memorable as we had the opportunity to fellowship with a brother who supplied us with life. The matter of the fellowship was not on the high peak truth per se, but they were very basic yet very important for our personal Christian life and our corporate church life. I personally was so supplied and renewed in my spirit. 

As member of the Body, I received life supply from another member who is much more experienced and mature. To have such brother in our midst is such a blessing; a brother whom the Lord can use to speak freely and frankly, even rebuking us, adjusting us and perfecting us. What a blessing!

This particular brother, the Lord graced me to meet him every year since the time the Lord called me to serve full time. My impression of this brother remains constant since the time I met him first. Every time I met him, the Lord has some special particular portion for my learning and perfecting. He may not be aware of what he spoke, but what he spoke were all life-giving spiritual "medicine" to me. That was when I was still a single brother. Nine years have transpired since then, and every year something new the Lord has accomplished in me. And now even when I am a father of three children, the Lord still uses this brother to perfect me in my need of the time. In fact, we even had the grace to fellowship over lunch with him with my whole family. What a grace!

I have never met the Lord physically, nor some men of God whom God uses throughout the century, nor have I ever met brother Watchman Nee nor Witness Lee from whom I received much help in the matter of the Body of Christ and living out of Christ for the church life. But meeting this brother made me feel as though I have met those whom I never met and desired to meet. He was indeed a living testimony to me. The Lord really anointed him whenever he fellowshipped. The exact perfect and dealing words I needed proceeded out of his mouth in fellowship.  I inwardly thanked the Lord for such brothers who is truly a living testimony and witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. What a treasure, what a blessing to have such brothers in our midst! And that even I can have fellowship with him. What a grace! Than the Lord for His speaking through fellowship.

Lord, praise you for such brother, so living and so vital! May I also grow and be such to minister Christ as life to others.

The Satanic Lies : Procrastination

Satan, the father of lies, is also very mischievous in inducing laziness to the believers and uses his tool of procrastination to postpone the things of God at a latter time, yet causing undue urgency for the menial matters of life. Especially the things that relates to God will all be kept aside to be considered later on, yet all the while, keeping people busy with things that hardly has anything to do with God. No wonder, even among the millions of believers, only few really have time for the things of God. They have time for anything under the sun, except Bible reading, prayer, pursuing Christ in fellowship with fellow believers, preaching the gospel, shepherding one another etc. Its not that they really do not have time, nor are not capable of doing it, its all a matter of the devil's tactic of procrastination.

My beloved brethren, Beware! 

 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 

The Lord graces me to study Greek, and there are schedules to finish the assignment for each lesson. This is a very important lesson for the translation of the Bible from the Greek to some Indian languages. And the devil knows it too well. Every time I decided to finish studying the lesson well before dateline, many things, mostly official things, cropped up in between, and every lesson I ended up doing at the last minute most of the time, burning the unnecessary midnight oil. Though the works were done, but its not a healthy situation. Every time I received a reminder mail before the due date I kept questioning myself, "Why I didn't do it a week or a few weeks ago?" Not that I neglected intentionally, but that I was just busy, and this Greek learning was procrastinated again and again.

Last week as I did my Greek lesson and took the quiz, though before the dateline, the Lord deeply impressed me about doing things on time, especially the things of God. And that procrastination is not just a thief of time, but its a Satanic lie. I must not repeat the same old mistake again and again.

  

This simple experience reminded me of the need to pay utmost and urgent attention to the things of God. The other menial matters also will be taken care, but the things of God must have the top priority in my life. Come what may, first things first, and God's things are first. The kingdom and righteousness of God must be first above anything. And severely refute the Satanic lies of procrastinating.

Even today I released my burden to the saints in the church meeting for Bible reading. All must read the Bible everyday, pray, fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, preach the gospel and do the work of shepherding besides the other physical or official things. Set priority right and do not be deceived by the Satanic lie of procrastination.

Lord, grace me to give You my topmost priority all the days of my life. 

Needy Saints

Whoa re the needy saints? The general understanding is that the needy saints are those who are poor physically or financially ,and this group of people are the "full time serving ones." This used to be my generic perception of the needy saints. 

The last one week I have been dwelling on this matter of the needy saints. Who really are this group of people? This consideration was triggered by an incident of offering. There was an offering transferred to my account and the usage or dispensing of this amount was entirely left to my discernment. But the underlying burden of the offerer was for "needy saints." Initially, I had  arranged this for some saints who according to my concept were needy saints. But upon reconsideration and praying over it again and again, the Lord renewed my thinking and my understanding drastically changed.

Few days ago a brother came to fellowship with us about his family situation including the financial crisis he had been going through. He and his wife are both working saints, and whom I never considered as a needy saint, just because they have jobs. But after the fellowship, the Lord impressed me that He had given be a hard evidence of who the needy saints are. I had no excuse to not consider this family as needy saints. For they are truly in need, and that too very urgent.

Later, as I was praying over the proper dispensing of the offering, the Lord gave me a new understanding. Those who serve the Lord are not needy saints. They serve the Lord who is the Possessor of the heavens and the earth, He is the richest One in the universe. Those who serve Him are all well taken care of by the One whom they serve. So the full time serving ones of the Lord are rich and are not needy saints. They should not be classified as needy saints, otherwise it will be an insult to God. Any genuine servant of the Lord will not lack anything, for the Lord whom they serve is faithful and righteous to take care of all their needs. 

The real needy saints are those who lack faith to trust the Lord and are somehow struggling to make a living. They may even have the best job with the best salary, but without the Lord's blessing that are poor and empty, at least within. Not the serving ones of the Lord.

With this renewed understand, I dispensed the offering. O this was a big lesson for me. 

Lord, increase my faith and trust in You; to trust in You for all my needs, and experience Your bountiful supply of grace. 

Serving in One Accord

Freshly, I have been learning what the Lord has been teaching me since He recovered me into the normal church life, the universal and eternal truth of "serving in one accord." This is a very important lesson, but not easily learned. The whole lot of Christianity has failed in this lesson, so are the myriad of divisions, in the form of denominations. Not that I have learnt it, but that I am still learning it.

Last week, officially, I had to make very important decision on operational matters. That would effectively decide how we would go on in our service in India. For this, I went before the Lord again and again in prayer, to get the Lord's feeling concerning the matter. One night as I was praying for this one matter only, the Lord gave me a clear sky and instructed me to write a mail with certain content. The next day, I fellowshiped with my coordinator and drafted the mail. The mail was sent to the main serving ones involved for their correction and confirmation. With a couple of adjustments, we all were in one accord to take the next step forward, and the mail was sent. Few days later, the reply of the mail was amazing. The Lord really blessed our serving in one accord. The joy is not because of the positive response, but the oneness that was behind the scene. The outcome was secondary, but what impressed me most was the working together in one accord, and yes, that produces the good result.

Similarly, in another matter of budgeting for an official work, the Lord led me to experience the same thing. The result of the work was less important than the way the work was done. This is the lesson the Lord has been teaching me all these days. Serving in one accord. No matter what the work is, our service must be in one accord. This kind of service not only balances all, but also commands the Lord's blessings.

Lord. preserve me in the one accord with my fellow serving ones, and also always in the oneness of the Body of Christ.