Ministry of the Word to Jabalpur

This weekend we are exhibiting the ministry books in a large Christian gathering in the city of Jabalpur. Generally, such meetings draws large Christian crowd and we make use of this opportunity to distribute the ministry literature as much as possible and also sought out for seeking Christians as they would be easily identified by their hunger for the word. 

On the first night, Friday, I was at the counter where we displayed our books, when a brother walked up to me and spoke for few minutes. Within that few minutes conversation the Lord touched him and he immediately invited me to minister the word in his congregation the coming Lord's day, which is today. Initially I was wondering how we would distribute books in this gathering as a stall was not booked for us yet, and was wondering what I would be doing for three whole days. But the Lord sovereignly arranged an unused stall for us and we became very busy distributing and meeting people. We met a lot of seeking believers and one such person was the one who invited us.  The Lord introduced this brother to us and established a relationship. Only God knows what has be reserved for His testimony in this city. 

Today morning and last night I was looking to the Lord what to minister. Generally, I would just minister instantly when the time comes but this time I wanted a definite word from the Lord. This morning as I was praying, the Lord gave me a very definite message which later was ministered in the congregation of the brother who invited us. 

The word of the Lord was ministered by answering three simple but very important questions. 

Who is Jesus? Matthew 1:21-23And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. Now all this has happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which is translated, God with us).  

Note from the Holy Bible Recovery Version Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua (Num. 13:16), which means Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. Hence, Jesus is not only a man but Jehovah, and not only Jehovah but Jehovah becoming our salvation. Thus, He is our Savior. He is also our Joshua, the One who brings us into rest (Heb. 4:8; Matt. 11:28-29), which is Himself as the good land to us.  

Jesus is the Saviour, and He must be our personal Saviour, saving us from every sins as much as from eternal damnation. Jesus as the Savior must be experienced in every aspect of our Christian life, and wherever we are, in whatever we do. Then only can we say that we truly know who Jesus is. Otherwise, it will be just a namesake, and doctrinal knowing of Jesus as anyone would know Him. Even Satan knows that Jesus is the Saviour, but He never believed into Him to be saved!? Jesus also must be the Saviour of our family, as the unit of salvation is household. 

Acts 16:31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household. 

I testified of how the Lord blessed our family in granting household salvation. The size of household salvation depends upon our faith. If our faith is merely close relative, then that's our household. If our faith is larger and greater to include all our relatives near and far, even our entire village or state or country, that much will be our household. 

Where is Jesus? Romans 8:10-11But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. 

Romans 8:34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

On the one hand Jesus is at the right hand of God, interceding for us, or yet on the other hand, He is in our spirit as the Holy Spirit indwelling us. 

We must meet the right person at the right place. The right person in Jesus Christ and He is in our human spirit as a believer. To meet Him, and we simply has to turn to our spirit.

2 Timothy 4:22The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.  

How to experience Jesus? Three simply way to experience Jesus is first by simply calling upon His name. At this point, with the congregation, we all called together the Lord's Name, "He Prabhu Yesu!" Second, the Lord can be experienced by simply coming to the word of God and reading, studying and praying over the word of God, daily. And finally, we can also experience the Lord by spending time with Him in prayer. 

This was the message the Lord gave for the seeking believers here in Piparia Khamaria near Jabalpur. May the Lord gain what He has to gain in His time. 

After the meeting we had a lunch fellowship with with our host's family where I encouraged his elder son to study the New Testament Recovery Version Bible. Later,  I gifted a copy to him, and also spoke to him about the importance of preparing our vessels for the Lord's purpose, especially in the matter of education. Furthermore, as the Lord leads, I encouraged him to pursue his PhD and be a professor to serve the Lord among the university students. Our host also expressed his interest to "join" us in the ministry but I encouraged him to read the ministry books first, the book gifted to him: The All-inclusive Christ, The Economy of God, The Knowledge of Life, and The Glorious Church. I further said, after reading these books we can fellowship again and see how the Lord would lead further. 

The Lord was so gracious to lead us in this city, Jabalpur. May the Lord sow Himself as the Seed of the divine life to all the people we distributed the ministry of the word to. 

Lord, gain Your testimony in Jabalpur, MP! 

Budding Rod

Numbers 17:8
And on the next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and there was the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi: it had budded; it even put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe almonds. 

 Note from the Recovery Version Bible 

A rod is a piece of dead wood that has not only been cut but is also dried up. Yet such a dead and dried-up piece of wood budded! A bud is something organic, something of life. The budding rod of Aaron typifies not a dead Christ but the resurrected Christ, the budding Christ, who not only buds but also blossoms and bears fruit to maturity. Such a Christ imparts life to others (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). Today He is still budding, and we are the fruit, the almonds, of His budding.

This morning as I was enjoying the Lord through the ministry of the word, I was so touched by the truth of the budding rod. Though I knew the spiritual significance and interpretation of the budding rod, it never became so subjective as it was today morning. The more I prayed over the word the more the Lord's word became subjective to me. 

In fact, I realised there are yet areas in my life I really need a subjective experience of the budding rod. Perhaps, there are areas in my life that need the resurrection life to overcome the deadness and dryness of the rod, and this rod must bud. It also dawned in me afresh the need for the resurrection life of Christ to overcome any negative things; the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The continual struggling even of the ones under my shepherding can be overcome with the experience of the Lord’s resurrection life as the budding rod. The message today morning was loud and clear: Resurrection, resurrection, resurrection life is the solution, to live an Overcoming Life. 

Four matters that also impressed me are:

Where can the rod bud? Only in the Holy of Holies. Only in this place where we enjoy Christ in God’s presence, we can experience the resurrection life of Christ. To experience the budding rod I must be in the Holy of Holies, in my spirit; this is my sole responsibility to be the budding rod. 

God’s Selection: The budding rod is the basis for God's selection. Similarly, in our lives or in our service, whether we are approved of the Lord depends on whether we are in resurrection or not.  

God's Authority: Authority in our lives or in our service also depends on whether we are in resurrection or not. One must come to the end of Himself for the Lord to exercise His authority in him and through him.  

Resurrection: Resurrection means God is and we are not, God is able and we are not able, with God all are possible which otherwise are impossible, and as such a man must come to the end of himself until God can begin His work in him and through him. Brother Watchman Nee's statement has enthralled me in this regard: The end of man is the beginning of God! 

Resurrection is an eternal principle for our service to God. As God asked Moses to place the budded rod in the Ark in the Holy of Holies as an eternal memorial, so must our life and service be in resurrection ever.  

Numbers 17:10

Then Jehovah said to Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before the Testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels, so that you may put an end to their murmurings against Me, and they not die.

Purpose of Resurrection: The main purpose of the resurrection life of Christ experienced is for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. With the resurrection life there is the divine capacity that can do everything for the carrying out of God's economy; to know God, to live God, to be constituted with God in His life and nature to become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fullness for His eternal expression. 

This is my morning manna for today, and perhaps, my manna for all the days of my life. Praise the Lord for the budding rod! And I must experience the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ as typed by the budding rod and produce blossoms and then bear ripe  rod and produce blossoms and then bear ripe almond!

Lord, preserve me in the Holy of Holies, and in my spirit, to ever be the budded rod. 

Calling Jesus in UP

Our visit to Uttar Pradesh, mainly Raebaleri, Amethi, Faizabad and Ayodhya was very unique in many ways. The number of believers in these places are not big yet they were mostly at the initial stage of salvation or at least, they need to grow in the divine life. There are few observations that are noteworthy. 

The believers we visited were mostly from the villages. Majority of the believers were female. In every group there seemed to be someone possessed by evil spirits as some of them got delivered after prayer. They also seem to anxious about many things in their lives. Life was definitely hard for them as many of them were poverty stricken. Yet their love for the Lord was very sincere and they were very seeking. Another good point was, they were so simple that almost everyone of them would come forward for prayer after every meeting seeking for prayer. My burden to such ones who always sought for prayer was to help them exercise their spirit and learn to pray by themselves. This, perhaps, was not properly taught to them. And after every meeting, they would come forward to offer something for the Lord; some offered a kilo of rice from their paddy field as majority of them were farmers, some vegetables, some money. What they offered may not be much, but their hearts that offered, the Lord would definitely remember and bless. I personally would not dare to relieve whatever they wanted to offer, as I deem myself not worry of their hard earned offering. I directed every offering to the local brother who took was around. I was moved by their genuine simplicity and seeking hearts. May the Lord continue to bless them. 

In all these meetings, our main emphasis was to help them know from the Bible who is God; how God created man with three parts - spirit, soul and body; how God in Christ has become the life-giving Spirit; how to exercise the Spirit, calling upon the name of the Lord, prayer and reading the word, etc.

The climax of our visit was in Raebaleri, our last meeting before we left the city. It was with a group of believers in a small ancient style hut built with mud and wood. By the way to the hut was offered by a brother who experience the Lord's dynamic salvation that he wanted to use it for meeting and prayer. The room was filled with seeking sisters and few brothers. Though I could not minister in Hindi, the brother requested me to speak and another brother translated for me. Looking at the crowd, the only burden the Lord gave me was to help them exercise their spirit.

Only three burdens I released with a strong spirit. Calling upon the name of Lord using Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:9-13. Then we all called upon the name of Lord in Hindi, "He Prabhu Yesu!" It was so enjoyable when we all called out loud, the name of the Lord on hindi in a hindi heartland. To me that was the best way to help them exercise their spirit and turn to the Lord. I even asked them to recite Acts 2:2, and "Aur jo koi Prabhu ka naam lega woh udhaar payega." That was another way to help them read the word, recite the word, and memorise the word. This was the best way to help them touch the Lord in the Word, and they all enjoyed it. And finally, I also encouraged them to spend time in prayer, as much as possible. With these three burdens, our meeting was ended, and after lunch we left them. Now with much hope and faith we look forward that the Lord will one day raise up His testimonies in all these cities. 

Praise the Lord! Calling Jesus in UP was really wonderful. 

Ministry of the Word to Faizabad and Ayodhya

With a burden from the Lord we came to this city Faizabad. Though we planned to meet two Christian leaders of an established churches we could not meet them. One of them promised to meet us but was not available without any explanation, and the other one was not up from the bed yet. Herein, is a lesson for all believers, to be exercised in spirit and in character. On visiting their campuses even the outward environment of the premises were not taken care of. If petty physical things could not be taken care, how could one take care of spiritual matter? Though we could not meet the pastors, I learned a very important lesson of taking care of one's character and well being of the one under one's care. I could only see slothfulness in some of these workers. In such an important city where the Lord's testimony is so weak and the numbers of believers so small, but at least the existing few should have exercised to be the Lord’s testimony. Well, this is no finger pointing comment, but a lesson learned in caring for the Lord's interest. 

The meeting with a young brother who could manage English was such a relief. Perhaps, he was the first and only person I could communicate comfortably in English. I left no stone unturned; I introduced the ministry books right away and ministered further on the importance of the knowledge of the interpreted word of God. He readily received the ministry books and we established connection for future contacts. The city has so few believers that with this meeting it was like we covered this city. For those that we could not meet we handed the responsibility to this brother as we had to move on to the next destination. 

This same brother led us further to the next destination, Ayodhya. This is a city that host the site of a religious dispute with the claim of being the birthplace of a particular religious deity. Besides, it also has a "holy" river where ardent believers would come and take a "holy" bath and dip. To my eye sight, the river looks muddy and strains or gravels of ashes streams with the flow of the current. I was told that this river was saturated with ashes from cremated dead bodies as the last rites used to be performed on this river. With all these religious significances, our burden for this city grew all the more. 

Herein too, a meeting was arranged where we ministered the word of God in Hindi on God’s creation of man and the tree of life. Then we distributed Hindi books to all those who could read. This crucial city has only few believers in the midst of fundamental religionists. As of now we can only pray for the Lord's move in Ayodhya.

The Lord faithfully took us to these places as pioneers in sowing the seed of the kingdom. May the Lord gain these two cities and raise up His strong testimony! 

Ministry of the Word to Amethi

With the burden of visiting Amethi I fellowshipped with the local brother. Though he knew no one to meet in the city, he still took us to the place he knew. A small village on the outskirt, Saraimahesha. Here too, the believers knew only Hindi and our fellowship was in Hindi too with books distribution.

Though we knew no one to visit in the city of Amethi, with the burden for this city we still passed through the city on our way to our next destination. We hope and pray that the Lord would gain His testimony in this city. Then we came to a village called Koocho where we had a meeting with seeking believers from three different villages nearby. Here too, only Hindi speaking ones, so we ministered in Hindi and distributed the ministry books. We got to fellowship with few Christian leaders and pastors and ended up staying in this village. 

We ate village food with the brothers and slept in a village house. It was altogether a new experience. Before we took rest for the night, the entire family and few other believers came together for night fellowship. There I was asked to share the word. I shared what I enjoyed yesterday and today morning, The Miracle of Feeding Five Thousands. 

The saints were touched by few points I shared. "In the evening" when all the days works were done, and when all life's pursuit is over still there will a deep hunger and thirst which would bring people to the Lord. But for the Lord to bless, we must give all that we have to the Lord, "five loaves and two fish." Even if we have nothing to offer to the Lord, at least we have our lives. All that we have and are need to be consecrated. Then the Lord would bless it, then break it. This is the turning point. The Lord as the source of blessing must break all that we offer to Him, all our good and bad must be broken, as the Lord was crucified too. Then in resurrection, what was broken would be resurrected and then multiplied. This fellowship was so rich and the believers were all supplied. Then we all prayed together. 

Later a brother, our host, and came to fellowship with us when he shared his testimony. This brother seems to be simple and pure. May the Lord gain Him purely for His testimony. Then we took rest for the day. 

Ministry of the Word to Raebaleri

After a Christian Leaders Seminar in Allahabad, a seeking brother had been calling requesting for a similar meeting in Raebaleri. I took the matter to prayer and fellowship with the brothers. After few weeks of consideration in prayer, it was very clear to me that I need to take another trip. In consideration of the areas, the cities to be visited were confirmed. 

Raebaleri is the first city visited in this trip. A pastor received us in his house and took us to two different areas of the district; Kodar Jahanpur and Naya Purwa. These villages have some believes under the shepherding of our brother. All of the were pure Hindi speakers and understanding English was a far cry. In this heartland we could only minister in Hindi and distributed Hindi literature. Many of them wanted a special prayer with laying of hand. I wasn't ready to do such and passed on all the request to the local Pastor who gas been doing such prayer. Some of the villagers have manifested possession by evil spirits and that were vast out in prayer. The people were so simple and passive that they easily fell prey to the Devil. The need for this group of people is a proper constitution of the word of God. Only the word of God and their exercised spirit can preserve them from all the subtle attack of the enemy. 

After the whole day visiting of villages, we had a time of fellowship with our host, planning for the trip. And since we met for the first time, I reckon this as the Lord's arrangement and wanted to know more about our brother. On my request, he shared his testimony of how he believed into the Lord Jesus Christ and how he came to serve the Lord full time. He has been blessed by the Lord that he has in fact become the biggest Christian group in the city. Notwithstanding the outward matter, the fact that the Lord brought us together was very significant. I may not be able to apprehend it in full now, but one day it will definitely be manifested. I only wish that he see God’s divine economy and take the way of the Lord's recovery for the building up of the Body of Christ and bear the Lord's testimony in Raebaleri.

A Brother's Baptism

Few years ago two sisters whom the Lord graced me to shepherd and who entered into enjoy the church life took me to a couple who were their friends. At that time, they were not interested in the gospel at all, but since we visited, we prayed for their salvation despite not being able to preach the gospel as we ought to. Few years later, the Lord worked on Him and there have been a drastic change in his life. Last week one of the sisters told me briefly about the change this person have been going through and that how much he needed to be properly baptized. Last week, a sister was introduced to our Tuesday group meeting. Yesterday, after the Saturday gospel preaching we went to drop the daughter of that new sister who now have been friends with my children and came along with us for the gospel preaching. When we dropped the little girl at her home, her uncle happened to be the man we met few years ago and prayed for. Just within seconds of the meeting my meeting with him, he decided to come for the Lord's Table Meeting. 

This morning he came, with his sister and her daughter. After the meeting we had fellowship and he testified of how heart hardened he used to be, even devilish many times, but recently he had experienced a drastic change in his life. He has been looking for a proper Christian fellowship despite his own personal pursuit of the Lord. He has the sense that as a Christian he needs the church for corporate fellowship. Even as the fellowship continued, the matter of baptism came up. Without any persuasion, I simply declared the biblical truth about the need for baptism for those who believe into the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit confirmed in our fellowship about baptism and he took baptism. That is the Lord's blessing to him and to the church. 

In the church here we have been praying and looking to the Lord for His leading in our going on as the church. Since yesterday we had a fellowship on the God-ordained Way with a brother from the United States who visited us. The Lord's speaking through our brother was very timely as we could testify from the saints' response and the upliftment of the meeting today in our Lord’s Table Meeting. Moreover, this new brother's baptism is also a sure sign of the Lord’s blessing too. 

The blending among the brothers, the sisters, the children, and the young people are becoming sweeter and sweeter these days. I may not be too quick to attribute this to the prayer we have been offering to the Lord for more blending, building, and also for His blessing. I believe these are the results of all the saints' burden and prayer in the church and for the church in Gurgaon. 

Praise the Lord! 

May the Lord continue to shower His blessings to the church now and ever more.