Thursday, 12 April 2018

Follow-up Shepherding: Rourkela

The Lord has brought a brother to be an Assistant Professor in NIT in this city. He and I were together in a Christian group and both of us came into the church life at the same time. The Lord has carved the path we have to tread. His function is through the academic line and mine, through the ministry of the word. Whether on full time academic service or full time serving in the ministry of the word, we are all serving the Lord. We enjoyed mutual fellowship, encouraging one another.
There, in the campus, we also met a man who is a relative of a brother. I was burdened to preach the gospel to him. I did so in English with a brother translating it into Oriya. He received the Lord in prayer. May the Lord preserve him to be a seed for His testimony.

As we took a walk around the campus we had mutual sharing of testimonies, encouraging one another. And later, we had a fellowship on the subjective signs and experiences of the Lord's called ones from Exodus with the burden that the Lord's work will be given its due priority. 
Exodus 4:2-4And Jehovah said to him, What is this in your hand? And he said, A staff. And He said, Throw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses recoiled from it. And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand, and take it by its tail — so he stretched out his hand and seized it, and it became a staff in his hand. 
The "staff" should just be a staff to assist us in our walk with the Lord. It should be a means through which the Lord's work is carried out. It must never be that we become a slave to the "staff". For the staff could be anything we depend upon for our livelihood; perhaps, our jobs or businesses. Yes, they are needed, but they should not occupy us nor should we be occupied by them. We simply use them to meet the Lord's need. 

With all these fellowship we also prayed together, for our brother and also for the Lord's testimony to be gained in Rourkela. With prayer, we look forward to the day when the Lord will gain His testimony in the city. 

Follow-up Shepherding: Ranchi

In fellowship and coordination with the work in India, along with two brothers we traveled for the follow-up shepherding in five select cities where the ministry of the word had already been distributed and the Lord had manifested some genuine seeking ones. The first city we visited was Ranchi.
In this city we were received by a brother who has been enjoying the ministry of the word. In fact, he came into the church life few months before he was transferred to this city. Though there are not as many families to stand fully as the local church, they are meeting when all the ones who are clear concerning the church comes together. 

Our day there was mostly spent in fellowshipping and strengthening the saints. Besides, we also met three seeking brothers at different time. The first one was an ex-pastor and very interested in the truth. We shared briefly on the orthodoxy of the church and the need for recovery of the church. The second one was a Bible translator, so we shared on the correctness of the truth in translating the Bible. The matter of translation was our opening key to fellowship on the need for the recovery of the truth. He was interested to become our Hindi translator, and therefore, we gave him a trial translation portion. The third one was the house owner of our brother. He is one of the elders of a spiritual Christian group since the past some twenty five years. With him we fellowshipped on Ephesians 4:11-13 with an emphasis on the oneness. 
Ephesians 4:11-13And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ, Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 
This brother was so interested that he genuinely shared his desperateness for the reality of the church. He even purchased a bundle of books as he loves to study the truths. In fact, among all those we met, he is the most solid one, a local brother too, and with a good testimony. May the Lord recover him for His testimony in Ranchi. 

We also met with a family who has been in the Lord's recovery for about a decade in another locality but shifted to this city for business and children education. Through our visit, two saints families were brought together through our visit. They all were very glad that the Lord graced our visit to bring them together to stand for the Lord's testimony in Ranchi. 

May the Lord fully recover His testimony in Ranchi. 

Blending and Building

Hallelujah for the Body!
1 Corinthians 12:24But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,
One of the blessings of the Body life is the fellowship among the saints and the churches. The church in Gurugram is blessed to blend with many visiting saints and churches worldwide. Now and then, we have the blessing of hosting meeting and lovefeast for the visiting saints. The most recent one being the visit from the church in Pingtung, Taiwan.

As the church, though we just enjoyed our outdoor blending among ourselves, the saints are more than eager to host another blending. Especially, the sisters have functioned quite well in preparing the lovefeast. The most wonderful part is the coordination and blending of the sisters in preparing the food. I was very happy to see even new ones blending into the service. Besides, other new ones were also blended in, in a way of their participation. 

When this fellowship was initiated, we were concerned about how saints would be able to participate as the day was a working day, Monday. All the saints in the church are all working ones. Nevertheless, on the the day all those who could turn up did turn up. It was not a mere gathering of the saints, but the blending together. Much more than the meeting itself, we enjoyed the coordination in the preparation of the blending. 

We all enjoyed the time together, especially we also received life supply from the saints' sharing on the practice of the God-ordained way; how they carry out shepherding in their localities. An encouraging word from a new one was her testimony of how much she felt loved and cared for, and how much blending actually happened among us. By this way of blending, we are all brought into the reality of the church life and are being blended together. And we all were very joyful!

Looking forward to when the Lord will grace us another opportunity for blending. Blending is the way for building up the Body of Christ.

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Flesh Versus Flesh

The enemy, Satan, knows too well about our being in the flesh. He has the excellent expertise of stirring up our flesh and make us fight with another man's flesh. That's perfectly his business. And that's what he is doing since ages past, and I bet he will intensify it in the coming days until he is fully judged and cast into the lake of fire.

I will never forget the statement of a brother when he said he hated Satan the most for all the problems among brothers and sisters, and among families. For the root cause of all the problems of the world is Satan behind the scenes. Indeed, he is the ruler of the world, nevertheless, he has been judged already by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross. 

John 16:11And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. 

We need eyes to see the source of all problems, then we will not ignorantly fight with others, much less, our own brothers, for whatever reason. In fact, if all Christians are aware of this satanic tactic, there will be no contention among believers. Even if one is to happen, before doing or saying anything, we would resort to prayer and never let our flesh do anything. O what a salvation to see the vision of the flesh, the vision of Satan's subtlety, and the vision of living and walking in the spirit. 

Having said this, I had my own failures too. In fact, I learned from my failures. Trust,  the Lord will keep me in Him not to repeat history. I had a terrible failure few days ago, and I regret it, repented for it, and hopefully leart my lesson from it. 

It was to do with my own children who sometimes disobeyed stirring up my flesh. I do not blame them, though at times in anger I tried to discipline them. But frankly, even in the name of discipline the enemy can lead us easily to our flesh. That's what happened to me very often. The same goes with my brother who is living with me. 

Things happened in my family especially with a brother who needs a tender care. At times, he would stoop so low as to even behave unbecoming of a family member or a Christian. I understand his past habit but it's hard to tolerate many times. And it was to him I lost my temper. Then, the Lord reminded me in His mercy: Do not fight the flesh with the flesh. 

From my view point, I may be justified as the Lord placed me in the position of a family head. My real head should be Christ even in my family. After experiencing a terrible failure, the Lord convicted me of my unlawful actions. It brought me to my knees in repentance and it was there and then, I learned my lesson: Never fight the flesh with the flesh. Never. 

Though children of God in the spirit, our flesh is still the flesh of sin, and it will be until the day of full redemption. The flesh must be crucified with Christ, fully subdued, and under the complete control of the spirit.

What a lesson! Lord, grace me to never resort to my flesh. But always walk by the Spirit. 
Galatians 5:16But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

Saturday, 31 March 2018

Brother's Perfecting Fellowship

Two weeks ago, an elderly brother whom the Lord has anointed especially to perfect us, visited us in Gurugram again. We enjoyed two days of fellowshipping with. These two days were of immense blessing to me, and I believe to all the brothers too who were in the fellowship.

Crucial items of fellowship were:
The oneness of the Triune God to be wrought into us to become our oneness.
How much we can minister depends on how much Christ is ministered to us.
All the saints, especially the young ones, must be brought into their rightful position and function as much as, and as soon as, possibsle.
Our perfecting also depends on how much we serve; many are not perfected because they don't serve adequately. Therefore, bring all the saints into service wherever they can fucntion best.
We need eyes and wisdom to bring brothers into their righful function; by doing this, we are only confirming what the Holy Spirit has done in them. At the same time, some may need to be left in the wilderness as the Lord has to still work on them, even dsiciplining them. We need to discern between the two.
We must bring in all those who have the heart to serve the Lord. That is the best way to perfect them and reocver their function and service.
One of the crucial spiritual functions of the church is to speak forth the word of God guided by the ministry. No one can really speak the word unless being led by the Holy Spirit. 
1 Corinthians12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.14:3 But he who prophesies speaks building up and encouragement and consolation to men. 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church.
A Christian work is the overflow of a Christian life; the message that a Messenger speaks must be the message that he lives. To speak Christ, we must be Christ, one with Christ. To be thus, Christ must be worked upon and into us day by day. The degree of Christ being ministered is the same degree as that of Christ being worked into the minister.
Unless God worked on us wonderfully and marvelously,  God cannot work through us wonderfully and marvelously. Never make your own choice in anything, if you faith, the Lord will make the best choice for you.
Blessing is upon the right people who have been worked on by the Lord.
To know someone needs discernment, for disceernment, growth in life is needed.
The perfecting of the young ones depends upon our perfecting.
These are some points of fellowship. Other practical points are confirmation of what has been in my heart and I have been practicing it:
The practice of praying for the new ones whom the Lord has burdened me and thereby shepherding them in a way of praying with them, praying for them, and sending them messages for them to study in a regular basis.  Another major item is, praying for one another, family by family. Every family praying everyday, and praying for one another. In this way, all the saints will be prayed for and all the saints will be praying. This will result in genuine revival. Gradually, the Lord has been leading us to bring these to be the regular practice of the church.
What a blessing to be able to fellowship with such a brother! The Lord has perfected many brothers. Today, we are learning from them as our pattern, and we are also the direct beneficiaries. All these confirm that we are indeed in the Lord's recovery and we are His recovery. Praise the Lord for the brother's perfecting fellowship! 

Church's Outdoor Blending

Yesterday, as the church, we all went to India Gate, New Delhi, for outdoor blending. It was a blending time for the saints as we hardly went out together. We made use of the holiday to blend the saints together. Besides, the children too had their enjoyable time, playing to their heart's content.

Our blending fellowship was based on our person being proper as a Christian. The Lord cares for who we are, more than what we do. This is the burden the Lord gave us these days, and we simply continue to trumpet the same burden to the saints. 
Matthew 7:22-23Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name did many works of power? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness. 
Prophecies, demon casting out, and many works of power are not what concerns the Lord, but the being of the person himself through whom all these things were done. That's why the Lord said, "I never knew you." The Lord did not say, "I never knew your works." Which implies that the Lord is more concerned about our being much more than our works. If at all there are works, they all must be from the overflow of the enjoyment of the divine life within us. If our person is proper, our works also will be proper. The message that we speak must be the life that we live. The message and the messenger must be one. 

The brothers who received this burden also shared their portion each. It was not one man releasing the burden of the church, but all the brothers in coordination. Slowly, the Lord is blending us all together. When each brother shared their portion, the burden that was released to the church became complete. In this way of everyone functioning, all the saints will be perfected and the Body will be built up.

I thank the Lord for this revelation of bringing everyone to function. Gradually, "everyone functioning" becomes more practical and real. This will fully annihilate clergy-laity system and usher in the real Body-life of everyone function to build up the Body of Christ.

Later, we all took a tour to India Gate, had photo sessions, and came back for another time of prayer and fellowship with lovefeast. Inwardly and outwardly, the Lord has been blending us together. So far so good, the Lord is working on the saints in Gurgaon as we are being prepared to command, contain and multiply the Lord's blessing.

Lord, bless the church in Gurugram.

Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Trust Thy Brothers

In line with the burden these days, the perfecting of many in service, the Lord taught me some precious lessons of life. Trust thy brothers! 

As our official workload grows and the ministry is prevailing in this country, there is also a need to reciprocate the increasing need by bringing in more serving ones. One particular brother was brought in after much fellowship and prayer. He is to coordinate with me and relieve me especially in the IT works of the company which I have been singlehandedly handling from the very inception of our company. Perhaps, now its time to unload myself of this burden and expand the work. As this brother began to serve, many incidents also occurred now and then. Health and family matters were definitely unavoidable, yet it clogs many official works and we seemed to run behind schedule.

I tried to do things like before using my own technical skill and finish off the works. But that would mean an extra work for me as the service has been assigned to another brother who came in to serve. Though I tried to go my way, the Lord did now allow me; but simply taught me to trust my brother and wait until he can be back for normal service. In the meantime, I still tried to do what I intended to do; the Lord just led me to "shut up" and also shut down the work on which I was working on, leaving me no choice but to wait and trust my brother to come back to service.

This incident taught me two things: to serve within my limit and trust my brother's function and service, even if I think I could do the same task, or even better. These are very experiential lessons. Similar lessons are also being learned with the brothers and sisters who are serving in coordination with me. I had my opinion, but on expressing them, they all have a better opinion than mine. Therefore, I simply learn to drop my own opinion and went along with their fellowship. In this way, I discovered how good and how pleasant indeed it is to be in coordination and learn to say amen; trusting my brothers.

Trust thy brothers! They blessings in disguise. Blessed is he who trusts his brothers, their coordination shall be blessed!