The Lord's Leading

Four years have elapsed since my family has not visited Taipei, Taiwan, my in-law's place. This year, as a family trip, we planned a visit. And in this planning, we experienced the Lord in a subjective way.

Initially, the plan was to visit Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Hong Kong on our way to Taipei. I did the fellowship with the local brothers concerning our visit and the brothers welcomed us for churching. But as my wife and I were planning the itinerary we could never come to a conclusion. The matter dragged on for about a month and still all in the air. We could never finalize on any date nor place nor the flight tickets. Everytime we were to finalize we did not have a perfect peace within and felt disturbed within. This experience went on day by day, even week after week.  

Finally, I personally came to realize that it was the hand of the Lord trying to lead us where to go and where not to go. Once I discerned this, I fellowshipped with my wife and made the final deal. The final plan is to focus on the main purpose of visiting our family in Taiwan. Meanwhile, through Hong Kong on transit for a day of church visit. And we got flights that matched this plan our budget too. God is so good and real.

A similar experience is with planning a visit to USA for the upcoming live summer training. The final decision also could not be taken, though my brother coordinating with me told me I could simply go ahead to book the ticket on specific dates. Every time I tried to do so, my inner peace was disturbed, so I kept postponing for weeks altogether. After all necessary fellowships were done I was at peace within. And when I finally booked the ticket, the itinerary was very clear. 

Arrive two days earlier for churching with the church in Irvine and attend the Lord's meeting before the training. Then, attend the summer training for a week with crucial fellowship with the coworkers scheduled for specific matters. To be followed by churching to San Francisco, San Jose and the vicinity of the city. Finally, depart from San Francisco  to New York with a whole day transit period for another fellowship and churching with the church there. All these plans were done with no extra flight tickets charges as the tickets were booked at low cost, I just selected from the available option.

These subjective experiences of the Lord are very sweet and precious. He is the God of big things and small things too. Praise the Lord for His leading! 

New Way: Door Knocking and Baptism

The Lord is faithful and merciful in training and perfecting us day by day. There are two basic practices that impressed me deeply. In fact, it blew my natural mind off, and renewed my concept of carrying out the God-ordained way.

Door Knocking

Though we have been going out regularly to preach the gospel on a weekly basis, our way is of contacting people in the park where we can easily preach the gospel. In fact, the Lord also saved many people in this way. But door knocking was even more practical. During our gospel preaching too, though houses were assigned for our team for door-knocking, I initially took the easy of preaching the gospel on the streets and public places; market and Metro stations. No doubt, I could preach the gospel to many people, led many people to call upon the Lord's name, and led many to pray the sinners' prayer, but still, many of these ones could not be followed up in their homes. Since there is no follow up shepherding, many of these new ones also gradually slip away from our continual shepherding.

When I seriously started door knocking, I was surprised at the wonderful response. In fact, one day, for two hours we could not even fully finish door knocking a small apartment of a mere five houses. Every door was a warm door. I ended up preaching to the people no less than ten minutes. Everyone listened with rapt attention. This is indeed the way to contact people. Now, I am fully convinced that I have to take this way from now on; door knocking people's doors for the gospel of the kingdom. 

Baptism

Another strong hidden concept is about baptism. According to the truth of the Bible, whoever genuinely believed into the Lord is qualified to be baptised. In fact, such ones must be baptised. But somehow, somewhere, there is a concept that "no, let them take their own time for baptism." In fact, procrastination is a thief of time; I am a victim of such delaying tactic of Satan. Every saved believer must be baptized too. the time gap from believing to baptism is "immediately."

Besides, another religious concept is about the proper way of "water baptism." Baptism pool is ready at the meeting hall. But, what if, the new believers could not make it to the meeting hall? In the book of Acts, many new believers were baptized in their homes. The same principle applies today too. If people are ready we must baptized them at their home. What is needed is the strong exercise of the spirit and a bucket of water. This definitely is against many traditional beliefs and practices of the Christians today.

I personally was greatly blessed to learn these precious lessons and completely discard all the old religious knowledge I have acquired so far. In fact, henceforth, the church gospel preaching will take the new way.

Lord, save me fully to take the new way.

The Lord's Move in Gurugram (2)

The Lord indeed blessed His move in Gurgaon by blessing the saints with our own participation in the propagation itself. To me, this is the greatest blessing; the saints' participation. The very fact that we all could go out in one accord as the church itself is the blessing. Though this itself is great enough the Lord also poured out even more blessings; the bearing of spiritual children. Through the entire propagation of two weeks, a total of eighteen new believers took baptism. And 273 new ones were contacted and preached the gospel to, face to face. Besides, the Lord also gave us five local families that could be followed up for shepherding. And out of these many who have received the gospel, we have filtered out some 42 solid contacts besides the families and the baptised ones for follow up. 

Last Lord's day, we fellowshipped on how to shepherd all these ones. The saints' themselves picked up the burden to shepherd these new ones. Now, as the church, we are learning to maintain a regular record of all these new ones and do the statistical record of the church. The ministry helped us in the practical steps of caring for all these ones; everyone functioning.

We always have been of the assumption that the church is very small and weak. Ignorantly we have been holding on to this lies for many years. But as I personally did the statistical work of the church, I was surprised to discover that we have 120 on our list of solid contacts. Now for this year, 21 baptisms have been gained, 42 solid contacts, 5 new open families, and 272 contacts in all. The church is no longer "small" as we used to think. 

Besides, as I consider all the new ones, the Lord enlightened me to see that the contacts He blessed us also good ones. They are all local people owning their own homes and lands. For many of us all are natively from places other than Gurugram. And all these solid contacts are all well placed in their jobs and businesses. They are mostly business owners, corporate GM, pilot, officers etc. And the list is growing as more and more new ones are being introduced to the church.

Lord, continue to bless Your church!

Offering What God Blessed

Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will give into your bosom. For with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you in return. Luke 6:38

A believer must learn to continually let go of his money; the unbeliever's way is the way of accumulating; the Christian way of financial management is the way of giving. Matt. 6:33; Luke 6:38; 2 Cor. 9:6; Phil. 4:17-19.

God has promised us that we will have no lack on earth; the birds of the air have no lack of food, and the flowers of the field have no lack of clothing; even so God's children should have no lack of clothing and food—Matt. 6:31-33. The Bible shows us a fundamental principle—one must give to become rich and one becomes poor by accumulating riches; whoever cares only for himself is destined to be in poverty; whoever learns to give is destined to have riches —v. 33; Luke 6:38.

The ministry speaking these days is on material offerings; not merely offering per se, but a deliverance from the love of mammon. The value I have been holding since my youth which the Lord had taught me and of which I am still learning is this very matter of honoring the Lord with the blessing He bestowed. This month I was exceedingly glad and was even surprised by what the Lord has been doing in me and my wife. 

There is a need in India at the moment, a very great need for buying a blending center for the whole country. The budget was way beyond I expected. When the burden was first announced I was in awe, literally wondering how this could be met in India from the churches and saints. Later, through much fellowship the budget was even doubled with a proposal for double of the original plan. But deep within I felt this is a good opportunity for the saints in India to experience the Lord in the way of offering.

Now, the burden has been released to all the churches in India with each family an approximate participation of about a hundred thousand INR. Few months later, when the burden was trumpeted again I had the burden to participate by offering what the Lord has already blessed us with; an investment we made as a family in Chennai in 2014. 

In fact, there is something very particular about that land we inveseted the Lord's blessing on. The entire land deal was finalised in just one day through one of the brothers whom I have been shepherding since my training days. Whenever we prayed for that land in our family prayer, we prayed that the Lord would bless "Chennai Land." And the Lord did not allow us to have a feeling that that land is indeed ours, but the Lord's. Now when the need for a blending center in Chennai came up, "Chennai Land", the burden is even loud and clear. Chennai Land is for Chennai Land; what the Lord gave us is to be given back to God. That was the burden within me. But I kept the matter to myself, praying over it for months and waiting for the right time to fellowship with my wife.

Surprisingly, when we had a special fellowship in Gurgaon for the churches in North India, we all wrote a consecration slip and dropped it in the offering box. When I fellowshipped with my wife, the amount she and I consecrated to meet this need is on par with what I intended to offer. I mentioned to her about the burden, and we both are in perfect harmony and one accord. Once she and I agreed on this matter, I called up a brother concerning our burden, then I transferred first the copies of land documents of the three plots in Chennai. What a blessing and a joy to be able to participate in the Lord's move by way of giving what the Lord has given to us. Now we pray that this love offering may be acceptable to the Lord and be a blessing to His move in India. What a joy to offer what God had blessed!

2 Corinthians 9:6-7But take note of this: He who sows sparingly shall also sparingly reap; and he who sows with blessings shall also with blessings reap; Each one as he has purposed in his heart, not out of sorrow or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

Proverbs 11:24There is one who scatters and increases yet more, And there is one who withholds what is appropriate but ends up only in want.

The Lord's Move in Gurugram

Since the beginning of this year the Lord has been doing a very specific work in the church in Gurugram by first working Himself in each one of us individually - recovering our daily enjoyment of the Lord, and our coordination among ourselves was strengthened. He also began to work in the city by arranging a propagation that has been pending for long.

It was on a Friday night, a week ago, that we received a phone call about the trainees from Hong Kong coming to Gurugram for the propagation. Though this was not planned, a situation in Guwahati was not conducive for the saints from abroad to go there. Therefore, the Lord brought them to our city. 

Though initially we could not decide immediately as we considered so many practical matters. First is the manpower to coordinate with the saints as there would be no trainees from India to join us. Second, the hospitality arrangement is another challenge, as we never gave hospitality for nine saints for two weeks. Third, the target locality for propagation was hard to pick as the people in this city are on the higher side of the normal Indian society. In fact, we had done door knocking a couple of times without much result. Nevertheless, as we fellowshipped, we just realised that this is of the Lord and we, by faith, amen the Lord’s move.

The next day, we all prayed for the propagation in the church prayer meeting. All the saints in one accord prayed and consecrated to be a part of the Lord's move. So the main burden was clear; we all in one accord amened the Lord's move in our city. And hospitality arrangement was done organically in homes and our office guest room. The following Monday, the saints came to the meeting hall and rearranged everything for the two weeks propagation. Personally, I was amazed at the saints coordination and the oneness through which the Lord led us all together. This itself is already the blessing we received even before the actual propagation began.

On the Lord’s day, after lunch, all the saints gathered together for fellowship to decide on where to propagate. Through the fellowship, the Lord made it clear that we have to go to DLF 3. The members of the Body spoke and it was thus confirmed. And the following Monday, we drove around DLF 3 and zeroed in on U block. Thus, through fellowship the Lord made all things clear step by step.

So when the saints from Hong Kong came everything was in place; after fellowship and prayer, we all were grouped into five teams and participated in the Lord's move. Even after all these, our target was not clear. But as we pursued the ministry book, "Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel," we were clear that our target should be twenty baptisms and five house hold solidly gained for the church life.

So far, nine have been baptised and three families were open. We still have a week to go. And the Lord will accomplish His work. Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord for His move in Gurugram! May the Lord gain His strong testimony in Gurugram! 

Lifeless Truth?

Right or wrong is the not the scale of judgement as far as the divine life is concerned. It is the ministering of life that matters most. Life or death is the true scale of judgement in every matter of a Christian life. As much as the knowledge of good and evil belongs to the same tree, we must partake only of the tree of life. Though I know this in theory, often I failed in my practical daily living. I also tend to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. O how much I need the Lord's mercy and His deliverance!

It was yesterday that in our gospel preaching we met a brother, actually an Assistant Pastor of some pentecostal denomination, who also distributed a gospel tract which we gave to his senior pastor months ago. We were glad that at least someone is also preaching the gospel, though paid for it, as it was his profession. Still the gospel is preached. As we met him, the topic turned to the matter of "Pastor" and "Denomination." Such questions are needless to pay heed to as we all know these are man made. But somehow these topics were brought up. Instead of forgoing such needless discussion, I got entangled with it. In fact, I was in my mind, and even in my flesh trying to argue on the unorthodoxy of being positionally designated as a "pastor." The discussion further went on to the division of Christianity into denominations. I completely failed to live out Christ in this regard. Instead, I just lived out my "self" of defending my understanding of the Bible using the Bible.

Though I may know the Bible to defend or argue on these topics, and though I could defeat the unorthodoxical teachings and practices of religious Christianity, I sure did not live out Christ nor did I minister life as I ought to. Even though I could argue very well on the fallacy of today's degraded Christianity, it was a mere argument and presentation of facts. But where is the life supply?

Even though, out of Christian courtesy,  I prayed after presenting the biblical truths concerning the topic in concern, I sure did not minister life nor did I have peace afterward. So the moment I came back home, I was so convicted by the Spirit of my "biblical correctness" without life supply, and much less, the Lord's anointing, I sought for a secret place to confess. The only place I could find was a toilet wherein I locked myself in, knelt down and confessed my sin of self biblical defence. I sincerely asked the Lord to forgive me. And prayed that I would never entangle myself again in such lifeless futile debate on lifeless topics of the Bible.

This experience opened my spiritual eyes to see the vanity of lifeless biblical knowledge and presentation of the truths. All my desire to be an apologetic was crushed that very hour. I sure would not live to defend the truth without the life of the truth. The truth and life of the word of God should go hand in hand. Else, it is a dead doctrinal truth, a mere piece of information labelled as the word of God. 

Lord, save me! 

This experience is very unique in my Christian life. In one go, all my longing and dream of defending the truth apologetically was just crushed. The dream I treasured so dear and even reckoned as a service anointed of the Lord, was just smashed into pieces. Whether the Lord would still lead me to take the apologetic way or not will henceforth be determined by the true litmus test of life or death. Only, and only if it is life, then I will go for it. Otherwise, it is already, a no no. James 3 is a good reminder in this regard. 

This experience I will never forget in my life. Avoid lifeless biblical truths! Only minister Christ as life. 

Gospel on Phone

For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for, necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9:16

All normal Christians can preach the gospel and must preach the gospel. 

I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance. Luke 15:7

In our church life here in Gurgaon, we regularly go out to preach the gospel as the church. Through this faithful going out every Saturday, Mr. N Sharma received the gospel tract on 7th April. He called up the church's phone number. I received the called and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ over the phone with my broken Hindi. He readily received the word of God and was so desperate in life that he asked a simple straightforward question, "What shall I do? Tell me, I will do anything." I simply led him to believe into the Lord Jesus Christ and to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, "He Prabhu Yesu!"

Since then, he called upon the Lord's name again and again. Sometimes, for hours altogether. Sometimes, alone in the night and early in the morning. The more he called, the more he felt the peace and strength he has been searching for, for many many years. He had been to many pilgrimages and idol worship, but never found peace, much less, God. Now with simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and simple calling upon the Lord’s name, he enjoyed so much peace. 

On 14 April he met with us in the restaurant run by him. The gospel was preached to him again, this time, face to face, with prayer and calling upon the Lord's name.

Last Lord's day, 15th April, he came to our meeting hall, where we had a gospel meeting with him one more time, to make sure that the gospel of Jesus Christ was properly presented and understood. Therefore, through the word of God, he was led to repentance, to believe into the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him, to confess and call upon the Lord's name, and the truth concerning baptism was presented as exactly is in the Bible.

And on 16th April morning, he came to the meeting hall again. We brought him to the practical experience of prayer and calling upon the Lord's Name, and further explained who Jesus is using Isaiah 9:6.

For a child is born to us, A Son is given to us; And the government is upon His shoulder; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Having thus been saved and convicted by the Holy Spirit, he, out of his own free will, took the decision to be baptised. As the church, we only helped him according to the truth of the Bible. Praise the Lord, a new brother Sharma was born!

Before we met him, he was so desperate in life that he  even contemplated suicide as he felt totally lost. Since the very first meeting, new hope began to dawn in his life. Then through his believing into and calling upon the Lord's name, the peace of Christ began to fill him gradually. Out of his own decision he took baptism on 16 April 2018. Now, he is so happy, he even called up to  say, "Thank you for all that have happened." We simple replied back, "Praise the Lord! Jai Masih!"