Recovery of Saints

When a new one brought into the church life suddenly rebels and starts speaking negatively about the church, the ministry, or the saints, it is very painful within. If opposers outside of the church life oppose the ministry, it is tolerable as they are negative towards the ministry, and they intended to oppose it anyway in every way possible. But when the new ones who are our spiritual babes turn negative, the pain within is nothing comparable to the affliction caused by outsiders. I have come across a couple of such ones in my fifteen years of church life. But I still do not cut them off altogether, I still hope and pray for them that the Lord would have mercy on them and recover them back one day. Hoping indeed that all of them would be fully recovered.

Recently two such cases came to my notice and fellowship. One brother kept calling me regularly asking me all kinds of questions from the Bible and the practices of the church life. Every time I answered his call, I did my best to shepherd him. First by simply answering his questions using relevant Bible verses, and then praying with him over the phone. This has been going on for months altogether. But recently I was very happy to learn that the Lord is recovering him inwardly.

One morning, he called me to confess the mistakes he had committed by his negativity. He acknowledged his ignorance and after roaming around in different Christian groups, meeting all kinds of pastors and believers, questioning, researching, and suspiciously doubting the ministry, he finally came to a conclusion of his own research after two years or so, the ministry is the ministry indeed. The truths are the truths of the Bible properly interpreted, the practices are the normal and healthy practices every normal Christian should practice for growth in life and for the building up of the Body of Christ. The very thing he criticised badly is now the very thing he embraces gracefully. In his own word and finding, he testifies that the ministry is the ministry indeed. he is recovered in life, in truth, inwardly. In fact, some brothers in his locality started warning him of his deeds, but now he has come back to his home, the church life. Of course, I helped him also to reconcile with the brothers whom he spoke negatively against and also set things right with whom he spoke negatively in his ignorance against the ministry. 

Praise the Lord for the ministry of life, the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of the new covenant!

A similar case is with a sister here in our locality. She, in fact, left the church life for a while with complaints of her own. We simply prayed for her regularly and tried our best to shepherd her whenever she was open for fellowship. Gradually, the Lord worked in her environment, and she finally came back with much hunger and thirst for the word of God and for the fellowship with the saints in the church. And when she came back, she also began to enjoy the fellowship in the church and participates in the church life. Now she even openly shared her burden for her household salvation and is very desperate for the Lord to gain her whole family. 

Praise the Lord for such inward recovery by life first, and then the outward recovery too!

Both subjective experiences and objective truths prove the ministry is the ministry indeed. Whoever touches the ministry will be gained by the ministry. This ministry is the ministry of life, the new testament ministry, and this ministry is for all! This ministry builds up the Body of Christ and will fulfill God's economy. 

Prayer: In His Presence

Prayer is to be in God's presence. Though we can petition the Lord of all our needs and cares in prayer, sometimes the Lord simply wants us to be in His presence. There is joy in the presence of a loved one. So much more, there is joy in being with the most beloved one, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to be in an intimate fellowship with the Lord in His presence.

The central work of God is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people to become one with Him. For this, we, the chosen people of God need to spend time with Him. Not to explain to him our feelings and thoughts, nor to petition Him of our burdens and concerns, nor to praise Him of His deeds and sovereignty, but to simply spend time with Him in His presence that He could intrinsically work Himself into us. This is one of the crucial points in our recent training.

The Lord indeed brought me into such an experience. I had made a plan on my journey back from Pune to Delhi few weeks ago. My plan was to use the entire day on my train journey to do my pending works. But I just could do a bit of it. I was led simply to pray and pray the whole day, in between reading the word; I enjoyed the presence of God so much. The Lord graced me to experience the reality of simply spending time with Him in prayer. In fact, just by being in the spirit, the purpose of prayer itself was accomplished already. Similar experiences followed suit. Sometimes, I had nothing to utter in prayer, but I simply enjoyed being with the Lord in His presence. At times, I wanted to initiate what to pray for, but the Lord simple led me to pray for "nothing" but enjoy His presence. This experience of prayer is very unique and goes against my natural concept. But this is how it should be. Now this experience has been repeated again and again these days. 

By this way of enjoying the presence of God simply, the Lord is gaining ground in me. This is yet another level of God working into humanity. We pray for nothing seemingly, but we pray everything in by enjoying the presence of God. Just like when we breathe in air, it seems we are gaining nothing solid into our system, neither food nor drink. But without this very air, food and drink cannot sustain life either. Pray for nothing outwardly, but praying oneself into God and praying God into oneself. This is an effective way of prayer. 

Prayer, praying in the presence of God! 

Proper Attitude

To have a proper attitude in all things is one of the basic requirement for a normal Christian life. In things big or small, our attitude means everything. A proper attitude on a minor matter is worth more than an improper attitude in major matters. Attitude is the driver of a human machine.

It was a few days ago that I tried to renew my driving license. The one I have is from my home state and issued on a paper card. As I tried renewing it online on government portal I could not do it as my current license is not in the national centralized database. After researching for days I had no choice but to apply for a fresh one. I did apply but I had to begin with Learner's Licence though I have been driving for the past 15 years.   

I applied online and booked a slot for a test. But I did not take it seriously, belittling it as a piece of cake. When I did go for the test, I was placed on a computer with a black-white screen so I could not distinguish between the colors of the traffic signals. Besides, the series of questions were randomly generated online, and I could not answer properly within the stipulated time frame of 30 seconds per question. Once the test was done I could not score the minimum requirement and had to give the test again after a gap of one day. This is a very trivial incident but it sent a strong signal down my system. My attitude was not proper and the Lord taught me a life lesson through this minute matter. "Never take things for granted, deal every matter with a sincere heart and proper attitude."

Today morning I had to take the test again. This time I sincerely prepared for the test using online test questions and even prayed for the matter. When I went and took the test again I scored almost centum. This incident is a real-time and real-life reminder of how I need to have a proper attitude in all things. For others, this may seem to convey nothing, they may take it simply as a part of life or a coincidence. But for me, everything is under the sovereignty of God. And there is a reason behind all that has happened. 

Similar cases happened in the matter of hospitality. A brother came without being fellowshipped or informed. It didn't go down well with me and my attitude was not proper. Later, I regretted my improper attitude and asked the Lord to forgive me. Today, the Lord sent a couple and a sister to be accommodated for the weekend. Though we had no room in our house, they were accomodated in the office guest rooms. And I got the grace to take care of their food. This time, I learned my lesson in taking care of the saints properly within my capacity.

These are incidents in which the Lord lovingly exposed me and taught me the lesson I needed to learn: to have a proper attitude towards all that the Lord arranges.

Lord, grace me a proper heart towards all things.

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.