Ministry of the Word Journey: West Bengal

A brother and his family moved to this state after he received a burden from the Lord for his own people, the Bengali speaking people. Since he moved he has been seeking for fellowship and prayer. In fact, he has called up again and again and asked when he could be visited. His fellowship became a leading in the Body to visit him, and also to meet other Christian leaders and groups for the introduction of the ministry books.

My stay with the brother's family gave me a better understanding of the real situation and need of the brother and also the Lord's move there. Through our time together, the Lord had confirmed that He has been training and perfecting my brother to live and walk by faith. Despite the hardship for a while, He has been faithfully supplying all his needs in time. His function in the Body as ones who could proofread the Bengali translation works was also manifested. Now, brother has picked up the burden for Bengali literature service which is also the urgent need for the Lord's move in West Bengal.

Barasat 

The brother had arranged a special time of fellowship and introduction of the ministry books with the Christian leaders serving in this area. When I was taken first to the meeting place I was a little concerned as to how to begin the fellowship because the Bengali speaking leaders look very intellectual and thoughtful. Deep within I was praying and asking the Lord how to begin the meeting. When the time came to start the meeting, I felt best to give a testimony of how the Lord saved me and called me to serve. With my personal testimony of experiencing Christ, their hearts were opened up for further fellowship. Then, I introduced the ministry books to them. With every books, I introduced I also shared the crucial truths contained in the book. In that way, I could also release my burden of ministering the truth on Christ and the church.

Kolkata

My being there on Saturday was so timely. The Lord opened the door for the introduction of the ministry of the word in Kolkata Christian Leaders' Fellowship where I was given the opportunity to introduce the ministry books with few words of explanation on the importance of Christian literature. I used the incident in Acts 8 on the need for proper interpretation of the word as an example of the importance of the ministry books.

Acts 8:31 And he said, How could I unless someone guides me? And he entreated Philip to come up and sit with him.

The president of the organisation was so impressed with the ministry books that he placed an order for the entire set. He invited us to his office where He even prayed over and blessed the books that the ministry books will be a blessing to the people of Kolkata. Another set of books was also handed over to a pastor of the biggest Christian group as a sample for them to see and place an order.

Basirhat

Near the border of India and Bangladesh, a group of Bengali speaking believers have been prepared by the Lord for His testimony. On a Lord’s day, we enjoyed the Lord's day meeting where all the saints shared from their experiences and enjoyments of Christ. We fellowshipped with them the unit of salvation – household, as many of the saints’ family members are yet to be saved, in addition to exhorting them to inculcate a daily habit of coming to the Lord through the word and in prayer.

This is also the hometown of a brother who serves in West Bengal. After the Lord's day meeting we went to visit his family. To the family, I released my burden on the need for household salvation and also the urgency of prayer and coming to the word of God daily. Besides, I was also asked by the brother to minister the truth concerning baptism as some of the family members were not yet baptised. Though not intended, our visit became an opportunity to minister the word to the family. May the Lord recover the entire family and also raise up the Lampstand in Basirhat!

Ministry of the Word Journey: Agartala

Agartala has been in my heart for a few years now since the Lord recovered Hsi testimonies in different villages of Tripura. Only this time the Lord opened the door for me to visit the city mostly with the twofold burden of introducing the ministry books to the Christian leaders and also to recover the seeking ones for the Lord's testimony to be raised up in the capital city of Agartala.

The Lord blessed the three days visit to Agartala. I simply followed the local brother who has been serving the Lord there. I stayed with his family and enjoyed his hospitality. I did not know much about this brother until this time when we could have a face to face and personal fellowship with him. As a local brother, he knew many of the Christian leaders. We could meet most of the main Christian leaders in the city and within the vicinity of the city. Most of the leaders were very interested in the ministry literature and placed order for the entire set (37 selected titles of Watchman Nee in English, 20 selected titles of Witness Lee in English, and 20 selected titles of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee in Hindi). Through this, some genuine seekers and lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ were manifested for further fellowship and home meetings.

The only Christian bookstore in the city placed order for the entire set. Through the distribution visit, the Lord opened the hearts and homes of an Engineer, Advocate, Scientist, Government Officers, for home meetings. 

What impressed me most in all the visit was the Lord's perfect timing and His anointing. To my surprise, many of the Christian leaders and Christian school principals placed order for all the set of books we introduced. The response was much beyond my expectation. Besides, the Lord also manifested some seeking families who loved the ministry books and were also opened for the further home meeting. In fact, we had the first home meeting in the city in the home of a sister who also invited three of her neighbouring families. We ministered the word on The Mystery of Human Life and Calling Upon the Name of the Lord. And the following week another home meeting was established in the home of an Engineer who we met on the road and through few minutes of fellowship was attracted towards the ministry. Another memorable encounter was the visit to an Advocate who further introduced us to a Scientist who is now a businessman. They both were so seeking for the truth that our time of fellowship for half an hour was sufficient to get closer to them. As they read the ministry books, I believe the Lord will gain them for His testimony in Agartala.

My brother serving in Agartala was so glad that I could visit; his eyes were indeed opened to see the harvest is plenty and ripe. He also testified of how much the Lord revived him and opened His eyes to see the urgency of shepherding the seeking families. In fact,  he used the word "magical" to describe what the Lord did in three days of my visit to the capital city. My departing word to the brother is, to faithfully continue the work of shepherding the new ones the Lord has manifested, and that if the Lord leads me in the future I would visit again to participate in the Lord's Table Meeting; meaning I would visit again for the raising up fo the Lord's testimony or after it was raised up, to participate in the church life.

Lord, raise up Your Lampstand in Agartala!

Sister in Christ

Hindi Home Meeting

Blessings: Sabbath Rest

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you will be saved; In quietness and in trust will be your strength; But you were not willing. Isaiah 30:15 

The Sabbath rest was ordained by God in the Old Testament. The principle of Sabbath is still effective today in the New Testament age. It is by this principle of Sabbath that our Christian life and service must go on. Otherwise, there is a danger of either being trapped in the religious bondage of Sabbath of the old or being too loose as to have no regard for the Sabbath rest and end up labouring for the Lord in vain. Both of them have to be avoided.

A brother coming to fellowship with us on the Sabbath rest was a real help to me personally. If I do not know how to rest in the Lord, I would also not know how to labour in the Lord. Only those who know how to rest in the Lord knows how to work for the Lord. Our labour is on resting in the Lord. Resting in the Lord does not mean we should not labour, it only means we rest in the Lord as we labour for Him. We labour by taking the Lord as our Sabbath rest.

The service we are in is too immense and the country we serve too vast unless we rest and labour in the Lord and receive the Lord's blessing we stand a chance of labouring in vain. Rest in the Lord and blessed by the Lord.

In fact, the first commandment for man is to rest in the Lord. Man's first day is a Sabbath day after God created man. The work of God begins by man resting in God. Man's natural man wants to rush and do things for God, but what God wants is man to rest in Him first. Only by resting in God then can we work for God. And when we work for God by resting in Him God blesses our work, not merely meeting the need, but in abundance, even beyond our expectation.

The building work of God also begins by man resting in God. Without man putting his natural man to rest, God has no way to work in him and bless him. We must learn from the life of Isaac who rested and received all the blessings, and we also must learn from Jacob, who laboured and struggled so much, yet, the blessing came only when his natural man was dealt with and put to rest. 

This is a great lesson for me in my service. I must learn to rest in the Lord, and when I do learn to rest, the Lord will pour out His blessings; blessings not merely to meet the need, but blessings in abundance. I must take Christ as my Sabbath and expect the Lord's blessings in abundance. Then, "in returning and rest you will be saved; in quietness and in trust will be your strength;" this will be my testimony.

Dependant Day

It was India's Independence Day, the 15th of August, when a team of serving ones from LSM visited New Delhi.

Initially, I decided to use the day for some spiritual activities for the church as it was a national holiday. Before I could bring it for fellowship, it was learned that there would be a Young Working Saints' Fellowship for which saints from Gurugram would also attend. Then I got a confirmed information that a team of saints from LSM would come to visit New Delhi to look for a possible venue to conduct an ITERO, perhaps, next year or the year following. With the latest information, I thought a brother who is coordinating with me would better take the official lead to accompany the saints from LSM, and  I fellowshipped the matter with that brother. But deep within I nor the brother did not have quite a peace within that I should stay back. He strongly told me that I should be there as this responsibility should be borne officially as the literature serving ones in coordination with LSM. The matter sank deep down into me for a day, and I also took it before the Lord in prayer. It was a good experience of learning to deny my own opinion and take the fellowship of the brother. This lesson is a must learn for all serving ones and even the saints.

After prayer and consideration, I was quite clear within that I should responsibly be there to accompnay the saints who came from LSM. Meanwhile, I also received a confirmation mail from the team about the schedule for the day. The Lord speaking through a brother, in my prayer time, and a mail sent to me, all confirmed the Lord's leading for this day. 

The whole morning I had the opportunity to learn from the team about the requirement for conducting international training and how to do business with the hotel management of five stars standard. The team is very experienced in this matter as they have been doing for decades in different part of the world. What a privilege to be able to learn just by being with them!

Later, we had lunch fellowship in the hotel itself where I learned more detail about conducting international training of this kind, and how this training followed the Lord's move to different parts of the world. The fact that this kind of training can be held in a particular city or country has a great spiritual significance in that city and country. It is indeed a blessing to host such a training where leading brothers from all over the world would come together for training. A brother rightly said that this is like hosting an Olympic or a World Cup in a secular world. That much weight it has for the world, so much the more it has in the spiritual realm too. It's a blessing to be the host nation.

Besides, I could also fellowship with a brother about literature service in person. In fact, through this fellowship a few important items were made clear related to my service. It was indeed a good time of blending and fellowship.

The Lord is supremely wise in leading me step by step in every matter. The day was a dependent day for me; dependent on the Lord and on the brothers. That "Independence Day" was my "Dependence Day", not just for a day or once a while, but all the days of my life.

Depend on the Lord, the Head, and His Body, the church, the fellow members of the Body; this is the key to receive the Lord's blessing!

Prayer and Gospel

The gospel preaching of the church and the prayer ministry of the church go hand in hand. As the church, we have been practising and enjoying both. Every Saturday, we have both gospel and prayer meeting together, to enable the saints to participate in both, as most of the saints are working saints. The day being a holiday, we make use of the day for this two important ministry of the church. 

Two weeks ago, as we were praying, the Spirit led us to pray and pray, as burden after burden was released. All the saints enjoyed the flow of the Spirit to the extent that time was not a concern anymore. We followed the Spirit's anointing and amened the burdens released by different saints. Finally, after we all released the burden the Lord imparted to us, we have had prayed for three hours and ten minutes. Though the schedule of the duration for prayer is just an hour, we tripled the allotted time. By the way, we were supposed to go out after prayer for the gospel preaching, we ended up praying the whole time. Coincidentally, it was also raining the whole time. We just reckoned it was the Lord's sovereignty that He wanted us to pray.

This is also very much in line with the burden of the Lord's speaking these days: God's central work is to work Himself into us to make us one with Him. Though we have to carry out the gospel work, the work of the Lord must never be work oriented but Christ centred. The gospel preaching or any other spiritual activities must be the result of the overflow of the divine life within us. Lest we also end up like the church in Ephesus who left the first love the Lord Jesus and substituted with the works of the Lord Jesus. The Lord led us especially to pray more before we would go out to preach the gospel. After the prayer, all the saints were so released and so joyful. 

These days the Lord's perfecting work has deepened to touch our inward being and our coordination in and as the church. More prayer in the spirit, more prayer individually, and more pray as the church are needed for the Lord's move in and through us. Blessed are we who can learn this lesson now, more blessed shall we be when we pray and preach the gospel, and much more blessed shall we be when the Lord pours out His blessing in the way of gaining many new believers into the church life for His testimony!