Perfected into One

John 

17:21  That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

17:22  And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one;

17:23  I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

Whenever a matured and an elderly brother came to fellowship with us, he would invite some of us into his hotel room where we would pray and fellowship for hours altogether. Yesterday was another such time together again. I felt very blessed and thanked the Lord that there is such a brother from whom we can learn a lot. In fact, every time he came, I would receive new light, and further help me in my personal life as well as in my service life.

Our appointment was at 10 AM. We started praying together from 10:18 AM till 11:52 AM to be exact. As we prayed, the direction the Lord led us was on the matter of oneness. All our burden and prayer was mostly focussed on the Lord's prayer in John 17:21-23, a prayer for the oneness. Though I had been to many prayer meetings of the church and I had prayed with many brothers and sisters a countless number of times, this was one prayer with much light and a clear and strong burden for the oneness as the testimony of Jesus. The prayer prayed among the brothers, nine of us, was as if one was playing a basketball game, passing around the ball and hitting the ball into the basket as many times as we could, was truly amazing. Through that prayer, many hits were made into the basket; the spirit was so strong, the burden so deep, and we all could exercise our spirit in one accord.

As we pray-read the verses, "perfected into one," I truly felt deep within that the Lord has indeed been blending us and perfecting us into one. This is no doctrine, no mere teaching, but a reality. The call of the deep within my being unto the deep testifies to me that we have indeed been on the process of being perfected into one. What a blessing! What a grace!

The fellowship that followed suit, then over to lunch, and the afternoon session, all of them were richly anointed of the Lord. Some crystals of truths that came out and were further developed were truly worth. 

Properly Aggressive for the Lord

Paul and his fellow coworkers being forbidden by the Holy Spirit as they headed for a certain destination implies the aggressiveness of Paul in carrying out the heavenly ministry of Christ. He indeed was one with the Spirit, that what he determined in his heart for the Lord's work was honored by the Lord. He was forbidden only if the Holy Spirit did not agree to it. Otherwise, all his ministry journeys were initiated by him and the Spirit anointed him wherever he went. Here is the lesson for proper aggressiveness in serving the Lord. I must deliberate before God and take action in His move by being one spirit with the Lord. I cannot be and must not be passive in serving the Lord. On the contrary, I must be properly aggressive. This is in accordance with the word of God experienced by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:40b "according to my opinion; but I think that I also have the Spirit of God."

Constituted as Gifts

Ephesians 4:1-16 begins with "walk worthily of the calling with which you were called." To such a walk, there is an urgent need for proper humanity which is the gaining of the experiences of Christ in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This is the constituting of the gifts of Christ to the Body. Such a constitution restricts the gifted ones yet perfects them to be the gifted members. The purpose of such gifts is to perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. This is, 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." (v13) Day by day, I must experience the experiences of Christ to be constituted as the gifted members of the Body of Christ to perfect the saints and build up the Body.

One on One Shepherding

One on one shepherding is yet another crystal brought forth through the fellowship. I have been shepherding the new ones for years in my church life. This is good but it is uni-directional; it flows from me to the new ones. The other aspect of shepherding is a one-to-one shepherding on one-on-one. Not only that I shepherd the ones under my shepherding car, but I must also be shepherded by a shepherd. I and another saint must shepherd one another. If all the saints, besides, shepherding the new ones, shepherds one another, how built up and glorious the church will be! This is also known as general shepherding. This needed, in fact, very much needed for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Praise the Lord for such a blessed and perfecting time of fellowship! Through such perfecting fellowship, the Lord is indeed perfecting us all into one.

Seven Souls

It was last Saturday that as usual, we gathered together for the church's prayer meeting. The entire afternoon was drizzling with slight rain. After the wonderful prayer meeting of the church, exercising the authority the Lord has given us to bind and loose, we formed into teams and went out to preach the gospel. Had we considered naturally, it was not wise to go out on a rainy day, and that too for gospel preaching, as we would not be able to meet and preach the gospel in the open area, as the areas we have chosen are all on the open.

After all the other teams had left I needed a companion, a brother, with whom I could coordinate for the gospel preaching. I invited a brother who decided to stay back to come along with me. After  much persuasion he finally agreed to come. Then we both together with another team of sister drove to our target area.

As I parked my car and got down, I saw a group of three young men standing under a tree taking cover from the rain. Immediately, I told my brother, "Let's go and preach the gospel to them." We met them and introduced ourselves. Without any hesitation, we preached the gospel in Hindi as they were local teens from Chakkarpur speaking mostly Hindi. Even as we were preaching, two teens came by bike to join us who were their friends. We introduced ourselves again and preached the gospel using the tract, The Mystery of Human Life. After a while, another teen came by, who is also their friend and joined the group. And finally, another teen came by his bicycle and joined us. The number of our new ones grew from three to five, then to six, and then to seven. To make the points clear, we preached the gospel again from God's creation to His redemption and requested them if they would like to receive the Lord in prayer, which they all willingly did.

Meanwhile, as the Lord brought all these "fish" into our gospel net, the continual downpour from above, the rain, was all that kept the group together. Even after we preached the gospel and led them to pray, we could not leave the place as it was still raining. Instead, I took that as the Lord's leading to start the first home meeting with these new ones. So I proposed that we read through the tract one more time, one by one, in sequence. I asked the boys to read, each one a paragraph. And after every paragraph reading, we explained the content of the reading. After reading through the entire tract, then we lead them to pray the prayer mentioned in the tract one more time. What a home meeting!

Still, the rain did not subside even after reading through the tract. Then, I requested them to memorize the Bible verses in Hindi printed on the tract. One by one, verse by verse, each one of the boys memorized the entire three verses in Hindi! The verses are:

Romans 10:13  For “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”Mark 16:16  He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned.Acts 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.

Then we got their contacts and invited them to visit us the following Lord's day, which four of them did. We set up a time to meet again in the park in their community. After all the preaching, reading, and prayer, and sharing of contact information, we dispersed, though it was still pouring. The rain was indeed a shower of blessing for the salvation of the seven souls. May the Lord work in them and save these seven souls.

That was the Lord's doing as a direct answer to the prayer of the church. Heaven and earth worked together for the salvation of men; God and men worked together in coordination to save souls. Praise the Lord!

Lord, save these seven souls! 

Make them remaining fruits!

Give Food at the Proper Time

Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time? Matthew 24:45

As a believer who serves the Lord, my status is that of a slave. As a slave, I must be faithful in my service, and prudent in the way I serve. The Lord has his household, His church with the saints. My responsibility as a slave is to serve the saints and seekers with healthy spiritual food, the word of God.

From my side, I must be serving as a slave. A slave has no right of his own. Whatever the Master says, he must do, at any time in any condition. To be a faithful slave I must be ever ready to serve whenever the need arises. If there is a call, I must attend to it immediately at that time. This is to give food at the proper time. In addition to faithfulness and prudence, serving at the proper time is equally important. The best time to feed is when one is hungry for food. If timely food is not dispensed, a belated meal will be of no good. This is an important spiritual lesson to learn.

Yesterday, I was in my office trying to accomplish a task. I was determined to finish my work at all cost, and it was about 7 'O clock in the evening. Then I received a phone call from a brother requesting me to visit him immediately at about 7 PM. The matter was that there was a seeking sister who wanted to know more about Christ and the church. Though I decided to finish my work first, the Lord reminded me of my need to be a faithful and diligent slave. I have no right of my own to say "no" when there is a call for shepherding of a needy soul. And the call also was related to giving spiritual food at a proper time. Therefore, I shut down my computer, left my works undone, and visited the brother.

The Lord had arranged a home meeting with three new ones. A gentile visitor, to whom I preached the gospel and led him to the Lord, and two other seeking sisters who are in need of fellowship were present in the meeting. The Lord burdened me to shepherd them using the words of the Bible. They both are believers, the daughters of a reverend who passed away already. Due to their family situation, they have been working in Gurgaon to make a living. For many years they have been living in a strange city, away from home, toiling to make a living, and in the process, have gone far away from the Lord. They have not been having any Christian fellowship with anyone as they are fully occupied with their jobs. Sundays being the busiest day, they hardly could have fellowship with another fellow Christians too. They are like the diaspora of Israel in a foreign land. 

Now that we met and fellowshipped, they felt very comforted with the word of God. After fellowshipping on the need for the Lord's presence in our daily lives and works, the need to come to the word of God daily and in prayer, and the need for fellowship as the church, I prayed, and also requested each one of them to pray. When the two sisters prayed, they both were in tears, asking forgiveness for their wandering far away from God, and yet at the same time thanking the Lord for recovering them back to a fellowship. I was deeply moved in my inner being. The Lord remembers who are His'. And I must be a faithful and prudent slave to give food at the proper time to the Lord's lost sheep and bring them into the flock.

Had I not listened to the brother's invitation and decided to finish my own official work, I would have missed shepherding these seeking sisters. Now, they decided to come together weekly for a regular home meeting. They also expressed their desire to fellowship in the church. May the Lord recover them all!

What a subjective experience of shepherding! What the Lord has been speaking to His churches, He also led me to experience it right away. May the Lord grace me to be a faithful and prudent slave, to give food at the proper time.

The Recovery of a Brother

Thirteen years ago a brother was baptized and was in the church life in Gurgaon. But he did not stay long and was wandering in the world. For over thirteen years, he was completely lost in the world. No fellowship, no meeting, no communication even. He thought he would live his life the way he wanted it. Well, he tried as much as he could, to live the way he liked best. Until the day he lost his job and his money stuck with his unrighteous employer. Finally, his source of livelihood was cut off. The life he thought he would live was no longer possible as his source of income was completely cut-off. It was not that he could not work, nor that he was not skillful. In fact, he is a talented fashion designer, diligent and hardworking. But due to the market crunch for the textile industry, and his company running on lost, he had to quit the job. Since then he could not find another one on his field of expertise. For months now, he has been jobless. Therefore, penniless and hopeless.

Now, he realizes he has nowhere else to turn to, except God. He has no one to share his problems too except to the brothers in the church. He had nothing else to do but to meet with the saints. This is the sovereign arrangement of the Lord. Through this process, he was recovered back to fellowship and to the church life. Praise the Lord! The Lord loves him and He has the best way to recover His beloved.

Through the visitation and shepherding him, he begins to realize the importance of the Body-life. Even after much suffering, he still was reluctant initially. But I did my best to visit and shepherd him whenever he called, picked him up for a home meeting, invited him to attend the prayer meeting of the church and also the Lord's table meeting. Gradually he yielded in and began to enjoy the Lord's shepherding through the ministry of the word and the fellowship of the Body. Step by step, his enjoyment of the Lord grew by the day. Now he has decided to join the full-time training for a short term. As he waits to join the training, a week propagation is beginning in the church, so he decided to participate fully in the Lord's move. Such a drastic change of mind within a few weeks' time is truly amazing. 

Last Lord's day, he had a very subjective experience of the Lord speaking to him. He was on his way to the meeting hall by walk. The weather was so hot and humid that his sweat drenched him from head to toe. Midway, he decided to go back home. It was then, the Lord reminded him that if he wanted to enter into the kingdom of God why can't he pay a simple price of walking to the meeting hall when the Lord gave up His own life for his sins. This speaking of the Lord convicted him so much so that he repented for his narrow and selfish thought. He came and attended the meeting, and he enjoyed the Lord's speaking in the meeting so much. His experience last Lord's day confirmed to him of how serious he ought to be in his Christian life and church life.

Now, he decided to give the first priority to his spiritual growth, and he has put his need for a job as a secondary one. When he shared his testimony over the phone to me personally, and to the saints in the group meeting in our home last Tuesday, I was thankful to the Lord and worship the Lord for His wise ways of recovering a brother.

May the Lord preserve his enjoyment of the Lord in the word and in fellowship. And may the Lord gain him as a faithful one, and perfect him to become a useful vessel to the Lord. 

Justice and Mercy

He has declared to you, O man, what is good; 

And what does Jehovah require of you, 

But that you would execute justice and love mercy 

And walk humbly with your God? Micah  6:8   

The word of God has been a guiding light for my path in all the things I have been facing in my life. There were times when it was so tough to make a decision. If I were in a secular company dealing with gentiles, it would have been a lot easier to deal with people. Thre are principle laid down on personnel management had to be simply followed, and that's it. But now, my position is to deal with a person who is an employee and also a brother in the church. Where do I draw the line between official responsibility and shepherding a weaker brother? This was a very good spiritual lesson for me to learn. I had no choice but to face the situation head-on and take a decision.

An employee, a brother in the church, had not reported to work for over two weeks. He had his reason for physical weakness which was beyond his control. He was completely down on bed and could not do anything else. In his absence, his works were not done but it did not affect the main function of the office. He was merely a hired worker to do cleaning and other menial works, and he is not a regular staff. Still, action need to be taken. But how? 

To be in the natural man and fire him is the easiest decision to take. I believe many would do this right away. But as for me, I need to take the case to the Lord and seek for His leading. I took this as an opportunity to seek the Lord and learn from Him. If I cannot learn my spiritual lesson in a case like this, I reckon myself disqualified for the work the Lord has assigned me. I cannot be like any other secular or worldly person doing things in the natural man according to the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, I took the matter to the Lord again and again until the Lord spoke to me the verse, "But that you would execute justice and love mercy."  

Officially I need to take action to execute justice. Therefore, when he was healthy enough to speak to, I fellowshipped with him and told him that his regular official pay would be cut, for he did not work for it. But there is the side of mercy too. Instead of cuitting him off completely, I felt led to open a mercy door.  So, on the one hand, I let him know that his status has been demoted from regular pay, but he can still work and still receive his pay according to his work. Before he would be paid monthly, now he would be paid per his work. No work, no pay, yet still he can work. He will still work, but his pay is no longer a monthly payment, but pay per work. This is a combination of justice and mercy. In this way, he learned his lesson and I learned my lesson too. He did not lose his job nor did I lose a serving one. Despite the enemy's attack, the Lord graced us through this tough time. Here the balancing factor is "mercy." Justice and mercy!

God too, in His mercy, has kept me alive till today. If He had to execute only justice, I would have been consumed a long time ago. No man can match His righteousness, much less, me. But His mercy has been renewed morning by morning. To the merciful, God showed His mercy too. The Lord's speaking through His word has been my guiding light as I tread the path He has laid for me.

The ministry of the word that I have been pursuing and enjoying are becoming very subjective as they become practical and real day by day. What a blessing of the ministry of the word, the Lord's up-to-date speaking in His recovery! What the Lord spoke to me personally and what I have been enjoying through the supply of the ministry are going hand in hand. What He speaks to me personally is being confirmed by what He speaks generally to the churches. This particular experience I have been experiencing these days is proof of the Lord's leading, "You would execute justice and love mercy." 

The Holy Bible: Thirty Secondth Time

It was on the 11th of August 2019, a few days ago, that the Lord enabled and graced me to read the Holy Bible through once again from Genesis to Revelation for the thirty-second time in my life, and for the first time for this year 2019. Generally, I would complete reading the text of the entire Bible at least once a year. This year, I have the burden to read through the text-only two times. This is not merely for the sake of number but it ha more to do with my heart's desire.

As much as I can, I want to soak myself in the word of God, read as many times as possible. For every time I come to the word, I have a deep sense of satisfaction within, an enjoyable supply of life. Often, I hear the Lord's speaking in one way or the other especially when I am going through a situation. Most of the time I hear the Lord's specific speaking when I am considering what do at try times. I don't know how many years the Lord will give me to live on this earth, but as long as He gives me breaths of life in my nostril, enables me to read and understand, I would love to keep reading His holy word. I find this is the only book that I can keep reading "n" number of times. Irrespective of my daily schedule, or how busy I may be, the word of God will always have a slot in my daily time table. Even if I really am too busy, still I use my toilet time to read the word. Of course, his is the last option. But the word of God always has the first place in my daily schedule, even as with prayer.

If the Lord so will, I long to be able to read the word of God as many times in corresponding to my physical age. At present, I am forty-one years in my natural man and twenty-two years in my Christian life, and I have read the Bible thirty-two times. My burden is that one day, I will be able to read the word of God that many times as of my physical age. In fact, I have the plan to achieve this, and I trust the Lord will grace me to accomplish it.

Year  Age  Times of Reading the Bible

2019  41    32-33

2020  42    34-35

2021  43    36-37

2022  44    38-39

2023  45    40-41

2024  46    42-43

2025  47    44-45

2026  48    46-47

2027  49    48-49

2028  50    50 reading the word of God will be the same with my age.  

If the Lord tarries in His coming back, and if He graces me to live, my heart's desire will be to accomplish the time table above and keep reading the word. As married couple vowed a marriage vow on the wedding day, "Until death do us part...," I too vow the same vow in my marriage with the Lord Jesus, "Until death do us part I shall be reading and enjoying the word of the Lord."

I praise and thank the Lord for my grandfather who instilled in me the habit of reading the Bible since I was thirteen years of age. Though I did not know what I read those days, one thing for sure is, the love of the word of God, the habit of reading the Bible, and the mysterious instinct to read the Bible has been inculcated in me. I impart the same burden to my children, my family members, the saints in the church where I am, and to all the believers I have met. So that the word of God may dwell in us richly. 

The word of God is the richest eternal inheritance inherited from God, my Father! 

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.

Gospel Preaching: At a Family Function

Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

Last Lord's day evening as we attended a wedding ceremony of a brother and a sister, my attention was turned to the family members of the sister who were not saved yet; our sister's father and brother. Therefore, I approached them and sat with them for conversation.

Establishing friendship was the key to open the door for further sharing of the gospel. As we were having a friendly discussion on faith, life, job, and other things, I was so burdened to preach the gospel. With much exercise of my spirit, I began with who God is and what His plan is in creating man, then explained the fall of man and expounded Christ's redemption at the cross. As I observed them listening intently to all that I had to say, I felt deep within that the Lord had actually prepared them to receive Him. With their openness and receptive attitude, I was much emboldened and encouraged to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then I requested if they would want to pray with me to receive the Lord Jesus, to which they replied in the affirmative. When I was about to lead them to pray, the younger brother of our sister requested if he could make an audio recording of the prayer, to which I readily obliged. Then, I led them to pray to receive the Lord Jesus. O what a joy! 

Then, I just remembered that I had one copy of the New Testament in my bag. I offered to the son if he would accept this gift of mine, the word of God. He replied, "Why not?" Then, I gifted him the New Testament. In fact, I never thought that I would meet someone to preach the gospel to and gift a copy of the Bible. But thank God, I always had some gospel tracts and at least, a copy of the New Testament for whoever may need it. Praise the Lord!

The family became very friendly and invited me to visit them in their home in Jalandhar, Punjab. What a blessing that the gospel can be also preached at a family gathering! 

May the Lord save the entire family!