Flow of Life: NE Brothers

The churches in North East India has been facing persecution from religion since the very beginning of the rasing of the lampstands. Nevertheless, the Lord has been gracing the saints to grow in life gradually. Till date, a good number of local churches have been raised up and the testimony of Jesus has been much strengthened with the growth in life of the saints and their increasing enjoyment of the church life with truth constitution. The churches are the Lord's, and the Lord as the Son of Man is walking among the midst of the lampstand is shepherding them, even "trimming the burned wick."

In the last full-timers training, a brother came to fellowship with me concerning his situation and the situation of certain serving ones in the NE; how some leading brothers had certain feeling concerning him which troubled him quite much. But since he came for a brotherly fellowship I gave my audience and mentioned to him that I would bring the matter to the concerned brothers who are taking the lead in the Lord's work. The brother came again the second time and fellowshipped further certain misunderstanding that subtly crept in among the brothers, especially the full-time serving ones. As he fellowshipped  I just realized that the enemy has always been behind the scene trying to bring discord among the brothers and destroy the building work of the Lord. A few weeks later, the same brother called me again over the phone expressing his concern over the situation there. In all the three cases of fellowship, my fellowship was consistent. I told him I would bring the matter to the brothers overseeing the Lord's move in India. 

Another senior brother came and stayed with me for two nights after the full-timers training. Initially, I thought he just came to take hospitality. But later he requested for fellowship and opened up his concerns about the situation there. To this brother too, I told the same thing I told to the other brother. In all the meetings above, I prayed together with the leading brothers for the Lord to cover and heal the situation. And if the Lord leads so, perhaps, I may visit with other brothers. In both the case, I also fellowship with them concerning my feeling. The Lord is blessing his move and the enemy is trying to destroy the building work. He tried using religion and other means to stop. But he could not succeed. Now he is subtly trying to break the oneness and one accord of the brothers. But the Lord's word is:

Matthew 16:18  And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

This matter of fellowshipping with the brothers taking the lead in the Lord's move here has been pending for a couple of months. A few weeks ago, under the Lord's sovereignty, one of the brothers and I stayed together in the same room for the churches in Kerala blending conference. There we could fellowship all the points in detail and decided to visit the brothers for fellowship in the coming months. This is the flow of life that I experience in fellowship with the brothers concerning His move in NE.

The Lord's divine life will flow and heal all the situation in NE.

Ezekiel:47:8

Then said He to me, This water flows out toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah and goes to the sea; when it flows into the sea, the water of the sea is healed.

47:9   And every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes shall live, and there will be very many fish when this water comes there. And the water of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.

The flow of life will heal the situation and bless His testimony in NE!

Flow of Life: Fellowship with the Brothers

In the blending conference of the churches in Kerala the brothers gave me forty-five minutes to fellowship with all the leading and responsible brothers, the official fellowship that needs to be conveyed to the churches. I fellowship the matter of change of service of the serving brothers for distribution of the ministry literature in Kerala, the release of the Gospel of Matthew Recovery Version in Malayalam, the need for prayer and support from the churches there for the translation of the Recovery Version Bible, the need for the saints to enter and dive into the present truth especially the Crystallization-study in the way of video training, and also for the churches coordination in the spread of the ministry all over Kerala. 

Later, we had a fellowship with few brothers for the practical coordination in translating the ministry speaking for the video training. Without my trying to suggest or propose anything, the brothers themselves voluntarily came forward and made all the necessary arrangement. Everything became so sweet and the transaction very smooth. This was the result of the Lord's move and His presence. My function was to simply confirm what the Lord had already done.

Even my fellowship with the two brothers who are directly serving in the literature service, whatever I had in mind to fellowship with them, without me trying to impose anything, the brothers themselves spoke out what I intended to fellowship. It all turned out that the Lord already spoke to them as well what He had spoken to me concerning the new arrangement in their official functions. My personal fellowship with the two of them separately and together were very sweet and we all were in one mind and one accord.

Personally, I dare not misrepresent God even in my official responsibility. Though the case at hand may be serious, the way to deal with it is, by life and by love. Moses' dealing with problems by deferring everything to God and representing God as a deputy authority has been a great lesson and blessing to me in my service. I learn from the Bible and the ministry speaking all these practical lessons of dealing with situations. And the result is full of life, peace, joy, and all done in the way of shepherding.

With the brother involving in the misappropriation of account, I spent hours together fellowshipping late into midnight, in a way of shepherding. Though it was an official fellowship, he is a dear brother too. I presented my feeling from both official and brotherly point of view. In all my fellowship, my burden was to shepherd him, so that he can become more useful to the Lord. The worldly way would be "firing an unfaithful employee," but the Lord's way is a way of shepherding to recover him and even make him more useful to the Lord. The Lord graced me to shepherd him in such a way. He has been shepherding me so much, and I am doing the same with the serving ones.

One morning, we three brothers were enjoying morning revival together. As we just finished pray-reading the word of God, I felt we all should kneel down and pray. So we all knelt down and prayed for the Lord's covering, and His blessing in our coordination and service. That was the conclusion of my brotherly fellowship with them. We all enjoyed the flow of life in all our fellowship and prayer. What the enemy did for bad, the Lord turned it to be for our good. Praise the Lord for the flow of life!

Flow of Life: Brotherly Fellowship

This month had started off with many busy schedules. I had no plan of traveling anywhere as many responsibilities are needed to be carried out this month as one of the international trainings is coming to India next month for which there are many official responsibilities assigned to me. On the church side, we were entering in the video training of the Crystallization-study of Numbers 2 for two weekends. On the family side, our three children have their half-yearly exam scheduled. 

With all these busy schedules, my initial intention was not to travel at all. But there has been a serious act of unrighteousness committed by one of the serving ones for which I need to take action. The matter has all been checked and verified, and an important fellowship has to be brought to the leading brothers of the churches in Kerala as this brother served the churches there. The churches there had their blending conference which was a good time for me to go and fellowship. Therefore, through the fellowship of my brother who coordinated with me, I decided to go, after thoroughly praying over the matter.

All these incidents have helped me to go before the Lord every night. Case by case, point by point, I brought the matters before the Lord. Even as I prayed, the Lord led me through in all the matters. Even before I actually met the brothers concerned, the Lord had already worked out His plan. When I went there, without me doing anything, all the matters had already been settled. Of course, my going still necessary. In fact, I was just there to confirm what the Lord has been doing. Though it was an official matter, I experienced the presence of the Lord very much. One key verse that kep ringing in my inner ear was Exodus 33:14  "And He said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."

The Lord's presence was all that I enjoyed in my official trip to fellowship with the leading brothers of the churches in Kerala, with three serving brothers, and also with a brother who coordinates for the Lord's move in India. All these fellowships were so full of life and light. And all these also are directly or indirectly related to the Lord's move and His testimony in India.

Praise the Lord for the flow of life through the brotherly fellowship!

A Sister's Baptism

A young girl who used to be the classmate of one of our sisters in the church was introduced to the church life a few years ago. A family of three, mother, daughter, and son gradually came into the church-life even as they have been going through many ups and downs in their family life and Christian life. The Lord has been very gracious in shepherding them through difficult times. The magnitude of the problem that they have been through is so severe that it affected their academic life, physical life, psychological life, and positively their spiritual life. In spite of all the hardships they have been through, the Lord shepherd them through the saints and their faith have been strengthened very much. Slow but steady, their progress has been very encouraging. Separation, divorce, and lawsuit were a few of the things the family has been through. Nevertheless, the Lord is the good shepherd shepherding them through and through.

The young girl has come of age and has a spiritual realisation of her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She's been attending the church meetings and also the young people meetings, besides the home meeting in her home. Two weeks ago, she decided to seal her faith in obedience to the word of God by taking water baptism. Her faith has been very much strengthened through the church-life. A couple of times, sisters and brothers have shared the truth concerning salvation.  Therefore, she finally took the decision to be baptized. So, the church in Gurugram baptized her last week. Praise the Lord!

Right after her baptism, she came for fellowship. My wife and I fellowshipped with her the truth concerning the assurance, security, and joy of salvation. It was a perfecting time of helping her realize the significance of her salvation. It was also a time of laying a good foundation with the word of God that she would stand firm and strong all the days of her life. And it was also a time of watering her spiritually that she would enjoy the joy of salvation by exercising her spirit through pray-reading the word of God. We encouraged her to inculcate a daily practice of calling upon the Lord's name, reading the Bible, spending time in prayer personally and corporately, and also attend the meetings of the church. These are some basic practices which will serve as a good foundation in her Christian life and church-life.

This particular case is special as her family has been shattered with father and mother divorced, and her father filing a lawsuit against her mother, and her step-father threatening her mother, and her custody to her mother has been challenged. No matter what, the Lord gave her the strength to stand firm and took water baptism even as all these "clouds" were darkening her sky. 

Praise the Lord! It's an experience of resurrection out of the death trap of the enemy.

May our sister grow and become a shining testimony to all her relatives and friends, especially to her own father and sibling.

Doctorate Poet

A brother's family invited their neighbor for a gospel home meeting last Lord's day evening. And he wanted me to be there to preach the gospel to him. It was a double blessing for me to accept such a special invitation; firstly for the shepherding of the new ones, and secondly for the preaching of the gospel to the new one's neighbor. My wife and two other brothers joined me in the meeting.

But as we reach the brother's home, we were told that the neighbor they had invited was reluctant to come and made lame excuses. But we decided to pray for that neighbor. After we all prayed one by one, surprisingly the neighbor just showed up and joined us in the meeting.

This neighbor introduced himself as a doctorate degree holder in an engineering field but had taken early retirement to pursue his hobby of writing poems. He brought his new book, a collection of his poems and introduced to me. I took the book and flipped through the book randomly. Surprisingly I came across a poem which began with "Jesus Christ". As I read through the poem, he was discoursing about the temptation the Lord Jesus faced when He was on the earth. Perhaps, his thought was,  if Jesus Himself was tempted, who is man not to be tempted? His poetical thought was on how to overcome temptations in life. I read the paragraph out loud for all the ones present in the home of our brother. Immediately, I felt led to minister on the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 since there were three other believers to address too.  

Using Matthew 4, I preached the gospel especially for the neighbor friend and gave him an opportunity to call upon the Lord's name and pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior. Then, the expounding of the three temptations with their spiritual significances followed suit. After over two hours of gospel preaching and home meeting, we all were full of joy! Especially, our host's family was so joyful that their neighbor finally came to their home to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and was shown the way to believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ! The joy of the neighbor was the joy of the new ones' family, which was also our joy. We all were filled with the joy of the Lord. The following day, that neighbor sent me an email expressing his joy and thanks for the gospel meeting. May the Lord save him fully.

Praise the Lord! 

Three Dancers

Last Saturday I wanted to join the gospel preaching with the saints in the morning session after the brothers' fellowship, but I felt the resistance to actively participate in it as I had other responsibilities in caring for the saints. But after the prayer meeting of the church in the afternoon, as usual, I got myself released from other preoccupation and participated in the door knocking. Even then, the distraction from the enemy was such that as I went to dropped off a team in their propagation area, my car got punctured. So, I ended up fixing the problem and when I was actually ready to go for door knocking, an hour had already gone by. It was so tempting to just give it up and stay back home. But I felt I should still go. Therefore, I went to preach the gospel.

When I was on the field, joining a team of three sisters, for door knocking I barely had an hour. I simply followed the sisters who already had gone to the area before. As I followed them, we pressed a doorbell whose residence invited us in. As this person knew only Hindi and being a male, I had to exercise my spirit to preach the gospel in Hindi. To my surprise, he was so receptive. After preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, sensing his condition, I led him to call upon the Lord's name and assist him to pray the sinner's prayer to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as the prayer was over, his roommates arrived.

With two more of his roommates, now the house was filled with people; my self with three sisters and three of them, seven of us altogether. They invited us in. We sat in their living room, and this time, I preached the gospel again in English for the sake of the other two roommates. Beginning from God, the Creator, to His creation of the universe and man, the fall of man, His incarnation as the man Jesus, accomplishment of redemption at the cross, and His becoming the life-giving Spirit, a complete gospel, in short, was preached to all of them. As the Spirit led further, after preaching the gospel, I lead them to pray, all the three friends heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time in their lives, and also prayed to receive the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time in their lives. O what a joy! We all were so joyful, and after the preaching and leading them to pray, we also prayed for each one of them. Then, I gifted them with Hindi and English New Testament Bible. Praise the Lord!

As we conversed further, it was learnt that all of them were professional dancers. One of them had even performed in a reality show. Now, he has been pursuing a career in acting aiming at Bollywood and would be moving to Mumbai. The other two dancers will be stationed in Gurugram, learning and teaching dancing. Now and then, they have been organizing a dance party. All of them agreed to the pitiful and sinful condition of man, and the only way out is to believe into the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a surprise visit for them and for us too. The Lord was so sovereign in leading us to them. May the Lord continue to work in their being and grace them the full experience of God's full salvation.

Praise the Lord for these three dancers!

Promises of God

Genesis35:11  And God said to him, I am the All-sufficient God: Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from your loins.
45:20  And do not be concerned for your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.

God is a speaking God. He spoke then, and He speaks now. It has been His speaking that has been leading all this while. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalms 119:105. Besides, He is leading by His speaking on a day to day basis. He also speaks words of promises for the future. It is up to the hearer to believe the promises of the Lord. To those who believe, the promises are true, and the word of God never fails. Still, to the unbelieving, the Lord in His mercy does fulfill. I have been receiving grace to be able to believe the word of God and receive it by faith. The speaking of the Lord comes when reading the word of God.

Recently, two instances happened, the first on the 19th and the second on the 23rd, today, while reading the word of God. The first is related to my children. My heart's desire for the three children the Lord blessed us with is that they all should grow up in the grace of the Lord, in the love of God, in the reverential fear of God, as God-man children, loving God and will serve God all the days of their lives. This has been my prayer for my children. I have no desire that my children will be successful people in the eyes of the world with worldly riches and glory. I have lost all desire for worldly riches and glory. This is the mercy of the Lord. Once I used to dream of them and tried to labor to achieve such, now the Lord has gracefully changed my goal in life altogether. What the Lord has called me for, in 2003 Jan 1, will ever be my life's goal.

Deuteronomy 10:12  And now, O Israel, what does Jehovah your God ask of you except that you fear Jehovah your God so that you would walk in all His ways and love Him and serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul;

I must walk worthily of the calling with which the Lord God has called me. 

Ephesians 4:1   I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called.

I don't how the Lord will call my children. Only He can override my desire for my children. Otherwise, I wish and pray that they all would love the Lord and serve the Lord in whatever way the Lord deems best. That will really make me happy. After all, it's not up to me, it's all up to Him who is the Lord of lords, and above all. In the midst of this thought for my children, the Lord spoke to me this clear word concerning my children, "kings shall come forth from your loins." Whatever that means, I amen to whatever the Lord has promised. Time will tell what the Lord meant by "kings." In fact, all genuine believers who live under the heavenly rule of the King are kings indeed in today's age. It could also mean rulers above others in their lives and workplaces. In reality, all those who live and walk by the Spirit taking Christ as life are the real kings on earth today. May the Lord bless all the children He blessed me and my wife with. Trusting in His grace, we will do our best to give the best training and education within our measure, and leave the rest to Him.

The other instance is, it has been quite a while now I have been deliberating on my housing in Gurugram. The rent we have been paying is hefty. With the same rent, we could have gotten for ourselves a very nice, modern, and decent housing. The house that we live in now has a host of physical issues. In addition to being so old, there is no furniture at all, not even a single wardrobe for storing clothes. The building outside is cracking, and pieces of construction have fallen now and then. The woodworks are all in bad shape; some termites have eaten, some got rotten, and some were partially damaged. The kitchen and the toilets too are in bad shape. Despite all these, it is liveable and we are still living here. Many times, I wondered why I have not found myself a better housing? But every time, I pondered on this matter of finding better housing, the Lord would not give me peace at all. I had tried shifting out at least five times now, but every time the Lord would stop me. Now I am in the tenth year in the same house. Not really by choice, but the Lord's sovereignty. He knows best, the reason for my family to be in this house.

In spite of all these physical drawbacks, our family has been living with much peace and joy. The presence of the Lord has been very enjoyable. My children like the house so much that any suggestion of shifting will invite a strong reaction from them. My son even promised that he like this old house and he would buy it when he grows up and rebuilt it.  There has been so much emotional connection with this house. And the saints have been using it every time we meet together as the church meeting hall is on the ground floor. In terms of usage, both family and church side, it has been very useful, Perhaps, for this reason, the Lord never allows us to shift out nor find a better housing with similar or even lower rent elsewhere. In the midst of all this consideration, the word of the Lord today morning is very heart touching: And do not be concerned for your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. Whatever this verse means, the Lord's promise is, He has given me the best. And perhaps, He will give me the best. The best according to Him may or may not be the best according to the eyes of man. Nevertheless, I gladly amen and accept whatever the Lord gives to me. He knows the best. And it is best to amen what the Lord deems the best. This reminds me of the journey of the children of Israel. My housing and living will be as such, at the command of Jehovah.

At the commandment of Jehovah the children of Israel set out, And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, then after that the children of Israel set out; there the children of Israel encamped. and at the commandment of Jehovah they encamped; they remained encamped. Numbers 9:17-18

Praise the Lord for His promises and encouraging words!