The Art and the Joy of Cleaning

Today, as a family, we decided to clean up our house. It has been long since I contemplated cleaning up the house we live in. With three children, all on their learning processes and many other children of the saints visiting us frequently, especially in the weekends, our home is their play school. From our living room to the bed room, the entire floor is to their disposal. They run around, play hide and seek, and even play toys and games to their hearts' content. My wife and I have no objection to it. In fact, we felt blessed that our home can be a home of the children too. Despite the need to clean up the mess the children have created after their soulful delight, we still have been joyful all the while for the house God has provided us with. 

I personally felt our family is not for ourselves but we are for Christ and the Church. Therefore, all that we have and all that we are, are for the saints for the Lord's sake and for His Body. I am quite happy that we are being useful to the church. So only, our home is open and we rented this particular house on the first floor of the meeting hall so that it can be useful to the church. On the Lord's day as the meeting of the church is going on on the ground floor which is the meeting hall, our home which is on the first floor are used for the children meeting, playing, and mothers' resting place. In this sense of usefulness to the saints and to the church, we are grateful to rent this house even though it is expensive and physically too, the building is quite old and torn apart at sown spots here and there. Often times, I have been tempted to shift to a better house with similar rent, but the Lord has been restraining me. Until the Lord directs us to shift, we may stay here as long as the Lord wants us to be here.

We have been a little lacking and negligent on the cleanliness side because of the obvious reason that children will mess it up anyway. So we have tolerated quite a while to barely care much for it. But off late, it has been on my heart to do a deep cleaning and rearrange the whole house. Therefore, we decided it today, Friday evening, when we do not have meeting schedule.

Cleaning is an art; how to clean in the most effective way requires some creativity. I think I do have that creativity. I had been tidy and clean all my school life, college life, and even after marriage until children frequently our home regularly. As a family, including all my children and cousins who are with us, we all coordinated the entire evening for about five hours and cleaned up the entire floor. Many unwanted things that have been in store have been thrown away, and many goods rearrange in a neat way. Thereby, giving a fresh new look to the entire home. After all the cleaning and rearranging work, I feel we are in a new home altogether. New feeling, new look, and new atmosphere. Now I have a better feeling to invite saints and new ones for a visit, lovefeast, and for hospitality. Praise the Lord for the family coordination, and for the new home!

With all these cleaning works done, I felt an aura of joy, an ambience of beauty, and an outlook of beauty. May the Lord continue to bless our family and our home. May this home sweet home be a home for many saints, seekers, and sinners too. And may it be more and more useful for the Lord and His move and His testimony too. 

Praise the Lord for the wonderful home and useful house! As long as it meets the needs of the saints, the church, and the Lord, we are happy and content with it. After all, our lives are all for Christ and the church.

Lord, bless our home! 

North East Fellowship

The Lord is sovereign in taking care of His work. Since my last visit to the North East(NE) two weeks ago, there has been a lot of new development in the arrangement of fellowship and shepherding the churches. The Lord also gave us a lot of feeling concerning His move there and how to practically care for it in the principle of incarnation. After two of us brothers had a fellowship with the leading brothers there, we fellowshipped with the coworkers further on how to carry forward His move. One thing became very clear, I had a fresh burden for the NE and the Lord gave me a lot of peace and liberty in bringing the matter to the brothers. Meanwhile, I also had a good fellowship with the key brothers in NE and we were brought together in one accord.

Beginning today, we started a weekly Wednesday morning fellowship on Skype. Two coworking brothers who serves full time and I started this wonderful fellowship. We all prayed for one another, for the Lord's testimony in the NE especially Manipur, for the saints in all the local churches with the leading brothers, for the raising up of new local churches, for the recovery of the dormant and backsliding saints, and for our sweet fellowship and coordination in one accord.

Then we pursued together the book, Elders Training, Book 1, Chapter 1, to begin with, on the one ministry. We then shared on our learnings and enjoyment from the truth pursuit; our need to focus on the one unique ministry in the Bible with its one and same teaching and a warning on different teachings that produces different ministries. This was followed by another round of prayer. 

We then continued to pursue the message portion for today's coworkers fellowship on the matter of begetting new ones and shepherding them in the home meetings. I was particularly impressed by the need to discern in shepherding, with the view of bringing the new ones to grow in life and also bringing them into the church life with the goal of building up the Body of Christ. Wisdom must be exercised so as not to waste time on certain problematic new ones with complicated situations. Proper discernment of each new ones and laboring accordingly will rendered our shepherding care fruitful. 

Then, we finally had another round of fellowship on the church in Guwahati, and how to shepherding the saints there, with prayer. Though this local church has gone through a lot of struggling as the key serving ones got sick and had to retreat to their respective home towns, the Lord somehow would not give it up so easily as was expressed by the local brothers there. So, new arrangement were made, and the saints picked up a special burden to shepherd this local church. May the Lord grace, strengthen, and bless the church in Guwahati! 

This weekly fellowship is being proposed specifically for NE and it began today. May the Lord grace us to go on in fellowship and in sweet one accord coordination and bring in the Lord’s blessings all over NE. 

Besides, two and half hours of fellowship, there was another one hour of prayer and Life-study pursuit before, and another two hours of coworkers fellowship after. The whole day was spent on three rounds of prayer, truth pursueing, and fellowship. What a blessed day! In prayer, in truth, in fellowship, in coordination, and in one accord... 

Praise the Lord for such grace and such blessing!

Brotherly Fellowship to the Young Ones

Yesterday I was invited to join the blending meeting of the saints with the trainees from Korea and India. As the meeting began and I observed the young saints, I was burdened for them. I chose Hymns 472, which we all sang and enjoyed; a hymn on consecration. Then I ministered to them on loving the Lord and consecrating to the Lord based on Mary's noble deed in Matthew 26:6-13.

Matthew 26:7-8A woman came to Him, having an alabaster flask of ointment of great value, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? 

Matthew 26:13Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her. 

Since the majority of the saints are younger ones, I shared the word of God with testimonies, even of my own. The points of truth on loving the Lord and serving the Lord being supported with living testimony of life experiences. I ministered until I released the burden within me. In loving the Lord is full submission and obedience. Such consecrated lives will be blessed by the Lord. And I challenged all the young ones to simply love the Lord, seek the Lord's perfect will in every matter, and not to run after money, fame, position, and world things. The ministering then concluded with the same hymn followed by strong prayers of consecration. Many of the young ones prayed and consecrated afresh to the Lord one by one. It was indeed a wonderful time of blending.

Stanza 4 of Hymn 472 which we enjoyed repeatedly is thus. 

But the souls who love Him truly,Let woe come or bliss,These will count their dearest heart's bloodNot their own, but His.Savior, Thou who thus hast loved me,Give me love like this,Savior, Thou who thus hast loved me,Give me love like this.

Even the parent and elder ones who joined the meeting testified that the ministry of the word and testimony meant so much to them as well. Even elderly saints still need to love the Lord and consecrate themselves to the Lord. 

After the meeting, I was burdened to lead one new gospel friend, who attended the blending, to the Lord. With a few sentences of gospel message I led her to call upon the name of the Lord and led her to receive the Lord in prayer, which she willingly did. To the joy of the sisters who met her first and invited her to the blending, she was also introduced to the local saints for follow up shepherding. May the Lord grace her to be a remaining fruit.

That was how I enjoyed the blending with the saints on the Lord's day evening in the church in Hyderabad.

Brotherly Visit

A sister who is an army officer and who is also a seeker and lover of the Lord Jesus Christ got married a couple of months ago and is now settling in Hyderabad. She had been enjoying the church life in her army posting place at Guwahati with a serving sister for about a year and even attended a short term training for a month. Now this sister got married to a brother in Hyderabad. On her wedding day, though she invited me I could not attend as it coincided with a full-time training few months ago. Yet, on the morning of the wedding day, I called her and prayed together with her, for the Lord's blessing in her marriage life and that her new found family would be for the Lord's testimony.

This time, after the training, last Saturday, with two leading brothers of the church in Hyderabad and a visiting brother from Malaysia, we visited this newly married couple. For hours altogether we enjoyed fellowshipping on the word of God and testimonies.

Some key points in the fellowship were the need for and the meaning of regeneration, the need for growth in Christian life, the need for fellowship and home meeting. I encouraged the local brothers to consider starting a home meeting in her home with biblical references from Acts 2, how the church life began and met in Jerusalem, day by day, house to house, fellowshipping, teaching, breaking bread, and prayer. With this burden, we also prayed together.

For shepherding purposes I also gifted the couple, The Tree of Life, Holy Spirit and Reality, and eight booklets, some ot then are, Regeneration, Christ as Wisdom, Two Principles of Living, Serving Sisters, Genuine Church, and others.

I trust the Lord that He will shepherd this family into the church life through the brothers' shepherding. The seed of the divine life sown through the ministry of the word will bear fruit one day.

Another friend of mine and a brother in the Lord was visited at his home. One main burden for this visit was to once again introduce him to the church brothers in Hyderabad. I did fellowship on my fresh enjoyment of the Lord this morning concerning the blessedness of the children of God. Despite our weaknesses and failures, God's view upon us is divine and He views us in Christ Jesus. Humanly we are unholy, full of defects, and ugly. But the divine view is, we are holy, perfect, and beautiful. Then, I encouraged my friend to be in fellowship with the brothers, prayed, and then took leave.

May the Lord shepherd these ones who loves the Lord into His flock for His testimony.

Prophesying

Today, as I attended the Lord's Table Meeting in the church in Hyderabad, the brothers fellowshipped with me to give the concluding words in the prophesying meeting. The message the saints have been enjoying is also on prophesying. I enjoyed this message so much during the live training last summer at Anaheim, California, and then during the Video Training at Gurugram, and two weeks ago, it was our morning revival pursuit. Now, with this fellowship, I received fresh supply from the Lord.

Even before I began to speak on prophesying, the saints have prophesied one by one during the prophesying meeting. Yet again I have been so much supplied with the riches of the ministry of the word. Even as I received from the saints' prophesying, the Lord further gave me new lights on this truth. Therefore, when my turn came to minister, I ministered the following points.

Two Comparisons

Comparison of prophesying in the old testament and new testament: In the old testament, the Spirit of God came upon the prophets and spoke the words of prophesy. Irrespective of the spiritual condition of the "prophet", the Spirit just spoke through as a medium. For instance, even Saul prophesied after God rejected him in his sin of disobedience. This old testament prophesying is extrinsic in nature. Whereas, the prophesying in the new testament is through the anointing Spirit who indwells the believers. The true Prophet, Christ the God incarnated, in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit, and even we are joined to Him as one Spirit. This anointing Spirit in us as recorded in 1 John 2:20,27, is the Prophet in us. This is intrinsic and subjective in experience.

Comparison of the gifts: In 1 Corinthians 12:28-31, God placed different gifts in the Body, and encourages us to pursue the greater gifts. Then chapter 13 mentions the excelling gift of love, but Chapter 14:1 charges us to desire earnestly the gift of prophesying. Finally, in vv. 3,4,5,12 describes that this gift of prophesying builds up the church, and in vv. 31,39 this gift of prophesying must be desired, and that all can prophesy. Therefore, this gift of prophesying is the best of all gifts and must be desired.

The Meaning of Prophesying

Prophesying is the excellent gift for the building up of the Body of Christ acquired by the growth in life through the enjoyment of Christ. It is to speak God and Christ, and speak forth God and Christ into people.

The Way to Prophesy

A preparation is needed in the matter of paying the price to acquire the knowledge of the word of God. The Holy Bible and the supplementary books that helps us understand the word of God must be daily studied and pursued. These knowledge of the word of God must also be experienced gradually, and with the instant inspiration of the Holy Spirit, one can prophesy. All can prophesying if all exercise diligently in all these points.

The Goal of Prophesying

The goal of prophesying is to encourage and console the saints so that the saints would grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Finally, for the reality of prophesying, there is an urgent need to be revived every morning and live an overcoming life everyday. Such revived living is the living of a prophesying life. This living is the model of a God-man living needed for all Christians to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.

What a blessed gift! What a blessing that all can prophesy! And this builds up the Body of Christ!

Lord, grace me to be Your diligent pursuer for the sake of Your building.

Present Truth

Thus weekend I personally received and enjoyed the Lord's speaking in the full-timers' training at Hyderabad. This was the first training held after the ITERO held at Bengaluru last month. Generally, some senior coworkers from abroad would come to serve and shepherd us in such training. But this time, none could come. Therefore, we, the local brothers in India, had to function and serve one another. Perhaps, this was the Lord's further perfecting us to carry forward the Lord's move in India. Despite the senior coworkers' absence, the Lord continued to speak what was on His heart.

Three main points that enlightened me most, which I also shared in the last session as a concluding word with five other brothers are below:

The Present Truth

2 Peter 1:12

Therefore I will be ready always to remind you concerning these things, even though you know them and have been established in the present truth. 

The present truth is the present speaking of the Lord through His word. It concerns His divine and eternal economy, His divine trinity, His divine life, His all-inclusiveness, His church His Body, and the New Jerusalem. At present, His present truth is the bringing forth of and the reality and practicality of the one new man. This present truth must be pursued, dived into, get constituted with, spoken and propagated forth. Much more, the truth must be upheld in its absoluteness at all cost. 

Prayer and Labor 

Colossians 4:12-13

Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify of him that he labors much for you and for those in Laodicea and for those in Hierapolis. 

Prayer and labor go hand in hand. Prayer is to be brought into the presence of God and even to God Himself. This prayer is the prayer at the incense altar in Exodus 30:11-16 which is immediately followed by the numbering of the children of Israel to be formed as the army of God. This prayer is an intercessory prayer for the saints to grow in life and be built up with one another for the reality of the one new man. Without such a prayer, there is no way for the one new man to be brought forth in reality and practicality. 

To pray practically for the Lord's interest, there is a need for establishing and strengthening the following aspects of prayer:

Personal prayer: In addition to the daily prayer life, our person itself must be a praying person. 

Brothers' prayer: Wherever we are, there must be a strong coordinated and corporate prayer among the brothers and also the sisters for the Lord's move.  

Church prayer: The church prayer meeting must be strengthened that all saints participate to pray in one accord regularly. 

Learn and Follow

As a younger brother learning to serve and coordinate in the Lord’s move, there is a need to learn from the brothers taking the lead in the Lord’s work. The Lord's speaking and leading is with the brothers. Learning and following the brothers is learning from and following the Lord. I must be beware of different works, several works, pride, and anything negative, even the legality of the local church autonomy in her administration. I must learn to follow.

All these aspects of the present are fresh bread to me. I have been so much blessed by the Lord's timely speaking in His recovery for the bringing forth of the one new man. 

Lord, bless Your move in India! 

Fellowship with Family

As I visited Manipur last week for fellowshipping with the key brothers, I stationed myself in my own home. Mostly, during the day I would go out for fellowship or meeting seekers and could hardly find time to spend at home. Since my intention for visiting Manipur this time was purely for the Lord's work, my priority was for the Lord's work too. Only if there was time, I could spend time for the family. Thank God, I got two nights and one whole day to spend time with my family.

In the two nights of time together with my mom and dad and elder sister, I listened to all that they have to say. They opened up some deep matters that have been in their hearts for long. I did not offer any quick solution to some of the problems they addressed to me. Instead, deep within I prayed that the Lord would interfere and make everything clear. The matters included, land, my younger brother's family, my elder sister's future, house construction, social condition of the village, and political situation of the tribe and state we are in. I simply exercised myself to listen to them. It was indeed righteous and humane to simply be who I am, a son to my parent.

At one point I had a deep faith within to tell my parent that I have all that I need and they need not worry about me in anyway. Instead, I invited them to come and stay with me if they wish to. I gave them the full liberty to open up any matter even including their need for help in anyway, even, in financial matter. If the Lord so wills, He will provid my needs as well as my families' needs.

I deeply desire to offer to them some financial help as their eldest son but I was not in a position to do so. But the Lord miraculously provided some offerings which I deemed best to transfer to them in whole. I reckoned that as a special offering, an offering the Lord provided to me to offer to my parent.

One whole day, we had a trip to another town of over two hours drive, to Kangpokpi. My younger sister and her family resides there as she delivered a baby boy recently. There we had family time and enjoyed meal together.

My brother-in-law's father is a moderator of a Kuki Christian Church for the entire group spanning over a couple of states in India and a few other foreign countries. He and I had a separate fellowship when all the other family members were enjoying a family time. We fellowshipped on the biblical truths of the church as the Body of Christ expressed in various localities as local churches, and the practices of the local churches with fellowship and blending universally. He also explained the structure of the Christian group of which he is the moderator. And I also shared my testimony of how the Lord called me to serve full-time and how the Lord raised up local churches all over the North East part of India. We could get along and fellowship on the Lord's work. Only if the Lord one day leads us to serve together in oneness, that would be out of the Lord's sheer mercy. Overall, we enjoyed one another's fellowship. I gifted him with two books, The Glorious Church and The Orthodoxy of the Church. And a set of Shepherding Materials for the family of my brother-in-law's brother. 

Praise the Lord for the wonderful family fellowship! May the Lord bless our family for His testimony!