Ascertain the Facts First

Supposition is a substitution of truths and a thief of thoughts. This is a lesson I learned in the hard way. I have faced needless anxiety and fruitless wish by succumbing to supposition. When I ascertain the truth, my supposition banished in thin air. Facts clarify every supposition and saves from needless speculation.

It all began with a marriage proposal for a brother and sister. I was of the assumption that the brother in mind would definitely like the siter in mind too. The general supposition had been that the duo would make a perfect partner in marriage alliance until the myth was bursted by the needle of fact. To my surprise, the brother had an entirely different view, altogether different from what was generally assumed. He was not at all in favor of the sister we had in mind would match him. I got it all wrong, perhaps. But time will tell if my thoughts were truly of the Lord. If not, I accept my immaturity and would strive to learn better and faster. We now wait to settle this matter soon. My assumption was proven to be deficit of reality. I need a more mature discernment.

Another instance was a half-truth news I heard of a brother from a brother who seemed to have started another literature service in the country in addition to what has already been established. The first time I heard, I was in disbelief as I knew the brother concerned. In fact, I was asked to take action as I am responsible, officially, in the literature service in this country. Deep within me, I wish I could avoid such awkward circumstances to deal with a brother of my father's age and whose spiritual stature is far beyond my reach, as I reckon. I really hesitated to take any action.

I was reminded again and again by a brother to do something as I have the official position and responsibility to do so. I waited and waited until I decided to ascertain the fact first on the 10th of this month. 

As I called up a brother who knew the matter best, the myth was bursted again that the half-truth news was just a thing of the past. Some have circulated the rumor in a bid to defame the brother and demean his function. On ascertaining the fact, I was quite relieved. It was a salvation from falsely accusing a brother for a thing done in the past, not in the present. Yes, he did try something in the past, and that has not continued any longer. Otherwise, it would have been a challenge to face such a senior brother with the official responsibility assigned to me. Now that the fact was gotten, I am quite relieved. Ascertaining the fact saved me from needless speculation and futile imagination.

Another instance was when I received an intimation from income tax department related to my income tax return filing. Before even reading the mail, I had assumed that I need to go through tax harassment from the income tax department and that I need to get the help of a chartered accountant. I indeed wasted my thoughts in anxiety until I actually opened the mail and ascertain the fact that it was indeed an intimation of confirmation of my filing with no due. What a relief!

Yet another instance was when my neighbor sent me a message one night which put me in dilemma as I thought he was inviting me to attend his sister's wedding party which I would wish to avoid my all means for various reasons. In fact, my wife and I just visited and gifted a wedding gift the night before the wedding in lieu of attending the wedding meeting. But when I saw the message it turned out that he was just checking if water tank could be refilled as it ran out in the night. O what a needless supposition bringing me needless anxiety!

Thank God for this lesson! Now, I must not succumb again to a vain supposition and needless speculation. And I must not allow the enemy to corrupt my mind before ascertaining the facts.

What a lesson! Always ascertain fact first and never speculate.

Call, Call, and Call

The 10th of December was a day of call, call, and call. It all started with my morning prayer when I was burdened to settle matters that have been pending for months. I have been reminded again and again as serving one in the literature service to deal with certain brothers and issues that I officially have the right to do. I have been considering the matters carefully and treading the ground of grace to find ways to settle it graciously. But I have been pushed to take action. I took that action first in ascertaining the facts.

I started a phone call with a brother, that added on another brother to clarify accounting matters of a brother's service that lasted for over an hour. Then, later in the afternoon a call was made to all the serving ones involved in the collection of money in the distribution funtion of the literature service. The call went on for about two and half hours. When finally the concerned person was asked to confirm his handling of payment details by email. Later, in the night, another call was made with two brothers to consider helping a brother who need to settle his legal matter as far as his stay in the country is concerned and his live-in relationship with a sister.

The day was spent with call, call, and call. I took all these as opportunities arranged by the Lord for me to learn how to serve faithfully according to the Lord's apportioning. Since the Lord has placed me in a certain position and function officially and in the church, I must not shy away from my responsibilities nor avoid my responsibilities with the pretext of humility. Doing so would be faking spirituality. Therefore, I took necessary actions.

In fact, I mustered up my courage and exercised the God-given authority to execute what need to be executed. I literally went against my natural being and did things I did not like to do. I would rather be led and told what to do, given my choice. Now I had to take the lead in deciding matters. It was not easy. The Lord trained me to learn my lesson in this matter. I ended up doing which I never wished to do. Perhaps, this lesson has been due to me for long enough. Now, I am learning to exercise the authority God has given me. But I must not go beyond my limit.

Thank God for this experience. Call, call, and call was the action I took to learn my God-assigned lesson. Perhaps, I need to exercise this more in the coming days. 

May the Lord cover me in discharging my duty faithfully yet within my limit. And may He train and perfect me more for His purpose. This call, call, and call experience is a learn, learn, and learn lesson. Praise the Lord!

A Couple's Baptism

Three weeks ago, I was invited by the trainee sisters to visit a family in Sikanderpur. As we went to visit this family, we came to know more about the real situation of the couple. The husband is Polio infected and is a differently-abled person and the wife is in her 7-8 month of pregnancy. They both just lost their jobs and are in great financial need. 

Well, leaving aside the human care for a while, we preached the gospel and led them to the Lord right away as they themselves confessed that they have been seeking a Christian fellowship in Gurugram as they have a very good feeling about the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, they were seeking miraculous healing of the husband's physical disability, that was one reason that drove them to the Lord. Though their initial intention was for physical healing, we made it clear to them that most importantly all men need spiritual healing. Therefore, we preached the gospel, we read through The Mystery of Human Life and they were led to receive the Lord in prayer.

The following week, a home meeting was held in their home, and last Lord's day they came to attend the meeting at the meeting hall. As they were in the meeting hall, I sensed the need to fellowship with them. Therefore, I skipped two Lord's day afternoon meetings just to spend time with this couple, together with a few other saints. Since they were very new, I felt the need to share testimonies of salvation and baptism. I requested a brother and a sister to share their testimonies; how they got saved and how and when they got baptized. Their testimonies were so real and living that the gospel message was made clear through living testimonies. Then I felt the need to clarify the complete truth about salvation and also baptism. Using the testimonies as my base, I developed further on the need for a proper baptism, explaining briefly the significance of baptism.

Deep within me, I had no intention to talk about baptism for at least two reasons. Firstly, they were very new. And it was also their first visit. Secondly, they were both physically challenged. The husband was differently-abled due to Polio and the wife was in her peak pregnancy. But as we fellowshipped on the word of God concerning believing and baptism, the light of the Lord shone on me not to withhold any truth just because of the outward condition. I must be faithful to the word of God and teach the truth completely and faithfully. If new believers decided to receive the Lord and be baptized who am I to stop sinners from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ? So I spoke by faith and gave them the choice, to exercise their own free will. To my surprise, they both agreed and decided to take baptism right away. They even said that their hearts are already opened to the Lord Jesus Christ and they would do anything needful to receive and experience the Lord. 

Thank God, I was defeated in my concept of when to be baptized. The Bible is supreme, "Believe and be baptized and you shall be saved." (Mark 16:16). Therefore, the saints sprang into action to prepare for water baptism. After we all prayed for the couple, they also prayed on their own and both of them were baptized!

Right after the baptism, it was time for the Young People Gospel meeting. Therefore, they also joined the gospel meeting on "Facing Persecution". Perhaps, the Lord is preparing them for any persecution that may come their way because of their faith in Christ. 

This baptism is a special lesson to me as I was about to apply my human concept of "waiting." In fact, the Lord's timing is the best. If anyone believes, he must also be baptized! There are many human concepts creeping in even among Christians that the new ones should wait for the proper time, wait for the proper understanding of the Bible or Christ or the Christian life, and wait until so-called "works of the Holy Spirit" are manifested, and so on and so forth. I myself am one of the propagators of such "waiting-gospel" neglecting the authority of the Bible. Thank God, I could bypass my human thought and concept! Thank God for the word of God that made my understanding crystal clear!

Praise the Lord for this couple's testimony of baptism! A real-life lesson to me!

Building a Local Church

Today morning as we fellowshiped, the Lord’s speaking was so intense and clear on the person of the one who build a local church. It has all to do with the person. No improper person can build up a church irrespective of whatever methods or ways he uses.  The church is a living organism and the building up has to do with the persons who constitute the church and the builders themselves. 

The manifestations of a builded local church are:

1. The saints love the Lord more than before
2. The saints love the word of God more than before
3. The saints love one another and be one with one another more than before 
4. The saints functions for the building of the church 
5. The church meetings will be rich, high, and full of life
6. The church will be filled with men like a flock

If the church I serve do not manifest the above points, the church is not being builded up as it should be. These check points are enlightening to see where I stand in my service. If I lack in any of these, I must go before the Lord and seek for His mercy to deal with all frustrations so that I must be a proper person. The person is more important than the way or the method used as evident from Bezalel, who was a builder, and it has all to do with his person.

Exodus 31:2

See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 

Footnote from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version

Bezalel was a master builder, a leader in God’s building. His name means in the shadow of God, indicating that as a master builder, Bezalel was a man under the shadow of God’s grace (cf. 1 Cor. 3:10a; 2 Cor. 12:9). Uri, the name of Bezalel’s father, means light of Jehovah, and Hur, the name of Bezalel’s grandfather, means free, noble, white (signifying clean and pure). These three names indicate what kind of persons the builders of God’s dwelling place should be.

To be a builder of a local church we must have a pure and clean spiritual source. No one is born pure and clean. We all have, by default, been impure and unclean. We need to be thoroughly dealt with by the Lord. And God is able to deal with us and cleanse us. Otherwise, we will become a problem in the church. In fact, all problems in a local church is due to brothers who did not learn their lessons well in the matter of being dealt with by the Lord. For the dealing we need the word, the living and operative word. We must open to the Lord’s dealing by amening the word of God. Trust in the heart of God, trust in the word of God, to become clean, pure, white, noble, and free from within from our own evil heart. Hidden love for the world make our hearts impure. The Lord can deliver us from such impure heart. The Lord’s shining light can deliver us from such impurity. 

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Son of Uri, is to be son of light. The Lord can enlighten us and shine on us as we open to the Lord and the Bible and indeed become the son of light and live under the shadow of His grace.

The way the Lord deals with us today is through His speaking. Therefore, we must come to the word, read and pray-read the word until it becomes our living constitution that transforms our lives.

Lord, deal with my heart and make be today's Bezalel to build up Your church. 

Spread the Truths for the Lord’s Move

Those therefore who were scattered went throughout the land announcing the word as the gospel. Acts 8:4

Migration is for the spread of the divine truths. Abraham was a river-crosser; he migrated from Chaldea to Canaan; we should not be permanently settled; we all should learn to migrate. The more man moves, the more blessing he receives; God blesses the move of people on this earth. If we remain in one place, we will lose the blessing, but if we move, we will receive it. 

As we move along with the Lord’s move, spread the truths; the word of Christ, the word of the Kingdom of God without any mixture. Even limit the use of illustrations and stories so as not to dilute the holy Word while spreading the truths and avoid human knowledge and wisdom. Rather expound the Old Testament prophecies properly in their right significance as in Acts 1:16-20. The Lord’s resurrection must always be the focal point of the apostles' teachings; be a witness of the Lord’s resurrection. We need to learn the word in the New Testament and be saturated with it; thus, when we open our mouths to speak the word will come forth spontaneously.

Acts 6:7

And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly; and a large number of the priests obeyed the faith. 

Acts 12:24

But the word of God grew and multiplied. 

Acts 19:20

Thus, the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. 

Only the word of God can grow and multiply, not the Spirit. Therefore, there is a need for our constitution with the word. The genuine, proper Christian life is a life that spends time in the word and enjoys the word of His grace. If we fellowship with the Lord every day, labor on His Word and are saturated with the Lord’s word, live before Him and genuinely live Christ, and take the gospel as our primary occupation, speaking the Lord Jesus to every person we meet, we should each be able to save one person every day. Then, we should be able to spread these divine truths.

Prayer, the Spirit, and the word are the ways we have to spread the truths as we migrate to different parts of the world. We must preach and teach the truths one by one at schools, offices, communities, and wherever the Lord leads us. While spreading the truths, we must do it in a way of repeat reading, emphasize reading, reading in a living way, and in the spirit of prayer with the new ones, not in a way of giving message, but in a way of mutual pursuing. All the saints, young or old, must take this way of spreading the truth. This is the secret of increase; by prayer, through the word, and the spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect model of God-man who is constituted with the word and spoke the word and spread the truths.

My responsibility is to study the word, be constituted with the word, and spread the word for the Lord’s move. Lord, grace me to be such a responsible one.

Prayer for the Lord's Move

Prayer has been an important subject in a Christian life and church life. Today I am freshly supplied with the Lord’s timely speaking again with a view of the Lord’s move in the Body and the significance of prayer. I am convicted of my need to strengthen my prayer life.

The Lord's Move in the Body

These days I have been under the Lord’s speaking in the Full-timers' Training. Point by point, the Lord has been blessing me with His speaking.