Caring for My Brother

One evening as I was praying, the Lord burdened me to consider and care for the welfare of my younger brother in the flesh. He has a daughter, of my youngest daughter's age group, and twin sons. 

Last December when I visited home for a few days I saw the actual situation of the education and spiritual atmosphere at my village in Keikhu, Imphal East. Therefore, I fellowshipped with my brother and sister to carefully consider how to take care of the education of the children. If this matter is not taken care in time it will affect their whole life. The best earthly gift we can give to our children is a proper education, academically educated and humanly disicplined, with a normal Christian family life. If these two, spiritual and wholistic education are imparted, what children needs most for their life is set. Upon this foundation, they can develop further.

I brought the matter to fellowship with my wife and prayed for it, waiting for the proper way and time to accomplish this. The Lord even showed me the boarding school where this burden can be carried out. I am familiar with the ones who runs the school and the principal too. As Christian brother, I have a good feeling about the people overseeing the school.

Last week, I was casually informed that my brother's daughter will be admitted in this same boarding school which the Lord showed me. On hearing the news, I felt that the Lord has confirmed the burden He gave me. As to my participation in financing, I am willing and burdend for it, but the Lord indicated that they can bear this burden by themselves lest they would take it too light a thing about their children's education. The parents themselves need to bear the burden and pay the price for the sake of their children's future. Lest the help rendered to the children would not benefit the parent much.

The burden was given and the way to carry out the burden was also paved. When the Lord burdens He also fulfills the burden. Praise the Lord!

Standing with Brothers in Christ

On the 31st of January 2022, I received a call from a brother and a friend concerning his family situation. It was personal and he felt good to confied with me as Christian brother and friend for prayer support. He narrated the matter and I took it to heart to sincerely care for my brother and his wife. I fellowshiped with him the fundamental need for contacting the Lord in prayer and receive His life daily through the word of God. Based on this basic foundation I fellowshiped with him that the Christian life has to be developed further day by day unto full maturity.

I took this call as from the Lord and decided to pray for my brother and his wife. In addition, I have also made arrangement for free Rhema literature to be distributed among the believers in the Army battalion  where he has been posted. When he confirmed the receipt of these books, his wife was also admitted in a clinic for a treatment. I let him know that I have been standing with him in prayer. May the Lord gain my brother and sister for His testimony. 

Another brother also called to fellowship last Saturday on a seemingly better opportunity that came up in his professional career. My only fellowship was to consider before the Lord in prayer and fellowship with his wife and follow the Lord’s inner leading by life and peace. 

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6, RecVer)

I even warned him not to be guided by better job status and pay scale. Only God knows what is best. Besides, I also mentioned to him that this "opportunity" is allowed by the Lord so that he can learn to bring it before the Lord in prayer and follow the Lord’s leading. Whether he stays in the same job or catch this new opportunity, it must be done so with the Lord’s leading and, in the process, experience Christ and gain Chirst. This will strengthen his faith and sweeten his fellowship with the Lord. And with him too, I am standing in prayer.

Wedding of Saints

One of the full-time serving sisters of Marathi Recovery Version was engaged to a brother in the church in New Delhi. Though she had sent an official letter for marriage leave I did not pay much attention to even attending it until the day before her wedding when the Lord reminded me of taking care of the feeling of the saints. The reason I did not bother that much was, there was no formal invitation nor announcement made due to the pandemic restriction for public gatherings. But when I came to learn of the wedding, the Lord reminded me to call the sister and find out what her need would be so that gifts could be given.

Personally, I was not very keen and there was no personal invitation too. But the Lord reminded me to be of large heart and do my best to make her wedding memorable and grace the couple with my presence at least. Therefore, just the day before the marriage, I decided to attend the wedding and also prepared some gifts. In fellowship with my coordinating brother, we felt good to gift the couple a Holy Bible Recovery Version, Leatherbound Burgundy, a Dining Set, and two royal designed mugs. 

This sister propagated in Gurugram for one term when she was in the training. She and the other saints were on the same team as me. Door by door in Sector 55 gospel preaching was carried out. She was very stable and bold in contacting new ones. Later, she enrolled for New Testament Greek learning and was qualified to serve in the Marathi New Testament as a text checker. The brother engaged to her also gave me a very positive impression when he took the responsibility of making practical arrangements for my younger sister's marriage in the church in New Delhi. Though not a payback of what they have done, it was indeed a response to my good conscience of showing them my gratitude. By the way, the brother is from a non-believing background and his family did not agree to his marriage to a sister in the Lord. Thereby, none of his family members attended his wedding but the saints stood by him. That is a wonderful testimony.

This young couple has a bright future if they go on in the way they have been participating in the church life now. They are simply and love the Lord. They are indeed a pattern to many other young saints; loving the Lord from their young age and giving themselves to serve the Lord in the church. Thank the Lord for such young lovers of Christ and the church!

May the Lord bless this couple and make them useful vessels for His move in North India, especially among the Hindi-speaking people. 

New Ones

The past two months have been very hectic for me. I was fully occupied with the proofreading work of the Recovery Version in Hyderabad. When I came back I had to attend to all the pending works at home and the office. On the church service side too, I have not been able to resume the normal functions that I used to do last year.  I believe the Lord wanted me to move forward and learn new spiritual lessons.

Last year I was very busy with the church service and shepherding new ones; some of them are online prayer meetings on a daily basis and some weekly. This year all those meetings have not been continued and I reckoned that the Lord wanted me to pray for these ones and focus on more new ones. Deep within I felt there has to be a new beginning in the way I carry out my Christian service in church life. 

Two weeks ago, a brother brought two new ones on a Saturday evening. He and I coordinated together to preach the gospel to the two new ones. It so happened that one of them had his birthday on that day. So I gifted him the New Testament Recovery Version and a set of Shepherding Materials, and another set to the other friend. They both heard the gospel and received the Lord. Despite me not being able to go out for the gospel preaching as yet for this year, still, the Lord brought new ones to preach the gospel to at home! 

The following week, one of the new ones came again with his friend who is already a Christian. We had a wonderful time of fellowship on the eternal purpose of God with testimonies of salvation and Christian experiences. To that believing brother, I gifted a set of Hindi Shepherding Material and Life Lessons. In this way, the Lord enabled me to meet new ones at home. 

And last Friday, another new one came, who was a gospel contact of a brother who is coming to fellowship with us. This new one got baptized! And yesterday, in the church brothers' fellowship we all felt good to recover the gospel preaching of the church in Gurugram by physically coming together every Saturday for corporate prayer and corporate going out to preach the gospel. Our burden is for all the saints to exercise gospel preaching at least two hours in a week and each saint bearing fruits and that the fruits should remain. All the brothers and the sisters too agreed that we have to recover the exercise of gospel preaching.

I believe the Lord will work Himself into each one of us and recover His heart's desire through us in the church here in Gurugram by gaining many new ones to bear His testimony.

First Baptism of the Year

A new brother who was introduced to me last year had once asked financial help from me while I was in Hyderabad. Out of care and concern for his need, I lent him the money he asked for, as he promised to pay back the day after when he would receive his salarly from the new job he just joined in a new city, Noida. he natively is from Korba, Chattisgarh. But when he did not pay back as he promised I doubted his genuineness. I was a little upset as I did not expect from a new brother whom I never physically met, yet started asking for money. Truth be told, I did not trust him at all, henceforth. In fact, I would not want to follow up on him unless the Lord specifically lead me so. 

Last week, when he came to Gurugram to visit a brother who introduced me to him, I was reluctant even to meet him as he already created a very negative image of himself to me. But still he is a new person, I should not expect him to be a good person either. When he did come I was taking my own time to meet him, infact, very reluctantly. I was also informed before that he was considering taking baptsim, but within me it was a "no no."

When I met him the first time, I kept all my perception about him beside and preached the gospel. A brother and I led him to read through the Mystery of Human Life in Hindi. I explained point by point with my brother translating into Hindi. After the gospel preaching, we all prayed toghter. I was impressed by the fact that he could pray smoothly unlike other new person. Deep within me I sensed that he actually belived into the Lord Jesus Christ as His Saviour and Lord. There was no iota of doubt about his faith despite his character.

Meanwhile, I had just read that the only condition for our salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That being the case, I should not place any other conditon before him. Other changes expected in a person would be the result of salvation. The results do not preceed the salvation but follows it. Therefore, it would be wrong to judge a pserson by his deed rather than by his faith, lest I fall into the falasy of salvation by works. Since he was quite asssured of his fatih in Christ and even shared his testimonies of the Lord's healing and shepherding, he was indeed qualified to be baptised. But still I did not bring up the matter of baptism though in the reading there was a mentioning of baptsim. I still felt he should wait.

After our  gospel preaching and prayer, he himself asked for baptism. Immediately I asked him why he needed baptism. His reply comforted me so much. He replied that that Bible says it so; after beliving into Jesus Christ one needs to be baptised. Then, I helped him to see  more clearly that he needed to be baptised by leading him through Bible verses in Mark 16:16, John 3, Matthew 3, and Romans 6. After a truth lesson on baptsim, we all prayed for his baptism; he also prayed for his baptism. Later, after lunch we baptised him!

When the time came the Lord brought the right "fish" into the net of the church. Such case I cannot deny. Since it was the Lord who initaited this work, I simply had to obey. This brother has now become the first one to be baptsied in the church in Gurugram.

May the Lord grace us to shepherd him and make him a remaining fruit in the church life!

Brotherly Fellowship

A brother whom the Lord graced me to recommend for a short-term training has just completed his one-month training and came to fellowship with me and the brothers in the churches in NCR. As a brother, I am always open for fellowship and look to the Lord what and how to fellowship.  He came last Thursday morning and I have been graced to give hospitality to him. 

In the backdrop of feeling so barren as far as fruit-bearing is concerned, this brother's coming was a consolation to me. When iI reckon I did not bear forth fruit of late, the Lord showed me that it is the result of my cooperation with him in shepherding a brother, and this can indeed be reckoned as spiritual fruit. I was especially glad to witness the transformation within this brother in his attitude towards the ministry, the brothers, the local churches, and very positive outward changes in his character. I marvel at what the Lord could do in a person's life. The Lord is the great Shepherd and the chief Shepherd of our souls. This brother is a testimony to the Lord's shepherding care.

In fact, this brother had met with a severe car crash at the beginning of this year but escaped the deadly accident unharmed. That was the Lord's sovereign calling to make him reconsider his life and service. This incident became a turning point in his life energizing him to consecrate his life to the Lord afresh, be trained, and learn to be blended with the saints in a local church. Thereby, after his short-term training, I took him to fellowship with the brothers in New Delhi. The outcome of the fellowship was that he may consider migrating to Gurugram and enjoy the church life there. This was a further confirmation of the Lord's word of blessing in the church here.

Coincidentally, another brother from the church in Miraj was also present in the fellowship as he came for a sister's wedding. In fellowship, though he knew nothing about this brother, he prophetically prophesied the need for being in a local where there is a church life for the sake of learning, blending, and building up. This word was also a confirmation for this brother's migration to Gurugram.

Now, through the fellowship, the leading of the Lord has become clearer. As the Lord leads on, he will find a medical doctor job in any hospital in Gurugram, migrate,  and learn to serve and bear the Lord's testimony in this city.

Meanwhile, I have been graced to take care of his breakfast every morning and fellowship with him. He also joins the morning pursuing on the Life-study of James. In this way, we have been fellowshipping and blending with one another. 

May the Lord fully gain this brother and his family to live a life fully and for God's economy.

House of Prayer

“And He taught and said to them, Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17, RecVer)

“Even these will I cause to come to My holy mountain and to rejoice in My house of prayer; Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable upon My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7, RecVer)

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still night, He went out and went away to a deserted place, and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35, RecVer)

The house of God is the church comprising the believers. When the word of God says, My house shall be called a house of prayer, it implies the prayer life of the believers. If the believers as the church, the house of God, are not praying how can the house of God be a house of prayer? This was the burden I released for the seeking believers in Madhya Pradesh last week. 

Prayer is so crucial in the Christian life. Paying heed to prayer is one of the biggest tasks and challenges of the Christian life. Satan attacks a believers' prayer life more than anything else. Prayer is the core of Christian life.  In fact, a Christian life must be a prayer life.

One lesson the Lord taught me recently is the experience of prayer. Forsaking the religious way of praying at specific places and postures, prayer must be in the spirit. I used to pray and ask the Lord for many things, but now the Lord has led me to pray in a way of enjoying His presence and listening to Him. In my prayer life, I spent time with Him and listen to him what He has to say. I enjoy my prayer life by listening to His speaking, echoing back His words, and enjoying His presence. Most of my prayer time is in listening to Him. But in a corporate prayer of the church or the family, we released the burden the Lord has given to us. Otherwise, in my personal prayer time, I listen and pray, and pray and listen. Corporately, I reestablish a group prayer in my family, in the office, and also encourage the brothers to pray together more.

For a strong prayer life, I keep track of the time spent on prayer. Now I also learned how to mingle prayer with the reading of the Bible. While reading the word of God, I also learned to touch the spirit through the word. As I read the word of God, I responded to the living word by prayer. In this way, I could read the Bible, and at the same time pray as well. This is so wonderful and enjoyable. In fact, my Bible reading became very intersting and is mingled with prayer. Read and pray and pray and read;  to me, the two go together. My prayer points are the revelations of the word of God,  a response to the Lord's speaking. 

For corporate prayer, I still pray with my family for specific burdens, with the serving ones in the office for the literature burdens, and with the brothers in the church for the church's burden. In these ways, prayer life has been so enjoyable.

In these ways of prayer, the believers can indeed be the house of prayer as a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the church.

Lord, grace me to enjoy spending time with You more and more and be a part of Your house of prayer.