Fellowship: Affairs

Fellowship is the way to deal with issues and problems in life among believers.  When I discovered that things were not right with one of my family members, I considered before the Lord and checked what I should do about it. After much prayer, the Lord gave me a clear sky; to fellowship the matter to the concerned person. Though I would like to avoid getting into other's personal matters, when they affect the testimony of the Lord and affects my family too, I had no choice but to fellowship and sort things out.

One evening for over two hours I had to speak out what was in my heart to a sister who entangled herself in an affair. I dared not touch the brother yet as my responsibility first is to my household members and set my family in order. The affair per se is not the main cause of concern, but the way it was done and the person involved is not proper. The brother had actually been engaged to another sister and that is the main cause of concern.  That engagement became the main problem as this leads to unfaithfulness, unrighteousness, and even unholiness. In the Bible, engagement is the initiation of marriage. It is even reckoned as marriage which eventually will transpire in time.

When a person has an affair, he or she would not mind hiding and lying about it altogether. The affair has caused spiritual blindness and would adamantly not be willing to give up. But I had to reason and beg to give up such an affair as I care for the Lord's testimony above their own feelings whatsoever. Factual evidence cannot be nullified for emotional feelings. Feelings come and go, they keep changing, but facts do not change. Most of these feelings are just natural; out of the fallen flesh and untransformed emotion. As far as I know the truth of human nature and God's words, I strongly disapprove of such improper affair and even I rebuked severely the person I was fellowshipping with, to the point that she was brought to tears. It was hard to deal with such, but I had to do it. 

On the one hand, I pray for the Lord to set things right, and on the other hand, I have to do what I need to do as a man. What I felt best I did with my best and what else I could not I left to the Lord to deal with it. I cannot blindly leave the matter to God and do nothing. I had to be God's mouthpiece to speak according to the truth revealed in the Bible concerning relationships; especially to condemn improper relationships. If the watchman did not sound the warning bell, the judgment will be upon the watchman; but if the watchman did sound the weaning bell and the people did not pay heed, the onus is squarely on the people themselves. That's what I did. And I did it at least ten times already. I would not let things slip by as long as it is in my hands to do so.

Having done all that I could do, I still beg the person I am talking to, to pay heed to the warnings. Meanwhile, I have been all prayers for the Lord to come in and change the heart of the persons involved. I pray that they would be delivered from their blindness and darkness and be brought into the light where all improper affairs are cut-off and relationships would not be beyond being brothers and sisters in the Lord. In this fellowship, I myself learn a lot of lessons. 

May the Lord honor all the fellowship and may the person concerned too honor all the fellowship for her own good. May the Lord gain the victory among us so that His testimony be maintained holy through us, His believers.

Fellowship: Marital Issue (2)

Last Wednesday night, a brother and his wife made an appointment with me for a follow-up fellowship on our previous fellowship. As we began, the couple confessed about their present situation and the fear that gripped them concerning the longevity of their marital relationship. The brother had openly confessed to me how he was not what I would have thought and that he had some past bad experiences that affected his present living. And the sister confessed how she has been fearful if anything bad happen in their marriage life.

Hearing them out first I was glad that there was a genuine progress from our previous fellowship and that the brother had confessed all that he did in the past to the sister which scared her of the future. My fellowship was very much anointed by the Lord as I sensed the sweet flow of life from within my spirit. And the Lord gave me the timely words to address their deep concern.

I began by quoting a verse, which we all read together.

“For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” (2 Timothy 1:7, RecVer)

According to this verse, the fear that gripped them, especially the sister, is from Satan. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice or fear. Therefore, I encouraged them to reject such negative thoughts, which are darts thrown at the believers by the enemy. Then I confirmed again and again that 1 John 7,9 confirmed the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses them from every confessed sins. Any condemnation after confession is of Satan and must be rejected.

“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death.” (Revelation of John 12:11, RecVer)

Once the blood of Jesus was applied, any further condemnation must be utterly denied by the verbal declaration of the victory in the blood of Jesus, and to not love our soul life even unto death.

Still the question arises, what if one of the partners committed fornication, will that immediately issue in divorce according to the word spoken by the Lord Jesus?

“And it was said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries her who has been divorced commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:31-32, RecVer)

But I also quoted the following verses to understand the context on which divorce  seems to be made "permissible" legally. 

“And some Pharisees came to Him, testing Him and saying, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? And He answered and said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, And said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall be one flesh”? So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has yoked together, let man not separate. They said to Him, Why then did Moses command us to give her a certificate of divorce and divorce her? He said to them, Moses, because of your hardness of heart, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her who has been divorced commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:3-9, RecVer)

It was never God's will that there be divorce after marriage because in marriage the two have become one. God’s original intention in marriage is oneness of the married couple, implied by "one flesh." Therefore, any thought of divorce even for "permissible" reason must be avoided as much as possible. 

For this, oneness has to be preserved between husband and wife. I testified of how the Lord has been gracing my marriage and how I have been praying with my wife this prayer:

Lord, cause us to love You and to love one another more and more. Lord, cause us to be one with You and to be one with one another more and more.

And I encouraged them to spend personal time with the Lord and also corporate time with one another every day with the daily reading of the Holy Bible. Only the time spent with the Lord will enable the Lord to dispense His divine love to them that will cause their enjoyment of the Lord issuing in loving one another with the divine love and divine oneness. Then, their marriage will be secured by the divine love, divine life, and divine oneness.

As to the question of getting marriage counsellors' help, I told them that the key issue is not outward control psychologically or medically, by the crucifixion of the flesh. And that, their marital and private matters be kept private as much as possible and not run into the risk of exposing to a third person who has no genuine care and spiritual concern for them. The enemy always search for loopholes to attack marriages.

“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20, RecVer)

This crucifixion can be accomplished only by the Spirit.

“For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.”

Finally, as an addendum, I also fellowshipped on the matter of understanding God's creation of male and female biologically. And that they should enjoy their marital life, God's biological design, within the boundary of marriage.

“Now concerning the things of which you wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife that which is due, and likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive each other, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then be together again, that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But this I say by way of concession, not by way of command.” (1 Corinthians 7:1-6, RecVer)

After about one and half hour of fellowship, I sensed that the burden was released. Therefore, we all prayed together and peacefully ended the fellowship for that time.

May the Lord cover my brother and sister and bless their marriage life for the Lord’s testimony.

(Romans 8:13, RecVer)

Fellowship: Marital Issue (1)

The past few days the Lord has been burdening me to pray specifically for some brothers whom the Lord was pleased to use me for their salvation. With one of them, I had a fellowship over the phone last Lord’s day night and prayed together.

Today, I received a surprise call from the same brother requesting for a time of fellowship. My innate reply was on the affirmative and promptly told him that we could fellowship right away. So the fellowship began.

Confession

First, my brother frankly opened up about his situation and the failure he had recently. Then, he requested me to talk to his wife as they both needed an urgent and an impromptu fellowship, to which I readily agreed. I patiently listened to whatever the sister had to say as she even broke down desperately and cried out for help as she did not know what to do and was insecure of her future due to the painful discovery of what her husband had done just confessed. I simply turned to the Lord as I listened and prayed for the Lord’s speaking through my fellowship with both of them.

Marriage is of the Lord

Marriage is of the Lord and unto the Lord

I began with the truth concerning their marriage life that it is from the Lord. There is no question of any separation or divorce for whatever reason. Officially, legally, and biblically, they are married and they are indeed made and meant for each other and that they are one. The church had witnessed it and I myself witnessed their marriage as I attended their marriage meeting. I firmly confirmed and strengthened the fact that they are married and that they should stay married unto eternity. Any thought of "breaking" this God ordained union is of the devil and must be completely rejected. And I made a very strong statement to both of them that their marriage is of the Lord and it will remain so, no matter what. 

Live by the Spirit 

I expounded to them that since man is of three parts, it is possible to live in any one of the parts as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2; soulish, fleshly, or spiritual. 

“But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually. But the spiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15, RecVer)

“And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:1, RecVer)

When one is in the spirit, the world, Satan, sin, and the flesh are overcomed. 1 John 3:9; 5: 4. 

“Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.” (1 John 3:9, RecVer)

“For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world — our faith.” (1 John 5:4, RecVer)

Otherwise, the works of the flesh will be the result of not living by the spirit. So the only solution in not falling into the hands of Satan is to live and walk by the Spirit as in Galatians 5:16, 24. 

“But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, RecVer)

“But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” (Galatians 5:24, RecVer)

For this, human cooperation of putting the practices of the flesh to death is a necessary step one has to take as in Romans 8:13.

“For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13, RecVer)

The Blood of Jesus

In case one falls into sin, though we should not, the Lord has given us the best provision, not an excuse for repeated sinning, the blood of Jesus that can cleanse us from every sin as in 1 John 1:7 with a condition that if we confess our sins as 1 John 1: 9.

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” (1 John 1:7, RecVer)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, RecVer)

Prayer 

I requested that we all pray together one by one, starting from the brother, then the sister, and finally me. The brother confessed before the Lord, his sins with tears. The sisters also confessed her desperateness in prayer with tears and asked the Lord for grace and guidance. Then, I prayed for the Lord to cleanse us from all sins and unrighteousness, for His covering grace, and for the forgiveness of one another and that their marriage be preserved and be blessed by the Lord.

Oneness

“I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love,” (Ephesians 4:1-2, RecVer)

I expounded Ephesians 4:1-3 on the prerequisite to keep the oneness and that they should, on their part, keep the oneness even as they trust the Lord to preserve them in oneness. I also gave my testimony of prayers with my wife for us to be one with the Lord and one with one another, love the Lord and love one another.

Exercise

Satan attacks the married believers couples in at least three major points: sex, money, and self. Therefore, to overcome these attacks I encouraged them to exercise to have morning revival together every morning, pray together, spend personal time with the Lord every day, and read the Bible every day. And to also fellowship and meet with the saints as much as possible with those who gathers together in oneness for the Lord’s testimony where there is mutuality and multi-directional fellowship for the building up of the Body of Christ. Besides, I also encouraged them to have a timely family planning which will strengthen their marital union and lead them into new and higher responsibility and commitment towards one another.

After all these fellowship, I prayed for the couple to be preserved by the Lord in oneness and that they would even be a part of His testimony, and become pillars of the church.

After the fellowship, my heart was fully filled with burden, praying for them and a couple of other couples who have similar marital issues.

May the hand of the  Lord follow up on all the points of fellowship, cover the couple from the attack of the enemy, and bless the couple for His testimony!

Fortieth Time Reading the Bible

Today, the 8th of Dec 2022, the Lord graces me to complete my fortieth time reading through the Bible! This is the third time this year and this time is reading with the footnote in the Holy Bible Recovery Version. I just have this one dream that my physical age can be equivalent to the number of times I am reading the Bible.  Since I am forty-four running, I still need to catch up in reading more of the word of God to achieve my personal Bible reading goal.

This kind of reading of the Bible helps me not to waste my time. Whenever I find time I read the Bible as I have the schedule to complete reading three times this year out of which one time with the footnotes, which is almost double the time of reading only the text.  The scheduling that has been done has helped me a lot in reading the word of God.

Thank God for my grandfather who had helped me to read the Bible daily since my childhood days. That habit has been inculcated in my life enabling me to keep reading the Bible. Well, it is one thing to read through the text of the Bible and yet it is another thing to pray-read and study the Bible in depth.  I have been doing both. Even in just reading through the text, the Lord is sovereign in speaking to me now and then. The text of the word itself touched me a lot of times, becoming Rhema word to me, supplying the divine life.

What a blessing it is to be able to read the Bible! My desire is to read as much as I can for as long as I can. I don't know how long the Lord will enable me to be able to read. One day, human eyes may become dim and all kinds of practical difficulties will occur. Until then, I am doing my best to read and eat the word of God as much as I can so that I will not have any regret when I may not be able to read as I can today. 

Likewise, I have been encouraging all my children and the saints in the church life to read the Bible daily. In fact, wherever the Lord opened the door for me to minister the word of God, I would encourage the believers to love the word of God and read the word of God daily.

Thank you, Lord, for the Bible! Thank you, Lord, for the good health to be able to read the Bible!

Impromptu Fellowship

Last Monday, two brothers came without any appointment to meet me. I was not prepared for such an impromptu meeting as I had many official works pending that I need to finish. In fact, one of them had tried calling me up twice but I did not have the peace to receive the call as I knew his intention which he revealed to me briefly when I visited Imphal last time. He requested a piece of land from the land the Lord gave us in Ngarian which has now become a prime property in the village.  But I told him frankly that I had no intention to sell at the moment. Now, that he came to meet me face to face to request the same I had to be frank and use the opportunity to minister something of Christ to them instead.

They came just before I went to eat lunch. Since they came I had no choice but to sit with them and listen to them first. I was very much exercised in my spirit so as not to be deceived and repeat the mistake done by Joshua with the Gibeonites. As they requested if I could sell a portion of the land to them I had to explain to them that without the Lord's leading I have no liberty to decide anything on the land. Then I gave them the history of how that land was purchased and how the Lord sovereignly provided the finance during my wedding in Taipei through the saints offering. Since it was from the Lord the usage of the land is also up to the Lord's leading. As of now, I have no leading concerning the land.

Since they came all the way, I also took the opportunity to minister the truth concerning Christ and the church. How as Christians we all should live by the spirit and seek the Lord's leading in everything. We should not care for what people say about us, but care for what the Lord says about us. We should live before the Lord and treasure His presence above everything. Satan will come and place many baits to distract us from Christ and the church, but we must live a praying life to discern what is from the Lord and what is not from the Lord. Much more, we must stay away from any bait and distraction placed by Satan in our lives in many ways and forms. I also encouraged them to be open-minded to receive a fellowship from the brothers in the church life as both of them are already in contact with a few brothes, one in Imphal and the other in New Delhi. I also cleared off the notions surrounding the practices of the church life which are false accusations. But encouraged them to be open-minded, study the Bible, learn the truth, and be in fellowship with the brothers so that they can also be recovered to enjoy the Christian life in the church life. 

Though I did not heed their request, I did tell them that they can pray and if the Lord leads so, what the Lord has allotted for them will be theirs. They need not pursue or initiate anything on their own self-desire. As they ran after me to pursue and persuade me to sell a piece of land to them, I encouraged them to pursue the Lord in such a way as to gain Christ by all means. I took the opportunity to also gift them some ministry books which they can read; I did so by first asking them if they wanted to read. Only on their positive response I selected the following books and gifted them:

1. The Normal Christian Church Life
2. The Orthodoxy of the Church
3. Enjoying Christ as the Spirit and through the Word
4. The Overcoming Life
5. Shepherding Materials

The meeting went on for about two and a half hours and I had to miss my lunch and a weekly official online meeting. I do believe this fellowship will have a lasting impression on their inward being and pray that they also be recovered to enjoy the Lord with the saints where they both are. 

May the Lord gain these two brothers for His testimony one day.

Ministry of the Word in Mathura

 Who, when he arrived and saw the grace of God, rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain with the Lord with purpose of heart;” (Acts 11:23, RecVer)

The Lord has been truly gracious and merciful to the saints in this city of Mathura. After a year of our first visit, we came to visit the saints again. And this time, we literally witnessed the grace of God among the saints in the church in Mathura!

Since our first meeting, the leading brothers have been very aggressive to practice the God-ordained way taught to them in fellowship with the brothers in the church in Gurugram and New Delhi. Though we have not touched the outward matters much, they themselves decided to practice what has commonly been practiced among all the local churches in the Lord’s recovery. I was so encouraged by the positive imitation that has been taken in their Christian life and church life.

On the Lord’s day, the saints gathered together with much exercise of the spirit in calling upon the Lord’s name, in singing hymns, in prayer, and in prophesying. It was a meeting as though in my own locality. Oh, what a joy to enjoy the Lord together!

When the brothers gave us time to minister the word, we ministered on what the church is to God. The church is holy, perfect, and beautiful!

“For from the top of the rocks I see him, / And from the hills I behold him. / Here is a people who live alone / And do not reckon themselves among the nations.” (Numbers 23:9, RecVer)

“He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, / Nor has He seen trouble in Israel; / Jehovah their God is with them, / And the shout of a king is among them.” (Numbers 23:21, RecVer)

“How fair are your tents, O Jacob, / Your tabernacles, O Israel! Like valleys they are spread forth, / Like gardens beside a river, / Like aloes which Jehovah has planted, / Like cedars beside water.” (Numbers 24:5-6, RecVer)

We encouraged the saints to love the Lord and tell Him, "Lord Jesus, I love You" in all situations and live a life of contacting the Lord by calling upon His name all the time. The church here has been blessed with the increase inwardly in the saints' enjoyment of the Lord and constitution of the truth, and also the increase outwardly in the multiplication of the numbers of the saints as they have now almost doubled within a short span of one year. The Lord has been blessing the church in Mathura! May He continue to do so...

Then, after the meeting we left the city and concluded the ministry literature journey that started two weeks ago and ended in Mathura, covering four North Indian states; Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. 

The church in Mathura is one of the results of the Lord’s move through the ministry of the word literature journey. 

May the Lord continue to supply, preserve, and perfect the saints for His testimony in Mathura. Praise the Lord!

Ministry of the Word in Agra

A decade ago, propagation of the gospel was once done in Agra. In fact, a group of saints even took the stand as the church in Agra. But in course of time, due to lack of fellowship and shepherding, the testimony became dimmer and dimmer and the saints were scattered until no solid contacts were left. This is one city we have been targeting for the distribution of the ministry of the word. Though we tried a couple of times in the past, nothing worked. But, this time the Lord has opened a new door!

The opened door the Lord provided us was through the Pastor's monthly gathering in the city of Agra. We requested a time for the introduction of the ministry literature and our request was granted by the Pastors. Therefore, we could attend and introduce the ministry literature. 

Our introduction of the ministry literature was warmly welcomed by all the Pastors. In fact, many of them were new to the Hindi ministry literature. After the meeting, all the books we brought for free and sales distribution were distributed and sold! This was also our final destination in this two-week-long distribution trip to North India.

Initially, we thought we would be free after lunch and if no meeting came up, we would go to visit Taj Mahal. But, once the Pastor's meeting was over we had a Pastor who came at the last minute and through him, a couple more Pastors were introduced to us. Then, he invited us to his home to also meet two other Pastors who are also his relatives. Therefore, we were fully occupied in fellowshipping with them till evening. We could not even find time for lunch. 

Then, finally, on the way back we met another brother who is running a school and an orphanage with his father at his school office. There, we spent a considerable amount of time fellowshipping and introducing the ministry literature. When we were about to introduce the Holy Bible Recovery Version, his immediate response was that he has many study Bibles and commentaries already. In fact, he recently purchased one based on NIV. But when we finished introducing the Recovery Version, he was so excited and immediately requested to purchase one copy for himself. And he commented that he never heard the word of God being expounded in such a deep and detailed way as was being done in the Recovery Version. 

When we finally came back to our place of hospitality and had a late dinner in Mathura, it was past midnight. It was indeed a well-spent day. Though we thought we would have time for some sightseeing, we were fully occupied in the ministry literature introduction and fellowship. No time for seeing the old creation but fully occupied to see the new creation by faith.

May the Lord recover His testimony in Agra soon!