Being Responsible

As a father, I have the responsibility of taking of my family's need. This month as my daughter wrote her board exam, I prayed and determined in my heart that I would be with her. For all the past school years exams, I had been mostly out of station for official purposes or for other works. But as she faced her class ten board exam, I felt I must be with her. Therefore, I made my schedule in such a way that during her entire board exam I would not travel anywhere else. 

The Lord also released me for any traveling during this time. In fact, there was a plan to tavel to the South for some official work, but the Lord did not allow it this time. For, He knew my prayer and my heart to be with my daughter. So, I was able to drop and pick my daughter during all her board exams. She also had been working very heard. She worked much much harder than me. Almost every night she would stay up late and sometimes studied the whole night. In fact, I had to even tell her to take more rest and to take it easy. But she would not take it lightly. She was extremely serious. No wonder, she did well in all her exams. Much much better than all her other school exams. She did her best in her final board exam. The subjects she feared most, Hindi and Mathematics, she did the best among all other exams in school. 

I was very satisfied with her attitude towards studies. In fact, I told her again and again, "You have done your best, leave the rest to the Lord and He will give you the best result." She had such a sense of satisfaction as she did her best and I too had the same satisfaction in carrying out my responsibility as her father. I am least worried what her result would be. Whatever result is based on her performance and the Lord’s blessing. 

I had another personal responsibility of taking the video training which I missed due to my official duty, traveling during the actual training in New Delhi. I had no choice. So, after I cam back, I sanctified one week to enter into the messages alone and receive the Lord’s speaking personally as I could not corporately. Even in this, the Lord graced me to be uptodate with His uptodate speaking despite my traveling schedule. 

In this way, the Lord showed me that if I have a heart for anything else He will make a way for it. Especially, if my heart's desire is according to His will. Where there is a will, there indeed is always a way. Praise the Lord!

In a similar way, I fellowshipped with my niece whenever I felt the need. I had to discharge my responsibility even as her uncle. Not just in prayer but also in practical matters.

These are just human responsibilities, but to accomplish them, I need the Lord’s grace. Only by His grace and mercy, I can be what I ought to be, as a father to my children, and as a brother to the saints.

Lesson on Prayer

The Lord has been teaching me a lesson on prayers in a fresh way these days. Though I have been praying daily for many burdens, now He is teaching me to pray for my daily needs too. Even for petty little things. Generally, Christians pray for big things and neglect the simple things. Now, the Lord has been teaching me to even pray for things that could also be done without any prayer. But in my case, even the petty little things I could no longer do without thorough and specific prayers. 

Flight Tickets Bookings

In the past few weeks, I had to pray, fellowship, and consider my family trip to Singapore and Taiwan. After much much prayer and fellowship, the dates of traveling became clear and finally I decided to book. The Lord also provided the money needed for the flight booking. Initially, it sounded kike we could not make it, but the Lord provided the needs gradually. 

Though the fellowship with Singpaore and Taiwan for our visit was done and the dates were clear, still, to do the booking I needed my wife. In fellowship and thorough prayers, I could experience the Lord in flight booking, though the actual booking became a big challenge. The flight charges were very high. I tried to use travel agents thinking that they might be cheaper but they turned out to be the opposite. So I had to search online, and looked for many ways to book the tickets. Finally, one night I went to pray specifically for flight booking and then after the prayer I was able to book the exact flight that I desired at the price affordable to me. Then, I thanked the Lord in leading me through in flight booking. I immediately updated the brothers in Singapore and also a brother from Taiwan about the itinerary.  What a release after this booking! The Lord did not let this simple matter go without first praying to Him and experience His supply, both financial and spiritual. 

Kitchen Sink Blockade 

The house we live in now is pretty old. It's structures, walls, paintings, pipes, etc have been degrading. Nonetheless, it is still liveable. A few weeks ago, the kitchen drainage pipe was blocked and we were not able to wash the vessels for a couple of weeks. I tried my best to solve the problem. I even brought a plumber to check. But it looked like the building need to be broken and the pipe underneath be replaced which will be a costly affair. I tried my best to solve this problem by using acid, chemical to decompose the food material blocking the pipe, and tried many ways. Nothing worked. Finally, I decided to pray specifically for this matter which I usually would not do. By the way, who would pray for the solving of a kitchen sink drainage pipe? Call the plumber and let them do the job. And pay the plumber. Simple, isn't it? Not with me anymore. I used to solve many petty little problems this way. Be it fridge or washing machine or geyser or any plumbing or electrical problems, professional people are there for the job. But now, when with the help of this professional, things did not work out. The Lord did it this way to teach me a lesson on prayer and trusting in Him.

Since the problem persisted for weeks, I prayed desperately for the "healing" of this blockade. The Lord answered my prayer. In a simple way, I had the thought of buying two bottles more of acid and pouring into the sink hole, though I did it already with about 15 bottles of acid. And then leaving it for a night. The next day, I called a plumber to look at it again. This time, he did again physical pumping of air into the the sink hole with a new pump, though it was already done with an old pump. After continual pumping of the decomposed drainage with acid the previous night, it gradually was pumped out and the issue was resolved. 

I had tried the same thing before without prayer assuming it to be simple plumbing issue. It did not work. But after prayer, the same process with even lesser effort, the matter was resolved immediately. It was not at all about the old house or sink pipe, it was all about the Lord training me to pray and trust in Him for every little things. A complete dependence on the Lord is what is what the Lord has been teaching me. I am learning this lesson now. Praise the Lord!

Preparation for God’s Building

Train up a child according to the way he should go; Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6, RecVer)

God has blessed me with the heavenly and spiritual blessings. He also blessed me with children of whom I am His custodian. He has been gracing me to cherish and nourish the children He blessed me with for His purpose. Therefore, trusting in His grace and wisdom, I do my best to prepare the children God blessed me with, for the building up of His house. This is on my personal level as a Christian and as a biological father to my children. This is also my responsibility as a father for which I must be faithful in taking care of what God has bestowed upon my shoulders. In addition to consecration and prayers for my children, I must also train them up in the way they should go according to the wisdom and knowledge God gave me with. There may be many things and many areas that I may not be able to render any help but within my capacity and what in all that I can do, I must be faithful and do my best. Yes, doing my best to train up my children, in giving them the best education, both spiritual and academic, and even character training. David is a good example of one who prepared materials for God’s building. He prepared his son and also all the physical items needed for the building of God’s house.

And David the king rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brothers and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I prepared materials for building it. (1 Chronicles 28:2, RecVer)

And as much as was in my power I have prepared for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and the bronze for the things of bronze and the iron for the things of iron and the wood for the things of wood, onyx stones and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and variegated stones, and every kind of precious stone and marble stones in abundance. Furthermore, because I set my affection on the house of my God, and since I have a private treasure of gold and silver, I give it for the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for this holy house: (1 Chronicles 29:2-3, RecVer)

O Jehovah our God, as for all this abundance that we have prepared for building You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours. (1 Chronicles 29:16, RecVer)

And to Solomon my son give a wholeness of heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do all and build the palace for which I have prepared these things. (1 Chronicles 29:19, RecVer)

On the one hand God blesses and provides, and on the other hand, we must be one with God to prepare whatever is needed within our capacity. In picking up this burden, these days, I paid more attention to the spiritual well being of my children. Everyday, we all have been praying together as a family, pursuing the Life-study messages, reading the Bible personally according to the one year read through the Bible, attending the church meetings, having home meetings, and now more importantly, setting up daily time for personal prayer.

My son and I have been going out in the  evenings in the nearby parks to pray personally and also to pray corporately. We both have been enjoying this time together in prayer. All my burdens for prayer that are common to the family, we pray together day by day. Only on the evenings whenever we went out for group meetings or gospel preaching we skipped our going out together. Otherthan that, the Lord has been faithfully granting us His grace to enjoy time with Him together as father and son.

Similarly, my wife has been going out with my daughters for a time of prayer in the morning. In addition, they both also prays with their vital groups almost daily. In fact, we have also been encouraging them to attend all kinds of meetings for the young people, teenagers, locally or nationally. As a father, I have been doing my best to spend and be spent on them. If I could go with them for the national level training, I did. Otherwise, I still send them, paying whatever price it may be. 

My prayer is that the Lord must gain them fully from their young age and be prepared as useful materials in the Body of Christ for the building work of God.This is the best we can do to prepare our children to be useful vessels to God.

Unless the Lord...

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up in the last day. (John 6:44, RecVer)

Unless Jehovah builds the house, Those who build it labor in vain. Unless Jehovah keeps the city, The guard watches in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To stay up late, To eat the bread of toil; All the same, He gives to His beloved while they sleep. (Psalms 127:1-2, RecVer)

Unless the Lord draws men to Himself, who am I to draw man to God? Unless the Lord gains people, who am I to gain people for the Lord? I have tried a lot, I have labored a lot, but all to no vail. Now, the Lord has taught me this important lesson, I can do nothing except what the Lord does.

I have been preaching the gospel weekly. I have have shepherding a handful of new ones weekly. I have also been trying to gain them to the Lord and also for the church life. But all my efforts seem to fissle out as a punctured tyre losing it's function. The more air I tied to pump in, the stronger the pressure of the leakage. I have now come to a conclusion that if only the Lord so wills, then only all these news ones under my shepherding care would be gained by the Lord for His church. But as of now, I must do only what I can do, shepherd them. Even that shepherding is just to the extend that they are open to me. I cannot insert my zeal and burden either. I have no choice but to do only what the Lord allows me to do.

I have a list of 10 names who I have been shepherding weekly. Some face to face, some over the phone, some I visited, and some visited me. I can only shepherd them according to how much they are open to me and gave me time. I cannot do anything more than that. Even if I tried to exert some force to do beyond what I should do, it only resulted in disappointment. So I have learned my lesson to trust the Lord in shepherding and not to unnecessarily bogged down when I did not get my expected response. 

Just do what you can. After all, it is the Lord who draws man to Himself. Unless He draws, I must not. Unless He builds, I must not. O what a spiritual lesson! 

I kind of learn this the hard way after much struggle for so many years trying to gain people for the Lord and for His church. When the Lord draws people, they simply come. It does not require any of my input unless He leads me so. There are a couple of families that came to the Lord, got baptised, and are now in the church life in Gurugram in a very simple way without must effort from our side or their side. Whom the Lord draws, they just come. Yet there are also other families who have been struggling for years to come into the church life despite my "burdened" efforts to bring them in. No matter how hard I tried, they still would not come. Simply because, the Lord has not drawn them yet. Perhaps, He will draw all of them in His way and in His time. I simply must learn to cowork with God and not go beyond what He intents to do.

Recently, I tried to visit a brother's family for shepherding, but he never responded positively. He even seemed to avoid me. So, I simply prayed and prayed for his family. Then, last Lord’s day, he himself called and invited me for a dinner lovefeast at his new home in Gurugram. Then, we visited and had a wonderful time of shepherding fellowship over dinner lovefeast.

What a release to learn this lesson! What a rest not to unnecessarily struggle! Lord, unless You draw man to Yourself and to Your church, I must not.

Fear God!

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. Deuteronomy 10:12

Twenty one years ago on 1st January 2003, the Lord spoke to me using this Bible verse after a whole night of fasting and prayer and after over a month of praying concerning the Lord's perfect will for my life. It was this speaking of the Lord that directed my life to fully consecrate my whole life absolutely to the Lord to live and serve Him. The Lord has been faithful and ture to His calling. He has been preserving me till today. The ministry of the word succinctly explains what this verse means. I quote verbatim here below.

The renewed training by God was His charge to His people in nine matters:

A. We must fear the Lord; to fear the Lord is to be in fear of offending Him, of losing His pres ence, and of not receiving Him as our reward in the next age; we should be in fear of missing the Lord’s smile in this age and His reward in the next—Prov. 1:1, 7; Eph. 4:30; 2 Cor. 5:9-10.

B. We must walk in God’s ways; whatever God is, is a way to us; hence, to take what God is as our ways and walk in these ways is to live God, to live Christ; to take Christ as our way is to live Him, and to live Him is to express Him, to magnify Him—John 14:6;

Phil. 1:19-21a.

C. We must love the Lord Jesus, who is our God (John 20:28); because God loves us and has set His affection on us (Deut. 10:15; Jer. 31:3), we should love Him in return by setting our affec tion on Him (1 Cor. 2:9).

D. We must love and serve God with all our heart and all our soul; our heart is linked to our spirit, for our conscience, which is a function of our spirit (Rom. 9:1), is also a function of our heart (Heb. 10:22); thus, to love and serve God with all our heart and soul indicates that we love and serve Him also with our spirit (Rom. 1:9), which is a spirit of love (2 Tim. 1:7).

E. We must keep His commandments and statutes for our good; this means that today we need to keep Christ as the reality of God’s commandments and the riches of Christ that have been ministered to us so that we may be blessed—Deut. 10:13.

Exceprt from "Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good and for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to Make Herself Ready for the Lord's Coming" Message 2.

While dwelling on this verse, my focus was mostly in loving and serving Him. I did not see much on the phrase "fear Him". These days, the Lord has been speaking again and again on the spiritual significances of fearing God. To fear the Lord is to be in fear of offending Him, of losing His presence; we should be in fear of missing the Lord’s smile. In everything I do and say or even think, I must have the reverend fear of the Lord and not be loose. I dare not think, say, or do anything that would offend the Lord. I must be so exercised not to lose God’s presence and His smile. My life these days has been controlled by this "fear of God."

Last Lord's day, I recited the Bible verse Deuteronomy 10:12 and prophesied on the same with an emphasis on fear God. I released the burden for myself and also for all the saints to fear God. God sees all, knows all, and understands all. I must look to the Lord for grace that I may have the proper fear of God all the time. I shared the same to a couple whom my wife and I visited last Lord’s day night how the fear of God within me delivered me from participating in the evil intent of my teenager friends some thirty years ago. Last night, I shared the same burden to a group of believers from Madhya Pradesh in an online meeting. The Lord anointed His words and the burden was released. This was the message the Lord gave me these days.

Now therefore if I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know now Your ways, that I may know You, so that I may continue to find favor in Your sight. Consider also that this nation is Your people. And He said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to Him, If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. (Exodus 33:13-15, RecVer)

When Moses asked God His ways, God simply replied, "My presence shall go either you." The presence of God is God's way. Once we have His presence, we will walk in His ways, which is Christ as the way today. If this be the case, we will love the Lord and serve Him with all our heart and soul. Everything stem from God’s presence. God's presence means everything in my Christian life, church life, and service life.

I echo what Moses told the Lord, if Your presence does not go with me, do not take me anywhere.

Lord, preserve me in the fear of God all the days of my life. Lord, preserve me in Your sweet presence all the time. Deliver me from anything that would offend You. Lord, grace me Your presence day by day.

Fellowship: Family Bonding

God blesses me with everything I need to fulfill His purpose. The family He gave me is for Him. He is the Father of our family and we are His children. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we will be, are all for His divine purpose. 

For in Him we live and move and are, as even some poets among you have said, For we are also His race. (Acts 17:28, RecVer)

Because out from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36, RecVer)

God's gift and blessing are what makes my family. He gave me, and I treasure it. It is now my responsibility to nurture His gift, my family. To do so, I have established a daily family prayer time. The Lord has been gracing us till today to pray as a family, daily. Though we missed sometimes due to unavoidable circumstances, but only a very few times. While at home or on the move, I do my best to pray together with my family. Over the years we have made changes as per the need. Sometimes, we just pray, sometimes with singing, and now with a reading of the Life-study portion. 

Gradually, I have been witnessing the Lord’s answering most of the prayers we have been praying. Especially, with the recovery of some of our family members who are not in fellowship in the church life. Now, whoever we have been praying for, the Lord has been gaining them one by one, even family by family.

To further strengthen our family fellowship and bond, the Lord burdened me to fellowship and pray with my niece once in a month personally. Then with my daughter once in a week, with my son daily, and with youngest daughter now and then. Of course, with my wife every now and then. With my niece, we would read a lesson from the shepherding materials, prayer read a verse or two, and fellowship on personal and practical matters. With my daughter, we would spend time to talk and fellowship about her life and studies, and then pray. With my son, a specific time of corporate prayer and fellowship, strengthening our father-son relationship. I even told my son to feel free to open up to me for any matter whatsoever. I fixed thirty minutes daily with my son, the first half we have our own personal prayer and the second half we pray together. With my youngest daughter, since she is still too young, just a time together partly prayer and partly playing. With my wife, we fellowshop and prau for all important family matters and sometimes personal ones too. In this way, the Lord has been leading me to build up the family life He blessed me with.

All this is also with the view that 's a family we can all serve the Lord, to a channel of blessing to others, and also bear the Lord’s testimony as a family. 

And if it seems wrong in your sight to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, either the gods from across the River, whom your fathers served, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah. (Joshua 24:15, RecVer)

Lord, thank You for my family. Continue to bless us for Your divine purpose.

Extra Oil

Last week, a brother's family invited me to visit them after a long long gap. Perhaps, over two/three years. Since there are brothers who are taking care of this family I deemed it best that those nearby can take care of this family. Therefore, I intentionally did not visit them as I used to. 

A few weeks ago, the father of the family had a serious health issue which was attended to by the saints who lives nearby. Though I was informed of the health issues, I decided to stay back and pray for the family. In fact, as a family and the church, we prayed for the father of the family. I was waiting for the proper time to meet the family.

The time finally came, and after a long long time indeed, my wife and I visited the family. As we fellowshipped about the family's situation, especially the father's health condition, the Lord gave me a burden to fellowship on the family's spiritual health condition. The instant words the Lord gave me was, "extra oil." Therefore, we had a wonderful time of fellowship on our need to wait for the Lord’s return and while doing so, we must have the extra oil by paying the price.

For the foolish, when they took their lamps, did not take oil with them; But the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (Matthew 25:3-4, RecVer)

Today, we must take care of our normal Christian life. Salvation is free but for the reward, we must pay the price to buy extra oil to be able to receive the reward. Daily, hourly, we must pay the price to buy oil. Daily, we must exercise to gain the extra Oil, the Spirit, to fill our spirit all the time. No one can pay the price and buy the oil for me. Nor can I, for anyone else. Each one has to bear his own burden. Each will be judged or rewarded. So, we must be prudent to pay the price to buy the golden oil, the Holy Spirit.

I released my burden of encouraging myself and all the saints present in the meeting to pay the price to buy the extra oil by taking care of our daily living. I also emphasized the need for the church life for our Christian life to grow. One important practical point is to be filled with the word of God in our mind by spending as much time as possible to read the Bible, pray over the word of God, spend time to pray daily, and pursue the Lord in all possible ways. Though I did not specifically told the saints to come to the church meeting, the sister of the family declared on her own that once her dad is getting better they would physically come to the Lord’s table meeting regularly. Later, we all prayed together and sought the Lord’s grace to be prudent virgins paying the praise to buy the extra oil.

But the prudent answered, saying, Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves. (Matthew 25:9, RecVer)

Yesterday, in the online meeting with the seekers from Madhya Pradesh, the Lord gave me the same burden of the need to buy extra oil to be filled with the Spirit in our soul. For this, the price includes dealing with the world, denying the self, taking up the cross, loving the Lord, and following Him. There may be other ways of paying the price too. Whichever way, the price must be paid to buy the extra oil. This is the normal Christian life of laboring on Christ to gain the extra oil and to be transformed in the soul to gain the reward. This is also the way to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming.

Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:13, RecVer)