Life Lesson: The Ministry of the Word

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. (John 14:10, RecVer)

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure. (John 3:34, RecVer)

Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ; For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power. (Colossians 1:28-29, RecVer)

The Lord Jesus Christ did the Father’s work by speaking the Father’s word. This is the ministry of the word. As the Son, He spoke the words of the Father. The Father does His work as the Son spoke the word. This is the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing the ministry of the Father, which is the ministry of the word. The Lord spoke the word, and the Father did the work. What a coordination! What a mingling of God the Father and God the Son in the minsitry! What a ministry! 

The Son's ministry was to speak the Father’s word. As a result, the Father gives the Spirit without measure. The Son spoke the Father’s word which resulted in the Father’s giving the Spirit Who carries out the Father’s work. This is the ministry of the word as seen in the life of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul followed the Lord Jesus's pattern of serving the Father by ministering the word. He announced, he admonished, and he taught and thereby, presented every man full grown in Christ. This is the ministry of the word as seen in the life of the apostle Paul.

In the church history too, sister M E Barbar taught the way to work for the Lord is by learning not to work for the Lord. Meaning that, we should learn not work in an outward way by doing outward deeds. But we should rather be pursuing the word of God, be constituted with it, and minister the word. It is God who does His work, and He does it so by our ministering the timely word at the proper time.

Devoid of this lesson of the proper ministry of the word, we may run the risk of doing the "ministry" in a human organisational way. This will result in man's work. This will be a serious offense to God. May the Lord save us from doing our own works and not the Father’s work.

Jehovah is my Shepherd; I will lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures; / He leads me beside waters of rest. (Psalms 23:1-2, RecVer)

The Lord as our Shepherd makes us lie down. He wants us to rest in Him, trust in Him, and let Him do His work.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you will be saved; In quietness and in trust will be your strength; But you were not willing, (Isaiah 30:15, RecVer)

We must learn to return to the Lord and rest, we must learn to be quiet before the Lord, and simply trust in the Lord. This will be our strength. But the question is, "Are we willing?"

By the way, we are not qualified in any way to work for the Lord. It would be utter foolishness to even assume to think we can do something for the Lord, much less work for the Lord. 

The Lord’s work is the Lord’s work, not mine. If I were to do the Lord’s work, I must give up myself and fully consecrate myself absolutely to the Lord. Only in this way, I can be one with the Lord and do the Father’s work by just speaking His word when He wants me to speak. Then, the Father will do His work. This is the way to work for the Lord. This is the ministry of the word.

Lord, preserve me to be one with You in Your ministry; resting in You, trusting in You, and speaking Your word in the ministry of the word. 

Life Lesson: Live Life

The divine life has the divine power which produce fruits issuing in growth in life and multiplication in numbers. Where genuine life is, there genuine growth is. It is no possible to claim to have life without growth and increase. Life has power, life grows, and life multiplies. 

If in our Christian life and church life, we are really enjoying life, there should be the genuine growth and increase in numbers. It would be foolishness to claim to have life yet without growth and increase in numbers. This has been a reality check for me personally in my Christian life and also corporately in my church life.

With the present situation of my Christian life and church life, there is much room for improvement in the pursuit of life. For the genuine enjoyment of life will issue in growth in life qualitatively and increase in numbers quantitatively. What a reality check! A tree is known by its fruit. 

I have been so much exposed to see where I am, what my real situation is, and what steps to take. My urgent need is to come before the Lord; I need to deal with anything that hinders my growth in life. When life grows, there will be increase in numbers. 

The gospel of John 14 is on our oneness with the Lord, a subjective experience of the Triune God. This is followed by John 15 where we abide in the Vine and multiply in numbers. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is different from fruit bearing in John 15. We have no excuse in not bearing fruits. In life, there is growth, and there is bound to be multiplication. 

Having learned the lack of life, we must pursue the growth in life. To be a man of life is also to be on th central lane of God’s economy. For God’s purpose can be fulfilled only in life. Life grows, bears fruit, and then fulfill God's economy. This life is Christ Himself. And our Christian life for the church life is Christ Himself.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4, RecVer)

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6, RecVer)

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21, RecVer)

Life Lesson: Sobermindedness

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

But you, be sober in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelist, fully accomplish your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5, RecVer)

In our serving God and the church, we must be soberminded. The Spirit of God today is the spirit of sobermindedness. It would be foolishness to assume that we have learned and know how to serve God or the church. We must be soberminded and be open to learn from to the brothers who are more experienced. It is not a matter of "blindly following," but being soberminded and learning from the brothers who have more experiences. It is a blessing to learn from such experienced brothers. If we do so, we are soberminded. 

The transformation of the soul will eventually result in our mind being renewed day by day and being sober-minded. It is very possible from some to think they have learned yet have not yet learned what ought to be learned. If such minds are not renewed, there will be looseness and there will not be the genuine building up of the church where they serve. In fact, this has been the case with many brothers, no sobermindedness, and it resulted in the lack of building up of the Body where they serve.

Having realised our lack of learning and training, we must humble ourselves and learn from the learned brothers who are more experienced. This is to be sober-minded. 

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3, RecVer)

If brothers are soberminded, they will be a man of prayer. A genuine soberminded person will also be a man of prayer. For a soberminded brother will realise under the Lord’s shining light his lack of learning and be humble. This will lead him to go before the Lord, confessing his shortages, and look to the Lord in prayer for the Lord’s perfecting work in him.

But the end of all things has drawn near. Therefore be sober-minded and be sober unto prayers. (1 Peter 4:7, RecVer)

Being soberminded also will make one aware of the enemy's strategy in trying his best to devour the saints. This will keep him watchful, be on the alert always, and be exercised in his spirit with his sobermind in his living and conduct.

Be sober; watch. Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8, RecVer)

May the Lord grace me to learn and be perfected so as to soberminded in my thinking so as to live a normal Christian life for the church life. May the Lord do such perfecting work in all the saints in my locality that the church may be built up. As God gave us a spirit of sobermindedness, may we exercise our spirit to be sobermindedness.

Life Lesson: Electric Bill Issue

At times, the Lord uses unusual situation to teach me so rhat I can learn something spiritual in a very fine and detailed way. This time, my surprised lesson came through a mismatched electric bill. The issue could have been easily resolved had I wished to simply change connection and clear the matter in one go. But my conscience did not allow me to do that for a very wonderful and spiritual reason.

Once the mismatched in my electric bill was discovered, I had a contact with my house owner with whom I had not been contacting for quite sometime now. Because, my portion of the bill was charged at the minimum and the empty flat adjacent to my flat was inflated with a bill when nobody lived there. So, I lodge a complaint through a brother. Upon investigation, it was learnt that my electric usage was billed to my neighbor, and the vacant flat's billing was recorded in mine. Perhaps, there was a mixed up connection when one electrical came to settle the electrical issue in my flat. I could not figure out how it all happened.

Due to this issue, I had to frequent the electricity office in DLF-1 and interact with almost all the staffs there. It was a good exercise for me, especially in dealing with the local people in their local language, Hindi. I realised that my Hindi had improved a lot. I could converse with them fluently without any hesitation. Besides, I got to know the people serving the area of my residence. Finally, after back and forth visitations and conversations, it was concluded that I settle the bill as it is. So, I volunteered to settle the bill and coordinated with my house owner to resolve the bill among us. Should the issue arises again next time, I might have to go for changing the connections.

This was an unexpected situation the Lord used to renew my contacting my house owner who is also a brother in the Lord. This situation also helped me to know how to deal with local people with local issues and not be dependent on any one. Even this incident helped me to exercise my spirit to contact the Lord and also exercise my conscience not to have any offense. 

O what an experience of Christ even in small issue. The Lord is experiencable in every situation. He is the God of small things too; so subjective and real.

Father-Son Fellowship

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)

As long as I am at home, I do my best to spend time with my son and my family members in prayer. Having encouraged all my family members and the saints to spend a regular personal, affectionate, intimate, and spiritual fellowship with the Lord Jesus, I myself have been enjoying such a personal time with the Lord. The Lord had been gracing me this since the day I was saved.

Whenever I can, I go out with my son to spend a Father-Son time together. This month itself, I have gone out with my son for prayer and a time of one-on-one fellowship. As the Lord led me, I fellowshipped with him my fatherly advice concerning his daily schedule, daily living, study plan, future plan, choosing subject along with university for higher studies, and many practical details that I have learned in my human life. But on top of all these advices, I testifed to my son that in everything, one must pray and seek the perfect will of the Lord.

Besides, I also fellowshipped with him in a way of sharing my testimony of how I prayed and sought the Lord’s will in my life for marriage. I testified how the Lord, in His time, brought me and his mother together in marriage and encouraged him to pray and do the same at the Lord’s time. I testified to him of all the many specifics and spiritual experiences that we have been experiencing as married ones till today. And I also testified how the three siblings were blessed by God when we expected nothing but just looked to the Lord for His blessing concerning children and how their names have been named the way they are with their respective spiritual significances and experiences we went through. I believe, this made a deep impression in my son.

As a father, I fellowshipped with my son many personal family matters and the hand of God behind our lives. He has been so much impressed. I also let him know how blessed he and his siblings have been, as his father, I have been finding grace and favour from God and have been blessed with many unsearchable riches.

My intention was to lead my son from his young age to walk the path a godly child should walk. To me, I was discharging my responsibility of leading my son by holding his hands spiritually, so that, he can be in the perfect will of God. In fact, whenever we went out together to pray, we always held one another's hand, and walked and prayed. I treasure those times together with my Lord Jesus and with my son.

Though I may have many shorting comings, I do my best to train and perfect him from what I have learned positively and warned him to avoid from what I learned negatively.

Behold, children are the heritage of Jehovah, The fruit of the womb a reward. (Psalms 127:3, RecVer)

Lord, bless my children, especially my son. In fact, they are God’s children of which I and my wife are just guardian to them on this earth.

First Commandment

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40, RecVer)

Today morning I was freshly enlightened concerning loving the Lord. I have been harboring a general concept of loving the Lord just as believing into Him. However, through the pursuing of message spoken by Br. Watchman Nee, I was helped to see the distinction between believing and loving the Lord.

Believing into Jesus does not necessary require one's whole being just as the requirements for loving the Lord. He who believes into Jesus are saved. As simple as that. Anyone who believes are saved. This requirement for salvation from eternal perdition is to believe into Jesus Christ. Only after believing, can one love the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Bible says that the first and great commandment is to love the Lord "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is a commandment! It is not a choice, but a cammand! What a salvation to see that I must obey God by loving Him with my whole being!

Loving God is the solution to the problems caused by temptations of the world. When one loves God, everything else fades away. The best way to overcome the world and its lust is by loving the Lord with all of our heart that there is no room for anything other than the Lord. What a revelation!

Why Christians still love the world is because they do not love the Lord with their whole being. There are still rooms for the world with its riches, glitters, glories, and lust in the heart that do not love the Lord wholeheartedly. Only if Christians keep the commandment of God to love God wholeheartedly, they will be overcomers and they will have nothing to do with the world nor the world with them. Yet for this, the heart needs circumcision, to deal with anything other than Christ, so that it can love Jehovah God wholeheartedly. 

And Jehovah your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, so that you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6, RecVer)

With this renewed seeing, my prayer has now been for loving God with all of my being. "Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord Jesus, cause me to love You more and more each day with my whole being."

This is the secret to living an overcoming life. This is the secret to enjoying the Christian life. This is the secret to magnify Christ, glorify Christ, and live Christ. The secret is keeping the first commandment of God, Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Lord Jesus, I love You.

Shepherding in the Small Group

The Lord’s leading these days in the churches in India is shepherding and perfecting in and through the small group meetings. Brothers have been helping us and emphasising again and again the need to take care of the small group meetings in our locality even to the point of categorically structuring the small group into three sections. Each section focusing on one aspect of shepherding, beginning with cherishing, then nourishing, and then bringing the saints into practical service. Since this burden was released, we have enjoyed our small group meeting, and I personally can testify that the meetings have been very.much uplifted.

The speaking God has been leading us through His timely speaking. As we practice the present speaking of the Lord, we also reap the benefits and blessings that comes along with it. 

For instance, our small group meeting in Sector 4 was full of vitality and all the saints richly enjoyed the Lord’s timely speaking. All the saints were able to function voluntarily as they received the Lord’s speaking. There was no need for any one to preside over the meeting. Everyone prayed, sang, read, spoke, and enjoyed the word of God. And all smiles on everyone's face as we enjoyed the small group meeting! 

Our small group meeting in Sector 56 was also the same in enjoyment of the Lord’s timely speaking. We had a time of cherishing for one another and prayed for one another. Then, was we were nourished by the Lord’s speaking, a good number of saints also asked questions for clarification. In that way, we were able to address and clarify certain truth points. Such mutuality made the meeting so meaningful and full of enjoyment!

Likewise, the small group meeting in Kanhai Gaon too has opened the door for all the saints to function. Unlike the traditional religious way of meeting with one person presiding over, every saint functioned in praying, singing, reading, and speaking. What a wonderful recovery of the small group for the church-life!