Ministry of the Word to Kadiri

A week ago, I set out for the minsitry of the Word Literature journey again, this time in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, as this district is yet to have the Lord’s testimony established. Though the distribution was to begin on Monday, 17th November, but on the Lord’s Day, the brothers took me to Pulivendula with the hope that I could join the Lord’s Table meeting there. However, on the 16th Nov, Lord’s Day morning, we received an impromptu call and a surprise invitation from the Brethren Assembly in Kadiri. Therefore, we rushed to attend the meeting in Kadiri. 

In Kadiri, we introduced the New Testament Recovery Version in Telugu and English along with the minsitry books, and some brothers purchased them. Though we intend to go back after the meeting, we were invited to meet another brother in a nearby village who prepared a lovefeast for us and to whom we also introduced the ministry books. And this led to another brother and on to another Pentecostal Pastor. Ultimately, we ended up spending the whole day in Kadiri and went back to our lodging place in Pulivendula only in the night. The next day too, we spent the whole day in Kadiri and introduced the minsitry books to different Pastors.

This time, the arrangement was a one-on-one meeting with the Pastors. In most cases, I requested the local Telugu-speaking brothers to introduce the minsitry directly in Telugu. This helped the local brothers to function. I would do the speaking only when there was a need to do so in English and if it was required to minister the deeper truth to some key Christian leaders. 

May the Lord raise up His testimony in Kadiri among the brothers whom He has led us to sow the minsitry of the word.

Life Lesson: Experiences for the Building

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted of evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own lusts; Then the lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin; and the sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. (James 1:13-16, RecVer)

Spiritual things are not so simple. The enemy does his works to complicate the sinners' situation. However, God became a man in Jesus Christ to save man from his sins and from the complicated situations. On the one hand, God predestinated us, yet on the other hand, God gave man a free will. How do we reconcile God’s predestination and man's free will? When a brother sins, we need to have mercy, if need be, snatched them out of fire. In some cases, we have to show mercy in fear, hating even the inner garment spotted from the flesh.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have mercy, on those who are wavering; Save them by snatching them out of the fire. On others have mercy in fear, hating even the inner garment spotted from the flesh. (Jude 21-23, RecVer)

In fact, there are sins that are gross and there are sins that are unto death. However, sin is sin. But where do we draw the line? There are many things beyond our understanding. In such cases, we leave the matter to the Lord who is the Judge. We leave the matter to the Lord and not try to do anything about the sinful situation except pray for such ones. What can we do except prayer? So, do what you can do best in such situation, pray.

Failures among God’s chidren have been used greatly by God to expose the real condition of a person. Jacob's twenty years' experiences in his uncle Laban's house was an exposure of his natural man. Since then, it was God’s dealing with his naturalness, failures after failures, stripping him of all his natural strength so that God can gradually work in him, transform him, and mature him, to make him a man of blessing.

God, in His sovereignty, caused all things that transpired in Jacob's life to perfect him, especially through his failures. All that he schemed for himself to meet his selfishness in Laban's house, in preparing to meet his brother Esau with the intense fear he had within, the dealings caused by the loss of his loved ones in experience - Rachel, Deborah, Isaac, Joseph, Benjamin, all were stripped off from him. Ultimately, the result of all his failures opened the way for God to work in him and lead him to maturity. His maturity was evident in his spirit being revived and his heart growing numb which is a proof of his soul and spirit being divided, a true sign of maturity. 

And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart grew numb, for he did not believe them. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them; and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. (Genesis 45:26-27, RecVer)

After this experience of maturity, he simply started blessing people. His supplanting hands became blessing hands. He blessed Pharaoh and all his chidren.

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went forth from Pharaoh’s presence. (Genesis 47:10, RecVer)

Failures are the path one has to pass through to be exposed, dealt with, be transformed, and finally be matured to become a blessed man and a man of blessing, a channel to bless those who needs to be blessed. 

In all these ways, in our experiences, we gain Chirst, and knowing Him in a subjective way the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. These are the experiences of the Triune God and becoming mature in the divine life for the building up of the Body of Christ. 

But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ. But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-8, RecVer)

Truth Lesson: God's Blessing of Inheritance

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, (Ephesians 1:3, RecVer)

In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will. (Ephesians 1:11, RecVer)

Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:14, RecVer)

God as our inheritance and we as God’s inheritance is the blessing and this blessing is to the church. This is the heavenly and spiritual blessing in Ephesians 1:3. This blessing is the blessing of the Father in His selection and predestination, choosing us to be His inheritance, His sons, which is His eternal purpose. This blessing is the blessing of the Son in accomplishing God’s eternal purpose through redemption through which also He shed His own blood to purchase us, fulfilling His plan of His inheritance. This blessing is also of the Spirit applying God the Father’s eternal purpose through Christ the Son's accomplishment of redemption. This is the spiritual blessing of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is the blessing to the Church with God as the inheritance and the saints as God’s inheritance. 

God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated us to be His sons. God the Father has predestinated us to be His sons, to be His inheritance; as the Son inherits the Father’s. 

In Christ, we were designated as a chosen inheritance. We were designated as an inheritance to inherit God as our inheritance. Yes, we have become God’s inheritance for His enjoyment. And we also inherit God as our inheritance for our enjoyment. What a mutual inheritance! What a mutual enjoyment! 

The Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is a foretaste of what we will inherit in full. The Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance. God the Father has bought us with the price of His own blood that we become His possession, His inheritance. Since then, He has been dispensing Himself into us to the extend that we fully participate in Him in all that He is and has accomplished. When our body is redeemed, we will fully enjoy Him as our inheritance. What a divine trading! He bought us with a high price to make us His inheritance. We paid nothing yet inherit Him as our possession. He bought us and we gained Him. What a blessing!

This is the enjoyment of the God of Isaac. Isaac apparently did nothing yet inherited His father's riches. He fought no war yet gained a wealthy inheritance. Whatever he did, Jehovah blessed him and he gained a hundredfold. In fact, he became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very rich.

And Isaac sowed in that land and gained in the same year a hundredfold. And Jehovah blessed him, And the man became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very rich. And he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. (Genesis 26:12-14, RecVer)

Genesis 26 records how Isaac dug wells and got water wherever he dug. This is one example of God’s blessing upon Isaac.

That said, Isaac was blessed, so are we. Though we have the Almighty God as our inheritance, we often fail to enjoy our real possession, God. The reason could be, we are yet to see what the Father has given us. Or, our natural man wants to do everything by ourselves assuming that we will earn a possession through our labor. Either one of these could become a great hindrance to the enjoyment of our eternal inheritance. This is synonymous to a ruler, a man who was exceedingly rich, asking the Lord what he must do to inherit the kingdom of God as though he could labor and earn the eternal life.

And a certain ruler questioned Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18:18, RecVer)

But when he heard these things, he became very sorrowful, for he was exceedingly rich. (Luke 18:23, RecVer)

Now, having seen and known that we inherited God as our possession, we must also exercise to enjoy God as our inheritance. For this, our eyes need to be enlightened. 

The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:18, RecVer)

Now, having realised that God is our inheritance, we will appreciate Christ who is the embodiment of God in the Scriptures. For the Scriptures reveal Christ and His riches for our enjoyment. However, for us to enjoy the riches of Christ, enjoying the God of Isaac, we must first experience the God of Jacob. For, there are many hindrances in our being that deprives us of our enjoyment of the riches of Christ. So, the transforming Spirit as the God of Jacob is needed to deal with every hindrance and give us a free pass to the rich inheritance we have in God. The cross has to break every barrier and clear the blockages in our being so that we enjoy the God of Isaac. Therefore, to enjoy the God of Isaac, we need the God of Jacob in our experience.

May we not miss to enjoy the rich inheritance we have in God. May the God of Isaac be our God in reality. In this way, we enjoy the blessing of God the Father, Gideon th3 Son, and God the Spirit. This blessing is to the church and for the church. 

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.