Posts are in ascending order. Scroll down for newer posts.
3rd to 5th February
Back in 2009, we had a prophecy in our church that the Lord would take me to the backwaters of Kerala and Karnataka. Over the years, I've had a couple of preaching engagements in Kerala, and visited Bijapur on the outskirts of Karnataka, but have never really been to the backwaters, so was waiting on this promise.
You can imagine my surprise when a Bro. Arun Prakash suddenly calls from Kodagu, Coorg in Karnataka, just across the border from Tamil Nadu, and asks me if I would be willing to preach in his church if he arranged it with his Pastor! Now, Bro. Arun Prakash and I hadn't even met in person. He happens to be the son of one of the sisters who had attended one of my evangelical meetings in Conoor, in the Nilgiris, around 2021, after which he had been closely following my ministry on social media. Something in one of my messages had touched him, and he made that call in the first week of January this year. He soon co-ordinated with his pastor - Pastor Ravi Levi John who then called and spoke to me with questions regarding my ministry vision, and before we knew it, we had a meeting set for the 1st week of February, 2024.
Coorg was part of the backwaters of Karnataka - a fact we didn't learn of until we drove past a sign saying so. It said: "Welcome to Kodagu - the backwater paradise of Karnataka." The prophecy that had been uttered in 2009, was coming to pass in 2024, nearly 15 years later. It just goes to show you, that the Lord has His own time to bring things to pass.
3.2.2024
We left that morning around 8:30 am, stopped for breakfast and then drove continually right to Coorg.
We reached our destination sometime around 3:00 pm.
Pastor Ravi had booked our lodgings quite near the church premises in Kushalnagar, so that we wouldn't have that long a drive to the meeting place. He received us warmly and we went up and settled in our room.
After freshening up, Pastor took us to a quaint little Mangalorean place for a seafood lunch. My wife, being Mangalorean, was very pleased with the fare in all the little eateries she saw in Kodagu.
Over lunch, Pastor shared his testimony with us. His uncle had initially been the pastor of the church in Coorg. They were originally from Tamil Nadu, but had settled in Coorg a long time ago.
There were around 500 people in the church his uncle used to pastor back then. However, sadly, he hadn't been living a sanctified life, as a minister should, and so, many in the church objected to him being the pastor, and he stepped down.
Thereafter, Pastor Ravi had been asked to fill in as Pastor of the church. However, around half the congregation stumbled at this change in leadership and the exposition of their old pastor's unrenewed life, and slowly left the church over the next few months.
Pastor Ravi related that he had had to renew the work in Coorg once again, and build up the congregation step by step. In the course of the next few years, Pastor Ravi married a Telugu sister, and they now have 4 beautiful children together.
There are currently 350 people in his church. He told me he had studied in the Korean Bible University as part of the Indian Pentecostal Church.
After lunch we went back to our room, and Bro. Arun Prakash came over to meet us. I shared with them the testimony of my conversion, my call to ministry work, my vision of Prophetic Awareness, and how My India Vision began in 2012, and told them about the work that the Lord had been doing in my ministry since then.
It was 6:00 pm by the time we finished our chat, and Pastor suggested we get some rest before he came to call on us for dinner.
We were a bit tired, and had a good rest up until 8:00 pm, even though the power went out a few times, and the hotel had no generator for back-up. The climate wasn't that hot in the evening, and we managed a fitful nap.
We contacted Pastor Ravi at around 8:30 pm, telling him that we would be ready to go out, and he came by to pick us up a few minutes later.
Pastor first took us over to see the meeting place. The lights were out, but we used our flashlights to scan the perimeter. We had brought our projector along, so we needed to check if there were sufficient plug points to connect everything, and whether the background wall was white, which it was.
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| The Meeting Place |
Pastor Ravi told us that the meeting hall was a Community hall, called 'Tapovana' rented out to them, and other small churches after them each Sunday for a fee. If they used the dining hall, they paid extra. Tapovana in the Kannada language means - Garden of Meditation.
The campus belonged to a Roman Catholic Church in the area, and was maintained by the seminarians who were put up there.
Pastor Ravi informed us that he had taken the decision to hold his Sunday Church meetings there because of intense harassment by Hindu extremist groups in the area, who had damaged much of the property, and broken up meetings, where they had been previously conducting prayer. This campus was a legally registered Christian ground, and as such could not be intruded on by radicals from the outside.
Pastor then took us to a home mess (cafeteria) belonging to one of his believers. And the sister treated us to a hot Coorgi dinner.
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| Prayer @ a church sister's mess hall (cafeteria) |
After dinner, we visited his home, and met with his wife - Sis. Usha and children. I took the time to share my testimony with them as well. After a short time of prayer, we retired to our lodge and were expected to be at the Meeting Hall by 10:00 am the next morning for the Sunday service.
4.2.2024
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| Sunday Worship @ Tapovana |
The worship was well underway by the time we got there.
Click here to watch a Worship Video
A few people came forward and shared testimonies before the preaching service began.
Click here to watch a Song Offering Video in the Kannada Language
Pastor Ravi handed me the pulpit at around 10:30 pm, having informed me that I could wind up by 12:00 noon.
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| Pastor Ravi introduces me |
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| Pastor's wife Sis. Usha testifies |
I stressed on the Importance of Living a Sanctified Life according to the Will of God, and aligning our lives with the Word, so that we may be holy and blameless before Him.
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| Delivering the Message |
My emphasis was on how, if we really trusted Jesus, as the woman who reached out to touch the hem of His garment, and was made whole, we could really receive the healing of our bodies and souls; and how it was our unbelief in the cleansing power of the Word that was a hindrance to our sanctification.
I urged the congregation to get serious with God, to stop living life carelessly and with no thought to the Coming of Christ.
I then went on to explain II Peter 3 - 'the elements shall melt with fervent heat.', and what it meant as a prophecy for the world.
I ended with some slides of a factual presentation regarding the death and crucifixion of our Lord, and the pain and suffering He underwent so that we may be saved. I stressed how Modern Christianity had gone to the dogs, and how only those who chose to offer themselves to Christ as set-apart vessels, would make it into glory at the last trump.
I noticed many in the congregation begin to weep. I could tell that the Holy Spirit had done His perfect work in them.
After the message, many came forward for prayer.
As per the leading of the Holy Spirit, I urged them to lift up their hands and pray with me for healing and deliverance as I walked through the middle of the congregation.
Some did still come to me and Pastor later on for personal petitions.
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| Prayer for healing and deliverance |
Pastor Ravi expressed his joy at how well things had shaped up and appreciated the message. He told me it was exactly what his congregation had needed to hear. I told him that I had yet more to discuss with him, and would do so when he was free. He suggested that we meet that evening at Bro. Arun Prakash's home for further discussion.
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| Post - service discussion |
A small lunch had been arranged for the attendees, and we ate college-style out of paper plates, standing in the shade.
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| A standing lunch on Tapovana Campus |
I finally concluded urging him to
meditate on the matters I had shared with him, and told him that it had been my
heart’s burden to open up these truths to him, and that I had no other
intentions.
Bro. Arun too was with us, and he
too listened in rapt attention.
At the end of our discussion, I
asked Pastor to pray and it warmed my heart to hear him say:
“Lord, I submit myself to
this truth that you have delivered to me today.”
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| Pastor Ravi prays |
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| A Word of Prayer for Bro. Arun Prakash. |
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| @ Pastor Ravi's home |
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| Kadbu and Kori Roti |
5.2.2024
It was past noon before Pastor
Ravi came by and we proceeded to the Kaveri River nearby. On the way there, I
said that I wasn’t instructing him to pull down whatever he had built and start
afresh right from the foundation, but I was asking him to dig up the foundation
that he had laid for his building completely and start from scratch on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. He replied:
“Brother I feel that all the knowledge and learning I have accumulated along the years is just dung, as the Apostle Paul said. After hearing these truths, and deciding to be baptized in Jesus’ Name, I feel like a great weight has left me, and a great peace fills my heart.”
I baptized Pastor Ravi Levi John
in the River Kaveri on the 5th of February, 2024 after a short prayer at the river side.
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| A Riverside Message |
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| Baptism of Pastor Ravi Levi John - 5.2.2024 |
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| Thanking the Lord for His mercies together - (Brothers-in-arms) |
I was glad to have found a fellow
worker like him in this part of Karnataka. I gave him some instructions
regarding the future leading of his church. He told me that he would arrange a
Pastors’ Conference and Bible Studies in Kodagu and other areas so that this
message could be published far and wide within Karnataka.
Do pray for Pastor Ravi, his
associates, family, and congregation.
NOTE:- I recently heard from
Pastor Ravi and he reports joyfully, that since his baptism, he has had great
peace, the Holy Spirit has been moving in his life, the Bible has become a
living book to him with hidden treasures jumping out of the pages, and wonders
of deliverance taking place in his church as he prayed over his congregation.
He also told me that a woman in
his church had had a vision – the first she has had since she became a practicing
Christian. In it she saw a great white figure standing in front of Pastor Ravi.
His hand and Pastor Ravi’s hands moved in unison. Whenever the figure moved, he
moved. The sister testified of this in the church, and many of the members of his
congregation came forward appreciating the renewed depth and life of his
messages.
I told him that the vision showed
that he was in line with the Spirit of God, and that the Holy Spirit was leading
him.
I will be travelling there in the month of March for more meetings, God willing.
4th to 8th April, 2024
We had just finished with out ministry trip to Masinagudi on the 3rd of April. Bro. Raymond and Bro. Ritchie whom we had been praying for, for quite some time, had been baptized. (Read about that here)
Our work done there, we headed to Coorg by 3:00 pm on the 4th.
4.4.2024
It was nearly past 7:00 pm by the time we arrived in Kushalnagar, Kodagu.
Pastor Ravi had informed us that an evening meeting had been arranged in a brother's home for a few close, mature believers that he wanted to slowly teach the Original Apostolic Truths to.
He had informed me that one of his co-workers - a Pastor Stephen, and an advocate friend of his, Bro. Lavakumar, whom he had been sharing with would also be at the meeting.
The meeting had been scheduled for 6:30 pm that evening, but traffic had slowed us down to a great extent, and we arrived there at 7:30 pm.
After freshening up a bit, we got our paraphernalia, and began the Bible Study.
My main subject for the congregation that day was The Wheel of Prophecy - Knowing God through Prophecy.
I introduced them to the Old Testament Elohim, and took them through the pages of the Bible to the Fulfillment of the Coming of the Messiah in the New Testament.
I explained the different facets and characters of God through the ages, ending with Hebrews 1: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
I also had a chance to explain the Mystery of the Godhead and The LOGOS, and my audience was quite responsive.
The meeting went on until about 9:30 pm, after which dinner was served for the brethren at Bro. Arun Prakash's house on the next street.
The meeting was held at Bro. Sairam's house. He was an old believer in Pastor Ravi's Church.
After the meeting, we had a chance to get better acquainted, and Bro. Sairam and his wife shared their testimony with me. They manufacture savouries and namkeens for a living, and had recently sustained a big blow by way of fire damage to their factory, due to which they had lost all their earnings and investment, and had had to start from scratch. They told me it was only by God's grace that they had been able to survive, and appreciated the teaching that they had received that day.
Pastor Ravi took us out for dinner and then settled us in our room for the night.
5.4.2024
The next morning we made our way to a local cafe for breakfast.
Kushalnagar is almost another Tibet.
We were free all that morning. Pastor Ravi had informed us that Pastor Stephen and Bro. Lavakumar had asked to visit us in our lodgings for a biblical discussion about The True Baptism, The Mystery of the Godhead Revealed, The LOGOS and Creation, and The Original Apostolic Truths.
We equipped ourselves with our projector and other teaching materials and began the discussion at around 3:00 pm. This went on till about 7:00 pm.
I had a chance to better explain MY INDIA Vision, the End Time Prophecies that needed to be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord, and my mission to take the Prophetic Awareness Truths wherever I could go.
Bro. Lavakumar and Pastor Stephen both shared their spiritual experiences and testimonies with me. Bro. Lavakumar had been helping a ministry but had been sadly disillusioned by the leadership there. Pastor Stephen had led a very errant life before coming to accept the Lord and entering ministry. Both were sincere truth seekers, and had open hearts and steady spirits that were receiving the revelation I imparted to them in that small hotel room that day.
Bro. Lavakumar
grilled me non-stop, like the advocate he was. It was like I was in the witness
stand, and he was cross examining me. He was thorough in his questioning to a
point where I wondered if he would actually understand the truth or was just
prodding me to disprove what I had been sharing with them.
Pastor Stephen
too, appeared, at first apprehensive, and pondered at great length what he had
heard. They both asked for historical proof if any, and I went through all my
references and concordances, digging up web sources online for them to go
through, and connecting passages of scripture to contemplate.
By the end of the discussion, they had both agreed to be baptized the next day.
6.4.2024
It was a joyful day for me in reaping my first harvest of souls in Coorg who had felt led to turn back to the Faith of the Fathers.
Pastor Ravi had learned of an easier way to approach the Kaveri River compared to the last time we had been there for his baptism service.
Click here to take a look around.
It was with great rejoicing that I baptized Bro. Stephen, and Bro. Lavakumar that day.
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My message for the congregation that day was The
10 Virgins of Matthew 25, with an emphasis on Sanctification
and Holy Living which I felt I needed to reiterate from the last message I
had preached there, The Perversity of The End Time Generation, Preparedness for
the Coming of the Lord, Separation from the World, and The Word Bride.
We reached Coimbatore by 7:00 pm, but it was almost 9:00 pm by the time we were past Kovai's traffic and safely home.
After the worship, Bro. Lavakumar, and Bro.
Manjunath shared their experiences of being baptized, and the changes it had
brought in their lives as an encouragement to the congregation. Bro. Sunil too,
rose to testify of the how the Lord had been dealing with his heart the last
couple of days.
My message that evening was based on Isaiah 53 - "he hath no form nor comeliness". I spoke on the Reality of The Suffering of Christ and how we need to value His Sacrifice daily in keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.
After the Baptism Service, we had a Post Baptism Prayer at Bro. Sunil's place before setting out.
12th to 16th May
12.5.2024
Our plans for Sri Lanka were already underway, and Pastor Stephen called and asked me to come over to boost up the new believers who had been added to his church since I had been there last.
There were a total of 35 believers attending his fellowship that he had named The Tree of Life Church, Coorg, with the numbers steadily climbing owing to the great grace of our Lord.
I decided to visit the believers there before leaving for Sri Lanka, and took Bro. Timothy along again as Sis. Benita had to stay back and oversee the Vacation Bible Classes in our Church.
So we left for Coorg on the 12th of May after our Sunday service in our Coimbatore Church.
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We reached Coorg by 7:00 pm that evening, and settled in our lodgings for the night.
13.5.2024
The next day, Bro. Manjunath took us with him to share the truth with two families in the area, who were close to him.
We were warmly welcomed and took our time introducing The Apostolic Teachings, and testifying a little about the truth that had been committed to us, before praying over the families and inviting them to the meeting in Coorg at Pastor Stephen's Church on the 15th.
We then visited Bro. Lavakumar's sprawling family coconut farm and had a time of prayer there.
We spent the rest of the day in fellowship and biblical
discussion with Pastor Stephen, Bro. Lavakumar, and Bro. Manjunath in our room.
Bro. Lavakumar told me that he had begun testifying to many people in his contacts, especially visiting ministers whom he used to call off and on in relation to gospel meetings in the area. Most of them were outraged hearing of the truth that he had accepted, and was now committed to, and kept barraging him with discouraging words, trying their best to disprove the Apostolic Doctrine. Bro. Lavakumar, as 'lawyerly' as he could, afforded his accosters time to vent and speak their pieces patiently, and then went on to reason with them to no avail.
Pastor Stephen reported that things in Pastor Ravi's Church had gone quite bad. There were numerous people in the congregation who had been living lives of secret sin and could not abide the sound doctrine that he had begun to preach. As a result many in the church had banded together trying to discredit him. He had lost a lot of congregational support, and was being mentally harassed by his family, close friends, and others in the IPC circuit.
Pastor Stephen too had received a great number of calls from anxious ministers in Coorg who berated him on the stand that he had now taken, urging him to turn back to The Mother Faith. To them, he had replied in quiet patience, attempting to explain and clarify the finer points of the Apostolic Doctrine that he had chosen to lean on instead of the traditions of men. A few had listened, but many hadn't
He told me that he had not had this much attention
from the Pastor's Association when he was a part of it. Now, since his
baptism, they were all clamouring around him trying their best to 'make him see
the error of his ways', so to speak. He had been ousted from the IPC Association, and a few local ministers had joined together threatening to run
him out of his village, and to send letters of warning to all the other churches in
Karnataka State about "this charlatan Shadrach Joseph who was defrauding
churches and leading them in doctrinal error."
None of the ministers had been ready to come forward and meet me all the time I was in Coorg, even though they had been specially invited by Bro. Lavakumar, and Pastor Stephen. Some of them went so far as to say that they would be there, but on calling to confirm the appointment, they would slink into the shadows in retreat.
Such is the stand of this perverse generation, that the ministers who have been groomed in Christian Tradition, in Bible Colleges, as Doctors of Divinity, or afforded some such other titles - hardly know their Bibles. They fear being put to shame in not having an answer to the Biblical and historical evidence of the Pattern of the Apostolic Faith that is presented to them. They fear a challenge to avoid their own reproach - in being called leaders, and fathers, but lacking the wisdom of God, having being swept up by earthly gain and the cares of this world, ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.
I encouraged my new brothers. I assured them that no one through history, or in the Word of God had remained without trouble for taking a stand for the truth, but at the same time, no one who put their trust in the Lord and His Word, would ever be put to shame. Yes, God would fight for us! He would be a wall of fire around us - a hedge that Satan could not breach. He would put to confusion all those that rose up against His children, and as the Word says to those who would slander and cast a snare before His children : "So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves..." (Psalm 64: 8)
14.5.2024
Pastor Stephen, his son Rohan, Bro. Timothy and
myself made our way there at around 11:00 am.
The weather was perfect and Madikeri ViewPoint was spectacular.
The pastor was known to Pastor Stephen and we had a discussion about what was transpiring in Coorg, and the faith that we were upholding there, contrary to what others had been reporting about us.
The pastor said he would be in touch with us regarding future meetings, and we called it a day and headed back.
We once again had a time of fellowship in our room with the brothers there that evening from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, and I took them through Studies on Revelation 17, The Aim of the WCC, The Revealing of the Man of Sin, and The Missing Colour of the Vatican.
15.5.2024
An evening meeting had been planned at Pastor Stephen's Church, that day, with a few of the new believers who had recently been baptized.
Pastor Stephen had named his Church - Tree of Life Church.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship, and a healing and anointing service for our newly baptized brethren.
My message for the little congregation was The Five Rebellious Thoughts of Lucifer. I touched on The Original Sin, and spoke on Falling from Grace, and on the Restoration of all things at the Close of the Ages.
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| Prayer, healing, and anointing service for new believers @ Tree of Life Church, Coorg - 14.5.2024. |
Dinner was served post service, and we sat around
discussing the Word late into the night.
It was almost past midnight before Bro. Tim and I took our leave. We had to be up early the next day for the journey home.
16.5.2024
The next morning, we bid goodbye to our dear brethren and left for Coimbatore by 10:00 am, with a chance to once again see some wildlife in close range on the way.
We reached home by 7:00 pm.
Do keep the growing church in Coorg in your prayers, and fervently intercede for Pastor Ravi, Pastor Stephen, and all the people who have put on Christ in baptism there.
30th to 4th June, 2024
30.6.2024
Pastor Stephen had introduced me to Pastor Jonas in Bangalore, and after 3 days of meetings there, I made my way to Coorg to check on and encourage the flock there on my way to Coimbatore.
For the Bangalore Meetings Report click here.
I had set out that afternoon around 1:00 pm and reached Coorg in 5 hours. I settled down in my room and told Pastor Stephen I would see him the next day.
1.7.2024
Pastor Stephen was eager to hear about how my recent trip to Sri Lanka had gone and how the folks there had received the message.
To read our most recent Sri Lanka Mission Report click here.
That evening he had arranged a meeting in the home of one Bro. Nelson, who had accepted the truth.
Pastor Stephen swung by to pick me up at around 5:30 pm. The meeting there began at 6:00 pm, and went on till about 8:00 pm.
My message that evening was about The New Believer's Walk, Personal Prayer, and The Importance of Fellowship.
After the meet, we had a hot Kodagu dinner and left.
2.7.2024
A meet had been arranged that evening and the next in Tree of Life Church at 7:00 pm. It was a Tuesday and one of the weekly labourer holidays, so most of the working people in the congregation could attend.
I was glad to see the familiar faces who had so earnestly and sincerely accepted the truth and were now standing strong for it.
The number of members there had gone up to 46 and counting.
My message for them that day was 'The Foundation of the Apostles' - the confusion relating to baptism according to the Apostolic Pattern, how we needed to Mirror the Life of the Disciples of Jesus in our times, how the wealth of the Deeper Revelations of the Word of God were most often hidden from the wise and prudent of the world and revealed to the babes.
I also expounded on the Doctrine of Predestination, and warned the Church about Coming Snare of the Ecumenical Movement.
Every face was jubilant as the flock left the premises that day after the good, hearty time of fellowship we had had, and a wonderful dinner prepared by Pastor Stephen's wife.
I spent some more time with Pastor Stephen's family before turning in for the night.
3.7.2024
The next day, Bro. Manjunath who had been in Bangalore on business arrived back in Coorg and came to my lodgings to see me.
We had a good time of fellowship and spiritual discussion, and later went out to lunch. Bro. Manjunath brought me up to speed on all the happenings in Coorg since I had been there last - the issues that were going on in Pastor Ravi's Church, the current state of all those who had been baptized, and how his family had been growing in the Lord.
Bro. Lavakumar too, joined us a bit later and we discussed outreach in the area, and plans for future Prophetic Awareness Meetings there.
Pastor Stephen told me about how he had been approached by nearly 57 Pastors from the IPC Pastors Association who had been trying to convince him to get back into the association, to 'recant from the error that he had fallen into' and 'see the light'. He recounted how the Lord had given him the grace and spiritual wisdom to answer each one of them from the Word. The Word of God had been his shield against their verbal attacks and his defence against their accusations. They hadn't been able to disprove anything with the Biblical evidence that he had presented to them to state his case, and they had each left either in confusion, or irritation at not being able to counter him.
That evening, there was another meeting to be held in Pastor Stephen's Church for the folk who had missed coming to fellowship the previous day on account of their residing quite far, and not being able to travel due to the torrential rain.
My message for the day centered around Matthew Chapter 13 - The Parable of the Seeds which fell on different grounds (hearts).
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| Delivering the Message in Tree of Life Fellowship |
I bid goodbye to the believers there with a promise to be back the following month. Pastor Stephen was greatly encouraged. Do keep him in prayer as he is facing immense challenges holding down the fort there.
He recently told me that he had received scalding messages from a neighbouring ministry pastor, and that threats and discouragements were rolling in from all sides. He needs all our prayer support.
4.7.2024
I left by 10:00 am the next day, driving alone through the forest, in prayer for Coorg. The devil is really at our heels there.
I reached home by 8:00 pm.
Little did I know when I stepped into Kodagu, that I would be setting fire to the foxes tails and sending them on an arsonist rampage through the fields at night. The ministry there is proving very challenging, mainly due to the baseless slander against us.
Do pray strongly for our future Prophetic Awareness Meets to be held in the area - that there may be confusion in the enemy's camp, and that all those who attempt to scatter the Lord's flock and flay His ministers may be put to shame.
We believe the Lord will discredit all liars, and that His truth will shine out bright enough to keep the Apostolic torch burning.
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