Volume 5 Issue 24

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  20:13 The spirit which makes one  love sleep and  come to poverty

Went near him

I received a phone call today from one of our brothers. He enquired whether I knew a particular family which migrated to Bihar from Kerala accepting the call of Jesus extended to them. The husband is a doctor. The children are educated there. He just could not believe, “how this doctor can leave all the comforts of Kerala and settle in a village in North India.

There are many ministries done in the name of Jesus Christ today. The one Jesus appreciated the most is mentioned in Lk 10:30-37

“Go and do likewise”. Lk 10:37

Since the man went from Jerusalem, he should have been a Jew. Jews are enemies to Samaritans. Jesus appreciated the Samaritan who when he saw his enemy suffering, lying half dead on the road, became his neighbour. Two things which he did worthy of mentioning here are:

1. He was filled with pity (V.33) There are so many type of helps being extended to people today like JIO sim, freebies etc. The intention of such contributions vary.  Name, fame, advertisement, vote banks, political power, disposal of black money etc. But the Samaritan was moved with pity and was forced by an irresistible power to do so. This is the divine nature in him.
2. He went near him. (v. 34). Today lots of financial aid is being poured into mission fields. Our country India has received 1/8 of the total missionary funds sent across the world. Sending money can be done by anybody. It will never be a substitute for identifying with the people whom you want to serve. The Samaritan went near him. It involves high risk. You may be mistaken as the thief who stripped him. Your dress might get bloody and dirty. If police or case involved, your finger prints will be identified. It takes real courage to go near a man who is beaten up to death, lying on the road.

There are thousands around our homes and in society who are beaten up by Satan physically and mentally. Am I in the group of throwing money from far off or going near him, identifying with the suffering ones? 

Body, Soul and Spirit 

Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins

Let us reflect  more on Forgiveness and reconciliation here.

Jesus before He left for heaven after resurrection, took His disciples upto Bethany, lifted  His hands and blessed them.

The last words He uttered were

“You are witnesses of these things. I am sending to you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Lk 24:48, 49 

Witnesses of what?

“Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luk 24:47 

It goes like this.

“Gospel” is to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Both are the same.

So we can conclude that

 “Repentance  and Forgiveness of sins” is the Gospel to be proclaimed throughout the world.

This is exactly what the world needs today. Once while I was in prayer, the  Holy Spirit reminded me  of something new which I was never aware of.   He brought to my memory many incidents which I had learned in my history class  about the Struggle for Independence.  In fact when I was writing the vision about India, the Lord wanted me to go  through these incidents  again. So I went to a library, got a book and read the whole history again. The Lord reminded me of the bitter experiences of Indians, who were struggling under the British rule. I  developed a feeling  of hatred in my mind  towards  those who ill- treated Gandhiji and the Freedom fighters and at the same time   love towards the British  people  who  supported the Freedom fighters  indirectly. 

The Lord asked me to forgive those British rulers  who did all this in their ignorance. Even though they were Christians, in their greed for power and land, they committed all the atrocities. I did it even thought I did not understand the meaning of doing it after a period of more than 60 years.   The Lord also asked me  to go and tell about this to one  Bro.Patrick Joshua who conducts a prayer network in Chennai. When I was sharing this with him, he told me another incident. Some years back, a brother from England, came to him, telling him that he was inspired by the Lord to come to India and ask pardon from the Indians for all the atrocities their forefathers did to them. It was amazing!

I learned  more about the ways of the Lord, my Almighty Father!

The following is the principle on which forgiveness operates.

“If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven. If you retain people's sins, they are retained." Jn 20:23 

Even if the whole land of Britain and all its citizens repent,  fast and plead  God for forgiveness for  the sins it committed towards Indians, God cannot forgive unless Indians forgive them!  As per the minimum conditions,  one Indian can do  it on behalf of the whole  nation! 

But in turn, if the Indians say, “No, we will not forgive you”!  God cannot forgive their sins!

What will be the result?

The British  people will not be forgiven of their sins. They will be thrown into prison (there are varieties of prisons for satan) and  have to suffer punishment according to each and every crime they committed.

Indians also will be thrown into prison because they refused to forgive.

This is how humanity is suffering from evil today.

This applies to every individual also.  When we sisters  left the convent, the Lord created such a situation that we had to cut off the relationship with many of our sisters whom we loved  and were friendly for so many years in our convent life.

When I told them about the truths which the Lord had revealed to me, they did not accept. They did not stand with me in my long eventful journey of leaving the convent.  Rather took the stand of being observers or spectators or even against me. After coming out of the convent, I was busy with the ministries. It took a long time for me to realize that I have not forgiven them.  My heart had become hard towards a few persons. I even justified it by saying to my soul,  “ The Lord hates them because they have not accepted the truth”.

Sr. Angelica

To be continued

Pakistani Sewage Worker Dies after 3 Doctors on Ramadan Fast Refuse to Touch Him

A Pakistani Christian sewerage cleaner has died after three doctors refused to treat him till his sludge-covered body had been washed; they said their Ramadan fast would be invalid (“makruh”) because he was “unclean” and also belonged to a low caste. (The word for low caste, “chuhra”, especially derogatory, is reserved for sanitary workers and often used in Pakistan synonymously for “Christian.”) Irfan Masih died on June 1, in Umar Kot Civil Hospital, Sindh, 300 kilometers from Karachi. Umar Kot has about 75 Christian families; almost all of them work as sanitary workers, a job that many Muslims refuse to do. Other experts on Pakistan told WWM that this treatment of minorities has more to do with the legacy of the Indian caste system than Islamic theology about how the Ramadan fast could be invalidated by certain ‘restrictions’ on the faster. For example, there are exemptions from fasting for Muslim travellers or people who are ill.

Disappearing Christians: Their Flight from the Middle East

More than 20 Coptic Christians massacred in a bus on their way to Mass . . . the grisly double bombing at the Mar Girgis church near Cairo that slaughtered at least 45 people on Palm Sunday  . . . these are only the latest outrages against Christians in the Middle East. Such attacks by ISIS and other Muslim terrorist groups—accompanied by the studied indifference of governments that claim to care about religious minorities—have sparked a tragic exodus of believers from their homelands.

That’s bad news not just for Christians, but for everyone. “The exodus leaves the Middle East overwhelmingly dominated by Islam, whose rival sects often clash, raising the prospect that radicalism in the region will deepen,” says Maria Abi-Habib in The Wall Street Journal. “Conflicts between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have erupted across the Middle East, squeezing out Christians in places such as Iraq and Syria and forcing them … abroad” to “Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere.”

China: 100,000 People Turning to Christ Every Year, Says Pastor

Despite increased persecution in China, a pastor who trains Chinese Christian leaders says the Church in China is growing and as many as 100,000 new believers are coming to Christ every year. Rev. Erik Burklin works with China Partner, training Chinese Christian leaders. He is encouraged to see how God is working to build the Church in China, despite the government’s crackdown on Christianity. "Like Jesus said to Peter, 'On this rock I will build my church.' When He said that, He said, 'I will build my church.' Not, 'You Christians build my church,' but, 'I will,'" Burklin told Mission Network News.

U.S. House Passes Bill to Provide Aid for Persecuted Middle East Christians

Legislation that would give government funding to relief groups that help displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians unanimously passed through the House of Representatives Tuesday. The Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, (R-NJ) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA). It would allow the Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide support to groups and organizations that are helping minority groups who have been forced to leave their homes because of the terror of the Islamic State. The bill also authorizes federal support for entities that are investigating crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq and Syria. Finally, the bill would order the attorney general and the secretary of state to review U.S. criminal statutes on genocide to see whether more statutory authorities are needed to prosecute for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

North Korea: Elderly Man Arrested and Beaten for Visiting Chinese Christians

An elderly man from North Korea has been beaten after he returned from visiting Christian relatives in China, reports Christian Today. Sixty-one-year-old Kim Seung-mo was reportedly arrested three days after returning to North Korea from visiting family in China. He had told his neighbors about visiting his relatives and had even revealed that they attended a Christian church. The neighbors apparently reported Kim to the authorities. “All North Korean travelers returning from China are required to report their whereabouts and details about their activities,” explained a source who asked to remain anonymous. “In Kim's case, he was arrested on charges of spying because he did not report the fact that his relatives are churchgoers and that the church pastor helped him,” the source continued. Kim was reportedly tied with rope and beaten. “I witnessed him being dragged by state security officials in front of Wiyon train station,” said the source. Kim suffered black eyes, a leg injury, and various bruises and scrapes. The Ministry of State Security, the police force of North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un, is known to be ruthless. North Korea is the number one country on Open Doors’ 2017 World Watch List of countries where Christian persecution is most severe.

Uncertain future for Indian Christians after BJP’s election victories

Anti-Conversion Law, BJP, Catholic, Catholic Secular Forum, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Hindu Nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand. India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have consolidated its political position across India after the party won several state elections. This success of BJP enables it to install a President of its own choice, elected in June 2017, after the present President Pranab Mukherjee, completes his term. For minority groups this is not necessarily good news. In the run up to the elections there were reports of an increase in violence, especially against Christians. According to a report published by the Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum, ‘Indian Christian Persecution’, some 12,000 Christians experienced persecution in 2016 including murder, detention, assault, rape and harassment. Uttar Pradesh registered an almost three-fold increase in cases of harassment of and attacks on Christians (less than 1% of India’s most populous and politically crucial state, where some 80 percent are Hindus). The report said similar spikes were witnessed in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Hindu-only India

Perhaps no change within the BJP party; observers, however expect that the results will embolden the party to even more vigorously pursue its Hindu nationalist agenda, increasing the pressure on minority groups. With a stronger representation in the upper house, the BJP-led government could be in position to introduce laws to enact an “anti-conversion law” (already proposed) at the national level. Currently five states already have an anti-conversion law in place: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

Promoting dialogue

Most attacks on priests and community leaders have occurred due to accusations of attempting to convert Hindus to Christianity. Top Hindu leaders publicly accused Christians, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta, of working to convert Hindus, which they say destroys Hindu culture and destabilizes society. Several Hindu organisations have conducted a “homecoming” of such people. However, the Forum’s secretary also blamed the Indian Church for not taking a strong stand against atrocities. “The Church has to serve as a catalyst not only to bring all the Christian groups, rites and denominations together but also to promote inter-religious dialogue. It has failed on this front.”