A Divine Opportunity to be Part of His Race, R. P.

The Lord tells us in Acts 17:28, “For in Him we live and move and are, as even some poets among you have said, For we are also His race.” As the ones born of this life and born into this life we are indeed a new race. The Lord saved me for a very specific reason and that is to make me part of His glorious Body and a fully functioning member in this Body (Ephesians 4:16).

I was born in a small island (Sri Lanka) off the coast of India. While growing up I heard a little about Christ but I did not know Him until my aunt preached the gospel to me when I was 12. I had a definite turn to the Lord when I was 16 and then the Lord sovereignly arranged for my family to move to the United States when I was 17. As a 17 year old newly saved person I was desperately seeking some believers to meet with. But during this time, due to my religious background (Buddhism), I was weary of religion and the organized hierarchical systems within it. I then even had the feeling that Christ was so out of anything man made because He was so real within me. I still wanted to meet with believers but I did not want to be part of religion. Praise the Lord! About a month after my arrival, I met a Christian sister from back home who was meeting with some believers. I did not know at that time who they were, so I asked them, “Are you from any kind of denomination?” To my joy they said “No, we are believers who just love our Lord and want to meet with others.” With them I dived into the Word. We read ministry booklets, read the word, and sang hymns. At that time I did not even care if most of the ministry books were from Witness Lee or Watchman Nee. I just knew there was such a rich storehouse of divine riches and I wanted some of it. It became so apparent and clear to me that the Lord was after His Body and as believers we should not stand upon anything other than Christ. It also became clear that we also should not separate ourselves from one another, as every believer is born of this divine Christ. Over and over again Ephesians 1:4 came to my mind. Oh! He saved me and brought me from the other side of the world to be part of the Body. Verse after verse came pouring out. Verses like Acts 17:24 and 25 were so profound. Acts 13:1 clearly showed me that the early believers did not stand upon any other name but took the ground of locality.

Straight after meeting the believers in the local church I got a chance to hear Witness Lee speak; and his speaking was altogether out of the natural realm. His speaking touched me deeply. During these times again and again I had the feeling that the Lord had brought me to my appointed place. Daily I grew in the Word by having morning revival and got a deeper appreciation for the Word. There was nothing outward in any of the meetings I attended. During my first Lord's day I was so happy not to be a spectator while someone else spoke. We were all able to function and speak something about what we enjoyed from the Word. This deeply impressed me further. After these wonderful experience, defaming persecutors came but praise the Lord, the more persecutions came the more convinced I was that this was the right place. The enemy is out to frustrate and destroy the Body (2 Timothy 3:12). The Lord wants to recover the Church and restore the functioning of all the believers.

Praise the Lord! I cannot fully explain my feelings today. It has been 6 years since I first came in contact with the local church and my Lord Jesus has become more precious to me than ever before.