March 3rd, 1991                                           "The Spirit of Understanding"                                           Bro. Joe Daniel

Isaiah 11: 1& 2

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD" The spirit of understanding means the sensitiveness of God. Lack of understanding is a very serious thing. I have been wondering about my own life. When you have the Spirit of God actively helping you, you are able to see certain things which normally it is impossible to see. Some of you are not even able to sense the spiritual well-being of the people living close to you. That is very sad. I like to see the glasses in a prayer hall clean. I gave a young man charge to clean these glasses. I did not have the understanding to watch his life, if it was also transparent as glass. What a failure! Christian life should be clear like this glass with nothing to hide. So the Bible says the spirit of understanding was upon our Lord. Do you see that? The spirit of understanding! When you have the spirit of understanding you will also understand the difficulties of others. You will be sensitive about oneness of spirit. Ordinary people will not have such an understanding. You know our old workmen who used to pull heavy road-rollers over the road -- they would call in a chant "yelaelo ilasa" as they worked, so that they would pull together. People who are known to be praying people do not have such understanding. "I am in this place, I have to pull together with others in the work. I cannot be like those men who turned away from battle, when Gideon selected his people." People seem to think of the Lord’s work, "It is all easy, I will do it." What is easy? Yesterday, I waited for the Calcutta Mail from 4:45 A.M. to 11 A.M. If you are going to look for what is convenient, you cannot do much.

One of the disadvantages of stationary life is that we lose flexibility and adaptability. It will mean a lack of understanding. A small team of our brothers are now going to attend to the prayer hall construction. If there is understanding among you more of you will come and partake in the work. Why are we building this? For God! How many years, we fought with the Government for a withheld permit! I do not know how many visits Dr.Paul and Brother Chakravarti made to the Secretariat and the M.M.D.A. But some of you keep to the background. You feel you are not in the battle. But you are! When you fall, all of us fall. When one family falls, all of us fall. We do not seem to realise that. How did Jesus Christ grieve even for Judas Iscariot? "It would have been better, if that man had not been born." Yes we must grieve for those who are dishonouring God. When we honour the Lord, we know the Lord honours us. But it were a sad thing if we just love honour. Somehow in Christian life we can gradually become those who like to be acknowledged. You can feel no body knows the work that some of you are doing for the Lord. One of my sons has to go with "Christ is Victor" magazines to Canada after a whole day’s work. Some of you may think life means a lot of leisure and ease. No, it means many hours of work for the Lord. From Detroit to Canada you have to cross a big bridge paying a toll. He puts the magazines in the university rack in Windsor. A young man from Kenya was reading these magazines. He was wondering who was putting these magazines on the rack. One day he saw my son. He talked with him and John invited him to the meetings in Canada and to the retreat in Detroit. That young man was stirred. He had finished his course and it was time to leave for his own country. He is a Geologist in the Government of Kenya. I wrote to him and said, "Gather some people and arrange for meetings there." This boy Danny of Kenya who was touched wrote a miserable letter to me. "Without giving bribes I cannot get a job here." I said, "We should preach righteousness there." Two young men-- one unemployed and another, how much would their influence achieve? If we are all of one heart, yes, we can achieve great things. When I preached in Australia, a woman came to see me. She said, "We spent our life in Nairobi. We received the President of Kenya as a boy in our mission. Go and meet him and preach there." Preaching the gospel requires a lot of united effort. Our work schedule is very heavy. We are finding it very hard. But when we work with unity of spirit you may open a whole country to the gospel. One day after my son was coming back after his work with the magazines, the Customs official questioned him, "Why did you go to Canada? What did you buy there?" "I went to the university with magazines." "You must be joking," he said. My son replied, "I am not joking." The officer replied, "God bless you, my son."

Yes, we have to go with the gospel spending money and time. If we have men who are willing we can reach the whole world. We must reach out with faith. We are in need of such faith. Now in Australia also "Christ is Victor" is being printed: Canada, Australia and London have three different formats. Rodney works on a Parking lot, cleaning, washing and arranging the cars. Why? He wants to work only four hours and spend rest of his time for the gospel. He is of course a man who worked in a bank and his father was one of the top men in one of the biggest companies in Australia. Rodney has been doing this work for four or five years now, using the rest of the time to meet young people with the gospel. Faith and the spirit of understanding! How did Jesus go across the sea to the place of the Gadarenes? What a prophetic understanding! If we have good understanding, we will see great things. Otherwise all will be like a hum-drum drudgery. God can use anyone of you. God uses foolish people to confound the wise. In a vast country like Australia how amazing to meet one woman, the woman who took care of the President of Kenya! How amazing! Let us see the Spirit of God giving us more understanding as we do His work.