July 2020 | Page 10
right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to
God” (Act 4:19). Their oneness displayed the
power of the Holy Spirit that their enemies could
not resist. That was the real witness of their unity
after they received the Holy Spirit. Oneness that
the Holy Spirit brings is the power to face any
adversity. An old axiom goes, “United we stand;
divided we fall.”
The phrase in the oft repeated benediction,
“Fellowship of the Holy Spirit” is belittled. In fact,
it carries a very important sense of unity of the
Spirit (Eph 4:1-6).This benediction is pronounced
when we depart from a place of gathering. It
signifies that we continue to enjoy the fellowship
with one another in the Spirit. Wherever we are,
we can have fellowship in the Spirit through
prayer, exhortation, encouragement, comfort,
counsel and correction. In the wake of
Coronavirus, we have learnt this lesson of having
such fellowship. We started using Phone calls,
SMS, on-line media more than ever to fellowship
with others.
During the days of the Apostle Paul, there
were no such facilities. He was in lockdown many
a time. During those times, although he couldn't
preach, he was having fellowship in the Spirit with
saints. He prayed for them and communicated
with them by letter. These letters have become a
great blessing to the body of Christ. A blessing in
disguise! The virus has brought 'Social
Distancing', but the Holy Spirit brought a closer
fellowship among the believers through social
media which otherwise will not be accepted by
conservatives! We have learnt this lesson, the
hard way. This is the method of fellowship
followed in countries where there is no freedom of
religion. Praise God for the Holy Spirit who brings
the unity of the Spirit for the Body of Christ (Eph
4:3-6).
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a PPE. When we accepted Christ as personal
Savior, God has given us a gift. That is the robe of
righteousness (Isa 61:10). God covers us with His
holiness and righteousness. When we want to
preach the Gospel to the world, there is always a
danger of the sin virus infecting us. Corruption,
violence, sex perversions, idolatry etc., can infect
us. We need to guard ourselves from all evils of the
world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the
pride of life which are a kind of viruses that can
catch us unawares! As a Church, we have failed to
influence the world because of the sin which is
inside the Church. There are disunity, groupism,
partiality, enmity, hatred, power laundering,
greed, covetousness, grabbing church properties,
court cases and so on. Because of this, we become
a stumbling block to others. People who hear the
Gospel from us should see our holy life and our
righteous acts.
That is why Jesus prayed, “I do not pray that
you should, take them out of the world, but that
You should keep them from the evil one. They are
not of the world just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As
you sent me into the world, I also send them into
the world. And for their sake I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified by the truth” ( Jn
17:15-19).
3) Passionate Preaching (Matt 28:18-20;
Mk 16:15)
I would like to bring to light two things as to
how the medical staff serve the COVID-19
patients. First of all, they take care of themselves.
They have their Personal Protective
Equipment(PPE) to cover themselves completely.
It has a lesson for us who venture out to rescue
the perishing souls with the Gospel. We also have
Secondly I would like to say that the medical
staff serve with a great sacrifice. In this hour of
crisis, they sacrifice their family and give their
time, skill, strength, etc., The Lord has given
each of us a great salvation and also gifts and
talents. How much time do we as Christians, give
for the Lord and how much time do we give for our