“At the beginning of the Bible, it becomes clear that God started with the male. That concept helps us to clarify our role as males. If you’re looking for an order, this is already an order in the system of God,” said Pr Chandran Gopalan, previously from SIBKL, who came to preach in the Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship under Desmond Frank in Damansara Jaya.
He realized that many young people do not know the Truth because they do not read the Word of God. And this Truth starts in Genesis 2 when God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (verse 18)
The order started with the Triune council of the Godhead said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen 1:26) God created Adam first, and then Eve.
In the redemptive plan, this order is clearly expressed when Jesus Christ disrobed Himself of Divinity and took on humanity as a baby in a lowly abode of animals, in submission to His Father.
Relating to Jesus Christ who was born in a manger, Pr Chandran knew the meaning of poverty because he was given away for adoption due to poverty.
“I was born poor and being given away brings in a spirit of rejection. We who are given away have no sense of belonging,” said Pr Chandran recalling how a couple took him in, only to return him to his biological parents later within the year as the wife conceived. While this was a joyous reconciliation, Pr Chandran had to deal with a second rejection from his adopted parents.
“We may all believe that we are all Christians here but my… we have lots of issues to deal with. And some of us are not dealing with it,” said Pr Chandran.
This painful rejection was buried deep in his subconscious mind and was only revealed during ministry prayer, at the age of 50. He saw a vision of himself standing in loneliness, looking out through the window.
“I am a pastor, yet I have this issue. So, the fact that I am sharing this does not mean that the speaker at the pulpit does not have these issues. We all have issues. But to overcome it, we need to take steps or it will happen over and over again,” said Pr Chandran.
Due to his inferiority complex, his wife took on more of the leadership role in their early marriage years. But according to the Bible, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and took a rib out of him to make Eve. And finally, He brought her to Adam. (Gen 2:21-22) This completing and complementing oneness is the missing piece of this Truth puzzle.
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (Gen 2:21-22)
The Scripture continued saying, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen 2:24)
“The world is messed up because the movies and media tell us a different story and we start believing and living according to them. But as a child of God, we need to believe in His Word, the Truth,” said Pr Chandran.
The turning point came when Pr Chandran turned 37 years old. His wife became really sick and she could only sleep for two hours though all the doctors affirmed her of her health. They realized the sickness was a spiritual kind and not a physical kind.
“We must spend time in knowing the God we serve by reading first-hand for ourselves the Word of God. The Spirit of God will help us discern His Truth as we diligently seek Truth. It’s important to know Him because all of us are hearing second-hand information from the pastors and speakers.
“But if we read the Bible, we start to know that God who created us, has already put an order in place. So many of us who are males, need to accept this order of headship and work with our wives to understand this Truth, in a honouring way,” said Pr Chandran.
Jesus only came for one purpose and that is to die for His bride, the church. And we as males, the married men, are called to die for our respective bride as well, who is our wife.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph 5:25)
“So, what makes you think she is below or inferior to you? Scripture say that wives are to submit to their husband. And if you love your wife to the extent that you will die for her, which wife does not want to submit to you?
“But that is the difficult part. It does not mean that I am doing this every day, but the speaker needs to preach God’s standard. We are trying to achieve it and none of us are perfect. That is why it is good to fellowship with each other to support each other,” said Pr Chandran.
Knowing the Truth by reading God’s Word, Pr Chandran knew that his role is to love his wife to the extent of being willing to die for her. And this journey began when his wife fell sick.
At that time, Pr Chandran was the sales director in NCR, earning more than RM400,000 a year and leading a team of 30 people. It was the busiest time of his life, yet that was the time he decided to stay close to his wife and pursued God.
“There was a lot of work to do. Yet, that does not mean that when we are successful in our career, we do the work that produces income alone and our wives take care of the house,” said Pr Chandran.
Pr Chandran and his wife began to actively take part in the Vernon Falls ministry as students and volunteers. There, they personally encountered God as they witnessed the miraculous healings of the lame and the blind. They started growing in the Word of God and his wife had a miraculous complete healing seven months later!
“If I were to only know the Bible through a pastor or a speaker, it would take a few hundred years to know God holistically because only a few verses are plucked out and shared in a sermon,” said Pr Chandran.
Through the Word, once we know our place and experience the agape or unconditional love coming from God, we start to love our wives like how Christ love the church.
“In the marketplace, I intentionally talk about my wife so that the world knows that I am married. In this world, we are called to be the salt and light, the influencer, and not the other way round,” said Pr Chandran.
He reminded the wives as well to give grace to their respective husband in being transformed by God. This is because a stronghold takes longer than a day to break. Small improvements over a longer period of measurement will encourage a wife who is patient. And this works both ways! Small improvements should be celebrated.
Also, the journey in spiritual breakthrough is not about attaining perfection because only God is perfect! Even though Pr Chandran had a breakthrough eight years ago, his stronghold would still manifest during challenging circumstances such as during Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, and Tiredness, also known as the acronym ‘HALT’ shared by Pastor Philip Lyn before.
He ended with a sincere hope that all men would pick up the Bible to read the Word of God, The truth that will set their lives right and help them go through every problem and issue. (John 8:31-32)
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)
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