God does not recruit you because of your abilities; He does it because of His ability to use you despite of your inabilities. So, all are welcome to join this corporation of service set-up by God. God does not need your resume, you need to look at God’s resume and make a choice, whom do you wish to join. God does not look at your outward appearance; He looks at your heart.

Look at the people God chose:

Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses had a stuttering problem (Moses stuttered), Abraham was morally weak, Isaac was quiet, shy and passive, Rahab was a prostitute, Jehojapath was the exiled son of a prostitute, David was a adulterer and a murderer, Gideon was from a small tribe and was afraid, Samson had long hair and women were his weakness, she was just a little maid servant who helped in Naman’s healing, Rahab was a prostitute, Ruth was a widow, Jeremiah and Timothy were too young, David was an adulterer and a murderer, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran from God, Naomi & Ruth were widows, Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, Matthew was a tax collector, Lazarus was sick and had died, The little boy had only limited food, Saul was a persecutor of Christians, Peter denied he knew Jesus 3 times, Dorcas was dead.

The fact that we are in this vertical of God’s plan is not because of our resume, looks, or works, but it’s because of his ability to use us. That is what makes our Guru, our boss, the greatest leader ever in the history of the world.

Do not accept the lies that spiritual leaders today tell you. They lie to you when they say that you need to be without blemish in order to serve God. Do not believe this lie. Because while we were yet sinners Jesus died for us. He chose us while we were sinners. This does not mean we must continue in sin. Because when we receive salvation in Jesus Christ, all our sins are washed away. Jesus does not remember them. But spiritual leaders keep on reminding us of our past. I have been in my own place of worship asked to stop playing the guitar because I had long hair and had a certain ‘rock’ style posture. I was very broken at that time. But God still used me and the skills He had given to me. I have been told-off many times saying that I was too young to dream for the ministry God chose me. But God kept me going. So, in this vertical, remember, it is God who chooses you. Not you yourself, nor the people around you. Once that is clear, then it becomes easier to stay focused on the goals.

Remember God does not choose His recruits by the color of your skin, nationality, caste, creed, race, language, intelligent quotient, health, age or gender. God chooses you because you are fearfully and wonderfully made by His own hands in His own image.

So do not step-back. Allow God to recruit you. There is enough room in God’s corporation.

So, now that you are in this great corporation of God. You need to stay focused on the goal set ahead by God alone. God’s vertical plan is to save mankind spiritually and physically and restore them back to their heavenly destiny. While other businesses cater to the consumer needs of people, God is interested in the soul. Because where your soul is there your heart will be, where your heart is there your want will be, and where your want is there will be business. So God’s work has the ability to change the course of world economics.

The horizontal and the vertical of our existence.

We are in the world but not of the world. The horizontal and the vertical of our existence. Your recruitment in the vertical of God’s plan is useless without a horizontal. Faith is the vertical part and action is the horizontal part. Faith without action is dead. The vertical experience with God has to translate into a horizontal expression. The master gave one 5 coins, one 2 coins and the third 1 coin and left on a journey. When he returned he asked for an account. The one who had 5 invested, took the risk and doubled the amount. The one who received 2 also did the same. They both were rewarded. But the one who had just 1 did nothing about it. He was only exited that the master had given him 1 coin and he treasured it and returned it to the master. The master took that 1 coin and also fired him for not being profitable. The two who took the risk and invested and doubled their investments, translated the vertical trust of their master into a horizontal experience. And thus made a profit for their master. Abraham had a wonderful vertical call, which he translated into a horizontal action and he was called a Friend of God.

I move about in quiet a mix circle of young people who are artists and a few who work with some large multinational corporations. It is very interesting to see how exited they are about the verticals of their jobs. The sales executive at an Apple store almost sounds like Steve Jobs! The smile and the welcome by the staff across the Starbucks counter almost entices you to order a coffee. What happens around God’s recruits? Sadly, today most of these recruits are busy with church politics, managing properties, making money, and doing all those things that God detests. God says that He is sick and tired of our singing and worship. The greatest religion that God the Father honors is when we care for orphans and widows in their distress. Sadly today there are many such spiritual kingdoms in the form of churches and ministries who act like franchisees of God’s ministry. God’s plan has no franchisee. All these franchisees are a lie. Most of them are driven by human abilities and skills where ‘God’ is just a brand they use for an endorsement.

I often use this example when I am encouraging young people who are interested in service to the poor. If you are a vine, you will bear grapes. In its season. Jesus tells us that we only need to abide in the vine and when we abide in the vine we will ‘bear’ fruit. Note the word ‘bear’. Hence we only need to abide in the vine. Jesus is the vine.  There are many people today who are trying to ‘produce’ fruit! They are called hybrids. They use all kinds of methodology taught by the multinational corporations to produce more and more fruit. Sadly even churches have adopted these worldly methods. It is very simple. Our Guru is not complicated at all. We only need to remain in the vertical and the fruits will we will grow horizontally. Simple as that.

We are all aware of the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do). But that acronym is not complete without a WWJB (Where Would Jesus Be). It is very shortsighted to use the verse where it says where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them. Where was Jesus found when he walked the streets on this planet earth? He was with the prostitutes, with the tax collectors, with the Sadducees and the Pharisees whom he called a brood of vipers; most of his disciples did not even wash their hands before they ate food. Jesus was amongst the sick and the demon possessed people. He was with the hungry. He was in the cemetery. My question today is: where would Jesus be? I am sure He is there wherever there are prayer meetings and seminars and church services. But He is also with the poor, the needy, the sick, the needy, the red-light areas, the pubs, the bars, the gangs, and all the places where certain so called custodians of the faith would not want to be or not want to be seen. It was an honor for me to be invited to the House of Commons in the UK for my contributions towards a social change through the use of media in 2008. I was interviewed in the presence of hundreds of people by a British Parliamentarian. He spontaneously asked me “what is your vision for the church”. The Holy Spirit put these words in my mouth: “To see the love of God explode through the doors and the windows of the church”. 16 years later, I am prompted once again by the Holy Spirit to write this article in the corporate language of today and I paraphrase that answer of mine as follows: “My vision is to see the vertical relationship between the church (God’s chosen people) and God to explode Horizontally in this world.”

I am very fortunate to be born and brought-up in a devout Christian family. My father is a Baptist Pastor. My mother from the Salvation Army. I went to a Methodist Sundays School and grew-up with the poor people whom my parents served as social workers. From an early age I was blessed with musical skills and had a keen interest in theatre and films. I never had a guitar of my own. I learnt on a borrowed guitar. Many times tying-up broken strings and using them to make music. We never had a TV in our house until I turned 18 years of age because we could not afford it due to poor mission salaries. When the passion for creativity grew more and more stronger, I began to venture out into the world. Many friends of my parents warned them that I would soon go astray. But my parents had faith in the God they trusted. They knew that I had given my heart to Jesus and that Jesus would keep me on the right path. I entered competitions with my music, theatre and films and awards began pouring in. I also engaged myself in handling political publicity events during elections. It was a great experience to meet Mother Teresa once in Mumbai and at the same time sit with once-upon-a-time reformed criminal in his house writing election slogans for his political party. I was a part of a hard rock band while in college. I was never good in academics but engaged myself in a lot of theatre and film related activities. I won the Best Director Award in my first ever play at the hands of the legendary Indian Theatre personality Late Mr. Tom Alter. In the year 1992 the English Department of Wilson College released a budget of Rs. 25000/- Rupees (a huge amount at time) for a 35 cast one-act-drama on the crucifixion of Christ titled ‘The Trial”. The play swept away all the awards. In 1993 I did my first ever film on HIV & AIDS and then continued a wide range of short films and documentaries that brought many awards. I also produced a musical album in the year 2004 to give comfort to HIV & AIDS sufferers. I played the guitar for the local TV channel Doordarshan and also played for the band Concept Confusion (Indo-Western Fusion Band). I was able to teach guitar and film making to many along the way. Many of them are doing very well in the entertainment industry today. 20 years ago, I joined IMCARES, an organization that works amongst the poorest of the poor in Mumbai as a volunteer and then as a full time Communications Officer and later as a Project Manager for its HIV & AIDS project. I still serve with IMCARES as its CEO today. I have been a youth pastor at my church The Bombay Baptist Hindi Service for about 3 years before God led me to concentrate more on the ministry to the poor and my creative skills.

The reason I have written so much about myself is not to speak about what I have done. But to explain how God has been gracious to me throughout this journey. The journey has been exiting and at the same time full of great challenges, pain and hurts. I have many times thought of giving-up and even had suicidal thoughts. But God’s grace and His vertical relationship kept me going. I have been through a decade where ‘art’ was not a career to choose from. The church looked at the arts and entertainment industry as a bunch of sinners who could lead their flocks astray. Ironically they still kept on using King David’s Psalms from the Holy Bible. Many Christian leaders almost pounced on me and said to me arts and entertainment and Christian Ministry cannot go together. I was almost termed as a ‘black-sheep’ in the church and young people were given a diktat to be away from me, least I encourage them in arts and entertainment.

I suffer from a rare and an acute condition called AnkyLosing spondalytis. It is an autoimmune condition and so there is no permanent medical known cure for this. I hardly sleep for 3-4 hours in the night for the last 20 years due to 24×7 pain. I used to often ask God “why Lord? On the one hand you chose me for your ministry and at the same time you want me to suffer”. He always said back to be “My grace is sufficient for you”. There were many people, including my parents who stood firmly by my side and encouraged me and prayed for me as I continued doing what God wanted me to do. Of all the people I have mentioned in this article, that God used, I think I have almost all the failures (in the sight of men) in me and so how much more is grace valuable to me! I will tell you truthfully, that while all the discouragement I have received in my walk with Christ came from people of God and the church, the real encouragement that made me go on came from those who did not know who Jesus is. The later could identify that I belonged to Jesus, but the church looked at my outward appearance and by my acquaintances.  I could be in a pub, a party full of alcoholics and drug addicts, sit amongst prostitutes and gangsters, but still be recognized as a follower of Christ. But the church and its leadership time and again fail to keep Jesus diktat ‘do not judge’. During one of a party of a Bollywood Editor, I was standing with my glass (do not judge what was in the glass) outside in the gallery another man came out and we began talking. We were simply discussing films. Suddenly in the middle of a conversation I asked him “are you a believer?” He was surprised and answered me “How did you know this?” “Well the aroma and the light of Christ cannot be hid” I replied. The next 20 minutes our conversation revolved around our vertical relationship and how it positively affects the horizontal surroundings. Then I asked him the same old stupid question “which church do you go to?” “Sir”, he said “I have found many fake people in the church, they are so judgmental, I love Jesus, I have a few friends in the film industry and we regularly meet for a Bible study and pray together, we do not want to be a part of any mainstream judgmental church”.  On another occasion I was with a very old school friend of mine who is now a very well known music director in the film industry. He was doing music for my film. After a month long regular meeting, it was the final hour when the music was done and we were having chai together he suddenly said “Tim, you know I am also a believer, I also have a gospel band which consists of many musicians from the music industry who are also believers and we often do outreach programs”. Wow! I said. WWJB????

No matter what you are, who you are, what you have, God will use you for His eternal purposes when your vertical is right. Unlike any CEO of any multinational corporation, God is very personal and approachable. Infact He lives within you. He does speak through pastors and leaders, but He speaks to you personally. He is your greatest friend. He is your greatest influence. He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to this world full of sin. Jesus obeyed His Father and left the throne of heaven and came down into this muck. Just to pick you and me up and restore that vertical relationship. He moved horizontally amongst the people. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, cured the lepers, he fed the hungry, he built the faith of His disciples, he confronted the law keepers and the custodians of the faith, he bore our sins, he died on the cross, he rose from the dead and that is why He is seated in the highest place.

Contrary to the world teachings today about careers, Jesus teaches us to go down. It is like a seesaw. the lower you go, the higher your scale. He became ‘zero’ and on the other hand God raised him up and gave him the highest name, there is no name above the name of Jesus. Our horizontal engagement asks for a lot to let go and remain focused. I dare not call it a sacrifice. Because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. No wonder from the Bible it is a known fact that most of the people He chose were those whom any multinational corporation would not even hire as a class IV employee.

So, stay stuck-in-it, keep the faith. Never never never give-up! Stay rooted in the vertical and your fruits will show in its season. In this challenging journey of faith sometimes you may even die, but God will raise you up just for the sake of the poor. It has happened to me. People have tried to kill my skills, my passion for the lord and His work. But each time in the worst of the bondage, he has rattled the earth and set me free and along with me all the other captives, just as in the case of John and Silas. Sometimes you may be so much isolated and people may label you as a ‘once-upon-a-time’ let the story of Dorcas from the Holy Bible encourage you. She used to weave garments for the poor. It was during this ministry, she falls sick dies and her body lies in state. All the beneficiaries lament her death. Peter is called. Peter asks everyone to go out. He enters the room where Dorca’s body is lying in state. He falls to his knees. Realigns his vertical and then horizontally says to her “Tabitha Get-up” and lo and behold Dorcas comes alive again.  He presented her to the disciples and especially to the widows she served. Her ministry was renewed!

So, My son, my daughter, my friend, get-up! And continue doing what God has chosen you to do.

Micah 6:8 also clearly talks about this vertical and horizontal. He has shown thee O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy  (both horizontal engagements) and to walk humbly with your God (a vertical engagement).

Be blessed! – Timothy Gaikwad (Maati) – 29th September 2017 – onboard flight 9W 9354