Becoming the Body of Christ

Becoming the Body of Christ

Wherever we go today, there is going to be a core of oneness, and it's created in the body of Christ to hold us together. And whenever we're doing, wherever we are, however we're ministering, we focus on not being divided. What has God called you to do individually? There will be no power in that ministry except through that oneness of the whole body that brings about that power. There is no strength or anointing in division. We gain nothing through division.

Oneness is a submission, a humbling for ourselves before the Lord. Wouldn't you say, Deb, that human nature is basically competitive?

I don't care how smart you are, it's built around competition, right. You've got to be better than somebody else. The competition that we experience every day is causing division. We can't have division. We can't have competitiveness. Who's greater? And we know the scriptures cover that. And look at the disciples. Was James and John were fighting over which side of Christ. Who's gonna be on the left who's gonna be on the right? You go to the day of Pentecost , what happened in the upper room when they gathered there was a unity!

A oneness in one accord . It's that one accord that made things work.

Do you think that the ability to lose the competitiveness , and again the openness, we'll put it this way, the openness to division is resident in the human nature. I don't think it is. I don't think human nature can change itself. Human nature has no ability to come into oneness on its own. And this is where the cross of Christ comes in, because without the cross of Christ in our lives, and the dying out to the human nature, there will always be division. There'll always be competitiveness, because there's always a human nature.

So even though many may not like to talk about the death process that we have to go through, it's the only way we're going to come into what we're talking about in oneness and unity. The human race has attempted many different ways. In the city of Babel they came about as close as you can come to being one , and have unity, and yet because they were not including the presence of God into what they were doing, God actually came down and destroyed what unity, and oneness they had. Just look today in the church. There are so many schisms, and divisions, and walls, and you name it to keep us divided.

Denominationalism is obviously one example.

How do we solve that? Well, we don't on a human level.

There is something in human nature that always wants to compete, wants to up, you know, what the other person said. They want to, to bring more of a light into it, more understanding. That's what has to die. That's what eliminates oneness. Jesus said, unless you take up your cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. And there's something about. Paul, when he said, “I die daily.” There's an interaction that we must engage in, in order to fulfill that word, and Paul nailed it. I die daily. I take up my cross in a daily matter and follow the Lord. It's His will in me that's enabling me to have a will to be able to do that.

Because we have that initial experience that we can take the cross daily, and put it into action. The cross experience being a very positive thing in our lives, we do it daily.

This whole thing of division has to do with first, our openness to it, in our nature, and two, recognizing that there is an enemy out there. There are spirits of division, and they're a real threat. And they're always lurking, trying to find an inroad to the body of Christ. And unless there's a dedication and an awareness and a drive for oneness, we fall into the trap pretty easily.

So is there a practical way that we can walk every day with an awareness? In our being that as we go through our day and we have conversations with people, we run into those that we would have personality conflicts with them on a natural level. Is there a way , and the commitment dedication of our heart that when somebody presents something to us that we either don't understand or disagree with, can we learn to put those things on a spiritual shelf? Not react with our mouth , and hold what would other be a reaction of disagreement. I don't see where disagreement, and voicing it solves anything, because my relationship with the Lord, and my walk with God is all based on revelation, not on human understanding and reason. So where people go out, and they hash over scriptures or hash over whatever, not even scriptures but just topics, trying to prove their point, and that they're right.

And even if they do prove their point, did that actually change the other person's heart? My answer would be – no. It did not change their heart. Only the Lord can change your heart. Only a meeting with the Lord can change your heart. What's our response to be?

Well, I think that our response is to be, we don't respond except in love, and we pray for them. We don't say anything to them in reaction to them. We don't agree with them. We don't disagree with them. We say nothing to them, but we just love them. And we hold them in before the Lord and let the Lord show them. Let the Lord reveal to them what, what is right and what's not correct. . But just making sure that our spirits are right, and then making sure that we love them We pray for them, and we hold them before the Lord.

The first two commandments in the word: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy strength with all thy mind” And then the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself . And Jesus put it this way - the greatest among you will be the one who serves, not the one that makes issues, but the one that's always concerned about the sheep.

And every one of us are sheep, and every one of us are shepherds. That's what the body's made up of. So we love the sheep, right. And because we love the sheep, we lay down our lives. In other words, we don't make a point. We don't get into a discussion or argument. Arguments don't get you anywhere. And so you avoid that by laying down your life and do what you just said. You don't make an issue. You love them. You be quiet. You don't confirm, and you don't deny. You just simply love.

I like all the Scriptures that were talking about one of my favorites is Ephesians 4:15 and 16, but speaking the truth in love. (Now, here's a key) we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who was the head, even Christ from whom, the whole body being fitted, and held together.

, The key word we are to grow up . When we speak the truth in love, there's a growth process. It's not choosing sides. It's speaking the truth in love. We're going to continue speaking the truth in love.