Unity of the body Andy

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Is unity and love an option?

By Andy

 

How can we build or do anything in Christianity without obedience to the following verses?

 

 Many of you know of my burden for the unity of the body of Christ. I have carried this burden for some 40 years. I have wept and have been in pain for the unity of His body. I feel the body of Christ need to return back to its land and its original kingdom declared by the King Himself. I have cried out for years and it has only fallen on deaf ears. Each has been caught up in their own revelation through their leadership. True apostolic ministry is to bring us into the unity of the faith. How can apostles who do not have the unity of faith bring the body of Christ into the unity of faith? How can leadership build the body of Christ if they do not build on one body… His? How can leadership believe they are Christ’s leaders if they don’t have Christ’s heart?

I don’t give a ditty of their wonderful personalities and teachings, it is destructive if they don’t follow Jesus and obey His command for love and unity. They are at most only feeding themselves and “their” ministries.

 

Let us relook and John 17.

 

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. and the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26, NKJV

 

Who are we that divide the body of Christ? It matters little how deep and inspiring our teachings or how accurate the books we have written or how dynamic the sermons we have preached; if we don’t have love and unity, we have nothing.

 

Important facts of John 17 are:

1. The prayer is not just for the apostles, but to all who believe. (This command clearly is for us)
2. We are to be one (equally as one) as Jesus and the Father are one. (no lip-service unity.)
3. Jesus is to be in us and we are to be in Him. (That producing in us what it produced in Jesus)
4. We are to experience His glory. (His power and presence should be evident to the world around us.)
5. He has declared to us His name. (There should be no substitutes and renaming of anything we do: no need for denomination, streams or network names and titles)
6. We are to have the love that was in Jesus for the Father. (We should be full of compassion and zealous to fulfill His will and commandments.)
7. All of this is so the world would know that the Father sent Jesus. (Why should the Father draw people to “our” organizations when we deny His love and unity?)

What would be the consequence to deny the above words of Jesus’ prayer? Can we successfully do any building within the body of Christ without following the heart of Jesus’ prayer? All that we have done and are doing matters little if we are not the answer to that prayer. I don’t understand how we could be a Christian or leader without these words being the authority and the utmost motivation of our hearts. How can we deny the prayer of Jesus and still be Christian?

 

I think of the letter Paul sent to the church at Ephesus:

 

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.”  Eph 1:15-20

 

And then the letter Jesus sent to Ephesus through John:

 

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. (What great attributes, who among us have even these qualities) Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.” Rev 2:1-5

 

Was this an idle threat? Where is Ephesus today? Are they not were all the great moves in the past are? Have we been so short sighted building on sinking sand? Have we been so egotistical to believe that we have found the “cutting edge” revelation and then to think that we have truly and humbly represented the cry of His heart? Unity stands as a threat to all we have done, built and established. To accept unity is humbling, painful and it will openly and honestly cause us to deny what we have built on some segment of scripture or some isolated revelation of some man.

God hates our segregation, our isolation, and our divisions that we have constructed. There is only one way we can get out of this quagmire: to love Him more than any other: our apostles, our leaders, our network and our own lives. If we don’t, His judgment will fall on us and shake all those things that our not built on Him: the chief corner stone and foundation of our faith. 

 

I have read many great articles on the internet, and many books on the house church movement. Many of these books and articles point out the deception within the institutional church system and the areas where they lack concerning the scriptures and the practices of the early church. But really, what does it matter if our labor is not founded on first love and the unity of the body of Christ? Do we even know to repent? We are all guilty of a greater offense if we think we are part of a restoration movement while ignoring Jesus’ prayer. We are denying and therefore destroying parts of the body for the sake of our “own” movement or our beliefs or leadership.

 

In most cases the leadership maintains and supports this offensive behavior that directs itself directly to the offense of the heart of Jesus in support of their “own click.” If they don’t think they have not developed a “click,” watch their fruit and how they conduct their business: they have their own conventions; they support their own leaders rather than local leaders and other movements (in this the house church movement is innocent). They have their own apostles, prophets, teachers, elders and evangelist and staff, which ministry was intended by scripture to be the fruit and outcome of the universal church and unity, and not to support their own movement. My relationships with other leaders in the past 40 years has been shallow and in some cases offensive to say the least. We have protected our “own” congregations and movements with a death grip. We have failed to give back what God has permitted us to oversee… we thought it was ours. By this dividing of the body of Christ, the Lord will and has withheld much revelation and power. There cannot be a complete revelation without the complete body.

 

I don’t often talk this way, but I am convinced if the leadership does not hear the cry of Jesus in these days, he is going to remove them to give his anointing to a more faithful leadership. I remember when I was talking to a man from China some years ago and he was describing the work there. He was a pastor and was sent to prison for 30 years, he felt with all the pastors removed that the church would dry up and wither away. When he was released from prison, he found a church more powerful, growing and full of life. He didn’t understand how this could be. But many told him that when all the leadership was removed the saints came together in unity: without a denominational name, without a building, without a preacher, and in many cases without a bible. The came together to worship as one… it was there that the power of God met them.

 

Let us be an answer to the prayer of Jesus: love, unity, His name, His glory and for the sake of a lost world. It matters little of our shallow revelations that maintains our isolationism. If we don’t have love and are not one, Jesus will remove our lampstand and we will no longer be a part of His body. I am fully convinced that it was not a idle by Jesus to the church of Ephesus, but a promise to all those who deny Him and His place as head over His body.

Let no man or movement get between Christ and His body.

 

[katbr...@gmail.com]

I sent this to a bunch of people earlier. Here is what I see.

Psa 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy
and truth shall go before thy face.

Psa 85:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace
have kissed each other.

Mercy/peace>unity; righteousness/truth>pure doctrine

So far, the Church is split between these. We want unity so we
sacrifice pure doctrine. We want pure doctrine, so we sacrifice unity.

Between us all we have tried or experienced every thing they have got
out there. This is not possible to achieve by self effort. I see no
other alternative but to throw up our hands and beg God for mercy. (But
that is what He wanted all along.) No more striving, only death to self
and alive to Him. Kill us, O Lord and make us alive in You.

[hotmail]

Very good. I got an email from someone that said the same thing but from a
slightly different position. He said, "doctrine doesn't separate, but
pride." Isn't that true? brokenness, humility, are the forerunners of peace,
righteousness, mercy, etc.
When we come to the Lord as those early disciples in the upper room,
stripped of all our abilities and totally dependant on His, we are
candidates for His presence.
Andy