“There is Only One Body” …. and one Spirit. And this includes the hope of your calling!

We get the first part. There is only one body of Christ. The struggle many of us have had is who, is in that Body; who’s a member of it, and who is not.

I’m not sure where so many found the idea that we have the authority to decide that. At this moment, I hear the words of Jesus saying, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Sometimes you don’t know ahead of time what you are to speak; you just follow the Spirit. It never was intended that there be any schism in this church He said he was going to build.

It wasn’t meant that one group would pull away from the rest and form their own kind of fellowship. The apostles truly warned about that; but it happened. This denying fellowship to others who believe in the same Jesus, wasn’t meant to be.

“Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit.”

We once knew what the coming together of God’s people could do. It was a cord that truly could not be broken.

Satan is smart; contrary to some doctrines, he was created that way. There were all kinds of ways he had figured out, how he could break that unity.

We need to stop a spirit just now, that says we shouldn’t talk that way. But there is a phase that comes down through the ages saying, “We are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)

There were so many who wanted to come to the knowledge of the truth, but we hindered them. If they did not agree with all that we required, they could not be in that Body.

There is indeed a depth in the Spirit that many can and do obtain. But did we ever understand the hundred fold, the sixty and even the thirty; some producing less and some producing more.

It seems clear to me, that those who did not bring forth the one hundred fold, were not discarded or isolated from the rest.

“The Bond of Peace”

Do we know what that really is?

Is it celebrated even now, that peace, is a fruit of the Spirit. It’s listed after love and joy.

Was it not the Holy Ghost who caused us to bond together in days of yore. We drove miles and miles to go to each others churches; to support and to lift one another up.

Those who pulled away from this kind of spiritual bond and this kind of peace, were not approved.

Other than at special meetings and conferences, how much time did we spend studying the gifts of the Spirit? And how much were they demonstrated among us at the local level?

Just how often were they encouraged; lifting up those who actually had them?

Did we understand, that to suppress those who were called and ordained by God, those things “set in the church,” would leave the Body undernourished and weak?

Diverting from the original instructions and the plans of the Spirit, caused us to be under-developed; thwarting potential.

At this moment, people are being killed because of their belief in Jesus Christ. How could it be, that some would yet still think these are not members of His body?

In the days ahead, we will be forced to know people through the Spirit. If many of us continue to deny Christ in people, we will surely be in for much more correction, from the real head of the Church.

Will the Church return to it’s full power, or progress to its intended fullness?

Yes! But, the spots and wrinkles, will have to go.

 

~ Robert Blackburn

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Robert Blackburn

 

 

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