Reality #4 Part 14 God Speaks through The Church
Ephesians 4:15-16
"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Thomas's Story
Thomas had been saved in a refugee camp in Thailand. His life was so gloriously transformed that he wanted his Laotian people to know Jesus. He went all through his new community in Vancouver trying to lead his Laotian brothers to Christ. The first week Thomas led fifteen adults to the Lord. The next week he led eleven to the Lord, and he wept because he felt he was so unfaithful to the Lord. The church that Thomas had been attending decided to start a Laotian mission church and they called Thomas to be the Pastor. Two months after Thomas started he was invited to a meeting for ethnic pastors in St. Louis. Thomas took 18 of his Laotian friends with him to the meeting and during their return to Vancouver stopped in all the major cities of Canada. He found churches for the Laotian populations in those cities. Thomas then went back to Laos to plant churches and preach the Gospel. 133 members of His family came to know the Lord, and he started 4 mission churches. What was once one Laotian refugee, God turned into a whole nation being drawn to Himself!
When God honors your church by placing a new member in the body, ask God to show you what He is up to. Then share what you are sensing of God's activity. God speaks through the members of the body to help others know and understand God's assignment for their lives.
Parable of the Train tracks
Suppose the eye could say to the body, "Let us walk down these train tracks. The way is clear. Not a train in sight." So the body starts down the tracks. Then the ear says, "I hear a whistle coming from the other direction." The eye argues, "But nothing is on the track as far as I can see. Let's keep on walking." The body listens only to the eye and keeps on walking. Soon the ear says, "That whistle is getting louder and closer!" Then the feet say, "I feel the rumbling motion of a train coming. We better get our body off these tracks!" If this were your body, what would you do?
1. Would you try to ignore the conflict and hope it passed away?
2. Would you take a vote of all your body members and let the majority rule?
3. Would you trust your eye and keep on walking since your eyes have never let you down before?
No. You would get off the train tracks as soon as possible! Those may seem like silly questions to ask. God gave our bodies many different senses and parts. When each part does its job, the whole body works the way is should. In our physical bodies we do not take votes based on majority rule, ignore conflicting senses, nor choose to listen only to one sense and ignore the others. To live that way would be very dangerous.
Because the church is the body of Christ, it functions best when all members are able to share what they sense God wants the church to be and do. Members of a church cannot fully know God's will for their lives in the body apart from the body! A church also needs to hear the whole counsel of God through its members. Then it can proceed in confidence and in unity to do God's will.
The Body of Christ
One of the problems many evangelical churches face today is that they have so emphasized the doctrine of the priesthood of believers that they have lost their sense of corporate identity. What does that mean in simple words? Christians think they stand alone before God and that they are not accountable to anyone else, including the church.
Christians do have access to God through Christ as their one Mediator. God, however, created the church as His redemptive agent in the world. He has a purpose for the church. God places every member in a church to accomplish His redemptive purposes through that church.
A church is a body. It is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27)!!! Jesus Christ is present as Head of a local church (Ephesians 4:15), and every member is placed in the body as it pleased God (1 Corinthians 12:18). The Holy Spirit manifests Himself to every person for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). The whole body is fitted together by the Father. Members are enabled and equipped by the Holy Spirit to function where the Father has placed them in the body. The body then functions to build itself up into the Head, until every member comes to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). God made us mutually interdependent. We need each other. What one member lacks, others in the body can supply. Therefore, what God is doing in and through the body is essential to my knowing how to respond to Him. Where I see Him working in the body, I adjust and put my life there. In the church, I let God use me in any way He chooses to complete His work in each member. This was Paul's goal when he said, "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ." (Colossians 1:28). Paul was constantly requesting the believers to become vitally involved with his life and ministry. The effectiveness of Paul's ministry rested on them (Colossians 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:1,2; Ephesians 6:19).
Depending on God to speak through the Church
In the church, the need does not constitute the call. The need, however, is not to be ignored. Don't ever be afraid to let the body of believers assist you in knowing God's will. Sometimes God may speak through one person, but His Spirit convinces you that the message is from Him. Keep in mind, however, that one individual is not the church. In the final analysis, you are going to have to take all the counsel of people and go to God for the clear direction. What you will find is that a number of things begin to line up. What you are hearing from the Bible and prayer and circumstances and the church will begin to say the same thing. Then you can proceed with confidence. You may say to me, "You don't know my church. I can't depend on them to help me know God's will." Be careful. When you say that, you have said more about what you believe about God than what you believe about your church. You are saying, "Not even God can work through these people. He just is not powerful enough." You don't believe that in your mind, I don't think. But what you do says more about what you believe about God than what you say. Trust God to provide you counsel through other believers. Turn to them for counsel on major decisions. Listen attentively to anything the church has to say to you. Then let God confirm what His message is for you.
Sharing the Body
Often sharing what God is doing in your life may help someone else encounter God in a meaningful way. For instance, when someone was led to make a significant commitment to the Lord in one of our services, they were given an opportunity to share with the body. Sometimes that testimony prompted others to respond in a similar way. In this way God spoke through the church to other believers.
In Christ,
David
"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Thomas's Story
Thomas had been saved in a refugee camp in Thailand. His life was so gloriously transformed that he wanted his Laotian people to know Jesus. He went all through his new community in Vancouver trying to lead his Laotian brothers to Christ. The first week Thomas led fifteen adults to the Lord. The next week he led eleven to the Lord, and he wept because he felt he was so unfaithful to the Lord. The church that Thomas had been attending decided to start a Laotian mission church and they called Thomas to be the Pastor. Two months after Thomas started he was invited to a meeting for ethnic pastors in St. Louis. Thomas took 18 of his Laotian friends with him to the meeting and during their return to Vancouver stopped in all the major cities of Canada. He found churches for the Laotian populations in those cities. Thomas then went back to Laos to plant churches and preach the Gospel. 133 members of His family came to know the Lord, and he started 4 mission churches. What was once one Laotian refugee, God turned into a whole nation being drawn to Himself!
When God honors your church by placing a new member in the body, ask God to show you what He is up to. Then share what you are sensing of God's activity. God speaks through the members of the body to help others know and understand God's assignment for their lives.
Parable of the Train tracks
Suppose the eye could say to the body, "Let us walk down these train tracks. The way is clear. Not a train in sight." So the body starts down the tracks. Then the ear says, "I hear a whistle coming from the other direction." The eye argues, "But nothing is on the track as far as I can see. Let's keep on walking." The body listens only to the eye and keeps on walking. Soon the ear says, "That whistle is getting louder and closer!" Then the feet say, "I feel the rumbling motion of a train coming. We better get our body off these tracks!" If this were your body, what would you do?
1. Would you try to ignore the conflict and hope it passed away?
2. Would you take a vote of all your body members and let the majority rule?
3. Would you trust your eye and keep on walking since your eyes have never let you down before?
No. You would get off the train tracks as soon as possible! Those may seem like silly questions to ask. God gave our bodies many different senses and parts. When each part does its job, the whole body works the way is should. In our physical bodies we do not take votes based on majority rule, ignore conflicting senses, nor choose to listen only to one sense and ignore the others. To live that way would be very dangerous.
Because the church is the body of Christ, it functions best when all members are able to share what they sense God wants the church to be and do. Members of a church cannot fully know God's will for their lives in the body apart from the body! A church also needs to hear the whole counsel of God through its members. Then it can proceed in confidence and in unity to do God's will.
The Body of Christ
One of the problems many evangelical churches face today is that they have so emphasized the doctrine of the priesthood of believers that they have lost their sense of corporate identity. What does that mean in simple words? Christians think they stand alone before God and that they are not accountable to anyone else, including the church.
Christians do have access to God through Christ as their one Mediator. God, however, created the church as His redemptive agent in the world. He has a purpose for the church. God places every member in a church to accomplish His redemptive purposes through that church.
A church is a body. It is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27)!!! Jesus Christ is present as Head of a local church (Ephesians 4:15), and every member is placed in the body as it pleased God (1 Corinthians 12:18). The Holy Spirit manifests Himself to every person for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). The whole body is fitted together by the Father. Members are enabled and equipped by the Holy Spirit to function where the Father has placed them in the body. The body then functions to build itself up into the Head, until every member comes to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). God made us mutually interdependent. We need each other. What one member lacks, others in the body can supply. Therefore, what God is doing in and through the body is essential to my knowing how to respond to Him. Where I see Him working in the body, I adjust and put my life there. In the church, I let God use me in any way He chooses to complete His work in each member. This was Paul's goal when he said, "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ." (Colossians 1:28). Paul was constantly requesting the believers to become vitally involved with his life and ministry. The effectiveness of Paul's ministry rested on them (Colossians 4:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:1,2; Ephesians 6:19).
Depending on God to speak through the Church
In the church, the need does not constitute the call. The need, however, is not to be ignored. Don't ever be afraid to let the body of believers assist you in knowing God's will. Sometimes God may speak through one person, but His Spirit convinces you that the message is from Him. Keep in mind, however, that one individual is not the church. In the final analysis, you are going to have to take all the counsel of people and go to God for the clear direction. What you will find is that a number of things begin to line up. What you are hearing from the Bible and prayer and circumstances and the church will begin to say the same thing. Then you can proceed with confidence. You may say to me, "You don't know my church. I can't depend on them to help me know God's will." Be careful. When you say that, you have said more about what you believe about God than what you believe about your church. You are saying, "Not even God can work through these people. He just is not powerful enough." You don't believe that in your mind, I don't think. But what you do says more about what you believe about God than what you say. Trust God to provide you counsel through other believers. Turn to them for counsel on major decisions. Listen attentively to anything the church has to say to you. Then let God confirm what His message is for you.
Sharing the Body
Often sharing what God is doing in your life may help someone else encounter God in a meaningful way. For instance, when someone was led to make a significant commitment to the Lord in one of our services, they were given an opportunity to share with the body. Sometimes that testimony prompted others to respond in a similar way. In this way God spoke through the church to other believers.
In Christ,
David
posted by Mark 1:17 at 2:01 PM
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