We the Many are One Body
October 17, 2014
We the Many are One Body
Romans 12:4-8
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, [let us wait] on [our] ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, [let him do it] with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
It is important that we all realize our importance to the body of Christ. Many of us Christians, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not, really don’t see ourselves in ministry and service to the body of Christ. We quickly look to all of our faults and failures and think how could God ever use someone like me. If we all thought that, the body of Christ would quickly disintegrate and you definitely wouldn’t be reading this writing right now. We don’t serve the Lord because we are so good or better than anybody else. We serve because He is so good and it is His sufficiency. It is the gifts and abilities He has placed in each one of us that enables us to minister and bless the body of Christ in whatever area the Lord has graced us. The Lord wants us all to realize how important and vital we all are to one another. He didn’t give anyone of us all the goods. He gifted each one of us with different gifts and abilities so that we could not be high-minded and think of ourselves more highly than we ought. He made us interdependent on one another for a reason, so that we could function as a body. Each one providing what the other one needs. Only our head, Jesus Christ has all the goods and even He has incorporated in His plan the need for a body and a bride made up of born again, blood washed believers. It is all of us under the headship of Christ and the direction and enabling of the Holy Spirit that flow together in love together for the health and vitality of the body as a whole and not just individually. We are in a symbiotic relationship wherein there is a giving out and a taking in, a mutual benefiting of one from another. All the members of our body function in their own office and the abilities for which they are designed to bring full health and functionality to the body. If I have a lazy eye that doesn’t want to focus and work with my other eye. It becomes a detriment and a hindrance to my body. It is a burden to overcome its deficiency. If I have cells that are out of control and not submitted to the order of the rest my body I may have cancer and we know how detrimental that can be to the body. There is such an order with God and everything functions through love, because love seeks not its own but the good of others.
The Lord is not asking of us for what we have not, but to be faithful with what we have. If we are always taking and never giving back then we are only draining strength and resources from the body that could be used in more positive and constructive ways. When we are babes in Christ it is to be expected that we will be taking and not giving, but as we grow and mature it is time to grow from selfishness to selflessness. The Lord has invested talents in each on of us and we have a spiritual responsibility to use those talents for the increase of the kingdom of God. We are accountable for there use, misuse, or lack of use. Let’s take the time to pray and seek the Lord to comprehend and act on what we can give back to the body of Christ. You are important to the Lord and to His body. We all need what you have to give. Start out even in the little things and let the Lord give you the increase. He will help you and direct if you submit yourself and your talents to Him.
Let us put aside our differences that serve only as a human and religious detriment and hindrance to the body as a whole. Let us see the larger picture of all the saints in the body of Christ and not just our particular religion or denomination. Christ is not divided; He is one Spirit even as we should be of one Spirit. Roman 12:16 says, “[Be] of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.” It is a time for us to humble ourselves and become servants of one another that the body may built up in love. Let’s seek the practical ways this can happen through what each one of us has to give. You were created to be a blessing. Let the Life of Christ flow through you, beginning today, to be that blessing.
Blessings,
#kent
The Anointing
October 8, 2014
The Anointing
1John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him
The anointing oil was first used when God instituted the tabernacle and the priesthood. It was a holy oil kept in the Holy Place of the tabernacle and used for the purpose of consecration and sanctification. Leviticus 8:12, “And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.” Through the Word we see that kings and priest were called and consecrated with the anointing oil. It was like a seal that they were set apart for God to fulfill the office of His calling. Likewise we who are in Christ were called out by the Lord, ” Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:22).” You see we are the anointed of the Lord and that is not something to be taken lightly. God has called us out of the common and unclean to be sanctified and holy vessels, consecrated for good works. The Holy Spirit is like that anointing oil poured out upon the priest, but instead of just being poured outwardly upon us, God has poured it inwardly over our souls that we should be a people set apart for the praise of His name. Many of us really don’t have a revelation of who we are in Christ. Christ, the Anointed One, has come to reside and make His abode within our hearts. We are, like the Word says, His tabernacle and His temple. The truths that we see in His Word regarding the temple and tabernacle of old can be applied to the temple of our bodies and the body of Christ at large.
2 Corinthians 1:19-22 says, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, [even] by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, [is] God Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” God has a calling and a purpose for each one of us that He has called out of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son. We are sanctified and consecrated for His service and for His glory. We are no longer our own, but we were bought with a great price. The Holy Spirit has come to reside as the anointing within us. The ministry and office that we carry out in our lives comes from His ability, empowerment and enlightenment within us. We are the called out ones of the Lord to be the prophets, kings and priests to the nations. We have a high and holy calling, one we must no longer be complacent about. We must begin to really seek that Anointed One within us to lead us into all truth. We must seek Him to direct us, lead us and empower us to become doers of the Word and not hearers only, producing the works of God through our lives. Each of us are gifted differently and none of us fit exactly into the same box. You are unique in Christ and as such He uses each of us in our own unique way. Let us find the way He wants to use and manifest Himself through us, for we are His anointed
Blessings,
#kent