I am going to tackle an issue that has been near and dear to my heart. It is dear to my heart because God caused me to live it. I have always taken it very serious where my spiritual home is. I am refering to the place where God’s people come together for worship, studying God’s word and fellowship. In all actuality the church is made up of people. When Jesus looked at Peter and said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” He was talking about people not a building.
He was talking about people not a building.
When my wife and I received new marching orders, from Jesus, to leave the Navy and move back to our hometown we plugged right in to an amazing church. This church we became a part of was not just some random church we decided was good for us. Before we left, we were very much a part of its begining. We watched it come to life and were praying along with the people who were just obeying God one day at a time. We also knew these folks, because they were from the church my wife grew up in. Little did we know the journey God was just begining in us as we began to knit our hearts together with the people in our new church family. We experienced in a small way what it must have been like for the early church after Pentocost. There was great freedom in worship. The Holy Spirit was clearly at work. I witnessed the people pulling together to take care of needs. There was amazing outreach happening. This went on for two or three years.
This beautiful life giving family came crashing down when sin entered the camp. I will not discuss too many details because I am simply trying to share why this is such a big deal. During this season the Holy Spirit was present to bring healing to the church family but soon people began to leave. There was a small group of us that heard God say that we needed to stay together as a church family. We continued to meet together for worship and prayer. We continued in outreach to a local women’s prison.
After a few more years of staying together and walking with the Lord, our pastor felt called to another adventure. I was the one invited to step up to this plate. We continued to be obedient to what we believed God had said. By this time we were very involved in daily operation of a ministry God birthed before our eyes called With Love From Jesus Ministries. God was certainly keeping us busy. Our small church family continued to meet together.
To give a time reference, we became a part of this church in 1997. In the year 2014, I had questions about our continuing to remain a church. We took that whole year to seek the Lord about closing the church. Toward the end of the year we felt like God had given us the green light to close the church. Being responsible for closing down a church that we witnessed birthed in the Holy Spirit was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
From the very beginning God has been about family and relationship. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. We see the first recorded covenant in Genesis. Family and covenant go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. God said, “let us make man in our own image.” These concepts are not a man made idea, they are a part of who God is.
Every person is a one of a kind, each representing unique aspects of God. As individuals we all have different parts to play on planet earth. So it is with families. If we are all the same with the same purpose in life, then what does that say about God? The billions of people who have existed and who will exist all carry aspects of who God is.
God in His great wisdom saw fit to have you and I arrive on planet earth at just the right time to have the greatest impact in His redemptive plan on the earth. He demonstrated this in His son Jesus. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. Galatians 4:4 God sent his son at just the right time for his full redemptive work to be accomplished on the earth. Jesus could have come an anytime in history He wanted. The timing of His arrival to planet earth was very purposeful and planned.
God made every person unique and as the psalmist says, “fearfully and wondefully made”. He set us on earth at just the right time in the unique family of His choosing. Most of us have come from families with differing levels of dysfunction. We as individuals and as families are all works in progress. We all get to choose to walk with him to experience personal healing and redemption. It’s the same for families. No one is perfect, though we are called to His standard of holiness, made possible through the cross.
It is no different for the Body of Christ. In the human race we can be broken down into nations, states, communities, families and then individuals. It is the same in the Body of Christ. We all come into the global Body of Christ one way, which is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” We can also be subdivided from nations all the way down to individuals.
Why is it that most of us can remain loyal to our blood families even with deep arguments and terrible situations yet, in our church family not so much? When we have a deep disagreement or even a trivial argument, we suddenly are “called” to find another church home. It is easy to stay around when life is great. The real test is when life is not a bed of roses. My first answer to the quesiton is; the enemy of our soul knows the power and authority of God’s unified church. Division equals powerlessness.
Division equals powerlessness.
My second answer is; God designed family, therefore the enemy of our soul loves to attack that which God designed. Covenant is God’s design for His people. The writer of Hebrews exhorted us to “not forsake assembling together.” Even among blood relatives, if they are not meeting together and doing life together, they may be family by blood and name only. Assembling together simply means that an exchange of life is happening.
Just as in the covenant of marriage growth happens in the family in the form of new life…babies come along; so the same was intended to happen in a spiritual sence in the church family. Remember, we were brought into the world at just the right time. Our presence on planet earth was planned out before the foundations of the earth were laid. It seems to me that if Creator God was that purposeful about the timing and circimstances of our arrival, then we too should be equally as serious about our spiritual family. The Bible says that the unseen is superior to the seen. Most of what we can see in this world is a version of the more superior version in the unseen world. Our brotherhood through Christ is far greater than the blood families we were born into.
We have all been hurt by our blood family. If you have never been hurt by your spiritual family, wait five minutes. Joking aside, we all have times that we disagree. If you have developed a habit of running when conflict comes, you will always remain in that pattern, until you come to maturity realizing that it is possible to stay “in love” and disagree. I have observed first hand, people stuck in this pattern. Disagreements do not have to bring division. God is honored when we allow our disagreements to bring us closer together.
Disagreements do not have to bring division
One very important factor in having the strength to remain in the midst of disagreement is covenant. Covenant is a deep and binding word. “Till death we do part.” I believe that if the Body of Christ would take serious before Him, the place they will call their spiritual home, there will be much less division. There will be much less running when things get difficult.
If you are looking for a church family to belong to:
- I encourage you to first make sure you understand Covenant.
- Then go before the Lord and ask Him where it is you are to call home.
- Be ready for His answer.
- Follow His direction.
You will be tested concerning covenant.
I close with the solution to the testing.
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil(testing) comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…” Ephesians 6:13
Thoughts from this Flower 