The Dysfuntional Body of Christ

     This is how I believe the Body of Christ begins to function, according to His good pleasure: It depends on those who are gathered together and how they relate to Christ each and everyday of their lives. If, they are asking the Holy Spirit to make them into the image of Christ, and are dying daily, then He is being formed in them. If, however, they are loving this present world and filling their own lusts, desires, will and pleasures, the old Adam is alive and well, and Christ is snuffed out in them. (for lack of a better term)
     Now, let's say there are 5 people coming together to glorify Christ as they meet. Two of the people desire to let Christ be King in them, and three of them are just going about their daily lives without acknowledging Him at all. When they come together, in His Name, the two people come to pour out Christ in them, while the three come to get some of what the two have got, which is Christ's substance. It kind of reminds me of the virgins with the oil and those without, who tried to "get" the oil at the last minute so their lamps could be full, but the virgins who had been wise and had oil, told them to get their own. Sounds cruel, huh? Unless it's realized that all of them had the same advantages in life and that was to seek His Life everyday of their lives, by dying to self,  but some chose not to.
     Back to the gathering-If this is a reality (two have, three haven't) it has to be dysfunctional because everyone hasn't done their part and that is to sit at the Master's feet in their lives. So, the three have nothing to contribute, but the old Adam, who brings death. They actually are interfering with the flow of the Spirit, by expressing out of their man of flesh , and are, in a sense, infecting the two, who are continuing to consecrate themselves daily.
     But, if those who are gathered are of one-spirit and mind, desiring God's agenda as they meet, they can flow unobstructed, and  out of that, comes functioning. If, in our old nature, we try to imitate the gifts operating, or even seek to establish the 5 offices from that source, we become an Ishmael, who may look like the promised son, but only in form and not in truth. Truth is through Isaac (or what God has brought forth, as we surrender to His will) and the ultimate Truth, who is Christ, will reign as we gather.


"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water."-Jeremiah 3:13
 We, are those broken cisterns, if we haven't surrendered to Christ.

     I pray the dead wood be burned and the green branch arise and bring the ecclesia of God into it's victory as His will operates through it!!!!   

The Holy Spirit Will Exegete (Say "What"?) the Word for You

     "Exegete" is a word many may not know; only those who have gone to Bible School do. It means to "expound on or to interpret Scripture." The Word itself says that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. In other words, He is the One who can reveal to us the meaning of God's Word, or "exegete" it for us, that is, if we ask Him.
     When our group met last week, Romans 12:1, was read in response to someone else's question on what does it mean to truly worship God.
 It says: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
     Someone else, asked, "what does that look like?" A good question. Although this person was sincere in wanting to know, the question may have been asked to the wrong person, because no one person knows except the Holy Spirit of God. A person who has been opened to God's Spirit, can express what He has shown them, but still, the "answers" need to be checked by that same spirit within us too.
     The point is that God, the author of His Word, has all the answers and as we grow into Him, and Him into us, He will expound or interpret what He means according to what He has written, or He will "exegete" His Word for us. But we must ask Him and truly believe that He will show us, in His way and in His time, and then it will become a living word in us. Christ in us, becomes Christ through us, as we die daily. In this way, because He was the ultimate sacrifice, He becomes that sacrifice in and through us. Is this perhaps what it "looks like" to be a living sacrifice?

Trusting, Not Self-Protection

     How much of our unresolved past and the defenses that developed  because of that, influences and even directs our present responses? Even our responses to God's voice?
     Walls of fear, inside us,  may resist a new direction He's leading us in, thinking all the while, that we must protect ourselves from intruding forces, when in fact, He might be using it to reveal to us our lack of trust in Him.
     If we are dealing with a lack of trust, and He mercifully reveals it to us, and we are willing and able to see it (also by His grace) then we have a decision to make. We have everything pertaining to life and godliness in us, and so we have the ability to just decide and trust Him. As we do this, our past walls will fall down and not before. Like Peter stepping out on the water, he had to decide to trust Jesus and take action for him to stay buoyant. But, when he reasoned within himself as the waves crashed all around, he abandoned that trust and sank. Good thing Moses didn't do that when crossing the Red Sea.
     And so it goes with us. We step out in faith and trust, but then start looking around, and whoosh-under we go! But, truly Jesus would have saved Peter. He really would have.
     Because of His undying love for us, He will come through for us! He will protect and defend us! We can step out there, decide to trust, and never let go, if we will.