Let there be no divisions among us.
I beseech you
brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same
thing and that there be no division among us (1Co 1:10). Let no one bisect the church which is the body
of Christ. The church is universal. There is only one Body and it is the universal
Body of our Lord Jesus Christ comprising all the believers (Ro 12:4-5). As we all know that there is no separate Christ
for Protestants or Catholics or Presbyterian or Brethrens. Let us ask ourselves who created the denominations,
and the divisions among the believers. The
Bible clearly says that there should not be division among us. We should not be called as of Apollo’s or of
Paul or Cephas or of Christ (1Co 1:12). It is Satan with the help of immature
man. There is one Lord (Eph 4:3-5) and
His body is universal. Bible even forbids divisions in the name of
Christ.
Let us ponder
upon an illustration. Say a group of
believers have come together in the name of the Lord and sometime later they
give a name to that group and call it a ‘so and so’ church. Then
after a while the same group becomes successful in establishing a group of
believers elsewhere and gives the same name, ‘so and so’ church to it. Now it is obvious that this particular group
of believers want others to know that they are separate from the other
Christians. For example, ‘Church of
Christ’ is a phrase which explains the universality of the church. Now if we take this phrase and claim it to be
ours and name our church then it becomes a group out of the universal church
who has separated themselves with the name ‘church of Christ’. If you still don’t get it then my question
for you to think about is ‘Will this group of saints name the church
established through them in another locality as ‘church of Lord Jesus’ whereas
the meaning is the same as that of ‘Church of Christ’. The saints don’t do that because they have
their own little ambition behind it.
They want ‘their church’ to grow and become great among the many groups
of Christians.
Do not name the
church as the church is universal and we the believers are the members of the
same and the only Christ. It is the Lord
who calls individuals into the sheepfold.
As the saints come together, they try to give an identity to their
church. The church is and should be identified
by its locality. By learning the
scriptures we understand this great truth that there is one universal body and it
is identified with each locality. For
example church in Rome, Church in Ephesus, Church in Smyrna, church in Corinth
and so on. In Revelation 2, the Lord Himself identifies seven churches
according to the locality and this is the church ground, Amen Lord for this
great vision. Church is identified with
locality. We don’t say church in Asia,
but churches in Asia (1Co 16:19). No
matter who you are, if you do not see this vision of the universal body, then
you are one among the divided group in Christianity. It is not the Lord’s work but the work of
men. The Lord when he sees a locality,
He will not see separately at the Pentecostal Christians and Methodist
Christians, but He looks in the locality (Rev 2:1- 3:22) and the church in the
locality which is beyond all this denominations and divisions. There may many dramas going on in the name of
the church, but our dear Lord who looks into the hearts of men (Ac 1:24, Pr
21:2, Mt 9:4) has an account of His true lovers (Joh 10:3), cares and nourishes
them in the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:23-28).
Hallelujah.
Faith initially
is produced by the working of the Triune God.
God the Father chose His sons before the foundation of the universe (Eph
1:4), God the Spirit sanctified the chosen ones (Joh 14:26, Ro 8:14) and God
the Son made His home in the chosen ones (Ro 8:9, Gal 2:20). But over a period of time, the church is
corrupted by satan, man’s natural self, and the world. I will try to give two illustrations to
enlighten you.
1) If by the love of the Lord and my love for
Him, I get up at 0430 am for worshipping, praying, and praising God or for a
quiet morning fellowship with the Lord.
It is a very good blessed thing which the Spirit has revealed to
me. Now this is grace, a free gift of
the spirit. We do things in the liberty
of the Spirit because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2Co
3:17). I do it willingly because the
Lord’s grace. If I tell the next
generation to get up 4:30 am, this is my addition to the Spirit’s revelation. This becomes an act of my Self. Not only that but I progress in my Self and
lay down rules and procedures for this morning spiritual time. Though this was a Spirit’s revelation to me
and I used my natural mind and made it into a tradition. The next generation gets up 4:30 and does the
worship as I had instructed them to. And
then they pass it on to the next generation.
They too get up in the morning and do the rituals. By this time men do this as a tradition or as
a ritual without exercising the spirit.
There is not fruit in such a thing as it is not in the Spirit. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must
worship in spirit and truth (Joh 4:24).
Then a few more generations later, this becomes a full-fledged
religion. The people start to think that
if they didn’t get up 4:30 am, they have wronged God and God will hate
them. They will condemn one another and
starts to persecute one another. Lord
the Spirit is inexhaustible. Let us worship
Him in love, even if we follow the traditions of the fathers, let us be in the
Spirit then there will be life and no burden; love, no condemnation; peace, no
guilt. Everything happens for good to
those who are in Spirit (Ro 8:28).
2) This
was an actual experiment performed to study the behavioral pattern of an
intelligent species of monkey. A cage
had seven of these monkeys, a water sprinkler on the top of the cage and some
bananas hanging next to a ladder inside it.
One monkey jumped up the ladder to grab a banana but suddenly the water
sprinkler was operated inside the whole cage.
The monkey was frightened jumps down the ladder. A few times more, the monkeys understood that
something was wrong when they climbed the ladder to pick the bananas. Now the water sprinkler was disabled and a monkey
out of the seven was also replaced with a fresh one. This new monkey when it saw the banana unaware
the previous sprinkler ordeals, tried to climb the ladder, but the remaining 6
pulled him down and thrashed him. Then a
little later another old monkey was replaced with a fresher. This one too tried to climb up the ladder, but
the remaining monkeys thrashed the hell out of him. Then another fellow was replaced and he too
had a similar fate. Then it happened
after sometime that all the monkeys were replaced progressively. At this point the scene was such that there
was bunch of ripe colorful bananas hanging near to a ladder. None of the new monkeys knew anything about
the sprinkler. No monkey dared to climb
the ladder. They knew one think, if
anyone tried to climb the ladder, he should be thrashed.
Isn’t
this today’s scenario in our churches with denominations. “Everyone is doing and so I am doing”
attitude is the experimental monkey’s attitude.
It is just plain ignorance. The
priest wearing fancy robes and peculiar accent doing some acts in front of the
altar is more like a drama than a desirable worship for God. These altars are immediately covered with
veils after the so called worship which is a complete eye was. The actual veil is rent by the Lord Almighty
at the cross, and now who are these men to put new veil between the altar and
the Lord’s believers. They do certain
priestly acts in a particular way. Ask
them why they do it, you will hear reply like a heathen temple priest. Praise the Lord, for we are recovered from
such futility and bondage. Hallelujah,
now we can enjoy and experience God, Amen.
Hallelujah our God is enterable, experiencable and enjoyable, Amen.
Divisions are from Man
God unifies His
beloved and scatters the unrighteous. He
is our Almighty Father who has chosen us before the foundation of the
universe. Unrighteousness and ungodliness
has caused separations and divisions among the Christians right from the
Apostles time. This is the work of Satan
who is the father of deception and lies.
Sin and Satan divided mankind from God right from the beginning in the Garden
of Eden. Cain was scattered because he
was deceived by Satan and made him want independence from God. He didn’t care about God’s need and his upliftment
from the fallen state and worshipped God according to his way. He didn’t offer sacrifice like Abel. Then the next fall came when people built the
tower of Babel, the ultimate proclamation of independence from God. By this time you know what God would have
done; He scattered them.
There is one body,
one church, one baptism, one Lord. (Eph 4:4-6) Do not say that you are of Apollo’s
or of Paul’s or of Christ (1Co 1:12). For
Christ is not divided. If you try to
raise a building independent of the universal body, then it is your tower of
Babel and you will be scattered shortly says the Bible.
God’s way is
recovery. He recovered the Earth from
the waters (Gen 1:2). He recovered
Israel from Egypt. The church from the
apostle’s time until this day travelled through persecution and corruption (the
Greek mythology mingling with the pure word of God soon after Constantine became
a Christian). Though the church suffered
yet it marched even through the Dark Age by the grace of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. It was a period when the scripture was locked
up by the enemy for nearly 400 years.
All the while the Lord worked, spoke and moved to unify and raise His
beloved church. But Satan created more
and more divisions through man’s self and sin.
When persecution and killings couldn’t deter the move of the Lord
through His beloved saints, he posed as a friend of the saints. Even to the extent in the last days, when he will
understand that this tactic also failed, he would post as an Angel of light (2Co
11:14). Hallelujah the church will march
because the Lord is marching.
The Scripture is
opened to all today more than any time of the history. The truths are manifested for all to see; it
is no more a mystery or pieces of puzzle.
The word is in abundance and the means are numerous. There was a time in History when dear saints
waited for years and walked miles to get a hold on a copy of Bible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jones_and_her_Bible)
Now I have at least more than a couple of dozens of Bible in different formats all
around me. O Lord how blessed we are!
This is the age of grace, abundance and oneness. The Lord in these last days is recovering the
church. There are no natural qualities or
worldliness in the recovered saints, but they share the divine quality of the
Lord who is in them. These dear saints
have very thin outer shell which had been broken (Read this wonderful book ‘The
breaking of the outer man and the release of the Spirit’ by Brother Watchman
Nee http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?id=26EA)
There outer man of these broken saints does
not prevent the Christ in them to flow out into others. It is no longer they live but Christ living
through them and in them, Amen. This is
the ultimate purpose of God’s creation, God and man mingling together in their
spirits. These are the ones who had
undergone the sanctification of the Holy Spirit and have been dealt with their sinful
and worldly part. They love the Lord and
His body which is the church. They are builders
of the church. When I say they are ‘builders
of the church’ do not think that these builders are architects, brick layers or
building constructors. They are the
church builders. Church is the spiritual
home of our God in the world. The church
is the dwelling place of Lord Jesus.
What works of hands can accommodate this great God. Is there s a building which can contain God? (1Ki
8:27) So it is a spiritual home, the
church. If the members are gathered in the name of Lord Jesus in a football
ground, then it doesn’t mean that there is no church but the gathering is the church. The church is the group of vessels holding
the Lord coming together. This is the work
of the Lord (Mt 21:42) and how marvelous it is to behold when men come in Spirit
to worship the Almighty in spirit and truth (Joh 4:24). ‘In spirit’ does mean that everyone shout and
jump and also ‘in Spirit’ doesn’t mean that everyone shout and jump. In spirit is in spirit with the Lord’s Spirit
and enjoy the liberty that it brings forth (2Co 3:17). There is no hypocrisy in it. It isn’t a tradition or a law. We are joined to the Lord’s Spirit (1Co 6:17). The worship will be God led.
The
ones of God will be in the Body caring for the unity of the Body in these last days. Our churches may be many because of Satan’s
intervention, but the saints wherever they are should come to the Lord in
prayer, praises and worship. Our King
will break gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron and flow into us the
ultimate joy and abundant life (Psalms 107:16).
Any so called Christian seeing other brothers and hates him have not God
in him (1 Joh 4:20). Your knowledge in
the doctrines may be superior and you may talk in tongues, but if you don’t
have love. You are inferior to all. Love is above all. Let us love one another.
Let us talk of the recovery; Let us talk of
the Body of Christ. Let us be in the
unity of the Spirit.
Shepherd, Lead us while we sing the song of eternity,
To the mountain of pleasing breeze and life shining,
sons and the hosts sing glory to the everlasting king.
Amen
May the Lord’s name be glorified.
Amen
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