I can't think of any content that I have more yearned for or more suffered for in the last three decades than what is in this post. It is not lightly presented and I would caution those that would misuse it for an excuse for rebellion. I have been spat at, shoved up against a concrete wall and beaten, threatened, castigated, accused, marked, cast out, moved more times than I would care to remember and exiled over the last 30 years for this content in one form or another, yet I still find myself loving those who perpetrated it. I understand it. Early in my walk I was taken through a scripture, "Go love a woman who is yet loved by her lovers so that you may know the love that I have for Israel. (and therefore the church)." I have always hated division and even been a victim of it. I very likely unknowingly caused some of it myself. In presenting this it is in no way prompted by a desire to do so but rather that we may all go forward to the promised land... Together... Little children love one another for love is of God...
I wrote a tract once about R.I.D.S. a disease that was spreading in much the same way that AIDS is except for one facet. AIDS attacks and weakens the immune system against other diseases where RIDS builds up the immune system to reject things that are beneficial to the Body by infecting and saturating the Body with a dead version of the real thing.
Religiously
Instituted
Deficiency
Syndrome
I just haven't figured out why so many people were offended by it. But then again that may have been an indicator of the disease itself. Like AIDS to a degree, RIDS comes with a certain level of shame and denial (in at least half the cases of AIDS rightfully so) and people will go through any lengths to hide it. We haven't even remotely come close to resembling the early and much purer Church and may in fact be going further and further away from it. Centuries of religious viruses have polluted and disfigured the outward form of the Body of Christ. We cannot fix that. I would go so far as to say that we are powerless to fix it. It's like somebody once told me about the medical field: "In trying to fix one problem, we create two more."
We need to go back to the beginning when God established His Church. We as the Body of Christ need to be stripped down naked and go back to when Jesus was also stripped of His external clothing and made to hang on the cross. When He submitted His will to be ruled over by God the Father, He was acting out the words He spoke earlier in the night before, "Father not my will but yours be done." We need to die to our own will. To die to the desire to rule ourselves and rule over others. To submit to God to be stripped of our earthly organizational "garments" and identities in our hearts.
Jesus is the head of the Church, His Body. Without Him we are nothing. We are utterly connected to each other in Him. The life of the Body is in His shed blood which carries the life of the Holy Spirit in us and amongst us. The Church cannot be recognized by outward organization nor can it be restricted to it because that form of organization no matter how well intended is earthly and therefore corruptible. Yet, we endlessly glory in the 10's of thousands of "church" organizations and names, especially in the West (and counting) that we claim erroneously together constitute the Body of Christ. In doing so we are ignoring the scriptures and the pleadings of God to us all.
"In the beginning it was not so..."
"What God has joined together let no man put asunder..."
"If one suffers, All suffer. If one is blessed, All are blessed."
We are going to have to submit to God changing the way we think about how we are formed together by Him. The picture we have seen and for the most part are living is a distorted view of His reality. His reality is the blood that was shed on the cross. Our reality is, "If we feel like it."
"Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need."
There is nothing symbolic about the words:
"The Body of Christ."
"I would that you be one."
"We are fearfully and wonderfully made."
"Endeavor to keep the unity that was once given to the saints."
We are entering into the age of personal accountability where we
start to realize that God sees us as individuals before Him knit
together in Him not as a collection of organizations. The internet in
many ways has opened the door even further because in many respects we
"see" each other without the veil of organizational or geographical
distance. We are beginning to see the Body as God sees it. This is a great privilege that we should not ignore. But, with this privilege comes greater responsibility to God
and each other in every way as much as we were living in the same house, the same family
(because we are being led there in spirit - One House - One Family). We are in all
reality being knit together as One in Him. What has in times past been
wonderful symbolism is becoming a very real reality. We are going to
have to change with that reality. We are going to learn to think, pray and respond as One in Him. We have been living with RIDS so long that we no longer envision or want the cure. There is no longer, like AIDS, the stigma attached to it.
We are being prepared like a sheep for the slaughter. Like a woman
in childbirth approaching that time of transition and travail, there is
nothing we can do to escape God's purposes in this age. The child will
be born. Like a woman in childbirth the more submitted we are to the
birth process the easier it will be. We won't escape the pain but rather
will be able to endure it. God is teaching us to submit, to focus on
the birth of the child. It is His child. We dare not claim it in any way.
There are those who like Herod will try to protect their kingdoms, their
control, their identities but like in times of old, when they try to destroy the child, God will catch the
child up and hide it in the wilderness until it is time.There is no stopping His plan...
"That which is highly esteemed in the sight of (religious) men is an abomination to God."
The Bride of Christ is not a harlot whose existence and identity are upheld by the governments of this world system. It is certainly not a brothel full of them.
The cure for RIDS cost God the blood of His only begotten Son...
One Note of Caution for those who would think to try to make this happen or use it as an excuse for rebellion: Don't! It isn't any of our jobs to judge anyone or to "make things happen." I can guarantee that if you do it will become exactly what God despises, yet another division or identity. We are talking about our brothers and sisters here. God is not a God of disorder. (At least the way He sees it.) What God is calling for is a change of heart in each of us individually to see the truth of this, embrace it and to live it out towards others. Not an excuse to abuse others or to hold ourselves above anyone else...
Amen?
