Unity
It has been on my mind a lot of our decisions that we have made to accept diversities of opinion on certain subjects for the sake of love for the brethren. I have had to really wrestle with the dichotomy of love for the sake of unity on the one hand and uniform agreement for the sake of unity on the other. I had to realize that it is not an issue of love or unity or agreement or uniformity, it is for the sake of truth. If it is God’s truth that we agree to accept each other in love for the sake of unity even though we may not agree, then who is to argue with that. Not us, that is for sure but look out for the rest because the enemy is just waiting around the corner to send his forces against us because it is not according to their own version of the truth. You would think that they would leave us alone and go on to the ones that agree with them but that is not good enough if they are motivated by hatred, jealousy and pride. Not to fear. If the Lord is for us, who can stand against us.
There is nothing wrong with a we and them mentality if we keep focused upon who and what "we" are to be. We are to be a separate people, a holy people, sanctified as overcomers and walking in the spirit. There will be those that do not want to follow the narrow road, we are not to be like "them." The problem from a unity perspective is the we and them mentality in the body of Christ. If the lukewarm church is to be those that are spit out of the body for their smug self-sufficiency, then we should do all we can not to be like them. The restitution of all things is not denominational, interdenominational or even non-denominational. The restoration is made up of pre-denominational people or at least post-denominational. We are to be restored to the faith of our fathers and not conformed to the traditions of men and their denominating influences.
I am doing what I think that the Lord would have me do. We are not all called to do the same thing. You may certainly be called with other goals but with unity, the end result is the same and that is glorifying Jesus Christ. We are making an impact or the Lord would not have given me such an anointing with this minstry. I received over 33,000 visitors to my site last month. That may not be a lot compared to the need in this world for what we are called to do but it is a permanent record of what we are doing as a group to promote this unity. I do have logs and some people access over 150 pages at a time. Most will never contact me, they revel in the light and move on.
Our unity includes the love and fellowship of the entire body of Christ and that includes Roman Catholic believers but will exclude Catholic haters as well as Protestant haters or Orthodox haters and Pentecostal haters. We are known for our love, not for our dogmatic assertions, disunity and doctrinal schisms. The Lord is still working on all of us to be made into His likeness and image to be the holy and perfected Bride of Christ. As loving saints of God, we are able to intercede for the brethren and that includes those that are in heaven now. The communion of saints is the completed unity of those that are of the household of faith and love. Love demands complete unity and unity demands complete love.
The more that we love and submit to each other as the Lord reveals His truth to us, in time, the more impact this unity will have. This is a prophetic site, not just Bible prophecy alone but present truth prophecy as to what the Lord is saying to us now to prepare us for the wedding feast. Many that have been to my site tell me how much they are being blessed. I give the glory to God but the fact remains that there are those who come that thought they were alone in what God has revealed to them. It is comforting to know that there are others besides themselves that the Lord is revealing His thoughts and intentions to in these last days.
I have found for some time now in our discussions on the list that once we start discussing a certain topic, we find others in the A/P community also discussing it. Of course, they didn't get it from us, they received it from the Lord at the same time as us. This type of witness is confirmation that the Lord is speaking to us corporately and bringing us to maturity through the apostles and prophets one step at at time. I have noticed many similar themes and topics that the Lord is bringing us through as time goes on to bring us into unity. I remember He was teaching me things when I was on my own without the fellowship that a group like this brings. I thought I was all alone in my thinking, they didn't teach me this at church or in Sunday School or any of the denominations that I had followed, even the charismatic ones. I got on the internet and started looking around and found that the Lord was teaching many others the same thing. Like Elijah, I felt alone, God had to remind me that there were others who had not bent the knee to Baal.
Sure, what is unity anyway but aligning with groups and individuals. If we want to be as Jesus taught us, we love and identify with those around us that are of the same mind and true doctrine and must also love but separate from the others. And that means identifying with other prophets and apostles and those that are under the covering of Jesus. Maybe we should start identifying who are doing the same things that we are discussing. It would be good for us. If you look at the web sites that are opposed to them you will see that they will be the same ones that will be opposed to us. I am not going to read what others say bad about them without having the discernment; suspicion is reserved for those that are spreading the lies. You just can't believe everything you hear about these people or we start believing every lie that satan has in his arsenal. And believe this, that it is truly spiritual warfare, we need to make sure that we are on the right side and not tossed to and fro by all the lies spoken against the people that we should align ourselves with. I believe in thus saith the Lord, I believe in the anointing and tears of joy, I believe you can be slain in the spirit by the Holy Ghost and lie on the floor prostrate under the power of God. Just because I read what people say against these things from those that have not experienced it will not sway me from loving and accepting those they talk about, but it will sway me away from those who spread that kind of talk.
There are those in the church that teach that the perfect has already come as the completed Bible and that prophecy and knowledge has ceased since the first century. We can easily reject that kind of reasoning as ignorance but what of the ones that cannot? So steeped in the traditions of men, "they" are using the Bible here as the final authority. Do you approve of musical instruments in the church? There are those that believe that since there are no pianos or organs or guitars in the first century church that they are not to be allowed in the church, reject others that do and use sola scriptura as their guide. To think that way is of course absurd but this is only an extreme example of a continuing problem - this kind of opposition to reason exists! Without the Holy Spirit to guide us into ALL things, the Bible is used as a blind guide for pretentious delusions to quote mis-interpreted scripture as a tool for self-righteous bigotry. To use the Bible as a sword to cut our brothers and sisters is of the flesh and against the clear teaching of scripture. It is the accuser of the brethren leading his people to judge and condemn other members of the body of Christ.
Father Chardin believed in a global unification of human awareness as a necessary prerequisite for any future progress of mankind. No question is receiving so much attention at the present time in all branches and divisions of the Christian Church as the question of Church unity. Schism is a grievous sin. But having said that, one must also point out that there is obviously great confusion, and much disagreement as to what constitutes unity, as to what is the nature of unity, and as to how unity is to be obtained and preserved. The result of being born into a given family, Christians are brothers and sisters and not merely an association of friends. It is through working together, evangelizing together, praying together, and having fellowship together, he declares, that we shall ultimately arrive at the unity of the faith. The unity is the unity of those who believe that there is only one Lord and He is so perfect.
Paul - I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The five-fold ministry is the greatest hope that the church has for unity in these last days. This group exists in all branches and denominations throughout the world, it is not a denomination, or even a loose coalition. Rather it is the mind of Christ bringing forth those called by Him from all churches to spread the gospel of the Kingdom just prior to His return.
God wills unity. The unity of the Church of God is a perpetual fact; our task is not to create unity but to exhibit it. The goal of the ecumenical movement is unity. Unity is a sham until it includes full sacramental unity. The attainment of a united church must be the work of the Spirit of God and not the result of man's ingenuity or of ecclesiastical diplomacy backed by theological argument. But the Spirit of God works through men. The Unity of the spirit which is unity, simply because it has not yet passed into diversity. A United front against the world. This is no small thing. If we will believe it enough to practice it, it possesses the power to make satan's mightiest strongholds tremble.
I am seeking Jesus, but I don't find him. I am seeking myself, but I do not find me. But I do find my neighbor and the three of us get started on our way. It will always strive for that unity which is forever a task, a prayer, and a hope: the full measure of manhood as it was in Jesus. The responsibility of the official church to employ its full political weight to promote radical change in society on behalf of the poor, the legitimacy of class conflict in achieving ultimate Christian unity.
David: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Unity has never meant uniformity. But unity does not exclude diversity - nay, more, without diversity there can be no true and perfect unity. Where there is no unity there is distraction, but where there is no diversity there is death. Disunity is everywhere in the church; where the spirits of the prophets are not subject to the prophets - where every man is conscious only of his own invisible consecration - where, as in the Church of Corinth, every one in his fanatical egotism is anxious to shout down the truths revealed to others, that he may absorb the attention of all by his own tongue however barbarous, there is confusion, and railing, and irreligious strife.
The conception of unity in the Body of Christ was a possession of Christian believers from the beginning. The original disciples of Jesus in Jerusalem thought of themselves as a family, and conversion meant their incorporation into the one household of faith. Paul was concerned not simply to promote the unity of the Christian communities founded by him, but also to bind them all to the Mother Church at Jerusalem. It was no mere Gentile church that he had in mind, but the one church of God embracing all Jesus' followers everywhere, the one family of faith with its center in Jerusalem and with its members in all parts of the world.
Barnabas - Wherefore consider the works of the evil way. Do not withdraw yourselves from others, as if you were already justified, but coming together into one place, inquire what is agreeable to and profitable for the beloved of God. For the Scripture says; woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their sight.
Which things also "we" speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I Cor. 2:13.
We are not to be as the heathen, "we" are to speak the truth in love. Jesus - Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory that you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know.
And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
[12, 06, 75, 110, John, Ephesians, 111, 112, 162, 179, 184, 187, 207, Psalms, 248, 330, Love as unity was an item of the latter rain discussion list]
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