Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the :body” of Christ. Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 LB)In the church, we fit together.
I have always said and I still believe it, that God has put into each church those parts of the body that are needed to make that church grow. Now people may not use them, or acknowledge that they are there. But they are.
It stands to reason that a God big enough to speak light into existence is also big enough to make a church grow.
The problem comes when people will not acknowledge their gifts. They do not want to do whatever it is that God gave them.
Maybe they want to do something else, or don’t want to do anything at all. But when they refuse to do what God has given them to do, they will never be blessed in their lives. It is only through obedience to him that we are really blessed.
Of course, some churches have destroyed that relationship God has with them by constant fighting and division. In those cases, it is better that the church die and start again than continue.
A church can get these bad things into its spiritual DNA so that any time they get any size, they will come into an argument or power struggle. When that happens, they break up again.
God will never bless a church that tears or breaks apart that holy structure, and he will never bless people who do so.
The church might get big for a while, but underneath it all is that unholy root of division, or desire for power, and sooner or later it will come out.
It is like building a skyscraper on a fault line. Sooner or later the fault line will shift and the building will come down.
That is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when he told his people to pay attention to God. Those who paid attention, he said, were like those who built their buildings on solid ground. When the storms of life came – and they will – the building would stand firm.
Those who built their buildings on shaky ground, sand he called it, would have nothing but destruction for their trouble. The sand, the shaky ground is the bitterness, division, church politics, those who desire power to the point that they will destroy the church.
A church with those attributes is at odds with the fruits of the Spirit and cannot grow for long. Again, sooner or later, it will have something happen to it.
No church founded off a church split has grown for long. It may get big and look exciting, but there is cancer at the base. It will come out one day.
When we work together, we do what God wants and we honor him. And the Spirit works in us.
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