Be the Church

Most mornings, the Lord gives me a scripture, and that’s what I write about for Daily Bread. This morning, however, he didn’t give me a scripture, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to just talk through some things that have been on my heart. We live in an incredible time; with the internet, we have access to more biblical teaching than at any other time in history. Where a single body can become very narrow due to the gifting of the leaders, whether prophetic, pastoral, evangelical, etc., the web allows us to touch a much wider range of gifts and theological ideas. The downside, however, is that it can become easy to get more focused on hearing than applying. Here’s what I mean: teaching has value to renew the mind, but change only occurs when we allow the spirit to convict our heart and then walk out that change in relationship with Jesus. Or, put another way, teaching opens our mind to new ways of thinking about things, but the power to change only comes from walking with Jesus.

No pastor, leader, mentor, or parent is an adequate replacement for scripture, exercising your faith in hearing the spirit, and a daily walk with Jesus. This doesn’t diminish the value of spiritual guidance in your life; we need the body to help balance our personal walk, but we need to be equally equipped to “test everything,” as Paul says. The power of the body isn’t achieved when partially equipped people come together to make each other whole. The full power of the body is when each person is fully matured in their gift and function and is then fitted together by the spirit of unity. Consider Paul’s analogy of the church being like a human body: an arm can’t supplement for a foot that hasn’t grown toes yet. Just like a foot can’t supplement for a head that hasn’t grown ears. The body is at its best when each member is being personally led by the spirit, and we discover agreement because we are all of the same spirit following the same Lord!

If we are to discover this type of fullness, however, we have to stop letting our pastors and teachers do all the work. We have to start cutting up our own food, so to speak, by digging into the scripture ourselves and exercising our faith by obeying what we read. It is when we are mutually building each other up, bearing each other’s burdens, rebuking one another, teaching one another, and prophesying to one another that we experience the tremendous power of the messianic community. If you are a follower of Jesus, I hope this encourages you to go beyond hearing, to spend as much time walking as you do listening. You have access to the most powerful being in the universe; don’t settle for secondhand accounts—talk to him! Ask him to speak to you, and he will! Jesus is living and active; he says, “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” Your Lord is waiting for you to ask. He wants to teach you, to heal you, and to raise you up.

I’ve seen dark seasons and light, had leaders and friends fail me, and seen brothers fall away and be restored. The one constant in my life has always been Jesus and his word. If you don’t have this type of relationship with him, stop what you’re doing and ask him to speak to you, to walk with you. Jesus said, “Call no one teacher, because you have one teacher, the Holy Spirit. Call no one shepherd, because you have one shepherd, Jesus. Call no one father, because you have one father, your Heavenly Father.” He couldn’t say this if he was far off and difficult to find. So stir up your faith, exercise your spirit, and call on the one who has called you; let’s spur each other on to maturity, and in so doing, become the body God has called us to be.