Independant Loaners

Independence and liberty are two of the most important things to most nations, whether or not individually we realize it. Nations rise and fall all for the pursuit of independence and liberty. That is a desire that God gave us and rightly so, the only problem is that independence and liberty with out God is a perversion. We have to be solely dependent on God to gain independence, we have to stand under God's authority to gain liberty. All through the blood of Jesus! Praise God!

What is spurring this thought of liberty and independence is how we have compartmentalized ourselves as a Body, notice the word there, Body. We, together corporately are the Body, not individually. We have divided ourselves based on trivial things, you like contemporary music go here, you like hymnals go there, you believe this and I believe that, so instead of coming together on the thing that makes us the same, Christ, we separate. Look around you at all the little and big independent "churches," I'm not judging them or anything, I'm actively involved in a "church," I use the word church in this way because we are just a tiny part of His Church, we aren't by ourselves the Church only together in unity are we the Church.

Romans 12:4-6 (New International Version)
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

Let me reemphasize the fact that this is an unfolding revelation to me and not in judgement, I desire for us to come together in unity! The enemy is working very hard to keep us divided for one simple reason...
Matthew 12:25
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
Mark 3:25
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Luke 11:17
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
So what he is doing is telling us your better than them because your worship leader is "more anointed" or can sing better. Then we buy into it and divide ourselves to chase our own thing and we forget the word or the dream in the beginning! With all this happening we begin to look at one another with some sort of spiritual superiority, like we are bigger and better, just like the Pharisee's. Then comes the harsh judgement and the back biting and the slander, especially when something happens and some one "falls" or something.

The Church corporately is a joke to most Americans. We think that it is because all these people have made mistakes and made us look bad. We are sadly mistaken, just read the Bible, read about David, Solomon. Division is what is made us a joke. That one that "fell," were we praying for them and lifting them up with blessings before the "fall?" We can't come together on anything but attacking our brother whenever they do make a mistake. Let's begin to come together! You have a dream and lack the resources? I know I do. But if we come together and share our dreams, visions, and resources think about how much more we can accomplish! No longer will we be crushed by the weight of trying to carry it all by ourselves, when we weren't created for that. We will be able to do greater things, bigger things, if run together.

God has given me a huge dream and a bigger vision! It is exciting and exhilarating. At the same time, I have some great restrictions, I have an 80,000 dollar debt for a mistake I made, I can't find a full time job, everything I have is either given or loaned to me and the list goes on. Looking at all this it is a bit overwhelming sometimes, but I know that I serve the God of the universe, the One who spoke it all into existence and nothing is outside of His control and He is a good Father, who desires to give us good gifts. Do I really think that He is going to pour money from heaven on me and let me try to run this thing alone? No. The fact of the matter is that when God first called His people Israel, they were one clan, one people. God was their king and ruler, but they wanted a man to rule over them and He gave them the desire of their heart, even though it wasn't His will and look what happened.... Division! Then when Christ came and gave the great commission and the first apostles went out they again began to bring the Body together in unity, every one bringing all they own together to care for one another, no one was without, all needs were met. That is how He designed it...Ecclesia- an assembly of citizens, this is the Greek word for church working together in koinonia- fellowship, actually sharing their lives in a covenant relationship, a brotherhood.

Acts 2:42 (New International Version)
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Beloved, I pray that this might pierce our stony hearts and move us towards one another, let's cut covenant and run together. Let's see what God can do when His people move together as one people!

Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had surrendered them?