UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST - HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE IT?

I’d like to talk a little about the Apostle Paul first and then give my understand of 1 Corinthians 1-3.

Paul was a man who was very zealous of what he believed. He was so ardent about his faith in God that he was willing to go out kill and persecute these new believers that he believed were making a mockery of his God and his beliefs. He was a very learned man, taught by some of the best preachers of his day. He knew God’s word backwards and forwards. He loved God with all that was in him. He was a totally faithful man and yet -
He was totally wrong!
Jesus had to stop him in his tracks and blind him, just to get his attention.
Paul’s life tells us that it doesn’t matter:
How much zeal we have for God,
How much education we have,
Which church we attend,
How much of the bible we have memorized or learned,
Who we learn from, or what we learn from pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
It is all wrong.

It is foolishness and vanity.

You see Paul had tried doing things in his own flesh for years. He thought he was doing God’s will but he was lacking the main ingredient to serving God - The Holy Spirit.
After meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, he obviously believed that Jesus was Lord and God but he still needed the infilling, full power, full release, of the Holy Spirit working in and through him in his life.
Jesus sent him to Ananias. His blindness was healed and he received the Holy Ghost.

I hope the Lord Jesus is stopping you in your tracks right now and removing the scales from your eyes.

Chapters 1:21-3:4

How can we prevent division in the church?
How can we all speak and teach the same things?
How can we be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgements?

As I read Chapter 2:2, I understand Paul to be saying that he emptied himself of everything he had ever known - except Jesus and him crucified. Paul was willing to put aside every idea of his own, every preconceived notion he had and all previous learning he had received to 'know only Jesus and him crucified'.

Are we willing to do that?

God tells us that preaching is foolishness.

What?....... Preaching is foolishness??
Yep! God says so.

You know what?

God chose that way to reach the saved anyway. It pleased him to save people through foolish preaching.
Isn’t it incredible how God works?
God is pleased to use foolish things of this world to confound those who think they are so smart.

Aren’t we silly?

We thought all those pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. were so special. We thought God picked them because of their learning and because they seemed to know so much. We even thought they were picked because of their holy living or their devotion to studying God’s word.

Uh, uh, no way!...

They are picked not only because they are foolish, but because they are weak as well. God tells us this in his word and yet when some seemingly great man of God falls, we are amazed. Why are we so surprised?
After all, they aren't only foolish and weak, they are also human.

So why does God choose to do things this way?

Because he doesn’t want any man (flesh) to get the Glory or Praise. He doesn't want any man to think he is something special when it is God himself that uses that person. He wants all the glory for Himself.

It is only by continually being in Christ Jesus that we can really know and understand God’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

It has to be a continuing moment by moment walk. We have to be in constant communication with him.

How can we do this?

God so lovingly sent his Holy Spirit to indwell and lead us. It is only by God’s Spirit that we can even live and move and have our being.

Pastors, teachers, Evangelists, all of us, should strive to know nothing, nothing, nothing - but Christ and him crucified. When I say know, I mean really really know him.

We should preach and teach and walk and talk and live our daily lives ONLY in the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit. Our faith should not be based in any teaching that has come from any man, book, television/radio show etc. Our faith should originate from only listening to the moment by moment directions of the Holy Spirit.

We should be speaking wisdom to our brothers and sisters in the Lord as the Spirit directs us. Not worldly wisdom, but the spirit directed wisdom that only comes from being so in-tune to His voice and His voice alone.

This spirit directed wisdom will reveal mysteries and deep secrets of God.

We can’t begin to comprehend all the things that God wants to show us through our close walk with Him and through the controlling power of the Holy Spirit in us. There are so many things he wants us to see, hear and know. He is longing to share the deep things with His children.

In our own strength we can search, preach, teach, or memorize the Bible and all it has to say but in the end - it is all foolishness. We might as well give it all up as it is useless anyway.

He tells us in His Word that NO MAN knows the things of God. Only the Spirit of God knows everything.

The only way we can ever know anything is if we are living in constant communication with God’s Spirit. We can go to him with anything and everything and the Holy Spirit will reveal things to us.

God has arranged it so that together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can compare the spiritual mysteries and revelations he gives us, with other brothers and sisters who are also joined to God's spirit and getting their own spiritual mysteries and revelations.

He doesn't do this to cause division. He does it to build us up and help us to learn more and more as we share and encourage one another.

The problem is that most of us don’t live in that constant communion with God’s spirit.

No matter how grown up we think we are, or how many years we’ve been a Christian, we are just little babies and can only handle the milk of the word.

Very few men and women have ever passed the baby stage.
Some have progressed to the pablum stage and some even to the strained food stage.

When someone gets a deep revelation from God they try to share it through human ideas or human experiences. They try to share it with believers who are not ready to be fed the meat that God has given them.

No wonder there is so much division and confusion.

They should be preparing the people to be able to totally rely on the Holy spirit’s leading and guidance, before they ever even try to share the deep things of God.

In our humanness alone, we just cannot comprehend the deep things of God, no matter how hard we try. It is only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit in us that we can understand.

Why is there so much division and confusion in the churches today?

Because flesh is trying to assert itself above God. Flesh is trying to beat out the other guy. Flesh is trying to understand the things of God and rationalize them. Flesh wants to be in control.

I don’t care how spiritual you think you are. I don’t care if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit or not. I don’t care if you speak with tongues, interpret, prophecy or any of the other giftings from the Holy Spirit. If you are not living in constant communication with God’s Holy Spirit you are missing the mark and you are still a baby in Christ.

We must allow God’s spirit inside of us to reign and rule. It is only through the Christ like mind that God has given us that we receive spiritual truth and discernment. We must allow God’s spirit to teach us and judge all things.

Paul was telling the Corinthians that he had to speak to them like he was speaking to babies because they were still carnal and not able to receive the deep mysteries yet.

He says that envying, strife and division was a sign of being carnal, being babies.

Uh... HELLO CHURCH!! Wake up. Ga ga goo goo.

You can get together in your non denominational buildings, you can start programs like promise keepers, you can try to unite all believers together through one program or another, you can get like minded believers to march for Jesus and proclaim their love for him, you can walk like Jesus walked and talk like Jesus talked and even dress like Jesus dressed, you can praise and sing hallejah at the top of your lungs,
BUT
if you are not TOTALLY submitted to God’s spirit, it is all foolishness.
You are still a baby, you are still carnal, because you are still trying to do it in your own flesh.

It just can’t be done any other way, PERIOD.

Unity will never be achieved until each and every individual believer unites with God’s spirit first.
It is only then that God’s spirit can unite the body of Christ.
It is what he intended in the first place.

Are you part of the Problem?
Are you willing to make the changes to become part of the Solution?
It is your choice.

Who loves you baby?