For as we have many
members in one body,
but all the members
do not have the same
function, so we,
being many, are one
body in Christ, and
individually members
of one another.
Romans 12:4–5
How much
clearer can God reveal to us that we are “one body” and that individually are
members of one another? It is therefore, by our being “one body” that we have a
responsibility to one another as we also take responsibility for any of the
members of our physical body. Individually each member has a gift(s) and that
gift(s) may differ to one another, and yet any gift we have is a gift given to
us by the grace of God: “Having then gifts differing according to the grace
that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in
proportion to our faith; or ministry6, let us use it in our ministering; he who
teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation, he who gives, with
liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with
cheerfulness” (Romans 12:6–8). So many “Christians” today are running to
and fro attempting to somehow snatch a gift from God. They attend such schools
as that here in Redding by Bethel Church, School of Supernatural, attending so
as somehow God would use them in a supernatural way. Yes, we must be diligent
in our loyalty to God and allow Him to impart to us a gift, and yet that Gift
that God gives, given only by His will and in His time. Many Christians are so
impatient and so desiring of things by God that in the least make God to be a
vending machine, hoping that if they do just enough good then God will impart
to them a gift, maybe even a supernatural gift. Our Lord and Savior often
dethroned by such enthusiasm, even the world does not dethrone our Lord in such
a manner. Christians are looking for some blessing and even Jesus Christ made
nothing more than a Worker among workers, and this is supposed to be some form
of loyalty and worship. It is not! Those gifts that God gives by His grace is
not that we do work for God, rather it is out of our loyalty to Him that He can
do His work through us; what we put in, God puts out through us. Therefore, it
is important that what we put in is actually the truth and not some man–made
doctrine. Just as said in the computer world: Garbage in; garbage out. Did not
God use His Son to fulfill His purpose? Yes! God wants to use us as well, why
do you think you, as a Christian are here on earth? If we are going to heaven,
then why does God wait to take us there? Could not God, when we convert to Him,
just take us, then, and eliminate all the problems and trials that come upon
us? No! God has a plan and purpose and we are part, and parcel of that plan and
purpose. We are His arms and legs to take the Gospel, not some doctrine about
healing, or speaking in some gibberish language that no one understands, no, we
are to be about the same work as Jesus, and that work is to tell about a person
need for salvation. Until a person comes to recognize they are a sinner and in
need of a Savior, they will not convert To Jesus Christ. Oh, they may decide to
follow Jesus, but when the trials come, they will be as what Jesus spoke of
when He said that some seed; will be sown on shallow ground and when trials
come, they will be rooted out of the ground. Christians are to be faithful in
every circumstance in life and if we do not believe that God engineers all
circumstances to fulfill His purpose then our belief in God is shallow and our
loyalty is shallow. To be loyal to God is to follow what He as revealed to us
in His word, and what God has revealed is that He is in charge of all that
happens for He is omniscient, to believe that God is engineering all things for
His purpose is where the test of our loyalty comes. We also, by God's grace,
believe that the Word of the Father is Himself divine, that all things that are
owe their being to His will and power, and that it is through Him that the
Father gives order to creation, by Him that all things are moved, and through
Him that they receive their being. Now in dealing with these matters, it is
necessary first to recall the previous words said. You must understand why it
is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, manifest in bodily form.
He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the
Word He is without body. He manifested in a human body for this reason only,
out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. There
is God’s purpose for us to have gift(s), and that purpose is for the salvation
of men, those who have been given the gift of faith, (Ephesians 2:8), who are
the called ones, the ones enabled by God, and we are to use those grace given
gifts to aid people to be enabled. Who are the called ones? Do not know! Just
use your gift to bring to your world the Gospel, this is what is needed, not
anything else. We do not attempt to trick people to come to Christ, or to have
them come because Jesus heals. Yes, Jesus healed, and we have accounts of His
healing some people even the raising of the dead. Those accounts of Jesus healing
had a purpose, to demonstrate His divinity, that He was God incarnate. For us used
in some manner by God we must present our bodies a living sacrifice as chapter
12 began: “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what
is good” (Romans 12:9).
We are
individually members of the body of Jesus Christ, and yet we are the body of
Jesus Christ. Therefore we are to live what we are: the body of Jesus Christ
upon this earth at this present time to do His will, and forever we will be the
body of Jesus Christ in all times and ages for God’s children live eternally.
Also I heard the
voice of the LORD,
Saying: ‘Whom
shall I send,
And who will go for Us?’
Then I
said, “Here am I!
Send me.”
Isaiah 6:8
Declare the Glory of God
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