Why We Need True Unity in the Church Today by BERT FARIAS for Charisma News
The most important word the Lord has sown into my heart the past year is one of love and unity in the body of Christ. It was one of the last prayers of Jesus, which covers an entire chapter and must be answered (John 17). A unified growth/maturity and collective movement of the body must be manifested now instead of individualistic growth and so much independent movement.
God is building strong local churches and communities and preparing them for what He wants accomplished in these last days before Jesus comes. We need to understand the local church and the “work” (Acts 13:2), which is what many larger churches are moving in. In other words, their work is far reaching and not just local.
As a modern-day example, Daniel Kolenda’s Christ For All Nations ministry, which he inherited from Rinehart Bonnke, is a work, but now they have also added a local church in Orlando, Florida, and soon to be Bible school. The emphasis on the local church without the neglect of the work of reaching the nations must be understood. Most church members are not called to the “work” per se but specifically called locally. Others spheres of influence will extend out to Judea, Samaria and the world.
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This is a simple but profound word that will create greater unity in the body when everyone finds their place. We cannot think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and at the same time, we cannot lightly esteem the lesser or weaker members.
“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1 Cor. 12:18, NKJV).
The Work Versus the Local Church
Saul and Barnabas, along with three other prophets and teachers, were ministering to the Lord and fasting at Antioch (Acts 13:1-2), when the Lord separated them to a work whose sphere of influence would be far beyond the local church. Not everyone is called, separated and sent that way. We see the immediate impact and results of this separation and sending as Saul (Paul) begins to operate in a greater authority and power (Acts 13:8-9).
