God is bringing a Word that will produce unity in the Body, a standing fast with one spirit that has not been seen in two thousand years.
John 17:21“I pray that they all may be one, Father, as We are one, that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me”
We are ready for the great witness of the Lord Jesus Christ to come forth in the earth.
There are some who prophesy from the Scriptures that there will be three and one-half years of tribulation.
You should understand that these will be three and one-half years of witness, involving judgment and tribulation, and during this time God will be bringing a host of people unto Himself.
Three and one-half years the Lord ministered and then He was crucified, cut off, as it were, in the middle of the week.
There remains a three-and-one-half-year witness of Christ’s living Word coming forth; this time not through the flesh of one Man, the lowly Nazarene, but through a many-member Body that He indwells and controls.
His Body is fitly joined together, set together, compacted by that which every joint supplies (Ephesians 4:16). That Body knows unity.
If you have any grievance or any occasion to grumble or complain against your brother or sister and that comes up into your mind and you speak it. It is a sin against the unity of Body of Christ—no matter if you have been wronged a thousand times—you will stand guilty before the Lord of the most heinous crime that can be committed against the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! We must maintain unity with our brother and sister; we must intercede and help them.
This is the time of “Operation Jericho.” Take down your walls! Absolutely refuse them. If they won’t come down, we’ll march around them seven days and blow the trumpet of the Lord to bring them down, but they are coming down!
Then you know what will happen? Someone will say or do something to you, and the conditioned response will come up and you will think, “There is friction; there is division.” It will only exist if you let it.
All of us have offended and been offended at some time or another. Yet the offenses should not rise up so great in our mind that we be unforgiving.
We should not allow anything to detract from the unity of the Body of Christ and the flow of the Spirit of the Lord in this great army, which shall not break ranks nor thrust one another through.
This unity does not just happen. There must be men and women who are dedicated to the prophecies over other members of the body of Christ, and be dedicated to make the unity of the Spirit, a way of life in the oneness with which we are called to walk together.
We must be dedicated to make the unity of the Spirit, a way of life in the oneness with which we are called to walk together.
There cannot be that which rises in personal ambition. If there is, the lovingkindness will commit that individual to the work of the cross, and God will bring down the ambition.
We will walk without ambition, without every man doing that which is only his own thing; we will do what God sets before us.
As members of His Body, we will strengthen the hand of our brother. We will no longer think in terms of individuals or individual churches, but only of the Body. Everything must be relegated to the unity of the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Word God is speaking to our hearts today. In order to see this done, everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ must come down!
If we find division within us, God will bring us down. But if there is oneness and a dedication to the unity of the Body of Christ, that in itself will be the occasion to bring down the strongholds of Babylon where the Lord is not the only Lord, where the unity of the Spirit does not prevail, and where there is friction and conflict. God will bring it down.
He will bring together a people, perfectly formed by the Spirit of the Lord in that oneness of heart, oneness of spirit, and oneness of mind. Already the Lord is proclaiming it.
Oneness can cause us to suffer. Having this oneness and refusing to put up walls is going against everything of self-preservation in the physical as well as the spiritual realm.
Even small infants learn how to withdraw from that which harasses and oppresses them. Yet when the Lord outlines what it means to be the Body of Christ, He says, “When one member suffers, they all suffer” (1 Corinthians 12:26). We must be dedicated that we will suffer too, when any member of that Body is suffering. If anyone is spiritually sick, then the whole Body, from head to foot, is sick.
A little leaven can leaven a whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6). We must find the ways of internal cleansing without putting up walls to one another and without judging one another.
There must be that which causes such a beautiful flow that when God blesses one, they all rejoice; when one is in a difficult place, they all suffer. There must be a dedication to no walls!
There must be the unity. There must be that transformation until we weep, we suffer, and we bleed, in order that the Body may come together.
We are wronged, if need be, in order that we may be one with our brother, no matter what happens, no matter what he does. We suffer with him; we open our heart to him. We pray, “O God, help me not to draw back, not to put up a wall against my brother, not to judge him, but to be the occasion of love and the flow of the Spirit to him.”
Have you ever heard of the “buddy” system? It originated during the war. When a soldier was wounded, his buddy picked him up and carried him away from the battlefield, often in the face of gunfire and danger to himself.
The ties of a buddy were even stronger than blood ties. Let’s practice “Operation Buddy” when anyone is wounded or hurt!
If there is one who falls or fails, I pray that none in this move of God’s Spirit will turn on him like a vulture. Instead we will restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted. We will bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:1, 2). Lift one another up! Be concerned about one another, so that there be none who fail in the grace of God.
Don’t judge your brother, and don’t withdraw from him. Become involved with him. Like the good Samaritan, be right there to take care of him when he is wounded, even if it involves a personal expense to you.
We are living in a day when most people do not want to be inconvenienced by anything but their own interests, but we are going to be inconvenienced by everyone who comes into the Body. We will learn how to carry the burden for one another, how to love one another and become involved.
Anyone can go about his own interests, seeking his own welfare, gaining position and prestige, making money and acquiring the things this world can offer.
But we are not set for what we can get from God; we are set for what we can become to the Lord in the will of God. We want to be His instruments, His servants, serving one another by the grace of God. We want to serve the Lord and so please Him that we cannot see anything else but the unity of the Body.
There cannot be such a thing as an individual seeking his own place in ministry, or a church with its own ambitions and program. All must be swept away in one vision: the unity of the Body for the greater glory of God. We must see that! It must be the one thing for which we cry unto the Lord above everything else.
Nothing that happens can ever justify your withdrawing from your brother. No offense that he would commit against you dare result in your committing an even greater sin against Christ by breaking the unity of the Body.
No matter what anyone does to you, it is not enough to warrant your breaking the fellowship and the unity of the faith. Have a conscience toward that and realize that offense starts when you put up walls against someone who has sinned against you. You are committing a greater sin, because maybe he did not really want to break fellowship with you. Maybe he was overtaken in his own feelings and emotions. Maybe he still wanted to love you, but you withdrew. That cannot be!
It is easy for churches and pastors to take offense or to feel neglected. We each have certain limitations, but we are believing God to break through those limitations and to come into the fullness of the Lord. We dare not judge each other and say, “He could have done better.” We have to help one another. Don’t judge me, and I purpose in my heart not to judge any man, no matter what he does to me.
I realize I have a role in Christ. God gave the gift ministries till we all come to the unity of the faith. Ephesians 4:13a. Can I sin against the very purpose for which God raised me up by allowing myself to have any personal feelings whatsoever in any situation? Only one thing can I do: maintain the unity of the faith. This is the theme of what God is speaking today.
All we would have to do with this anointing of the Lord is to go our own way, letting every church come up as an entity in itself—an independent local church with independent ministers—and a few prophets and apostles here and there. Each one would soon find himself building a little kingdom, but it would not be His Kingdom; it would not be under the one King, the one Lord.
The period of the judges is over in which every man does that which is right in his own sight. We come into a submission one to another. Across this country, let there be just one voice, one army, and one revelation, as we move in the Lord! God is saying, “There is not one who is unimportant to Me.”
Thou shalt rejoice that the restoration hath gone forth according to the Word of the Lord. Thou shalt not look forward to a day and say, “One day the Church shall be as it was at the beginning,” but thou shalt look about thee and see the unselfishness, the labor that is already being performed one for another in the name of the Lord.
If there is a brother in need, there is no shutting of the heart against him, but an open heart unto him. Thou shalt look and say, “By this all men know that we are His disciples because of the love that we have one for another.”
Thou shalt contend earnestly for that faith that was once delivered to the saints, for already the restoration hath proceeded to a great degree. Thou shalt strive until thou shalt see that oneness come forth in the name of the Lord. Thou shalt see a oneness that even the early Church did not see, until the Lord shall bring about as one man the Body of Christ, standing together for the works that God has set before them.
It is not a day of self-seeking, but is it not a day that the Lord hath encouraged thy heart, and thou hast denied self? Thou hast abandoned thine own selfish pursuits, and thou hast pursued only after that which the will of the Lord would dictate.
Cleave to one another in the will of God. Encourage the unity that you see. Open your heart in fellowship to one another. Ye must give way to this, that the Lord shall help thee not to be careless or negligent of one another, but to open thine heart and let the flow of love and compassion come forth to one another. When thy brother is weak, strengthen his hands; when he is in need, take care of him. Draw strength from thy brother and give unto him that which is right in the sight of the Lord. Thou art one Body, raised up together for the glory of God.