ALL ARE NEEDED

ALL ARE NEEDED

In an age when the institutional church is becoming certifiably crazed over organizational positions and titles, it is vitally important to remind ourselves of the order that Jesus Christ has established for His Body. 

Almost weekly, I learn of plans for someone else’s consecration service, as a bishop or an apostle.  Nowadays, even this seems to be ungratifying and insufficient for some.  Consequently, many now seek recognition as archbishops, metropolitan bishops, chief apostles, or some such non-biblical and nonsensical title of their choosing.  Enough!

In our desperate efforts for self-elevation and self-aggrandizement, we are simply playing ourselves.  Worse yet, we are detracting from the simplicity of the gospel and, at the same time, we are denying glory to the only worthy object of our devotion.  In case some have forgotten, that is Jesus Christ.  Jesus is Lord!

Let us be practical.  While there is a definite need to have church leadership, with a concomitant need to respect church leaders, we have taken this to a level that is totally ungodly and unbiblical.  Hence, the current situation in the institutional church is no less a form of idolatry than Baal worship was for ancient Israel.  Think about it.

We seem to have forgotten that ALL spiritual gifts are significant and, indeed, ALL are vital to the overall health and global ministry of the body.  So let’s focus less on what we ‘call’ ourselves and more on what we can achieve to expand the Kingdom of God.  While we play these dangerous church games, the world is literally perishing before our eyes. 

All spiritual gifts are equally significant and, indeed, all are of vital import to the overall health and global ministry of the Body of Christ.  So let’s stop elevating each other; let’s start edifying the Body; let’s start ministering to the world – by elevating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Word speaks for itself:

I Corinthians 12:1-27

¹ Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: ² You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.³ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴ There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. ⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: ⁸ for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. ¹² For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not one member but many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.²³ And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, ²⁴ but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, ²⁵ that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

Many seem to have forgotten that these are the END-TIMES.  This spiritual amnesia is insidious, unbecoming, unrighteous and downright deadly.  Many are acting as if the personal empires and fiefdoms established here will somehow endure forever.  We MUST (and we shall) come together in unity, as never before, to achieve the purposes and plans for THE KINGDOM that are mandated and anointed by JESUS CHRIST.  Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed!