UNITY

UNITY

^{John 17:20} “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ²¹ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.²² “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. ²³ I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

Jesus cared so much about the unity of His church that He prayed to the Father about it!  He never desired the disunity and division that has risen up in His bride because of differences in understanding of Scripture.  This is why He desired a unity in His Spirit – Ephesians 4.  His Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, who leads us into all truth.  If we are being led by God’s Spirit rather than our carnal understanding, our individual conclusions will be homogeneous, or at least synergistic with the conclusions of our brothers and sisters.

Throughout the history of the church, God has been speaking loudly to His people about the things that concern Him ie. Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic institution and church system and tried to bring the church back to its roots found in the book of Acts, though he ultimately failed in that task.  His primary contribution to the church was understanding justification by faith, without which it is impossible to please God.  The Baptists came with a focus on the importance of water baptism, which can’t be emphasized enough and seems to have been forgotten for the most part by the church…  John Wesley and the Methodist church came with a focus on the sanctification of the believer – so important.  The Adventists came with a focus on the second coming of Christ, and who wouldn’t want to be prepared for that?!  Charles Finney and DL Moody came with a focus on baptism with the Holy Spirit, without which we aren’t empowered to walk in holiness and obey the Great Commission.  Pentecostalism came with a focus on the gift of the Holy Spirit – He is my best friend, and I am nothing without Him!  The Apostolic church came in the early 1900’s with a focus on the five-fold ministry in the church – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all critical to the body of Christ being built up and functioning as it was designed to.

There are and has been many more denominations and influential people in the church as a whole, but the reason I mentioned these few is to show how God has has used all of them but did not intend for them to become denominations with a near-singular focus.  They were intended to build upon each other, or inter-connect like building blocks to bring about a fuller expression of Jesus in the church.  All of these focuses are great and were never meant to stand alone.  If we could glean the good from all of them and humbly combine our knowledge, wisdom and understanding, the church would be amazing!  It would be a beautiful, unified bride that Christ would excitedly present to the Father!  My wife and I attended a public multi-church worship and prayer event recently, and it was awesome!  It was so good to see these churches from different denominations unifying under the banner of Love for God, each other, and the surrounding community.  This is desperately needed in the church today if we are to move forward as Christ’s body and advance His kingdom in all the earth.  Let’s arise in unity body of Christ and take back territory for our King!