Before we study the fruit of the Spirit and into much more about our inheritance in the Promised Land, we must first prepare the ground for the seed so that it can bear fruit, which is what we have been doing for the last few weeks. The good soil for that seed is the church. Church life, with all of its blessings and problems, is required to not only bear fruit, but fruit that will remain.
For those of you who already have a healthy church life, let us seek to excel even more and rise to even higher ground in all we do. Determine that your church will be like those that are mentioned in the New Testament which became famous for their love, faith, generosity, the missionaries they sent out, as well as any other exploits that extended the kingdom. Determine that your church will likewise be a great light set on a hill for as many as possible to see.
If you have drifted from church or do not have a healthy church life, it is my earnest prayer that you will be convicted, challenged, and inspired to seek one. We must never, ever, give up on the church, just as the Lord has not given up on us. Regardless of your failings and mistakes in the past, you can have a glorious future and a totally victorious life, but it is one that we will all have together.
The rebuilt temple, the one that was promised to have an even greater glory than the former one, was rebuilt out of “burnt stones” from the previous temple. If you have not been burned, if you have not been disillusioned (which is to get rid of our illusions), you are not qualified for the greater house. Don’t let your wounds from church life or your disappointments with the church hinder your future, but rather let them be used to qualify you for a greater glory. Of course, for this to happen to our previous experiences, they must be changed from bitterness into glory.
Just think about how disappointed the Lord should be with us, but He has not given up on us, and we should not give up on Him or His ability to make His people into what they are called to be. The church on the earth is going to have a most glorious conclusion and the Lord wants you to be a part of it. However, to do this we must give others the same kind of grace that we ourselves have received.
We know by the Scriptures that it is going to take faith and patience to inherit the promises. Have you ever wondered why we have this huge “faith movement,” but do not have a “patience movement?” It will take both faith and patience for us to inherit our Promised Land. If we want to grow in faith, we will have to be willing to be put in situations where it is going to take more faith than we now have. If we want to grow in patience, we are going to have to be willing to be put in situations that will require more patience than we now have. It may take more faith and patience to be in the church than to just try to walk with God alone, but this is an opportunity for us to grow also. We must believe for the church to become all that the prophecies of Scripture say that it will be, regardless of past experiences. Are we going to elevate our past experiences above the Word of God? Don’t miss your calling and destiny! Get vitally involved in a local church!
If you answer that there just is not a good church close by, then join a bad one. That may be the greatest opportunity of all to grow up into the nature of Christ. He joined mankind when we didn’t look like much. If you can’t find a church with people you like, or who you agree with, that may be even better than finding one that you feel comfortable in now. Just remember, you are going to be a trial to them just as they may be to you, but these trials are opportunities to be changed into His image.
If you answer that there just is not a church good or bad close by, then either get used to driving long distances to the meetings or move. If we really are seeking the kingdom first, which we must do if we expect to receive the promise of having everything else added to us, we will choose where we live by what kingdom purposes are first.
The church is not the whole kingdom of God, but it is the foundation of the kingdom of God. Church life is the foundation of all kingdom life. At this time, building His church is the main thing He is doing in the earth, and the church will be used to prepare the way for and to issue in His kingdom. Move to the place where you can be vitally involved in this great work of the kingdom, not to where you can just get a better job. If we are seeking His kingdom first, we will move to the church that we are supposed to be in and trust that everything else, including our jobs, will work out just as He promises. This will take faith, but faith is what we are called to walk in, and without it we cannot please Him.
I had a friend who used to work hard to get the pH levels perfect in his swimming pool. Then he realized that if he got them perfect, as soon as he jumped into the pool they would be out of whack again. Likewise, many people want the church to be perfect before they jump in, but if that was the case, as soon as they jumped in it would be messed up again. The ones who will be a part of the perfect church will be those who go through the process with everyone else. Unless you are now perfect, you are much better off to find an imperfect congregation to join!
There can be times when we are called to draw aside and seek the Lord, and may forego fellowship for a time to do this. However, if this is what we are called to do, we will not be running from a negative situation in the church to do it. We are called to go from glory to glory, victory to victory, not defeat to defeat. We should never leave a situation without getting the victory in it. If we are called to a time of solitude before the Lord, it will most likely come when we are enjoying the fellowship of the saints too much.
I have learned the hard way not to trust any Christian who does not have a vital local church life. In every case to date that I have compromised and trusted someone who was not vitally involved in a local church, there has surfaced in that person a major problem or evil spiritual stronghold in them. There may be exceptions to this, but I have not personally seen one yet.
Satan dwells in darkness, which is his domain. His power comes by keeping us in his domain. If we are in a truly healthy church life, the relationships will become so close that we will not be able to hide who we really are very well. I do believe that most who refrain from a vital, local church life are hiding something. They may not even know it themselves because deception is deceptive, but there is something in them that does not want to be exposed to the light. We need a vital, real, local church life if for no other reason than to dwell in the light, so we will not be able to hide who we are. If you do not have one, get one, fast. There is probably nothing that you can do more important in your life at this time.
If the above exhortation has offended you, then you are the one I am talking about who probably has the evil stronghold(s). If I have offended you with this, there is something trying to keep you in darkness. Be honest with yourself and God, and then repent. It is simply not possible to be properly joined to the Head without being properly joined to His body as well.
The time is now upon us when no one will make it long at all who is not a vital member of the body of Christ. No minister will make it long who is not a vital member of a team, which true New Testament ministry is. True Christianity is not a religion as much as it is a relationship to God and His people. The health of our faith is dependent on each of these, which is why we are told in I John 1:6-8:
but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Many claim to have such a special fellowship with the Lord that they can forego fellowship with His people. That is not really possible. If we have a special fellowship with God, we will have one with His people too, in the church. The Greek word that is translated “fellowship” in the text above is koinonia, which is also sometimes translated “communion.” This is much more than a handshake and slap on the back when we see each other at a church service—it is a vital, intertwined relationship that makes two or more people inseparable.
If a member of our body was to be severed, it could not live very long without being quickly and properly reattached. The same is true with any member of the Lord’s body. It is by having this koinonia fellowship that “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Just as the members of our body have to be properly joined to each other for the blood to flow through them, the same is true of His body, the church. Because “the life is in the blood” (see Leviticus 17:11), this metaphor implies that His life will flow through the church that is properly joined together, which is also what we are told in Ephesians 4:11-16:
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
First, this exhortation is not until some of us attain, but “until we all attain” (verse 13). When we attain, it is obvious that the whole body will be properly fit together with each part “properly working,” which causes the growth and the building in love. We must understand that we are not going to get to where we are called to be without the rest of the body. Therefore, regardless of your previous experience in the church, start loving the church. It is His body. It is composed of His own children. Regardless of their present promises, we should love them for His sake. As it is made clear in I John 4:19-21:
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
If we truly love Him, we must also love His people. We are members of one another, so if one member of your body gets severely injured or becomes infected, the whole body can suffer. We, too, are composed the same way in the Spirit. Therefore, it behooves us to love and minister to each other even if for no other reason than we need each other to make it. Need sometimes proceeds love, but let our goal be to love.
Just as Israel crossed over into the Promised Land as separate tribes, but one nation, the Lord’s body is also composed of many different movements or denominations, but we are one body in Him. All of the tribes were commanded to fight for their fellow tribes until all had entered into their inheritance, and we, too, must do the same.
Therefore, we should rejoice when any church or movement makes advances, takes new ground, or has any kind of breakthrough. When anyone does, it is truly for the sake of us all. Just as the different tribes helped each other possess their inheritance and could not go back to their own inheritance until all had attained theirs, we need to be willing to join others while they are fighting for their inheritance, even though it is not ours specifically. However, it is ours in the sense that we are all members of one another.
It is for this reason that I began years ago to make a habit of praying for every church I pass, every ministry I see on television, and anytime I hear of great things going on in another church or ministry, praying for them to excel even more. If a congregation close to us begins to have problems that we are made aware of, we try to help. We must start seeing our inheritance as being linked to the whole body of Christ.
The high priest had a breastplate on which he carried a stone for each tribe of Israel. This was so that all of God’s people would be carried on his heart. If we are going to walk in the high calling, we, too, must carry all of God’s people on our heart. The ultimate fruit of the Promised Land is love. When Christians start to love each other, the church will become the most glorious place on earth. It will then be a land of which all marvel and desire to be a part.
To understand the Promised Land of God, we must understand the fruit of the Spirit. The last few weeks we have been tilling the ground so that we can cultivate this fruit. I realize that most of you are already walking in much of this or you would not be reading this Word for the Week, but we seek to excel more and more.
There may be some new insights into the fruit of the Spirit in these coming studies, but that is not the point. Sometimes we just need to have the seeds that have already been planted in us watered so that they can grow. Whether we are planting new insights or just watering old ones, the point is to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. Then, with the foundation of a right character, we can be trusted with more power and authority until the Promised Land is not only conquered, but possessed as an inheritance.