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Title: The Great Exchange For Service – Intercession Part 4 – Intimacy in unity of the Spirit
Date: Sunday, 16th of September 2018
Otakada.org content count #14,321
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Key Scripture :
John 17:13-23
13-19 Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.
20-23 I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me.
Ephesians 4:1-6
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The Great Exchange For Service – Intercession Part 4 – Intimacy in unity of the Spirit
Dear brethren, what an awesome privilege to write to you on the subject of intimacy with our Heavenly Father in four (4) series and how this relates to intercession. Today, we are exploring how crucially important it is for us, called as intercessors to keep the unity of the Spirit. In fact, it is absolutely impossible to get into and remain in intimacy with our Heavenly Father if there is no bond of peace with fellow believers. When I say believers, I mean believers not defined by same church assembly, ministry or doctrinal agreement but believers all over the world. We cannot be effective in the place of intercession until we remove the vail of denominational affiliation, doctrinal or ministry mindset from our minds. It is hindering soul winning which is the core of our call because no intelligent unbeliever, seeing what is happening amongst believers today will want to join such association.
The Lord revealed to me twelve (12) years ago that our church organizations are tearing His bride apart with a vivid picture of Himself all divided and appended to these body parts are church organizations as we know them today. This terrible disunity accounts for the powerlessness in miracle crumbs, absence of fruitfulness, greed, pride, epileptic growth and myriads of other unexplainable abnormalities amongst us believers today.
Paul Brand and Philip Yancey in their book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, gave a vivid account of this stinking sickness as it relate to the human body..
“USING THE ANALOGY OF THE HUMAN BODY,there are some diseases that can spread infection throughout the body of Christ. The mind can become swollen with pride. The heart can grow cold and indifferent because of sin. The digestive system can get clogged by sterile theory and unapplied theology, so the body can’t digest what needs to be turned into energy or eliminate what needs to be released. When that occurs we start to fight among ourselves unable to stay balanced. . . .Sometimes a dreaded thing occurs in the body-a mutiny-resulting in a tumor. . . .
A tumor is called benign if its effect is fairly localized and it stays within membrane boundaries. But the most traumatizing condition in the body occurs when disloyal cells defy inhibition. They multiply without any checks on growth , spreading rapidly throughout the body, choking out normal cells. White cells, armed against foreign invaders, will not attack the body’s own mutinous cells. Physicians fear no other malfunction more deeply: it is called cancer. For still mysterious reasons, these cells-and they may be cells from the brain, liver, kidney, bone, blood, skin, or other tissues-grow wild, out of control. Each is a healthy, functioning cell, but disloyal, no longer acting in regard for the rest of the body.
Even the white cells, the dependable palace guard, can destroy the body through rebellion. Sometimes they recklessly reproduce, clogging the blood stream, overloading the lymph system, strangling the body’s normal functions-such is leukemia.
Because I am a surgeon and not a prophet, I tremble to make the analogy between cancer in the physical body and mutiny in the spiritual body of Christ. But i must. In his warnings to the church, Jesus Christ showed no concern about the shocks and bruises His body would meet from external forces. “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against my church,” He said flatly (Matthew 16:18). He moved easily, unthreatened, among sinners and criminals. But He cried out against the kind of disloyalty that comes from within.”
Here are comments from Christ Himself to let us know how terrible the Lord views anything and anyone that divides His bride. Judgement has already started and will continue until perfection, until the wall that is tearing the bride apart crumbles, until what matters to all of us is our intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Hear Jesus speaking out on disunity in His body:
1)Then the voice of the Spirit said, “This is what you have done to My church. You have defiled the purity of My bride. You have torn My beautiful bride into pieces and dismembered her. You have divided the parts of My body and put them on display. You have exalted some of the parts and scorned others. I have watched while you ridicule that which I call holy. My heart is broken. I can bear it no longer.”
2) The Lord said, “Behold, they are coming. Even now, they are approaching. Behold, My great company of apostles and prophets. (See 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11–16.) Some have already begun to work among the body parts to bring healing and restoration to the bride.”
3) Jesus spoke with divine admiration, saying, “I have released the apostles of My right hand and the prophets of My left hand to the work for which I have called them. In the days to come, the things that have divided My body will be rooted up and torn down. My Spirit will demolish all that separates and all that seeks to honor one above another, for all are made by My design, and all must be honored. This is the word of the Lord. It shall be done. The structures that are man-made will be shaken and will fall. (See Hebrews 12:25–29.) My true bride, My holy bride, will come forth in all her glory.”
Let him who have ears hear what the Spirit of the living God is saying to the churches.
Prayer of intercession for the bride of Christ from my heart :- I earnestly intercede for the body of Christ today and always, represented as the bride of Christ, created in Your image and likeness and called individually by You. Lord I pray today that we will all know you intimately as the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent in knowledge, in conviction and in commitment. Help us all to receive this totally with our whole being by the help Your Holy Spirit in us presents. We earnestly intercede not just for ourselves but others whom You are calling into this one body of believers, that they will come to this wonderful knowledge with total conviction and total commitment.
Dear Holy Spirit, open our spiritual eyes, ears and heart to see, hear, perceive and accept each believer in Christ as one body of believers and that we will desist from segregating the bride of Christ into denominational or doctrinal lines instituted by men, but only by the fact that they know You totally as the only true and everlasting God and Jesus Christ, the Messiah, whom You have sent through the power and presence of Your self-same, one and only Holy Spirit in them and in us in Jesus name, amen
In concluding, it is difficult and almost impossible for anyone in intimate relationship with Jesus to do anything to divide His body. Hence our call for intimacy with Him. Remember the words of Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:1-6
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love,3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Testimony: Amongst testimonies reaching us via our online outreach, a volunteer at a prison in Gilroy, California is now adopting the OTAKADA.org online e-discipleship portal to reach the inmates in prison. Thanks for praying, pray that the inmate will encounter Christ intimately in Jesus name.
Shalom!
Bro Monday Ogwuojo Ogbe – e-discipleship at OTAKADA.org
Originally posted on September 15, 2018 @ 10:30 pm
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