Discerning the body of Christ

Acts 9:1-5, "But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am JESUS, whom you are persecuting".

Jesus didn't say "Saul Saul why do you persecute MY CHURCH?" He said "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?" Jesus saw himself as one with His people, His body and if He does, surely we should. From Jesus' standpoint, for Paul not to discern God's people, the church, is also not to discern Christ. For us to persecute or minimize His church, or not esteem this thing called the body of Christ, is to persecute, minimize and not esteem Christ. And here I'm not talking about "a" church, but HIS church where the standard and blueprint are found in the Word of God. I believe in the coming year a greater revelation of Christ and His church, a call to SEE the body of Christ...to see it as God sees it is at hand. That a reverence and awe for the church; the Head in heaven and His feet on earth has got to be restored. When Paul persecuted the church that was filled with mortals, people at various levels of maturity, Jesus took it personally.

In Genesis 28 Jacob spoke about a “dread", “How dreadful is this place, the house of God, the gateway of heaven” (Gen. 28:17). You could ask, "What is so dreadful about the House of God?” Well, there are other ways to translate the word “dread” such as, “How awesome is this place,” but the point is that there IS a right view of the body of Christ that includes a certain sort of wake-up call, a new awareness that alerts you to a reality you were oblivious to or chose to ignore...something solemn, weighty, even burdensome and Jacob responded to it. Paul said in Acts 20, "Pay careful attention...care for the church of God, which He obtained with his own blood."

There was some sort of transition that took place the moment those first believers in Acts 2 saw the church, "And all the believers were filled with awe”. Something so dramatic that they abandoned their previous separate lives. They had some sort of revelation about the resurrected Christ and His connection to His body. They became willing to risk everything in order to be a part of that community, that "culture of commitment", of experiencing the reality of God. Without that revelation, folks will call His church something other than what it is and make major tactical errors in both their discernment and the way they live their lives...and the consequences are usually very unfortunate. If we see the house of God as being the very gate of heaven (Genesis 28:16,17) there will be a passionate respect and love for it. Jesus Himself said "zeal for the Father's house consumes Me." There is something about the body of Christ...where the two are one, that consumes us.

Folks ought not to pompously think that they can somehow love God and derive all they need from Him directly without loving His body, the very means He has provided in the earth to meet those needs, to bring them their supply. Even instruction on relating to and hearing Him directly! Folks who think that “I can be a Christian, but I don’t need His church" have, unfortunately, missed what God Himself says about it...that "THROUGH THE CHURCH His manifold wisdom might NOW be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places". God "put all things under Christ's feet and gave Him as Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Evidently His church is not just opinions and individuals and methods that folks just simply and arbitrarily accept or reject. No, if it's His church, in judging they are judging the Head, the One who sees the church as His body, His means of disclosing His heart, His wisdom...the means of the invisible becoming visible.

His church is not this casual, frivolous get-together of those with common ground and desires, nor is it a bunch of friendly people with a common belief looking to do good things and meet twice a week. That is, those who hold to their own opinions on just about everything, saying of leadership and others that "they have their views and we have ours". No, it's more than just "a bunch of people", it's His body...it's people IN Christ and those with Christ IN them; people joined by Christ the Head as community, centered on His corporate purpose in the earth. And if we won't discern it and think only of it as folks with some common beliefs, if that's how we view it (which is not how GOD views it) then folks will find themselves without much of its supply....or worse.

See, God builds a dwelling place by His Spirit (Eph.2:20-22) and in it you find identity; calling and purpose in a corporate context. He lays foundation in people's lives individually, domestically and corporately by bringing called men and women alongside His people to equip and help them find out who they are in Him, and who He is in them. It is an awesome place. Things come alive as He makes Himself known through His church.

And if you see the reality of the body of Christ in your life-time and give your life to this heart God has for His house, you will be mocked and ridiculed...you will be called various names...it is very supernatural because Satan despises the only thing that can prevail against him. BUT, in this same revelation of the body of Christ, if you give your life to this heart God has for His house, you will also experience the reality of the life you were created for...the greatest life you can live, alongside those who have also given themselves completely to Jesus... and His Church. If we say we love God desperately, then we love the House of God; we love the work of God’s hands, we love the extension of His heart, we love the visible of the invisible God. We are "prisoners" of that calling (Eph.4:1), captured by the vision of loving His body, the overflow of loving Him.

So, there is a call this year to a greater revelation of Christ and His church, a call to SEE the body of Christ...to see it as God sees it. "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." Now you do. It is the house of God and it's a dreadful/awesome/weighty thing, the very gate of heaven and it's not just a bunch of people who might believe some of the same things...you can go to the V.F.W. for that.