What if Acts 1:8 applied to every local church? “…be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

     What if we took seriously our role to represent Christ, not just within the four walls of our local church, but in our community, in our region and nation, and even in the nations of the world? What if we reached out to give and to receive from the rest of the body of Christ in our community, region, nation and the nations of the world? What if we placed great importance on what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father“? What is God saying through the rest of the body that applies to you personally and to your local church? And vice versa, what is God saying to you that others need to hear?

     Being a “witness to Christ” obviously doesn’t mean we try to evangelize Him! Lol. It means we lay our lives down for Him like He laid down His life for us! Our lives point others to who He is and what He is saying to us. We do that by sacrificing our personal comfort for the sake of others, realizing we need the rest of His body and vice versa. We take seriously our responsibility to hear His voice and make His voice known for others to hear. And we take seriously what He is saying to others that applies to us.

     In Colossians 4:16, Paul encourages the church in Colossae to exchange epistles with the church in Laodicea. Paul obviously believed that what God was speaking to both of these churches also applied to the other churches. Paul was encouraging a regional relationship between churches to bring encouragement and mutual edification. What was a revelation to one church could then become a revelation to the other one. What was a strength for one church could help strengthen the other one.

     Sometimes we get so focused on what God is saying directly to us that we forget that we only see in part! What other parts are we missing? What is God saying to others that applies to us? What is God saying to us that applies to others? We need to pursue relationships outside the local church for this very reason. A local church is not the body of Christ. It is a part of the body of Christ. No local church is complete in itself. We need one another, more than most realize and more than some would admit.

     The benefit of receiving ministry from those not immersed in our local church culture is that they are sometimes enabled by the Lord to see things that are inconsistent with the Kingdom that have become normal to us. The opportunity then arises to learn new things, to make adjustments in our lives and ministries, and to be further conformed to the image of Christ.

     May God supernaturally connect His body in this season just like Ezekiel 37, making it possible for us to receive every word from heaven that we need to strengthen us and equip us to fulfill our local assignment, and for the church to arise across the earth to fulfill our commission to glorify His name!

Culture Clash, Becoming the Invincible

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