Hi Everyone! Just thought some of you might like to see what I have been studying lately. This is a study of the True Church of God and how He intends for it to function. This is part 1 of the study that my mentor/teacher has me on. Take some time and dive in.
In order to understand what the ekklesia is (and is not), it is necessary to come at it with the forethought that it is Christ who builds His church (ekklesia). (Matt 16:18, 1 Cor 3:6,7)
The only concept of building and growing that matters is that which comes from the mind of the Father/Christ. And it is further important to grasp that I in myself cannot make something have life and grow. My concepts are irrelevant. If the Spirit doesn’t give the direction then it is all in vain. Once we grasp that we are mere tools/vessels in His grand purpose we can stop trying to do something other than what He intended for us to do and He can actually do what He wants done without being hindered by our need to “go and do.”
This mentality shifting is the rooting out and tearing down of our old concepts and ways so that He can build a proper foundation. (Jeremiah 1:9,10) The word speaks of a great shaking in Hebrew 12: 26-28 He has to shake the foundations of what has been built so that we can see what has been falsely built up. He is taking us (or will if we let Him) back to core truth. He cannot bring about reformation based upon years and years of reformation on top of reformation. Reformation in and of itself is cannot hold up under His building upon it. Only absolute TRUTH can be built upon, and last. We don’t need reformation we need RE-building.
To re-build we must look at and seek the pattern that was first laid. (1 Cor 3:9-11) We are to “take heed how we build.” There is a notion of rebuke in the way Paul says this statement. It’s almost like a pre-buke because He knew what would come and go.
Once we realize that we don’t know what in the world WE are doing and that what WE have built isn’t functional and appropriate for the Kingdom, the King can start to do what He wanted in the first place…. To build His Church… His way.
Part of the ‘rooting out’ phase is realizing what the church is not so that we can see a better picture of what the church is. The Ekklesia is not a building. Of the 140 times that the word Church is translated in scripture the word is never intended for the use of describing a building. The Ekklesia is a living, breathing organism. Living Stones.
The Ekklesia is not bound by the constraints of denominationalism where men have taken bits of truth and built entire belief systems in hopes of ‘grounding’ the moves or understandings of God and His ways. Division in the body of Christ is ANTI-Christ at its very core. These occur when men try to build the body of Christ rather than letting Christ build His own body. The moment man applies his hand and his power to the building up of the body it immediately becomes distorted from what the mind of Christ is. This is where divisions of every kind creep in and begin to distort the perfect will of the Father.
The Ekklesia isn’t the Kingdom itself, but operates within the Kingdom as a whole. The Ekklesia is a part of the Kingdom universal. WE have been set in place here on this earth to rule and reign with the dominion of a commonwealth of the Kingdom.
I guess now to what the Ekklesia IS. It is the perfect will of the King. I love the statement, “The Church isn’t merely some wish, but is the will of God.” I believe WE have a tendency to run the Ekklesia as though it is what God hopes will happen and we are just all out here ‘giving it our best effort’. Now God allows us to operate this way. He permits us to live life this way. We have a choice everyday as to whether we will obey and surrender fully to His will or our own will. What WE have a tendency to forget sometimes is that self-will is what caused Satan to lose his place in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s that same spirit that is loose and flowing freely today. The spirit of self-serving. What is good for me and mine.
Once again WE forget that the Ekklesia was in the mind of God before the world was formed. WE forget that the Ekklesia was/is/will always be, the mystery of the God. He purposed BEFORE the foundation and FROM the foundation of the world that ALL things were to come up under the authority/headship of Christ. (Eph 1:4-10)
So, what BE the Ekkelsia? The word refers to the Church as the ‘body’ of Christ. (Col 1:18) What is a body’s function? Its function is to play out in the tangible realm what occurs in the mind. So literally WE are to play out what is in the mind of Christ. What is in the mind of Christ? Only the things that He has seen the Father do and heard the Father say. (He does nothing of His own free will.
So WE are the expression of the will of the King that comes to us through the mind of Christ and powered/directed by the Holy Spirit.
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