Daily Bread - Dec 02 2006
Ephesians 1:22-23 - "And has placed all things under His feet, and appointed Him the head over all the church, who is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all."
The church, which is to be the fullness of God's glory revealed in the earth, has hundreds of passages of scripture devoted to its function and order. The word "church" is found 80 times in the New Testament. The church was first mentioned in Matthew 16:18 by Jesus in connection with the revelation of who He is. And it was in this context that Jesus promised that He would be the one who would build His church (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:47).
The purpose of the church is to reveal Jesus - not in a unique way but by the same anointing and Spirit that rested upon Him. The church, by definition, is a gathering of many people that are to function as one person and, thus, reveal Jesus who is the head of the body (1 Corinthians 12:12; Acts 11:26; 14:27, 15:4; 1 Corinthians 11:18; 1 Corinthians 14:1-40). This miracle can only take place by the fact that the Holy Spirit baptizes us all into one body and thus creates a divine and glorious unity of God's presence and love (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Jesus established the leadership and authority in the church so that His people could be trained up in all of His ways (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Acts 20:28; Matthew 18:17; 1 Timothy 3:5). It is through this holy interaction with one another in the context of the church that the supply of the Spirit flows to every member of the body. Without this divine function of the church in a community, God's people are deprived of the supply of the Spirit that result in their increase both individually and collectively (Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 2:19; James 5:14).
The church began as a meeting place where about 120 people had gathered together to wait on the Holy Spirit, and that model has never been altered by word or practice until this day. However, it is essential that the Holy Spirit takes over our meetings as He did in that first church meeting if the church is to function as it was ordained by God. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal Jesus, and if He is not given full control then that which God ordained cannot function; for it would be dead and lifeless without the Spirit.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
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