ARE WE IN UNITY YET?

Scripture References: Eph. 2:15,16; John 10: 14,18; 1 John 2:6; 2nd Pet. 1; 1st. John 4:17; 1 John 1:7;

There is a great call to unity coming from the Lord for the believers. What is this unity the Lord is calling for? How do those born again believers achieve unity? How different is it from our own idea of unity and our means of accomplishing it?

Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus that Jesus "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that He might reconcile both unto God in ONE BODY by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." It is clear from this verse how Jesus accomplished peace for us. He abolished the enemy of peace by allowing Himself to be crucified. Jesus chose to be crucified, saying in the gospel of John: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father; AND I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR THE SHEEP. Therefore doth my Father love me, BECAUSE I LAY DOWN MY LIFE. that I MAY TAKE IT AGAIN. No man taketh it from me, but I LAY IT DOWN OF MYSELF, I HAVE THE POWER TO LAY IT DOWN, AND I HAVE POWER TO TAKE IT AGAIN. This commandment have I received of my Father."

Paul explains to us, as well as the believers at Ephesus, that the Law caused enmity, and therefore all those living in the law of ordinances contrary to man, that Christ nailed to His cross, have enmity between one another. There are divisions in these believers. We who are born again and baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ are ONE Body. We allow ourselves to be structured as Peter wrote to the global Church (Body of Christ) to add the characteristics of the nature of Jesus Christ to our faith and become a unified Body of Believers. There is the only one way to abolish the enemy of unity and that is to allow our flesh and carnal nature to be crucified. This is why Paul said, "I die daily." Jesus is the way to accomplish all things for His Body. The way (the pattern) He chose to abolish enmity and make peace was by being crucified. Can you see what this means for those who would be in His body now? As we add the nature of Jesus Christ (He freely gives this to those who obey His Word), He plucks up, tears down and roots out our old nature as we die to it.

We are instructed by John that, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." As soon as we understand how Jesus solved a particular problem while on earth we need to start walking in the very same way. This is our proof to ourselves and to the world that we believe and know He is the Christ: we do what He did. Jesus literally died to eradicate the original sin into which all of mankind is born. He has reconciled fallen man back to God and we are unable to do that for ourselves. We must realize that He laid down a pattern for us to live by when He died, was resurrected, and ascended to send back the power (gift of the Holy Ghost) for us to live it.

We then, out of love for Him and His sacrifice, by an act of our will submit to the pattern He walked while on earth. " ...because as He Is, so are we in this world." We know it is the power of God which was given by all that He did for us, that enables us to live by the pattern. When we realize that He laid down His Life for his sheep and said to those who would be of His body, “No greater love has any man than to lay down his own life for his friends.” He was clearly stating that His crucifixion was the laying down His Life, why would we think He means anything different for those of His Body? He shows us the Way in everything. Allowing Hiw Word to slay our old nature is the act of being crucified with Christ. When we allow this to happen then we can know Him in the power of His Ressurrection.

The kingdom of God that is within those receiving His Spirit, will rule in "unity" when the believers are walking a crucified life as their Head did when He was on earth. The call to unity cannot be found here on this earth except through the Way Jesus showed us. To effect unity, we the believing Body of Christ, are called to practice in our lives, the Way of our Head (Jesus Christ) and present our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, to find the good, and accepted, and perfect will of God. We must say with John the Baptist, "He must increase, and I must decrease." All our fleshly desires and wishes must be laid down.

The believers as a whole understands this means we must put away sins (our carnal soulish desires and wishes) from our lives but fewer realize that it also means that we must put from ourselves all the good things WE want to do, even those for God. Nothing that comes from the flesh, even the good or moral or sincere things are of value to God. He recognizes only Christ's working through us. He is a Spirit and He must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. Flesh simply cannot please Him neither worship Him in any way. This knowledge has not been revealed to many church-going people. Because of this lack of understanding many who believe they have laid down their lives in fact have not. Because we have not followed the pattern of the Tabernacle we are not entering unity, the unity the Lord requires, at the cost He requires. We must do business with the blood of His cross (Brazen Altar), and having been washed in His blood, we continue in faith to the washing of the Water of the Word (Brass Laver); after being baptized by the Spirit we continue into the Holy Place. There He reveals Himself as the Light (Golden Lampstand) and feeds us with His anointed Bread (Shewbread Table) and leads us to pray "Not my will but Thine be done" at the Incense Altar. Then and only then, He takes us through the Veil of His flesh into His presence. There where He rest on the Written Word(Tablets of Stone), Anointed Spoken Word (Aaron's Rod that budded), and Sustenance Word (Golden Manna Pot); we find our REST in God. There and only there will we be in His Unity. The more the Spirit is working in us, the more we desire unity. The path to true unity is the Way Jesus patterned for us. We must die to our own lives and manifest on this earth what He did for us so long ago. When believers understand that this is what must be done we will recognize the unity of which the Spirit speaks.

Remember in the place of revelation in the Tabernacle where we see the light is a place of intimacy and we can agree with that, “..... if we are walking in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin..."