Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Christianity is not a Saturday or Sunday religion. It is not an organization to join, attend meetings and pay dues. It is not something we go to once or twice a week for entertainment and enjoyment. Christianity is a way of life. The early church met quite often in small cell groups. They would meet almost daily, break bread and pray. Their gatherings were as natural as a family gathers around the table for daily meals. Once or twice a month the majority of believers would gather in a local area within the city to hear the word of God. All cells were linked together, met together at times and knew each other as part of the body of Christ. Believers would assemble themselves together under the leadership of the elders and prophets. The elders and prophets would assemble themselves together often for prayer, feasting and apostolic teaching when an apostle was in the area. They would have special meeting to hear from the Holy Ghost and would have a general assembly to oversee the function of the ministries within the church. The links or the cell groups would have access to elders and prophets in their daily gatherings.
Since most Christians lived in small communities it was not a difficult task to meet together as often as possible. The cell groups allowed for a style of living and daily worship we have lost today. When persecutions started within an area the cell groups could still maintain their worship groups in secret and still keep in touch with each other. This was vital for later Christians could not worship openly without horrific consequences to themselves and their families. In the near future we may well need to realize how important it will be to have the same life style.
Today we are separated by our constant activities. Young families are at school, involved in activities and extremely busy. Our children are lost in video pursuits that occupy their attention and mind. Many do not even know what an inner voice is or how to listen to their own thoughts. The churches of today have also occupied our time with programs separating the body into various groups, young people, married, unmarried, singles, children’s church and the list goes on and on. We do not have time to adhere to the principles of a function Christian community. We come home after work tired and most of us can’t wait to get to our couches and relax. Instead of celebrating Tabernacles we are celebrating the new T.V. season. Hours are lost in mindless activities that become days, weeks, months and years as we miss the high calling of God.
It is not totally our fault. The culture has worked itself as an independent mind to create a life style that does not need God. The greater the culture the more activity there is to occupy the minds of its citizens. Retirees can now retreat to gated communities with plenty of daily activities to keep them busy until death. This Anti Christ life style created by our culture is dedicated to controlling every part of our daily lives. All the diversions through daily activities are designed to create life without the need of God. Our lives revolve around the false structure of our culture. Only a concentrated effort on our part will change our lives and free ourselves of the dictates we are under. We will only change if we focus on the living God and cease from dead works. Our time must yield to creating an atmosphere that will conform to the renewing of our mind and not the culture. Our faith needs a place in our homes and our neighborhoods. The life of God begins in our homes moves to our neighbors then the city. This will add to the church daily those that should be saved. Fitting our lives into the plan of God will lead us to sure joy. Reading the scriptures and hearing what the Holy Spirit wants us to do will insure our destiny in the Lord. God has not bought into our way of life for he expects us to conform to his way of life.
Babylon has had a great influence upon organized religion. Many of these organized churches name Christ but deny the power, anointing and the desire to grow in the Lord. As a result many of its members who desire to know the Lord have been forced to find other places of worship. This has been a necessity for truth unfolds on a continuous basis. Truth is not stagnating like some religious institutions. The New Covenant is not like the old it does not fade away. The New shines more and more unto the perfect day. The New follows a new and living way written in and on our hearts and mind. The Lord has permitted many of these believers the opportunity to move-on in this glorious covenant.
As a result new fellowships have emerged all over the world. This has provided new ways of worship and the ability to continue in the present truth. These groups are the main thrust of the liberating movement away from Babylon adhering to sonship and the manifestation of the sons of God. But even these groups will fail and fall into the same pit of Babylon if they do not seek to build according to the pattern. Some of the leaders of these groups have set themselves up as apostles and are still building their own little kingdoms. They are still conformed to this world and not transformed by the renewing of their minds. It is urgent that we all seek the way of the Lord and look to the model in the book of Acts that demonstrates the vehicle of the city church as the way the Lord would have us build his church.
The true work of God will require us to return to the pattern of the Holy Spirit. The pattern is a living functioning organism within every city with elders leading the flock in their ministries bringing about a body expressing the Christ in every city. Believers cannot sit week after week listening to the same ministry passively involved in their experience. This is the same method used in education. Passivity will not cause growth. There must be a way for active participation in the process of life and growth. Believers cannot sit idle and not function in the body of Christ.
The purpose of the gift ministries is to edify the body so it may complete its service. Apostles and prophets are gifts to the church for the building up of the body and increase of that body and establishing other churches in various areas. The body has these gifts in order to function and not sit idle year after year.
1Cor. 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, everyone of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. When we assemble together everyone has something to do and all is for the edifying of the body. Where is passivity? Where is idleness? It has no place in the body of Christ.
New wineskins will hold the new wine. Old wineskins are not flexible and cannot breathe the breath of God. New wineskins are formed and keep their flexibility by letting all things be done unto edifying. Any group dependent upon one ministry for its revelation and growth cannot possible grow in the knowledge and understanding of the Lord. A diet of one food only will not suffice the life in a growing body. It must have a balanced diet. The body of Christ is edified by psalms, sound doctrine, tongues, revelation and interpretation.
Sound doctrines are instruction in and from the Lord. Interpretation is the language of God spoken in the congregation. Psalms is the music and poetry of heaven played on the harps and instruments of our hearts before the Lord. Revelation is the appearing of the Lord in our midst. Tongues are the language of the messengers of God. No one leader or man can provide this in the midst of the congregation. Only a spirit driven body of Christ can express the Holy Spirit’s functioning. Our covenant provides that all shall know him from the least to the greatest. We have an unction from the holy one and we need no man to teach us.
1John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. We submit to no man yet we submit to each other.
We submit to the Christ in each other. The Lord is rising up the body of Christ. He is not raising-up dependency on one-man ministry. We are members in particular and are learning to function in this capacity. (Note the word city) Until we all come to the unity of the faith unto a perfect man. The perfect man is not Adam but it is Jesus.
Understanding the functioning of the members in the body of Christ gives us the measure to judge the ministries that we submit ourselves. Any ministry that continues to foster your dependency on it will not let you grow in the development of Christ in your life. Your soul and spirit can only be edified by a functioning body. One-man ministries will only create dependency on that ministry. One week you will be told how great you are and the next week you will be beaten for your lack of dedication. You are at the whim of that ministry’s emotional ups and downs.
Every member of Christ is instructed to press toward the mark of the prize in Christ Jesus. In our natural families we expect our sons to grow have their own families. Parents do not expect their children to be dependent upon them for their whole life. They teach their children to become functioning members in the society they live. So it is in the church each member matures and functions in the body. True ministries of God are like parents who train their children to grow-up. False ministries develop dependency and create infancy in their flocks. Apostles create the atmosphere for maturity of the saints by setting in order the elders and prophets who in turn build-up the body of Christ.
Just leaving Babylon and continuing to use her methods will not develop a mature body of Christ. Ministries must assist the members to grow and mature in their Christian lives. There is one mediator between God and man and that man is Christ. He is the hope of glory and the unique expression in each member.
Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
It is time for all ministries to weep before the Lord because the people are a reproach among the heathen. Babylon still rules in their hearts. The corn and wine have been stolen. The oil the anointing has dried up and there is no fruit on the vine. The hope of the earth will be the shelters from the storm built according to the word of God.
Joel 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
Our obedience is the major catalyst for the word of God to spring froth in the earth. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Any sacrifice made in manmade groves will not bring about the life of Christ. King Hezekiah was the only king to cut down the high places and the groves in his day.
2Kings 18:3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. 4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
Let us do the same so the corn and wine and the oil of gladness will return in our midst and we will no longer be a reproach to the heathen. We will have power over the nations and we will be the head and not the tail.
The actual meeting of believers in the book of Acts will give a springboard to exam and see how these meeting took place. This will give a plumb line to compare our meeting. The participation of the believers during these meeting is active. During these meetings all are in one accord and totally submissive to the Lord. The members are in prayer, seeking the Lord and they operate as one body. When they prayed or praised they lift their voices as one body unto the Lord. They demonstrated a unity not seen in the earth for centuries.
Acts 4:24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. It is time to contend for the faith that will bring such meeting in this century.
Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
This was something they did daily with one accord, gladness and singleness of heart praising God. It was a way of life not a ritual or strange occurrence happening once a week. May we learn to assemble ourselves together and so much more as we see the day approaching.
Heb 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. NASU
the voice 1998
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THE OPERATIONS OF BELIEVER'S: