The Power of Unity

Once we begin to function better as a unit - once we begin to seek and experience more and more unity. Then, and only then, can we begin to move on to what God wants from us as a WHOLE rather than as individuals. We will begin to know exactly how God wants to use our community of believers once we allow God to reveal to us how He wants to use each one of us individually. We will be a force to be reckoned with in God's hands if everybody will take very seriously this call to unity -- if everybody will listen to where God is leading them.

Here's a great analogy from "Experiencing God" that sets the stage for the look ahead:

A man is walking along looking for a train when he spots some train tracks. He steps up on the tracks and begins walking on them. As he's walking along, his ears hear a whistle blow way off in the distance. His eyes are looking straight ahead and they don't see anything, so he ignores what his ears hear and he keeps on walking. His feet begin to feel a vibration in the tracks but his eyes still don't see anything so he ignores what his feet are sensing and he keeps walking straight ahead. His ears hear the whistle blowing really close and loud this time and his feet are feeling some extremely strong vibrations, but his eyes still don't see anything so he just keeps walking straight ahead.........

It's time for each of the individual parts of our body to begin making themselves heard. This is the only way we can know where God wants to lead us as a community of believers. This is the only way we can know what God wants from our communities. We don't ignore the individual parts of our physical body -- we listen to them without even thinking of it. Our physical bodies are guided by all the different parts contributing and functioning in unison to make sound, appropriate decisions. If our ears hear the whistle blow and our feet feel the vibrations, we look around to find the train bearing down on us and we get out of the way!

In order to have an accurate picture of where God is leading us we need to be taking heed of each member of our body. No longer should the "eyes" dominate the direction of our bodies. We need to hear from each member to get an accurate leading and to begin to move towards God's purpose for our Christian communities.