It is the grace of God which knits our hearts and lives into covenantal and relational reality. The same grace that brings us together in network relationships holds us together in those relationships. We must be careful to remember that our ministries come through Holy Spirit. We are then woven together into spiritual, practical and functional relationships by His hand. His purposes must be fulfilled at any and all costs.
One of His basic purposes can be found in Luke 1:17, “And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
“To make ready a people prepared for the Lord”. The Wuest translation from the literal Greek reads “To make ready for the Lord a people which has been placed in the right spiritual state”. We know that Jesus gave the five ministry gifts to carry on the maturing, equipping, unifying and the forming of the character of Christ in the people. If the devil can break the networking that God is doing among the ministries, then he can keep the Church in a divided, immature state.
I still remember vividly all that Holy Spirit accomplished with us during the April gathering and as I have stated before, I do not want to lose what we gained. In fact, my desire is that our relationships grow into relationships that would reflect a glorious Church and be examples for others to see and follow.
Matthew 19:6b says,”…What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” The Greek word for “man” here is “anthropos” and carries the meaning “human being, whether male or female”. We see here that not only the devil can break up relationships, but they can also be broken up by man. Any “anthropos” who interferes with relationships that God has joined together will be dealt with severely by the Lord.
In John 17:11, Jesus prayed, “And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.” All Spiritual action comes out of relationship. As Jesus was absolutely linked with His Father, so are we linked with Him and with one another. If we know that we are called to the ministry, then we give ourselves to the ministry. If we know that we have been called into relationship with others, then we should give ourselves to developing those relationships. If we have problems, we work them out and invite the Lord into developing the solution. Marriage is a covenant of God and those who are married and have been for some time know that maintaining a great marriage requires a lot of work on both parts. Again, the solution involves getting rid of any self-centeredness by simply dying to self! God has provided a way for us to come into a lasting relationship not only with Him, but with each other. It is called “covenant”.
A covenant itself is actually a set of words that are spoken to define the nature of that relationship and set forth the principles of commitment to it. A covenant can be seen as an oath that seals the relationship between two people! Its purpose is to ensure faithfulness and commitment to the very relationships that are so precious in God’s sight.
THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND COVENANT WILL SEE THEMSELVES AS PART OF A TEAM.
The true anointing will come to the Church when we realize that it will be a corporate anointing. What a relief! We have all these God-given giftings and anointings all around us and we do not have to do everything ourselves. Pastors now have four other ministry gifts to place demands on, evangelists now have four other ministry gifts to help them get the job accomplished, etc., etc.
There is a far greater power when we work together than there is in the sum of the separate parts added up by themselves. The only way that we will ever be able to function together as a team and not get easily offended, envious or hindered is to understand and practice making covenant with each other.
I would like to quote out of the May apostolic letter: Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” The word translated as “dwell” literally means to settle down. It is a rare finding when we find brothers and sisters who will settle down long enough to make covenant to walk together in unity and receive the commanded blessing of God.
Then we find that it is not enough just to make covenants, we then are charged to keep them. Romans 1:28-31 says, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful…”
“Untrustworthy” in the Greek means “covenant breaker”, and in this context speaks of a sinful character trait. Just think how much more God will be able to use His Church when we begin understanding and applying covenant principles!
I will close this letter by quoting myself again from previous letters. “We must work hard at guarding and keeping the relationships that the Lord has joined together. If we experience problems in our relationships, then we must apply Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 principles. God hates divorce!”
THE PURPOSE? . . . TO EXPERIENCE A TRUE CORPORATE ANOINTING AND UNITY OF THE SPIRIT!