I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 1 Corinthians 1:10
There is no way to be united except through Jesus. Being united is about surrendering to one another, trusting one another. Trust is something that I do not do well; in fact, just thinking about it gives me anxiety! I know this much – I can trust the Lord, I can trust His judgment and His counsel and, if I surrender to Him, He will see to it that I can be “perfectly united in mind and thought.” Lord, lack of trust is what I have used all of my life to survive. Lack of trust is all about me and no one else but me. Sure, on occasion I have agreed with others but, the kind of agreeing that You are talking about here is a whole different dimension. This kind of agreement and unity is connected to the ability to “stand” that is spoken of in Ephesians 6:13
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
No one can go to battle and stand on their own. To be able to stand and succeed, you need others who stand with you. Yes, the Lord will stand with me – that is the easy part. The Lord wants the Church as a Body to stand with one another “perfectly united in mind and thought”; this is literally about trusting someone else with your life and your spirit! The truth is, I cannot see myself trusting someone enough to do that but, what I can see myself doing is trusting Jesus and accepting whatever He wants for me to do. If He says “Trust your brethren” then, for Him, I’ll do my best to do just that.
I don’t like to trust people either. I learned early in life people will hurt you. I have realized by not trusting people I hurt myself as well.
Hello Syinly,
Thanks for stopping by! I agree with you wholeheartedly! The end result of not trusting is that you end up alone and isolated and… Ripe for the enemy to pick you!
Blessings,
George
In response to…..
I beleive that it would be a wonderful thing to be able to trust folks as a whole but I have learned the hard way on more than one occasion that to trust another without the guidance of the Holy Spirit is not only foolish but also in opposition to the scriptures. Jesus didn’t reveal himself to men, for He new what was in a man, and when did this ever change? (Cast not thy pearls to swine?) If I might be so bold as to share a little testimony, I’d appreciate it if you would be willing to not only read it, but then pray about it before you judge it one way or the other (something that even self acclaimed christians seldom do anymore, at least in my experiences).
After 30 some years in and out of denominational Christian churches I found myself in a full gospel church where I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the biblical evidence of praying in tongues. Not long after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit I while visiting a freind had the Lord speak to me and instruct me to cast a spirit of epilepsy out of the wife of a dear friend of mine. I explained to them that the Lord had spoken to me and they without hesitation told me to pray as the Lord suggested. We gathered together and commanded this spirit in the name of Jesus to loose it’s grasp on this woman and go to dry places. This demon spoke back out of her saying that he had been in her for fifteen years and that he wasn’t going to leave. We stood our ground and commanded it to leave by way of the power of the blood of Christ Jesus and her head leaned back and a “foul air came out of her mouth and the seizures stopped from that point on. Then came the fruits of fellowship in the “family of God.”
A number of family members rallied together and took me to court where I lost custody of my son as they made me out to be basically a lunatic who “talks to God.” These nice folks by the way were all self acclaimed christians. I guess it’s all in the definition. Then when my pastor found out that I was casting demons out of christians he took it upon himself to announce to the congregation that I was leading weak minded people and new converts astray and he stated that they (those who made up his following) should have nothing else to do with me because in his opinion christians can’t have demons, soooooo I was thrown out of church and I lost the ability (at least for now) to see my son because I trusted those who claim to be christians…….Now for the icing to be placed on the cake.
I went to my prayer closet and cryed out to the Lord for the wisdom that He did provide access to by way of His son’s blood for a proper response to these people’s attitudes and actions and the following is His response (in part) to my “situations.” First He had me look up the following scriptures 1Cor.6:1-9 and He reminded me that this has never changed. No man has the right or the ability to judge another man without the guidance of the Holy Spirit (see 2Cor.2:15, Jn.12:47-50 and Isa.11:3). He also reminded me of the scriptures that state we are to call no man our teacher, that the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher and we are to never Lord our “position” over another without the Spirit’s guidance. (Matt.23:8-10 and Mrk. 10:42,43). He asked me,”Who is it that comes against My works, and how does he accomplish his goals?” (we don’t battle flesh?) He told me that these folks were spiritually blind and that I should first pray for their salvation. He taught me that there are MANY who claim to be Christians that know not the spirit of repentance as it should be taught or rather, these folks do not know who’s providing to them that which they are accepting as their own thought life. To repent is to change, turn away or seperate oneself (meta) from your thoughts and/or feelings (noeo), and this after being taught….Most christians still don’t understand darkness as the bible portrays it. This is not my opinion, but this is what the Lord has verbally taught me. (1 Jn. 2:27?) Apostle Paul clearly stated when he was a child he thought like a child? This word child in the Greek is “nepios” which defines one who is unskilled, untrained, and easily deceived. It was not a group of christians who took me to court before unbeleivers nor was it a christian preacher who had me thrown out of the congregation for following the guidance and promptings of the Holy Spirit, but a group of very deceived individuals who thought that they were doing what was right…..as they were led by darkness. Lord have mercy on us all?
So to say we should trust one another? I simply suggest to whomever – use wisdom. A deceived person does not know that they are deceived…… A deceived person knows not that they are being used by darkness (and define darkness by way of the scriptures – choshek / skoteinos). True spiritual discernment is very much so different than natural discernment. There would be no need to repent if Satan and the demons could not provide to us thoughts and the feelings that support the thoughts…..period! “Unless you repent, you to will all perish.” Again, use wisdom.
Hello Mike,
Thank you for your very moving comment. I pray that you get re-united with your son and I pray for those Christians who do not believe or understand the gifts of the Spirit or the way to war with the enemy.
Blessings,
George