The Lord always does great things through His ENTIRE body. If a certain location harbors only two believers, He does great things through those two, as long as they work together. If instead there are 200 believers, then He does great things through those 200 people, as long as they work together. If only two of them work cooperate, they can accomplish next to nothing. The Lord apportions more grace to the two believers in isolation, because they must fully represent Him in that location. He will not apportion the same grace to the two believers which comprise only one percent of His Body in that place.
In Galilee, Jesus could do no works because of their unbelief. When the Church fails to unite and work as One, it manifests extreme unbelief. Paul told the Corinthians that many of them were weak and sick, and some died, because they failed to discern the body of Christ (1 Cor. 11:30). This is why the Church today is a spiritual weakling – because Christians fail to discern His One Body.
Individual witness is powerless witness. But it is individual witness which the modern church emphasizes. No wonder the Church is powerless!
Can you imagine a secular company functioning together without meetings? How could the company possibly function as a unit? It would never work. Then how can we possibly expect to function as a single Body, which needs to cooperate ever so much more closely than a secular company?
Christians say, “We are not competing with other Christians from other churches.” But they are. You are either cooperating or competing. If you do not meet, then how can you cooperate? If you are not meeting, you're competing.
Pastors protest: “We are all working together. We are laborers together in the same field”. These are empty words. You pastors: do you coordinate your events? Do your churches share functions, outreaches, home groups, resources? Not at all ! Instead, you are all working in parallel, with enormous duplication and waste.
Imagine a bunch of fishing boats fishing in the same spot. Even if they are not trying to compete, they are de facto competing. Each cuts into the others' haul; each makes the other's job harder. The boats may even collide if they fail to communicate.
If God placed us together in one location, then we are the body of Christ in that location. So we must meet together, pray together, share the Word together, in short function spiritually together. If we do not bear witness together, we do not bear witness at all -- and in fact bear negative witness.
Prayer: Father, forgive us for not discerning the Body of Your Son. Re-form our hearts, that we may together truly comprise Your spotless bride.
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