Finding your church "home" and where it has pleased God to place you is vitally important, but there is one more step you must take if you desire to fully experience God's anointing for impact and increase. Look at Ephesians 4:16:
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.Did you catch that? It says "every joint" (or member) is supposed to make its supply to the body. Simply put, just coming to church every Sunday will not position you to prosper. Your next step must be to get involved in the local church using your gifts and talents.
(KJV)
Sadly, statistics reveal that 20 percent of a church's congregation does 80 percent of the work. Folks, there are way too many pew warmers in the church!
Giving your "supply" to the body by getting plugged in and involved at church is to your benefit. When you give your supply to the church body, it experiences growth and increase. When the church body experiences growth and increase as a whole, you, individually, will experience growth and increase as well.
It's a fact. The normal growth process of the human body is that every part of a body grows in unison. You won't see a baby's arm or leg remain infant size while the rest of the body increases in size. All the contributing members of a body grow in unison.
What happens when a member fails to contribute? Again, let's compare it to the functioning of the human body. What would happen if you taped your arm firmly to your side, making it unable to move? In a couple weeks, it would begin to wither in strength and would eventually become atrophied.
Likewise, when a member of the church body fails to plug in and make a contribution to the increase of the body, they are disconnected from the power source designed to bring growth and increase to them.
Embrace Your Position
This often happens because people fail to understand and embrace the position God has created them to play. You see, God knows whether you're a "foot" or a "hand" in the body of Christ. Meaning, He knows what gifts and talents you have and, therefore, knows where you'd best fit in and prosper. By applying Paul's unbderstanding of how the natural human body works, the significance of being properly plugged in can be clearly seen.
(Though this example might sound silly, it is, I believe, an effective illustration of this truth.)
Let's say the little finger on my right hand didn't like where it was anymore and decided to relocate next to the elbow. The little finger would quickly discover three things. It would discover that it doesn't make any contribution to the body placed next to the elbow. Second, it's in the way all the time and prone to getting hurt, and third because it is "out of position," it will not receive what it needs from the body.
The same is true for every believer. When you try to be something you are not or don't appreciate what God has made you to be, the results are devastating. So embrace your position, plug in, and offer your spiritual supply. Become a faithful steward of the gift God has entrusted to you by committing your time, talent, and resources to the place it has pleased God to place you.
Warning: Enemy Alert!
Before I end, I feel it necessary to make this cautionary note. We have a real adversary - Satan. Rest assured, he is not going to sit back in his lawn chair, sip iced tea, and watch you cruise on by toward victory. No! He'll attack.
He doesn't want you to plug in and prosper, so he'll have a strategy designed to cause you to stumble, to un-plug you from your God-ordained position and place. This strategy almost always comes in the form of strife and division which begins with getting offended. It's his mightiest tool. If he can get you in strife, he's able to stop the power of God from flowing to you.
His lie is often this church will be fine without you, but you must remind yourself that you will not be fine without the church.
Using Paul's revelation again as an illustration, this truth becomes obvious. For instance, what would happen if a hand was severed from its body. Without a doubt, the body would suffer a devastating loss and would have to adjust to having only one hand. Nevertheless, it would continue to live and function without the hand, albeit handicapped. The hand, however, would suffer great devastation. Without the life flow of the blood from the body, the hand would eventually wither up and die.
So it is in the body of Christ. Those believers who isolate themselves from the place where it has pleased God to place them, cut themselves off from the life flow of the body of Christ, from its anointing and power. Unknowingly, they have set themselves in a place where they will fail to grow and flourish in their Christian lives. Just as you will never find a severed body part surviving and thriving, any person who is not properly connected to a local church will struggle and never fully develop spiritually.
Don't allow yourself to be divided off. We all have multiple opportunities to get offended and times we're tempted to be contentious. It's at those times when we must judge ourselves and get it right. Don't let the enemy poison your heart and drive you away from the place that it has pleased God to place you. Repent - forgive - and stay connected!
The Pathway to Purpose and Power
Is church attendance really necessary? Does it matter where I go to church? Does it matter why I go? Emphatically yes, yes, and yes!
The local church is designed by God to be your pathway to purpose and power. When you find where you fit in the body of Christ and connect to "your" company, you will experience the power of God operating in your life as never before and you will be properly positioned for impact and increase.
I want to encourage you this year to leave religious ritual behind and begin walking your God-ordained pathway. Embrace the spiritual significance and biblical basis for the local church, find the place it has pleased God to place you - and then plug in and prosper!
Excerpt permission granted by Mac Hammond Ministries