As I pray for the body of Christ, I am at times grieved when I hear about members pulling out of fellowship with one another. They are leaving their churches, severing relationships with ministries that they have been affiliated with for years, or just breaking old friendships.
When I hear about such separations or in worst-case scenarios, divorces from relationships that God has originated, I ask myself what is the cause of this. What would cause individuals to break from these relationships, to separate themselves from the place in the body where they have been "fitted" by the Father?
Who really suffers when such a breakage occurs? In the case of a natural separation the man and woman undergo a great deal of trauma as they endeavor to redefine their place in the world.
Their roles many times become confused and it is easy to lose sight of the destiny that God has called them to. Quite often the children are the ones that suffer the most.
Similarly, I believe that it is our spiritual offspring and sometimes our natural offspring that suffer the most in a divorce of a spiritual relationship. They are left confused about the role of authority, uncertain about the future, and uneasy about the changes that they are undergoing. The divorce leaves them feeling disconnected and alone.
How Long?
How long can we allow this fracturing of the body of Christ, this severing of His body? How long can we allow this hemorrhaging to continue?
Who ultimately suffers when you cut yourself off from the place of supply that God has placed you?
In John 15, we are told that when we are cut off or separated from that place in the body where God has connected us, it is indeed traumatic for the body, but it is a catastrophic end to the member who is separated.
How long can we allow this marginalization of the body of Christ and our own lives and ministries because we will not walk in love and remain in agreement with those that God has placed us in godly relationship with, or those that God has placed over us as spiritual authorities?
We cannot forget the very solid Biblical teaching about the subject of properly relating to authority and submission to those that God has placed over us, lest we sow seeds of rebellion into our own lives and into those whom we have been given oversight.
I, like many of you, have been greatly blessed and increased through various relationships, including the ministerial association that I am affiliated with, my home church, my fathers in the faith and many godly friends.
Each of these relationships is important and plays a vital role in my life. God has taught me that divine achievement comes through divine association.
I have learned that everything that I am and everything I have achieved is directly related to my place in the Body and the supply that is received because I am rightly fitted and connected.
Blessing Through Relationships
I think that we need to remind ourselves that all blessing, increase and promotion come through the relationships that we have cultivated. It is God's plan that only as we are connected are we really supplied.
A few years ago our ministry underwent a period of blessing and increase. We grew very rapidly. It was during this time that I was reminded of a passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 54. It reads:
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.The part that really stuck out to me as I set my faith to believe for this increase was that it was imperative that as you grow your structure, ministry, influence, etc., as you stretch out and lengthen your cords, you must remain connected or anchored.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
(Isa. 54:2-3 NIV)
Not only that, you must strengthen your ties to the foundation that holds you secure. We need to be anchored, secured, and held accountable. We need to be fastened not to a foundation of our choosing, but rather, where the Lord has planted us.
When our sphere of influence begins to expand and our ministries begin to grow, it is of the utmost importance that we strengthen our ties to where God has planted us. Then and only then can we be assured that our growth will be sustained.
Failure to do this will result in the integrity of our structure being compromised and ultimately structural breakdown and failure will occur. In simple terms, our tent will collapse.
This is not the hour to divorce ourselves from the relationships that God has joined us to. This is the hour to lengthen our cords collectively. This is the hour to realize that together we are greater than we are individually.
This is the hour to strengthen and resecure our ties to our spiritual fathers, our pastors and our godly friends so that as God stretches each of us, as we spread abroad to the east and the west, as we move into the nations, as we settle and inhabit the spiritually desolate places in the earth, our lives and our ministries will remain secure.
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