What Church do you belong to?
If by Church, we mean YHWH's household, the community of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth, then there is only one.
On Easter Sunday, as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, I watched a meeting held by a Nigerian Pastor (aired on TBN-UK). His deduction on comparing Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29 that Jesus' statement that `This kind of bad spirit does not come out unless people talk to God and fast', was not about the strength of the bad spirit's power, but a confirmation that fasting and prayer is required to build up our trust(faith) so that the real hindrance of doubt becomes a non-issue in casting out devils. I was blessed.
Next, I watched the BBC interview of the first female black Bishop of the Church of England. I was inspired by her tenacity, audacity and conviction. Later on, I was blessed by an American gospel group singing an old-time worship favourite of mine. Later that evening, I watched CBN's Live Garden Tomb Easter Service in Israel and was greatly encouraged by the zeal of the main speaker, the symbolism of the venue and the diversity of ethnicities present.
This is the household of YHWH.
We gather in different venues, exhibit different gifts and talents, are of varying ethnicities and have our own individual quirks and preferences but have the same holy Spirit flowing through the 'veins' of our human spirits: this is the spirit of the resurrection.
We are that family structure whose cornerstone was laid by the resurrection of Jesus our Lord from the dead.
''And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.'' Romans 8:11
And he continues:
''Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.''
The good news translation says it this way:
''So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.''
As I was writing this, the Lord led me to see this statement in a 2020 Guardian newspaper article by Britain’s first black archbishop, Archbishop John Sentamu - the retired 97th Archbishop of York:
'Sentamu’s appointment to York - described by one broadsheet at the time as “political correctness gone gloriously sane” - gave a neat nod to the fact that, for the first time in its history, the Church of England would have a black archbishop. Sentamu played the race element down, responding to one journalist that “first I am a Christian, second I am a man, third I am black”.
''First I am a Christian, second I am a man, third I am black”, is the summation of the spirit of our family.
Christ - the anointing/the Spirit of YHWH is the defining factor. This is what the resurrection was about: The birth of a new race and family with a new resurrection life. Jesus came out of the grave with a new type of life - the resurrection life- this is what he gives to all who come to YHWH through him. This is our identity and family focus: ''First I am a Christian, second I am ____, third I am ______; see, second and third are individual, the first is the unchangeable family bond (Christian here signifies the Spirit of Christ and the devotion to the person of Jesus our Saviour). It is impossible to achieve oneness without yielding to this truth as an individual and a body.
The Lord Jesus is building his Church and, while I must stress that social imbalances and injustices must be addressed, the spirit of YHWH is grieved when we emphasise our differences rather than our family connection. We meet as a family to fight injustices together with the spirit of Christ not to establish our differences.
Shalom
''I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind.''Philippians 2:2
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