"Ray's
Anatomy of the Body of Christ"
Preface
As I think of the message Jesus preached in Luke
4:18-19,” The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:19 To
preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Jesus was Anointed to preach the Good News to all who had bad news
working in their life.
With a message as radical and powerful as that, I would imagine that every church that preached the Word, as Jesus did, would be at an overflow stage. People would be standing in line, around the block, if necessary, to get in and hear about their burdens being removed and their yokes being destroyed. Since Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly (John 10:10), all the churches should need to be open twenty four hours a day.
So, why is that not
happening? Instead people seem to
be staying away by the multitudes.
Churches are, for the most
part, teaching what the Bible says about getting saved; healed and prospered:
Rom 10:9 That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
It seems so simple, if you
believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as your Lord, you
will be saved (healed, prospered and made whole). Could there b something else we are missing?
Jesus said, “John 12:32
”And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me.“ So, if Jesus
is exalted, He will draw all men to Himself.
The answer seems to be rather obvious, we are not lifting up Jesus (in
the way He meant).
I know what you are
thinking; that Jesus must have meant something else, something other than what
He said. “My church lifts up
Jesus; we preach the gospel, we pray for the sick and we give alter calls.
We even have people saved or rededicating their lives every week.
We are doing everything the Bible says to do.”
Well, if you are lifting up
Jesus, the way He meant, are there lines around your church waiting to get in to
hear what you have to say? When you
pray, do they all get healed? Do
you have to have “Revivals” or
membership drives to get people to come to your church?
Do the offering baskets overflow to the point where you have to ask
people not to give so much?
Let’s be honest, for a
moment, and think about the questions. If
you answered no to any of the questions, then let us assume that your church is
not “lifting” up Jesus in the way He meant.
It’s alright! You’re not
a lone. Not many of our churches
could answer yes to those questions.
Keeping
in mind Jesus words, “John 12:32
And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me.”
We truly see
the spiritual thermometer that must be used to evaluate the work for which we
are responsible. Therefore,
we must ask ourselves the question; are all men coming to our work?
For most of the five-fold ministry, the answer is a
qualified, yes; to a degree. To the
degree that we are lifting up Jesus (in the way He meant) is the degree to which
“all” men are coming unto us.
Not being fully aquatinted with the membership rolls
of all the churches in the world prevents me from quoting exact figures, but I
do, however, know of one church that has about 1.5 million members.
It is growing at the rate of about 10,000 people per month.
Obviously, Jesus in being lifted up to a greater degree than in most
other places.
This author has read material written by and heard the
leader of the above-mentioned church speak.
He tells how it was that he came to “father” that church.
The key to this phenomenal growth came out of His spirit.
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