1 Corinthians 12:11-12
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
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Of course, the 'all these things'—the gifts, the ministries and the effects—as the apostle Paul had just written about were manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are given to each believer just as He wills. And as he said, they are all given 'for the common good’. {1Cor.12:7}
That work of the Holy Spirit empowers the church, the body of believers, to function as it should. That is the body that serves in the unity which comes from knowing that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” {Eph.4:5-6}
And so we are commanded—not a suggestion, not encouraged, but commanded—that there would be no division in the body of believers! {1Cor.12:25}
I was preaching at a week long conference in Cameroon, West Africa some years ago. On the last night of that conference I was speaking to a large group of pastors who had come not only from all over Cameroon but from other African countries and as far away as France and the Caribbean.
Since they would be traveling the following day I asked them that if they knew with complete certainty that they would not make it home, if it were time for them to leave this earth, how would that change what they were praying for? You see, that is where Jesus was when He prayed to the Father asking “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee…” {John 17:21}
If indeed we all have the same attitude, the same mind as Christ, {Php.2:5} as we have been instructed to, there would not be hundreds and hundreds of different denominations, different 'names' that we proclaim and boast in. For indeed, just as Peter proclaimed: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved." {Acts 4:12}
And it is for that reason that we need to repent and put aside the trivial things and the names that separate us from one another in the Body. We need to boldly proclaim to the world that:
"Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:9-11)
EXALT THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD
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