The Body of Christ

Something new and wonderful in my Christian walk has found me - the joy of the body of Christ.

For a couple of years now, I have become less enamored with my own ideas and more interested in the ideas and wisdom that come as the result of Christian brothers and sisters meeting together - sharing and praying together. In this setting, I find a greater wisdom - a stronger sense of God's presence leading the way.

Because the Lord has given me the opportunity to impact the lives of many students, I think and pray about them a lot. I consider their lives and the things they go through. Often I would give counsel. And often the Lord gave a word of knowledge or discernment that brought truth and life. Then, the Lord began to gently lead me NOT to share what I saw - but to pray. Two or three of us would pray for specific things as the Lord would lead. We prayed specifically in faith and hope that the Lord would bring the answer.

And answers He has brought. The Lord has changed hearts, dissolved walls and brought healing. One student commented that the Lord has brought His knife that cuts to bring together a whole person.

At first I felt insecure about this arrangment. Then it hit me - I wasn't getting any credit anymore. The realization that I was touching the glory due the Master was shocking to me. Pride hides so hideously. Thank you Lord for your gentle and stern correction. What a great joy to watch Him work and get to draw attention to what He is doing.

There are two sides to that type of pride. On the one side the ego gets a temporary stroking - but on the other side the pressure to perform is killing.

All of this learning comes in the context of the body of Christ. A community among those that love the Lord and who are willing to lay their life down. The prayer Jesus prayed - John 17 - is for those who will become His and learn to live life and to minister together in His love so that the world might know that God, His Father, had sent Him.

When we come together as Christ's body, His spirit begins to reveal to our hearts the way, the truth and the life of whatever is our concern. How beautiful is the body of Christ. Show us how to live together as your people...that the world may know You.