I have been watching lately, different ministry styles, taking place in the churches, and what is becoming a familiar mannerism is that many believers fail to grasp an important truth: The whole word of God is given to reveal to His sons and daughters knowledge and understanding of His ways, the same ways Christ lived that revealed His Father by the manner of what He said and did.
2 Tim 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Believers, as the sons and daughters of God are members of a spiritual family whose social heritage and lineage are founded upon righteousness, which is not only about being in the right relationship with God but to be rightly positioned so that they are equipped to live a life that reflects Zoe, the same kind of life He had and speaks about in the following scripture.
John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
What Jesus did while in the flesh is not something believers can’t do; though He is the Son of God, they also have a position as offspring. Some will argue that statement, but no one can change who Jesus is; however, what He did as the Son of God changes everyone who receives Him. He said He was not here for himself but to reveal the Father. He and the Father were as one in their relationship; therefore, to see Him was to see the Father. He did not live His life in the flesh, conforming to any manner of the world, but to the presence of the Father by the Holy Spirit.
John 14:6-7 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
What Jesus did to reveal His Father was more about living not conformed to this world and its ways than in some religious euphoria, therefore all believers are God’s children with Him as their heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, His Son, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Him until redemption is complete, not only of spirit and soul but also of the flesh. Surprisingly, most do not realize that they are capable, by the word of God, to live in the same way.
Eph 1:12-14 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
So, a question to be asked is, can believers do the same as Jesus in revealing the Father? The answer lies in how many are willing to submit to a social heritage that shows a way of life as His Family, who is the Church? The fact that most believers do not fellowship with one another in the way Scripture reveals shows that the body of Christ has yet to learn how to reveal an image of God.
Eph 4:11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.
These gifts mentioned here are afforded to the body by Christ and given to those who are a part of the same body. No one who receives such a gift is placed in a position of euphoric authority, but is called to fulfill a purpose, and each must nurture other aspects. No one is special. All are equally a part of the same body, but each is to corporately participate in the overall process of maturity so that an image of the Father is revealed to this world.
Eph 4:12 (AMP) His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church), This process is to continue in this purpose for all to attain a common faith in the truth an accurate knowledge of the Son of God to arrive at a level of maturity that equals that of Christ.
What is seen is a lack of the word of God by the Holy Spirit appearing in most churches today, not by anything He is doing, but by what pulpits are doing. Thus, His principal function for such gifts is to equip believers with every aspect of servitude so they would reveal by active participation in the processes, Christ, who reveals His Father. What was revealed about Jesus that made anyone believe He was Christ, the Son of God, and that everything was complete in Him?
Col 2:9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
The Divine nature of our heavenly Father was expressed in His way of life, not as one with Deity, but as one with obedience that revealed the nature and character of God. The fundamental principles by which He lived are to be trained in the believer so that presenting Christ reveals the Father, giving testimony of the truth in what He has done for all. So, while all ministry is considered good works, no work is more effective in accomplishing what God has spiritually proposed through the Holy Spirit without being done out of a nature that reveals the divine character or the image of the Father.
As a result of the dynamics of today, the world does not see the Church as any different from itself because it does not see an image of God in what it does! The more the Church’s social heritage and ministry resemble the world in what and how it corporately appears, the less visible its creator will be. Let’s review a part of this in the message format, remembering that his message is to the believer.
Eph 4:17-24 They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. 20 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! 21 My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. 22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, 23 a life renewed from the inside 24 and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
For believers, it’s all about focusing on the knowledge of the truth as revealed in the Word of God, as guided by the Holy Spirit, and moving from ignorance to a renewed life that reveals a nature or character like God’s. Therefore, there is only one way to look at this: the Father, the Son, and His sons and daughters of the Church are not all parts of a family that comes together to act spiritually, as many do today.
Believers are all parts of Christ’s body divinely knitted together as offspring of God by the Holy Spirit to corporately work in a unity of power and authority that spiritually reveals an image of God, their heavenly Father.
Christ is the way, the truth, and the light. To reveal this, you, as a believer, are to righteously prevail through revealing an image of your Heavenly Father that is not fashioned out of your old nature of sin or by a ministry of the dynamics of this world’s ways. But by an image fashioned by a supernatural process of the Holy Spirit under the headship of Christ to bring a revealed unity of His divine nature in all God’s sons and daughters.
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