Romans 12:4 "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function."
Do you ever find yourself looking at another's life, or perhaps their gift and find that you are wishing you could do what they do? So many times, I can remember, that these thoughts have come through my mind. Oh, I cannot tell you the grief those thoughts have caused me. Number one, those thoughts grieve my Lord God. Am I actually telling my Lord that He made a mistake, that my gift, the place He made for me is not right? Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Secondly, those thoughts can only cause disappointment, because we are not made, not created to be and do what that person does.
We have all heard sermons on the parts of the body. How the eye cannot do what the hand does, the mouth cannot do what the foot does. Well, do not go away from these messages thinking of body parts. You must think of the spiritual part of the body of Christ. The part you play in the body of Christ. I was born to worship. I did not always know this, even thought I have sang most of my life. Singing and worshiping are not the same, they are as different as drought and rain. In fact that is a good example for when you are just singing songs of the Lord, you are in a dry place. It is only when you take those songs and worship the Lord, sing unto Him that His glorious spiritual rain begins to fall on you, to minister to you as you minister to the Lord, loving Him. Another rabbit trail, but important to say, I think. But the spiritual part of the body of Christ is where we all have one place. Each of us was created by the Lord to fit in a place that no one else can fit in. The Lord has this place perfected for each of us. When we reject the Lord, I don't think He puts another in our place, I believe that place is filled with HImself until we come to Him, repentant and seeking Him, then He opens the place again and we go into it. A perfect fit, always.
We are not to wish for another's place, for we cannot fit into another's place, into another's ministry. Now we can try. It would be like if I took my gifts and tried to changed them into someone's gift of violin playing. I cannot play the violin, actually don't want to, but I think it is beautiful and am moved to tears at times at the beauty of the music, the annointed music. But if I were to play it would sound like scratching your fingernails on a chalk board. There are teachers that I find awesome, and although I have taught Sunday School, it is not the gift that the Lord has given me. Sometimes you just do it to fill in a place when no one else is available. It is wonderful to do, but it does not satisfy your soul because this is not the place the Lord has for you. It is not fitted to you.
As the Lord was giving me this word this morning, actually on the way to church. I was driving down the highway trying to write a few things on an envelope I had on the seat. I never want to forget what the Lord is telling me. Yes, I did get a little recorder but it was on my desk. The whole reason for the recorder was to have it in the car for times like these. Lord, help me to remember. But as the Lord was giving me this, down loading it into my spirit, I thought about the different layers of skin. I believe there are so many layers to the Body of Christ. The outer layer of skin, you know the layer that as it dries up, it flakes off and falls off the body; I say those that have been in ministry in positions that were not made for them by the Lord, and as they faced battles, hardships, disappointments, being not in that perfect fit, they just dried up and fell off. I have been on that outer layer, in positions not designed for me, and when so much disappointment came, I became dry with no annointing, and fell off. As the layers of skin go, I believe the layers of the Body go. As you grow in the position that the Lord has designed you for, that He has led you into, you move from the outer layers to the inner layers until you are flowing in the River, that beautiful spiritual River. Like the blood vessels of the physical body, that blood that brings life to the body, the spiritual River that you begin to flow in moves you with the annointing of God. The annointing likening to the oxygen that flows with the blood. Our place, our perfect place in the Body of Christ, flowing with the annointing of the Lord, flowing in synchronous (moving together at the same pace and exactly together), making the Body function in its perfection. The Body perfected.
Let me, O Lord, be perfected in Your will for my place in Your Body. Let me know always that only I can do what I do, only my brothers and sisters can do what they do, we all have our special, perfect place in the Body, as designed by You, for Your good pleasure and for Your Glory. Let me flow in perfect harmony with those I am designed to be fit next to, let me compliment their ministry as they bring beauty and completeness to mine. All for Your Glory, for Your Perfected Body.
01-01-2012
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