Rise up, Body of Christ!

I know a man who had a brain stem stroke. His cognitive mind was not damaged at all. His intelligence remains intact but he can’t make any of his limbs or his mouth or his bodily functions do what he wants them to do. It’s very difficult to understand what he is trying to communicate and most people can’t. My heart aches for him.

The Body of Christ in the earth today is like that quadriplegic man. We have the perfect mind of Christ but we are more often than not disconnected, seeing only our own selfish desires, hanging on to our own opinions and doctrines, frustrating His communication and his will coming to pass in the earth.

Sometimes when I’ve been through a lot of pain, both physical and/or emotional, I just want to leave this earth. Then the Lord reminds me what I’ve often told others - that when any one of us die, there will be that much less a container for Him in the earth.

Christians are the physical vehicle of Jesus Christ in the world today. He told his first twelve disciples on the night before He died that the bread He broke represented His Body broken for them – and us. They didn’t understand that til later. And I’m not sure that the majority of the Body of Christ today still understands.

That perfect body Jesus had as He walked the earth was broken, killed, dead, so that His spirit could come and live through many members of a Body so large and diverse that we cannot begin to understand in our imaginations.

In October, 2001, shortly after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, my prayer partner and I were praying for this nation and she had a vision. She saw the Bride of Christ lying across the continental United States and she began saying “Rise up, rise up!” She described what she saw and I immediately felt a huge sorrow as He showed me that His Bride, His Body in the earth, was not held down by forces from the outside but was weakened and powerless because of things within: strife and criticisms between doctrinal thinkers and denominations, selfish pursuits of individuals and groups, apathy, and ignorance about who and what the New Creation truly is, and ignorance about our mission in the earth. It reminded me of something the Lord spoke to me back in 1984. “People are building their own kingdoms in My Name.”

For over seven years since that vision, every night my prayer partner and I have prayed for the Body of Christ, that we will rise up and recognize who we are and become completely submitted to the Head so He can work through us to bring “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Recently I went through some very painful health issues and truly wished I could just go on to heaven. But the Lord reminded me “There are two of us in here. I need this part of my Body to work through.” So I threw off the selfishness and self pity and began fighting against the devil’s will for me, the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy, and made a choice to fight against him in cooperation with the one who comes that I may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10)

I believe that we are in the last times and that God has a huge work for His Body to do before He totally gives up on the world as it is. That same friend of mine had a vision a few years ago that still brings her to tears when she tells of it. The Christians were all together and she saw a streak off to her left. Then she realized that it was people going to hell, and they were going so fast and there were so many of them that it was just a blur.

We who are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord are called to proclaim the good news that there is a living God who cares deeply about each person, who took their deserved punishments into His own Body through Jesus, the Savior, and was resurrected to live forever through those who die to self and receive His new life. I know very few people who take that calling seriously. I myself fail miserably in the area of evangelism. Forgive me, Lord.

Lord, forgive us for playing church instead of becoming the warriors You called us to be. Forgive us for disconnecting from you with our selfish desires and stubborn belief systems. Lord, make us one in Love and purpose so that we can rise up and BE Your Body in the earth to the glory of God and the furtherance of the Kingdom. In Jesus Name, Amen.