The Building

Each member of a congregation of believers has a calling, each has been given grace, and as each part does its share, the body grows – the body of Jesus is built, because love holds us together and accomplishes the miracle. Every believer has an important part to perform in the building process. Each believer must listen to the Head of the body in order to find his/her part and must be empowered supernaturally with some manifestation of the Holy Spirit in order to get her/his part done properly.

The instruction from the Cornerstone will include directions related to what part of the building to be working on. This would inform the worker about the location of the congregation related to his/her assignment. The workers need to find from the Lord what their burdens are, so that they can tell if the yoke they are taking up moves the correct burden, or is doing someone else’s work. Trying to pick up whatever work is nearby in whatever congregation is convenient or comfortable may lead a builder to a heavy burden and a difficult yoke, rather than the one the Lord has for them, which would be easy and light.

The next time you hear a person complaining about some lack of activity opportunities or some service they are not receiving or any other problem in the congregation they gather with, ask them if they are related to that congregation because they were instructed to join it by the Holy Spirit. If their answer is “no”, ask them why they are there. If their answer is “yes”, ask them why they are whining rather than interceding for their coworkers and asking the Head of the body how to make the congregation succeed at His mission for it. Most people are related to congregations in ways that have no concern for what Jesus has ordained them to.

In John 15:16, Jesus told His disciples that He had “ordained” them to go out and bear much fruit. In 1 Corinthians 12:18, when Paul was writing about the ministries each believer brings forth by the working of the Holy Spirit, he used the same word Jesus used in John 15:16 when he wrote that “God sets the members in the body just as it pleases Him.” The common word is translated into English in the John narrative as either “ordained” or “appointed”. In Paul’s letter, it is translated “set”.

It describes having been put in place on purpose. You don’t climb into the place or achieve the place, you are put there. You have to get the authority, the power, the freedom, even the information of the assignment, from God.

Presuming to walk into a “calling” prevents your work from being a “calling”.