Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
As we continue to study our calling in Christ, it is vital to understand that we are called as a team and not as isolated individuals… we have been called into ONE body.
When we fail to discern that our calling is a calling of ‘interdependence’ in Christ and not ‘independence’ in Christ we open ourselves up to giving place to the devil with an independent spirit. An independent spirit or attitude is more focused on its own agenda than on the corporate calling and can cause rifts in local churches.
There are many different individual callings, visions and revelations in each local church, however these callings, visions and revelations need to network, communicate and be mutually submitted to ensure that team interdependence in Christ is maintained.
The Lord has gifted us in such a way that we need each other… one is strong and equipped where others may be weak. We need each other and Jesus has designed our gifts and callings to feed off of each other and to be infinitely stronger together.
Three keys to maintaining interdependence towards each other in Christ as a team are… communication, waiting on one another and mutual submission. We need to communicate regularly to our team about our revelations, our observations, our opinions, our plans and such. Over the years I have noticed that some people do not communicate… you see them one Sunday, and then you may not see them again for three Sundays with absolutely no communication… that is just one example. I have often wondered what would happen if I would do that?
A pastor friend of mine actually did that… He and his wife just randomly did not show up one Sunday… he turned off his cell phone and booked into a hotel… of course there was a HUGE problem… police were called and a major search ensued. When he returned the next Sunday, he said, “but I thought everyone was ok with just randomly doing things… after all, that is how most of you do it.” He really got the message across and from that day people were sure to communicate with each other, lol.
I asked the Lord why people don’t communicate with one another and He said that there were three main reasons… some people do not think that they matter, or that anyone would care or notice, others do not have a revelation on the importance of communicating, and the third reason is that some are afraid that if they communicate that people or leadership would try to control them, or influence them in a different direction, so they just quietly do their own thing. Sad but true!
We have to learn, not only to WAIT upon the Lord, but to wait on each other…
The Lord has called us to participate in His calling as a team, not as an isolated individual. Waiting on others will slow you down for sure, but once they are on board, one will put a thousand to flight and two will put ten thousand to flight… team equals quantum, leap multiplication. Waiting includes serving one another praying for one another and patiently and lovingly ministering to one another.
Submitting to one another is like waiting on each other… you yield to the revelation of others while allowing the Lord to increase their revelation… it means that you are both patiently giving grace to those that are walking in a lessor revelation while at the same time being open to those that have a greater revelation. It includes serving, listening and learning together.
The bottom line is that YOUR calling includes others… this means that you are called to interdependence, not independence… you are part of ONE body with ONE head, Jesus Christ… selah!
In His amazing love, Nick
