Day 39 – One Head

Friday August 31

True unity as the church of Jesus Christ begins with this simple but profound realization:  unity isn’t something we are striving for or responsible to create – it is a completed work of redemption.  We aren’t trying to become the body of Christ – we are the body of Christ.  Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross birthed the church. As He laid down His physical body in death He was raised up with a new divine body – the church.  So everyone who accepts the sacrifice of Christ and is washed clean by the blood of Jesus is added into this body – not by human will but by divine decree. 

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6

Jesus work on the cross was complete – but we still are responsible to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Salvation is a process – we are constantly being transformed more and more into His image and likeness as we appropriate the fullness of the finished work of the cross in increasing measure into our lives.  And so it is for our walk as the body of Christ.  This is why Jesus prayed as he did in John 17

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  John 17:20-23

Jesus prayed that we might be brought into complete unity even after He declared that the glory had already been given to us to accomplish this oneness. Why? Because He understood the divine tension of humanity “trying to live up to what we have already attained”.  Yes we carry the glory of God, but in earthen vessels – human, broken, imperfect.  That’s why so many times we find ourselves struggling to be brought to complete unity even when we know what the scriptures admonish us to do.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  Ephesians 4:2-3

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Colossians 3:15

Most of us would readily admit that we’ve had experiences of trying to walk in the body of Christ that had nothing to do with living in  peace! 

But that’s because the key to true unity is not found in us  focusing on one another – having more dialogue, trying to come to consensus on sticky doctrinal differences.  It isn’t in us rallying around common visions or goals.  It isn’t even in us coming with our genuine desire and attempts to build real relationship.

The key to unity isn’t in one another – it’s in our relationship with Him. The degree to which we will walk in unity as a body of Christ is the degree to which we will first recognize the Headship and Lordship of Jesus Christ and come into alignment with Him. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.  Colossians 1:15-20

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:22-24

The single greatest factor hindering unity is the body is not our lack of agreement or even our offenses one with another – it’s our lack of submission in the body to One Head. 

But this a new day.  We have entered into a season where God is determined to see the fullness of His Kingdom established in His church in the way He has always longed. And that begin as He brings all things in heaven and earth together under one head.

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,  to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.  Ephesians 1:9-10

Throughout this consecration call, the Lord has been healing us and freeing us from the lies of the enemy, from voices that control us other than the one voice of the Good Shepherd.  In his mercy He has done this so that we could come to a point of freedom by which, like Jesus, we can choose to fully lay down our lives to the Lord – dying to our own rights, our own desires – and living fully submitted to Him as the Head.

Let’s pray this prayer together.  Jesus I thank you that God placed all things under Your feet and appointed You to be head over everything for the church, which is Your body, the fullness of You who fills everything in every way.  God I ask you to shine the light of Your word into my life and expose any area where I am living in darkness -  without revelation of Your Headship.  I want to bring every area of my life fully in submission to You – the Head of the body.  Lord I ask You also, to give me a revelation, not only of Your headship, but also a deeper understanding of Your body.  God open the eyes of my heart that I might see, by faith, the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus - one body in complete unity in full submission to one Head, Jesus Christ.  In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen. 

The Consecration Call Team

Heather Clark and Tabitha Lemaire released an amazing prophetic declaration about the body of Christ at the One Heart Gathering in 2005.  Let us sing this song as a declaration over our lives, our families, our churches, our cities, our provinces and our nation that we are coming as one body in alignment with one Head – the Head Jesus Christ.

Click here (high speed   low speed) to watch the video clip of this song from the One Heart gathering.  This clips includes a powerful prophetic act as Kenny Blacksmith, as a representative of the First Peoples of Canada, blesses leaders of English and French Canada (the original founding nations) with a copy of the Word of God in his native language as he declares “You did not come in vain”.  With it God is setting a three-fold cord at the foundation of our nation that can not easily be broken.   

One Body (Spontaneous)  – Heather Clark, Tabitha Lemaire – One Heart Gathering

How can the eye say to the hand
I have no need of you?  (repeat)

How can the ear say to the foot

I have no need of you? (repeat)

The body is coming in line with the Head (repeat)

The Head Jesus Christ