Our Values
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Our approach is corporate rather than independent
Saved in a family
Salvation is not from an individual perspective only, but happens in the context of a family. We are not only saved “from our sins”, but also “into a family” that God is forming on the earth.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)
The era of one head over one body
Jesus, when his time to go to the cross approached, declared to his disciples he would send the Holy Spirit to be with them. This would be the era of the saints filled and led by the Holy Spirit, the era of the body:
For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
That body, which “is not made up of one part but of many” (v.14), is the body of Christ.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
(Ephesians 1:22-23)
So, we see one head over one body, with the “precious oil poured on the head, running down” (Psalm 133:2). The head is not without the body, nor the body without the head. You cannot have one without the other. If you see one, you see the other, just as if you see the Son, you see the Father. The body, with many members, yet being one, is filled with the same Spirit and makes Jesus visible throughout the earth.
We surrender our rights and gifts to become a symphony
Since the body represents him, each of us, with our giftings, don’t look for a personal advantage, but we surrender to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, who coordinates the whole body like an orchestra conductor.
In an orchestra, every musician, with all the individual talent they may have, are surrendering their right to use their own instrument to the leadership of the conductor. The placement, the position, the role of each musician is determined by the conductor to produce a harmony. That harmony makes possible the expression of a symphony that transcends even the sum of all the individual giftings taken separately.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit is looking for a church that will totally surrender to his leadership and let him position and lead our lives to produce a symphony that will reflect the image of Jesus on the earth.
Surrendering our individual gifts is not about abandoning our call or giftings, but rather to die to our right to use them on our own terms, out of a selfish motive. It is all about coming under the leading of the Holy Spirit for the sake of the whole:
Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:11)
We choose to die to ourselves and to our right to move in an independent way. We consider the interests of others before our own.
I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)
What I do doesn’t only affect me, but the whole family, since we are “members of one another”:
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:26)
A corporate walk
So the individual doesn’t disappear, but we no longer act in an independent way. This is a different walk, a new wineskin, a reformation of the church. It requires love, respect and trust, a willingness to wait for one another, to consult with each other, a mutual submission and discipline, accountability, vulnerability and genuineness. This is a corporate walk. This is family walk.
A kingdom family
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16)
This is one body, not a collection of independent members. The approach is not individualistic. The longing of his heart is for a healthy family where all can come and live. This many-membered body is like the coat of many colors Joseph was given by his father Jacob. It is intergenerational, multi-ethnic, made up of Jews and gentiles, reunited in the promise made to Abraham, to form one new humanity.
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We will always love God and love one another
A different community
We all know the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. With this, the Holy Spirit is building a community on the earth that’s different from anything the world has ever seen. God wants to show the world the example of a family living in love – his family walking with a kingdom heart.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)
God’s nature
That love is anything but superficial, for it flows from the very nature of God.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16)
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17:24)
“The glory you have given me because you loved me…” Love precedes glory. Glory comes as a result and a manifestation of the love of the Father. When we long for his glory, it’s never outside of his love.
High standards – To love is to die
That love has high standards and comes with a great price. To love is to die:
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)
The requirement of love for one another is clear: we can’t love God if we don’t love the other members of the family.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
(1 John 4:20-21)
This is why Jesus taught us in details on how we ought to behave:
Not to judge (Matthew 7:1)
Remove the plank out of our own eye (Matthew 7:5)
Forgive (Matthew 6:14-15)
The golden rule (Matthew 7:12), etc.
A new wineskin
Why are those guidelines so important? The Lord wants to birth in the earth, through his family, a new wineskin into which the new wine from heaven can be poured without being spilled. We are called to form that container for his presence to dwell on the earth.
Sacrificial love – Walking with an open heart
Knowing the dream of the Father for his Ekklesia, we are ready to embrace the pains and sufferings attached to genuine love, considering any sacrifice a sweet offering to our Lord. Even when we are hurt, we trust Jesus to heal our wounds, and we keep walking with an open heart. We can’t afford the luxury of walking with a closed heart. We can only walk with open hearts. We are ready to take again and again the risk to love.
Quitting is not an option
Our love is non-negotiable. We will always love God; we will always love one another. Period. Even when disagreements come, or hurts and wounds hit the heart, still, we are not given the option to bail out. Love is never put on the table for negotiation. We don’t let our brother or sister slide away: “We will not let you go, we will not let you fail – quitting is not an option.” Fathers and mothers in the family will help the brothers and sisters to keep walking in this love through challenging times and situations.
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We lay down our personal agendas to listen and obey; we don’t initiate for God
Hear and obey
Jesus, the good shepherd, restored a people able to hear his voice, as we see in John 10:4 “His sheep follow him because they know his voice.” And also,
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (v.16)
Jesus definitely puts importance on listening and obeying. To the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, he repeats: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Corporate waiting and hearing
Like Mary, we need to take the right posture. She sat at the Lord’s feet to listen to him (see Luke 10:39). As one flock, one family, one body, we come corporately before him to listen humbly. We want to hear and obey the rhema word of God. To do that, we come together, lay down our personal agendas, and wait before him in worship and in prayer, until he speaks. We will not initiate for God. And even after he has spoken, we don’t move ahead without coming back to him and enquiring for his detailed instructions and timing for every step.
As we continue this journey of hearing and discerning his voice corporately, we are drawn in a deeper intimacy where we are totally satisfied to remain in that posture as long as it pleases him, whether he chooses to speak or not. Our place is first to minister to him, not to take matters into our own hands.
Until he speaks: Saul’s tragedy – David’s heart
Saul couldn’t wait for Samuel, and he took matters into his hands. As a result, he was disqualified from the throne and another one was chosen in his place: “But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD'S command.” (1 Samuel 13:14) We have a whole different picture with David. When he first attempted to bring back the ark, Uzzah died. The procession for celebration turned into a funeral. But the second time, David listened to God’s instructions, brought back the ark the right way, placed it in Jerusalem, and his end was the opposite of Saul’s end.
Leaders, even kings, don’t have the liberty, in the kingdom of God, to do whatever they feel or whatever seems good to them just because they are leaders. There is a higher commander, and he alone has the right to initiate. We are not to be led by circumstances nor needs, but by God alone.
Unless the Lord builds the house
There are so many directions we could take, and so many seem good. Only God knows the way.
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. (Psalm 127:1)
We can have all the workers, the supplies and the money, and yet work in vain. We can watch as long as we want, establish prayer strategies and put much effort into this, but unless the Lord has initiated and sustained all of it, and unless we corporately surrender, listen and obey, all is in vain. When we listen and obey, we move away from the days there was no king in Israel and “Everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 21:25) to the era of the kingdom where “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28).
What is the strategy?
If we would be looking for breakthroughs only, we would quickly come to seeking the means that would be justified by the end results – or the strategy that will guarantee the results.
What was the strategy to conquer Jericho? Walking around its walls for six days, then seven times on the seventh day, then trumpets and shouting? Is this really what we would call a strategy? Something we can repeat and use again to secure victory? There is no way. Nothing of that made the walls to come down. Nothing of that would produce any result today either. It was not the vibration made by the Israelites shoes on the ground. Those walls were so thick that entire houses were built on top of them. Yet those walls did come down. The only strategy we have is to listen to what God says and to obey Him.
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Oneness is not optional; it’s a necessity
The power of unity
Unity is a catalyst that releases great power. At the tower of Babel, because men had tapped into that principle, nothing was impossible to them, so the Lord had to intervene. He confused their language and scattered them over the earth. But God had a plan, and that curse was finally reversed at Pentecost when unity and corporate authority were restored.
The lack of unity removes authority
This principle of unity will always work, whether for edification or for destruction:
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)
In any kingdom, if the subjects are divided and disobedient to the king, it will be chaos. People will say of that king that he doesn’t have authority over his kingdom. This is what we have done to our King. The world is looking at the church and mocking both its subjects and their King. But our King is merciful and wants to bring us back from the captivity of our own rebellious hearts. This is the reason Jesus prayed five times in John 17 that we would be one.
John 17 – A key for the church and for end-time harvest
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. (John 17:22)
In the same prayer, Jesus said in verse 21, this is “so that the world may believe”. The oneness of the church is a key for worldwide evangelism.
Oneness is more than unity
Jesus prayed that we would be ONE, like the Father and the Son are one. The Father and the Son are not united, they are ONE. Oneness is beyond the different kinds of unity we can pursue: common projects, common interests, common benefit. Oneness is about the hearts burning for one another, and loving one another just as Jesus loved us :
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
Without that genuine oneness of heart and spirit, we have no authority to accomplish our mission, even if we know what the Lord is asking. Can a couple have authority in their house if they are divided? Can the leaders carry spiritual authority in a local church if they are divided amongst themselves?
If anyone has seen the church
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:8-10)
Then Jesus goes further to say that the day is coming when we also will experience with him that same kind of oneness he has with the Father:
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (v.20)
We will then be able to stand before the world and say, “Anyone who has seen the church has seen Jesus. How can you say, ‘Show us Jesus’?”Whoever will look at the church will know there is a God in the church, and that he is the only one, because the church will be one body under one head. When we are one, we become the visible manifestation of the invisible, and by looking at us, the world may see the one true God.
The secret of that oneness
What is the key to that oneness of the Father and the Son to which we are called?
Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)
It was Jesus constant death to himself that remained the key of his oneness with the Father, and that oneness remained the basis of his authority. The measure of his personal deadness in obedience to his Father determined the measure of the fruits he could yield:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24).
Corporate death – Corporate oneness – Corporate authority
Corporate death leads to corporate oneness, and corporate oneness leads to corporate authority. There is no alignment for us corporately with heaven unless we are ready to die to our rights. So we are dead to self, but alive to obey the head.
In order to walk corporately we all need to pursue the attitude and the relationship of a yielded vessel in continual communion with the Father. That pursuit of uninterrupted fellowship with God is the journey of a soul that never disengages from the connection with the Holy Spirit.
We die to the independent nature we inherited from Adam at the fall. That independent spirit is at the root of our separation from God. It yields fruits of agitation in the heart, incapacity to wait before God and trust him. It becomes a force that drives us to initiate on our own. Under that independent spirit, we are crippled in our walk with God, and our walk with men becomes infected with unhealthy attitudes such as domination, manipulation, and control.
When we are NOT dead to self, not yielded, not broken:
Have a cause to defend
Are demanding
Are fighting to have our rights recognized
Are easily offended, or wounded
Want to be acknowledged
Are seeking for a place, a position, a title
Are motivated in our service by a need to compensate for a lack of identity
Are agitated, unstable, dissatisfied
Are judgmental, have a critical and harsh spirit
Justify ourselves, never take the blame for anything, etc.
When we ARE dead to self, we yield better fruits:
Are peaceful, gentle, patient
Have a satisfied spirit
Don’t seek anything for ourselves
Are waiting for others
Are submitted to one another
Show forgiveness
Have a love for the body of Christ
Take the risk of trusting our lives to the hands of our brothers and sisters
Are ready to carry the responsibility for mistakes, etc.
The fruit of the spirit grows on the rich compost of our one thousand personal deaths. These personal deaths are the prerequisite to come to corporate death that will allow us to come to the corporate oneness needed to receive corporate authority in the kingdom.
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A remnant for the desires of God
Queen Esther presented herself before the king, he extended his scepter to her, and God’s people were saved. Those walking in covenant oneness today are that Esther company.
While God desires and is waiting patiently for the obedience of all, his kingdom continues to advance night and day (see Mark 4:26-29) with the faithful remnant he always keeps to fulfill his purposes.
A company reserved for himself
The resistance or the hesitation of the many cannot stop God’s purposes on the earth. What he promised will come to pass. Jesus will have his spotless bride. The Lord always keeps for himself a remnant to fulfill his purposes. When Elijah thought he was the only one, God told him he had reserved for himself seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. (See Romans 11:2-5)
Ten men to save Sodom
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows the power of a remnant. Abraham pleaded with God to save the city if even only ten righteous men could be found. And God agreed. Only ten men, ten righteous ones, and the whole city would have been spared. Why? Because the righteousness of a small remnant has more power than the sin of a multitude. The power of righteousness far surpasses the power of wickedness.
A majority with God
One of the lies of the enemy is that we don’t have enough people to fulfill God’s plans. Truth is, it's not about numbers. With God, we are a majority. It’s about the corporate obedience of a remnant, even of just one man.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
The critical mass – The principle of the leaven and of the seed
What caused the destruction of Sodom was not the amount of sin but the lack of righteousness in the city. What level of righteousness can or cannot be found in the mass? This is also the principle of the leaven. A critical mass of leaven causes the whole lump to grow:
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Matthew 13:33)
The same principle applies to the seed that is growing:
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. (Matthew 13:31-32)
God has placed an active principle in the earth, the principle of the critical mass that can trigger a chain reaction to produce a nuclear explosion in the spirit, an explosion of God’s glory. This is why Jesus could declare with authority:
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.(Luke 12:32)
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We’ll do whatever, until the glory comes
Over the years, many people, looking at the journey of the Global Family, asked what kind of ministry that is. David Demian likes to answer this is the ministry of “Whatever, until”. Whatever it takes, until the glory comes. If we need to wash people’s shoes for God’s glory to be revealed, we will. Just don’t say we have a ministry of washing shoes. If we need to place the chairs, we will. Just don’t say we have a ministry of placing chairs. Our ministry is “Whatever, until”.
King David had such a deep longing to host the ark of the presence of God in Jerusalem, that he was ready to do anything for this to happen. It was a day and night cry inside of him:
He swore an oath to the LORD and made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob: “I will not enter my house or go to my bed—I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Psalm 132:3-5)
Seeing the presence of God established in the midst of his people had also been Moses’ pursuit. Facing God’s anger because of the golden calf, Moses stood in powerful intercession and said: “But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Exodus 32:32)
The Lord himself left everything he had to make it possible for the glory to come to us:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)
What was he seeing on the cross, through the sweat and the blood running down his face, to make him willing to endure those sufferings? The joy of a bride fashioned into his likeness. A bride who, like him, would set her face like a flint toward the goal. He would not be unequally yoked. He would see the desire of his heart come true. A bride after his own kind.
Those who never let go
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ (…) And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-3,7-8)
That parable is about those who lay hold of God and never let go. They know that God may seem to be delayed according to our timetables, but that according to his timetable, he is answering speedily. The question is, “Will he find faith or will he find hope deferred?”
The persevering faith of small number, consecrated to God, is moving God’s heart on behalf of the mass. When a remnant lives in obedience and walks with God, the Lord uses them to break through and open a way for the others to follow. It is the tip of the arrow splitting the air to reach the target. It is the fearless detachment sent ahead of the troops to establish a beachhead.
That remnant never lets go. Never lets go of what? Whatever is on God’s heart. This is why in each community, region and nation, there needs to be a people seeking his face to know his heart and desire – a company of believers linking with heaven to establish a canopy of God’s presence over the earth.
The heart and mission of this remnant is to prepare a resting place for his glory. What if we don’t break through right away? We’re ready to strike the ground again and again, until the breakthrough comes, just as Elisha wanted the king to do by striking the ground in the royal chamber with his arrows, until he would have full victory.
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His presence – Our constant pursuit – A resting place for his glory
I love to visit, but I can’t stay
David Demian tells the story when he was visiting friends in their home, a godly couple, successful in ministry. But it became quickly apparent there must have been some kind of conflict between his hosts, and although no harsh words were spoken in front of him, there was tension he could feel in the air. As his hosts were in the kitchen preparing tea for him, David was in the living room, asking God to help him in that situation. “Lord, this is very hard for me. I’m feeling so uncomfortable. I love my friends very much, but I need a break from this atmosphere, maybe to go out for a long walk, or even to find a hotel for the night and come back tomorrow. At the same time I don’t want to offend my friends. I don’t know what to do. Please, help me.”
And the Lord responded to him, “David, this is exactly how I feel in my church. I love to visit, but I can’t stay. Too much tension, too many divisions, too many conflicts. But I love my children so much, and I miss them. So I always come back. But my Holy Spirit is grieved again, so I leave again, then later I come back, but I can’t stay.
A resting place for his glory
Our heart is to prepare a resting place for the Lord, a house he will never have to leave again. The deep longing of king David to bring back the ark of the covenant continues to echo in our spirit and with him we say:
Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests be clothed with your righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy. (Psalm 132:8-9)
It was through the next generation that David’s cry was answered. His son Salomon prayed at the dedication of the temple and asked a very important question:
“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27)
Where is my house?
God’s glory came down and filled Solomon’s temple, just as he had filled Moses’ tabernacle. But that was only a type and a shadow of what the Lord was really longing for. All through the history of Israel, we see God’s heart burning with the desire to come and dwell with his people. Even to a fugitive like Jacob who was fleeing for his life, away from his family, God revealed the house he was longing for, a house with an open door to heaven:
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. […] When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel [the house of God], though the city used to be called Luz. (Genesis 28:12,16-18)
At the end, through the prophet Isaiah, God asked that crucial question:
This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all thesethings, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor:those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)
All the constructions his people had tried to build for him could not contain God’s glory. He was looking for a people, for a family. He looked through the earth but could find no one. So in the fullness of time, he sent his beloved Son. And one of the first things Jesus touched was the house God had revealed to Jacob. Jesus had just given a prophetic word to Nathanael and he added:
“You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” (John 1:50-51)
Jesus was saying that he was the true house of God, and the gate to heaven. He was the rock Jacob had poured oil on. He was the temple that he could rebuild in three days. God finally had a house where he could dwell on the earth. But it did not end there. Jesus inaugurated a new era for all of us to become corporately the house of God.
Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)
Starting at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us, the construction site for the house of God was officially open.
Living stones
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Not only are we carrying the presence of God individually, but there is a fulness of his dwelling when, as living stones, we are “joined and held together “ (Ephesians 4:16), to form the spiritual house that is the answer to the question both Solomon and God asked. This is also what Paul declares:
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21-22)
God wants to show to the world a family living with love, and not a collection of saved individuals living independently. The fruit of individual progress must grow in the setting of a family. That family, which is a corporate temple, is different than any other family on the earth: it is a dwelling place for God. That family, from every tribe and language and people and nation, is being unveiled as a beautiful bride the Holy Spirit has been preparing for the bridegroom. And soon we hear the voice of our beloved saying to us, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.”(Song of songs 2:10), and “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” (Revelation 22:17)
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An altar of worship on the earth – A portal of his glory
True worshippers
When Abraham entered the land the Lord promised him, he started building altars every place the Lord appeared to him along his journey. Abraham was not only a man of faith, but he was also a worshipper.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:23)
God is looking for worshippers. Before worship, he is looking for worshippers. Not for what we can produce, but for us. This is our heart. We want to be for the Father the worshippers he is looking for. Then our worship can ascend as a pleasant aroma from the altars we build in our nations.
Spiritual sacrifices
This is what Peter explained when he said we were living stones. He gave the reason why we needed to come together and form a spiritual house or temple. He said it was in order to be a “holy priesthood” so we could offer “spiritual sacrifices”.
Giving the example of Jesus as our high priest, the author of Hebrews describes one kind of spiritual sacrifice we can offer today:
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
Worship is when God has a desire, and in our mind, it doesn’t make any sense, like for Abraham going to sacrifice his son. But we go higher, and we say, “Even if I don’t understand, I will worship you. I will offer you what you desire. I will give you the highest praise.”
The house is the family
Jacob had seen the heavens open and the angels ascending and descending. He said, “This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” That vision gave the two areas of God’s plan for us: a house and a gate.
The house is a community. It’s not only where we live, it’s who we are. It’s our family. It’s our household. “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) It’s the community we read about in the book of Acts: “All the believers were one in heart and in mind.”(Acts 4:32) It’s the house of God, the family of God. The house is where the ladder touches the earth.
The gate is the portal
The gate is a portal over the house. It goes up to heaven where God stands above the ladder. All along that portal, angels are ascending and descending. We know that it’s through the blood of Jesus that this access has been opened for us. He remains our high priest forever, and through him, we now offer spiritual sacrifices. Some versions say that we offer spiritual victims.
Today, our altars of adoration are releasing the perfume that pleases God’s nostrils (see Genesis 8:21). Our worship offered in faith makes us enter the door that was opened for us. It allows that gate to be manifested in the midst of our gatherings. It makes the ladder to appear in our midst, right over the house. From the altars of adoration we establish on the earth, we can ascend on the ladder and touch heaven.
When that happens in our worship, we are entering a zone of supernatural communion with God. Our minds are being renewed and we can discern more clearly what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church. This is why we do not consider our worship time as a preparation for the next point on the program, but as a true expression of our oneness with the Lord. We worship corporately until his glory is being released, until a portal is being established.
So we are continuing to gather with three simple goals: Oneness with the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:17), oneness with one another (see John 17:22-25), and to give him the highest praise, to crown him as king over all.
Then we see the fulfilment of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)