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Archive for the ‘Body of Christ’ Category

Are You Part of the Body of Christ?

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 11:24-29

The boards in the Tabernacle of Moses have gold covering them and golden rings on them. Now, it is the ring that holds the bar. If the bar is the ministry, then it is the congregation that holds the ministry and not the ministry that holds that congregation. However, the church is bringing in all kinds of psychological ploys to hold their congregation.

I remember when we started a group in Port Saint Lucie, where I lived, a lot of the people broke away from the churches to come and hear the truth. All of a sudden, our congregation was filled with ministers and spies. They came in to see what I was preaching in order to get back their people. Soon they began to tell the brethren all manner of lies about what we were preaching. They have a thing in the church order, a psychological plan called “kicking upstairs.” Let me explain it. This sister came and she accepted that this Word of the Lord was true. When the pastor heard this, he immediately promoted her. He made her leader of the choir. She loved music, so she was taken up with that and we never saw her again. Psychology is strange fire that they bring into the congregation.

Now, how do you know that you are part of the Body of Christ? You must have gold before you can hold a golden bar. In other words, you must have the Spirit of God working with you. You must be hearing God before you will be able to hear the truth from God. So, if you can’t hear God, you can’t be part of the Body of Christ because God says, “I will walk in them, and I will talk in them.” So, if you are not able to hear the voice of God at all, you are not able to listen to the ministry of God.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 17, 2006, pg. 6)

Though for today: In order to be part of the Body of Christ, you must be able to hear God.

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What Apostolic Teaching Are You Following?

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , , on August 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading:  Ephesians 4:11-13

God has put a picture in the Bible of the Body of Christ into the Tabernacle of Moses. Do you know that the Outer Court church is not the Body of Christ? Let me describe a picture to you of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies as it is recorded in Exodus 26. The structure is made out of twenty boards. The boards on the corner of the end are double. There is one bar going right through the whole side. The bar is held by rings, golden rings. The boards are made of wood and gold. The gold covers the wood, so that the wood does not show at all. Wood means humanity and gold means divinity. So you see, it is God’s idea that our humanity should be covered by His divinity so that we would not have a human organization, but a divine organization. Human beings cannot organize a divine organization, so we have to be organized by God.

Let us read what God says about the five bars. All the bars are held by three golden rings through each board. It is the boards that hold the bars, and the bars keep the boards. These five bars represent five ministries. The long one is the apostles, and the shorter ones represent prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. We are not talking about pastors, because the word pastor is Latin. In Latin, it means that you can keep cows, you can keep hogs, you can keep goats, or you can keep sheep. But in the Greek rendition of the word, you can only keep sheep as a shepherd. So, Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd” (John 10:11).

Let us look at Ephesians 4:11-12, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. It said the ministry is given for the perfecting of the saints. God is saying that He has set a ministry in the world to perfect the saints. Now, if you give the saints wrong doctrines and dogmas that are made by man, instead of perfecting them, it will kill them. So, it depends upon what apostolic teaching you are following – that is what decides whether you are in the Body of Christ or not.

Let us take some of the teachings that have turned away from God. What about communion? When you bless the bread, does it become meat? When you bless the wine, does it become the Blood of Jesus Christ? The answer is NO. So, if you have a doctrine that when a person takes the bread and the wine, it makes him holy, it is a false doctrine. Therefore, the true apostles of God must teach the truth to bring people away from these lying doctrines. Let us consider the doctrine of rapture. If you teach the people that they are going to be raptured from the world and taken away to another place, it is a false teaching. The people need to know that they are going to have to overcome here on earth and don’t feel that they are going to escape the tribulation while all the other people have to go through it. We saw the Chinese church destroyed because they believed they were going to fly away, and Jesus didn’t come and take them away out of their tribulation. The people of God must understand that God wants us to overcome. Therefore, the church must go through the tribulation. Also, the idea that only the ministry is hearing from God and that you only have to listen to what the ministries say, and not hear from God for yourself is indeed a wrong doctrine. There are many, many other doctrines that we would need to go into, but God promises us that He would bring the truth to us in the end time.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 17, 2006, pg. 5-6)

Thought for today: Let us be careful what teaching we are following as it determines whether we are a part of the Body of Christ or not.

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Divine Order or Man’s Order?

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on August 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Ephesians 4:1-6

Let us talk about the Body of Christ today. How do we become the Body of Christ? How do we know that we are in the Body of Christ? There is only one God, one Church, one Body. When you read Ephesians 4:1-6, you will find out that it is very dogmatic. Anyone who tries to change these scriptures is not of God. If we do not belong to the one Body, then we are not of God. We were not of God before we were of God. Therefore, if we find out that we are not of God, we only have to repent, and be of God. There are many bodies in the world, so what makes us so sure that we are in the right Body?

The church was captured by the Roman Catholic system, back in the second century. The Catholics took the church and they immediately created a hierarchy. That means that they had to reject the ministry that God had set up in the world. We call the ministry that God set up in the world divine order. The order that was set up by the church is called man’s order. Now, let’s look at the difference between divine order and man’s order. Divine order is in Ephesians 4:11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. It says here pastors, but in my Bible, it is crossed out and it says the word shepherds and teachers as it is in the Greek original version. You know, the Word of God is correct, but the translations are not correct. So, the Spirit of God in the people of God will correct the translations of man. Amen.

Now, we don’t have the order of man in the Bible, but we can at least talk about it. In the Roman Catholic Church there is a Pope. The Bible says that we should not have a Pope. Let us turn to Matthew 20:20-26, Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. Here we see a rivalry begin to take place. They wanted position now. They were about to start church politics.

25 But Jesus called them unto him, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. The word dominion means having a big boss. So, it means that Jesus is saying that is a thing of the world. In the world you have the big boss and the little ones coming right down in the hierarchy position. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. Those of you who are reading the King James Version of the Bible, if you have a pen on you, cross out the word minister and put servant. The Greek says diakonos (Strong’s Concordance #G1249) and it means servant. The minister is the man with the collar and the head of a church. In Latin, minister means servant, but the church changed it to mean the man who is the head of the church. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your slave (Matthew 20:27). I am reading the Greek. It says doulos (Strong’s Concordance #G1401). Doulos could not be anything else but slave.

We can therefore see very clearly that God is saying you must not have a hierarchical system in the church. So, if you are going to take charge of a church, the first thing that you would have to do is to break God’s divine order that He has put in the church and put in your own order. I am saying this to you, brethren, because if you are subject to any other order but God’s order, you are not in the Body of Christ. God has His order established in the earth in spite of all this confusion that we have in church business.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 17, 2006, pg. 3-4)

Thought for today: It is necessary, especially at this time, for the people of God to find God’s order.

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Error in the Body

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 24:23

Before we attain the perfection, which entails changing the human nature to the DIVINE NATURE (2nd Peter 1:4), we must abide in the perfection of the Spirit. At present, we do partake of the divine nature in a limited way, but then we shall in its fullness. No man will rise to the perfect image of God before the death and the resurrection of the FIRSTFRUITS COMPANY, and this event shall jolt all creation. No man is correct in going around saying he is Christ. He cannot be Christ until the firstfruits come forth, and we shall all know about this when it happens, because perfection will come to a body of people and not to an individual. Thus it is the body that will be called Christ, and not the parts. This is the meaning of the scripture in Matthew 24:23, “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.”

If Christ was going to come in this fashion, then in obedience to the scripture, we would not believe Him when He comes. This scripture, more than any other, clearly says that Christ will not come and say unto any man, “I am Christ.” Thus, any person who says this is doing so in the spirit of the antichrist. The people of God who are now being taught that because Christ is coming forth in His church in the individual members, that we are Christ, are being “artfully and cunningly” prepared by the devil to accept the antichrist. My instruction to you is that you must repent now and cease from this heresy, if so be that you thought it was all right to worship the Christ in your brother. Worship the head, not the body. The body is not yet perfect. We must only worship God.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 118-119)

Thought for today: Worship the head, not the body. The body is not yet perfect. We must only worship God.

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Equality with Christ

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on July 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Ephesians 2:6

The Golden Lampstand in the Tabernacle of Moses has seven lamps that are on one level at the top which signifies equality with Christ. When man comes forth in Christ, he will sit in an equal place with Jesus Christ as part of the Christ Himself. Ephesians 2:6, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” There is perfect equality between the head and the body. Jesus is the head and we are the body, WHEN THE BODY FUNCTIONS IN THE SPIRIT.

It is, therefore, not just a matter of being perfect at some future time, and then gaining equality with Christ, but obeying the Spirit now, operating perfectly now, because we have been given an equal status with Christ. This is not to bring Christ down, but to lift humanity. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” John 12:32.

It is necessary for us to understand equality. This is a statutory equality which is different from the position one holds in the body, and the work appointed for each to do.

In other words, Jesus is the head and the different functions are apportioned out to us, the body. We are just as important and equal in the body operation as the head, but, of course, we are not the head. If one part usurps the function of another, then two jobs would be undone. I am afraid that this is the problem of the body today.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 117-118)

Thought for today: Let us not usurp the function of another member of the body of Christ. Otherwise, two jobs will be undone.

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