Ephesians

The Church should be a place of love, fellowship, peace, refuge, deliverance, and a house of prayer. Each person is placed in the Church, by God, to play a vital role in the body of Christ. When carrying out God's plan - there are no "extra parts."

For the past two weeks we have highlighted the fact that there are stages of Godly development in our personal walk with Christ. Today we see that this principle is true for the "corporate body" (church) as well, one of the best ways to gage if a church is growing spiritually is whether it is more like a factory or a family!

In Ephesians 3:20 it states that God desires to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think. What an amazing truth! God is calling the church to believe in Him for the impossible!

God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Read 1 Corinthians 1:25 to 31. God sees us for what is inside us. He calls ones with seemingly no talent, average, and who are low-esteemed. God uses people who are not perfect but who need mending. He takes our situations, cleans us up, mends us, and completes a work in us until we are perfected even to the stature of Jesus Christ. In order to be used by God, we must allow our wounds to be turned in scars. Our scars are reminders of a wound that has been mended. God uses people who are willing to fit together in the body. Read Ephesians 4:16, God knits together people who have been mended and are working towards one purpose – accomplishing great works for the Kingdom of God. God uses people who are faithful. We must allow God to mend us, to work together, to speak the truth in love, and stand in faithfulness.

We know Jesus is coming soon. So what does the church look like - who He is coming back for? We need to see who we are in Christ - the inward man and ask ourselves if we are living and walking for Christ. A few distinguishing factors of this last day church will show those who are transformed by the Word, those who are obedient to the Word, doers of the works of Jesus and a people who are victorious and full of hope in Christ. Does this describe how we are living now and are we ready for what is about to happen?

As the designer of the family, God alone has the authority to assign our proper roles. When we choose to accept those roles and walk in them, we have the blessing of God. When we do not accept those roles, the consequences are hard.

The devil has schemes and strategies to tempt us to fall. Yet, God's Word calls us to stand! The largest battlefield is our mind. It is satan's grand target - if he can get the mind - he will eventually have access to the heart. To combat this, we are told to put on the helmet of salvation. This includes guarding four areas of thought: Our identity, How we think about daily living, Our destiny, Things that should be forgotten and things that should be remembered.

If we fail to recognize, as followers of Christ, our battle is not against flesh and blood, we end up distracted and disengaged. If we lay down our spiritual guard, we can end up fighting the wrong enemy - the people who around us!