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Getting It
By daniel | August 8, 2004
Grace and peace to you!
Last week a precious sister sat me down to ask me a question. She?s been enjoying our discussions of the church life ? of being together, each bringing something to the table, taking care of each other, meeting in a distinctly New Testament manner. But she feels like it?s a lot ? too much, in fact, to “get.” She doesn?t think she gets it.
So I set myself to answering her. I didn?t try to help her get it; rather, I tried to help her think about what it means to get it. What does it look like when someone “gets” the church life, when someone really understands? Here?s just about what I told her.
On a football team each player is responsible, generally, for two things. First, he must understand the game. He?s got to know the objective, the rules, the basic mechanics of how the team moves together down the field and scores the points. He needs to understand his own position and how it necessarily fits in with the rest of the team.
Second, he needs to do what he?s told. Football is executed in plays. The boss calls a play and the team executes it. Then, the next play is called and executed. The success of the team depends not only upon each player knowing what?s up on the grid iron, but also upon each player?s ability to listen to the plays and do what he?s told to do when he?s told to do it.
The church life, as far as I can see it so far, works the same way. First, we need to understand what we?re doing here. Now, we have centuries of confusion to try to cull through and shake off, but we are blessed to have the Bible. This holy Collection of inspired documents gives us an excellent testimony of how God thinks the game should be played. We need to jettison our religious biases and comfortable traditions and read the Bible with fresh eyes. Then, we can see the objective, the directives, the basic mechanics of the gathered life of a meeting people. And, in time, each of us will come to understand our own specific part in the puzzle ? our gift(s), our positions on the team.
Second, we need to be led, in each moment, by the living Christ within ? by the Spirit.
Now, before we read over those words I want to challenge you to consider whether or not you even know what it means to be led by the Spirit. Most of the saints I have met are largely led by their intellect or by their feelings. Those led by their intellect are often good students of the Word. They think carefully about everything and try to decide what?s best (and who can argue with that?). They frequently have running systems of “principles” to guide their living; but principles are simply the religion of the Christian intellect.
Saints led by their feelings often have very strong ones. Their emotions seem to them to be reasons, in and of themselves, to act or not act. “I feel x, so I should do y” is the unassailable logic of the feelings-led person. Those led by their thinking often look down on these “feely” people due to their unpredictability and inconsistency, but whether you are led by your thoughts or your emotions, you have a merely psychological life, not a spiritual one.
Being led by the Spirit is about knowing another Person within you. There is Somebody Else in there with you, and He has something to say. Your thoughts and feelings are not necessarily bad, but they are certainly not where God?s leading is to be found. God lives in the believer?s spirit, and it is from his spirit that He leads by His Spirit.
I?ve found great hope in the fact that the Spirit is not a feeling or an idea, but rather a Person. I can?t ask a feeling for help. I can?t pose a direct question to an idea. But the Spirit is a Person ? a real, listening, speaking Person who lives right in the middle of me. I?ve had real success with prayers like, “Spirit, I can?t seem to hear you. I don?t really know how to be led by You, but I know you want to lead. So, teach me how. You lead, and let me know you?re leading, and I?ll follow.” Another good one when I?m unsure if the Spirit?s speaking is “What? I didn?t catch that, Lord.” That may sound a little irreverent to you, but I am more uncomfortable with meaningless religious jargon than I am with direct dialogue. I think God is, too.
So, once you tell God you?re listening, just go on about your day or about the meeting and keep an ear perked for the Voice. Try to cultivate and interior posture of agreement ? that is, be telling the Lord “Yes” even if you aren?t hearing much. This way, when He gives the impulse to act or speak something, you?re already agreeable. If ever I?m unsure if an impulse is mine or His, I usually err on the side of just trying it. If it seems “just trying it” might possibly be damaging to someone, or if I?m too unsure, I just fellowship with other brothers or sisters about it. Together, we manifest more of the Divine Presence than any one of us alone, so the reception is much clearer. In any case, hang your faith on God?s ability to lead, and don?t worry too much about your capacity to follow (He helps with that, too).
Take a moment to read Ephesians 5:18-21. This passage has multiple applications, but it?s primarily about how to meet. Early church gatherings usually involved shared meals, and the meals usually included wine. Now, before you run out and buy a bottle for your next cell meeting, understand that first century wine was not nearly as strong as the brew we?ve come to know. Grapes were fermented to preserve nutrients in an age before refrigeration, not to intoxicate. But it was sufficiently alcoholic that several hours of pretty steady drinking could get a fellow drunk. (This is what Peter has in mind in Acts 2:14-15). And on unfortunate occasions (judging from passages like this and I Corinthian 11:20-21) a gathering could go bad because people were meeting on merely natural grounds, just enjoying themselves, paying little mind to what Christ was after in the gathering and no attention to how much wine they had taken. So Paul says not to do that. Not to meet in a merely natural way (which for them was leading to chaos and dissipation), but instead to be filled with the Spirit. What?s implied here is choice. You can choose to agree with God and enjoy Christ, thereby being filled up with Him in the Spirit. When that happens believers tend to feed each other, to teach each other, to help each other along, and to do so in gratitude to their generous Father for such a life together, which is what Ephesians 5:18-21 says to do. And they tend to avoid dominating the meeting, preferring rather to subject themselves to one another in reverence for Christ who is imminently present in their gathering.
Come to the meetings expecting to give to all, and to receive from any (not just from the elders). Study the Word and see how the church is intended to live together, then intend it yourself, then live it. Practice, practice, and, as we persist, more and more will become clear.
And in the moment and the moments, give the Spirit enough room and enough of your attention that He can fill you and lead you. Listen for the next play, the next thing and then just do it. Life like that is quite a ride.
I?m excited about where we?re going. Listen, if in a meeting you ever have a question (conceptual or practical), just ask. Questions are part of the body?s life, too. Questions are how we move. You always want more questions than answers, so ask. Please, ask. I love you.
Glad to be with you,
Virgil
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