We started Week Five of One Ekklesia bible study with a quote from page 18:
“The building up of the assembly occurs when millions of distinctively individual believers become one just as the Father and the Son are one.”
We spoke about how this works practically by a change of mind and noted these scriptures:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5
And, “…we have the mind of Christ” 1 Corinthians 2:16
What we are discovering rests on the fact that God dwells in believers by uniting Himself with our spirit. And as we walk in the Spirit – learning to be Spirit-led, living by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts – the effect of that is unity. It is beyond our natural ability. We live in dependence on God to lead us in this.
We looked more closely at John17 to see the three gifts Jesus gave us, empowering us to be one:
1.) Eternal Life in the Father’s name. John 17:4-12 In the same way we share the name of our natural father with our natural siblings, we all share our Heavenly Father’s name, making us all part of His family: Children of God.
2.) The Word of Truth. John 17:13-19 This is Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, who is embedded in the scriptures. It is important to discern Jesus as the Truth as He alone unites us. The scriptures apart from Jesus can very easily divide us.
3.) Glory. John 17:22-26 The glory Jesus provides is not how the world perceives glory. Jesus’ gift of glory enables us to humble ourselves and serve one another.
We spoke about the many “one anothers” in the epistles and how they display the practical outworking of this glory.
We ended with a song that expresses the sobering reality of drawing near to God. And His all-sufficient supply for all who do. The song is called “Giant Slayer”.