About six months ago, a group of about 40 young men and women decided to leave their lifes behind (their jobs, friends, families, churches) to embark on a journey of pursuit of God and His Kingdom. I was among those priviledged ones and it has been a transforming journey from every perspective you look at it.
Lately, one of the perspectives that has changed and become more alive to me is the reality that we are the Church. In its original context, the word “church” referred to the group of believers, but somewhere along the way it was replaced with the former concept of temple. One of the things that Jesus came to do was actually to tear down this old concept of temple and exchange it for a new one in which He now makes us His temple. We are now hence, individually the temple of the Holy Spirit, and collectively the Body of Christ on earth or the Church.
A very easy and clear way we can see how this idea of the Church being a temple instead of a group of followers of Christ has penetrated our worldview is by the phrase “we go to church”. People may argue with me that it is just a thoughtless and commonly accepted statement and that it can’t be used to infer or represent what we really think about what the church is but I think it does.
In this journey I have found the enourmous power that there is in changing the statement “we go to church” to “we are the Church”. This crucial piece of insight and understanding will affect the way that we live our lifes because it affects the way we perceive ourselves and who we really are. It presents us with the priviledge and the challenge of actively following Jesus everywhere we go and in every single moment of our days. It lifts the boundaries of being circumscribed to a specific geographical space and a specific schedule during the week. It opens the doors for us to from now on do everything we do for the glory of God and do it in the power of His grace for us.
Whether we are in our house or someone else’s house, on a bus, taxi or train, in a restaurant, on the streat, at the supermarket, or anywhere else we can find ourselves in, we are the Church! We are the Body of Christ here on earth and we are the representatives of His Kingdom. We carry within ourselves His message and His power to love and worship God in everything we do and to love those around us as we love ourselves and as He has loved us.
Especially this month this has become a reality for me and my team. We wake up early and as the Church each one of us seeks out God to strengthen our inner being and to allign ourselves to His will. We then pray and head out to the communities where we walk through the streets carrying the word of God and the power of His Kingdom with us to proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, healing to the sick and to set the opressed free.
This month we have seen God move with us in a greater measure that we have yet seen Him before on the Race. We have seen Him healing the hearts and bodies of His children, bringing people to saving faith through Jesus, encouraging his followers to keep on the good work of love and even delivering people from evil spirits that do not belong. We have never felt more empowered in our journey and we believe that this is the fullness of live that Jesus talked about giving to every one of His followers.
I once heard a preacher say that the Church is not about behaving so that we may belong to a group of people that believe in certain doctrines but it is about believing the words and promises of God for us so that we may belong to the eternal family of newly born saints He is creating that behave in a holy and powerful way that is pleasing to God. I encourage each one of us to start taking the necessary steps to shift our understanding of God, His message and His will so that we may enter into the reality of His promises and we may live the abundant life we were created for.
