Imrah Ministries

By PJ Sorensen

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Moshiach/Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

If you know how to listen to the voice of G-d, you can hear Him calling throughout the Body of Moshiach/Christ today. He is calling for unity. He is calling us to lay down our disagreements and come together in preparation for Yeshua’s/Jesus’ return.

Just the thought of that scares some believers. “How can I unify with someone from another denomination?” they say. “I’m not going to give up my doctrines and agree with theirs just for unity’s sake!”

What they don’t realize is this: scriptural unity isn’t based on doctrine.

Winds of doctrine, according to Ephesians 4:14, are childish. Winds of doctrine don’t unify. They divide and blow people in every direction. The Word doesn’t say anything about us coming into the unity of our doctrines. It says we’ll come into the unity of the faith.

In the past, we’ve failed to understand that and tried to demand doctrinal unity from each other anyway.

“If you don’t agree with me on the issue of tongues,” we’ve said, “or on the timing of the rapture…or on the proper depth for baptismal waters, I won’t accept you as a brother in the L-rd. I’ll break fellowship with you.”

But that’s not G-d’s way of doing things. He doesn’t have a long list of doctrinal demands for us to meet. His requirements are simple. Yochanan Aleph/First John 3:23 tells us what they are: to believe on the Name of His Son, Yeshua Hamashiach/Jesus Christ, and love one another.

Once you and I come to a place where we keep those requirements and quit worrying about the rest, we’ll be able to forget our denominational squabbles and come together in the unity of faith. We’ll grow so strong together that the winds of doctrine won’t be able to drive us apart.

When that happens, ha`satan/satan is going to panic because the unity of the faith of G-d’s people is a staggering thing. It’s the most unlimited, powerful thing on earth.

Right now all over the world, the Spirit is calling the Body of the living G-d to unite. Hear Him and obey, and you can be a part of one of the most magnificent moves of G-d this world has ever seen.

By Sidharth Mohandas

“How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” [Psalm 133:1]  

The Lord had been teaching me on the subject of “Unity” a year or two back. I was excited to get such revelations from the Lord and even more excited to see the impact of the message on those who heard it. In this article, I will only be sharing a gist of series of teachings I received from the Lord.

A day back, the Lord took me to His conversation with the Father and opened my eyes to something that really caught hold of me. Here are the verses:

“…Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name- the name You gave me- so that they may be one as we are one” [ John 17: 11b]

“My prayer is not only for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in Me and I am in you…” [John 17: 20-21]

Jesus desires His disciples to be ONE AS HE IS ONE WITH THE FATHER. He desired this so much that we find Him asking the Father twice to protect them, so that they would be one and not divided.

“TOGETHER”

I choose to take the early Church as an example to show how they operated in this kind of Oneness…

I’ll be taking you through five different verses from the book of Acts, and I want you to read these verses loudly, stressing on the words “together” and “one in heart and mind”.

Here we go,

“They all joined TOGETHER constantly in prayer along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” [Acts 1:14]

“When the Day of Pentecost came, they were all TOGETHER in one place” [Acts 2:1]

“All believers were TOGETHER and had everything in common” [Acts 2: 44]

“Everyday they continued to meet TOGETHER in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate TOGETHER with glad and sincere hearts” [Acts 2: 46]

“When they heard this, they raised their voices TOGETHER in prayer to God…” [Acts 4: 24]

“All believers were ONE IN HEART AND MIND. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had” [Acts 4: 32]

I have read these passages over and over and each time I read them I stand in awe at the oneness and intimacy displayed amongst the early believers. This kind of intimacy and selfless love is lacking in believers today.

INTIMATELY UNITED

In Colossians 2:5, Paul writes to the believers at Colosse and says, “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit…”.Though Paul was away from the believers at Colosse he says he was present with them in the spirit. Remember, believers are baptized into one body by the Spirit of God, and they remain one even though they are separated by their bodies. A year back, I was praying for other believers in my college- for their exams, and the Lord said, “You are working with them for their exams.”. I pondered on what He said and realized that as I prayed for them, I was involved in their test just as much they were involved in it. If they won, I won; and if they failed, I did as well! The day the Lord revealed this to me, I shared this with the Bible study group that assembled in my room daily. They were all so moved to hear this, that each of us made a fresh commitment to pray for each other and to take each others burdens as our own burden.

“Bear ye one another’s burdens…” (Galatians 6:2).

THANKING GOD FOR EACH OTHER

I personally maintained a page for each person- I’d write down things in that person’s life that I could thank God for, and write down their burdens and problems – committing myself to pray daily for them.

Thanking God for what He has done in others lives is a secret to seeing a greater move of God’s Spirit in their life. Paul followed this principle:

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world” [Romans 1:8]

“I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus” [1 Corinthians 1: 4]

“I thank my God every time I remember you” [Philippians 1: 3]

“We always thank God , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you” [Colossians 1:3]

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers” [1 Thessalonians 1: 2]

“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.” [2 Thessalonians 1:3]

I could go on and on to the other epistles and show you how Paul thanked God constantly for his brothers in Christ. But the question we need ask ourselves: Do we take time to thank God for each other?

STRENGTH BEHIND UNITY

True strength is not in what or how much we accomplish in our life. True strength is when we are able to bear with the failings of the weak- to love each other unconditionally in spite of each others weaknesses. Beloved, God wants you to love your brother in Christ not because of his great qualities and goodness, but simply because of the fact that Jesus shed His life blood for him. When this kind of love binds us, unity is inevitable.

UNITY BRINGS REVIVAL:

I recently saw a documentary on a revival that took place in a city called Cali. The city had been the seat of drug lords and homicides- so much so that it was known for an average of 15 murders a day. The various local churches in the city as is common today were divided to the extent that some of the pastors never even spoke to each other. This went on until a pastor was murdered and left dead in the locality, causing the pastors in the entire city to assemble together and make a decision to never separate. United together they conducted the united all-night prayer rally. The united prayer vigil was a convocation of all denominations to join together, pray, intercede, praise and give praise and glory to the Father in the name of Jesus, as inspired by the Holy Spirit. In a united all-night prayer meeting in 1996, the mayor of the city declared “Jesus as Lord of Cali.” The spiritual atmosphere over the city changed when God’s people did a prayer drive seven times around Cali by car in 1996. In weeks time, all the drug lords of the city were caught and imprisoned, homicide level decreased drastically. Thousands upon thousands were getting saved and delivered. Ministers when asked what their church programs were, replied “We are too busy winning souls for Jesus, we don’t have time to think about Church programs!”. If this can happen in this city, I believe it can happen in any city, any nation or continent. But what paved way for it? Unity.

Let’s pray:

Lord, we thank You for uniting us into Your body. We thank You for every brother that You bought with Your precious blood and united together with us. Protect us as one, Father, and never to be separated. We pray that you will help us love each other the way You love us, and to cherish each other the way You cherish us. We want to walk in oneness just the way You desire- bearing each others burdens and taking time for each other. We bless You in Jesus name, Amen.