Five-Minute-Friday: UNITE

Q: What is Five Minute Friday?

A: It is a 5min free write blog event hosted by Kate Motaung. Every Thursday Kate announces a one-word prompt on her blog at 10pm EST. The link-up is open for a full week, until the following Thursday evening. For further details on how to participate visit her blog at: Heading Home.

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Image by Pete Linforth (Pixabay.com)

 

Five Minute Friday Prompt: UNITE

Unite. United. Unity.

I think of those words and I think about how God wants us to be in the Body of Christ. I think about how in some ways we are far from this ideal. Yeah, there may be pockets of lovey-dovey-ness in certain exclusive circles of different fellowships but, whilst they share a certain unity based on their values of acceptance, there are others who are excluded. Then when you look outside of the local fellowship to the Body of Christ, nationwide and worldwide, how united are we really?

For a picture of true unity, a demonstration of what it is like to be truly united, a portrait of what God means when he says he wants us as His children to dwell in and model UNITY, I think of the Holy Trinity, the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And I think of how wonderfully in tune they are with one another. One member comes up with a suggestion and they all agree… “Let us make man in our own image…”

[End of five minutes]

And so it gets done. The three persons of the Godhead unite their will, pool their resources and muster their abilities for a common aim. There is agreement. Result? The creation of man! The bringing into being of a spirit-person who can commune with God… who can relate to and fellowship with Him… who can use his or her unique position within the creative order to maintain the family, the community and the world they’ve been placed in… who can use their gifts, skills and abilities to co-labour with, and serve their Creator.

Now look at the word “UNITE”. The letter “I” sits in the middle, not leading the way, not lagging behind. Many of us will be familiar with the motivational maxim: “there is no “I” in team!” The message of this saying implies: forget yourself—for the good of the team, for the fulfilment of your team’s objectives. In other words, I do not exist, or I have been obliterated!

However, the word UNITE acknowledges there is an “I”. The word does not deny my existence. It accepts me. It embraces me. It incorporates me. It combines me into a new being. But note the word, the prefix, which comes before this “I”. It is “UN”.

To “un” is to denote the opposite, to reverse a process or state. So whilst UNITE does not ignore the existence of “I”, it does call upon I, me, myself, to “un-I”, “un-me”, “un-myself”. It requires me to recognise that I do not, yeah cannot, stand alone or act without having an impact on others around me. It requires me to take full responsibility for my actions which will either UNITE others, or cause DIS_UNITY. It requires me to clothe myself with Christ and by this action… this un-“I”-ing of me, denote the opposite of me—the spiritual, the supernatural, rather than the carnal. Again, by this action, this un-“I”-ing of me, I reverse the state of self-absorption, allowing the process of becoming Christ-centred and Christ-like.

And the result?

Well, the new “I” (the Christ-centred, Christ-clothed I), is a better being. I come in line with the three members of the Godhead. My thoughts, desires and objectives come into agreement with theirs. We (the Godhead and I), share a common purpose and belief. I am now infused with the love, authority and power of a loving God, a triumphant Saviour and a dynamic Spirit. I now want to share that love, exercise that authority and make opportunities for the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God’s power though me, in the way that He dictates.

And when there is a conjoining of lots of “I”s (i.e. me, you, every member of the Body of Christ—all with the same sanctified mind-set, all moving together as one organic being), we arrive at agreement, we achieve UNITY. And the beauty of this Holy Spirit-engendered mind-set, this Godhead-engineered unity, is that there are no footholds, which the Enemy can use to inveigle his way into our lives… into our communities… into our world… in order to undermine our efforts to unite as spirit-filled believers,  in order to discredit and or disrupt the unity of the Body of Christ, in order to sabotage our lives and our world with deadly discord and disunity.

Dear reader, I have said all of the above to challenge me, myself, and I. I have said all of the above to challenge you!

For the sake of God’s perfect Will, for the sake of coming into agreement with the Holy Godhead, for the sake of us as members of the precious Body of Christ presenting a UNITED front, are you willing to un-“I” yourself?

Women of Warfare! followers and visitors, I pray God will unite our hearts with his perfect, pre-ordained Will for our lives and, that as a result, we will pursue and portray true unity.