Guest Post by Mickey Estes
[ Note: A few years ago, my husband was led by God to start a Pastors’ Prayer Meeting in the area where we lived. He spent a lot of time locating church leaders in the several counties around, and he began the bi-weekly meetings. During that season, the Lord gave him many words about the significance of leaders coming together for God’s purposes. The next few blog posts grew out of those words.
I am sharing them again since these same concepts are so important for this present time. This word is important not only for leaders, but for all of those in the Body of Christ who truly want to see God’s plans unfold in the earth today.]
Recently, the Lord has been speaking to me concerning the body of Christ. There are so many divisions; so many walls. There are denominational walls, racial walls, gender walls, and cultural walls. It’s as if His body is divided into many pieces with no connections, and it grieves Him.
Why is this so? Why have we allowed Satan to divide us? God has some answers for us.
We are all believing for a great awakening, and there are some keys to our preparation for it. One of those keys is humility.
When the reformation of Israel had stalled out and come to a stop, God sent the prophet Haggai. He said “consider your ways”; He then goes on to say the reason things are not working is “because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house”. (Haggai 1:9)
Could it be that the spiritual leaders are more interested in building their kingdoms than God’s Kingdom? Building their own houses instead of God’s? Is a spirit of competitiveness hindering God’s work?
Humility will change this.
When we begin to put God’s kingdom first, then we will truly love our brothers as ourselves, and begin to bring UNITY into the body of Christ. This in turn will open the heavens for a great Awakening.
We all know the scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The sequence for God’s people is 1.) Humble yourselves 2.) Pray 3.) Seek my face & 4.) Repent. The first step is to humble ourselves. This step has to happen if we expect to see the others.
When we humble ourselves, then we begin to see that we are only part of God’s plan – not the whole. Our gifts are important, and we are important, but so are others and so are their gifts. We begin to respect and honor other gifts, and, yes, even other tribes in His kingdom.
Just as Israel was made up of many tribes, but one nation, so is the Body of Christ made up of many tribes. Some tribes focus more on the prophetic side of ministry, others more on evangelism, and still others more on discipleship. Each area is important, and each can benefit from the understanding of others. When all of these tribes come together, we begin to see more of God’s plan in its fullness.
As we begin to appreciate all the facets of God’s plan, we allow ourselves to be prepared for the unity He is drawing us to. We will begin to see the power of unity, a power essential for this great awakening and reformation to come to fruition.
We will begin to see the awakening we seek.
(This message will continue in the next post.)
