Together In Christ
I've written this blog post before, and when I first wrote it, it was titled 'From Babylon to Pentecost'. I wrote the post and then lost it all. At the time I took as a sign not to write it at all, but today God reprimanded me so here I am writing about what I learned about togetherness in Christ.
God is quickly teaching me that we can't do things alone. I am learning to not be ashamed to ask for help. As Christians, often we try to do things alone and this can often happen for two very opposite reasons,
- The first reason is an inferiority complex, at times we don't want to share our ideas or our visions because we are scared we are not good enough for them and we don't want to be laughed out of the room.
“Then the LORD answered me and said, ‘Write the vision and engrave it plain on clay tablets so that the one who reads it will run.’”
But in the book of Habakkuk, God tells Habakkuk to write down his vision clearly. When you have a vision you should not be afraid to proclaim it, so that those who see it run with it, this taught me that there are people attached to your vision. Accomplishing your vision requires other like minded people.
Don't miss the people God has sent to help you because you were scared to reveal what God has put in you.
- The Second reason we often try to do things alone is pride. This is one of the biggest pitfalls we can enter as Christians, pride, wanting the glory for something all to ourselves. We don't want to share it with others ,when in reality ALL glory belongs to God.
Now for me to explain how God used 'Babylon to Pentecost' to teach me these two things.
In the time of the Babylonians, the whole earth spoke one tongue, and this gave them all the ability to work together asthey could all communicate with one another.
The first thing to point out here is the worlds willingness to work together.
So the people of Babel all came together and said;
“...’Now let’s build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.’”
There's something we can be ignorant to as Christians and that is the power of working together to effect change. The Babylonians were not ignorant to that, and neither is the world. The Babylonians realised to achieve something great it could not be done alone but their pitfall was pride. They wanted to build a tower so high it would reach heaven, because;
- They wanted to make a name for themselves, they wanted the glory for themselves and not for God.
- They wanted to evade God. God had already planned to spread the people over the face of the earth.
When your motive is for self, and contrary to the Kingdom of God, it cannot succeed, God saw what the Babylonians were doing and the heart with which they did it, so He came down and took away their ability to speak in the same tongue and therefore their ability to work together.
Flash forward to 'The Day of Pentecost' we see the language differences reversed by the Holy Spirit.
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there was a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
I love how the NKJV puts it, '...They were all with one accord in one place.' That speaks to the fact they were not just in the same location but of the same heart, they all had a heart for God and the Kingdom and that gave them all access to the Holy Spirit.
Powerful things happens when you or more are gathered with a heart for God!
The Holy Spirit did two things for them. Firstly He gave them the ability to communicate in the tongue of heaven, communicate in the heavenly realm, and secondly the ability to understand one another though they all spoke different tongues.
When you are operating in your God given purpose, working with a sense of togetherness, giving all glory to God you will receive supernatural access.