preparation of the body of Christ

The Preparation of the Body of Christ
6-10-06
This week the Lord has been speaking to my heart about the preparation of the Bride, and how the 5-fold ministry helps with this preparation. He also spoke to me about the trials appointed to ministries, and how the preparation to stand through these trials is accomplished through the effectual working of each member’s gifts. Though we seem dwarfed next to our Savior, Jesus, there is a plan for us to stand in His stature. Here is the lesson on this subject;

“In the scriptures it is written that I place in the body, that being the Church, or ministry, each person with each gift that I see fit (1 Cor 12:18). In My plan for the body, I put into the body what it needs by placing people in it who have the gifts and offices necessary for the body’s success. The trials which come against the body are to temper the metal of the body, or strengthen it. The disciplines each body experience will train it in My ways (Heb 12:11).

Now, no man would choose to not use an arm, or a leg. His members are exercised by their use, as individually each member is exercised by the use of My Word (Heb 5:14). So it is spiritually, that a man’s fitness comes from his use of his faith, applying the Word of God in the various circumstances of his life.

A body of Christ grows up by the Life which I supply it for it’s growth. I give the individual members that which is needed for the rest of the members so at his or her point of contact the joints, tendons, ligaments and so forth are where nourishment flows to the body (Eph 4:16). This process is hindered if one member does not get its use, and the body is in danger of becoming lame. A body that has both legs not functioning is disabled. If an arm does not work, the one good arm must do twice the work, and so it goes.

In this time, there are many ministries with non-functioning members, so much so that they are little more than speaking heads with a neck to turn on. So this is the area I am addressing in the churches and ministries as I prepare My body; 1) getting each member of the body functioning, and 2) not forming erroneous beliefs about how to function as a disabled body.

I have richly endowed the body of Christ with gifts, yet she does not use them. She does not invest her gifts, but holds the treasures as if they were possessions only. Though trials will come, each body would have better success using all its God-given gifts and abilities.

The 5-fold ministry is the greatest gift to the church, giving the ability to bring up under them those gifts each individual member has, until the body stands mature. Each ministry, church and body of believers needs to mature by the exercise of the Life which I supply its members. The Life in the arm must be allowed to be used or the arm will lose its ability to function. This is the same with all the members I have set in each ministry. The perfect plan for each body of believers resides in the Head and is given to the 5-fold ministry for the body itself to grow up and mature into My stature, or fullness. The end result of this is that I will fill all, and be in all. The only way for the body to stay fit, get where it is going, and accomplish the work appointed to it from the very foundations of the earth is for each member to be operational. And this is what My Holy Spirit is doing in the churches, ministries, and bodies of believers at this time.”