The pastor’s wife headed my way with a purpose showing in her eyes. As she came up to me she began to speak, “I noticed you have been coming here now for about a month, and wanted to welcome you here.”
I responded, “There is so much love here, but after our experiences with churches recently, I am afraid to let down my guard.”
Kristi said, “Let Greg and I be for you who Dick and you need us to be while God has you here for the season you are with us, and let Him bear the fruit He wants to cultivate in you while you are here.”
I knew in that moment she had just spoken a prophetic word over me. I knew God was telling me that He had led us there, and that it was okay for me to let their love in and to trust Him to do a mighty work in us while we were there. In the season we were attending their church, God did indeed work in their hearts to minister to our church-related wounds, and provided opportunities to serve in the way God had called us to serve in the body of Christ. God was able to minister to our wounded hearts in an answer to our prayers and their prayers.
Trapped in a Glass Box
A prophet spoke over Dick and me many years later that described the glass box we had been trapped in for several years within church settings. She said, “When I closed my eyes and started to pray for you, I saw you in a box. It was a glass building and you could look out and you could see all these beautiful things, and you could see the beauty outside, you could see the height, and the depth, and all the things that were going on around you. But, there was a period of time in your life that when you tried to walk into those things, but you would bump in to the glass. It was like people would say, “Go, go, go!” And then you’d go and you’d bump into the glass, and you’d be trapped in this space, and you could see all these things, but couldn’t participate with them. You couldn’t enter into them. People would invite you into them, or tell you that you should be entering into them, but they wouldn’t allow you outside this glass building. And so, what I saw the Lord doing in the middle of seeing that was that He actually opened the ceiling, and there was this eruption where you guys completely blew out the place where you’d been held. Where you could see things, but you could never participate in them- they were for someone else and not you. And, this is a time where God is opening this glass ceiling to you. He is reframing your minds and your hearts and your permissions from Him to be the people that He has called you to be…”
God could not have described our experience with churches any more plainly, clearly, and accurately. Dick and I had struggled with frustration, condemnation, insecurity, and even rejection within the man-made systems called church. With every push back, every “no”, every offer to serve followed by rejection, with every door that was closed to us while we watched others flourish in serving, our confidence waned as self-doubt increased. At different times Dick and I fought depression thinking we were not doing with our lives what God had called us to do. Dick felt he was failing God and therefore failing our family, while I thought there must be something inherently wrong with us. How could we have such a strong desire to serve God, and be so inhibited within the church to serve? The message was clearly communicated- we could not be trusted with the things of God or His people. So, we limped from one church to another trying to find a place we could belong and have something to give that could make a difference. After both private and public rejection and accusation, we finally took a season to stay home to try to mend. Then one day Dick visited a church- a plant church in our community. He told me he would like us to both go. He said the pastor taught the word in depth and he enjoyed the service. After our first visit there together, I also felt we should give it a try for we both had left the service that morning with joy and hope in my heart.
After about one month of going there, Kristi, the pastor’s wife, came up to me and prophesied over me, , “Let Greg and I be for you who Dick and you need us to be while God has you here for the season you are with us, and let Him bear the fruit He wants to cultivate in you while you are here.”
Members in Particular
God was letting me know that it was okay to lay our weary hearts there for a while so He could tend to our wounds. But, God also began to expand my understanding of church at this time, and the importance of keeping Jesus as my Lord over all things that pertain to His church rather than man and the systems within. I was to do as Colossians tells us to do- “Hold the Head”, for out of the head comes the nourishment the church needs to survive and thrive.
Colossians 2:19 says, “And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God.”
Within man-made systems, there are limited positions to serve, and man-made criteria to belong. However, within God’s church, the Body of Christ, there is a place for everyone to serve, and He makes us belong. I began to go into God’s Word to learn more about what He says about church and the Body of Christ. As I read scriptures pertaining to this topic, I began to see that the church is a spiritual entity, not held within the bounds of man-made structures or systems. With Christ set to be the head of the church, I learned that God tells Jesus Christ where every part belongs, and how each member will function best to help the individual grow, as well as contribute to the growth of the whole body. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:12 – 18, “For as the human body has many parts, and the many parts make up one whole body, so it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews or Gentiles, some of us are slaves and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one spirit, and we all share of one spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not the hand, ” that does not make it any less part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not a part of the body because it is not the eye”, would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye how would you hear? Or, if the whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our body has many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it.” (NLT)
In Ephesians 4: 15-16 God describes the importance of every member of the body of Christ. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in every way into union with him who is the Head, into Christ. From Whom the whole body, being fitted together and united through that which every joint supplies, by the working of each individual part, in its proper measure, produces the growth of the body for the building up itself in love.”
And, in Ephesians 1:19-23, I read that, “and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised him out from the dead, and seated him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and He put all things in subjection under his feet, and appointed him to be head over all things for the congregation, which his body , the fullness of the one filling all things in all.” (NKJV)
God has delegated to Jesus Christ a seven-fold headship over the church and he has been given the responsibility to exercise this authority that is far above all other kinds of authority in the world and in the church. This is an amazing truth! Each member in the body of Christ is to submit to the authority of Christ as the Head, and as each member does this, we will be free to function within the body where and how it pleases God. There is always a place for someone to live and give in the church when we see it from God’s perspective rather than man’s. As Dick and I began to walk in light of these truths, we began to see how God goes to work in His church to ensure you know you belong and have a place to function.
Freely You Have Received, Freely Give
One Sunday, during the season we were attending this church, Dick got on his knees and cried out to God with tears saying he wanted more to do for Him. He so longed to serve God with his whole heart, and had spent so many years hindered from being able to find a place to serve in harmony with how God had called him to serve, that he found himself on his knees, pleading to God. A couple of days later he received a phone call from the pastor asking if we would meet his wife and him for lunch. He said they wanted to talk to us about something. We chose a place and time and met them for lunch. The pastor began to tell Dick that the church wanted to start “Connect” groups and one was going to be a bible study group. He went on to say that Kristi and he prayed separately about who should lead the bible study Connect group, and God brought Dick’s name up every time. He then asked Dick if he would be interested in taking on that responsibility.
We both knew this was a door God was opening up to us, so we agreed to accept their offer. Over the next four years we hosted a Connect group in our house. Dick was able to teach on The Book of Acts, Romans, Ephesians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. It was such a joy to watch God heal Dick’s heart as he had been given a place to give and a way to freely share from God’s Word what God had freely shared with him over the years of studying the Bible. God knew Dick’ heart, He knew Dick’s abilities, and he knew the need in the Body of Christ. Through answering Dick’s prayers, individual needs were met, and the church was able to grow in love. I was really beginning to see God’s church as the spiritual entity that it is, and to trust that there was a place for me to give as well.
In the Trenches
Another way that we found we could give according to how God works in us was through prayer, prophecy, and one on one encounters. During church service, Every week they would often offer people to come up front o be prayed for and be ministered to. They expected God to show up and demonstrate His power to heal, deliver, and set people at liberty in Christ. So, Dick and I went up many times to pray for others. This is where I learned about prophetic prayer. As we would start to pray for someone we did not know, Dick and I would ask God what the need was. As God would show us, we would start to pray. Time after time, people would turn around in tears saying that was exactly what the need was. Their confidence that it was God came from knowing it was God who revealed their need to us, so they were confident the answer was provided. God was teaching us that as we listened to Him and let Him lead us, He would always make a way and a place for us to give and serve. He showed us how well He knew us as His children, and that He loved us, accepted us, trusted us, and longed for us to actively participate in the things of God. He was showing us what is meant to walk in the liberty where Christ made us free, and that by His grace we go forth.
A Change in Seasons
Our confidence grew as our hearts healed. God had told us from the beginning that we were there for only a season, and that season finally came to an end. We knew that it was time to step into new things God had for us as things began to shift and change within this church. We knew we could not walk in the new ways and still fulfill God’s calling on our lives, so we graciously our pastor know that we felt led to move on. We thanked them for their generosity, for believing in us, and for offering us plenty of ways to give and serve while we were there. Dick felt strongly that it was time to start our own house church so that he could freely teach what God placed on his heart. Nervous as I was to make this big step, I followed his lead, and as of today, we have been hosting a house church for the past seven years.
Just as seasons come and go each year, so do our lives go through shifting seasons. In nature, there are clues that indicate the change is on the horizon. We learn to read these signs and prepare for the upcoming changes. When autumn comes, we know summer is ending, and there is a need to prepare for a new school year. We anticipate the changing colors of leaves, we expect there will be apples to pick from trees, pumpkins to carve, and that Thanksgiving is just around the bend. So it is with the Body of Christ. When there is going to be a shift in things within the church, Christ gives us clues that a change is on its way. For us, it was a series of teachings and decisions that were being made that revealed our time with them was coming to an end. God was leading us in a new direction. God worked in both Dick’s heart and mine that the way in which we serve would no longer fit within the context of the direction they were going to bring the church.
This transition wasn’t painful like before, but rather a knowing that our time with them had come to an end for God was preparing a new path for us. As we were obedient to His leading, we stepped into a new adventure with God. As we held to Jesus Christ as the Head of the Body, and looked to him for his lead, we were able to discern the upcoming changes without fear and trepidation. God’s children can learn to read His inner working within us, and learn how to respond to what He is showing us, and trust that He will not only make it clear whether to stay or leave, but that He will also provide for us to step into the new things He has for us. If we anticipate that God is good and that He works all things together for our good, then changing seasons can bring joy and excitement as well as an opportunity for God to cultivate an abundance of fruit in our lives that will bring glory to Him.