Dear Small Church Congregation,
Our brain directs the functioning of our physical body. Without a properly operating brain, the body will cease to function as it should. Our five physical senses are centered in our head and send signals to the brain so we can experience the world around us. Hence our head can be considered the source of all the other functions our body performs. It is the source of directions that are sent to the rest of the body. Without the head, which contains the brain, the body ceases to function.
The spiritual body of Christ has a head, too, that contains a “spiritual brain.” That head is Jesus Christ. That spiritual brain, if you will, is the will of God, the direction toward which God desires Christ’s Body to go. If the Body of Christ is separated from Jesus and His direction (God’s will), it ceases to function, just as the physical body ceases to operate if the head is severed from it.
If Jesus is building His church (the Body), one might ask how is it possible for the Body of Christ (the church) to be separated from its head? Allow me to give an illustration of how I have seen this occur in the spiritual realm as demonstrated in the physical realm.
If an individual ingests a sufficient amount of alcoholic beverages, the function of the body is altered because the brain housed in the head reacts to the chemical elements found in the alcoholic beverage. Alcohol is naturally found in the body, but only in very minute amounts in the digestive system. Ingested alcohol becomes a contaminant to the body and alters its operation.
Should that happen, the senses are dulled, the hand-eye motor coordination slows, speech can be slurred, memory becomes “fuzzy,” and inhibitions about proper behavior can stop controlling emotional and rational responses to surrounding circumstances. The alcohol affects the brain and the senses housed in the head, whether mental, emotional, or physical, resulting in a breakdown of the operation of the body.
The same kind of thing happens spiritually when the body ingests spiritual contaminants. Jesus, as the head of the Church, delivers His desires for how His body is to operate through scripture, prayer, anointed messages from his servants, and any other method He chooses to communicate with His Body. When Satan is able to disrupt the flow of Christ’s communication with His Church, when he is able to interject spiritually unhealthy contaminants into that flow, the head ceases to have its intended effect on the functioning of the Body of Christ.
Doubt, fear, stress, persecution, personal preferences, men’s traditions, unbiblical denominational demands, carnal lusts, pride, anger, jealousy, gluttony, greed, cruelty—and any number of other physical, emotional, mental or spiritual obstacles—all act as contaminants that cause Jesus’s Church to reach a point of malfunction. The devil will use anything he can to keep Christ’s will from being performed within His Body.
In order for the physical body to stop the detrimental effects of alcohol, the consumption of the alcohol has to be stopped. Sometimes that comes through a choice made by the consumer. At other times, incarceration caused by improper behavior occurs, and the access to alcohol is stopped for some period of time. The bottom line is the body must stop having the alcohol introduced so the bad effects can cease.
In order for the spiritual Body of Christ to stop the detrimental effects of spiritual contaminants, those contaminants must be dealt with, too. In order to deal with something the devil is using to hinder the Body, whether it involves the overall Church or one specific congregation, the people involved must be willing to admit that the hindrance exists. They must be willing to examine their lives, their spiritual status in the Body, their functioning, and then choose to take the steps necessary in order to overcome the obstacles that are interfering with how the body is operating.
The motivational speaker Zig Ziglar often said that the first step in overcoming a problem is to admit a problem exists and then identify the problem. When the members of a congregation, or individual disciples of Christ, for that matter, are willing to admit there is a problem that is causing them to stray from the will of Christ, then the problem must be identified. It must be named. Only after being named can the obstacle be overcome. Only after overcoming the obstacle can the Head of the Body, Jesus, regain proper spiritual nerve signals to His Body.
We’ll look at how to overcome the obstacles, the contaminants that obstruct God’s will, in the next letter. Before that letter, allow me to encourage you to take a long, serious look at whether or not your life is reflecting the will of God for your life. Ask yourself if there is anything that could interfere with how you function as one of Jesus’s disciples. Ask the Holy Spirit to point out to you anything that the devil is using to interrupt the flow of Christ’s will into your life. If there is something revealed to you, name it. Identify it. Then ask God to help you reconnect to the Head of the Body.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor