1 Corinthians 12:4-6
So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves,and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:11-16
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
1 Corinthians 14:26
Oh Bride, you stand in your buildings week after week and declare that you love the Scriptures, but these Scriptures, and others like them, you have despised!
These Scriptures are intended to bring you to Me, not to a doctrine or theology or a teacher of the age. You must come to Me and learn of My heart in order to understand these things.
Let all the books and theology and doctrine be swept away, and let My Bride come sit at My feet and listen to what I say.
If the grave could not hold Me when the Father called Me out, do you really think your books can keep Me out of your sanctuaries? I am coming for you, to take you to greater places than you have been.
Your body no longer looks like My Body. We are meant to be of one flesh! We are meant to bear the likeness of one another in all things! I meant for your fingers to behave like Mine, for your heart to beat like Mine, for your tongue to repeat the things I have said. But a spiritual obesity has crept in while you slept under My grace, and it now devours your strength and overwhelms you.
Every gift was given for a reason. Each one precious, totally necessary to the building up of My Body. But you are afraid to dance the steps I have asked you to, and so the gifts are sent away, outlawed in My Churches.
If someone brings up the necessity of the gifts, they are estranged and labeled a fanatic without wisdom and maturity. But it is so clear in My Scriptures, that I gave you these gifts for the purpose of complete maturity!
Your spiritual fat clings to you and weighs you down, deeper and deeper in the mud of theology and tradition. My gifts are purposefully designed to interrupt tradition wherever it creeps in, to keep you fully relying on Me for power and maturity, not on the wisdom of fallible men.
When the tongue begins to speak, when the ears begin to hear, when the arms begin to move and the legs to walk step by step with Me, then you will know maturity. You must start to work out your faith, not your scholarship. Then you will grow strong.
You have swallowed My grace whole, but the gifts supplied by My grace remain locked up, and so you grow fat and weak and silent. Get up and seek Me in the dark! Run out in the streets and call My Name until you find Me, then cling to Me and leave all else behind so that you may go where I go, and stay where I stay.
Be a flower that opens to the sun and rain, for that is all it lives to receive. I am the Gardner. I will not leave you lacking.
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