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The Need for Unity

by Luther Cronrath

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not every man teach his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.”  Hebrews 8:10-11

This promise, “for all shall know Me,” will be fulfilled in the “Parousia.”  As Jesus begins to manifest Himself to us, we will no longer need to be taught.  We will no longer just hear facts and receive information, but revelation and understanding will be imparted within us.

“A Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to declare to His servants things which must shortly come to pass. And He signified it by sending His angel to His servant John, who bore record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all the things that he saw.”  Revelation 1:1-2

We are to come to the place where we are looking for His appearing with expectancy.  Then this revelation will become within us a personal reality.  That which John saw and understood is to be shown to us in the Parousia of our Lord.  If we have a genuine meeting with the Lord in the manifestation of His presence, He will give each one of us the same message.  Although we may have only a part of this message, our portion will fit together with the other parts, making a full revelation.

Jesus is first coming in this day that we call the “Parousia” to reveal Himself to His people.  It is imperative that He does this before He manifests Himself in all His glory to the world, as we will have a part with Him in this.

The Lord does not move apart from His people, and this day will be no different than any past day.  Therefore, it is necessary that He prepare the vessels by which He will fulfill the events that will take place in this day.

Thus, there must be a personal appearance of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ to us, in order to prepare us for all that is about to take place.

His Body will be the vessel, or the instrument, that will implement the great judgments that will come upon the world of unbelief.  There are many passages of Scripture that establish the fact that the Lord will use His people for this purpose.  However, we are not yet in the place to become this kind of an instrument to implement the judgments of God.  But we are making progress, as that day is beginning to dawn.

At this present time, we are becoming aware of the importance of the word “unity.”  It is important that we understand that Jesus, who is beginning to manifest Himself to us in a personal way, will also bring each of us into a unity wherein we may become a part of the corporate instrument that He will use.

The world will know beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus was sent by the Father, through the “oneness” of His body.  Paul said, “For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”  (Philippians 2:5).  He then told how Jesus had laid aside His Deity, took upon Himself humanity, was found in the form of a servant and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

Then Paul said:

“Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Philippians 2:9-11

If we are to be His instrument in the day of His Parousia, there will need to be a manifestation of Jesus Christ that will shine forth from our lives, which will reveal this oneness.  The world will not see just the person, but they will see Jesus.  The unity for which Jesus prayed has not yet been accomplished.  The Church has been in existence for almost two thousand years and there has been a political structure, but not unity.

Thus, in the Church Age, this unity was not evident.  We then must ask, “How is this to be done?”  John 17:22 tells us, “And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.”  This tells us that the way to unity is His glory imparted to us.

We cannot produce the glory of the Lord.  There is a higher level of song and worship that is being birthed in the Church because this prayer of Jesus is beginning to be answered.  The glory of the Lord that the Father gave Him is beginning to be imparted to us.  We will see His glory by the Spirit, as the Lord pours out His Spirit upon us.

We will begin to see and understand the uplifting spiritual flow that the Lord intends to restore in our worship to Him.  This is an arising of something that is coming out of us, as He moves upon us.  We may feel that we are hearing the angels of heaven, as we glorify God, because He has worked His glory into us.

This will bring about the unity that is needed.  In John 17:23, we read that a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, and with the Father, will bring complete unity.

I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Jesus asked the Father to “perfect” unity in us.  This is to make it complete, to be what it should be and become productive.  Jesus will be in us in a greater measure than ever before.  You may say, “I am a born again, Spirit-filled Christian and Jesus is in me, and I am in Him.”  This is right as He is within us, but there is more.  This is the day of the manifestation of the presence of Jesus in our lives (Parousia).  As the Father was in Jesus, so He will be in us.

The speed of this process is increasing as the dawn is coming.  The walls of separation that hindered His purposes in the past will no longer be a hindrance.  As we enter into this new day, the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a way that will go beyond every obstacle.

And have loved them as You have loved Me.”  There is a dimension of love in which it is not how much I love the Lord, but rather, how much He loves me.  This will be a love that is unlimited and has no boundaries.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Me.”  John 12:32

The word “lifted” has the meaning “to take to oneself,” or, “I will draw you to Myself.”  As we see Jesus lifted up on the cross, we will become one in the Spirit, united together.  This is the secret of unity.

A better translation of the word “draw” is, “let us keep on being drawn.”  When Jesus begins to draw us to Himself, He will manifest Himself to us, and we will stand in His presence, “with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies having been washed with pure water.”  Hebrews 10:22

Our bodies will be washed with pure water.  The Word of God will wash our physical being as well as our spiritual being.  The Lord wants the totality of our being.  If we think too much along the lines of the natural, we get an idea that we are not very spiritual.  II Corinthians 4:7 tells us, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”  Then we are told, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for He is faithful who promised” (Hebrews 10:23).

We are to begin making a confession of hope, of that which He is beginning to do.  As we begin to see the dawning of the new day that is before us, and have a hope that rises up within us, we are to cling to this hope.

The Church, to some measure, has fulfilled its purpose in bringing the good news of the saving grace of God to the whole world.  But the new day will be more than just bringing the Gospel of salvation.  It will bring the judgments of God to the world.  Therefore, we must get our houses in order.  Following are the steps to accomplish this.

We are to “hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.”  We are to exhort one another, as we see the day approaching.  We are to look with expectancy for the Lord’s personal appearance to prepare us as the vessels that will bring the coming tribulation and judgment upon the world.

In the age that is before us, Jesus is coming as the One who will rule and reign over the nations, but He will first do this within His people, “for the time has come for the judgment to begin from the house of God” (I Peter 4:17).

Hebrews 10:12-13 tells us:

“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God, from hereafter expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.”

Jesus has been waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool for Him, but now He will no longer wait.  He will grace us with His appearance to prepare us to do this very thing, to put His enemies under His feet.

We cannot accomplish this ourselves, the Lord must do it.  The Father will, through Jesus by the Holy Spirit, impart the spirit of unity within us.  One day, each one of us who are allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way in our hearts and lives, will find ourselves, united.

John said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet”  (Revelation 1:10).  This is not the trumpet call that will announce the return of Jesus to be seen of all.  Rather, John was told to write in a book what he sees and send it to the seven Churches.

These seven Churches are representative of the entire Church.  The first thing that John saw was Jesus in the middle of the Church.  He is there, in the midst of the Church and will begin to make Himself known in a greater way, to prepare the Church as being His Body, for their role in His return.