Unity and the Harvest

[Gods_Chosen_85]

The Oneness Apostolic Churches needs to wake up! Wheter its UPC, ALJC, WPF, PAW, etc... We need to wake up and quit the squabbling between each other! I get so sick of hearing one organization flaunt its superiority over another.. If the Church would get self and ungodly motives out of the way and let God be God then we could have revival of unprecedented numbers!

After all souls is whats its all about! The Harvest isnt important- The Harvest is EVERYTHING! But the laborers are divided by organizational names and titles. The UPC saves no one! The WPF saves no one- There is NO other name given to men whereby we must be saved except the name of Jesus

The greatest hinderances to revival are dis-unity and dis-obiedence! I heard all my life people say its not about the numbers but i disagree it has always been about numbers- The number of people being reached and lives being changed by the transforming power of the Holy Ghost!

We must bind together and reach people with the Word of God- One God, Jesus Name Baptism, Holy Ghost infilling with speaking in tongues as the SPIRIT gives the utterance, Holiness and Godly seperation from the world, and a fire to reach out for souls!-

Obviously we will never be one organization but we can be unified under one spirit!

just gonna add this in- if your church aint growing your church aint apostolic!! If everybody in your church looks like you, dresses like you, and acts like you- you arent apostolic cause your church aint growing! Bring in the sinners, and back slidders, reach for unsaved. Single mothers, single fathers, children, your average joe/jane, preppy and rich, the poor and the homeless, The goths, emos, homos... reach for them all. Punks, thugs, ganstas, and prostiutes! Drug addicts, alcholics..... we need to quit acting like the selective service and select who is fit to come to service- Bring em all and let God sort em out. Souls are at stake and they will spend forever lost in the lake of fire!

How much do you have to hate someone to not at least try and reach em!

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by Gods_Chosen_85

The Oneness Apostolic Churches needs to wake up! Wheter its UPC, ALJC, WPF, PAW, etc... We need to wake up and quit the squabbling between each other! I get so sick of hearing one organization flaunt its superiority over another.. If the Church would get self and ungodly motives out of the way and let God be God then we could have revival of unprecedented numbers!

After all souls is whats its all about! The Harvest isnt important- The Harvest is EVERYTHING! But the laborers are divided by organizational names and titles. The UPC saves no one! The WPF saves no one- There is NO other name given to men whereby we must be saved except the name of Jesus

The greatest hinderances to revival are dis-unity and dis-obiedence! I heard all my life people say its not about the numbers but i disagree it has always been about numbers- The number of people being reached and lives being changed by the transforming power of the Holy Ghost!

We must bind together and reach people with the Word of God- One God, Jesus Name Baptism, Holy Ghost infilling with speaking in tongues as the SPIRIT gives the utterance, Holiness and Godly seperation from the world, and a fire to reach out for souls!-

Obviously we will never be one organization but we can be unified under one spirit!

just gonna add this in- if your church aint growing your church aint apostolic!! If everybody in your church looks like you, dresses like you, and acts like you- you arent apostolic cause your church aint growing! Bring in the sinners, and back slidders, reach for unsaved. Single mothers, single fathers, children, your average joe/jane, preppy and rich, the poor and the homeless, The goths, emos, homos... reach for them all. Punks, thugs, ganstas, and prostiutes! Drug addicts, alcholics..... we need to quit acting like the selective service and select who is fit to come to service- Bring em all and let God sort em out. Souls are at stake and they will spend forever lost in the lake of fire!

How much do you have to hate someone to not at least try and reach em!


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Is this what we MUST preach to be able to do what you are advocating? Then comes the first bolded part above!

BT

[Sam]

Jesus prayed for unity among His people. This is recorded in John 17. He also said that the way people would know who His disciples are is by their love one for another. This is recorded in John 13:34-35.

There IS unity among God's people. We have all been placed by His Spirit into His one body. So, positionally we ARE one. In God's sight we ARE one. He only has one body, one bride, one building. But, in a practical, every day real world manner, we are quite divided. We have gathered ourselves into little kingdoms or organizations or religious/political parties and divided up people and scattered His church. Not only has this hindered our effectiveness in working for Him, and presented a grotesque caricature of Him to the world around, I'm sure it grieves Him to see those divisions/organizations/factions among His own.

[Gods_Chosen_85]

In order to have true revival the Word of God must be preached! We are saved by the foolishness of the preaching. Its the Word that saves... Doesnt matter what you label yourself if its not the Word of God it can not bring true revival! Repentance, Baptism in Jesus name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost is a must for salvation! If people arent being saved from thier sins its not a true revival, its just hyped up emotionalism all the while people remain spiritually unchanged!

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Gods_Chosen_85

...
We must bind together and reach people with the Word of God- One God, Jesus Name Baptism, Holy Ghost infilling with speaking in tongues as the SPIRIT gives the utterance, Holiness and Godly seperation from the world, and a fire to reach out for souls!-
...

Sad to say, the criteria mentioned above are causes for division among us.
We have divided over our personal interpretation of "the Godhead."
We have divided over our personal interpretation of how many words to say at the water baptism ritual.
And look how we've separated ourselves and judged one another over the "holiness" issues.

[Sam]

How many organizations do we have represented here on this forum?
Do we represent a microcosm of the various organizations/unions/factions/schisms/splinter groups of Oneness Pentecostlism?

I belong to one of the several groups that have split off and splintered from an organization that was chartered in 1927 and I think (might be wrong) that group was a split off the PAW.

[Sam]

A while back while reading and thinking about Ephesians chapter 4 and the first few verses, I was impressed with some words in those first few verses. We are exhorted to walk worthy of our calling with lowliness, meekness, and longsuffering. He also tells us to forbear one another in love. What does forbear mean? It means "holding back" and "putting up with." As Christians, there are times we must defer to one another, take the lower place, and put up with stuff we may not like. We do this for the sake of unity.

Verse 3 tells us to "keep" the unity of the Spirit. We are not told to "manufacture" unity and we are certainly not told to "destroy" unity, but we are told to "keep" or "maintain" the unity that already exists as far as God is concerned. We need to learn to ignore our denominational and organizational boundaries which men in their "wisdom" have created and organized. We need to ignore the little fiefdoms and cliques established over the years and the petty quarrels and divisions which have developed.

Some times we have to be like Joseph in Genesis 42:8. He recognized his brothers but they did not recognize him.

Some thoughts on "keeping" or "maintaining" the unity of the Body of Christ:
1. Recognize the unity of the one true Church
2. Receive one another as members of the Body
3. Respect our brothers and sisters and their right to be different than us
4. Realize none of us is perfect
5. Restore any who fall
6. Rely on God's Spirit to help us
7. Really try

[Sam]

Well, what are we supposed to do to promote unity among God's people?

We could propose UNION.
This would be all organizations joined together into one big organization/union.
How long do you reckon that would last? Who would be the Chief Potentate or Presiding Bishop?

We could propose UNIFORMITY
That would be all of us looking alike (cookie cutter christians) and preaching the exact same thing --could never happen--God made each of us unique

We could have fellowships or umbrella organizations devoted to promoting cooperation among the various organizations. A couple of these we now have are ICOF (International Circle of Faith) http://icof.net/ and AWCF (Apostolic World Christian Fellowship) http://www.awcf.org/

Or, maybe we just need to ignore our little UPC, PAW, AMF, ETC cliques and love, accept, and fellowship one another.

"If you believe that Jesus is the Christ --that He is God's Son and your Savior--then you are a child of God. And all who love the Father love His children too" 1 John 5:1 TLB

[BeenThinkin]

Originally Posted by Sam

A while back while reading and thinking about Ephesians chapter 4 and the first few verses, I was impressed with some words in those first few verses. We are exhorted to walk worthy of our calling with lowliness, meekness, and longsuffering. He also tells us to forbear one another in love. What does forbear mean? It means "holding back" and "putting up with." As Christians, there are times we must defer to one another, take the lower place, and put up with stuff we may not like. We do this for the sake of unity.

Verse 3 tells us to "keep" the unity of the Spirit. We are not told to "manufacture" unity and we are certainly not told to "destroy" unity, but we are told to "keep" or "maintain" the unity that already exists as far as God is concerned. We need to learn to ignore our denominational and organizational boundaries which men in their "wisdom" have created and organized. We need to ignore the little fiefdoms and cliques established over the years and the petty quarrels and divisions which have developed.

Some times we have to be like Joseph in Genesis 42:8. He recognized his brothers but they did not recognize him.

Some thoughts on "keeping" or "maintaining" the unity of the Body of Christ:
1. Recognize the unity of the one true Church
**** Sam I don't think it's possible to determine what is the One True Church!!!
2. Receive one another as members of the Body
**** How many on this thread could agree on The Body?
3. Respect our brothers and sisters and their right to be different than us
****Brothers & sisters??? Be different? You know that won't work!
4. Realize none of us is perfect
**** But there are some on here who are perfect.
5. Restore any who fall
**** What constitutes "a fall?"
6. Rely on God's Spirit to help us
****Now this might just work!
7. Really try

****Awe come on! You know that's not gonna get much approval!
lol

BT

[Sister Alvear]

well as long as there are humans there will be power and political struggles in the name of God...