Jesus gave up positional authority and became a servant, yet He has more followers than anyone in history. He is at the top of the authority pyramid in the body of Christ. All the rest of us are servants on the bottom rung.

The body of Christ is supposed to be controlled by the risen Jesus not by human leadership structures. When staged, insincere, unheart-felt methods are used in church the power of God stays away. Christians are called to the openness of the Holy Spirit, not to the privacy of religion.

The key to unity among Christ-followers is letting the Spirit be in control. When the body of Christ is entangled with loyalty to various churches it becomes divided and contentious. When Christians from diverse backgrounds gather as Jesus’ Spirit-led town hall meeting unity emerges.

In the body of Christ every believer has a personal and unique relationship with the risen Jesus and needs to be empowered in that relationship, not controlled by human leadership. In the body of Christ, believers should submit to the Headship of Christ and to one another, not to one person positioned above the others in a religious chain of command.

When a church hinders people in their willingness to hear directly from and obey Jesus then something major is wrong. When maintaining church order is more important than obedience to Jesus things are way off track. When institutional authority replaces the leadership of God’s Spirit church begins to function like a business.

Program following Christians listen to Evan Roberts who helped ignite the Great Welsh Revival of 1904. “Why should I teach when the Spirit is teaching? . . . Why should I control the meetings? The meetings control themselves, or rather the Spirit that is in them controls them.”

The more we yield to and cooperate with the control of the Holy Spirit the more fully we experience all the fruit of the Spirit growing in our heart and in our lifestyle and gently changing us from glory to glory. A Spirit-controlled self is God’s free gift to all who will continually surrender their will to Him and allow His gentleness to dispel their rebellion.

Surely there should be more to church than being forever lectured! Let all Christ-followers boldly arise and speak up about Jesus!

Sermons on prayer don’t teach people to pray. Heart-felt demonstrations of prayer do. Sermons on love don’t teach people to love. Heart-felt demonstrations of love do.

The body of Christ
Isn't a place
To showcase
One man's gifting
But should make space
To freely embrace 
Spirit-led input
From all.

Religion that's routine
Focuses on things
That are seen
And can be
Humanly controlled
But Jesus calls us
To look to and
Be controlled by
His unseen
Presence.