The risen Jesus is knocking on heart doors (Revelation 3:20) inside of human beings from all kinds of backgrounds, cultures, and nations around the world. (Revelation 5:9) He is asking them to let Him live within them (2 Corinthians 13:5) so that He can gather together to Himself all the people who are willing (Matthew 23:37) to receive His presence (John 1:9-14) and to be inwardly led by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14)
Jesus isn’t gathering people to men’s ideas and opinions about who He is. (Matthew 16:13-14) He is continually (Hebrews 13:8) inviting whosoever is willing (John 3:16) to come to Himself and receive His rest by being yoked together with Him like a pair of oxen pulling a plow. (Matthew 11:28) The more fully surrendered people are to the living Jesus, the closer and more heart-connected they will be with each other. (John 17:20-23)
Surrendering to the presence and power of Jesus cannot be achieved by human understand or by self-help. It only comes through direct supernatural revelation from God. (Matthew 16:15-17) If you want to walk with Jesus you need to listen to His still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13) and let His words continually burn within you. (Luke 24:32)
Direct personal revelation from God is the foundational rock that Jesus uses to gather people to Himself and build them together as His “ekklesia” (the Greek word in English Bibles translated as “church” which refers to Christ’s interactive Spirit-led community of people called out from around the world). (Matthew 16:15-18) When two or three of them gather in His name, He is present and active to lead their ekklesia meeting. (Matthew 18:20)
When Jesus used the Greek word ekklesia to describe what He is building He used a word that was familiar to His Aramaic speaking disciples. Ekklesia literally means “called out ones.” It was the proper name of the participatory town hall meeting in ancient Greek cities. Anybody present was free to speak up in an ekklesia. There were Greek cities in Israel at the time, so ekklesia wasn’t an unusual concept for Christ’s disciples.
Because so many Jewish people spoke the Greek language the Old Testament had been translated into Greek. That translation called the Septuagint was completed about 130 years before Christ was born. In the Septuagint ekklesia is used to translate the Hebrew word “qahal” which also means “assembly” or “gathering.” It is used to refer to a coming together of God’s people.
It is interesting that Jesus didn’t say He would build His temple or His synagogue. Those were the two focuses of formalized institutional religious Judaism. Instead, Jesus chose the Greek name for an informal interactive participatory gathering to describe how He is building His people together as a Spirit-led community of living stones. (1 Peter 2:5)
Would you like to learn more about why Jesus chose such an interesting Greek word? If so, google Beyond Church Ekklesia.
(As I was lying in bed early this morning with these concepts forming in my mind, I had an experience like I’ve never had before. I literally saw a dark presence about four feet tall come into my room. I thought it was a child. It suddenly disappeared and deep fear come upon me. Then I started strongly rebuking the devil and his demons and the fear quickly left me.)
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 