allhourschurch

Church in the World

When Thomas touched the wounds of Jesus a doubter came to believe and Jesus said "blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Many of us look down on Thomas for his lack of faith but Jesus did not rebuke him. Quite the contrary, He blessed him. The resurrection of the dead was something not hitherto known to the disciples. Only those who had seen His resurrection believed. Thomas was only exceptional in that he was not present the first time that Jesus appeared.

It is not as though Thomas couldn't have known. It's the fact that the Holy Spirit had not yet helped the church to change with power. When Peter asked Jesus, "show us the Father," Jesus asked, "have you been with me this long and yet you do not know me?" Familiarity with Jesus was to know Him as the Son in one essence with the Father - as the one true God. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Son of the Living God but did not fully realize the implications of that reality. As the Son of God Jesus had the divine essence. There is but one God. As God, Jesus was Lord over the living and the dead. He had power over the resurrection of the dead. To know Him was to realized the resurrection but until the Holy Spirit came this was not something the disciples were ready to bare.

Rather than condemning us for the things we do not know, Jesus urged us to seek Him and to ask for wisdom. "He who seeks shall find." Thomas sought the wounds of Jesus and found wisdom when he encountered the Truth. James says "the one who doubts is double minded and unstable in all his ways" but he refers to those who have already encountered the Lord's Truth. Those who have not yet received the Truth and the Way are not held responsible for it. It is the church's commission to show it to them, to make them disciples by baptizing them in the reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Once they have had a true encounter with the Almighty, they may reject the Truth but there is no rejection of something that is never seen or known.

The world does not know Him. The church must testify to Him, but how will the world hear His word if it hears no preacher in the context of power in Christ's presence or see Him if the Truth and the Way remains hidden or misrepresented? The world is not persuaded by ideas and by rational arguments. It is persuaded by a true encounter with the risen Lord Jesus as the only Son of the Father in the grace of His Spirit. Once His Spirit is known and we see that He is good and once we taste of the kindness and mercy of the Lord it is at that point that we must live by faith. It is at that point that to doubt results in powerless double-mindedness and instability.

This is an important point to realize because if the churches are segmented, preaching reconciliation in a state of unreconciliation and communion in a state of disunityh and if the people are not reached with the power of God, the name of Jesus is not really being proclaimed at all. People are not encountering the power of God in Christ. The world must first see the grace of God in action in its midst in power and in action, not just words, or the Gospel is not actually being preached or heard.

The true church is like a leaven that makes the whole lump rise but until this rising element, the leaven, is given to the churches, the lump remains lifeless. We are commanded to preach the Gospel to all nations. That means the whole world. That means that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If the churches are continually closed and isolated no preachers are heard and no power is seen. The All Hours Church is being offered up to all of the churches to act in unity so that the power of Christ can be seen and known in the midst of Tallahassee. Please pray with us for wisdom so that the power of God may be manifest in this common work and all men may be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ that we may worship Him not here or there but in Spirit and in Truth throughout the city, for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit that changes the whole city and all of the churches forever. Can you believe in such a change? Thank you for uniting with us in prayer!