A FRACTURED AND DYING CHURCH

Part Two: The Phantom Leg

Research has shown and science has concluded that amputees have a heightened sensitivity to pain felt by others. For example,

“When I hear my husband’s power tools, or see a knife, I often get a sharp pain through my phantom leg,” says Jane Barrett, who has experienced synaesthetic pain since losing her leg in a motorcycle accident [1].

Is this what is happening in some of the body today? Are there many believers out there who have a heightened sensitivity to the Spirit because they are feeling the pain of the phantom leg of the body? Ephesians 4:16 says that the body is jointly fit together. I can feel that there is disconnect in the body, a phantom leg if you will. Christ is the head of the body but the church leaders are the head of the church through Christ. I believe that most churches do not jointly fit together like God intended the church to be.

Many souls if not most, have lost sight of their identity, destiny, and perceived significance to God. I am so convinced of this that I wrote a book [2] about this subject for the body and for the times in which we stand.

Anyway, that soul goes to church expecting to serve the body, and unless God gifted him or her in helps, service, or possibly music, the chance of them serving is practically nonexistent. Their fire goes out and I am sure that some eventually disconnect from the body or sit in the pew as a dying ember with no hope of serving God and the body, the body in which they want and desire to serve. Or they leave the church. They’re a hand looking for an arm. They feel the pain of disconnect or of the phantom leg syndrome.

This begs the questions, if the only positions of service in the church is with helps, service, and choir, what do those gifted in prophecy do? What do the people with a pastor’s heart do? What do the teachers do? So forth and so on.

Some of us sit back and can actually feel the pain of disconnect. We can actually feel the pain of the phantom leg when someone in the body cannot serve God and dies on the pew.  What is the church doing? What are we thinking? We can feel the pain of disconnect from the body of Christ. Many see this and yet.  .  .many don’t.

Although we all call the building in which we congregate, the church, we as believers, also know that the church is the body of Christ. All truth is parallel; for every natural truth there is an equal and corresponding parallel spiritual truth. How often do we all think about this phenomenon? This was my reasoning behind A Fractured and Dying Church.

But now are they many members, yet but one body.

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: [1 Corinthians 12:20-22 KJV]

Whether the leaders consider us feebler than their limbs depends on our own growth in faith. Does God love those any less that might not have grown to the height of faith as another limb? Heavens no. Verse 22 states that we are just as necessary to the body as the higher esteemed parts. As verse 20 says, we are many members, yet but one body. One is just as important as the other, for without just one part, the body would be incomplete.

In example, can you image a leg without a foot, an arm without a hand, or a body without bones? Conversely, can you image the body of Christ without an apostle, without a prophet, without a pastor, a teacher, or without an evangelist? Let alone a body without the Spiritual gifts as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12.

Just think of what the body could accomplish if the head along WITH the eyes, the hands, and feet all moved as one. It’s amazing what people can accomplish when they do not care who gets the credit.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; [Hebrews 10:25 KJV]

There are two trains of thought on this Hebrew verse [2], but please allow me a third interpretation. You may or may not agree with me but that’s OK, we can still be friends.

Given that all truth is parallel and that the pew is a wasted resource in the church, I portend that this verse speaks of the body basically gathering together spiritually, as a body jointly fit together and moving as one - total unity of Christ’s Spiritual body. This is hard to accomplish when the leaders do not use the pew to its fullest extent. (Or even if the pew doesn’t jointly fit together with each other. It’s NOT all the leaders fault.)

Don’t we all serve the same God? Aren’t we different members but one body? Aren’t we one Spirit with God? What about discernment? (There is a huge lack of discernment in the church today even to see that there is a problem in this area.) Don’t we have enough faith in God to teach the pews and then send them out or to work for the church and actually become a part of the body, and then leave them in God’s hands, or don’t we think that God is up to the task? When the leaders want us to look to them instead of God, to me, this is witchcraft.

The Old Testament foreshadows this concept in Ezekiel 37:1-14 when the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that they may live. We are all dead until the breath of God (the Holy Spirit) comes into us as a born again Christian - and not till then. How can we work together and accomplish great things for Christ when the leaders and the pews are so fragmented and not used? Lack of unity.

Until the leaders of the church start using the pews to their fullest, it is this writer’s opinion that the church (the body) will remain fractured and continue to be a burning ember threatening to put itself out.

However, in defense of the church leaders, I totally understand that the Lord mandated to them the responsibility of the congregation. I get it. They have to be careful who they put in front of everybody. God will hold them accountable for the pews blood [Ezekiel 3:18, 19]. Nevertheless, how many schools, how many meetings, how many sermons, must the pew personally go through for the church to use them? How long is the indoctrination period? How many days, months, or years must the pew wait for the church leaders to use them?

So what can the pews do to regain their hope of service for God, to keep the flame going, and to catch on fire once again? I hope I don’t disappoint you but it all boils down to basics. There is no magic formula accept for loving Christ with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself [Mark 12:30, 31]. However, here are some practical tips.

* Do not grow weary.
* Determine not to let the fire, dream, or passion die.
* Pray for our leaders.
* Pray for one another.
* Seek God until His power overpowers the religion that wants us bound. Overcome evil with God.
* Bless and not curse.
* Remember that God has a plan for each one of our lives and that His timing is perfect [Jeremiah 29:11]. I’ve been a Christian for 62 years and God just recently (in 1995 after 44 years of being a believer) mandated that I write solely for Him. Since then, the Lord gave me three books, one of which I’ve published. The second book I will publish shortly. I am waiting on the ISBN now.
* Learn what we can from the church leaders and strike out on your own. Get off the pews and hit the streets and develop a talent, like writing. Find a church that will gladly use your giftings. There are different mantels on different churches.
* Develop the three foot rule in public; anybody within three feet hears about Jesus and what He did for you. The best way to evangelize is with personal testimony, NOT by shoving the Amplified Bible down somebody’s throat.
* Get with other like-minded brothers and sisters either in church or on the outside that are in your sphere of influence and activate Acts 20:20. (Acts 20:20 is about home meetings. Shoot for five to seven people, tops. If more come, split into two groups.)
* Although you may not be serving your church with your gifts, still do not forsake the assembling of one another. I have watched others worship God and it is a blessing. It has brought me to tears a couple of times. People might not believe what you always say, but they’ll always believe what you do.
* Be the best foot you can be. Be the best hand you can be. Be the best.  .  .
* FOCUS ON GOD especially in these days, not on what the enemy is doing!
* DO NOT give up hope of serving God. Your mere existence serves God because you are unique and He loves you. There’s no one like you. Reconnection and fitting our joints together starts with you and it starts with me.
* Pray, pray, pray [1 Thessalonians 5:17]. Conversation with God is prayer and if we focus on Him, it’s fairly easy to do.
* Seek God. Develop an intimacy with Him not just with an acquaintance mentality.
* 2 Chronicles 7:14.

People will flock to you if you just practice the love of God and seek Him passionately, and after all, isn’t He the most important one in our life and our soon to be husband?

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[1] Article on Phantom Leg
[2] Back to Eden for Kindle   Back to Eden for Nook
[3] Interpretation One: Paul exhorts them not to apostatize the church. Interpretation Two: refers to gathering together in public worship.