One Church Under God!

“No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:16-22 NKJ

Most Christians in America are up in arms over the fact that the words “under God” may be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance as if those words recited in schools and at sporting events have some kind of power to shake the foundations of terrorist nations who are looking to destroy us. The greatest power we have to shake the foundations of terrorist nations is the power of a unified body of believers whose hope is in God, who are united together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and who adhere to another word in the Pledge of Allegiance, which is the word indivisible. Webster’s defines indivisible as: “Not divisible; incapable of being divided, separated, or broken; not separable into parts.”

Is this the church of Jesus Christ the world sees when they look at us? Or do they see a church that is divided, separated, broken into pieces, which operates more in fear of doctrine being threatened than in the hope of the Lord as their strength? Do they see a church who believes in the unfailing love of God, who really believes that His love delivers them out of death at the moment of salvation? Do they see a church who believes their God keeps them alive in famine or do they see a church that operates in fear and hordes what they have in their storehouses? Do they see a church where the people’s hearts rejoice and trust in their God and who stand firmly behind His shield of protection, believing by faith that He delivers them from the hands of their enemies?

We can pray all day long for the soldiers on the battlefield but in reality those soldiers do not have the ability to deliver us from the hands of our enemies, only God does! And until the church of Jesus Christ becomes a unified, indivisible body we will not see the power of God to save us from our enemies be released on the battlefield! Look at all the accounts in the Bible where God showed His power on behalf of His people and you will find that every time He gave specific instructions to be unified in purpose and mission. And each time the people listened, they were delivered and their enemies were destroyed! But the instructions weren’t just given to the armies; they were given to the entire population of the people who the armies represented.

I believe James tells us what the problem is and what we have to do if we are going to see the power of God released in our nation and on foreign soil. In James 4:1-5 he says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?”

When he says adulterers and adulteresses He is referring to spiritual adultery, not physical here. The body of Christ is to be one body completely committed to the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, not seeking the pleasures of the world or our own agendas based on manmade doctrine or standards of holiness. This is spiritual adultery and it has divided the church into fragmented pieces and is the cause of quarrels and fights among us. If we are going to see the armies of our nation succeed on the battlefield, the people of our nation who claim faith in Jesus Christ must come together as instructed by God and be unified under the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

Then and only then will we see the power of God released on our behalf and “one nation under God” will become more than just a recited line of the Pledge of Allegiance! And when the world looks at us they will tremble and fear for they will see the power of our God who is at work on our behalf to deliver us from our enemies. They will see that our hope is in our God who is mighty to save and though they may try to defeat us; their attempts will fail every time because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world! I want to encourage you to begin to pray for the church of Jesus Christ that we will become “one church under God, indivisible, with the liberty and justice of Christ in all” and for the people of this great nation, who profess faith in Jesus to become unified under His Lordship and to stop quarreling and fighting amongst ourselves.

Prayer: Jesus prayed this prayer for us in John 17:9-11. Let us pray it together today and every day for the body of Christ. ““I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”