"We must first learn to love one another face-to-face before we have the authority to stand as communities and nations face-to-face with other cultures and people groups to repair the breach."

Revisiting Acts...

During this last month, I woke up a number of nights at exactly 2:44 a.m. As this began to happen night-after-night, I realized that the Lord was saying something to me. I began to seek Him regarding this and the Spirit of the Lord led me to the verse in Acts 2:44:

"And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other"

As I read these words, they stirred a great desire in me to be with believers in a more personal way. Recently, I have been experiencing an overwhelming longing to truly share and be in the lives of believers who the Lord has placed in my life, and in the city where I live. A compassion for His people and for the loneliness that many feel today, even within the Churches, has compelled me to spend more time with those around me.

To Know and Be Known...

The words from Acts 2:44 which states that they shared everything with each other, caused me to think beyond the material aspects of selling possessions and sharing wealth (although this is very important). I began to think about how Jesus shared His life and journey with His disciples. God began to talk to me about sharing my life with those around me. Romans 12:15 says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."

To journey together and share everything is to enter into both the times of rejoicing and the times of mourning with those around us. There is a deep longing in the Body of Christ to be known. I have taken these past few months to really sit and talk to a lot of people around me, and one of the first things that they will express is a deep desire to know the people around them, and to be known. To be known is to be cared for.

Jesus knew His disciples! He ate with them, slept alongside them, journeyed with them, loved them in their times of triumph, and in their times of defeat. He was very personal with them...as He is with us too! Therefore we, too, must be personally interacting with those who are around us.

Acts 2:46-47 states, "They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness, praising God. The whole city was favorable to them, and each day God added to them all who were being saved."

Why were so many in the city being saved? Because God's people were acting like Jesus. They were being His hands and feet. They were being personal and sharing life together. They had great joy because they were known in a personal way, not only by God, but by one another. They were being a "city set on a hill," they were "light in the darkness," and they were LOVE to a world that hungered and thirsted to be known and loved.

Fences That Divide...

If we desire to be known in a personal way, then why do we have so much division in the Body of Christ? One reason is offenses. The enemy is very quick to use offense to divide the Body. When someone goes through a difficult time and no one is there to walk with them and mourn with them and sharing love in the midst of their pain, then it is easy for that person to become offended at the entire Body.

Recently, I had a short vision. In this vision I saw wooden fences that were surrounding believers. As I saw this, I heard the words, "O fences be removed!" I realized that the Lord was speaking of "offenses" through this picture. Then in the vision, I saw the fences that surrounded many believers be dismantled. Each piece of wood that had comprised these fences of offense, were laid in front of that person to became a bridge being built over the breaches and division in the Church. As I came out of this short vision, I began to declare over my own life, "O fences be removed!" I asked the Lord to take every plank of offense in my life and to use it as a bridge of restoration and repairing breaches.

"And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell." Isaiah 58:12

I encourage you to read through Isaiah 58. I feel as though this is a key chapter for seeing unity restored to the Body and for bringing in the harvest of those who are ready to come into salvation.

The New Sound...

"It was the sound of true love."

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." 1 Corinthians 13:1

Two years ago, I was a part of a gathering of believers in Edmonton, Alberta, called "Rise Up." During one night of this gathering, hundreds of believers entered into the purest and most beautiful time of worship I have ever experienced. As I was in the midst of this worship service, I was absolutely in awe at the sounds I was hearing. It was the sound of desire from God's people to God, and from God, to His people. It was the sound of true love.

During this time of worship (where no previously known songs were being sung, but only spontaneous songs of desire were being released), one of our team members, Stacey Campbell, quietly moved up onto the stage and released a very tender prophecy about the sounds we were hearing. She began to describe the sounds of the nails being hammered into our Lord's hands and feet and she called it, "The sound of desire."

It is the sound of love that stirs a desire so deep that One would lay down His life for the ones that He loves. John 15:12-13 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

How is it that hundreds of people that night in worship could release sounds that still impact me two years later? It was because they had come to "know" Jesus in such a personal way that their desire could not be held back. The more they spent time with Him, the more they loved Him, and that night was like a symphony of love. There were no noisy gongs or clanging cymbals, only pure love.

God is calling us to that kind of love for one another. And we grow in love as we spend time together and get to know one another personally. We can't do that with every person in the Body of Christ, but as we do it with a small group (Jesus chose twelve), then we will find that our ability to love will grow into a desire that will overflow everywhere we go with everyone we meet. It will enlarge our hearts and our capacity for love. We will understand how love can lay down its life for a friend.

 Bridge Over Troubled Waters...

God is asking us to tear down the fences of offense and division between believers. Let us use these planks that the enemy has meant for evil and use them to build a bridge over the troubled waters in the Church. Then the Church will be known by her love! Just as the believers in the Book of Acts had favor in their city because of their love for one another, so will the believers in your city.

It is time for us to share everything with one another. It is time for us to share our lives, our time, our compassion, and our love with those around us. It is time to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning.

If we can do this as individuals, then God will entrust us to do this with cities and nations. We must first learn to love one another face-to-face before we have the authority to stand as communities and nations face-to-face with other cultures and people groups to repair the breach. Maybe if we can do it with one another, our children will begin to do it with nations. Remember, do not despise the day of small beginnings! It is in the small things that we learn to be faithful with the big things.

Today, you can begin to build that bridge over the troubled waters in your Church, in your city, and in your nation. Just begin with the one nearest you!

In Christ's Love,

Kathi Pelton
Operation Prayer Watch
Email: jkpelton@sbcglobal.net