Unity… something worth fighting for!!!

We live in a world that seems to be bent on causing division over almost any issue. Media pounds us with the issues and provokes people to take sides.

As I have traveled the world, I have been exposed to amazing diversity and it is beautiful. However, I still don’t see the unity that I believe our Father longs for. Is there a way to live a life of extreme conviction and not be divisive? I’m not talking about us diluting our beliefs so the world will not be offended – but rather speak of us as a family of believers being unified.

I remember years ago when I got a call from a very dear pastor friend of mine. He wanted to have lunch and talk about what I had written in an update letter about how Jesus spoke to me in a dream. As we sat in this little cafe in Blackfoot Idaho, I was told that he and his church would no longer support us because he felt I was no longer sound in my theology.

Another woman, whom I still love as a spiritual mother, told me she could no longer support our ministry because of my involvement in a certain church.

Another time, one of my closest friends decided to follow another sect of Christianity and because we couldn’t embrace their new beliefs, we went through years of heartache due to separation in our friendship.

Recently, I was dismissed as a missionary from another church family because we believe in a supernatural lifestyle.

The list could go on and on, but you get my point.

I have experienced lots of opportunities for division. Each time this happens, I believe we have two ways to handle it:

Get offended or honor their passion for their understanding of what it looks like to follow Jesus.

Hear my heart. Because I believe this is true, I honor their conviction to not support us. I’m grateful for these gatekeeper brothers and sisters that believe strongly enough to risk breaking relationship with me to stay true to their convictions. I’m certain that if I needed these people in a crisis, they would come running to our aid. But for now, they choose not to support what we are doing.

Honor is the key. I believe that following Jesus means that I have been invited into a supernatural lifestyle that looks a lot like His. Faith, Hope and Love! There are plenty of people who are divisive, but unity is what our Father longs for.

Ephesians 4 describes a diversity of gifts that Jesus gave the church to equip us to a place of “Unity of the faith”

We can have different views, but let’s be a people that choose to stay united in our love for Jesus and his people.

Philippians 2:2 “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”