Teamwork
As Christians, we have been called to God’s team, for we are fellow laborers with Christ. The fields are white and ready for harvest. According to Luke 2, Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Our times are in thy hands. Though Israel stands alone against the world, God said that he who blesses Israel shall be blessed and he who curses Israel shall be cursed. The Word of God shall come to pass despite the world’s division and confusion. The solutions to the world’s problems are beyond the ability of the adversary, his minions, and the world’s masses who do not believe his Word of truth. In every cataclysmic event in world history, God always preserves a remnant of his faithful ones. Our decision is not whether God is on our side but whether we are on God’s side. When the crisis comes God expects his men to have such confidence in him that we will be the reliable ones who stand according to his power and endure faithfully to the end.
A team is a group on one side of a contest where winning or losing is at stake. We inherited our sin nature from Adam and were born into the losing team. However, we were born again of God’s holy spirit into the winning team. In the spiritual contest, we have formidable foes. In my own power of the flesh, I can do nothing. However, upon the new birth, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for me. I have been bought with a price… by the payment of the innocent blood of Jesus Christ. For he who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus prayed all night for those on his team… not for those who abandoned him, but for his disciplined followers whom he had personally called. A winning team has a shared vision. He didn’t call them to join his organization. Rather, Jesus said, “come and follow me.” As John the Baptist declared, “I’m not the bridegroom, I’m here to introduce the Bride to her Bridegroom… I must decrease that he might increase.”
No faith other than Christianity can say, my Lord lives with me and within me. His team members are those who have been crucified with him, and have given up their own selfish rights in allegiance to him. They represent not themselves, but Christ who lives in them. Our faith and our hope is in him. This hope is the foundation of our security. According to Ephesians 4:14-15: In (Christ) whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest (guarantee) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Therefore I am persuaded that he is able to keep that deposit of holy spirit that he has committed unto me against the day of judgement.
There is no security in the things of this world… Love not the world. Rather, set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth. To turn our eyes away from worldly things is to press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Our mission is to impact the world for Christ. He has called his disciplined followers to influence the world and not to be influenced by the world.
The final characteristic of a successful team is that they love one another. Therefore above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. We are to put on God’s unconditional love which binds us together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. As we love our Lord, we love each other with the love with which he has loved us. We have been called as bondservants, slaves who are bound not by chains of guilt or obligation. Rather we are bound to him by a bond of love to serve him willingly… for believing works by love. Love energizes believing that appropriates the power of God into manifestation.
There are four types of love in Greek. The first is “phileo” or friendship. The second is familial love; Greek word “storge.” We have no control over the family into which we’re born. The third type of love is “eros” or romance. These three types of love are “reciprocal.” Each requires the same type of love in return. If these types of love are not returned, one party is shortchanged. The fourth type of love is “agape.” This is the unconditional Love of God. This is the love of grace and mercy… a totally unconditional giving love of God that requires nothing given in return. There is nothing that a team cannot accomplish when the team loves one another and doesn’t care which team member gets the credit. Love covers for one another. It bears up under suffering and pressure… it sacrifices for the good of others, even those who have taken advantage of us. Love transcends personal likes and dislikes.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds. The best way to defeat your enemy is to make him your friend. The battlefield is in the mind. Therefore casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God…. bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Only with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation can we stand against the schemes of the devil. We must put on with love the armor of God to prepare for the spiritual battle. The victory in the battle starts with surrendering our heart to our Lord Jesus Christ. The breastplate of righteousness can be donned only by understanding that we are righteous in him and not in our own flesh.
Therefore, in the spiritual battle, be thou my vision O Lord of my heart, Naught be all else to me save that thou art. To win the battle, we must surrender our selves upon the altar of Christ… I beseech ye therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto him which is your reasonable, logical, and wholly committed service.
God has called us to his winning team. In the words of the old hymn by Eugene Bartlettt:
O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.
He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood; He loved me ere I knew him, And all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory, Beneath the cleansing flood.
May God richly bless you!