Worshipping together - a glimpse of Heaven
In Revelation 7:9-10 we are given a glimpse of heaven. In it there is “a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. They cried out with a loud voice: ‘Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (CEB). God desires that God’s people from every nation (and in case we didn’t understand that, the text states even more explicitly, “from every nation, tribe, people, and language”) be united around Jesus, worshipping together.
In Psalm 133, we learn that God releases a blessing where there is Unity. 1 How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. 3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL UNITY is among Holy Spirit-led sons and daughters of God
The true church - the Jesus brotherhood and sisterhood under the Fatherhood of God- is spiritual, outwardly manifesting in characteristics of unity of faith in God through Jesus Christ (Jeshua Hamashiach). This is not uniformity, not as an institutionalized social organization. We are diverse as God in one is diverse in character and gifts. Spiritual unity is manifested in the fruit of the Spirit, attainable by the faith union with the living Jeshua. It may well utilize such social organisations, but must not be supplanted by them.
In this brotherhood of Jeshua, there should be no place for sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, or assertions of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility.
Christian unity includes affectionate love, not just sacrifice for those you don’t like. (Article: "What is Christian Unity by John Piper, Founder & Teacher, https://www.desiringGod.org).
Paul tells us to “be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). We take that to mean that the Holy Spirit is the great giver of unity. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
CHRISTIANITY is the pulsating presence of Divinity in Humanity.
In winning souls for the Master, it is usually not the first mile of compulsion, duty or conversion that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion by professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as He taught His disciples to live and love and serve.
AIMS
Spirit-rooted, Christ-manifesting, truth-cherishing, humbly-loving unity is designed by God to have at least two aims: a witness to the world, and an acclamation of the glory of God. The apostle John makes the first of these most clear. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
This is attainable through being intentional in action by the power of the Holy Spirit.
There are five pillars, according to the GCU assignment, that we believe will help to unite the Body of Christ. These are:
i) Word-based soul-winning and retention in strategic collaboration with select Christian churches, forums and ministers to increase in unity of Spirit of our faith in Jesus Christ, as led by the Holy Spirit.
ii) Love and care for one another through:
- unity of faith, based on effective, fervent prayer of the righteous that makes tremendous power available
- social and economic-oriented solutions through the GCU Academy of Humanity
NPC/NPO.
iii) Christian Unity Seminars and Conferences
iv) Spiritual Pilgrimage Tourism
v) STEAM Education with a Christian ethos delivered through the GCU Academy of
Sciences NPC.
Romans 8: 19-21: Creation eagerly yearns for the manifestation of the sons of God to deliver it from the bondage of corruption (sinful, destructive acts) into the glorious liberty of the rulership by the children of God ( paraphrased).
As God's children, we develop as 'joint-heirs with Christ with a co-creator mindset of Kingdom "sons" as vessels unto honour that enable God's will to "be done on earth as it is in heaven", acknowledging God as the source of all inventions and creativity through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education, coupled with Technical and Life Skills training based on the Word of God; and as we synchronise our gifts and resources working together, thus prospering together; Spiritual Unity will draw closer to attainment as brethren increasingly dwell together in genuine unity, ".... there the Lord commands the blessing - Life forevermore"(Psalm 133).
Paul says that pastors and teachers are to equip the saints “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God ” (Ephesians 4:13). In other words, the unity we pursue is unity in the truth. Of course, Christian unity is more than shared truth, but not less. Paul piles up the words for common-mindedness in Philippians 2:2, “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (see also Philippians 4:2). Everything is to “accord with Christ.” “May God . . . grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus" (Romans 15:5).
AFFECTIONS
To be sure, unifying love in the body of Christ includes a rugged commitment to do good for the family of God whether you feel like it or not (Galatians 6:10). But, as difficult as it is for diverse people, the experience of Christian unity is more than that. It includes affectionate love, not just sacrifice for those you don’t like. It is a feeling of endearment. We are to have affection for those who are our family in Christ. “Love one another with brotherly affection” (Romans 12:10). “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). “All of you, have . . . sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8).
Jesus’s famous statements in John 17 are rooted in the profound spiritual unity between the Father and the Son, and with those whom God has chosen out of the world (John 17:6). “I ask that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Note the witness to the world is that the disciples are in the Father and the Son so that the world might believe. This is vastly more — deeply more — than being related through a common organization.
The oneness that shines with self-authenticating glory for the world to see is union with the Father and the Son so that the glory of the Father and the Son is part of our lives. “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:22). That glory is owing to this: “I in them and you [Father] in me” (John 17:23). From this union with God, and the glory it gives, shines something the world may see, if God gives them eyes to see. God’s aim for this vertically-rooted, horizontal, glory-displaying unity is that he might “gather into one the children of God scattered abroad” (John 11:52).
The ultimate aim of such Christian unity is the glory of God. Hence Paul prays, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:5–7).