Faith. Unity. Love.

To be blunt the Lord has been slapping me with revelation upon revelation of what he is doing in my life and in the wider community. Today I meditated on this verse:

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." - Psalm 133:1

I spent 4 hours on this verse just asking what it means and what the Lord was trying to say through it. Oh man was I in for a treat. Basically the Lord really loves community, when people are willing to "do life together". Together in unity is a beautiful thing when you figure it out that is. When you do it well with the Lord at the centre it's unstoppable. The next verse in this passage talks about it like precious oil being poured out. When you live together well it is delightful. It's just getting to that stage is the challenge. Meaning when you stick 13 people that never knew each other before, in a house with two bathrooms there is bound to be some controversy. However the lord revealed today that it is Iron sharpening Iron - which causes friction. But just stop and think of what friction is.... It's heat right, so that means it creates a spark that can spread like wildfire. If the spark is pure and brings the lord glory then I would say that wildfire would be unstoppable! - Awesome! 
Which brings me to my next verse:

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." - Romans 12:5

Doing this in love. Living in a community where people go low and think of others better than themselves. Which can be a real hard reality if you come from a 'worldly' background. When you are willing to sacrifice for the benefit of your brother or sister it can be a beautiful thing. It's just having that mindset of serving rather than having the mindset of entitlement or 'rights'. In Christ you have no rights, you have no entitlements. I love the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 4:13 - We have become the scum of the earth meaning that when we are slandered, persecuted, cursed we bless, answer kindly, and endure it. Not saying we are the rubbish of the world but we are to think of everyone higher than ourselves. Who are we to judge one another when we have no rights and are not even entitled to say to our brother or sister 'you are wrong so serve me!' So Loving one another:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:20-21

God loves us so much that he will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. He wants us to live a radical life of loving one another. When we can do that and live in community we can't lose! To him be the glory! He is the one that pours out his love on us so that we can overflow onto others. How exciting!
Through all this we need faith:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."         - Hebrews 11:1

I know we have all heard this verse. My grandmother is a big advocate of this. Which I'm thankful for because from a young age it was ingrained in me. I never fully understood the meaning of it until last week though. When you pray for healing you need to believe in yourself that the person can be healed. If you don't trust in the fact that they can be healed then you shouldn't even pray. But when you go at it with zeal and power in believing that your prayer is in line with what God wants then yes! You have faith! I mean there are a lot of different ways to take this verse but that is my take right now. Because something clicked and it made sense, that I just need to believe that what I'm praying will be!  
Our mandate is:

"To prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ"                     - Ephesians 4:12-13

We are to be an example in love, faith and unity for the people around us. When we do community through loving one another through the hard times we become unified through having faith. Make sense? I know my mind was pretty much blown this morning. So when we suffer well through doing this, we will be blessed. When we endure the hardships that the lord has put before us we can't lose. There is so much to be said on unity in the body through Christ. Oh how I love community and the love that can come out of it! I mean some days you will want to kill everyone but most days you love them. The key is when you are going through those difficult days and the people around you can love you through it. Man that's gold! That means you have achieved unity in community through faith in love. Doing life together is not hard. You can do it anywhere, I mean families do it all the time but when you're blood related it's a bit different because you literally are stuck together. But when you're complete strangers and get along like blood relatives, oh that's the good stuff! 

So to come in for a landing:

Doing life together is a beautiful thing! When you suffer well through it, that's the gold!