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UP – A United People


God is calling the local New Testament Church UP! He is calling us to rise UP in faith, to believe His promises, and possess our inheritance in Christ. He is calling us to be an UP people. What does the Bible have to say about being an UP people? Revelation 4:1 reads, "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."

What do I mean by becoming an UP people? UP simply stands for a United People! If we are going to experience His power and anointing in a new way then we must become an UP people. We must unite together as one. How will this happen? It will take the anointing of the Holy Spirit to make it happen. Unity is a product of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:2 reads, "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

How do we position ourselves to flow together in unity and to become an UP people? The first part of Ephesians 4:2
reads, "With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in bond of peace." The opposite of unity is division. To cause division is to be in rebellion. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:23, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king."

What happens when we reject the Word of the Lord and rebel against the Lord's commandments? We will suffer the consequences. Saul's rebellion caused him to lose his kingdom. God rejected Saul and gave the kingdom to David and his descendants. One of his descendants is our Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Saul suffered a tragic end.

To fail to unite together and embrace what God has for us will cause us to suffer the rejection of God! What happens when we suffer the rejection of God? In Revelation 2:5 Jesus gives a message to the church of Ephesus. We learn about the Ephesians church in Acts 19. Paul spent nearly three years and they experienced a great revival. Acts 19:10 reads, "And this continued for two years, so that all who dwell in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." It was to this church that Paul wrote the Epistle of Ephesians. Yet we find in Revelation 2 that they had lost their first love. Listen to the warning of the Lord in Revelation 2:5 – "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."

What did the Lord mean by, "remove your lampstand?" The lampstand was a menorah. The candlestick (lampstand) was the most beautiful and elaborate piece of furniture in the tabernacle. Its magnificence was a thing of admiration and awe. The menorah in the Tabernacle is a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that removing their lampstand meant that they would lose the manifest presence of God.

This beautiful menorah was located in the holy place in the Tabernacle. It illuminated the place where the priests would go to minister to the Lord in the holy place. It represented Christ, who is the light of the world. If the lampstand gets removed then that simply means that the church at Ephesus would be left in darkness.

What happens when the lampstand gets removed? There is no revelation. Between the two testaments we have what we call the silent years. Four hundred years of no revelation. We must be an UP people. God is calling us UP. The Bible always referred to the children of Israel as going up to Jerusalem. He is calling us UP to worship. He is calling us UP to commune with God. We must become a united people. One of the key words for our local church in this season of God is to become a united people!

We must unite together as one. God is calling us to become an UP people: God is calling our local congregation and the Body of Christ to Unite together in the following ways:

  • United in our purpose
  • United in prayer
  • United in our praise
  • United in our planning
  • United in our preaching
We are living in what the New Testament defines as perilous times. We have a divine assignment as the people of God. To enter into what God has for us as a people and realize the promises of God we must become a United People.

Comments

Fred Gordon said…
Pastor Terry,

I fully appreciate your new blog with the msg-- we should be an UP--a United People. I agree with your interpretation in Rev 2:5. I will come quickly and remove the lampstand----. You stated if He removes the lampstand/menorah, then we lose the presence of God.

Lastly, I hope that you will continue your teaching on Thursday eve. on being an UP.

BLESSINGS. FRED G
June 17, 2010 at 10:38 AM
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