In Christ vs In Church

Let me tell you some more about this too. Let’s say you are going to go to church but don’t know whether you really want to be there. You go because “it is expected of one of my saints” …right?

Yes, Lord…tis true, I go because I want to be a faithful woman, to both you and to those of my church family.

But, Elizabeth, what if I told you that it doesn’t make you more righteous to be in church. Would you believe this? For it has been spoken by many in the body of Christ.

Is this true or not? I’m asking you, what you think.

I would say “yes” based on the fact that when David was sick with cancer, and I couldn’t go to church, I actually grew more spiritually than at any other time in my life. I could sense the Holy Spirit teaching me through the Word, through family, through house guests, etc. And I had a lot of alone time when I was focused ON YOU, and not on meetings that sometimes I’d gain nothing from.

So, is your “experience”, Truth, Elizabeth?

Lord, I do believe it has become truth to me, but Leonard doesn’t believe this. I go sometimes to please Leonard and his viewpoint on the local church.

So, Elizabeth, what is it you perceive? I mean just now…I hear your thoughts…

Lord, I sometimes feel “the local church” is more important to Leonard due to the doctrines he grew up with; whereas, being “in Christ” has become as important to me as being “in Church”.

Is this so, or not, Lord? It is you who reveals truth and changes perspective.

Elizabeth, I want to tell you something… Rather, ask you something:

When Covid caused churches to close their doors, do you believe this helped THE Church or hindered the church?

Well, Lord, I think it depends upon where people’s hearts were “before” they closed the doors. If people were going just for show, they probably were glad when they didn’t have to go… especially to dead churches, that give no life. And… If people were going to be “with you Lord” and to worship You and to edify their brethren, I believe they “continued to do that” in their homes and with their families, friends, and neighbors, even church family. I also think that families may have come closer to have the “time” together, to enjoy and love-on one another.  I have a feeling
you were doing a lot of stuff during that season!

So, is my perception accurate? Or do you have something to teach me, tell me, or instruct me about, that will change my vantage point.

I want your light, Lord. Truly.

Elizabeth, I asked you, because truth is usually known in the inward parts of my children as a “knowing” about something. They just have to quiet themselves, as you just did, to ponder the truth, so it comes up to the surface, and thereby affect them.

Truly the hearts of the people determined their response to “not” being IN Church, but they still remained THE Church. Right?

Yes, Lord. The true church stayed true! For sure!

So then, Elizabeth, what happened to The Church that was happy not to be IN church. See if you can answer from your innermost being, as I just described for my children to do…

My answer, Lord, is that their “true hearts” were revealed…to them, that is…for you always were aware of their true heart.

But…Lord, I ask you now: Even though their true hearts were revealed…to them…as they perhaps realized they didn’t really want to be there, AT Church… Did it change them? Were You changing them? Still drawing them to you closer?

Elizabeth, you just looked across from Colossians 1 to Colossians 2 and saw my answer, didn’t you. In a split second, truth downloaded within you. Let’s look at it together for my answer.

I see Colossians 2:8-10 which says:

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”

I read that again… and again…

The Saints glad “not” to go to church were no less saints than those considered faithful that kept on attending church. They were being made aware BY ME that they were caught in a “pretend” form of Christianity or in a church “not feeding their souls” – in “tradition” – in “philosophy” – and not “after Christ”. That’s why they didn’t want to be there in the first place, but were going through the motions.

But that is not what I want. I do not want ANY of my people Doing, for the sake of doing. Going, for the sake of going. In Christ, they are complete.

Isn’t that what Colossians 2:10 says? “Ye are COMPLETE in Him”?

Yes, Lord.

I paused here for a day, and on the new day, I was spoken to on a different topic… I felt as if the topic wasn’t ‘completed’… but I’m the one “listening” as I write this book…