What is Church all About? Part Two

Part Two of "Did God Create a Religion?"

Part Two:

What is Church about?

Church is about relationships, it's about the heart and the desire to be together. It's not about works and doing. It's only through relationships that we build up one another as a body, we feel united, we care, we want to get together, see each other, pray for one another. It's never by programs, because it's organic and living.

It's about being in touch and being there for one another. It's about family life and building relationships and being there for one another. It's about raising up the next generation and building up the Body by bringing who Jesus is for us to others.

I remember when I asked the Lord "what's church is all about? What do You want us to DO when we come to church?"

I was focused on the doing, but the Lord had to renew my mind so I can focus on who He is and not what I need to do and work. His household is not a business; it's a family built on relationship and rooted in love.

The Lord answered my question and showed me in 1 Corinthians how He wants us to BE the church. He said to me:

"Elana, whenever you assemble together, some have a psalm to share My voice through music, some share what I have taught them, some have something I revealed to them, some have a tongue and I give the interpretation for it, this is how you build one another up."

1Co 14:26 NASB What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

God lives inside His children and we each have something unique in us to share with each other. We bring who Jesus is in us and for us and it always ministers to someone's heart.

One might say "But I am not a pastor, or a prophet or a leader in my church. How can I share what the Lord is showing me and sharing with me, with others?"

Well, the Lord never meant for His Church (Family) to get together and DO church with an old covenant mentality. He never meant for us to follow a Temple mentality and mindset.

In the old covenant it was only Moses (the leader) who heard God's voice and he would come and share with the entire congregation what God is speaking to him. All the others were spectators. They watched him enter the Tent of Meeting and they encountered his experienced with God.

We live in a LIVING organic Temple which is not man-made. We no longer follow that old system of the Law. We follow a living God who lives in our hearts. As building blocks in His body, He put us together, but we are LIVING, breathing, speaking, singing, hearing, seeing, walking STONES. We stick to one another with the glue of love and freedom to be. We build and edify one another as we share the song, the teaching, the revelation, the dreams, the desires, the visions, that we have seen and heard from Him.

This was God's design, that in His body, there are different gifting, functions and responsibilities, but no one is above another. These are not titles, but functions.

As you experience and know the Lord personally in your life, and as you share who He is for you, and what He is speaking to you and showing you - the Lord will raise you up as a spiritual parent who would feed and care for His sheep.

The Lord is not the Author and the Finisher of your works and performance. He knows all our weaknesses and failures. But He chooses the weak because in weakness there is power. Whatever is sown in weakness is also raised in power 1Co 15:43. The Lord is the Author and the Finisher of your FAITH; he did not say of your works, and performance.

Works is a fruit of abiding – having His thoughts for you, His love for you, seeing how He sees you, knowing His dreams and desires for you. It's being like a child and allow Him to be you Daddy. Then you become a spiritual father as He is to you.

We cannot become anything or do anything before we experience who the Lord is personally for us. We need to eat the fruit of His kindness to us and we are transformed by His love and become kind. We need to eat the fruit of His gentleness towards us and we become gentle.

"Elana, these fruits in the garden are for you to eat from. Let Me feed you and you will become it".

Don't we teach and focus in religion and focus on the importance of bearing these fruits?

How can we bear love, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, patience,,, without EATING these fruits first?

Religion got it backwards.

Religion teaches you that God is going to break you in order to make you more loving, patient, kind, giving, serving…

Come on Church, we cannot teach and preach from under the Law. God is in the business of building up and encouraging, not breaking people. It's the Accuser who comes to destroy, kill and steal.

God feeds you with love and His love transforms you.

God feeds you with His kindness to you and His provision and you fall in love with Him.

God shows you kindness and grace in the midst of your mess and you get overwhelmed by such love. It's love you've never experienced or known.

The Law which focuses, points, judges and punishes for sin can never transform hearts. It just changes behavior. Are we into behaviour modification or life transformation?

Don't focus on what's wrong with you. Jesus isn't.

God put you in Jesus – inside Him – and sees you IN Jesus.

Don't ask yourself "Am I honoring God? Am I accepted by God?"

Ask, is Jesus honoring God? Is He accepted and beloved? Therefore, as He is, so are you in this world.

Is Jesus pleasing to God?

Is Jesus righteous? So are you.

Is Jesus perfect and there is no blemish in Him? So are you.

You are complete in Christ.

Song of Solomon 4:7 You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.

The Lord said you are righteous apart from your works (performance).

Rom 3:20-21 NASB because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (21) But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Rom 3:28 NASB For we maintain that a man is justified (righteous) by faith apart from works of the Law.

The right standing (righteousness – a Noun) we have received by grace and apart from our performance is an everlasting condition, and not a temporary condition. This means you didn't get right with God because of something you have done, and the same way you don't lose your right standing because of something you have done. Many think "I'm not right with God" when they fail and mess up. This is not true and it's not who what God says about you.

You're either RIGHT with God (all your sins are blotted out and no longer remembered), or wrong with God (God still sees your sins, points to your sins and punishes you for them). If He says you are right with Him, that settles it.

Don't walk with God under the Law, walk in the newness of the New Covenant in Jesus who dies for ALL your sins, wrongs, failures and mess.

Read what the Lord says about everlasting right standing with Him:

Psalm 119:142 NASB Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law (Law of Grace and Liberty) is truth.

Daniel 9:24 NASB "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, (Jesus had done that for us. By His blood all our sins are done away with in God's eyes. This is why He said "I will remember your sins no more" and also "I will cast them as far as the east is from the west" As a result of our sins being wiped out in God's eyes He said...) to bring in everlasting righteousness, (not a temporary one; not one that depends on man and his performance, wrong doing or even right doing. It totally because of what Jesus had done for us, it's a gift by grace) to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.

Beloved of the Lord, you need to see how God sees you through His eyes and because of the works of Jesus. Don't look at who you're not and your failures, but on who Jesus is and His perfection.

Whenever you have thoughts in your mind about how "not good enough" you are, or others are, how your performance is lacking, how failure you are, weak, messed up, or inadequate - start pointing to Jesus and lifting Him up. Thank the Lord for who He is, for His righteousness, and His perfection. Don't focus on who YOU are NOT. It's Jesus performance that God sees, so lift up the name of Jesus. Thank Him that you are still right with Him despite your mess or lacking performance. (I am not saying go rob a bank, and sin and abuse God's grace, but know that your lack of performance DOES NOT make you un-right with God).

Focus on who you are in Jesus and not who the Law says you are. The Accuser will always point to your sins through the Law making sure to show you how much you fail and not right with God based on your works.

But even David knew to keep pointing to who the Lord is for him.

(Psa 22:31) They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.

Jesus performed and fulfilled the demands of the Law which no man could.

(Psa 71:15) My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And of Your salvation all day long; For I do not know the sum of them. 16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.

(Psa 71:19) For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?

In our natural we not adequate, but our adequacy is from God who made us already qualified as servants not according to the system of the Law, but according to the Spirit.

2Co 3:5-6 NASB Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, (6) who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter (Law) kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The Lord's Bride is the perfection of beauty, she is a woman beyond compare, pure and innocent in His sight.

Psalms 50:2 NASB Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth.

Song of Solomon 6:9-10 MSG (9) She's a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her-- All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her: (10) "Has anyone ever seen anything like this-- dawn-fresh, moon-lovely, sun-radiant, ravishing as the night sky with its galaxies of stars?"

Lamentations 2:15 NASB All who pass along the way Clap their hands in derision at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem, "Is this the city of which they said, 'The perfection of beauty, A joy to all the earth'?"

It's the Lord's beauty in us. It's His splendor, not by our own works, by who we are. The beauty does not fade away when our performance is failing. It remains because Jesus' performance is perfect and unchanging. He will always be perfect and without any blemish, and therefore His bride as well. Her beauty was perfect because of the Lord's splendor not her own.

Ezekiel 16:14 NASB+ "Then your fame^H8034 went^H3318 forth^H3318 among the nations^H1471 on account of your beauty^H3308, for it was perfect^H3632 because of My splendor^H1926 which^H834 I bestowed^H7760 on you," declares^H5002 the Lord^H136 GOD^H3068.

Heb 9:13-14 NASB For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, (14) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Do not let your conscience be on your dead works and performance which are dead – the Law. Focus on Jesus works and performance, on who He is not who you are NOT, on what He had done and the works He fulfilled - not your failures, lack and weaknesses.

Peter and his mess

I remember when I told the Lord how funny He is to choose Peter to be the one to feed His sheep. I told Him "Lord, You chose the most messed up guy whose performance was constantly failing. That must be a joke, Lord. Peter betrayed You three times; he lied about his relationship with You; he rebuked You and You called him Satan; he opened his big mouth and wanted to build a man-made tabernacle for the Law and for prophetic voice under the Law; he was shut up by the Father who told him to listen to Your voice; he refused having You wash his feet, he thought he was the greatest of the disciples and he loved you more; he cuts off the ear of the guard probably missing by an inch and intending to kill him; had issues with forgiveness (Mat 18:21); had issues with defilement (Mat 15:15). This guy was a mess and it's Him You chose as a pastor to feed Your sheep. Lord You are amazing in how you challenge and bring low those who think we need to be qualified by man and certified by man in order to care for Your sheep.

The Lord raised up His disciples as spiritual fathers who would witness and share with others who Jesus is in them and for them.

We no longer minister like John the Baptist who preached repent from under the Law and focused on sin. He chased Herod for his sins and pointed to what's wrong with him until Herod got sick of him and put him in jail.

The Lord is ushering the ministry of Jesus where His children will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is the Gospel of Jesus which they received by a revelation from Jesus and not a man-made gospel which preaches a different Jesus.

Jesus is not a Accuser who still points to sin, and keeps an account of sin.

We cannot preach the Law and be teachers of the Law who make sure people know their sins and what's wrong with them.

Joseph Prince in one if his teachings said he used to preach from under the Law making sure people know their sins so they can repent. But repentance in Greek means "a different thought". It means change your thinking, be renewed in your mind.

Joseph Prince said I used to preach like this: (this is how we recognize preaching from under the Law – it points to your sins, failures, weaknesses, wrongs, mess)

"Nothing is wrong with God"

"Nothing is wrong with His Word"

"Something is wrong with……………………. YOU"

The Lord told Joseph Prince once "You cannot disqualify my people whom I have qualified by My blood."

Teaching and preaching from under the Law points a finger at God's people making sure they know what's wrong with them.

Pointing to sin and failures can never change people. It condemns them. Brings guilt, shame, disgrace, and accusations. It makes sure they know "you're not good enough and you don't measure up to God's demands". Who does? Let the one who had never sinned throw the first stone at sinners.

1Ti 1:6-9 NASB For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, (7) wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (8) But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, (9) realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, …

The Law is meant for those who walk under it, try to fulfill it, guard it above man, and judge any who break it, not knowing that Jesus has fulfilled it for them in full. He fulfilled every demand of the Law.

We put our trust in Jesus who has given us the gift of right standing with Him apart from our works.

It's God kindness that leads us to repentance and to change, not judging and focusing on sin.

Therefore, the Lord says to you....

"You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you.

Son 4:7 NASB

Preaching from under the Law needs to decrease.

The ministry of John who preached from under the Law must decrease in our hearts, so the ministry of Jesus in us will increase. We preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which teaches "All your sins, wrongs, failures, mess, inadequacies, weaknesses, and the certificate of debt with charges against you are canceled and nailed to the cross. You were ransomed by the blood of Jesus and perfected by His blood. Now you are a new creation, the old is in the past and God sees you as a completely new creature. He no longer sees you in the flesh, but He sees you beautiful and complete in Jesus. He no longer remembers your sins Heb 10:17, keeps an account of what's wrong with you 1Co 13:3, or points to your sins 2Co 5:19.

Joh 3:30-34 NASB "He must increase, but I must decrease. (31) "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. (32) "What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. (33) "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. (34) "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

The teachers who preach under the Law found it very difficult to receive the message of Jesus about the forgiveness of sins. Jesus looked to heal people and make sure they know their sins are forgiven (not longer remembered). He did not come to point to their sins.

Mat 9:3-8 But some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "That's blasphemy! Does He think He's God?" (4) Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He asked them, "Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? (5) Is it easier to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Stand up and walk'? (6) So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!" (7) And the man jumped up and went home! (8) Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for sending a man with such great authority.

The Church is all about bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth and preaching to Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who know they need a Physician.

When we know what the meaning of the forgiveness of our sins is, we will be able to preach to all people the Gospel of the Kingdom: "you are forgiven of your sins, God remembers your sins no more, and no longer keeps an account of what's wrong with you. He cast all your sins behind His back and as far as the east is from the west. Because Jesus paid the price for all your sins, there are no charges against you. No punishment. No judgment. Jesus was judged and punished for you. You are free, and no longer a sinner when you believe in what Jesus had done for you."

But if we don't know how much we are forgiven and what this forgiveness in the New Covent means, we will keep pointing to sin, preach sin, teach from under the Law, focus on what's wrong with us, and bring the image of the Accuser to the world.

It's time for a transformation and resurrection from the dead. The letter kills and it's a ministry of death.

When we preach the forgivenss of sins and no more point to sin from under the Law – this is when the Holy Spirit will back it up with miracles signs and wonders. Jesus will prove to those who teach the Law His authority to forgive sins by raising up the sick back into life.

So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

Prayer

Father, I pray the Law of sin and death in my flesh will decrease, so the Law of the Spirit, of life and of freedom that is in my heart be found in my Temple. Draw me to Jesus and reveal His image and help me to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. Let the ministry of Jesus in me increase and I will testify of the things I have seen and heard from Jesus. I pray that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that I may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which we have been imprisoned; and that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Col 4:3-4

Father as Your Bride preaches to Gospel of Jesus Christ let it be preaches with signs, and wonders as the dead will rise up from their tombs, blind see, lame walk, deaf hear, mute praise You and sick healed. Let it be life from the dead. Amen

Much love

Elana Polinger

Did God Create a Religion? Part One

Did God Create a Religion? Part One

(I edited this post on August 22, 2010)

God Created a Family not Religion or a Membership Club

Every human being has a measure of faith which God put in his heart. It's meant for us to seek Him and He helps us find who He is.

I've had a hunger for God when I reached the bottom of my life. All of a sudden I wanted to know who He is. "Who are You?"

I had so many questions to ask Him, but didn't know how to find Him. I didn't know He said He is as far as the word in my mouth. All I needed was just to talk to Him and that took me into a journey of finding who God really is.

I have already seen enough religion in my life to know that I am not seeking man-made forms and structures, customs and traditions - but I want God Himself, pure and revealed.

After all He revealed Himself to our forefather in dreams, visions, in a bush, through angels, in a voice, and as a man. Why can't He do it today? I didn't know that God still speaks to His children and even desires for them to know Him. I lived in a religious system that believes that God cannot speak to His children today, and I believed it.

Even thought I didn't want religion I found myself having a relationship with God through the system I was raised with. I used to read prayers from a prayer book thinking this is how God wants me to talk to Him.

I remember He said to me one day "Elana, when you speak to your father in Israel, do you read from a book to him?" I smiled, realizing how much the religion of the Pharisees was part of my walk with Him. I wanted to be free from religious mindset, religious practices and believes, but I couldn't see them in my own life.

Being part of a body of believers, it always struck me that we're meeting together once a week, but it mainly ends with a nice Hi and Bye. There is fellowship but there isn't much friendship or a sense of family.

I remember when the Lord spoke to me once and said to me "Elana, fellowship is not friendship".

That stuck in my mind for a long time and it created a curiosity in me "So, what's assembly and getting together should be like, Lord?"

I would like to share with you some of what the Lord has taught me. I pray He will speak to you and reveal to you more.

God Called Abraham and started a Family

With my many questions, and seeking more the Lord spoke to me once that He did not build a membership club, He created a family. He showed me, when He called Abraham, He never called Him a coordinator, a leader, a Bishop, a Deacon, or a Pastor. These are merely functions. He called him a FATHER because He wanted a family.

With family and children in His mind, God wanted him to be a father to His many kids. He revealed Himself to a childless man and decided that he would be a father to the family He wanted to create. Abram was merely called to be a father who would witness to God's kids who God is for him.

God was Abram's 'friend' (the Hebrew says 'beloved'), so He had to first be a Father to Abram in order to raise him up a father. If God called you to shepherd His children it's by revealing Himself to you as YOUR Father. Abba in Hebrew means Daddy. He wants to be a Father to His children, so they can be spiritual fathers and mothers to the next generation and lead them to experience God as their Father as well.

God made sure Abraham knew Him personally in every area of his life, so he could be an example of who God is for his family. God called Abraham "father of many nations" even before he had any children. Isn't it funny when God calls the things that are not yet seen in our life as if they ARE?

Imagine Abraham introducing himself in the sheep market as "Hi I am Father of many nations" and his friends are thinking "This guy is nuts. He so wants children so bad, and in his old age he thinks he will have kids".

When Isaac was born God called him "Will Laugh" because He laughed at those who thought that His children have no future or a hope.

Abraham had such a testimony to share with others - how his God had done the impossible with him and his old wife.

God raised Abraham to witness to His children the love of God for him; his experiences with God; who God is for him; and the heart, nature and power of God. He wanted a father who would put a hunger in others to want to know Him more and seek and experience Him for themselves.

Such should be our assemblies and family gatherings as we meet with our spiritual parents who share with us who God is for them; what He has revealed from His heart to them; what He has shared with them in their journey with Him; what He has taught them and what is He saying to us all today about the move of his Spirit.

After all, our Messiah (Christ Jesus) said He will reveal to us things to come and we will know things many prophets and kings desired to know and didn't know.

I want that. I want to know Him in an intimate close relationship. I want to know His heart and what He is thinking about me and His Bride. After all God is Love, so that means he is also a Lover. The book of Songs of Songs is filled with His own words to His beloved bride.

We are the generation that brings a revelation of the Lord as our Father and Jesus as our Lover. The Lord spoke to me in May 2009 that He is raising up spiritual father and mothers as He is returning the hearts of the fathers to the children.

Paul explained to us that there are many guardians (tutors, teachers) in God's family, but there are not many fathers.

1Co 4:15-17 NIV Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (16) Therefore I urge you to imitate me. (17) For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

It is through proclaiming Good News to people that we become their spiritual parents. If not many were fathers in the Church in Corinth it means their ten thousand tutors in Christ did NOT proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

What were they teaching them? Was there a different gospel they heard? Yes!

2Co 11:3-6 NIV But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (4) For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (5) But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." (6) I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.

Their thousands of spiritual 'leaders' were teaching them a different gospel and were not spiritual fathers to them.

The churches in Galatia had heard a different gospel as well– it was the gospel of the old covenant of the Law.

Gal 1:6-7 NIV I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (7) which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

This brought me to ask the Lord "what gospel do I follow? What Good News was preached to me, Lord? I ask You to reveal and show me Your Gospel – the Good News that Paul preached.

In the book of 1John we see a beautiful picture of God's design for His family. We see the spiritual fathers of our faith testifying to those who do not know the Lord yet, inviting them to come and have fellowship with them. They are sharing with a generation who had not been walking with God and testifying to them what they have seen and heard. This reveals to us the foundation of being spiritual parents.

1Jn 1:1-3 NASB What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-- (2) and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- (3) what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, (Why do they proclaim and share their experiences with the Lord?) so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Spiritual parents proclaim and share what they have heard from the Lord, seen with their eyes, looked at and touched with their hands, testified and manifested in their lives.

The Word who is Jesus was ALIVE to them and they wanted Him to be ALIVE for those who don't know Him yet. The Lord wants to become alive in your life and not merely words in His love letter (Bible); so you too can share with others "this is who the Lord is for me".

That's how spiritual kids are being raised up. They watch their parents and learn more from experience than by reading or studying about God. Kids don't study who their parents are in a book, they experience their parents and this is who the Lord wants to be for us. The Book which is His love letter is supposed to help us know His nature, but every word there God wants to personally reveal to us by Himself.

Isa 54:13 NIV All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.

Joh 6:40 MKJV And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:44-45 MKJV No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (45) It is written in the Prophets, "And they shall all be taught of God." Therefore everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Me.

Basically what the spiritual fathers of the faith are sharing in 1John is… "Come, and have fellowship with us as we share with you who the Lord is for us, as you hear from us; as you also experience for yourself who He is for you; as you know the Lord personally for yourself; as you grow in your faith in Him. Come, and then you will also become a witness of who the Lord is for you and you can share it with others."

This is what being a spiritual fathers means. You grow and mature in FAITH; in knowing who the Lord is; in deepening your friendship and intimacy with Him; in seeing who He is; and becoming like salt to others. As you share your walk with the Lord, you make others hungry for more.

This is what He wants church to BE – it's not a focus on DOING and WORKING. The focus is on being and then the doing will follow and flow naturally in our life.

First let's find out who we ARE – find our identity in Christ, and the doing will flow as a result of being in Him.

It's the Law of the old covenant that focuses on works. It's called the Law of works and focuses on doing, on performance, on deeds and behavior, and not on relationship and knowing God personally. It focues its teachings on how a believer in God should work for God; should behave and perform by trying to transform you into the image of Christ.

The Law of works is also called the Law of sin. It focuses on man's sins, failures, weaknesses, inadequacies and mess and it expects man to take away his own sins.

Law teachers see man as incomplete in Christ. They see what's missing and lacking in you, expecting you to get rid of the failures. Man could never take away his own sins. This is why Messiah needed to come so He could take away the sins (which He did). Law teachers do not see you as complete in Christ and therefore help you FIND that new identity for yourself.

In religion (old covenant of the Law) you need to perform in order to become.

In the new covenant in Christ, you have already because Jesus performed as He fulfilled all the demands of the Law. As you know Him, you find out who you are in Him and therefore also perform.

The old covenant of the Law focuses on perfection and meeting the demands of the Law which no man could ever fulfill. It focuses on all the daily washings and cleansings, sacrifices man does for God and daily "rituals" we need to perform in our relationship with the Lord.

What if I get up in the morning, and the way I talked to my husband would go like this:

I would take a book he wrote – his biography book – and I would read it as he is right next to me. I would ask him some questions about what he meant; write some comments down. Then I would put some music on and sing two songs for him, and then I would pray about my needs and quote some of what he wrote in his book : "you said you love your wife – me – and you would take good care of me – so protect me and the kids and I ask it in your name."

Wouldn't this be weird?

Isn't it mechanical and programmatic?

Something is wrong here in this picture. But this was my religious walk with the Lord.

I remember I asked the Lord once "Why didn't Your disciples ever pray? Why didn't You mention their prayers?"

The Lord had a kind of voice as if saying to me (Elana, come on, you must be joking. He said "they talked to Me all day while I was with them." I laughed. Oh, Yes, I said. It was so funny. I didn't even realize how much I didn't understand what prayer was.

What if we wake up in the morning like the disciples who were with the Lord and we would say:

"Good morning Abba (Daddy)", and you give Him a kiss and a hug and ask for one too. "You know, I didn't sleep well tonight. Did You try to speak to me and tell me something?"

As you're getting ready for the day, you talk and have a casual conversation, and you share with Him what's in your heart, and ask Him what His plan is for the day. You have coffee with Him and you sit quietly to listen to what He says to you.

What if you're engaged in a conversation with the Lord all day; being aware of His presence; checking your mind and heart for His "heavenly emails" and hearing what He says. That's prayer without ceasing. It's a conversation and an organic live relationship with the Lord.

What if as spiritual parents we focus on …

BEING, and no on DOING and works;

What it means to BE in Christ and not on what we need to DO for Christ;

Who He is - our identity in Him - and not on who we're not;

What He has done and His finished works, and not on our dead works or what we haven't done for God;

Receiving from Him and not on how we bear fruits and give God our good fruits (like Cain). Adam and Eve were invited to eat God's fruits the focus was not on how they need to bear them. Does a tree worry about the fruits it bears? It's by eating the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we are able to bear them later.

What if we focus on knowing the Lord more and more; on hearing His voice not through the Law; and knowing His heart and His thoughts for us?

I believe all the rest (performance, doing, works) flows from the transformed life as we see and experience who the Lord is for us.

As we taste of His fruits in the Garden; as we fellowship with Him; as we talk together and we hear Him speak; as we allow ourselves to sit with Him and be silent and only receive from Him "Dad, I need a hug right now".

We have this freedom in Jesus to boldly come to our Father just as we are and enjoy His presence. We no longer need the Law rituals of cleansing and washing to enter His presence because we have already been cleansed by His blood once and for all. He lives in us and it's by His blood that we had been already perfected (Hebrews chapter 10:14).

It's wonderful to see people who love Jesus get together and actually "BEING" the church. I am not saying "doing" church, but being God's family.

See Part Two in the next post. What is Church about?

Many blessings

Elana Polinger