Spiritual Connectedness

 I and II Timothy and Titus were written towards the end of the apostle Paul's life. They are often called the 'Pastoral' epistles as their subject matter deals with the spiritual administration of the church.  I Timothy records simple instructions as to  the orderly conduct of the first century church. Our Western approach to the structure of the church is not at all based on the 1st century model.  Even those churches today that tend toward the home church miss the mark of the dynamic churches  of the early Christians.  The early church was to represent God's desire to have every believer fully functioning on all cylinders of power.

Paul was essentially responsible to teach what God had freely given in the gift of holy spirit and its effect on the newly formed church. In the 7 church epistles (Romans through Thessalonians), Paul plainly paints a complete picture of the administration of God's grace where every believer has a significant part to play. God had kept quiet about this age until he was ready to reveal it and the responsibility of revealing it was given to Paul.

Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Heresies started immediately emerging as the grace age started unfolding and continued to grow and it was important to maintain and preach the pure word of God. In II Timothy the heresies had grown to a proportion that it effected the church. People were losing the true understanding of what God had revealed. It is easy to teach the doctrine of the revealed grace administration, but getting one's head really into it is another story. This is so true today. Our culture, especially our religious culture overshadows and pulls Christianity in another direction. Most of what we see in today's churches has roots in the 3rd-5th century A.D.

All religion tends to categorize and divide people into groups. There are over 38,000 religious sects today. There are spiritual walls thrown up between clergy and laity, pew and pulpit, and altar rails and altars. People get bogged down in the physical structure of the church and lose sight of the spiritual blueprint. Unity is not in activities, meetings and simply social hanging out. The true church is based the spiritual reality of God and what it means to live in this age of grace.

It is up to each individual to have the a vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  Everyone has direct access and it is proved over and over again when people start to interact with each other. God feeds one heart here and another there and when they interact it seems like amazing coincidence when it is actually the hot line from God in both.

The energized church, consisting of Judeans and Gentiles equally, is a spiritual body growing together into the true spiritual temple of the Lord.  It consists of children, young adults, middle ager and seniors operating together and not in distinct separate groups. When a mixture of people associate through operation of the spiritual gift, needs get met and it is a vibrant and alive family of faith. Signs, miracles and wonders occurring is commonplace because God is in it.