Glory in the Church, from the Sword of the Spirit series
The New Testament church was an infant church, but the endtime church will be a mature church that is strong and fully developed. When the church comes of age it will be able to stand against all the antagonism and deceitfulness of the enemy. The endtime church will rise to greater power and effectiveness than at the beginning. We see in the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament what the infant church was capable of. Just imagine the glory of the church in maturity! It will be an effective instrument of world harvest. The Church will rise up and get the job done.
The whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13)
This is God?s ultimate goal for the church on earth – Christ filling his body to capacity. The one who fills everything in every way, already fills the church (Ephesians 1:22-23). But this fullness, which we know by faith now, will one day be fully experienced by the church. Christ wants to manifest the fullness of his power, his wisdom and his authority in the church. He wants us to demonstrate to the world the fullness of his love and his grace. He wants us to attain to the fullness of holiness and joy so that he would have a credible body of witnesses on the earth through whom he can manifest his salvation to the world.
It must be the goal of the church in any age to move towards this manifest fullness, and there are some encouraging signs in our generation. All over the world, the body of Christ is rising up and laying hold of the person and presence of Christ. The Holy Spirit is falling on whole nations. The gospel is sweeping over 100,000 people into the kingdom every day worldwide. The growth of the Christian faith, particularly in the so-called developing world, is phenomenal. And in the West, too, there is some progress. We must not falter now. We are on the verge of the church?s finest hour. In our day, we could well see the fullness of Christ manifest in the church!
God?s vision for the church will only be fulfilled when the church truly acts as his representatives on the earth doing the great work he gave us – reaching the world with the gospel. It is something worth dreaming about. It is something worth being a part of. Paul clearly saw the time when it would happen. It must become our goal as individuals and our goal corporately. That is what cell church offers.