so how does the Body hold together?

Eph4:16 .....Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
HELD TOGETHER BY THAT WHICH EVERY JOINT SUPPLIES
1. This Body is ONLY held together by that which every joint supplies. So if you can see a "Body" that is not held together in this way...perhaps it's held by a name, and organisation name, a particular pastor,leader,vicar priest...none of this is the Body of Christ.
2. by what every joint supplies. So does this mean any type of donation? For example, I've heard at least 2 stories over 40 years of converted strippers offering to strip free of charge for their new churches during a meeting. You laugh. But how many professors and businessmen are freely accepted to run charismatic,evangelical and denominational churches? We noted in the 80s that a good many new churches in the UK were all run by ex headmasters and in some cases by current headmasters. the tools of running a school were deemed the appropriate gifts to running churches.
In Spirit terms this is no different from accepting strippers to ply their trade in a church service.
3. The supply is specific. It is not spelled out in the Bible because in those days it was obvious. It is only now we have lunatic versions of churches. They used to be founded in grace. Founded in the Word of grace.Founded in the Spirit impartation of faith. Faith as SUBSTANCE. As thirdlevellers we learn to articualte this as Christ substance. That is what the Church is held together by. If you've got some Christ...share Him. He's as real in the Spirit as product....to use the marketing lingo in the businessworld. Churches are filled with seminary trained individuals that have knowledge about an out there Christ, some far off God...but they actually have very little Christ to impart. They rattle like empty cans.

4. "the proper working" is similar to point 3, but it can be spelled out this way, Your authentic being is hidden in Christ. Mature ones in Christ have found their own Christ being. They have let the Spirit strip off the figleaves. The fakeries. They have trained their senses in righteousness. The Word of Hebrews 4 has cut to the separation of soul and spirit oas of joints and marrow.They know the pain. But what you experience is their joy and bubbliness at having been set free. For them it meant death, but for you, luscious life and peace. This is what holds the Body of Christ together. Multitudes of folks who live move and act from out of the resurrection side of the Cross.
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Julie Davis Johnson likes this.

Julie Davis Johnson As you have beautifully stated, the resurrection side of the cross is where the life of freedom and joy exist. Because we know that, others will come to know it too - certainly through us.
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Chris Welch that's our badge or car sticker. We are living badges!

from my Facebook status

Pictures of the "Squishy Human Body Kit" by Smart Lab

The One True Worship of the One True God. Part One

By Chris Welch although contains other authors as linked

John4:23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

There is only One Worship as there is Only One God.

It is the secret behind the words " A body thou hast prepared for me. Behold it is said of me in the book  I come to do thy will O  Lord ."

Romans 12 :  I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.AMP

 Romans 12 has a very key foundation. "By the mercies of God?"
Which mercies? The foundations of spiritual revelation in the previous eleven chapters and broken open so effectively by Norman Grubb in his final book "Yes I am " . This is the apostolic foundation of the church.What is? That every individual know "Christ in me the hope of glory." Similar material is available in audio form here.

The webpage The Expository files lays a foundation here to do with Tabernacle worship below:

The high priest washed his body in water in preparation for putting on his holy linen garments. It was the Day of Atonement and he would enter the Most Holy Place, into the very presence of God to offer blood on behalf of the people. Entering the tabernacle, he placed a censer with burning coals and sweet incense behind the veil that separated the two rooms of the tabernacle to create a cloud of incense before he entered the Holy of Holies (Most Holy Place).

In the course of this annual ritual, a ram would be offered as a burnt offering and the high priest would bring the blood of a bull and then a goat into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat. He would also sprinkle blood on the altar in the tabernacle courtyard. The bull was offered for the sins of the high priest and his family to make atonement; the goat was offered on behalf of the nation as a whole for their atonement (read Leviticus 16 for a more detailed description of this sacrificial ritual).

God commanded the people of Israel to observe this ritual and so, year after year, the blood of bulls and goats was shed and sprinkled for the atonement of sins. Yet, the Hebrews writer states quite clearly that "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins" (10:4). He argues that if these sacrifices could have indeed purified the worshippers, there would have been no further need to offer them again the next year! Why, then, did God command that these sacrifices be made?

Although the Levitical sacrifices were intended to teach man about the seriousness of sin and the cost of forgiveness, the contrast between the copy and shadow of the heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5) and the heavenly things themselves is striking. As High Priest of the good things to come, Jesus did not come into a tabernacle made by men's hands, repeatedly with the blood of bulls and goats like the high priests of old (Hebrews 9:11-12). Instead, He offered Himself once at the end of the ages for the purpose of putting away sin and entered into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24-26).

The ineffectual nature of animal sacrifices necessitated the incarnation of the Son of God. This is the argument of the Hebrews writer in chapter 10 as he ascribes the words of Psalm 40:6-8 to the Son of God.

David, the author of Psalm 40, began his psalm with a thanksgiving song for the Lord's help (vs. 1-3), but he also noted, in the section of the psalm quoted in Hebrews, the importance of obedience rather than ritual sacrifice. One is reminded of Samuel's comments to king Saul on the occasion of his disobedience to the Lord's command to utterly destroy the Amalekites. Saul claimed that the animals were saved for sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel responded, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).

There is something interesting, however, about the quotation in Hebrews 10:5-7. Compare the quotation as it appears in Hebrews 10 with the passage in Psalm 40 in our Old Testament.

"Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come -- In the volume of the book it is written of Me -- To do Your will, O God.' " (Hebrews 10:5-7)

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:6-8)

The second phrase in the quotation in Hebrews is different from the reading of the Old Testament in our English Bibles because the Hebrews writer actually quotes from the Septuagint (our English Bibles, by contrast, are translated from Massoretic texts).

Lightfoot, in his commentary Jesus Christ Today, wrote, "The words, a body has thou prepared for me, follow the Septuagint, in keeping with the usual preference of the author. The Hebrew text, however, literally reads, 'ears hast thou digged for me,' which apparently means that God has given man ears to hear that he might obey Him. The Septuagint translators dealt freely with the text by substituting the whole ('body') for the part ('ears'), resulting in the meaning that instead of God equipping man with ears, He made or prepared for man a body" (185).

Of course, the Hebrew text used by the Septuagint translators was actually somewhat older than that used by the translators of our English Old Testament. A possible explanation for the difference in quotations (besides the view that the Septuagint translators "dealt freely with the text") is that the text used by the Septuagint translators was not only older, but actually a more accurate text.

Whether the Septuagint translators were "free" in their translation or simply working from a different Hebrew text, Robert Milligan offers an intriguing perspective on the difference in the two quotations. He wrote in his commentary, "To the careless and superficial reader, there may at first seem to be no connection between digging out, or thoroughly opening the ears of any one, and providing a body for him. But the thoughtful reader will at once see that, in the case of Christ, the two expressions are nearly equivalent, and that the latter differs from the former chiefly in this: that it is rather more specific and expressive. To dig out the ears of a person means simply to make him a willing and obedient servant (Ex. xxi.6). But in order to so qualify Christ as to make him a fit servant for the redemption of mankind, a body was absolutely necessary. Without this, there could have been no adequate sacrifice for sin, and without an adequate sacrifice, there could have no suitable atonement, and without an atonement, the claims of Divine Justice could not have been satisfied, and without this, the will of God could never have been accomplished in the redemption of mankind" (269-270).

Milligan's comment seems to fit well with the context of Hebrews 10 as the author notes that by the will of God "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (vs. 10).END
 
So the One True worship requires a body. 

It required a Firstborn....and it requires many brethren. 
First the Head, then the rest of the Body.
Jesus is the Son of Man.
Jesus is the Only begotten Son of God.

Adam was scooped up from the ground. He wasn't born. Sure, we are born as of the order of Adam. Adam became the self-replicating man after the order that was originally "scooped up from the Earth", then had life breathed into his nostrils. We are all born after the flesh. But it was a flesh scooped up from dust. "From dust to dust ,ashes to ashes".

But Jesus is different.
He eternally is the Word and what is that Word that is always speaking before the Father?
A BODY you have prepared for me. And more specific than that. "I come to do thy will O  Lord."

Hebrews begins from this very point in verses 8 to 9 of chapter 1.

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of ^[h]His kingdom.
⁹ “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”

which is taken from Psalm 45:6 and 7.

The Digging out of the Ears 
The paragraph taken from the Expository Files page and marked in red is very important.

To a theologian with only carnal understanding of words, they will not follow the link between "a body you have prepared for me" and "the digging out of the ears."

In the Spirit however they are the same.
Which brings us to a second important foundation of the One True Worship of the One True God in the next post.

Social Networking is Transforming the Church! by Dan Bowen

From Dan's Blog - Life On Wings

I've been thinking for a while how social networking (firstly blogs and then Twitter and Facebook) have been forcing change upon churches and particularly church leadership. Some church leaders like C J Mahaney and Dave Harvey are seeing the social networking medium as negative - and are seeing the open forum that many victims of SGM have as "assaults" and "attacks".

But what if there was a way to see it positively?

My friends Dee and Debs over at the "Wartburg Watch" wrote their version of the new rules that the perhaps more authoritarian pastors can expect;

In case you haven't noticed, there is a new set of rules in effect. Here are SEVEN of them:

(1) No longer can a pastor control his own press.

(2) The pulpit is no longer a one-way microphone. Because of the internet and blogs, there are so many microphones that it has become a dialogue.

(3) While pastors may perceive things to be one way, they need to assume that people are going to dig down deep for the truth and not just take the pastor at his word.

(4) Some pastors have been clamoring to be noticed, and they should not be surprised that some who come and take a look may not like what they see and dare to say so.

(5) Remember, anything a pastor puts on the internet lasts forever. If he attempts to remove the evidence, he needs to keep in mind that folks these days are savvy. They are documenting information BEFORE it is removed, and it will show up again…

(6) We highly recommend that pastors refrain from editing out portions of their sermons they put online or altering their transcripts. People are listening and taking notes…

(7) If you chastise from the pulpit, expect to be chastised in a comparable forum like the internet.

Guys, it's a whole new ballgame. Batter up!

Christine's 2nd example : players in an orchestra

LSO Rehearsal - Timpani in the foreground

Many people were blessed by Christine's first example here : the hanging Basket

However the other day she was describing how in an orchestra , it is not given to the players to enjoy a balanced sound. The full balanced sound of an orchestra as imagined by a composer is only enjoyed by the audience.

The players are there to play.
To be a part of the whole.
To concentrate on THEIR sections.
To get their bits right.

It is the conductor's job to check the overall balance.
All the woodwind section may hear are full volume blasts of the brass section breathing down their necks. This may not necessarily be much fun. But this is what they are called to.

They cannot change position.
They cannot wander down to the front near the conductor to get that overall balance of sound.
They are not responsible either to do anything other than their bit.
The woodwind are not responsible for the double basses. The conductor is.

We may have no idea why God is positioning us where He is positioning us. We are called to do what we are called to do....someone else is responsible for their call. We may never hear or see the whole picture.....but both heaven's witnesses, and others differently positioned on the earth may see the whole picture....be touched....and absolutely amazed at the multifaceted riches manifest through the Body that is the Christ in the Earth.

The Holy Ghost Growing Machine - The Body of Christ

"We can only point to Christ; the Spirit opens people's eyes. I can't make someone grow, but I can speak Truth into their life; the Holy Spirit grows them." Another great quotable sentence from rjw.

The Holy Spirit grows us.
He does it every waking moment, whether we are consciously aware or not.
“Day to day (our surroundings) are pouring forth speech” Psalm 19:2.

He does it through our family and friends. He does it through The Word, written, preached in church , or on God TV. I say the latter because in Iran , say, it is not possible to do much else...save receive direct impartation through God Himself. So far so good...I could be a Methodist or Anglican Minister eh !!!!

Then in 1973, Graham Pulkingham, when he visited our little rural Baptist Chuch with the Fisherfolk, dropped a bombshell. Now today it will seem so yawningly obvious...you won't even read further. But before revealing his words ...listen..this man spoke with the conscious revelation that he had died and his life was hidden with Christ in God. He wouldn't have it that he was baptised in the Spirit on one particular day. He would constantly say, "I was baptised in the Spirit over 3 months on the crypt floor crying, in the Church of the Redeemer Houston."

Whatever happened to him on the insides during those weeks...came out in the words that he spoke. They flashed out of him like a 100Megawatt light flash. They seared the insides of the poor Baptist people who were present. Like phosphor they clung to the clothes of everyone, so that whatever they made of this sentence, whichever way they fell on it, they had been marked for the rest of their lives. He said " WE ARE The Body Of Christ On Earth!!!"

Boy..were there eruptions! Some had never heard anything so proposterous in their whole lives. Some wanted to leave the church. Some made sure that Pulkingham was never invited back.

....................................................................................................

One or 2 years later, a fellowship in Emsworth that met on an adhoc Sunday evening basis to explore the gifts of the Spirit and praise and worship, received a travelling Catalunyan/Argentinian by the name of Jorge Pradas (George, pronounced by Paul Ellis in his inimitable Spanish as Hawkeye. I thought I'd come into a right sect here!! It was the days of the mass suicide of the sect in the South American jungle. My mum was so scared!)

Jorge said more or less the same thing...with the same amount of phosphor from out of the Throne of God. He said," Are you a fellowship...or are you The Church (of the Living God) meeting in Emsworth." And so, under apostolic anointing Emsworth Church was born.

You see , the one thing is undefined, like a "new Cart" that I've been talking about. The other is the conscious decision to walk in the scary uncharted waters of the Order of Melchizedek, or what Bill Johnson, or Mark Stibbe calls The River.

When I am so brutally rude about Terry Virgo, or Rob Rufus, or the apostles headed up by Bill Johnson Peter Wagner or Che Ahn...it is not I repeat, NOT from a spirit like Hank Hanegraaf ..to demean, destroy and dishonour. It is in the spirit of the prophet who was cheery in the morning with David, saying ," Yes, yes David go ahead and build a house for God at Jerusalem." Then that evening he phones up and says..".er David, you know what I said this morning...about you building the house of the Lord...er...You are not going to. You've known too much bloodshed. Your son is going to do it. But tell you what...you can collect all the materials."

Now the Word I have is not as strong as saying to the previous move..."None of you are going to be involved." The Word about the New Cart, comes out of what actually happened at Florida.

Florida, as specifically stated by Bob Jones, and confirmed by Rob Rufus, was not "another Revival". Also it was not going to stop. It is another leap forward of perhaps an ultimately greater order than the leap forward of 1907. IT IS ANOTHER THING entirely.

It contains these factors. Facelessness. Pre-training over years in the hidden places with the Holy Spirit. Nearly all the new anointed teaching and behaviors, and patterns of the Holy Spirit were coming from men in their early 30s. Todd Bentley, Ryan Watts,Roy Field, Todd's team.

It was another order of anointing. It was another order of church. Like the River itself it is contagious. Highly significant for us in the UK was the Word that Florida was primarily NOT for America , but for places like the UK. Every hungry church in Britain has been affected. The way we do church in Havant has changed. Every major conference and camp over the summer in UK has had a different order of anointing in worship, signs wonders and preaching, and conversions. Soul Survivor was amazing, New Wine was amazing, Colin Urquart's one was amazing. River Camp, I say, for all 20 from our church, was absolutely stunning...with Mark Stibbe and Ken Gott.

But the Word I have, which comes out of the misgivings Christine and I had with loads of info about Todd's situation through people , as nice as they are, and as humble as they are, like Peter and Doris Wagner.....is

"Tread warily. You are dealing with a different order of ministry. You are dealing with a different Church Age. Just because you were Christ's apostolic gift to deal with what Ern Baxter in "Thy Kingdom Come" 1975refers to as...The Ziklag job... or the Hebron job....does not presuppose you have the accreditaion transferred to allow you to waltz in and assume you have apostolic authority for the next phase. Now listen to my words...it doesn't mean you don't either. Derek Prince managed to serve the Order of Melchizedek over a series of decades through many changes of level and anointing. (To my knowledge) Michael HarperUK Fountain Trust Pioneer did not. Another speaker in Kansas City in 1975 called John Poole did not. Everyone has to get their visas checked for this next phase.

....................................................................................................

The chain picture above shows that the strength of a chain depends on the strength of the weakest link.

When we talk of the Body of Christ. When we use that phrase what is going on inside us? Have we sucked the Blood out of it? DO we use it in the same way as meaning I am in a club, firm, association of people, like IBM, or the State, or the RAC or AA? When I used the stark phrase (Ihave died with Christ, it is not I, but) Jesus Christ in Chris form who lives in me? Did you get angry? Did you just laugh and say "that's weird" or what did you think? I tell you this. The strength of the Body of Christ on earth is directly related to the ability that you as an individual are believing "Christ in me the hope of glory." Anything else is a bunch of people running around still in the lie of Genesis 3:5, as gods in their own right, and when scaled up over the whole Body of Christ, makes us into just another secular institution. As each of us makes the switchover internally , (changeover of our internal seeing) the secondlevel church which sees itself as quite detached from the glory of God(Like on a new cart), actually moves forward into the (new) Levitical order who carry the Ark on their own personal shoulders. It's not just shoved into the hands of the worship band. Or the star preacher. Or our ability or not to pray in the Presence of God for 5 hours.....Why. Because that's where we live .Full time. Knowing there is no separate life. There is no independant life. Never was. It was always Satan wanting to live his independence through me. Since the Cross...Jesus has bought me back as His possession.

The concept of Ezekiel 47 the River is described from a fallen Man's viewpoint. Going deeper into the River until finally diving right in.

The Tabernacle is devised for us fallen men, going from the East (Sin) to being containers of Christ (West).

But the Truth is, from heaven's perspective ....how many of Satan's cancer sin cells dragging you into hell, do you want in your body? Oh I think I'll settle for a count of 25 actually....Nope I don't think so.......You want to get every last drop of independant delusion self life out...now...before it wrecks your marriage,job,health everything. And the Body of Christ is the Holy Ghost growing machine to achieve this.