One Body

We need each other! Our lives are intertwined and we’re all on a journey together.

The body of Christ is ONE BODY with many members. Each of us can help others in very unique ways because of our special talents and gifts and often we are connected to one another by God for that very purpose. There is something amazing about being a blessing to someone else. Our seeking leads to finding, our learning leads to teaching and our giving leads to receiving. I see it as a circle of blessings. Today I’d like to share with you a recent blessing in my life. It explains how this website came to be.

Although I’ve been in business here in Ontario Canada for almost 14 years, I never wanted to have a website for business. I thought it would be too overwhelming. However, a few years ago, I realized that it would be wonderful to have a website where God could be honoured. Having a “God-site” was even prophesied for me and it was encouraged by several friends. But I had no idea where or how to start one.

Half a continent away, Burt, a pastor and motivational speaker in Louisiana, needed help to write and edit a book that God had put on his heart. He found me on a job posting site on the worldwide web. I was offering the kind of help he needed to get his book ready for e-publishing. Why did he choose me out of dozens of qualified respondents? He admitted that he chose me because I openly stated that I was a Christian, interested in ministry and missions writing, proofreading, editing and translation assignments. I had actually been praying to receive such work.

It didn’t take us long to complete the book. My God-given skills were able to help him. But there was a snag. The next step was to “get it out there”. Burt had no idea how to do that and neither did I. He had a huge learning curve ahead of him in discovering how to market and sell his e-book online.

More than two years later, Burt contacted me again, basically to offer to teach me what he had learned. Through trial and error, and having invested much time and money in courses of all kinds, he learned how to be successful in “internet marketing” and he wanted to help me fulfil my passion—to honour and glorify God by writing for Him and by creating a website where people could share their encouraging “God stories”, read about what great things God is doing in the lives of others, leave their prayer requests, promote their Christian books, purchase Christian books and even donate to the worthy cause of supporting a Women with Children ministry (helping abused and abandoned women and their children).

Burt began to teach me how to build a website, obtain contacts, link to sales sites and even how to receive payments for purchases. He was literally teaching me what he had learned himself over the previous two years.

God had divinely connected us in order to help each other in our area of weakness. My skills helped Burt and Burt’s skills helped me to be successful in what God had called us to do. But the story doesn’t end there…

Today, I am honoured to be able to feature Burt’s book, which happens to be on exactly this topic: Achieving success God’s way! Created for Success teaches us that God has a plan and purpose for everyone and by listening to His voice, following His directions, learning from others, and connecting with others, we can fulfil that purpose and then go teach others. The book that I helped Burt to write is now available on the website that he helped me to build. This story has come full circle! We’ve both experienced God’s cycle of giving and receiving.

God always gives us the help and resources we need to do what He calls us to do. Other members of the body of Christ are divinely sent to offer the help that they are equipped to give. Chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians tells us that we have been called by God and that we should be united in the Spirit. We are ONE BODY with many members. “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.” (Ephesians 4:5-6) I believe that as a unified body of Christ, we can achieve so much more than we can on our own because each of us has been given such special gfts.

Spiritual Gifts

God “has given each one of us a special gift” (v 7-8) so that we can help others in their area of weakness.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” (v 11-12)

Several other gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in 1 Corinthians. These too are given to believers in order to help others with the various needs in the body of Christ.

“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, [and] those who speak in unknown languages.” (1 Corinthians 12:27-28, see also verses 7-10)

The various spiritual gifts can be used to bring healing to members of the body in many ways. My story today revealed how God sent me a pastor/teacher to help me heal in the area of my finances, which had been suffering due to a lack of work in a business that had previously been very successful. The editing work I have already received through my new website is a blessing! Gifts of the Spirit can be used to help us heal financially, emotionally, relationally, spiritually and physically.

If there is unity, we can accomplish so much with these God-given gifts! With Christ as the head of his body, the church, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (v16). Wow! I love that verse, and it certainly applied in the story I shared with you today!

God blesses us with spiritual gifts so that we can bless others—ONE BODY!

This is a continuation of previous articles in my Healing Journeys series, based on the Book of Ephesians.Feel free to leave your comments below!

To see the previous articles, click on:

Healing Journeys – 1 Welcome to my Blog!

Healing Journeys – 2 My Healing Journey – Giving God Glory

Healing Journeys – 3 God’s Power at Work Within Us

P.S. Burt’s book, Created for Success, is a great book to give as a graduation gift to the College, University and High School grads of 2012 to help them on their journey to success! See the short video on the sales page!