YAHSHUA

...Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Jesus Christ saved us in spirit, soul and body. Once we know and we have experienced salvation, several questions come to a Christian's mind. Are you a Christian, committed to God and the Church who wants to serve God in the Great Commission? Do you know what your mission in the Church is? Do you feel God's call to serve Him but you don't know specifically how? Only after you have found the answer to these questions you will be able to find the answer to the other question that will fill your life: Which mission has God designed you for? but that will come in the third part of this study: In Spirit, Soul and Body.

In this second part of the three that this study about our being is divided into, as the Bible Text of Apostle Peter to Thessalonians says, in Spirit, Soul and Body, we will learn to develop our gifts in the Church, the natural abilities we have as well as those that we do not have and are granted supernaturally to us by God when we are born again. In order to assimilate well our function within God's Church we must have taken the first step of faith, to be born again of the Spirit and felt God's call to serve Him, having the certainty that we are ready and committed to Him. If you have not read the first part of this study, you can do so in: In Spirit, Soul and Body

In Jesus Christ's Church, which is universal and made up of all the Bible-based churches which all of us belong to, we are part of the Body of Christ, we live a new life in the provisional Kingdom of God on earth until the eternal state comes, and we gather to praise God and worship because we love Him in the first place and we dedicate a special day of the week to worship Him. The second reason why we gather and fellowship as church is to fulfil the second part of the main and biggest Commandment: love our neighbour. In order to do so, our Lord Jesus Christ commands us the Great Commission, which is made up of many ministries, and we have the challenge ahead of us to use our gifts and discover our personal mission. Within the Great Commission we must find our joint in the Body of Christ in a brotherly and unanimous manner inside the church we belong to which, let us not forget, is part of God's Universal Church so that, once we have found our place, we can provide our joint and support to the Body of Christ and develop our life in spirit, soul and body. Let's see the three battlefields that a Christian has to face.

...And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go thereforeand make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28.

Once we are committed as Christians and know the part of our life that is dedicated to the Great Commission, God's Word warns us about one of the strategies that the devil uses to stop men from reconciling with God, and that is deceit. The devil is the master of lies. From Eden, when he deceived Eve - the main symbol of our mind - and she, who was eager to know, did not take God's Word into account, nor did she ask Adam; the serpent lied to her saying that she would not die, and therefore he succeeded in making her eat from the tree that broke the direct relationship with God, the true spiritual death which was immediate and devastating; physical death would also have victory over man years later.

Since then, man, the human generation called Adam (Genesis 5) lives under its own law, moral or code of life, whose culmination was the Tower of Babel. Just like the inhabitants of Pergamum, cultural centre at the time - to whom John addresses one of the letters of the seven churches of Revelation - used to eat the intellectual food from the library that they had about the Greek knowledge of the world of their age; today man eats from the library of human knowledge, but he does not eat from the Lord's Word, the solid food for the Spirit. Once we start to walk the Christian way having received Salvation, the new Child of God must eat the solid food of the knowledge of God and His knowledge: the mind of Christ, developed in the Bible and interpreted in most of the contents of the New Testament through the Holy Spirit. Only this way and with prayer we can avoid deceit, which the Holy Spirit delivers us from when we are born again through faith, God's great gift that provides us receiving Salvation through the merits of His Son on the Cross, that grants us resurrection and leads us to walk the true Christian way, the one we walk hand in hand with God.

When the person we preach to reacts and wants to return to God, he finds that the moral which he is following, or tries to follow, even if it is God's moral (which he cannot fulfil, not even his own moral either), does not lead him to a personal relationship of fullness with God. There is no way we can clean our consciences before God, they are all useless. 1Peter 3:21. It is then when man accepts to look for the Way to God in Jesus Christ and in His Word. Man would have already grown tired of religions, traditions, mythologies of all nations, all of them are trite and far away from man's true existential situation, and it is time to receive the Gospel, the story of our own life before God and before the great truth: that God has a plan for salvation designed by Him, aware of our inability, and that plan is the death in atonement of His Son Jesus Christ, Yahshua, who has poured His blood for the forgiveness of sins. Man can only return to Paradise, to his personal relationship with the Father, through the only Way there is, which is given to us by God: faith on His Son Jesus Christ... For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

This is the first step that God takes when He calls man through the preaching of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ. The Gospel has two objectives. The main one is that we are saved for eternity and we can start immediately, by faith, to live the new life filled with the Spirit of the Lord in the peace of Christ. But the second one is that once we have believed, and hence we have been born again, we become evangelizers. Yes, anybody that recognizes himself as sinner before God, who gives his soul to God in the work of Christ on the Cross, receives the presence of the Holy Spirit and immediately becomes a living witness of the redeeming work of the Saviour, the Messiah, and can transmit this to those around him. Nobody will be able to stop the Gospel until the last day when Jesus comes down from heaven and everything is fulfilled. Conversion turns us into kings and priests for God His Father, partakers in the Great Commission and members of the Church, the bride of the Son of God. If you doubt this, read it in the Bible in 1Peter 2:9.

But in order to make a disciple a Christian must be taught up to where does God want him to grow spiritually in the freedom of Christ and in the compromise of what God demands from our lives. Many Christians never get past the initial conversion stage, some of them do not want to, others are not taught to do so by their doctrine teachers. Therefore we should not be surprised if in our preaching we find many Christians who already know God but that are living stuck in the first stage of conversion, in the self-centred one, in the "I" and their salvation, not in Them, the Church and the neighbour.

We should not be surprised either if many of those who still don't know the Lord and reject preaching - and therefore do not go to church - hide behind the excuse that that they do not want to leave behind their daily routine which they have become used to just because it is familiar to them, even if it is a life of spiritual death, but that gives them a false sense of freedom, being slaves to their flesh, living in the vanity of their mind. When we face them, Jesus tells us to shake off the very dust from our feet and warn them that the Kingdom of God has come near them but they have rejected it choosing to be left under the wrath of God, a life of discipline for loving them for salvation. They do not want to learn again how to live, in this case a life of blessing the way the Bible teaches a new life, a life of fullness of the Spirit through a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. Those are precisely the ones to whom we should take the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which they are called to, just like we were, so that their lives are blessed by God and filled with meaning and purpose, hope and joy, abundant in faith and God's love which will flow from their hearts when they know that they are saved for eternity, eternal life in God's Kingdom, in God's Paradise.

Therefore, as Christians of faith, fully believing that we are saved through God's Grace in Christ, let us not live centred in our own selves but let us get ready instead and continue to grow spiritually as Christians and as church for the ongoing Great Commission, which we carry out whilst looking for God's direction in prayer and congregation, God's time, the way in which God shows us how to accomplish it in the most effective way, the means that we will use and which God provides us with, the people we work with and the targets that we are conquering in Christ, because in Him we Christians and the Church are able to do anything: ...I can do all things through Christwho strengthens me... Philippians 4:13

We are like that old servant of Abraham who was commended by his master, we go out looking for a bride for his son Isaac, and when we find Rebecca, those chosen souls, we bring her to be married to the beloved son, the Father's only begotten Son. Isn't it a privilege to look for souls for Christ? then, let's go with our brethren and our camels loaded with presents - God's gifts carried by angels - for those who receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we are committed and so is our church, the Lord sends His heavenly hosts with us. When we are committed to work in the Great Commission in spirit, God's anointment is with us to preach the Gospel and to accomplish those good works that we feel in our soul. By the privilege of serving God and the people that He has bought with His blood, we are blessed when we participate in the worship and praise to God because we love our Father with all our heart - symbol of the spirit - and with all our soul, and with all our mind and all our strength, having the Holy Spirit transformed our soul and our heart so that we also love our neighbour like ourselves, because God loves us previously when we did not know Him. Mark 12:30 and 31.

...³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him,saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25.

If you also feel, besides the need to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord, a great burden in your heart for the need and the suffering that there is in those around you and you want to do good works, then the feelings of your soul will be fully satisfied in the work of the Church of Jesus Christ, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10. Thus we continue to give testimony of Christ's mercy, godliness and compassion almost two thousand years since the Great Commission started and which will last until His coming to establish His Kingdom, where there shall be no more suffering, sickness, death, famine or wars but joy, peace and God's love in His presence and amongst all those who love God and have been saved.

When Christ is inside our soul, it is a haven of peace in intimacy with God in spirit, where our feelings find in Him the soothing balm of God's spiritual balance and where we feel what our God-sent dreams produce, our relations with our beloved ones and with strangers in an effort to treat our neighbour as we would like to be treated, and our experiences as we have lived them with God. But above all, and going back to the first point, it is our haven of God's peace, the peace that only Jesus Christ can provide: ... Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you ... John 14:27. Peace and joy which, in the midst of a world that is contrary and enemy to God, flows when we praise Him, worship Him, when we pray, when we sing spiritual hymns, when we gather with our brethren and when we read and study the Bible every day.

In a Christian's spiritual life, that peace can be found in the soul because the Holy Spirit sets the order because we have handed it over to Him out of our own will, we have given Him the throne of our lives. But the soul of those who do not have Christ, does not have God-given existential, eternal and spiritual peace and therefore they suffer lack of order in their spirit, emotions, relationships - many of them broken - they suffer bad experiences and lack of God's morality in their inconsistent conscience that produces a harsh and dry land that lacks water, where there is no life. Precisely in this land that is dead to the eternal Spirit is where Jesus Christ plants the seed of the Gospel through our preaching, once the land has been ploughed through a life of suffering, solitude and lack of purpose, where He will water it with His Spirit and that will be nourished with the Word of God to give it growth and fruits of life, and eternal life.

This place is where we all come from, and from where Jesus Christ rescues us with God's love, giving His life for us, ...For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16. Likewise it happens in our souls it also happens in the world and in society. The Church is the community of brothers, and the world is a selfish, self-centred fight. God loves the weak and helps him and strengthens him, the world isolates the weak and annihilates him destroying him in spirit, soul and body. Jesus Christ is the only hope.

It is only because we have experienced God's love and we have been there where others are now, that we feel the need to make it known what we are living now, so that our neighbour can also experience it. It is only because we have experienced God's love that we feel the need to do good works. In Matthew 6, the Lord calls our justice to give to those in need in secrecy. We are told not to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing when we do charitable deeds, not to sound a trumpet before us, i.e.: that we do not boast in public about our good deeds, since God sees our Christian heart from above and our intention to do what we should, because we are kind and compassionate. Good deeds are therefore one of the fruits produced by God's love in mercy, and without them whoever says that he has faith but does not have good deeds is on salvation's tightrope, like the Lord shows us in His Words at the beginning of this section.

We Christians preach and witness with our lives. But we must also realize that our dreams, our passions that we have received from God for our life with Him are also a way to touch other people's lives. Likewise our profession is a tool given by the Lord that we put at His service and the Church. We serve in helping the poor, the sick, in the professional help in our trade. Are you a lawyer and your brother cannot afford to pay one? then give him your services. If you are a doctor, as well. Serve your community without expecting any profit from those who cannot afford to pay and need help. Wherever we can help those who cannot pay us, God rewards us generously. All of us who do this in our lives can confirm it happens over and over again. We also serve the needs of our own church in our congregation, in its organization, premises, structure, administration, donations, tithes, dealing with the authorities, with other churches, in evangelizing, in helping the elderly, in sharing the same feelings and in making an effort to submit ourselves to one another in brotherly love together with the elders and pastors, to God's obedience.

Let us be conscious that the Holy Spirit has put in our soul, as Church, and in every member individually, the need to carry out the virtues of the love of God, which is the symbol of the Church's love. As members of the Church we share the feelings of the Spirit of God and in our heart we find the questions that we must seek an answer to and a develop them together and individually which are: What, how, where and when do I serve God?

What: Our objective: The Great Commission, the Gospel. To which type of audience, ethnic group, etc, confronting the mission with the capacity of the ministry itself and our own.

How: Through faith. With the team of brethren that the Lord has given us. The Lord appointed 12 out of His many followers. In the Bible we can find the Church, the gifts, the ministries, the deeds, the events, the worship, prayer, healing, brethren visiting other brethren in need, the poor, the prisoners, looking after the church members, children, youth, singles, married couples, the elderly. Preparing and /or learning the appointment of elders, the government of the local church, the pastor's anointment, the study of doctrine and the declaration of faith. Using means such as the internet, tv, radio, press, campaigns or evangelization crusades, etc. Working in our church and with other churches for a common purpose.

Where: In our town, in our place of residence and community, neighbourhood, family, workplace, school, university, hospitals, places we visit often, in our region, country, in missions abroad or supporting them, etc.

When: Urgent, now, following the Lord's instruction, but we cannot start if we are not ready, as the Scripture says: ...Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?. Luke 14:31. Are you spiritually ready and have the Lord's confirmation, of elder brethren in the faith? Is the church you attend ready to develop what you have been called to do?

We need to make a distinction between the basic and mandatory duty of the Christian individual and the Church, and the different ministries that each one has and our own God-sent mission in life. Ideally, all churches would have to be the same and have the same gifts and ministries where every Christian can develop what God has called him to do. In His mercy, God has allowed for a variety of styles of churches (as long as they are Bible-based), according to the age group, nation and education of its members. Each personal ministry has a call that we need to seek and that is written in each person's soul and in each congregation for the mission that God has lifted each ministry. If you cannot develop it where you are, look for the congregation it belongs to. When you find it, work in the Kingdom of God, nothing will give you a greater feeling of satisfaction and of being useful in life until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ says that He is working now, because the Father has been working until now. John 5:17. All of this flows from the soul in the Church and from the church we belong to because it is written by the Spirit in our own soul.

...And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. ¹⁵ See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. 1Thessalonians 5:12.

Although the Spirit of the Church becomes manifest in God's Salvation plan through the faith in the Gospel and we receive from the Lord the universal mission of the Great Commission and good deeds for love for our neighbour, and the soul of the Church is symbolized in the brotherly love of all its members of serving God spiritually, winning souls for the Kingdom of God, giving praise to the Lord and developing a fruitful life in the Spirit, helping the poor, needed, elderly, sick, prisoners and dropouts, we cannot develop completely our personal mission if we do not count with the Body of Christ. Our soul is linked to God's soul, thus He has written with His Spirit the longings that we feel and makes us come together under the yoke with those brothers with whom we will carry out the work, and that work belongs to God. Therefore let us make sure that we are working with those brethren whom the Lord has set us with and make an effort on our side to treat each other with brotherly love and God's love with which He has united us under His yoke and amongst His Body.

We have now reached the final phase to be able to develop ourselves as Church of God after the personal training phase of our Christian being - and this is not a temporary phase or that is to be forgotten, since we will have to work in our spirit, soul and body for the rest of our lives - once that we have understood ourselves we are able to understand our neighbour and share in brotherly love and in Christ's love the mission of the Great Commission in its fullness as universal Church. It is not until we have had full understanding of our limitations - to both individual and group levels - and in the relationship with other Christians that we can be conscious of the degree of humbleness with which we must treat one another, of respect and God's love, knowing that we are dependant on God and trusting Him as director of the work, whether we may be pastors, elders or members of the church.

A young person that is looking for his first job, after he has prepared for it, has to go through interviews, probation periods and lower positions in order to be promoted later, and even give up certain conditions when the financial situation is not buoyant. The owner of a business has to pay the salaries, many times out of his own pocket, out of his family's income even if there are no profits, he has to stand competition, the employee who does not perform or is on leave, fight and make ends meet trying to make his company competitive and generate profits so that everybody, his family and his staff, have their needs covered and can continue to improve and be more competitive. Paul, in 1Timothy 5, gives as a good example. One doesn't give up in any of these cases, unless it is for major reasons, dismissal or bankruptcy. How many times do we Christians consider being efficient, be held accountable to Christ and analyze the strategy, dedicating days to prayer, fasting and study in community in order to win souls for the Kingdom of God? This is a call not only to the Christian who is a church member, but also to elders or deacons and pastors. The target is the souls for salvation, and once they are on the Way, that their lives bear fruit and are full of brotherly love and God's love.

In the army, soldiers train hard for war, they practice manoeuvres, instructions, strategies, they do guard shifts, they train during months or years. In many cases, they never enter combat (thank God) even though many of them long to; war is tough and death is real, it is not a rehearsal or a videogame. But if they have to enter combat, the army is ready to fulfil its duty defending or attacking. Likewise, a Christian must wait, preparing himself, studying, praying, fasting, helping and learning from his teacher and pastor, so that when he is ready he goes out to the battle for the souls. As opposed to the soldier in a country's army, a soldier of Christ always goes out to war in due time, in another dimension - the spiritual one - in a society that is against God, to witness Jesus Christ in his life, to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord for the salvation of souls and making good works because he loves his neighbour, serving the Lord.

Similarly, the Church is compared in the Bible with an army, with a flock or with a nation. In our times we can compare it with a company, with a humanitarian organization or with a non-profit foundation. But the best definition of the Church is the bride of the Son of God. Our soul as such is part of the spouse who, as a bride at the moment of the Prince who will be King of kings, awaits the wedding of the Lamb like those five virgins who waited for the bridegroom with their lamps full of the oil of the anointment of the Lord to light the fire of the Spirit in their souls.

It is by this privilege of belonging to the family of the Lord that has an objective to fulfil in life, that we find in the Bible the government of the Church, the doctrine that we preach, the mission of the Great Commission, the good works in helping the poor and the dropouts out of love for our neighbour. In the Word is where we find guidance to prepare pastors and teachers, elders in Christ. The deacons in the guides in Romans 12:8 are shown in two positions in the Church, distributing the donations and the ones who serve and look after the poor and the sick. Widows were also entrusted to do this. 1Timothy 5:9-10 or Acts 6:3. In this way we practice the doctrine of Jesus' apostles. In the Word is where we look for and use the gifts of the Spirit which the Lord gives to each church for the edification of the disciples and our spiritual knowledge to honour the Lord and win those outside.

If we follow this guide as a manual, these teachings in the Word of God, we are building a useful and holy church on the foundation of the faith in Christ. We must not underestimate the prophecies of the Lord's prophets. In Romans 12, the Bible refers to the ministries, and in 1Corinthians 12 it refers to the different gifts of the Spirit. Calvin refers to these two quotes in his masterpiece: Institutes of the Christian Religion. And, finally, a Christian must look for his personal God-sent call, and the confirmation of the ministry which we have many times seen that our Christian ancestors used to confirm in the churches by laying on of hands.

This is the project of a church that is alive, where all its members find their friends in Christ. The lives of the people of Israel used to be synagogue-centred, and many Jews still live this way. A community that comes together not only in Sabbath and the Feasts of the Lord, but for all issues of daily life. The good local church where we will share our lives with our brethren is the Christian's base camp. It is where the spiritual gifts are shared, but also every Christian's abilities.

The amount of activities and services that we have available will change the lives of the members of the congregation. Those parents who want to participate in the church also want their children to have a healthy environment where to meet other friends of the church of different age groups. The program to help the elderly and needed of health care is another fundamental point to work for. The education of our children, the search for jobs for those who are unemployed using the church's - or churches'- communication network in the area, family planning, counselling, cultural, psychological, medical or nutritional and sports help. Career advice for our youth. Extra-school activities. Activities for the elderly, for couples to leave their children and go out together to nourish their relationship as a married couple. Fun activities for the youth in a healthy atmosphere to stop them from taking the path to drugs, alcohol and depression and instead go for planning their lives, do sports, choose a career, have fun in a healthy way, etc.

All this project which many people long for is part of a church that is committed with its community and I am not referring just to a community of members, but a program that allows us to win those to whom we take the Gospel through a program for healthy, honest, moral life and with a purpose, so that they can realize that this quality of life comes from the effect that Jesus Christ has had on us and they go deeper into the Word of God. Do you have all of this in your soul? Is your church missing some ministries and activities? Pray for it, talk to your pastor and brethren, commit yourself with time, dedication and financial support. Let us also take up the whole armour of God described in Ephesians 6:10 and protect ourselves with the shield of faith described in that text and let us live as it is described in Galatians 6:2: ... Bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.

It is not mandatory to follow all of this to the letter in order to have a holy spiritual life, but it is the ideal thing in the times we live in because they are spiritually dangerous times where, more than ever, is the time to come together in Christian community and fellowship, to share the Kingdom of God and to bring up well-trained Christians who are ready to live as sheep in the midst of wolves, Matthew 10:16. In the Church where we find a group of children of God in orderly and brotherly coexistence and in the love of God under Biblical guidance, this produces a life that bears fruits of the spirit. The combined effort of all the Christians is what allows the peace to be in our souls as a church that we belong to because ... By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35.

Christians who are not committed to God and His Church

The root of all churches that do not bear fruit are non-committed Christians. Not only members, but also elders and specially pastors. The key of a fruit-less church is in its government. They are not willing to sacrifice their lives for the Great Commission, they do not give up their daily routines to go preaching, to visit the sick, to do paperwork for those who don't know how to or cannot do it themselves, and so many other things. There are those who complain about the worship times, about the prayer days, about the Bible Studies and about every type of church, pastor or congregation. It never suits them, the church's program or project is never good enough, they always complain, just like the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. Let us follow the example in 2Thessalonians 3:6-18.

Some of them do not want to be part of a bible-organized church that is effective for the Great Commission of evangelization, good works and to share the best friendship, that of your brethren in Christ whom you will spend eternity with. How come there are Christians who do not want to share their lives with their brethren and they choose to live a life of solitude, without any Christian project, without ministry, without gifts and without brethren? They end up drying up spiritually and without fruit. The funny thing is that those who do not want to work for the Lord under the government of the local church, God's plan, and be part of the Church of the Lord, do actually submit to all worldly authorities. They submit to bosses at work, of course they do it for money. They submit to the king, their government's prime minister, mayors, police forces, doctors, teachers, training courses, traffic rules, travel rules, legal formalities, taxes, etc. They are subject to their health, their bodies, their own inherited family traditions - in the majority of cases contrary to the Word of God. They are slaves to their character and their own sins, and - of course - the feelings of their souls and fundamentally to the program of their own mind. They consider themselves free, but they are slaves to sin and death, society, and themselves; they need a deliverer, to take them out of bondage like Moses did in Egypt, a symbol of a society like today's, slave to sin. Our deliverer has to deliver us from the sin that produces death, eternal death in hell. His Name is Jesus of Nazareth, Yahsua, the King of kings, who reigns on the Throne next to God the Father and with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him. 1Peter 3:22.

When we are looking to be effective in God's work, we understand that we are soldiers of Christ. A soldier in the army is under authority, as the centurion who amazed Jesus said, by comparing the heavenly hosts with his own army, Matthew 8:5-13. If there is compromise and the strategy is good and there is a good project raised with God's love for the Church, we will see the growth of companionship, motivation, good leadership with a clear purpose and each individual will develop his functions and will be ready to accomplish them; victory is assured. In the victory against the Midianites which was given to Gideon with 300 men whose heart was committed to God and with His cause, the rest were told to return home, Judges 7:7. Those, who went with Gideon, finally did not have to fight but, instead, like the Lord says to Zachariah in 4:6 ...‘ Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit’ And God's Spirit has His own army and counts on us as part of it, but God will only count on us if we commit to Him, if we are busy in our own projects, or we are constantly complaining, or we look for our own comfortable life we will not be a part of God's Great Commission project ... And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it ... Matthew 10:37-39.

When a church is nor ready for the Great Commission.

When, in spite of being committed Christians, we cannot develop our call for God in our church, we have to pray and look for the Holy Spirit's direction and share it with the pastor and the elders, or with trust-worthy brethren. If we, as Christians who are part of a congregation or church we cannot find a purpose for our lives and we feel that we are not serving the Lord as we should, we must approach the situation in two ways: The first one is questioning whether I have it clear what my mission for God is. If you do not have your calling and gifts clear, you must look for help and advice based on the Bible and on the experience of elder brothers in Christ. Look for brothers who have proved to be discreet and have brotherly love, friends in Christ, not just mere believers or church attendants. If, in spite of all this, you cannot find your purpose and way clearly, pray and study the Bible, carry on going to your church, ask the pastor to pray for you and to tell you how he thinks you can better serve in the Church. Provide your help wherever you see it is needed and wait because God knows your heart and your intention.

If you have already analyzed the situation and have tried the above, and you still cannot find the way to serve God in your church and you are certain and have God's signs in your life to make you see that where you are you cannot develop God's calling for your life, God will lead the way for you to a new spiritual life with other Christians in another church. Or if you feel the call to study in a theological seminar to prepare for ministry, study your possibilities: this was Paul's recommendation. But do take your time to think and ponder about whether you have really made the effort. If you do not change jobs even though the conditions, salary or the position are not what you dreamt of, if the businessman does not change his business every time the market gets tough, why change churches for any reason?. Make an effort to serve God, not men.

Maybe the church where you worship the Lord is not ready or does not have the resources to develop your ministry. There are churches, whether they are mega churches or home congregations, where the sound doctrine is not found, where the pastor or the elders are not prepared in doctrine or spiritually. There are churches that lack a project. If your church does not follow the Word of God and you have come to realize it, get out of there and put yourself in God's hands in prayer and look for a church with Bible-based doctrine and where you can grow as a Christian amongst brethren who are friends in Christ.

If you have the necessary degree of commitment, the character, the gifts, the revelation and God's anointment. If, additionally, you have God's confirmation that He will be with you in that major step and that it will lead you to the way of God's blessing, you will reach the promised land. But remember the text of the wise parable of the Lord, our great Teacher, about he who wanted to build a tower, or what a king must take into consideration before going out to war in Luke 14:28-33. In our life, the tower is a symbol of our mission, and the war is the spiritual war against principalities and powers.

The Christian's way goes through three different stages. Abraham, leaving Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the promised land. Moses, leaving bondage under sin, crossing the Red Sea and entering the wilderness of the tests of faith. And finally it takes us to the promised land, after crossing the Jordan with Joshua after conquering the last test of faith: Jericho, which we have to conquer following God's plan. Three decisions in a Christian's life. The first one, coming out of our previous life in the world, Abraham. The second one, coming out of bondage, not only to sin but also religious practices and tradition which the soul becomes accustomed to in a routine and a mediocre life without fruits from the Spirit. The third one is being courageous and entering to take possession of our true spiritual life, our ministry and our mission which God designed us for and blessed us in spirit, soul and body. This is what the third and last part of this Study will deal with. Jesus Christ is Who made His triumphal entry to Jerusalem taking possession of our promised land for Him, our souls, winning them on the Cross of Calvary, winning in the Spirit, resurrecting the third day, to raise the Church in Pentecost to take it to His Kingdom on His coming. In the third and last part of this study about "in Spirit, Soul and Body" we will enter our individual promised land crossing the Jordan of our calling and we will take the Promised Land, our new lives in Christ.

Jesus Christ is our deliverer, Whom we should receive in our lives, first for the salvation of our souls for eternal life in the Kingdom of heavens, and also every day, from the hand of the Lord so that we have life, and we have it in abundance, John 10:10. Every time a new brother or sister, or whole families, receive Christ and become part of our church, we rejoice in the spirit with God seeing the transformation of their lives, their witness, the blessing, the peace, the feelings and the experience of a new life being restored and with a spiritual purpose: living in Christ in spirit, soul and body and bearing fruit of the Spirit. This is when we see the fruits of the Great Commission and we feel privileged to serve God in His Church for the salvation of souls. ... For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! 1Corinthians 9:16.

Christians who are committed to their Lord must reach the conclusion that the foundation of the fullness of our spiritual God-sent mission for our lives has three components that affect us in spirit, soul and body. That we are His Church and we belong to Him, not the building but the souls that make it up and which Christ died for paying for us with His blood, the people we have in front of us, with whom we share our life as disciples and to whom we are going to bring God's blessings in the Great Commission, through the Gospel, a great privilege. That it is God's anointment in us what makes us remain in Christ as His Kingdom on earth, that qualifies us as Children of God, what makes us understand His direction and government of the Church worldwide, in each church specifically, being the Holy Spirit our Comforter and Jesus Christ alive the head of the Church. And third, that we have more sure word of prophecy which we do well to heed as light that shines in a dark place, because the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord through the salvation in Christ is the only message capable of reconciling man with God, our Father. He who is born again, who knows Jesus Christ and believes in His work of salvation, comes to be part of His wife, the Church for which our Saviour died on the Cross of Calvary.

Jesus Christ, having resurrected has made us one people, Jews as well as Gentiles, through faith in the Son of God, Yahshua, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ lives and reigns and is sitting at the right hand of the Father, He is the Way to God, the Truth and the Life, our light and our hope, the Door to the Father's heart, to the only true God, who blesses us in all our being, in spirit, soul and body, to Whom we give our being as Sons and as Church. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.