When we first believed we all began a personal relationship with Christ. That relationship was based on receiving His love and grace that was toward us as sinners. We grew in that relationship more and more and began to know who He is and what He is like in His own divine nature and character and according to all His good works toward men. We learned to pray to Him in a personal way. We talked and learned to walk with Him personally. We learned to go to Him with our needs and with things that we did not understand. We learned to read and study the word of God in seeking His personal will for our life. These are all precious things that the Holy Spirit guided and comforted us in our personal relationship with Christ, the Son of God, who died and shed His blood for all men.
The believer also must have a corporate relationship with Christ in the body with other believers. That relationship reveals Christ as head with the government of God resting upon His shoulders (Is 9:6,7). In that government there is an anointing of unity and oneness with the brethren that comes from the head (as dew) and flows down all the way to the bottom of the skirt and is good and pleasant to God and where God commands a blessing, even life forever more (Ps 133). In the body of that government the fullness of God dwells that filleth all in all (Eph 1:23) and we can all receive of that fullness experientially by grace and though grace (John 1:16). A believer can be blessed in their personal relationship with God but they will never be in the place where God commands the full blessing until they learn how to have a corporate relationship with Christ in His body.
Our corporate relationship with Christ as our head, does not do away with our personal relationship. It is our personal relationship with God and with one another that makes up our corporate relationship with Him. We are members one of another and of His body, flesh and bones (Eph 4:25, 5:30). We are made to function in Christ together as one body as members one of another. Each member has a supply for one another. Look at this passage that Paul writes to the church at Ephesus.
Eph 4:15,16 'But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love'.
This is not something that God does randomly and only makes available to those who want it. It is by design and the will of God which He has purposed in Himself and is accomplished through those that have been given to the church in (v/10-15) of that chapter because of the truth of what Paul is saying in (v/1-9). Read the whole chapter.
We are to take our personal relationship with Christ into a corporate expression with other believers so that we can give and receive from one another the supply that God has given us through the Holy Spirit so that we can receive of God's fullness through the measure of every part and increase the edification of the body in love. This is what that is saying and there are many that come to this site and have a personal relationship with Christ but not a corporate one. They are blessed on occasions when things are going good for them or when God answers their prayer, but they are not in a place where God commands a blessing.
When a believer has a corporate fellowship with Christ through His body, they are in a place where God commands a blessing to be continually filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), to have the fullness of God's joy (Ps 16:11, John 15:11, 1Jn 1:4), to have life more abundantly (Jn 10:10) and to comprehend the many facets and dimensions of God's love (Eph 3;18,19) and to bear all the fruit that Christ has ordained for the church, his body (Jn 15:16,Col 1:18).
The believer also must have a corporate relationship with Christ in the body with other believers. That relationship reveals Christ as head with the government of God resting upon His shoulders (Is 9:6,7). In that government there is an anointing of unity and oneness with the brethren that comes from the head (as dew) and flows down all the way to the bottom of the skirt and is good and pleasant to God and where God commands a blessing, even life forever more (Ps 133). In the body of that government the fullness of God dwells that filleth all in all (Eph 1:23) and we can all receive of that fullness experientially by grace and though grace (John 1:16). A believer can be blessed in their personal relationship with God but they will never be in the place where God commands the full blessing until they learn how to have a corporate relationship with Christ in His body.
Our corporate relationship with Christ as our head, does not do away with our personal relationship. It is our personal relationship with God and with one another that makes up our corporate relationship with Him. We are members one of another and of His body, flesh and bones (Eph 4:25, 5:30). We are made to function in Christ together as one body as members one of another. Each member has a supply for one another. Look at this passage that Paul writes to the church at Ephesus.
Eph 4:15,16 'But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love'.
This is not something that God does randomly and only makes available to those who want it. It is by design and the will of God which He has purposed in Himself and is accomplished through those that have been given to the church in (v/10-15) of that chapter because of the truth of what Paul is saying in (v/1-9). Read the whole chapter.
We are to take our personal relationship with Christ into a corporate expression with other believers so that we can give and receive from one another the supply that God has given us through the Holy Spirit so that we can receive of God's fullness through the measure of every part and increase the edification of the body in love. This is what that is saying and there are many that come to this site and have a personal relationship with Christ but not a corporate one. They are blessed on occasions when things are going good for them or when God answers their prayer, but they are not in a place where God commands a blessing.
When a believer has a corporate fellowship with Christ through His body, they are in a place where God commands a blessing to be continually filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), to have the fullness of God's joy (Ps 16:11, John 15:11, 1Jn 1:4), to have life more abundantly (Jn 10:10) and to comprehend the many facets and dimensions of God's love (Eph 3;18,19) and to bear all the fruit that Christ has ordained for the church, his body (Jn 15:16,Col 1:18).
