Discerning The Body Of Christ by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Four Dimensions of Love

Whenever you say you love someone, love has four components that must never be forgotten:

1. Passion — There cannot be love without passion. Extreme, unashamed passion.
2. Commitment — Even when passion fades, commitment should not. Commitment has nothing to do with desire and everything to do with a vow — a vow for continuity.
3. Sacrifice — There cannot be love without sacrifice. Love makes a fool of you, and that is the price of genuine love.
4. Pleasure — Love is not all about pain. The Bible says he daily loads us with benefits. If all you have received is sacrifice and pain, you have a right to demand the other dimensions.

Check your Christian walk against these four. There are times when we enjoy his power. There are times when joy fills our hearts. There are times when we cry on account of our love for him. There are times we must seek him regardless of our emotional feeling. When you pursue God emotionally, you will be in for a shock — there are times life may not give you the best conditions to love God emotionally. What sustains the true lover is commitment.

Why the Body of Christ Must Be Discerned

1 Corinthians 11:29-30 — "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, not discerning the Lord's body, eateth and drinketh damnation unto himself. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

The word "sleep" here means died. For this single cause — the inability to discern the body of Christ — many are weak in every fashion, many are sick, and many have died prematurely.

Somewhere in the body of Christ is a key that can turn weakness to health. Somewhere in the body is a mystery that can keep men well and long. There are certain dimensions of spiritual reality that your personal walk with God cannot deliver — you have to receive them through the corporate expression of the body.

For instance, no one man could bring the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. One hundred and twenty people had to be gathered. The spiritual formation created the room for the Holy Ghost to come. Where two or three are gathered in his name, there he is in the midst. There are certain levels of spiritual possibility that only come when believers are gathered together.

The Body as God's Repository

The body of Christ is like a modem — it helps you access God. In the body there is fire, there is a Bible, there is a handkerchief of healing, there is a word of wisdom. When God speaks, he splits the provision that is in the body across different vessels and ministries. God does not see each ministry in isolation — he sees his body representing all the possibilities in him.

When a dimension of God is not happening in your life, it does not mean it is not in the body. It may mean you have not yet discovered which part of the body carries that possibility for you.

The body is part of Christ. The same way a modem helps you access the internet, the body helps you access what is in God.

How the Apostolic Ministry Serves the Body

The apostolic office is not merely administrative — it is designed so that when you enter a territory, you can assume any shape by God to introduce what is missing. The burden of an apostle is to discern by the Spirit what dimension is missing in a territory and supply it — even if that dimension is not your primary calling.

The full representation of the body is the goal. Any move that distorts that full representation is apostasy. A prophet who despises the prosperity ministry is in error. A prosperity minister who despises the prophetic is also in error. Every ministry is part of the body, and the body needs all of its members.

• Call this the prophetic ministry.
• Call this the teaching ministry.
• Call this the prayer ministry.
• Call this the prosperity ministry.
• Call this wisdom and excellence.
• Call this leadership.

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It is called the body of Christ. To teach that any of these should not be in the body of Christ is apostasy. That it was not committed to you does not mean it was not given to the body.

What Closes Believers Off from the Body

Satan destroys believers through two weapons:

1. Resentment — A well-meaning but resentful spirit is concerned for itself, not for the body. Resentment closes the door of reception.
2. Pride — The ego that refuses to acknowledge that another vessel carries something you need.

Every custodian of a spiritual dimension is imperfect. You will need wisdom to look beyond the vessel's limitations and receive what God has deposited in them. You can come to a meeting even with frustration about certain aspects of it, and simply because you found yourself in that environment and opened your heart, certain possibilities come upon you.

There are ministers I have received from even more than their own members — I have never sat one-on-one under their administration, but my heart has been open to what they represent to the body. I take what is consumable for my season. I do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Receiving from the Body

You may not have the physical privilege to meet every anointed vessel one-on-one. But there is a system provided for in Christ that will help you contact all the possibilities they carry. The moment you identify with that system, certain possibilities come upon you.

I am a product of many unknown things. I keep rising because I love the body — not just because I am anointed. I was not born with every possibility in my life. I made my way to them. The key is to love the body. The body may be imperfect. There are false prophets — but the prophetic mantle is real in the body. There are money-grubbing prosperity ministers — but there are genuine people with the prosperity mantle. Do not throw everything because of one or two case studies.

There are people in this ministry tonight. This may be the happiest day of your life. There are answers in the body that have been waiting for you to simply open your heart and receive.

Father, I repent from criticizing the body of Christ. I repent from the attitude of resentment and pride that has closed me off. Tonight I open my heart to every dimension, every blessing, every possibility that you have deposited in the body. I receive the anointing for speed. I receive multiplied results. I call upon every helper of my destiny — every person ordained to speak for me, to stand with me, to lift me — let them arise now in Jesus name. Amen.

The body of Christ has been blessed with every dimension required to represent God. As you open your heart to the body, you will rise like an edifice. What one man has that has come from the body is reproducible — it has the ability to be transferred and recreated. This is your season.