God would have us all be single-minded and with the Mind of Christ in each of us it is possible. In Acts we read of the infant ekklesia in Jerusalem, “And they were of one mind and in one accord.” Jesus prayed just before He died on the cross:
“That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:21-23 KJ2000)
I have been absorbed, pondering the depths of this prayer as of late. The thought of such unity in the Father and the Son that Christ has made available to us is overwhelming to me. I just now coupled for the first time Jesus’ prayer with something that Paul wrote,
“For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized [immersed] into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26-28 KJ2000)
If we are ONE in the Father and the Son because we have been immersed INTO Christ through faith true faith in Him alone, then it stands to reason that there can be no divisions among us whatsoever unless someone is failing to be ONE by clinging to their self-life and individuality, more than they cling to Jesus. Maleness (macho) or femaleness (feminist), Jewishness or pride in nationalism, free people lording over their servants and slaves, the rich looking down their noses at the poor, etc., all these things have their roots in pride, the ugly pride of fallen Adam and Eve who ate of the wrong tree so that THEY could become their own gods separate from the Father.
But true unity IN the Father and the Son is found by abiding IN them alone and being totally caught-up in the love they have for one another and for us and being caught-up in that love until our only identity is one great fellowship of love in Christ and in one another.
But whoever keeps his [Jesus’] word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in him. He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1Jo 2:5-6 KJ2000)
A Wilderness Voice 
Dear Michael
This prayer of our Lord depicts true fellowship as far as our Pappa intended it to be in the first place! What I have been pondering the other day, is the fact that Jesus gave us His glory to be united in love the way that He, the Holy Spirit and the Father are one.
Like the best parent He is, love between His children is so precious in His sight! And, as with everything else, He has provided us with the glory of His love to enable us to love one another.
It brings me so much joy to know that His glory is so intimately intertwined with His love.
Blessings and love, dear brother
Mia
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If I am dead and ALL I live is Christ I will be ONE IN HIM with everybody else He lives in.
Friction always indicates the need of further death to happen in us… and it’s so good it’s there! It should move us before Him asking: Lord, where do I hinder You to live through me?
This is the reason He places us in all those challenges, trials, tempatations and fierce fires. It’s not to terrorize us… but just to expose all the areas we still need to pass over to Him so He can ingrain His image into it.
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Thanks Michael for bringing out the simplicity and beauty of this truth. As we know only too well how the enemy working in tandem with our flesh, has bewitched potential lights for the Lord by quenching the Spirit. He is the one we should embrace wholeheartedly to be drawn into our “abode” with Father and the Son. So many of us had a grasp of this when we were “babes” in Christ but tragically fell victim to the sorcery of our enemy, and embraced our prideful religion.
Romans 8:8-9 says; Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Verse 14 goes on to say; For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
This at-one-ment is experienced by the sons of God anyplace, anytime and anywhere. Praise God for His deep affection for family and including any of us who choose to deny ourselves and this world to be a part of it!
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I, too, have been thinking and meditating on the oneness that Christ made possible for us. I think the clinging to self and living out of pride that we experience, more often than we like to admit, is a failure to remember…a failure to have our minds renewed to the truth and fact that in accepting Christ and all He’s done for us we must ALSO comprehend and accept that it meant the DEATH of self, pride and all the rest of the fallen nature. The old man is no longer alive! How something that is DEAD continues to divide us is witness to the power of the lies and delusions of our enemy. I think it is way past time that we, as believers, forsake the lie that WE are still alive. WE no longer live, but Christ lives IN us. As we live Christ there is complete oneness and unity. It’s time that we reckon that everything else, apart from Him, is DEAD. Why, oh why, do we continue to allow something that doesn’t exist to cause all these anti-Christ divisions? Why?
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My wife Ljilja just said this to me “our flesh doesn’t let us experience oneness, because the pride in us, wants to give glory to us, not to God” Glory! how can a man NOT adore a wife who speaks these kinds of utterances.
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I appreciate the unity that Jesus and God share with us. When sitting under the word that proceeds from the mouth of God, I can sense the washing of the water of the word that removes divisions of the flesh. Michael, thank you for your wonderful sharing.
Grateful sister,
Pat Orr
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Great processing. Thank you for sharing!
Lord, make us one!!
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For years I have come to loath what some Christians call “unity” because most at times what they actually saying is UNIFORMITY and I believe that’s far from our Lord’s prayer in John 17…the problem always occurs when their is something in us that always exalt us a “little” above others which is the cause of division even between Lucifer and our Daddy God….”my views are superior than yours”, “we are the true church – us 8 and no one else”, “we’ve got all the doctrines figured out, so you better agree with us or something is wrong with you”, “if you don’t believe what we believe, you are not our brother”, …on and on and on the Babylonian curse of division continue. I have always asked that is it possible for all believe to gather physically in one place? No! If no, then we must go back to God to ask Him what He really mean by true Christian Unity, because God is a community, their is no provision for an Ireland Christianity and yet the hypocritical “togetherness ” in the form of unity is always celebrated by he’ll…may God show us what Paul means by saying “…that CHRIST may gather ALL in One”… count me out of mechanical unity but I am always in for Father, Son, Holy Ghost kind of unity… agape
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Count me in too, my brother.
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Hosea,
I agree. Unity in the Spirit of God is not the same unity, really “unanimity” which the churches seek after. They seek “unity” by the unanimous adherence to a creed, not that which comes from having the common heart and love of Christ in them. This kind of unity that they seek is no different than the unity that all religions seek… a letter of the law kind of unity that kills and robs true life from its adherents and draws them away from the unity of the Father and the Son which is ours by them giving us an new heart, new Spirit and the mind of Christ for us to walk in with one another.
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