[embrace]Y O U R P L A C E

[embrace]Y O U R P L A C E

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everything in its placeI have many quirks. One in particular is that I love every-thing to be in order. In the pantry there are labels on every box and every label is facing one way. Storage tins are arranged short to tall. Within the closets, the shirts are organized long sleeve to short sleeve, light to dark, and shoes go up in heel size. There are words for people like me . . .

My daughters, from the day they were born, second-ary only to the name of Jesus, have learned the phrase, “Girls, there is a place for everything, and everything in its place.”

My husband, Nick, has a somewhat different philos-ophy when it comes to order. Nick thinks that we should never limit a thing to only one place. He believes there are many potential places in the home for a thing and we should explore how many places we can find for that one thing. This one difference between us has led to many hours of incredibly intense fellowship in our home.

With that being said . . . I believe God has a specific place for you and me within His body.

NOW MAY the God of peace, WHO THROUGH THE

BLOOD OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT BROUGHT BACK

FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS, THAT GREAT SHEPHERD

OF THE SHEEP, equip you with everything GOOD

FOR DOING HIS WILL, AND MAY HE WORK IN US what is pleasing to him, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, TO WHOM BE

GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN.

– HEBREWS 13:21

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you have a specific place12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet,

“I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indis-pensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with spe-cial modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal con-cern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12:27

In the preceding verses, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthian church reminding them of a very important fact. God has placed the parts of the human body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. We don’t get to choose.

It is the same way in the body of Christ. God sets every member in place as He desires them to be. And

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every member is an indispensable, important part. Many people have been lulled into believing that some-how church is simply an organization or a business, or a way to satisfy our religious conscience to fulfill an obligation. We have come to view church as a talented worship team followed by a gifted speaker—but this is not church. It doesn’t begin and end here. It’s not about what happens on the platform and what comes from the pulpit.

We are not born again into an organization, bureau-cracy, or institution. We are born again into a living, dynamic organism—a body. My body is a living organ-ism. If we, the church, truly understood the power of this, we would go beyond the boring religious obli-gation on a Sunday and become the mighty force that God has called us to be on this earth. God desires the church to be a place of salvation, hope, healing, recon-ciliation, restoration, mercy, justice, truth and a bright light in the midst of darkness! We need to stop “doing” church on Sunday and start being the church 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Imagine how much the world would change.

I don’t go to Hillsong Church because they have good music. I don’t go to Hillsong Church because they have a good kid’s program. I go to Hillsong Church

because it’s my church. It’s me. I am the church. I am intricately interwoven into the very fabric of that body of believers, and that body doesn’t actually function effec-tively unless I’m a part of it. The same goes with you in the house in which God has planted you. We need to ask, “God, where have you planted and placed me to be an indispensable part of Your body?”

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you are indispensableIn 2010, I had a very literal wake-up call as to what this really means when our family went skiing in Colorado with five other families.

Now, I’ve grown up in a church that introduced me to something called the pump theory. The pump theory is that you can do things you have zero ability to do if you get enough people around you to “pump” you up. Anyway, when it came to skiing, I was pumping myself up to do things I was not capable of doing. On this par-ticular run, my husband had come with me. All of the other guys had gone to do a more difficult run on a dif-ferent mountain. I leaned over my shoulder and said to Nick, “Babe, if you were with the guys, you would not be skiing any faster than this, would you?”

Men, if your girlfriend or your wife ever asks you a loaded question like this one, one hundred percent of the time the answer is, “No sweetheart, I wouldn’t be doing anything better or quicker if you weren’t here. The pinnacle of my skiing experience is on this flat green slope with you. It is the highlight of my ski life.” But no, my husband says, “If I were with the guys, I’d be going faster and enjoying it more.” His statement was like put-

“CHURCH IS ABOUT

who we become WHEN

WE ARE BORN AGAIN.”

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ting a red rag in front of a bull. I replied, “Well sweetheart, eat my snow.” And off I went. About twenty seconds later, I was in serious trouble. On the second non-in-tentional summersault, I saw one ski go flying while the other stayed attached to my leg. In that moment I heard the loudest “pop, pop, pop!” in my right leg. All of the sudden I couldn’t move. I was later informed that I had snapped my ACL completely, torn my meniscus, torn my MCL and fractured my knee. They had to get the ski patrol to take me down the mountain.

Since then I’ve become an expert on ACLs, but before my accident, I did not even know I had an ACL. An ACL is a tiny ligament, smaller than my pinky finger, tucked in behind my knee. This is a ligament I never knew, a ligament in me that no one had ever seen; and when that tiny ligament was displaced, it totally crippled and immobilized my entire body. I have birthed two chil-dren and that pain did not even come close to the pain of my reconstructive surgery. I couldn’t think or write. I had to wear a full leg brace. Other parts of my body had to compensate for this one little ligament of my body. This one little ligament affected my whole body.

The Apostle Paul put it this way: When one part of the body suffers, all of the body suffers.

I might not have known that little ligament existed, but God did, because God set that ACL in place. It is the same in the body of Christ as it is in our human bodies.

When you begin to view church as optional and view yourself as replaceable, bouncing from church to church to suit your needs, even if no one else notices you, God does—and He has a specific place for you. You may feel that it won’t make a difference if you decide not to serve, tithe, give, pray or fast. Somehow, we have made ourselves act as God—as if it’s okay for me, born again into His body, to choose which “ligament” is going to be displaced.

Can God take you from one part of the body and move you to another part of the body? Absolutely, but make sure it’s God that moves you. If you try to take a kidney and put it into a body that’s not ready for it, it will reject that kidney, making the kidney useless and caus-ing the body to die.

All over the church, we have members of Christ’s body who want to transplant themselves, but it is God who gives us a function and places us within a body.

Today, the church has numerous “hamstrings” that are trying to be “livers,” and “kidneys” that are trying to be “legs.” Our body parts are so out of order because we don’t embrace the place that God has set us in. If we simply embraced our place, we would walk in grace and

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fulfill the calling God has on every one of our lives. One part of the body wouldn’t need to compensate for the other part because everybody would be functioning in the fullness of their calling.

The church has become peripheral to our lives rather than the focus of our lives. And yet, in Corinthians it says that the world is peripheral to the church and the church is not peripheral to the world. If you are saved, you are born again into the body of Christ. Therefore, the body of Christ becomes the center of your world. How can it not be the center when you are born again into it? Don’t turn church into an institution that competes for your time. It’s not something you go to. The church is who you are. You can’t have a relationship with God outside of His church because you are born again into His church.

YOU are A PART of the body of Christ . . . and YOUR part is one part of the greater global body of Christ. YOU have an irreplaceable part to play. Ask yourself if you believe this or not? If you do, then you would embrace your place in this body.

“YOU AND I ARE personally responsible FOR THE EVANGELIZATION

OF PLANET EARTH BEFORE THE SECOND

COMING OF JESUS.”

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your place. He’s going to go to the place where you’re supposed to be—so make sure you are there. When God sets you in place and you embrace it, no demon in hell and no person on this earth can take you out of the place that God sets you in.

If you embrace your place, His desires will become your desires. When you embrace your place in God’s house, protection, provision, support and accountability are yours. God’s grace covers you when you embrace your place.

Submission, the “s” word, is like a dirty word in our 21st century culture. But the “s” word is what will save you. Jesus did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but instead He chose to subordinate Himself in that relationship for all that God had ahead of Him, and He is our master. If Jesus was submissive, how much more should we be willing to understand the power of yielding, submitting and being planted in God’s house?

Jesus said, “I will build My church.” I don’t know about you, but I want to be part of what He is building. I want to be born again and be an indispensable part of His body. I want to embrace my place.

choose to embraceWe must allow God to embrace His place first and fore-most in our hearts and in our lives. Then when He has first place, it’s easy to come into the slipstream of that, so then we can embrace our place in His body.

Christ’s body will not be all that she’s destined to be on this earth if every part isn’t fully functional and healthy. God sets us in place, and He expects us to embrace that place so we are able to rise up and do what He calls us to do and be who He calls us to be. Destiny has a place.

I’m all about destiny. I’m all about rising up and being who God’s called me to be.

My Bible tells me that He has redeemed my life from the pit and I don’t need to live as any kind of victim, that we in His body are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, who strengthens us. And you know, the truth is that I discovered all of this while in the house of God. God has got to do a work in you before He can do a work through you, and it won’t happen outside of His healthy community and healthy family. God has timing for His purposes and God will raise you up in due season. God opens doors that no man can shut; but remember, He is going to open those doors when you embrace

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WHEN YOU embrace your place, HIS DESIRES BECOME

YOUR DESIRES.

ask yourself1. Is there an area of my life where I am unwilling to

embrace the place in which God has me?

2. What doors has God opened that I might be refusing to walk through?

3. Has God shut a door that I keep trying to open?

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