Discern the Body

 Over a month ago I found out that I am pregnant with my first child; so recently I went to see my gynaecologist to check up on the baby to see how he/she is doing. While he was looking at the baby, he noticed a little growth that was very small last year and has now grown a little bit. He reassured me that it’s nowhere near the baby and that the baby will be fine. That little experience led me to think about the Body of Christ, as - according 1 Corinthians 12 - we are all parts of the Body which is the Church. I got to thinking that, just like my body, the Body of Christ also gets invaded by viruses, strange and unwanted pimples and growths, some cancerous others not.

 I believe some of us have come across these bodily imperfections, the church gossip who sows discord amongst people, the lady who’s always trying to seduce people’s husbands, that grumpy old man who has a problem with absolutely everything, bad mouthing the pastor and threatening to leave and that young guy who’s trying to manipulate naive girls and lead them to sexual sin. Every active church has at least one of these, whatever form they come in. Naturally, we’d like to rid the House of God of these people once and for all, but God has a different plan as Jesus says in the parable in Matthew 13:24-30 and explains in verses 36-43, God has no intentions of “getting rid” of the weeds in our garden, He plans to let them grow with us until harvest time, long story short - the impurities will always be with us, the bad growths, the pimples, all of them. They will grow in the Body, some even attach to our blood system, feed off the Body and become a part of our Body. Deal with it! 

A lot of young women get caught  in that trap. A lot of us have fallen for that young guy who was attached to the body, fed off the Church’s blood system grew in the Church with the rest of us, but was actually a growth or a pimple in the Body of Christ. His intention was never to make the body function better but to break down some organs. He comes to a girl, uses spiritual jargon even prays in tongues. You are convinced he’s the one and fall for him. He begins subtly moving you away from the word and leadership then one day  you look up and find yourself so far from your life source. Some play the part until one day you realize he’s been habitually unfaithful or abusive, then you run to the world and say, “church guys are just as bad as worldly guys”. Scorned, young ladies have said that to me so many times after a failed relationship with a “church guy” that I thought I would take the time to address this little issue.

Firstly, as the growth example I made - not every guy in the church is a part of the body, some grow up in the body but their hearts are not for the advancement of the church, they have been sent by the enemy to kill, steal and destroy, some do not even know the damage they are causing to the church with their actions. So girls, it is up to you to discern the Body. You need to spend so much time with God that He will show you when a guy is not part of the Body but only a pimple (temporary, only came to pick up church chicks), a growth (attached to the body to hurt the church, the one who has a form of godliness, but not much) or if he is a member of the body - sold out to the work of Christ for real not just as an act to impress people.  Jesus says that if you abide in Him He will abide in you. In Psalm 37:4 He says that if you delight in Him He will give you the desires of your heart. So if you abide in Him and Him in you, you will know His heart for you, and He will give you what you desire; He won’t give you an ugly, nasty guy. He created you, He knows what you need. That is my answer to all those girls. Ask Him, He’ll show you the right guy and shield you from the wrong ones.

This is not to put fear in you but to encourage you to seek God when it comes to relationships because the enemy does not want you to be happily married. The cherry on top is - when you’re sure the relationship you’re in is of God, you won’t be moved by storms because you will know they are temporary. Even in marriage, when things get “tough”, you’ll hold on to God’s promise. You’ll rest in the knowledge that the marriage belongs to God and He will grow it to His perfect plan, which is better than you can ever imagine. My point is, no guy in the world is meant for a Child of God; “do not be unequally yoked” and not all guys in church are for you either. Take your single years to abide in the one who made your husband and He’ll show him to you.