DAY 12 OF 90 DAYS

Not One Man — But a Corporate Body

Revelation 5:9–10 · Psalm 149:1, 6–9 · Jeremiah 23:29 · 2 Corinthians 4:3–4

Yesterday we stood at the door with the lukewarm church, heard Him knocking, and saw that He comes to that threshold with bread and wine, asking to come in and take full possession of a people He already purchased. If that church opens the door, if a people renew their covenant vows and become His habitation, the question standing before us now is what that body then carries and who actually carries it.

Because this was never going to be about one person, and I have carried something the Lord said to me for years:

"The individual Christ, the individual Anointed One, had to die for the corporate anointed one."

Of course, I made this statement about His death and resurrection. Jesus, the Head, through His death and resurrection, brought every tribe, tongue, and nation into union with Himself through the covenant of the New Covenant. Christ's covenant Body (the Church) shares in His life and His anointing without ever replacing Him.

The LORD said this to me specifically to signal a new season of taking up my cross and following Him radically. Allowing the death of an old season that I was holding onto so a new season of resurrection could come forth. The death was to a system that exalts one or two over the corporate anointed Body of Christ. A fire-crown coronation of a true royal priesthood is coming forth, where every member of the body is a signet son or daughter, walking in authority as sons of the Most High God.

I don't think anyone ever meant to make it about one man, one woman, or one anointed minister standing alone, but it always tends to gravitate that way, which is a Levitical-type priesthood. But our priesthood is in the order of Melchizedek, a heavenly priesthood of kings and priests unto our God. The Lord's design has always been a corporate covenant body, united with one another and with Him, and John saw it that way the moment the scroll was opened in heaven.

Revelation 5:9–10 And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth."

Notice the word they are singing — You have redeemed us to God by Your blood — because these are redeemed men seated on thrones before the throne of God. The keyword in their mouths is us, which is the whole concept of true covenant Christianity: not me and not I, but we and us, a kingdom and priests, plural, drawn from every tribe and tongue, reigning together.

So let me say plainly what that has to look like on the ground: churches are not islands unto themselves, and a church that is in covenant only with its own members and its own vision cannot wield the true, authoritative sword of the LORD because it's a corporate sword. The LORD desires to erect regional altars, but each Church is only one stone of a 12-stone altar. I'm NOT saying you need 12 churches to establish a regional altar; I'm making a prophetic analogy.

Watch how the Lord Himself addresses congregations — in Revelation He writes seven letters to seven specific churches, each with its own messenger, its own commendation, and its own rebuke. He closes every one of them the same way: he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural, because the word came to one congregation and all seven were expected to listen to it. He never treated them as islands, and He was not willing for any one of them to hear Him alone.

WHY REGIONAL UNITY KEEPS FIZZLING OUT

I have to be honest about something. When it comes to unity, it can seem like it never really works in a region. I have been part of so many pastors' prayer groups and regional prayer meetings over the years. They last for a little while and then fizzle out. I have watched it happen again and again until I believe I finally know why.

The only way we will ever have horizontal unity is if we first have vertical union, in union with Christ and in union with the hope of His calling (Ephesians 1:18), rather than our own. There's a divine summons for leaders to feel His emotions for other leaders in our regions and begin serving God's purpose in another before we serve God's purpose in ourselves.

Philippians 2:5–8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Until we obey the divine charge of Philippians 2, every horizontal attempt is going to run on human effort, and human effort always runs out — but when horizontal covenant is connected to vertical covenant, look at what you have actually drawn: one beam going up and one beam going out, the picture of the cross, and the true definition of the ekklesia.

The Hebrew word behind ekklesia is qahal, the called-out assembly, the qahal Elohim, a company summoned out of the spirit of the age to be in covenant with Yahweh and with one another. We can call ourselves the church and gather in buildings with the word church over the door, but the question that truly matters is whether we are walking in covenant fidelity with Yahweh and with one another, because if we are not, it is only a name.

This is a time and a season when it is not enough to simply say the name — we have to walk in the name (His lifestyle, character, selflessness, and mindset) to authoritatively manifest His name and wield the sword of the LORD. In this season, let us yield to the sword of Philippians 2 and become the people called by His name who proclaim His name and manifest His glory on the earth.

A DOUBLE-MOUTH SWORD

Yesterday, we saw in Revelation 19:15 that a sword proceeds from His mouth when the heavens open, and He rides out for the climax of the war for redemption. The sword of the LORD is a pattern prophecy of authoritative words that defeat the enemy of glory. The LORD desires to place that same sword, the authoritative decree of His word, in our mouths. Remember, it's not about one individual but about ONE NEW MAN in the IMAGE of the ONE TRUE Man, Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Our corporate worship gatherings aren't just about singing songs; they're about releasing a sound from the Spirit of God, the high praises of God! High praise becomes a corporate sword that releases decrees from the court of heaven into the realm of earth.

Psalm 149:1, 6–9 Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints. … Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment — this honor have all His saints.

Now go into the Hebrew there, because it will change how you pray — the phrase we read as a two-edged sword is cherev pipiyot, and pipiyot comes from peh, the Hebrew word for mouth, because in Hebrew the edge of a sword is called its mouth, so what the psalm literally puts in the hand of the assembly is a sword of mouths, a double-mouth sword.

Our mouth connects to His mouth, the word in His mouth becoming the word in our mouth, so that when the assembly speaks, it is the sword of His mouth going out. The key to all of it is covenant, which is exactly what seven means in Scripture — seven being the covenant number. I believe the Father is unsheathing a double-seven sword on the earth, a covenant word from His mouth, spoken through the mouth of His covenant body upon the earth — this is the corporate sword of the LORD!

The high praises in their mouth and the sword in their hand — their mouth, their hand, the assembly of the saints singing a new song and executing a written judgment — go back to Daniel 7:9–10, the courtroom encounter where the court was seated, the books were opened, and judgment was rendered. The LORD executes His judgments through His Body, a covenantly aligned Body on earth.

This corporate sword is the only thing that will truly cut a city to the heart. When Peter stood up at Pentecost, he did not stand alone; the hundred and twenty had been in one accord in one place. When the word went out, three thousand men were cut to the heart in a single day and said, "What shall we do?" That is a city opened by a corporate sword, which is exactly what is needed, because there is a veil over the eyes of the people we are trying to reach.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

No amount of skilled worship, children's programs, elaborate church facilities, nor excellent marketing removes that veil, and no single gifted communicator removes it either. The mind-bending veil that covers the eyes of unbelievers and our cities is only cut through by the sword of His mouth in the mouth of a covenant body.

REGIONAL ALTARS OF HIS LIVING VOICE

So here is what I believe the Father desires to raise up: regional altars of His living voice, altars connected to the council of heaven, releasing the council of heaven into the realm of earth and the gavel blows of the hammer of His word.

Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

That hammer is going to shake everything that can be shaken, so that only what cannot be shaken remains (Hebrews 12:26–27). Everything not founded on the Rock, the foundation of His eternal kingdom, is going to come down. I would rather be part of a people who let His word shake us now than be part of something that gets shaken later.

And understand what prayer at an altar like that actually is — not begging or pleading, but coming into union with the heart of the Father, with His eternal purpose and His original intent, not only His intent for mankind but also His intent for lands and regions.

Have you ever asked the Father what He was thinking when He created the land you are standing on, or when He made your neighbor, or the person sitting in the next cubicle? Nobody is a random act of chance — every person has been created on purpose and for a purpose, and so have every land, every region, and every nation. This means there is an original intent over your city, and somebody has to ask Him for it.

These altars will not only be places of prayer — they will also summon the covenant body to renew covenant vows with the Lord, and when I say vows, I mean it the way marriage means it and the popular lyrics of the song proclaim:

All my life for Your glory.

Catch me up in Your story.

Pour me out as a drink offering.

I give no thought for my life, because I understand that I have been bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lamb.

And I believe some of you will receive blueprints you have waited years for, and these will become what I call resting places of restoration, places operating from a seated place of rest, where the finished work of Christ is the foundation of everything we build — not striving, not human performance, not another religious machine, but a people joined together in covenant fidelity, carrying His presence and releasing His voice.

COUNTING THE COST

Let me make this personal, because I myself had to count the cost when the Lord spoke to me and challenged me about my self-focus.

While I was pastoring, the Lord challenged me to promote regional unity, and He was very specific about it — He told me that every fifth Sunday I was to take all the people of Gateway Hope Center, the church I pastored, and go to a different church in the region. Then He said something harder: do not take up the offering before you go; tell the people to give their offering at that church, and tell them that if they like that church, they do not have to feel guilty about it, because I may be calling them there.

I told the Lord we could not afford to do that, and I was talking about money. He said, "You cannot afford not to do it." The church cannot afford to play it safe right now, so let me ask you plainly: what are you going to do to cultivate a regional expression?

For some of you, the Lord is going to ask you to physically go somewhere and cultivate a genuine relationship rather than sit at home watching church on the internet. For those of you in leadership, it is going to cost you time, and it may cost you people and money, in order to seek the good of a region rather than the growth of a name. In that season, the Lord challenged me to serve His purpose in another church and through other leaders rather than serve His purpose selfishly, and I learned more of the Father's heart in that season than in almost any other.

And I believe the Father is going to establish this in regions, cities, states, and nations, but more importantly in homes, because two or three gathered in His name is where the altar begins, and a house in covenant with God and with other houses is already everything heaven requires.

QUESTION

Where has your union with Christ become horizontal, and where has it stopped at your own front door? Which relationship, church, or leader in your region is the Lord asking you to approach this month, at your own cost?

PRAYER

Father, bring us into the unity of the faith, and remove competition, isolation, and ambition among us. Put Your word in our mouths and establish regional altars of prayer and worship connected to Your counsel. Show us Your original intent for our land, and make us willing to pay the price.

DECLARATION

We are a corporate covenant body under the Headship of Jesus Christ, and we will not compete for prominence — we will carry His living voice together throughout our lives for His glory, poured out as a drink offering, because we have been bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lamb.