Many Parts, One Body

Recently Gayle Rouse, an Aglow leader in Canada, was asking the Lord to show her how He sees Aglow in this new season. Much to her surprise, He encouraged her to take a look at her own family!

Gayle’s family includes 5 married children and 11 grandchildren, 5 of whom are married. Then she has 3 great grandchildren. Altogether, 30 unique individuals make up her family which spans 4 generations!

Just the adults alone are extremely varied in their giftings, callings, and expertise. A couple of them own their own businesses. Then there is a police officer, a university librarian, a health care worker who works in a nursing home, a teacher who lives in Japan, a bus driver, a roofer who is also a musician, a trader in a large international grain company, and more! Some go to the same job in the same place daily. Some travel internationally regularly. Yet, when they all come together, the time isn’t centered on what they do, but who they are….family. Family who enjoys being together and who love each other through good times and bad.

At the Leader’s Summit in 2015, Graham Cooke told us that in the work of the Kingdom, we are both the household of God – caring, loving, and supporting each other, and we are a disciplined army called to overcome and to take territory. Recognized as an end time ministry, Aglow is both spiritually and geographically positioned around the world. It is important that we recognize who we are in the earth.

Here is a familiar portion of scripture from I Corinthians 12:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

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.

Even so the body is not made up of one part, but of many. 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. 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.

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? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.

If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 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!”

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Isn’t that a beautiful passage of scripture?

Think of the individuals that make up your own family. Not everyone can be a doctor. Not everyone can be a stay at home Mom. Not everyone can be the new born baby. And each has its most important place in the family. No one is greater. No one is less. Love covers all. Each one has its own special place of importance.

Gayle went on to say that when the family comes together, they rejoice over a recent engagement, or a birthday, even an anniversary. With 30 family members, there will always be many reasons to rejoice and even times to cry together.

God reminded Gail how unique her family is as a third generation is being born. Each one is unique. Each one has their own special plan that God has designed them to fulfill and there is great joy as she watches it unfold before her.

In the same way, each person in an Aglow group will bring areas of strength, as well as areas of weakness and TOGETHER, those in the group will go about the assignments that God has given into their hands to accomplish in their town. Each town that has an Aglow group will find that God has given them their very own look as they release His sound and carry His Presence. The dependency of each group will be upon the Lord as they seek His face for every step they take. They will have times of both family and being His army who walk in relationship in His Kingdom.