The Blessing of Unity

Unity of a team helps bring success. United teams win. Divided teams lose.

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” starts Psalm 133. The psalm ends with; “For there Yahweh commanded the blessing – life forevermore.”

The day of Pentecost in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the day that the Holy Spirit is poured out on the apostles and the faithful disciples. Jesus had told them to wait for the promise of the Father – the Holy Spirit - to empower them before they move out into their mission.

When the Spirit comes it comes upon a very different group. The contention, the bickering for position is gone. The struggle for position and status has died away. There was none of the usual completion or rivalry. No one grasped power. No one pushed their own selfish agenda. They were, scripture says, “all with one accord in one place.”

Scott Peck has experienced larger groups coming in to unity - what he calls community. The results are remarkable. To some it feels like the Holy Spirit has entered the room.

Peck has written in depth of the journey into unity in two books: The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987).and In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason, and Discovery (New York: Hyperion, 1995). He describes the process of moving toward community and claims that community comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit and it comes when the group empties itself of grasping for power, selfishness and manipulation. (Stones, page 251.)

Miriam describes unity in Chapter Five of Demons in the Sanctuary. There is a half hour of prayer at the Board meeting after the pastor left the meeting. The fruit of this unity is seen, for example, in the lessening of Sylvester’s gruffness and his confession of inadequacy to stand on the Board. It is also seen in a change of attitude in Mira toward Sylvester. She “sees him in a different light now with this new vulnerability showing.”

Of course the angels present are strengthened by this unity: “The warrior angels drew themselves to their full height. They appeared to pulsate with light. Imps and evil spirits withdrew howling and shrieking in impotent fury.” (Page 59)

This unity of the church board brought them the blessing of Yahweh. It brought them into a less selfish and more loving perspective on one another – God’s perspective. It encouraged them, allowed the Spirit to move and strengthened the angelic forces with them.

Other posts in this series on Demons in the Sanctuary: 1. Masculine Tough and Feminine Soft, 2. Narcissistic Personality Pastor, 3. Nicolaitanism – triumph over the lay people, 4. Church Scandal and Financial Wrongdoing, 5. Attitude of a Good Pastor.  6. The Blessing of Unity. 7. Touch Not God's Anointed, 8. Spiritual Covering, 9. Control Exit with Threats,

See also the blog on "What do we know about Ralph Rutledge?"   The wolf in Sheep Clothing,  Character Issues to Observe,  Good Boundaries make Good Ministers, Thesis, Method, Observations and Conclusions about Ralph Rutledge, Ralph Rutledge Defrocked