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One person wrote, "One has to be in the right place, having the right books, and knowing the exact mechanism (or formula) to grow in Christ." There may be some truth to this if understood in the right way, but God has a process and a pattern. The process and pattern are not mechanistic, but it might be thought of as a mechanism. The process is this: God leads, we obey by the power of the Holy Spirit. Obedience is key. When we decide to do our own will or yield to other spirits, we come under their power. "Whoever you yield yourself as a slave to obey, that is whose slave you are." This process that is known simply as walking in the Spirit always leads us into God's pattern. God's pattern is known as the church. Unfortunately, many things other than God's pattern are also called the church. So, there is an ongoing process of coming closer to Christ and being transformed into the same image of Christ that will result in increased discernment of the Body of Christ along with the discernment of those things that are not part of the Body of Christ. Christ the Body is just as much Christ as Christ the Head in Heaven is Christ. Christ the Body has a particular structure that is needed for growth and safety. To try to grow outside of the Body of Christ is impossible and unsafe. If you cut off part of your human body, it can be a very good part, but it suddenly has no purpose and the life to the body stops flowing to it. The same is true of Christ the body. Wars have been fought over litergies for example, yet the Scripture gives no indication that a liturgy is to be used. There is a pattern in Scripture, but the only way to fulfill that pattern is by walking in the Spirit of God. He speaks to us. His Faith comes. Faith gives access into His Grace. His Grace does the work of establishing His Pattern. His Pattern is always according to the Pattern of Scripture. Special robes, forms, rituals, extra-biblical offices in the church, the locally abiding pastor, and many other inventions actually hinder the growth of the Church.
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