Fitted into Christ and His body

1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

(Romans 12:1-8)

15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

(Ephesians 4:15-16)

What does God want for His church? How does He want us to function? What does it really mean to be fitted into the body of Christ? Are there really very many Christians who are not “being fitted” in? Are there many of us who may be in and around church, but are actually quite lost or disconnected from the body of Christ?

What are the consequences of not being fitted into Christ and His body? Truly, it is a matter of life and death. Your very life depends on Him.

In two previous messages (3/13/26 and 3/27/26), we shared about God’s mercy and consecration, and His love and fire. Receiving and recognizing the abundant mercy of God will lead to consecration as discussed in Romans 12:1. That consecration, setting us apart for holiness, is really the same as God’s mercy. In the same way, His love and fire, seen in John 1 and Hebrews 12, are one and the same. These are important foundations for functioning in Christ and His body.

I can tell you from personal experience that consecration must come first. Many times in my past, I have tried to be “connected” to the body of Christ by having a job or something to do in the church or my own ministry. But I found that without having passed through any consecration to Jesus and surrendering to Him, the work in the kingdom was done only on the foundation of the flesh and ultimately had no power except to build human institutions.

Assuming we can see God’s mercy and surrender to His consecration, the fruit of that will be God working to make deep changes in our hearts, renewing our minds (Romans 12:2) and transforming our entire way of life. As God works, He will show us steps of obedience, often small ones at first, and we will have an opportunity to take action and walk in the truth of God’s will for us. The tested fruit will be evident. Step by step, each act of obedience, of repentance, of surrender, will bring clarity to the next step. This is how we are called to walk in the tested will of God.

This constant consecration will bring light to all the dark corners of your heart. It is the breath of life of God (see message from 1/30/26).

With mercy and consecration established, Paul addresses our pride in Romans 12:3. Consecration will necessarily touch the pride in our hearts. What do we hold onto? What do we think of more highly than we ought? As we are consecrated to Him, we must allow God’s hand to remove pride from our midst. This will ruin all of our plans, but it is the real meat of consecration when our hearts are truly exposed. Only when we allow God to root out the depths of our pride and our own ambition for the kingdom (see message from 2/27/26) can we depend on Jesus and Jesus alone to direct our steps.

Then we will see that we cannot serve Him from our own strength, but only in sound judgment and the measure of faith that He has given us. What part of your service in the kingdom is truly a measure of faith?

Often, the steps of obedience that God requires as He deals with our hearts and renews our minds are steps of faith we don’t fully understand. We must have patience as God reveals deeper parts of His purpose. As we walk and wait on the Lord, these steps change from the laying of foundations to a calling of service that is something quite beyond us, a real measure of faith given to us. But that change from foundations to service can be slow and meticulous work of the Holy Spirit. To the degree that we have ambition to jump right into ministry and service without those foundations, is the degree that we will find ourselves working for the kingdom in the weakness of the power of the flesh (see message from 2/6/26).

But oh, what incredible joy and fruit will come when we do things God’s way! When we wait on Him and allow Him to do HIs work and truly lead us, however slow it may seem, into the service of His body that He desires. Oh, what incredible joy it is to see the body of Christ functioning on the foundation of Jesus’ calling.

And that is exactly where God brings us in Romans 12:4-8. All that God has spoken to us over the past 3 months of weekly meetings (and longer, truly) has come to this. God desires a body of Christ functioning as He intended, united not in exact doctrinal agreement, nor in a style of music or building decoration, nor even in the latest church model or program, but a bride, fully united only in the foundations of Jesus Christ as her Head. How could we survive without the Head!

Jesus has to pull us out of any darkness of the world and of our own ambition so that He can shine a light and allow us to serve His body as He has called us. It’s impossible to have life apart from Christ, but oh, how I’ve tried in my own ambition!

In Romans 12:6, Paul clearly exhorts us to use the gifts that God has given us! Once we’re on the right foundations of surrender to Jesus, we can do that. We may have to come back to consecration over and over again to work out our salvation and discover more of Christ in our calling to the building up of His body, but we can do this in Jesus! This is only according to the grace and measure of faith you’ve been given.

Will you receive God’s truth in all of His love and mercy, His fire and consecration? Will you allow His light to shine in your heart? What do you need to surrender?

In consecration, you will find a calling for Christ and His body. You will be fitted into Him. You need not seek a job in the church, a position, or even a ministry. You need only seek Jesus, your only source of love and truth. Be filled with Him, and He will fit you in.