UNITY

Acts 2:1-4 NIV –

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[ a] as the Spirit enabled them.

What does it really mean? Unity. Does it mean we all think in lock-step the same ideas? Does it mean we all wear the same clothes, drive the same car and drink the same soda? Does it mean we all root for the same team, the same sport and the same player? Probably not! That sounds a little cult-ish.

Yet, a lot can be accomplished in our lives when we work toward the same goal. In fact, there is more power in a group of people working together for a common goal, than there would be if each person worked individually. It’s called ‘synergy.’ It is the power of the combined force verses the force of individuals. And, that power can work for good-or bad!

Let me remind you of the Tower of Babel when humans thought they could reach Heaven if they would just all work together to build this huge tower to reach God. I am not really sure that God believed that they would be able to do it, or did He just think He would spare them from a massive defeat. He confused their languages forcing them to split up and go on their way to different corners of the earth.

Maybe you have seen it in other ways. The rebellious kid in your 7th grade class rounds up a group of other rebellious kids and they plot to harass the rest of the kids in the schoolyard. Synergy.

Or, more recently they become emboldened by their own self interest and find other disenfranchised groups. Linking up, they loot cities, tear down statues and even keep police from the job they are hired to do. Synergy.

When we are in a unified voice for good, however, we can accomplish great things with synergy on our side! In the verse above, from the second chapter of Acts, the disciples who had followed Jesus, listened to His teaching and watched Him die, were gathered in an upstairs room…waiting! That is what He said to do. Waiting for what? They did not know, they just knew if the Master was sending something called ‘The Holy Spirit,’ it had to be good!

And it was! Over 2000 years later we can still have that power that was given to the disciples to ‘Go’ into the world and preach the good news about Jesus! Up to that point they just seemed to be a rag tag team of fishermen, paupers, and some curious religious people who were following an ‘idea’ that things could be better. Now, they all had the same experience and it gave them a power they had not felt before. On that day, Pentecost, they received the third person of the Trinity. They received the Holy Spirit. This was a power that had existed before, in rare instances it was seen. But now it would live within every believer. This same Holy Spirit would be the connecting link uniting all believers in heart and mind to Himself. That, my friend is Godly synergy! That is the spirit that connects us at the heart.

I believe when the ‘church’ puts aside it’s petty differences and puts their energy into fighting the battles that make a real difference, we will begin to see the changes of synergy. If we all stood FOR life, FOR marriage between a man and a woman, FOR prayer in school, FOR living with the gender you were called at birth, we would begin a return to the foundation we were meant to have.

Let me know what you think!