Real Hope: Unite in Hopeنموونە

Unity In Diversity

Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body, by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

In 2015, I visited America for a Church women’s conference. It was so different from what I was used to. It wasn’t the fact that there were so many different denominations represented, it was how the different denominations were free to express themselves in the manner they were used to. Some sat quietly, others waved flags or danced in the aisles, some lifted hands high in praise, while others stood with their eyes closed.  It was awe-inspiring because they did all this separately,  yet together, with hearts united with Him and with each other.

For me, I just wept:  here I was, witnessing the personality of God displayed through His children!  It was here, that I received a word in my spirit; ‘Unity in Diversity'- and that is a concept that I’ve carried ever since. Unity begins in our hearts. It comes from His Spirit, and it cannot be enforced by laws or religion that just produce conformity. The Apostle Paul used the metaphor of the body as he tried to share with the Corinthians the fundamental importance of unity in diversity in Christ. The various members of the body, controlled by a single will, work together for the same ends. This unity includes a common head – ‘Christ is the Head of the Church’.

To unite in hope in this hour is to understand that, though we may be so different, we have this in common – we love Jesus! We love Him, we desire to love His people and we all have the same Holy Spirit to lean on. The fruit that He bears in our lives helps us to be unified: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law’ (Galatians 5:22–23).

Written by HEIDI WYSMAN