Real Fellowship/Communion

Pastor Bruce has been preaching on the subject of communion or fellowship in the church, and it has really been moving my heart. Actually, the week prior to his message on communion, I had been reading the book of First John and the passage of the prayer that Jesus prayed for his believers before he gave His life on the cross. It was so funny, because, Bruce used both of those passages in his message, and I just knew that the Holy Spirit had been speaking the same thing to my heart and probably the rest of the church's heart as well. There are two things about communion.

-You can't have communion with God without also loving his children/His body.
and
-You can't have real fellowship with the church without "returning to your First Love" (Jesus) which enables you to love the church unselfishly.
-Also, you must be transparent and willing to humble your self, or there will be nothing real happening between the members of the body of Christ.

When I was reading these passages on fellowship, God spoke one other very specific scripture to my heart, and that is, in Revelations where Jesus is speaking to the seven churches and to one of them he says, "You must return to your First Love (Jesus)". That church had loved Jesus passionately at first, but their hearts had become filled with other things.
There is not room for Jesus and other things to have first place in our hearts! There is only one first place, one throne of your heart.
What does it mean to "return to your First Love"?
What does it mean to love Christ and to be transparent?

We have no idea what needs others in the body of Christ may have, the struggles they may be going through, or the help they may need from us as their brothers and sisters in Christ. First John says, "If you claim to love God, but you hate your brother, you are deceiving yourself," he is talking about what real love is. We cannot love God, but be in opposition to his body, we must support His body and help it grow!

Gosh, I just have such a heart to see the Church of God stand as one.
Jesus said that the world will know that God sent Him if we as believers truly love one another. The world is not able to truly love each other, because love comes from God, and they that have not God, have not real love for each other. I am talking about selfless love. The love that lays itself down. THAT is how the world will know that Jesus truly was the Son of God, by His love flowing through us to each other! That is a powerful statement.

The Church is so broken, so divided, so full of pride. It does not always choose to love as Jesus did. We are divided over theology, cultural issues, abortion, gay marriage, politics, and many other things.
Things that the heart of God is not divided on.
It says in the bible that we have One God, One Father, One Faith.
How can we then we divided? Is there not one will of the Holy Spirit to unite us so that the world can see the true power of Christ?
God can and will do this!
When I fellowship with the Holy Spirit, He speaks to me about these issues.
I am not talking about rules, or about legalism. I am talking about God's heart. If you know God's heart, you know where he stands on these issues. Such things should not render the church impotent and lifeless, unable to stand as one against the demonic forces in this present age.
God is raising such a passion in me to see the church united.

There is a song by Jason Upton called,"They Will Know We ARe Christians By Our Love" on his Remember Cd. Listen to that song.

Another scripture that God spoke to me about this is, "unless two be agreed, how can they walk together?"
We must be agreed as the people of God, and we must walk together!
United we stand, divided we fall.

Come on, people of God! Lets love one another with the love of God. Then the world will know that Jesus is who He says He is.