Gò0dNews from the Pastor’s Desk
Lord, Do It Again—Make Us One
A
by Phil Wade
s we pray together as a church body, my one
to love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love
prayer for the church is: Father in Heaven, do it
one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
again—make us one. I was not the first to pray this
disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Where
prayer. In fact, our Savior and Lord Jesus was. In John 17:20-
will it start? It starts with you. It starts with me.
24, we see Jesus praying for His disciples and the believers.
III. What would unify the church—one purpose
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one” (John 17:20). We often pray to Jesus and ask Him to answer our prayers. What if we, as churches across the world, became
Jesus declared our purpose: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). What would happen if we—the churches across the
the answer to His prayer when Jesus prayed, “Father, make them one.” Do you think we are a unified group? Or do you think we are rather divided? What would the world say? What would Jesus say? In my opinion, Scripture teaches us three ones that it would take to bring unity in the family of Christ.
I. What would unify the church—one enemy What we have is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. He is the one who wants to bring division into the church. As believers around the world right now, we have to recognize the evil one is trying to destroy us (John 10:10). He wants to steal our unity. He wants to kill our churches. The evil one can and will bring division in every way possible—
world—united and took all the resources that God has given
denominations, worship style, Bible translations, dress, or
us, and we became one? Let’s join our hearts together and
entertainment. Here’s what we are told to do: “Resist him,
pray together.
standing firm in the faith, because you know that your
Father, as Your church, make us the Church. Make us
brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same
unified. God, forgive us when we have a competitive heart.
kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
God, forgive us when we are overly critical. God, fill us so
II. What would unify the church—one heart
full of Your love that the world around us would say, “I
Notice, I did not say it would take one style of worship or one philosophy of doing church, because the truth is, unity is not the same thing as uniformity. In fact, there is
want to be a part of that.” God, may we be the generation that unifies around the love of Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, my prayer is, do it again—make us one.
doing church, but one heart for Jesus and for people (Acts 4:32, 34). Jesus said, “A new command I give to you. It is
6 // March 2022
About The Author
strength in our diversity. We can have different ways of Pastor Phil Wade and his wife Keli have two children and five grandchildren. His passion in returning to Rome is to give back to Rome the investment they made in him as he served as lead Pastor of Northside Church since 2012.
