For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
1 Corinthians 11:29‭-‬32 KJV

The Lord has been stirring my heart concerning two issues, that is the two movements in the earth in touching unity, one being the unity of men in the Babylon system. And the unity of the Spirit to be part of the true Church, yet resisted by the enemy every moment.

Not discerning the Lord’s Body here is in the context of the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper.

When you consider the partaking of the bread and wine you are speaking of the central core reason for the Church; knowing Christ.

What is taking place is a fragmentation and dilution which is bringing us into a very different vision of what is Church. The result of not discerning the Body of the Lord is more far reaching than recognising the Body of the Lord in the ceremonial Supper, but it is a command to understand that the Body of the Lord is not bread but it is a generational invisible Temple that has Jesus by His Spirit dwelling in this corporate setting.

When we have a earthly vision of Church we can see the labels, denominations, characteristics, ecclesiastical structures, theologians, all manner of human activities, yet miss the discerning! The lack of discerning can bring us into sickness and oppression and even spiritual death. It is that serious.

Idolatry is not solely making an image but bringing down what is heavenly and making it earthly. We exchange glory for earthly influence. We exchange holiness for churchy activity. We exchange Christocentric faith for focussing on our needs.

Right now I discern worrying trends where we are walking into a place where we will no longer discern the Lord’s Body. We are styling the Church on what is pleasing on a contemporary level instead of seeking out a heavenly culture of heaven and what goes on there.

The Church meeting is fast becoming a concert, the preaching is almost becoming a political rally. Ecclesiastically we are seeing great groups conglomerating and franchising their “flavour” of people groups they want to reach, and music style that will appeal and feel good factor they want to hear from the Word.

Yet more and more we see that the Church has a form of godliness and yet rejects the power of the same.

We pride ourselves on our “discoveries” since the Reformation yet we are more gullible to false teachers, more ignorant of the Word, more divided than ever before and power does not manifest in the meetings.

If we do not discern WHAT is the Lord’s Body we cannot expect His Power to manifest in our midst.

Churches are seeing their revenue and influence decline, and are coming under logos and names like great franchises. Seeing old members in times past we the forerunners of great moves of God now put aside in a pursuit for new methods.

Yet for all their lights they are in darkness, for all their music they irritate the ear of God, for all their smoke they are a glory less house. For all their passion they have no real fire.

And many already sleep the slumber of the spiritual dead that they no longer recognise the Lord.

Discerning the Lord’s Body means to reject the division, reject the easy strategies to gain influence. The way to a true move of God today is a long road of discipline and prayer.

May we discern His Body so we may recognise His Glory.

Once we can partake His elements as He would wish so we will be transformed into the Church He wants us to be!

Shalom!