A few years ago the Holy Spirit admonished me to not despise the process of alignment. As God puts His Body together His way, there is no process - adjustments are made much like a chiropractor works over his patient. Ouch! God's methods are sometimes very uncomfortable.

In looking back over the years, Steve and I were searching for 'the key'. As we discovered something new (new to us), we inevitably trumpeted it as 'the key' to bringing about God's purposes. However, God would eventually seperate the wheat from the chaff and we would end up throwing out the entire teaching, or keeping the 'gold' while discarding the fluff.

This process has bothered me. Recently as I was mediatating on this. I became down right irritated with myself for latching on to 'this and that' only to discard much of it later on. Then the Lord spoke again: These 'teachings' have been scaffolding in our lives. They were used to broaden our horizons, to enlarge our vision, to stretch us out of our 'religious box'. The stretching process has enabled us to climb out of the 'box' and see things from God's perspective. Scaffolding is meant to be discarded; it is only a temporary device. Whew! What a relief.

Here is one specific example of what I am sharing: Several years ago, we discovered 'cell groups'. Yes! We announced, meetings in homes are THE answer. After a season, however, we realised that the church has a 'meeting mentality', and that God is after relationships, not meeting locations. In fact, as we journeyed on, we learned that God is not even too concerned with meetings. Not that we don't gather together, but not in the manner in which we have traditionally experienced. Even though cell groups are not God's final answer to the issue of gathering together, it was a stepping stone that God used to break us out of a church building mentality. We still don't have the final answer to this question, but we do have THE ANSWER - Jesus Christ!

God's perpective is so much larger than ours. He doesn't want us to cling to the scaffolding. I see scaffolding all around the Body of Christ and most of God's people refuse to budge from their perches on it. God's relationship to His Body is intended to be progressive. As we look to Him we are to be transformed into the same image, from glory to glory (2 Cor, 3:18).

As we journey on, it is much like climbing up a mountain - the higher we get, the larger our vision of what is below. We can see the bigger piCture instead of the narrow view from below. Our vision is increased and broadened. Oh, that we would shed the scaffolding as the Lord leads, and moves us up higher!

Steve & Terri White welcome contact: [email protected]