And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (NASB)

Insight

God designed the church to be an effective net to catch and haul fish into the kingdom of God. Jesus made this direct analogy in Matthew 13:47. The passage above from Ephesians contains net imagery, too. The Greek word that is translated “equipping” in verse twelve, literally means “mending”. Whenever disunity erupts in a church, it creates a big hole in the net. Any fish caught via the gospel will not want to remain where there is strife, accusation, criticism and general disunity. Strife opens the door to all kinds of evil, but unity always results in increased blessing from God.

Paul gives us some important keys to unity which I will list below. We should use these to guide us in our prayer.

Prayer Guide

• Unity of Faith – Strife tears down faith and ministers discouragement. Ask God to give us unity of faith and encouraged hearts.
• Work of Service – When we focus on the work of the Great Commission, it helps us avoid being sucked into the unity destroying schemes of the devil. Pray that God will keep our focus on reaching the lost with the gospel.
• Building Up – Pray that God will help us to speak encouraging words and that He will stop those who criticize and find fault. Pray that God will put praise in our mouths and faith in our hearts.
• Knowledge of the Son or God and Maturity – Disunity can only flourish where there is an insufficient revelation of Christ and immaturity reigns. Pray that God will give each of us a greater revelation of Christ and help us to walk in spiritual maturity instead of holding offenses and spreading disunity.
• Winds of Doctrine and Deceitful Scheming – Disunity is created and fertilized by false teaching and deliberate scheming by those who wish to harm the church. Pray that God will let truth prevail and nullify any schemes of the devil set against us.
• Building Up Itself in Love – The church can either destroy itself by fault finding or build itself up in love. Pray for grace for the church to build itself up through every person contributing what God has uniquely given them to do. The church net has the ability through God’s grace to mend itself. Broken threads need to be retied. Relationships need healing. Commitments need reaffirming. Ask God that the church will  speak the truth in love.
• Clarity – We want to see a huge harvest of souls in the coming days; so, it is a great time to mend our nets now. It would be better to have a smaller net with no holes than a larger one that is unable to hold the fish it catches. Pray that those who may be in the “valley of decision” regarding their relationship with the church can make a firm decision either to stay as a fully committed part of the net or move on to where they can be such somewhere else. Undecidedness plays havoc with church unity and morale. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8)
• Fruitfulness – After fishing all night and catching nothing, the disciples, weary and discouraged, were commanded by our Lord to let down their nets one more time. After a brief period of resistance, they obeyed and made a miraculous haul of fish. That is what we need Jesus to do for us now as a church. Pray that God will give us a huge catch!