All the ills that could be listed about the church today could be linked back to this one thing: We have gone our busy and well-intentional ways without the approval and authority of the active headship of Jesus Christ. Any body disconnected from its head will act erratically and eventually be found dead. The proverbial behavior of a “chicken with its head cut off” is too often an apt description of our churches. This, of course, is followed by the cooker. Satan eats us alive when we are intentionally or, more commonly, gradually and casually separated from our Head.
United, humble, Scripture-based praying with Christ present and in charge honors the headship of Christ and keeps us connected and aligned with Him in our corporate behavior.
There is always pain, distraction, and mischief in any congregation where a strong, proud, or uninformed person assumes the headship role. The church is a theocracy and is meant to be ruled by God. Everything is to be saturated in prayer and immersed by the overwhelming presence of the glorified Christ. Even physical matters, such as the spending of funds, need to meet the approval of Christ. Lordship is often thought of as detached, but active and effective Headship only gives life when it is attached (to the body). If Jesus is replaced or relegated to the place of a “figure-head”, the church is immediately cut off from its source of life. Jesus Christ must be obviously present (not an assumed presence) and actively in charge.
Here are some clear Scriptures for us to consider:
“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)
“But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)