One Man

Ezra 3:1 "And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem." NKJV

The vision is shared, the people's hearts are stirred and uprooted, and money is given for the building of the temple. Everything seems to be ready to go. What else is needed? What else is absolutely necessary for this work to proceed successfully? Unity. Everyone has to have one heart. Everyone has to have one goal. Everyone has to have one focus. Everyone has to be on board…and these people were. They were in the cities and they all came to Jerusalem as one man. This was a group of people who all came together for one purpose, to rebuild the temple.

I love the passion that is in this chapter. First, an altar is built. Even though there were threats all around them, these people were committed and they moved forward to build an altar to God and to regularly present their sacrifices on it. Then they kept going and built the foundation for the temple. When this was completed all kinds of emotion broke out. The people joyfully celebrated. They shouted. They sang. They praised God. And some of the old guys who had seen the original temple cried. These were tears of joy because they knew that this was happening again and they got to see it. They were able to experience the rebuilding of this vision.

How did this happen? Vision. Heart. Unity. If we want to see anything accomplished for God, we have to have all three components. The vision has to be shared so that the hearts of people are stirred to take action and we all have to be in this thing together. No opposition. No doubting. No undercurrent of dissatisfaction. The working out of God's vision must be done by a unified group of people who present themselves as "one man". When I think of one man, I think of seeing one individual. This one individual only does one thing. This one individual only has one body. This one individual only has one mind. This one individual only has one spirit. I mean, a man's leg can't fall off and walk over to another area and do something that is different than the rest of his body. It all works together. It all works in harmony. It all goes after the same task. When I drive to Youngstown today to argue my cases, my brain does not stay home. (At least I hope it doesn't.) It comes with me. My body will work together to get me to my destination and accomplish the task that is ahead for today.

This is the way the church must be. We are one body in Christ. That is, we are one man, with the same vision, with the same heart, running after the same purpose.

God help us to do this.