Dwelling in Unity

Greetings! My name is Emmanuel and if you read Kristian’s last blog he mentions recruiting another team member to be a writer on this blog. So, I guess I was the one picked and it is an honor and privilege for me to be writing on this blog with Kristian who is my good friend, family member (he married my cousin Bina), and most of all Brother in Christ.

I do not want to talk too much about myself, but in a nutshell I want to go on the record as saying I am a man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Baptizer, and Healer. His grace has found me and He is changing my life for His glory. I think it is important for us to make confessions of faith and declare the Lord’s goodness in our lives.

God saves us when we come by His grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. He saves us from sin, eternal death, and the wrath to come on the basis of Jesus’ perfect sinless life and sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. However, this is by no means ‘only’ an individual salvation but part of a greater story that God is writing in human history – “his-story”. God is making a “people for His Name” (Acts 15:14) and His great Name is to be established amongst His people.

Recently, I have had the privilege to be part of a men’s accountability group in which we encourage one another and grow in the grace of God. We come from different church backgrounds, traditions, families, culture, etc. – but we are one in Christ! I am so blessed to have this fellowship and know that I am part of the family of God by His grace. In the Bible, God says it is good and pleasant when brothers and sisters come together and dwell in unity (see the following passage from Psalm 133):

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,

Coming down upon the beard,

Even Aaron's beard,

Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon

Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;

For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.”

In this text the author uses two similes to describe the reason it is “good and pleasant” for brothers and sisters in the Lord to dwell together in unity. The first simile talks about the anointing oil on the head of Aaron which flows down to his beard and down further to the edge of his robes. The anointing oil in the Old Testament was oil used to set apart the priest unto the Lord. It was a way of marking them out as consecrated for service to God. Aaron was the first high priest in the Old Testament and was anointed by Moses.

"So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” – Exodus 29:44-46

See the Lord wanted these priests to be set apart before Him as holy, and to be known as their God. The Old Testament is a foreshadowing of things to come in the New Testament. So, anytime we read about Egypt or slavery in Egypt that is basically life lived outside of Christ and His salvation from a New Testament perspective. So, God says specifically He saved them and vindicated them so that He could dwell among them. God desires to be part of our lives not just so we can have eternal life in heaven but that we might know Him and His love for us – now! Part of this knowing and experiencing the presence of God is done through the community of faith – when believers dwell in unity.

This unity is in the context of brotherly love. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us. The anointing of God that rests upon us all who are now part of the universal priesthood when we come to faith in Christ (1 Peter 2:9) flows from our initial anointing; our consecration to God in His saving grace to the outer extremities of our lives. Just like it flowed downward from Aaron’s head this anointing of brotherly love and unity flows into the outer spheres of influence that God has given to us in our individual lives.

Furthermore, when we are in Christ and abiding in Him, he is our great High Priest who has the “anointing oil of joy” upon Him (Hebrews 1:9). So, we experience the joy of the Lord in the Holy Spirit when we dwell in unity with brothers and sisters in Christ – as the name of this blog suggests it is an inexpressible joy which is full of the glory of God!

The text from Psalm 133 goes on with the second simile which talks about the dew of Hermon which comes down to the mountains of Zion. Mount Hermon from a geographical perspective is higher up in elevation in comparison to Mount Zion. As dew is new every morning so is the Lord’s loving kindness and compassion toward us (Lamentations 3:22-23). So, we see again in the context of God’s presence with us when we dwell in unity the understanding of brotherly love flowing downward to all areas of our lives and not confined to just one area.

Finally, when we dwell in unity and understand that we are not just individuals but we are saved into the Body of Christ from a corporate perspective we realize that God has a destiny for His people – life forever in Him. There is so much death in the world everywhere we look, but let us remember that God dwells amongst His people when we dwell with each other in unity and there is “life” to be experienced in that dwelling place.

I wanted to end with writing out the lyrics to the chorus of one of my favorite songs where we can see God’s love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us – and that love of God flows primarily through His people from the place of united brotherly love to all the world so that His glory will cover the earth as the waters covers the sea!

"The Blood will Never Lose Its Power" by Andrae Crouch

It reaches to the highest mountain,

it flows to the lowest valley;

the blood that gives me strength from day to day,

it will never lose its power

Blessings,



Emmanuel