BEING JOINED UNTO THE LORD

Thought for the book taken from the

Message delivered on August 19, 2006

City of Tete, Mozambique

©2006 by Ben Howard

All rights reserved. This book cannot be sold, nor in any way be used

for the soliciting of funds.

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version Bible

Published by the Sound Of Liberty

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www.SoundofLiberty.org

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BEING JOINED UNTO THE LORD

Lord, we are here tonight in this great City of Tete, Mozambique, to bring forth thy Word as we stand before this wonderful people that you have put such a love in our hearts for. I just pray, Lord, that you will bless us all together. The people have waited patiently here, and I pray that you reward them for their wait by giving them something that will help them eternally. Now bless thy Word as we read it, and may we all understand. Lord, may you quicken the Word of God so that it will become the living Word. We ask it in Jesus Christ name. Amen.

I’m going to read one scripture and it is found in 1 Corinthians 6:17; and it reads like this, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.” Praise the Lord! We have come from a long ways to see you and we fell in love with the African Bride the first time we came several years ago. I have been to the different countries of Africa to speak to His bride here that loves Jesus, and Jesus is the Word. The scripture we have read tonight says, “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” And we know that God is an eternal Spirit. God never did have a beginning. God will never have an ending. And when you are joined unto Him your spirit and God’s Spirit becomes one Spirit. That makes you an eternal being. According to the Book of Ephesians, Chapter One, you were with Him from before the foundation of the world. That is when He chose you. But we were not eternal beings when we were born into this world by the natural birth. It is when we were born again, and God’s Spirit came within us, and we were joined unto His Spirit, then we became an eternal being. Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “Repent every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That’s what he told the Jews on their feast day of Pentecost. And when the gospel came over to the Gentiles at Cornelius house (Acts, Chapter 10), it was the same with them. Hallelujah! So when you receive the Holy Ghost, you receive that eternal Spirit, you receive a new birth, you become an eternal being, you’ve been joined to the Lord. The Word says your spirit and God’s Spirit becomes one.

We know that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. He is light, and that is what is in you. The Word of God says, “He that has the Son has life. He that has not the Son has not life.” So when you become one with God, you are just as eternal as God is eternal. You can no more be lost than God can be lost. Hallelujah, because you are One! You are as old as God is, you are as young as God is, because your spirit and God’s Spirit has become the same - (I am speaking of the inner man here.)

When God started dealing with mankind in the beginning, He wanted to make a son of God and a daughter of God, and He wanted them to have eternal life. But the first Adam and Eve sinned and got away from God. When the serpent came to Eve, she listened to the serpent and she sold woman out to the serpent by listening to his lies and committing an illicit act with him resulting in bringing forth Cain, the son of the serpent, which was a hybrid child – him being the seed of the serpent and not Adam’s seed. But God came to Mary in the form of the Holy Spirit, (watch as this revelation unfolds.) Eve disbelieved the Word, but Mary believed the Word. What Eve did wrong, Mary did right. Amen! Eve disbelieved the Word of God and brought sin into the world. Mary believed God and got rid of sin, because the Bible says, “Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.” When that angel came to Mary and told her she would become with child of the Holy Spirit, she said, “Be it unto me according to thy Word.” She believed the Word of God; therefore her obedience atoned for Eve’s disobedience, and she picked woman back up to her rightful place. Remember Eve sold woman down on a lower level by her disobedience to God’s Word as she had an illicit act with a lower creature which was the serpent, but Mary became one with a higher being and she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit and brought forth that eternal life in the form of baby Jesus. Therefore when Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He came to the women first. It was the women at the grave when Jesus rose from the dead. He told them, “Go tell my apostles that I have risen from the dead.” By Him coming to the women first, it was showing that God had made a way for not only man being joined back to Him, but woman also. Amen!

So let’s treat women as they are in the New Testament now, and not in the Old Testament way. In the Old Testament, a woman served a lower level than man, because of what Eve did. But in the New Testament, because of what Mary did by believing the Word of God, by saying, “Be it unto me according to thy Word” and bringing forth Jesus Christ, then that put man and woman back on the same level as far as salvation is concerned. Hallelujah! Now a woman can go to God for herself. That is the New Testament woman. That is what you sisters are; you are New Testament sisters of the Lord. But I want you notice before the fall ever took place in the garden, God put the leadership in the man, and the leadership is still there today. Therefore when God calls the ministry, He said He gave these gifts to men, which are apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers. But the sisters can have any of the nine spiritual gifts. The sisters can have the nine fruits of the Spirit. God said He made man and woman heirs of eternal life. They are heirs together of eternal life. Therefore woman is not lower than man. She is on the same level as the man. She is that feminine part of the body of Christ, and it is very important to know she is the feminine part of the body. It takes man and woman. Because when God created Adam and Adam was alone, that is the only thing that God created that He said wasn’t good. Everything God created, He looked and said it was very good, but when He saw Adam alone and everything else had a mate, He said it is not good for man to be alone, so He continued His creation. He took a rib from Adam’s side and created him a wife. He took those feminine attributes out of Adam and put them in Eve, thus making her feminine and him masculine. Now all that was in Adam to begin with was now in Adam and Eve. It is the same thing with Jesus Christ. When He was crucified at Calvary and the Roman soldier ran the spear into His side and the water and blood came out, Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost. That same Holy Ghost came back upon the church. It was first to the Jews, and then on a Gentile bride. Now God has a bride for His Son with all His feminine attributes in her.

So it wasn’t good for Christ to be alone, part of Him was missing. He didn’t have that bride. But Paul introduced us as a chaste virgin to Christ. That is in 2 Corinthians 11:2. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 19, it shows Christ married to His bride. Now she is bone of His bone, and spirit of His Spirit; they become one with each other, Amen! Their Spirits are joined together. That’s why He says, “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit,” that’s through the gift of the Holy Ghost as that Spirit comes into your heart. Now that is the Spirit that will join up with Jesus Christ, making you perfectly the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now we have that in the earth today, we have the body of Christ, and in the body of Christ, there is the male part and there is a feminine part. When you see these ministers sitting up here on this platform, God puts the leadership in them. Just the same way He put leadership in Adam. Just the same way He put leadership in Christ. When Christ ascended on high, He gave gifts unto men. These are the five preaching gifts to lead the church under the direction of the Holy Ghost. As that man of God takes the Word of God, anointed with the Holy Ghost, then you having the Holy Ghost too, as he takes that Word of God and breaks it to you, it just thrills your heart.

It is just like man and woman in the natural today – we know that the Word teaches that man is the head of the house – I am talking about a Christian Holy Ghost man here. God is the head of both man and woman. But when that ministry gets up here preaching, that Holy Ghost in you will respond back to it, and you will began rejoicing in the Lord. Hallelujah! Glory to God! That feminine part has got to pull toward that male part. It is just like in a family today when a man and woman marry, and if they didn’t say good things to one another, there would not be that attraction for each other. Is that right? Let’s give the Lord a good hand clap!

Let me say, here is what Christ is doing now, He set that New Testament ministry back in the church. He has set true leadership in the church. He has set apostolic leadership in the church and all the ministers speak the same thing and see eye to eye. And as they do that, you being the feminine part of the church see this taking place, the ministers in one mind and one accord, speaking the truth in love and it brings great joy to you. The Word says, “Speaking the truth in love,” and we don’t need to do it any other way! That’s like a man saying good sweet things to his wife, and the wife responds by saying good sweet things to the husband. There becomes a pull between the man and the woman. There becomes a pull between the husband and wife. They just can’t stay away from one another, because they love each other so much. That is the way God set it up. That’s why He made Adam and Eve (male and female), because that feminine spirit and that masculine spirit pull together. Notice that, masculine and feminine; not masculine with masculine, or feminine with feminine, because that would be perversion and against God’s Word. But God said, “Male and female.”

Paul said, “When you are joined to Christ, you become one Spirit with Him.” You love Him with all your heart. You want to praise Him. Paul said, “Have a song in your heart, making melody in your heart to the Lord.” A woman that is happy, when she is cooking, preparing a meal, many times she is singing or humming, she is happy, she is preparing a good meal for her husband. And when that husband sits down at the table, he tells that wife, “My, this meal sure is good; you really did a good job.” And he gives her a big hug, that feminine spirit and masculine spirit pulls together. Well that is the five fold ministry and the church in this hour, because the ministry is joined to the Lord, which is the masculine part of the body, and the feminine part is joined to the Lord, and you both fall in love with Christ. Amen! Paul says, “When the church is built up into the perfect stature of the man Christ Jesus, that we would speak the truth in love.”

I have never met a woman yet that didn’t want her husband to talk love talk to her and say sweet things to her; pat her on the back and tell her that he couldn’t make it without her. Well Christ can’t be complete without His bride. Amen! That’s why God put the five fold ministry in the church to type out the marriage of Christ and the bride. When that bride sees that ministry up speaking, she sees Christ. Paul said, “You glorify Christ in me.” They were glorifying Christ in Paul, because he was presenting Christ to them. That is why we are here in Africa, to present Christ to you as He is revealing the fullness of Himself at this end time by revelation. Amen! We want you to fall so in love with Christ that it makes you talk about Him all the time. And when you see the ministry doing its job and that ministry is saying good things to the church along with the truth about the Word, immediately you will think about the days of Paul as you see the fulfillment of the promise that God gave through the mouth of Paul; for Paul said good things to the church. He said, “We are more than conquerors.” He said, “Christ is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above anything we could ask or think.” Paul said, “I say unto you rejoice evermore.” Praise God! Because the church saw Christ in the ministry. I am over here in Africa for one purpose, and that is to get you to fall more in love with Jesus, which is the Word that has come to get you married to Him. (Revelation 10:8-11) And to the ministers here, I am here to put my shoulder to the wheel with you – standing shoulder to shoulder with you in the Word of God. Paul said, “I would that you all speak the same thing, that you be of the same mind and the same judgment.” And even told Timothy, “These things you’ve heard me say, you preach the same thing and the blessing of the Lord be upon you.”

As the ministry begins to see eye to eye, begins to speak the same thing, begins to see the same thing in the Word, begins to respect each other’s office – pastors respect pastors, pastors respect that teacher, pastors respect that evangelist, and all the members of the body respect that apostle. There’s your leadership of the church. Not just the apostle, but it includes the other four offices of the five fold ministry. Then that feminine part of the body that knows she’s not supposed to get up and preach knows that she is an important part of this. That is when you sing and praise God and say, “Come on, preach it Brother.” You become our cheerleaders, urging us on. Hallelujah! That feminine spirit and that masculine spirit begins to draw together, as the church knows that she has an important part in this work of perfection. The sisters know that they have an important part in this great work of getting this gospel to the Gentile bride, as they are an important part of it. The little ones know they have an important part in this. Jesus took the little ones (children) and set them on His knee, “Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not, because such is the Kingdom of God.”

I am here to tell you that we are one! There is not any big “I’s” or little “u’s. We have one hero among us and His name is Jesus! And He wants the church to praise His name. He doesn’t’ just want the preachers to praise His name, He wants the whole church. “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!” He said, “Let the trees clap their hands!” Glory to God!

One time when Jesus was preaching the Word of God and talking to the people of God, He was on His way to Jerusalem, and the multitudes began to say, “Hosanna, Hosanna to the King!” The religious leaders wanted to stop those people from saying that. He said, “If they don’t praise me the stones will.” Therefore God wants praise from the congregation. God wants a handclap from the congregation. God wants singing from the congregation. You are that special feminine part of the body of Christ, Amen! I don’t know if you ever noticed it or not, but us preachers can preach a whole lot better if we get some response from the congregation. We are joined unto the Lord! We are marching to Zion, praise God!

Just think, Jesus could not be complete without the feminine part of His body. If when He ascended on high, He just gave something only to the men, then it would still be incomplete. But He gave the sisters gifts also, so that they would have an equal part in this body, which is the church. Even Mary had to receive the Holy Ghost. You become the cheerleaders for the ministry. God wants to show us that man and woman is on the same level. Part of your job is to praise God, worship God and to serve Him, and let the gifts of the Spirit work right through you. The ministry’s job is to preach the Word of God, and as we preach the Word of God, we’ve got to be one. There cannot be division among us, because a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. If a husband tells his wife today, “I love you,” and tomorrow he says, “I hate you,” that’s a double-minded man. She doesn’t know whether to cook him a good meal or not. She doesn’t know whether to meet him at the door and put her arms around him or not, because that double-minded man has got her confused. She doesn’t know exactly where she stands with him. But if there stands a ministry up here, all speaking the same thing and speaking the truth in love, then that little bride can’t wait to get to church. She’ll come into church singing the praises of God, because that minister is speaking the truth in love. That minister loves the church. He said, “There is no greater love than any man has, that he is willing to lay down his life for his brother.” Jesus said, “The good shepherd lays down His life for the flock.” He said, “I am the good shepherd.”

We ministers are here representing that male part of Christ, and you (the rest of the body) are here representing that feminine part of Christ. Hallelujah! God took the feminine attributes out of Christ, as He did with Adam and put them in His chosen people to be His bride. And He sent a man named Paul, the Apostle Paul, to call out a Gentile people for His name sake. When God struck down Paul with a great light on the way to Damascus and he was converted, God said, “I am going to send you to the Gentiles.” He said, “You will be a light to the Gentiles.” These ministers sitting here on this platform will be a light to you. As the light shines forth from these ministers upon the congregation, then the bride will have light. Paul said in Romans 11:13, “I am the apostle (singular) to the Gentiles. I magnify my office.” Now Peter didn’t preach about the five fold ministry. The twelve apostles to Israel didn’t preach about the five fold ministry, because the Jews are the brethren. To the Jews, Christ is their elder brother. But to the bride, He is the bridegroom, and we are being married to Him. So therefore the ministry that God has set in the church to lead and guide you, it represents that masculine part of the body that has the Word and leadership for you. As they speak the truth to you in love, it makes you fall in love with Jesus even more. Praise God, Praise God!

Now he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit! That makes you as eternal as He is. Whereby God said you are sealed with the Holy Ghost and that seal cannot be broken. And since the seal cannot be broken, you can be no more lost than God can be lost, because you are connected to Him by the Holy Ghost. The Word says in Revelation, Chapter 19:7-8, speaking of the bride as she is married to Christ, and to her was granted that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. I tell you the move is on for the bride, because the ministry is getting their head on straight. They realize we can’t fuss and argue with one another, they realize we can’t try to contradict each other. Paul said, “We are one!” He said, “One plants, another waters, but God giveth the increase.” Back in the days that Paul preached, some of the people began to get carnal-minded, and some began to say, “I am of Paul, I am of Peter and others said I am of Apollos.” But Paul said, “Who is Paul? Who is Peter? We are just ministers by whom you have believed.” Now please listen carefully as we come to the closing of this message.

As God created Eve to be a bride for Adam; even so now, He has created the church to be the bride (wife) for Christ. As you know, Eve had an illicit affair with the serpent, but one thing we notice about Eve was that she didn’t stay with the serpent. Think about that? She didn’t stay with the old serpent. She realized the old serpent lied to her and deceived her. Watch now as we bring this revelation to your attention. Adam being a type of Christ loved his wife Eve and stepped over the line of God’s Word with her, and took upon himself the death sentence (setting a type of what Christ did at Calvary) in order to save His wife. So Adam took Eve unto himself, and they became one with one another. Then all heaven rejoiced over this action, because that’s the way it was supposed to be before Eve became defiled by her indiscretion with the serpent. Eve’s eyes were opened to the truth concerning this action. And because she was a true seed of God, she left the serpent and returned to Adam, the one that God had ordained for her from before the foundation of the world. She realized that she could not become one with that serpent as she was a daughter of God and the serpent was a beast of the field. Their spirits were totally different and would not become one as their flesh did in the illicit act. So the only right thing to do was to get out of that situation as quickly as possible. Now it is known to us that through this fleshly act, a son was conceived and brought forth being born strictly of fleshly pleasure outside of God’s book of predestinated life. Now this son whom they called Cain was just a carnal man without any spirituality, and from him came all the carnality that we see today in the carnal man, which includes all the carnal religion that’s in the world today.

Now let’s look at God’s plan as it gets back on track. Eve left the serpent and came back to Adam, her predestinated husband when her eyes were opened to what God had ordained for her. She and Adam came together, both in flesh and spirit. And as Eve had been taken from Adam’s side and was already part of Adam – both of his flesh and spirit, they united perfectly together and Abel was born according to God’s plan,” whom Cain the carnal man slew. But God gave Adam and Eve another son called Seth, and he like Abel had revelation about this whole situation, and realized the blood had been defiled. That’s why Abel offered a blood sacrifice unto God by slaying a lamb, a type of Christ being slain for our sins.

Please note here: Once Eve left the serpent and came to Adam, her predestinated husband, what had happened previously before the uniting of Adam and Eve was never spoke of by Adam in a way that would make Eve feel belittled or of lesser value; as she had done what was the right thing to do once she was enlightened to truth. This shows us a great truth concerning God’s people that has united with a denomination, but all of a sudden are enlightened to the truth, and hear God’s Voice saying, “Come out of that system, it’s the serpent’s religious system.” When one of God’s saints comes out of that system, we along with all the host of heaven rejoice with them. They have left the serpent and come to God. Many times a son of God, or daughter of God find themselves married by the flesh to someone that God has not ordained for them, but have attached themselves to someone that expresses the carnality of the serpent and not that of Christ, and (again like Eve) they have to get out of that situation in order to live a peaceable life for the Lord. (A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called us to peace.) Once they see the situation is not changing for good; then it would be spiritually unhealthy to live like that. In such cases we should never try to make them feel like somehow they are not pleasing God. God will judge us if we do. (Please note: I am not saying a Christian person cannot have a non-Christian as a mate, as long as they love, honor and respect each other, and the non-Christian does not hinder the Christian from living in peace and serving the Lord. Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 7.)

Watch now, please bear with me another minute or two as I bring this message to a conclusion, or as one of my good African-American minister-friend says when closing, “I’m bringing it home now.” The thing that happened with the early church lets us know that the serpent would have beguiled us also had not God sent us a voice saying, “Come out of her my people,” as Malachi, Chapter 4 teaches us that God would send a prophet to do this, him being properly vindicated by God, we heeded the warning. We praise God for this! Now we have become joined to the Lord and not a denominational system. So you see why Paul warned the early church saying, “I have introduced you to Christ, but I fear as the serpent beguiled Eve, that you will be beguiled from the simplicity that’s in Christ.” This warning for the most part went unheeded, and the church fell away from its purity; as God had foretold in His Word that it would do and it happened just as He said. (Matthew, Chapter 13)

The serpent got the little bride sidetracked, and the serpent got her to join a denominational system. As Eve didn’t stay with the serpent, the little bride didn’t stay with that denominational system. She came out of that system to stand with the Word; her husband Jesus, and the Lord cleansed her and gave her fine linen. Now she has become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and spirit of His Spirit. She becomes His very wife! Thus we can say, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.” Now she is married to Christ, and Christ whispers sweet things in her ears. That’s the ministry speaking the truth in love. God bless you. It’ been a pleasure to talk to you and peach to you here in this great country of Mozambique, in this wonderful City of Tete. Remember that Brother and Sister Howard have a special love for you, and that you will always be in our prayers and in our hearts as we wait for the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to thank my interpreters for their faithfulness in interpreting this message into your local language as it has gone forth tonight. God bless you Brothers, and God bless all of you here in Mozambique. Again, we love the African bride. Amen.

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