With One Voice
Now may God, the source of great endurance and comfort, grace you with unity among yourselves, which flows from your relationship with Jesus, the Anointed One. Then, with a unanimous rush of passion, you will with one voice glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ROMANS 15:5-6 TPT
As a small child, my consuming desire was to learn to play the piano. Wherever our family went, I would scout around to see if there just happened to be a piano in the house, and if my sleuthing succeeded, everyone within earshot would be treated—like it or not—to a cacophony of sounds produced by immature yet zealous young hands. With proper training over a period of many years, these two hands became disciplined to work together, eventually able to create sonorities of true beauty. That is, if the instrument happened to be in tune.
After earning two degrees in piano performance, I began to fully understand that in order to perform to my maximum capability, the instruments I played needed to be finely tuned. The tension of the strings had to be adjusted in order for the intervals between them to vibrate in harmony with one another. The master piano tuner would derive every adjustment from a single chosen pitch, usually A440, using a tuning fork and other tools to bring the instrument into perfect harmony. As I toured around the country doing concerts, I required the services of expert technicians to enable my performances to be everything I wanted them to be.
Naturally, my piano-playing interest was piqued recently when I read A.W. Tozer’s words, “Has it ever occurred to you that 100 pianos, all tuned to the same fork, are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So, 100 worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.” (A.W. TOZER, THE PURSUIT OF GOD)
God is our keynote, offering Jesus as the perfect standard by which the Holy Spirit is able to bring us into harmony with one another. Unity is not a societally-imposed effort to bring everyone around to the same way of thinking; it is the fruit of intimacy with God as individuals attuned to His perfect pitch come together in one accord.
As a member of the MICN leadership team, my mind is boggled on a regular basis by the awe-inspiring array of spiritual gifts manifested by this representation of the body of Christ. Even more awesome is the unity I see as each member, yielded in obedience to the voice of God, works in harmony with the others. We see this enacted each month on our ICPT/APT prayer calls. There is no apparent striving for unity; it exists because everyone is tuned to the same keynote. Our individual voices become a choir singing in unison, glorifying our God and Father.
Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one, that we would be brought to complete unity with the Godhead in order for the world to know Him and His incomprehensible love. When we are one with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are as one with our brothers and sisters. With one voice, we can glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jan de Chambrier
MICN Prayer Ambassador
