WoW Voices: Seeing Unity Through Our Differences by Alexis Brown

As Women of the Way, we seek unity in the Body of Christ as we focus on Who unites us rather than what divides us.

We are One Body with many parts. We are One Church with many voices.

Join me in welcoming Alexis Brown as she shares her voice on unity!

Unity Brings Great Joy

Nothing gives me greater joy than to see my 5 children playing in unison or watching a movie together peacefully.

Why? If I am honest those moments are too few and far between in my household. Their personalities vary, their moods vary, not everyone is at the same level of communication and their interests are so different. To experience them in harmony is a special time. And in those moments, I don’t ask a lot of questions or even ponder how they got that way. I default to believing that the things that I have taught them about sharing, communicating, compromising and the constant encouragement that doing things together is a great experience took root in that moment.

Unity Brings the Father Greater Joy

I believe that no one gets more joy out of seeing children existing in one place in one accord as
their authentic selves than our heavenly Father.

The keys to His pleasure rest in a few words:

Authenticity

One place

and one accord.

You see I don’t believe you need to be in a moment of complete sameness, but rather it is fostered by the agreement between the same Holy Spirit.

This thought takes me to the day after Pentecost.

The believers there were certainly not the same in a sense. They did not all come from the same place. They did not all know the same ways of life, they didn’t have the same travel stories, but what was the same was their belief in Jesus and being filled (changed) inside by the Holy Spirit.

The change fostered the Unity.

The commonality that Christ brings us is the core of unity.

I don’t believe that we as a people can ever produce unity in our earthly ideas. It is not in our makeup, because we seek after our own desires (Galatians 5:16). Sometimes our earthly desires are subtle ways that divide us.

My husband and I have a hard time being in unity at 8 pm, which is our movie time together. He loves cop shows and I am more into family lighthearted comedy. I don’t often wrestle the remote away from him, but I often assume I am not the one who is disrupting the unity. But, what I did not see is that in my seeking my own desire I did not help bring about unity anymore than him hogging the remote.

How subtle, right?

Our desires can subtly move us away from unity and those selfish desires are something we must die to every day. When we die to our desires and seek after the unity that Christ brings, the possibilities that come out of that are what unity in Jesus looks like.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even .

Phillipians 2:5-8 ESV

Philippians drives the conversation of unity home for me.

The mind that must be in the saints of God is that of the trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are all one but are unique in mission and action. That is hard to even fathom with our human minds, isn’t it?

We have the opportunity to receive that mind through Jesus. What mind did Jesus have in reference to people?

Jesus acknowledged those around him: Unity means seeing those around you and welcoming their differences. Jesus was surrounded by very different men and he delighted in teaching them and strengthening them and most importantly he listened to them. Jesus saw people’s weakness and sought to confront the sin and then love the person.

Unity means caring enough to build relationships that are held together by the trust of being reproved if the time ever comes. Jesus loved others. Unity means being patient, kind, long suffering, forgiving, and hopeful always etc. We are culturally predisposed often to avoid people who cause us to need to be forgiving, long suffering or patient, right? But when Jesus shows us, who really need those things, then unity is built, because we are all so aware of how unlovable we can be. When we see each other in our mess and in our sin and are loved and supported anyway, then bonds are made that can’t be broken.

I have acquired a Sister friend during this pandemic and we are as different as they come. In age, in experience, in tragedy, in family dynamics and the list goes
on. I don’t tolerate her or seek to change her and I know the same is in her mind. What binds us so deeply is our Christ-given ability to SEE our differences and
understand how they affect us and how we can relate or learn from each other. Our conviction for Christ and our differences make for the greatest stories and
memories to share and always lead us back to the many discussions around our Faith. We managed to birth a book out of this Unity and that was not planned at all.
The book “She Is Not Different” attacks what can be the killer and stealer of
true unity in Christ and how we can become intentional in rebuking it and walking
hand in hand. In truth we could find Unity superficially with anyone about
anything, even something that is commonly hated can bind people together.

But Unity is more than aligning.

I can align with my children to go on strike when my husband grabs the remote for family movie time. We come together on the grounds of protesting against the “who did it series”, but that allegiance quickly falls apart as we reach for our own desires in genres of movies. We need something much stronger than hate to build true allegiances.

What is strongest?

The unfathomable nature and majesty of God. It’s when we embrace our Father’s ways by seeing what he sees in us, and our fellow human beings. When we give understanding to our fellow man and put ourselves aside for a time. We don’t have to conjure up unity and it may not even be completely obvious to us. WE must reach for it because it is a present that already exists. It already is attracting us, but we must die to ourselves as often as we breath to take hold of it in the Spirit.

What I see when my children ages 9,7,5,4, and 2 are in perfect harmony is really an example of the possibility of the Body of Christ being in Unity in the world.

Thes little people give me hope that these moments are happening within the Body of Christ every second and that is something to celebrate.

~Alexis

Alexis K. Brown is a Hampton Roads, Virginia native who lives currently in the Carolinas. She is the wife of a US Navy Veteran and the mother of 5 children, three of whom she homeschools. She is an active member of her church community Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith and is a part of The Creative Little Church, an organization that aides and lifts up small churches around the world, leadership team.She is also a Podcaster under the name “The Raspy Messenger” where she talks about how to apply the Bible to our modern day lives. She is Founder and Leader of the Daughters of the King, a virtual across-the-globe women’s fellowship and Bible study group that strives to delight God the father through discipleship, studying and producing the fruit of the spirit . She is always looking for opportunities to connect with different entities of the  Body of Christ and represent through fellowship how vast the Body of Christ is. Her heart is for God’s people – especially women and children. For her, there is no greater title or position than being the Daughter of the King of Kings.

You can find out more about her here:

Podcast– “The Raspy Messenger

She’s Not Different by Alexis Brown and Reno Anderson

Email: thedaughters2c618@gmail.com