From Inside the Godhead, Project: Roar: How to Reach One Accord Relationship & Revival in the Christian Church: Featuring: the Christian Committal Prayer.

By Eddie D. Sumbler

I consider this book to be a simple, easy read of a lesson and message that came from God while searching a time such as this. It’s an end-time must read for the church. The book was written to be an easy read, and likewise, it’s easy to understand its point of view and its purpose. The book is like an interesting word picture. The more you look at it, the more you understand it and see its purpose and message. Personally, I do not believe a loving God who created us in his image would make it difficult and hard for us to understand his purpose and embrace his love and eternal desire. Frankly, the message of the book in totality is about God the Father desiring the most spiritually intimate relationship possible between him and his mankind creation. The book encourages personal accountability. Enjoy the read, and come away desiring a deeper, more spiritually intimate personal relationship with God. It is a mandate for mankind. It is time to roar (reach one accord relationship), church!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973644491

Eddie D. Sumbler

Reverend E.D. Sumbler considers himself, “a Friend of God,” [ John 15:15]. He was baptized at an early age at the Liberty Hill, B.C., Long Leaf, Louisiana. He is married to Eunice for 35 years as of this writing. Both their adult children are alive and well. He graduated Southern University, ( La.); The University of Toledo, (Ohio) and, the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,(La.) He is a Retired Army Chaplain and Gulf War Veteran, 1990-91. He proudly served with the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

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Copyright © 2018 Eddie D. Sumbler.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-4450-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4451-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4449-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913344

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/14/2018

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1   Assessing a One-Accord Relationship: The Policy of the Godhead

Chapter 2   From Inside the Godhead: Project ROAR

Chapter 3   Benefits and Challenges

Chapter 4   When the Godhead Speaks

Chapter 5   Have a Willing Mind to ROAR

Chapter 6   ROAR unto God-Ordained Events

Chapter 7   Moving Forward While Looking Back

Chapter 8   Steps on How to ROAR as the Spiritually United Body of Christ

Chapter 9   The Us Unity Factor

Chapter 10   Need for a Spiritually Intimate Relationship Upgrade

Chapter 11   Releasing to the Kingdom Rule of God

Chapter 12   Positive Effect of Word Pictures in Scripture

PREFACE

I n this book I will discuss, relate, and share the vision of a spiritually discerned lesson/message from God—how to ROAR (reach a one-accord relationship) today in the Christian church as the body bride of Jesus Christ. This vision story is intended to impress upon the hearts and minds of believers and nonbelievers the importance of becoming closer to and more spiritually trusting of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Even today, if the Lord Jesus Christ cannot look upon His body, the Christian church, and see a spiritual reflection of Himself—active, alive, and well—there is a problem. The hopeful and positive appearance of Jesus in us can be most evident when the body of the Christian church merges spiritually as a prelude to merging physically. Jesus, the Christ, has already led His followers to be one in Him, as He is One with the Father. When Christians reach a one-accord relationship across division lines, it will show the world a display of Christ’s power and presence in us—His body on earth. (Note Colossians 1:27, in which the apostle Paul says, Christ in us the hope of glory.)

Today’s Christian church may be criticized for being in a one-accord relationship under the godhead. If you are saved, the life lessons in this book can help you see clearer how to grow in your spiritual, intimate alignment with the Godhead through Jesus, the Christ, in whom the fullness of the Godhead resides. (Read Colossians 2:9.) If you are not sure of your salvation, this book will encourage and show how to accept Jesus Christ and how to enter a more spiritually intimate one-accord relationship with Him. Ask Jesus into your life and to forgive you of your sins. Read Romans 10:9–13, and comply.

Thank the Lord for your salvation, and seek His lead in all that you do. Read His Word, and meditate day and night. Read Joshua 1:8, and follow the lead of God. Read Psalm 37:23. Immediately connect with other born-again believers in Jesus Christ, and share your story. And, of course, seek the Lord’s guidance in joining with a local Christian church for Bible study, baptism, and so on.

Remember that my sole intent and purpose for this book is to bring about a one-accord relationship and unity in the body of Christ by sharing the vision in a simple lesson/message format.

Write the vision. And, make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

Today there is a clear and keen awareness among the churchgoers and non-churchgoers (saved and lost) of the Christian faith. Both have similar definitions of the Christian church today—a compartmentalized group of folks who separate and wall themselves off and who conduct business much like in a corporate business model. The Christian church cannot be so closely aligned with the world’s order of business that the similarity of conduct and operation is overwhelming. The church is ekklesia—the called-out ones. If this is not refocused to reach one accord in the body of Christ and to present the unity of one in Christ, there will only be more spots, wrinkles, and blemishes on the Christian church and in the eyes of Jesus Christ, our Savior Lord.

As Christians—and as many who are leaders in the Christian church—under Christ, we fail to demonstrate a serious, surrendered one-accord mind-set in Christ. Too often we allow an acceptable appearance of the brick-and-mortar church house to become the defining story of a successful church. Much too often, we as Christian leaders have not busied ourselves enough outside the walls of the church house, disciplining, evangelizing, and witnessing Jesus Christ to the spiritually lost and dying. Sadly, there seem to be more concerns within the walls rather than outside the walls.

The Christian church body, as well as any individual Christian believer, is not called to be an island. We are not on our own. We are our heavenly Father’s children. Yes, some are more obedient than others, but He purchased all of us with His blood. We are family. And it is not the planned intention of Jesus for the body of Christ to live as separate entities, disconnected one from the other. The obedient and saved children of God must spend time witnessing to those who are lost and who serve Satan. All souls belong to God, our Father, and each soul is precious in His sight; each is part of the main. Read the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27, and therein find refreshment.

Christian commitment and surrender belongs to God, not to Caesar (read Matthew 22:20–21 and Mark 12:17). Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. It appears that merging together as one in Christ was meant to be from the beginning of the Christian era. Even the Lord’s Supper demonstrated being one in Christ.

Let followers of Christ maintain Jesus’s prayers for us on earth. Heed the embedded word-picture elements that the believing body of Christ is to forever seek and attain until He comes back for His church. He seeks a Holy Spirit-led reflection of Himself in His church. There is more to glean from word pictures in Jesus’s prayers and teachings. (More about word pictures later.)

Until Christian believers have an earnest desire for deeper, more intimately personal commitment and accountability in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, there will always be divisions, separations, and walls. Sadly, these separations are driven by egos and hearts that are not good for the kingdom and will have to change. There is still room for growth. Even if we are not in the final days before Jesus comes, we are certainly a day closer to Jesus’s return than we were yesterday.

In my 2005 book, Upon this Rock: My Church, a Multicultural Christian Church, I mention the need for Christian churches to grow and become more aware and connected to the messages and events surrounding the church’s birth and the early fabric of the Christian church. Literally thousands were added to the church, reflecting all cultures and ethnicities, having the common thread of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Hence, the term a multicultural Christian church was on display (read Acts 2).

Today, let every follower of Christ be faithful and hope to share in the Christian church on earth, fulfilling Jesus’s prayer, in which He prayed for and prophesied that the church’s posture would be as one. (Read John 17:21.) And let the church be filled to capacity. Let it act out of an awareness that the answer for its coming to pass is made possible only through Jesus Christ and the response of believers to the Holy Spirit and God’s handiwork in the building and relationship process. We know that the house of God that meets God’s approval can only be the work of God in us and through us—a reflection of Him—and it is only by our willingness for a spiritually intimate relationship with him. (Read Psalm 127:1; Matthew 16:18; and John 5:19.) He will also do it.

The promise of writing this book began in 2005, and its authenticity was stated on the back cover of my first book. It was meant to reveal that even before God’s creation of humankind, a one-accord relationship with the holy Father existed. And because of God’s entrusting His image in us, it is paramount that we have a natural desire for one accord in godly relations as well. He made us in His image (Genesis 1:26), and that says a lot.

There was a great, timely, excitement in writing this book. You may notice some repetition in the discussion that may be annoying or seem like oversimplifications. I would simply ask that you major on the major, and don’t major on the minor. There is an urgent spiritual need for visible unity in the body of Christ, the Christian church.

I pray you enjoy this reading and, as a result, you become freshly recommitted and surrendered in your spiritual focus and your conduct for a deeper, more intimate spiritual relationship with God, our heavenly Father. Fall afresh in brotherly love and respect for one another. By our love for one another, read the words of Jesus:

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. (John 13:35)

INTRODUCTION

T he vision of a one-accord Christian church that is spiritually and actively merged as the bride of Christ is coming together in Project ROAR (Habakkuk 2:2; Psalm 127:1).

In writing this book, I realized how grateful I am for the happy place in which I find myself. Place is important to me because, first and foremost, place is important to God. Place is much akin to relationship. You get along better and are often found more comfortable with yourself and in your skin when you know that you are in the right place with God, others, and yourself. There is something about the chemistry of the human body; it can feel within itself when it is out of place, and it reacts in various ways to cover the appearance of being uncomfortable or merely painfully out of place.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord ‘God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? (Genesis 3:8–9 KJV)

It is safe to conclude that God—being God (and the Holy Spirit), operating as the unerring, all-knowing, omniscient God—must have known that Adam had a place for an intimate, obedient, one-accord relationship with God, the Holy Father, since creation. God knows the place He wants and made for humankind to occupy. It’s the place we are to remain for God’s good pleasure and for our spiritual health and eternal well-being, in Him. God knows everything about us, and I believe He wanted Adam to realize for himself that he had left his created, designed place and entered a forbidden zone, a place of disobedience caused by sin.

There could be no lasting attempt by Adam and Eve to cover, hide, or be restored and turned back to God without a sufficient perfect sacrifice by God, on their behalf. Even today, after the atoning blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God, it’s only by confession and repentance for sin and the forgiving nature of a heavenly Father’s love that humankind can regain their rightful place—the created perfect place—in God. We were created to be in the perfect place of a one-accord relationship with our Creator, God, our heavenly Father.

Have you taken yourself away and out of your perfect, planned place? With Project ROAR—reaching a one-accord relationship—in the body of Christ, the Christian is the overall purpose and vision for my writing this book. How to reach a one-accord relationship, throughout and across Christian denominations, is the overriding purpose for this book. This book was written to explain the divine vision of how God, in Christ’s workmanship, builds His church.

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord. and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. … then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance. … Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:1–4, 38 KJV)

When you repent and accept Jesus Christ into your life, it prepares you for the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The Comforter remains with the believers to remind them of right and wrong and to bring them into a one-accord relationship with God. Relationships are important in our lives. When a love relationship is taken seriously to the glory of God for blessings and for the extension of God in our lives, so much so that it positively affects the lives of others for the glory and love of God, you can’t help but know when something is not right in the relationship. God is love.

He who does not Love does not know God, for God is Love. (1 John 4:8 KJV)

Love wants the best place for itself. Love loves itself, and love loves others too. Love is expressive, deep, and sacrificial. It is world-renowned and universal. And love has proven itself to be love because of the personal gift of itself to humankind. Love is at its best when it is demonstrated. Love is active action. Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross personified love. The believer’s Christ on the cross at Calvary for human sin demonstrated the price love placed on itself for humankind. True love costs; it is precious and valuable beyond human measure. Love requires trust. True love suffers long, and it endures.

I hope you will get at least three things from reading this book:

1. You will understand the place God has reserved for you in relation to Him. It is not a secret that God wants each of us in a deeper, more intimate, personal, and accountable love relationship with Him. Each of us has been given a special gift that is exceptional and personal, and it can only be brought out by the Creator God and Father, who distinctively designed and fashioned it for us to claim and personally receive for ourselves—unto His glory, not ours. All of our gifts are His and are to be played out unto the glory of God. We are richly blessed when we give back to God what truly is His and has been from the beginning of time. It makes for good relationship.

2. You will come away from this reading earnestly feeling a serious, insatiable hunger for an intimate personal change, as well as having a nagging thirst to ROAR (reach a one-accord relationship), both in and throughout the body of Christ, the Christian church. And having done so, you will be found pleasing unto God. As you experience individual growth in spiritual pleasure to God, you can more collectively enjoy, appreciate, and experience the congregational praise and worship experience. You gain revival and are unashamedly moved and uplifted into common praise, sharing onward and upward into a high, unforgettable spiritual experience. It is an earnest desire for you to achieve awareness and the need to study the Word of God and to grow to become a mature child of God, as scripture mandates.

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a worker that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

Note: A relationship with God—in God’s own time and