[Shawn]

Igzy:
As I've asked before I like to ask again: How many people here who lean toward believing in the local ground teaching have spent any appreciable time praying to God asking Him to shed light on the teaching? And how many simply have taken Lee's doctrine and run with it?

As I've asked before: How many really have a clue as to how to practice this teaching? And how many got that clue from God as a result of praying to him about it?

As I've asked before many times: If there is only one practical church in the city, where are the practical elders and how do you know who they are?

Hi all,
Just some observations about my experiences concerning the "ground." For me it has passed from a requirement to an aspiration.

In my time before the Lord, as long as I aspire to meet with all christians in my community, a sweet fellowship confirms this is pleasing to the Holy Spirit. I believe this simple blessing is based on the reality that is present in such gatherings: we are not in any position either over or under one another, but equal in our position as believers with Christ as our head.

As soon as I consider "the ground," I may feel I have something, but what I have places me above others of my brothers and sisters and when such a thought is allowed to remain, the sweet fellowship vanishes. I may have the teaching, but if reality has not come into being yet, the teaching becomes empty and divisive.

The fact is that as long as there are different groups within a city, the reality of the ground cannot be realized; and therefore can only aspired to. As long as there is a claim of the ground, it immediatly dissolves any attempt at oneness with all the believers of that city.

"The ground" is not an impossible dream however, for if a community practices the aspiration of all believers being one in a city, it is possible to see "the ground" taken in that city, but this will not happen by teaching, only by the reality of the Spirit manifest in all the belivers of that city.

To sum up then, The "ground" will not be taken by a teaching, but by the practice of each believer yielding to the Spirit in simplicity and generality.

Shawn