A reflection from Sunday at The Gathering, a church in Colorado Springs

This past Sunday at The Gathering in Colorado Springs, our church did not experience a typical service. It felt more like the Body of Christ pausing mid-stride—listening, trembling, and asking the Lord how to carry what is heavy in this hour.

Before any teaching, there was a shared sense of expectancy—but also weight. Not political weight. Not reactionary weight. Spiritual weight—the kind that comes when you realize God is looking at the same things you are looking at, and His heart is moved.

What followed was a short but piercing message from Chris Berglund, one that did not attempt to give answers so much as frame the kind of people we are being called to become.

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A Priestly People Before a Speaking People | The Calling of the Church

Scripture is clear about our identity:

1 Peter 2
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…”

Revelation 1; Revelation 5
We are made priests unto God—first unto Him, and then for the sake of the nations.

That order matters.

A priest does not begin by speaking to the world, but by ministering unto the Lord. Before there is authority released outwardly, there must be alignment inwardly. Before prayers shape nations, they must originate in union.

Chris reminded us that when Moses was instructed to build the tabernacle, he was told to construct it according to the pattern shown in heaven. The priesthood, then, is not temporary or symbolic—it is eternal. And in Christ, we are not observers of that priesthood; we participate in it.

Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of everything the priesthood represents:

• He is the Temple (John 2)
• He is the Lamb (the sacrifice)
• He is the Priest (Hebrews 7)

And astonishingly, Scripture tells us that we share in His life.

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Blamelessness Is Not Effort—It Is Union with Christ

Throughout the New Testament, believers are repeatedly called:

• blameless
• spotless
• above reproach
• holy

This language often makes us uncomfortable, because it sounds like pressure—or worse, spiritual elitism. But the gospel never calls us to achieve holiness through effort. It calls us to believe what Christ has already accomplished, and to live from that reality.

Blamelessness is not moral striving; it is relational surrender.

Chris described holiness not as a single moment, but as a progression of surrender, patterned after the tabernacle itself:

• The outer court – salvation, the blood applied
• The inner court – priestly participation
• The Holy of Holies – union with Christ

Each step is entered by faith. Each step requires letting go of self‑rule so that Christ’s life may be fully expressed in us.

The issue is never how much we know, how gifted we are, or how passionately we pray. The issue is how deeply we have yielded.

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Golden Bowls: Prayer Initiated by God, Not Performance

One of the most sobering moments in the message came from Revelation 8, where the prayers of the saints are described as golden bowls—mixed with incense from heaven and poured out upon the earth.

These prayers do not originate in human emotion or reaction. They originate in God Himself.

Not every prayer qualifies for the golden altar.

Only prayers that begin in God’s own heart—prayers that flow from alignment, union, and priestly consecration—carry the authority to shape history. Chris described these as golden prayers: prayers initiated by God, sustained in union, and entrusted to a people formed to carry them. Judgment, in this sense, is not merely punishment; it is God setting things right. Scripture tells us:

Isaiah 26
“When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”

But here is the sobering reality:

Judgment begins in the house of God.

Before the fullness of God’s redemptive justice is released in the nations, He looks for a priestly people whose hearts are undivided—people who can carry His response, not their own.

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Altars, Bloodshed, and Corporate Responsibility | A Sobering Word for the Church

Chris shared reflections—offered humbly, not dogmatically—about the spiritual reality of altars. Throughout Scripture, altars precede governments. Worship precedes authority.

Bloodshed, Scripture tells us, cries out from the ground.

Cain’s sin was not only personal—it established a legal cry in the earth. And history shows us that cycles of violence often continue, even after repentance, unless the altar itself is addressed and re‑established unto the Lord.

In this light, Chris spoke soberly about abortion in the United States. For decades, the Church has repented, fasted, and cried out over the shedding of innocent blood. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned—a moment many saw as a decisive breakthrough. And yet, in the years that followed, abortion numbers did not decrease. They increased.

This tension forces a deeper question. What if repentance alone—while sincere—is not the same as becoming a priestly people capable of carrying God’s response? What if legal shifts, important as they are, do not automatically dismantle spiritual altars that have been long established in a nation?

These are weighty things. They require discernment, not sensationalism. They call us away from quick reactions and toward deeper priestly listening.

The question is not merely “Have we repented?” but “Have we become the kind of people who can host God’s response?””*

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One New Man, Not Lone Heroes | Beyond Celebrity Christianity

God is not looking for one man or one woman. He is not after celebrity Christianity or isolated spiritual heroes.

He is forming a corporate expression—what Scripture calls One New Man. A people who are blameless together, yielded together, and surrendered together. A people who do not compete, compare, or strive for significance, but who are being refined inwardly through surrender and, at times, suffering.

Chris reminded us that even the early disciples had to be undone of comparison before they could carry authority. Right up until the end, they were still debating who would be greatest. But ten days in the upper room did what ambition never could. In the presence of the Lord, rivalry lost its power, and they stood together—not as individuals vying for position, but as a unified people ready to bear His life to the world.

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Catching the Little Foxes

Blamelessness is not only about overt sin. It is also about the quiet, subtle places where we think contrary to our identity in Christ.

Song of Solomon 2:15
“Catch the little foxes that spoil the vine.”

Sometimes the foxes are destructive thoughts. Sometimes they are “good” ideas born from the wrong tree. Either way, God is inviting us to agree with Him—not argue with Him—about who we truly are in Christ.

He does not want our effort. He wants our faith.

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A Window of Grace

There is a sense that we are living in a window—a season where God is shaking what can be shaken, not to destroy, but to purify. Exposure, when met with repentance, is mercy.

The invitation before us is simple, but costly:

• What is God correcting in me today?
• Where is He inviting deeper surrender?
• Am I willing to be formed inwardly so that my prayers carry His heart?

At The Gathering, a church community rooted in prayer and union with Christ in Colorado Springs, we are not claiming expertise. We are choosing posture. We want to be a people who minister unto the Lord first—so that whatever flows from us into the city and the nations is truly His.

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You can watch the full message here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/uddFuOp2TA0

If you are longing for a church in Colorado Springs rooted in prayer, union with Christ, and faithful listening in this hour, you are welcome here.