the power of fellowship

Fellowship has been on my heart for the past year. Cultivating a community and intentional friendships with fellow believers is something that has driven me and sustained me when seasons of this life have been weighty.

It has also sharpened me and encouraged me. It is where I have found safety. It is where I have been called to action and where I have been rebuked. Fellowship is the accountability and love of Christ in our brothers and sisters who seek after His heart as we.

It is also a place where we can share laughs, meals, and our days. This is truly how the first believers lived:

"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts," Acts 2:46

How much does that just tug on your spirit!

But there is so much more to fellowship that I am learning.

In the process of this past year my faith too has been growing, so it is fun to find a verse combining both fellowship and faith (and unsurprising):

"Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven." Matthew 18:19

What a mind-boggling idea!

If we can come into agreement with fellow believers in prayer, the Lord promises to act. Of course, this brings to mind - but what about when He hasn't? What about when we prayed and He didn't move the mountain?

As Charles Spurgeon says, "Remember that God often hears the prayer of our prayers, and answers that rather than our prayers themselves".

He may not always answer as we expect or desire. That does not mean He hasn't answered and that it hasn't been done.

What we are promised is that through the harmonious agreement of the Lord's children in prayer, is an answer.

What power! And we totally miss out on it when we neglect to gather with one another.

As likely gleaned from my opening statements, I have always seen fellowship as an "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:27) type of deal. And of course, this is true. We need Christian community as Christians. For all the different mindsets we encounter, we also need some mindsets where we can agree and rest in upon encountering. People who we do life with (another of my favorite phrases lately).

People who because they are living for the same end - or rather beginning - can draw us from our failings and strengthen us towards success.

But I never gave much thought to the great beyond of fellowship: being such power in prayer. I mean the very next verse is:

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." - Matthew 18:20

Our fellowship not only garners answer to prayer, but it fills our space with the spiritual aroma and wonderful presence of Christ - what supernatural peace is there to receive when we gather together?!

Let me say it again: where even just two or three gather - there He is with them.

It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be Sunday. It doesn't have to be that worship conference, that new church, or even the pastor's house.

Wherever you and one other believer are - He IS with you.

and He ANSWERS your prayers.

So:

FELLOWSHIP IS KEY.

Jesus too had His circle:

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know His master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you". John 15:15

Jesus called the disciples his friends - his community - those who gathered with Him to fellowship. And yes, they did indeed break bread together. But they also healed the masses, performed miracles, and breathed the thick air of shared prayers.

Jesus yet again was the perfect example of how we as Christians are called to live: in fellowship.

How powerful and healthy will His Church be when she finally walks in the authority of Christ Jesus?

Yet, how can she get to walking in this authority without being unified? If the Church is separated, it cannot operate properly:

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Mark 3:24-25

Sisters and brothers, the call has been on us since the beginning to remain with one another in fellowship. We may be called to "go out into the world", but we are called to go out into it together.

I know this cry has been on the hearts of many believers lately. Let us act on it! The Lord is calling His Church to community. Where we can be strengthened, be at rest, be healed, and then do miracles and pray heaven to earth.

Each of you matter. Do not neglect giving of yourself and showing up with other followers of Christ. We need you. And you need us - as is clearly demonstrated by Scripture.

Church, lets make fellowship cool.