When we speak of our fellowship circle, we state a greater truth than perhaps we realize. Jesus’s early disciples were figuratively gathered about Him in a circle, eager to hear His wisdom. He was the preeminent One on whom all eyes focused. All the rest were simply brethren.
He is just as much with us today as He was with those early Christians, only more so now for He dwells in us by His Spirit. He told those first disciples He was going away but would not leave them comfortless. He was speaking of the Holy Spirit whom he promised would lead them into all truth, the same Spirit who dwelled in Him and by whom He taught them.
As heirs of this same wondrous promise, we should examine ourselves and be assured that we are in the same circle of fellowship as those early Galileans, aware that the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of all who have accepted Him and that Jesus is the only leader of our fellowship. He is the exact center of this circle and all eyes should be focused on Him for He is still speaking and sharing His wisdom with us just as he promised He would.
It is the same anointing teaching us today that ministered to John and Peter. Sometimes He speaks to us through dreams or visions as Joel prophesied (Joel 2:28), but He also uses the lips of our born-again brothers and sisters. Often He speaks to us through his still, small voice. We must know that when we ignore or quench His precious Spirit, we are draining out Life itself, our vital link with eternity.
Jesus accomplished His work on earth by being submissive to the Spirit of His Father. Without mass media and with only a handful of followers, the world is still shaking from His impact. How staggering to realize that the same Spirit that was in Him has been made available to us, His brothers and sisters, without measure as we walk with Him in love! The mystery of the ages is manifest today, Christ in us, the Hope of Glory.
His church is not organized like worldly institutions. His army does not function like the armies of the nations, dependent on communication from other men. No, His church is organized in perfect harmony by His Spirit, moving as the Spirit moves, going where the Spirit says to go, speaking what the Spirit says to speak. As Jesus told Nicodemus:
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
In God’s great army, we receive our marching orders from the Master. We do not know how He will deliver His next command, but we do know that if we obey, He will be glorified.
Christ’s circle of fellowship is radically different from anything found in this world. It must be of necessity since man, without Christ, organizes his activities in truly carnal ways . . . carnal because man, without Jesus, has no other choice.
Man’s organizational structures become pyramids of power as they grow in time. There are examples all about us. Armies have have multitudes of privates at the base of the pyramid but only a handfull of generals at the top. Business corporations and man-made religious hierarchies function along the same line.
For non-Christians it cannot be any other way. When man is the head, instead of Christ, communication is left to the mercy of insecure human nature and we see the devastating results in the world all about us. But whatever our so-called station in this world, in Christ we are just another member of the family of God. He is the only leader. His Spirit and Living Word are preeminent. Follow Him we must, not letting anything or anyone come between us.
With Christ there is no compromise on this matter. It is either the Living One or man, Spirit or flesh. Our attitudes are so important in this.
If we are looking to man to teach us and lead us and our faith is in man to do so, then we will have man as teacher with all the religious bondage that accompanies such an attitude. But if we are looking to Jesus to instruct us and light our pathway through life, then surely He will keep His promise and of a certainty we will benefit eternally.
If we place a at the center of the circle, no matter how brilliant or knowledgeable he may be, we will suffer from the idolatrous act. For idolatry is what it is and the circle will fast become a pyramid, just another man-made religious edifice. We can cloak such deception with hymns, scripture reading and religious platitudes, but when Christ is not central, there is no life to give life, just the dead burying the dead. Seemingly countless moves of the Spirit have taken place throughout church history, only to fade away as man, with his love for tradition and religious prestige, has sought to encapsulate the move of the Spirit while organizing the Lord right out of the picture.
We know that Jesus often speaks through different earthen vessels in whom He has placed the treasure of His Holy Spirit. He speaks through some more than others as He chooses in His wisdom. Such ministries, when valid, come not from anything in man, but from the wellspring of Life. Christ is always the minister; we have no other.
Nor are you to be called teacher, for you have one Teacher, the Christ. (Matt. 23:10)
We are all simply fellow workers in the vineyard. Spiritual gifts, including preaching, cannot be turned on and off at man’s design, but function only when energized by the Living God. When man preempts the Spirit and dominates the assembly, the River of Life slows to a trickle and the body of Christ, His church, suffers. When we presume what God would speak to us as we gather together and through whom He would say it, we quench the very source of life. If we call Him Lord, we should let Him be Lord. Our assemblies are meant to be feasts of the Living Word where we break the bread of life together as the Spirit ministers to each of us as He will.
We should be looking to hear only from Him, conscious that God is not limited. He can and does speak through anyone or use any method He chooses to reach and soften our hearts and renew our minds. But regardless of how or through whom He delivers His word, His full authority given from Heaven by His Grace. Words from the Living Christ are not diminished if they comes through the mouth of a child.
The apostle Paul gave us an admonition we would be wise to heed today when he told believers to follow him as he followed Christ. (I Cor. 11:1). His authority resided solely in his relationship with Jesus. Only as he walked in the Spirit, only as he followed Christ, was he an example for the flock. It is always Christ on Whom we are to keep our eyes focused so we do not wander astray.
His circle of fellowship is filled with His love. We may find ourselves in this circle at the local hardware store or grocery as we share His life with one of His own. Our communion might be just a warm smile or a friendly hello. Or we might find ourselves listening to something wonderful the Master has done for someone we love. The physical setting of where we meet is totally unimportant so long as we gather by His Spirit, the place alone where life is found. He has let us know that wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, He is there also. And if He’s there, we’re in Church. He did not say to get a hundred people together and He might show up.
It is wonderful when we realize that Christ’s circle of fellowship is held together by the bond of His love. Delicate though this bond may be, it is the strongest force there is, for love is the very nature of God. Love is the bond of unity. When we walk together in love, all eyes focused on Him, then He truly reigns in our fellowship and we can expect great blessing for He is in our midst in power.
From this Galilean circle, Jesus cherishes to speak His wisdom to His children today, whether direct, through a fellow believer, or by any one of His many ways. And when He speaks, the earth shakes, the kind of earth that has clogged our vision. Things happen. How could it be otherwise?
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