House Church Talk - Re: Two or three gathered

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi Glenn,

You wrote:"Ok... Well approval may not be the best description of it... And 
I agree that Jesus stands in our Midst when we are gathered together doing 
His will... I guess what I was getting at was that when we are in unity and 
have resolved our conflict we are standing with Him.. .His spirit is there 
with us. If we were not forgiving and letting this thing go unresolved, and 
not following a godly plan to do His will then by definition we would not be 
in his presence. "

Dear brother, the presence of the Lord Jesus is a reality whether we 
appreciate it, apprehend it, enjoy it or not!  I have often wondered though, 
if our appreciation, apprehension and enjoyment of His presence does not 
depend on our obedience to Him!  I believe that scripture bears this out.
For example, John 14: 21 says:"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my 
Father, and I will love him, and WILL MANIFEST MYSELF TO HIM."

Does the following illustration help?
Radio waves are in the air all around us... music, voices, conversations 
etc.  But if you went to a stone age tribe who knew nothing of radios, and 
told them that there was voices and music in the air all around them, they 
would probably not believe you!  If you brought them a little transister 
radio, turned it on, adjusted the dial, but the radio had no battery, they 
still wouldn't believe you!   But put in a good battery and they would 
immediately hear with their own ears music and possibly voices in their very 
own language coming to them from many many miles away!

If the radio waves in the air could be compared to God's omnipotent presence 
in the universe, if the radio was the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, the 
indwelling Christ, and the indwelling Father in the believer, every child of 
God is equipped to hear God's voice and to enjoy His presence.  But we don't 
always have that enjoyment, do we?

Now if the connected battery represented our obedience, our walking in the 
light, then as long as we are obedient and walk in the light with our God, 
we HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. When we disobey and walk in darkness, He is 
still present, He still dwells within us, but we do NOT ENJOY fellowship 
with Him.

All this could be true of one believer in isolation from all others. But let 
us take the illustration one step further:
Suppose, instead of showing our stone age friends a little battery powered 
single speaker transister radio, ...we bring a radio with multiple speakers, 
tuned to station broadcasting in stereo and allow him to listen to "surround 
sound"!Would this not in some sense compare to the difference between 
enjoying personal fellowship with God in solitude and enjoying fellowship 
with God as it is expressed when 2 or 3 or 20 or 30 believers (all enjoying 
fellowship with God) gather together to obey Him as they minister one to 
another?

This is how I have enjoyed the promise of Matt.18:20!  Personal fellowship 
and communion with God and hearing His voice in an individual and private 
manner is a wonderful experience. But when God manifests Himself in 
"surround sound", i.e. in a variety of ways through a variety of His 
children gathered together, there is nothing that compares  with that!

And as you say, when a relationship between brothers has been broken through 
the offence of one and the scriptural steps of Matt.18 are obeyed and  
genuine reconciliation is the end result,  the 2 or 3 are very aware that 
God in Christ has drawn near and manifested Himself to them!

Would you agree with this perspective?

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce

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