The Assembling

Hebrews 10:25 

...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Good day! It's a great day to be alive here in the land of the living. I pray all is well with you right now. If not, I extend a hearty prayer that whatever has your spirit downcast that its effects be reversed in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Moving right along, shall we? Last week, I took it upon myself to put out a blazing forest fire in the kingdom in respect to infighting and these death matches between people of the faith due to competitions and comparisons. 
I wanted to point out how such causes the church to be disjointed and how no durable work can be done with disjointed members. 

 I was somewhat reiterating a point I made in my first post of this year. 
If you haven't already read either of those posts, feel free to check it out when you're able.

God had me start there first to set me up for the assembling. No sense of pointing out the consequences of a dysfunctional disembodied bride and not express the benefits and beauty of her assembling. 

Now, I always thought Hebrews 10:25 was a sole proclamation for the people of God to go to church. Nothing more. Nothing less. 
It wasn't until probably my duration sitting out from ministry while still attending church that I saw this wasn't necessarily wrong, but more so just ONE facet of this scripture. 

I myself have had numerous amazing encounters with God by myself. Yet if I thought my personal moments with God were powerful, gathering with other like minded brothers and sisters of Christ increased that power exponentially. 

I remember one time last year when I went to support a close friend who was invited to preach at a church. I went with the intention only to show support for my friend and to privately intercede on behalf of the word that God implanted in her belly.

That plan was somewhat scrapped when I was invited to sit in the pulpit with her. 
The choir started singing, I started singing with them. 
The apostle starting praying, I started praying in tongues.
My friend started preaching, I started scribing away like a mad woman. 
But that wasn't it y'all. 

There was an altar call made, and the small congregation was invited up to the platform for prayer.  I was content with standing back and praying in the spirit while the leaders and my friend personally prayed for the people. 
NOT SO! 

The apostle motioned for me to assist in facilitating the altar call.
And it is then, God specifically highlighted who He needed to touch on, through me! 
Four people in all, two congregants, a deacon, and the drummer, He had something specific to share with. 

Needless to say, by the time my close friend, an old colleague, and I were done, the whole church was slain. 
One of the leaders stood at the podium smiling and said, 
"Look what y'all did to my church! Y'all did this!" 
By the time I realized what had really happened, I was at home laying in my bed later that evening, in complete and utter awe. 

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

This wasn't the first time I've witnessed the hands of God reaching down into a meeting or a gathering. Whether it's been within the four walls of the church, or at a none religious event. Between me and one person, or me and a group of people. Between people I knew and between people I didn't know. Between people I would see again and people I would probably never see again. He showed up and showed out. 

Sometimes He would show up with what I would compare to something as simple as a sweet kiss on the forehead. Other times, He would come through like a raging fire, or like a battle axe breaking up fallow ground in the hearts of His beloved children. 
That's the best way I can explain it. 

Which then to me epitomizes the importance of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together with one another. We need each other. We need fellowship. We were created to thrive in community. 

It's something God individually stored in all of us to share with our brothers and sisters to either bless, to restore, to encourage, to edify, to shoo away torments and temptations. 
The assembling is a necessity. 
Some seasons we will in fact be called to navigate terrain alone. 
However, major parts of our journey will involve convening with others. 

Knowing this, we must consider the hurdles we have to face. 
One: Social media. 
Social media can be a gift and a curse. 
A gift because you can reach a lot of people in a short amount of time. 
People even in other lands. 

I've had a few sisters from the Philippines and the Eastern Cape to name a few foreign places, reach out to me for private consultations. The dopest thing ever!
On the flipside though, which leads to our second hurdle, social media has fostered this,
 "I'm an introvert," trend.

Introverted people are less social and oftentimes confused as anti-social because they choose to be more introspective than anything. 
No shade to people who are truly introverted as I am someone who can relate to this space to a degree

Anyway, social media has inadvertently created an entire bubble filled with people who are really introverted ALONG with people who just in fact have an aversion for being challenged out of their comfort zones and thus have made a commitment with their fears. 

Introverted people are introverted because they don't require other people to keep them energized. They can charge up on their own. They may have a social awkwardness about them but they still will engage with others when they want to. 

The more larger group of people though are those who are afraid of engaging with others for fear of being hurt or rejected. These people will use the introvert guise when they are not really introverted at all, just scared and/or wounded.

While the masses want to force depression into the shoe of mental illness, this growing community of people who refuse to engage and interact with others due to unexpressed trauma/pain and calling it introversion, I feel needs to seriously be looked into as a mental issue. 
I honestly don't know how you can have compassion and empathy for anyone if you don't like interacting and engaging with people. 

Once again, this is why the assembling is so important! It snuffs out these issues. I wholeheartedly believe this. There's so much that can be addressed in the assembling. So much to be seen and said by God in gatherings and meetings with each other. 

I believe it far supersedes you going to church regularly every week. 
I won't take away from the participation of church service. 
Church service is great! 
It's an amazing opportunity afforded us to come together collectively as a body, to worship together and receive together. 

I'm seeing though, how a grand number of men and women of God are settled with church service alone and have reduced the assembling to this. Which is why there is so much suffering in silence and low appetites for intimate commitments with one another. 

We will eagerly gather into these beautiful buildings with gorgeous stained glass windows. Never once acknowledging the many beautiful temples (people) with stained glass hearts, that we walk past on any given Sunday and sit amongst, in these edifices. 

I'm not in an arguing mood today. 
(Don't get comfortable. I may start roaring again next week. Ha!)
Today, I just want to graciously implore you to consider not forsaking the assembling of the saints in no way or form. Ask God to settle the differences you have in your heart so that you can open yourself up to be led as well as used in various capacities where God can show up in wonderous ways. 

The days are dreadful. People need to see God. And there's a component of Him that He's hidden inside of you, just waiting to be experienced by someone else. And there's a component of Him hidden inside of someone else, waiting to be experienced by you! 
Oh how many miracles, signs, and wonders can happen right now within the assembling!
May they happen here on earth, as it is heaven.