A band of people connected heart-to-heart with one another and with the risen Jesus, while functioning together under His direct and active leadership, is a powerful demonstration of the body of Christ obeying the Head. A band of Christ-following brothers and sisters is never a passive group of spectators. It’s people actively and passionately engaged in and sharing a common mission–to be led by the Spirit as they focus on, follow, and obey the living Jesus.

Unless Christians begin to open up and pour out their heart to one another, they remain a group of isolated individuals instead of becoming a band of interconnected, Spirit-led brothers and sisters. A band of Christ-followers lets the living Jesus play the strings of their heart and bind them together in one accord.

Jesus built a band of sold-out disciples. Church settles for listening to one-man, Sunday morning recitals.

When the use of Scripture is limited to a verse or two to kick off a Sunday sermon, Christianity is in an incapacitated condition. Obeying the Bible together helps Christians bond into a band of heart-connected brothers and sisters.

To claim that Christians don’t need to follow the writings of the first Christians (compiled as the New Testament) is arrogance. The New Testament writers proclaim that the Old Testament is Scripture and quote Jesus as calling it the “Scriptures.”

The people I have the deepest, Christ-focused heart-connection with are my band. My wife and I pray together every day and minister to people as a team numerous times every week. We pray with another couple every Sunday morning and on Sunday night (together with another brother) co-lead a band of students at a tech school. We have several other couples and individuals who we pray with in person and sometimes on phone or Zoom.

I regularly Zoom with a band of brothers and meet with and or talk-pray on the phone with other brothers one on one. We are bound together in love and mutual accountability (not in formality). The brothers and sisters I’m bound to are also bound to other believers (many of whom I don’t know) thus creating an ever-expanding web of Christ-followers. Even social media has expanded my band to people with a shared vision whom I’ve never physically met but encourage me and read my writings. Reading the Daily Text (and the comments) for the past few months is binding my heart to several new people who are influencing me to keep pursuing Jesus.