When some of the members of the body of Christ begin to frequently gather to individually listen to and obey the Headship and Lordship of the risen Jesus, He begins to reveal Himself as present in their midst by actively directing the meeting through the things that He leads them to say and do, and by assembling their hearts together in the beautiful unity of the Spirit as He reconciles them to Himself and to one another. God knits their hearts together with gentle knots of love creating a net that draws people into heart-felt surrender to the kingdom (the direct leadership) of God. The body of Christ needs to continually gather as a network of Spirit-led heart-connections, not as a bulwark of religious formalism.

In 1 Corinthians 14: 24-25 Paul describes the net of Christ’s body in action. He says: “If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So, they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’”

That happened to me when as an agnostic freshman in college I saw a group of Christ-followers openly testifying with tender hearts full of love for Jesus. In an instant the living Jesus became real to me, and I’ve never been the same. A few minutes later I openly exclaimed my gratitude to God for showing me that Jesus is real and present today! Ever since that time I’ve searched for Christians who will freely open their heart to Jesus with me and with others. In those settings in dorms, Sunday school classes, homes, phone calls, conference rooms, restaurants, Zoom calls, and street corners, I’ve seen the net of testimonies from heart-knitted believers cause people to exclaim “God is really among you!” as tears come from their eyes and their face fills with peace.

Let Jesus make changes in your life. Click the allow button in your heart! Hard hearts don’t heal. They hide their hurt and deny it. When a church service provides a place for hurting hearts to hide, it does people a disservice by keeping them isolated from the healing power of Christ-centered, open-hearted community.

Allow Jesus to be the search engine for your heart. Open the links He shows you and let Him take you to supernatural sites. The “C” in Christianity stands for Christ not for church!

When Jesus pops up at your heart’s door, click allow. Let Him surround you with His net of compassion and pull you from the waves of misinformation that threaten to drown you in despair. Don’t blame God for the disruptive cookies that you allow in your heart.

Neither call to worship,
Nor praise band,
Nor responsive reading,
Nor one-size-fits-all-message,
Nor beautiful benediction,
Can turn closed and silent people,
Who aren’t free to verbally express
Their inner sensitivity to God,
Into a group of people
Connected heart-to-heart
In Christ-controlled community.

If you want to grow
Strong in the Lord
You can’t live like
Hard-hearted Pharoah
And pretend you know
More than God.