FIVE SMOOTH STONES - The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherds Bag

FIVE SMOOTH STONES — The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherd’s Bag

Instead he went to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, a relative of Barnabas who was very close to Peter (1 Peter 1:13), where Peter knew there would be prayer going on for him. And indeed, they were gathered there praying earnestly for him. Certainly, there were many believers praying for Peter, but he knew this company would be praying and would receive him there. He only remained briefly and told them what the Lord had done, and instructed them to pass this testimony on to the other apostles and then he left. The point to see in this is that Peter knew his company, those with whom he had close fellowship and whom he could trust to watch over him in the spirit and pray for him. We all need this. We are weakened as believers if we do not have a company of believers whom we have close fellowship with and who we know will watch over us. With our company we have a relationship with individuals who can speak into our lives and who we know closely, and who know us intimately. At this level of company we can have real koinonia type of fellowship. In fact, it is imperative that we know our company and build upon those relationships in order to have a healthy spiritual relationship, and even health physically. Speaking of communion or koinonia the apostle Paul writes: 1 Corinthians 11:29 “ For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep .” There are very successful ministries that have learned that while we need to have an understanding of what Church is in order to combine the benefits of association, it is equally important to the health of the individuals and the corporate unit to have koinonia fellowship in order to effectively build upon Christian relationship. Some Churches have learned to use cell units to build upon, some have used home groups to build. They recognize that it is not possible to build koinonia from the top down, but it needs to be incorporated as the assembly is built. The apostle John wrote in 1 John 1:6 and 7 that as we walk in the Light and have fellowship with the Lord that we also will have fellowship one with another. When we are not walking in the light we can correct

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