Finding fellowship in the Bride now
Finding fellowship in the Bride now has become a real problem. As the world goes more apostate, true believers have become rare in many places.
You will need to look carefully and check wisely. But thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us.
In almost all churches, the Lord has His remnant. If you pray, He will lead you to them.
Over the years, my wife and I ministered in many churches which seemed to be completely heathen. But, He always showed us people who knew Him. Thankfully, as we grew in the Lord, we became some of those people.
Finding fellowship in the Bride now takes prayer and discernment
So, how do you find these people? Well, first of all you talk to the Lord and ask Him to lead you to them. You’ll discover that often you are not led to the apparently strong, influential, and popular ones. But, you will find that they do all have certain characteristics.
They believe that the Bible is true: In many churches today, even the pastor may not believe that. But you’ll find the all members of the Bride know the truth that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it is true—literally true. I know, in my life of walking with Jesus for nearly fifty years, every year I find more parts of scripture that are literally true. I got to the place many years ago where I began assuming that the scripture was literally true before I read it. I was a tough nut to crack, though. It took almost forty years to realize that Genesis 1 & 2 are literally true. Once I did that, my whole life opened up on new levels.
Jesus is Lord of their life: It is common for people to “accept Jesus”, yet never make Him the sovereign ruler of their life. The Bride is made up of people who know their betrothed is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Moreover, they have acknowledged that to Him directly, asking Him to be in charge of their life. To reference a terrible old bumper sticker, if you believe God is your co-pilot you are in trouble. He needs to be your Pilot. Members of the Bride know that.
They converse with Jesus all the time: They not only pray with their requests, but they ask Jesus questions. And they get answers. Prayer must be a conversation. If you do not have this, please pray something like this. “Lord, this crazy blogger is telling me that I need to be having conversations with you. I have no idea how to do that. Would you please show me if this is true? And if it is, please teach me how to hear you?” Believe me. He’ll be excited, and jump at the opportunity to talk with you.
When the writer of Hebrews told us not to forsake the assembling together, he or she was talking about hanging out with true members of the Bride. We all need this. There are more things to look for, but this will get you started on the right track.