Hello there! Welcome to Fiery Word
If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to this newsletter. It is free and goes directly to your inbox when you subscribe.
Kindly take a second to subscribe and share with somebody today.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers… So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42, 46-47)
Fifteen months ago, the Holy Spirit led me into a Christian community unlike anything I had known before. It was not through thunder or lightning, but through a gentle nudge that left a permanent mark on my heart: a faith unshared is a faith untested. Those words became a summons, one I could neither ignore nor dismiss, because they revealed that faith is not meant to be hoarded but lived out in fellowship. Now, through too many not so co-incidental reminders, the Spirit is once again pressing this same truth upon me, only this time with greater clarity: what I once called simply “community” has a biblical name—the Apostolic Doctrine.
The Apostolic Doctrine is not a suggestion or an optional practice for the believer; it is the very framework of life that Christ entrusted to His disciples before His return to the Father. It is a way of being that allows us to remain steadfast in a world of moral collapse, to stand undefiled in an age of compromise. At its heart lies an unshakable truth: God Himself is a God of community. He has chosen to reveal His glory not in solitary figures but in the gathered body, where fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer are woven together into a rhythm of life.
But this doctrine is not merely about habits or practices; it flows from the very nature of God. Acts 2 calls it steadfastness, a devoted discipline that shapes the believer. Yet its source is higher than human willpower. The order of fellowship, prayer, and shared life springs from the eternal love shared within the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have from eternity existed in perfect unity, giving and receiving love in an unbroken fellowship of joy. Out of that divine communion, God fashioned us in His image, not to live in isolation, but to reflect His nature in community. Horizontally, we experience His love in fellowship with one another; vertically, we mirror that love back to Him and extend it to the world. For nothing speaks louder than the witness of perfect love lived out in perfect friendship.
Heaven’s Pattern for Earthly Fellowship
Before creation dawned and before time or matter came into being, there was love and community. The eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed in perfect harmony, a communion of unbroken delight. Jesus Himself prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). Here we glimpse the eternal exchange of glory, the Father loving the Son, the Son honoring the Father, and the Spirit bearing witness to this love in unceasing unity.
The early church fathers spoke of this mystery as a dance of love, a divine fellowship so complete that Augustine described it as Lover, Beloved, and the Love between them. This eternal communion is not peripheral to God’s nature; it is His very essence. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), not merely loving, but Love itself, eternally shared within the Trinity community.
When creation unfolded, it did so not from loneliness but from the overflow of this love. “In the beginning, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit roamed the earth, moving as the breath of divine affection, preparing the ground for the Word through whom all things would be made. And when the decisive moment came, heaven spoke not in singularity but in community: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). This was not a solitary decree but the united voice of Father, Son, and Spirit. Humanity itself was birthed in the image of divine fellowship, designed to reflect Trinitarian love in every relationship.
Christ confirmed this reality when He declared, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). His words pierce through any notion of division or hierarchy, revealing instead a perfect unity of essence and will. This is why, when He entrusted the Great Commission, He commanded us to “baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The mission of the Church does not begin with strategy or effort but with participation in the divine community itself. The Father sends, the Son redeems, the Spirit empowers, all acting in harmony, all working in love to accomplish the will of God.
Paul echoes this unity in his letter to the Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4–6). The Church is called to mirror the oneness of the Trinity. Just as the three persons of the Godhead are distinct yet indivisible, so the body of Christ is many members yet one fellowship, bound together by love. This is why community is not a human invention but a divine mandate. To resist fellowship is to resist the very design stamped upon us by our Creator. God prioritizes community because He Himself has never existed outside of it. The love that formed the heavens, the unity that breathed life into dust, the fellowship that sent Christ to redeem the world, all of it testifies to this unshakable truth: Christian community is the reflection of Trinitarian love on earth. To live in isolation is to live contrary to our nature; to live in fellowship is to step into the eternal rhythm of God’s own life.
Glory in the Midst of a People
Moving beyond the Trinity, we find that the theme of community continues to echo through the heavens. Every glimpse Scripture gives us of eternity is a vision not of isolation but of fellowship. Around the throne of God sit twenty-four elders clothed in white, each with crowns of gold, casting them down in worship (Revelation 4:4, 10). Their worship is not solitary but united, a chorus of devotion that magnifies the worthiness of the Lamb. Alongside them is an innumerable host of angels, a company so vast the writer of Hebrews describes it as “thousands upon thousands in joyful assembly” gathered at Mount Zion, the city of the living God (Hebrews 12:22). Heaven itself resounds with the sound of multitudes worshiping in one voice, because even in glory God surrounds Himself with community.
Jesus too revealed this pattern when He spoke of His Father’s house. “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). The eternal dwelling of God is not a private chamber for the select few, but a mansion with many rooms, a dwelling made for fellowship, where sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, will abide together forever. The future God prepares for His people is marked not by solitude but by shared life, a community of saints rejoicing in the presence of their Lord.
This truth has been God’s way from the beginning. When He revealed Himself at Sinai, it was not to one man in the secret of a cave but to an entire nation trembling at the mountain (Exodus 19). When He poured out His Spirit at Pentecost, it was not upon a solitary prophet but upon one hundred and twenty gathered together in one place (Acts 2:1–4). God has always chosen to manifest His glory in the midst of a people, for just as the Trinity cannot exist apart from the communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, so the fullness of God’s glory is displayed in the fellowship of His people.
Every picture of God’s kingdom, whether in creation, covenant, or consummation, bears this unmistakable mark of community. Heaven is filled with it, earth was created for it, and the Church is sustained by it. To deny community is to deny the very rhythm of heaven. To embrace it is to step into the eternal flow of divine love that began before time and will never end.
No Divide Between Closet and Congregation
If heaven resounds with multitudes worshiping together, then it is no wonder that the Church on earth was birthed not in isolation but in community. Acts 2 shows us the blueprint: one hundred and twenty disciples gathered in the Upper Room, waiting together as Jesus commanded, and suddenly the Holy Spirit descended with wind and fire. From that day forward, the Church became the visible reflection of Trinitarian love in human fellowship, breaking bread, sharing possessions, praying with one voice, and living as one body.
Yet here lies a subtle stumbling block, one I too have tripped over: the temptation to pit the Upper Room against the Secret Place, as though they are mutually exclusive. It is a deception of the enemy to make us believe we must choose between them, when in truth, they are inseparable. Jesus said plainly, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). The secret place is where we draw living water from the well. But that instruction does not cancel the call to gather: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). The Upper Room and the Secret Place are not rivals; they are partners. One fuels intimacy with God, the other releases His glory through community.
Paul reminds us of this balance when he calls God “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). What begins in private prayer is never meant to end there, it must flow outward into the body. Our personal consolation becomes corporate encouragement; our secret intercession becomes shared power. The Bible makes clear that faith cannot flourish in solitude. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up… though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12). What is this threefold cord if not a shadow of the Trinity itself, divine love woven into the fabric of human fellowship?
And so, the apostolic doctrine described in Acts 2 is not a suggestion but a commandment drawn straight from the life of God Himself. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). The Upper Room without the Secret Place is powerless noise. The Secret Place without the Upper Room is stifled fire. But together, they become the rhythm of heaven on earth, intimacy fueling unity, and unity amplifying intimacy. In this harmony, the Lord Himself adds to the Church daily those who are being saved.
Finding God Again Among His People
When the Secret Place and the Upper Room come together, heaven touches earth. The hidden life of prayer fuels the gathered life of fellowship, and the gathered life of fellowship fans into flame the hidden life of prayer. It is in this rhythm that revival breaks forth. History has shown it repeatedly, whenever God’s people knelt alone in their closets and then rose together in one accord, the Spirit moved with irresistible power. What begins in whispered prayers behind closed doors erupts into tongues of fire when the people gather with one heart. Intimacy with God and unity with one another is the furnace where revival is born.
But what of those who have been burned by community? Many bear wounds from churches or fellowships that failed to reflect the heart of Christ, and so they have withdrawn into solitude, seeking God apart from His people. Yet the Lord would remind them: He has chosen to dwell among His people. “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). To cut ourselves off from the body is to distance ourselves from the very place where His presence delights to rest.
And what of those who are burnt out by community? The endless rhythms of serving, organizing, and pouring out until the well feels dry? To them God gives this promise: He Himself will fill again, replenishing the oil and restoring joy. The psalmist captures this mystery: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forevermore” (Psalm 133). Oil flows where unity is found, blessing abides where brethren dwell together, and life is commanded where God’s people embrace community.
Yes, community may stretch us, and at times it may wound us, but it is still God’s chosen vessel for revival. For in the secret place, we learn to burn, in the Upper Room we learn not to burn out. Alone we receive His unique fire for us, together we sustain His flames for all. When the two are joined, the world cannot help but see the light of Christ blazing forth.
Prayer for Community and Revival
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You have always been love, before the foundations of the earth, before time began, You delighted in perfect fellowship. Out of that eternal love You spoke, “Let us make man in our image”, and You formed us for community, for communion with You and with one another.
Lord, I confess that I often separate what You have joined, the Secret Place from the Upper Room. Teach me to burn in private prayer and to blaze in corporate fellowship. Let my intimacy with You spill over into unity with Your people, and let our unity as the body release the fire of revival upon the earth.
For those who have been burned by community, bring healing, O God. Remind them that You dwell in the midst of Your people, and that in the fellowship of believers Your presence rests. For those who are burnt out by community, pour fresh oil upon their heads, let the anointing flow down like Aaron’s beard, and restore the joy of serving in love.
Lord, let Psalm 133 be fulfilled in our generation: let the oil of unity flow, let the dew of heaven descend, and let life forevermore be commanded over us. Make us a people of both the Secret Place and the Upper Room, hidden in prayer, united in fellowship, burning with holy fire.
Do it again, Lord. As in Acts 2, add to Your Church daily those who are being saved. Let our fellowship be the living reflection of Your Trinitarian love, and may the world behold the glory of Christ in the love we share with one another.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.