The Local Church is Your Place of Destiny

"Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God." (Psalm 92:14)

Our spiritual lives are seeds. The local church is the garden. Our God-given destines are the fruits. It's a simple system. We will not grow into all we are meant to be if we are not planted and rooted in a church family. Naturally speaking, homelessness is a very depriving situation. Homeless people struggle. They are unprotected from physical and psychological troubles. They are the most vulnerable to inclement weather and health epidemics. Spiritually, "churchless" Christians are equally vulnerable on many fronts.

No matter how great the potential of a tree is, it will never realize it if it is not rooted in a particular spot on the earth. This is true of great destinies in the kingdom too. God didn't intend any of his children to be homeless or nomadic.

Membership in a local church gives you a connection point to the rest of the body of Christ. It helps you fulfill a necessary protocol for God.

There are many things God wants to do in, through, for and with us that He will not do except we are planted in a church family. This is because your destiny requires a covering, network and primary beneficiaries that can only be found in a local church. It is not just enough to have our names on a membership list. What is more important is to have a stable and steady set of fellow believers with whom we are sharing the joys, challenges and victories of the christian life.

Jesus our Lord is a shepherd and we are his sheep. And the basic trait of sheep is that they flock together. Something may be seriously broken with a Christian who wants to be a loner. And that believer must know that their aloofness will worsen and never cure that brokenness.

Besides, spiritual maturity cannot be realized without skin-to-skin fellowship with fellow "imperfect" believers. You cannot grow agape love in you if there is no undeserving person on whom to expend it. How do I learn patience except my brother aggravates me? How would I develop the virtue of discretion if there is no one to share their secrets with me? 

To think we are "fulfilling purpose" by doing more stuff while sacrificing church-time is not destiny but destitution. Let's learn to love and thrive in church!