You are deeply blessed if you have a devoted brother or sister with whom to pray. Indeed, the most powerful intercessors I’ve known have come in twos and threes. “I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19, NKJV).

Some Christians don’t want to be connected to other members of the body of Christ. They commune with Jesus, but they deliberately isolate themselves from other believers. They want nothing to do with the body, other than the head.

A body can’t be comprised of just a single member, though. Can you picture a head with only an arm growing out of it? Christ’s body can’t be made up of a head alone, with no limbs or organs. His body consists of many members. We are knit together not only by our need for Jesus but also by our need for each other.

In the gospels, Jesus told his disciples, “…on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26, NKJV). Christ’s warning to them and us is “Without hope in me, multitudes of people are literally going to die of fright!”

You can’t weep your way into this heavenly place. You can’t study or work or will your way in. No, the only way to the throne-life is by way of a living sacrifice: “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

Our peace and contentment always depend upon our resignation into God’s hands, no matter what our circumstance. The psalmist writes, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

In perilous times like these, is the church powerless to do anything? Are we to sit and wait for Christ to return? Or, are we called to take drastic action of some kind? When all around us the world is trembling, with men’s hearts failing them for fear, are we called to take up spiritual weapons and do battle with the adversary?

The prophets warn us that when we see God shaking the nations, and perilous times befall us, our natural man will fear greatly. Ezekiel asked, “Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you?” (Ezekiel 22:14).

Here is the cry of the apostle John in the Bible’s final book: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20, NKJV). It may seem strange that would John pray for this, though, knowing that Jesus himself told his followers, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14)? Can we have any impact on when Jesus returns?

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

The apostle Paul instructs us, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Then he says more specifically, “For in fact the body is not one member but many” (12:14).

Paul is telling us, “Take a look at your own body. You have hands, feet, eyes, ears. You are not just an isolated brain, unattached to the other members. Well, it’s the same way with Christ. He’s not just the head. He has a body, and we comprise its members.”