All of us need others who can look objectively at what we are saying or doing in the body of Christ, people who love us enough to tell us the truth, even if the truth hurts for a season.  At the same time, we need people who can encourage us to do what God has called us to do, without kowtowing, flattering, or telling us simply what we want to hear.  Honest encouragement must become a keystone in the last-days church of Jesus Christ. 

A few years ago, I was one of the speakers at a large prophecy conference.  When I got up to speak, I couldn’t get the message together!  Instead of bringing a message that hit the mark, I meandered back and forth, totally missing the target.

After the session that day, the ministers gathered together to evaluate what had been spoken.  It was a precious time of prayer and encouragement.  But that’s not all.

The other ministers firmly rebuked me for not sharing the message God had given me.  “You blew it, Jim,” one man said kindly but emphatically.  “You missed the message.  God gave you the message, but you didn’t present it.  You never got the point across.”  The other ministers agreed that I had not been effective that day.  They didn’t make me feel like a heel, but they were not about to sit by idly, pretending that I had been a blessing when I had not been.

Did I enjoy that corrective rebuke?  Absolutely not.  Did I need it, learn from it, and grow from it?  Count on it.

God wants us to be stirring each other up in a local community of believers with whom we interact daily, week by week.  He wants us to encourage and to be encouraged by spiritual brothers and sisters with whom we live out our Christian experience.

Notice again in Hebrews 10:25 how seriously God takes this matter.  Scripture says that we are to stir one another up to good works, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

In other words, as we see the Day of the Lord approaching, the signs of Christ’s coming all around us, we desperately need each other if we are to mature as believers.

In the days ahead, many will need the church for food; some will need the body for shelter, transportation, child care, and basic human services.  All of us will need each other for spiritual encouragement to keep going, to keep trusting and believing.  In these “getting ready days,” we must take seriously the scriptural mandate that we encourage one another.  If ever we needed the church, we need it now!