Twos and Threes

By Scott Brooks

Does the following dedication from this book apply to you?

“I dedicate this book to you the reader – especially if you have longed for better fellowship but have not been able to find it. May Jesus use this book and work in your life to bring you to wonderful friendships of true heart-to-heart fellowship!”

If this dedication does indeed apply to you, then may Jesus truly use this book in wonderful ways in your life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483552552

Book preview

fellowship!

Chapter 1 – Introduction

I am really excited about this book!  For years I have had a deep heart’s desire to see Christians truly experience wonderful fellowship and through it to grow in wonderful friendships both with the Lord and each other.  But my dilemma was that I never knew how to clearly communicate things that would help us all to experience true heart-to-heart fellowship in a greater way.  That is until recently when Jesus helped me to understand what I had been missing, which I will state in the following claim:

It is of great value for each of us to have the freedom to count twos and threes fellowship as more significant than things that are one to many.

In the rest of this book I will share with you the reasons for this claim.  As you read, I hope the Holy Spirit encourages you and uses this book material to establish an anchor of freedom for you to enjoy and be encouraged by 2s-and-3s fellowship all the more.

Since 2s-and-3s may work a little differently in your life than they have in mine, please feel free to join me in the following prayer so that Jesus can uniquely tailor this book to each of our lives.

Dear Jesus,

As I read this book, please teach me through it and make things stand out to me that are Your best for my life.  And over time, please help me to keep hold of these things by Your grace and enabling.

In Jesus’ name,

Your Name

Before continuing, I would first like to note where this book fits in the sequence of books that the Lord has had us write.  I say us instead of me since my wife, Bonna, was the co-author of the first book listed below:

Would you like to see an Amazing Miracle? (Free at www.SeeMiracle.com)

Deeper Friendships (Free at www.DeeperFriendships.com)

At His Feet (At www.OrderAtHisFeet.com)

Twos and Threes (At www.BrooksFamilyStore.com)

The first three books build a foundation for this Twos and Threes book.  Although this is the case, Twos and Threes is written standalone enough so that you can read it without having to first read the other three books.  So, if you have not read the first three books, you may still want to do so after reading this book so as to get a fuller explanation of those foundational concepts.

With all of this now said, I hope Jesus richly blesses you through this book!

Chapter 2 – How Twos and Threes works

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18:20, emphasis mine)

In this verse, Jesus states the main building block of Christian fellowship and friendships – which is when two or three gather in His name.

In various 1-to-many settings this verse is often misquoted by the 1 to say two or more instead of its correct form of two or three.  We will explore the reason for this misquote in the next chapter where we will look at the historic shift that caused the 1-to-many model to often upstage the primary focus upon 2s-and-3s.  But in this chapter we will explore how 2s-and-3s fellowship works – including why it is so incredibly valuable and what Jesus is wonderfully bringing about through it!

Overall, Jesus has designed 2s-and-3s to be an integral and significant part of His freeing each of us to function as He has created us to function – which is for each of us to have wonderful friendships of agape love with Him and each other.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36, emphasis mine)

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, "is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31, emphasis mine)

I (Jesus) no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15, emphasis mine)

So, how does Jesus use 2s-and-3s in this process?

The following four steps show how this works.  These steps use a group of 3 as an example, with you being 1 of the 3.  The same would hold true if it was a group of 2 instead of 3.

Step 1:  Jesus works continually in you through His Holy Spirit to both filter and enhance the data coming into you via your senses by giving you a sense of what is best for you to reject, and to give you insights into those things that are best for you to receive.

But when he, the (Holy) Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:13a)

For example, when you hear someone speaking you may sense that something is not quite right in what they are saying and therefore it is best to not receive it – hence filtering the data coming into you.  Or when someone shares something with you, something might stand out to you as the Holy Spirit gives you insights into it – hence the enhancing of the data coming into you.

Step 2: As you meet with two others, you are now in a 2s-and-3s. The Holy Spirit will work in your mind and heart, and will help you to share your heart with the other two people.

Step 3: As the other two people listen to you share, the Holy Spirit will work in both of them to filter and enhance what you have shared with them so as to uniquely tailor it to each of their lives.

Step 4:  The ball of fellowship rolls along as the Holy Spirit helps each person to share their heart with the other two, and the Holy