Just as blood is indispensable for our human life so fellowship is vitally important for our spiritual life. Fellowship is the flow of the eternal life into us and through us into others. The divine life which we have received through regeneration is the flowing Triune God, and we need to daily keep ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life.
When we are not in this fellowship in a practical way, we are out of the Spirit, out of the Triune God, and out of the divine life (see 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 2:1). We need fellowship with the Lord and with the other members of the Body of Christ that the Lord put us with, not only concerning spiritual things but also concerning things of our human life.
First of all, we need to open to the Lord, fellowship with Him, and have a solid vertical fellowship with Him. Then, we need to open to one another and fellowship with the other believers.
The fellowship we talk about is not merely “prayers” or “talking to one another”; fellowship is the flow of the eternal life in us and through us.
I recently enjoyed twelve aspects of the fellowship being the flow of the eternal life (as put together from the ministry of brother Witness Lee and shared by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week).
12 Items Related to Fellowship as the Flow of the Divine Life
1. The divine fellowship is the flow of the divine life. Just as the electrical appliances live an electrical life in the flow of electricity so we as members of the Body of Christ live a life in the divine fellowship. The flow of the divine life in us causes us to live, move, and be in our spirit, and do everything in the Body and for the Body, to accomplish God’s eternal purpose.
The Spirit is the essence, the blood, of the Body (Eph. 4:4), and the circulation of the blood in the Body of Christ is the fellowship in the Body, the flow of the divine life. Without this fellowship, we cannot have the Body of Christ in reality. The Body cannot exist without the fellowship of the divine life, and we as Christians cannot have a proper Christian life without fellowship.
2. The divine fellowship mingles us with the Triune God for His corporate expression. For us to be mingled with God, we need to be in the flow of the divine life moment by moment, for His corporate expression, His building. God as the Light in the Lamb as the lamp is on the throne, and out of the throne flows a river of water of life (Rev. 22:1). The Triune God flows in us and out of us into others to mingle us with the Triune God for His corporate expression.
3. The flowing Triune God is Himself the fellowship. As seen in John 4:14, when we receive God in Christ as the Spirit we receive a fountain of water springing up into eternal life! God the Father is the fountain, the source; God the Son is the emergence, manifestation, and expression of the Father; God the Spirit is the flowing river – the Triune God is flowing into eternal life, to make us the New Jerusalem!
The Triune God flowing in us causes us to become the totality of the eternal life, the New Jerusalem. By being in the fellowship as the flow of the divine life we are becoming the New Jerusalem.
4. The flow of the divine life causes us to become the materials for God’s building. As seen in Genesis 2:10-12, there’s a river flowing in the garden of Eden, and in the flow of the river there’s precious materials. The more we are in the fellowship as the flow of the divine life, the more we are produced as materials for God’s building, and we are built together as His counterpart (see Eve, built from Adam’s rib in Gen. 2).
5. The divine fellowship is the issue of drinking the Lord (see John 7:37-39). How can we enjoy the divine fellowship as the flow of the divine life? It is only by drinking the Lord as the Spirit! As we drink Him, there will be an overflow of life, which is the stream of the work of God. We just need to DRINK… and FLOW! You can tell who is drinking by seeing that he is flowing!
Just as a hose is “drinking water” because it is flowing out water at the other end, so we drink the Lord and we overflow in working for Him. The outflow of life is not struggling, laboring, or striving but an overflow of life resulting in working for God. We need to allow the Lord to flow in and flow out, and then the work will not be a burden but a rest.
If you feel that your serving in the church is a burden, you need to drink the Lord! Drink the Lord, and you will be in the flow of the divine life, which will overflow into working for God – and this is a rest and satisfaction to you…
6. The divine fellowship as the issue of God’s Faithfulness causes us to participate in, partake of, and enjoy Christ in His all-inclusiveness as the solution to all the problems in the church (1 Cor. 1:9). God is faithful – He called us into the fellowship of His Son! When we are in the genuine enjoyment of Christ, we are in the flow of the divine life, and this eliminates all the problems and the germs.
God is faithful to take away all our idols so that we may be more in the fellowship of Christ, in the partaking of and enjoyment of Christ (Jer. 2:13). Anything that replaces God as the source of the supply for us (health, marriage, safety, peace, possessions, etc) is an idol; and God is faithful to lead us back into the enjoyment of Himself as the divine fellowship.
7. The divine fellowship as the circulation of the Spirit in the Body includes all of the spirits, the persons, the works, and the processes. The Spirit circulates in the Body of Christ, flowing as the divine fellowship, and in this Spirit there’s the spirits of all the saints, the persons of the saints, the works done in love by the saints for the Lord, and the processes the Lord and the saints go through.
In the flow of the river of water of life from the throne in Rev. 22:1 we have the authority of God, the Lord’s uplifted humanity, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, the lordship of Christ, the headship, and everything that God has and has accomplished. Everything is in the flow!
8. The divine fellowship is deepened within us in and for the house of God (Ezek. 37). The more we give the preeminence to the flow of life in us, the more the flow is deepened in our being for the house of God. As the Lord measures us, the flow increases. We get measured, tested, examined, judged, so that God may possess us. As God measures us, the level of water increases. We need to tell the Lord,
Lord, measure us to such an extent that there would be enough fellowship for us to swim in! Deepen the flow of life in us!
9. The fellowship of the divine life is an interwoven fellowship (1 John 1:2-3, 6-7). This fellowship is an interweaving of the fellowship of the apostles with the Triune God vertically, and the apostles with the believers horizontally. The fellowship of the divine life is not just something we have between us and the Lord, but something that is interweaved with our fellowship with the fellow believers! We fellowship with God, and we fellowship with one another – we are interwoven together, built together, in the divine life.
10. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission and the circulation of the Triune God with the grace of Christ as the course and the love of God as the source (see 2 Cor. 13:14 and footnote). The fellowship of the divine life is the transmission and the circulation of the Triune God with the grace of Christ and the love of God.
This fellowship means everything in our Christian life. When we have fellowship, we have God! When we fellowship with God and with our fellow believers, we have the flow of God the Father as love (the source), God the Son as grace (the course), in the transmission of the Spirit (the flow and circulation).
11. We must exercise our spirit to experience the fellowship, the flow of the eternal life. How can we experience and enjoy the fellowship of the divine life? As seen in Phil. 2:1, the fellowship is of spirit – we need to exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy and enter into the divine fellowship!
12. The enjoyment of the divine fellowship ushers us into the enjoyment of God in the house of God where we will dwell for the rest of our days until eternity! As seen in Psa. 23:6 (and the footnote there), surely goodness (the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ) and loving-kindness (the love of God) will follow (the fellowship of the Holy Spirit) us all the days of our life, and we will dwell in the house of Jehovah (the church life, the Body of Christ, the New Jerusalem) for the length of our days.
The issue and final result of the continual enjoyment of the divine fellowship is that we enjoy God in His house and dwell here forever with Him in mutual enjoyment!
Lord, keep us in the fellowship of the divine life. May there be no insulation or hindrance to the flow of life in us. Lord, grant us a clear sky with a throne above it, so that we may have a continual fellowship with You. We need the fellowship! Flow into us, Lord, and flow out of us into all the saints and those around us! Increase the flow of life in us until there’s enough flow of fellowship for us to swim in! Flow us all the way into the New Jerusalem!
References and Further Reading
- This sharing is inspired from brother Ed Marks’ sharing in this message and portions in, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man (pp. 145-147), as partially quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 1 entitled, Living in the Fellowship of the Divine Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# From my spirit within flows a fountain of life— / The Triune God flowing in me; / God the Father’s the source, Christ the Son is the course, / And the Spirit imparts life to me.
# Not where we elect to go, / But where Jesus leads the way, / There the living waters flow, / There our darkness turns to day.
# The love of God and the grace of Christ / And fellowship of the Holy Spirit / Be with you, be with you all.
About aGodMan
1Cor 1:9 …u were called into t fellowship of' His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Eph 4:25…speak truth each 1 with his neighbor, for we r members 1 of another.
'T biggest shortage among us s fellowship…our fellowship should also include practical things..'
Lord, let us c that in order to b healthy spiritually we need 2 maintain &/or increase our vertical & horizontal fellowship!
Amen
🙂
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