The Mystery of the Fellowship of the Eternal Life: the Triune God is Flowing in us!

If we read the Epistles of John, especially the first Epistle, we will see the unfolding of the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life, which is the flowing Triune God, the flow of the eternal life in all the believers, the imparting of the Triune God into us as we put aside our private interests and join God for His interests and remain in the teaching of the apostes.

Amen, Lord, unveil us to see the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life! Praise You for coming in us not only as life but as a flowing Triune God! Hallelujah, God is flowing in us as life, and each believer in Christ has the flow of the eternal life, the fellowship of life, in his spirit! Amen, Lord, keep us in our spirit today, enjoying the eternal life and remaining in the fellowship! Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the Epistles of John and we want to focus on, The Fellowship of the Eternal Life – the Reality of Living in the Body of Christ.

It is such a wonderful matter, this matter of the fellowship of the eternal life, for each one of us as believers in Christ have received the flow of life.

Now we treasure the sweet flow of life. Our soul is satisfied in the Lord, for the flow of life is everything we need.

The subject of the first Epistle of John is the fellowship of life, the flow of life.

The apostle John wrote in a very mysterious, simple, yet wonderful way concerning the matter of the eternal life, showing us not only that we have received the divine life but even more, that we have the fellowship of the eternal life, and this is a mystery.

If we read the first few verses in 1 John chapter 1 we will be quite puzzled and at the same time amazed and encouraged concerning our Christian life.

That which was in the beginning – that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested! Hallelujah!

Christ as life was manifested, and the apostles saw it, testified concerning it, and reported to us the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to them.

That which the apostles saw and heard, they also reported to us so that we may have fellowship with the apostles. And this fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

As we read this, as we enjoy this portion of the Word in spirit, we are filled with joy, and the joy is made full! Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ! Praise the Lord!

The First Epistle of John Unfolds the Mystery of the Fellowship of the Eternal Life

John’s Epistles, especially his first Epistle, unfold the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life (see 1 John 1:3-4, 6-7).

What is the fellowship of the eternal life? Fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers in Christ; it is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1).

The reality of the Body of Christ, the church life in actuality, is the flow of the Lord Jesus within us, and this flowing One must have the preeminence within us (Col. 1:18; Ezek. 47:1).

Fellowship is a flow of life; it is a moving of life, the flow of life, life in action. It is a two-way flow.

Right now in all the genuine believers in Christ there is not just the flow of the human life causing them to be alive humanly but even more the flow of the divine life, the flow of the eternal life.

When we maintain the flow of the eternal life, we are in the reality of the Body of Christ.

If we don’t maintain this flow, we may even be in the meetings of the church, but we are not in reality. May we pay attention to the flow of the eternal life in our spirit.

Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life; it is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers who have received and possessed the divine life. All genuine believers are in this fellowship.

We can testify that, when we see or meet another believer in Christ, we just feel that we are one, for we have the same life, and we rejoice in the Lord. This flow of life makes us all one in the Lord.

The fellowship of the eternal life is carried out by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit; hence, it is called the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of the Spirit with our spirit.

In this fellowship of the eternal life we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us.

In this fellowship we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by means of the fellowship of the Spirit.

Fellowship is the flowing Triune God – the Father is the fountain of life, the Son is the spring of life, and the Spirit is the river of life (John 4:14; Rev. 22:1-2).

This flowing issues in the totality of eternal life – the New Jerusalem.

The fellowship of the eternal life is not a thing; it is a person moving, a person in action within us. Something of God comes to us and something of us goes to Him. Praise the Lord!

In John’s Gospel we see life and building, and in Revelation we see the consummation of redemption, which is life and building, consummating into the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem we see a built-up corporate expression of the Triune God with His life dispensed into His people, and on the throne is the Lamb of God, and out of the throne flows a river of water of life. Hallelujah!

May we pay attention to the flow of the eternal life in our being.

Fellowship is the imparting of the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – into us, the believers in Christ, to be our unique portion and blessing for our enjoyment both today and for eternity (1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27).

In Numbers 6 we see the eternal blessing of the Triune God: Jehovah bless you and keep you, Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

When we are in our spirit, when we touch the Lord in spirit, we enjoy the Triune God blessing us and keeping us, preserving us, making His face shine upon us from within us, being grace to us, and lifting up His countenance to us.

We simply need to pay attention to the flow of life in our being by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord moment by moment.

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life! May we realise that the eternal life is in us as a flow, the fellowship of life, the flow of life! Hallelujah, fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers in Christ! Amen, Lord, flow in us today. We open to the flow of life. We treasure the flow of life. May Your life flow in us and also flow out of us. May we be in the reality of the Body of Christ by the flow of the Lord Jesus within us! May we be in the church life in reality by maintaining the flow of life! Oh Lord, thank You for coming into us as the flowing Triune God: the Father as the fountain of life, the Son as the spring of life, and the Spirit as the river of life! Hallelujah, the Triune God is flowing in us, and this flowing issues in the totality of eternal life – the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying the flowing of the Triune God as our unique portion and blessing both today and for eternity!

Fellowship is Joint Participation: we’re Joined with the Apostles and the Triune God for the Carrying out of God’s purpose as seen in the Teaching of the Apostles

Another aspect of the fellowship of the eternal life is that it is a putting away of our private interests to be joined to others for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose.

The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia, meaning “joint participation, common participation.” First, the apostles entered into this fellowship by seeing something from the Triune God, and then, by reporting to us what they saw, we also entered into the fellowship of the eternal life.

When we see an unfolding of the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life, we will be amazed, encouraged, and strengthened, for we also can be joined with the apostles and with the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose (Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3).

As we participating corporately in something; by means of the flow of the divine life in our being and under the teaching of the apostles, we are joined together with the saints, with the apostles, and with the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose.

Fellowship is something joined, something in common, something that we partake of together. It is back and forth.

Personally, it is not just God supplying us: we open to Him, He opens to us, we receive His dispensing, and we give what we are to Him.

And God doesn’t just supply us with His flowing life for us to be happy; there’s an issue, a result, that is, the carrying out of God’s purpose to consummate the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord!

As we enjoy Christ today by exercising our spirit, we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem, and we live out and work out the New Jerusalem.

How can we accomplish such a lofty goal? It is by taking care of the flow of life in our being.

Fellowship comes from teaching; if we teach wrongly and differently from the apostles’ teaching, the teaching of God’s economy, our teaching will produce a sectarian, divisive fellowship (Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-6; 6:3-4; 2 Cor. 3:8-9; 5:18).

We can be one in the fellowship of the eternal life because we have only one teaching, which is the teaching of the apostles, and one fellowship, the fellowship of the apostles.

We need to continue steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

As we meet with the saints at the Lord’s Table meeting, we are breaking bread and uttering prayers, and we remember the Lord and worship the Father as we see in the apostles’ teaching.

As we meet to pray with the saints in the prayer meeting, we also pray according to the teaching of the apostles so that we may deepen the flow of life, the fellowship of the divine life.

We are all learning to put aside our private interests, our own goals, our purpose, and our desires, and be joined to others in the flow of the eternal life so that we may be one with the Lord and with the Body to carry out God’s purpose.

In 1 Timothy 1:3-6 we see that different teachings can produce a different fellowship, and this brings in division.

No one has the freedom in the divine economy to teach what they like; we must adhere to the apostles’ teaching. Otherwise, there will be problems, divisions, and confusion among the saints in the church life.

If we remain in the apostles’ teaching, the teaching of the New Testament economy of God, we will be kept in the fellowship of life, and the mystery of the fellowship of the eternal life will be manifested among us.

In the first Epistle of John, we see the principles of the divine fellowship. In the second Epistle of John we see that we must not have fellowship with those who deny Christ (2 John 1:7-11).

In the third Epistle of John we see that we should stay in the one fellowship of God’s family by sending forward those who travel for the gospel and the ministry of the word in a manner worthy of God and by not loving to be first in the church (3 John 1:5-10).

May we all remain in the fellowship of the eternal life by remaining under the teaching and fellowship of the apostles.

May we enjoy the flow of the Triune God in our being, giving the flow of life the preeminence in us, so that we may live a life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

May we learn to put aside our private interests and be joined to the Triune God and to the apostles for the carrying out of God’s purpose.

Lord Jesus, we put aside our private interests and are joined to the Triune God and to the saints for the carrying out of God’s purpose! Amen, Lord, keep us in the fellowship of the eternal life so that we may be one with You and one with the apostles for the carrying out of God’s purpose! We love You, Lord, and we love the flow of life. We treasure the flow of life and we give this flow the preeminence in our being. Keep us in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, never teaching wrongly or differently from the apostles’ teaching. Amen, Lord, we love being here, under the teaching of God’s economy, to keep the oneness of the Body and carry out God’s eternal purpose. We give ourselves to You today. Keep us in the organic union with You, receiving Your divine dispensing and giving You all that we are in fellowship. Amen, Lord, what a privilege it is for us to be in the fellowship of the eternal life, joined to the Triune God and to the saints for God to carry out what is in His heart on earth! Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ricky Acosta on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 5-8, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 35, The Fellowship of the Eternal Life— the Reality of Living in the Body of Christ – day 1.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Giving the Lord the first place in all things to maintain the fellowship of life, the flow of life, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – 03 – The Fellowship of the Eternal Life—the Reality of Living in the Body of Christ, video sharing by brother Ricky A.
  – The fellowship of the eternal life, a portion from, Abiding in the Lord to Enjoy His Life, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – The Fellowship of the Eternal Life (1) – Truth Series #2, via, Uni Students.
  – Concerning the Flowing of the Triune God Issuing in the Joining and Mingling of God with Humanity, via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Fellowship – What is it and How Do You Enjoy it? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Life-study of Ephesians, Message 7: The Mystery of God’s Will, via, LSM YouTube.
  – The Street of New Jerusalem for Eternal Fellowship, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Fellowship, a portion from, Seven Mysteries in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – 1 John (Program #23) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Practice the Divine Righteousness (1), via, Bible study radio.
  – What Is Faith, Where Does It Come from, and How Do I Get It? More via, Bibles for America blog.
• 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. / Lord, I treasure the sweet flow of life, / And my soul-life at last I lay down; / O Lord, deepen the pure flow of life; / At Your coming may life be my crown. (Hymns #1191 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Life eternal brings us / Fellowship of life, / Fellowship in Spirit, / Saving us from strife. / Life eternal gives us / Fellowship divine; / Thus the Lord as Spirit / May with us combine. / It is life in Spirit / Brings this fellowship; / Fellowship in Spirit / Doth with grace equip. (Hymns #737 stanzas 1-3)
  – Thou as the Spirit in the Son / Hast mingled heretofore; / Thou wilt thru fellowship anoint / And increase more and more. / he love of God, the grace of Christ, / The Spirit’s flowing free, / Enable us God’s wealth to share / Thru all eternity. (Hymns #12 stanzas 5-6)