The Holy Word for Morning Revival
International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones—Spring 2014
ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
“He showed me
a river of water of life,
bright as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb
in the middle of its street” (Rev. 22:1):
In the New Jerusalem
the fellowship of life
begins from the throne
and reaches all the gates;
this fellowship
is in the flow of life (the river),
with the supply of life (the tree),
and on the way of life (the street).
As portrayed by the flowing
of the water of life in the New Jerusalem,
the function of the fellowship of life
is to supply us
with all the riches of the divine life.
First John unfolds
the mystery of the fellowship of life :
The fellowship of life
is the flow of the eternal life
within all the believers,
illustrated by the flow
of the water of life in the New Jerusalem;
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.
The fellowship of life
is the imparting of the Triune God
—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—
into the believers
as their unique portion and blessing
for them to enjoy today and for eternity.
Fellowship indicates
a putting away of private interests
and a joining with others for a certain common purpose;
hence, to be in the divine fellowship
is to put aside our private interests
and join with the apostles and the Triune God
for the carrying out of God’s purpose.
The fellowship of life
is realized by the sense of life
and is preserved by the sense of life.
The fellowship of life
is carried out by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit,
and thus it is called the “fellowship of spirit”.
The divine fellowship
is everything in the Christian life:
When fellowship disappears,
God also disappears;
God comes
as the fellowship.
The divine fellowship
blends us, tempers us, adjusts us,
harmonizes us, and mingles us together
into one Body.
Just as there is the circulation of blood in the human body,
so there is a circulation in the Body of Christ
—a circulation which the New Testament calls
fellowship, the fellowship of life :
Fellowship is a common participation, a joint participation;
thus, to have fellowship
is to have a corporate participation in something.
In order to have the unique fellowship,
we must live by and behave in the divine life,
not in our natural life.
The church life
depends upon the fellowship of the Holy Spirit;
the current, the fellowship, of the Divine Trinity within us,
as revealed in 2 Corinthians 13:14,
is our spiritual pulse.
The fellowship of life
is the reality of the church life;
thus, we should seek to live in this fellowship
so that we may enjoy Christ in the church.
The fellowship of life
is related to oneness :
The fellowship, the circulation, of the divine life in the Body
brings all the members of the Body into oneness .
As long as we have the divine life flowing within us,
we are in this oneness
—the oneness of the Body,
the oneness among all the saints.
The fellowship of the divine life,
as the issue of God in His faithfulness,
causes us to participate in, to partake of, to enjoy, Christ
in His all-inclusiveness
as the solution to all the problems in the church;
we should focus on Him,
not on any persons, matters, or things other than Him,
so that all the problems among the believers
may be solved.
The fellowship of the eternal life
is the reality of living
in the Body of Christ
in the oneness of the Spirit :
We enter into the vertical aspect of the divine fellowship
by the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit;
this aspect of fellowship
refers to our fellowship with the Triune God
in our loving Him.
We enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship
by the human spirit;
this aspect of fellowship
refers to our fellowship with one another
by the exercise of our spirit
in our loving one another.
The one divine fellowship
is an interwoven fellowship
—the horizontal fellowship is interwoven
with the vertical fellowship :
The initial experience of the apostles
was the vertical fellowship
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,
but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others,
they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
Our horizontal fellowship with the saints
brings us into vertical fellowship with the Lord;
then our vertical fellowship with the Lord
brings us into horizontal fellowship with the saints.
We must maintain
both the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship
in order to be healthy spiritually.
The fellowship among the churches
is the fellowship of the Body of Christ :
Because there is one Spirit,
there is only one Body,
and there is only one circulation of life in the Body;
this circulation is the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
A local church is a part of the unique Body of Christ,
and the fellowship of the Body is universally one;
in fellowship there is no separation.
The fellowship of life, the flow of the divine life,
mingles us with the Triune God
for His corporate expression :
The flow of the divine life
causes us to become precious materials
for the building up of the New Jerusalem.
The flowing of the Triune God as the fellowship of life
causes us to become the New Jerusalem.
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7 replies on “The Fellowship of Life”
Prophecy note, 20 July 2014
When we blend together,
we have the cross and the Spirit.
Without the cross and the Spirit,
all that we have
is the flesh with division.
It is not easy
to be crucified
and to do all things
by the Spirit in ourselves.
This is
why we must learn to be blended.
Blending requires us
to be crossed out,
and to be by the Spirit
to dispense Christ
and to do everything
for the sake of His Body.
When we come together,
we should experience
the terminating of the cross.
Then we should learn
how to follow the Spirit,
how to dispense Christ,
and how to say and do something
for the benefit of the Body.
We can be in harmony,
because we have been tempered.
Eventually, the distinctions
will all be gone.
Blending means
to lose the distinctions.
We all have to pay some price
to practice the blending.
The fellowship of life
is carried out by God’s Spirit in our spirit.
Our mind may apprehend the fellowship,
but it is not in our mind.
Our emotions may be happy about it,
but the fellowship of life
is not in our emotion.
The fellowship of life
must be in our spirit.
Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life
is the impartation of the Triune God
into the believers
as their unique portion
for them to enjoy today
and for eternity.
The entire city of the New Jerusalem
is supplied by the flow of this living water;
it is supplied
by the fellowship of life.
The fellowship of the divine life
flows out of the Triune God
and through His people
in order to reach every part of the Body of Christ,
which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Day 6
Without the Spirit,
the Body is empty
and has no life.
The Body in Ephesians 4:4
is the Body of Christ,
and the essence of the Body of Christ
is the Spirit.
Hence, the Body and the essence of the Body
are one.
It is impossible
for the Body of Christ
to have more than one essence.
The unique essence of the Body
is the Spirit.
Because there is one Spirit,
there is only one Body.
Moreover, there is
only one circulation, one fellowship, of life in the Body.
This circulation
is the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
All the local churches
need to be in this unique fellowship.
Among all the churches
that compose the one universal Body of Christ,
there is no organization,
but there is the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
If all the churches stay
in this circulation, in the fellowship of the Body,
they will be healthy.
On the one hand,
we should not have any organization among the churches;
on the other hand,
we should be open
to have fellowship with all the churches.
However, the church in a certain locality
or the churches in a particular region
may not be willing to have fellowship with other churches.
This attitude is absolutely wrong.
All the churches should remain
in the fellowship of the Body.
If we realize
what the fellowship among the churches is,
we shall not have the concept
that a local church should be altogether independent.
In its local administration
a local church is independent.
However, according to the nature, essence, and intrinsic element of the church,
no local church can be independent.
To be independent
is to be in darkness.
Many Christian groups are in darkness
because they have cut themselves off from the one, divine fellowship
of the unique, divine life, the life of the Triune God.
This may become the situation
even with a church in the Lord’s recovery
if that church makes itself isolated and independent.
No church or region should be isolated
from the fellowship of the Body.
It is possible
that, among us in the Lord’s recovery,
certain churches or regions
may make themselves independent.
They may isolate themselves from the Body.
They do not want to keep their church or their region
open to the entire Body,
that is, open to all the local churches on earth.
As a result,
to some extent at least,
they cut themselves off from the fellowship among the churches.
The result is
darkness, confusion, division, and death.
This should be a warning to us all.
Whoever has the intention, either consciously or unconsciously,
to separate his area from the fellowship of the Body of Christ
eventually will suffer darkness, confusion, division, and death.
Just as a member of the human body cannot live
if it is separated from the circulation of blood in the body,
so a church cannot be in a healthy condition
if it isolates itself from the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
From this we see
that we all need to pay careful attention
to the crucial matter of the one fellowship among the churches.
Although the administration of the church is separate and equal locally,
the fellowship of the church is one universally.
In fellowship there is no separation.
On this entire earth
there is only one fellowship,
and this fellowship is universally one.
The fellowship of the church
is one not merely in a particular nation
but throughout the earth.
There are separate churches in many cities,
but there is only one fellowship in the entire universe.
Day 5
The divine fellowship has two aspects:
the vertical aspect between God and us
and the horizontal aspect among the believers.
The horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship
is by the human spirit.
The vertical aspect of the divine fellowship
is by the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
The word “by”
is actually not strong
enough to express what we mean.
The Spirit is not merely involved,
wrapped up, or mingled with the fellowship.
The Spirit Himself is the fellowship
because the fellowship is
the flow, the current, of the Spirit.
This is like saying
that the current of electricity
is just the electricity itself.
The current of electricity
is electricity in motion.
When the electricity stops,
the current of electricity also stops.
In the same way,
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
mentioned in 2 Corinthians 13:14
is the Spirit moving.
The grace of Christ
is Christ Himself
enjoyed by us;
the love of God
is God Himself
tasted by us;
and the fellowship of the Spirit
is the Spirit Himself
moving within us.
The divine fellowship
is the Holy Spirit Himself.
We need to enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship
by the human spirit.
If we are going to have real fellowship horizontally with one another,
we need to exercise our spirit.
If we exercise our spirit,
we will never talk in a worldly manner
or speak negatively about the saints or the churches.
A local church can be severely damaged
if many of the saints in that locality
spend time speaking negative things
about other saints and other churches.
Such discussions
spread gossip and death
among the saints.
This kind of contact between the saints
is not the fellowship of spirit
that Paul spoke about in Philippians 2:1-2.
When we exercise our spirit,
we are unable to talk about worldly amusements and entertainment.
When we exercise our spirit,
the nature of our conversation will change
because our spirit is holy.
If there are problems in a certain church,
we may have a desire
to merely talk about the situation,
but our spirit within
will urge us to pray.
Our spirit will not allow us to gossip
about others’ mistakes and failures.
The only way
to have the reality of horizontal fellowship
is by exercising our spirit.
The horizontal and vertical aspects of the divine fellowship
are very closely related.
We can see this from our experience.
Sometimes we may talk about other saints
under the pretense of having fellowship about their situation,
but our conversation is actually gossip.
Afterwards, we often cannot pray
because our praying spirit is quenched by our gossip.
But when we fellowship in a genuine way
by exercising our spirit,
we are eager to pray and contact the Lord.
This shows
how close the relationship is
between the vertical and horizontal aspects of fellowship.
If two brothers exercise their spirit
to have genuine, proper, horizontal fellowship,
they will eventually be ushered
into a very honest and sincere intercession.
When they pray together,
the two aspects of the divine fellowship are interwoven.
The horizontal fellowship
is interwoven with the vertical fellowship.
This interwoven fellowship
is the real fellowship.
If you have a good time with the Lord in vertical fellowship,
you will be eager to see the other saints
in order to have fellowship with them.
Once you have fellowship with the saints through prayer,
you are brought into vertical fellowship with the Lord again.
Thus, these two aspects are always interwoven;
that is, they are always crisscrossing each other.
Day 4
Just as there is the circulation of blood in the human body,
so there is a kind of circulation in the Body of Christ,
a circulation which the New Testament calls fellowship.
The circulation of blood in the human body
is the life-pulse of the body.
Likewise, fellowship is crucial
in the Body of Christ.
Fellowship is a common participation, a joint participation.
Therefore, to have fellowship
is to have a corporate participation in something.
The fellowship of the divine life
is the issue and flow of the divine life.
Because the divine life is organic, rich, moving, and active,
it has a particular issue, a certain kind of outcome.
The issue, the outcome, of the divine life
is the fellowship of life.
This fellowship is first mentioned in Acts 2:42,
a verse which speaks of the fellowship of the apostles.
The fellowship of the apostles
is the fellowship received by the apostles from the Triune God.
According to 1 John 1:3,
this fellowship is “with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
This fellowship is from the Father and the Son to the apostles,
and then from the apostles to all those
who have received eternal life, the life of the Father.
This means
that the apostles receive the fellowship from the Father
and transmit this fellowship to the believers
by dispensing the divine life into them.
Therefore, three parties are involved:
the Father, the apostles, and the believers.
This is the circulation of the divine life
among the believers
through the apostles
and from the Father.
This circulation
is the fellowship of the Body,
which comprises all the local churches.
All the churches on earth
are one Body,
and within this Body
there is the circulation of the divine life.
In the New Testament
this circulation of the divine life in the Body
is called the fellowship.
Fellowship is related to oneness.
Just as the circulation of blood in the human body
causes all the members of the body to be one,
so the fellowship of the divine life in the Body of Christ
causes the Body to be one.
If any member of our physical body
does not participate adequately in the circulation of blood in the body,
that member will become unhealthy.
The way to cure such a problem
is to bring that member back into the circulation of the blood.
The principle is the same
with the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
All those who believe in Christ Jesus,
who have received Him as Redeemer, Savior, and life supply,
have the divine life.
This divine life has a circulation;
that is, the divine life circulates within all of us.
This circulation of the divine life in the Body
brings all the members of the Body into oneness.
This oneness is called the oneness of the Spirit;
it is also the oneness of the Body.
This is the fellowship among the churches.
I would encourage you all to seek
the experience and the enjoyment of the fellowship of God’s Son.
The more we enjoy the co-participation in this fellowship,
the better the church life will be.
We need to enjoy this fellowship
both at home and in the meetings.
Then we shall not be troubled
by opinions, gossip, or different teachings,
for we shall not care for anything
other than the practical co-enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ
who is to us the Spirit, the resurrection, and the Triune God.
Day 3
We must realize
that when fellowship disappears,
God also disappears.
God comes as the fellowship.
Today our meetings, our married life, the coordination among the co-workers,
and the fellowship among the local churches
are abnormal
because we are short of this fellowship.
Today there is not enough fellowship among the local churches,
and the churches are not absolutely one in the fellowship.
God has blended the Body together.
The word blended
also means adjusted, harmonized, tempered, and mingled.
God has blended the Body, adjusted the Body, harmonized the Body,
tempered the Body, and mingled the Body.
The Greek word for blended
implies the losing of distinctions.
One brother’s distinction may be quickness,
and another’s may be slowness.
But in the Body life
the slowness disappears
and the quickness is taken away.
All such distinctions are gone.
God has blended all the believers
of all different races and colors.
A husband and a wife
can have the harmony in their marriage life
only by losing their distinctions.
In order to be harmonized, blended, adjusted,
mingled, and tempered in the Body life,
we have to go through the cross
and be by the Spirit,
dispensing Christ to others
for the sake of the Body of Christ.
The co-workers and elders
must learn to be crossed out.
Whatever we do
should be by the Spirit to dispense Christ.
Also, what we do
should not be for our interest and according to our taste
but for the church.
When a co-worker does anything,
he should fellowship with the other co-workers.
An elder should fellowship with the other elders.
We should not do anything
without fellowshipping with the other saints
who are coordinating with us.
Fellowship requires us to stop
when we are about to do something.
In our coordination in the church life,
in the Lord’s work,
we all have to learn
not to do anything without fellowship.
Among us
we should have
the blending of all the individual members of the Body of Christ,
the blending of all the churches in certain districts,
the blending of all the co-workers,
and the blending of all the elders.
Blending means
that we should always stop
to fellowship with others.
Then we will receive many benefits.
If we isolate and seclude ourselves,
we will lose much spiritual profit.
Learn to fellowship.
Learn to be blended.
From now on,
the churches should come together frequently
to be blended.
We may not be used to it,
but after we begin to practice blending a few times,
we will acquire the taste for it.
This is the most helpful thing
in the keeping of the oneness
of the universal Body of Christ.
When we blend together,
we have the cross and the Spirit.
Without the cross and the Spirit,
all that we have
is the flesh with division.
It is not easy
to be crucified
and to do all things
by the Spirit in ourselves.
This is
why we must learn to be blended.
Blending requires us
to be crossed out,
and to be by the Spirit
to dispense Christ
and to do everything
for the sake of His Body.
We may come together without much blending
because everyone stays in themselves.
They are afraid to offend others and make mistakes,
so they keep quiet.
This is the manner of man
according to the flesh.
When we come together,
we should experience
the terminating of the cross.
Then we should learn
how to follow the Spirit,
how to dispense Christ,
and how to say and do something
for the benefit of the Body.
We can be in harmony,
because we have been tempered.
Eventually, the distinctions
will all be gone.
Blending means
to lose the distinctions.
We all have to pay some price
to practice the blending.
Day 2
The Holy Spirit is
the instrument, the means,
that carries out this fellowship.
Actually, it is really hard
for us in our experience to differentiate these three things:
the fellowship, the life, and the Spirit.
These three things
are one.
The life is the source,
the fellowship is the flow,
and the Spirit is the carrier, the means.
In our experience
we cannot differentiate them,
but in our explanation of the truth
we can.
Our spirit
is the location of the fellowship of life.
This is based upon Philippians 2:1.
We have to point out as clearly and strongly as possible
that if our contact with one another
is not in the spirit,
right away
it becomes a social thing.
Our contact
must be in the spirit.
Then our contact
becomes the fellowship.
This is
because the flowing of the divine life
is altogether not in our soul, our natural life.
It is altogether in our spirit.
The fellowship of life
is carried out by God’s Spirit in our spirit.
Our mind may apprehend the fellowship,
but it is not in our mind.
Our emotions may be happy about it,
but the fellowship of life
is not in our emotion.
The fellowship of life
must be in our spirit.
The fellowship of life
is preserved, safeguarded, protected,
by the sense of life.
Even with our physical body
it is the same.
Our feelings of pain or discomfort
are a protection and a safeguard to us.
Thus, to realize the fellowship of life
and to safeguard, keep, and preserve the fellowship of life
are all by the sense of life.
The sense of life on the negative side
is the feeling of death, a kind of negative feeling.
This is definitely revealed in Romans 8:6.
We have to realize
Romans 8:6 is altogether a verse of sensation
because it says
the mind set on the flesh is death.
This is not only a fact,
but it is also
a matter of feeling, a matter of consciousness.
When you set your mind on the flesh,
you have the sense of death.
On the positive side
the sense of life
functions to give us
a consciousness of the following positive things
—strength, satisfaction, peace, rest, release,
liveliness, watering, brightness, comfort, etc. (Rom. 8:6b).
Instead of being weak,
we are strong.
Instead of being empty,
we are satisfied.
Instead of uneasiness and restlessness,
we have peace and rest.
Instead of depression,
we have release and liveliness.
Liveliness is
a kind of condition of livingness.
We have a sense of
watering versus dryness,
brightness versus darkness,
and comfort versus pain.
All these are the positive feelings
we have from the function of the sense of life.
When we have these kinds of feelings,
we have to realize
that this is the working of the sense of life.
If we are living in the natural life,
the sense is of death
and is entirely on the negative side.
Then we have the feeling of death
with all of its negative points.
If we are living in the divine life,
the sense is of life
and is entirely on the positive side.
Then we have the feeling of life and peace
with all of its positive points.
The sense of life
makes us know
whether we are living
in the natural life or in the divine life.
The sense of life
guides us, governs us, controls us, and directs us.
Most of the teachings of today’s Christianity
are focused on morality and good behavior.
They do not care for this inner sense of life functioning
to make us know
whether we are living
in the natural life or in the divine life.
Since we are seeking after Christ as our life,
we must take care of this sense of life.
If we do not have the positive sensations
of strength, satisfaction, peace, rest, release,
liveliness, watering, brightness, comfort, etc.,
we must realize
that we are not living in the divine life;
it must be
that we are living in the natural life.
Day 1
In the New Jerusalem
there is real fellowship.
This fellowship
begins from the throne
and reaches all the gates.
It is in the flow (the river) of life,
with the supply (the tree) of life,
and the way (the street) of life.
However, this fellowship
is not only among ourselves;
it is also a fellowship between us and God.
It is not only horizontal;
it is also vertical.
When we are in the flow of life,
enjoying the supply of life
and walking in the way of life,
spontaneously we have fellowship one with another.
We have proper and genuine fellowship
with all the saints
and with God on the throne.
The function of the fellowship of life
is to supply us
with all the riches of the divine life.
The more the divine life flows within us
the more supply of life it carries to us.
A good picture of this
is the flowing
of the river of the water of life
in the New Jerusalem.
In that river
is the tree of life.
The tree of life
indicates the supply
that goes along with the flowing
of the river of water of life,
which is the fellowship of life.
Thus, the tree of life
going along with the river
indicates the function
of the flowing of the river of life.
The fellowship among the churches
is also the fellowship with the Triune God.
First John 1:3b says,
“Indeed our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
The fellowship of the divine life
is between the believers and the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
First John 1:3 says
that the believers first have fellowship
with the apostles through the divine life,
and then this verse says
that the apostles have fellowship
with the Father and the Son.
By this we see
that fellowship joins the believers
to the apostles and to the Father and the Son.
Therefore, in this fellowship
there is the full oneness
of the divine life.
In 1 John 1:3
only the Father and the Son are mentioned, not the Spirit,
because the Spirit is implied in the fellowship.
Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life
is the impartation of the Triune God
—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—
into the believers
as their unique portion
for them to enjoy today and for eternity.
It is in this fellowship of eternal life
that we participate in all
that the Father and the Son
are and have done for us;
that is, we enjoy
the love of the Father
and the grace of the Son
by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit.
In Revelation 22:1
we see
that in the New Jerusalem
the river of the water of life
flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
that is, out of the throne of the Lamb-God, the redeeming God.
Out of this redeeming God as the source
flows the river of water of life.
The flow of the river of water of life
is the fellowship of life.
According to the picture here,
the river in the New Jerusalem
flows downward in a spiral
until it reaches the twelve gates of the city.
This indicates
that the entire city of the New Jerusalem
is supplied by the flow of this living water;
that is, it is supplied
by the fellowship of life.
The fellowship of the divine life
flows out of the Triune God
and through His people
in order to reach every part of the Body of Christ,
which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
When we enjoy the Triune God in the divine fellowship,
we shall be brought into a situation
where spontaneously we join ourselves
to the apostles and the Triune God
for a common purpose.
God has a purpose,
and the apostles work out this purpose.
By enjoying the divine life
in fellowship with the Triune God,
we participate in
this purpose and its outworking.