WEEK 1 — DAY 5
Morning Nourishment
1
John 1:2-3 "(...We have seen and testify and report to you the eternal
life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us); that which we
have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have
fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and
with His Son Jesus Christ."
Acts 2:42 "And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles..."
Just as the current of electricity is the electricity itself, the
fellowship of the divine life, the flow of the divine life, is the
divine life itself....Similarly, our Christian life is a life of the
fellowship of the divine life. The New Testament reveals that the
Christian meeting, the Christian married life, and the
Christian work are just the divine fellowship. The divine fellowship is
everything in the Christian life. Those who were saved in Acts 2 were
brought into and continued steadfastly in the apostles’ fellowship (v.
42). (The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, p. 154)
Today's Reading
The apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers; this is
horizontal fellowship. Then the apostles stated that their fellowship
was with the Triune God; this is vertical fellowship [1 John 1:2-3]. The
vertical fellowship brings us into the horizontal fellowship. The
horizontal fellowship then brings us into the vertical fellowship on a
larger scale. This larger scale of fellowship is the meetings....All the
functioning in the meetings should be an expression of the divine
fellowship. To prophesy is an expression of this fellowship....The
entire meeting should be a fellowship. We should be vertically
fellowshipping with the Lord and, at the same time, be horizontally
fellowshipping with one another.
Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us. This
interweaving is the mingling of God with man. All of the meetings should
be an interwoven fellowship with both the vertical and horizontal
aspects. Our married life should also be an interwoven fellowship. The
husband and the wife should not only be interwoven with each other but
also with the Lord. The real Christian marriage should be the divine
fellowship. Our coordination and work together should also be the divine
fellowship.
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.
The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life. The apostle
Paul lived in this fellowship. When we live in the divine fellowship,
our Christian life becomes very living, active, and full of impact. We
need to fully enter into the experience of the divine fellowship in its
two aspects by the two spirits.
In our experience, however, there are always frustrations and obstacles
between us and God. There are many obstacles to the divine fellowship
in its vertical and horizontal aspects. What is needed to deal with
these obstacles? In the whole universe, there is only one thing which
takes away all the obstacles between us and God—the cross.
Without the cross, our fellowship is superficial. The cross of death
deepens our fellowship, and the Spirit’s breath as the resurrection
uplifts our fellowship. Fellowship frees us from our sinful self
through the cross. Without the cross, there is no release, freedom, or
liberty from the self....Without the Spirit and the cross, we cannot
have real fellowship.
The first line of [Hymns], #279 says, “First the blood, and then the
ointment.” The blood is a strong sign of the cross, and the ointment is a
type of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit. These two elements are
mentioned in Leviticus 14:6-10, 14-18. (The Triune God to Be Life to the
Tripartite Man, pp.154-155, 158-159)
Further Reading: The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, ch. 18
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