Move out of Ourselves and Into the Triune God through Sanctification: Genuine Oneness

When we believers in Christ move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, we are one and we are even perfected into one to be in one accord; we move into the Triune God by being sanctified by the word (which is truth) and by the Spirit (who is the Spirit of truth). Amen!

In us, in ourselves, there is no way to be one. We may be one temporarily and momentarily, but there’s no way to have genuine oneness unless we are in God and God is in us, for only God is one.

In the church life we need to learn to exercise our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, and we also need to learn to deal with any factors of division by the sanctifying truth in God’s word.

On the positive side, we want to remain in our spirit, being intimately joined to the Lord and abiding in the organic union with Him. On the negative side, we allow the Lord to shine on us and expose any factor of division in us and among us, and we let Him purge, cleanse, and purify us.

There are at least four main factors of division, all of which are in us.

First, there’s worldliness; we may not love the whole world, but there may be a certain aspect of the world that we love, are attracted to, and love spending time with. We need to realise that, as long as we love the world in a certain aspect, that aspect of worldliness becomes a cause of division.

The second factor of division is ambition; ambition is in us all, we are trained to be ambitious, and even in the church life and in the Lord’s work, we have ambition.

There’s the positive ambition to live before the Lord and be pleasing to Him; such ambition is commendable and should be nurtured. However, there’s the ambition for a position or the desire to be someone, to have some authority, and to be seen and appreciated by others; this is something that needs to be exposed by the Lord and dealt with by Him.

The way ambition is dealt with and removed is by our coming to the Lord through His word to allow Him to infuse Himself into us so that the sanctifying truth imparted into our being will kill our ambition.

The third factor of division is self-exaltation; we may think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think and we may want to exalt ourselves above others.

May we be willing to be nobody, just believers in Christ who love the Lord and who give Christ the preeminence.

Finally, the fourth factor of division is opinions and concepts; these may not be that obvious and may be quite positive, but anything of our opinions and concepts should be dropped, and we should hold only to the Lord’s goal! Amen!

Move Out of ourselves and into the Triune God through Sanctification by the Word and the Spirit of Truth

The oneness the Lord speaks of in John 17, the genuine oneness He prayed for, is the oneness in the Triune God which becomes our oneness. For us to be one, we need to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God.

It is only when we’re with the Lord in the Father and in glory that we are one; when we’re in ourselves, we cannot be one with others.

For us to be one with others, we need to move out of the self and into God the Father by means of being sanctified.

When we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, we are one and are even perfected into oneness to be in one accord (John 17:11, 17, 21-23; Eph. 4:1-6). Amen!

To be sanctified is to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God and to allow Christ to live in us; it is in this way that we are perfected into one (John 17:21-23).

Here is the key to our oneness; if we want to be perfected into one, we need to first move out of ourselves and into the Triune God. This is the first step. Then, we need to allow Christ to live in us.

Day by day, even all day long, in all the things related to our human life, both big and small, we need to allow Christ to have access to our whole inner being so that we may be one. This is to be sanctified.

This sanctification takes place by the Word, which is the truth, and by the Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth.

We need to daily come to the Lord in His word, which is truth. As we come to the Word of God every morning, outwardly we touch the Word, but inwardly the Spirit touches us.

By the Word and by the Spirit, both of which are the reality, we are sanctified. Did you touch the Word of God today? Did you allow the Spirit to touch you?

Many times, we come to the Word of God to feed on the Lord, and we obtain nourishment in the Word. But do we allow the Spirit to touch us, speak to us, and expose things in us?

We shouldn’t be introspective about this, but we need to be inspired to tell the Lord that we allow Him to touch us as we touch Him in the Word.

We want to open our whole being to Him as we come to Him in the Word so that we may be sanctified and move out of ourselves and into the Triune God. This is the only way we can be one, according to the Lord Jesus.

The more we touch the Word of God and the more the Spirit touches us, the more we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God.

As we allow the Spirit to touch us, we move out of ourselves – our old dwelling place, the self – and into another dwelling place, the Triune God! Amen!

May we learn to touch the Lord in His word by the exercise of our spirit, and may we allow Him to touch us as the Spirit.

As we have these intimate, personal, spiritual transactions with the Lord, we are sanctified, and we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God.

Spontaneously, we are one! Every day we need to make this move, for if we remain in the self, we have worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts.

When we wake up in the morning, we wake up in the self and with the flesh; we need to choose to turn to our spirit, read the Word with the exercise of our spirit, and allow the Spirit to touch us through His sanctifying word.

We can testify that the more we allow the Spirit to touch us and we touch the Word with our spirit, the more we move out of ourselves. We simply get out of the self and move into the Triune God!

Day by day, we need to make this move, and many times during the day we need to continue to make this move!

If we don’t move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, we are full of worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. Oh Lord!

May we not allow anything to distract us from our spirit. May we not allow anything to interrupt our time with the Lord, but rather, let the Lord shine on us, expose us, and speak to us.

If we continually touch the Word and allow the Spirit to touch us day by day, we will be sanctified, that is, we will move out of ourselves – our old lodging place – and into the Triune God – our new lodging place. Amen!

Once we’re out of ourselves, we are sanctified, separated from the factors of division, and separated not only unto God but also into God! Amen!

If we want to have the genuine oneness and the one accord, we must FIRST move out of ourselves and into the Triune God (John 17:17, 21).

Then, we must allow Christ to live in us (v. 23) so that we can be one with all the saints in our locality and also with the saints in any locality.

It is good to bring this to the Lord in prayer, opening to Him regarding this and telling Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God by means of being sanctified in Your word! Amen, Lord, sanctify us today. Cause us to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, and cause us to allow Christ to live in us so that we may be perfected into one! Hallelujah, we are sanctified by the Word – which is truth – and by the Spirit – who is the Spirit of truth! Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word day by day to touch the Word with our spirit and allow the Spirit to touch us. May we learn how to touch the Word and how to let the Spirit touch us. Amen, Lord, have a way to speak to us as the Spirit and have Your way to touch us in Your word so that we may move out of ourselves and into the Triune God! May we daily make this move so that we no longer remain in the self, for in the self there’s worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts! Oh Lord, may we be in God and God be in us! We want to have the genuine oneness and the one accord by moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God and by allowing Christ to live in us!

Being Perfected into One by Living in the Father, Allowing Christ to Live in us, and Living in the Father’s Glory

John 17:23 is a wonderful yet mysterious verse, for it says, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one. This is a perfected oneness, which is the real building, and it is also the growth in life (Eph. 4:16).

To be perfected into one means that we’re rescued from worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts.

Verse 23 of John 17 tells us that Christ is in us – the Son is living and moving in us, and it also tells us that the Father is in the Son – the Father is living and moving in the Son.

In other words, while the Son lives and moves in us, the Father lives and moves in Him. It is by this twofold living and moving that we are perfected into one, and we express the Father in glory. This is how we can be one in a genuine way.

We are perfected into one, not mainly by putting aside our differences and trying to agree with one another. Oneness is daily, even moment by moment, our moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God. How? By prayer, the Spirit, and the Word.

We need to come to the Lord’s word by means of all prayer, exercising our spirit to both enjoy the Lord in the Word and to let Him touch us as the Spirit through the Word. We need to touch the Word by the spirit with prayer.

When we do this, our ambition, worldliness, self-exaltation, and opinions are dealt with and removed, and we can be one!

Ambition is implied in John 17:21, self-exaltation in verse 22, and concepts and opinions in verse 23.

In the Triune God, praise the Lord, there is NO ambition! In the glory of the Father, there’s no self-exaltation! And in the place where Christ lives and reigns, there are no opinions and concepts.

This is why we need to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, for it is in this divine and mystical realm of the processed Triune God that we are one and we’re perfected into one.

In the divine and mystical realm of the processed Triune God, ambition is swallowed up, self-exaltation disappears, and concepts and opinions are killed. Praise the Lord!

In the Triune God, there’s no evil of division in the Satan-systematised world (v. 15); instead of this, we have genuine oneness.

The Lord asked the Father not to take us out of the world, but leave us here and keep us out of the hands of the evil one.

In Greek it says, keep them out of the hand of the evil. The evil refers to Satan, and in particular, it refers to the worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. Oh Lord!

Genuine oneness is living in the Father, allowing Christ to live in us, and living in the Father’s glory, His expression (John 17:22, 24).

If we want to be one in a genuine way, we need to live in the Father and allow Christ to live in us. We need to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, and we need to remain in Him for the Father’s expression, His glory.

Where there’s glory, there’s oneness. Where there’s oneness, there’s glory. These go together.

The real building, the oneness, and the one accord as the practice of the oneness is possible ONLY in the Triune God, and it is prevailing only when Christ lives in us.

When we’re in the Triune God, we can express the Father in glory and experience genuine oneness.

May the Lord shine on us and show us that, after getting into the Triune God through prayer and by the Word, we need to allow Christ to live in us in all things.

We need to let Him make His home in our heart and have access to our whole being. Our thought life, our imaginations, our unreigned thoughts, our unrestrained thinking, our untamed emotions, and our unsubmissive will – we need to open everything to the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we want to have the genuine oneness by being in the Triune God! May we see that we are being perfected into one as we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God by being sanctified in the truth in God’s word! Amen, Lord, perfect us into one and rescue us from worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. Praise the Lord, while the Son lives and moves in us, the Father lives and moves in the Son! Wow, Lord, by this twofold living and moving, we are perfected into one and we express the Father in glory. Oh Lord, we want to live in the Father and allow Christ to live in us! Amen, Lord, live in us today. We want to continually move out of ourselves and into the Triune God and remain in Him for the Father’s expression! Hallelujah, the real building, the oneness, and the one accord as the practice of the oneness is possible only in the Triune God! Amen, we have a prevailing oneness when Christ lives in us! We open to You, Lord Jesus! Live in us today!

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 brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” msgs. 6-8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, One Accord and Crucial Aspects of the Book of Acts (2025 April ITERO), week 3, Maintaining the One Accord by the Three Substances of the Power in the Lord’s Recovery – Prayer, the Spirit, and the Word – day 4.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Triune God’s Word Containing and Conveying His Divine Revelation, a portion from, The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The Key to Maintaining a Proper Relationship with the Lord, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Living in the Acts by denying ourselves and living by the Triune God, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 1: The Gospels and the Acts, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
  – Ephesians (Program #63) – Seven Aspects of the Church, via, Bible study radio.
  – Life-study of Ephesians, Message 19: The Triune God Dispensed into Us and Wrought into Our Being, video message via, LSM YouTube.
  – The Triune God, our Constitution for New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The revelation and experience of the “journeying” Triune God, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Being Sanctified by the Truth to Move Out of Ourselves for the Oneness, via, holding to truth in love.
  – God as Savior in regeneration and renewing, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Being Sanctified by the Truth to Move out of Ourselves and into the Triune God for the Genuine Oneness, via, The Church in Regina.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O how glorious! O how precious! / Thus the triune God to know! / First the Father in the Son came, / Now the Son as Spirit flows. / When in man the Spirit enters / God as life He doth bestow. / How mysterious, yet how real! / God Himself now flows in me! / In my heart, with me in oneness, / He has come my life to be. / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / I will praise unceasingly! (Hymns #602 stanzas 6-7)
  – He will sanctify thee wholly; / Body, spirit, soul shall be / Blameless till thy Savior’s coming / In His glorious majesty! / He hath perfected forever / Those whom He hath sanctified; / Spotless, glorious, and holy, / Is the Church, His chosen Bride. (Hymns #825 stanza 4)
  – Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / We’re His sons, oh, what a blessing! / We His glory are expressing— / Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / In Thy glory, in Thy glory, / In Thy glory we are one. / In Thy glory, in Thy glory, / In Thy glory we are all made one! (Hymns #1081 stanza 3 and chorus)