In order for us to deal with any obstacles to the fellowship, the circulation of the divine life, we need to experience the cross, for the experience of the cross deepens both the vertical and the horizontal fellowship, and it enables us to know the life of the Body and live in the fellowship of the Body.
On one hand we need to positively open to the Lord, call on His name, pray read His word, and fellowship with Him and with the saints, and we will enjoy the flow of life, the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ.
On the other hand, we need to experience the cross so that any obstacles to the fellowship would be removed, and we would have a deeper fellowship with the Lord and with the saints.
As seen in 1 John 1:1-3, our fellowship is vertical and horizontal – we have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and we have fellowship with one another.
We don’t have two separate fellowships, one with God and the other with man; rather, there is only one fellowship which had two aspects, a vertical aspect – our fellowship with God, and the horizontal aspect – our fellowship with one another.
We cannot say, I have good fellowship with God vertically, but horizontally with the saints my fellowship is not so good – we can’t say this because it is the same fellowship that we have with God and with the saints.
The only difference between the fellowship with God and with the saints is the direction, one is vertical and the other is horizontal. If we don’t have a good horizontal fellowship, this means we don’t have a good vertical fellowship either.
Fellowship is something wonderful and so enjoyable – we can just open to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, call on His name, and we touch and enjoy the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ.
But on the other hand, the other side of our experience of fellowship is that there may be some obstacles, some things that may hinder our fellowship with God and with one another.
In 1 Corinthians we saw that there were preferences for particular people (Paul, Cephas, or Apollos), there was a seeking after gifts, there was immorality, and the saints there were soulish, fleshly, and even fleshy.
In our case there may be many things, including offenses, that hinder our fellowship with the Lord and with one another. How can we deal with all these problems? How can we make sure that our spiritual arteries are not clogged, but that we have a good spiritual circulation?
The experience of the cross deepens our fellowship both with God and with the saints, and it removes any obstacles to the fellowship, the circulation of the divine life.
We need the Experience of the Cross to Deepen our Experience of the Divine Fellowship
We all need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship (see 1 Cor. 1:9, 23-24; 2:2).
In our human body if there are some obstacles in the arteries, then the flow of blood is limited or even stops.
God’s only solution to all the problems in the universe – and to the problems in our spiritual life – is not negotiations or compromise but the cross. The cross is for dealing with ourselves.
If we want to follow the Lord, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross; to bear the cross is to deny the self, to put the self to death, to apply the cross of Christ to the self all the time.
Many times we are offended by others because we have such a strong self; if we are offended by others because of our strong self, we can’t have real fellowship. For us to have horizontal fellowship with the saints, we need to deny the self, which is to be senseless about ourselves, to even forget about ourselves, and to simply enjoy the fellowship.
The truth of the matter is that, without the cross, our fellowship is superficial; it is only the cross that can remove the many obstacles to the divine fellowship and deepen our fellowship with the Lord and with one another (see Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Matt. 16:24).
We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship, otherwise we may be in the church life in a superficial way, and we will not be satisfied, for we are not vitally related to others.
What can get us through being superficial in our fellowship is the experience of the cross. Fellowship frees us from our sinful self through the cross; without the cross, we still live in the self, and fellowship is not possible, for we are chained and imprisoned in the self.
Without the cross, there’s no release, freedom, or liberty from the self, and there’s no genuine fellowship.
This is why in Matt. 16:24 the Lord used the term “his cross”, indicating that there’s a particular portion of the cross for each one of us in order to cross each one of us out. We may look at others and think that their cross is better than ours, but the Lord has designed and assigned the perfect cross for us, just as He did for others.
The cross has two aspects: one is inward and the other is outward. Inwardly, the flow of the Spirit in the Body includes the application of the cross of Christ, for in the compound Spirit there’s the flowing myrrh, the spiritual antibodies which seek out and get rid of the spiritual pathogens in our life.
The Spirit applies the cross inwardly.
Outwardly, God arranges our environment in a very specific way to match exactly what He is doing inwardly; the outward aspect of the cross is the environment arranged by God that exactly matches the flowing of the Spirit within us.
The inward operating of the Spirit and the outward environment work together to crucify us, to cause our old man to be worn out and decay.
The continual working of the cross wears out the old man, and the cross is being applied continually both inwardly in the circulation of the divine life in the Body and outwardly in the environment.
We are easily offended by others because we are so sensitive about ourselves; if we didn’t have such a strong self, we would not be offended by others.
Very rarely in the church life do we intend to offend one another – it almost always happens unintentionally, yet our self is so strong that it gets offended all the time. Someone may look at us in a certain way, and this may offend us; that person may have a headache and that’s why he may be looking at us that way, but we get offended…
We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship.
Lord Jesus, we need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship. We treasure the flow of life – we treasure the fellowship with God and with the saints. Oh Lord, deepen the pure flow of life – deepen our vertical fellowship with You and our horizontal fellowship with the saints! We want to cooperate with the inward operation of the Spirit to apply the cross, and with the outward environment to cause our old man to be worn out, so that our self may be denied and we would have a deepened fellowship of life!
The Experience of the Cross Brings us into the Fellowship of the Body of Christ
The cross is not the goal – the cross is God’s means to deal with any problems, including the self, so that we may be brought into the fellowship of the Body of Christ (see Rom. 6:6; 8:13; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 1:18, 23-24; 2:2; 12:12-14, 27).
The experience of the cross deepens our experience of the fellowship, and it brings us into the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
When we cooperate with the Lord and allow Him to apply the cross inwardly by the Spirit with the help of the outward environment, the cross deals with our flesh, our self, and our natural life, so that we may know the life of the Body in reality.
The experience of the cross brings us to Christ; we have been crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, and the life we live is actually Christ living in us. If no death, no life; if no cross, no Christ; if no Christ, no Spirit, and if no Spirit, no fellowship.
The cross deals with the obstacles to fellowship, and it eliminates the biggest obstacle – the self; the experience of the cross deepens the fellowship and brings us into the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
When we forget the self, disregard the self, and ignore the self, we can enjoy the horizontal fellowship with the saints, and the Spirit can flow among us to build us up to be God’s corporate expression in the genuine church life.
When we allow the cross to deal with the self and our flesh, self, and natural life are dealt with by the cross, we will go deeper into the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
If our flesh, self, and natural life are dealt with by the cross, and if we submit ourselves to the headship of Christ and live in the Body life, we will enjoy the fellowship of the Body (see Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Phil. 3:3; Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 10:16).
We need to realize that there are obstacles to the fellowship, we need to have the experience of the cross to deal with all these obstacles, and we will arrive at maturity in the divine life – we will experience the flow of life, the divine circulation in the Body, and we will know what the fellowship of the Body is.
Lord Jesus, we want to know and be brought deeper into the fellowship of the Body of Christ. Save us from remaining in the self or protecting the self from the experience of the cross. Lord, give us the experiences we need so that our flesh, our self, and our natural life would be dealt with by the cross. May we advance in our experience of life and have a deepened fellowship with God and with the saints. Bring us into the full enjoyment of the fellowship of the Body through the experience of the cross!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man,” chs. 17-19, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Church Life (2017 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Fellowship — the Reality of the Church Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Hallelujah! In the body we / Bear the death of Christ continually: / Thus His life comes forth for all to see as / The outer man is broken down, / The inner man is shining so that— / In these earthen vessels men can see / There’s the treasure of reality! / Thus the gospel’s glorious light will be / Shining out from us. (Hymns #1178)
# 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)
# Fellowship is deepened / Thru the cross of death; / Fellowship is lifted / By the Spirit’s breath. / Fellowship will free us / From our sinful self; / Fellowship will bring us / Into God Himself. (Hymns #737)
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The cross brings Christ to us. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This is the cross. Christ lives in me as patience. He lives in me as all the human virtues which are considered by others as ethics. We need Christ, but without the experience of the cross, we cannot experience Christ. Hymns, #631 says, “If no death, no life.” This means, “If no cross, no Christ.” Furthermore, “If no Christ, no Spirit, and if no Spirit, no fellowship.” This is why the cross is needed. In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” The Lord used the words his cross. There is a particular portion of the cross for each one of us to cross each one of us out.
Much of our criticism of others is because we are too sensitive to ourselves and too conscious of ourselves. If we did not have such a strong self, we would not be offended by others. Many times we criticize others because we have been offended. We are offended because we are so sensitive to ourselves. We expect everyone to treat us right according to our opinion. If someone does not treat us right according to our opinion, we are offended. Then, sooner or later, criticism will come out of our mouth.
We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man,” pp. 368, 370-372)
Praise the Lord ! Amen
アーメン主に感謝します。
[Amen, Lord!]
Amen. Thank You Lord Jesus
Amen thank You Lord
Amen may we take the cross so that we can have the divine fellowship and get over our obstacles
Amen praise the Lord that the cross is the way
Amen.very uplifting for me personally, I thank the Lord for the vertical and horizontal fellowship,the Christ and the body Christ, who flows from Him to us and become one the body Christ. I was uplifted, I came under the attack of self on knowingly, I got offended by a family member and also at work. O Lord let us become less and You become more so there will always be a flow in the fellowship.
Oh Lord deepen the pure flow of life in all the saints. At your coming may life be our crown.
Amen, my prayer is also Lord deepen the flow of life in me for the Body! The obstacle to the flow is the old man in Rom 6:6, and the old I in Gal 2:20. O Lord thank You for crucifying the old man and the old I!!
“If no death, no life”, “If no cross, no Christ”, “If no Christ, no Spirit”, “If no Spirit, no fellowship”
Amen Lord Jesus; may the cross operate decisively within us and deepen our experience of the vertical and horizontal fellowship of the divine life…
Lord that we may be fully released, freed, and liberated from the self…
We love You Lord Jesus…