Fellowship means we are One Spirit with the Lord: we Enjoy Him and Keep the Oneness

We have been called into the fellowship of the Son of God (1 Cor. 1:9), that is, we have been called to be one spirit with the Lord and with the saints to enjoy all that Christ is and enjoy all that He is in the saints.

The word fellowship is very much used among us in the church life, but we may not realize that its meaning is very deep and profound.

To fellowship doesn’t mean merely to get together and talk about the existing problems, pray for people, and open up our situation to the others. To fellowship is to be in the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ.

We have been called into the fellowship of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, that we may participate in all that He is and has accomplished. Actually, Christ Himself is the fellowship into which we have been called.

Christ as the Spirit is the fellowship, and through regeneration we have been plugged into this universal flow of the divine life that we may be members of the Body of Christ.

The fellowship of the all-inclusive Christ as our portion is nothing less than the living person of the all-inclusive Christ. To be called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ is to be called into Him – we were made one with the Lord, one in spirit with Him, so that we may enjoy all that He is, and so that He may enjoy what we are.

Many times we hear the saying that God wants to fellowship with man, and by this many understand that God wants to talk to man and communicate with him. It is true, God wants to fellowship with man, but this means that He wants us to be one with the Lord and one with one another, and for us to be in the flow of life in the Body, the circulation of the divine life.

To fellowship with the Lord is to be one spirit with Him, to participate in Him, and to enter into a mutual enjoyment and participation where we enjoy Christ, He enjoys us, we enjoy all the saints, and Christ enjoys all the members of His body in the circulation of the divine life in the Body.

The fellowship of Christ is a wonderful and excellent mutuality, which is carried on by the Spirit. In our experience, the fellowship of the Son of God is the fellowship of the Spirit, and we enjoy the flow of the divine life by being in the mingled spirit and doing everything in the spirit.

Praise the Lord, we are grafted into Christ, we are one with the Lord, and now there’s a flow of divine life from Christ to us and from us to all the saints, and this flow is called the fellowship! Hallelujah, in this fellowship, this circulation, we have everything – life, light, supply, oneness, joy, peace, wisdom, power, and grace. Hallelujah!

In the Fellowship we are One Spirit with the Lord to Enjoy Him and for Him to Enjoy us

Fellowship means that we and Christ have become one (1 Cor. 6:17). In our experience, being one spirit with the Lord follows being called by God into the fellowship of His Son (1:9).

We believers in Christ have been called into a oneness where we are one with Him and He is one with us. Actually, the word “joined” in 1 Cor. 6:17 is a synonym or the word “fellowship” in 1:9, for our being joined to the Lord is actually the fellowship.

When we say that we are joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with Him, we may often understand that our spirit has been joined to the Lord, and we are one with Him in spirit.

Actually, what Paul is saying in 1 Cor. 6 is that our entire tripartite being has been joined to the Lord to such an extent that even the members of our physical body are members of Christ.

How can this be? Consider the picture of grafting: when a branch is grafted into a tree, there’s a certain place or location where the branch is joined to the tree – which can be likened to our mingled spirit.

But it’s not that place only that’s connected to the tree, but by virtue of that joining, the whole branch is connected, and the sap flows from the tree to the whole branch.

Because we were joined organically with the Lord in spirit, we can now enjoy the circulation of the divine life, and there’s a flow of life from Christ to us to mingle us with Himself.

In the case of the tree, once this flow and mingling has occurred for a long period of time and in a thorough way, the branch and the tree become one organically.

As we stay in the flow of the divine life by being one spirit with the Lord, we are joined to the Lord, we are being mingled with Him, and we are eventually being incorporated with Him until Him and we, we and Him, are so one that others can’t tell us apart.

How does this happen? It is by means of fellowship. Whenever we are one spirit with the Lord, we are in the fellowship of Christ, and we experience Him as the all-inclusive One.

Fellowship means that we enjoy Christ and all that He is, and He enjoys us and all that we are (Phil. 1:18; 2:17-18, 28; 3:1; 4:4, 10). As He works Himself into us, He enjoys us and we enjoy Him in mutuality. We have been called into a mutuality in which we enjoy what the Son of God is, and He enjoys what we are.

This fellowship implies a wonderful, universal, mutual enjoyment – our enjoyment of the Triune God, the Triune God’s enjoyment of us, and the enjoyment that the believers have with one another.

As we live one spirit with the Lord, we enjoy the fellowship of the Son of God, which means we enjoy the Triune God, the Triune God enjoys us, we enjoy the believers in Christ, and all the believers enjoy God and God enjoys us.

This is what it means to be in the fellowship; in the fellowship with the Lord we have enjoyment of Him and participate in Him, and we become one with the Lord; in this joining, all that He is has become ours, all that we are becomes His – we enjoy Him and He enjoys us.

Fellowship involves our union with Christ, our mingling with Christ, and our incorporation with Christ. We become one with Him, we enjoy Him, and He enjoys us. Oh, what a fellowship!

Lord Jesus, thank You for grafting us into Yourself to make us one spirit with You. Thank You for calling us into an organic oneness with You in which we are one with You, You are one with us, and all that You are becomes ours and what we are becomes Yours. Lord, keep us in this organic union with You – keep us one spirit with You today, so that we may experience You as the all-inclusive One. We want to enjoy all that You are in mutuality in the church life. Oh Lord, may we be one spirit with You all the time so that we may be joined to You, mingled with You, and even incorporated with You!

Fellowship is Related to Oneness: as long as the Divine Life Flows Within us, we are in Oneness

What is the oneness of the Spirit, which is the oneness of the Body of Christ?

The oneness in our physical body is kept and maintained by the circulation of blood which blends all the members together, supplies all the members, and eliminates anything that is negative. If the flow of blood in our body would stop, the oneness in our body is over.

Fellowship is the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ; fellowship is related to oneness, and fellowship is the oneness. Practically speaking, the fellowship, the circulation of the divine life in the Body, brings all the members of the Body into oneness (Eph. 4:3-6).

We can keep the oneness in the Body not by struggling, trying, or mentally understanding and keeping the word of God concerning oneness; we keep the oneness in an organic way by enjoying the fellowship, the circulation of the divine life.

We are one spirit with the Lord; as we live in this organic union with Him, as the branches abiding in the vine (John 15), we are in the circulation of the divine life, and we are kept in the oneness.

This oneness is called the oneness of the Spirit, and it is also the oneness of the Body (1 Cor. 12:12-13). As long as we have the divine life flowing within us, we are in the oneness of the Body, the oneness among all the saints.

The circulation of the divine life in the Body brings all the members of the Body in oneness, just as the circulation of the blood in our body brings all the members of our body into oneness.

The apostles’ fellowship is the fellowship in which the believers enjoy the divine life and through which they fellowship with one another in the spirit (Phil. 2:1; Acts 2:42).

In the fellowship of the apostles – which is the fellowship of the Body of Christ – there is the enjoyment of the divine life, for this fellowship is altogether a matter of the divine life in the mingled spirit.

For us to keep the oneness of the Body we need to live one spirit with the Lord and do everything in our spirit with the divine life. The fellowship is the oneness; when we are not in the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ, we are not in the oneness of the Body.

In a practical way, the oneness is the divine life flowing within us. The church life is the flowing of the living Jesus within us; we can be in the meetings of the church and in the place where the saints meet, but if we are not in the flow of the living Jesus, we are not really in the church life.

What we speak of is not the doctrine of the church or the teaching of the church, neither is it being in the church positionally; we speak of being in the living flow of the living Jesus within us, which is the actuality and practicality of the church life.

The unique fellowship is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ as the unique ground for the believers to be kept one in Christ.

Lord Jesus, we want to keep the oneness of the Spirit by remaining in the fellowship of the Body, the fellowship of the Spirit. Cause us to realize that as long as we have the divine life flowing within us, we are in the oneness of the Body. Oh Lord, may we be in the flowing of the living Jesus within us. May we live one spirit with the Lord and according to the divine life flowing in us, so that we may be in reality in oneness and in the church life. Lord, recover the oneness among us by flowing freely in us and among us as life!

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, Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msgs. 11-12 (by Witness Lee), 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:
  # Jesus is the living Spirit / Who among us flows; / Fellowship of life in spirit / Unity bestows. / Jesus is the living Spirit, / He is our rich feast; / As the Body now enjoys Him, / Praises are released. (Hymns #1142)
  # It is life in Spirit / Brings this fellowship; / Fellowship in Spirit / Doth with grace equip. / We, by life’s enabling, / Fellowship aright; / Fellowship in Spirit / Brings us into light. (Hymns #737)
  # What a wonderful church life, / All the saints truly are one, / No matter where and who we are, / We are one! / Nothing can set us apart, / For we have the same life, / Although Satan tried and tried, / We are one! (Song on being one in Christ)