Having a Clear Sky by having Thorough Fellowship with the Lord and with the Saints

This week in our morning watch/morning revival time with the Lord we come to the clear sky and the throne above it in Ezekiel 1, which is the highest point in our spiritual experience, referring to our uninterrupted fellowship with the Lord with a clear conscience.

Are we satisfied with our spiritual condition? Are we content where we are spiritually? Have we arrived at the highest point in our spiritual experience?

The apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians approx. 26 years after his conversion, and he testified that he was not satisfied or content, but he wanted to know Christ and pursue, for he has not already obtained.

Christ has laid hold of us; He has seized us, grasped us, and taken possession of us, and now we need to lay hold of that of which we have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:10). We need to fervently pursue the Lord in a positive way, having as our goal the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ.

The prize we pursue toward is the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennium kingdom.

We shouldn’t be satisfied with where we are but arrive at the highest point in our spiritual experience, which is having a clear sky with a throne above it, and the One on the throne is the God-man, the man-God, Christ Jesus!

God needs a group of living creatures who can coordinate together as one corporate entity – which is the corporate Christ – for god’s move, expression, and administration. In order for us to be the living creatures for God’s expression, move, and administration, we need to have a clear sky with a throne above it.

The way God rules and reigns and administrates the earth to bring in His kingdom is by our having a clear sky with a throne above it. May this become a living reality to us and in all the local churches on earth!

Lord Jesus, grant us to have such a condition that we would have a clear sky above us with a throne above it. May there be nothing between us and You and between us and the saints. May there be a throne above the sky, with the God-man Jesus Christ on the throne. Lord, we want to deal with anything that clouds the sky so that our sky would be crystal clear, solid, expanding, having a throne above it, so that we may be under Your divine and heavenly rule!

Having a Clear Sky by having Thorough Fellowship with the Lord and with the Saints

Over the heads of the living creatures in Ezek. 1 there was the likeness of an expanse, like the sight of awesome crystal, stretched forth over their heads above (see Ezek. 1:22). This expanse is the firmament, what we call the sky, and it was like awesome crystal.

After we have experienced all the things in Ezek. 1:1-21, the sky over our hears will be crystal clear, an open and clear heaven. We need to have a crystal clear sky, an expanding sky, between us and the Lord; this sky is both vertical – between us and the Lord – and horizontal – between us and the saints.

Before we were saved, our sky was dark, cloudy, and foggy; it was also narrow – we hardly had any heaven. But one day the Lord’s light shined on us, we repented, confessed our sins, and received the Lord as our Savior, and for the first time in our life, the sky above us was clear and expanding.

Later, however, some problem might have arisen with ourselves personally, with our family members or relatives, with the church, or with some brothers and sisters, and the sky became somewhat cloudy again – not as cloudy as before we were saved, but still, it was not clear. We all had this experience.

Eventually, we confessed our failures under the Lord’s light, condemning our motives, intentions, goals, and attitude, and received the Lord’s forgiveness and the cleansing of His blood (1 John 1:9, 7), and our sky was again made clear, becoming crystal clear and expanding.

For us to maintain this clear and expanding sky above us means that we need to have a thorough fellowship with the Lord vertically and a clear fellowship with the saints horizontally; this will bring in a wide and stable span of fellowship.

The Apostle John said, That which we have seen and heard, we also report to you, that you may also have fellowship with us (horizontal fellowship); and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son (vertical fellowship) – see 1 John 1:3, 6-7. This divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ.

The fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers who have received and possess the divine life. As believers in Christ, we have all received the divine life, which is flowing in us all; this fellowship is like the river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1).

The flow of the river of water of life in our being is the fellowship, and this flow is the practical presence of Jesus. We should not lose the flow, and if it is interrupted, we need to go to the Lord and deal with anything that blocks the flow so that we may have a thorough fellowship with Him.

We need to enter into the vertical aspect of the divine fellowship by the Divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit; in this fellowship we participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us, and we enjoy the love of the Father in the grace of Christ by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14).

We need to enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship by means of the human spirit (Phil. 2:1); to have real horizontal fellowship with others we need to exercise our spirit. There is only one fellowship, but it has two aspects: horizontal between us and the saints, and vertical between us and the Lord.

This one divine fellowship is an interwoven fellowship: the horizontal and the vertical fellowship are interwoven together. Our horizontal fellowship with the saints brings us into the vertical fellowship with the Lord, and our vertical thorough fellowship with the Lord brings us into a proper and clear fellowship with the saints.

If we don’t a proper fellowship with the Lord, it will be difficult to have a clear fellowship with our fellow believers; in the same way, if we don’t have a proper fellowship with the saints, it is difficult to fellowship with the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we want to have a clear sky between us and You, a clear, stable, and expanding sky with a throne above it. Lord, we treasure the flow of the divine life into our being, and we want to maintain this flow by having a thorough fellowship with the Lord and a clear fellowship with the saints. Oh Lord, may the divine life in us flow continually. May we have a clear sky with nothing between us and You and no problem between us and the saints. We want to confess and condemn anything that hinders our fellowship so that our sky would be clear!

Dealing with any Offense in our Conscience to Maintain a Clear Sky with the Lord

The divine fellowship is everything in our Christian life; we don’t have this fellowship, we don’t have God’s practical and real presence, for God comes to us as fellowship, and in this divine fellowship God is mingled with us.

The divine fellowship not only corrects us but also molds us and reconstitutes us, bringing the divine constituent into our spiritual being for our growth and transformation in life.

God is faithful: He has called us into the fellowship of His Son – He called us into the joint participation, for us to jointly partake of Jesus Christ our Lord for our enjoyment (1 Cor. 1:9). Amen, God is faithful: He is faithful not to primarily bless us with material blessings, but to turn us from any idols and bring us back to Himself to enjoy Him.

God is faithful to take away our idols so that we may only focus on Him, drink Him, be saturated with Him, and become His increase. God is faithful to take away our idols and lead us into the enjoyment of Himself so that we may eat Him and absorb Him to be His increase and His full expression on the earth.

We need to reach the point of having an open, clear, stable, and expanding heaven, where there’s nothing between us and God, and nothing between us and one another.

The kind of sky we believers have depends on our conscience, for our conscience is connected to our sky (Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12). The testimony of our conscience should be that we have conducted ourselves in the enjoyment of God toward the saints.

We need to maintain a clear sky with the Lord, that is, have a clear fellowship with Him (1 John 1:3, 6).

We need to have a personal, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord, dealing with any offense or condemnation in our conscience, so that we may have a clear sky (Acts 24:16).

We need to exercise ourselves to take care of our conscience before God and man; this is the exercise of our spirit, and we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:7) so that we may have Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God.

When there’s nothing between us and the Lord, our sky will be crystal clear, and we will have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience (see 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; cf. Matt. 5:8; Prov. 22:11; 2 Tim. 2:22).

When we are in the healthy teaching of God’s economy, we are in a situation in which we love the Lord Jesus and we love all the saints with the love of God.

We should never thrust away faith and a good conscience, but deal with any problem in our conscience so that there would be no leakage.

We need to be governed not by right or wrong but by life and death, by the sense of life in our spirit.

Lord Jesus, we want to deal with any offense or condemnation in our conscience so that we may have a clear sky. May there be nothing between us and You as we exercise ourselves to have a conscience without any offense before God and man. Lord, we want to maintain a clear sky with You by having a thorough fellowship with You and a clear fellowship with the saints. We love You, Lord, and we want to be drawn by You to kiss You, be in spirit, and express Christ.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 7 (week 7), The Highest Point in Our Spiritual Experience — Having a Clear Sky with a Throne above It.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # In a low dungeon, hope we had none; / Tried to believe, but faith didn’t come; / God, our sky clearing, Jesus appearing, / We by God were transfused! / We by God were transfused! / Propitiation made by the blood, / Jesus’ redemption bought us for God! / No condemnation, justification! / We have peace toward God! (Hymns #1131)
  # Nothing between, Lord, nothing between; / Thus may I walk with Thee, / Thee only may I see, / Thine only let me be — Nothing between. (Hymns #373)
  # Each day as I wake up I come to You, Lord. / Our fellowship sweet must be daily restored. / Void of offense, keep my conscience so pure. / Soften me, Lord, so that You alone may have my heart. (Song on contacting the Lord)