We have seen previously that once we were regenerated, we received the divine life – and this life brings us into the fellowship of life, the fellowship of the apostles, the fellowship of the Spirit, which is the unique fellowship in the Body of Christ.
On the one hand, we have fellowship with the apostles and with the saints in the church, with all those who possess the life of God – this is the horizontal fellowship. On the other hand, we have fellowship with God and the Lord (1 John 1:3) – we have fellowship with the Triune God, the vertical fellowship.
The apostles report to us the Lord’s life which they received, seen, heard, touched, etc – and this reporting generates in us the fellowship with the apostles, which is also the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
This is so wonderful – there is a mutual fellowship and flowing between us and the God and the Lord Jesus, and also between us and all the believers! This is why when we meet another believer in the Lord, we are simply one with him and we love him in the Lord – because of the divine life in us which brings us into the divine fellowship of life!
Both us and all the believers are jointly partaking in the Triune God and in the Body of Christ – we mutually share in one another.
What I was reminded about today, related to the vertical and the horizontal fellowship, is that the horizontal aspect of the fellowship depends on the vertical aspect of our fellowship. We cannot have proper fellowship with one another if we don’t have a proper fellowship with the Lord personally.
The flowing of the divine life is firstly between us and the Triune God – vertically, between the Father, the Son, and us… and then, it is the divine life flowing among us. We firstly need to come to the Lord every morning, even before contacting any other saints / people / things, and have a time with Him.
We need to have a strengthened fellowship with the Lord personally, so that our fellowship with one another would also be proper. If our fellowship is wrong vertically with the Father and the Son, then we cannot have the fellowship horizontally with one another.
Of course, the Lord is faithful to “meet us where we’re at” through the saints, and many times the other members of the Body remind us about the Lord and bring us back to Him – but for us to have a proper and mutual flow of the divine life in our fellowship with one another, we firstly need to be OK with the Lord.
Actually, what happens in this fellowship with the Triune God and with the other believers is like a “weaving of a textile”. In this vertical and horizontal fellowship in the divine life, God is mingling Himself with us – there is the mingling of the Triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) with all the saints.
This is the proper fellowship according to the Bible – the mingling of the Triune God with all the redeemed saints. This is God’s economy: to enter man and mingle Himself with man so that He may be expressed in man corporately. And this is what fellowship with the Triune God and with the belivers is – the mingling of God and man.
If there’s no mingling of God with man in our fellowship, if there’s no ministering of God into man, no flow of the divine life within us and among us, I’m afraid that this is not a real fellowship… The real fellowship according to the New Testament eventually consummates in the oneness of the Triune God with the Body of Christ. This is the flow of the life of the Triune God within us.
We daily enjoy this flow – and we need to take care of the Lord’s life in us, take care of the vertical fellowship with Him, so that we may also have fellowship with one another… [sharing from the Basic Lessons on Life by bro. Witness Lee]
O, Lord, we love You! We love to fellowship with You. Keep us open to You, Lord, having an un-interrupted fellowship with the Triune God. We pray for a clear sky, Lord, and us dealing with anything that would block our fellowship! Lord, mingle Yourself more with us! Even in our fellowship, Lord, we want more mingling of God with man! More mingling of God with man in our our horizontal fellowship!
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