the four characteristics of our meeting on the genuine ground of oneness

In the Old Testament God has specifically chosen a place where His people would worship Him, and He designed a specific way for the people of Israel to come to Him. He even interdicted them to worship Him with His offerings wherever they wanted – in Deut. 12:5 we see that God chose a place where He put His name, and it is there that all His people would go!

In the New Testament we see at least four items from Deut. 12 being applied to us today: we need to be one, the name we gather is that of the Lord Jesus, God’s habitation is our mingled spirit, and in our worship to God we need to have the genuine application of the cross (the altar). These are the four characteristics of our meeting on the genuine ground of oneness.

The place of God’s choice keeps the oneness

If we read the history of the people of Israel we will see that Jerusalem with the temple was the place of God’s choice – God chose to put His name here, and here He desired His people to come three times a year to feast with Him (2 Chron. 6:5-6; John 4:20). The place of God’s choice keeps the oneness among God’s people and avoids the division caused by man’s preference (see 1 Kings 12:26-33).

For us to worship God and be kept in oneness we need to be in the place that God has chosen and worship Him in the way that He desires. We need to drop our preferences, our taste, our opinions, and go to the place God has chosen, our mingled spirit, to worship God with Christ as the reality of all the offerings!

Four characteristics of meeting in oneness

There are four characteristics of our meeting on the genuine ground of oneness, the place that God has chosen. There are at least four ways that the revelation in the New Testament unveils concerning the worship of God, corresponting to what He told His people in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 12:

1. God’s people should always be one – God desires that His people would be one, and that there would be no divisions among them (see Psa. 133; 1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 4:3). In John 17 we see that the Lord gave us His life, His Word, and His glory that we may be one (John 17:11, 21-23).

Because we are sons of God, we have our Father’s name and His life, and in His life we are one! As we spend time with the Lord in His sanctifying Word, we are being made one. Also, the glory which was given to Christ, He has given to us, that we also may be one! We the believers in Christ are one in the Father’s life, in the Father’s Word, and in the Father’s glory!

This oneness is actually the enlarged oneness of the Triune God by us coinhering with, mutually dwelling in, God!

2. The unique name we should gather in is the name of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 1:12), and the reality of this name is the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). We are gathered into only one name, that is the name of the Lord Jesus, and we do not designate ourselves by any other name.

To denominate ourselves or call ourselves something else is to be divided, and this is spiritual fornication (see Rev. 3:8, note 3). There is so much spiritual fornication today, and the Lord cannot have a solid expression to manifest His glory, because His people gather on the base of and in another name, de-nominating themselves!

The Lord Jesus is the ONLY name we gather in!

3. God’s dwelling place is our mingled spirit (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 2:22). In the New Testament we see that God’s habitation, His dwelling place, is particularly located not in our mind, our heart, or anywhere else, but in our spirit – that is, our mingled spirit, our human spirit regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit of God.

On the one hand we need to meet in the name of the Lord Jesus, but on the other hand, when we meet, we need to be in our spirit that we may worship God in spirit and truthfulness (see John 4:24). This is why in the meetings of the church we exercise our spirit!

4. In our worshipping God we need to have the application of the cross of Christ (signified by the altar) by rejecting our self and anything natural, worshipping God with Christ (see Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20).

At the entrance of the meeting, there’s the cross of Christ, and in our worshipping God we must have the genuine application of the cross. We need to continually reject the flesh, deny our self, and put to death our natural life, so that we may worship God with Christ – not with anything natural or from the flesh.

Meeting on the genuine ground of oneness

You can say that, simply put, when we meet together to worship God we just need to exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord, but there is a deeper reality to our meetings in the church. We need to meet on the genuine ground of oneness.

According to the revelation in the New Testament, our meeting for the worship of God needs to be in the name of the Lord Jesus, in our mingled spirit as the place where God dwells, with the cross, and with the enjoyment of Christ as the reality of all the offerings and sacrifices!

This brings in the oneness of God’s people and causes God to be glorified in our gathering to worship Him.

For this, we need to daily move OUT OF our self (which is composed of worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, opinions, and concepts) and into the Triune God! We do this firstly by enjoying His life, by spending time with Him to enjoy Him, and by being immersed in His sanctifying Word.

Daily as we are in the Word of God in a prayerful way, we are being separated unto God and even into the Triune God to be brought into this “coinhering oneness”. We don’t manufacture oneness and we don’t struggle to produce oneness – we just need to enter into the enlarged oneness of the Triune God by enjoying God’s life, God’s word, and God’s glory!

In this way, we are perfected into one to express the Triune God corporately!

Lord, thank You for the crystal clear way presented in Your Word concerning the way we should meet and where we should meet. Lord, purify us and cause us to meet just as Your Word says, in Your name. We have no other name and we want no other name. May all our meetings be filled with the exercise of our mingled spirit, with the application of the cross, and with the enjoyment of Christ as the reality of all the offerings and sacrifices to satisfy God and man!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, Deut. 12:5, footnote 1 (Recovery Version), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 7.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Gathered in Thy name, Lord Jesus, / Losing sight of all but Thee.
  # Father God, Thou art the source of life. / We, Thy sons, are Thine expression.
  # Deeper, deeper, in the cross of Jesus; / Deeper let me go.