The New Testament tells us to abide in Christ, in the Lord, in the Son of God, in the Father, and in God; to abide in the Father is to abide in the One who cares for us in every way, and to abide in God is to have the faith of the Son of God and to love the brothers.
Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are branches abiding in Christ, the vine!
We have been organically joined to the Lord through our faith in Him, and we are daily maintaining our fellowship with the Lord to abide in Him.
Being joined to the Lord is in spirit, and it happened once for all; we are forever joined to the Lord in spirit through our faith in Him.
Abiding in the Lord, however, is a continual matter, something that relates to our daily living; we need to daily maintain our fellowship with the Lord so that we may abide in Him.
We maintain our fellowship with Him by prayer, by conversing with Him. Also, we maintain our fellowship with the Lord by the word of God.
When we abide in the word of God and allow the word of God to speak to us and abide in us, we abide in the Lord and He abides in us.
We need to converse with the Lord and speak with Him constantly, and we need to take His word as our food, turning the word into prayer so that we may be nourished and also converse with God by His word.
The Lord is speaking to us all the time, but we may not hear Him all the time; the more we abide in the written word of God and turn our heart to the Lord, the more He will speak to us, and our inner being will be keen to receive His speaking.
We may speak to others in our native language, but the language the Spirit speaks to us is the word of God.
If we are in the word of God and hear the Lord’s speaking, we will have the Lord’s instant speaking, and we abide in Him and He in us.
In the gospel of John, in the first chapter, we see that the Word was there from eternity, but then in John 15:7 we see that we need to abide in the Lord and allow His words to abide in us, and whatever we ask in His name, he will do it for us.
It is the word with our prayer in our contacting the Lord that enables us to abide in Him.
Our abiding in the word of God is equal to His abiding in us, for He is embodied in His word.
In 1 John we also see the word of life in 1:1, and then in 3:22, it says that, whatever we ask, we will receive because we keep His commandments and do things that are pleasing in His sight.
These commandments are not the ten commandments given to Moses but the instant, spoken word of God, the word in which we abide and which we allow to abide in us, so that the Lord may speak to us.
As we are conversing with the Lord, we should use His Word, and He will speak to us and His word will abide in us.
We may not know what to say to Him, for we don’t see or hear Him physically, but as we open to the Lord in His word, we will touch His person, and He will mingle Himself with us more.
May we mingle our reading of the Word of God with our fellowship with Him so that we abide in His word and His word abides in us, that is, we abide in the Lord and He abides in us.
We need to Abide in the Father, who Takes care of us in Every Way and in Everything
In 1 John 2:24, at the end of the verse, we are told that “you also will abide in the Son and in the Father”.
On one hand, we need to abide in the Son with the sonship, so that we may enjoy all the privileges and rights of being sons of God. On the other hand, we need to abide in the Father.
What does it mean for us to abide in the Father? As believers in Christ, we are not here on earth as orphans; rather, we have a Father, for God is our Father.
We have been begotten of God, God is our Father, and God is all capable. He knows all things, He arranges all things, and He loves us. How good it is to have God as our Father!
Things may happen to us, we may go through trials and tribulations, but no matter what, we know that God is our Father, and His heart is full of love toward us.
We need to abide in the Father, realizing that He takes care of us in every way and in everything.
He knows how many hairs are on our head, and He even knows how many hairs are missing from our head. He cares about us, it matters to Him concerning us (1 Pet. 5:7).
Our Father sees in secret and He loves those who seek Him in secret; in the secret of our fellowship with the Lord, we need to abide in the Father to enjoy the riches of His life.
The Father rewards us in secret, and He sees our good deeds done in secret, before Him, so He repays us (Matt. 6:1, 4).
Our Father knows the things that we have need of before we even ask Him; as long as we seek His kingdom and His righteousness, He will add all the things that we need to us (Matt. 6:8, 33).
Our Father forgives us our offenses, and He pours out His love through His Spirit into our heart so that we may also forgive others’ offenses (6:15).
Our Father is generous, kind, loving, and caring; He cares not only for the birds of heaven and the flowers of the field but also for us, His children.
Though we may have little faith and may even worry about things, our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things, so He cares for us and shepherds us (6:32).
Though the Lord Jesus is not here with us physically, He has not left us orphans; we are children of God, and we can abide in the Father, being assured that He cares for us in all things and in all respects.
How can we abide in the Father? It is by abiding in the Son; when we abide in Christ, the Son of God, we abide in the Father, for the Son and the Father are one (1 John 2:23-24).
When we have the Son, we have the Father, because the Father and the Son are one; even more, the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father (John 14:10).
This is confirmed by our experience as believers in Christ; as long as we abide in the Lord, we are not only inwardly supplied in a rich way with the all-inclusive Christ as the Spirit, but we also experience the Father’s tender care and shepherding through our environment.
We experience and enjoy the fatherhood whenever we abide in the Lord, for the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, and when we abide in the Son, we also abide in the Father.
How we love our dear Father! When we are living in the Triune God, we are living as sons of God (Heb. 2:10). When we are expressing the Father, we are abiding in the Father.
Hallelujah, we are sons of God, born of God with His life and nature, and we can abide in the Father! Thank You, Father God, for begetting us of Your life and with Your nature; we are now bonafide sons of God who partake of the divine life and nature. Thank You, Father, for taking care of us in every way and in everything. We want to abide in the Father today by abiding in the Son, for the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. We allow Your word to abide in us. We want to live in the Triune God, living as sons of God to express our Father. Amen, Father, we love You and we thank You for Your rich and tender care!
We need to Abide in God by having the Faith in the Son of God and the Love of God to love the Brothers
If we read 1 John 3:22-24 we get an impression of what it means for us to abide in God. On one hand, we are told to abide in the Lord (John 15:4-5), in the Son, and in the Father, and on the other hand, we are to abide in God.
Each of these titles bears some significance.
In 1 John 3:22-24 we are told that we need to abide in and keep His commandments, which are to believe in the Son of God and to love the brothers; this we do by the Spirit, whom He gave to us.
For us to abide in God is to have the faith in the Son of God and to have the love of God to love all the brothers (v. 23).
In other words, we need to keep God’s two main commandments, which are to believe in the Lord Jesus (thus being organically joined to Him) and to love the brothers, who also are born of God.
We need to have the faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God; also, we need to have the love to love all the brothers, and in this way, we abide in God.
Such a living includes the main things of our Christian life; our Christian life is a life in which we believe in Christ and love the brothers.
May we be those who abide in God by keeping His commandments, which are to believe in Christ and love the brothers.
All believers in Christ believe in Christ, the Son of God, having faith in the Son; also, they love the brothers, for the divine life we received by faith is a life that loves the brothers.
This is who we are and what we are; we are Christians, those who have faith in the Son of God and love the brothers.
We can testify that, the more we grow in the divine life and live the church life in a normal way, day by day, the more we abide in the organic union with the Lord, thus having faith in Him, and the more we love the brothers, for we are members one of another in the Body. Hallelujah!
May we be those who abide in God day by day in our daily experience.
May we pray over these verses in 1 John so that we may be those who abide in the Lord, in the Son, in the Father, and in God; abiding in such a way is the way to live in the Triune God.
For us to live in the Triune God is for us to have a daily life in Christ as the organism of the Triune God, in the Lord Jesus with His headship and lordship, in the Son of God with His sonship, in the Father with His fatherhood, and in God by having faith and love.
This is what it means for us to experience the Divine Trinity in our daily life. How do we abide in God? It is by the Spirit of God, whom He has given to us.
The Spirit makes the connection, the link; this Spirit is the linking Spirit. We abide in God by the Spirit of God, for the link between us and God, the Father, the Son, the Lord, and Christ, is the Spirit. This is the linking Spirit in our spirit.
The only way we can abide in God is by exercising our spirit, turning to our spirit, and living in the spirit, for it is in our mingled spirit that God, Christ, and the Spirit are.
May we touch our spirit, turn to our spirit, and use our spirit, so that we may abide in God and experience the abiding.
Outside of our spirit, we are cut off from the Lord, but in our spirit, we abide in Him and partake of all that He is.
It is in our spirit, where the Spirit is and where we’re joined to the Lord as the Spirit as one spirit, that we abide in God and enjoy all that He is.
Lord Jesus, make us those who abide in God by having the faith in the Son of God and the love of God to love all the brothers. Amen, Lord, may our Christian life be a life that believes in Christ and loves the brothers so that we may abide in God. Infuse us with Yourself much more so that our faith would increase, and keep us in the love of God to love the brothers and the sisters. We exercise our spirit to contact You and abide in You. Amen, Lord, we turn to our spirit and want to live in spirit so that we may abide in God and enjoy all that God is. Hallelujah, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we can abide in God by remaining in our mingled spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Mark Raabe, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” pp. 342-343, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 2, entitled, Living in the Divine Trinity (1) – Abiding in Christ as the True Vine.
- Hymns on this topic:
– O God, Thou art the source of life, / Divine, and rich and free! / As living water flowing out / Unto eternity!… Though we have often slighted Thee, / Thy Spirit often grieved, / Yet Thou dost still as Spirit come / As life to be received. (Hymns #12)
– Abide in Thee! in that deep love of Thine, / My Jesus, Lord, Thou Lamb of God divine, / Down, closely down, as living branch with tree, / I would abide, my Lord, my Christ, in Thee. (Hymns #563)
– Thy glorious, radiant face / My heart delights to see; / Here I’d abide and ne’er depart, / Beholding constantly. / In such a fellowship / Thou, Lord, art grace to me; / My heart and spirit gladdened, filled, / I enter rest in Thee. (Hymns #812)
