In the Lord’s prayer in John 17 we see that there are three levels of oneness, or three increasingly important ways for us as believers in Christ to be one.
Firstly, we are one in the Father’s name and by the Father’s divine life (John 17:6-13). Secondly, we are one in the reality of the Father’s sanctifying word (v. 14-21). The third level of oneness is the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God (v. 22-24).
This article will focus on the second level of oneness, the oneness of all the believers in the reality of the Father’s sanctifying word. As we are in the word of God, we are sanctified, separated, and saturated with God.
Being sanctified by being in the Word of God
If you read carefully what the Lord prayed in John 17 you will notice the close relationship between being sanctified in the truth and being made one to express the Triune God.
The Lord Jesus prayed for us all – not just for the disiciples – to be sanctified in the word of the Father, that we may be one even as the Triune God is one, that the world may know, see, and believe! John 17:17-21 says,
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
After the Lord gave us the Father’s name and the Father’s life, He didn’t want us to get out of the world but that we may live in the world by being sanctified in God’s word. The Lord has given us the Father’s word (what He heard from the Father, so He spoke) that we may be sanctified in the word, which is truth.
The Word of God contains the reality of God Himself, and God is real to us in His Word. As we read the Word and as we pray over the Word of God, we are being sanctified – we are being separated from the world and we are saturated with the element of God to be made one with God.
We need to set aside and spend some time in the word of God. As long as we spend a little time with the Lord in His word in the morning and have other set times during the day, musing and praying over what we have read, the Word of God is continually sanctifying us, washing us, cleansing us, purifying us, and saturating us with God’s element.
Being washed, purified, and sanctified in the Word
Sometimes we may have the feeling that we don’t remember much after reading the word of God. Do you remember what you read in the Bible yesterday or the day before? It’s not a matter of being forgetful, it’s just that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we can’t remember what we read.
But we need to remember that, in a way, it is all right not to remember everything we read in the Bible.
Just as you wash the rice or the vegetables by dipping them into the water – yet no water may remain on the rice or the vegetables, so we are “dipped in the pure water of the Word” and we are washed and cleansed, even though not much of the Word of God may remain there…
As we read the Word of God again and again, having set times in the morning and then throughout the day, we will see that many worldly things and matters in us are being removed, and we are being sanctified by God and separated unto God.
God’s word brings into us God’s reality, His element, and this sanctifies us and delivers us from the mixed and corrupted world that we may be separated unto God.
There is so much impurity and mixture in today’s world, and just by being in the world we are affected, pollutted, made impure, mixed, and made complicated in our mind, our thinking, and in our being. We need the pure and sanctifying word of God to wash us, purify us, and sanctify our whole being that we are being made pure for God, delivered from the world, clean and holy, for us to be one!
The sanctifying word makes us one!
Firstly, we have the Father’s name and the Father’s life, and we are sons of God. But this is just the beginning – in our living in this impure and mixed world we need to continually be in the Word of God that we may be delivered, separated, un-mixed, purified, and sanctified by the Word of God.
The Father’s sanctifying word is the means of our oneness, and it brings us into the sphere of oneness (see John 17:21; Eph. 5:26). The Lord cleanses us as the church, His bride, through the washing of the water in the word, and this makes us one.
The more we are in the word of God, the purer we become (Psa. 12:6; 119:140) and the more we are brought into oneness!
Lord, keep us in the reality of the Father’s sanctifying word. May we spend time in the Word to read the Word and pray over the Word. Lord, purify us, cleanse us, un-mix us, un-complicate us, and sanctify our whole being. Make us those who daily read their Bible. We want to be sanctified in the truth, in the word, that we may be made one even as You are one!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure (by Witness Lee, ch. 1), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Oneness of the Body, the Proper One Accord in the Church, and the Direction of the Lord’s Move Today, week 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
# How we thank Thee that Thy holy Word / With Thy nature, saturates us; / From the world it separates us.
# Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart.
# Reading the Bible — / I love the Word of God! / Reading the Bible — / I love the Word of God! - Picture source: John 17:17, wallpaper for God.
amen, Lord Jesus!
Amen