As we are Blended and Restricted in the Divine Fellowship, the Body is kept in Oneness

The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ in the oneness of the Spirit; the divine fellowship blends us and restricts us, keeping us in the oneness of the Body of Christ.

We need to realize that we all are members of the Body of Christ, and even as local churches, we are part of the Body, for there is a unique relationship among the churches based on the fellowship of the divine life.

The universal church is composed of all the local churches; there is only one church in the universe, which is the Body of Christ; all the local churches are the local expressions of the one universal church.

The reality of the church is the Body of Christ; if we are to live in the church life in reality, we need to live in the reality of the Body of Christ.

Among all the local churches there is an organic relationship, for all the local churches are related to one another in the divine life; there should be no separation or division between the local churches.

Based upon the organic fellowship of the divine life, all the churches have an organic relationship; in this relationship, we are being blended and we seek to blend with one another.

It is wrong for a local church to say that they are the Body of Christ, yet they do not seek to have fellowship with other local churches; instead of this, we all need to open to the Lord in the Body and learn to be blended.

Too many well-meaning seeking Christians have divided the Body of Christ by establishing free group after free group to practice the church and the truth according to how they see it in the Bible…

We need to come back to the way ordained by God in His Word, the Scriptural way to meet and to serve, and we need to realize that Christ has only one Body and there cannot be any autonomous relationship in the Body.

We thank the Lord for His mercy upon us in the Lord’s recovery, for He has brought us out of any division and denomination and into the church life, where we learn to blend with all the saints, we stand on the ground of oneness, and we returned to the truth in the word of God.

Little by little, the Lord is recovering the matter of the organic relationship of the churches until the whole Body is blended together and is headed up under Christ as the Head.

If we just stay in the church life and remain in the organic relationship of the churches, we will enjoy the supply and protection of the all-inclusive Christ, who is everything to us in the fellowship of the Body.

But if we isolate ourselves from the fellowship of the Body, we cut ourselves off from the supply and protection of the Body of Christ, and we are not even qualified to partake of the Lord’s supper.

The bread on the table in the Lord’s supper signifies not just our local church or our denomination but the whole Body of Christ; when we partake of the broken bread, we declare our fellowship and oneness with the whole Body of Christ universally, standing on the ground of oneness.

The Divine Fellowship is the Reality of Living in the Body of Christ through the Blending of the Body

The reality of living in the Body of Christ is the divine fellowship; this is in the oneness of the Spirit (1 Cor. 1:9; 10:16-18; 12:12-13, 27; Acts 2:42; Eph. 4:3).

If we are to practically live in the Body of Christ and grow up into the Head, spread, and be built up together in the Body, we need to pay attention to the divine fellowship.

The divine fellowship is what 1 Cor. 12:24-25 speaks of, that is, God has blended the Body together; in the divine fellowship we all are blended.

God wants to bring us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9); in the Body of Christ, we need to be those who learn to fellowship so that we may be in the divine fellowship (10:16-18).

Hallelujah, in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, and we were all given to drink of the one Spirit so that we may participate in the unique fellowship of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:12-13).

We are the Body of Christ, and we are members individually; as members of the Body of Christ, we are one in Him to be His Body, and we all are being blended in the divine fellowship (12:27).

As we remain under the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship of the apostles (Acts 12:42), we keep the oneness of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3).

The divine fellowship blends us; this means that the divine fellowship adjusts us, harmonizes us, tempers us, and mingles us together into one Body (1 Cor. 10:17; 12:24-25).

According to 1 Cor. 12:24, God has already blended the Body together, and He has given more honor to the members that lack, so that there would be no division in the Body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

Blending implies the losing of distinctions; when we come together and enjoy the divine fellowship, we realize that we may be slow while others may be quick – these are our distinctions.

In the Body life, our slowness is taken away and our quickness disappears, for we enjoy the divine fellowship and are thus blended together. God has blended all the different believers of all races and colors, all backgrounds, and all nationalities and languages; He has blended the Body together.

We need to apply and practice the blending by learning to fellowship; when we are about to do something, we need to fellowship, and when we’re thinking of going somewhere, we should fellowship.

When we fellowship, we are tempered, adjusted, harmonized, and mingled.

We should forget that we are slow or quick and just enter into the divine fellowship to be blended together; we should first fellowship with the Lord, and then we should exercise our spirit to fellowship with those that the Lord put around us.

Fellowship requires that, when we’re about to do something, we stop and fellowship; we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship.

We need to learn to not do anything without being in the divine fellowship to be blended together; we need to fellowship with the Lord and with the fellow members of the Body.

May the Lord teach us, guide us, urge us, and even touch us to pay attention to the divine fellowship.

May we learn this one lesson in serving the Lord: learn to fellowship.

We may have been believers for decades, we may have served the Lord for many years, and we may think that the thing we’re about to do is good and proper, but we should still stop and fellowship.

Many times we find out that, if there is any separation between us and the saints, oftentimes is because we are short of fellowship.

We are not here merely to do things in a scriptural way and be as correct as possible; we are here to enter into and remain in the divine fellowship so that we may be blended together in the Body.

Don’t think that, since you have been in this particular place for many years and you are so advanced in the Lord, and since you have done something like this before, you should do something without having fellowship. Oh, Lord!

The more we grow in life, the more we advance in the Lord, and the more we enter into the blending of the Body, the more we realize our need for fellowship.

The oneness of the church is through our fellowship with the Lord and with one another; when we are blended by entering into the divine fellowship, we keep the oneness of the Body.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to fellowship with You and with the saints in the Body so that we may be blended together and live in the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, we want to keep the oneness of the Spirit as we enter into the divine fellowship, learning to open to the Lord and to the members of the Body in fellowship to be blended together. Thank You, Lord, You have already blended the Body; we want to enter into the blending of the Body by learning to stop and fellowship with the Lord and with the saints. Save us from presuming that we are so advanced in the Lord and have such a long experience in the church life that we no longer need to fellowship. Oh Lord, may we remain in and keep the oneness of the church through our fellowship with the Lord and with one another. Keep us in the divine fellowship so that we may be in the reality of living in the Body of Christ in the oneness of the Spirit!

As we are Blended and Restricted in the Divine Fellowship, the Body is kept in Oneness

For us to be blended together in the divine fellowship is for us to go through the cross and do everything by the Spirit so that we may dispense Christ into others for the sake of the Body of Christ.

The only way for us to be harmonized, blended, adjusted, mingled, and tempered in the life of the Body of Christ is to go through the coss and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body.

This means that, no matter what we do, we need to fellowship; fellowship tempers us, adjusts us, harmonizes us, and mingles us.

The divine fellowship blends us in the Body of Christ.

Especially these days, when it is so convenient to travel and communicate with the saints all over the world, we need to take the opportunity and enter into the blending of all the churches.

There needs to be the blending of all the members of the Body of Christ, the blending of all the co-workers, of all the elders, and of all the serving saints and the local saints.

When we stop and fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, we will receive many benefits; if we isolate and seclude ourselves, we will lose much spiritual profit.

May we come together frequently to be blended. We may not be used to blend, but if we practice it, if we just open to the Lord and to the saints in fellowship, we will get a taste for blending.

The secret to the practice of the church life is the oneness of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 4:3; John 17:11, 21-23).

We need to be willing to be blended together. We need to learn to be blended as much as practicality allows, without boundaries of states, provinces, or nations; geographical boundaries should not separate us but rather, we should learn to blend in spirit as much as possible.

The means of travel and communication in today’s time are so much better than in Paul’s time; we should be blended together both according to revelation and according to the modern conveniences, learning to the in the divine fellowship to be blended in the Body.

There must be the clustering of the churches, the fellowship with the churches close to us, and the blending and traffic both between cities, regions, countries, and continents.

We should not try to be independent under the cloak of being local; what we need is not a federation of churches to unite them, like the United States of America – what we need is the blending!

We need to have the clustering of the local churches, the fellowship among the regions in a country, and the blending among the countries on a continent.

This doesn’t mean that we should open up our business affairs to others or uncover local saints to other localities; rather, we all need to learn to fellowship and blend, being delivered from our local-ness, our natural taste, our national characteristics, our culture, and anything that makes us distinct.

By opening to the Lord and to the saints in the divine fellowship, we are blended together for the keeping of the oneness in the Body of Christ.

The divine fellowship blends us together, and it also restricts us.

As we are being blended together in the divine fellowship, we are restricted inwardly from doing this or that or from going here and there; in this way, we are kept in the oneness of the Body.

On one hand, we need blending; on the other hand, we are restricted in the blending, for the more we blend, the more we are restricted.

This is to experience the cross and do things by the Spirit to dispense Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ.

In the blending, we don’t dare to do things presumptuously, we don’t dare to do what we feel good about, and we are willing to be restricted by the Body of Christ so that we may diligently keep the oneness of the Spirit.

Lord Jesus, save us from doing anything without fellowshipping with the Lord and with the other saints who are coordinating with us. May we learn to stop and fellowship when we are about to do something, no matter how much we think it is the right to do. Amen, Lod, grant us wisdom – give us Yourself as wisdom – for us to go out and come in among Your people. Teach us how to blend with the saints; bring us into the blending life of the Body. May we allow the divine fellowship to restrict us and keep us in the oneness of the Body of Christ so that the work of the ministry may go on. Amen, Lord, bring us in the blending life of the Body of Christ, being willing to be blended together with other saints in other local churches and even in other countries and continents. May we cooperate with Your blending work by seeking to be blended in the Body for the keeping of the oneness of the universal Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, The Divine and Mystical Realm, ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2021 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 4, The Intrinsic Fellowship of the Churches for Their Organic Relationship.
• Further reading on this topic: The Way of Blending and the Leadership in the Ministry in the Lord’s Recovery Today (via, A Faithful Word website)
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Blend us, Lord, blend us, Lord, ’til we are in one accord. / Hallelujah—the saints going on! / Blend us, Lord, blend us, Lord, open hearts we can afford. / Hallelujah—the churches go on! / As the members of / His organic Body, / We need the others to go on. / As local churches, / We do also need / One another for our going on. (Song on, Blend us, Lord, Blend us, Lord)
  – Building God and man in one / Is their work before the Lord; / In this fellowship divine / Saints are built in one accord. / When in prayer our spirits blend, / Then together built are we, / Then a priesthood we become, / Off’ring sacrifice to Thee. (Hymns #849)
  – In the church life we can see / We are God’s own family. / As we blend with the saints / We are built up in love, / His expression thus to be. / In the church we are home; / Here our joy has begun. / In this sweet fellowship / We are built up in love / As the many, yet as one. (Song on, In the church life we can see)