We Live in and with the Divine Trinity by Abiding in Christ and by Christ abiding in us

As believers in Christ, we need to live in and with the Divine Trinity. We need to see the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity, and we need to practice abiding in the Lord as the vine; if we abide in Him, He abides in us, and whatever we ask the Father in His name, He will do for us.

This week in our morning revival we come to a new topic, Living in the Divine Trinity (1) – Abiding in Christ as the True Vine.

We may think we know what this means, for we have read John 15 many times, but we need the Lord’s enlightening for us to truly see this matter and enter into this experience.

The subject of John 15 is living in and with the Divine Trinity; all of John’s writings are very much on this subject – both his gospel and his epistles and the book of Revelation.

At least viewed from one angle, the subject of John’s writings are on the matter of living in and with the Divine Trinity.

John 15 is in the context of the longest recorded speaking of the Lord Jesus; He spoke the first three chapters (John 13-16) and then prayed one whole chapter (ch. 17).

Since it is one speaking, it talks about the same thing but from four angles.

The emphasis in John 14 is on the Father’s house, in 15 it is on the Son as the vine, in ch. 16 it is on the Spirit bringing forth a new child in resurrection, and in John 17 He is praying for the reality of what He just spoke.

In other words, in John 13 the emphasis is on living in the Divine Trinity by living in the Father’s house, in ch. 15 we see the matter of living in the Divine Trinity by living in the Son as the vine, and in ch. 16 it is living in the Divine Trinity by receiving the transmission of the Spirit.

In ch. 17 we see a prayer for the reality and practicality of living in and with the Divine Trinity. In v. 21 in particular in ch. 17 the Lord prayed “that they may be in Us, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may also be in Us”. Wow.

The Lord Jesus didn’t only expound the matter of living in and with the Divine Trinity in John 14-16 but He also prayed that you and I would live in the reality of the Divine Trinity by being in Him and Him in us. Hallelujah!

For us to live in the Divine Trinity is for us to abide in Him, to remain in Him, to dwell in Him as our home.

On the other hand, for us to live with the Divine Trinity is for Him to abide in us so that we may have His presence, His person, with us for our enjoyment.

For us to live in the Divine Trinity is for us to abide in Him, and for us to live with the Divine Trinity is for Him to abide in us.

This is a mutual abiding, and this mutual abiding is to live in and with the Divine Trinity.

Seeing the Practical Experience of Living in and with the Divine Trinity in our Daily Life

On one hand, we need to see and understand the truth of living in and with the Divine Trinity; on the other hand, we need to have the practical experience of this matter.

We need to find out, by the Lord’s mercy, what is the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity.

When we were young in the Lord and may have read John 15, we may have been mystified – how can we get into that?

Well, there’s a song that says, No more in vain do we struggle / Trying the way in to find; / Praise God, we’re in Him already / Hallelujah, abiding in the vine.

It all begins by seeing; we need to see the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity, and then we will enter into this experience.

The Gospel of John is a book on living in and with the Divine Trinity (John 15:1, 4-5).

No place is this clearer than in John chapters 14-17; in this entire Gospel, we see the way for us to live in and with the Divine Trinity.

Out of the whole New Testament, the gospel of John is in another realm, very mysterious and wonderful, for in this Gospel John talks about living in and with the Divine Trinity.

Paul also spoke of this, for he saw the vision of the Body; the Body itself is a living in and with the Divine Trinity. Paul saw this matter, but he wrote this in a different way than John.

The truth concerning living in and with the Divine Trinity is greatly expounded in the Epistles, especially in those written by Paul.

In the Epistles, we can see all the practicalities and details of living in and with the Divine Trinity.

We need to see the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity, and we need to be brought into the experiences of living in the Divine Trinity and with the Divine Trinity.

In John 15 in particular we can see that the mutual abiding – we abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us – is living in and with the Divine Trinity.

If we abide in the Lord, He will abide in us; our abiding in the Lord is our living in the Divine Trinity, and His abiding in us is our living with the Divine Trinity.

To abide in Christ is for us to live in Christ; to live in Christ is to live in the Divine Trinity.

When we abide in the Lord, taking Him as our dwelling place, our home, we live, act, and have our being in Him.

The Divine Trinity becomes the realm in which we live. This is to live in the Divine Trinity.

We live in the Divine Trinity by abiding in the Lord; we need to take the lead to abide in the Lord, and when we do abide in Him, He abides in us.

To have Christ abide in us (as a result of our abiding in Him) is for us to live with the Divine Trinity.

When Christ abides in us, when His presence is with us and we have Him living in us and with us, we live with the Divine Trinity.

May we be brought into the experiences of living in the Divine Trinity and with the Divine Trinity.

This is not something that just happens; this is something deep, a deeper experience of the Divine Trinity, something that requires our pursuit and prayer that we may enter in.

The result of our living in and with the Divine Trinity is our living in the reality of the Body in this age and our being the New Jerusalem for eternity.

Lord Jesus, grant us to see the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity. Amen, Lord, we want to abide in You so that You may abide in us; keep us abiding in You today so that You may abide in us. May our daily living with all its activities be in the Divine Trinity so that we may have the Divine Trinity live with us daily. Amen, Lord, bring us into the experiences of living in the Divine Trinity and with the Divine Trinity. Grant us the experiences we need and keep us in prayer before You so that we may live in and with the Divine Trinity in our daily living!

We Live in and with the Divine Trinity by Abiding in Christ and by Christ abiding in us

The Bible is amazing, for it not only reveals God and His intention to us but also gives us a way to live in and with God, that is, to live in and with the Divine Trinity. Wow!

Outside of the divine revelation in the Bible, there’s no other book, philosophy, or religion that says that we can live in another person, that is, that we can live in God and that God can live in us.

It is a wonder and an honor for us to be those who can live in the Triune God and to have the Triune God live in us.

It truly is a miracle that we can live in the Triune God and that we can cooperate with Him for Him to live in us.

We see this in John 15, where the Lord told us that He is the vine and we are the branches of the vine (v. 5).

We believers in Christ are members of Christ, the members of His Body; we were grafted into Him as the vine, and now we live in Him and He lives in us.

We were not born in this vine; we are not the natural branches but the grafted branches. As the branches of the vine, we should abide in Him, and then He will abide in us (vv. 4-5).

If we abide in the Lord, He abides in us; first, we abide in Him, and then He abides in us.

Why do we first need to abide in the Lord? It is because we fluctuate; sometimes we’re up and at other times we’re down, so we need to first abide in Him and then He will abide in us.

To abide in Christ is to live in Christ; for us to live in Christ is for us to live in the Divine Trinity (Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 1:30).

It is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, and we have been baptized in the Divine Trinity; we need to daily take the lead to live in the Divine Trinity by abiding in the Lord, by living in Christ.

Christ is our dwelling place, our home; He wants to make His home in our heart and us to make our home in Him. To live in Christ is to live in the Divine Trinity.

The Divine Trinity is a mysterious living of living in coinherence among the Three of the Godhead. To coinhere is to live in one another, that is, for one person to live in another person.

We don’t have any illustration to show this in the physical life, but John 17 shows us that the Three of the Godhead indwell one another, and He wants us to live in Him and be one with Him.

To have Christ abide in us is to have the Triune God living in us; this is for us to live with the Divine Trinity (John 15:4-5; Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 13:14).

If we have Christ, we have the Father and the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit, we have the Son and the Father; if we have the Father, we have the Son and the Spirit.

If we have Christ as the embodiment of the Divine Trinity, the embodiment of the Godhead, we have the entire Triune God.

We need to not only abide in Christ but also have Him abide in us, that is, to have the Triune God living in us.

When we live in Christ, we live in the Divine Trinity, and when Christ lives in us, we live with the Divine Trinity.

The vine tree is a good illustration of this; Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is not a pine tree or an apple tree but a vine tree growing and spreading all over the earth.

His fruit is so available to us, for He is the vine tree.

The many branches in the vine tree are a type of us as the many branches in Christ; the branches are the completion of the tree, and we as believers in Christ are the completion of Christ.

The vine tree needs all the branches to express its inner life and to fulfill its purpose; similarly, God with His rich divine life needs us as His expression and as the ones who fulfill His purpose.

For us to abide in Christ as branches in the vine is for us to make our home in Him.

A similar word is used for “home” in John 14:2 and 23, where it talks about the Father’s house and Him making an abode with His lovers.

We need to abide in the Lord, taking Him as our dwelling place and living in Christ; this is to live in the Divine Trinity.

We also need to let Christ live in us, taking us as His home and making His home in our heart; this is to live with the Divine Trinity.

When we abide in Christ, we live in Him, and when we have Him abide in us, we live with Him; this is a wonderful and mysterious mutual abiding.

Thank You, Lord, for grafting us into Yourself as the true vine. Hallelujah, we are now branches in the vine, and it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, who is everything to us! We want to abide in You, dear Lord; we want to live in Christ and take Christ as our dwelling place and our home. Our home is in You, Lord, and we simply abide here, for God put us here and You are our dwelling place. We want to live in Christ day by day so that we may live in the Divine Trinity. Amen, Lord, make Your home in our heart so that You may abide in us. Make our heart and our whole being Your dwelling place; dwell in us, abide in us, and live with us. May Christ live in us today. Grant us the experiences we need for us to live in and with the Divine Trinity today!

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,” ch. 8, 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:
  – We’ve found the secret of living, / We’ve seen the vision divine: / We are of God in Christ Jesus, / We’re abiding, abiding in the vine. / Abiding in the vine, / Abiding in the vine, / All the riches of God’s life are mine! / Praise God, He put us here, / Never to leave; oh, we’re— / Abiding, abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1162)
  – He’s the vine and we’re the branches, / We should e’er abide in Him, / And let Him abide within us / As the flow of life within. / In the vine, in the vine, / In the vine, in the vine, / We would know Thee, Lord, / more deeply, / E’er abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1163)
  – Jesus called me one day to the Holiest Place, / To live in His presence divine; / Hallelujah, I’ve heard an encouraging word: / “Abide—you’re a branch in the vine.” (Hymns #1191)