The only way for God to accomplish His purpose and for us to be part of it is for us to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God! The Lord Jesus prayed for this in John 17:21-24, indicating that when we move out of ourselves and into the Father and into His glory, we are one and we are even perfected into one!
The Lord Jesus was in the Father, and He wants His disciples to be in the Father also! The way for us to be one is to be in the Triune God!
Moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God
From our experience we can testify that in ourselves we have all kinds of factors of division – in ourselves we have worldliness, we have lots of ambition to be someone, we have self-exaltation, and we have many opinions and concepts. All these factors of division are not only in ourselves but they even are ourselves, our natural being. This is why we need to move OUT of ourselves, out of the divisive self, and into the Triune God for the divine oneness!
When we are in ourselves we cannot be one with others – we are one with ourselves and care only for ourselves! For God’s purpose of gaining one expression for Himself, we need to be sanctified in the truth and by the Spirit so that we may move out of ourselves and into the Triune God. Each one of us is personally responsible to make this move, starting in the morning and all throughout the day. When we move out of ourselves and into the Father and His glory, we are automatically one just like God is one!
To be sanctified is to make the move!
HOW do we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God? By ourselves and by our own power, good intentions, good will, etc – we can’t do it. It is only by being sanctified in the Word of God and by the Spirit that we can move out of ourselves and into the Triune God. We are sanctified by the Word (which is the truth) and by the Spirit (who is the Spirit of truth). Every morning we come to the Lord in His Word and allow the Spirit to touch us day by day – and we are sanctified. This is the way to move out of ourselves (our old lodging place) and into the Triune God (our new lodging place).
Abiding in Christ by being sanctified
Saints, the Lord Jesus knows our problem. He knows that we need to abide in Him so that He may abide in us and bear fruit in us (John 15:1-15).
What does it mean, in this context, to abide in the Lord? It means that we need to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God as the universal vine and remain there! We are in the Father by being in the Son, who is in the Father – by the sanctifying Word and the sanctifying Spirit, we make the move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, where there is the oneness!
In John 17:21 the Lord Hesus prayed, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” God wants man to be in God so that man and God may be one and even perfected into one (John 17:22-23).
The way for us to be one with God is by moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God. When we make this move, Christ lives in us and we are perfected into one! And it is all done in spirit by our coming to the Word of God with an open heart and an open spirit to be sanctified for this move!
The perfected oneness is the building
This is the growth in life – we grow in life by daily moving out of ourselves and into the Triune God through the sanctification of the truth. According to Eph. 4:16, the growth in life is the real building – when we grow in life normally, we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God, and Christ is the One who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
The result is that we have the genuine oneness – when we are in the Triune God, we are one and we are perfected into one. This is the building – the perfected oneness by our constant move out of ourselves and into the Triune God!
If we remain in ourselves, we will be a problem for the building and we cannot be built up. But if we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God by being sanctified in the truth daily, we will be buildable and we will have no problem with the building. How much we need the continual sanctification of the truth so that there may be a move, again and again, out of our self and into the Triune God for the divine oneness!
[sharing inspired from the Truth Messages, msg. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery. Intro: learning to move out of ourselves.]
Lord, strengthen our time with You in the Word. May we be sanctified in the truth as we come to touch You in the Word. Sanctify us more every day, Lord! We want to make this move – out of ourselves and into the Triune God! Save us from remaining ourselves and from being in ourselves. O, Lord, we want to move OUT of ourselves and INTO the Father and His glory for the divine oneness! Perfect us into one, Lord!