Search
In the foregoing message we covered the meaning of fellowship, a life of fellowship, and fellowship with God. Now we come to the effect, time, place, and procedures of fellowship with God.
What is the effect of our fellowship with God? According to the evidence in the Bible and our experience, the effect of fellowship has a negative and a positive aspect. On the negative side, fellowship with God continually removes the undesirable elements within us. One effect of our fellowship with God is the constant removal of things that should not be within us.
Every believer realizes that he is sinful. This is obvious, and many items are included in sin. All transgressions, unclean things, and unrighteous matters are sins. Besides sins, there are other less obvious things that should not be within us, such as the world. There are also other things that are less related to sins and the world within us. These are elements of the old creation, that is, the things of the flesh and the things of the self. The old creation, the flesh, and the self are of the same category. We may say that they are different expressions for saying the same thing. We can identify at least three categories of things that should not be in us — sins, the world, and the self.
Our fellowship with God has the function of gradually removing these three things from within us. The more we fellowship with God, the more they are exposed within us. This exposure requires us to deal with them. If our fellowship with God is deep and thorough, something will be constantly removed from us. Fellowship removes negative things from within us. Whether or not we have genuine fellowship with God can be seen by whether this function of removal is manifested in us. If it has been a long time since something has been removed from us, our fellowship with God has diminished or ceased. If we have fellowship with God, we can be certain that this fellowship will function to continually remove negative things from within us.
Being a Christian is absolutely not a matter of keeping regulations. We do not deal with certain matters because there are regulations that say, “This is a sin, so you must remove it”; “this is the world, so you need to remove it”; or “this is the self, so it must be removed.” Dealing with sins, the world, and the self is not a matter of keeping regulations. It is impossible to deal with these by regulations. Although the principle of sin is defined, and the Bible explicitly says that all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17), there is no rule for dealing with sins. At what point are dealings between human beings unrighteous? No one can set a standard for us. It all depends on the inner sense from our fellowship with God. Hence, there is no regulation related to our dealing with things; rather, this is an effect produced spontaneously through fellowship.
Any dealing produced through fellowship is not accomplished once for all. When we were newly saved, our fellowship with God caused us to sense that a few things within us were improper, and we confessed and dealt with these things before Him. Gradually, as we progressed, our fellowship with God increased, deepened, and strengthened. We began to realize that some things, which we had previously not considered as sinful, were sins, and we had further dealings. For example, a new brother feels that lying is a sin, and thus he deals with it. However, he may still gossip, spreading the affairs of others, without any feeling of being wrong. After six months or a year of deeper fellowship with God, he will realize that gossiping is also a sin in need of dealing. I believe that the saints have had this kind of experience. This gradual deepening of our fellowship is the way to thoroughly deal with the problem of sin. This process takes many years. It is not possible to thoroughly deal with the problem of sins in six months to a year after being saved. This is because our knowledge, condemnation, and dealing with sins absolutely depend on the deepening of our fellowship with God.
New believers may not have much feeling concerning these matters, but gradually they will realize that the intensified sense of the fellowship of life is restricting them. They might not have had the sense that something is sin, but after a period of fellowship they will realize that this matter is sin and must be condemned. They may not have had the sense that gossiping and judging others are sinful, but gradually, as their fellowship with God deepens, they will sense through this fellowship that all their gossiping and judging should be condemned. The more they advance and grow in life, the more they will realize that there is a restraining function in their fellowship that rescues them from improper things.
A believer’s strictness in dealing with sins to a large extent can be seen in his speaking. The more a brother or sister is restricted by fellowship with God, the stricter his speaking will be. It is easy for us to know if we have done something wrong in other matters, but it is not so easy to detect faults in our speaking and motives. These are exposed through the sense that comes from fellowship. Therefore, we always need to bring our motives and speaking into fellowship with God so that we can be examined. When we see that our motive is impure and our speaking is improper, we need to deal with them by the Lord. If we always have this kind of dealing in our fellowship with God, our intentions, motives, and speaking will increasingly be restricted by Him. This shows that the effect of fellowship, in the aspect of removing sins, is manifest in us.
The principle is the same concerning dealing with the world. It is even more difficult to define the world. Something that is not the world to one person may be the world to another, or it may not be the world to others, but it is to us. However, the more we live in fellowship, the more the fellowship will restrict us and require us to have deeper dealings, and the function of this fellowship will remove aspects of the world from us.
The same applies to dealing with the self. As we progress in the Lord, we will gradually see that a certain matter may be right and good and neither sinful nor of the world; however, it is full of the self. Our being right and good may not have God in it because it is of the self. This situation can be made known only through fellowship. It is difficult for us to know, let alone deal with, the self if we are not in fellowship with God. The deeper we fellowship with God and enter into Him, the more the things of the self can be gradually exposed. The self is in our contact with the brothers and sisters, in our spiritual preferences, in our desire to glorify ourselves, and even in our desire to be blameless. Only when we see the self through fellowship can we have proper dealings.
In conclusion, the more we live in fellowship, the more this fellowship will function to remove things from within us. There are many things that need to be removed from within us, not only sins, the world, and the self. Even things given to us by God must be removed. Just as God wanted Abraham to offer up the Isaac whom he had received from God, He will require us at a certain point to offer to Him all our spiritual experiences, our spiritual gifts, and the fruit of our work, that is, what we have received from Him. God requires that we let go of the things that we treasure from the past. Sometimes God will tear down those things that are perfect and praiseworthy. God’s removing and stripping of us in our fellowshipping with Him are often quite detailed. After experiencing some dealing, we may think that we are all right. However, the more we fellowship, the more we will sense that other things also need to be removed. The removing function of fellowship is truly profound and continuous.
If we do not know this aspect of fellowship, we will be unable to understand a person who has deep fellowship with God. For example, we may not understand the Lord’s word that John came neither eating nor drinking, and people said that he had a demon, and that the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and people said that He was a gluttonous man and a drunkard (Matt. 11:18-19). John’s not eating or drinking was in fellowship, and the Lord Jesus’ eating and drinking was also in fellowship. Those who live in fellowship do not uniformly express the same thing. Consequently, if we do not live in fellowship, we will be confused by these differences. Only by living in fellowship can we touch those who live in fellowship and understand their actions.
The effect of fellowship also has a positive aspect, which is the increase of the element of God. The more a person fellowships with God, the more the element of God will be increased within him. From the time we were saved, God’s unique goal has been to work Himself into us abundantly and richly. God’s work is not to make us good, whole, or spotless; rather, it is to work Himself into us. Hence, it often seems that the more we fellowship with God, the more God destroys our wholeness, goodness, and spotlessness so that He can add more of His element into us. This can be understood only in our experience, so I cannot speak concerning this aspect in a thorough way. Nevertheless, when we fellowship with God, we should sense that, on the negative side, God continually requires us to depart from the things that we should not have, and on the positive side, He wants His element to be continually added into us.
The increase of God’s element can be compared to the process of metabolism in our body; in metabolism old elements are constantly replaced with new elements. This does not mean that God’s element is added into us once for all. God is continually adding His new element into us in order to replace our old elements. From this we see that a spiritual person will not remain the same. A person who learns to live in fellowship is constantly undergoing a metabolic change. He may have had a certain condition last year, but he will have a different condition this year; he may have given people a certain feeling last year, but he will give people a different feeling this year. This was true even with the apostle Paul. We can tell from reading his Epistles that his early writings have a flavor that is different from his later writings because he was a person living in fellowship. He was constantly being changed and renewed. There is no outward standard for Christians. Those in religion have a standard, but Christians do not. The only need of a Christian is to fellowship with God.
When I was newly saved, I set a certain standard for myself. Anyone who did not meet my standard was considered unspiritual, and I questioned his salvation, but gradually I began to see that this was absolutely not right. My standard was absolute; however, many of those who were genuinely spiritual and who lived in fellowship were not up to my “standard,” whereas those who were up to my “standard” were apparently proper but not necessarily spiritual. Hence, we need to see that our genuine condition before the Lord does not depend on an outward standard but on inward fellowship. On one hand, this fellowship removes from us what we should not have; on the other hand, it continually adds the new element of God into us.
As an example, let us consider Bible reading. When I was young, I had the desire to buy sixty-six books of exposition on each of the sixty-six books of the Bible. I thought that this would give me a complete understanding of the Bible. However, gradually I saw that this was impossible. I needed to abandon the things I had received from others’ expositions and even the things I received myself when I read the Bible in fellowship. By letting go of the things I received in the past, I could receive new light in fellowship. Perhaps when I read the Bible next year, I will need to let go of the light I saw in the past so that there will be new light. This shows that in fellowship something is constantly being discarded, and something is constantly being gained. The things that need to be discarded do not consist merely of sin, the world, and the self. Even things that were given by God but have become old must be discarded. Brothers and sisters, the true condition of a Christian is found only in fellowship. No one can measure himself according to an outward standard, and neither can anyone measure others according to an outward standard. Every person needs to live in fellowship.
The effect of fellowship has the two aspects of constantly causing us to lose something and to gain something. However, the very things that we gain today may be the very things that the fellowship will require us to lose tomorrow. This is truly amazing. The more we live in the fellowship, the more intensive the metabolic function will become. If this metabolism ceases, and nothing old is removed, and nothing new is added, our condition will remain the same year after year; we will no longer be in fellowship, and our growth will stop. A certain brother may have been wonderful five years ago, and he may still be wonderful today; he may have been lovely five years ago, and he may still be lovely today. We may say that such a brother is stable, but according to our experience of fellowship, there might be a problem in the future. A Christian who is in fellowship should always be changing. Fellowship constantly changes a person; it continually discharges the old elements within him and replaces them with new elements. Hence, the entire Christian living should be in fellowship. If we truly live in fellowship, the things that should not be in us will be removed on the negative side, and God will be added into us on the positive side. More and more we will be delivered from the self, and God will increase within us. This is the effect of fellowship.
Practically speaking, fellowship with God, like breathing, should be constant and not limited by time. If we breathe in the morning, we still need to breathe in the evening. Likewise, our fellowship with God cannot be limited to only one time. We must fellowship with God moment by moment. This is what the Bible refers to as “unceasingly” praying (1 Thes. 5:17). Praying unceasingly is a kind of spiritual breathing; it is uninterrupted and carried out at every time and in every place. There should not be a time or a place in which we stop fellowshipping with God. We should constantly exercise concerning this matter. Some unbelievers rebuke us, saying, “You are captured and bewitched by God. From morning to evening and from evening to morning, you simply cannot forget Him.” We should respond, “We are not only captivated by God; we are actually breathing Him.” When we stop breathing God, we cease to live. We should not be separated from God at any moment. There should always be inward fellowship between God and us. Even while we are angry, we should be fellowshipping with God; we should even fellowship with God when quarreling with others. Some may say, “If we are in fellowship with God, we will not quarrel with others.” It seems as if this should be the situation because the best way to avoid quarreling is to fellowship with God, but this is not always the case. We should learn to fellowship to such an extent that even when we quarrel and are upset with others, speaking angry words to them, we would still be able to fellowship with God. There should not be one moment that we are not in fellowship with God. Constant fellowship with God is the first point related to the time to fellowship with God.
Although we should be in constant fellowship with God, we still need to set aside some time each day for fellowship. A new believer especially should set aside time during which he can fellowship with God. Examples of this can be found in the Bible. Daniel 6:10 says that Daniel prayed before his God three times daily. Psalm 119:164 says that David praised God seven times a day. Psalm 55:17 says that he complained and moaned evening, morning, and noontime. He came before God three times a day. Acts 10:3 says that Cornelius prayed at the ninth hour of the day. He had a fixed time to fellowship with God. Even our Lord Jesus set aside a specific time to pray for needs that arose. During the two thousand years of church history many spiritual men who were used by the Lord set aside a specific time every day to have deep fellowship with Him.
According to our experience, it is best to set aside a time in the morning, before the day dawns. This is the time when we are refreshed after a night of sleep; we have not had contact with any person or thing, and our outward environment and inner being are quieter. Therefore, it is the best and sweetest time to come before God to fellowship with Him.
It is also good to find another time in the evening to come before God. It would also be profitable to spend more time to fellowship at midmorning, noontime, or in the afternoon. If we cannot set aside three times a day, it would be good to set aside two times. If we cannot set aside two times, we should have at least one time. We should set aside a specific time every day to fellowship with God. If we have only one time, I would suggest that it be in the morning. If a Christian wants to learn to live before the Lord and have constant fellowship with Him, he needs to be one who touches God early in the morning. It is understandable if we cannot fellowship with God at midmorning, at noon, or in the afternoon and in the evening, but it is not understandable if we cannot fellowship with Him early in the morning. Of course, it is more difficult for brothers who work night shifts, but they can sleep until noon and then fellowship with the Lord. Thus, their “early morning time” is in the afternoon. However, this is not as good as leading a normal life of sleeping at night and rising in the morning. Consequently, working night shifts creates difficulties. It is not easy for those who work night shifts to be good Christians. I hope the brothers and sisters will do their best not to work night shifts. Brother George Müller even said that it is not good to travel long distances at night, because it is not profitable for one’s spirit and body. I fully agree with him. Night is the time for sleeping; this is God’s arrangement. Traveling or working at night violates this natural law. Keeping a natural law is beneficial in every aspect.
We should learn to rise early in the morning. Those who want to rise early should learn the lesson of going to bed early. It is very interesting that the more fallen a person is, the more he likes to stay up late at night, and the more he loathes rising early. God ordained that man would go to bed when the sun goes down and rise when the sun comes up, yet the devil stimulates man to be active when the sun goes down and to sleep when the sun comes up. This can be seen in the bustling activities that occur late at night, such as gambling, drinking, movies, and dancing. When it is time for those who participate in these to rise in the morning, they are still asleep.
As believers, we should not be like this. We should work when the sun comes up, rest when the sun goes down, and rise early in the morning. In order to rise early, we must go to bed early. Any unwillingness to go to bed early comes from our fallen nature. Our fallen nature encourages us to stay awake, but the nature within a believer encourages him to go to bed early. Whenever we see a believer who always goes to bed late, we should be concerned because always going to bed late is an indication that one has no intention of rising early the next morning to draw near to God. Such a Christian will have problems. However, if a brother goes to bed early, we cannot say with confidence that he is spiritual. At the most we can be at least fifty percent assured that he is doing well. This is because going to bed early means that he is able to rise early, and if one can rise early to draw near to God, his Christian life is more or less on track. Therefore, under normal circumstances, we should not go to bed later than eleven o’clock. The best is to go to sleep around ten o’clock and rise up at six o’clock in the morning. This is the appropriate experience of many.
Immediately after we rise in the morning, we should fellowship with God. We should spend at least twenty minutes fellowshipping with Him every day. If we cannot afford to spend this much time, we should spend at least ten minutes, but this is quite poor. The best is to have at least half an hour to one hour every morning. Our coming before God in such a way to have a specific time to fellowship is profitable to our whole being. Not only our spirit will be strengthened, but even our physical life will be prolonged. Brother George Müller lived to be ninety-three years old. From his biography we learn that he was not physically strong as a child. According to my impression from reading his biography, his longevity was very much related to his fellowship with God every morning. He would rise up very early every morning and read the Bible and pray while taking a walk outdoors. This was his morning watch. I believe this was most beneficial. Because he fellowshipped with God in such a way, he had joy and rest. Although there was much labor and work, not a single burden or anxiety could harass him; hence, he lived to such an advanced age.
Thus, drawing near to God in the morning and fellowshipping with Him not only causes our spirit to be fed and nourished but also causes our body to be healthy. At the same time, it renders much help to our mind, our train of thought, and our judgment. If we touch and absorb God every morning, we will have an intelligent mind, clear thinking, and sound judgment. Consequently, we will become those whose spirit, soul, and body are thriving and strong.
Therefore, we must learn to rise early and set aside a time to fellowship with God, to absorb Him. When we first start, it is not necessary to spend too much time; otherwise, it will become a burden that we will be unable to maintain. On average, it is sufficient to spend half an hour each day. It may also be necessary to make some resolution and determination and to find another brother or sister who has the heart to practice in order to remind and encourage one another.
The principle related to the place to fellowship with God is the same as that for the time to fellowship. There is no place where we cannot fellowship with God. Whether we are traveling, working, taking a walk, or listening to a message, we can fellowship with God at all times and in all places. We can fellowship anytime and anywhere.
We also need a specific place to fellowship with God. Personally, I feel that the devil has truly damaged Christians concerning this matter. Because both land and housing are expensive, people are always crowded together. Very few Christians have a room that is exclusively for prayer. We must admit that it is difficult to pray in crowded living quarters. In order to pray properly, however, a quiet place is needed. Therefore, we still need to try our best to find a suitable place.
Given this need, some people rise early in the morning to pray outside for half an hour while others are still asleep. This is one solution for the need of a place. There are some who go up to the mountains to pray, since they live near the mountains. I have also lived in these conditions. In those days a few of us would go up to the mountain every day, and we would each find a spot to fellowship with the Lord. The sweetness of this was beyond utterance.
We should not say that since fellowshipping with God is a matter in spirit, the outward environment does not matter. Even the Lord Jesus was not this spiritual. The Bible clearly says that He sometimes needed to go up to the mountain to pray. There is much to consider regarding the place for fellowshipping with God. We will learn more as we experience this ourselves.
There are procedures for everything that is done. Fellowshipping with God also has procedures. Although these procedures are not rigid, we cannot deviate too much from them. We will reap the most benefit if we fellowship with God according to the best procedures. Of course, not all procedures are the same. Different people prefer different procedures; we can speak only in a general way.
A person who fellowships with God must learn to be quiet. Being quiet is not merely to be freed from the entanglements of outward matters but also to let go of all the things that should not be in our mind, our thoughts. In other words, we need to quiet our mind.
The mind is the most difficult part of a person’s inner being to quiet. The young ones and the older ones have many thoughts in the morning when they rise. When a Christian desires to learn to fellowship with God, Satan will work very hard to inject many thoughts into his mind. Sometimes Satan injects thoughts to bother his mind and disturb his inner being. Therefore, we must first learn the lesson of being quiet so that we can have good fellowship with God. Whenever we come before God, we should not immediately pray, read the Bible, or sing hymns. Rather, we need to settle our being both inwardly and outwardly. However, we cannot be quiet for too long; otherwise, many scattered thoughts will begin to come in. This will not produce the desired result. Doing anything prior to our time of fellowship will be a distraction, and also being quiet for too long will not be profitable; we need to be balanced.
After settling down, some people prefer to read the Bible first, but most people prefer to pray. We also feel that it is best to pray first. When we pray, however, we should not pray too long, we should not pray wordy prayers, and we should not pray concerning many different matters. Our prayer should be focused on touching God and contacting Him. Of course, this prayer should include confession and dealing. When we are calm in our contact with God, we will spontaneously sense our mistakes and filthiness. Once we have this sense, we will spontaneously confess them and deal with them before God. However, we should be careful not to pour out all our prayer burdens before God at this time. We should simply pray until we sense that we have contacted and touched God. Then we can stop.
Once we contact and touch God, we should turn to read the Lord’s Word, the Bible. We should be careful not to exercise our mind merely to analyze while reading the Scriptures. This can be done at another time. This time is for eating. Studying about nutrition is one thing, whereas eating is another. Reading the Word in fellowship is not for studying God’s Word but for eating it. When we come before the Lord and open His Word, we should spontaneously exercise our spirit to absorb His Word and thus eat spiritual food. It is good when we understand, but we do not need to strive to understand. The less we use the mind, the better. We will easily receive inspiration by reading in this way.
As soon as we receive inspiration, while reading the Bible, we should turn the inspiration into prayer. Then our reading of the Bible will be turned into prayer. As long as time allows, we can continue reading and praying, praying and reading, thereby turning the inspiration we receive into prayer. This is the central and primary section of fellowshipping with the Lord.
After our inner being is well fed through the fellowship, if there is still time and burden, we can pray for some matters and persons. However, such prayer should not drag out too long; otherwise, it will disrupt our fellowship with God. In fact, we should learn to set aside another time each day to labor in prayer for various matters. This is different from prayer for fellowship. This is to bear the burden before God and pray for certain matters, work, and people. This is prayer more than fellowship. However, many brothers and sisters may be unable to set aside another time. Hence, after their fellowship with the Lord, they may spend some time to pray, giving themselves, their families, their work, and other people to the Lord.
At the beginning of this type of fellowship, we are always quiet. Being quiet implies worship. But at the end, there should again be some worship, praise, and thanksgiving. Therefore, one of the procedures at the end of every fellowship is to worship with thanksgiving and praise.
If the above six procedures can be done in thirty minutes, they will be done in a good and proper way. Of course, we may not be very skillful when we begin to practice. Gradually, as we acquire the skill, we will gain the benefit. The experience of others confirms this. Therefore, new believers should try their best to have this kind of fellowship at least once a day, with the best time being in the morning.
In summary, this is the way to come before God. We should be quiet and prostrate ourselves to worship God and then pray to contact Him. When we sense that we have some wrongdoings or sins, we should confess them. After touching the Lord, we can read His Word, not exercising our mind more than our spirit to absorb the Word. When we receive inspiration, we should turn it into prayer. Then we should read and pray more as time allows. If there is still time and burden, we can pray for other matters before God, committing ourselves, our families, and our work into God’s hand. At the end we can offer some worship, praise, and thanksgiving before God. If a new believer practices this daily, his progress before the Lord will be fast, and the riches within him will increase.
