The Indispensability of Constant Divine Fellowship

(Overcomer Wu)

"The inner man is renewed from day to day.” --2 Corinthians 4:16

Most Christians feel that once they're saved, they're eternally secured and that there is not much left to be done here on this earth except for some occasional good deeds and preach the gospel for the conversion our friends and family members. Yet unless we realize that God has saved us for a great purpose and aim on this earth, our Christian life will remain shallow and even hallow by reason of the fact that we still have not reached the fulfillment of God's purpose in our lives. Some preacher would call this great purpose of God: the building of the Church for His corporate expression. This is certainly true and correct. However, that sounds all too lofty and ethereal to the point of leaving many Christians at a lost of how to apply this in our daily lives. Sometimes we can sound so high and spiritual in our preaching in the church meetings, but leave our daily living to the mundane commonplace practices like all the worldly people around us. Allow me to point out one aspect of practicality in making this lofty purpose of God real in our lives: we need a constant daily fellowship with our heavenly Father. This is certainly not something new or an earth-shaking truth, but once this basic truth has been assimilated and put into practice, the believer will perceive how indispensable it is to the spiritual life of a Christian to take time each day to spend in sweet fellowship with God in His Word.

All young believer (young not just in age, but especially in spiritual maturity) must realize that he has no power of his own to maintain his spiritual life and well-being. We all need to receive new grace and supply from the Lord through fellowship with Him in His Word. Hence, the Lord Jesus told us that we need to live “by every Word that proceeds out from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). This cannot be obtained by a hasty perfunctory prayer or a superficial reading of a few verses from God’s Word. He must devote a solid block of quality time and deliberately to come into God’s presence to commune with Him. It is there under the shining of His intense light that we'll see our weakness and our need, and to wait upon Him through His Holy Spirit to renew us by the washing of the water in the Word (Eph 5:26).

I believe that most Christians are well-acquainted with this need. Yet unless this absolute necessity of fellowship with the Lord Jesus on a daily basis is put into practice, we cannot experience the joy and power of God’s Spirit in our daily lives. Many of God’s children long for a closer relationship with God, yet they seems to be unwilling to give Him the time day by day in the inner chamber through His Spirit to renew and sanctify their lives. We should have this simple truth sink into our minds: The feeble state of my spiritual life is mainly due to the lack of time day by day in fellowship with the Lord.

There is one lesson that all young Christians should learn and practice – he absolute necessity of fellowship with our Lord Jesus each day and that most effectively through His Word, for it is there that His speaks to us most poignantly and articulately. From the outset of their Christian life, the young Christian should realize that the continual grace he needs for the forgiveness of his sins, his need to grow as a child of God, the joy in the Holy Spirit, can only be received by the daily renewal in fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself. Many Christians slowly lapsed into a back-slidden state because this truth is not clearly perceived and/or practiced. They are unable to stand against the temptations of the world or to crucify their fleshly desires and endeavors. They have the desire to strive against sin, the world, and the flesh, and to serve God, but they find no strength. This failure in their spiritual life is due to one repeated neglect of one simple condition: they must give Him time each day to impart His daily supply of grace. Our quality time alone with the Lord Jesus each day is the indispensable condition of growth and power.

In Matthew 11:25-30, the Lord Jesus said, "Come unto Me... and I will give you rest. Learn of Me... and you shall find rest unto your souls." It is our holy calling to enter into this blessed fellowship with Him to experience His rest and peace that He longs to impart to us. The Lord Himself greatly desires this intimacy with man. For this reason, He want us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk 12:30). But sin has come between man and God. Even among some who have been Christians for years, there is often great ignorance and even indifference to this personal relationship of love to God. Many Christians simply believe that at conversion their sins are forgiven; thus, God accepted them so that they may go to heaven. All that they need to do is to try to do God’s will in their own efforts. Yet the idea seems to be foreign to them that even as an earthly father and his child have pleasure in a loving relationship, likewise our heavenly Father yearns for this intimate fellowship each day with all of His children.

God gave His once only-begotten Son Christ Jesus to die and reconcile us back to Himself in order to restore our fellowship with Him. The Holy Spirit has also shed abroad the love of God in our hearts (Rom 5:5) so that we can reciprocate the love that God has for us. Dear saints, ponder on the words of Christ expressed in John 14:21, "He that loves Me shall be loved of My Father. I will love Him." Take time to commune with our Lord in daily intimate fellowship. Just as we humans, created in God's image and after His likeness, long for the love and fellowship of others, our Lord too longs for our love and fellowship. Many Christians only consider objectively and even worship the Lord for His accomplished work on the on the cross and through His resurrection; they pray to Him as our distant Intercessor in heaven, but do we realize that He is a living Being longing for a personal relations with us – One who thinks of us each day and longs to fellowship with us and reveal Himself to us?

Practically, it is also through the living Christ reveals Himself in us on a continual basis, and through the power of His love that influence of our sinful nature is gradually expelled. In other words, it is through a personal fellowship with Him that Jesus saves us from our sins and our sin nature. As we daily come before the Lord Who is our Almighty personal Savior in whom God’s holiness dwells, He will impart more and more of Himself as our holiness into us.

Dear saints, we need to learn the blessedness and the great privilege of each day in fellowship with the Almighty God Himself! It is there that we can find the secret of true joy, peace, contentment, fulfillment, and holiness. If we have tasted this fellowship with our Lord, especially in the early morning hours when we can devote our full attention to Him without distraction, our hearts will long for the precious hour of prayer and fellowship with our Lord as indeed the best time of the day. That time of precious fellowship will then help us to sustain our constant continuous fellowship with Him all through the day. As we learn to go apart to spend time with Him alone each day, we will experience His inner abiding presence in and with us, enabling us throughout the day to love Him, focus on Him, serve Him in whatever we do, and to walk in His ways and in His will. It is through this moment-by-moment unbroken fellowship with our dearest Lord and Friend that we will find the secret of the power of a godly life – the mystery of godliness.