"our Fellowship with God is with the Father,
and with his Son, Jesus Christ"
1 John 1:3
"the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all"
(2 Corinthians 13:14).
Spiritual Communication From the Holy Spirit
- "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God" (Romans 8:17).
- "the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts"' (Hebrews 3:7).
- "When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, don't be anxious how or what you will answer, or what you will say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say" (Luke 12:11-12).
- "the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don't need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things" (1 John 2:27).
The anointing is the Holy Spirit. He communicates with God's children.
Spiritual Communication to the Holy Spirit
- "But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 5:3).
God's children communicate with the Holy Spirit.
Can the Holy Spirit Put Ideas into our Minds?
The Holy Spirit prophesies, preaches, teaches, speaks through us, provides words for witnessing, testifies, convicts unbelievers, reminds us of scripture, leads, warns and intercedes. He speaks to us through our conscience. He can also be resisted and lied to. All of these communications from the Holy Spirit are proved from the scriptures in subchapter 3.3 titled, "Spiritual Communication".
The Holy Spirit is not mute. However, if you doubt that God will communicate His perfect wisdom to you when you request wisdom through prayer, He will not. The scriptures say "that man shouldn't think that he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:5-7). This is explained from the scriptures in micro-subchapter 4.2a.
So, God's communications to us are limited by our unbelief. It is not that He can't communicate with us when we have doubts. His word says that He won't. Therefore, some of God's children experience much more spiritual communication from God than others, because of their greater faith. The remedy for this is to pray the Endorsed Prayer of Faith as explained in micro-subchapter 4.3a.
Fellowship With God
Now that you have a little familiarity with spiritual communication according to scripture, let me introduce you to our working definition of fellowship with God that we will use in the first five chapters of this book.
Fellowship with God is a two way conversation in the spiritual realm, as we follow Christ, bearing His yoke in the world.
The Holy Spirit communicates with us. We communicate with the Holy Spirit. Our conversations are not inconsequential or trivial. We are the body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the body1. We are Christ's ambassadors2. He leads and we follow. We don't follow as mere spectators. We follow as active participants, bearing the yoke of Christ.
So, there are three components to fellowship with God.
- God's side of the conversation.
- Man's side of the conversation.
- Following Christ, bearing His yoke.
We can't follow Him if we if He doesn't communicate what He is doing. We aren't following Him if we aren't doing what He is doing. If we aren't doing what He is doing we won't have much in common with Him. In that case, we won't have much to talk about with Him. Prayer time will be short, shallow and self centered.
Furthermore, it is through bearing His yoke that we receive rest. That sounds upside down to receive rest through work. But that's what Jesus said. That is what I have experienced. That is the way that it is. Let's review what we have covered and then I'll explain the rest and the yoke.
Fellowship with God is a two way conversation in the spiritual realm, as we follow Christ, bearing His yoke in the world.
Man's side of this conversation is prayer. God's side of this conversation is scripture, creation and the Holy Spirit. This two way conversation takes place in the spiritual realm as we follow the leading of the Spirit. So there are three essential components to being in fellowship: God's side of the conversation, man's side of the conversation and following Christ. The chapters in this book will add details to each of these three components, from scripture.
Man's Side of the Conversation:
Man's side of the conversation is prayer. Later subchapters will present the Endorsed Prayers. These are prayer topics endorsed by scripture. We will see what the apostles, prophets and Christ prayed... what they instructed us to pray. We will see that they asked God for greater faith and love. They also asked for understanding of God's will and word. They prayed for the salvation of the lost. They asked God to speak through them. They even asked for obedience.
God's Side of the Conversation:
God communicates through scripture, creation and the Holy Spirit. Later subchapters will present many more scriptures detailing the spiritual communications of the Holy Spirit. He convicts the world of sin. He preaches the gospel through Saints. He gives us words to present the gospel. He teaches "about all things". He reminds us of scripture. He puts thoughts into our minds. He leads and warns.
Following Christ, Bearing His Yoke:
To follow Christ is to bear His yoke. We have fellowship with Him if we bear His yoke and learn from him. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said,
- "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
We come to Him, to the person of Christ. We learn from Him. That is fellowship. He said that we should take up His yoke and find rest. If we disobey, we break fellowship. We don't receive rest.
I will repeat the passage:
- "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
The topic of making disciples begins at Matthew 9:35. Making disciples continues to be the topic through the remainder of chapter 9, then through all of chapter 10 and all of chapter 11. Chapter 11 concludes with the above passage about the yoke of Christ. The topic changes in chapter 12.
A yoke is a symbol for work:
The yoke of Christ is the ministry of making disciples. A yoke is an implement of work. It is used to harness two animals together to pull a burden. Therefore the Yoke can stand as a symbol for work. It can not stand as a symbol for grace, since works and grace are opposites3. It is His yoke that we take.
So, what work of Christ do we take?
His yoke is to make disciples. It is written: "the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Jesus also said, "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Jesus came to save souls and bring life. In other words, Jesus came to make Christians. And, a disciple is the same thing as a Christian. Acts 11:26 says "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch". In other words, Jesus came to save souls... to make disciples. More scriptural proof that the Yoke of Christ is the same thing as making disciples is in subchapter 2.3 titled, "The Easy Yoke of Christ."
Can one be a Christian without being a disciple?
No. This is proved from the scriptures in Acts 11:26. Additional scriptural proof is presented in the appendix (A5).
Jesus said that His yoke "is easy".
It is. We repeat the words of the Father and pray the Endorsed Prayers. If your suffering is great, then you are precisely the type of person Jesus is addressing. He invited "all you who labor and are heavy burdened". I will repeat the verse here for your convenience:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Please notice that in verse 30, Jesus said "my yoke is easy."
All Christians are commanded to make disciples.
Jesus said " Go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).
Making disciples is not just for elite Christians. It is for all Christians. This is clearly established through the scriptures as presented in the appendix, subchapter A5 titled, "Is Every Christian Supposed to Make Disciples?"
Once we get to the chapter on Paradise, the definition of fellowship will change. But until then, we will use the definition of fellowship with God that I have presented in this subchapter. I will repeat the definition often since it is the skeleton that the various parts of this book are attached to.
Fellowship with God
"Fellowship with God" is a scriptural term. We see it in 1 John 1:3 and 2 Corinthians 13:14. It is the same thing as certain other scriptural terms you may be familiar with. For example: "Walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25), "Abide in me" or "Remain in me" (John 15:7), "following the Lamb" (Revelation 14:4) and ""walk in the light" (1John 1:7). All of these terms describe "fellowship with God". One who is converted to Christ, may have fellowship with God. A convert may also be "lukewarm". To be "lukewarm" is a state of broken fellowship with God. It is a miserable state. The "lukewarm" convert is discussed in subchapter 2.7. The abundant life comes to those who are in fellowship with God, not the lukewarm.
The Next Subchapter
You are now reading in chapter 1, subchapter 1.4. We have one more subchapter to go in the chapter titled "Fellowship with God through Scripture." The next subchapter will present the scriptural conditions for understanding scripture. Subchapter 1.5 is an incredibly important chapter. It is titled "Conditions for Understanding the Word."
Footnotes:
1) 1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 1:22-23
2) 2 Corinthians 5:20
3) Romans 11:6
Group Discussion Questions
Please prayerfully consider the following questions:
1) What is the working definition of fellowship with God used in this book?
2) Can we follow Christ if we don't do what He is doing?
3) As we have fellowship with God, what is man's side of the conversation? What is God's side of the conversation?
4) What is the yoke of Christ?
5) How can the yoke of Christ be easy?
6) We can't follow Christ if we don't understand scripture. What subchapter in this book explains how scripture says that we understand scripture?
All of the answers to all of these questions may be found in this subchapter (1.4).