Chapter 3: The Inner Fellowship

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 63; 42:1-2,

1Joh1:1-3, 7,

1John 4:16

We have already looked at inner prayer, inner Bible study, inner ministry, and inner feeling. We will now move on to the fifth aspect, which is the  inner fellowship. We can divide the discussion into two: First, fellowship towards the Lord, and second, fellowship towards the saints.

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I. Inner Fellowship with the Lord

In order to enter into the inner path, in the life and ministry of a saint, communion with the Lord is a basic spiritual experience that must be maintained. Inner Fellowship with the Lord means living in constant communion with Him. This spiritual experience is the foundation of all experiences on the Inner path, and its importance is most significant. All spiritual people throughout the ages have laid a good, solid, and unshakable foundation in this matter. Therefore, this experience must be seriously practiced and practically built up, or else the lessons we will continue to learn will be nothing more than superficial, shallow, and short-lived experiences and realizations. We should see that living in constant communion with the Lord is a must and the doorway to enter in this path is our spiritual hunger and thirst.

A.  Spiritual Hunger and Thirst

Spiritual hunger is something that every saint must learn to maintain throughout his or her life. No matter how much a person loves, pursues, follows, and serves the Lord, he cannot say that, “I have reached the spiritual peak, I am full, I am satisfied, and I no longer need to hunger and thirst in the spirit.” We have to know that spiritual hunger and thirst is a divine dissatisfaction created by God, so that we can keep on loving the Lord, getting close to Him, and living in fellowship with Him all the days of our lives.

1. Earnestly Seeking and Longing

We have just read Psalms 63 and 42, and we would like to use these two parts of the Bible as our key verses. Because the book of Psalms can be called the Scripture within the Scripture, it is also a book of experiences that describe the saint's deep communion with the Lord, and it says that one of the basic attitudes that the saint must have toward the Lord is that of a longing heart for God. The psalmist appeals to God saying: “Early will I seek You, My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You” (Psalms 63:1) These words come from the depths of the human heart. Whether it is seeking, longing, or yearning they are all stories of the Spirit, not from the human mind, emotions, or will, but from the depths of the Spirit. We must realize that the greatest obstacle to communion with the Lord is the human mind.

It is true that the mind must cooperate in practicing fellowship with the Lord. But once we begin to enter into fellowship with the Lord, we find that the mind is the greatest disturbance, isn't it? Many times when we are trying to fellowship with the Lord, some people's minds go to the business world, some would think about traveling abroad, and others even get carried away with their thoughts, drifting between heaven and earth. Therefore, in order to help brothers and sisters focus their thoughts on God, it is best to learn to meditate on God's word when we begin to practice entering into the presence of the Lord. In this way, we allow God's Word to direct our thoughts to God, because God's Word can restrain our minds from wandering and running like wild horses.

Of course, in order to enter into inner communion with the Lord, the first and most basic condition is to love the Lord with hunger and thirst in our spirit. Whether or not we keep in touch or keep in fellowship with a certain person depends upon how much we love him. If he is the love of your heart, the more you talk to him, the more passionate he becomes, and it won't be easy to let go of each other. A parent once requested me saying, “Brother Jeng, can you talk sense to my children, because when they talk on the phone, they won't stop, and the business is interrupted.” But I'm not going to be able to do that. Bec if you like the other person you are talking to the conversation will not only be very exciting, but the more you talk, the more interesting it becomes, and the more you talk, the more you can't stop.

In the same way, the saints are able to have a deep communion with the Lord because they love the Lord in their hearts, and therefore once they enter into communion with the Lord, they will not be able to let go of Him. On the other hand, if you hate the person you are talking to, when he or she calls, you can't wait to hang up and not talk to him or her. Therefore, we would like to remind the saints that the prerequisite for practicing fellowship with the Lord is to ask whether you love the Lord in your heart. Just like a person who loves money, he is bound to think about money all the time, and he loves money in his heart, and once he starts to do the math, he will be obsessed with money.

From this we can see that only when you love the Lord in your heart can you talk about how to enter into fellowship with Him. If not, your heart for the Lord is not as the psalmist says, “In a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water, I long for Thee,” (Psalms 63:1) and “As the deer [b]pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.” (Psalms 42:1) We can imagine that a thirsty deer must run around looking for grass, for wherever there is green grass to satisfy it's hunger, there must be a slow stream to quench its thirst. On the contrary, if our attitude in communion with the Lord is carefree or if we say that it doesn't matter whether we have fellowship or not, this is enough to show that the Lord is not whom you love and pursue in your heart.

Spiritually speaking, if you and I love the Lord in our hearts, we would have woken up at the crack of dawn and knelt down without delay to pray and draw near to the Lord.

Back in my youth, we had a generation of young people who were drawn to the Lord, and we quickly established a life of approaching the Lord every morning. Back then I realized the emptiness of this world and it was like a leaky pool, and I felt that even though the world was big, it could not satisfy our small hearts. God's creation of mankind is spirit, soul, and body. The "spirit" is the organ of fellowship and worship with God, and it is natural for the spirit to develop a love for the Lord, especially when one had already tasted all the material pleasures and entertainment of this world, and felt the emptiness within, it's like catching shadows or catching the wind. And because I have tasted the goodness of heavenly grace, I deeply realized that the Lord is far beyond all that I can enjoy and desire, He is the fairest of ten thousand, far better than the lily; He is the sweetest of them all, far better than the honey dripping from the beehive; He is all that feeds my hungry soul, and only the Lord can make my heart happy and contented. Therefore, whether it was in hot summer with suffocating air pressure, or in  freezing winter with cold winds, we will still get up and put on our thick clothes, and walk out of the dormitory with our shoes and socks in a hurry, to keep the morning watch and get closer to the Lord. I remember that whenever I woke up with my clothes on, I was so cold that I was shivering all over, the breath coming out of my mouth was like smoke, and my teeth were grating and fighting, but the attraction of the Lord and the Lord's fiery love inside were far better than the cold frosty winter mornings outside, and the spirit of the soul was eagerly seeking the Lord like a deer eagerly seeking a brook of water. If you are not yet thirsty for the Lord, you must humbly come before Him and look up to Him, and plead with Him, “Lord! Make me eager to enjoy Thy presence, and my heart adores Thee.” I am sure that the Lord will hear and fulfill His work in you.

2. Babies Love Milk

1 Peter 2:2 tells us, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” It is a natural phenomenon for a normal baby to cry for milk when the time comes and to stop crying until the mother feeds her, and when the mother has fed the baby, she immediately smiles and laughs with her innocent little face.

In the same way, saints practicing communion with the Lord must love the Lord in their spirit, and at the same time, they must have the spirit of a baby, longing for the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God (the Bible). In other words, you and I must receive the Word of God as newborn babies do, treating every word of the Bible as precious, and using the Word of God as our main food, so that our hearts and souls can be satiated by the Word of God.

3. Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Mat. 5:6) This shows that if we are hungry and thirsty for fellowship with the Lord, He will be happy to come near to us, live with us, and be with us abundantly, so that our thirsty hearts will be nourished and satisfied. We can see that in order to have fellowship with the Lord, we must be hungry and thirsty, and this hunger and thirst is created by God in you and me. Therefore, Luke's Gospel tells us that God feeds the hungry and sends the rich back empty-handed. This means that whoever does not have a hunger and thirst in his soul will not be able to have a deep communion with the Lord and receive God's abundant provision.

In the four Gospels, it is written that when Jesus was on earth, he saw that the people of that generation did not want to pursue the Lord seriously, and did not care about the spiritual and divine things, which have eternal value. He warned that the Queen of the South would rise up before the judgment seat and condemn this generation, because the Queen of the South, upon hearing of Solomon's wisdom, paid the price to travel thousands of miles, loaded with many treasures to visit Solomon in order to hear his words of wisdom. Today, the ascended Christ is far greater than King Solomon, He has transcendent wisdom, and is no longer limited by time and space. We can pursue Him, draw near to Him, and be with Him anytime, anywhere.

The Lord Jesus is greater, richer, and more glorious than King Solomon. Isn't it worth the price of a lifetime to be close to Him? For many years, when we went to Baguio, the young people would gather at the assembly hall at 4:00 a.m. to get on the bus, but now some of them can't even get up at 6:00 a.m. This is enough to show that their hearts are not in love with the Lord anymore.

4. Thirst

One of the Lord's servants described his love for the Lord in a spiritual way as “holy discontentment”. A Christian must have a holy discontentment with the Lord. By the word “holy” I mean that no person, no thing, no object in the world can satisfy me except the Lord. This sense of divine dissatisfaction is something that saints must hold on to for the rest of their lives. When the sense of divine dissatisfaction in the spirit is lost, it means that our spiritual growth has stopped, and naturally, our spiritual experience has also stopped. Even though we still have external ministries, visits, pursuits, and gatherings, these are only outward activities, but we are distant from the Lord on the inside. Therefore, we no longer long for the Lord on the inside, and our fellowship with the Lord has been interrupted, so it is no wonder that ministry has become a heavy burden. From this we can see that in the spiritual life of a saint, there must always be a kind of light, that says, “Lord, I cannot live without You! I cannot live without Thee; how can I live without Thy presence?”

On the contrary, if we can do without the Lord and watch exciting TV programs, or,  read the Bible and commune with the Lord, but do not care whether or not we have the Lord's presence, not even concerned at all how His presence is in our lives, then it means that you do not have a spiritual future at all! If you are a normal Christian, you should know that as long as the Lord has that special place within our hearts, you and I will not be able to survive in this spiritual journey.

The Old Testament book of Song of Songs tells us that the woman was in love with a good man, and she praised him for his love, which was better than wine, and then he took her into his inner chamber, where she had sweet communion with him. Then the man suddenly hid himself, and the woman became anxious, and said, “By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. 'I will rise now,' I said,... I will seek the one I love.' I sought him, but I did not find him.” And then the woman disclosed the voice of her heart in great sorrow, saying, "O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved,

..tell him I am lovesick!“ cThis shows that between a normal saint and his Lord, there must be a kind of light, a constant passionate, hungry love for the Lord, as the hymn says,

I have a longing in my heart for Jesus,

I have a longing in my heart for Him;

Although I know His presence lingers near me,

I have a longing just to see His face.

Longing, longing for Jesus,

I have a longing in my heart for Him;

Just to be near Him, to feel His presence,

I have a longing in my heart for Him.

B. Fellowship with the Lord in life

When a person is saved and has been born again, he or she begins to have a relationship with the Lord. But in terms of status, we are already united with the Lord, i.e., we abide in Christ and Christ abides in me.

1. Christ is the Eternal Life

The Old Testament book of Song of Songs describes the relationship between a man and his wife as a foreshadowing of the saint's experience with the Lord, and it is also like the fellowship between Christ and the church. The New Testament book of John records the experience of the saint's fellowship with the Lord and  this book begins by entering the way of life, the way in which the apostles developed their relationship with the Lord. The Apostle John tells us, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:1-2). They were talking about Christ, whom the apostles experienced firsthand , He is the eternal life. In other words,  Christ is our life, He is the Way of Life.

Jesus is referred to in many ways in the Bible, but the book of 1 John speaks of Jesus in terms of "Life". When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He also introduced Himself saying, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). This shows that the saint's fellowship with the Lord must be according to the new life within us.  When the Apostle John spoke of his relationship with the Lord, he emphasized that he had seen, heard, and touched Him (which is the Way of Life), indicating that his relationship with the Lord was a personal experience. Then verse 4 says, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” Before he says this, he says in verse 3, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” This shows that the Apostle John was living in personal fellowship with the Lord. On what basis did he fellowship with the Lord? His personal fellowship is according to the  eternal life within him, the very thing that they have seen with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, and touched with their own hands, which are all expressed in their life stories and life experiences. From this, we can see clearly how saints can also establish an intimate relationship with the Lord in life, who is Christ himself, and  Christ is the eternal life.

2. Born again with Christ's indwelling and eternal life

Experience-wise, when we heard the gospel, believed and accepted Jesus as our Savior, our lives have changed, having received Jesus as our life is the experience of being born again. From the day we were born again, we have been given eternal life (everlasting life) in addition to the life that was given to us by Adam, the first man. At the same time, the Holy Spirit is in us too, Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” (1 John 5:1) Then verses 11-12 goes on to say, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:1) These verses of the Bible repeatedly say that we have life when we have Christ Jesus. Bec Life is in Christ. Christ is The Life.

Also in John 14 and 16, the Lord Jesus Himself said to His disciples in a serious tone that He will be going away but would come again, and that He would ask the Father to give them another Counselor, that He might be with men forever. This means that Christ will dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, from the Biblical record, from a multi-faceted perspective, we are a group of people who have eternal life, the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Christ, and the life of God. In other words, from the time we are born again and saved, we have a relationship with the Lord in our lives.

3. This life requires fellowship

However, there is one characteristic (or function) of God's eternal life, it requires fellowship. Everything that has life has a function in life. For example, the life fuction of a dog is to guard the door, the life function of a cat is to catch mice, the life function of an ox is to plow the ground, and the life function of a horse is to pull a cart. The function of the eternal life of the Son of God, which we have received, is to have fellowship with God. So naturally, this life in us cannot survive without the presence of the Lord.

A few years ago, I heard a little girl at the departure gate of the Manila airport crying at the top of her lungs. It turned out that her parents had left her behind for the time being, because they wanted to go abroad, but the little girl was unable to cope with being separated from her parents for a moment, and even though she was being cared for by her relatives and friends, she can not be comforted. From this we can see that the characteristic of a child's life is fellowship and dependence on  another, and when she leaves her parents, she is afraid, frightened, restless, sad and weeps incessantly. This is the natural law of life. The life of the Son of God requires fellowship with God. Therefore, when a normal Christian is born again and saved, he naturally likes to pray, and although he does not know how to express himself in words, he will wonderfully pray to the Lord at all times and in all places. This is the function of God's life, which enables Christians to have a personal intimate fellowship with the Lord through prayer.  At the same time, the characteristic of this life is that it requires communication, which makes it impossible for us to be independent, and it is unbearable to see a child alone. I remember in my childhood, my brother who was several years older than me, often went out with his companions, leaving me alone at home, but amazingly, without being taught, by natural instinct, I went to the neighbor's house to look for playmates to be my companions. Because the characteristic of God's life has the function of fellowship, making it impossible for us not to draw near to the Lord, to fellowship with Him, and to fellowship with the saints.

Fellowship with the Lord is not a forced or difficult task, but a living manifestation of the characteristic of this life we received. No wonder, when I look back on my own experience, especially during my youth, my heart's love for the Lord was not driven by external laws, rules, or requirements, but by the natural inclination of the life within me. If young brothers and sisters here, are spiritually numb and your life functions are exhausted, you must go to the Lord, humbly pray, and ask the Lord, “Revive my spirit, so that the spirit of life in me will be revived, and from the bottom of my heart I really long for You, love You, and earnestly desire to have fellowship with You”, in order to restore and build up a life of fellowship with the Lord.

4. Communicate with the Father and the Son in this life

1John 1:3 tells us, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

It is as if the fluorescent light in a room suddenly went out, because the switch was faulty and cut off from the power supply. To repair it, a copper wire must be used, whereas a rubber band, or a woolen thread, which is also a wire, will not conduct electricity, but a steel wire must be used. In the same way, saints communicate with the Father and the Son by the same life.

5. Communicate with the Lord not by thought

It is obvious that saints commune with the Lord by this life, and naturally they do not commune with the Lord by their mental, emotional, or will power, but by the eternal life that is within them. When we commune with the Lord by the life of the Spirit, though we may think of the Lord with our thoughts, or adore Him through our affections, or seek to gain Him through our will, the source is always the Spirit (new life) of the Lord in us.

6. This life is connected to Christ the Head

This eternal life that we have been given is from Christ, the Head of the heavenly throne, and this life is connected to Christ the Head. Therefore, when we fellowship with the Lord through this life, we are also having fellowship and being united with Christ in heaven.

Just like when a spider spits out its silk and makes a web, it soon gives birth to a baby spider, and when the baby spider grows up, the big spider starts to release its baby spiders. When we see with our naked eyes the little spiders wriggling their little legs and crawling out, those who do not know will be anxious for them, thinking, will they lose their way and starve to death? The truth is that the mother spider releases her spiderlings because the spiderlings are attached to her silk threads. No matter where the spider crawls to, the silk threads are always pulling and linking the spider to the mother spider. We can't see it clearly at first sight, but when we look closely, the threads are clear.

The saint's relationship with the Lord is marvelously like that of a spider. When we are born again by grace and are saved, God's lifeline connects us to Christ, the Head.

7. Abiding in Christ

In John 15:5, the Lord Himself said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Here the Lord uses the analogy of the vine and the branches to illustrate the relationship between the saints and Himself. The vine and the branches are interconnected. The branch is attached to the vine, which means that the saint is living in fellowship with the Lord. “He who abides in me, and I in him, this man bears much fruit.” This means that saints live in fellowship with the Lord, that is, they abide in Christ, and He abides in us. In this way we can enjoy the fruits of His abundant life. And then He says, “Without Me you can do nothing.” This is a further indication of the need for saints to remain in fellowship with the Lord and to abide in Him. Because the lives of the saints and Christ are closely knit to each other, they have a very close relationship. 

We can also say that Christ is an invisible vine, invisible to the naked eye, whose roots are in the heavenly throne, but whose branches spread to every corner of the world. Therefore, it is natural for saints to have communion with the Lord in their lives, and to maintain it all the time, not just by praying, but by connecting their spirit with the Lord in prayer, and by a lifeline.

In terms of experience, we must first go back to the spirit, because the life of God is in the spirit. So to go back to the spirit is to fellowship with the Lord in one's life. I pray that all of you, by the grace of the Lord, will seriously practice how to fellowship with the Lord in your life in the remaining years. And through fellowship with the Lord, you can live in the Lord at all times. It is like how a branch is connected to the vine. May we also abide in Him, enjoy His riches, and know that all that He is can shine through me, and may we be like new branches on the vine, shining forth the life of the Lord, manifesting His glory, and bearing fruit that never ends. Amen.

C. Communion with the Lord in the light

In the beginning of the book of 1 John, verses 1 to 3 talk about the need for us to fellowship with the Lord in our lives. Verse 7 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. It says here that saints are to fellowship with the Lord in the light.

1. The Triune God is Light

“God is light” (1 John 1:5). In John 8:12 Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” This confirms that saints must be in the light in order to have fellowship with the Lord. It is evident that God is light, and Christ is light, and the Holy Spirit is light, for "the Holy Spirit has come to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment". (John 16:8) From this we can see that God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all light, and if we do not live in the light, we will not be able to establish a fellowship with the Lord.

2. Darkness, which is of the devil, has no communion with light.

Is it not so? If a saint sins against the Lord and falls short, he will not dare to approach the Lord or even come to a meeting for fear of seeing the light. Because darkness is afraid of light, one of the reasons why saints do not like to approach the Lord is that they are afraid of seeing the light. Because darkness does not accept light, it is natural that they do not dare to approach the Lord (John. 1:5). Since darkness and light are enemies, when God redeemed us, He not only delivered us from the power of darkness, but also moved us into the kingdom of light, His beloved Son (Col. 1:13), as a light. Therefore, when God redeemed us, He not only delivered us from the power of darkness, but also moved us into the kingdom of light (Col. 1:13) as sons of light, so that saints must live in the light every day in order to remain in communion with Him. But when the spiritual condition falls into darkness, it is cut off from the light, and fellowship with the Lord also stops instantly. Therefore, fellowship with the Lord must be in the light, for God is light, and darkness belongs to the devil.

3. We have Fellowship with the Lord in the light

But sin cuts off one's fellowship with God. (Isa. 59:1) Therefore, if a person is in the light, he will certainly see his own failure and corruption. He will naturally confess his sins to the Lord and ask for cleansing by the blood of Christ, for there is no sin that the blood of Christ cannot cleanse. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The word “all” includes all sins, no matter how big or small, as long as they are confessed and ask forgiveness, He will forgive and cleanse them and restore our relationship with Him, if the saint keeps on living in the light. The light of God is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until the noonday sun. 

Experience-wise, when we are in the light of the Lord, the gross sins are revealed first, such as sins of vile and lowly behavior, lying and condemning, deceitfulness, and impiety, for which we seek forgiveness because of a guilty conscience. Further, there are the small sins, which are the thoughts and motives of the heart, hidden in the depths of man's being, such as pride, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-love, hardness, and falsehood. Therefore, for a saint who lives in the light, the first thing that happens is that the sins on the surface fall away, and when the fellowship with the Lord goes deeper and deeper, whatever is not in accordance with God's nature on the deeper part of the heart and mind, the grace and light will reveal it, and then he confesses his sins and asks for forgiveness from the Lord, and he is washed by the blood of the precious One. In this way, one's relationship and fellowship with the Lord becomes deeper and deeper. In this way, one not only enjoys the presence of the Lord, but also draws from the richness of the Lord.

D. Fellowship with the Lord in Love

1 John tells us that saints should fellowship with the Lord, first in life, second in light, and then in love.

1. God is love

1John 4:16 says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” Therefore, saints should learn to come to God and receive the love of God, that is, to abide in love. This love calls us to respond, to rise up and love the God who loves us. Love is responsive and can flow back, because life is alive, and naturally love is alive. The form of love is living. When God's love comes to us, it naturally flows back in us to the God who loves us, which is the exchange of divine love.

2. Christ is the manifestation of love

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Here we see clearly that the love of God was manifested through Christ on the cross. This shows that Christ is the manifestation of love, and therefore saints must be in love in order to have fellowship with the Lord.

Therefore, John 15:5 records that the Lord said to His disciples, “He that abideth in Me, in him I also will abide.” Then verse 9 says, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” This means that to abide in the Lord is to abide in love, and to experience the love of the Lord naturally.

3. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love

In order to fellowship with the Lord in love, the saint must not only know that God is love and that Christ is the manifestation of love, but He must also realize that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. Romans 5:5 says, “The Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, has poured out the love of God in our hearts.” Let us see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. To live in love is to live in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Galatians 5:22 concludes, “The fruit of the Spirit is love......”

If this is the love of the Triune God, then we must abide in love, that is, in God, and at the same time in Christ. For Jesus Himself tells us, “I have loved you as the Father has loved me, so abide in My love.” On the other hand, if one abides in love, one naturally abides in the Holy Spirit.

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II. The Inner Communion with the Saints

The second aspect of inner communion is communion with the saints.

1. Fellowship with the Lord, and fellowship with the saints

Concerning the inner communion with the saints, it is based on 1 John 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

  As the apostles passed away one after another, the apostle John the Elder saw that the church had begun to deteriorate, so he wrote the First Epistle of John to salvage the church and to meet the urgent needs of the church at that time. Therefore, when he wrote the first chapter of 1 John, he stated right at the beginning that the way of life must first be restored, that is, Christ must be restored as the life, and the fellowship of the saints must be restored further. It means that the original way of life, which we have seen, heard, touched, and now testify to, refers to the experience of Christ as life. You have fellowship with us because we first had fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus. From this it can be seen that the saint must not neglect the inner fellowship, of which there are two major experiences, namely, fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with the saints.

2. Fellowship with Christ as Life

Looking at Christians in the world today, one would think that the meeting of saints is fellowship. However, they do not realize that there are two kinds of fellowship: external and internal. What is external fellowship? It is when saints meet each other, they shake hands and greet each other.

Indeed, greeting one another is the basic way of human contact. Therefore, when saints visit each other, they ask how they are doing or if they haven't seen you for a long time to show that they miss and care for each other. If we ask “Brother, have you been praying or reading the Bible lately?” right at the doorway, you may sound like a police officer and make the other person feel unhappy. Therefore, there must be outside fellowship, but not just outside fellowship, there must be inner fellowship.

  What is inner fellowship? It means that what you have heard, what you have seen, and what you have personally touched of the Lord Jesus is the content of your fellowship. In other words, it means to fellowship with Christ as you have experienced Him in your life. When we visit the saints, we should first greet them from the outside, “Brother, how are you? I haven't seen you for several weeks. Are you busy with your homework? How's your career? Is your family safe?” But after the greeting fellowship, we must immediately move to the inner fellowship. “Oh, brother, I came to see you today! because I have a lot of joy in me, or a lot of grace from the Lord, and I can't help but share it with you.” He will answer, “What joy? Can you tell me about it?” Then you can share with the other person how your prayers have been heard by the Lord, or how you have been healed, or how you have been enlightened through your Bible study, or how you have received grace in the meetings, and then let the other person share with you as well. In this way, we have experienced: "And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4)

3. Deep Calls unto the Deep

Psalm 42:7 describes the fellowship of the saints as “deep calls unto deep”, meaning that the human spirit is in the deepest place, like a gulf. When saints fellowship, there is a depth in you and a depth in me, and when they fellowship, they respond, i.e., the spirit connects with the spirit. 

On that day, when Mary had become pregnant, she arose and went to the hill country in haste to Elizabeth, the mother of John, of whom the Bible tells us that as soon as she entered the house of Zacharias, she greeted Elizabeth, and as soon as Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child she was carrying leaped in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:40-41) This is the fellowship of the deep, because Mary brought Jesus with her, and when the babe from the deep touched Jesus, he jumped up, which is the illustration of deep calling to deep.

Therefore, whenever saints get together and fellowship with each other, they must respond to each other spiritually and be filled with joy. This is the principle of inner fellowship in the spiritual life. This reminds us to pay attention to the inner fellowship in the fellowship of saints. Saints love one another on the outside and on the inside, but the precious and valuable thing is to go back to the inner fellowship.

I remember when I was a student, I grew up in a Christian family, went to Sunday school when I was young, and became a worshiper when I grew up. I thank the Lord for that! When the witness of the church was growing in Taiwan, some brothers and sisters from China who loved the Lord started to meet in various places. One day I was greeted by a classmate who took me to a meeting place. Because of my classmate's sincere greeting, I went in and joined the meeting. It happened to be the Sunday Breaking of Bread meeting, and the number of people in the meeting was about 50, and I saw that the way of breaking bread was different from our church. They broke the bread first, and the bread was one piece, and then they passed it around, and everyone broke a small piece, and then they drank from the cup! It was then that I realized that they drank a cup together, and when the cup was passed around, each person drank a little bit of it. I didn't dare to drink the cup that day because I was not accustomed to it and I didn't dare to do so. Soon after the gathering was over, the student who brought me introduced me to all of them, saying, “This is Brother Jeng,” and the brothers came forward to shake my hand and say, “Brother.” Oh! That "brother" was so kind, and that handshake was so warm, it was like an electric shock that touched me to my very core. That handshake was both external and internal, and there was also a difference between the internal and external aspects of that call "brother". Forty years have passed since then, but the scene is still vivid in my mind and I will never forget it.

4. Life-giving fellowship in Christ

Romans 12:5 says, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” It means that we are not divided in Christ, you and I are just a small member of the body. How do we fellowship among so many members? It is by the life of Christ. In terms of experience, when we are saved by grace, we receive the life of Christ, the Son of God, and one function of this life is to fellowship with one another. Therefore, when Christians meet each other in the park, or on the bus, or on the way, although they do not know each other, wonderfully, when they see each other holding Bibles in their hands, they will naturally smile at each other, nod their heads, and say hello to each other.

However, saints should go further and experience the fellowship of the body, for the body of Christ has fellowship by the life of Christ, that is, the fellowship within. Therefore, the Lord Jesus told His disciples the parable, “I am the vine, you are the branches." And the branches are not to be broken off from each other, but are to be linked to each other and to climb up the vine. May the Lord be gracious and keep us not only to enter into fellowship with Him, but also to be led by Him into fellowship with one another as saints. As the hymn writer says,

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.

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