The Fellowship of the Father

 

Ephesians 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

 

It is so important for us to know that we are greatly loved by God the Father.  How can we come into any kind of a close personal relationship with some one including our Heavenly Father if we think that person is out to get us? This is completely opposite of the truth, and not at all what our Heavenly Father wants from us.

 

1 John 4:19  We love Him because He first loved us.

 

It is because He first loved us that He wanted to restore the fellowship that was lost in the Garden of Eden. After all, He went to great lengths to redeem us. He certainly wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to redeem us if He wanted to just stick us over in a corner somewhere after it was all said and done would He?  The answer is no, He wouldn’t!!!

 

He wants to have relationship with us, but He also wants to have true and lasting fellowship with us. Fellowship is based on getting to know someone and to be known by them.  It is an intimate sharing one with another. This kind of fellowship doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. The same is true with our Heavenly Father. Once we come into the kingdom, we have to take the time to get to know Him. The number one way to get to know Him is by learning of Him through His Word.  His Word is the written revelation of Himself. This is the very reason I have such reverence for the Word of God. He chose this method to give us a true revelation of Him. This is the beginning of fellowship, the beginning of getting to know our Heavenly Father. This is truly the desire of our Heavenly Father, for us to know Him and to be known by Him. We can come to a place where we can know our Heavenly Father like this, but it first starts with us coming unto a saving knowledge through Jesus Christ.  Jesus said in Jn:14:6: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

 

Jesus is the only way.  There is no other way to come to the Father. If you have not accepted Jesus as Lord then you can have no fellowship with the Heavenly Father. Many popular celebrities are saying that there are many roads to God. However, this is humanism and men’s reasoning and not what God has declared to be truth. God has clearly showed us the way to Him through His Word.

 

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.

This is the message of the Gospel. This is the good news. We have been reconciled to God the Father through Jesus Christ, but in order to partake of this blood bought covenant we have to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

 

2 Corinthians 5:19  that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

 

If you have already come unto a saving knowledge of Him, then you must realize that His great desire is for you to be a partaker and sharer of His life.

 

Fellowship is not the same as relationship. Relationship is another way of saying kinship, or family.  Fellowship is the sharing of intimacy.  You can be estranged from someone who is a blood relative of yours and not have real fellowship, although you might be a blood relative. Fellowship is not necessarily the result of kinship.

 

W.E. Vines Greek Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words say fellowship is sharing in common.  It also denotes “a partaker” or partner.  To have communion with.  Meaning to have things in common. 

Strong’s Dictionary says to (re-)vitalize (literally or figuratively): --make alive, give life, quicken.

Another dictionary says partnership, (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse.

To share the life of God, to be a partaker of God’s very life.

 

Just because you are now born into the kingdom of God doesn’t mean you know and understand the desires of your Fathers heart. Nor does it mean that you have intimate knowledge of Him, or that you are a partaker and sharer of His life.  You might say I am born again, that means I partake of His life. This is true, every person ever born has a mother and a father, and that makes you a partaker of their life doesn’t it? However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you share their desires or are close to them.

 

Relationship comes first, then fellowship. In other words, there can be no fellowship if there is not first a relationship. The relationship starts at birth. The same is true in the spiritual sense. Our relationship starts when we are born again. Receiving His life is the first step, and then walking in God’s awesome life is what fellowship is all about.

 

True fellowship is a vital aspect of any healthy relationship. You can not build a trusting relationship without it.

 

There are some very interesting things about fellowship that I want to take a look at. Let’s go to John’s first Epistle, Chapter 1.  He had much to say about what fellowship is and how important it is for us to walk in it. As you read this, I want you to understand that John is not writing to the world.  He’s writing to Christians who are children of the Covenant, those who have already come into relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. He is showing Christians how to sustain healthy fellowship with each other and with God.

 

1 John 1:1-10. 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  2.  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  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. 4.  And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 5.  This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  6.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  7.  But 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.  8.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  9.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  10.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

 

John starts out by saying that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. The word eternal life is the Greek word translated from Zoë, meaning the life of God. God’s very life was manifested to us. In other words, we have been given the chance to be a partaker of the Zoë of God.  Then He goes on to say, that the purpose of this was so that we may have fellowship together, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  If the body of Christ could get a revelation of this fact, it would dramatically change the way we act toward one another.

 

John was making the point that if we have fellowship with one another, then we are sharers of God's life together, and in reality our fellowshipping of God’s life was started and initiated by Him, because that fellowship is truly with God and His son Jesus Christ. You can not be a sharer and partaker of the very life of God if He is not involved can you. I realize this seems like an obvious point but, without fellowship we are not partaking of His life, and we are not giving His life!!!  John goes on to say that the reason for this is so that we may have fullness of joy. In this Scripture John is talking about light and darkness, and how they are separate from one another. There is no darkness in light at all.  If we walk in darkness we break our fellowship with God. This is not saying we have lost our salvation, or our relationship to God the Father, it is saying we have stepped outside of that very Zoë life that is sustaining us. I know this because of what he said in vs. 6.   If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  He did not say we don’t know the truth, he said we are not practicing the truth.

 

He is saying that if we step out of the very communion that sustains our life then we have stepped into darkness.  The importance of this is must not be minimized. The very life flow is severed. Sin is what causes broken fellowship and can only be restored by asking forgiveness. The restoration of fellowship is what allows the blood of Jesus to cleanse us.

 

John said in vs’s. 7 and 8,  But 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.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

 

We are only in the light when we are in fellowship with the Father, and with one another.

In other words, if we have broken our fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we have broken our fellowship with the Father and we are walking in darkness.  If we are not walking in life, then we are walking in death. You can not do both at the same time. That is a very sobering thought, and is truly too high a price to pay for some petty grievance.  Nothing, is worth that price. John went on to say, when we are walking in fellowship with one another, that is when the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. WOW!!!  The Word did not say that if we are walking in fellowship with God, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It said when we are walking in fellowship one with another, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.  Fellowship and cleansing are tied together. When we step out of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we step out of fellowship with the Father as well. That causes us to step into a place of darkness and outside of God’s Zoë life. We know the importance of walking in harmony with our brethren. In the light of this, we can see the reason why Jesus said in…  

 

Matthew 5:23.  "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24.  "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

 

When you restore your fellowship with your brother, you also have restored your fellowship with the Father. Keep the life flowing to and through you. God wants us in proper fellowship with Him. That’s where the blessings are flowing. If we do something to sever that fellowship, He given us a way to restore what we’ve broken. Thank God for 1 John 1:9.

 

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

I pray that you see how important that this is, and why it is so vital to preserve our fellowship. When we confess our sins, forgiveness and cleansing take place. Restoration of fellowship takes place. The life flow is restored to and from us. Glory to God.  I pray this takes on some new significance now. Amen.

 

If you’re not sure that you are a child of God, then I would like to invite you to earnestly pray this prayer and come into relationship with Him, the first step towards true fellowship.

 

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Your word says, “…and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”   (Jn.6:37),   So I know You won’t cast me out, but You take me in, And I thank you for it.  You said in your Word,   "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.''     (Ro. 10:13).

I am calling on Your name,  So I know You have saved me now, You also said, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”     (Ro.10:9,10).

I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification. And I confess Him now as my Lord, Because Your Word says, “… with the heart one believes to righteousness…” and I do believe with my heart, I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),

And I am saved!            Thank You, Lord!

I can now truthfully say,  I see myself as a born again child of God!

 Glory to God!!!!          Amen.