Fellowship With God

One With God

If we have entered into the life of God and are walking there by faith, we have been made one with God even as He is one. This statement of truth is possibly the most profound in the entire New Testament and serves as the very foundation of what God is doing today. This is not a theoretical "positional" oneness that has no meaning, but a real oneness, because we are in His life. Everything else that God does is based on this foundation. A growing expression of this oneness is vital, but it is only possible when we have partaken of the one life in reality. This is why it is so important to know that we have entered into His life. If we have not, trying to express something that is not true is a constant struggle and failure. God is not the author of failure.

God has not left it to us to define this oneness. Jesus prayed "that they all might be one as We [God] are one." How is God one? This question cannot be answered here in our discussion or by any words we might use in the attempt, but keeping the question before us and allowing the Holy Spirit to unfold the answer to our hearts will provide a guiding light to our pathway and judge everything that falls short. We must let everything less than this--the oneness of God and our oneness with Him and with each other--be judged by this truth lest we fall short of God's eternal purpose for us in Christ Jesus. Christ died so that we might be one. To move in God's power and grace, we must move from this place of oneness. Let us search the scriptures with this thought in mind. I believe we will not find teaching anywhere to indicate that God is doing anything less than making us one with himself, even as He is one, for all eternity.

The expression of this relationship with God can be seen in many areas. For example, when Paul told the Corinthians that they had been called into fellowship with Jesus, he then appealed to them on that basis: "Now I plead with you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Cor. 1:10). Is this possible? It is only possible if we are living His life. God is not confused or divided. There is no disagreement between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are one because there is one God and they have one life. God does not give us this one life separate from himself, but we can enter into it through the provision of Christ and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In an active faith relationship, we will then be able to express God's one life through one mind and one judgment. This is a miracle, made possible only by the miracle-working grace of God.

So much around us today under the name of Christianity falls woefully short of this. Instead of seeing a miracle of God's working, we see a display of men's efforts to serve God in their own way. It is not an expression of the oneness of God, but rather a lowly effort of men compromising to agree with each other as well as they can. There is no power and no glory to God. Their "gospel" is a form of godliness that denies God's power. There is no demonstration of the character of God, and no blessing of God on it. How can God bless what is not of Him?

The expression of the one life of God goes far beyond having the same mind and same judgment. It is also the same spirit, the spirit of love, which is God himself. It is an experience of this oneness that allows the body of Christ to move as "one new man" under the headship of Christ. Jesus said that God would use the expression of His divine oneness to convince the world that Jesus was truly sent of God. Oneness is expressed by the church, which is not a group of individuals each thinking their own thoughts about a matter and then trying to agree on an action, but rather every member holding fast to the Head, sensing the authority and mind of Christ together, and then moving as one under His authority to express the will of God on earth. Jesus prayed that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will is being done in this hour through the church, the body of Christ, moving as one in the life of God. It is being done as we are one, even as He is one.

Next: Moving With God