Fellowship with God in and Through His Family

by Greg Wood

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10) 

Beloved, this sentence should be dear to us. It is such good news because it tells us what Jesus did for His people, and the wonderful purpose God intended through Jesus’s death and resurrection. It tells us not only that we have been saved from the wrath of God, but also saved to this opportunity to live in fellowship with God. Look again at the verse. Do you see it? Fellowship with God, living with Him, communing with the Almighty is opened to us by the death and resurrection of Christ our Savior!

Sit with that for a moment. Let it astonish you. Consider that this is no mere human that someone may want to meet, perhaps through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is the Creator, Sustainer, and Eternal Lord of Lords! No one compares in His excellence, His goodness, His righteousness, His holiness, or His glory.

Yet, He invites us today, through faith in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, to live the day with Him. In fact, He wants this sweet fellowship with us. God went to the greatest lengths for us to live this day in His presence. He wants to give us Himself as our daily bread, to display the richness of His goodness and grace. Won’t you take Him up on this offer? This is what the Christian life is all about, and it is why I am so glad we have started learning about spiritual disciplines as ways to abide in His presence, fill us with joy, and grow the character of Christ in us. We are pressing in toward life with God, drawing near to Him.

Employing the Spiritual Disciplines In the Service of Vertical Fellowship

Do the spiritual disciplines (or “means of grace”) serve as ends in themselves, or to something greater? I find David Mathis helpful here:

“The great end of the means is knowing and enjoying him. The final joy in any truly Christian discipline or practice or rhythm of life is, in the words of the apostle, ‘the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8). ’This is eternal life,’ and this is the goal of the means of grace: ‘that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’ (John 17:3).” - David Mathis, Habits of Grace

Knowing God is far more than knowing about God. Knowing God is relational intimacy, taking in the daily bread of eternal life, and fellowship with Him in light of His self-revelation found in Scripture and the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ. The means of grace serve us by helping us to know God in this way.

One recent example of the benefit of the spiritual discipline of fellowship in my life has come through New City Men (NCM). It has been such a blessing to be able to soak in John 13-15 and 1 John with NCM over the past few months. Together we have been learning from the Lord Jesus what it is to have the Spirit of God abiding in us, and for us to abide in Christ – that is, how we can grow in our fellowship with Him. Through NCM and DNA groups, several of us are finding God rekindling a desire for intimacy with Him, and growing us to see that this comes not only in solitude, but in community with other believers in Christ. 

The Spirit has worked through the teachers in our NCM gatherings. But, oftentimes someone in the group will share something that is just as helpful as the planned comments. In our table discussions, we have gotten deeper in helping one another with our struggles to believe the good news for our life, what Jesus has saved us to. 

How do we know the Spirit’s leading during our fellowship around the Word? For me, in the moment, the leading of the Spirit feels like a sudden clarity on a text and a desire to share an insight. This comes both in times of solitude before gathering as I study the Word, but also during the meeting time. When these insights are convicting for myself or someone else, it takes extra faith in the moment to share that with the group (Philip. 2:1-3,12-13). 

Maybe you have noticed something similar in your DNA group or Missional Community. You are listening to someone share about their faith, a struggle, or a need, and love wells up in you from the Holy Spirit to show you how you can help. You listen and love the person in the name of Jesus. This is Christian fellowship, where the body of Christ is doing what God designed us to do:  stoke the fires of love for God for one another, aiding our abiding in (or fellowship with) Christ. 

How Fellowship Draws Us Closer to God and One Another

One of the means God gives us to enjoy His fellowship is through His family, the church, as this passage teaches:

“….let us draw near [to God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:22-25)

In the “one another” passages in the New Testament we find out what Christian fellowship looks like. We see the call to stir up love and good works in one another. We help one another grow in our love for God and our Christian family (John 13:34-35). Sometimes in order for me to love God more fully, I need to be rebuked. Other times I need encouragement. Sometimes I may need to be served, exhorted, or prayed for. These are all ways that the love of the body of Christ works for growing my love. 

The details of our meeting together in fellowship indeed has some flexibility, but it will certainly include looking to the needs of others. We know one another and are close enough to be able to go deep. We partner together in seeing the gospel take root in us. In general, when we have real fellowship with one another, it will include helping one another abide in Christ’s fellowship and be built up towards having Jesus’s character. That character building can be a slow process, but the fruit it will bear will be worth it.

As we continue trusting God to work through this fellowship with one another, God grows our trust in each other and our faith in Him. We see the Lord at work in our church, MC, and DNA group, and we grow in appreciation to God for this family. The Lord draws us into deeper fellowship with one another and deeper in love for Him.

Fellowship is a spiritual discipline because, like all of the disciplines, it is a practice that draws us into the life-giving intimacy of life with God. As we practice this with one another, God is generous to meet us in and through our brothers and sisters. When we may feel like we can walk the road alone, we will find that our brothers and sisters are essential partners in the journey of knowing and loving God.