Building up believers and the New Testament church

Principles of Spiritual Fellowship

The Second--Sin Has Been Dealt With

For man to be brought back to this place of God's original design, sin had to be dealt with. The second principle must be that of God having dealt with our sin--that is, our life in self. There can be no fellowship as long as sin is present in our lives. Sin breaks fellowship. Usually we think of sin only as wrong actions, but sin is actually the very expression of self--that is, man moving separate from God. This began in Lucifer, the anointed cherub, when pride was found in his heart. Man is not only a wrongdoer, but man in his sinful state is a wrong being.

This must be dealt with, and only can be dealt with by God at Calvary. Jesus Christ came and paid the price that you and I might enter by faith into a crucified life. This means dying with Him to the expression of my own desires, to thinking that the world revolves around me and what I want. For me to know real fellowship with the Lord and Father above, I must be dead to self and made alive to God. This also affects my fellowship with other believers. If any one of us is not moving from a place of life in God, there can be no spiritual fellowship with that one. Fellowship is based upon the resurrection life that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us. We have something in common; it is our seeing in God together.

If this is the working of God in our hearts as we move by faith, then not only will we enjoy the sweetness of His fellowship, but we will also be able to comprehend together with the other saints of God that which God is doing, and it will be a joy--because the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.