Do you have fellowship...?

[johan777]

Do you have fellowship with the Father and His Son?
1Jo 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

What is this fellowship?
One thing it is NOT. It is not being sinless, because 1 John 1:8 states "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

The diciples had fellowship with Jesus while He walked this earth, but Jesus had now returned to His Father and notwithstanding John says "indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."

What is this fellowship?

 

[Endure2]

are you asking becuase you need to know or to provoke thought in others?

man i think its just talking with God, having a real relationship with him, where he tells you things and answers your questions and sorrows. walking with the Lord even now.

why dont you ask God what it is? hell tell you.

 

[caitlincares]

are you asking becuase you need to know or to provoke thought in others?

man i think its just talking with God, having a real relationship with him, where he tells you things and answers your questions and sorrows. walking with the Lord even now.

why dont you ask God what it is? hell tell you.

I am pretty sure this was for provoking thought...

 

[Endure2]

sweet, thats cool.

 

[LegomasterJC]

Indeed.

 

[caitlincares]

What is this fellowship?

I consider fellowship (communion) essential in the growth of our relationship with God.
We are called to have communion with our Lord and Saviour.
It is in those times we can more easily hear his direction for our life.

This time to me means in a retreat like atmosphere - putting aside the craziness of this busy world.
Sometimes for me it is spending time just being amazed by God's handiwork.
Sometimes after work I swing by the park or just stay outside at my house
gazing at the trees and contemplating God's awesome nature.

Sometimes it just means closing myself away in my bedroom without the tv on.
I go to the Lord in prayer and then I just stay in that state of communion to hear God.
You can only hear God if you take the time to listen.

I have spent much extra time doing this the last 6 months.
And sometimes it means bringing major concerns to God.
I have never been much of a cryer but I did cry before the Lord 5 months ago...
This was when I was making the final decision to break off my engagement.

Fellowship also includes the daily time we spend in prayer and Bible reading.
During our daily devotions we should also put aside things of the world
And just focus on God's word.

Fellowship with God/Jesus means the time we take to be friends...
Both thru good times and bad times
Just praising Him and His handiwork (nature)
And bringing needs to Him and getting comfort from Him.

 

[whatseekye]

Amen to Caitlin's description. I never knew what it was like to have fellowship with God before I was saved. I used to be a hostile and skeptical nonbeliever. I remember meeting Christians years ago who would try to describe to me what it was like to know God personally. I look back and realize that I was meeting the most incredible and strong Christians and I wish I knew them now. I guess when you are out in the public sphere and someone lets you know they are a christian, then they are usually the strong ones who are open about their faith and witness when they can. Anyhow, one christian told me that she would get up an hour early in the morning to read her bible and pray and spend time with Jesus. I just could not understand. I thought she was a nut, although I liked her as a friend. Her faith sounded crazy to me.

Now here I am, a 3 year old in Christ. And I know Him personally. I know what she's talking about, but perhaps my testimony is going to sound even nuttier to a nonbeliever. To me, the fellowship is my daily life during all the times that I remember him, and also when I know that he's with me always (even when I forget him), and it's also something that sounds very mystical. Because when I was born again, I felt that I was on the cross and that Jesus is within me, and I am in him.

First of all, I never looked up before. But the night I was born again, I looked up in faith, my eyes looking at the popcorn stucco ceiling, but my soul looking up to heaven. I can refer to John 17 to describe my feeling that night.

"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed" (John 17:1).

That was how I felt, like I was finally able to go straight to the top and submit my heart to him in prayer and fellowship.

"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
-- John 17:2-3

For the first time in my life, Jesus was not an embarrassing word to me. Jesus was glorified in my heart, and I loved him with all my being. I felt that night that I was able to look in to eternity and know the One true God who before had always seemed so remote and unknowable. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." That is so true. Hard to describe how that feels except to say you aren't thinking about your next meal or worrying about your problems when you are in direct fellowship with God. I think the reason it was such a startling experience for me was that I had never ever experienced the presence of God, despite the fact that I had been involved in eastern religions/philosophies and paganism for years prior to my discovery of Christ.

In Jesus' prayer for us, the ones who would come to believe later, he prays:

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
-- John 17:20-26

That sounds very mystical, but it's what Jesus prayed for us. And if you think about it, it's so true. That's the fellowship I believe.

 

[johan777]

Amen, Caitlin and Whatseekye. The basis, time spend with Him

 

[Glorianna]

Fellowship = being in a relationship. Yes, I do have fellowship with God (as the Trinity, so this also includes Jesus and the Holy Spirit) because I have a relationship with Him.

 

[caitlincares]

I just wanted to bring this back up because
many have talked about needing to spend time in fellowship with God and what that means.

It also goes along with my recent thread in this forum asking Why do we exist?.