This morning we continue our series entitled, “Power of Fellowship.” I trust you have learned a few things about the importance of fellowship thus far in this series. We still have a way to go. Fellowship is not something we are to simply teach or preach. Fellowship is how God has called us to live. He wants us to enjoy fellowship with Him and with each other. Today I will not focus on any particular scripture. I will share a few Biblical thoughts on the topic and I trust the message will be a blessing to you.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Fellowship with God is the idea of coming together with Him. It is a relationship between creation and the Creator. It is a union between heaven and earth. This is God’s heart. This is how He wants us to live. When we walk with God and allow Him to walk with us, and we have true fellowship, people get a glimpse of what heaven is like. People get to see heaven on earth and this is God’s goal. But this does not happen with a religious mindset. This only happens when you see yourself as God’s child, you see Him as Your Father, and you open your heart to true fellowship. If you are not living this way, please open your heart to God today.
2. Because fellowship is supposed to be intimate, fellowship can also be painful. It sometimes hurts to go beyond the surface of any relationship. We studied 1 John 1:5-10 for a couple of weeks. In that passage we learned that God is light, and when we walk with God, His light exposes our faults and our sin. His light uncovers these things so we can make adjustments. It’s like this when you fellowship with other people as well. Difficult people sometimes help expose the areas of our lives that still need to be developed. You may think you have grown quite a bit until you run into someone who brings out something in you, you thought you were over. The occasional pain associated with fellowship is necessary for us to develop into the men/women we are called to be.
3. Jesus was in fellowship with the Father, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit during his water baptism. The first thing the Holy Spirit led Jesus to do was to go into the wilderness to be tempted. His fellowship with God led Him to occasional painful experiences. But it was part of His development. If it was required of Jesus it will be required of you. True fellowship is the birthplace of your development. Without this intimacy you will fool yourself into thinking that you are good, when you are not!
4. Fellowship with God through difficult situations is required for development. The Father led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. He went into the wilderness one way. But He came out a different way. He was led of the Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted. And when He came out, the Bible says that he came out “in the POWER of the Spirit!” This power was developed in fellowship; a fellowship that did not exonerate Jesus from difficult experiences. You won’t be exonerated either. But if you continue to fellowship with God and with man, even through difficult situations, you will develop into the man/woman you are called to be.
5. Jesus did not start His ministry until He was tempted in the wilderness and He passed the tests. Like Jesus, you will not be used of God in a mighty way until you prove you are capable of maintaining your relationship with Him through difficult times. You are not qualified to carry the weight of the anointing associated with your divine assignment if you are going to RUN at the first sight of pain. God wants you to get to the point where your fellowship with Him will not be broken by anything or anyone. Good or bad, up or down, easy or hard, you must maintain your fellowship with God and man. It is this type of consistency that makes you a candidate to be used of God in a mighty way. The best ability is availability. God wants to know that you will be available to be used of Him every day, no matter what is going on in your life. This type of intimacy and development only happens in fellowship.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for calling me into deep and intimate fellowship with You and with others. This type of intimacy is sometimes painful. The closeness I have with You and with others often exposes things to me, about myself, that I need to address. It is through these adjustments that I develop in You. This is how I become the man/woman I was born to be. So I refuse to abort the process. No matter how painful the situation, I will never cease to fellowship with You and with the people You have placed in my life! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
