Lesson 4

To have "communion" with some one is to have "fellowship" with that person.
The word "communion" comes from the Greek work KOINONIA, which also means "partnership, participation, social intercourse, pecuniary benefaction, communication, distribution, fellowship" (SC 2842). 

The Christian life is a relationship with God.
When we received Jesus as our Savior, God becomes our Father (Romans 8:15).
We become His children (John 1:12).

As a Father, God wants us to commune with Him - to talk to Him, to hear from Him and to receive from Him.
HE wants us to have a living relationship with Him, and not treat Him as part of a religious system.
In this way, we will come to know the heart of our Father God.
Therefore God commands us to constantly abide or remain in Him.

ABIDE in me, and I in you.
(John 15:4)

And truly our FELLOWSHIP is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
(1 John 1:3)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the COMMUNION of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
(2 Corinthians 13:14)

It is only as we commune with Him that we receive an impartation of His life into our life through the Spirit of God (Isaiah 40:31; John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6).
And as we seek His face, He will fill us with His power and love, and transform us into His likeness (Romans 8:29; Matthew 5:43-45).

It is only through our fellowship with God that we will receive His plans and purposes for our lives, for our families, for the church, and for the world around us (Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 8:28).
In this way, we are able to live that life that is pleasing to him, a life of victory and success (Joshua 1:8; Romans 8:37; 2 Corinthians 2:14).

The Christians life is a relationship with the living God.
It is not a religion based on living according to set rules and rituals of right and wrong.
This is legalism, living according to the letter of the law.
Legalism kills; the letter can never give life (2 Corinthians 3:6).

1. Legalism causes believers to come under a bondage to rules, resulting in heaviness and an unbearable burden.

2. It leads to pride in those who are full of knowledge of scriptural laws but who have no living relationship God.
   Such people tend to become self-sufficient, self-dependent and arrogant.

3. Those who live by rules and rituals develop a critical and judgmental spirit - looking down on others who do not measure up to their standards (like the Pharisees in the times of Jesus).

4. They do not follow after the Spirit.
   They follow after the flesh - doing religious things according to their own rules and rituals, reasoning and logic, power and strength.
   They always persecute those who walk after the Spirit (Galatians 4:29; John 15:18-25).

5. Legalism brings dryness and coldness to the spirit and soul.
   Joy and refreshing can come only from God through His Spirit.
   No rules and regulation can bring such joy.

6. Life under legalism brings condemnation and death.
   Knowing what is right or wrong only brings condemnation to the legalist because he always falls short of God's standards and sins.
   Life does not come from trying to follow rules and rituals.
   Only God can give divine life through His Spirit.

In the beginning, when God made man, he commanded him to eat from the Tree of Life, and not from the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9, 16-17).
Knowing good and evil is not sufficient for a life pleasing to God.
It only brings condemnation and death, not life.
Knowing the Law does not give life (Galatians 3:11).
Only the Lawgiver can give life.

Thus God wants us to know Him and walk in his specific will in every area of our daily life.
God wants us to receive from Him power and love for our daily life.
This is only possible through daily communion with God.
God is our Tree of Life.
We need to commune with Him everyday to receive His life.

As we obey God and take time to commune and fellowship with Him, we are changed in to the likeness of God's Son, Jesus Christ.

At least 4 major benefits result from our communion with God.

As we commune with God and wait on him, all that God is and has becomes ours.
There is a divine exchange of his life for our lives.

Those who wait on the Lord shall RENEW their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faith.
(Isaiah 40:31)

You will show me the path of life;
     In your presence is fullness of joy;
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:11)

The word "renew" in Isaiah 40:31 comes from the Hebrew root word KHAWLAF, which can also mean "change" or "exchange" (SC 2498, 2500).

As we wait on God daily, He will fill us with His wisdom, revelation, power, strength, joy, peace, guidance, healing, victory, success, deliverance as we wait on him daily and exchange what we have with what he has for us.

As we commune with God, and exchange His life for our lives, we will be transformed into His likeness from glory to glory.
We will become like God in our character, our thoughts, words, and needs.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
(2 Corinthians 3:18)

We can bear fruit for God in our lives only when we commune with God and receive God's power, wisdom and direction constantly into our lives.
Without the constant impartation of the life of God through daily communion, we can do nothing that pleases God.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.
(John 15:4-5)

When we do not commune with God, our lives will wither, and bear no lasting fruit.
We will serve God in the flesh and with resist the move of the Spirit.
God will reject our works and bypass us.
We will no longer be sensitive to the heart-beat and desires of God.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is WITHERED; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
(John 15:6)

As we wait upon the Lord and only do what we see him doing, we begin to enter into the rest of God.

As we fellowship with God, we will rest from our own works and begin to do the works of God.
Our own works, coming from our own strength and wisdom, always bring weariness and strife.
Doing the works of God brings rest and joy.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you REST. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find REST for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)

God does not want our business and "busy-ness" for Him to take the place of communion with Him.
He wants our heart, not our works.

God in His word give us specific guidelines and principles for communing with Him.
In this way, our communion with God will be successful and not be hindered.
These principles as follows.

God is spirit.
Man is a spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
God desires us to communicate with him from our spirit man, Spirit to spirit, from the depths of our heart, and not by external forms only.

These people honor me with their lips,
    but their HEARTS are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are but rules taught by men.
(Matthew 15:8)

God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in SPIRIT and truth.
(John 4:24)

When we come before God, He is not pleased with external form of religious practice or rituals if our heart is not there.
Communion with God must come from our spirit.
Such communion from the heart (where our spirit dwells) is not limited by time, place, circumstances, or feelings.

In other words, it can take place anywhere, anytime, and under any situation.
God is always with us, even to the end of this age (Matthew 28:20).
He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
Whenever we draw near to him, he promises to draw near to us (James 4:8).

God is not impressed or moved by pomp and ceremony, grand buildings, fancy decorations, grand musical instruments, synchronized liturgy, or charismatic jargon and rituals.
These are unnecessary and irrelevant to communion with God.
He wants us to fellowship with him from our heart, with our spirit man.
You can fellowship with him in your bed, in the car, in the kitchen, in the hotel, in the jungle, or even in prison.

God also wants us to commune with Him according to His truth, as revealed in His word. We can only approach God according to the way He has prescribed for us in His word and not by our own man-made traditions and ways.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
(John 4:24)

No one can approach God and commune with Him except through Jesus Christ, who said:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:6)

When Christ died on the cross, the veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn by God into two, signifying that all men may come into God's presence through the sacrifice of Jesus.
It is through His shed blood that we gain access into God's presence.

Jesus when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit. And behold, the VEIL of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
(Matthew 27:50-51)

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the BLOOD of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us, through the VEIL, that is, His FLESH, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
(Hebrews 10:19-22)

As sons of God, all our activities are to be led, directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
This includes the area of communion with God.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
(Romans 8:14)

The Holy Spirit has been sent by God to live in us to help us to pray to God, to worship God, to teach us, and to communicate God's wisdom and revelation to us.
Without Him, we cannot fully commune with God or receive anything from Him.

In the same way, the Spirit HELPS us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
(Romans 8:26)

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will GUIDE you into all truth; for He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that He will take of mine and DECLARE it to you.
(John 16:13-15)

As it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him."
But God has revealed them to us THROUGH HIS SPIRIT.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God.
(1 Corinthians 2:9-12)

Basically, communion with God is a simple as talking and sharing with a loved one about matters of mutual concern.
We approach God, worship Him, talk to Him and listen to Him in return as He speaks to us through His written Word and His spirit.

Our communion with God will involve different activities or disciplines.
These disciplines are prescribed in God's word and serve to bring about communion with God.
These are as follow:

DISCIPLINE 1: Thanksgiving, praise & worship
DISCIPLINE 2: Meditation on the word of God
DISCIPLINE 3: Prayer
DISCIPLINE 4: Listening to God

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