The word fellowship is used in the New Testament first in Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This verse mentions the fellowship of the apostles. Among the apostles there was an intimate fellowship. In the beginning of Acts the apostles were with a group of about one hundred twenty saints (1:15). We may say that that was the apostles’ group. Among them there was an intimate fellowship. The one hundred twenty stayed together for at least ten days. They ate together, prayed together, and did everything together. Surely they had an intimate fellowship. The day of Pentecost was a day produced by ten days of this kind of fellowship. Among us there is a shortage of such an intimate fellowship.
Our fellowship should be not only intimate but also thorough. We may know one another, but we may not know one another thoroughly. If this is the case, we cannot say that we have thorough fellowship with one another. In the vital groups the members first need to know one another intimately and thoroughly.
Fellowship is the flowing, the current, of the oneness. Ten days before Pentecost, on this earth there was a group of people who were in the fellowship; they were in the current, in the flow, of the oneness. According to Acts 1:14, they were also in one accord.
The intimate and thorough fellowship is in Christ. Christ is the element, and Christ is also the sphere, the limit, of that fellowship. That fellowship actually is Christ Himself, because Christ is the element of the fellowship, and He is the sphere of the fellowship.
The way to have an intimate and thorough fellowship is to exercise our spirit. Whenever we speak something in fellowship, we need to exercise our spirit. According to my observation, a number of saints have the teaching concerning exercising the spirit, but in practice they do not have the reality. For the proper fellowship we need to exercise our spirit with much and thorough prayer. In the vital groups we need to fellowship concerning our status, our spiritual condition, and our present situation in and with the Lord.
We need to build up an intimacy with all the members of our group. To do this, one sister may call another during the day for a few minutes of contact and fellowship. If we love one another, we will always feel that we miss one another. If we would contact one another in this way, we will see the difference. We will be enlivened and stirred up to love the Lord. Our hearts will also be softened toward one another, and we will be able to receive something from one another.
The Lord Jesus built up the oneness between Peter, John, James, and all the others who followed Him for three and a half years. They left their families, their nets, their boats, and their jobs just to follow the Lord every day. The outsiders might have thought that to follow Jesus was a waste. In their view, wherever He went, a group of people followed Him doing nothing. It seems that the Lord did nothing, but actually He trained His disciples for three and a half years. Every day when He spoke, He trained them. When He did not speak, He still trained His disciples. His silence was also a kind of training. At the end of the three and a half years, when the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem to die, while they were on the way James and John and all the twelve were quarreling concerning who would sit on the Lord’s right hand and on His left hand in His kingdom (Matt. 20:20-24). It seems that they did not gain anything during those three and a half years; but something was built up within them. After witnessing the Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension, they became different persons. Among them there was the fellowship, the oneness, and the one accord. At that time they were ready, qualified, prepared, and equipped to receive the outpoured God upon them. The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) was the greatest thing that ever took place in the entire universe. Even the creation of the heavens and the earth was not as great. The Triune God poured Himself out upon these people who were in the oneness and in the fellowship and who had the genuine one accord. To build up such a one accord is not an easy thing. My intention is to build up this one accord through the vital groups within the next several months.
In the vital groups we need to be blended by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord (1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13). To be blended is not merely to be put together as a couple, like a husband and wife. Being “coupled” is not as advanced as being blended. It is possible for a couple to be married for a number of years and yet never be blended. In human society there are often quarrels between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters, and between children and parents because they have never been blended with one another.
The New Testament tells us, first, that we are grains of wheat. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus was the unique grain. Through His death and resurrection He released His life into us, making us the many grains. This is very good. However, the New Testament goes on to tell us that as grains, eventually we need to become a lump (1 Cor. 5:6-7a). This means that we need to become dough. The making of dough requires the blending of grains of wheat; but before being blended, the grains need to be ground into fine flour.
The New Testament also tells us that eventually we all become a loaf (1 Cor. 10:17). In a sense, the grains, the fine flour, the lump, and the dough are nothing until they become a loaf. After we become a loaf, we mean something and we are something in the hand of the Lord. The loaf is the group. At the Lord’s table, we often praise the Lord for the loaf, the bread, yet in actuality we may not be a loaf. A number of saints among us may never have been ground or broken. Although we are grains, it is possible that we have never been broken and ground into fine flour. On the other hand, we may be broken, yet we may never have been blended together. Thus, we are far from being a loaf. The way to become a loaf is to be blended together in the groups. The loaf is the group.
The way to be blended is by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense. We need to pray over all these points with much and thorough prayer. We need to be blended into a dough for the Lord. Our becoming dough implies our being broken, our being ground, and our being blended. According to the type of the meal offering in Leviticus 2:1-13, to be blended requires the adding of oil so that the flour will not be dry. It is impossible to blend fine flour that is dry; oil is needed to make the flour moist. In the same way, we need the Spirit as the oil to “moisten” us so that we can be blended together.
To be blended together, we also need the salt, that is, the death of Christ, to kill all the germs within us. We need to realize that we have many germs in our being. All these germs need to be killed by the death of Christ. Then, we also need to be in the resurrection of Christ. In the blending we need to experience the Spirit as the oil, and we also need to pass through the experiences of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. If by the Lord’s mercy we are able to experience such a blending, we will be absolutely different from what we are today. It is not enough just to put people together and call them a group. That can be done very quickly. The proper grouping with the blending of the members will take time.