Communion

by G. Prasher Jr., Manchester | Category: General | Apr 1968

Let us go back in thought some 4,000 years and pause together to watch the patriarch Abraham as he sits in his tent door in the heat of the day (Genesis 18.1). Many might have passed by without appreciating the greatness of this man, but we would wish to stay awhile and gaze earnestly into the countenance of one on earth who has, through years of experience, earned the distinction of being called the "friend of God" (James 2.23). Here is a man of like passions with us who has learned the secret of communion with the God of eternity. This God he knows in an intimately personal sense, hearing His voice, and speaking to Him as friend to friend. He is privileged to share secrets of far-reaching divine purpose.

Even as we watch, this day, three strangers draw near to Abraham's encampment. He welcomes them, entertains them, communes with them. Among them is the LORD Himself, and after advising Abraham that Sarah will soon have a son, He further says, "Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?" Then is disclosed the imminent doom of Sodom and Gomorrah. With intense concern Abraham intercedes for the city, and he is emboldened to obtain the promise that for the sake of only ten righteous, the city will he spared. Abraham's experience that day, typical of his long years of pilgrimage, illustrates the nature of communion with God. There was Abraham's deep humility of spirit before the LORD, so indispensable in all who would know Him and learn His ways (Isaiah 66.2). There was the remarkable willingness of God to share His secrets with one who feared Him (Psalm 25.14). There was Abraham's respectful attention to the words of the LORD, and a reverent assurance in response to Him.

Indeed, this personal experience with God, this assurance of hearing His voice and being heard of Him, this heart intimacy developed through walking with Him by faith, lies at the root of all great spiritual achievement. Moses towered in spiritual grandeur above all others of his generation. During his earlier days the secret of communion with the God of his fathers had kept him, even at the very heart of worldly power, from assimilating a worldly spirit. For forty years he tasted the deep silence of the wilderness, where hours of solitude were turned to good account in meditation around great truths revealed by the God of Israel. He was later honoured above most others in communion with God:

"With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of the LORD shall he behold" (Numbers 12.8)

God had spoken to men in divers portions and in divers manners, but in the fulness of time He spoke through His Son (Hebrews 1.1,2). Those who companied with the Lord Jesus in the years of His ministry knew the unique experience of communing day by day with God manifest in flesh. There are intimate glimpses in the Gospels, reflecting the deep fascination which the Lord's company held for spiritually-minded disciples. Andrew and John went with Him to see where He abode (John 1.39), and their communion with Him that day brought to their hearts the revelation of His Messiahship (verse 41). It was characteristic of Mary of Bethany that "she sat at the Lord's feet, and heard His word" (Luke 10.39). The Lord at times took His disciples apart to rest awhile (Mark 6.31), giving the opportunity for replenishment of spirit in communion with Him. The disciple whom Jesus loved reclined in His bosom and drew from Him the identity of the betrayer (John 13.23-25). Such experiences in personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus were among the most privileged ever known by men and women in this world. For could they not hear His word, and respond in loving appreciation, sharing with Him the rich spiritual treasures He had brought from the Father? As the Lord expressed it in prayer:

"The words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them, and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me" (John 17.8).

Here again we are guided towards the essence of communion with God. For all true communion must be on the basis of God's speaking to men, their hearts receiving that divine word and making its preciousness their own.

In particular, the disciples received the wondrous new revelation of truth concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus, and they grew to share in their own hearts the delight which God knew in His well-beloved Son. The great secret of "the mystery of God, even Christ" was opened up to them. So intimate was their communion with Him that the Lord Jesus said, "No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you" (John 15.15).

Sorrow filled the hearts of these privileged men and women when the truth began to dawn that this unique Friend must soon leave them. The Lord comforted them by the assurance that the Holy Spirit would be sent to he with them for ever (John 14.16). It was in this connexion that the Master said,

"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him ... If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14. 21-23).

These are golden words of promise to the believer today in regard to his communion with God. They reveal that it is through the indwelling Holy Spirit that the presence of Father and Son may be made real to the heart. They relate the consciousness of the presence of God to a man's attitude to the word of God. If a man has the Lord's commandments and keeps them, he will be accounted to love the Lord, and because of this; the Father will love him and reveal Christ to him. This love for the Lord Jesus, expressed by keeping His word, will cause Father and Son to make their abode with the man. Here then is the key to the believer's communion with God, a communion made so intimate by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the believer will be made conscious of God the Father and God the Son "making their abode with him".

The disciple of Christ will be concerned to shun any spurious claims to communion with God. Some cults make a prominent feature of forms of meditation in which the mind is left passive and open to impressions of thought without any regard to God's revealed word. This stands in contrast to true communion, which must needs be based upon positive contemplation in the word of God. A pondering of its truths devotionally will give opportunity for the Spirit to make them precious to the heart, a living voice from a living God, and to stir the heart in response towards Him with thankfulness and adoration.

Such communion of the Holy Spirit with both Father and Son is the birthright of each believer, and it is the divine intention that each should be daily enriched by this experience. Yet it is a privilege which will be forfeited by carelessness or unholiness. Disciples in the church of God in Laodicea had lost the sweetness of communion with Christ. Self-satisfied, continuing in a routine of assembly service, they were spiritually impoverished through neglect of this heart communion. He stood at the door and knocked, promising that if any man opened the door, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Communion with the Lord would be restored.

A vivid illustration of the delicacy of such communion is presented in Solomon's beautiful Song of Songs. Early in the fifth chapter there is an interruption in the loving dialogue which had flowed between the hearts of the bridegroom and the bride. The bride tells of being awakened by the knocking of her lover (verse 2), but she was loath to disturb herself, and hesitated to respond. As she paused he put in his hand by the hole of the door (verse 4). Her heart was moved, and belatedly she rose to open to her beloved. But he "had withdrawn himself, and was gone". She sought diligently for him, but was restored to him only after painful, costly searching. Those who would know communion with God must be in earnest about it. Such privileges are not cheaply gained. The indwelling Spirit is the Holy Spirit; God our Father is holy, and He calls upon us to he holy (1 Peter 1.16). So unconfessed sin will mar our communion, and from this point of view we must jealously guard our hearts with all diligence.

It remains blessedly true, then, that the heart of God the Father and the heart of God the Son yearn for communion with redeemed men and women. This has been made possible to the simplest believer in the Lord Jesus Christ by the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Only let there be an earnest exercise of heart towards God, holiness of life and subjection to the word of God. Service springing from heart communion with God will be fragrant and spontaneous. For men cannot be in vital touch with Him and remain unaffected "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with Him" (Exodus 34.29), but others were amazed at this evidence of their leader having been in the divine presence. To disciples in the church of God at Corinth, Paul wrote,

"But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3.18).

May our hearts seek earnestly after God in communion, beloved!

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13.14).

G. Prasher Jr., Manchester | Apr 1968
General