Union and Communion

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  (2Cor. 13:14)

One of the writings that greatly influenced me early in my Christian life was the book by Hudson Taylor, Union and Communion.  It taught me the importance of establishing a walk of unbroken communion with our Lord.  Lately I have been learning about meditating on our union with God as a means of experiencing His presence.  Prior to this, my practice of meditation had been to prayerfully ponder the Word of the Lord according to Joshua 1:8 and Psalm One.  As I have been learning more about meditation, the Lord has brought me back to those initial experiences of communion with Him.  It is like returning to my first love, but now with greater understanding and maturity.

The verse above provides a good summary of the key functions of the Trinity.  I like this verse because it emphasizes the role of Holy Spirit in our communion with God.  It is through the Spirit that we have fellowship with the Father and the Son (1Jn. 1:3).   Lately, gaining a better understanding of our union with God has been an earnest request of my heart.  I want to know experientially what Jesus meant when He prayed, “that they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (Jn. 17:21).  Here are some of the things the Lord has been teaching me.

The first thing the Lord reminded me of when I asked this question was that the Church is the mystical body of Christ.  This is a picture of our union with one another, but it also explains our union with God.  Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One.  If we are His Body, and He is the head, we become the means of His expression to all creation.   Jesus Christ is the brightness of God’s glory, the expressed image of His person (Heb. 1:3).  As members of His body, we likewise should express the glory and person of God.  The Church is different than the rest of creation in this regard.  “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1).  We are different because we do not just declare His glory, it is expressed “through” us.

The description of the Church as the Bride of Christ also illustrates the way God’s glory is supposed to come forth from us.  “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.  Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” (Rev. 21:10,11).  The Bride of Christ “has the glory of God”; she does not just “reflect” the glory.  She “has” it because God dwells in her.  This description of the Bride is the condition of the Church after she has come to maturity.  What is further needed for the Bride to be made ready? (Rev. 19:7; 21:2).

When I commune with God, I begin by focusing on the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  As I become aware of His presence, I begin to fellowship with the Father and the Son because they also are present in the Holy Spirit.  “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (Jn. 14:23).  We can individually experience the presence of God.  This is the first step in experiencing the union that Jesus prayed for.

Another description of the Church is that she is the house of God.  “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1Pe. 2:5).  We know that God dwells in each believer, but this verse is speaking of a corporate house, the New Jerusalem.  It is a spiritual house made up of living stones; each one in communion with God.  Then, each stone is properly fitted together into the house that God is building.  The prayer that Jesus prayed for our unity with God began with a prayer for us to be in unity with each other. (Jn. 17:21).  True unity of the Church, I believe, will only come after we are individually experiencing our union with God in the Spirit.  A religious spirit will not bring about unity in the Church; only the Spirit of God can do that. 

The main Scripture I use in my meditation for communion is: “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1Cor. 6:17).  To me this means that the Holy Spirit and my spirit live together in the same body.  We are one in the same sense that a man and a woman become one flesh through marriage.  I can, at anytime, turn inward to fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  There is much teaching these days about experiencing the realms of the Kingdom while still in our physical bodies.  This is what the Celtic saints did, and they greatly influenced their world as a result.  The Apostle John had a heavenly experience on the Isle of Patmos when he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” (Rev. 1:10).  If we want to walk with God in a deeper way, we must learn to be “in the Spirit”.

Another principle we can use is that of the breath.  In Genesis we read that God breathed into man the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).  The Holy Spirit is the breath of God.  As I breath in air, I activate my faith to breath in the Holy Spirit.  He already is inside of me, but when I activate my faith this way, His presence fills my soul.  “But you know Him (the Spirit of Truth), for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (Jn. 14:17). 

There are other Biblical illustrations, like the elements of the Lord’s Supper, that help us to meditate on our union with God.  What is important is not the illustration we use, but that we become entangled with Him as we wait before Him in faith and surrender.