Essentials of Koinonia – Part II
Memory verse: “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)
We must experience God in a personal way
Your koinonia with God is based on your personal experience with Him. No substitutes will do. You cannot rely on the personal experience of your spouse, your parents, your pastor, your Sunday School teacher, or your fellow church members. Your koinonia with God must be real and personal. This is threatened when you allow anyone or anything to make you a spectator rather than an active participant in relationship to God. You must encounter God firsthand, or you will become passive and apathetic. If you do not continually encounter God firsthand, your fellowship with God will grow cold. You will quit caring about God’s concern for His church, His kingdom, and the lost world.
Although church organizations and programs are designed to promote outreach, growth, and ministry, they can lead to shallow relationships and indifference. If a church is not careful, it may help people experience a program but miss a personal encounter with the living Christ. Well-organized programs, plans, methods, and Bible studies are valuable, but they must not take the place of the Holy Spirit’s personal guidance. Churches must make sure their organization encourages personal experiences with God. Spiritual truths and realities that others have already experienced must not be taught just for the sake of knowledge. Instead, people must be led to experiences in which God reveals to them the same spiritual truth or reality in a personal way. Secondhand experiences will not suffice.
This is not an either-or situation. It is both-and. Denominations, programs, methods, prepared study materials, and so forth are helpful tools for churches. But they must not become substitutes for personal encounters with God. Each individual needs to experience the Lord’s presence at work in his or her life. Individuals experience koinonia when they follow God’s leadership and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes.
We must completely trust God
To experience genuine koinonia with God, you must depend on God to do the things only He can do. You must trust in God alone. Placing your trust in anything other than God breaks your fellowship with Him. You may be tempted to place your trust to accomplish God’s work in yourself, your abilities, your resources, pressure tactics or guilt, other people, their abilities, their resources, or programs and methods, instead of trusting in God.
God provides people, relationships, resources, methods, and programs to be used by a church. However, a congregation that yields to the temptation to trust in anything other than the Lord displeases Him. Your church may be tempted to trust in yourselves; your pastor; a well-organized Bible-study program; a denominational agency; a bank; an outreach method; the government; or other organizations, people, or things. When you depend on any of these rather than God to accomplish His work in a church, fellowship with God and with other believers is broken. Sometimes leaders try to use pressure tactics to get members to do God’s will. This tactic denies God’s power to guide His people. When conflict arises, leaders may depend on a manual on handling church conflict instead of leading people back to trust in God and to love Him alone.
The Holy Spirit manifests Himself through believers and empowers them to accomplish God-sized tasks. God grows His church. The Holy Spirit produces unity. Christ brings forth spiritual fruit. You and your church must depend on God to accomplish His purposes in His ways through you. Completely depend on God.
Yes, God will call you to join Him. Yes, He will ask you to do things through which He will work. Often, He will lead you to a program or method to help you organize and function to accomplish what He purposes. He will call you to use your money, resources, skills, and abilities. But in everything you must depend on God’s guidance, provision, gifts, and power if you hope to bear lasting fruit. Without Him you can do nothing (see John 15:5). His presence creates and maintains fellowship, and He bears lasting spiritual fruit through an obedient and trusting people.