I.　We need to enter into the vertical and horizontal aspects of the fellowship of the divine life:

A.　The fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life; it is illustrated by the flow of the river of water of life in the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1.

B.　First John 1:2-3 and 6-7 reveal that the fellowship of the divine life has both a vertical aspect and a horizontal aspect:

1.　First John 1:2-3 says, "(And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us); that which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ":

a.　The vertical aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with the Triune God; the horizontal aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with one another.

b.　The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apos-tles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.

2.　Verse 6 says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth"; this is the vertical aspect of fellowship.

3.　Verse 7 says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellow-ship with one another"; this is the horizontal aspect of fellowship.

C.　We need to see the relationship between the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship:

1.　If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers; in the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellow-ship with the Lord; the reason for this is that the divine fellowship is one fellowship—Acts 2:42.

2.　When we are not in this fellowship in a practical way, we are out of the Spirit, out of the Triune God, and out of the divine life—cf. 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor.1:9;Phil. 2:1.

3.　We should try to have fellowship with our fellow believers as much as pos-sible; this divine fellowship not only corrects us; it also molds us and even reconstitutes us; this fellowship brings the divine constituent into our spir-itual being, causing a change in our being.

4.　Fellowship also indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose; hence, to live in the divine fellow-ship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God's purpose—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor.1:9;3:6,12.

D.　The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ:

1.　The reason that the Lord has not yet come back (Rev. 22:20) is that the believers are individualistic, independent, opinionated, and divided.

2.　By being restricted in the divine fellowship, the Body of Christ is kept in oneness, and the work of the ministry continues to go on; the thing that makes everything alive is fellowship—Eph. 4:11-12; cf. Ezek. 47:9.

E.　The fellowship of life, the inner flow of life, results in joy and in the inner shin-ing, the inner ruling, of the light of life—1 John 1:4-5; John 1:4; 8:12; cf. 2 Cor. 5:13.

II.　We need to enter into the two aspects of the divine fellowship by the two spirits:

A.　We need to enter into the vertical aspect of the divine fellowship by the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit—13:14; 2 Tim. 4:22:

1.　The Spirit Himself is the fellowship because the fellowship is the flow, the current, of the Spirit; this is like saying that the current of electricity is just the electricity itself; the current of electricity is electricity in motion.

2.　In the same way, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 2 Corin-thians 13:14 is the Spirit in motion; the grace of Christ is Christ Himself enjoyed by us, the love of God is God Himself tasted by us, and the fellow-ship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself moving within us.

B.　We need to enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship by the human spirit—Phil. 2:1; Rev. 1:10:

1.　If we are going to have real fellowship horizontally with one another, we need to exercise our spirit—1 Tim. 4:7.

2.　If we exercise our spirit, we will never talk in a worldly manner, speak neg-atively about the saints or the churches, or gossip about others' mistakes and failures; when we exercise our spirit, the nature of our conversation will change because our spirit is holy—2 Cor. 6:6.

C.　The horizontal fellowship is interwoven with the vertical fellowship; this interwoven fellowship is the real fellowship:

1.　When we fellowship with one another in a genuine way by exercising our spirit, we are eager to pray and contact the Lord; this shows how close the relationship is between the vertical and horizontal aspects of fellowship.

2.　Our horizontal fellowship with the saints brings us into vertical fellowship with the Lord; then our vertical fellowship with the Lord brings us into horizontal fellowship with the saints.

D.　The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life:

1.　Just as the current of electricity is the electricity itself, the fellowship of the divine life, the flow of the divine life, is the divine life itself.

2.　Our Christian life is a life of the fellowship of the divine life.

3.　The apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers—this is horizontal fellowship; then the apostles stated that their fellowship was with the Triune God—this is vertical fellowship.

4.　We should be vertically fellowshipping with the Lord and, at the same time, be horizontally fellowshipping with one another.

5.　Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us; this inter-weaving is the mingling of God with man.

6.　We must realize that when fellowship disappears, God also disappears; God comesasthe fellowship.

III.　Our fellowship is deepened through the cross:

A.　In the whole universe there is only one thing that takes away all the obstacles between God and us—the cross.

B.　Verse 6 of hymn #737 in Hymns says, "Fellowship is deepened / Thru the cross of death; / Fellowship is lifted / By the Spirit's breath"; without the Spirit and thecross, wecannothaverealfellowship.

C.　The first line of Hymns, #279 says, "First the blood, and then the ointment":

1.　The blood is a strong sign of the cross, and the ointment is a type of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit.

2.　These two elements are mentioned in Leviticus 14:6-10 and 14-18; in this portion of the Word, we are told that a leper, signifying an unclean sinner, is to be cleansed first by the blood; upon the base of the blood, then the oil, the ointment, is applied:

a.　The blood and the ointment are applied to the lobe of the leper's right ear, to the thumb of his right hand, and to the big toe of his right foot; the ear signifies our listening to the word of God, the hand signifies our doing the things of God, and the foot signifies our taking the ways of God.

b.　Spiritually speaking, leprosy is composed of the　wrong hearing, the wrong working, and the wrong walking; because we are lepers, we need first to be cleansed by Christ's redeeming blood, and then upon the blood we need the anointing oil.

c.　Consummately, our cleansing is by the divine fellowship of the Spirit based upon the cleansing blood of Christ.

D.　The divine fellowship is the dispensing of the Triune God into us, the tripar-tite men, making us and God one; the Greek word for fellowship means "joint participation," and this joint participation issues in oneness:

1.　Actually, fellowship is just oneness; when God is fellowshipping with us, and when we are fellowshipping with God, that makes God and us one.

2.　In the whole universe there is a big oneness, and this big oneness is the divine fellowship.

3.　The Lord desires to make us all one as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one; in John 17 the Lord prayed, "That they may be one, even as We are one" (v. 22b); the church's oneness is a part of the divine oneness of the Divine Trinity (v. 21a).

4.　Eventually, the church and the Divine Trinity are one in fellowship— 14:21, 23.

E.　We must experience the cross in order to be thoroughly in the divine fellow-ship:

1.　Because there is an obstacle within us toward another brother, our fellow-ship with him is not that thorough; we may avoid contact with certain saints because of the obstacles within us to the divine fellowship.

2.　Our fellowship is not thorough, and obstacles remain within us because we do not have the cross in our experience—Gal. 2:20a.

3.　Hymns, #631 says, "If no death, no life"; this means, "If no cross, no Christ"; furthermore, "If no Christ, no Spirit; and if no Spirit, no fellowship."

4.　In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me"; the Lord used the words his cross, indicating that there is a particular portion of the cross for each one of us in order to cross each one of us out.

5.　Actually, to bear the cross is to deny the self, to put the self to death, to apply the cross of Christ to the self all the time.

6.　In order for us to have the horizontal fellowship, we need to deny our-selves; to deny ourselves means to be senseless about ourselves; then we can never be offended.

7.　We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship—cf. 1 John 1:9.