"The Enjoyment of God’s Fellowship" by Nancy Dufresne

John 17:1-3 reads, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. AND THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL, THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW THEE THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST, whom thou hast sent.”

     Faith can be described in different ways, but one way to describe faith is: “Faith is a fellowship with God.” Those with a thriving, robust faith also have a rich fellowship with God.

     Psalm 43:4 states, “Then will I go unto the altar of God, UNTO GOD, MY EXCEEDING JOY….” God Himself is to be our greatest joy!

     Fellowship with God holds first and foremost the ENJOYMENT of God Himself!

     When Ed and I first met, the first outstanding feature of our fellowship was that we enjoyed each other. If we had not enjoyed the fellowship of each other, the relationship wouldn’t have gone any further. I enjoyed him before I loved him, but enjoyment came to include love.

     Because we enjoyed each other, other things grew out of that enjoyment – companionship, marriage, working together, ministering together, having children, sons serving with us, grandchildren, then grandchildren serving with us, and the list goes on. It all began because we first enjoyed the fellowship of each other. See what fruit enjoyment produced!

     When we take time to simply ENJOY the fellowship of God, just think what fruit will come out of that place of enjoyment!

     Ed and I protected that enjoyment of our fellowship – we chose to keep enjoying each other. Ed would often say to me, “When the kids are grown, it will just be the two of us.” We would end up where we first began – just the enjoyment of each other. We still wanted each other.

     Married couples, protect the enjoyment of each other. For whether you realize it or not, that’s where your fellowship began, and that’s a sustaining flow of that marriage. When a marriage breaks down, the enjoyment of one another is the first thing that goes.

     Likewise, to protect your faith, protect your enjoyment of God – HE is to ever be your great joy!

     God’s heart is a father’s heart. God wanted a family – He wanted the fellowship of a family. It’s because Jesus made us righteous and made us one with the Father that we can have fellowship with Him.

     I got saved because I wanted Him. I didn’t get saved because I wanted “a ministry” – I wanted HIM. I love fulfilling the call of ministry on my life, but fueling all that I do in that call is this one thing – I still want Him!

     As Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him….” With all the revelations, miracles, healings, and fruit of the ministry, at the end of it all, Paul wanted to know Him more. Like Paul, our lives are to demonstrate revelation, the power of God, and manifestations of God’s power, but without knowing Him, those things don’t satisfy. Power doesn’t satisfy, dominion doesn’t satisfy – HE is the One who satisfies. What He gives meets our needs – but only HE satisfies our insides – our heart.

     Romans 12:3 reads,  “…God hath dealt to every man (every believer) the measure of faith.” Mark 11:22 records that Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” The Greek actually reads, “Have the faith OF God.” The faith God has dealt to His children is a measure of His own faith. Since it came from Him, it has to be nourished by fellowship with Him. Faith is no struggle to the one who knows Him! Faith is knowing God. Great acts of faith flow from someone who knows God. Bearing much fruit for God comes from knowing Him. 

     We can’t know God through our emotions. We can only know Him through His Word.

     We see how vital Jesus’ communion with His Father was to the results He got and the effectiveness of His ministry. He stated that He only said what He heard His Father say, and He only did what He saw His Father do. This speaks of fellowship. In His place of prayer and communion with His Father, He “heard and saw” what God wanted Him to do, then He would go among the people and manifest the Father’s will. Others received their healing and miracle because of what flowed out of Jesus’ communion with His Father.

     He was able to produce fruit because of what He saw and heard in His times of fellowship with God. In that place of fellowship, we too become more sensitive to how God leads us, then we are able to bear more fruit.

     Someone who worked closely with Kathryn Kuhlman stated, “Her fellowship with God made it easy for others to receive their miracle.”

     Mark 12:30 & 31 instructs us, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

     Our spiritual life is to carry a divine order. Loving God is FIRST – fellowship with Him is to be FIRST! If we keep our fellowship with God FIRST, there are things our fellowship will produce – things will grow out of that fellowship. To neglect fellowship is to hinder the fruit and works that fellowship is to produce. Don’t be distracted or cheated from the fellowship of the First Love, for that will hinder us from receiving and limit the fruit that is to be born out of that fellowship.

     But as verse 31 states, connected to our love for God is our love for others. How I love people is how I love God. How I treat them is how I’m treating Him. My fellowship with God isn’t separate from my fellowship with people. Loving people sweetens my fellowship with God. The more my love for others grows, the more my love for God grows, and the sweeter my fellowship with God grows.

     Faith is a fellowship with God, and it will not only affect our life, but the lives of those we come in contact with.