Turn to John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Today I want to talk about communion. We are going to partake of communion or "the Lords Supper" later in the service, but the communion I want to talk about is YOUR communion with God on a daily basis. What do you suppose the word "communion" means? Frankly, I had to look pretty hard to find a definition other than the "communion" that Christians take in rememberance of Jesus.
I did find a good definition that I think fits our walk with Christ; communion..."to share ones thoughts and feelings." And then I began to wonder how many Christians actually have "communion" with the Lord as we ought to. God WANTS us to have that intimancy with Him....communion is the root word of communication.....and that’s exactly what we are called to do...communicate with Him!
So, Pastor....HOW DO I DO THAT? It sounds good, doesn’t it?
Many have not understood the difference between getting into the presence of the Father and the presence of the Son, and being in the presence of the Holy Spirit by direct communion. Because they have not discerned the difference in the operations, they equate them as being the same thing, and they are not.
When Christ came down from heaven to walk as a man among men, to be in His presence the only thing needed was to be in His geographical location. And if you were walking with Him there was no spiritual activity, no great spiritual labor involved to turn to Him and ask Him the questions of your heart. You would simply have turned and asked. He would have responded to you as you see recorded in the gospels.
As God’s Son came down, so now has God’s Spirit come down to be among men. The difference is, He is not limited by geographical location. He is with every child of God all the time. I want your mind to be such that you understand you walk with Him every day just as if you had been walking every day with Jesus while He was physically on the earth.
He is available to you at all times. You are to turn to Him with your questions as if you were turning to Jesus walking side by side with Him in the flesh. My Holy Spirit is with you, says the Lord. For this purpose He has been sent. It requires no great spiritual labor to enter into His presence, for I have sent Him to be in your presence, says the Lord.
Again I say, as the Son came down to be in the presence of men, so now the Spirit has come down to be in the presence of men. He is in the presence of every man, all the time, twenty four hours a day, in every geographical location. Walk and talk with the Spirit as though He were with you, for He truly is, says the Lord.
Communing with the Spirit should be the most natural of all things to spirit born children. Understand the practical reasons for which He has come. He is walking with you, going with you ... He is WITH YOU all the time! It is just as if the Lord Jesus Christ Himself were walking with you and going with you in the flesh. The problem is, we have not learned how to commune with Him in spirit. We have not located the ear of their own spirit to hear Him responding to our questions.
The Holy Spirit is nearer to you than your next breath. He is with you. He will hearken to your voice. He will commune with you as a Friend, as a Teacher, as a Counselor, and as a Helper. So who IS this comforter? John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
He has also been sent and He is the one who brings you into the presence of the Son and into the presence of your Father Who are in heaven. This does require the stripping away of the flesh. This does require quietness of soul. This does require, often, fasting of the flesh. Through the avenues of worship, it is My Spirit that brings your spirit beyond the veil of the flesh into the literal presence of the Son and of the Father. This does often require labor in the spiritual realm to acquire.
Turn to John 15:26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
But communion with the Spirit is not so. It is not required of you to labor to enter His presence, for God has sent Him to be in you. Understand He is available to you in the blink of an eye, in a millisecond, He is available. Commune with His Spirit!
Men will find this hard to believe: It is God’s purpose in sending the Holy Spirit that you receive "instant answers" for immediate problems! And it is My will that you receive answers ahead of time, before you even know of problems that shall come.
Many, because of their experience in the past, because of the difficulty they have had in discerning the voice of the Spirit in their spiritual ear, will reject this as not being possible. If you were walking with Jesus Christ in the flesh and you came upon any difficult situation, if you were to turn to Him and ask Him what to do, would there be long delay in His response? No, there would be no delay at all. Neither would He have to seek My mind for days to know how to answer you. You would ask, He would answer.
You have no problem seeing how that would be were Jesus walking with you in the flesh, side by side, all day long. Understand that it is for this same function and for the same purpose that I have sent the Comforter unto My children ... that you walk with Him and commune with Him. When you ask questions regarding any situation, it is My intention that you receive "instant answers."
Not only this, but as you commune with Him on a diligent basis, that you receive answers even before you are aware of the problems that are coming. He will lead you around many of them as you learn to just sit and hear His counsel.
It is God’s will that you ask Him questions. The higher call of God’s will is that you just sit and listen to His wisdom, listen to His teaching, and listen to His counsel so that you have the answers before the problems arise.
It is the Father’s plan, it is His purpose, it is the mind of Christ and it is attainable for all who will attend want to have communion with God’s Holy Spirit! But understand this, your spiritual mind is not finite. We have the ability to comprehend these things in our spirit. The natural man cannot know them, but the spiritual man can.
Do you think it is harder or more difficult for the Spirit to give you the answer to a problem that shall occur ten years from today than it is to give you the answer to a problem that occurred ten minutes ago? Time is irrelevant when it comes to the operation of the Spirit. He is not bound by time.
God desires your communion with Him! Do you remember that when man was first created, God did what? He walked and talked with Adam! God’s physical presence that you can see with your eyes cannot do that anymore because sin was brought into this world. Did you ever think of how cool it would be to walk and talk with God? Well, you can...thru His Spirit! And though you might not physically see Him, I know you can feel Him when you are in His presence.
God desires our communion with Him....we desperately NEED our communion with Him. Yet we are too busy most of the time. Making decisions that we should be consulting the Spirit on that usually backfire because we didn’t us that most precious resource that Jesus left here on earth whenever He ascended to Heaven....His Holy Spirit!
Before we take our communion I want to read one more thing...1 Cor 10:15 I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. 18 Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? 19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
Paul ends his letter in 2 Cor 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. We need to all seek the "fellowship of the Holy Spirit" more and more in our lives everyday.
