The Oberlin Evangelist

Lecture XVIII.

September 9, 1840

COMMUNION WITH GOD -- No. 2

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

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

IV. What is the value and importance of Communion with God?

1. Communion with God is just as important as the true knowledge of God. No man truly knows anything about God, unless God reveals Himself personally to that person. I don’t mean, that God must give him revelations not found in the Bible; but God must make him feel and understand the real meaning of the Bible. “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:3) No one understands anything more than the letter of the Bible, unless he has direct and personal communion with God. The Bible is not a revelation to anyone any more than God makes it a revelation to him. Without a personal and direct revelation of its truths, the Bible is only “the letter that kills”. God does not reveal Bible truth to that person. To them, the Bible is blind, dark, and mysterious. Even the majority of people in Churches today don’t seem to understand that they need direct communion with God. They don’t seem to understand that they need the Holy Spirit to explain His own word, and make the Bible a direct and personal revelation to him. The Church does not seem to understand that without this, no soul has the knowledge of the one true God. They say, “to know God and Jesus Christ is eternal life”. But, does everyone who owns a Bible know God and Jesus Christ? Do all who read and even study the Bible know Jesus Christ, and do they all have eternal life? Certainly not! No one can know Christ in such a way that produces eternal life, unless the Holy Spirit directly and personally reveals Christ to him or her, through the word. Today, huge and disastrous errors on this subject are everywhere in the Church!

2. Communion with God is just as important as knowing our selves. We have no more knowledge about ourselves than what God has revealed to us in our relationship with Him. Our human heart is naturally such a deep pit of darkness, that we definitely need a revelation of ourselves as much as we need a revelation of God. God is the only being in the universe that knows us. We are naturally lost, bewildered, and in almost total ignorance of our own real characters. In our long and frequent relationship and communion with God, He takes the time, during our lengthy conversations with Him, to spread out before us our own lives, to reveal us to ourselves, to command up from the deep oblivion of our own forgetfulness, the forgotten occurrences of our lives. It is in His light and in the light of His law alone, that we can ever come to a right knowledge of our selves. Oh how infinitely important is that communion with God, that reveals us to our selves.

3. Communion with God is just as important as our salvation. God can’t possibly save us without that communion with Him that I have been talking about. God can’t save us without this communion, for the simple reason that He cannot save us unless we know both God and our selves. This is necessary, so God can sanctify us and prepare us for heaven.

4. Communion with God is important if we want to be useful to others. Here is the great secret of the efficiency of the Christian minister. Their deep communion with God, their walking in the light of God, their sympathy and fellowship with God, and their relationship and fellowship with the spiritual world is what gives unction, spirituality, and power to their preaching.

Oh, a minister who does not maintain communion with God is worthless! You might as well have an alien, an enemy, or a rebel, be your pastor, as have a minister stand in the pulpit and attempt to deal with sinners in the name of God, without communion with God. My ministerial brothers, will you allow me to ask you, in the kindness, sincerity, and sobriety of my soul, whether you understand, in your own experience, what I am talking about? Do you know, dearly beloved, by your own experiences, what this communion with God is like? Do you live in His light? Do you walk with God? Is your fellowship in heaven? Do you feel as if the trade winds of God’s eternal Spirit have drifted your souls over the Pacific Ocean of His love? Do your people, when you go into the pulpit, see that your soul stands out before them as bathed in the sunlight of heaven? Do your prayers, preaching, and all your ways, impress them with the conviction that you are a spiritually minded man, that you have risen with Christ, that your fellowship is in heaven, that your heart is not set on things of this earth, but on those things where Christ sits at the right hand of God?

My brother, my beloved brother, do you preach the spirit or the letter of the gospel? Are you a minister of the New or of the Old Testament? Don’t be offended, but let me come near, I ask you, and commune with you. Do you want to be useful to your fellow men? Do you want to glorify God in all your ways? Are you useful to them? Does your fruit abound to the glory of God? Are you instrumental in watering their souls with the water of eternal life? Do you feed them with the bread of heaven? What is the state of the church you preach in? What is the standard of their spirituality? Most importantly, what is the spiritual condition of those whom you associate with the most, and over whom you have the most influence? Do you feed them with the “sincere milk of the word”? (1 Cor 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-13)

If, by your daily experience, you know what that communion with God means. If you know what I have been talking about, I might venture to answer these questions for you; but if you do not, you are nothing but a “blind leader of the blind”. (Matt 15:14) Please don’t be upset with me. I only say this in love, and because I deeply feel it. And if you don’t know that this true, I pity you and the church you minister in even more, and most of all, I blame you.

5. Communion with God is important if we don’t want to ruin the souls of those people around us. A professing Christian, who does not have habitual communion with God, is one of the greatest curses in the world today. He claims that he is a Christian, and so the eyes of the world and the Church are on him. And, by his profession of faith in Christ, people look up to him as an example and a light to the world. People around him look to him as a representative of Christ. They regard him as a living illustration of the truth, nature, and importance of religion. He is a living epistle, known and read by all men. (See 2 Cor 3:2) However, if he does not commune with God, nothing in him resembles God. Without communion with God, he is earthly, sensual, and devilish; the opposite of what he claims to be; and with his profession of religion and the spirit of the world, he is certainly one of the greatest stumbling blocks and curses that can afflict the world. If this is true of any professing Christian, what must be true of a minister of Christ who does not hold habitual communion with God? He is much worse than no minister at all. The people would be almost infinitely better without any pastor, than to have one who has turned his back on God, and holds little or no communion with Him from day to day. The fact is, communion with God is the secret of all piety. It is completely necessary for ministers and private Christians to be useful, and without communion with God, they will certainly do almost infinitely more harm than good in the world.

6. Communion with God is important if we don’t want to be constantly dishonoring God. No one can honor God in his walk and conversation, without maintaining habitual communion with God. In fact, unless one communes with God, his life will be a perfect libel on God’s character. He will misrepresent God and His religion, which will greatly increase and perpetuate the prejudices of the world against God.

7. Communion with God is important if we want to have peace of mind. Nothing so recommends the gospel to humanity as the demonstration of that great peace of mind that those who love the law of God have. Our own peace of mind is tremendously important to our own happiness, to our own usefulness, to the honor of God, and to the interests of the church and the world around us. It is tremendously important and desirable that we should be able to pass through the storms and trials that keep the world and most of the Church in a state of great agitation and distress, calmly and with unbroken peace. But, we can’t do this without communion with God. When storms arise, the soul must be in such a state that it quickly takes refuge in the very heart of God; where it can look out on the warring elements, with the keenest composure of mind. God’s heart is always calm. It is a great and infinite ocean of eternal love and peace. God’s heart is infinitely serene, calm, and pure; never disturbed by any event, nor thrown into a state of fermentation, by any or all the occurrences of the universe.

Now, the only thing that can calm our own minds amidst the shocks, difficulties, and trials of life, is continuous communion with the infinitely calm and peaceful mind of God. Oh, when we have been agitated by the occurrences of life, and we plunge into the ocean of eternal love; when we hide away from all human eyes, and hold a lengthy and soul calming interview with God, how peacefully do we look around on those occurrences that throw the world around us into unrest!

8. Communion with God is just as important as grace or religion. No matter what one claims or professes to be, that person does not exercise one particle of religion more than he lives in communion with God. Christ said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Now communion with God is just as indispensable to the life of religion in the soul, as the sap of the vine is to the life of the branches.

V. How does one secure and perpetuate Communion with God?

1. You must seek communion with God. The house of Israel will ask God to do those things for them that they request. (See Ezekiel 36:37) The soul must desire communion with God. It must seek it. It must prize communion above anything else.

2. If you desire communion with God, do not neglect Him, and have fellowship with other gods. Do not allow any idol to have any place in your heart. Don’t allow anything to draw your heart away from communion with Him. See that your heart does not become divided between God and some other object of affection.

3. Be sure not to neglect His counsels, when He condescends to commune with you and give you advice. Whatever He shows to be your duty, do it at all costs. Don’t consult with flesh and blood under any situation or for any reason. Spare not a right hand, or a right eye; but whenever He shows you what you should do, let that be the fixed purpose of your heart to do it at once, without arguing or hesitating, even if you face death every step of the way.

4. Avoid everything that you would avoid, if He were visibly present with you. Consider how you would act, and what you would do, if Christ stood visibly before you and His searching eyes could see all your ways. If you really want to maintain communion with God, be sure you are as holy in heart and life, and in fellowship, as you would be if Christ were your visible and constant companion.

5. Don’t do anything that will interrupt your communion with Him. Don’t engage in any more business than is consistent with living and walking with God. Don’t engage in any occupation, adopt any business principles, read books, have companions, or spend time in such a way that is inconsistent with a state of entire consecration to God.

6. Keep your whole heart open to Him. Let the door of your heart stand open, and spread your heart out continually before God. Habitually and daily, lay open the secrets of your whole heart before Him. Cultivate this state of mind, and don’t rest until you feel that your whole mind is completely transparent before God, with nothing covered up or hidden from the inspection of his eye. I am not saying this because I believe something can be concealed from God; but because it is one thing for God to see through your whole being, whether you want Him to or not, and quite another for you to come, habitually and voluntarily, to show Him your whole heart.

7. Give yourself completely up to His guidance. Let it be the fixed purpose of your heart to spare no idol, to indulge no sin, to do nothing, say nothing, think nothing, be nothing, more nor less, than is completely according to His guidance and instruction. Don’t think or desire to vary a hair’s breadth from His instruction, any more than you would think of cutting your own throat, or even leaping into hell.

8. Do not rest if your communion with God is interrupted for even one hour. Let the medium between your heart and God be so clear, that anything that fogs or clouds your relationship with Him will immediately alarm your soul. Whatever you are engaged in, wherever you are, let your very first business be to ask what it is causing the Sun of Righteousness to shine more dimly in your soul. And, don’t be satisfied until you can determine and remove the cause. In fact, you must set your heart on staying on the pathway of the just; a pathway that shines more and more until the perfect day. Better, vastly better for you, to sacrifice any worldly good, and make any earthly sacrifice, than to have your relationship with God interrupted. It is far better to live in a dungeon, in communion with God, than to sit on a throne in an earthly mind.

9. Expect a lot of adequate guidance and grace. Christ says, “My grace is sufficient for you”. (See 2 Cor 12:9) If it was sufficient for Paul under the circumstances he was in, it is sufficient for every saint. Don’t be afraid to ask and expect great things, the greater the better. “Open your mouth wide”, He says, “and I will fill it. Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Psalm 81:10, Jer 33:3) And, remember that He is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”. (Eph 3:20) He has told you that, “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. (Acts 20:35) If, therefore, you limit His giving by your unbelief, you grieve His heart. You cannot insult Him more than by your unbelief, which prevents Him from bestowing on you the blessing He so greatly desires to give you.

10. Show God that you value nothing in comparison with communion with Him, not even your lusts, and whatever would draw you away from Him. Don’t surround yourself with idols, nor with such creature comforts, that it tells God you feel as if He is not a sufficient portion. He calls you His bride. Let your soul be satisfied with His love and don’t go wandering after other loves. Let Him see that you consider Him an all-sufficient and infinitely satisfying portion, and that you desire no one else.

11. Don’t form unnecessary attachments to any being or thing on earth. Guard your heart as you would guard the apple of your eye. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) And, remember that the Lord your God is a jealous God; you can’t have communion with Him and communion with the world at the same time.

12. Aim at being totally consecrated to Him just as much as you aim at being religious. Don’t think, or plan to do anything that is inconsistent with this. Make no plans, entertain no desires, and engage in nothing whatever that will be inconsistent with you being as holy as He is holy.

13. Be sure to avoid temptation as much as possible. It would seem as if the majority of professing Christians are either perfectly blind about exposing themselves to temptation, or they think that they are able to overcome temptation in their own strength. I am shocked with the state of mind those persons have, who deny the doctrine of entire sanctification or entire consecration to God in this life. It is clear that they expect to continue sinning as long as they live. They make all their plans based on the fact that they have no intention of living in a state of entire consecration to God. No, not even for one single day.

A brother minister said to me, just a short time ago, that he was requested by a fellow minister to engage in a certain business that he feared would be a great temptation to him. And so, he declined on the ground that he feared that in so doing he might sin. His brother replied, “So what? We are sinning all the time. If we sin we simply repent; you know that.”

Now I can’t tell how many times I have seen this state of mind developed among professing Christians, within the past few years. And it places, in a most striking and frightening light, the feeling that Christians shouldn’t expect to be completely sanctified until death.

Now, Christian, before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ, let me tell you what you know is true if you are a Christian. You cannot live in communion with God, unless you give yourself up to Him in a state of entire consecration. Whenever sin overcomes you, it automatically interrupts your communion; and unless you really mean, intend, and expect to consecrate yourself wholly and perpetually to His service, to maintain communion with God is impossible.

14. You can’t perpetuate communion with God without watching in prayer, and praying in the Holy Ghost. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”. (Eph 6:8) It is a vain dream, to expect to maintain communion with God when you neglect your frequent and lengthy seasons of secret prayer. When someone asked a certain man, not long ago, whether he prayed in secret, he replied, “When my friends are absent I write to them, but when they are with me I don’t have to write”. But, I would ask him, when your friends are with you, don’t you even speak to them? Communion with God means talking with God. And communion with God means more than this. It means the most intimate and confidential interchange of views and feelings that you can think of. Let no one dream that his communion with God will continue for any length of time, if he neglects to offer many, very many secret prayers.

REMARKS.

1. Few people today truly maintain communion with God.

2. Sinning willfully against the light may cut off communion between your soul and God forever. I have known some lamentable and distressing situations, where one willful sin, brought someone into a state of long term, if not final despair.

3. Communion with God is the secret of all ministerial usefulness. Here let me say that ministers often deceive themselves concerning their usefulness. Because of the instrumentality of pious members of their church, there may be revivals of religion in their churches, completely independent of their instrumentality. I have good reason to know, that this is often the case. Ministers often think that they are important and useful in promoting the salvation of souls, when, as a matter of fact, they are right in the way. I fear that they often think they are very useful, because they live so far from God that they don’t see that they are really doing more harm than good.

4. In the light of this subject, we can also see the result of ministerial unfruitfulness. Christ says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:4-8) In this passage Christ seems to clearly teach, that if ministers are unfruitful, or if any Christian is unfruitful, it is because he does not abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is keeping constant communion with Him. Now since these words of Christ are true, no professing Christian, and no minister, has a right to say that he abides in Christ if he does not “bear much fruit”.

5. From this subject we see how important it is for students to maintain communion with God while they are in college. One of the greatest and most common errors among students is to think that they can give up most of their communion with God while pursuing their college education, and that they will naturally resume it again when they study Theology, or when they enter the ministry. Now, my dear young men, let me warn you against this delusion, because it is fatal to your future usefulness. Ask the people around all those fruitless ministers that you know, and you will find, almost without exception, that he has been a stumbling block to them. They were pressured by their studies. They gave up communion with God for communion with their authors, their teachers, and their fellow students. They became earthly, sensual, and devilish. And the result of their ministry tells you the consequences of their folly.

6. The privileges of Christians today are greater than the privileges the apostles enjoyed in those days when they enjoyed the personal presence and preaching of Christ. Christian, what would you say, if you could have Christ for your pastor. Wouldn’t you expect to grow in grace? Wouldn’t you expect to live a life of entire consecration to God? Listen to what Jesus says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:7,23-15) Here we have the words from Christ Himself, that the presence of the Holy Spirit, that we can always enjoy, is more important to us than His personal teachings. When Christ lived here on earth, He could not be everywhere physically. But the Holy Spirit is everywhere. Christ could only instruct us by His words and example when He was personally present with us. But His Spirit can directly approach our minds and put us in immediate possession of the whole truth. Christian brother, sister, fellow ministers, I beg you, understand your privileges and know that, as a matter of fact, they are greater if you will lay hold of them, than if you lived in the same house, ate at the same table, and enjoyed the daily conversation and personal preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Oh, then keep up constant communion with God. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen