True Fellowship With God | Pastor John Greiner

A powerful Wednesday night teaching invites hearts into a deeper, fully lived fellowship with God, moving beyond occasional moments of crisis-driven connection into a daily place of abiding intimacy. Through Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 and the Shunammite woman’s prophet’s chamber in 2 Kings 4, the focus centers on making intentional room for God to dwell, rest, speak, and reveal His presence within. With vivid illustrations of habitation, spiritual furniture, and koinonia partnership, this message calls believers into a richer awareness of God within, where faith, revelation, and divine direction flow from a life that has become a true resting place for His Spirit.

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Confession

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Let's just get into the Word of God together. Let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for Wednesday night live stream. It comes right at the right time. My spirit needs to be replenished, needs to be refreshed, needs to be reminded of the Word of God. And tonight my heart is open to receive fresh revelation and fresh faith in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise God. I mean, we don't sell day-old bread here. We've got stuff that's hot out of the oven. All right? Ephesians chapter 3 tonight, and we'll start with verse 14. And it's a Holy Ghost prayer that Paul is praying for the Ephesians church. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That you would that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we dare ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And now let me read to you verses sixteen and seventeen in the Amplified. This is a prayer again that he's praying for the Ephesians. May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself, indwelling your innermost being and personality. May Christ, through your faith, actually dwell, that is, settle down, abide, and make his permanent home in your hearts. And I remember reading a version one time years ago, I haven't been able to find where I read it, that he would make a permanent, happy home in his heart by faith. So tonight I wanted to share a message entitled True Fellowship with God. True Fellowship with God. We realize that this prayer is written to believers. And they were saved, and most of them were spirit-filled, tongue-talking. And uh and yet part of Paul's prayer was that God would settle down and abide and make his permanent home in them. Well, I thought if people were saved, they they already had uh Jesus in their heart. I thought the Holy Ghost already lived. Well, he did. He lives in every born-again believer, there's no question about it. But legally versus uh vitally, there's two sides to one coin, one coin of redemption. The legal side is what we have through the blood of Jesus. It's final, it's done, it's done deal. But vital means inviciate according to life. Uh, you know, E.W. Kenyon wrote about these things. I read it, got a hold of his writings years ago, and he talked about the legal and the vital. I prefer the word functional because functional is more modern. You can relate to functional. In other words, there's something legal on one side that's legally yours, but do you have it? Have you received it by faith? Are you walking in it? I mean, so I mean, I remember having a uncle that left me$10,000 in his will, and I didn't know it for months. And I was I was broke. I mean, I didn't I could have used that$10,000. Well, legally I had it, but functionally I didn't until my other uncle let me know. Hey, you know, you've got an inheritance. Go by here and pick up a check. Well, have you picked up your check yet? Have you have you taken uh by faith what God says you can have? So there's another dimension, it's what I want to speak to tonight, another dimension that was available to them. And I call it a fully functional fellowship with the Most High God, fully functional, not just going around knowing that you're saved, but not really acting like it most of the time, not really taking advantage of it most of the time, you know, not being God inside minded. And uh, how do we have that? Well, we have it by faith. You know, that's why I'm preaching this. So your faith will be energized to receive this wonderful uh fellowship. The word fellowship there that I'm talking about is in the Bible. It's called koinania, it's partnership, fellowship, intimacy, even intercourse. I mean, it's it's it's it's the kind of thing that Mary had with God when she became pregnant with Jesus. I mean, the power of the Holy Ghost came upon her, the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and she uh conceived. That seed was implanted in her, the Immaculate Conception. We believe that it's in the Bible. So, in like manner, we have the ability to have such a close fellowship in Cornelia with our Heavenly Father and with His Son Jesus and with the Holy Ghost that they can impart to us things that they want birthed into the earth. Just think about there's a lot of things that haven't been birthed into the earth yet because people are not walking in the kind of fellowship I'm talking about. You know, um, as a little boy, uh I was about four or five years old. My dad was a uh a union member of the Asbestos Workers Local Union here in Houston. And they went on strike. And of course, I'm too little to understand all that. All I heard was strike and that he didn't have a job. And so we had to go and we we he found a job in in uh New Mexico at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratories. That was just 10 years before that, they had, you know, and brought forth an atomic bomb there at that place. It was a massive, uh uh massive place. And there was plenty of work for him to do, so we we moved the whole family for the summer to a little place just north of uh uh, I guess north of uh Santa Fe, a little place called Espanola. And from there my dad would drive up, and it was, you know, you had to have clearance, you had to go through checkpoints to get in there and get out, you know, so forth, and get out of there. They checked you when you went in and when you went out. But uh we we couldn't find a place to live. We just wound up staying at this motor court, this old-timey, we'd call it a motel. It had a dirt parking lot. I mean, you know, there's absolutely nothing for a five-year-old to do. I mean, zero, except get in trouble, you know, go out there and get in the dirt and bring the dirt into the house or into the room, you know, a little bitty room. So uh finally, after a couple of weeks, we found we my folks found this. Well, I caught it's a mobile home today, but back then it was a trailer house. I mean, it's like, you know, eight foot wide and fifty foot long. And we moved into the trailer house, and that's, you know, my parents and me and my three siblings. So that's a lot of people to put into a small space. So one day uh I was kneeling on the couch looking out the front windows. The windows were like a panoramic uh in the front of the trailer that could give you a sight down the street. We were parked, you know, uh kind of heading like the like when you drove down the street, they weren't broadside to you, they were end to end. And I realized that was that was good that particular day because when I was looking out the window, I saw this black cloud, and and mother said, get away from that window. There's a d there's a dust storm coming. I didn't know what a dust storm is. I mean, and so it started blowing in, it got dark as night. It that play that that trailer shook from one end to the other. It didn't have tie-downs back then. And I, you know, now looking back on it, I'm I'm just grateful it wasn't broadside to the wind. I'm sure it would have blown it over. I mean, there's there's no way it could have stood in that wind. It must have lasted 20 minutes. Everything was coated with dirt. I mean, the cars were coated with dirt, everything was dirty. And uh, and how glad I was to get back to Little Galena Park, Texas, over on the east side, across from the Houston Ship Channel, and our little uh two-bedroom, one-birth bathhouse where all these people plus a grandmother lived. I mean, we didn't see ourselves as poor. This was just normal. Two-bedroom, one bathhouse with four kids, two parents, and a grandma. And uh my bed was at the at the wall opposite my parents' bed in their bedroom. And the other bedroom was occupied by my grandmother, and the other kids just had to sleep wherever they could sleep. My dead, my brother on a high-bed sofa, my sister's on a bunk bed on the screened in porch with plywood closing it in. It doesn't sound like much of an abode. It doesn't sound like much of a house, but let me tell you, I was so happy to get back there to my house from uh Espanola. It should probably be Espanola, it's probably how it's pronounced. But but anyway, uh I want to get take a paint a picture of an abode. I mean, this is where the Holy Spirit lives. He lives inside of you, and what kind of abode have we got for him? You know, is it is it uh and so let's look at 2 Kings chapter 4. I believe this illustrates what I'm speaking about the best way. And uh we'll read a little of it. We won't read the whole thing, leave it for some homework later for you to dig in. 2 Kings chapter 4, verse uh eight. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunam, where was a great woman. See, I don't know what made her great. I don't know if she was great in finances or great in notoriety. I I don't know, but God Bible calls her a great woman. And uh she constrained him. Uh my margin says she laid hold on him. She constrained him to eat bread. Now, see, the prophet in the Old Testament stands for God. I mean, that's God. See, that's what they're they had, they had prophets and they stood for God. They spoke for God and they, you know, and so she constrained God. You could say that without making a butchery, uh, a mockery of the scripture. She she laid hold on God and wouldn't give up till he came by and visited her. And as often as he passed by, he turned then there to eat bread. But, you know, he didn't stay there. He just went in for lunch or supper. And she said unto her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passes by us continually. See, he's always visiting. That's not good enough for me. Let's make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick, and it shall be that when he cometh to us he shall turn in here. So he started staying with them. I mean, she constrained him and forced him to stop just visiting, and now she went from visitation to habitation. Everybody say, visitation to habitation. See, this is where you can go. I mean, a lot of Christians have just lived their whole Christian life with visitation. In other words, they they hook up with God in a crisis. They hook up with God when they feel like it. They hook up with God, you know, just on an intermittent basis. But really, really, you know, God Himself is looking for habitation. He's looking for somebody that he can dwell in and have uh one version, a happy home in their heart. He wants to be provided a resting place inside of them. Well, Pastor, I thought he was, well, it's it's not about the legal side, it's about the functional side. What are you experiencing? See, because I'm my point of this whole message is that the new things are going to come to people who have established habitation. Because visitation is not enough. Not in these days. A visitation is not enough to escape the wrath of the devil. He's madder than a hornet, uh, you know, like uh Senator uh John Kennedy says, he's madder than a map murder hornet. You're talking about Trump. He's madder than a murder hornet. And uh that's the devil. He's mad because he knows his time is short and he's unleashing all of his wrath. And we need habitation. So she moved from habitation from visitation to habitation, and Elisha could actually dwell and settle down and make himself at home with her. Praise God. Everybody say, Thank God for habitation. So fellowship, first let's look at two verses here. First Corinthians chapter one, that speak of this word that I've used. And I'm talking about uh true fellowship with God. Some people have a form of fellowship, it's really not true. It's you know, sometimes people think they're talking to God and really talking to demon powers. No, there's a true fellowship that you can have with the Father. Uh 1 Corinthians 1 9. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So we've been called into fellowship. The word fellowship there is koinonia. It's communion, it's partnership, it's common union, it's it's intimacy, it's intercourse, it's it's a close, close. I mean, he's he's like you're breathing in and out with him all day long. God inside-minded. We've been called into that type of quininea. We're called into it. Isn't that why we were made to begin with, you know, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26? I mean, God doesn't need anything, but he is a father. The father's nature is to have children, and he said, Let us make a man just like ourselves. Talking about the Son and the Spirit. The three persons of the Godhead are in us. Let us make a man just like ourselves, and let in the living Bible says, let us make them masters of all of life. We're supposed to be in charge. We're supposed to rule and reign. We're supposed to rule over the environment. We're supposed to rule over the oil that's under the ground and the minerals and the rare earth minerals and all the coal and all the blessings that this country has had since its founding. I mean, you can't find another country more blessed than America and these. I just get off on politics, but I mean, these Democrats have just, they set all that aside to magnify the creation rather than the creator. And we haven't taken advantage of what God has blessed us with. Thank God that's changing. Because the harvest demands a lot more than what we've that we have today to supply the needs of the harvest. All right, then the other one, 1 John 1 3. Talking about having true fellowship with God. 1 John 1 3. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So here we have another person added to the Koinania, and that is the minister. And that is the horizontal component. I mean, it's not enough just to have intimacy with God the Father, but God the Father has set the church in the earth with a line of authority. And if you're gonna have true fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, you're gonna have to have true fellowship with your pastor. You're gonna have to get hooked up, you're gonna have to get, you're gonna have to buy in, you're gonna have to get uh acquainted with hearing his voice and listening to him, because his fellowship is truly with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or he wouldn't be standing in the office that he's called to be in. Are y'all with me now? So uh so we've been called a fellowship with God, the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, and with the ministry, uh his ministry, his God-placed ministry that he has placed. So I wanted to go back over here to uh uh and refer back to 2 Kings 4 and talk about the chamber that uh the Shunammite woman built on the wall. I mean, she built a chamber, uh a room, if you will, for the prophet. And that's where we get the the term prophet's chamber. You know, I used to have a prophet's chamber. I mean, we had different guests come in our house and stay upstairs in the spare bedroom. That was what we call the prophet's chamber. So uh in 2 Kings 4, she built a chamber. What's the chamber have to do? I've got five things it has to do with. Number one, the chamber is make room for him. Move from visitation to habitation. See, let's get out of this habit of only seeking God when we're in crisis mode. I'm sorry, but this is what I've seen in 30 years of full-time ministry and 10 years before that. I mean, most people just they're seeking God really hot and heavy during a crisis mode, and as soon as the crisis is over, as soon as the meat is met or the or the crisis passes, they kind of go back to normal, which is walk in the flesh, you know, walk in the natural. I mean, yeah, God, I now know God, I pray, I do go to church some, yeah, dah dah. But there's see, there's there's something, that whole element is missing. They they haven't really made room for God to be there full time and and and that that haven't been God inside minded, so important right now. All right, then the second thing she did in that chamber that she had a bed in there. She had a bed. And so uh in John chapter 14, Jesus told the disciples, he said, I will pray the Father and He will send another comforter, even the Holy Ghost who will live and abide with you forever. So the paraclete, the Holy Ghost. He is He's supposed to live and abide. Abide means more than just visit. Abide means you live someplace. So there is a resting place. See, there needs to be a resting place, a place again, of habitation in our spirit. We never and we never think about God just coming and going. No, he's there all the time. And when he and he has a resting place on the inside. And uh the third third element of our fellowship and our coronia is a table. Well, why didn't he need a table? Well, he needed a place to eat, he needed a place to sit down to and eat. And uh Psalm 23, 5 says, I've I've uh set a table before you in the presence of all your enemies. So God, you know, God sets a table before us. A table is where uh your covenant requires a place for the word to be shared, and we have to feed from his hand and drink from his cup. I mean, that table has to do with what you receive from God. He is going to break the bread, he's going to give you the bread of life down on the inside of this place that you've created for him. You've made time for him, you've made uh effort for him. He knows he's welcome 24-7. He knows he can speak anytime. He's not constrained to just, you know, just to visit. And please, now right now is not, I've got I'm too busy right now. No, no, there's never that. There's never that. It's always he's ready to get to the table, and we're ready to eat the bread that he's baked, and we're ready to drink of the cup he's got for us. Praise God. And then the next part of furniture is they have a stool. A stool, a place to sit. So he's not going to be in bed all the time. He's gonna not gonna be just pacing all the time. He's gonna have to have a chair, he's gonna have to have a stool. What does that what does that remind you of Ephesians chapter 2? We're seated together with him in heavenly places in Christ. We're never in a crisis from the standpoint of the natural. We're always dealing with the devil from the standpoint of victory. We're always dealing with the devil from the standpoint of our seating far above him. We're never under any circumstance. Well, how are you doing? Well, under circumstances, what are you doing under the circumstances? You're supposed to be walking on those. No, see, we've got to do a switch now. See, we're talking about this koinonia, this fellowship, it's so valuable. And as your pastor, I just encourage you to, in this year of new things, to begin to retrench your efforts to create a time for that intimacy to happen because it won't happen just by itself. You are the one that has to do it. This woman had to build the hat, she had to build the chamber. I mean, it was good to have a place to eat, but don't you think he would really like to have a place to lay his head? Don't you think he'd like to have a place to rest a while? I mean, he's just going from place to place to place, and there's no place to stay except outside under the stars. I mean, you know, did he build it? No, she built it for him. See, that's our part is to build this uh chamber and equip it. And so then the last piece of furniture that was in there was the candlestick. And of course, I think you can all understand what that is. That's the Holy Ghost who illuminates your spirit, and he gives you understanding. He gives you revelation of what the bread of life means when God breaks that bread, the Holy Ghost sheds his light on it and turns it into Rhema, and it turns into the sword of the Spirit when we need to do battle, it turns into a direction and guidance when we need to know what our next step is. Oh, praise. Come on, lift your hand right now. I mean, if you fully furnish your place, your chamber, then you can move from visitation into habitation. And then let us read verse 20, see, because verse 20 is written for everybody that's done that. For if after, uh excuse me, that's the wrong verse here. I was in Peter. Got to go back to Ephesians 3.20. Get anything out of this tonight. Well, I'm enjoying preaching it. I'm praise God. Now, unto him that is able to do. See, most people don't doubt God's ability. They doubt his willingness. And the place of koinania is where the willingness gets settled. There's no more doubt about the willingness. The willingness is absolute, just as a cornerstone of his ability, it's a cornerstone of his willingness. Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. One version says that we dare ask or think. I double-dog dare you to ask him for something bigger this year, bigger and greater. And that without him you can't achieve it. Well, you mean just anything? Well, no, just spend some time in what I'm talking about in Koinonia and let him implant into you and impart into you those desires that he has for you. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we dare ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. And how does that power work? By turning on the switch of faith. To him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. So the glory in the church that's coming is going to be coming to a church that has mastered the art of fellowship with the Father. Praise God. Let's lift our hands and receive tonight. Glory to God. Did you get anything out of this tonight? Glory to God. Well, come on, let's rejoice. Praise God. Let's just uh let's just make this confession. Say tonight, I've heard the word of God and I'm willing to make uh adjustments to my schedule. I'm gonna create room for God in my life. If I had to confess, I confess that I don't spend enough time with him. I don't spend enough time prayer, praying, worshiping. I don't spend enough time just remembering all his blessings. So I'm gonna create more time to do that. And the rest of the time will be blessed. The rest of the time will take care of itself. But Father, I'm putting you first for deep, satisfying fellowship with you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Praise God.