A friend just sent me 2 Corinthians 13:14.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (NLT)

Oh my, oh my! The richness of a life filled with these three things! Nothing I write could ever plumb the depths or heights or breadth of such richness. I think the only way we can even begin to know and understand what such a life may be is to walk confidently into it, building our lives on that grace and love and fellowship.

“The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” In my Greek word study (don’t be too impressed with the depth of my knowledge… this is just a dictionary of sorts at the back of my study Bible, but it is very helpful), the word translated here as fellowship is koinonia. (See?  I don’t even know how to put that line above the “o” where it properly belongs…)

Koinonia, this study says, is “an association of close mutual relationship and involvement with another; it is an alliance with another person or group, formal or informal. There is an implication of intimacy, singleness of purpose, trust of one another, sharing of material goods, and harmony rather than hostility.”*

Wow. This is the way I want to live–in koinonia with the Holy Spirit! In intimacy, singleness of purpose, trust, and harmony with Him. Jesus said because He is no longer in this world with us, He would send the Spirit to live in us … teaching, guiding, reminding, comforting. God’s presence within us! The Spirit living in koinonia with us is the evidence that we are His.

Here’s a prayer for all of us this weekend, from A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie. (I like to think of the “eventide” that he uses in the first line as the eventide of my life … in other words, till the end of my days.)

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until eventide. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel and order all my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.

May you rejoice in that mysterious companionship today.

Amen.

–

* from The Slimline Center Column Reference Bible, Tyndale House Publishers.