In 1 John 5:20 we have the crucial conclusion of the entire Epistle of 1 John, seeing that we are now truly one with the Triune God – He becomes reality and life to us because we’re in Him; we come to know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him, and we have a deeper understanding of the Divine Trinity experientially as we grow in life unto maturity.
Amen, Lord, grow in us a little more today! Grow in us unto maturity. We want to know You in a subjective, intimate, and personal way. We open to You. You are the reality. You are the Spirit of reality with our spirit. Work Yourself into us a little more today. We love You, Lord, and we give You the first place in us! Amen!
This week we come to the last of the major aspects of Christ for us to experience, enjoy, and express as seen in the Epistles of John; our topic is, The True One.
The Epistles of John speak concerning the Triune God as the True One; 1 John 5:20 says that we know that the Son has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. Wow, what is this? Oh Lord Jesus! We need to come to the Lord to be unveiled and enlightened by Him so that we may see the true One.
What is this true One? How can we experience, enjoy, and express the true One? May the Lord remove any veils from our eyes.
May we not think we know what this means. In this world where truth doesn’t seem to matter, where people say that we are post-truth and truth is so subjective that there’s no such thing as an absolute truth, we believers in Christ believe in the true One, we have this true One in us, we are in the true One, and we can express Him as truth, as reality, in our daily living.
This is not just our subjective truth, something that we particularly have and no one else has; this is the divine reality of the Divine Trinity being expressed through us as we live Christ, being in the true One.
Oh, how much we need the Lord to shine on us and enlighten us in this matter! How much we need to open to the Lord’s enlightening, even for Him to remove any veils of religious concepts and preconceived notions regarding what is truth, who is true, and what is the divine reality!
May the Lord as the Spirit of reality guide us into all the reality of what He is, and may we cooperate with Him in our daily Christian life to be in the true One, even to express Him in our daily living as our reality!
The Crucial Conclusion of 1 John: We’re Truly One with the Triune God, He becomes Real to us because we are in the true One!
In 1 John 5:20 we have the crucial conclusion of the entire Epistle of 1 John; this will need to be developed much more, but we want to touch on this matter a little.
We need to prayerfully consider the first Epistle of John before the Lord, even allow the Lord to shine on us to remove anything that we think we know, deal with our concepts, and fully bring us into the light as He is in the light for us to see what He wants to speak to us.
Brother Lee spoke on 1 John 5:20 more than forty years ago, but we have not yet entered into the meaning of this verse.
What we need is not more knowledge of doctrines, nor do we need more understanding in our mind concerning what the true One is; we need to have the experience and enjoyment of being in the true One.
May the depths of our being be opened as never before. May we allow the Lord as the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality of what the Triune God is as truth, as reality.
The Lord is waiting for us today to enter into Him, to enter into the depths of His being; He wants us not only to know about Him or appreciate what He is and does, but even more, that we would know Him in a subjective, personal, and intimate way.
The first Epistle of John reveals to us that now we are truly one with the Triune God, and He becomes true, real, to us.
We begin in 1 John 1:3, where we see something of the divine reality, and this brings in the divine fellowship. Then, in 1 John 3:24 we are told that we abide in Him if we keep His commandments; and we know He abides in us by the Spirit whom He gave us.
We abide in Him and He abides in us, and this abiding is by means of the Spirit whom He gave us.
Then 1 John 4:2 tells us that in this we know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
This is what the Spirit of God does: He brings us into the reality of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, so that we may enjoy and experience the Triune God who was processed and consummated to be the Spirit with our spirit.
We don’t need more doctrines. We do start at doctrines, at the truth, but something real and true is entering into our being. And deep within us, we have a yearning.
We want to not only know about God but know Him personally, intimately, and subjectively.
We want to know not only His works and His words but even more, experience Him. We want to know not only His outward shepherding but have Him as the very reality of our inner being and our outward living.
May the Lord produce such a reality in us so that we may be in the true One. The Lord’s heart is to shepherd every member of the Body so that He would gain maturity in life in all His members before His return.
The Triune God becomes reality and life to us because we are in Him (1 John 5:6; 2:24-25; 4:13). What He wants to gain is reality. Not just doctrine.
May we yearn to know Him deeper, in a subjective way. May we seek not just doctrines but even more, reality.
May we not be satisfied only with mental knowledge and understanding of the truth but even more, cry out for the divine reality!
This is what the apostle John experienced at the end of his life on earth. This is what the Lord wants to bring us into today. No matter how old or young we are in the Lord, we can touch the divine reality, be in the true One, and have God as the reality of our being in our daily living.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. We open our whole being to You. Amen, Lord, we open the depths of our being to You. We want to not only know about You but even more, know You subjectively, intimately, and personally. Work Yourself into us. Bring us from merely knowing the doctrine to experiencing the reality. We just open, Lord. We open the depths of our being to You so that You may work Yourself into us. May we realise that we are in God and God is in us. May we be in the true One. May we enjoy, experience, and express the divine reality of the Divine Trinity in our daily living by being in the true One. Amen, Lord, may You become reality and life to us by our being in You. Oh, how much we yearn for reality! We seek the divine reality. We have heard so many things and we are thankful for what we heard. But our being cries out for the divine reality! Amen, Lord, grant us to have the divine reality wrought into us to become our reality as we abide in the true One!
Know the Triune God by Experiencing and Enjoying Him in the Process of Growth in Life unto Maturity
If we read the first Epistle of John we see that the apostle’s concern in his writing was not just that we would fix this or change that in our Christian life but even more, that we would enjoy the Triune God.
Many Christians today have doctrines, religious practices, rituals, creeds, and all kinds of activities, but not many have the enjoyment of the Triune God.
There’s a lot of vanity with religion; there are a lot of empty things that are done and performed. We need to come back to the divine revelation in God’s word and come to know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him (1 John 1:5; 2:27; 4:16; 5:11-12).
The divine reality in this universe is the Triune God; God Himself in His Divine Trinity dispensing Himself into us to become our reality, this is what is real.
The Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit being dispensed into us, God’s chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people so that we may enjoy Him as our life, life supply, and everything in the new creation life – this is the reality.
This truth, this reality, is the enjoyment of the Triune God. May we come to know the Triune God by experiencing Him and enjoying Him in the process of growth in life unto maturity.
If we read John’s writings we see that we can know, enjoy, and experience the Divine Trinity as we grow in life unto maturity.
To understand and enjoy the Divine Trinity, even to realise that the Divine Trinity is the structure of the entire Bible, we need to be in the process of growth in life unto maturity.
The concern with the apostle John in writing his Epistles was the experience and enjoyment of the Triune God (2 John 8).
The Triune God is not merely the object of our faith; even more, He is dwelling in us as our life and life supply for our experience and enjoyment (see 1 John 4:13-15).
We are children of God, and in the aged apostle’s eyes, we are his dear children; as we grow in life unto maturity, we will enjoy and experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
We need to know the Triune God experientially through our inner enjoyment of the subjective God (1 John 2:27; 4:4). This means that we need to grow in life.
The more we grow in life, the more we know God. The more we remain in the process of growth and maturity in the divine life, the more we appreciate the Divine Trinity, enjoy the divine dispensing, and minister God to others also.
If we remain on the line of life to grow in life unto maturity, we will enjoy the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit, who is the processed Triune God living, moving, and working within us.
If we read 1 John 2:12-27 in particular we see the Divine Trinity according to our growth in the divine life.
The Divine Trinity is revealed in this portion of the word in a very positive and meaningful way.
We have the anointing which teaches us all things, and as we heed the anointing, we abide in the Lord.
The more we grow in the divine life, the more we will be concerned with the Divine Trinity.
May we be those who know the Triune God not only in an objective way according to the doctrine but even more, by enjoying and experiencing the Divine Trinity.
May we know the Triune God experientially through the inner enjoyment of the subjective God.
There has to be an inner knowledge and experience of God. It has to be subjective, not just objective.
It has to be in our spirit, for God in Christ is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit with our spirit.
The books of John are structured with the Divine Trinity, and the entire New Testament is structured with the Trinity.
Every chapter in Ephesians is structured with the Divine Trinity, and 2 Corinthians 13:14 blesses us with the Divine Trinity, which indicates that the entire Epistle is concerned with the Trinity.
Even the book of Revelation begins with the Divine Trinity (Rev. 1:4-5).
May we remain in the process of growing in life unto maturity so that we may come to know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him in our daily living.
If we believers in Christ would know the Triune God, we must be in the line of life and in the process of the growth in life.
The more we grow in the divine life, the more we will be concerned with the Divine Trinity. May the Lord grant us to remain in the process of growth in life.
May we not remain the same, stagnating in our spiritual life. May we all aspire to grow in the divine life unto maturity so that we may know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him to express Him.
Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of growth in life unto maturity. Grow in us today. We open to You. May Your divine life grow in us. Oh Lord, may we remain in the line of life and in the process of the growth in life for us to know the Triune God subjectively by experiencing and enjoying Him! Hallelujah, the more we grow in life, the more we will be concerned with the Divine Trinity! Amen, Lord, we open to the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity! May we know the Triune God experientially through the inner enjoyment of the subjective God! Hallelujah, we have the anointing from the Holy One, and all of us can know the Triune God subjectively and intimately! Amen, Lord, bring us into a deeper and more intimate knowledge of the Triune God in a subjective way in our daily life. May we know the Triune God not only as the object of our faith but even more, as the One who is dwelling in us as our life and life supply for our experience and enjoyment!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 19 and 32, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 36, The True One – day 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit, / In person three, in substance all are one. / How glorious, this God our being enters / To be our all, thru Spirit in the Son! / The Triune God has now become our all! / How wonderful! How glorious! / This Gift divine we never can exhaust! / How excellent! How marvelous! (Hymns #608 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199 stanza 3)
– By this the very Triune God is now / The living Spirit mingling deep within. / Our spirit joins in oneness; this is how / We are one spirit evermore with Him. / ’Tis by this Spirit that we walk and act, / We have our being, think, and see all things; / We’re now within this Spirit! What a fact! / This Spirit to us all God’s fullness brings! (Hymns #1195 stanzas 7-8)
About aGodMan
Life-study of 1 John, p. 165, by Witness Lee
Dear brother, we come to know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him; the way we know Him is by enjoying Him and experiencing Him as the true One, the reality!
This requires that we grow in life. We need to grow unto maturity so that we may have a deeper experience of the divine reality of the Divine Trinity!
May we pursue the growth in life today so that we may know, enjoy, and experience the Divine Trinity in our daily experience!
Amen! Lord Jesus grow in us and bring us on unto maturity by knowing, experiencing and enjoying the Triune God!
The more we grow in life, the more we will be concerned with the Trinity. We want to be concerned with You more today, Lord.
The conclusion of the epistle of John is that we will experience know God, the True One, have the depth of our being opened to him, and gain an entrance into Him to know Him as real and true in order to mature without going through dispensational discipline! (1Jn.5:20).
How we need to know the Triune God experientially, having an inner enjoyment of this subjective God dwelling in us for everything He wants us to be!
As believers, John’s concern is for us to be experiencing the process of growth in life, not just gathering some doctrinal knowledge. We shd check with ourselves how much you have enjoyed the Triune God subjectively, grown in life to be a rapture-ready person in the last 30 years.
The more we grow, experience the subjective God, the more concern we will have for the divine reality in the Triune God.
Hallelujah brother, reality is the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit dispensed into God’s regenerated people so that we may enjoy Him as our life.
If we would understand the Divine Trinity, we need to be in the process of growing in life through the daily exercise of our spirit and the interwoven fellowship in the Body and in God.
We must exercise our spirit of faith to see every day that the Triune God is living, moving and working within us.
The entire New Testament is structured with the divine Trinity. This is true with John’s epistles. The mysterious, all-inclusive, compound anointing, we can see the triune God.
John’s concern in writing the epistles was the enjoyment of the triune God! This is also our concern even today.
How we need to be on the line of life and in the process of the growth in life to know and enjoy the triune God as our life, life supply, and everything. In other words, if we are not growing in life we will not have the understanding and appreciation of the Triune God.