Continuously Cleansed from Sin

“If we claim that we share life with him, but keep walking in the realm of darkness, we’re fooling ourselves and not living the truth.  But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.”  1 John 1:6-7 TPT

The truth that we are CONTINUALLY cleansed from all sin changed my world.  We live in a constant, flowing waterfall of forgiveness, grace, and mercy.  I am a visual person so when I am trying to get a truth rooted down in me, I need a visual of how this truth applies to my life.  I spent many mornings in the shower with the steaming hot water flowing over me and mediating on these verses.  The constant flow of the hot shower water became symbolic of the never-ending cleansing of Jesus.  If I stayed under the water, I was cleansed.  Theoretically, I could stay under the water for 5 minutes or for the rest of my life.  I could even come and go in and out of the water if I chose.  The water only stopped falling on me if I stepped out from under it or turned off the water source. 

Note in the verse that the condition of being continually forgiven of sin is that we share UNBROKEN fellowship with Jesus.   Unbroken fellowship is symbolic of staying continuously under the water.  If I were to step out of the water, I would be breaking fellowship. The water does not move away from me.  I might step under the water if I needed refreshing and then back out if I wanted to do something apart from the water.  If I were to turn the water off at the source, I would be saying that I was done with the water and did not even want the ability to step in and out of the water. 

Where are you with Jesus?  Are you walking in unbroken fellowship?  Do you go back and forth with Him?  Are you in fellowship with Him while in church but maybe step out of fellowship with Him at work?  Or, have you completely turned Him off in your life?  The beautiful thing about the Lord is that His mercies are new every day and his love for you never ceases (Lamentations 3:22-23).  All you have to do is turn on the “water” and step back into his presence.  He is calling you back to the place of refreshing.

Unbroken fellowship is the place where we are intimately aware of His presence all around us in every moment.  This is the place where we seek Him at a deeper level and ask Him to draw us in at a deeper level.  This place does not mean that we do not make mistakes.  Our desire is to stay in obedience to His word and ways so that we stay in fellowship.  If we do make a mistake, we are quick to repent, He is quick to forgive and fellowship is quickly restored.  This deep intimacy moves us to a place where we cannot stand being in sin because of the broken fellowship.  God and sin cannot co-exist.  When we are in constant fellowship, we can feel when we are coming out of fellowship as clearly as we can feel whether we are standing under flowing water, and we instantly long for the place of fellowship again.  Be quick to repent and restore fellowship! Unbroken fellowship with Jesus is the best place to be.