There is a distinctly beautiful and meaningful difference between "UNION with God" and "COMMUNION with God". At the same time, though, they are the single operation of, first, the "inhalation" and then the subsequent "exhalation" of the back-to-back operation of the Cross. They represent two different functions, but are side-by-side siblings of a single operation - which are the two modalities of the very same breath of life and love. 

     This intimacy, yet distinction, between union and communion can be noted in the structural similarity of the two words. The two words have exactly the same syllables. In fact, all of "union" exists entirely within "communion". But "communion" has the prefix to "union" of "com" for "COME". Come unto Me in fellowship (communion). Whilst union, on the other hand, is when we GO for God. Union is when we stick up our hand like Isaiah and and say "Here I am. Send me" - ISAIAH 6:8.

      "Communion" is when we come and drink from the WELLSPRING of love, from the living charter of the way and the truth and the life. "Union" is when we unite with the WILL of the Father, just like Jesus did at Gethsemane. From the fill of our lungs through the inhalation of first COMING unto Him (inhalation of the Cross), we then exhale that same breath of life, as we GO for Him (exhalation of the Cross). This is the working model of bringing the 5 loaves and 2 fish unto Jesus (COME/Inhalation) that then feeds the 5,000 (GO/Exhalation). It's the process of first filling our love tank with the sumptuous supply of our Father's love, and then pouring out that love in the liberty and life of loving our neighbour as ourselves. 

     It is that Garden of Gethsemane wine press operation of first filling our cup so completely through communion with the Father that when it overflows, like the blood that seeped from Jesus pores, the fulfilment of our service and our lives become the expression of "our cup running over" in love, for both the blessing OF and the witness TO our neighbour. In fellowship and relationship we COME to the Father through Christ (JOHN 14:6). And out of the rivers of living water of that communion, we then GO where the river takes us.

     We come to Him at the Cross. and then go in His name at the behest of the Cross. Two pieces of wood permanently in communion and union so that there is no distinction between their love and their will. One love, one will, one outcome. "That they may be one with each other, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." - JOHN 17:21. We are all called to GO into the world. "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." - JOHN 17:18.

     The sphere of our mission is the world, not the church. We all have an apostolic call to go and be a "witness" to the world and a "blessing" to the world. In other words to be a witness and a blessing to those who do not know the Lord. Through first communion and then union. We are to be IN the world, but not part OF the world. We are not to "isolate" ourselves from the world but "separate" ourselves from the practices of the world. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." - JOHN 17:15-17. As we go into the world, how does God protect us from the evil one? Through sanctifying us with the truth. Through the daily renewing of our minds through the transforming sanctification of the spirit and life that is His word.

     The world is to be ENGAGED through the commission and compassion of MATTHEW 22:37-40. We are to first inhale the wisdom and the way through communion, and then engage our neighbour as we exhale and pass on that breath of life in love. It is through first communion and then union with the will of the Father that we begin to see with the eyes of Compassion and live with  the heart of Commission. Which is not the filthy rags of looking at the world through the eyes of Criticism and with the heart of Contempt. 

     For the people of "the world" are not the "enemy", but our orphan brothers and sisters, and our widowed siblings. They are not the enemy, but the "victims" of the enemy, the same enemy we were all once victims of too, but for the grace of God, and the witness of those who were brave enough to make the sphere of their mission the world.

   And in so doing, by taking the torch from those who are imitators of Christ, in the name of love we too can say, "“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.” - PSALMS‬ ‭145:1‬.

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." - 1 TIMOTHY 1:17.

God's richest blessings, Wayne Biehn