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God wants us to eat, digest, and assimilate Him so that we become God in life, nature, constitution, and expression but not in the Godhead (1:1, 14; 6:57):
１
The Lord Jesus is the bread of God—the bread of life, the living bread, the true bread out of heaven (vv. 32-33, 48, 51).
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God wants to be digested and assimilated by us so that He can become the constituent of our inward being (vv. 53-57).
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Because we are what we eat, if we eat God as our food, we will be one with God and even become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
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The way for us to become the reality of the kingdom of the heavens is to eat Christ as the all-inclusive bread (Matt. 15:26-27, 32-37):
１
God's economy is not a matter of outward things but of Christ coming into us inwardly; for this, we need to take Christ by eating Him (Eph. 3:17a; John 6:57).
２
The reality of the kingdom of the heavens is Christ Himself (Luke 17:20-21).
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As the heavenly King and the kingdom itself, Christ rules over us by feeding us with Himself as bread (Matt. 15:26-27):
ａ
We can be the reality of the kingdom of the heavens only by being nourished with Christ as our food (vv. 26-27, 32-37).
ｂ
The more we eat Christ as the all-inclusive bread, the more the royal ingredients are constituted into us to become the ruling element within us and to cause us to become the increase of Christ as the reality of the kingdom of the heavens (Dan. 2:34, 35b, 44-45).
Morning Nourishment
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
God not only desires that man be His vessel to contain Him (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7) but also wants man to eat, digest, and assimilate Him (John 6:57). When we eat, digest, and assimilate physical food, we are energized and strengthened....Eventually, the food that we have eaten becomes the fiber, tissue, and cells of our being. In the same way, God's eternal plan is to dispense Himself into us so that He becomes every fiber of our inward being. He wants to be digested and assimilated by us so that He can become the constituent of our inward being. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, "The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy," p. 221)
Today's Reading
Praise the Lord for the day we received the Lord Jesus! He is the tree of life. "In Him was life" (John 1:4). The tree of life is good for food, and Jesus as the bread of life is also good for food. The best way to receive Jesus as the bread of life into us is by eating. We are a living container. We received Jesus into us by eating Him....Recently, I have learned something about eating in a scientific way. When anything is eaten, it is digested and assimilated into the blood system.Eventually, what is eaten becomes the very cells and organic tissues of our being.
It simply becomes us....We are composed of all the elements we eat. It is the same spiritually. If we eat Jesus all the time, we will be composed with Jesus. God made man as His container with His image, and then He put this living container before a tree symbolizing Himself as life. There man was to take God in by the way of eating. The Word tells us that the tree of life was good for food (Gen. 2:9). The only way to take anything into us in order that it might become us is by eating. God is good for eating. God is edible. God presented Himself to man in the form of food. (CWWL, 1973-1974, vol. 2, "The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament," p. 221)
The way for us to realize Christ as the kingdom is to eat and drink of Him as the tree of life and the water of life. These two items, the tree of life and the water of life, will be our portion for eternity. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, "The Kingdom," p. 442)
We do not need outward rituals or practices....God's economy is not a matter of outward things; it is a matter of Christ coming into us inwardly. For this, we need to take Christ in by eating Him. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 550-551)
Luke 17:22-24 proves that the kingdom of God is the Savior Himself, who was among the Pharisees when He was questioned by them. Wherever the Savior is, there the kingdom of God is. (Luke 17:21, footnote 1)
As the heavenly King, [Christ] rules over His people by feeding them with Himself as bread. We can be the proper people in His kingdom only by being nourished with Him as our food. To eat Christ as our supply is the way to be the kingdom people in the reality of the kingdom. (Matt. 15:26, footnote 1)
How can we do God's will in the kingdom? There is no other way but to take Jesus in. We should not try to do the will of God ourselves. We will only fail. The way to fulfill God's will is to take in the One who obeys God all the time. Jesus is the kingdom of obedience. We simply need to take Him in, to eat Him as the children's bread. We may be the Gentile dogs, but we all have our portion under the table (Matt. 15:22-28). We all can eat King Jesus and take Him into us. All the kingly elements are in this bread. The more we eat Jesus, the more the royal ingredients will get into us. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord for such a ruling element within. (CWWL, 1973-1974, vol. 2, "The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament," pp. 57-58)
Further Reading: The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament, ch. 2; Life-study of Matthew, msg. 46