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To eat the Lord as the word is to take Him in as our life supply; He is the bread of life for us to eat—vv. 48, 51.
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The way to eat the Lord is to pray the Word; to pray-read the Word of God is to exercise our spirit to eat the word—Eph. 6:17-18.
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The more we eat God’s words, the more we will be constituted and saturated with Christ—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17; Col. 3:4,10-11.
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As we eat the Lord Jesus, we need to have proper spiritual digestion—Ezek. 2:8—3:3; Jer. 15:16; Rev. 10:9-10:
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If we have good digestion, there will be a thoroughfare for the food to get into every part of our inward being—Eph. 3:16-17a.
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Indigestion means that there is no way for Christ as the spiritual food to get into our inward parts—Heb. 3:12-13, 15; 4:2.
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We need to keep our whole being with all our inward parts open to the Lord so that the spiritual food will have a thoroughfare within us; if we do this, we will have proper digestion and assimilation, we will absorb Christ as spiritual nourishment, and Christ will become our constituent—Col. 3:4, 10-11.
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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—John 1:1, 14; 6:32-33, 48, 51, 57.
Morning Nourishment
John 6:48-51 I am the bread of life….This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. 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.The Lord whom we eat as our food is the Spirit. Therefore, which organ do we use to eat Him? We use our spirit to eat Him. The Lord is Spirit, so we must use our spirit to eat Him. How do we eat Him? By calling, “0 Lord! 0 Lord!” To call on the Lord is to eat Him. The Bible clearly shows us that the Lord is our food, and we must eat Him. As the Spirit He is our food. The organ by which we eat Him is also the spirit. Moreover, the way to eat Him is by calling on the Lord’s name. Calling on the Lord is eating the Lord. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Eating the Lord,” p. 26)
Today’s Reading
[John 6 gives] five characteristics of the Lord as the bread of life. He is the heavenly bread (vv. 41, 50, 51, 58), the bread of God (v. 33), the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), the living bread (v. 51), and the true bread (v. 32). As the bread of life, Christ is the bread with eternal life, with zoe. As the true bread, the real bread, He is the reality of the food we eat daily….Therefore, through the Word we need to feed on Christ as the living bread.In chapter 6…there are six sections related to Christ as the bread of life (vv. 32-71). In the first of these sections (vv. 32-51a), we see that Christ, the bread of life, was incarnated. In verse 33 Christ refers to Himself as the bread of God, who came down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Although Christ is the very God, He became flesh in order to be the bread of life for us to eat. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, “The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” p. 211)
The best digestion occurs when the food that gets into our stomach has a free course to get into our whole system. This affords us the best nourishment. On the other hand, we have indigestion when due to some blockage our food does not have a free course in us. Pray-reading is wonderful, but we also have to pray, “Lord, clear a way within me. O Lord, have a free course within me.” Pray-reading does not help us to obtain mere knowledge; rather, it brings many things of the Lord into us. Therefore, we need to give the things of the Lord a free course within us. This affords us the best spiritual digestion, assimilating what we have pray-read. Never say no to the Lord; learn always to say Amen.
Whether or not we understand what we pray-read, it always brings something of the Lord into us. When these things get into us, they need a free course. Thus, we always have to say Amen. The Lord, the Word, and the Spirit are one. The Lord is the Word, the Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord. When we get the Word into us, we have the Spirit and we have the Lord….If we pray-read for ten minutes, we may not understand much, but we will sense that something is within us. We may say that it is the Word, we may say that it is the Spirit, or we may say that it is the Lord. Whatever term we use, there will be something moving within us and adjusting us.
After pray-reading, we may have the intention to go fishing, but something within us indicates that we should not go. Is it the Word, is it the Spirit, or is it the Lord? It is hard to say. It is not even a “gentle, quiet voice” (1 Kings 19:12). In Christianity many like to talk about the gentle, quiet voice, but that is something of the Old Testament. What is within us is not a voice or a clear word such as “don’t” or “do.” There is simply a sensation within us, indicating that we should not go. What should we do at that time? We have to say, “Amen, Lord. Amen.” (CWWL, 1971, vol. 4, “Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” p. 39)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “The Lord’s Recovery of Eating,” ch. 1; CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer,” ch. 6