Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:9a; John 6:32-33, 35, 41, 50-51, 57; Matt. 15:21-28
Ⅰ
To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they eventually become our constitution—Gen. 2:16-17:
A
God's economy is not a matter of outward things but of Christ coming into us; for this we need to take Christ in by eating Him—Eph. 3:17a; John 6:57.
B
The record regarding spiritual eating in the Bible is a strong indication that God intends to dispense Himself into us by the way of eating—Gen. 2:16-17; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20; 22:14.
C
To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life—John 6:56-57.
D
Deuteronomy 8:7-10 reveals that God wants us to eat the produce of the good land—the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.
Ⅱ
We need to eat Christ as the all-inclusive bread—Matt. 14:14-20; 15:21-28, 32-38:
A
We need to eat Christ as the bread of life, the living bread, the heavenly bread, the true bread, and the bread of God—John 6:32-33, 35, 41, 48, 50-51.
B
When we eat Christ as the all-inclusive bread, our hunger is satisfied—Matt. 5:6:
１
What truly matters to the Lord is that our hunger is satisfied—15:32.
２
Hunger is the foremost condition for spiritual progress; all spiritual progress depends on our hunger—Luke 1:53.
C
By eating Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we are subdued and brought under the Lord's kingly and heavenly rule—Matt. 14:14-20; 15:32-38:
１
As the heavenly King, the Lord Jesus rules over us by feeding us with Himself as bread—John 6:15, 27, 35.
２
The Lord Jesus is the kingdom of obedience; we need to eat Him as our bread so that He may be wrought into us—Phil. 2:8.
D
Christ as the all-inclusive bread casts out the "demons" and deals with our rebellion—Matt. 15:22, 26-27; Mark 7:24-30; Ezek. 2:8—3:3:
１
Demons indicate rebellion, and the principle of a demon is rebellion.
２
In principle, the things in our daily walk that are not under God's ruling but are in rebellion against Him are "demons" that need to be cast out by the Lord Jesus.
３
The Lord Jesus rules over us by entering into us as the all-inclusive bread to consume the rebellious element within us.
４
Christ, the heavenly King, dispenses Himself into us that He might discharge our rebellious element and replace it with Himself.
E
By eating Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we are cleansed inwardly—Matt. 23:25-26; 15:1-2, 18, 20, 26-27:
１
As our food, Christ is the best cleansing element; He washes our inner being, and we thereby experience the washing of our disposition.
２
We all need an inward cleansing from the Lord—the cleansing that comes from eating Jesus.
F
As we feed on Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we are healed of all kinds of diseases—15:21-31:
１
The Lord desires to heal our sick condition physically, psychologically, and spiritually and to restore us to normality.
２
In Matthew 15 healing comes after eating; this indicates that healing comes from adequate, proper eating.
G
If we eat Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we will be enabled to overcome our circumstances—vv. 21-28; Rom. 8:37:
１
Instead of asking the Lord to do something in our environment, we should take Him into our being by eating Him as the all-inclusive bread.
２
If we feed on Christ, we will no longer care whether our circumstances are good or bad; we will care only to eat Jesus—Phil. 4:11-13.
３
We need to take Christ into us and let Him be our life, our food, and our everything; then our circumstances will change.
H
By eating Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we are constituted with the reality of the kingdom of the heavens—Matt. 5:3, 6, 8:
１
We can be the kingdom people in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens only by being nourished with Christ as our food—4:4.
２
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.
I
By eating Christ as the all-inclusive bread, we are deified; that is, we become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—John 6:33:
１
God wants to be eaten, digested, and assimilated by us so that He can become the constituent of our inward being—Eph. 3:17a.
２
We are what we eat; therefore, if we eat God in Christ as our food, we will be one with God and even become God in life, nature, constitution, appearance, and expression but not in the Godhead—Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20; 4:3; 21:10-11.
J
"Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread"—1 Cor. 10:17:
１
We all are one Body (signified by the one bread) because we all partake of the one bread.
２
The Christ of whom we all partake constitutes us His one Body; thus, our eating of Christ as the all-inclusive bread makes us His Body.