Scripture Reading: John 6:33, 57; 3:3; 18:36; Matt. 5:3, 8; Rom. 14:17
Ⅰ
God's economy is that we eat Christ as the bread of God and be con-stituted with Him in order to express Him and represent Him— 1 Tim. 1:4; John 6:35, 41, 57; Gen. 1:26:
A
God's eternal plan is to dispense Himself into us so that He becomes every fiber of our inward being—Eph. 3:16-17.
B
God's economy is a matter of Christ coming into us inwardly; for this, we need to take Christ by eating Him—v. 17a; John 6:57:
１
The record regarding spiritual eating in the Bible reveals that God intends to dispense Himself into us by the way of eating—v. 57; 1 Cor. 10:3; Rev. 2:7; 22:14.
２
To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they become our constitution—Gen. 2:16-17.
３
To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimi-lated by the regenerated new man in the way of life—John 6:56-57.
４
Eating is the way to experience God's dispensing for His expression and representation—Gen. 1:26; 2:9; John 6:51a, 53-57.
５
The food eaten, digested, and assimilated by us actually becomes us; this is a matter of mingling—1 Cor. 10:17.
６
The oneness that God desires with man is illustrated by what takes place when we eat, digest, and assimilate food—John 6:57.
７
We are what we eat; therefore, if we eat Christ as the bread of God, we will become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
Ⅱ
The way to live in the reality of the kingdom of God is to eat and di-gest Christ as the bread of God—Matt. 15:26-27, 32-37:
A
We can be the reality of the kingdom of God only by being nourished with Christ as our food—John 6:57; 3:3; 18:36.
B
The Lord Jesus is the kingdom of obedience; we need to take Him in by eating Him as our bread so that He may be wrought into us—Phil. 2:8.
C
The more we eat Christ as the bread of God, the more the kingly element is constituted into us to become the ruling element within us—John 6:33, 53-57; 3:3; 18:36.
Ⅲ
By eating and digesting Christ as the bread of God, we experience the inward effects of this bread—Matt. 14:14-20; 15:21-28, 32-38:
A
Our hunger is satisfied—5:6:
１
What truly matters to the Lord Jesus is that our spiritual hunger is satisfied—15:32.
２
Hunger is the foremost condition for spiritual progress; all spiritual progress depends on our hunger—Luke 1:53.
B
We are subdued and brought under the Lord's kingly and heavenly rule— Matt. 14:14-20; 15:32-38:
１
As the King, the Lord Jesus rules over us by feeding us with Him-self as bread—John 6:15, 27, 35.
２
We can live in the reality of the kingdom only by being nourished with Christ as our food—Matt. 4:4, 17; 5:3.
C
Christ as the bread of God casts out the "demons" and deals with rebel-lion, the principle of a demon—15:22, 26-27; Mark 7:24-30; Ezek. 2:8— 3:3:
１
In principle, the things in our daily living that are not under God's ruling are in rebellion against Him and are "demons" that need to be cast out by the Lord Jesus.
２
The Lord rules over us by entering into us as the bread of God to consume the rebellious element within us—John 6:15, 32, 35, 50.
３
The Lord Jesus dispenses Himself into us so that He might dis-charge our rebellious element and replace it with Himself.
D
We are cleansed inwardly—Matt. 23:25-26; 15:1-2, 18, 20, 26-27:
１
We all need an inward cleansing from the Lord—the inward cleans-ing that comes from eating Jesus.
２
As our food, Christ is the best cleansing element; He washes our inner being, and we thereby experience the washing of our disposi-tion—Eph. 5:26-27.
E
We are healed of all kinds of diseases—Matt. 15:21-31:
１
The Lord desires to heal our sick condition—physical, psychological, and spiritual—and to restore us to normality.
２
In Matthew 15 healing comes after eating; this indicates that heal-ing comes from adequate, proper eating.
F
We are enabled to overcome our circumstances—vv. 21-28; Rom. 8:37:
１
Any problem that we have is an indicator that we need to eat Christ as the bread of God—Matt. 15:22, 26-27.
２
Instead of asking the Lord to change our circumstances, we should eat Christ as the bread of God and be content—Phil. 4:11-13.
G
As we digest and assimilate Christ as the bread of God, we live in the reality of the kingdom of God—John 6:33; Matt. 4:4; 6:33:
１
All the kingly elements are in this bread; by eating the bread of God, we are constituted with the reality of the kingdom of God—5:3.
２
The more we eat Christ as the bread of God, the more the kingly ele-ments are wrought into us, and the more we live in the reality of the kingdom of God—vv. 3-8; Rom. 14:17; Rev. 1:6, 9; 5:9-10.