Search
Scripture Reading: John 6:54-57; Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; Matt. 4:4; Jer. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:2; Isa. 12:3-4; Rom. 10:12
Salvation is God entering into us to be our life. It is marvelous that we can experience Him by allowing Him to fill us and to make home in us, that is, to occupy every part of our being. In our experience this is also something normal that does not require us to exert any effort or to do something. Salvation is high and mysterious because God has accomplished everything so that He can work Himself into us to be our life, our living, and our person. This is the highest revelation in the New Testament. Salvation is different from and higher than religion and philosophy, including the ethical teachings of Confucius.
God has also become our enjoyment. He is our food and drink so that we can eat and drink Him. To say that we can eat and drink God may sound offensive and seem to be wild, but it is the revelation in the Bible.
God first created the heavens and the earth. Then He created man in His own image and formed a spirit within man in order for man to receive Him. The New Testament says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:24). Only the human spirit can touch and receive the divine Spirit. Only our human spirit is capable of worshipping the Spirit of God. Worshipping the Spirit is the inclination and obligation of our spirit.
After creating man God did not give him numerous messages or commandments. Rather, God placed man in front of the tree of life and charged him not to be careless concerning his eating. In other words, it was not a matter of man’s conduct but of what he ate. The first thing in the Bible concerning man is the matter of eating. Whether man would be acceptable or unacceptable depended on what he ate.
To eat is to receive, that is, to take in food that is outside of us so that it becomes our life essence. The food that we eat is digested and then assimilated into the cells of our body and even becomes the constituents of our cells, our very substance. Chinese children who live in China are usually short, thin, and pale, but if they go to the United States, in just five years they will grow tall, become husky, and look healthy. This difference is caused by their eating. American food is rich in nutrients; thus, those who eat American food grow up looking like Americans. While an American brother was living in Taipei, his child became yellowish in complexion. One day I asked the brother why his child’s complexion was yellowish, and the brother said that his child had been eating too many carrots. This shows that we look like what we eat, or in other words, we are what we eat.
I grew up in a Christian home and often contacted American pastors. One day I asked my mother why the American pastors smelled like cows. She replied, “They eat beef every day, so they smell like cows.” My maternal grandfather lived near the sea, and his home smelled of fish. When I asked my mother about this, she said, “They eat fish every day, so they have the smell of fish.” We are what we eat.
We need to ask ourselves, “What are we eating?” I am not referring to the physical food that nourishes our body; I am referring to spiritual food. To believe in the Lord Jesus is different from believing in a religion. Religion teaches people to devoutly worship God, but to believe in the Lord Jesus is to eat Christ in our spirit. The expression eating Christ does not sound nice, but in the Scriptures the Lord Jesus compared Himself to different kinds of food. In John 1:29 He is spoken of as the Lamb of God. In chapter 6 He is the bread of life (vv. 35, 48, 51), and in verse 57 He said that those who eat Him will live because of Him. The words because of can also be rendered as “through” or “by.” The Lord is the bread of life, and those who eat Him will live through Him and by Him. The Lord’s comparison of Himself to the bread of life indicates that we need to eat Him in order to be nourished by Him. No matter how much we may appreciate or praise the bread of life, it has nothing to do with us if we do not eat it. However, if instead of appreciating and praising we would take a few bites, we would receive nourishment. Bread is not for appreciation; it is for eating.
The expression eating Christ may sound rather wild, but the Lord Jesus came to be our bread. He is the bread of life to be the strength for our living and walk; hence, He is not for us to appreciate but for us to receive by eating. The breakfast that I ate this morning gives me the strength to speak. Without such a rich and nutritious breakfast, I would not have the strength to release this message. A car needs to “eat” gas in order to run; a car cannot run without gas.
The Lord Jesus is the bread of life, and those who eat Him will live by Him. The bread of life should be made from wheat; however, the Lord said that this bread is His flesh: “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him” (vv. 55-56). It is a mystery that bread, which is of the vegetable life, can be flesh as well. This shows that it is not easy to understand the Lord.
The Lord’s words are simple in meaning yet profound in significance. He is the bread of life, which is of the plant life. Furthermore, His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. Both flesh and blood refer to the lamb. Hence, on the one hand, the Lord is typified by the vegetable life—bread; on the other hand, He is typified by the animal life—the lamb. The Lord as bread is for feeding and for the multiplication of life, and the Lord as the Lamb is for redemption by the shedding of blood so that we may partake of Him.
The vegetable life typifies the Lord Jesus, showing that He feeds us and is being reproduced in us. He is the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died in order to bring forth His believers as many grains for His multiplication (12:24). He is bread to feed us so that we may live because of Him (6:57). A grain of wheat that is sown into the ground is for the multiplication of life, and wheat grains that are ground into flour and made into bread are for feeding. Hence, the vegetable life typifies the Lord Jesus.
The animal life also typifies the Lord Jesus, showing that He accomplished redemption in order for us to partake of Him. He is the Lamb of God for our sins to be taken away (1:29). During the passover, the children of Israel killed the lamb, put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and on the lintel of the house, and ate the flesh of the lamb together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exo. 12). This picture shows that the Israelites were sinful and deserved to be slain. However, through the blood of the lamb they were redeemed by God; He passed over them and did not slay them. As a result, they were able to enjoy peace and could eat the flesh of the lamb.
This was the atmosphere when the Lord Jesus spoke concerning eating His flesh and drinking His blood in John 6. He said that His flesh is true food and that His blood is true drink (v. 55). This means that we should accept everything that has been accomplished through His blood. His blood redeems us so that we are spared from destruction, from God’s judgment, and are placed in a peaceful situation for us to enjoy Him as food, as our life supply.
The Lord Jesus is the bread of life. In verse 51 the Lord said, “The bread which I will give is My flesh.” This indicates that the composition of the bread is not only of the vegetable life but also of the animal life; it is flesh-bread. The New Testament indicates that the Lord is the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died to be reproduced in us and to be our life supply. He is also the Lamb of God who shed His blood for us and gave Himself to us so that we may partake of Him.
During the passover, a lamb was slain, and the people enjoyed the lamb peacefully through its shed blood. The Israelites ate the lamb in haste with their loins girded, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hands (Exo. 12:11), because they had to leave the land of Egypt immediately after eating the lamb. After the people ate the lamb, it entered into their cells and became their constitution. Hence, they were living by the lamb that they had eaten and were thus strengthened to walk out of Egypt.
The pictures in the Old Testament are types of the realities in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus is the incarnated God becoming the Lamb of God and taking the form of a man with blood and flesh so that He could shed His blood for our sins and accomplish redemption for us. Then in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit to enter into us so that we may partake of Him. Furthermore, He is the bread of life, the flesh-bread, so that we may be redeemed, fed, and supplied. Our need today is to eat Him, to drink Him, and to enjoy Him practically.
In 1958 I held a conference in Taipei concerning eating, drinking, and enjoying God. After the first message a brother who was a college professor told me that although the message was good, some of the phrases that had been used were barbaric. He was referring to the expression eating Jesus. I replied, “This way of speaking began with the Lord Jesus, not with me. He said, ‘He who eats Me...’ He was the One who took the lead to use this expression.” Christianity is veiled and has not seen the matter of eating Jesus. We thank the Lord that He has opened our eyes to see this truth in the Bible. John 6:57 in the Chinese Union Version of the Bible reads, “He who eats My flesh” instead of “he who eats Me.” The translators added the word flesh because they did not see this truth and dared not translate what was written. However, adding the word flesh changes the meaning. The Lord Jesus did not tell us to merely eat His flesh; He told us to eat Him.
The Lord’s words are profound and difficult to comprehend. The Jews were therefore puzzled and contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (v. 52). The disciples also murmured, saying, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (v. 60). The Lord Jesus then said to them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (v. 63a). The Lord first spoke of bread, then of flesh and blood, and then of the flesh profiting nothing because it is the Spirit who gives life. The Lord’s words indicate that He is not only the bread of the vegetable life and the bread of the animal life; He is also the Spirit. For the Feast of the Passover the Jews killed a lamb, shed its blood, and then ate its flesh. This lamb is a shadow of Christ. The Lord Jesus is the real Passover lamb who was slain for the shedding of His blood. However, we cannot eat His physical flesh, so He became the life-giving Spirit for our enjoyment. Therefore, He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”
In order to understand the revelation in John 6, we must consider these key words. The Lord Jesus is the bread of life. This bread is also flesh for the accomplishing of redemption. Furthermore, in resurrection He became the Spirit for us to have life. But even the Spirit is abstract and difficult to comprehend. Therefore, in the second part of verse 63 the Lord went on to say, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” This indicates that as the Spirit, He has become the words that He speaks to us. The words that I speak come out of me, so my words are me. If I stand here for an hour without speaking, there is no way for you to know me. When I open my mouth and speak, my words become my expression because they are me. The Lord Jesus is bread, the Spirit, and the Word. When we receive His words, we receive the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes life to us. This life is our supply and consequently becomes our element. Hence, to receive His words is equivalent to eating Him.
The Lord Jesus is our spiritual vitamins. He is the bread of the vegetable life and the bread of the animal life in order to be our supply. He supplies us through His words. When His words enter into us, they are spirit. When we speak forth His words into others, His words become spirit again. When I pray, “Lord, You are the bread of life,” I receive the word, and the Spirit, who is life, becomes my supply. When I release this supply of life, the Spirit enters into others as the word. Hence, the word and the Spirit are one.
The Scriptures are the Lord’s words, and to receive His words is to eat Him. Therefore, we need to read the Scriptures daily and turn them into prayer. This is what we call pray-reading the Lord’s words. God is Spirit, and He is embodied in the Word. If we did not have the Bible, it would be very difficult for us to understand the Spirit, and consequently we would not be able to touch God. God is Spirit. But the Spirit is mysterious and abstract. We thank the Lord that the Spirit is in the Word, the Bible, which has a definite form. We can touch God in any verse of any chapter in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We should not only read this verse; we should also pray, “God! In the beginning, oh, in the beginning God! You are the beginning. You are the beginning of everything, and You are the beginning in my living. Be my beginning today. You are my God, my beginning. You were in the beginning, and You are my beginning.” By praying in this way, we will receive light and be supplied. Through pray-reading, the words in the Bible become the Spirit, and we are supplied with life.
Dr. Hu Shih was a famous philosopher in modern China who commended the Chinese Union Version of the Bible as a great accomplishment for the Chinese language. However, what he commended was the letter, because he remained unsaved. He knew the Bible in letter, not according to the Spirit. Once while I was preaching the gospel in the villages, I met a group of elderly sisters who had very limited education. They had learned only a few verses, including, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16), and “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). When they prayed with these verses, the Spirit came forth, and I was supplied. Dr. Hu Shih had a doctorate degree, but if he were to talk about the Bible, the Spirit would not be conveyed. In contrast, when these illiterate elderly sisters prayed over the Bible, I was supplied. This is to experience the Lord’s words being spirit and life.
I hope that instead of becoming doctors of philosophy, we would be people who pray-read the Bible. Then the words of the Bible will become spirit and life (John 6:63). The Bible, including both the Old Testament and the New Testament, contains the words spoken to us by the Lord. In Matthew 4:4 the Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” This quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3 shows that the Lord acknowledged the Old Testament as the Word of God. This verse also indicates that we should not only read the Word; we should also pray-read the Word. By pray-reading the Word, it becomes our spiritual food.
Let me repeat, God’s Word is not only for us to gain knowledge but also for us to receive as food. Do we gain knowledge, or do we receive food when we read the Bible? For nearly ten years after my salvation I read the Bible diligently. I would even lose my temper if my mother interrupted me to eat a meal. This Bible reading was not profitable, because it killed me and caused me to lose my temper. We should not take this way to receive the Bible. We need to study the Bible for life, not for knowledge.
As a result of such a background, I did not lead the saints in Taiwan merely to study the Bible. Instead, I led them to have the life-study of the Bible, and I later also used the term pray-read. When we read the Bible, we should not simply use our eyes to see or our mind to think. Rather, we should use our spirit to pray in order to receive what we read. Through prayer the words in the Bible convey the Spirit and thus supply us with life and become our spiritual constitution. As a result, we are people who are mingled with the Triune God.
The chorus of hymn #450 in the Chinese hymnal says, “Spirit begets spirit, spirit worships the Spirit, / So that the Spirit fills me; / The Spirit also has become the word with life abundant, / Flowing out as rivers of living water.” This chorus was written not according to someone’s imagination; it is from our experience. The Spirit has regenerated us, so we can worship the Spirit of God with our human spirit. This is the way for our entire being to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit is also the word to supply us with abundant life. Hence, rivers of living water can flow out of us to supply and water others.
This should be the condition of our meetings. Sometimes the weather is not good, but we still come to the meetings, because the purpose of our meetings is to eat the Lord, to drink Him, and to enjoy Him. We also meet to supply one another with the flow of living water. Stanza 4 of Hymns, #501 says, “Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received, / Thy life in me is thus conceived.” When we receive the word, we touch the Spirit in the word and are inwardly supplied. We should eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord not only in the meetings but also in our daily life so that He can become our supply. This is a practical way to experience the Triune God as life.
We must be people who enjoy God so that we can meet and serve properly. Suppose there is a prayer meeting tonight, but instead of enjoying the Lord the first thing in the morning, we are busy preparing for the day and rush off to work. If we are busy for eight hours without enjoying the Lord, by the time we return home after work, we will be too tired to attend the meeting. Even if we go, we will not have any energy, nor will we have the Spirit or the word. Our spirit will be “deflated” like a flat tire. Hence, we must force ourselves to utter a few words, “Lord, thank You for gathering us together; what a grace!” Some may say that this is better than nothing, but can such a meeting be considered a prayer meeting?
In changing the way that we meet, it is important that everyone function; we should not have only one person speaking while the rest listen. To have one person speak means that one person is a pastor, and to have the rest listening means that they stop serving as priests and that their function is annulled. If we desire to function in the meeting, we must enjoy the Lord in our daily life. We cannot function without enjoying the Lord, just as it is difficult for us to function when our physical body is hungry, thirsty, and has no energy.
In order to cope with such a situation, people think that the best way is to have a gifted person give a wonderful message every Lord’s Day. However, the more believers listen to such messages, the more deadened they become, and the less they function. This fills me with grief. The church in Taipei is the birthplace of my ministry. I witnessed the marriage of many saints there, and some of their sons have even become elders. However, the saints there cannot speak the truth with clarity. I blame myself for taking the wrong way of producing a group of co-workers who minister the word on the Lord’s Day while the saints come merely to listen.
There is a brother who has served as a co-worker for over thirty years and has been sent to seven different localities. In every place he was responsible to give the Lord’s Day morning message. Therefore, every Saturday night he had to search the ministry books and compose a message. This was a suffering to him. It was also a suffering for him to stand on the platform and give the message. But now he is released because we no longer meet in the way of one man speaking; instead, we can all function. In order to function in the meeting, we need to enjoy God as our life. This is the proper way for believers to meet and to serve.
Our Lord is edible and drinkable. We eat the Lord through His word and drink Him by calling on His name. Isaiah 12:3-4 says, “You will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation, / ...Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name!” Here calling on the Lord’s name is linked to drinking from the springs of salvation. To draw water from the springs of salvation is to drink, and the way to drink is to call on the Lord’s name. Hence, when we call on the Lord’s name, we drink the Lord.
This kind of drinking also includes eating. When children drink milk, they are also eating. Milk is not only a beverage; it is also food. It is not sufficient to call on the Lord’s name; we must match our calling with His word. Sometimes when we call “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” we are so joyful that we praise, worship, or even give thanks with His words. We may say, “You are the bread of life, and he who eats You will live because of You!” This is to call on the Lord’s name and enjoy His word. Calling is drinking, and enjoying the word is eating. Hence, when we call on the Lord’s name and pray-read the Word, we eat of Him and also drink of Him.
Eating and drinking to enjoy the Lord are like our physical eating and drinking and therefore must be done at fixed times and should neither be too much nor too little. In order to have a healthy body, we should eat small portions many times a day. We should not eat too much each time but should eat until we are eighty percent full. The later it is in the day, the less we should eat. The same applies to calling on the Lord’s name and pray-reading His Word. Every day we should spend time early in the morning to read the Word, but we should not spend too much time reading. We should also call and pray while we read. Immediately after I was saved, I received the help to read through the Bible once a year. This is a very good practice. I have also helped others to do the same. Although this is beneficial, it mainly gives people knowledge, not enjoyment. It is possible to read a long portion without receiving the life supply. Now we know that we only need to spend ten minutes in order to pray-read two verses. Everyone is busy in the morning; some go to work, and others go to school. Although we do not have much time, we can still set aside ten minutes to pray-read two verses. After pray-reading we will have a sufficient supply.
Whether or not we spend ten minutes to pray-read the Word makes a big difference in our day. Without this time our day will not be profitable. Pray-reading and calling on the Lord’s name change our entire being. We will not lose our temper as we used to, nor will we be as anxious as before, and overcoming will become something spontaneous. Therefore, the first thing that we should do every morning is to enjoy the Lord. Then we can exercise to live in the spirit and walk according to the spirit. In this way we will experience the infilling of the Spirit spontaneously, and if necessary we will also be filled with the Spirit outwardly; that is, we will have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As a result, we will be able to preach the Lord Jesus with boldness. Furthermore, we will no longer speak the same old things; instead, we will be filled with wisdom and will touch people.
If we walk in this way the whole day, we may be tired in the evening, yet our spirit will still be strong. Although we may feel tired, we can continue because our spirit is strong. We will still want to meet either with our family or with the saints in our small group or in a larger meeting. Furthermore, we will be energized to open and function by praying and supplying others. If all the saints would supply one another in this way, everyone would be supplied. Even if only half of those in attendance function, that meeting would be brought to the third heaven.
Such a meeting would be unlike our past situation in which we sat deadened in a meeting. Sometimes a prayer meeting was supposed to begin at 7:30 P.M., but at 7:37 the saints were still waiting for the responsible brothers to take the lead. The responsible brothers would reluctantly call a hymn because they did not have a definite inspiration. After singing we would pray formally for the items on the prayer list. Such meetings were destined to die because the saints were taking a dead way and had a dead living. These saints were not helped to enjoy the Lord, and they did not talk about the Lord in their daily life; thus, their meetings were not living. Only when we experience the Triune God as life and exercise to enjoy the Lord can our meetings be fresh and living.
The unique way to experience the Triune God as our life is to enjoy Him. We must spend time to enjoy Him. Our calling on the Lord and our enjoying Him please the Lord. Do not think that we need to do something for the Lord or offer something to Him. What we do for Him may not necessarily please Him, and what we offer to Him may not be acceptable to Him, but our enjoying the Lord pleases Him and is acceptable to Him (Psa. 116:12-13). Every mother is pleased when her children enjoy a meal that she has prepared for them. A mother’s joy is not in receiving presents but in her children enjoying a meal that she has prepared.
We often make the mistake of coming to the Lord to do something for Him or to offer something to Him when we have not enjoyed Him. This is religious and does not please Him. As lovers of the Lord, we should not focus on doing things or on offering something; we should enjoy Him first. Every morning upon rising, we need to enjoy Him until our spirit is fanned into flame. As a result, we will be able to walk according to the spirit, to speak the Lord’s words from our spirit, and to proclaim Him to people during the day. Furthermore, the Spirit will prevail in us, and we will be filled with the Spirit. Then in the evening we will be able to attend the meeting and to function in the meeting. This is the way for our meetings to be delivered from the forms of Christianity. Otherwise, regardless of how much we try to change our method, we will have a change in name only. It is not a matter of changing a method but of living Christ. We must live a life of enjoying the Triune God as our life. Then our meetings will become a fresh and rich testimony of our living as well as a declaration of our living.
We thank the Lord that He is the Spirit and the Word. Moreover, He has given us His name. Now we have the Spirit, the Bible, and the Lord’s name. Our need is to spend some time to exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord. We do not need to spend too much time. We only need to use ten minutes to contact and enjoy the Lord in the morning. It is best to also set aside a few minutes to enjoy the Lord during the day. This will affect our entire day, and it will also influence our meetings and our service. With such a living we will be equipped to practice the new way, the God-ordained way of preaching the gospel, having home meetings, and functioning in larger meetings. The practice of the new way depends on our experiencing the Triune God as our life. I hope that the saints will receive these words and exercise to be persons who enjoy God.
