The sphere of eating and drinking

“𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒; ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑦 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑦 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡.” – 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 6:35

Not many people understand that the secret of our church life is the fulfillment of eating Jesus’ flesh and blood. The Lord said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” (John 6:56). But where do we eat Jesus’ flesh and blood? It is when we are together, when we are in this reality of the churching—the tabernacling. Or, in a more developed sense, it is when we are in New Jerusalem today—in the new creation, in the living of the new creation, and living unto the new creation. In that sphere, you can taste the reality, not just understand it; there’s a huge difference between “I understand” and eating and drinking.

How can you eat Christ? How can you get fed by Christ today? You cannot be fed by teaching and doctrine or from good understanding, good knowledge, or good tips; those things are from an entirely different sphere. Don’t make up your mind or try to find “help.” Don’t look toward the high doctrines or philosophies. Don’t insist on keeping the law. You don’t need to be right, but you definitely need to be in Christ, in the progression of His human living, in the progression of His crucifixion, and especially in the progression of His resurrection, until you are able to claim that victory and you are able to blend easily with others. Open your mouth! Eat and drink!

This process is the very ministry that is our food and becomes our constitution. Matthew 4:4 says, “…It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.’” You have to have the Word—the constitution, the ministry—in you. The Word is not merely helpful information; we eat the Word and it digests in us and breaks down into smaller pieces that become our constitution. Through this eating and drinking process, Christ mingles Himself with man. We become one with Him and we are made into a new being. This is very mysterious! The Word is mingled with us in the flesh and blood and becomes our nutrients and substance to reconstitute us unto the new creation.

John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” The Word became flesh and 𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑠. In this critical era—in the church age—the tabernacling is not just a philosophical statement and not even just a truth; it must be a reality. The churching is the realization of that tabernacling of this very Word, the “Word became flesh.” When the divine Word becomes flesh, that involves a revelation—a process of divine mingling. Revelation is not a knowledge or a degree of education you can get. It has to be received like food in a mingling and constituting process at the table. Since Jesus already disappeared from earth 2,000 years ago, who is the one reclining at the table with us? I tell you, it is this very Word—through incarnation, through human living, through crucifixion, through resurrection, through ascension, through dispensing, through mingling—that becomes the flesh, the Body of Christ, when we break bread together.

Today, the reality of this eating and drinking is in the church life. And the church life is simply the living out of the ministry. We have the Body of Christ in reality, and every member of the Body has gone through this ministry process. This very Jesus as a prototype went through the process of God’s economy and God’s eternal plan. When we go through the same process—through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, dispensing, and mingling—we also have that same nature; we become an entrance and a true source of sustenance to the Body. We all come to the table to eat and drink of one another—and of Christ—to be mingled together.

The church life, then, 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡’𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑. People can talk about having a church life and even about eating and drinking, but living in this constitution is altogether different. When we are together in this reality of tabernacling—in this sphere—we can taste the real thing. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒉. We partake of the one bread; this makes us one Body. People often say they want to be constituted or have a powerful churchlife, yet they refuse to open their mouths. If you truly want to recline at the table with Christ, then you must be willing to be mingled. Don’t look for another solution besides eating and drinking Christ; it is the reality of churching. This key is the reality of blending, the reality of feeding one another—of being one in new creation. When we open our mouths and speak, it feeds Christ to others. When we come together, we are feeding each other—I am feeding you and you are feeding me. We all eat Christ and eat one another. This Christ dispensed into us is the Word becoming flesh to us, and we become the Body of Christ. And that sphere of eating and drinking is our churching—our tabernacling—on the earth today.

(𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑔𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑛 07/12/2020, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟)