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We Need to Eat More


Eat More!

Jesus said a lot of fascinating things while he was on earth, and some of his sayings were hard to accept. If we were to create a top ten list of hard sayings of Jesus, probably topping the list would be this statement: “Unless you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you have no life in you.”  This statement separated the men from the boys you could say, and many left.  Thankfully, Jesus was speaking in terms of metaphor.  He expertly wields metaphor comparing spiritual truths that are mysterious to physical truths that are easily understood and relatable.
Jesus goes on to say that his flesh is real food, his blood is real drink. Food and drink nourish our bodies, they are gathered and consumed, resulting in health and vitality. Communion is a reminder of the reality that we live through His life by trusting in him. “This is my body, broken for you.” His broken body and spilled blood is a daily, vital spiritual reality that is as real as food.

To live by Him every day is to take his word and to believe it, daily. We do not have life in and of ourselves; our lives come from His life laid down and raised into newness of life. This has been hitting me in a fresh way. We need to feed on him daily even as we need to eat daily. There is no lingering life from last weeks meal. Well, it may linger, but we want vitality and abundance, not survival. Something is wrong if we are not hearing Him every day, for His word is spirit and life.

In the same passage, the disciples asked how to work the works of God. Jesus responds, “Believe on me.”   Faith is the means by which we feed on His sanctifying work. To believe on Him, we have to dig into His word. "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night." (Joshua 1:8). Oh, we need to see this!  Jesus was the “word made flesh." He is the law and all of the covenant promises in the flesh, personified.  

The Jews were commanded in Deuteronomy to constantly speak of the law to their children. They were to write it on the doorposts of their houses, on their hands, and even wear it between their eyes! These same laws, that were external then, are now inscribed in our hearts and minds because we have been cleansed of sin and are now inhabited by His Holy Spirit.

Even so, we must partake daily.  As we eat natural food daily ,so too we must eat spiritual food daily. By praying, reading, studying, and meditating on his living word, we are actually consuming his very life. His broken body accomplished something that is powerful, it reverberates through time and accomplishes deliverance, healing, and restoration.  But action is required. We must eat.  As we do, our minds are transformed and we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We can do nothing apart from Him!

His word is not an instruction to implement on our own. His word is first and foremost a promise to claim. The Israelites had a Promised Land, and so do we.  We enter it by the power and work of His Spirit that is activated through His word. So, we must learn to eat more in the spiritual sense if we long to live more abundant life. As Smith Wigglesworth has said, we all can have as much of the Holy Spirit as we want. Are we hungry? He fills the hungry heart.
 

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