1. Eating of Christ
All eating is always by invitation only. You can help yourself to whatever of Christ you want, as much of each element or as little as you wish. You are perfectly free to skip this and that, and to eat of only what you choose. And eating what you choose is of God. Picking this part of Christ and passing up that part of Christ is your right. Your every choice is holy.
To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. Revelation 2:7
What does it mean to – how, exactly do we – eat of Life?
Christ lives in our hearts by faith.
The analogy – faith is the knife and fork – suggested to me by a reader, is a great one to use. Let’s follow it and see what the Lord speaks. God speaks through anything at hand, including knives and forks.
There are five parts to eating. Let’s list them first.
1. Give thanks
2. Help yourself to whatever and how much you wish.
3. Cut the food into bite-sized portions and fork it in.
4. Chew the food.
5. Swallow the food.
1. Give Thanks
Eating of Christ begins with giving thanks. When we sit down at a table, someone else has done the work. For this analogy, we leave out the cook and the farmer, since, for us, both cook and farmer are the Lord Jesus Himself.
We do not climb the tree to get its fruit; that is not a task given to us.
Between the beginning of Gethsemane until Jesus returned from placing His blood on the throne of heaven, just before showing Himself to the disciples in the upper room, between those two points, Jesus did a work that is His alone. Everything He did inside those two points, we did inside of Him. We follow His pattern in all the rest of His example, but between those two points, HE CARRIES us inside Himself.
We do not climb the tree to get its fruit; that is not a task given to us. We do not “put ourselves to death.” When Jesus died upon the tree of life, He said, “It is finished.” His death IS our death and that’s an end of it.
Jesus Himself obtained the fruit of that tree, and He comes to us with its fruit and says, “Here is life; eat of Me.”
I do not put myself upon the cross; I do not bring myself to any death. I do not practice “self-control” as a means of being worthy to eat of life.
Yet the gospel does require of me a choosing and an action. I must chose, and I must do. I give thanks – the one requirement I must fulfill to eat of Him.
When I give thanks, I have removed all obligation from myself to earn the gift. Of course, if I work for the gift, it is no gift at all, but wages. Christ life cannot be and is never a wage. But when I give thanks, I, by an act of will and action, place myself as the RECEIVER of goodness. At the same time, I am not under any obligation to the Giver; there are no strings attached.
There are no strings attached because there is no commandment to eat. God does not command anyone to eat of Christ. There is no obedience involved. Whosoever will may come and freely eat.
Life is invitation only. Eating of life always begins with giving thanks.
Giving thanks is the bold presumption of faith. Giving thanks honors God by acknowledging that His gift, all of His gift, is true.
2. Help Yourself
Now, faith is always bold and presumptuous, but each step of faith is more bold and presumptuous than the last. “I’ll have some of that, thank you very much,” is a bolder presumption of audacity than the willful act of giving thanks.
Of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born …of God. John 1:12-13
Because I gave thanks at the beginning of the feast, it is now my right to become a son of God. No one will give me my right, and God never commands me to take it. Eating of Christ is invitation only. I am free to eat as little or as much of whatever parts of Christ suit my fancy.
Now, God made me a global thinker. I can’t look at anything without needing to see and understand the whole picture. Neither can I discuss parts until I first know how they are related to the whole.
When I was nineteen and newly returned to the Lord, I was sitting in an evangelistic service. The preacher was vociferating loudly about the glory of heaven. He said, “I have such a BIG imagination. When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask the Lord for the BIGGEST house on the block.”
I thought to myself, “How odd!” I had asked the Lord for a solar system so I could design the entire surface of each planet, one at a time, every mountain and valley, every river and waterfall, and fill each newly formed planet with creatures, plants and animals, all of my own invention, before continuing on to the next planet in the line and starting all over again with a different idea. I was happily imagining some ages of time involved with such a boon from the Lord.
The biggest house on the block? What infinitesimally small thinking. Let’s approach eating of Christ with the same mind.
A friend has on his blog what he considers “The most important word preached in the 20th century.” I understand his point, but for me, I would pick a series of words preached by Sam Fife in the years 1975 and 1976, which I heard on tape in the years 1978-1979. The most important book of the 20th century is, to me without question, George Warnock’s The Feast of Tabernacles, 1951.
Everything you read from me comes out of the resounding echoes of that word from the throne of God that entered into me and has never stopped speaking. The word Sam Fife preached came originally from George Warnock’s book. The gist of that word is this question, “What is Christ?” “Who is Christ?”
If we are invited to eat of Christ, of what are we eating?
Let’s also enlarge our picture of the meal at which we are seated. One of the highlights of my childhood was the church potluck dinner. I grew up in the Mennonite church through the 1960’s. I can assure you, those Mennonite lady’s, who had come out of the Great Depression, were the best cooks on earth. A Mennonite potluck dinner, for a little boy who liked his food, was indeed heaven on earth.
I early on developed the skill of piling as many bits of food from as many dishes as I could reach as high upon the given plate as was humanly possible. I always prefer a buffet. The bigger the buffet, the better I like it. But no buffet in today’s world can hold a candle to those Mennonite potlucks.
Christ is a vast buffet. In this buffet are four great tables of food, each filled with innumerable dishes of every shape and kind.
“What and who is Christ?” There are many different ways one could approach an answer to this question. Here is my approach for this time. Christ is four things, four great tables of food, each table itself filled with many different kinds of food, many different mixtures and combinations.
1. Christ is every Word God speaks.
2. Christ is the One who lives as Me.
3. Christ is a Spirit of Power.
4. Christ is a Corporate Body.
In all that I have taught, I have expounded greatly on Tables 1 and 2. I have referred to 3 and 4, but they are equally as important as 1 and 2.
But I have not given you the whole picture at this potluck feast of Christ. There are not the four Tables only; with all sadness we see a fifth table, a little thing off to the side. In a wide ring around this fifth table is a circle of red-faced sweaty little men. They are the leaders of cults and denominations, of sects and groups. Each one of these little men has taken his own plate through the four tables of Christ, choosing his own desires, a little portion here, a tiny bit there. He has placed that plate on his part of the fifth table and surrounded his plate with a secure wall, blocking all sight of any other plate.
Each of these little men has a string of people behind him, and he points to the plate he has chosen and says, “Eat here, this is all there is. Don’t look at anything else; this that I have chosen is Christ and nothing more.”
Around these little men press multitudes of Christians, all with their backs to the great feast of Christ, convinced that they are “safe,” protected from all the wildness of that uncontrollable and unlimited Christ who is too dangerous for them. In contrast, around the vast tables of Christ you can see only a few, a couple here and there, determined to help themselves as they are invited.
If we want to know what it means to eat of Christ, this picture, and this distinction, is so very critical.
First, we must have this understanding. All eating is always by invitation only. You can help yourself to whatever of Christ you want, as much of each element or as little as you wish. You are perfectly free to skip this and that, and to eat only of what you choose. And eating what you choose is of God. Picking this part of Christ and passing up that part of Christ is your right. Your every choice is holy. God is infinite. What makes us think we can eat of His fullness?
Well, He tells us that we can eat of His fullness, but He never compels anyone to eat more than they wish; and He blesses all who eat of Christ.
But what Christ NEVER EVER does is instruct anyone, “Don’t eat of that.” The moment I hear someone say, “Don’t eat any of that,” they have lost my attention. Neither does Christ ever say, “Eat of this.” All He says is, “You may freely eat.” Eating is invitation only.
Christ is all four tables in all fullness all the time. But Christ is nowhere near table 5, even though portions of Him have been placed there. Yes, He will move through those portions of Himself that have been placed upon table 5 into the hearts of those timid souls who eat there, because He is Savior. But always, the invitation stands, “Whosoever will may freely eat all that is Christ.”
I read a defender of the faith who was deriding the teaching of “sonship.” He said, “Sonship is not found in the Bible.” Now, it is clear the man lies, not even trying to hide his lie. He is convinced that he has a long line of captive people who will eat only of his choices and will never look to see if, in fact, there is more on the Tables of Christ than what he claims.
I am outwardly a timid man, easily intimidated by strong personalities. I have always been a favorite target of bullies, though in actuality, they have little ongoing success with me. The church of Christ is filled with bullies, and many of them are pastors and elders, “guarding the flock” from Christ.
John 1:12 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. I have the right to become a son of God. I have the right to eat of every part of Christ all I wish.
And no bully will keep me from my right. I may be timid and weak outwardly in person, inconsequential in the eyes of most; but don’t be fooled by that. I am fierce and bold where it counts, with a tenacity that few possess.
I will eat of Christ, all that He is, and I will not be turned back.
There is a tension in God we must not lose sight of. It is true that God is working all things for good, that He is drawing everyone, bit by bit, into all the goodness of Christ. It is equally true that there are many, many dishes upon those tables of Christ that are ONE Chance only. Those who eat of them now, will eat of them forever; those who pass them up now will never, in all the ages ahead, even know of their existence. There’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever we eat of Christ now will produce in us unending blessing.
But neither is there anything wrong with insisting on eating all that is Christ now, while opportunity offers. It is our right; and no man can give us our right or take it away.
One of the strongest words in Christianity, I just heard it again the other day, is this. “Don’t trouble yourself with all that God is. God is too big and complicated, the Bible is too big and complicated – for you. You don’t have to know all that He speaks, you don’t have to taste all that He is, just be happy with this little, little bit I am giving you. Eat this portion, be happy, and DO NOT DESIRE any more of God than what our church enjoys. We’re wise; we’ve made the best selections; be happy with what we have chosen for you.”
Here’s one distinction we must make. — “Bloom where you are planted.” A wonderful truth of rest, peace, and joy in Christ. — “Bloom where you’re planted.” A powerful weapon of little red-faced men keeping their captive flock away from the vast Tables of Christ just beyond.
The first word the Holy Spirit made alive in my spirit by revelation, at the age of 19, as I was caught back by Him again and had begun to eat hungrily, were these words from John 16. The Holy Spirit will guide you into ALL truth.
Those words leaped in my heart; I knew they were real, I knew they were mine. I seized hold of them with all of my might, and I have never considered anything less since.
Every word God speaks from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is mine. Every word belongs to me, and I have the right from God to eat of it, and no man can prevent me my right. People write to me, not wanting me to eat of a particular word of Christ they don’t like. Hey, if I like Sauerkraut and someone else doesn’t, what business is it of theirs to tell me I should not eat of it? It’s on the table of Christ, is it not? I will have some.
If I wish to eat of Revelation 12:5, I will do so. If I wish to eat of Revelation 18:4-6, I will do so, and I will not ask permission of anyone. I will eat of every word God speaks; all of it is Christ, and all of it is mine.
Every gift and power of the Holy Spirit is MINE. I will possess all that He gives. Every nuance of the river of life, every element of power and authority in heaven and earth belongs to Christ and every part of Christ belongs to me. I will eat of Him.
I will speak in tongues; I will prophesy. I will believe God to see the defeat of death zap through my body, right here on this earth. It is my right, and no man will keep me from my right, no matter how red in the face they get.
Let me inject this. If you want all that Christ is, then you must be baptized in the Holy Spirit, that is, you must experience more than that measure of the Holy Spirit that hovered over you when you were born again, who planted Christ in you. Now Jesus Himself must immerse you into all the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is a Spirit of Power.
More than that, yes, if you want all that Christ is, then receive the gift of praying in tongues, if you have not. Eating of Christ is invitation only. No one is ever obligated to eat of speaking in tongues. There is not one ounce of condemnation upon those who choose to pass up that portion of Christ.
Here is the problem. There are whole vistas and avenues of Christ that they will never know exist because they skip this one serving of Christ. I have spoken in tongues, praying in the Holy Spirit in a language I do not know, groaning with groanings that cannot be uttered, since age 19. Not every moment, no, but often, under my breath, in my spirit, out loud at times when I am driving by myself.
By eating of that portion of Christ for all these years, I know of Power inside of me. I see the endless vistas found on the Table, Christ is a Spirit of Power. I know of what He speaks; I have tasted of that power. It always wells up inside of me.
When I hear one boast, “I don’t need tongues, I have Christ,” it is so very clear to me how much they neither see nor know.
It’s like this sad story. A man lived in poverty all his life, raising his family without enough food to eat, no shoes to wear, a mud hut in which to live. They could not go to school; they worked long hours in the fields for not enough. They were ignorant, with no hope for their own children’s future.
The man dies and goes on. He meets his uncle, departed long before him. His uncle asks him, “Did you enjoy the good life?” He blinks in complete ignorance, the broken burden of empty years and calloused, painful fingers sitting dumbly upon his mind. “The million dollars I put in the local bank in your name?” The uncle asks, anxiously. “Duh,” is the only reply he ever receives.
What unbelievable sorrow to be offered Christ and to choose ignorance, or worse to boast of that ignorance, turning hungry hearts away from Him.
Every precious brother and sister in the body of Christ is mine. What they have to offer is Christ, and I will partake of Him in them. That vast portion of Christ found only on the Table, Christ is a Corporate Body, is a portion of Christ desired by few and known by even fewer. Yet there is as much of Christ to be found there and only there as there is of Christ to be found in me.
When I hear someone say, in whatever words they choose, “I don’t need to gather together with other believers, to walk closely together in the power and fellowship of the Holy Spirit,” it makes me very sad. I know first hand that there are whole vistas of Christ that they will not and cannot know.
I will know Christ is a Corporate Body. I will know Him in His people; I will receive what He is as found only in that koinonia of fellowship, that walking together in the power of the Holy Spirit. I will eat of that portion of His table. It is my right; and no man will deny me my right.
Understand this. Right now, I am in a season of solitude by the determination of God. This is His hand, not my choice. I am always pressing towards the return to that eating of Christ is a Corporate Body, but only in truth and in love, not in pretense or dictate. I know what I want; I will not let go of the vision that fills my heart. I will see that portion of Christ in fullness upon this earth. It is my right.
And I will also eat from that most precious of Tables, Christ is the One who Lives as Me. This also is my right and part of swallowing Christ.
Those who chose to eat in part will know Christ in part. What they will know is beyond wonderful, there is no question there. But those who insist on all the fullness of Christ, will also insist on eating all He is. They grab the largest plates in the stack. They fit and push, work and finesse, until they get every possible portion from every possible dish that is Christ piled high upon their plate.
You can be sure of this. At those Mennonite potlucks, you would have never found me at the long tables with all the adults talk, talk, talking. No, you would have found me off in a corner, eyes wide, devoted to one thing alone, the eating of every wonderful morsel on my very heavy plate. And fully intent on heading back for seconds, just as soon as I could.
3. Cut bite-sized portions
It is not humanly possible to eat all there is of Christ all at the same time. There are those who would limit Christ to their present experience in this world. There are others who would limit Christ to heaven and to the future. I will never limit Christ. But I know that He must be eaten a bit at a time.
I am both a global thinker and a teacher. I am both a builder, with years of practical experience, and a dreamer, who can have as much fun spending hours designing a planet as designing a barn. My problem is, though, that I always give people too much truth too fast. A friend commented, “Truth is a slow burn,” meaning, people can take only a little of what you share, a bit at a time. Otherwise, it’s too overwhelming for them.
That is one of the gifts God gives to ministry in the body of Christ. Yes, there are those who take tiny portions and say, “Eat this and no more.” But, at the same time, there are those who are gifted of Christ to take one portion at a time to feed God’s people, that they might grow, step-by-step, into the fullness of Christ and not die from choking on too big of a bite.
Indeed, I have watched that happen, choking on too much of Christ. But alas, though I am a teacher, I do not have that gift of doling out only a little at a time. Here, it is my desire and hope to give the whole picture.
What I mean is that I give all I can from Table 1. I point to Table 3 and 4, though I can give you nothing from those tables. Table 3 you must get from the Holy Ghost, and Table 4 you must get from walking closely together with other believers in Christ. Table 2, which is found only in a personal relationship between you and Jesus, I will share of Christ personally in me.
But we chew of Christ, one mouthful at a time. Chewing is what we do to make the eating of Christ ours. Chewing Christ is what is in our hand.
4. Chew Christ.
Faith gets ever bolder in each stop of this process. The faith involved in chewing Christ is more audacious than any faith yet. You see, everything on the four banquet tables is Christ in His own person. But when you chew Christ, the first part of yourself, your saliva, mixes together with that which is purely Christ.
Christ is now between your teeth.
Chewing is the very first part of the digestive process. The food we eat will do us good only as our body is able to digest it. Food that is unmixed with saliva more easily goes right out the other end. For our allegory, let’s put it this way. If we will not chew of Christ, we cannot swallow.
To chew is to meditate, but to chew is also every part of practicing Christ.
Now, here is the wonderful thing. We, ourselves, as an outer vessel, are not Christ, per se. When we say, “Christ,” we mean the Person of the Lord Jesus. But this is the thing. He fills us. We don’t have to produce a thing. Christ is Himself. The closeness between the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and me is absolute. There is no distinction – yet it is He. One thing I can say about the Lord, He is very good at being Himself.
You see, Jesus walked in the consciousness of certainty that the Father filled Him. When He was threatened with violence, He did not perform any antics whatsoever, inside or out. He simply continued walking in the consciousness of certainty that nothing could touch Him except by the will of His Father – and He knew His own times and seasons.
The Lord has begun to lay upon my heart the passion of the revelation of Jesus Christ in His people. Up until now, I have carried a desire to know the revelation of Jesus Christ in understanding. Now, I see the Lord placing before me a devotion and commitment to what is truly the passion of His heart – His revelation in the midst of a people, young and old, children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, great and small.
In contemplating this commitment, I asked Him, “Lord, how?” He answered me, several times. “Just be yourself.”
All my Christian life, “being like Christ” has been presented to me in every possible way as something other than myself. “To be like Christ” meant to step aside from whatever I happened to be. “To be like Christ,” in the end meant pretending. I’m not very good at pretending, so I was never able to be like Christ.
But if I move forward simply as myself, expecting God through me in power at all times, some people won’t like me. That is not my problem. God did not place me in this world for people to “like” me. (I don’t mean being rude and crude. Being rude and crude and then telling people, “Tough, I’m just being ‘myself,’” is the practice of those who don’t really know the Lord.)
What I mean is being myself in simplicity of heart, but never having to account for myself or produce anything of myself. This is the first time I have found the freedom actually to commit myself to the revelation of Jesus Christ in His people. You see, I no longer have to explain “me.”
This change in our thinking is the practice of “chewing” Christ. Chewing Christ includes the actions of speaking what God speaks, of asking for all that God reveals to us is ours, believing that we have received what we ask for, and of giving thanks in and for all things, with joy.
Chewing Christ includes praying in tongues in the Holy Spirit with groanings that cannot be uttered. But that prayer is not what we thought in the past, “Oh, somehow, I must make something happen.” It is a prayer of intercession, yes, but always in the confidence of joy and expectation in the goodness and favor of God. To pray, expecting God in favor, is the true prayer of faith.
I can illustrate best by my own present experience. I have shot videos of myself reading from my letters, posting those videos on YouTube, and embedding them on my website – at age 54. Never in my life could I have withstood the winds assailing inside of me by such a bold public presentation of myself until the last while. I can do it now because God said to me, “Just be yourself” and because of the level at which my practice of “chewing Christ” has come.
Let me explain. I awake in the middle of the night and all the raging accusation of stupidity is right there, wailing the horror of, “They will find you out now – they will see how ridiculous you are.” It’s right there, but it does not enter. Not even a little bit. (I share specifically the thing I face; you face something different, most likely – yet what you face is what God has given you, both to overcome and to know Christ as you overcome it.)
I recognize that thing on the outside of me only because it is so familiar and has cast me down innumerable times in the past. But it does not penetrate because of my continual practice of seeing myself in Christ and Christ in me. Only now, it is the joy of giving thanks, the certainty of confidence and boldness in His life in me, the closeness of my Beloved that fills me all the way through. And those raging wailing cries must remain on the far outside of me unseen and unheard.
My own difficulty is the wonder that God has given to me personally to walk out of, leaning upon my Beloved. He has crafted for you your own personal weakness for the same purpose.
Another time, an enemy spirit came at me through my weakness. I wrapped myself in Christ and endured the assault, an assault that was entirely on the outside of me. In the morning, refreshed in the Lord, I understood this reality. “The prince of this world came and found nothing in me.” This is where we stand.
— And what we “look like” as we walk out of our weakness is His business and no one else’s.
The key for me is this. I no longer see myself in any way separate from Christ. If there is any problem with me, He carries all of it inside Himself, and every part of ME, He fills with all of Himself. This statement is theologically sound, based entirely in the blood, cross, and resurrection of Christ and is, in fact, the gospel.
Yes, I have known all about “giving thanks in all things” since I was 15 years old. And whenever I gave thanks, it always helped. But giving thanks was difficult because of the FALSE theology I carried, that I was separate from God and that “my sin” and “my sinfulness” displeased Him. In actuality it was believing such nonsense that displeased God, since it was a lack of faith in what He says.
Now I give thanks all the time in simple and confident joy. I can do that because I no longer see God standing there as the WILL, requiring me to kill my own will and to submit to His. Yes, I do believe there is a time in one’s life where God brings you to a firm commitment. God accepts no posers into Christ. But having passed through that deepest of decisions, we now walk in Christ.
I am no longer afraid of God, not in that way. To be afraid of God is to be afraid of myself, how silly. God and I are one spirit.
Chewing Christ is the continual mental practice I engage in of seeing all of myself in Christ and seeing Christ in all that is me. This is the practice of faith.
5. Swallow Christ
Swallowing Christ is by far the greatest boldness and audacity of faith that there is. Swallowing Christ will get us in trouble with our brethren.
Jesus said that unless we eat of Him, we cannot know life. Everything I have described up till now, in the end, is all a waste of time unless we swallow the food. You see, we can heap our plate with everything of Christ we can find. We can chew and chew, enjoying the full flavor of every morsel – and all that is good. But the food cannot become our life unless we actually swallow it.
To swallow Christ is to stand in the boldness that whatever Christ is, I am, and whatever I am is Christ. Whatever Christ does, I do, and whatever I do, Christ does. To swallow Christ is to declare that all that is Christ is 100% PERSONAL in, as, and through me.
Let me reach for the furthest declarations of Christ. (Read these as yourself.)
Christ is every Word God speaks.
When John saw his vision of the two witnesses, he was speaking of me. When John saw a manchild caught up to God and to His throne, he saw me. When Paul spoke of the sons of God revealed and setting creation free, he was speaking directly of me, here and now.
You see, all these were speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ – He is the only life I have – therefore, in all fullness, they are speaking of me.
And I can move forward, just being myself, in the full confidence and position of these prophetic words of Christ.
Jesus said, “Except you eat of me, you cannot live.” Swallow Him, and move forward in the full meaning of these things, as God gives you each step to take.
Christ is the One who lives as Me.
No matter how astonishing and impossible to believe the things God says about Christ and about Christ in me, there is no obligation whatsoever upon me to “perform” anything. God has made me the way He wants me to be; He can be Himself in me ONLY as I am free in Him to be myself.
Now, here’s something to keep in mind. Christ really is in us, and Christ really is a fantastic and wonderful Person. Once we stop pretending. Once we stop seeing ourselves as separate from Him. Once we enter into the certainty that He is our life, we have no other life, then we discover an incredible transformation taking place inside of us.
We discover a kindness, a gentleness, a tenderness, as we give the little bit God has given us to give. We discover a certainty of God’s favor, a boldness as we walk. We discover faith we didn’t know we had. We hear a sure word in difficult places. Comfort arises in our hearts when we would not have expected it. We pray and things happen, people get healed. The right word to share to a hurting heart just chances to be on our lips.
BUT – never do we “try” to make these things happen. They just happen as we stop all shades of pretending. We can stop all shades of pretending only when we know that we know that we know that our flesh IS His flesh. And that He nourishes and cherishes His flesh, as Paul said.
Jesus said, “Except you eat My flesh”; Paul said that we are His flesh.
The Spirit is speaking of this intimate oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ, we in Him, and He in us. By losing, by forsaking any claim to our own “self ” identity, we have found who we truly are. As we eat of Christ, we know that all that Christ is we are, and we find ourselves.
We have lost a “life” worth losing, and we have found ourselves, a life that is incomparably sweet.
Christ is a Spirit of Power.
I am a spirit of power. Power fills me – the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Listen, the power in which Jesus walked in His ministry was a thimbleful compared to the power that raised Him from the dead.
My spirit is one spirit with Christ. The Spirit that fills the universe and sustains all things IS my spirit and my spirit is that Spirit. We are one. My spirit goes out from me and touches all things, bringing life and healing and joy.
Swallow Christ.
This is not a difficult thing, once we give up trying to be a self separate from God, always trying to “do God’s will,” or to put our “self-life” to death. Nothing exalts “self ” more than always “trying to put it to death.” Once we accept that Christ is our life, that we have no other life, since Christ is all these things, we simply swallow and accept the reality of who we are.
He is the Life; we are the vessel at all times and in every way. But understand that our spirit is something we know little about and have rarely used, our body remains under the curse and therefore extremely limited, and our soul is not released in joy, not yet. We do not know who we are.
Christ is a Corporate Body.
You belong to me and I belong to you. That’s the way it is. When we understand what that really means, in the Spirit of liberty and of Love, the world will fall on their face before God, the age of human folly will cease, and the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
In this volume I hope, somehow, to lift back the veil just a bit and give you, dear reader, a glimpse of the reality and essence of Christ as a Corporate Body.