CHAPTER TEN
HOW GOD BECOMES MAN’S ENJOYMENT
IN THE SPIRIT
Scripture Reading: Col. 2:9; John 14:16-20; 16:7-8; 1 John 2:27; 3:24; 4:13; 5:20; Rev. 4:5; 5:6
THE NEED TO BE IN SPIRIT TO ENJOY GOD
We will continue to consider the way to contact God. In other words, we will consider how to eat God, drink God, and enjoy God. We have pointed out repeatedly that God is Spirit. Moreover, everything that He has passed through and attained is now in the Spirit. Both His incarnation, which joined God with man, and His death and resurrection, which brought man into God to be united with Him, are realized in the Spirit. He is in the Spirit, and He even is the Spirit. We must now contact this Spirit. Therefore, He clearly said that we need to contact Him with our spirit. Only when we are in spirit can we contact the Spirit. The more a man uses his mind to consider, ponder, and make judgments, the less he touches God. Our contact with man requires that we be sincere and truthful, but our contact with God requires that we turn to our spirit. Since our God is Spirit, and He is in our spirit, we can contact Him only with our spirit when we turn to our spirit.
We should pay attention to the word spirit and how it is used. First, God is Spirit. Second, as Spirit, God enters into our spirit. Third, we have to turn to our spirit, and fourth, we must contact God with our spirit. In summary, because God, who is Spirit, has entered into our spirit, we need to turn to our spirit and contact Him with our spirit. We need to repeatedly remind the brothers and sisters that in order to contact God, touch Him, eat Him, drink Him, and enjoy Him, we need to be clear concerning these four points. Whether or not a person can touch God depends altogether on learning the lesson of turning to our spirit and touching God with our spirit. We may have heard a thousand messages but not touched God. Learning the lesson of turning to our spirit is a secret that enables us to touch God, making it easy for us to absorb and enjoy God. All experienced believers know this reality.
GOD MAKING HIMSELF AVAILABLE
IN THE FORM OF FOOD FOR MAN TO ENJOY
God has given Himself to us to be our food. He wants us to eat Him, to take Him in as food for our life. How does God present Himself to us in order to be eaten by us? God makes it possible for us to eat Him by means of a process. For example, if we want to eat chicken, no one would expect us to eat a live chicken; rather, the chicken needs to be processed. Before it can be eaten, it needs to be killed, and its feathers need to be removed. Then it needs to be washed, cut into pieces, and cooked until it is tender. In the same way, God cannot be eaten by us without being processed. This is not so simple, because God dwells in unapproachable light. He is great and glorious. If the God who dwells in unapproachable light manifested Himself to us in His majesty, glory, and unapproachable holiness, what would we do? Would we still be comfortable sitting here, or would we all prostrate ourselves before His face?
This is not my imagination. There are many examples of this in the Bible. When Daniel saw God, his strength left him, and he fell before God. When the apostle John, who had reclined on the Lord Jesus’ breast, saw the Lord’s glory on the island of Patmos, he fell at His feet as if dead. It would be impossible for us to eat God if He remained in a state of unapproachable light. There would be no way for us to come near to Him. Even if He gave Himself to us as food, in this condition it would be impossible for us to eat Him because we would all be fearful and would fall down on our faces. It would be impossible for us to eat Him. Thus, it is not easy for God to make Himself available for us to eat.
We should thank the Lord that He presented Himself to man as food in the form of the tree of life with the fruit of life when He created man. Because God presented Himself to man in the form of food, Adam had no reason to be afraid when he saw the tree of life.
This is why I repeatedly say that I am afraid that God’s children have never considered this matter. God has given Himself to us to be our food. He has given Himself to us in the form of food, in the way of life. In this form man is not threatened; rather, God is warm, affectionate, and easily accessible.
We should not think that God’s making Himself available applies only to the tree of life in Genesis 2. One day God became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. When He came, He came as a man. But when He presented Himself to man, His way and presence suggested that He was a piece of bread. He wanted man to receive Him in the form of food. He did not come as a dignitary with outward glory. He did not convey a sense of loftiness or greatness, and it was easy for people to approach Him. It was natural and easy for people to contact Him. No matter how evil or unworthy a man might have been, there was no sense that he would be rejected. He came in the form of food, as a piece of bread.
One day the Lord Jesus went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman came and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!” The Lord said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Matt. 15:22, 26). Since the Gentile woman knew only that the Lord was a descendant of the royal house of David, she addressed Him repeatedly as the Son of David. However, the Lord’s answer indicated that He was a piece of bread, because He said that the children’s bread should not be given to the dogs. Although some of us may not understand the Lord’s words, it was very clear to the Jews. The Jews considered the Gentiles to be dogs and that only the Jews were the children of God. The woman did not know that the Lord Jesus had come as a piece of bread. She considered Him only to be the Lord and the Son of David even though He had already declared that He was the bread that came down out of heaven when He spoke by the seashore. When the people heard that word, they did not understand. When He spoke with the Gentile woman, He repeated that He was a piece of bread given for the satisfaction of God’s children, the Israelites, but He would not be given as food to Gentile dogs. The Lord said this purposely to test the woman. After hearing this, she was enlightened in her heart by the Holy Spirit. She was not provoked by the Lord calling her a dog, but she wisely responded to the Lord’s word, acknowledging her lowliness and unworthiness by pointing out that even a dog could eat the crumbs which fall from the master’s table.
When the Lord spoke to the woman, He was at the border of the land of Israel. The land of Israel was like a table. When God sent His Son to the land of Israel, it was like putting a piece of bread on the table. Although the Israelites were God’s children, they were not proper. They despised the bread and pushed it around until it reached the edge of the table and eventually fell off the table. The Lord spoke this word at a time in which He was being rejected by the Israelites and, therefore, had to retreat to the region of the Gentiles. At that time He was like crumbs that had fallen from the table. The Canaanite woman responded by recognizing that she was a dog under the table and that the Lord Himself, as bread, had fallen under the table. He was no longer in Jerusalem, because He had been chased away by those in Jerusalem and was now in the Gentile land. He had been pushed from the table by naughty children and was now in the land of the dogs. She pointed out that He was no longer the bread on the table but crumbs under the table and that even though she was a dog, dogs eat crumbs under the table. Using the Lord’s own words, the woman forced Him to make Himself available to her.
This shows how the Lord makes Himself available for man to eat. He is no longer One who dwells only in unapproachable light. He is no longer the One who dwells only in majesty and glory. He is no longer the One who is only in the third heaven. When He came down from heaven, He emptied Himself. When He descended from heaven to earth, He had no attractive form or beautiful appearance, much less any outward majesty. He was very simple and humble; He was a piece of bread good for food.
When the Lord came to man in the form of food, He had no outward splendor, majesty, or glory. He came in a humble way to be man’s food. Anyone could touch Him and draw near to Him. If there ever has been a man who was nonthreatening, that man was the Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, I do not believe there was one person who could say, “Although I would like to meet You, I am afraid of You.” We cannot find such a person in the Bible. Even the weak women could come to Him and speak in a free way. They were not afraid of Him at all. Even the smallest child was not threatened by Him. No one was afraid of Him, not those who were evil, gravely ill, or leprous. Because our Lord came as food, He manifested Himself to man in a most nonthreatening way. He wanted man to be fully at ease in taking Him as food and drink.
Although He appears to man as bread for food, the Bible says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). We should never underestimate the Lord. He did not have an attracting form or beautiful appearance. His outward appearance was neither significant nor threatening. However, He was not void of content. The Bible says that all the fullness of the Godhead, that is, all the fullness of God Himself, dwelt in Him. The fullness even dwelt in Him bodily. The fullness of the God of glory and of majesty, who is most holy and transcendent and who is in unapproachable light, dwelt in the man Jesus. In this Jesus, who is our food, all the fullness dwells. We should know Him to this extent.