Being the Faithful and Prudent Stewards in God’s Household to Give His People Food

After seeing a vision of the high peak of the divine revelation, we are inwardly strengthened and motivated to live the life of a God-man, and the Lord is discipling us in many ways that we would live such a life.

The result and spontaneous issue of seeing that God became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead is that we are being discipled by the Lord Jesus to live the same kind of life that He lived while He was on earth – the life of a God-man.

First, we are discipled by seeing the high peak of the divine revelation; second, the Lord’s living on earth with the pattern He set before us disciples us and, as the Spirit, He lives in us.

And the only way for us to live the life of a God-man today is by exercising our spirit, living in spirit, and walking according to the Spirit by our continual calling on the Lord, pray-reading His word, praying unceasingly, praising the Lord, not quenching the Spirit, and prophesying.

Today we want to see yet another way of living the life of a God-man as seen in Matt. 24:45-51 – being faithful to give God as food to the members of His household so that we may win Christ as our reward in the coming kingdom.

Praise the Lord, we are not only believers in Christ, God-men, members of the Body of Christ, and constituents of the new man, but we are also stewards in the household of God, cooperating with the Lord by reflecting His heavenly ministry to pray and minister God to others for their growth in life!

Being the Faithful and Prudent Stewards in God’s Household to Give His People Food

God has a big household with many members, and He cares for every member of His household. All believers in Christ are members of God’s house – we are “God’s folks”, His family, His many children on earth, and God’s desire is that all His people would have food at the proper time (Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15; Matt. 24:45).

God’s economy is His household administration, His arrangement to distribute all His wealth and riches in Christ to all the members of His household so that they may become the house of His expression, the church as the Body of Christ. As members of God’s household, our responsibility is first to eat the Lord and then to serve others with Christ as food.

We need to be the faithful and prudent slaves over God’s household as household administrators, stewards, and channels of supply to give His people food at the proper time. We need to be faithful to the Lord, prudent toward the saints, and watchful unto the Lord’s coming, so that we may give food to our fellow believers at the proper time and be rewarded by the Lord in His coming kingdom.

In God’s house, there are many stewards, those filled with the riches of Christ who minister God to others as food for their life supply. Just as Paul was commissioned with the stewardship of the grace of God given to him for others (Eph. 3:2), so are we: we have received a commission from the Lord that we would minister the rich Christ we have enjoyed and experienced to our fellow members in the church of God.

In Greek the same word is used for economy and stewardship; on God’s side there’s an economy, and on our side it is the stewardship. God’s economy is in faith (1 Tim. 1:4), and we as servants of Christ are stewards of the mystery of God and should be good stewards of the varied grace of God (1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:10).

The Lord Jesus is the best pattern for this: on the one hand, He trusted in the Father and commanded His blessing to give the hungry people food, but His real concern was that those around Him would eat and work for the food which abides unto eternal life, which is the Son of God as the bread of life (John 6:27).

The Lord came to be the bread of life, and His concern for the people around Him was not only that He would heal them and feed them but that He would become food to them. The flesh profits nothing: it is the living spoken words from the Lord that give life. We need to be filled with the Lord’s living word and enjoy His rich grace so that we may minister Him as grace and life to the other members of God’s household.

Paul was a pattern to us in being a steward of God: even though he desired to depart and be with the Lord, he knew that he would remain to be with the saints for their progress and joy in faith (Phil. 1:25). Our living and being needs to make a difference to the saints.

Lord Jesus, make us the faithful and prudent slaves in Your household who give Your people food at the proper time. We want to be faithful to You and Your calling and prudent toward the saints so that we may impart to them the riches of Christ as food for their growth in life and going on with the Lord. Lord, thank You for this stewardship entrusted to us for others; make us channels of supply, those who enjoy You in Your word, are filled with Christ, and cooperate with You to give the saints food at the proper time!

Giving others Food by Ministering the Word of God and Christ to the Believers

What does it mean to give others food at the proper time? The Lord encourages us to work not for the food which perishes but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give us (John 6:27); later He said, the flesh profits nothing – the words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life (John 6:35).

To give others food refers to ministering the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church (Matt. 24:45). If we eat the Lord in His word, we shall live because of Him (John 6:57).

How do we eat the Lord? The Lord as the Spirit is embodied in His word; the way to eat the Lord is to extract the Spirit and life from the word of God by pray-reading the word in order to digest and assimilate the word into our being.

The logos (written word of God) needs to become rhema (the instant living spoken word of God) to us through the exercise of our spirit over God’s word. When we exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit in the word of God, we receive life, and we can then minister such a living word to others. Before we can minister Christ as food to others we first need to be filled with Him through our living contact with Him in spirit and in the word.

In order to enjoy the Lord as our spiritual food we need to pray over and muse on His word, tasting the word, enjoying it, and carefully considering it. We need to receive the word of God (which contains the Spirit) into us by means of all prayers and petitions (Eph. 6:17-18) by spending time in the word of God every day to pray and prayerfully consider the word of God; then, we will have something to speak to others.

We need to meditate on God’s word, speak the word out loud to ourselves, and let the word become rich to us (Psa. 119:15). We need to find the word of God, eat it, and then go and speak – just as Ezekiel was commanded to do in Ezek. 3:1-4. When we’re filled with God’s word inwardly, we will overflow with the Christ we have enjoyed to others for their life supply and growth in life.

We must devote ourselves to prayer and ministry of the word so that we may cooperate with the Lord for the building up of His church and tend to God’s cultivated land (Acts 6:4; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8). If we eat the Lord and drink Him in His word, out of our innermost being shall flow rivers of living water gushing up into eternal life (John 7:37-39).

By giving ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word we correspond to and reflect the Lord in His heavenly ministry; He is now in the heavens always living to intercede (Heb. 7:25) and He’s a minister of the holy places, ministering God into our being (Heb. 8:2).

Hallelujah! If we are faithful to the Lord to spend time in prayer and pray-reading His word, and prudent toward the believers to give them food at the proper time, we will be rewarded by the Lord by being set over all His possessions in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be in prayer and in the ministry of the word. Keep us in Your word and in a prayerful attitude as we come to Your word. Lord, may we touch and receive Spirit and life as we come to Your word to muse on it, meditate on it, consider it prayerfully, and exercise our spirit over it. Fill us with Yourself as the daily life supply, and make us those who speak the living word to others to minister Christ to them. Lord, may rivers of living waters flow from our inner being to water others!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, the brothers’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 63 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 3 / msg 3, Living the Life of a God-man (1) Being Discipled to Live the Life of a God-man to Be Today’s Overcomers for a New Revival.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Jesus, O living Word of God, / Wash me and cleanse me with Your blood / So You can speak to me. / Just let me hear Your words of grace, / Just let me see Your radiant face, / Beholding constantly. / Jesus, living Word, / My heart thirsts for Thee; / Of Thee I’d eat and drink, / Enjoy Thee thoroughly. (Song on, God’s living word)
  # Speak to me, Lord every day. / Speak to me, Lord—I love to hear what You say. / Speak to me, Lord until I have heard. / Speak to me, Lord through Your living Word. (Song on, Having God’s Speaking)
  # In Christ as Spirit You dispense all to me, / Making me a steward in Your economy. / Ever faithful to the measure I have received / To impart You to others, life conceived. / Lord, I fully consecrate myself to be / A normal Christian in Your economy. / I would live solely with the Body in view, / Fulfilling my stewardship—“to me for you.” (Song on, God’s economy – our stewardship)