One wonderful way for us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land in His redeeming and generating aspects is by eating God’s words, for God’s word is milk for us to drink and honey to eat.
The good land to which the Old Testament makes reference again and again is a land flowing with milk and honey; why is this “milk and honey” so important, and how can this be applied to our spiritual experience today?
Well, both milk and honey are the result of the mingling of both the animal life and the vegetable life, and they represent two aspects of the life of Christ – the redeeming aspect and the generating aspect.
Milk is produced by cows who eat grass, digest it, and then milk comes out. Honey is produced by bees who take in the nectar from the flowers.
Milk and honey – which are the mingling of both the animal life and the vegetable life – point to the redeeming aspect and the generating aspect of Christ’s life, that is, to God’s judicial redemption and to His organic salvation.
Christ came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world; He was sacrificed on the cross as the reality of the animal life on our behalf, and He accomplished redemption for us.
This is so that we may enter into God’s full salvation to enjoy His organic salvation, His salvation in life. Christ is also our bread of life, the reality of the grain of wheat which was ground to powder and was made into fine flour mingled with oil, baked, to become our supply.
We see these two symbols – the redeeming and the generating aspects of Christ’s life for God’s complete salvation – at the Lord’s table with its symbols.
Christ went through a process to become the reality of the good land, and He is now our table, a feast for our enjoyment. Hallelujah!
And we can enjoy Him in the light; when we walk in the light, dealing with anything that light shines so that we may be children of the light, we enjoy our allotted portion of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land.
Praise the Lord, the Father has qualified us for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light! We are qualified by the Father that, when we are in the light and walk in the light, we would enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as our portion for our enjoyment!
Eating God’s Words to enjoy the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land – His words are Milk and Honey
According to the Bible, the word of God is milk and honey for us to drink and eat; we must eat God’s words to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land!
Since milk and honey represent the redeeming and generating aspects of Christ’s life, when we exercise our spirit over the word of God, we eat God’s words to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land in His redeeming and generating aspects.
In John 6:9 we see the five barley loaves and two fish; these point to Christ as our life supply in the redeeming and generating aspects of His life.
Loaves of the vegetable life and signify the generating aspect of His life, while fish are of the animal life and signify the redeeming aspect of His life.
On one hand Christ grows in the land (the generating life) and on the other, He lives in the sea without being affected by it.
Just as the fish live in salty waters but are not being made salty, so Christ lived in the Satan-corrupted world and was not affected by it.
He was not sinful; He was not affected by the world, just as the fish live in salt water but are not salty.
Christ went through a process to become small enough for us to eat, so that we may take Him in as our life supply. We may seek miracles and great things from Him, but He wants to be the food for us to eat.
In John 6:57 the Lord said that He lived because of the Father, so we who eat Him should live because of Him; what we eat is not His physical flesh (which profits nothing) but His words, which are spirit and are life (v. 63).
Peter encourages us in 1 Pet. 2:2 that we may drink the guileless milk of the word that by it we may grow unto salvation; whether we are new believers or mature ones, we need to daily drink the milk of the word of God so that we may grow in life.
The milk of the Word is not milk for the body but milk for the soul, the inner being; this milk is conveyed in the word of God to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind and it is assimilated by our natural faculties.
As we drink the milk of the Word, we grow unto salvation; we grow in life, for we are nourished with the milk conveyed in the word of God.
Furthermore, as seen in Psa. 119:103 and Ezek. 3:3, God’s words are sweet to our taste like honey, and we can enjoy God in His word as being the sweetest One.
Hallelujah! When we find God’s words, when we eat the word of God – not merely by reading it but by loving the Lord, turning our heart to Him, exercising our spirit, and contacting the Lord as we read His word, the word of God becomes sweet to our taste, even as sweet as honey to our mouth.
When we eat God’s words, we enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, for God’s word is milk for us to drink and honey for us to eat.
Lord Jesus, we long for the guileless milk of the word that by it we may grow unto salvation! We come to Your word with an exercised spirit and a heart turned to You: feed us, give us to drink, and cause us to grow in life much more! Oh Lord, Your words are sweet to our taste, even sweeter than honey to our mouth. We love to eat You and drink You in Your word, taking You in as the all-inclusive Christ, the reality of the good land. Amen, Lord Jesus, Your word is milk for us to drink and honey for us to eat.
Enjoying Christ as the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey to be Constituted with Him and Minister Him
In Song of Songs, as the Lord was appreciating His lover, He said of her, Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride, honey and milk are under your tongue (Song of Songs 4:11).
The Lord looks at us, His lover, and He sees that our lips drip fresh honey, and honey and milk is under our tongue; what does this mean?
Honey is sweet and it restores the stricken ones; if you’re tired and weary, honey will strengthen you and restore you.
Such a sweetness, however, is not produced overnight; rather, it comes from a long period of gathering, inward activity, and careful storage – just look at the bees how they produce the honey.
When we eat God’s words as milk and honey, what comes from us is not gossip, jokes, or rash words but sweet and refreshing words.
And our words are not outbursts of torrents but drops of honey, for we drip honey for others to be refreshed and strengthened.
Some like to speak a lot, and even in speaking about spiritual things, their speaking shows they have not passed through the deeper work of grace.
But if we allow the Lord to work Himself into us as we eat God’s words as milk and honey, honey and milk will be under our tongue, for we are constituted with Christ as milk and honey to minister Him.
When we allow the Lord to work Himself into us through His sweet and nourishing word, His riches will be stored in our being; we will have more than enough to eat, we will be filled with His riches, and we even minister these riches to needy ones at any time.
This means that we eat the Lord as the good land in His word and we carry the good land with us wherever we go, ready to dispense to others according to the need.
There’s so much enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land in us that we not only drip honey but honey and milk are stored under our tongue.
Honey restores the stricken ones and milk feeds the new ones; we need to have the riches of Christ stored within us to the point that food is under our tongue, and we are ready to dispense the riches of Christ to the needy ones at any time (see Isa. 50:4; Matt. 12:35-36; Luke 4:22; Eph. 4:29-30).
Christ was such a One – He knew how to sustain the weary with a word, and He is our portion; as we enjoy Him and eat Him in His word, He can life in us the same kind of life today.
We all can testify from our experience in the church life that sometimes even a greeting from someone ministers milk to nourish us and honey to restore us.
Sometimes a greeting saturated with milk and honey, a genuine greeting from the heart, can build you up; it doesn’t have to be a long sermon, a message, or a verse in the Bible, but simply the greeting with milk and honey.
This is what we need in the church life today; we need to enjoy Christ as the good land flowing with milk and honey, we need to be constituted with Him, and as we meet one another we need to simply minister this One as milk and honey to others for their nourishing and restoring.
This sweetness is not produced overnight, however; we need to have a long period of gathering the word of God in our heart, inward activity to open to the Lord and let Him deal with our inward parts, and careful storage by cooperating with the Lord to digest His word (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
We see this in Song of Songs, later, how the seeker is so constituted with these riches of Christ that she is not afraid to say, Awake, north wind, and come south wind, blow upon my garden, let its spices flow forth.
We are becoming a garden full of spices, and whether the wind is cold and harsh from the north or warm and mild from the south, it only releases our fragrance for our beloved. Oh, may we enjoy Christ in His word in a detailed way and to such an extent that we all would have this reality!
May we no longer pray for a change in our weather so that the mild and warm wind would blow, but may we enjoy Christ as the good land flowing with milk and honey to the extent that we have milk and honey under our tongue, and we can give grace and speak what is profitable for building up to others!
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You as the land of milk and honey until we are constituted with You as milk and honey and are ready to minister to others to restore the stricken ones and feed the new ones. Amen, Lord, dispense Yourself into us as the nourishing and feeding milk and the restoring and revitalizing honey as we come to Your word. We want to eat God’s words as milk and honey, gather these words in our heart, cooperate with You inwardly to deal with anything You want to deal, and carefully store Your riches into our being! Oh Lord, do this in all the saints all over the earth – may we all enjoy Christ as the good land flowing with milk and honey until we all give grace to others and speak what is profitable for building up, giving grace according to the need!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Îl savurăm pe Cristos ca țara ce curge cu lapte și miere ca să fim constituiți cu El și să-L distribuim altora.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” sect. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2 on the topic of, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ as the Good Land — Our Allotted Portion.
- Hymns on this topic:
– O what a rich, abundant Christ: / Our pomegranate true, / The olive tree whose oil is now / Anointing us anew. / Rich milk and honey He doth bring, / Sweet, satisfying, nourishing. / Our Christ is such; He is so much! / What a Christ! (Hymns #1164)
– Lord, Thou art the Land of Canaan- / Elevated, rich and good, / Flowing with both milk and honey / In a glorious plenitude. (Hymns #196)
– Just to enjoy Thy word, / Spirit’ual food to me— / As guileless milk, then solid food— / Unto maturity…. / Just to enjoy Thy word, / Thy lips bring words of grace; / Sweeter than honey to my mouth, / Oh, how it cheers always! (Song on, Just to enjoy Thy word)