Channels of Life Minister Christ to Others to Give them Food at the Proper Time

As believers in Christ who are preparing themselves for the Lord’s return, we need to be the faithful and prudent slaves who give others food at the proper time, being channels of life who prophesy for the building up of the church.

The Lord is coming quickly; however, how soon He comes depends on how much we as the church are preparing ourselves for His return.

If today we cooperate with the Lord by enjoying Him, experiencing Him, and ministering Him to others to give them food at the proper time, we hasten the Lord’s return.

But if we’re lazy and even worse if we beat our fellow slaves and eat and drink with the drunkards, the Lord’s coming will be a surprise to us, and we will be punished rather than rewarded by Him at His return.

May we be those who are watchful in life and faithful in service for the Lord’s return.

We all have been entrusted with a stewardship, which is the stewardship of the grace of God given to us for others (Eph. 3:9).

God gave each one of us a certain portion, a certain measure of Christ; we all need to enjoy the Lord to increase our portion of Christ, and we need to practice speaking for the Lord and speaking the Lord into others so that we may be channels of life and life supply to others.

The Lord gave us a commission: give them food; He put us in His house, and now we need to give food to our fellow members of God’s household.

We ourselves need to eat first, and we need to receive the life and life supply from God’s word and from our fellow members.

Also, we need to learn to minister life to others, ministering Christ into them to supply them for their growth in life and going on with the Lord.

The Lord’s requirement of us is that we would do this, we would give food to others, at the proper time.

We need to realize that every moment in this age is a proper time for us to give food to others.

If we do this and if the Lord returns and finds us doing this, He will reward us. This is what we desire.

We want to be found by the Lord not only enjoying Him and experiencing Him but also ministering Christ to others for their nourishment and supply, and going on with the Lord in the faith.

God has a large household, even the largest household in the universe, and His people are spread out everywhere around the world.

Who will feed them? Who will minister food to them?

We need to all rise up and learn to minister Christ to one another so that food may be dispensed and ministered.

We need to be faithful stewards in God’s house who give food at the proper time so that all of God’s folks would be properly nourished.

Enjoy Christ and Minister Christ as the Life Supply to others to Give them Food

What does it mean for us to give others food? This refers to ministering the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church (Matt. 24:45; John 6:57, 63, 68).

Christ as the life-giving Spirit is our food, embodied and realized in the word of life. We need to come to the Lord in His word and enjoy Him as our food.

We need to eat the Lord in the word, exercising our spirit to read and pray God’s word so that the divine food would be ingurgitated, masticated, digested, and assimilated into our being.

Furthermore, we need to gain something of Christ, a portion of the life supply, that we can also minister to others.

In order to enjoy the Lord as our spiritual food so that we can feed others, we need to receive His word by means of all prayer and by musing on His word, speaking aloud with much reconsideration (Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15, 48, 148; Josh. 1:8; Lev. 11:2-3; Ezek. 3:1-4; Col. 3:16).

First, we need to have the food, and then, we can feed others.

For us to gain and be filled with spiritual food, we need to come to the word by means of all prayer.

We need to muse on the Word of God, receiving the Word by means of all prayer and petition.

Our pray-reading of the word should not be a formality or a mechanical process.

Rather, it should be done with the exercise of our spirit that we would receive the spiritual food in the word of God to be constituted with Christ.

Psa. 119:15 says, I will muse upon Your precepts and regard Your ways.

In Hebrew, the word “muse” implies to worship, to converse with oneself, and to speak aloud.

We need to not only read the Bible but also taste it, enjoy it through careful and considering prayers, speak to ourselves with the word, and praise the Lord with the word.

It is to enjoy the word of God as the breath of God so that we may be infused with God, thus breathing ourselves out and breathing God in.

May we not only pray-read the word of God but also muse on His word.

Musing on the word is more inclusive than prayer, being rich in meaning.

May we even lift up our hands to God’s word (Psa. 119:48), receiving the word of God warmly and gladly and saying Amen to it.

The word of God is our food; we can take it in to feed our inner being and we can speak it to minister Christ as life to others.

May we be those who continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word (Acts 6:3; Heb. 7:25; 8:2).

On one hand, we enjoy the Lord in His word; on the other hand, we minister Christ to others.

In order to give others food at the proper time, we need to prophesy to build up the church; we need to speak what we see with the living words of this life under the instant and fresh inspiration of the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:4b; Acts 5:20; 4:20; 22:15).

First, we ourselves are filled with the word, and then, we speak the word to build up the church, and we have the instant and fresh inspiration, anointing, and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit through the exercise of our spirit.

May we labour on Christ daily by being in His word, praying, gaining Him enjoying Him, and experiencing Him, so that we may also have something of Christ to minister to others to give them food at the proper time.

The Lord prophesied in Matt. 16:18 that He will build up His church; this is the greatest prophecy in the Bible.

How does He do it? He does it in us and through us, for He is now in resurrection in us ministering life to others.

We build up the church when we exercise our spirit to prophesy.

The constituents of a prophecy are first the vision, the things which we see, the things that we enjoy and experience of Christ.

Then, to prophesy we need to have the Lord’s word so that we can communicate what we have seen. We also need the instant and fresh inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

All this should be done with the exercise of our spirit.

When we exercise our spirit, we have the instant and fresh inspiration of the Holy Spirit with His anointing and enlightenment, and we can minister the word of life to give others food at the proper time.

Lord Jesus, we want to be those who minister the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church to give them food at the proper time. Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word to enjoy and receive more of Christ as the life-giving Spirit as our food. We want to enjoy You as our spiritual food by means of all prayer and by musing on Your word. Amen, Lord, thank You for Your word. We praise You with and for Your word. We want to enjoy You in Your word and be filled with Your word so that we can have something of Your word to minister to others for their life and life supply. May we continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word together with all the saints. Amen, Lord, we want to prophesy to build up the church! We want to speak what we see with the living words of this life under the instant and fresh inspiration of the Spirit! We exercise our spirit, Lord, and we want to speak what You have shown us so that others may receive food and be nourished in their spirit!

Being Channels of Life who Give Food to others at the Proper Time

The Lord has many possessions in His household; His believers are His possessions, and even the sinners are the Lord’s possessions.

It is our duty and obligation to minister food to them.

If those around us are sinners, we have to minister the gospel of grace to them as the food they need.

If those we are with are believers, we need to minister something of God’s word to them to impart life to them so that they would be nourished, strengthened, and awakened.

This is to be a faithful and prudent slave who gives food to others at the proper time.

When is the proper time? Some would say that it is only in the meetings that we should minister Christ to others, but this is not the only proper time.

The proper time is any time we meet others.

When we go to the office to work, we need to realize that our workmates are the Lord’s possessions and we need to seek a way to minister the gospel to the unbelieving ones.

When we go to school to study, though we may not teach at the school, we need to realize that our classmates are the Lord’s possessions given to us.

Therefore, we need to take the opportunity, the proper time, to minister the gospel to them.

May we all rise up and wake up to be diligent, to be faithful and prudent so that we may minister the proper food to others at the proper time.

May we not be foolish but prudent and wise to minister Christ to others.

The apostle Paul was a pattern to us in this matter.

In Phil. 1:24 he said that he would love to go and be with the Lord at that time, but for the saints’ progress and joy of the faith, he would remain with the believers.

He wasn’t selfish; it was not just about him.

He knew that he was a channel of supply in the Body and that the saints needed his function, so for the sake of the saints, he chose to still remain.

May we be those who are occupied by the Lord with the church to such an extent that we are a channel of supply to others.

May we be persons who are full of Christ so that, when we speak we speak Christ, when we live, we live with Christ, and when we work, we minister Christ and work with Christ for the building up of the church.

May it matter to the church whether we are alive or we go to be with the Lord.

May we be a factor of the saints’ progress in faith and joy in the Lord.

We know certain ones in the church life who function as channels of supply; their very presence with us ministers life to us. We need to be such ones.

In a real sense, we need to be those who continually minister Christ to others, giving them food at the proper time.

Many of the leading ones in the local churches are such channels of supply, means for the Lord to richly supply the saints.

Our living should matter greatly to the saints in a positive way; they should not be concerned with our living but should be encouraged by our way of living and receive life through our speaking.

This depends on the degree to which we live Christ, minister Christ, and infuse Christ into others.

Whether or not we are a channel of supply in the Body depends on our living Christ, magnifying Christ, ministering Christ, and transfusing Christ from the depths of our being into the depths of the being of the saints.

If we experience, enjoy, and minister Christ in such a way, it will make a difference to the church whether we remain or go to be with the Lord.

Amen, may we day by day function as channels of supply for the saints going on with the Lord and their progress in the faith!

Lord Jesus, we want to rise up and wake up to be diligent, to be faithful and prudent to minister the proper food to the needy ones at the proper time. Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself. Fill us with the spiritual food as we come to You in Your word. May there be a flow of life from the depths of our being to the depths of the being of the saints. May we be the channels of life that You need to feed all the needy and hungry ones. Fill us and occupy us for the church. Make us channels of supply who daily receive Christ and minister Christ to others for the building up of the church. Amen, Lord, be with us as we go to the office. May there be a flow of life in our speaking to our workmates. Flow out through us as we are at school with our classmates. In all things and all situations, may there be a flow of life, a ministering of food at the proper time to the Lord’s household!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msg. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 4, entitled, Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Being a Faithful and Prudent Slave.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The proper food, a portion from, Christ as the Reality, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – The Hearing of Faith, no. 12, april 1999; one of the subheadings is, What is the testimony of the Scriptures concerning God as our food?
  – Having this ministry – Distributing the Riches: LSM’s Digital Distribution Section, great resource for spiritual food.
  – Eating and drinking Christ – our testimony in the local churches.
  – How Does God’s Light Help Us Grow? Article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – God’s need and God’s goal, a book review via, Conversant faith.
  – How to Practice Prophesying that Builds the Church, article via, Holding to Truth.
  – Have you been drunk with wine? Article via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Now to enjoy Thee I come to Thy Word, / On Thee to feed till my hunger is o’er. / Now in my spirit I turn unto Thee, / Of Thee to drink till I’m thirsty no more. / Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading-Lord, Thou art my fare. (Hymns #811 stanzas 6-7)
  – To the lost world minister Christ, / The very Christ you enjoy, / Imparting Christ to all your friends / As all their boast and their joy. / To the lost world minister Christ, / Who is your life and your all, / Imparting Christ to all you meet, / All fallen ones, great or small. (Hymns #922 stanzas 3-4)
  – Our life and all we are and do / Is Christ Himself, the substance true, / That every time we meet anew / We may exhibit Christ. / In meetings Christ to God we bear / And Christ with one another share, / And Christ with God enjoying there, / We thus exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864 stanzas 3-4)