When we eat the open manna (the manna that is available for us openly every day), we gain the hidden manna (the manna that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated) and are being produced as the overcomers of today; the Christ we enjoy and assimilate becomes an eternal memorial before God.
The matter of manna is not something merely in the Old Testament with the children of Israel who, at point in time in their history, were led by God through the wilderness and were supplied by Him with this heavenly food.
Rather, manna was put before God as a memorial, in the golden pot in the Ark before the Testimony, and then later in Revelation we see that the hidden manna is given to the overcomers as a reward.
In our Christian life we need to eat Christ every day – especially in the morning, waking up a little earlier to “gather the manna” by spending time with the Lord to pray over His word and contact Him personally.
As we contact the Lord, turn our heart to Him, and exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God, we will be nourished with Christ as our heavenly manna.
What a mystery and a miracle it is that we can daily eat God in His word and we can be constituted with the element of God!
Christ came as the bread out of heaven and the bread of God to be our food, and we can eat Him.
As we eat the Lord, there’s the refreshing and watering grace brought in by His fresh compassions every morning, and we have a new beginning through our living contact with the Lord.
God became a man, and this Man become something small enough for us to eat; He is a fine, balanced, eternal, perfect, and full, and He is without shortage or defect to be our daily life supply.
When we eat the Lord, we are purified, we are simplified, and we are made clean; furthermore, we are refreshed and cooled, and anything that is negative in us is being slowly eliminated.
All we have to do is eat the Lord every morning, and He comes into us as the life supply to bring in the element of God and eliminate anything of the natural man and natural life.
As we eat Christ as the open manna, we gain the hidden manna, and this hidden manna becomes a memorial before God. As we eat Christ, we become bright and transparent for others to see the One who constitutes us.
Our Christ is so wonderful and tasty – He is sweet and delicious to us in His word, and when we exercise our spirit to pray over God’s word and masticate it, we will enjoy the sweetness of the taste of Christ and are richly fed. Hallelujah!
We become Overcomers by Eating Christ as the Manna to gain Him as the Hidden Manna
In Rev. 2:17 the Lord mentions manna again; this time He says, To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the hidden manna.
What is this hidden manna, and how can we gain it? The principle of the manna is that people had to wake up in the morning early before the sun was up to collect it, for when the sun was up, the manna would melt.
So the “open manna” was out there for everyone to gather, but there’s also the “hidden manna”, which refers to the manna that was constituted into God’s people.
The open manna is the manna that we have not eaten, whereas the hidden manna refers to the manna that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated.
Christ as the heavenly manna is available to each and every one of His believers every morning; however, it is up to us if we pay the price to gather the manna, that is, if we eat Christ as the open manna.
This is why the Lord calls the overcomers in the church in Pergamos, the church married to the world, that they would eat the hidden manna.
All throughout the centuries the manna was there; it may have not been mentioned too many times, but the Lord alluded to it, and in Rev. 2 we see that this manna is a reward for the overcomers.
The manna was hidden in the golden pot in the presence of God, before His testimony.
Today we need to be the overcomers who enjoy Christ as manna; when we eat Christ as the open manna, He will become the hidden manna in us and to us, and this hidden manna will constitute us into an overcomer. Wow!
We need to overcome the degradation of the worldly church by eating Christ as manna, and He in us will become the hidden manna, the manna that is eaten, digested, and assimilated into our being; this will constitute us to be His overcomers in this age.
While the church goes the way of the world, we need to come forward to the Holy of Holies, in the presence of God, and eat Christ as our daily manna. We need to eat and enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for our daily supply.
When we exercise not only our spirit but also our body to wake up early and our soul by turning our heart to the Lord and love Him, we will gather Christ as the open manna into our being; He then becomes the hidden manna in us, and this will constitute us to be His overcomers.
We want to be the Lord’s overcomers in this age, and a very simple way to do this is by eating Christ every day! We must eat Christ as manna every day to become overcomers, and we must overcome to eat Christ.
There are many things that can distract us from eating Christ, but we must overcome to eat Him!
Lord Jesus, we want to eat You as the manna today so that You may become in us the hidden manna and constitute us as Your overcomers in this age. Thank You for being so available to us every day as the open manna, ready for us to gather by eating, enjoying, digesting, and assimilating You. Oh Lord, we want to overcome to eat Christ! Make us the overcomers of today, those who gain Christ as the hidden manna day by day! Hallelujah, it is possible for us to be an overcomer by eating Christ and being constituted with the hidden manna!
The Christ we Eat and Assimilate becomes an Eternal Memorial and is for God’s Building
In Exo. 16:32 God commanded the children of Israel to keep an omerful of manna throughout their generations and put it before the Testimony in the ark, so that others may know how He fed His people in the wilderness.
This is a hidden manna, a manna that is not open, a manna that is in the golden pot and is before God; it is an eternal memorial before God and man.
The fact that the children of Israel were to put an omerful of manna – which is exactly the quantity they were supposed to gather every day for their nourishment – shows us that the amount of Christ we eat is the amount that we can preserve.
The Christ that we eat, enjoy, digest, and assimilate is something of an eternal memorial between us and God.
There’s so much of Christ available for us to enjoy – He is all-inclusive, vast, and immense, but only the Christ we have eaten and experienced is worthy of remembrance.
The Christ we eat, digest, and assimilate is an eternal memorial, for He constitutes us, and He becomes the very fibres of our being.
Nothing of us – nothing of what we are, we have, or we can do – is worthy of remembrance; only the Christ who has become our constitution is worthy to be an eternal memorial. In eternity we will remember the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced.
On one hand, Christ constitutes us as the hidden manna to make us part of God’s dwelling place; on the other hand, the Christ that constitutes us and is enjoyed by us is a memorial before God.
The memorial of manna indicates that, as the real manna, Christ is the source of supply for God’s dwelling place. For us to become God’s dwelling place and to be built up as the church, we need to eat Christ as the heavenly manna.
The children of Israel were not qualified to build the tabernacle until many months after getting out of Egypt, for they had to be reconstituted inwardly to be the right kind of people; with manna as their supply, they could build the tabernacle.
Actually, the tabernacle was a symbol of the children of Israel, who were the real dwelling place of God. As we eat the Lord Jesus every morning as manna, we are being inwardly supplied and reconstituted with Him, and we become the dwelling place of God.
This Christ who constitutes us is an eternal memorial; for eternity we will recall the aspect of the enjoyment of Christ as our reconstituting element and the aspect of Christ as the supply to make us God’s dwelling place in the universe.
In the Lord’s recovery today we experience both of these aspects.
As we contact the Lord and are revived by Him every morning, we take Him as our life supply for Him to be our constituent so that we may become God’s dwelling place; then, as we meet together and enjoy the Lord together, we are in reality God’s building and we build up God’s habitation in this universe.
For eternity we will remember our experience of Christ today; we will remember how we have enjoyed Christ and how we took Him as our supply to become God’s dwelling place.
So today we need to make sure we don’t just objectively know that Christ is the open manna, ready and available for us to eat, digest, and assimilate; we need to eat Christ as the open manna, obtain Him as the hidden manna, become the Lord’s overcomers, and be constituted with Him little by little for the building up of God’s dwelling place.
As we are daily eating of the manna, the open manna becomes the hidden manna, and we are constituted with Christ for God’s building.
Just as the manna in the golden pot was the focal point of God’s dwelling place, so Christ as the manna eaten by us is the focal point of God’s building today (see Heb. 9:3-4; Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19).
For us to become overcomers, we need to feed on the hidden manna, and when we do this, we will be in the center of God’s building. May the Lord make us top eaters of Christ as the manna, and may we never get bored or tired of eating Christ every day!
Lord Jesus, we want to eat You, digest You, and assimilate You as the manna so that we may be constituted with Christ for the eternal dwelling place of God. Amen, Lord, may we have many times of enjoying Christ and eating Christ as the hidden manna, times which will become a memorial in the New Jerusalem. Make us the top enjoyers of Christ, the top eaters of Christ, those who feed on the hidden manna, experience and enjoy Christ, and are becoming intrinsic parts of the building of God, the church today, the bride in the next age, and the New Jerusalem for eternity!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol în limba română la următorul link, Cristosul pe care Îl mâncăm ca mană ne face biruitorii Săi și devine o aducere aminte eternă.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 38-39 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 3, The Change of our Diet to the Heavenly Christ as the Reality of the Heavenly Manna, so that we may be Reconstituted with Christ to become God’s dwelling Place.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In my spirit deeper still / I would touch the Lord I love, / Touch Him in His hidden depth / And His hidden manna prove. (Hymns #769)
# Will you be an overcomer? / Testimony bear! / Keep away from false religion, / ”Hidden manna” share. (Hymns #894)
# Just to enjoy Thy word, / Richly, in many ways, / Till it is our memorial, / Throughout eternal days. / Just to enjoy Thy word, / Faithful Thy surety; / Though heav’n and earth shall pass away, / It stands eternally. (Song on, Just to enjoy Thy word)
