The Church Life is a Corporate Meal Offering for God’s Satisfaction and Man’s Supply

Christ is the meal offering, and as we eat Him, we become His reproduction and have His God-man living to be the meal offering, and the church life as the corporate living by the perfected God-men becomes the corporate meal offering.

Our need today is to eat Christ as the meal offering by exercising our spirit to pray read the word of God. When we exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit consolidated in the Bible, we eat the human life and living of Jesus, and His human living becomes our human living.

Reading the Bible shouldn’t be something we do merely of necessity, keeping a schedule, and doing it diligently every day to be acquainted with God’s word. Rather, when we read the Bible we need to turn our heart to the Lord, open to Him, and exercise our spirit to eat the Lord in His word.

All Scripture is God breathed, and it is profitable to us. As we read and pray over the New Testament, verse by verse, we drink the humanity of Jesus, and the Spirit can apply to us all the wonderful elements of His humanity to our being.

The characteristics of Christ’s divinely enriched humanity are being infused into us to make us a duplication of Christ as the meal offering, and the church life will become a corporate meal offering for the satisfaction of God and the supply of the people.

As we eat the Lord in His word, we will seek to fulfill all righteousness, just as Jesus did; we will enter into the ministry of the age (as Jesus entered into John’s ministry and was baptized by him), and we will live out God’s righteousness in His way.

As we eat the Lord with His human living in His word, we will find out resting place and home in God, taking Christ as our dwelling place. As we pray over the word of God, we will be lowly in heart as the Lord is, for we come to Him to take His burden (which is light) and bear His yoke (which is easy).

Eating Jesus in His word will cause us to spontaneously love the weak ones, leading them to the Lord as their Savior. Eating Jesus in His word will cause us to be flexible, not rigid or set, and we will follow the Lord’s leading within us for everything.

As we eat and enjoy the Lord’s humanity in His word, we will seek to serve others, and we will do so by cherishing them and nourishing them in an orderly way, not in a sloppy way.

Eating Jesus in His word will cause us to depend on Him, do things in His timing and His way, and be unique in a Jesusly human way, like Him. As we eat the Lord in His word, we will be humble not merely outwardly but also inwardly, and we will know when to weep with others and when not to.

The key is eating Jesus in His Word through pray-reading the word of God; this will make us the same as Him, our living will be a duplication of Christ’s God-man living, and our church life will be a corporate meal offering for God’s satisfaction and man’s supply.

The Church Life is a Corporate Meal Offering for God’s Satisfaction and Man’s Supply

The meal offering can be in different forms: it can be in the form of flour mingled with oil, or it may be in the form of a cake; the flour meal offering signifies the individual Christ and the individual Christian, and the cake meal offering signifies the church life as the corporate meal offering.

The individual Christ is the meal offering, and we as individual Christians are the duplication of Christ as the meal offering. The cake meal offering, baked in the oven, is a type of the corporate Christ – Christ with His Body, the church – as the corporate meal offering.

The individual Christ through death and resurrection has become the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), and we who are many are one Body in Christ, for we all partake of one bread (1 Cor. 10:17). This one bread is a “cake” – the church life is a corporate meal offering for God’s satisfaction and man’s supply.

The meal offering typifies the church life as the corporate living by the perfected God-men (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21). Christ’s life and our individual Christian life issue in a totality – the church life as a corporate meal offering (Lev. 2:1-2, 4; 1 Cor. 12:12, 24; 10:17).

In 1 Corinthians we see the meal-offering church life, that is, how the church life is a corporate meal offering.

Having the High, Uplifted Humanity of Jesus for the Church Life

Christ is the man given to us by God; the church is in Christ Jesus, Christ was given to us by God to be everything to us, and in Him we have everything as we enjoy the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord (see 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 30).

As we eat Jesus and partake of His humanity in His word, we will live a life of the highest humanity for the church life as the meal offering.

Paul charged the Corinthian believers, “Be a man” (1 Cor. 16:13, lit.); to be a man means that we should have a high, uplifted humanity, with a strong character, a humanity that is balanced. In the meal-offering church life we all need to live a life of the highest humanity, one that is strong and soft.

However, many times we are strong when we’re supposed to be soft, and others may get offended; at other times, we are soft as noodles when we’re supposed to be strong.

We need to eat the Lord’s humanity by remaining in the fellowship with the Lord Jesus and enjoying Him as our everything, and we will live a life of the highest humanity for the church life.

Lord Jesus, we want to eat Your humanity and remain in fellowship with You so that we may live a life of the highest humanity for the church life as a corporate meal offering! Infuse us with Your humanity as we read and pray over Your word, so that we may have a high, uplifted humanity with a strong character that is balanced, for the church life as the meal offering.

The Church Life is a Life of Humanity Oiled by and with the Spirit and Joined to the Spirit

Just as the Lord Jesus was, we need to be “oiled with the Spirit”, that is, we need to live one spirit with the Lord, in the intimate organic union with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

Paul testified that he didn’t speak the gospel in the power or wisdom of man but in the demonstration of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:4), and we have received the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that have been graciously given to us by God (v. 12).

Now as believers in Christ our body is the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us (1 Cor. 3:16).

Therefore, we need to live one with the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to anoint us, flow in us, mingle Himself with us, and keep us in the organic union with Him for the church life as a corporate meal offering.

Just as the meal offering was “oiled”, so we need to be “oiled” by the Spirit and with the Spirit, and we need to remain joined to the Lord as one spirit.

As we live in spirit, following the Spirit, enjoying the Spirit, and maintaining ourselves in the organic union with the Lord, the result will be the meal-offering church life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the Spirit to mingle Yourself with us. Hallelujah, we are now one spirit with the Lord. Lord, keep us in the organic union with You, living a life in the mingling of the Spirit with our spirit. May our daily living and church life be in spirit, mingled with the Spirit, and following the Spirit, always being joined to the Spirit as one spirit!

Enjoying the Grace of God – enjoying the Resurrected Christ as the Life-giving Spirit

In order for us to live the church life as the corporate meal offering, we need to enjoy the grace of God, that is, enjoy the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:10, 45).

The last Adam – Christ in the flesh – became a life-giving Spirit, and this life-giving Spirit is in our spirit today. Therefore, we must daily die to the self so that we may live with Christ; we must die to the self and live one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 15:31, 36; John 12:24-26).

Furthermore, we must demonstrate the reality of resurrection by being one with God and having God with us in the status in which we were called (see 1 Cor. 7:24, 21-22a, 10-13).

Wherever we were called, in whatever state we are in, we should follow the Lord, be one with Him, live in peace with others, and bear the fragrance of His resurrection as we live one spirit with the Lord and having God with us.

Wherever we are, in whatever situation we are in, we should demonstrate the reality of resurrection by being one spirit with the Lord.

Furthermore, we should labor not by our natural ability but by the Lord as our resurrection power (see 1 Cor. 15:10, 58).

Our living needs to be by the resurrection life, and our labor should be by the resurrection power, living and working one spirit with the Lord and bearing the fragrance of His resurrection.

Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You as the resurrected Christ – the life-giving Spirit – who is grace to us daily. May we be willing to die to the self daily so that we may live with Christ to God daily. May the fragrance emanated from our being as we live our daily life be just the aroma of resurrection. May the reality of resurrection be demonstrated in us as we live one with God and have God in the status in which we were called. Oh Lord, may we labor not by our natural life or ability but by the Lord as our resurrection life and power!

Enjoying the Crucified Christ as the Solution to All the Problems in the Church

The solution to all the problems in the church life is Christ and the cross, the crucified Christ; we must enjoy the crucified Christ as the solution to all the problems in the church (see 1 Cor. 1:9, 18, 22-23).

As we eat Christ as the meal offering, we get all the ingredients – including the salt, a type of the cross of Christ. As we enjoy the crucified Christ, all our problems are finished.

We can check with our experience concerning this: whenever we enjoy the Lord, we have no problems, but when we don’t enjoy Him and His cross, there are all kinds of problems. We need to give ourselves to enjoy the Lord as the crucified Christ, so that we may live the meal offering church life!

Furthermore, we must enjoy Christ as our unleavened banquet (1 Cor. 5:6-8) – He is already unleavened, and He has become a banquet for us to feast on for the entire duration of our Christian life.

As we enjoy Christ as our banquet, as the feast, our natural life is killed by the salt, by the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 15:10; 12:31; 13:8; 2 Cor. 5:16). When we eat Christ as the unleavened bread, the cross operates in our being, our natural life is killed, and we know no one according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

As we eat Christ as the meal offering, our natural life and natural affection are dealt with – there will be no natural affection for others, but we will love all the saints even as Christ did, and we will stay away from anything evil.

God wants to eat this corporate meal offering, the proper church life; He wants to have a meal offering in every locality! God wants that every local church would be a meal offering that satisfies Him and that fully supplies the saints day-by-day.

Lord, gain the reality of the meal offering in all the local churches today. May all the local churches be a corporate meal offering that satisfies You and that fully supplies the saints day by day. Lord, keep us enjoying You as our unleavened banquet for the entirety of our Christian life. May the cross operate in our being as we eat You to kill our natural life and deal with any natural affection, goodness, or sin. Amen, Lord, may the church life in our locality be a corporate meal offering for You to eat and for the saints to be supplied!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 15-16 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 4, The Vision and Enjoyment of the Meal Offering.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Like Christ, the church is mingled / With Christ’s humanity, / Included in the Spirit, / In life essentially. / The content of the church life, / Both excellent and fine, / Is Spirit-filled and living. / ‘Tis God and man combined. (Song on, The meal offering church life)
  # The individual grains of wheat / No longer must be free, / But crushed together, ground to powder, / Every grain must be, / Until the wheat becomes the meal / From which the loaf is formed / Till all the saints will blend and to / His Body be conformed. (Hymns #1242)
  # Do you not know that our bodies / are Christ’s members? / This body’s a temple of the Holy Spirit / Who, from God, is now inside, / Owning us that God may be glorified. / Lord, we’ve been bought by You! / One spirit with You; / One spirit, not two. / Lord, we are joined to You: / One spirit… with You. (Song on, He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit)