Jesus Christ, our High Priest, testified that the living Father sent Him and He lived because of the Father; He ate the Father and lived because of the Father, and now we as the sons of God and priests to God need to eat Christ and live because of Him (John 6:57). Our food as priests is Christ Himself, and we eat Christ by eating His word; the words He speaks to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
In the Old Testament, the priests’ food was the offerings and the bread of the presence, all of which typify Christ; Christ is the reality of all the offerings, and He is the face of God to be our food. Christ came to replace all the Old Testament offerings; He took away all the Old Testament types and established Himself as everything to us; this is God’s great will (see Heb. 10:5-10).
As priests to God, we don’t need to “offer a lamb or a bull” to God physically; we now need to take Christ as the reality of all the offerings, applying Him, enjoying Him, and eating Him before God and with God, and we will be inwardly supplied and outwardly functioning as priests.
The great will of God, according to Heb. 10:5-9, is to take away the first covenant and all the things that go with it (especially the sacrifices and offerings) and to bring in the new covenant, the new Testament, where all the animals are over and gone – they are replaced with Christ Himself, the unique offering God has prepared for us and for Himself.
Christ came into the world so that He might, according to the will of God, put away the sacrifices and the offerings, and might establish the covenant in His blood so that He might be our food and our everything. Praise the Lord, Christ is our unique diet, and we can take Him in as the One who replaces all the offerings and sacrifices with Himself!
Feeding on Christ, Ministering Him, and being Satisfied with Christ as our Food
Many Christians believe in Christ, read the Bible, follow Christ, worship Christ, and even preach Christ, but how many Christians eat Christ? All genuine believers in Christ are priests to God, and our unique portion is Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices. Christ came not only to save us from sin and Satan – He came to be our food; He is the bread of life (John 6:35), and when we eat Him we will live because of Him (v. 57).
As priests we need to handle Christ, minister Christ, and eat Christ; we first need to enjoy Christ and eat Him, and then we can minister Him to others. Most of the sacrifices offered by the priests were also the portion of the priest; when we offer Christ to God, when we tell others about Christ and they enjoy Him, we also are fed by Him.
We need to learn to feed on Christ, take Him in, and enjoy Him as our spiritual food. When we minister Christ to others by preaching the gospel, having fellowship in God’s word, or simply sharing something about Christ with others, we are inwardly fed – and the others are also fed with this rich Christ.
When we minister Christ as the Savior to a lost person, that person is saved and we are inwardly fed and supplied with Christ. The Christ we offer to God and to others is also our inward supply. Christ is not a doctrine or a teaching; He is a living Person, One who can be subjectively experienced and enjoyed by us.
The more I speak about Christ, the more I am satisfied. If this is not true, then I am a false minister. The more I talk with you about Christ and present Christ to you, the more I feed on Christ. While I am ministering Him, I am feeding on Him. He is so subjective to me. I am not selling Christ by my thinking mind but by my enjoying spirit. He is my food. Nothing is so subjective to us as food. The food we eat becomes our very being after a short period of time. We must experience Christ in such a subjective way. (Witness Lee, The Priesthood, p. 498)
Hallelujah, the more we handle Christ, enjoy Christ, eat Christ, and speak Christ to others, the more we are inwardly supplied with Christ as our food! May we no longer be starving priests but well-fed and adequately supplied priests to God, those who eat Christ day by day! May we be those who contact God, fellowship with God, and live in the presence of God so that we may enjoy Christ as God’s offerings.
The Lord wants that all His people would primarily take care of eating Christ, enjoying Christ, and ministering Christ to one another so that Christ would be our life and life supply for our living and serving God.
Lord Jesus, save us from being “hungry priests”, those who don’t eat Christ daily. We want to enjoy You subjectively and eat You as the reality of all the offerings so that we may be inwardly supplied to live and serve as a priest. Lord, we come to contact You, fellowship with You, and live in Your presence, so that we may enjoy You as the bread of God’s presence and as the meat of all the offerings. We want to eat You so that we may live because of You. We draw near to You to enjoy You and partake of You. Lord, You are our supply!
Daily Enjoying Christ as the Reality of the Offerings for our Food as Priests
As priests we need to live a life according to God’s heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings for our food. Our food is not worldly, earthly, psychologically, or common; our food is Christ as the reality of all the offerings.
When we enjoy Christ in such a way, we can arrive at the divine goal of the Triune God, which is to bring us all into Himself so that we may take Him as our dwelling place and allow Him to take us as His dwelling place for His universal, enlarged, divine-human incorporation (see John 1:14, 29; 14:23; Rev. 21:3, 22).
Christ died on the cross not only to save us and redeem us; He died to become our food, our life supply. As the food, He gets into us, and as the clothing, we get into Him; by this mutual indwelling and coinhering, we dwell in God and God dwells in us. Praise the Lord!
Let us see what the offerings and the bread of the presence in the Old Testament typify of Christ, and let us enjoy Him as such a rich One!
The sin offering signifies that Christ was made sin for us that through His death on the cross, sin might be condemned (Lev. 4:3; 6:26; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; 3:14). Christ took away the sin of the world, and He became our food; we need to eat Him by taking Him as our sin offering. Lord, I eat You as the sin offering. I take You as the One who condemned sin!
The trespass offering signifies that Christ bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven in our sinful conduct (Lev. 5:6; 7:6-7; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; John 4:15-18). We commit many sins and trespasses; therefore, we need to eat Christ as our trespass offering. He died for us and was judged for us, shedding His blood for us and bearing our iniquities; now He is our food to be enjoyed by us. So often after we fail and sin, we need to apply His blood and eat Christ as our priestly food.
The burnt offering, which was wholly for God’s satisfaction as food for God, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction, as the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God; it is God’s food that God may enjoy it and be satisfied (Lev. 1:3; Num. 28:2-3; John 7:16-18). Christ is the absolute One who did God’s will, didn’t seek His own glory but God’s glory, lived a life entirely for God, and did everything according to God’s desire; He is the One qualified to be the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction. We can handle this offering, but God eats it; as He eats, we also eat – this is a mutual eating.
The meal offering typifies Christ in His humanity and in His human living, which was proper, even, tender, fine, balanced, pure, and sinless (Lev. 2:1, 3-4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6). Christ is the beautiful, fine, pure, and perfect in His humanity and human living, and we get to eat Him as such a One. Every day we need to eat the meal offering to live this kind of life. We may not be balanced or perfect or honest, but as we eat this perfect One, the faultless Jesus is our food and He’s being reproduced in us!
The peace-offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between God and us by shedding His blood and dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God (Lev. 3:1; 7:14, 31-34; Eph. 2:14-15; John 12:1-3; 20:21; Rev. 21:2). This is our portion: we must eat Christ as our peace maker, the One who both makes peace between us and God and is our peace. He shed His blood and died to make us all one in Him, and we get to eat Him as our peace-offering, thus having peace toward God and toward man!
The wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ in love (Lev. 7:30; 10:15). In His resurrection Christ became our wave offering for us to enjoy in love. When we love the Lord, open to Him, and enjoy Him in His resurrection, we eat Him as the wave offering.
The heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation (7:32; Exo. 29:27; Eph. 1:21). Hallelujah, the powerful Christ in His ascension and exaltation is our portion of life supply as priests! We need to eat Him as such a One.
The drink offering signifies Christ as the enjoyment of the offerer, enabling the offerer to be filled with Christ as the heavenly wine and even to become the wine offered to God for His enjoyment and satisfaction (Exo. 29:40; Num. 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17). This is a special offering, and we can enjoy Christ as the heavenly wine cheering us up and making us happy, and we can offer Him to God for His enjoyment and satisfaction.
The bread of the Presence, the face-bread, signifies that God’s presence, God’s face, is the feast of God’s priests to be their serving supply for His building (Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:9; cf. 1 Sam. 21:6). The bread of the presence was in the Holy Place; it was called “the bread of the face”, the face-bread. This bread was reserved for priests. Today we get to eat God’s face, Christ Himself as God’s presence to be our supply. We need to eat Christ as God’s presence all day long so that we may live and serve as priests!
Lord Jesus, we take You as our sin offering, the One who delivers us from sin. Lord, we eat You as our trespass offering, offering You to God as such a One. Lord, we lay our hands on You as the Absolute One for God, the burn offering. We eat You as the meal offering, the One whose humanity and human living is proper, even, tender, fine, pure, balanced, and sinless. Lord, we take You as our peace-offering, the One who makes peace between us and God and others. We eat You as our wave and heave offering, the resurrected, ascended, and exalted Christ. Oh Lord, how happy we are when we take You as our drink offering, and how supplied we are when we eat You as the face-bread, the face of God as God’s presence to be our food!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” ch. 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 3 / msg 3, Christ as Food, Clothing, and Dwelling of the Priests.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Christ Jesus is the food we eat; / He is our bread, He is our meat; / He is our life-supply complete; / We daily eat of Him. / We daily eat of Him, / We daily eat of Him. / He is our life-supply complete; / We daily eat of Him. (Hymns #1145)
# Lord, Thou art all the offerings / Prepared by God for us; / They are so rich in meaning, / So sweet and glorious. / They have fulfilled God’s purpose / And met His heart’s desire; / They too have satisfied us, / And faced what we require. (Hymns #195)
# Lord, Thou art our peace-offering; / We lay our hands on Thee. / We’re one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / In fact and practically. / Here in the tent of meeting / We offer Thee to God / And with the Father feasting / Enjoy Thee as our food. (Hymns #1104)
About aGodMan
The bread of the Presence is one of the foods for the priests….It signifies Christ as our life and life supply. To handle Christ as the bread of the Presence and to minister Him to others, we must first enjoy and feed on Him as the bread of the Presence. This means that we must experience Christ as the inner life and the life supply by feeding on Him.
We must learn to feed on Him, to take Him in, and to enjoy Him as our spiritual food. When we minister Christ to others, we also feed ourselves with Him. While we are feeding others, we are fed. Every time I minister, the first one to be fed is myself. After the ministry I am satisfied. I am satisfied by my ministering of Christ to others. (Witness Lee, The Priesthood, pp. 496-497)
Amen! Lord Jesus, we take You as our all and in all. Lord Jesus, You are everything to us before God. You have become our one and only reality, our unique offering that God has prepared for us and for Himself, established by the blood of a new covenant, to be our unique diet, our food that supplies and satisfies both man and God. How happy we are in Jesus, our One and only reality before God. Hallelujah! Thank You Lord Jesus! Praise the Lord! Amen.
It is good again to be reminded of all that Christ our Lord has done for us and of who He is to us. Our “daily eating Christ as the reality of the offerings for our food” satisfies both man and God. Eating Christ is the way the reality and the life. Amen.