Eat Jesus by doing the Will of the Father and by Glorifying God on Earth in our Living

We can eat Jesus by doing the will of the Father to satisfy the hungry and thirsty ones and by glorifying the Father on earth in living the life of a God-man for God’s glory, and we glorify Him by learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

When we think of eating Jesus, we may automatically think that it is related to the word of God, fellowship, prayer, and the exercise of our spirit; this is not wrong, but eating Jesus as the tree of life is much more than this.

The Lord Jesus said that He has a food that no one knows of, for His food is to do the will of the Father, and His food is also to glorify the Father by expressing Him. Wow!

On one hand, we need to eat the Lord Jesus by opening our whole being to Him and allowing Him to have the thoroughfare in our being.

When we do this, when we not only read the Bible but also muse on God’s word, mixing God’s word with our spirit of faith, prayer, conversation, worship, singing, praising, and even weeping, as the Lord touches us, He adds Himself to our being.

The way we can be one with God is organic, in the way of eating, digesting, and assimilating what God is so that we become the same as He is in constitution.

God doesn’t want merely some “angelic beings” who are perfect, who never sin, and who do every command that God gives them. No!

God desires to have an intimate relationship with man, so He presents Himself to man in the form of food.

Even when He was on earth, the Lord Jesus mysteriously spoke again and again concerning Him being the real bread, the bread of life, the bread of God, the living bread, and the bread that came down out of heaven.

The bread that God gave to the people of Israel in the wilderness, though it sustained them for forty years in a miraculous way, is not real bread.

The real bread is Jesus Christ, the bread of God, and unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no part in Him.

However, eating human flesh profits nothing, for it is the Spirit who gives life, and the words that the Lord speaks to us in a living, instant, present, and intimate way, these are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

May we learn to find His words, eat His words, digest His words, and assimilate His words which are spirit and are life (Jer. 15:16).

May we live not only on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God, so that He would become our inward constitution to sustain us, supply us, and enable us to live a God-man life for the glory of God and as part of the corporate expression of Christ.

We can Eat Jesus by doing the Will of the Father to Satisfy the Hungry and Thirsty Ones

In John 4 the Lord Jesus detoured through Samaria and, as He was waiting by the well for His disciples to get some food, He was eating a different kind of food.

In vv. 32 and 34 He said that He has food to eat that we don’t know about, for His food is to do the will of Him who has sent Him and to finish His work.

This shows that we believers in Christ can eat Jesus by doing the will of the Father, which in this case is to satisfy the hungry and thirsty ones with God as food.

For the Lord Jesus to do the will of the Father, in this case, was for Him to minister the living water to the thirsty sinner, the sinful Samaritan woman.

We all have experienced that, when we preach the gospel and minister Christ to others when we shepherd others and care for them in the Lord, they get fed and we ourselves also get fed.

This is such a wonderful experience. But there’s a deeper experience here, a deeper level.

The will of the Father was to meet the need of this thirsty sinful person.

The Lord Jesus was tired from the journey, but He didn’t spare Himself to get some rest and wait for the disciples to come; rather, He put Himself aside and took the Father’s will.

He put Himself aside and met the need of the sinful one by presenting Himself as the living water to her.

In John 17:4 we also see that the Lord Jesus glorified the Father by finishing the work which the Father gave Him to do.

To glorify God is to express Him in all things (see Col. 1:9-11).

We may say that, in the Lord’s case, to do the Father’s work is to accomplish the work of redemption, for the Lord Jesus accomplished the greatest work in the universe when He died on the cross to redeem us.

But if it were just the work of redemption that Jesus came to do, then the Lord Jesus could have just come and died for us, and that’s it; however, He was born, He lived for thirty-three and half years, and He did many things.

Why did it take so long? He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and He did so many things for God, yet He was rejected by man.

Why did He go through all these? It was to establish a model of a God-man living, a pattern of someone who lives in absolute oneness with the Father to express the Father in all situations.

Yes, He did preach the gospel and worked for God, and He did perform miracles and did great things for God; even more, He had a God-man living.

And this living of His fed those around Him; on one hand, He fed them with the words of life and gave them to drink the living water, and on the other hand, He fed them and He feeds us with His God-man human living.

In His human living, the Lord Jesus ate the riches grace and the sweetest love, which gave Him the power to always choose the Father’s will (Isa. 7:14-15, ASV 1901).

It was prophesied concerning Him that He will be called Emmanuel, God with us, and He will eat curds (butter) and honey until He knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

He had the power to choose God’s will and do God’s will because He enjoyed God as the richest grace and the sweetest love, so He did God’s will.

The enemy’s goal was to get the Lord Jesus to act on His own, not to choose the Father’s will; but the Lord rejected the enemy’s thought and chose the Father’s will.

We can eat the Lord Jesus by doing the will of the Father to satisfy the hungry and thirsty ones.

Even when the Lord Jesus was a young boy, when He was left in the temple by His parents, He chose God’s will and remained in the things of His Father.

May we be such ones. May we remain in the things of our Father, enjoy the Lord as the sweetest grace and richest love, and may we feed others with Christ, even with the living out of Christ that we have.

Lord Jesus, we want to eat You by doing the will of the Father to satisfy the hungry and thirsty ones! Amen, Lord, may we daily eat You as the richest grace and the sweetest love so that we may have the power to always choose the Father’s will. We come to You, dear Lord, and we take You as our life and person. We open to You and we allow You to flow into us and flow out of us to feed others also. May we have a God-man living that expresses You and nourishes those around us. Keep us in the things of our Father, doing the Father’s will to feed the hungry and quench the thirsty by ministering Christ to them both in our speaking and in our living! Amen, Lord Jesus, make us one with You to such an extent and keep us eating You to this degree!

We can Eat Jesus by Learning Christ as the Reality is in Jesus to Glorify the Father in Living the Life of a God-man

One practical way to eat Jesus is to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus (Eph. 4:20-21) so that we may live the life of a God-man for the glory of the Father.

This was the work that the Lord Jesus also did, to glorify the Father, and this is something that spontaneously issues out of our eating of Christ.

We are those who are learning Christ “as the reality is in Jesus”. The reality in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels.

If we read the Gospels we see that the Lord Jesus lived a life in which He glorified the Father on earth to set up a pattern for us, His believers.

He lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God in order to glorify God; He didn’t do anything of Himself or by Himself but in God and by God for the glory of God.

God was in the Lord’s living, and He was fully one with God. Such a One in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit so that He may enter into us to be our life and live the same kind of life on earth today! Hallelujah!

Now we learn from Jesus (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection (Col. 3:4; 1 Pet. 2:21).

If we read the Bible, especially the four Gospels, we are very inspired to see the human life of Jesus; as we read about His living, we actually eat Jesus and we are learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

We need to be infused with the Lord’s pattern by our prayerful reading and consideration of His human living.

There used to be a trend a while ago with “What Would Jesus Do” and, though we may not ask this outwardly, there is this aspiration inwardly, for we want to live in the same way that He did.

God’s intention is not that we try to copy the Lord Jesus in what He did but to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

We need to be taught in Him and learn Him as the reality is in Jesus. He finished the work God gave Him to do by expressing God to the uttermost in an individual way.

Now we are His duplication, His reproduction, and by eating Jesus we become the same as He is.

The Lord Jesus didn’t do anything out of Himself (John 5:19) and He didn’t do His own work (4:34; 17:4) but did the work of the Father, the work that the Father sent Him to do.

He didn’t speak His own word (14:10, 24) but spoke what He heard from the Father, and He didn’t do His own will (5:30) but did the will of the Father.

He didn’t seek His own glory but sought the glory of Him who sent Him (7:18).

When we read in the Gospels concerning His life, we are so inspired and something rises up within us that we also want to live the same kind of life.

However, if we try to do it in ourselves, it is impossible; this is to eat of the tree of knowledge.

We simply need to eat Him as the pattern; we need to eat Christ and drink Him, enjoying His humanity in spirit, and He will reproduce this same kind of living in us.

We should not be discouraged by the failures we have in living Christ; rather, we need to come to the Lord and eat Him, drink Him, and take Him in.

We may even ask Him to do the same kind of work and reproduce His living in us.

We may ask Him to make us the same as He is so that we never do anything of ourselves, never do our own work, never speak our own word, never do our own will, and never seek our own glory.

We need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus by being moulded into the pattern of Christ.

When we believed into the Lord, we were put into this mold, the mold of Christ, the pattern of Christ; we simply need to allow Him to shape us in His image.

As we pray over His word and muse on it, the Lord will operate in us to make us what we should be and take us where we need to be.

Christ is the indwelling Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life, and He has all the riches of His life; as such a One, He reproduces Himself in us (Rom. 8:2, 28-29).

The highest service we can render to God is to express His glory; He called us by His name, He created us and formed us, and He made us for His glory (Isa. 43:7; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 9:23).

To glorify God is the Father’s will, and we can eat the Lord to do the Father’s will by expressing Him in our daily living, living the life of a God-man by learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

We may think that, as a stay-at-home mother, it is impossible to do a great work for the Lord or be involved in the services of the church; however, where we are, we can eat Jesus to do the Father’s will and express God with our children.

We may think that it’s almost impossible to express God since we work so hard day by day, and there are so many responsibilities and chores to take care of, but wherever we are, we can turn to the Lord and eat His humanity, and He will be expressed through us.

The highest service we can render to God is to express Him in His glory; when we eat Jesus day by day, we will express Him.

May we eat Him as the pattern to express Him for the Father’s glory! We have been bought with a price, so we should glorify God in our body (1 Cor. 6:20).

This means that we need to allow God, who dwells in us (1 John 4:13) to occupy and saturate our body and express Himself through our body as His temple (1 Cor. 6:19).

Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

When we eat Him and drink Him, when we eat His humanity, we will simply express Him.

2 Cor. 5:10 also says that, when we see Him, we will all have to give an account for the things done through our body.

May we come to the Lord again and again and bring before Him what we look at, what we touch, what we watch, what we speak, what we listen to, where we go to, and what we do with our hands.

We are created to glorify God in our spirit, our soul, and our body.

Lord Jesus, we want to eat You as the pattern for our God-man living. We give ourselves to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus so that we may live a life that glorifies God and feeds others with His element. Amen, Lord, we eat Your humanity in which You didn’t do anything out of Yourself, You didn’t do Your own work, You didn’t speak Your own word, You didn’t do Your own will, and You didn’t seek Your own glory. Live in us in such a way today. May we be molded into the pattern of Christ today by being conformed to the image of Christ in our daily life. Reproduce Yourself in us, dear Lord, and live a God-man life in us today. Thank You for creating us and making us for Your glory. We want to render You the highest service by expressing Your glory. Thank You for purchasing us with a price; we want to glorify God in our body. We allow You, dear Lord, to occupy and saturate our body so that You may be expressed through our body as Your temple. Amen, Lord, whatever we do, whether we eat or drink or do something, may we do all things to the glory of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 46-47 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 5, entitled, The Secret of Living the Christian Life to be an Overcomer – Taking the Way of Eating and Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Let us eat Jesus every day, / Eating His flesh in such a way / That in the trials great or small / He as a Man will be our all. / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Why should we undernourished be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146)
  – For my words I take His wisdom, / For my works His Spirit’s power; / For my ways His ceaseless presence / Guards and guides me every hour. / Of my heart, He is the portion, / Of my joy the boundless spring; / Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, / Glorious Lord, and coming King. (Hymns #564)
  – The Lord Himself is food to me, / He is my life supply; / He will my pure enjoyment be, / None else can satisfy. / I freely eat this living tree, / For eating is the way / To put God’s life inside of me, / To live by Him today. (Hymns #1143)