By giving His people only manna to eat in the wilderness, God dealt with their flesh and at the same time reconstituted them with the heavenly food; by eating Christ as the unique heavenly food, our flesh is dealt with and displaced, and we are reconstituted with Christ to become the dwelling place of God.
God delivered His people Israel out of Egypt with a strong arm and many miracles, and they journeyed through the wilderness under His leading and with His supply.
However, all these miracles that God performed for His children did not change their flesh; not even their being encamped and formed into an army did not change or improved their flesh.
Rather, they lusted after the food and things that they used to enjoyed in Egypt, and they murmured against God and against Moses at least three times concerning food.
In a miraculous way God provided manna for His people every day for forty years, and they all ate and were supplied; however, their soul got tired of the manna, and they even loathed it.
This shows, firstly, us that in our Christian life God does many things for us, even miraculous things, but these supernatural things do not change us or improve the flesh.
Secondly, this shows us that as believers in Christ we are in the church, but our inward constitution may still be worldly, and we may still desire worldly things, music, entertainment, TV, etc, for our constitution is not yet changed.
So God gives us Christ – He is the unique heavenly food that God gives us so that we may eat Him, enjoy Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him into our being; this One reconstitutes us to become the very fiber of our being, and the result is that we become part of God’s dwelling place.
Christ is our heavenly manna, and every morning we need to spend time with Him to eat Him and be nourished with Him.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we have no other food but Christ; we do not “add” things or “spices” to our food, and we do not seek more exciting and tasty things – we simply want Christ.
What we do every day is take the word of God and pray over it, call on the name of the Lord, and enjoy the Lord; Christ is our unique food, and this Christ gets into us little by little day by day to reconstitute our inner being with Himself until we become part of the dwelling place of God.
Eating Christ as our Heavenly Food Deals with the Flesh and Reconstitutes us with Christ
God’s way to deal with the flesh of His people is to put it aside and not to feed it; this is the reason He changes the diet of His people and sends them food that their flesh doesn’t like (Num. 11:4-9; 21:5).
The mixed multitude and the people of Israel both abhorred and were bored of the heavenly taste of manna, and they lusted for the worldly taste of the Egyptian food.
Even though they were quite advanced in their experience of God, their flesh didn’t change; it still had lusts and desires, and they yearned after the Egyptian food.
We should not expect that, as we go on with the Lord, our flesh will change or improve; rather, as we go on with the Lord, He is faithful to deal with the flesh by exposing it so that we may put it aside and not feed it.
We know that the flesh needs to be dealt with by the cross, for the cross will break down our flesh; but even this may be somewhat superficial, for even when there are a hundred pieces of flesh, the flesh is still the flesh.
On one hand we need to have the dealing of the cross, and on the other, we need to cooperate with the Lord daily to have our flesh “displaced” and put aside by having this unique diet, Christ.
We need to allow the new diet of Christ to be brought into us and reconstitute us with Christ. On one hand we need to accept the breaking and dealing with the flesh by the cross, and on the other, we need to put our flesh aside and not feed it anymore.
In His wisdom God gives us the same food, a bland food, a heavenly food, which is nothing but Christ; He knows that our flesh doesn’t like it, and He knows that our flesh needs to be exposed and displaced by our eating Christ.
As we go on in our Christian journey in the Lord’s recovery, we are eating the same thing; we only eat Christ, we only enjoy God’s economy, and we only know the teaching of the apostles.
This exposes our flesh and brings us to know our need to be reconstituted, for even when we acquire a lot of knowledge and experience, the flesh is still there, and the flesh needs to be dealt with by being put aside.
The Egyptian diet denotes all the things that we desire to feed on in order to find satisfaction; America is the leading country with respect to the Egyptian diet and the worldly entertainment.
Whatever we desire, hunger, and thirst after to be satisfied is the diet according to which our being has been constituted.
We need to beware, for we are living in an advanced world with high-tech, and everything is for our convenience; we have the Internet, we can order anything we want online, we can watch and listen and read things, and we can easily find stimulation and satisfaction for the soul.
To become God’s dwelling place and part of the army, we need to allow God to reconstitute us with the diet of Christ, so bland and simple, ordinary, and common.
In the coming years the biggest test is whether we can endure and keep eating Christ, or will we start craving for some excitement, something glamorous and big…may we learn to be satisfied with what God is feeding us, which is Christ!
When we enjoy Christ and eat Christ as our unique heavenly food daily, this heavenly manna nourishes us and heals us, and at the same time it eliminates the negative things in us. Eating Christ reconstitutes us and removes any negative element.
How marvelous it was that God gave His people nothing except manna – this indicates that He gives us nothing except Christ, and that He wants our hunger and desire would be only for Christ so that our flesh may be dealt with and we may be reconstituted with Christ.
Thank You Lord for giving us Christ to eat as our unique diet, our heavenly food! Hallelujah, Christ is our food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack, and He reconstitutes us with Himself day by day! Oh Lord, keep us eating Christ every day so that the negative things in us would be displaced, Christ would be added to our being, and we would be healed and nourished. Amen, Lord Jesus, we come to You again and again to eat only You and have You as our unique diet, so that we may be reconstituted with Christ for the dwelling place of God!
Having a Change of Appetite to Desire only Christ and be Reconstituted with Him for God’s Building
Along with the change of diet to a diet of Christ, we also need a change of appetite; the Lord Jesus said in John 6:26 that we should work not for the food which perishes but for the food which abides unto eternal life.
By food here we mean anything that we take into us for our satisfaction; the only food that doesn’t perish is Christ, and this food abides unto eternal life.
Whatever satisfies us, strengthens us, and sustains us is our food; the unique food that we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ and Christ alone.
As those who have been regenerated by the Lord, we need to have a change in our diet and a change of appetite; God’s intention is to cut off the worldly diet and to limit us to a diet of heavenly food, which is Christ.
We all need that we should have a healthy diet, but we may not have the appetite for it; we know that we need to eat more vegetables and fruits, but our appetite may be for things that are not so healthy.
Once we realise, however, the importance and even critical importance of having a healthy diet – which can actually save our life and extend our days on earth – we will learn to develop an appetite for such a diet.
Spiritually speaking, we may not be used to eating Christ every day, and we may want to take in other things besides Christ; but once we realise the vital importance of Christ as our unique diet, we will acquire an appetite for Him, and we will have a change of appetite.
We need to acquire another appetite, an appetite for Christ, the unique heavenly food which reconstitutes us for God’s building.
So we need to ask the Lord to change our appetite, and even open to Him concerning our unwillingness to eat only Christ; we need to ask Him to give us a craving, a hunger, and a desire to eat Christ.
We need to have a change of appetite and be those eating Christ until we are able to say, The Lord is the only One who satisfies me, and apart from Him, I have no satisfaction; I am daily strengthened and sustained by Christ, for He is the only food on which I rely.
Amen, the unique food that we take for our sustenance, strength, and satisfaction must be Christ, and the unique ministry in the New Testament conveys Christ as the unique food for God’s people (Num. 11:5-6; cf. Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 3:6).
On one hand we need to ask ourselves what kind of appetite we have, and on the other, we need to daily learn to eat Christ and enjoy Him as our everything; we need to take Christ as our entertainment, music, sports, news, and even television.
We all should be able to testify that the Lord has changed both our diet and our appetite from so many items to just one – Christ as the heavenly manna.
We should work not for the food which perishes but rather, pay the price of our time, energy, and whole being to eat Christ, take in the One who is eternal and nourishing, and be reconstituted with Christ for the dwelling place of God.
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Faptul de a-L mânca pe Cristos ca unică hrană înlocuiește carnea și ne reconstituie cu Cristos.
Lord Jesus, give us an appetite for Christ; give us a hunger to eat Christ. May we realise the importance of feeding only on Christ, and may we build up and acquire an appetite for only Christ. Dear Lord Jesus, give us a hunger, a craving, and a desire to eat Christ so that we may be reconstituted with Christ for the dwelling place of God. May our unique sustenance, strength, and satisfaction be Christ, and may Christ be the only One and only thing that satisfy us. Lord Jesus, we love You, we need You, and we come to You to eat You day by day!
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. 32-35 (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:
# My heart is hungry, my spirit doth thirst; / I come to Thee, Lord, to seek Thy supply; / All that I need is none other but Thee, / Thou canst my hunger and thirst satisfy. (Hymns #811)
# Lord, Thou art the Heav’nly Manna, / As our daily food supply; / Strengthening and energizing, / All our need to satisfy. (Hymns #196)
# What is it? Manna! / Christ as our food! / Oh change our diet! / Reconstitute us! / What is it? Manna! / Christ as our food! / Oh change our diet! / Reconstitute. (Song on, Manna)
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