Enjoying Christ as the Reality of All our Necessities by Exercising our Spirit

We need to enjoy Christ day by day as the reality of all our necessities

All the genuine believers in Christ are Christ-men, Christ-ians, those who have received Christ into them as their life inwardly and who enjoy Christ in their everyday life.

The Bible tells us again and again that Christ is everything to us, and specifically that Christ is the reality of all our necessities.

We need food – Christ is the real food. We need something to drink – Christ is our real drink. We need to breathe all the time – Christ is the real fresh spiritual air for us to breathe in. We need clothes – Christ is our real covering. We need a dwelling place – Christ is our real home, our dwelling place. We need light and life – Christ is our life, and He is the light of life, the real light coming into the world to impart life to us.

Day-by-day we need to enjoy Christ as the reality of all our necessities, taking Him as the reality of all the things that we need.

He is the bread of life and the living bread that we can eat and live because of (John 6:51, 57). He is our spiritual drink (1 Cor. 10:4), and He became the Spirit to quench our thirst all the time (John 7:37-39). Christ our breath, coming to us to be breathed in by us (John 20:22).

Christ is our clothing, the One we put on as we are being baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27). Christ is our dwelling place, the One we abide in, the home we dwell in, remain, and stay forever (John 15:7; Psa. 90:1).

Everything we need, Christ is. We simply need to exercise our spirit and take Him in as the reality of all our necessities. When we breathe, we need to be reminded to call on the name of the Lord and breathe Him in all the time. When we eat or drink something, we need to be reminded to eat Christ and drink Christ, taking Him as the reality of our food and drink.

When we get dressed, we need to be reminded to take Christ as our real covering and beauty. When we are at home, we need to take Christ as our real home. Again and again, we need exercise our spirit to be reminded to take Christ as the reality of all our necessities for our daily life.

Enjoying Christ as our Breath – He is the Breath of Life

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

The very first thing the Lord Jesus did after His resurrection toward His disciples is to come to them in the room where they were and tell them, Peace to you; Receive the Holy Spirit (and He breathed on them, see John 20:22).

Through His death and resurrection Christ was “pneumatized”, that is, transfigured / transformed into the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:45). Now the Lord is the Spirit, the living air, the breath of life.

Just as in the human life we need to breathe constantly and never stop breathing, so Christ is our real breath, the fresh spiritual air we need to breathe in all the time by calling on the name of the Lord. We need to have our enjoyment of Christ upgraded.

The more we remain in our mind, emotion, and will we are short of air, short or breath; but whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we feel refreshed and renewed. Forget about what’s going on around you and don’t look at other people: simply turn to the Lord in your spirit by calling on the name of the Lord, and you will breathe Him in!

We Christians think, consider, and worry too much. Many times we will not turn to the spirit until we are forced to. If our business runs well, we do not turn to the Lord. Therefore, we often need troubles, trials, and painful sufferings, things we cannot get through, to force us to give up and turn back to the Lord. We must learn to be willing to turn to our spirit. Even if we could get through in some area outside of the spirit, we should still come back to the spirit. When we turn to our spirit, we sense the fresh air within us; we are refreshed, strengthened, and uplifted….To pray is the best way to exercise our spirit. In the morning while we are dressing or washing, we can say something to the Lord from our spirit. We must learn to turn ourselves to the Lord at all times. (Christ our Portion, p. 29)

Enjoying Christ as our Drink – He is the Living Water, the Real Drink

Christ is our real drink – He is the living water, the real drink, the reality of all that we need to drink in order to sustain life (see John 4:10, 14; 7:38-39). We need to drink water many times during the day, and if we don’t drink for a few days we will physically die.

In the spiritual realm it is the same: as believers in Christ we need to drink of Him every day, many times during the day. Deep within we have a thirst for something, and only God in Christ as the Spirit can quench our real thirst. Whenever we drink water and whenever we drink anything, we need to take Christ as the real drink. We should be reminded many times during the day to drink of Christ.

Christ is our real tea, our real fruit juice, our real water – He is our real drink. When we drink physical water our whole body is refreshed, and we have a proper metabolism. When we drink of Christ as the living water we are being spiritually refreshed and renewed, and inwardly we have a proper spiritual metabolism.

The water we drink reminds us of Christ as the real water, and this real living water is living, making us living and full of life, and bringing us all the way into the New Jerusalem! Everything that is on God’s heart is accomplished by our continual enjoyment of this wonderful Christ who is the reality of all the positive things in the universe!

Enjoying Christ as our Food – We Eat of Him and Live Because of Him

John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the reality of our food; He is the bread of life and the living bread coming out of heaven to inwardly spiritually nourish us (John 6:35). Whoever eats the Lord shall live because of Him (John 6:57).

In our human life we need not only to breathe and drink but also to eat and be nourished for the growth in life and the sustaining of life. In the spiritual life we need to call on the name of the Lord and turn to our spirit all the time in order to breathe in the Lord and take Him in as spiritual drink, and we also need to eat the Lord in His word. His words are spirit and life (John 6:63), and His words are our food.

When we read the Bible, we shouldn’t exercise our mind too much; yes, we need to understand the word of God, but most of all we need to EAT Christ in His word. We need to have a change in our reading the Bible: we need to learn to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, praying over the word of God to eat Christ in His word.

If we pray-read the word of God, we will be nourished, fed, satisfied, and strengthened, having Christ ministered into us. We need to learn to turn to our spirit as we read the Bible so that we would not only understand the word of God but eat Him, take Him in as food and nourishment.

When we eat physical food we need to be reminded to eat the Lord as our spiritual food.

Enjoying Christ as our Light – He is the Real Light and Shining Sun

Life grows when light shines, and when the sun shines in the sky all kinds of life springs up and grows. Christ is our real light, and in Him is light, which light is the life of men (John 1:4). Christ is the real light coming into the world so that we may see God and see all things clearly (John 8:12).

Humanly we love to see the sun shining every day, but as we enjoy the sunshine we need to be reminded that Christ is our real sunshine, the real light, the life-giving light, having healing in His light rays. When we wake up in the morning and all throughout the day we need to enjoy the Lord as the real light, opening to Him and letting Him shine in our being.

Even at night, when we turn on the light in the room, we need to be reminded to enjoy Christ as the real light. Man-made light and natural light is not real light; Christ is the real light, and He is in us to make us children of light and even the city of light, the New Jerusalem!

Enjoying Christ as our Clothing – He is our real Covering and Beauty

Gal. 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

We need clothes both to cover us and to make us beautiful; our clothes are a type of Christ as the real garment, the real clothing, the real covering. All those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). Whenever we get dressed in the morning we need to be reminded, Lord, You are my real covering. I take You right now as my garment. You cover me, protect me, and beautify me with what You are.

After we were saved, Christ became our righteousness to cover us before God, making us acceptable to Him (1 Cor. 1:30). As we live out Christ in our Christian life by taking Him as the reality of all things, Christ is being wrought into us to become our second garment for the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Our human clothes are new only for an instant and then they start to deteriorate; we constantly need to change them, wash them, and then throw them away after they become old and unusable. But Christ as our garment is fresh, bright, beautiful, and always new, covering us before God before men!

Without wearing Christ as our real clothing we are naked and ugly, no matter how many outward clothes we wear. Christ enjoyed by us and lived out of us is our real beauty. Christ living in us makes us beautiful. Always seek to be covered in Christ and clothed with Him!

Enjoying Christ as our Dwelling Place – He is our Real Home

We love being home; our home is our dwelling place, the place we like to be and express ourselves with no inhibitions. As believers in Christ we were grafted into Christ – He is the vine and we are the branches, and we need to abide in Him, remain in Him, and dwell in Him as our dwelling place (John 15:5, 7; Psa. 90:1; 91:1).

When we are at home we need to be reminded that Christ is our real home, our real dwelling place. Christ as the Spirit is now with our spirit, and when we are in spirit we dwell in Christ. We are at home in Christ, in our spirit.

Outwardly speaking, we have to admit that not all the time when we’re at home we’re at peace. However, inwardly speaking, whenever we are in our spirit abiding in Christ, we are at home, we are at peace, and we enjoy rest. When we’re in Christ, we’re at home.

He is our real home, our real dwelling place. And as we enjoy Him as our home, He Himself makes His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17) and we become a dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22).

When we’re away from our physical home, “we miss home”; this should remind us to never leave “home” in our spirit. Always turn to the spirit and be in spirit, and Christ as the reality of all our necessities will be our enjoyment in full!

Lord Jesus, You are the breath of life, the living air we can breathe in to be refreshed. We want to learn to turn to our spirit in every situation and at all time. Save us from over thinking things and from considering too much. Lord, keep us turning to our spirit! We want to take You as the reality of all our necessities. You are the reality of the water we drink. You are the reality of the food we eat. You are the real light. Lord, You are our clothing and covering. You are our dwelling place. Remind us to take You as the reality of all our necessities by turning to our spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Christ our Portion (ch. 3), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 2 / msg 2, The Vision of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I am the living bread, which came down out of heaven; / If anyone, if anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever. (Song based on John 6:57)
  # Living water, food supply, Lord, / Thou Thyself art, and didst die, Lord, / All our want to satisfy, Lord; / Now we feast on Thee. (Hymns #78)
  # If you abide in Me and my words abide in you / Ask whatever you will and it will be done for you. / When we abide in the Lord and let His words abide in us, / We actually are one with Him as He works within us. (Song on John 15)
  # Christ is our real God, our real Lord, / Christ is our real life, our real light; / Christ is our real food, our real drink, / Our real clothing, and our real might. (Hymns #496)