God’s Words are Good for us to Eat: we need to Eat the Word of God as our Food

Ezekiel was asked by God to take the scroll and eat it, then speak the word of God (Ezek. 2:8-3:4); as believers in Christ we need to eat the word of God, digest them, assimilate them into our being, and then speak the word of God.

This week in our crystallization-study of Ezekiel we come to the matter of, Eating the scroll – eating and digesting the Word of God (mainly based on Ezek. 2:8 – 3:3).

After seeing such a high, complete, and all-inclusive vision in Ezekiel 1, which gives a summary of the entire Bible and of the book of Ezekiel, now we come to a something seemingly elementary, something we’re all familiar with – eating the word of God.

The secret to entering into the high and complete vision seen in Ezekiel 1 is to eat the word of God, digest it, assimilate it, and become it. We need to not be rebellious but eat the word of God; we can be saved from rebellion by eating and digesting the word of God.

After hearing or reading the word of God, we need to take time to digest it, that is, allow the hand of the Lord work in us and operate in our being for His word to become an integral part of our inner constitution.

The word of God is not like the words of a man – we may speak a lot of things and nothing happens, but when God speaks, He creates, He accomplishes things, and His word is operative (see Isa. 55:11).

The word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of bones and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

Once we pray the word of God and allow it to operate in our being, this word separates, divides, and pierces, dividing the soul from the spirit, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We need to be like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Apostle John by first coming to the Lord, eating His word in a personal way, and allowing this word to operate in us so that it may be digested and assimilated into our being; then, we can speak the word of God that has been constituted into us.

Eating the Word of God and Speaking with God’s Words, that is, Prophesying for God

In Ezekiel 2:8-3:4 the prophet Ezekiel was told by God to eat the scroll and speak with God’s words; we see a similar situation in Rev. 10:8-11 where the apostle John ate the scroll and prophesied.

There’s a critical relationship between eating the word of God and prophesying, that is, speaking for God and speaking forth God. To eat the word of God means that we take in the word by means of all prayer and petition, we receive the word, and we digest it and assimilate it to make it part of our being.

The apostle John was told to take the scroll from the hand of the Angel and devour it, and then he will prophesy for God (see Rev. 10:8-11).

God commands us to take His word and devour it, that is, eat every bit of God’s word by pray-reading it to make it part of our inner constitution. We must receive the divine revelation in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation, in the way of eating the word of God.

In Ezekiel’s case, a scroll was spread before Ezekiel, which was written on both sides, and he was told to eat it and then speak to the house of Israel (Ezek. 2:9-3:1); Ezekiel opened his mouth, and Jehovah gave him that scroll to eat (v. 2).

Ezekiel was commanded to feed his stomach and to fill his inward parts with this scroll; after he ate the scroll, Jehovah charged him to go to the house of Israel and speak with His words to them. Ezekiel didn’t speak his words according to his feeling and opinions but he spoke the word of God which was constituted into him by eating the scroll, the word of God.

The real prophesying is not just speaking what we have enjoyed from the word or what touched us in our five minutes with the Lord in the morning; prophesying is an extraordinary kind of speaking because it comes out of what we have eaten, digested, and assimilated in the word of God.

What we speak when we are prophesying is not something light or something merely coming out of inspiration but the word of God that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated in our personal time with the Lord.

If we all eat the word of God, digest it, and assimilate it into our being, the standard of prophesying in our meetings will go up. On the one hand we all can prophesy (1 Cor. 14), but on the other hand, prophesying is not a light matter but it takes great exercise and it is a great matter.

In Rev. 10:8-11 the apostle John was told to take the opened scroll that was in the hand of Christ as another Angel, devour it, and prophesy over many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. John didn’t receive the scroll – he devoured it, receiving it into his being.

We need to devour the word of God, that is, eat every it of it, eat it all. We need to eat the word of God without any discrimination, because we need every single word of God.

If something is in the word of God, we need it; we need to devour it, eat it, and receive it into our being by means of all prayer.

We must receive the divine revelation in this way – both Jeremiah and Ezekiel did this.

Lord Jesus, we want to not be rebellious but come to You, eat the word of God, digest it, assimilate it, and speak the word of God which has been constituted into our being! Uplift our prophesying for God. Save us from merely sharing something that inspired us or touched us in Your word. May we take the way of eating the word of God, devouring it, digesting it, and assimilating it, so that the word would operate in our being and become our very constitution. Amen, Lord, we want to eat the word of God without any kind of discrimination!

God’s Words are Good for us to Eat: we need to Eat the Word of God as our Food

According to the divine revelation in the Bible, the word of God is not only for us to understand and remember, but all the more for us to eat and digest. God’s words are good for us to eat, and we need to eat the word of God (see Psa. 119:103; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2-3).

God’s word is the divine supply as food to nourish us, and as we pray over the word of God, God dispenses His riches into our inner being to nourish us so that we may be constituted with His element.

Our normal response to the word of God should be like Jeremiah’s response in Jer. 15:16, Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart. When we eat God’s word, we are full of joy and rejoicing within.

The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of eating the Lord in His word. We need to be those who eat the word of God; we need to learn to contact God’s word in the Bible in a way of extracting the nourishment, the elements contained in the word of God, so that we may build up our spiritual constitution.

Our concept and mentality toward the word of God needs to change: we need to realize that God’s words are good for us to eat! We need to consider the word of God not merely as teaching or as doctrine, but as food.

Of course, this food enters first through our mind, for it is in the form of words, but it is meant to nourish our spirit, our inner spiritual being.

We need to learn the spiritual skill of eating the word of God; it is through the word of God as our food that God dispenses His riches into our inner being to nourish us (John 6:63).

In His economy, God desires to dispense Himself with His rich and bountiful attributes of His life and nature into our being to constitute us with Himself so that we would express Him corporately.

How, when, and where does this happen? It happens primarily in our personal time with the Lord in His word, when we exercise our spirit to pray over God’s word.

Yes, there’s a dispensing going on in the meetings, but if the only dispensing you receive is only in the meetings, you are spiritually malnourished, for you eat two or three times a week. Our main eating of the Lord is not in the meetings but every day in our private life.

The best way to eat the word of God is to pray-read; for us to enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit contained in the word of God, we need to pray over God’s word.

The riches of Christ are embodied in the word of God, and the word is Spirit and life to us; therefore, we need to exercise our spirit to pray over God’s word, receiving the word by means of all prayer, and we will be inwardly nourished with the divine supply in God’s word.

We need to learn to pray-read the word so that we may eat the Lord in His word and grow in life to be part of His corporate expression.

Eating is a personal matter: I can’t eat for you and you can’t eat for me; eating the Lord is a personal matter – we need to personally eat the word of God, and His word will become our heart’s gladness and joy.

Lord, we want to be those who find Your word, eat them, and digest them, so that Your word would become to us the gladness and joy of our heart. Thank You Lord, Your word is not merely for knowledge but for us to eat and be inwardly supplied! May we not be satisfied merely with reading the Bible, but may we dig deeper into God’s word by praying over the word of God so that we may be inwardly supplied and nourished with the bountiful supply of the Spirit and the riches of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Eating the Lord,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 10 (week 10), Eating the Scroll — Eating and Digesting the Word of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # We have found the way to live by Christ— / Pray His Word and call His name! / This—the eating, drinking—has sufficed / And its worth we now proclaim. (Hymns #1153)
  # We need to eat the Lord, / Absorb His pure Word / And breathe in Christ as life; / And as we breathe God in, / The Spirit begins / Dispensing the life supply. (Song on being supplied by eating)
  # Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading-Lord, Thou art my fare. (Hymns #811)