Read and Pray God’s Word to Eat the Lord as our Food and Receive God’s Dispensing

God’s economy is a matter of Christ coming into us inwardly to dispense Himself into us by the way of eating; the Lord needs to recover our eating of Him so that we may eat the Lord as our food and not focus primarily on doctrines or outward practices.

The matter of eating is very important not only in our human life physically but also spiritually. In order for us to live spiritually, we need to eat the Lord as our food.

We need to eat Him not only when we are hungry or when we’re down; we need to eat the Lord all the time.

The Divine Trinity wants to dispense Himself into us by means of our eating the Lord, drinking Him, and breathing Him.

Through these basic matters in our Christian life, we receive and remain under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.

When the Lord Jesus came, He came not only to be our Savior but also to be our food.

The Jews at His time might have been quite disappointed to realize that the Lord will not deliver them from the Roman usurpation; Christ came to deliver them from themselves by their eating of Him.

In John 6 especially the Lord said that He is the bread of life, the bread that came down out of heaven, the living bread, and the bread of God.

He came so that we may partake of Him as the bread of life, and the way we do this is by eating His words.

John 6:63 confirms that the flesh profits nothing – it is the Spirit who gives life, and the words that the Lord has spoken to us and is speaking to us are spirit and are life.

When we come to the Lord in His word, exercising our spirit to contact the Lord, we enjoy the Lord as spirit and life, and we are inwardly supplied.

When the prodigal son returned to his father, the first thing the Father did was to put a robe on him; then, he ordered that the fattened calf would be slaughtered and prepared, so that they would eat and be merry.

On one hand, we need the Lord to be our righteousness, covering us and qualifying us to be in the Lord’s presence.

On the other hand, we need to eat Him so that we may inwardly be supplied to live the Christian life.

May we come to the Lord’s words again and again with the exercise of our spirit so that we may eat Him in His word.

May we read the Bible not only to get more knowledge or understanding but even more, so that we would eat the Lord as our food in His word.

And when we come together with the saints, we need to feast on the Lord together with the saints. The primary matter in the church life must be eating Christ as the tree of life.

Read and Pray God’s Word to Eat the Lord as our Food and Receive God’s Dispensing

God’s economy, His household administration, is a matter of Christ coming into us inwardly; the way He accomplishes His purpose is by coming into us as our food and drink to constitute us with Himself.

For us to have Christ come into us inwardly, we need to take Him in by eating Him (John 6:57; Eph. 3:17).

The record regarding spiritual eating in the Bible reveals that God intends to dispense Himself into us, His chosen and redeemed people, by the way of eating (1 Cor. 10:3; Rev. 2:7; 22:14).

The way that God dispenses Himself into us is by our eating the Lord as our food in His word.

To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they become our constitution (Gen. 2:16-17).

For us to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life (John 6:56-57).

The Lord Jesus came and presented Himself to us as our food; He came not as a doctrine or a man of teachings but as the bread of life (John 6:35, 48).

The churches in the New Testament were “eating churches”, for they ate the Lord’s word and the word grew among them.

We need to be eating Christians, those who take the word of God into us by means of reading and praying over it so that the word may be digested and assimilated to become our element, our very constituent.

In Acts 9:4-5 the Lord Jesus considered the believers as members of Himself.

This shows that they not only received the Lord Jesus into them but also digested and assimilated Him into their being so that He becomes the constituent of their being.

We need to take in the Lord into our being by pray-reading His word, by reading and praying over His word.

We may think that we need to read a lot of verses in the Bible in order to eat the Lord, but it’s not the quantity that matters but our digestion.

Many times we read the Bible consecutively but we don’t eat the Lord as our food; it’s as if we open the foot pantry and look at the beans, the rice, the peaches, tuna fish cans, bread, etc but we don’t eat them.

We need to not just look at the food but eat the Lord in His word, eating Him as our food so that we may digest and assimilate Him as life.

We need to read and pray, pray and read the word of God.

When we come to the Word of God, we need to read it, and then we need to pray it; we need to say Amen to the Lord’s word, internalizing it and making it personal to us.

We need to muse on the Lord’s word, praying it and digesting it until it becomes real to us in our experience.

As we read and pray the word of God, we take the Lord in as food, and He becomes digested and assimilated in our being.

As we read and pray, pray and read the Word of God, a process of organic transformation and reconstitution takes place; we are slowly digesting the Lord in our being.

May we not rush our time with the Lord but give Him our time to read and pray, pray and read His word; we may even take one or two verses and muse over them for five to ten minutes.

Our emphasis should be digestion, not just the content.

We read and pray, pray and read, and the Lord is working Himself into us a little more.

As we eat the Lord as our food, we experience God’s dispensing, and we organically grow in life to express Him and represent Him (Gen. 1:26; 2:9; John 6:51, 53-57).

The food that we eat, digest, and assimilate actually becomes us; this is a matter of mingling (1 Cor. 10:17).

The more we enjoy the Lord in His word, the more He is digested and assimilated in our being, and we are mingled with Him.

The oneness that God desires to have with us men is illustrated by what takes place when we eat, digest, and assimilate food (John 6:57).

We are what we eat; therefore, if we eat Christ as the bread of God, we will become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

The way that God accomplishes His economy is by our eating the Lord as our food so that we may be mingled with Him and He would dispense Himself into us.

The result is that we are constituted with God, and we are one with Him organically; we are becoming the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead so that we may express Him and represent Him.

Lord Jesus, we take You into us by eating You in Your word. You are our food. You are our living bread, our bread of life, our nourishment day by day. We need You, Lord. We need You as our food. Dispense Yourself more into us as we come to You in Your word to eat the Lord as our food. Keep us under Your divine dispensing as we practice eating the Lord. Amen, Lord, we come to You day by day to take You in so that You may be assimilated by our regenerated new man in the way of life. Constitute us with Yourself. Work Yourself into us so that we may be fully mingled with You. Amen Lord, mingle Yourself more with us as we read and pray, pray and read Your word in a living way! Make us the same as You are a little more today!

Being Recovered to the Proper Eating of the Lord as our Food and Not Focusing mainly on Doctrines or Practices

Many Christians focus on practices and doctrines more than they focus on the Lord and on eating Him.

We need to be recovered to the matter of eating the Lord as our food and not focus primarily on teachings, doctrines, or outward practices.

According to the Lord’s word in Rev. 2 and 3, the overcomers have been recovered to the proper eating of the Lord as their food supply.

The overcomers are rewarded by the Lord as the tree of life, as the hidden manna, and as a feast full of His riches (Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20).

Those who overcome are given to eat of the tree of life and the hidden manna, and they will dine with the Lord at a feast full of His riches.

The tree of life in Rev. 2:7 points to the tree of life in Gen. 2:9; this concerns God’s ordination regarding the matter of eating.

The hidden manna in Rev. 2:17 refers to the Israelites’ eating of the manna in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31); this concerns our daily eating the Lord as our supply.

To dine with the Lord at a feast full of His riches (Rev. 3:20) refers to the Israelites’ eating the rich produce of the good land (Josh. 5:10-12).

The sequence of these three aspects of eating in Revelation 2-3 match the sequence of these matters in the Old Testament.

On the positive side, we need to overcome to eat the Lord as our food, our daily food supply.

We need to be recovered to the proper eating of the Lord as the tree of life, our daily manna, and as our feast.

On the negative side, we need to stay away from teachings that distract us from enjoying Him as our life and life supply.

In Rev. 2:14-15 the Lord warns us concerning the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol sacrifices and to commit fornication. Furthermore, there’s the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

In Rev. 2:20 the Lord said to the church in Thyatira that she has that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, but she led the Lord’s slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices.

These are negative teachings that distract the believers from the enjoyment of Christ.

Actually, any doctrinal teachings that are merely in letter and not in life, teachings that don’t lead the saints to eat the Lord, can damage us.

Many Christians hold to teachings and doctrines and pay attention to these things more than they pay attention to eating the Lord as their food. If we merely hold to religious teachings, we will be deadened.

If we care only for doctrinal teachings, we will be deadened; but if we care for the Lord and eat Him in His word, we will be full of life.

May we be recovered to eating the Lord as our food day by day.

May we pay attention primarily to eating the Lord in the church life and not on learning doctrines.

Yes, we need to know that we are being sanctified, but the way that we’re sanctified is by eating the Lord as the Holy One (Acts 3:14; 1 Cor. 1:30).

We need to eat the Lord as our food. We need to pay attention to eating the Lord.

We need to be recovered to a proper eating of the Lord as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the rich feast.

If we eat the Lord, we overcome. We overcome any religious doctrines and just eat the Lord as our food.

May we bring this matter to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to recover us back to the beginning, back to a proper eating the Lord as our food supply.

Lord Jesus, recover us back to the beginning, back to eating the Lord as our food supply. Save us from paying more attention to doctrines and teachings while neglecting the matter of eating the Lord. Oh Lord, may we be those who eat the Lord as our food day by day! May we pay more attention to eating Jesus than to any religious doctrines or spiritual practices. Amen, Lord, we want to be Your overcomers, those who overcome by eating Jesus. We come to You to eat You as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the feast with a bountiful supply. May we overcome by eating Jesus, and may we be those who eat Jesus to overcome! Amen, Lord, may eating the Lord as our food be the primary matter in the church life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted Williamson in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 4, pp. 434-435, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Breathing the Spirit, Drinking the Water of Life, and Eating the Bread of God.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The believers’ receiving and enjoying of Christ – portion from, The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – What is to Eat God’s Word? The Bible is a unique book because, as the Word of God, it nourishes us in our spiritual life. Read more at, Radio Newsletters, LSM Radio.
  – The Word of Life and Pray-Reading the Word, portion via, the Church in Irvine (pdf file).
  – The Bible Is Our Spiritual Food – Over the span of thousands of years, God gave us His precious Word. Now we have His complete revelation in our hands: the Bible. Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The Word being God Himself as our food, portion from, Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ is our manna true, / Our bread of life indeed; / He’s our supply of nourishment, / As on Him now we feed… / Lord, as we’re eating here / And in the manna see / The riches of this glorious Christ, / We’re filled with praise to Thee. (Hymns #1147 stanzas 1 and 12)
  – God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be. / The Christ of glory is my life, / He as the Spirit lives in mine, / That I with God be fully blent / And in His image shine. (Hymns #509 stanza 4 and chorus)
  – 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 stanzas 3-4)