EATING AND DRINKING THE LORD BEING TO RECEIVE THE LORD
From this we see that it is through His death that the Lord gave Himself to us. If He had not died or shed His blood, He could not have any relationship with us and would not have a way to enter into us. The reason why He can enter into us is because He died and shed His blood and thus became edible and drinkable to us. Now whenever we turn to our spirit, believing and receiving the Lord who died and shed His blood for us, we eat His flesh and drink His blood. We believe that in His body He bore our sins on the cross, that He died for us, and that His blood was shed for us on the cross. In God’s eyes, when we believe and receive the Lord in this way, we are eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
What was accomplished by the Lord’s flesh and blood is now our portion. When we believe in Him and receive Him, He enters into us through the Holy Spirit. Thus, when this happens, He is in us and in union with us, and we are in Him and in union with Him. Thus, to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood is to receive the Lord Himself as our enjoyment, our life within, and our food. This is to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood.
The greatest principle in eating and drinking is receiving, and the principle in receiving is union. Whatever you eat and whatever you drink will enter into you. Moreover, you are united with what you eat and drink. No matter how much we meditate on a person, he cannot come into us. Hence, bread breaking is not to meditate on the Lord but to eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood. In baptism we enter into Christ and are united with Christ, and in bread breaking we eat and drink the Lord Himself and are thus united and mingled with Him. Every time we break the bread, more of the Lord comes into us. Every time we remember the Lord, we have a deeper union with the Lord. This is to remember the Lord.
EATING, DRINKING, AND REMEMBERING THE LORD IN SPIRIT
In the past when we remembered the Lord, many of our concepts were religious and much of our remembrance was in our mind. Every time we came to the Lord’s table, we contemplated His being God, His becoming flesh, His living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, His dying on the cross, His being raised in three days, His ascending to the throne, and His waiting to come again. We always remembered the Lord in this way—we worshipped and meditated on Him in our mind. However, the Lord said that He is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24). Only when we use our spirit and are in our spirit can we touch the Lord, worship the Lord, and genuinely remember the Lord.
Our genuine remembrance of the Lord is our receiving the Lord and allowing Him to enter into us again. The Lord said, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me….This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you” (Luke 22:19-20). We eat the bread, which signifies the Lord’s body, and drink the cup, which signifies the Lord’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord. Our eating and drinking of the Lord is our remembrance of the Lord. The Lord does not want us to meditate on Him or contact Him with our mind; rather, the Lord wants us to contact Him, eat Him, and drink Him with our spirit. When He was broken for us on the cross, He shed His blood and released His life. The bread and cup we touch outwardly signify His body that was given for us and His blood that was shed for us. This means that He has died and His life has been released from within Him. Now we not only receive the visible bread and cup outwardly, but at the same time, we also touch and receive the Lord Himself in our spirit. We allow Him to come into us again, and again we gain Him, receive Him, and enjoy Him. The Lord said that this is to be “in remembrance of Me.”
(The Crucified Christ, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
