OUR NEED FOR CHRIST AS OUR LIFE SUPPLY
In our Christian life, we daily need the experience of contacting the Spirit in a practical way. We should not be satisfied merely to read a few chapters of the Bible each day or take a portion of the Word in morning watch. Whenever we come to the Word, we need to exercise our entire being, especially our spirit, to contact Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit. We definitely need to read the Bible. But it is crucial that we contact the Spirit in the Word by exercising our whole being. If we do this, we shall take in Christ as our food supply. We shall receive the Spirit as the heavenly manna.
We have seen that Christ is the bread of life, the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the living bread, and the true bread. Today this bread is not merely the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, but the Christ who has become the life-giving Spirit.
In chapter three of John we have the case of a religious gentleman, and in chapter four, the case of an immoral Samaritan woman. Then in chapter five we see that apart from Christ and without Christ everything is empty. The crucial point in chapter six is that we are hungry and need Christ as our food. Today this Christ is not merely the incarnated and crucified One, nor merely the resurrected and ascended One. He is now the life-giving Spirit. If we do not know our need and if we do not know what Christ is today, we shall be empty. We need Christ as our life supply, and today Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Day by day we should exercise our spirit to contact Him. Just as we have three meals every day, so we need to eat Christ as the bread of life again and again during the day. Even every moment we need to eat the One who is the Spirit who gives life. The One who is our Creator, Redeemer, Savior, Lord, and Master is the life-giving Spirit for us to contact all the time.
We are hungry and need food. Even though you may have been a Christian for many years, every day you are still hungry. Christ is not only your life; He is also your life supply, your daily food.
We all need Christ as He is revealed in chapter six of John. Yes, we have passed through chapters three, four, and five. But now in chapter six we are hungry ones around the sea in Galilee, and we need Christ as our life supply. We need Him to be our barley loaves and fish. We need Him as the generating life and the redeeming life. It is as the Spirit that Christ is this life to us. The Spirit who gives life is the generating life, the redeeming life, and the overcoming life. We need this Spirit as our life and life supply, as our food for daily nourishment. It is important that we all see this. I hope that we all shall be helped to realize our need for Christ as our life supply and then daily contact Him as the life-giving Spirit embodied in the Word.
(The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee)
