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Archive for the ‘Spiritual Food’ Category

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Scripture reading: Leviticus 11:9

Leviticus 11:9 gives TWO qualities which distinguish the clean fish from the unclean: they must have scales and they must have fins.

The fish with scales is shielded from the water by the scales and is not a part of the water. This is a dry fish in a wet environment. Even the eyes of this fish are shielded with a kind of “contact” lens from the water. The scales also have a rough surface which causes a certain amount of friction when the fish darts along, supplying heat to its body. So the fish draws heat from the cold water. THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE of this is that the fish represents the Christian in the world. The water is a type of the world, and the fish is a type of the Christian. He is in the world, but not of the world. He is a paradox, drawing good from an evil environment. A warm-blooded animal in a cold environment, breathing air from the water. He beats the water with his fins to propel himself, unlike the unclean fish which goes with the flow of the water, coiling and uncoiling like a serpent, to propel himself onward.

Beating his way through the waters with his fins is a type of the Christian overcoming the world. Slithering along like a serpent is the type of a person who has to go along with the world in order to make headway. This is unclean. BE REMINDED, WE ARE not discussing NATURAL FOOD, but SPIRITUAL principle. For those who think of this in the natural, I will quote this scripture and leave it there.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:1-5).

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 98-99)

Thought for today: That we be clean fish which is a type of the Christian overcoming the world.

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Scripture reading: John 6:48-51

The whole operation of the third church realm, as represented with the Table of Shewbread in the Tabernacle of Moses, is a type of man feasting on Christ.

John 6:48-51, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

This does not merely represent man feasting on the word of God from the pages of the Bible, BUT it represents man feasting on the living CHRIST Himself. Feasting on Christ is a spiritual business, not a memorizing of scriptures or any other physical act, but an entering into the Spirit, and a submission to the Spirit of God, who is able to feed us with the living word.

We feed upon Jesus Christ in three dimensions.

(1) The Christ Within – Christ is in the Holy Ghost. When the believer receives the Holy Ghost, he receives Him in his spirit. Immediately, the Holy Ghost begins to energize the soul, so that the Christ might enter. The still, small voice within the soul of the believer should be nurtured and obeyed. Very often, our tendency is to obey the voices from without, and to reject the voice within. As a matter of fact, the majority of the churches teach that we must obey our leaders, and that women must obey their demon-possessed husbands, no matter what they say or what they do. I am teaching that we obey the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost in the believer will lead us to obey good and not evil. If a woman takes this as license to rebel against her husband, or if any Christian takes this as encouragement to rebel against his leader, then that Christian is not hearing the voice of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost leads us into all truths.

(2) We feed on the Christ in the body of believers. Those who have gone before left us very real teachings and examples which we should keenly observe and follow. Since there are so many counterfeits, we have to depend on the Holy Ghost. God, therefore, will send to the body the necessary spiritual food they need. In the assembly, there is a movement of the Spirit, which cannot be found anywhere else. Where the two or three are gathered together, the Spirit will move with gifts and blessings which are not present anywhere else. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). Two words stand out in this quotation: “ourselves,” and “together.” “Ourselves” in this passage means those who are one with you in the Spirit, and “together” means being in one accord. On many occasions, many assemble, but they are not together and they are not the “yourselves.” Sometimes we gather together under man’s auspices, and man dictates the terms upon which we meet, therefore God is secondary in the gathering or the assembly. Every assembling of Christians must have God as King of the congregation, and He must be thus recognized in our gatherings. The following scripture will bear this point out.

Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

This passage clearly shows that Jesus Christ attends our meetings, and that the key of our gathering is being “together.”

(3) We feed on Christ in a third dimension in His presence and person. This means that the man Christ Jesus is walking about our houses, in our bedrooms, in our dining rooms, in our living rooms and in our churches. He is not there as a visitor to whom we will show kindness, but as Lord and King. If this is so, then we WILL feed on Him night and day, sleeping or waking.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 92-94)

Thought for today: If we make Jesus our Lord and King, we will feed on Him night and day, sleeping and waking.

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Scripture reading: Matthew 6:11

Did you know that when a preacher preaches something wrong, the congregation should be able to tell him that he is wrong? The people are going to feel it that he is wrong. And when he is wrong, he must quickly correct his wrongness.

When my wife, Mavis, sits in the congregation and I give a word, every time that I make a slip (because sometimes you slip in your human thinking and say the wrong thing), she feels it. You see, once you are in the Spirit following the spiritual flow and somebody makes a break, you feel it right inside of you.

This is why I couldn’t go to the churches on Sunday morning. I made that mistake so often. It is so painful to go into a church and see them playing around, because it is all psychology, all humanness. A message comes forth and it is properly homiletically psychological message put together on Saturday night. Do you see what I mean? It blesses those who don’t have the discernment of the Spirit. The person with the discernment of the Spirit is turned off and hurt because what you were listening to was human and not God. They were talking the words of God, of course, but let me tell you something, that is not feeding the flock. Do you know why?

You can take the Word of God and say that you are going to feed the flock with the Word of God. You put the Word of God in such a way that it is saying something else than what Jesus Christ wanted to say to that congregation at that specific time. Maybe that word could have been preached at another time while God wanted to say something else to that same congregation. Therefore, it is only the mind of Christ that we can feed from. Do you understand me? The right food can only come from the mind of Christ.

It is like you have a taste for a certain food; you feel like you could eat fish today and you get fish and you feel satisfied. But tomorrow you don’t want fish; you want some steak or something like that. The next day you feel for chicken. It is so that God ordained your body and your body calls for the thing it needs. When you feel thirsty, what do you think is happening? Your body is crying out, your blood wants some liquids, some water. Do you see what I am saying? This sort of thing functions in the body of Christ. It is only the Holy Ghost that can really tell the body what message it needs right now, or tomorrow, or so and so. This is why I do not believe in fixing the message from the previous night. As far as I am concerned, I want the fresh bread flowing from heaven today.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 13-15)

Thought for today: The right food for the people of God can only come from the mind of Christ.

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Scripture reading: Acts 20:28-29

Let us look today into Acts 20:28-29, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” Praise God. Can you imagine Paul about to depart and saying that grievous wolves would come into the flock, tearing the flock? But somehow a flock that is well fed will not be caught by a wolf.

If you notice, the balance of nature is so ordained that when a lion comes to a flock to catch his prey, he generally will go after the weakest ones. He will either catch a weak one or he will catch an older one that is staggering at the back of the flock. So the prime of the flock is always saved because they have the strength to run and to get away. This same principle works in the spiritual realm: anybody that comes into your midst with a false teaching, he will try to get onto the women. I’m not saying that the women are weaker, but sometimes they get excited over things and spirits catch them.

I saw a man once come into a congregation. He preached on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then Friday he dropped out a little bit of his reconciliation doctrine. But all the while, during the daytime, he was visiting with the women. He was getting them to believe in the love of God and the goodness of God. “God is so good that He wouldn’t be able to put you into hell.” He poisoned them to such a degree that eventually he broke the congregation right in two.

If those people were founded and well-grounded, they would not be able to be taken. Do you understand? They would not be able to be taken, because first of all, they would have known God. When you get to know God, you get to know what God would do from what God wouldn’t do. Do you see what I mean? It is the same God of love that poured fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah. God is not slack concerning His promises, or slack concerning order, or slack to allow sin to destroy a congregation when He can cut it short and deliver.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 9-10)

Thought for today: A flock that is well fed will not be caught by a wolf.

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Scripture reading: Matthew 18:20

There is one particular thought I want to share with you today and it is that Christ Jesus is operating in the church in three dimensions:

1.   Christ within
2.   Christ without
3.   Christ in the body

I am saying brethren that we can no longer operate passively, we must operate actively. You have the three dimensions of operations; one box, one Christ, but three different dimensions. In the natural you have Christ within and Christ within you tells you that Christ is in the other brother. So if the Christ within me is moving a certain way, the Christ in the other brother is moving a certain way, too. So I am not going to have any problem in convincing the other brother that it is Christ, for he is getting the same thing.

Sometimes something comes to you and you have a little doubt, “I wonder if this is God.” But low and behold another brother comes up and says the same thing. So you just say, “Ahh, that thing came to me.” Do you see what I mean? This is Christ within. Always recognize that Christ is within us.

Now, there is also Christ without. We must always recognize the presence of Christ everywhere. Christ Jesus is everywhere, operating everywhere, all the time, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whatever we are saying. Therefore, when we become Christ conscious we will continuously feed; even when the thing is negative, we will feed in the positive sense.

I don’t know if you understand what I am saying? You go in the street, you deal with people and you deal with negative forces. These things come against you and yet every time they jab at you, it brings a positive response; Christ Jesus is with you continuously. He said, “…Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (time of the end of the age) (Matthew 28:20). Amen.

Then, you have Christ in the body. When we come together there is a quickening which was not there before. Hallelujah. It says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). He says, “Where two or three are gathered together…” I am there in the midst to bless. He was there to bless you before. Christ was with you when you were at home alone. Christ was with you alone because that was the promise. He was there for the reason to bless you and to do you good. But then He says, “Where two or three are gathered together…” I am there in the midst to bless and to do them good. Doesn’t that mean that there is a different and separate blessing and doing good? Isn’t He saying, brother, that He is going to move in you in an operation that is going to bless the rest? That means He is going to bring a message that He didn’t bring when you were alone. Now what good would a message do for you to get up and preach it to yourself? The function of the gifts of the Spirit is to function when you get together.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 7-8)

Thought for today: When we become Christ conscious we will continuously feed on Him; even when the thing is negative, we will feed in the positive sense.

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