“This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever” John 6:58
Jesus, as recorded in John’s gospel, said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever.” John 6:51. By this statement the Lord Jesus not only makes a distinction between physical bread destined to be eaten for the needs of the body, but a spiritual bread, which communicates Life eternal to the soul. It is essential to pray for physical bread, for our bodies depend upon its nourishing qualities in order to live. But there is a bread which is from heaven, that is also essential to be partaken of, for by it the soul lives by Another’s LIFE, Christ’s life. It is one thing to know that we should seek the bread that our bodies need, but it is quite another to partake of that bread, to eat it. The benefits of that physical bread are only realized when one partakes of it. The same is true of Christ as our living bread. It is one thing to know this fact. It is quite another to partake of Him, taking Him by faith as one’s life and existence, to live by Him, for Him, for His eternal glory. The believer who abides in Christ, which is essential for all true fruitfulness, is that one who partakes consistently of the Living Bread, putting on Christ, deriving all from Him, by that inward attitude of faith. Scripture declares that Christ IS the life of the believer. Paul would write, “For me to live is Christ.” When the believer comes to the place in heart and mind of grasping not only this blessed truth, but laying hold on LIFE itself in Christ, making it his own by faith, then there will be the accomplishment of the will of God by that believer, and the fulfilling of God’s purpose in the life. But where do we start in this pursuit of Christ, to make Him our own, to live by Him?
The basis for every true experience of Christ is the truth as it is revealed in the Scriptures. In the early days of Samuel the prophet, who we read about in the Old Testament, we find a description of the days in which he lived: “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days: there was no open (frequent) vision.” (1 Samuel 3:1) The absence of the “word of the Lord” in those days was a disaster, for it deprived the people of the faith necessary to appropriate the blessings, and mercies of God. There was no “revelation,” or manifestation of God to stir up the people and strengthen them to believe. The spiritual condition of the nation was at a very low ebb, even to the point that the enemies of God and Israel, the Philistines would capture the Ark of the Covenant, and the “lamp of God would go out in the temple of the Lord.” Faith was feeble, and courage was fleeting. Israel’s enemies were gaining ground, and her very existence seemed to be peril. But God would intervene, and raise up a man, the man Samuel who would become a prophet in Israel, not by his own design or will, but by the effective, merciful, working of God. That which was most significant in the ministry of Samuel, and which would contribute to the restoration of the faith of the people was the specific “word of the Lord” given by God to Samuel. We read in 1 Samuel 3:21, “…And the Lord appeared AGAIN in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” What does this experience of Samuel, and Israel, have with reference to Christ and the believer.
The “word of the Lord” is that Christ is the life of the believer, the “living bread” from heaven by which he is to live. By faith Christ dwells in the heart.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to receive Life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.