Man was created to live, move and have dominion in two dimensions: one dimension is material and the other is spiritual.
We are essentially spirit. We live in a body, and we have a soul, which is the instrument through which we communicate in the natural world. The spiritual world is fed from that which is spiritual, and the natural world from that which is earthly.
When we enter the kingdom of God through genuine repentance and commitment to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Spirit of God unites with the spirit of man, transforming him into a new creation. From that moment on, he will grow and be strengthened through spiritual food, which is the flesh and blood of Jesus, as well as the Word of God. When the elements are sanctified for Communion, Christ is powerfully present among us. This is not a ritual or a memorial. It’s something real that occurs in the invisible world. The elements of the bread and the fruit of the vine will always remain bread and the fruit of the vine, but in the invisible realm, the body and blood of Jesus are really there. Our spirit will literally drink of His blood and will become one with His flesh and His body. Our spirit will absorb the very life of God and everything that is contained in that flesh and that blood. God and man will blend little by little together until we are totally consumed within Him, and He within us, becoming one spirit. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 This is what the early church believed. That is why the works of God were so amazing during those days. Communion was not a religious sacrament. It represented the very life of Jesus. This life was so visible within them, and the works of God were seen everywhere. They were like the light of a fisherman when he casts it out in the waters in the middle of the night, attracting multitudes of fish. They could not bear the thought of losing that wonderful grace, that hope of Glory, Christ living and working through them. The fear of God kept them in holiness and in profound love for one another, and this brought about the first great harvest of souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and HAVING FAVOR WITH ALL THE PEOPLE. AND THE LORD WAS ADDING TO THEIR NUMBER DAY BY DAY THOSE WHO WERE BEING SAVED. Acts 2:42-47 (Emphasis by the Author) Spiritual Food and Drink So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” John 6:53
When the Lord speaks to us about eating or drinking something spiritual, it has to do with appropriating it for ourselves. It means making it a part of our life and of being, saturating our spirit, soul and body.
In the Word we have various examples in which God provides spiritual food and drink to some of His servants, and even to His own Son. Their experiences enable us to see the effect this food and drink had on their lives.
One of these men is the prophet Elijah, who is strengthened by food impregnated from heaven, as he escapes from Queen Jezebel in order to save his life. He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. 1 Kings 19:5-8
The angel of the Lord is none other than Jesus prior to His coming in the flesh. He shows up and gives Elijah a meal. This meal affects his being to such a degree that it literally drives him in a supernatural journey to the mountain of God. Something extremely powerful happens to Elijah’s body upon eating that food. The cake is natural bread, like the Communion bread, but since it is given to him by the angel of the Lord, the spirit of Elijah is filled with the supernatural power of God. Elijah not only performs the physical exploit of walking for 40 days without rest all the way to Horeb, but that meal leads him to a unique encounter with the Father. Notice that the decision to go to the holy mountain of God does not proceed from the mind or fearful heart of Elijah, but is inspired by the angel, who sustains him by means of that bread from heaven.
There are divine encounters awaiting us, revelations reserved by the Father that will only come through the divine food that only Jesus can give us. When Elijah embarks upon his journey, he does not know his destination, but that bread held the path of his steps, leading him to a face to face encounter with God. There, his ministerial legacy and the invisible work of the Most High will be revealed to him via the 7,000 chosen ones who will carry out the Lord’s plans. Eating His flesh is much more than feeding oneself. It is entering into dimensions with God that transforms our very being and our understanding.
My husband and I take Communion almost every day. Many times angels descend in order to give us that supernatural food. God has led me to climb many mountains in spiritual warfare to free entire regions from the power of the enemy. Each morning before beginning the ascent we take Communion. Strength from on high comes and nurtures our whole body, and we experience a supernatural vitality that overcomes any fatigue. One time, in an intercession mission in Iraq, the Lord sustained us day and night for 15 days without sleep. We carried out long walks under a heat of 105°F (40½ °C) and the only power that upheld us was His. My husband fasts like no one I have ever known. There have been years in which he has fasted more than 200 days. On extended fasts that lasted 40 or 50 days, angels have descended to feed him with a meal of light, after receiving Communion. These experiences and so many more are part of our daily lives because we have discovered the spiritual reality contained in the elements which give life, power, and vital energy to our physical body. In their pilgrimage through the desert prior to entering the Promised Land, God’s people were supernaturally sustained. The Father provided for them bread from heaven and water that flowed without ceasing from a rock. This was a symbol of the spiritual food that Jesus would give us in His flesh and His blood.
This nutrition in the spirit is the only thing that can sustain us and carry us to our Promised Land, which is a supernatural life, where heaven is a tangible reality. The Israelites did not get sick. Their clothing and their shoes did not wear out, even growing on the bodies of the children and teens. The bread and the water caused the supernatural kingdom of God to descend among them. This is what happens when we consume this true food and this true drink.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Eating and drinking this food is going to have an effect in the spiritual world, as well as in the natural. These two verbs have to do with appropriating something that comes from God and making it ‘flesh within us’.
When the Apostle John is given a little book to eat, in his visitation to heaven as described in the book of Revelation, God is implying that John should appropriate the truth contained in those revelations. He should make them his own to the point that they become part of his very being.
Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” … I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” Revelation 10:8; 10-11
This little book was a meal containing the revealed Word for the end times. All Word that proceeds from the mouth of God is food. That is why Jesus said: And Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4
The word that John was receiving was sweet because it came from heaven, but it made his stomach bitter because it contained the judgment and wrath of God. John had to make the pain and indignation of the Father his own so he could prophesy with authority and truth.
Another spiritual drink we find is when Jesus had to drink God’s cup of justice containing His wrath against the sin of humanity. So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11
Drinking from this cup would affect His entire being. In His soul and body it would carry sin, ungodliness, iniquity and every abomination of mankind. In His spirit, it would carry the immeasurable pain with which mankind had pierced the Father’s heart. In a wonderful description of this moment, Gene Edwards writes in The Day I Was Crucified: “The cup spit its vile poison until its entire contents impregnated the winds of the earth. I observed as all the sins of the sons of Abraham ran through it. I looked at the centuries of rebellion, idolatry, incest, murder, lies and deceit. All the sins of the Hebrew race became one with it.” In this cup Jesus would bring from heaven to earth the sacrifice He had prepared before the foundation of the world. What had happened in heaven would now manifest in the sufferings of Christ. When one drinks from heaven, the plans of God impregnate the earth. In this case, the design of the Father was Jesus’ own death on the cross. What I am trying to point out with all of this is that spiritual drink and spiritual food affect one’s entire being. It is not a dead symbol, but rather a link that unites heaven and earth. In heaven there are different types of food and drink, and each type gives us a part of God, opening to us wonderful revelations and encounters with Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about the water of life that satisfies the thirst of both the spirit and the soul. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Revelation 22:17
This water of life, as we will see later, is connected to the Spirit of God and to the blood of Christ. It will have its effect in us when we understand the way in which these three operate.
When the blood is revealed to us, with its power, its outreach and everything it contains, we will be led to the fountain of life in order to drink from it. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 1 John 5:7-8
In the kingdom of God there are also exquisite drinks, such as drinking the new wine of the Spirit. Jesus tells His disciples about this wine that must be put into new wine skins, referring to the time in which they would drink of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). As you come to understand the wonderful mysteries hidden in Communion, doors of knowledge will begin to open. Some of those doors have to do with the New Jerusalem that will descend from heaven, but that is also already within us. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us because where God dwells that is where His kingdom is. Within it is found the Tree of Life, which is Jesus, from which we learn to eat in order to live in perfect health. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2
The Bible also talks about abominable drinks pertaining to the kingdom of darkness, which tries to emulate the kingdom of God and its principles. One of these drinks is the chalice of fornication of the great harlot of Revelation. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality… For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. Revelation 17:4; 18:3
During Paul’s time the Gentiles participated in a ritual in which they drank from a cup and ate bread, sacrificing it to wooden idols. What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 1 Corinthians 10:19-21
So drinking and eating are symbols of something real in the spirit. These are acts that link the spiritual world with the natural world. Through these acts, the Spirit of God or demons, whichever is the case, exercise profound influence in people’s lives.