In the Body of Christ there must be the life flow of Christ from one member to another in an openness without any walls. There must be a deep sense of appropriating from one another and giving to one another in purity. A pure flow exists when there is a determination not to draw life from one another on a human level, but to draw and to give from the anointing of the Lord in one another on a spiritual level.
It is a mystical flow in which the Christ within one member salutes the Christ in another. It is a way in which God’s people can help deliver one another from oppressions and become real overcomers.
In contrast, a spiritual type of cannibalism exists when people draw strength from others in a wrong way, knowing that their own survival depends on what they take. Some people have no faith to worship the Lord and to draw from His anointing during a church service; afterward they drain a brother who has drawn his blessing from the Lord in a true exchange with other members of the Body of Christ. Instead of drawing on the Christ within the brother, like vampires they drain off all the strength and the blessing he has received in the service.
Paul wrote, If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Galatians 5:15. In other words, if you partake of one another on the wrong level, it will not minister life to you; it will minister death. God never intended for you to draw from the life force and energy of your brother, but rather from the anointing and the fullness of the Lord. God intended that you should feast upon the overflow of Christ in your brother.
Sometimes believers are encouraged to rise to a dedication of service to the Lord which He has commissioned, but they use their own strength instead of drawing from the Lord.
Because Christ’s life does not flow through them, they soon become spiritually exhausted. They are consumed by the work and they drop by the wayside. They do not lose out because of the spiritual battle or because they have worked so hard for the Lord. A man will not lose out by working for the Lord, but he will lose out by being like a candle instead of a lamp.
Revelation 1:20 refers to the seven churches as seven golden lampstands. Some translations of the Bible mistakenly call them candlesticks. However, the accurate translation from the original Greek word is lampstands.
Lamps contain an inner supply of oil. A lamp is not self-consuming like a candle. In our service to the Lord, we are to be like a lamp that is not self-consuming. We are to be like the burning bush that Moses saw; it burned with the presence of the Lord but it was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).
If we are self-consumed, it means that something other than God’s anointing is being used and is keeping Him from being glorified. He must be illuminated in what comes forth from us.
One of the best ways to draw divine life and strength is by taking Communion with faith. In Luke 22 we read how it began, as related to the keeping of the Old Testament Passover.
The Lord’s Supper is one of the greatest mysteries in the Bible, and it seems to be quite a contradiction to the Old Testament story of Passover and the law of blood.
In the New Testament, we find the new covenant in Jesus’ blood to be much different. There are irreconcilable differences between the Passover and the Communion.
In the Passover, the blood that was sprinkled on the doorposts averted judgment. The Israelites did not drink the blood; in fact, they were forbidden to drink it (Deuteronomy 12:23). They honored the blood as a symbol of sacrifice. In the first Passover they put it on the doorpost and the death angel passed over, because God had promised them, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13).
Through Christ we keep the Feast of Passover spiritually, believing that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us and that His precious blood averts judgment from us. Therefore, we do not receive the expected judgment for our sins. Instead, we receive God’s mercy, just as He promised the Israelites: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The Christian’s appropriation of the blood of Jesus Christ gives an atoning and a release from sin.
The New Testament picture of the blood of Christ is not to be confused with the Old Testament concept of the blood. Leviticus 17 presents certain principles of the blood: the life of the flesh is in the blood; the Israelites were not to eat blood, or anything strangled with its blood still in it, because the life of the flesh was in its blood; the blood was shed in order that sin be remitted (verses 10–14). Hebrews 9:22 states that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.
According to the Law, there was to be no partaking of blood. Any Israelite who ate blood was to be cast off from his people (Leviticus 17:14). This fact is reiterated in the New Testament. Although the basic requirements of the Law were not imposed upon the Gentile Christians who came into the early Church, they were told to abstain from blood, from things strangled, and from meats which had been offered to idols (Acts 15:29).
The biblical principle of not eating blood is still being followed today on a natural plane. Churches have even been divided in recent times over the issue of eating meat that is strangled. Many Christians ate chickens that had been strangled so that the blood remained in the flesh, and they ate blood sausage and other such meats natural to their cultural heritage. Then when some of them began to study the Scriptures, they refused to eat blood and anything strangled. It is not just a legalistic principle; according to the New Testament, it is still binding. Although we are not to be under the Law, we should not eat anything strangled. The kosher system of draining the blood from the carcass is scriptural not only according to the Old Testament, but also according to the New Testament.
In contrast, out of the old covenant of the blood, Christ came forth presenting something new. When He had completed the Passover supper with His disciples, He lifted the cup and said, “This is a new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). In John 6:53, after feeding the multitudes, Jesus said, “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.” Many of His followers then left Him. They were outraged when He said, “Drink My blood,” for they would not even drink the blood of a clean animal, let alone human blood. He had just fed the multitudes in the wilderness and they were ready to make Him a king, but when He voiced that one requirement, He lost most of them.
When only the twelve disciples remained with Him, Jesus asked, “Are you going to go also?” Having been trained as good Jews, they no doubt had misgivings about what He had said and were probably thinking, “He certainly said the wrong thing!” However, He was establishing the principle that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and He was also saying that the life of God is in the blood of Jesus Christ. Unless you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, you have no life in you. All of these Scriptures help us to understand how right it is for us to feed upon the total of Christ within one another, and how wrong it is to feed upon the human life force or strength in one another.
Notice how Luke emphasized the Passover in his account of the new covenant: And the day of unleavened bread came on which the passover must be sacrificed. And he (the Lord) sent Peter and John, saying, Go and make ready for us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we make ready? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house whereinto he goeth. And ye shall say unto the master of the house, The Teacher saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.
And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he received the cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: for I say unto you, I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper (notice: after the supper), saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you. Luke 22:7–20.
Christ actually completed the Passover and made it into what is known today as the Lord’s Supper. It was the end of an old ordinance as it had been known. It was no longer a historical observance of the Passover in Egypt, because He changed it to an observance of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and averts judgment from our hearts (John 1:29).
At the first Passover, the blood of a lamb saved the firstborn at the midnight hour. Now anyone who believes in Christ’s blood and applies it to his heart is saved and redeemed from sin. This promise is found in John 6:53–56. Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. In verses 66 through 69 we read: Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God.
One can imagine Peter thinking to himself, “Well, I love the Lord Jesus. And I know that it wasn’t flesh and blood that revealed to me that He is the Son of the Father. I know that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God; the Father taught me that. But imagine Him saying, ‘You have to drink My blood.’ He won’t win any Jews to His cause this way. Everyone else has left but the twelve of us.” When Jesus asked the twelve if they were going to leave too, Peter answered, “No, we believe. We are sure that You are the Christ.” Nevertheless, Peter probably felt that Jesus could have used a little more wisdom. The idea of leaving may have entered Peter’s mind, because he first answered Christ, “Where will we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
In Christ’s day, the Jews found it unbelievable that any man would ever tell them, “Drink My blood.” The Jews had always abstained from blood and from eating anything that was unclean. For example, later on in his ministry Peter was praying on the housetop, and he was very hungry. Then in a vision he saw a great sheet coming down from heaven, filled with various unclean creatures of the earth and birds of the air. Imagine the reaction within his Jewish soul when he heard a voice saying, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat.” But he answered no, for he had never eaten anything unholy or unclean. Then the voice said, “What God has cleansed, do not call unclean.” This happened three times. God was preparing Peter to go to the house of Cornelius to preach; therefore, He had to explode some ideas that Peter had as a Jewish believer in Christ Jesus (Acts 10).
During the 1930’s, a group of atheists circulated literature criticizing the Bible. They pointed out such things as polygamy and the inhumanity of Abraham’s readiness to kill his son. At that time, atheists wanted to impress upon everyone that the teachings of Jesus were cannibalistic because His followers were told to drink His blood. They even printed a cartoon of disciples, drunk on the blood of Jesus and passing a cup around.
To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is not cannibalistic. He came to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). It is by appropriating His precious blood that every sacrifice of the Old Testament has its meaning. We are presented perfect to God through Christ’s blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20–21). The Scriptures emphasize this. His blood is that by which we draw near to the Lord (Ephesians 2:13). His blood is that by which we are cleansed from all unrighteousness (I John 1:7). Oh, how precious is the blood of the Lamb of God!
The Gospel of the apostle John opens with one of the greatest of proclamations, which was made by John the Baptist. He was down by the Jordan River when he saw Jesus coming, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! John 1:29b. How can we ever understand the tremendous act of Jesus when He shed His blood, when He gave Himself to be the sacrifice, the Lamb by which we approach God. Perhaps we will eventually understand the depth of that, but not now.
The greatest ministry that existed in the early Church did not come by the laying on of hands or by the words of proclamation or impartation. The greatest ministry of the New Testament Church came through the Lord’s Supper. Some may dispute this, yet in the Word we find how carefully it was instituted and observed. Later, the observance of Communion became a religious battleground during the days of the falling away of the early Church.
The Roman Catholic church will answer to God in the eternal ages for the way they corrupted the Communion. Only the priests drank the wine, and they took the covenant of the cup away from the people. They gave the people a wafer which was part of the Babylonian mystery, an abomination of the Lord’s Supper. Only a eucharist wafer was laid on their tongues, because they were not considered worthy to partake of the cup. What a lie of Satan! Actually, no one is worthy unless he partakes of the cup, the blood of Christ. Jesus said that unless a man eats of His flesh and drinks of His blood, he has no life in him (John 6:53). He has ritual and a form of religion, but no life.
When the Reformation came along, the Protestants in turn also corrupted the Word of God concerning the Communion. They rejected the Roman Catholic heresy and began to drink grape juice or wine and to eat unleavened bread; however, most of them, even today, partake of the elements only as a symbol of Christ’s blood and flesh. Again, this is a corruption that has watered down Protestantism until there is no ministry of the life of Jesus, no ministry of His blood and His flesh.
A true restoration of the Lord’s Supper which existed in the New Testament must become real to your heart. The mysterious way which the early Church partook of the Lord’s Supper was not a doctrine; it was an appropriation. During the Dark Ages and the falling away, a false doctrine called transubstantiation was introduced. The people were taught that when the wafer (first instituted in Babel religion) is placed on the tongue, it instantly turns into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. They were taught that by eating the wafer, they were literally eating flesh and drinking blood. That is a Babylonian lie that came in during the Dark Ages with the falling away from the truth. What is the true Lord’s Supper? When Jesus gave it, He said of the bread, “This is My body”; and there was a spiritual substance and reality of His body in that bread. He did not say, “This is a symbol.” He did not say that the bread would change into His flesh. He said, “This is My body!” When you eat the unleavened bread, it goes down into your stomach as unleavened bread; but Christ is saying, “It is My body.” Likewise, when you drink the wine, Christ is saying, “This is My blood.” It is a new covenant in His blood that seals to your heart all that God has to say.
One of the greatest restorations will be the purity of the Lord’s Supper. If you are looking for great mysteries and truths that will impress you, how about accepting the reality of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, of partaking of His life? Can you believe it and accept it in your heart? This truth which God is restoring is very simple: “Eat of My flesh and drink of My blood.” When the chapter of this age is finished, it will be just as it was written in advance: They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11).
Contend for the truth of the Lord’s Supper. The bread and the wine must not be served to believers in a meaningless ritual. It must be served as an act of faith; and to those who believe, it will be the body and the blood of the Lord in all reality. Never drink of the cup without consciously thinking, “This is the blood that coursed through His veins.” Never eat of the bread without realizing, “This is unleavened bread, but by it I am eating of the very flesh of the Son of God in its spiritual reality.”
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the unity that will come forth in the Body of Christ when the members partake of the Lord’s Supper in truth. Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of (or participation in) the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread. (Partaking of Christ in this way makes us one with Him.) Behold Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar? What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have communion with demons. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? I Corinthians 10:14–22.
When we partake together it brings a unity which causes us to become one bread together. When we so partake of Christ, we actually lose our individuality, and the very life of Christ welds us into one living, spiritual organism.
Paul then rebuked and corrected the Corinthian church: When therefore ye assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the Lord’s supper (he was speaking of a condition that existed in Corinth): for in your eating each one taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you? In this I praise you not. For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come. I Corinthians 11:20–26.
What does that mean to you? Every time you partake of the Lord’s Supper in faith, eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, you proclaim His death. If it did not become a ritual, a prophetic proclamation could well be spoken by someone whenever the body and the blood of Jesus Christ is served from the Communion Table: “I proclaim His death this very moment.” This would bring an awareness that His death is brought forth, from 1900 years ago, to the present. You eat His flesh and drink His blood as if you were kneeling at the foot of the cross, with His wounds bleeding upon you for the cleansing of your sin and for your forgiveness. The death of Christ is made real and effective for you at that very moment. It is as if His death is occurring at that very instant and is being applied to you. Whenever you partake, you proclaim His death. Let it become real to you.
Many believers meet together every Lord’s day for Communion. Do not neglect it. Do not draw back from it. As you eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of the Son of God, His cleansing becomes real to you. When you take Communion to take care of a sin, the sin is forgiven. The Roman Catholics are required to confess their sins before they are allowed to take Communion, as though Communion were a privilege given only after the sin has been forgiven. That is not so. The New Testament foundational ministries of today could receive confession from sinners as readily as does any Roman Catholic priest, because they know the apostolic prerogative recorded in John 20:23: “Whoever’s sins you remit, they are remitted; whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.” Nevertheless, they are also aware that every time they bless the Holy Communion, those who partake receive a fresh cleansing. Whatever offenses have accumulated before God—willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously—are forgiven at that moment. Those who partake of His blood and His body have His life within them.
Do not neglect the Holy Communion. Regardless of whatever else you might not like in a service, come for the Holy Communion. Jesus said of the bread, “This is My body,” and of the cup, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; this do” (I Corinthians 11:24–25). Reverence the holiness of the blood and the body of Jesus Christ. Hold it in your heart as the most reverent provision to partake of that God has ever committed to His people.
The beginning verse of I Corinthians 11:27–34 gives us this warning: Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. What peril there is in dead, empty rituals! When you do not apply your heart to really partake with faith, it is sin. Can religion be a sin? It can send you to hell faster than sins of the flesh. If you discern the body and the blood of the Lord in the Communion and still partake in an unworthy manner, you become guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. You might as well have been at the crucifixion, hammering the nails into His hands; you might as well have been the one who thrust the spear into His side.
Paul told the Corinthians how to avoid taking the Communion unworthily: But let a man prove himself (looking into his heart), and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body. Verses 28–29. Here Paul was speaking of the Body of believers. All members of the Body are made one by partaking of the body and the blood of the Lord. The wine and the bread make them one in that mystical union, beyond our understanding. Although we do not understand it, the Word tells us that the body and the blood of Jesus Christ make us into one Body, into one bread, together (I Corinthians 10:16–17).
When a believer does not discern the Body, he misses the flow of life that comes from the Communion. He misses the miracle that occurs when he kneels to take of the body and the blood of Jesus. When he misses this miracle, the life flow of Christ is shut off from him. Then what happens? For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. I Corinthians 11:30.
Rather than frighten you, this Word should help to lead you into the Kingdom of God. Many believers were weak and sickly, and some died, because they did not understand the Communion; they did not learn to discern its provision for the Body. There is only One whose blood we partake of; there is only One whose life force becomes our life: the Lord Jesus Christ!
Paul finally said, But if we discerned ourselves (judged ourselves), we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait one for another. In other words, do not feed selfishly like those who brought their own food and ate it when they came together. The Holy Communion did not mean much to them. God revealed that some of them were even dying because of their corruption. If any man is hungry, let him eat at home; that your coming together be not unto judgment. And the rest will I set in order whensoever I come. Verses 31–34. A great deal of wisdom was given to the apostle Paul, much of which is implied beyond the actual statements. If you look underneath, to what is hidden so deeply, you find principles that undergird the Kingdom.
When you come together with the Body for the Lord’s Supper, do you want it to be a miracle process? Do you want it to be the means to change your life completely? Do you want every Lord’s day to be a Passover in which Christ is crucified for you? Every time you kneel for the Communion, do you want His death to become so real to you that you rise up sprinkled by His precious blood with His Word sealed to your heart forever? If you want this to happen, you must never disobey the Old Testament covenant law which says that you cannot drink blood—the life of the flesh is in the blood. The spiritual meaning of this is found in Galatians 5:15: “Do not bite and devour one another.” In other words, do not prey upon one another in malice or in that insipid way that drains another person dry.
Do not selfishly appropriate from others. Do not take advantage of the Body of Christ by transferring your problems to your brothers and draining the life out of them. If you do, God will deal with you. On the other hand, if you draw upon the Word that is preached and upon the ministry of Christ in your brother, then you are eating of Christ’s flesh and drinking of His blood and becoming one bread with the Body.
The Body furnishes life, but be careful which level you feed upon. If you feed on the human level, it is as destructive as cannibalism. It will destroy what God is doing in the Body. Feed on the higher plane and seek only the Christ in your brother, believing that he will be able to minister to you by the Spirit. Draw it, but do not drain him dry of the life that is in him.
Good ministries are lost if the people draw from them and relate to them in a wrong way. It is a crime like the bloodguiltiness of the Old Testament, echoed in the realm of spirit in its affect upon a brother. In Old Testament times, when a man killed another man, he was held accountable for bloodguiltiness (Exodus 21:12). Many believers perish spiritually because certain ones in the Body refuse to walk with God and draw from Him for themselves. Those who refuse to draw from God in a right way have no life, and so they draw the life of another. They survive by a transference as deadly as witchcraft. They should be the ones who perish, not the people out of whom they draw life.
You must have your own personal relationship with the Lord. Even though it is ministered through a many-membered Body, your life comes from Jesus Christ. Jesus said that unless you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, you have no life in you. If you bypass that and draw the life of your brother to sustain yourself, spiritually you are a vampire.
In the world this practice is known by terms such as cannibalism, vampirism, capitalism, communism, witchcraft. This kind of transference is used by all who wrongfully survive by jungle law and by preying on other life. This principle is put into action when someone constantly pesters you and draws life from you, draining you of your strength. Though God may meet you in the morning and make a covenant with you that is real to your heart, it can be drained away from you before the day is over as you minister to someone who refuses to walk with God.
Minister on God’s terms, or not at all. Reject any request for ministry that is not of God. Do not sustain what God would bring down—any more than you would bring down what God would sustain. If one is a sin, the other is a sin. Do not nourish and cherish that which God says must be left alone. Let that which does not relate itself to the Lord perish. God is establishing the right way of relating to one another in the Body. It will be a law and a principle of the Kingdom. He is teaching us to relate to one another according to our relationship with Him. It is by His body and His blood that we are sustained.
Spiritual cannibalism is a greater enemy of God’s people than all the Babylonian systems and demonic hordes. Draining one another is out of the will of the Lord. Many a pastor has served his people on their terms, but in God’s divine order He demands that the people be met on His terms. A pastor cannot show his love for them in any better way than to serve them as the Lord directs. We are not to know one another after the flesh, but rather as new creations in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:16–17).
A pastor should not allow the people to draw anything from him after the flesh, but there should be no limit to what the people can draw from him after the Spirit. He cannot be sympathetic to those who demand of him, or he will be drained of his very life. But when he blesses those who want to walk with the Lord, even if he gives them his last ounce of strength, God will bless him for it. If a relationship is of the Lord, it will prosper.
Personal ministry to people is definitely a key to their moving in God, but ministry on their own terms is wrong. Too many prayer requests detour the leading of the Lord for a church service. Some people feed on Christ on their own terms, by feeding on His ministries and their gifts with this attitude: “They must tell me what I want to know.” In contrast, their attitude should be, “Lord, here I am. It does not matter what I need or what I want. Minister to your servants and speak through them.” God is bringing a new principle and a new purity in ministry. A service is not to be like a sideshow to see what the foundational ministries can do. A service is a time to sustain them and to see them minister the body and the blood of Jesus Christ to the people—a new covenant blessing, a new covenant relationship.
If you open your heart to God and listen to what He is saying through His ministries during a church service, your need for personal ministry will diminish. When you receive a Word from God, your problems will diminish as you start walking in that Word and believing it.