Jesus Came to Establish His Body upon the Earth
God has given Jesus, the second Adam, all dominion and authority not only on earth, but also in Heaven. His mission is to establish His Father’s Kingdom in every nation. And to do this, He needs His body, which is composed of us. As we have already seen, the Spirit of God unites with us through Communion, making us one with the Father and the Son. The Lord imparts His own Life to us and grafts us into His body. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
The Word of God says in Ephesians 4:10-14 that as Jesus ascended to Heaven, He filled all things, establishing His mystical body upon the earth. Jesus’ will is that His body will grow until it reaches all the fullness that is in Him. This will occur when all its members are operating in perfect coordination.
Jesus is watching the finished work from Heaven where He is the head. We are His body, moving in harmony with Him. Upon losing the essence of Communion, we lost the supremacy of the body. The body became divided and remained dismembered on earth. We try to unite it through thousands of sermons, which only serve to make us feel guilty, but lack the unifying power that only comes from eating His flesh. Paul prayed for our eyes to be opened so we could see and understand who we are and what it means to BE HIS BODY. The reality of being His body does not mean that you are members of an organization, or that you have a pass to Heaven. Being His body is a powerful truth. It means literally being Jesus on earth, with all His authority and virtue. Do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:16-23
This is one of the most powerful passages of the New Testament. However, if our eyes are not enlightened to live in the power of this truth, we will keep acting like church-going Christians who have lots of problems, believing that God sometimes hears us and at other times does not hear us. What is the key for the enlightenment of our eyes, so we can change our limited sight? It is the breaking of the bread of Communion that reveals Christ in His glory. On the road to Emmaus the disciples walked with Jesus and heard Him speak. But although His anointing revived their spirits, they didn’t recognize Him.
This is how many Christians walk. They are next to Jesus. They can hear Him and feel His Spirit, but they do not really understand that they are truly with Him and in Him as His very body. Upon breaking bread, Jesus reveals Himself to us and within us. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him… When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him… Luke 24:15-16; 30-31a
Jesus had a purpose for causing this blindness and then lifting it. He wanted to establish the importance of the greatest heritage that He was leaving to us, the breaking of the bread. Eating His flesh will open the eyes of our understanding so we will know all the riches that He has granted to us, so we can see Him face to face.
Seeing Him is not the privilege of a few; it is our heritage, and it is what transforms us into His image. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:19-20 Note in these two passages how our spiritual eyes are open. Then, we can see Him and look at Him.
We know that we are truly one spirit with the Lord. When our eyes are opened, our whole perspective of things will change. Discerning the Body of the Lord That Jesus came to establish His body upon the earth is of great importance, because this is how God implants His designs in us. It is through His mystical body (us) that He governs and brings His kingdom to earth. Discerning the body correctly is essential to our relationship with the Father. The New Testament apostles wanted to make sure that we understand what it means to discern the body of the Lord. To be ignorant of the body or to misunderstand it will result in illness, weakness or even the death of our physical bodies. Today, this is one of the big problems we see. The body of Christ is mutilated, divided in all parts of the earth. Thousands of Christians are sick and many die because they attack or destroy the body of the Lord which is the Church. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 11 is one of the passages most frequently used during the actual ritual of Communion. However, it is also one of the most misinterpreted. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Taking Communion every day began to open my eyes to the wonderful truth in this passage. The first thing that the Spirit showed me is that the body of the Lord was broken for us. This not only speaks of His great love for the world, but it puts us in the arena of understanding what our sins produced in the physical body of Christ.
Once, while eating of His flesh, I saw Him nailed to the cross with His open wounds and disfigured face. I could see each one of my sins in each one of His wounds with my name written on them. Then, I heard His voice clearly say to me, “This is My body which was broken because of you.”
A horrible shudder ran through my being when I realized that my sins crucified the Son of God. I, Ana, with my deeds brutalized my beloved Jesus. I put Him to death. We killed Him. The understanding of this fact brings us to genuine conversion. This is what the Apostle Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, spoke to the Jews on the day of Pentecost: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:36-37 When we understand that each one of us has killed Him, and when we see plainly that our own sins have pierced Him, then our souls will be filled with pain; and it is this that produces true repentance.
How could I see my sinful works cruelly wounding Him and then go back to these sinful works and commit the same sins again? The primitive church lived this every day. As they broke bread among the brethren, they remembered what their sins had done to the body of the Lord. They gazed into each others’ eyes as they broke bread, and they saw how they had wounded Jesus’ body. Their souls lived it every day. They felt it in their hearts, and it transformed them.
In Hebrew, the words “in memory of me” mean vividly reliving an event, as if it were happening in that moment. Breaking bread daily in their houses was something that deeply impacted their way of life, the way they thought, loved and knew Jesus. It affected their way of relating tore one another and even the way they treated unbelievers. The Fear of God abounded in their lives.
The Holy Spirit was able to do all kinds of signs and wonders in an environment where everyone walked in holiness. Simple disciples like Ananias were led by the Spirit to amazing prophetic levels. This was used to take the Gospel to the great persecutor of the Church, Saul of Tarsus, who also was healed and received the Holy Spirit through him. Saul was impacted by this unknown brother, and is transformed into one of the greatest apostles: Paul. Being a Christian during that time was something visible, tangible and to be admired. They had the favor of the people because believers were people full of God’s love. People wanted what they had. Their greatest concern was not having the comforts of this world at any cost. It was that everyone would know the powerful Savior that had transformed their hearts. The story of the Last Supper continues by saying: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:26
The proclamation of the Lord’s death means talking about His death and understanding it in relation to our own deeds. It means understanding and talking about what our sin did to Jesus, about how our iniquity led Him to die. We literally need to eat this knowledge until everything we do and think is saturated with His sacrifice, so His life will manifest through us. It is His death that conquered death and the devil’s empire. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body… So death works in us, but life in you. 2 Corinthians 4:10; 12
Turning Communion into a lifeless ritual brings upon us the opposite effect. Judgment, sickness and death come upon the church. That is why we see so much sickness among believers, both physical and spiritual. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
The Breaking of Bread Produces Unity
The early church discerned the body of the Lord in terms of Christ’s huge sacrifice, and they valued it every day of their lives. They also appreciated His body made up of all the believers. Discerning the body of the Lord doesn’t end with the cross. His mystical body upon the earth is also of great importance to the Lord. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The early church realized that breaking the bread had a supernatural power that kept the body of Christ united. The Love of God, that bonds together all those who are His children, was put into action through this act. They not only loved one another as a body, but there was something powerful coming from Heaven that made this unity possible. It wasn’t something fabricated through sermons, but something real that proceeded from the Spirit. In fact, when the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost, the impact of love in this outpouring was so great that it caused them to have all things in common and no one lacked anything. As the bread is broken into pieces, it generates the opposite force; members that are separated will be attracted to form the spiritual body. The body (the bread) that is divided in the natural realm is united in the spiritual. To operate in the opposite spirit of the one we want to conquer is a spiritual principle. Through His death Jesus produced life in us. His wounded body produced health. His humility conquered pride. His true love disarmed hatred.
Under this principle, the breaking of bread, symbolic of His pierced body, frees a power that supernaturally binds together those who are legitimately His church.
Upon eating the bread, we are submerged in the spiritual body of Christ throughout the world. From within it we can begin to attract each one of the parts that God has predestined to be united to us. When these precise organs converge, we will enter into our perfect function within His living organism.
Today, the body is scattered everywhere. At times its members are connected by dysfunctional joints that, far from helping us, cause us to waste away. God has a tendon, a muscle, nerves and veins precisely designed for every bone. The Lord knows which organs to put together for the stomach to digest and which parts to put around the lungs for them to breathe. The problem today is that we run behind someone’s anointing, behind another’s teaching, behind the traditions of others or the revival of some other place. As a result, we have an ear that is surrounded by fingers; a liver that is stuck to an eye and lungs that must go to the world’s marketing system because the nose is too busy trying to force air into the kidney. Thousands of ministries are drowning, struggling to survive, trying in their flesh to generate contacts to help them. They tell one another, “I’m going to do a little public relations with these ministries because if they help me, I’ll be successful.” Others say, “I’m going to send all these letters to see who will help me financially.” Unfortunately, everyone’s mailbox is full of ministerial solicitations, asking for funds for a thousand and one causes and most solicitations remain unanswered. The reason is that the kingdom of God doesn’t work this way. The Lord has predestined all the human and financial elements we require to function. Perhaps we do not know if we are bone, tendon or muscle, but He knows. When I eat His flesh, I see His body around the world, and in this intimacy with His Spirit, I prophesy to the organs that must join me to come and supernaturally find me. I command for the divine appointments that God has preordained for me to manifest. I command the financial instruments that Jesus has already given me since before the foundation of the world to enter in contact with me. I plead the divine blood that runs in them and in me to bind us into one functional, perfect organ. I don’t have to search for assistance in the most popular ministries. I have to wait on my heavenly Father and HE WILL DO IT. The act of breaking the bread not only unites the church of one age, but it unites us to the body of Christ throughout history. We are part of a great, timeless family. The kingdom of God is eternal. Time only exists in the natural realm. There are joints in the body that are eternal, from which we can take the anointing that has remained suspended in time or reopen wells of revival that existed in other places. Each one of us belongs to a line of anointing that stopped with the death of that wonderful someone that was supposed to pass it on to us when that someone went to be with the Lord. Perhaps you are the heir of an amazing anointing and you have never claimed it. However, eating of the bread unites it to you. You and I are simply links in a work that has continued for generations before us and that will use our lives to pass the baton to the next generation. When Saul of Tarsus called for the stoning of Stephen, the martyr’s mantel fell at his feet. Stephen forgave his executioners. When he did this, his anointing and his mission remained suspended in the air. This homicide marked Saul. When he was converted to Jesus and became part of His body, he became a debtor to those he had killed. In this act, Stephen’s destiny and anointing united with Paul, who continued the work that death had interrupted. My husband and I live in Jacksonville, the place where the first Christians landed in the United States, long before the Pilgrims arrived in New England. These believers were the French Huguenots who fled Europe during the Inquisition that was triggered off by the Reformation. When they arrived at the coast of Saint Augustine, they dedicated the land with Psalm 132, declaring that this nation would be called Zion and that it would be a country of worship to God. Spain sent a ship with soldiers that massacred the Lord’s people, leaving their mission unfinished. In 2004, God spoke to us to recapture the destiny and work of the Huguenots that had been suspended in time. We then brought a group of the descendents of those martyrs from France. After 440 years, the Huguenots entered, singing Psalms again on the shores of the United States. As a descendent of Spaniards, I asked for their forgiveness and together we took Communion, making ourselves our brothers’ debtors who died on these shores. Something very powerful came upon us from God, as we united with history through the breaking of the bread in the eternal body of Christ. We are certain that God will use us to sanctify the United States and make it once more a nation of worship. The devil cannot erase what God has purposed. Sooner or later, God connects His body with history to establish what He has determined. What began during the Reformation is not over. What began on Azusa Street, in Wales, Pensacola, and in other places that have seen the glory of God, will again be relived by HIS BODY in this age. There are people in the Bible or in Church history with whom we feel an extraordinary affinity. This is due to the fact that perhaps we are part of the spiritual organ that began with David or John or Paul or so many others. Our spiritual ancestors may not necessarily be members of our family by blood. For example, Benny Hinn, who clearly has over him Kathryn Kuhlman’s mantle, never knew her personally nor was she his spiritual mother. However, God orchestrated a joint in heaven that birthed a powerful ministry. I have known people who when they have walked over a land for the first time, feel as if their spirit belongs to that place. It is quite possible that part of their spiritual inheritance is found in that region. God not only wants to destroy our spiritual inheritance of evil that comes from our fathers’ iniquity, but He wants us to obtain the blessed inheritance that comes from His trans-generational body. Breaking the bread is a wonderful form of prayer that not only unites us with history, but also with the future in order to attract new believers to the body. While eating of His flesh, we should call into the body of Christ those who will form part of it. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread 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 2:46-47 The Breaking of Bread Builds His Tabernacle in Us Jesus is the firstborn of all the brethren that compose His body. He, as the Son of God, was the first living tabernacle that housed all the fullness of God. His flesh was the tent in which the Father and the Holy Spirit would dwell. God desires for that tabernacle to be built on earth through the church. Many think that this occurs automatically when someone says to Jesus, “Come and live in my heart.” When someone is genuinely converted the Lord plants His seed of salvation within him, so that he receives the authority to be called a child of God. This is the title or family relationship that God confers on the believer who begins to walk with Him. His dwelling will depend upon what we do with the great treasure that He has placed in our hands. We have the corner stone, but God wants the finished building within us. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” John 14:20-23 Notice that the dwelling of God is not established until the believer has been proved in keeping His commandments and His Word. Today, the condition of the church is in a grave situation. In a vast number of people, the spiritual temple of God is in ruins. God called us to be His living temple on earth, but in reality few people walk in the understanding of this high calling. In a spiritual analogy, God showed the prophet Haggai why His people were in great lack. Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?” Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways. You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes”… You look for much, but behold, it comes to little: when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of Hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Haggai 1:4-6; 9 This prophecy that was written referring to physical houses is also interpreted today to mean spiritual houses. Each one of us is a house, spiritual as well as anatomical or carnal. Most of our time and strength are used in building ourselves up. We are very interested in making sure that we have everything we need. Millions of prayers are just focused on “Give me, make me, help me, heal me, provide for me, fill me.” In His infinite love, God gives us what we ask for in one measure or another. He fills us with His Spirit. He adorns us with spiritual gifts. He covers us with grace and favor. He cleanses us and beautifies us. Our homes are crafted by Him. The vast majority of people in the church have taken their eyes off Jesus as the principal focus of worship and knowledge in order to serve themselves. The songs that are sung have to do with what we want from Him. Sermons focus on a better life for “us”, how to reach earthly success and have victory in what we are doing. In a subtle manner, pleasing, knowing and honoring God lacks importance and our priorities replace His. Our homes are more and more ornate, and the inner temple, His dwelling place, lies forgotten and in ruins. Learning about God from others is beautiful and necessary. However, it will never replace intimate communion with His Spirit. Knowing Him is a personal experience and it is different for every person. It is what affirms and establishes us so we cannot be shaken. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 The breaking of the bread takes us to that experience of knowing Him in which our eyes are opened so we can see and our ears can hear Him. The Lord gave the key to Haggai on how to build the temple so the Father and the Son would dwell in it: Go up to the mountain, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the Lord. Haggai 1:8 Wood symbolizes the human nature of Jesus, of His body. This isn’t wood that can be found in the valleys, in low places, in men’s “good ideas” and “good programs”. It is wood from heights that are only found in the holy mountain of God. It is where the Tree of Life puts down roots to fuse with the Holy Mountain of God. “Go up to the mountain and bring wood” is going up to the Spirit and eating of the flesh of Jesus. It is bringing everything that His body, the wood, symbolizes and making it the temple of God within us. Each time I eat of Him, I am building His dwelling within me and He is being formed within me. The tabernacle in the desert pointed to all Jesus would be in the flesh. The glory of God was wrapped with a cover of purity, a cover that represented His blood and a cover that symbolized the humility of His outer look. The column of fire was the visible presence of God upon the earth, settled over this tabernacle. This will also happen to those who walk in purity, humility and who are full of His blood, built into God’s true temples.