In John chapter 6 we read one of the references about our appropriating and partaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Following His feeding of the multitude in the wilderness, there came a discussion out of which they could have created a good political slogan to establish Christ as a king or a great leader. This reminds us of some of the slogans of American history during the depression of the Thirties, in which voters were promised prosperity: “A full dinner.”
Imagine how marvelous it must have been to see the Lord feed the multitude. Wouldn’t that have impressed you? No doubt the people were thinking, “If He can do that with five loaves and two small fishes, imagine what He could do for the economy. Let’s make Him king!” It seemed to be a wonderful idea, because all the kings, so far, had been taking from them; and here was a man who could give to them. They could have initiated one of the first socialistic parties of ancient times: “We will distribute the wealth to everybody!” They wanted to make Him king; and this was their approach: Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. John 6:31, ASV. “We have a good, strong scriptural point here, Jesus. You feed us, just as God fed the multitude in the wilderness!”
It must have been amazing to see. How eager they were to hear. Even though they were hungry, they listened for hours without eating, until they were ready to faint. After the Lord fed them, they thought this would be a marvelous permanent arrangement. Then Jesus began His dissertation to the people with whom He had become very popular. In all the history of His ministry—the full three and one-half years—there was never a time when He was more popular. But before the chapter ends, we read that everyone was leaving Him. Then He turned to His disciples and asked, “Will you also go?” (John 6:66–67.)
What had He said that disturbed them so deeply? On the surface it would seem that one of the reasons was that He began to talk to them about drinking His blood. And the idea of drinking blood was taboo to the Jews; they were very careful about the way they killed their animals (Deuteronomy 12:15–16, 22–25).
When Jesus said, “You must drink My blood and eat My flesh,” the people were offended (John 6:32–66). He was making statements which had to be interpreted on a spiritual plane, because these people were too concerned about bread and fishes. He had to shift to a spiritual emphasis, but in so doing He offended them because they could not adjust themselves to a spiritual comprehension. It wasn’t in them. They couldn’t understand it, and so they all began to leave. But there was something involved of even deeper significance—the real test of faith, and of love also. The Lord told them how they must partake of Him, that they must eat Him. Just as He lived by the Father and partook of the Father, they had to partake of Him (John 6:57). And that was the real test.
Jesus therefore 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. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” John 6:53–57.
We see similar tests come to people who are in love. We see families break up who invariably use the word communication in their reasoning: “We couldn’t communicate!” If you were to ask them, “Don’t you speak the same language?” they would answer, “Yes, but that isn’t the problem.”
Words have meaning, so that you can talk with a stranger; but why are there times when you can’t talk with those you love? Because you have stopped receiving from them, and you have stopped giving to them. There is so much that the Lord wants us to give to one another. There is so much that He wants us to give to Him. But the greater point is there is so much that He wants us to receive from Him. As we begin to develop our relationship with the Lord, then we can develop deeper and lasting relationships with others.
This is a test—we don’t like to take! By taking, even from the Lord, there is an abandonment of our own independent personality. We think we want to merge in the Lord; but when it comes right down to doing it, we do not know whether we want to or not.
We want to be one Body of people all flowing together. But when people are given the spiritual course by which they may be one, they draw back because they want to retain their personal identity.
Do you understand that Christ did not retain His personal identity? (Philippians 2:5–11.) He did the things that pleased the Father. He did not present Himself as an individual; rather He presented Himself as being one with the Father.
And it is His oneness with us that counts also. We receive this by partaking of Him and by giving to Him. When Jesus was going to wash the disciples’ feet, Peter protested, “No, you will never wash my feet” (John 13:8). Peter had a strong personal identity— “I am who I am”—and this put him in a position where he did not want to depend on anyone else.
One of the things God often does is to put you in a position where you are dependent on someone. And this is very humbling.
I have watched God do that to certain people. He brings them into the Body and puts them in a position where they have to partake, in a humble manner, of what the rest of the Body can do for them.
Everything seems all right as long as you are giving, but what if you have nothing more to give?
You can give and still retain your identity. But you may not want to be put in the place where it is absolutely essential that you take from the other person, for then you will lose some of your own personal identity
Haven’t you heard many times, from children and from grown-ups too: “Well, they want to do this for me, but I don’t want to be beholden to them. I don’t want to be obligated.” Haven’t you had that feeling? Human nature says, “I want to retain my identity. I want to stand tall and straight, without feeling that I am dependent upon anyone.” True, there is an unhealthy dependency we want to avoid. But the Lord is trying to teach us that He will put you and me in a spot where it will be absolutely essential that we partake of one another.
At the end of John’s Gospel, the Lord told Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself, and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. John 21:18–19a.
Jesus did not mean that someone would clothe Peter and take him out and kill him. That would be a very shallow interpretation. This Scripture is very mystical in its application. It speaks of the way we die to independence when others more and more have the input over our lives. And the lever that has that control is love. This is what we do for each other. We must do this! This is a part of marriage that young couples often do not really grasp. They come into marriage without realizing that they are relinquishing a great deal of the control over their life and their own personal identity, and they are swallowed up in their interdependence. This bothers a lot of couples when they find that they are no longer independent individuals. It is not just the lack of freedom that bothers them; it is their dependence upon the other person—having to receive of the other’s love and attention. Do you say, “No, I won’t do that; I won’t take from anybody. I’ll give, but I won’t take.” Then you won’t have a complete, happy relationship.
One of the greatest things in the heart of God, and in the human heart, is the need to be needed. You have to be needed. When you get to the place where the other person doesn’t need you, or refuses to need you, the relationship breaks down.
The Lord was trying to say in that sixth chapter of John was: “I want you to love Me. Yes, and I want you to see that you can’t live unless you partake of Me” (verse 53). This bothers us because it is an unconditional surrender. When you confess your need of another person, your surrender to the relationship must be unconditional. You have to love them, and you have to need them. You have to partake of Jesus.
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world. They said therefore unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth hath eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 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. John 6:31–35, 47–53, ASV.
Can we understand what Jesus was saying? “You need Me—you need Me. And you have to recognize that need. You can’t be independent of it.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED THE LORD?
Do you know why people don’t pray as they ought to? Do you know why they don’t walk with God and read the Word and speak he Word as they should?
Christians say, “Yes, I know my first concern is to attend to the means by which grace and life come to my heart. I must be faithful to partake. I must be faithful to draw.” They feel that need in their own spirit, that they must do it. And yet there is an independence that draws back; it refuses to draw its life and its strength from the Lord. It is a perversity within us.
Jesus is saying, “You must confess your deep need of Me. You must partake of it every day, because this is the basis of your relationship with Me. Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you don’t have life in you; you don’t have it abiding in you.”
This is also true in human relationships. We must confess our need of one another. The Body has an inter-dependence. We are one bread.
Jesus said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die” (John 6:51, 50). You must recognize that the deep hunger and thirst can only be met by the Lord. If you eat His flesh and you drink His blood, you will never hunger; and you will never thirst (verse 35). This satisfies the deep need. Learn to be dependent upon the Lord. Do more than learn it—yield to it. Yield to it deep down in your nature.
Kneel before the Lord at the Communion Altar and say, “O God, anything perverse in my nature that tends to draw back from the full acceptance of my need, I want You to deal with it.”
HOW GREAT IS YOUR DEPENDANCE UPON THE LORD?
We try to get along without God’s help, when He has said, “I will sustain you.” We tend to try to be made perfect by the flesh. Paul warned the Galatians, “Having begun in the Spirit, do you now think to be made perfect in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3, KJV.) Do you think to become perfect by your own effort? Do you say, “O Lord, if I can just get a blessing, if I can just get an experience, then I will be able to live self-sufficiently.”
Christians must learn their great dependence upon the Lord. Are you grasping this?
The most marvelous thing you can do is to just depend on God twenty-four hours a day. Are you thinking, “That will take away from my self-sufficiency. It will take away from my self-confidence. I will come to the place where I will just be a nobody if I do that.”
No, if you come to the place where you are absolutely given over to the Lord, and dependent upon Him every moment, in that dependency you will find your own fulfillment, just as Christ did—depending upon the Father. You will become God’s somebody, the body of Christ.
This is to say that the members of the mystical Body are not clearly formed at the beginning. Each member is in a nebulous and formative state. And so, in a general sense, love flows between members of the Body. But as those individual members take on their personal identity, of service to the Lord, it is such a distinctive ministry that they lose some of their general ability to minister to themselves or function by themselves. For instance, the more pronounced any ministry becomes, the more God takes away its capacity to flow freely and independently from the rest of the Body.
The more a hand becomes a hand, the more dependent it is on the other members of the body to function as a hand. When it takes on the form and shape of a hand, then it is dependent on every other part of the body. Otherwise that hand stands alone; and because of its distinct identity as a hand, it is worthless unless it can move in conjunction with the rest of the body. The more efficient the hand becomes to do what a hand should do, the more dependent it is on the other members of the body to function (I Corinthians 12:12–27).
The more strongly a prophet comes forth, the more dependent he will be on the prayers of the other people to sustain his ability to function.
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:18–20.
He reaches a level in which he cannot be in that position or place—geographically or spiritually or mentally or any other way—unless the other members of the Body position him so. The hand can pick up an object; but without the cooperation of the feet, it cannot carry it to another place. It is the other members that position you.
The apostolic ministry is dependent upon the people as the feet, as the support, as the heart that gives him strength and puts him in a position where he can lay the foundation. There isn’t any such thing as a ministry that can function alone effectively. Jesus was saying the same thing about every one of us. We are dependent on one another.
I am utterly dependent upon the people, more than I have ever been in any phase of my ministry; and I am facing it with joy. Likewise, the more spiritual you become, the more you are dependent upon the ministry that I have in order for you to come into the perfection. Anyone can start out and start walking; but when the maturity comes, then comes the interdependency.
We think a little child is talented who can sing and make up songs as he toddles around all day. That child may have a wonderful musical ability; but unless he has a teacher who is beating out the time, teaching and developing perfect pitch, that little child cannot grow up to be a beautiful singer—one who can make records that millions of people will listen to, one who will have a great ministry. Hours and hours of daily practice are needed. One teacher after another is involved; when one teacher no longer can contribute, a more advanced teacher leads him onward. The more that ministry of music is developed, the more dependent he is upon others to teach him and lead him. Finally, he reaches a level where he can teach others.
And so we have come to the place where we need to have a fresh view of how to walk with God. We need a fresh view of our relationship to Him and to one another. We need a new view of the Body of Christ. There must not be that independent attitude. You must be the support to your brethren, the bread that feeds them; and they must be the bread that feeds you.
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. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven: not as the fathers ate, and died; he that eateth this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life. John 6:54–60, 63, ASV. This resulted in many of the disciples turning away from Him (verse 66). They did not leave only because of their traditional viewpoint of the drinking of blood. Rather, they were face to face with what the whole issue was all about. It wasn’t loaves and fishes. Likewise, for us it isn’t the material deliverances—God healing us or breaking the satanic conflicts we are in. That isn’t the issue! And yet so often we are prone to evaluate things in a superficial way, saying, “Oh, if I had this deliverance, if God would just open the doors and pour out blessings on me, all these blessings that I’m looking for, that would solve all my problems.” No, it wouldn’t.
DO YOU HAVE A MINISTRY?
We run in the same rut as the Samaritan woman: “Lord, evermore give us this water that we never have to come to this old well and draw again!” (John 4:15.) “Give us this bread and we won’t have to go out and earn a living. Solve our problems for us, Lord. Oh, if I were just free! If I just had a certain income, I’d give all my time to ministering!” You wouldn’t be worth anything if you were that kind of a ministry. You have nothing to give if you have lost your sense of dependency and wonder upon God.
How can anyone else depend upon you, if you haven’t learned to depend upon God? Learn to partake of His blood and partake of His life. This is what we have in a real ministry.
When we sense this within our own spirit, we say, “O God, you’ve got to meet me! God, You must help me every hour.” We become addicted to the burning passion for another meeting with God. Scarcely has He met us, and we want Him to meet us again.
It isn’t because of great, shattering revelations. People have asked me, “You had a meeting with God? Well, what did the Lord show you?” In most of the meetings with the Lord, He doesn’t show me anything. He just becomes something to me. Eat of Him, and He becomes something to you.
A meeting with God is a real meeting with God when He becomes something to you, and you partake of Him. God is teaching us how to come to Him and live in a state of dependency upon Him continually. There is no functioning of the Body of Christ until we sense that the fullness of the Head flows through us and thus to the world.
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 fulness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22–23.
But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:15–16.
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. Colossians 1:18.
For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.… the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. Colossians 2:9–10, 19.
We have little to give if only occasionally, spasmodically, do we open up for the blessings to come through to us. This is a consistent walk with God, a participation in the body of Jesus Christ and in His blood—a feeding upon it. There isn’t any true ministry apart from it. There isn’t any healthy relationship in the Body apart from it. There isn’t a worthwhile relationship between husband and wife in the Body of Christ without this. There is no relationship between children and parents that is worthwhile without this. Without this, there is no cooperation in any function of ministering or of publishing the Living Word. There must be a dependence upon each other. We must make the other person strong, rather than being critical of him. Oh, that God will not be critical of us!
Do you lack wisdom?… ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not … James 1:5, KJV. He looks upon you and He knows what you need. He doesn’t reject you when you falter.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Psalm 103:13–14, KJV.
ARE YOU WEAK?
There is always His compassionate knowledge of us. Why don’t we look at one another the same way? Why not look at one another and say, “I am weak! I need you.”
Don’t criticize, “Oh, how weak those members of the Body are! I’m stronger than they are!” You are their strength? Maybe you haven’t been feeding their spirit. Maybe you haven’t been the bread to them you should be. Maybe they are weak because you are not feeding them or on them.
Do you want to grow spiritually? Then start drawing from God, and a few people will come around and begin to feed on you. When people start feeding on you, something of strength comes in you through that.
Oh, how we must be dedicated to the source and fountain of life that comes to us through Jesus Christ! We need it. We need it every hour of every day. We must think carefully before we absent ourselves from the Body for very long, because we need one another so much.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:23–25.
This is what ministry is all about. A ministry isn’t a function: “Well, I will stand up in front of the people and learn how to lead songs. I will learn how to cast out devils and minister to a few people and have a few revelations.” That is not all there is to a spiritual ministry. Can you bring people to a relationship where they feed upon what Christ is becoming in you? Can you come to the place in your ministry where you are constantly feeding upon Him? You can’t give, if you don’t partake. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Hebrews 3:14, KJV.
Lord, I want to be a constant partaker of You. Make the Word more than that which inspires us. At this very moment, at this very hour, we cry unto Thee, that You will let this truth be a living reality within us in our every relationship.
We have seen ourselves. We have seen our need. We have seen that others may need us, and we could miserably fail them unless we walk in this truth now.
We come to Thy altar, to partake of Thy body and Thy blood, and to confess our need of partaking of You every day and every moment of that day.
As the blessing flows from God throughout the many-membered Body, and they have need one of another, the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of thee.” We can’t say that.
Others need us, and each of us has his own need to be needed. We all have this mutual need, O Lord, that You have balanced so perfectly. We confess it. And we come to Thine altars to receive of You. We draw from You deeply.
The more mature you become, the more you learn to partake of what your brother or sister will give, and to sense their need and give to them, in depth, as much as you can.
Your brother or sister can become a stranger to you when you stop giving to them and receiving from them.
No true ministry is independent. The Body of Christ functions when every member says, “I have need of you.”
It is more important to say, “I need you,” than to say, “I can give to you.”
Breaking bonds in the Body of Christ is not an amputation; it is only the elimination of a soulish short-circuit.
Your need is not for the loaves and fishes; it is for partaking of His flesh and blood that you might live forever.
We receive ministry, not to make us self-sufficient, but to make us all function in the interdependence upon the Christ in one another.
You have a meeting with God when He becomes something to you and you partake of Him.
All of us have the need to be needed. The Lord has balanced this mutual need perfectly among all the members of His Body.