Spiritual Sustenance

This is the WILL of GOD-

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Joh 6:36  But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

Joh 6:37  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Joh 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 

Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word

Everyone who believes in the Savior, Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of God- God in flesh-- the Sustainer of our spiritual life in all ways - will have EVERLASTING LIFE- raised in the last day!  Raised from the grave, or raised from the earth- raised to meet our Savior in the air!

1Th_4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

This is the will of God that we LIVE in CHRIST.

Is it any wonder our Savior would tell us He must be our sustainer?  Is it any wonder our Savior would enact an example of that sustaining for us to follow? 

Jesus is our LIFE!

Every single time we enact the example He left for us to follow we are doing so, admitting to our need of a SAVIOR, our need of a LIFE GIVER, our need to be SAVED by HIM and not ourselves!

We are our NOT own sustainers.

We cannot keep ourselves alive by ourselves physically or spiritually. We must have OUTSIDE sustenance.  The food and drink we consume keeps us alive physically. We must consume something outside ourselves to live! No one disputes this fact, no one. There is not a single person alive who lives without consuming sustenance outside of themselves. Yes, some people are kept alive by being giving intravenous nutrients, but those liquid nutrients are outside of themselves.  And JUST as we can only live physically by consuming outside sustenance, we can ONLY live spiritually by consuming outside sustenance- a spiritual sustenance outside of ourselves!

SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE!

Spiritual sustenance for our spiritual life.  Why would our Savior want us to have HIS ACTUAL FLESH, He wants us to have His SPIRITUAL flesh, His SPIRITUAL blood!  The bread and the wine are SYMBOLS of the SPIRITUAL, they are not turned into PHYSICAL forms of the actual FLESH and actual BLOOD of our Savior, not in any way!

The SYMBOLIC RITUAL is for our SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Heb_11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

We must be sustained by Jesus Christ our LORD!

When we partake of the symbolic ritual for our spiritual life we are recognizing our SPIRITUAL life, we are recognizing WALKING in the Spirit!  We are making an outward symbolic show of a way of living! This is a LIFE symbol! A Spiritual Life symbol!  We are asking to walk in the Spirit, in the NEWNESS of life!

Rom_6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We are proclaiming our new life symbolically!

Is it any wonder we should NOT enact this symbolic ritual lightly? If we don't recognize the importance of the ritual of what it's truly symbolic of and what it means to us as we proclaim our new lives then we are making an EMPTY gesture that means absolutely nothing! 

More on this tomorrow by the mercy and grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, Jesus Christ!

Amen!