What is God’s Means to Accomplish His Purpose?

What is the means by which God will accomplish His purpose of having mankind built up with Him into an expression of God, the building of God, the church which will issue into the New Jerusalem?

The seed of this plan is revealed in Genesis 2:16 when the Lord said to Adam, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” The implication is that the Lord is encouraging Adam to eat the tree of life. The only restriction was to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of knowledge represents the law for our behavior. God said in the day you eat of it you will die. According to Romans seven, when we attempt to keep the law because the law of our mind which delights in the law of God, the law of sin in our flesh brings us captive into death. When we come to the law the result is always death.

God never intended us to live by the law. But the law was given so that we would see how sinful we are and how impossible it is to live independent from God. The commandment in the garden was not to bow down and worship God. It was not to get to work for God and do many things.

God’s desire for Adam was that he would eat the right kind of food. The right kind of food in God’s view is the heavenly food represented by the tree of life which represents Christ as our life. (Col. 3:4)

We know today, in the New Testament age, that the real food is Christ as the bread of life. (John 6) Jesus said, “He that eats me shall live because of me.” (John 6:57) This means that we are required to participate in Christ by taking Him in just as we take in physical food. His words are spirit and life. (John 6:63) As we receive the words of Christ we are supplied with His life and thus spontaneously live because of Him. It is not by self effort or by striving and trying harder to live a Christian life. We should not try to fix ourselves up. This cannot work as thousands of saints have testified over many years. Only the life of Christ is qualified to live at the standard of God’s righteousness.

The matter of eating and its importance for God’s purpose can be traced throughout the entire Bible. Not only was Adam required to eat life giving food, the children of Israel in the wilderness ate the manna from heaven. When they got into the land, the manna stopped and they ate the produce of the land. Since the land is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the food produced from the land is a picture of the supply of life which proceeds from Christ. The priests of God also ate a portion of the offerings offered at the tabernacle in the wilderness and also those offered at the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament the Lord Jesus said that He Himself was to be our food. In Revelation the overcomers eat the hidden manna and the tree of life. That tree of life will be our food for eternity in the New Jerusalem.

How do we eat Jesus? In John 6:57 Jesus said, “He that masticates me even he shall live because of Me.” Then in verse 63 He said, “The flesh profits nothing. My words are spirit and they are life.” He made it clear that eating Him has nothing to do with physical eating but with eating in the Spirit.

Paul also referred to this kind of participation in the Spirit in Eph. 6:17-18. He said, “take…the word of God by means of all prayer and petition praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this…” So the secret is to pray the Word of God exercising your human spirit. Paul did tell us that there was a spiritual exercise that is more profitable than physical exercise. (1 Tim. 4:7-8) If we would learn to use our spirit and pray the Word of God back to our Father, we will receive the life that is embedded in the Word.

Try it. A good place to start is with Psalm 23. Just pray, “Father, the Lord is my shepherd. Praise You. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Thank you Father, I shall not want, etc.” Simply continue in that way seeking to contact the Lord in the depths of your being and you will find Him and enjoy the rich supply of His life.