Spiritually Stuffed

Spiritually Stuffed

7/14/12

Everyone who has taken communion has heard of the message that Jesus said to His disciples that evening.  All of us could recite this passage if we had to because it is one of the focal points that we have as Christians.  This passage sums up the entire ministry of Christ while He was on earth and even plants His Kingdom firmly into place before the true act of restoration occurs.  However, like most things that humans have been given we have taken this passage for granted and have even distorted its meaning for our own purpose.  We totally forget one area of this passage and it what the bread gives us and what it should be used for through our lives.

When Jesus and the disciples were having Passover, Jesus took bread and gave thanks, broke it and then gave some to the disciples and said along the lines of take this and eat, and then said that this was His body that was broken for each of them.  Most people stop here and reflect on Jesus’ body that was hanging on the cross, being beaten beyond recognition, other torturous methods employed by the Romans, but there is another side to this symbolic gesture that Jesus gives us.  Since the entire ceremony of Passover involves eating it would seem fitting that Jesus would portray Himself as food.

After His words he gave them the bread to eat.  He wanted them to eat the bread, didn’t at one point in time Jesus say He was the Bread of Life and that whoever came to Him would not be hungry?  If this is the case then the bread, which is Jesus, will give us energy and sustain us to complete His mission through our lives.  If we ingest physical food it gives us the ability to sustain the energy needs our bodies require to function and since our spiritual function is to advance the Kingdom of God, I guess the constant intake of Jesus is our source for our energetic needs to complete our goals.

So, if we continually ingest the food that is set before us I guess we need to be burning off that energy because if we do not, then it becomes a liability to our bodies and “big trouble in little China” will occur if something does not change soon.  Most of us have sat around and let our deposits store up also known as sitting in the pughs and waiting for God to return instead of using the energy that Jesus has provided for us to advance His Kingdom.  The same occurrence can and will happen on the spiritual side of things as well.

See when we go to church and receive God’s words into our ears those words infiltrate our spirit and stay within us as a spiritual energy source to combat our enemy.  That energy source will continually be fed into our lives as we endure the flawless words of God.  Each time we listen to these words, or read His words we are spiritually fed with this spiritual energy.  Now spiritual energy is the same as physical energy in the fact that when it is received it is ready to be used and actually is meant to be used as soon as possible.  Yes, there are times that we need to have spiritual energy stored up but spiritual energy has never been intended to sit around and not be on active duty as the case may be.

We have sat in our churches and stored up the spiritual energy that has been fed to our lives and have not used hardly any of it for the advance of God’s Kingdom.  This energy that we have been storing up has become useless in the world because we refuse to go out into the world and use it as we have been instructed.  This energy is not intended for us to store it up for a rainy day it is meant to be used on a daily basis.  Jesus was constantly out on the streets using the energy that He received from talking with His father; you never read where Jesus was sitting around in the Synagogue listening to the sermons and then going home and not doing anything about what He had received.  In fact, even though we know Jesus went to the Synagogue you hardly ever read that He was in there on a routine basis which brings up an interesting thought that many of the times that we do read about Him being in the Synagogue He was challenging the routine laws of said Synagogue.

We have sat in the same chairs within the church for so long that I dare say we have become “gluten intolerant” towards the meaning of Jesus’ spiritual bread of life.  Our spiritual stomachs have been so full for so long that the church has become lazy and fat and have even created a “diabetic” state in which the spiritual energy that the spiritual bread has actually began to work against us instead of its intended usage.  We have stuffed our spiritual stomachs so much that we in our current spiritual state cannot function properly as a church and could not walk towards the outside world even if we wanted to use this energy for its rightful intentions.  And while the church sits in its chairs we cannot understand why the world finds us so sickening and laughs at us when we try to stand up for attacks on our foundational beliefs.

Jesus expects us to take this spiritual food and use it for His Kingdom, not only for witnessing to the world but also for our defense against the spiritual attacks against us that occur on a routine basis.  Many of us in the western culture have at one time been involved in the church and have received this spiritual food.  This food stays with us and it is recognized by our enemy as a target and if it sits dormant long enough it will turn into fat and become useless in that current state.  Our enemy loves to see spiritually dormant fat within us because he knows that we are not actively using it against his kingdom by not applying the Word of God.

It is time, now, not tomorrow to begin to change our current status of the church and let the world know that we are alive and that we do know how to function as the church is supposed to.  It is time that we show our enemy that we know how to stand up and fight against his attacks and that we know how to advance God’s Kingdom.  However, the only way we can complete this process is if we get out of our chairs and fall on our knees and pray for repentance, this is the first and most important step that we need to do.  Then we can begin our rehabilitation or restoration process so that we can once again begin to convert the spiritual energy that we have received from the “spiritual fat” that we have into the spiritual energy that Jesus has provided us.  It is the provision of new energy that will convert our old stored up “fat” into the energy necessary to complete the works that Jesus commanded us to do.  I guess now we can understand why Jesus actually commanded us to go and to use this energy on a continual basis, because if we didn’t then we would look like we do today.

Our enemy will not be going away anytime soon, but we do not need to allow him more access to our spiritual lives so it is imperative that we begin the restoration process now and not wait another day.  As with my own personal and physical experience I have noticed a huge difference when I exercise and how I feel afterwards compared to when I do not exercise, and I have witnessed the consequences of those times when I did not exercise for an extended period of time as well. 

By beginning the spiritual exercise plan we will fall back into the category of “remembering” Jesus and what His body represents in our lives.  It does not come easy for us to remember to exercise, something always gets in our way or something else comes along that causes us not to complete the necessity of this process.  We cannot afford to spiritually sit around any longer, we must stop and begin the restoration process immediately our entire future depends upon us waking up and completing this process.

So when we listen to the Word of God and intake its meanings into our lives we must use this word in an active form and not let it store up for long periods of time.  Remember the words of Jesus and the power and energy that those words carry.  His bread is a good source of energy and it should be broken with others and given to them to eat.  God guarantees that when we do this that He will remember us when it comes time for help, strength, comfort and salvation.  Church, let us begin to use the name of Jesus again not only within the church walls but also on the sidewalks of our lives.  Restore the name of Jesus to the church and great things will be seen once again in our world.

DLB