A human life should be sunny, bright, and free. We were created to eat (or take in) and live on the newness of life, never growing old, pursuing simple dreams. But we may “learn” how to come to the Lord through activities like prayer, reading the Bible, or meeting together with other believers in a way that becomes routine and religious — it becomes old.
On the contrary, it’s not these activities that constitute our eating. Our real spiritual “eating” takes place deep inside of us, the result of a process of turning within to meet the Lord. This eating might be hidden outwardly, but the bright condition it produces is something we live out. If we’ve been eating of a different source, no amount of “spiritual activities” will give us this brightness. Every day, what have we been taking in? What have we been setting our mind on? Paul warned the Corinthians to prove or examine themselves before they ate of the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11:28). This examining of ourselves is not self-introspection or self-analysis of whether we are right or wrong or trying to fix ourselves. It is a return to the sense of life within that can discern life from death, old from new, freedom from bondage.
Having a proper spiritual condition is more important than anything we can “do” for the Lord. Eating is not a routine, but a condition of being renewed (Rom. 12:2). Before we even arrive at the “meeting,” we’ve already been eating! Actually, this process of adjusting our spiritual condition from one that is dark to one that is bright is the beginning of a real prayer and a real hearing of the Lord’s speaking to us. Eating means some newness comes in — that some “mind” is renewed in you. And that is the way the Lord speaks to you. That nurturing comes in, which is Himself becoming you, and suddenly your condition changes. Our condition returns to what it is supposed to be: sunny, bright, and free. It is a condition where doing anything and everything is never routine and religious, but a freedom.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 6/16/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)