After the first two chapters I hope that we are all clear about one thing: In this universe God desires to build Himself into man and to build man into Himself so that God and man may be mingled together to be one entity. This is the spiritual building, the house of God, which God intends to build in the universe. It is not only the habitation of God but also the dwelling place of man. God dwells in man, who is in union with God, and takes man as His dwelling place. Likewise, man dwells in God, who is in union with man, and takes God as his habitation. Therefore, this building is produced by the building of God with man to be the mutual abode of God and man. All of God’s work among men for six thousand years is for this building.
Now we want to see how God accomplishes this work. In other words, we want to see how God builds this building. We have said that God’s building is arrived at through the mingling of God and man. God mingles Himself with man, and He mingles man with Himself; this is building. But how does God mingle Himself with man? God mingles Himself with us and becomes one with us by coming into us in the form of food to be our life.
The best way for anything to be mingled with us is for it to be eaten by us. For example, if you want a chicken or an apple to be mingled with you and to become one with you, the best way is to eat it so that it will be digested to become your blood, bones, flesh, skin, and all the elements within you. In this way you and the food that you have eaten are mingled together and become one. Therefore, the best way for something outside of us to be mingled with us is for it to be eaten by us.
Please remember that in order to be mingled and built with us, God takes this one way-He comes in the form of food to be eaten by us. God desires that man’s relationship with Him would not be characterized by man worshipping Him or doing things for Him; rather, God desires that man would take Him in as food so that He would be digested in man and become man’s inner constitution. According to the Scriptures, the first time God appeared to man was not as a God for man to worship but as a tree of life for man to eat. After man was created, God put him in front of this tree of life (Gen. 2:9). God meant for man to eat Him, to receive this life as food into him.
When we first read the Bible and came to Genesis 2, we may not have understood what it meant. However, in light of the New Testament, especially the Gospel of John, it is very clear. The Gospel of John says that “in Him was life” (1:4) and that the Lord came that we may have life (10:10b). The Lord Jesus Himself also told people clearly that He is the bread of life and that he who eats Him shall live because of Him (6:35, 48, 57b). The Lord’s word shows us that just as food is daily eaten by us so that we may live by it, He also wants to be received into us in the form of food so that we may live because of Him. Therefore, the Gospel of John repeatedly uses the word in. For example: “You in Me, and I in you” (14:20b), and “You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (17:21). These ins reveal that the Lord wants to come into us and wants us to enter into Him so that He and we may be mingled together and become one.
When God mingles Himself with us in the form of food, the result is that we grow in life. This matter is not difficult to understand. All of us are about five to six feet tall. When we were born, however, we were only about one foot in length. How did we grow to be so tall now? It is altogether because we have continually been putting things into us, and these things have been mingled with us. The more there is this mingling, the more we grow. These things which are mingled with us were previously different kinds of food and were not our constituents. But after they were eaten and received into us, they were digested to become our blood, our cells, and all kinds of elements within us. Through this process this food is completely mingled with us and causes us to grow.
The growth of our spiritual life is in accordance with the same principle. Colossians 2:19 tells us explicitly that we grow with the growth of God. If daily we draw near to God, enjoy God, and receive Him into us as food and drink, then He will mingle Himself with us. This mingling causes the element of God to increase in us, and in this way our spiritual life will grow more and more.
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