Every believer must see the reality of his union with the Lord. The Lord is the vine, and we are the branches. Just as the branches are in union with the vine, so are we in union with the Lord Jesus. Through their union with the vine, the branches receive the life flow. Does not our union with the Lord Jesus result in the same? If we limit this union to the spirit, our faith will not consent to such a restriction. Our Lord has called us to realize the practicality of our union with Him; He wants us to believe and receive His life flow into our spirit, soul, and body. If we are cut off from the Lord, we will lose not only peace in the spirit but also healing in the body. If our union with the Lord is continuous, His life will fill our spirit and also flow into our body. Unless we truly share in the life of the Lord Jesus, we will neither be healed nor obtain health. Today God is calling His children to have a deeper union with the Lord Jesus.

For this reason, we need to see that though these things transpire in the physical body, they are spiritual matters. Receiving God's healing and strengthening is not a physical experience but a spiritual experience, even though it occurs in the physical body. Such experiences are nothing less than the life of the Lord Jesus being expressed through our mortal body. Just as the life of the Lord Jesus resurrected our dead spirit in the past, it now enlivens our mortal body. God wants us to learn how to allow the resurrected, glorious, and ever-overcoming life of Christ to be manifested in every part of our being. He wants us to renew our strength from Him day by day and hour by hour. This is our real life. Even though our physical body is still animated by our soul-life, we should not live by it. Rather, we should depend on the life of God's Son which gives life to our members in a way that the soul-life cannot. We should pay attention to the word "life." All of our spiritual experiences come from this wonderful thing called "life" which richly enters into our being. God simply wants us to realize that Christ's life is our strength.

Matthew 4 shows us that God's word is life to our physical body: "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God" (v. 4). This clearly points out that God's word can sustain our physical body. According to the natural way, man must live by bread; but when the word of God proceeds with its power, man can live by it as well. Here we see two ways of living: the supernatural and the natural. While God does not tell us not to eat, He wants us to know that His word can give us life that bread cannot. When bread cannot produce the effect that we expect, His word can give us the life that the bread fails to provide. Some live by bread, while others live by the word of God. The former sometimes fails, but the latter never changes.

God puts His life into His word. Just as He Himself is life, so also is His word. If we take His word as a teaching, creed, and moral standard, it will not have any power toward us. God's word should be digested by and united with us in the same way that bread is. Hungry saints realize that God's word is their food. When they receive it by faith, the word becomes their life. God said that His word can sustain our life. Therefore, when natural food fails, we can believe God according to His Word. We will then see that God is life not only to our spirit but also to our physical body. Today our failure to realize that there is a rich provision in God's Word (the Bible) for our physical body is a great loss. We limit God's promises to our spiritual life and forget about our physical body. But actually, the need of our physical body is no less than our spiritual needs.