Last week I told about how this past January God used Revelation 2 to show me a danger in my heart (very kindly, of course, using the sandwich method of words of commendation both before and after).
There were some other words at the end of that passage, which I had written in my journal, but which I didn’t really think about at the time. When I finally noticed them, they jumped off the page, but that wasn’t until April. . . .
Have you ever noticed in Luke 9 when Jesus’ disciples were all worried about what in the world the crowd of 5000-plus people were going to eat, have you ever paid attention to the odd thing Jesus said to them?
“You give them something to eat.”
They were completely nonplussed, and looked only at what they could see. “Absolutely impossible,” they said.
“You give them something to eat.”
They were thinking about natural means—send them back into town so they can buy bread. But He was thinking of supernatural.
“You give them something to eat.”
Really? You were really challenging them to do that, Lord?
Lord Jesus, You are my Living Bread. I will feast on You. I can give others something to eat, and it doesn’t have to be through natural means; it can be supernatural.
He reminded me that He wanted me to be His hands and feet.
Yes, Lord. It’s my joy to do that.
But I looked at some of the people He had brought me . . . I don’t know how to give them something to eat. . . .
Clearly He communicated to me the very same thing He wanted the disciples to see—He would do it, but He wanted to do it through me. His own nail-scarred hands and feet would work instead of my diseased, fleshly hands and feet.
And then for some reason I looked back in my journal and saw these words:
To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
This is far bigger than just having enough bread to last for one meal. He, Jesus Christ Himself, is the Tree of Life. He is what makes the paradise of God a paradise.
At the beginning of 2016, that part of the passage was for me too, even though I had missed it before.
Overcome, He says. And how else am I to accomplish this overcoming, this conquering, this victory, except by faith in Christ Jesus alone, the one who is my helmet of salvation, my breastplate of righteousness, my belt of truth, my shoes of peace, and the very sword I wield in spiritual warfare?
I’ll give you to eat of the Tree of Life, he says to me. Then you’ll give them something to eat.
And eat, and eat, and eat. They will eat and be satisfied. Because they will eat of Me.
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