Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was strictly forbidden by God, they died spiritually. They were eating in an unworthy manner through their rebellion and disobedience to God. God did not forbid them to eat of the tree of life before they sinned because He gave them permission to eat from any tree which was in the garden except the forbidden tree that they ate from, Genesis 2:16.
Instead of eating from the tree that would give eternal life, they chose to eat the forbidden fruit which ultimately would lead to their spiritual death. Likewise, if we eat of the Lord’s body in an unworthy manner, the consequence will be the same; spiritual starvation and separation which ultimately leads to death, both physical and spiritual.
Unlike Adam and Eve after they had fallen into sin, we can taste of the tree of life which is amid the Paradise of God.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” (Rev 2:7)
How do we overcome?
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Rev 12:11)
We have already overcome by Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection, HaleluYah. We can eat now at the Lord’s Table as a foretaste of the world to come whilst on earth because we are in two dimensions at the same time.
We are seated in Heavenly places with Him in the Spirit, but our bodies are yet waiting for the bodily redemption and resurrection.
Jesus said,
“But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29)
Eve and then Adam ate from the fruit of the forbidden tree and died spiritually then eventually physically. Now we can eat of the fruit of the right tree and live. Jesus is that good tree that bears much good fruit unto holiness, and when eating of Him through faith, we are eating and drinking eternal resurrection life and power. Therefore, when we eat the blessed bread at the communion table by faith, we are eating spiritual life and power through the Holy Spirit.
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:56)
The original Greek reads, “The eating of me, the flesh, and drinking of me, the blood, in me abides and I in him.” Again, we see Christ referring to eating His flesh, and drinking His blood.
You could say, when we drink of His blood, the blood remains in us, and because the life is in the blood, Christ’s eternal life through His blood remains in us. No blood, No life.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11)
Are you eating His flesh? Are you dwelling in Him? What we eat and drink flows through our blood stream which in turn produces energy for the body, which empowers us to perform physical tasks and functions.
Likewise, to eat of Christ’s flesh by faith is to partake of the good fruit of His Spirit, producing spiritual tasks and functions that manifests through the gifts, which are wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gift of healing, faith, the working of miracles, tongues and interpretation of tongues. These and other gifts are manifested through the fruit of the Spirit…..love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, and temperance. The fruit is the outworking manifestation of the inner spiritual life.
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:16-20)
If we see a Christian who is without love, he is not bearing good fruit because the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Therefore, the Lord said, “You will know them by their fruits”, or rather you shall know them by their lack of fruit. The evidence that a person doesn’t possess the Holy spirit and therefore cannot be born-again is a distinct lack of love.
Because we are seated in Heavenly places in our spirit man, we can have communion with the body of saints in Heaven and on earth at the same time.
For example, Jesus was on earth when He declared to Nicodemus that the Son of Man is in Heaven, even though His feet were firmly rooted on earth, John 3:13. Jesus dwelt simultaneously in two dimensions at the same time, and so do we.
Could it be that as well as communing with the presence of God Himself whilst at the Table, are we not also communing with the saints in Heaven that have previously gone before us? After all, doesn’t scripture declare that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses?
LIFE IN THE FLESH AND THE BLOOD
I see the bread and wine as a supernatural, Holy Spirit top-up of resurrection power that sustains the soul, which should be evident through an outworking of love for God and our neighbour.
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53)
Are you eating the flesh of the Son of man? Are you drinking the blood of the Son of God? The blood of Emanuel was shed once and for all 2000 years ago. The first drops were shed whilst Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane.
I believe that this is the point where the Holy Spirit departed from the Lord Jesus as the sins of the world were being put upon Him, and in acute anxiety He sweat drops of blood. It wasn’t by accident that the Lord was being crushed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;” (Isaiah 53:5)
You might say that as the olives are pressed in the olive press, similarly the Lord was being pressed and crushed through the weight of bearing our sins. He bled through having the crown of thorns thrust into His scalp, and He bled profusely when they tore open His back as He was scourged thirty-nine times. He had already lost a substantial amount of blood prior to being nailed to the cross.
A Christian once suggested that the crown of thorns was endured for our mental healing, and by His stripes we are healed physically whilst He took our punishment and sins on the cross.
God is not in time and neither is His blood. The shed blood of Jesus has never lost its power, and Jesus doesn’t have to be sacrificed continually to remit our sins as the Catholic’s dogmas dictate. No, His sacrifice was the greatest, one-off single event that was and ever will be in the history of mankind.
Jesus shed His blood once and for all, and like the blood of Abel, it cries out continually as a witness and a terror to all the demons who tremble at its power. If only the Church had the same reverence and fear when coming to the Lord’s Table. We see the picture of the bleeding Lamb seated on Throne of God in the midst of Heaven recorded in Revelation.
“And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6)
I believe there are parallel worlds that overlap in time and space and the Lord see’s all at the same time. His blood was shed on earth but in the Book of Revelation we see His blood on the Throne in Heaven and sprinkled on the mercy seat.
Therefore, the blood is a witness on earth and in Heaven, once again, simultaneously.
“And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” (1 John 5:8)
I believe the Lord’s Table is an open declaration of the triumphant victory that the Lord has won for us in proclaiming through the body and the blood at His Table which boasts to all principalities and powers the defeat of sin, death, and Satan himself.
The Table is a perpetual declaration of Christ’s victory and power, based on what King David wrote in Psalm 23.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;” (Psalm 23:5)
Where does David’s cup overflow? At the Table of the Lord, where the Lord’s presence face to face is to be found. Likewise, our hearts should overflow with gratitude and love for what the Lord has accomplished for us by His stripes and on the cross.
I see the Blood, i.e. wine, as a way for the Lord to cover and cleanse us in order to have continuous fellowship but also to Spiritually empower His Church and for Him to dwell in us through Christ’s resurrection life and power. I see it as a down-payment until we go to glory, and in the glory of God for those who overcome by the words of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb, can finally eat of the fulness of Christ, the Tree of Life.
Many deny what Christ Himself declared the bread and the wine to be, which is His body and His blood, by rendering it purely symbolic. I can only speculate how the Church of England and others came up with this false doctrine, but while avoiding the catholic dogmas they have totally misinterpreted scriptural truth.
Another possibility maybe the Lord’s way of keeping the unregenerate unsaved man away from the true bread and blood of life, like the angels preventing Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of life in the garden of Eden, except he lives forever in a perpetual state of death, Gen 3:24.
After all, if we are not eating the bread by faith as the spiritual body of Christ, what are we eating? If we are not drinking the cup of wine as the blood of Jesus by faith, what are we drinking? It’s all about what we believe the bread and wine to be, that’s why the spiritually blind cannot understand.
Some Christians cannot take the communion cup by faith, denying it is the blessed blood of Jesus because there is a distinct absence of faith.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrew 11:6)
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. I would say that this applies more than ever in particular when taking the Lord’s Supper. If we partake with faith, believing we are eating and drinking of the Lord Himself by the Spirit, we are eating and drinking of the eternal spiritual life and power.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Jesus said,
“I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” (Matthew 11:25)
In these last days that we are living in, there is a real lack of discernment, but His sheep hear His voice and will not follow another.
Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 