If I were to ask you what your favourite meal was, I would get many different answers. Some like Indian, others Chinese or Greek. Then there is lamb, beef, pork or fish, while others prefer being plain old vegan. High on my priority list is a meal starting with spring rolls and seafood chowder soup followed by then whitebait fritters, then Pavlova, topped with lashings of whipped cream and kiwi fruit and of course tiptop ice cream .
There is another meal that has now become my favourite, and that is the Lord’s Supper. Not because of its texture, taste, nutritional value or its generous amounts, but because of what is symbolizes. It’s also special to me because of what it means to our Heavenly Father. If you love someone and invite them for a meal, you’ll give them what you know they love and put aside all your preferences. The bible shows us that this communion meal is the ‘Father of all Meals’ and we love it because it’s His favourite meal.
As Christians, we should all know what this meal speaks of and we are to partake of it constantly, reminding ourselves of how Jesus gave Himself for us as the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world.
This meal is also my favourite because of its healing power. For many years I had communion without realising its worth and just had it once a month and only in a Church setting, but now I take it every day. Sometimes I like getting up in the night and having it as the first meal of my day. The first meal of my week, month and year.
Praise God I now realise that the Lord’s Supper has a double cure and I bless the Lord for it as David did.
“Bless the Lord Oh my soul … He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.” Psalm 103:3-4
The important thing is to have communion with understanding and not do it as a religious ritual. Paul said that ignorance of all that it represents could cause us to be sick and die before our time.
Just as David said we should praise God with understanding, (Psalm 47:7), so should we eat His flesh and drink His blood with understanding.
Moses said in Exodus 23:25-26 that God will bless our bread and water and take all sickness away from us. The Bible shows us that we are to thank God of all that we eat and drink and to ask Him to bless it. Blessed food really is ‘blessed’, so much so that it can have healing properties.
Balak asked Balim to curse Israel, for he knew that what Balim blessed was blessed and what he cursed was cursed. We are in a far greater position than Balim, being the children of God and descendants of Abraham. What we bless will be ‘blessed’ if we believe. Aaron and his sons had the power to call down a blessing on the children of Israel and so can we. (Numbers 6:27 TLB) We need to have more faith in our words as God’s Levites and call down blessing on our bread and water too, especially this meal.
I have been intrigued by the thought that the first miracle Jesus performed was to change water into wine, and the first miracle Moses performed before Pharaoh was to turn water into blood. There is something significant in all this and I don’t have time to elaborate on it right now.
In Jesus’ first miracle He changed the DNA of the water and made it into wine. He took something simple and diluted and fortified it by prayer. He made something natural into something supernatural. He supercharged it increasing its power. To make wine usually takes years from start to finish but He did it all in an instance. And it was a really good vintage. Isn’t this how God always loves to work with us by taking something despised or simple and making it into something great.
Let us ask God to bless this bread and wine just like Aaron and Moses did. These emblems may seem so small and insignificant but they can be extremely powerful when blessed and taken in faith. If blessing food and drink under the old covenant could bring health and wholeness, how much more can blessing the bread and wine bring healing and wholeness.
This may seem a random thought but did you know that sharks are the only animals that never or rarely get sick and don’t even get cancer? We need to remind ourselves that the Lord of all creation is living inside of us, especially when we have communion. He is the author of our faith and has made us into new creations, far greater than any other creation, especially a shark.
The same God who healed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy and gave him skin like a child’s again and he wasn’t even a Jew. The same God who raised Lazarus from the dead after 4 days lives inside of us and He is no respecter of persons. Surely this truth must have some influence on our bodies this side of heaven. Romans 8:11 says that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us and quickens our mortal bodies.
Let’s not just go through another religious ritual anymore, but believe that not only are our sins forgiven by His blood, but there is healing in His broken body as we partake of communion. Don’t let your symptoms dictate the state of your health, let His word dictate the state of your health, for by His stripes you were healed