Today we want to look at something that could be funny, but we must not laugh. We shouldn't laugh over it. So, we want to consider very quickly, Eating for The Toilets in Discipleship. Is it good? Is it bad? We want to look at it. My prayer is that God will speak to us through these common terms in Jesus’ name. Let us start our observation from the book of John 6:52-58. See what the Bible says: “The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” I'm sure we understand that these people, they happen to be among the people that Jesus was speaking to. There were certain words that Jesus spoke that produced this query in their hearts.
They heard something. Jesus said something to them and then they queried and therefore quarreled over what Jesus said. They said: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So, we know that our focus is about eating. We are here because there is something that we have been eating or certain things to be eating and there are certain things we can eat and we are here to ask and probe our manner of eating, what we have been eating. So, these people said, “how can this man, Jesus, give us His flesh to eat?” Let us continue the reading from verse 53. It says: “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.” So, it means that as much or as long as the flesh of the son of man and His blood remains in you, then the life that flows from the son of man will be in you. Every time the flesh is in you, the life is in you. But if you do not take into yourself the flesh and the blood of the son of man, then you have no life in you. What happens when a man has no life? Such a man is dead. So, we are looking at something that if done properly, we keep a man alive, we are looking at something that if done inappropriately, can make a man to die.
Verse 54 says: Whoever (irrespective of gender or trial inclination) eats My flesh and drinks (and I want us to notice the two words: eats/drinks [present continuous tense] My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is [l]drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” Now, we must understand that Jesus was speaking to a group of people, that the disciples were also among them. He was speaking to the multitudes, the Pharisees, the disciples were there.
So, the principles that were dished out by Jesus, in those moments, were principles that were relevant, both for His disciples and everyone around Him. So, He said, “My flesh is food indeed.” What does He mean? When He says his food indeed, then it means it is as proteinous as your fried rice, and your meats. And my blood is drink indeed. And so, it will do to you what drinking water and drinking juice will do to you. So, if you want to live, then you have to feed on me. He says, as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of Him, so, anyone who feeds on me, that takes in my flesh, anyone who feeds on me that takes in my blood, will live because of me. And Jesus gave a comparison between what He was given the people in Himself and what the people enjoyed at the wilderness in the name of manner.
He said: your fathers ate manner and are dead. But anyone who feeds on what I'm prescribing now, as a food nutritionist, as a divine food nutritionist, anyone who feeds on them will not die. So, Jesus said it earlier and that's why I asked the question and I got a good answer. If my food, my flesh and my blood is not found in anyone, such a person does not have my life in him. Such a person will not live on because my life will not be found in him, but everyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, my life would be found in him. The question we should now ask is: what happens to a man/woman who feeds on the flesh of the son of man. You know, we would say: This man has succeeded, right? He has done the first thing. He has decided and agreed that me and my family, we will continue to feed on the flesh of the Son of Man and we will continually drink His blood. That is the first stage. What happens to such a person after taking the flesh and the blood goes immediately to the toilet?
You know, if a man doesn't take the flesh and the blood, the man does not have the life of Christ in him or her. But what happens to a fellow who has even done the first thing well, the man, the woman has taken in the flesh, the man, the woman has eaten the flesh and has drank enough of the blood, but immediately goes to the toilet to release, you would think okay, maybe what he has gone to release was what he took him some time ago. But what about him going like that at intervals of one hour, to go to the toilet? Even though he could be going to feed on the flesh, as long as his frequency to the toilet is equal to the frequency of the eating, what will happen is that there is a likelihood for nothing to remain in him, even though he is eating as much, he is equally going to the toilet at the same rate.
So, when Christ comes to him to examine, do you have my life in, the man is not able to show the life of God. Why? As he eats, he goes to the toilet. The question we should ask is: is the essence of eating going to the toilet? Now let's throw it out. Why do we eat? For nourishment or enrichment of the body. Toe endow and energize the body. However, when a man takes in, but does not retain what he has taken in, only to discharge quickly what he has taken in, such a man would have no substance that is required for nourishment, for endowment. So, you wouldn’t blame the man for eating, you would only blame him for going to the toilet too frequently. That is why we are looking at eating for the toilet in discipleship. Obviously, we can see that it is not good. Right? Is it good?
Now if we do experiment whereby, we visit the toilet like 6 times in a day, both in the morning and in the night, what will be left of us the next day? Are we going to conduct our businesses, agile strong? We will be weak because we don’t have enough substance within to sustain us in our activities without. Even though it is possible for a man, a woman, who is a believer to feed on Christ, to feed on Jesus on a daily basis, it is still possible for such a man not to feed on Jesus for endowment, for nourishment, for strength, but to feed on Jesus only to discharge him as quick as possible. There is a place I want us to look at. Apostle Paul said something in 1 Corinthians 6:12 to 13. We just want to look at this very briefly. See what the Bible says.
“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.”
Now let's just pick an aspect in verse 13 that connects directly with our discussion. Foods, foods, whatever name you call them, and you know inside foods are drinks, you understand; inside foods are drinks. So, you can say food and drinks are for the stomach. Every time you eat, you eat for the stomach. And the reason why God created the stomach is that the stomach should feed on food. So, your stomach is not asking you for revelation or vision, your stomach is asking you for food. You don't come and smile at your own tommy or your stomach because it doesn't understand smile, your stomach expect food. As long as food comes into your stomach, what your stomach required to function, to live on, is supplied by you. So, food for the stomach, stomach for the food. The Bible did not say food for the toilet, toilet for the food is that what we read? Did we see now; food for the toilets and toilet for the food?
So, the end or the goal of eating is not toilet. Now we've examined the digestive system at the surface level. Now let's look at something that would be more direct about what God wants to talk to us. Let's go to the book of Hebrews chapter 4, in fact, the discussion started in chapter 3:16 and from there we will flow into verse 4. See what the Bible says:
“For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Were they not exposed to the same thing? This was a question. 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? This is another question. It is like assuming Moses led some people, another person led another set of people, we could say those who were led by Moses were led well, and those who were led by another person were misled. Maybe that was what led them to rebellion against God. But see what the Bible says from verse 16: for they all heard something (the same thing) and despite that, they rebelled. We can say they were fed by the same food. This is important for us to note. Now let us continue. Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? But we must not forget that not all fell in the wilderness, not all died in the wilderness. All were led by Moses, but not all rebelled and not all died. So, this is another way we can say it: all of us ate the same food at the same time, but we did not all go to the toilet. If you eat the same food that I ate in the morning and before noon I have gone to the toilet three times and you did not go, even though we took in the same thing, are we all going to behave the same way? So, something has happened, somebody has chosen to go to the toilet. That is where we are looking at. Now let us continue in verse 18: “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?” So, God is now giving us the dichotomy, what differentiated the groups. The two groups heard the same thing, but a particular group rebelled. And what was the produce or outcome of their rebellion, they did not obey. So, we all heard the same instructions, we didn’t all obey it.
Before we continue, let me quickly help us to understand what happened. The people were angry with Moses and any time they get angry with Moses, they indirectly get angry with God. But because they couldn’t see God, they channel their anger towards Moses all the time. They will say were doing fine in Egypt, eating meats and having fun, but now you have brought us into this wilderness to kill us. So, God got their message, God gave instructions to Moses; don't get angry. I'm going to feed them and made them to be full of food. So, God came through, God gave them food. And the instruction of God to them was this. In the morning you will find food, in the evening you will find food. Only take what you would eat for today, for you and your family. Make sure you don't accumulate for the next day.
But the Bible says some did as Moses said why some did differently. They said: “What about if tomorrow there is nothing to eat? Make person nor come die.”. So, they took themselves extra, and the Bible says those who took so much, they had no left over and those who did not take much, they had no lack. However, when the morning came the next day, those who took extra, worms began to come out of the excess that they took. Now look at it. Towards the Sabbath, because nobody is expected to work on the Sabbath, God told them to gather in the evening towards the Sabbath what would be enough to sustain them during Sabbath and the next morning when they woke up, the food did not spoil. So, what is the difference? So, the spoilage of the food was not because the food was not preserved, it was simply because they disobeyed instructions. By instruction, the food was to be preserved or to be destroyed. So, when God said all heard the same instructions but not all rebelled. And the issue was that certain people chose not to obey what they heard. And so, the instruction did not benefit them. It didn't produce strengths; it didn't produce nourishments; it didn't produce stamina in them. They still became weak to the point that they died. So, by the food they ate, they became weak, and then they died.
Now let's continue again to verse 19, and then we move to chapter 4. Now verse 19 says: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” There was a reason why what God intended for them didn’t get to them. There was a reason why the expectations of God in their lives did not become a reality, there was a reason why the dreams that God showed them did not become fulfilled in their days. There was a reason why they did not experience the power of God on a sustainable basis in their lives, there was a reason why, even though they saw the move of God initially, they could not perpetuate themselves in the will of God. What was the problem? It was simply unbelief. So, chapter 4 from verse shows us. The Bible says:
“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us (you and I who are disciples today) fear lest any of you (Us) seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed (and this is the crux of the matter) the gospel was preached to us as well as to them (the same thing that we heard that turned our lives upside down for good were spoken to them, just as we heard them, they also heard); but the word (the instructions) which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed (our difference is our faith, our disposition to the word that we have heard) do enter that rest, as He has said: “so I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
The Word of God that was able, and that is also able, at this moment to take any human, any group of people from where they are, to where they ought to be, is the word that is available for us even now and it has always been. Why many people have not been translated from their present reality to their future possibility is their unbelief to the word. Why some choose to believe God, many people choose to doubt God. They say, “if God should open the windows of heaven, how can these things be?”, “shall these things be?” So, what was the difference between the people that enjoyed in the days of Elisha and that man who was an adviser to the king? Unbelief! The word of the Lord came to Zachariah, the father of John, instead of him to receive the word with belief, with faith; he said: how shall this thing be? But Gabriel responded: “I am Gabriel, the one who stand before God. Because of this your unbelief, you will not be able to speak until the fulfillment of the word. The same word was brought to Mary and she said: how shall this thing be? She did not say that with doubt, but to show the angels how things happen on earth. It was not a statement of doubt, it was a clarification; help my understanding, otherwise, none of us will know that the Holy Spirit can overwhelm somebody because the revelation that came from that conversation was as a result of her inquiry.
Mary enquired but Zechariah doubted. Because as soon as she was told the how, even though she has never seen it done anywhere before, she said: let it be unto me according to your word. She believed. She did not go to the toilet. Having received the word, the word began to mix with faith in her. So, her spiritual stomach began to mix things up to the extent that the nutrient began to go to places. The Bible says and the word became flesh. How? It is through faith; believing. The process of turning the word to the flesh is the process of faith, the process of believing. God has said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Do you begin to agree with the word of God? Do you begin to align your thoughts, your intentions, your will to what God has said concerning you? If you do that, then it means the word is being mixed with faith in you. It will become flesh, it will materialize. There is nothing that God has said to you that you will not see, it is only a matter of faith. I don't want to say matter of time, for the Bible says faith is now the substance of things hoped for. Faith is now!
The people that heard the word could not enter into their own rest because they were unbelieving. Now, let's look at this for those who understand Food and Nutrition or digestive system. If a man eats something that he considers to be unpleasant, you know, naturally, there's a way the body triggers vomit. Do we accept that? Now, if the body did not now trigger vomit, but that thing is not good, some people have discovered how they can trigger their own vomits themselves. What do they do? They put their hands into their mouths and before they know it, whatever's entered will want to come out, so it will not remain. That's one way of doing it. Another way is to go to the toilet.
So, if what God has said to you will never materialize in your life, just be unbelieving, doubt it. Say it can happen to them, it can never happen to me. Well, they are the only ones that can be great, me I cannot be great, you doubt it. And how do you show your doubt? Your confessions. That is another thing that symbolizes going to toilet. The first thing is to doubt, to be unbelieving, the second thing is to make a wrong confession, you have simply discharged what has entered into your life. If I tell a man: “stand up from there and go to so and so place”, and the man says to me “sir, I am going nowhere.” What is his confession? Is it now normal for me to expect him to go?
So, the word that came to him from the right side has actually passed away through the left side and through his mouth. If God speaks to you, and you confess opposite of it, the word is no more in you, it has been ejected. God said to a man, you shall not die. But he says he will die. What has happened? He has said exactly the opposite of what God said to him. So, the Word of God can no more be in him, because the word has been released out of his mouth. This time around, it was released without the word mixing with faith in his heart. I don't know if we are getting this thing. When God speaks to you, it has to land in you for a moment. It has to steer you hope. It has to move you. The Word of God has to go up and down in you to the point that it produces an action. That is what God considers obedience. But when the Word of God, as soon as it has come to you, you deflect it, you reject it, you deny it.
So, what happens, you must let it rob, let it go down, let it turn you and let it produce obedience. Except that, what would have happened is that as soon as you ate my word, you went straight into the toilet. So, it's not about you just opening the toilet door in your house, this is not what we are talking about. We are talking about you opening the toilet door of your heart, injecting the Word of God away from your heart, not allowing the word of God to sync in, to settle down. So, when the Bible says “let God be true, and every man a liar”, let the truth of God's Word be visible in your life. If God is saying you are the head and not the tail, and you still being a tail, you are still perpetuating yourself as the tail, then there is a doubt of the Word of God in your heart. The Lord is true You are the one that is lying. And your lies have become so witty that they prevent the truth of God to materialize in your own life. See what the Bible says. For indeed the gospel was preached to u as well as to them. Our difference is not the gospel; our difference is our disposition to it.
I pray that the Lord will help us in Jesus’ name.
