Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion (2 page)

It means that they did not know why they were partaking of the body when they came to the Table. They had no idea why they were eating the bread. And this was the reason they were not receiving the divine life of their Saviour, causing them to be weak and sick, and to die prematurely.

Since truth is parallel, it means that if we do discern the Lord’s body, we will walk in His health and wholeness.

This is only logical. Even my daughter will tell you that. When she was four years old, she came home from school one day and said, “Daddy, the opposite of tall is short. What is the opposite of small?” I said, “Big.” “Good!” she said.

So it follows that if Paul said,
“… not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep”,
then it must be that when we do discern the Lord’s body, we will be strong and healthy, and live long.

You would have thought that Christians would study this passage so that they can walk in divine health. After all, Paul had singled out this one reason as the cause of sickness and, ultimately, premature death for many Christians.

Yet, it seems that most people in the body of Christ choose to focus on food and exercise as the key to living a healthy life. In fact, one of the best-selling themes in Christian bookstores today is food. There are all kinds of books on what to eat and what not to eat.

I am not knocking these books. What I am saying is that God does not want us to focus on food or exercise as the key to divine health. He does not want us to put our trust in natural means to stay healthy. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says,
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal…”

Some people think that they will walk in divine health if they are on a Mediterranean diet since that was Jesus’ diet. But let me remind you that the majority of the people whom Jesus healed were on a Mediterranean diet. They never had pork or prawns or any of that high-cholesterol stuff. Yet, they were still sick because natural solutions can only go so far.

By all means eat well and exercise. I watch what I eat and I hate oily stuff. I also exercise. But my trust is not in my own feeble human efforts. My trust is in God to keep me healthy. And God has ordained the Holy Communion as a key channel of health and wholeness for His people.

The early church believed this. That is why
“… they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
(Acts 2:42) They majored on the majors. They made a big deal of those things that God made a big deal of.

They took God at His Word. It is no wonder that they experienced God’s power. In Acts 2:43, 46, we read that they broke bread from house to house, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.

Although the body of Christ today understands the importance of doctrine, fellowship and prayer, few in the church truly understand the significance of the breaking of bread (or the Holy Communion). That is why many are weak and sick, and die before their time.

Down through history, powerful doctrines like “justification by faith” have come under severe attack by the devil. This is what has happened to the Holy Communion. The devil has pushed the church to two erroneous and extreme interpretations of this truth. On one side are the believers of transubstantiation
^*
and, on the other, are people who have reduced the Holy Communion to a mere ritual.

*Transubstantiation is the alleged process whereby the bread and wine offered up at Communion are changed to that of the real body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Discern The Lord’s Body Before Partaking

I believe that God wants to restore the true meaning and power of the Holy Communion to the church so that His people will rightly discern His body when they come to the Table. This will cause them to become strong and healthy, and to live long.

The Holy Communion will add years to our lives and life to our years.

The Lord has made special provision for our health and this is all found in the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when we come to partake at His Table.

It is one of my great passions in life to see the body of Christ receive every single thing that our Saviour suffered and died to give us. And I know that when God’s people are correctly taught about how healing is dispensed at the Lord’s Table, health and wholeness will follow. It will add years to our lives and life to our years.

After I released my message tape,
Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion,
I received many testimonies of healing through the Lord’s Supper.

I have a friend, Pastor Barnabas Mam, who is a pastor of pastors in Cambodia. God saved him from many life-threatening situations when the Khmer Rouge were slaughtering their own countrymen in the 1970s.

However, due to the impoverished state of things at that time, he developed some chronic physical conditions, including low blood sugar and calcium levels, insomnia and rheumatoid arthritis.

It was such a cruel irony that God’s man of faith and power, who has a ministry accompanied by signs and wonders, had difficulty sleeping every night. He had to take sedatives and tranquillisers. And they did not always work.

His grandchildren also had to massage his swollen joints, which were racked with pain from the arthritis. His knees would give the most trouble, especially after more than two hours of preaching on his feet.

One morning, desperate after yet another sleepless night, his wife pulled out my tape on
Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion.
He listened to it and faith just grew in his heart. He immediately prepared the elements and partook. That night, he slept like a baby!

The next morning, which was a Sunday, he stood up in church and shared on the power of the Lord’s body to bring health when we come to His Table. After hours of being on his feet, he did not need a massage because he had been totally healed of chronic rheumatoid arthritis!

Till today, his wife is amazed at his healing. She says that she has found a new husband. He has new strength and can sleep at night.

Two weeks after he preached that message in church, he was sponsored to go for a full-body checkup in Malaysia. There, they found that his calcium and sugar levels were normal. Shortly after, he went for another checkup at a hospital in Phnom Penh and they too gave him a glowing report.

Around that time, a lady who was on his staff was healed of a longstanding migraine after she partook of the Lord’s Supper. And this pastor friend of mine has since been receiving testimonies from people healed of all kinds of debilitating conditions after having Holy Communion.

When we recognise that the Holy Communion is God’s channel of health and wholeness for His people, and we teach the church to rightly discern the Lord’s body when they come to His Table, God’s people will be healthy and strong, and will live long.

How To Discern The Lord’s Body

How To Discern The Lord’s Body

Having established that the Holy Communion is God’s channel of health and wholeness for His people, it is time to find out how to experience that divine life that comes through discerning the Lord’s body.

Notice that Paul said that it was not a failure to discern the blood, but a failure to discern the body that caused the people to be weak and sick, and to die before their time.

1 Corinthians 11:29–30

²⁹
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
³⁰
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Yet, when I was growing up as a Christian, I was taught that the two elements of the Communion should be lumped together. So I used to believe that the body and blood were both for the forgiveness of my sins.

God has since shown me that the body and blood should not be treated as one. There are two elements because there is a two-fold application in the Communion. The wine, which is His blood, is for our forgiveness. And the bread, which is His body, is for our healing.

The Blood Is For Forgiveness

The Corinthians, like most Christians today, had no problems discerning the blood. Paul’s epistles make it very clear that the blood of Jesus brings forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:14

¹⁴
in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Ephesians 1:7

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In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…

Because the Son of God paid the penalty for your sins with His spotless blood, you can go scot-free when you put your trust in His blood to save you. When you partake of the wine, know that you are forgiven and have been made righteous. The blood of Jesus has given you right standing before God, so that you can come boldly into His presence. And when you pray, you can be sure He hears you.

The Bread Is For Healing

That is how you discern the blood and most Christians understand that. But not many know how to discern the Lord’s body.

When He spoke to the Syro-Phoenician woman regarding her daughter’s healing, He called healing “the children’s bread”.