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.— Joseph Prince
Few months before I got married, I was diagnosed with a serious medical condition. As I walked out of the hospital with the laboratory results, I didn’t argue or resent this outcome. I turned to God in prayer and fasting for 40 days, not over the diagnosis but about my marriage. When I showed the report to a doctor friend, her only remark was: "We have to trust God for healing". I had gotten a prompting to take communion during the fast so I did. When I ended the fast, I went to check again and I took communion that morning before setting off. The test results came out negative - I was totally healed.
Since that encounter, I've been a strong advocate for the Holy Communion and I have testimonies of people I recommended this sacrament to receiving miraculous healings. This healing power is not only available to some select few but to all God's children. Yet, not many are experiencing the blessed benefits of the communion because we don't receive it for its full worth. We are content to view it as an ordinance, a ritual to be performed once a while.
Over the centuries, there has been an expanding revelation about this blessed sacrament as an avenue for accessing divine health. However, it is regarded in most Christian circles as a ritual to be avoided due to certain lifestyles or conditions. So, its inherent power is missed and will continually be missed. As Hosea 4:6a says, God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The converse is also true: we are empowered, preserved, delivered or saved because of the knowledge we have. Wrong knowledge has ensnared people in the very house of God that they are supposed to enjoy liberty in.
It is fascinating how the understanding of the eucharist varies from church to church and person to person. To some, if someone misses communion Sundays often, then he is probably not living right. If he attends church and doesn’t go to the Lord's table, he is probably fornicating. Those of us who eat the Holy Communion judiciously may be ignorant or underinformed of its power. But this sacrament stands as one of the powerful things the Lord instituted for us to practice.
We have relegated this blessed gift to a monthly or annual event, shrouding it in so much mystery that we are more conscious of the evil that can befall those who wrongly partake of it than the blessings that eating it rightly brings. When was the last time you took communion on your own, or as a priest of your household? This may come across as heresy to some who have been taught that only a priest at church can administer the communion. But do you know that some pastors administer communion daily to their entire families when some churches exempt children from partaking in the communion. Where in Scripture did we find these rules?
From my study, I believe the communion is for every household that follows the Lord, based on the law of first mention. When the passover meal was instituted, it was for the entire household and every member in the houses where the blood of the Passover lamb was applied was exempted from death. See Exodus 12:1-13. The Bible clearly says we are priests and kings (Revelations 1:6, 1 Peter 2:9) and every believing household has the right to partake in the Holy Communion. Another notion barring people from partaking in the communion is that they are not baptized. While baptism is very important and must be conducted as soon as possible for believers, it is not a ground for denying people who have accepted and confessed Jesus as Lord this blessed gift. Even in some circles, only a few holy, selected elders can partake. Oh! What a pity! These man-made laws are orienting many away from a divine privilege even if they are intended to prevent abuse.
The word 'often' is literally so: it is not a month, not a year, not for a specific time. Often means frequently. Just as we pray often because of our love for the Lord, we can take this blessed gift often because of our reverence for Jesus and the power attached to his body and the blood. As someone rightly remarked,
This was said during the passover meal. It is is one of Jesus' last statements before His death so we must recognize its importance and value it. Note that Jesus did not add all the rules we have come to know. The rules have often been derived from Paul's account without considering the context and specific issue he was addressing in the church of Corinth.
The members were abusing the bread and wine, not eating it with meaning or honour. David Guzik said:
"Paul warns the Corinthian Christians to treat the Lord’s Supper with reverence, and to practice it in a spirit of self-examination. However, this is not written with the thought of excluding ourselves from the table, but of preparing us to receive it with the right heart."
The outcome of not discerning his body and receiving it worthily is weakness, sickness and sometimes death. But the converse is also true: when we rightly partake of the Communion, we are made strong, healthy and full of life.
This is the one meal that spans all of time - the past, present and future - and it is a testimony of our never-changing eternal Jesus. It must therefore be taken in remembrance of Him. When we partake of this meal presently , we remember his death ( in the past ) and look forward to His coming in the future .
This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often [anytime] as you eat this bread and drink this cup [now], you proclaim the Lord’s death [in the past] till He comes [in the future].
[1 Corinthians 11:25b - 26, NKJV, emphasis mine].
But what exactly are we remembering? What happened on the cross or the power that was made available after. Smith Wigglesworth, the apostle of faith, said:
“You do not need, however, to continually live on the cross, or even in remembrance of the cross, but what you need to remember about the cross is, “It is finished” (John 19:30). You do not need to live in the grave, but only keep in remembrance that “He is risen” (Matthew 28:6) out of the grave and that we are to be seated “with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).”
We have to focus on the power that was released on the cross. Healing for our bodies through his broken body and forgiveness through his shed blood. We are reminded through the wine that his blood has sealed an eternal covenant between us and God so we can be exempted from the destruction and death in the world.
Another significance of this meal is that, whenever we eat it with this understanding, we arm ourselves with the consciousness of the blessed hope of Christ's second coming and appearance. This affords us the opportunity to prepare for His coming. It is a symbol of our preparedness to embark on the spiritual journey in Christ. We know as believers that we are pilgrims and sojourners on this earth. Through his death, Christ has redeemed us from this world and has translated us to another realm of inheritance. Our life on this earth is transient and a preparatory phase for this journey. The very moment we come into Christ we must be armed with this mindset. Just as the Israelites in Egypt ate the passover meal journey-ready, we who partake of Christ, our Passover, must eat the Communion journey-ready.
In Isaiah 53:5 TPT, the Bible says, “But it was because of our rebellious deeds that he was pierced and because of our sins that he was crushed. He endured the punishment that made us completely whole, and in his wounding we found our healing.” See how the body of Jesus was treated during the crucifixion. It was pierced, crushed and scourged by the whippings he received and broken. His body was ploughed like soil so that seeds of healing may spring forth for us. Anytime we receive the bread, we should remember what His breaking has made available so we can experience healing.
The bread in the sacrament is his body that was broken, pierced and scourged for us. That through his brokenness we may not only be forgiven, but also healed.
1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness. Our instant healing flowed from his wounding.” [TPT].
The Apostle Peter affirms that through Jesus' pain, beatings, crushing and piercing, he was receiving unto his healthy body our infirmities, sicknesses, and health issues so that we may be healed and made whole. If Jesus’ body was really subjected to all these processes for us, we must believe and tap into the power available in His broken body to heal all our diseases.
The Bible warns against familiarity where we use the Communion as food to satisfy hunger thereby losing the essence and power of this blessed gift. Losing sight of the fact that Christ died, was raised back to life, and that he will surely come again for us. We should always bear this in mind when we partake of the Holy Communion. If His blood shed on the cross means nothing to us definitely we will not receive the benefits that come with it. But that power is still available to those who believe and partake of the Lord's table with reverence.
First of all, the Lord's physical body was broken. And this was done for our forgiveness, healing, wholeness as Isaiah 53:5 tells us. We must eat the Lord's body conscious of these supernatural provisions He made for us through the breaking of His body. The bread which symbolizes His body is no longer an ordinary bread. The bread is not to be treated as some food to be munched on hungrily or greedily like some Corinthian believers did. They just ate the communion like food, completely disregarding that it was a supernatural meal with great significance for them.
Secondly, we must remember that, as a Church, we are presently the Lord's body [see 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12]. We are all members of the same body and must be united. Paul's letter to the Corinthians reveals that they had divisions amongst them and they were not concerned about other believers. They were only interested in filling their individual stomachs and did not care if they denied others the opportunity of partaking in this divine meal. No wonder Paul admonished them saying:
So then, my fellow believers, when you assemble as one to share a meal, show respect for one another and wait for all to be served. If you are that hungry, eat at home first, so that when you gather together you will not bring judgment upon yourself.
1 Corinthians 11: 33-34, TPT
If we agree that we are all the body of Christ, love for one another will be our hallmark. And it is not only during communion that we must have this mindset and attitude. We must walk the entire Christian journey having love for one another as the Lord commanded. Holding grudges against our spouses or fellow Christians, and harboring envy and strife amongst us, desecrate the Holy meal and this makes us eat the meal unworthily. Again, if we agree that we're the Lord's body, we must remember that we are different parts in the same body. We each have a unique role to play in the body. It is our responsibility to discern our part and acknowledge the part others play in the body of Christ. This in itself will heal the pride and envy that often beset us, and fuel love in us.
Finally, we eat the Lord's body unworthily if we fail to examine ourselves before partaking of this meal. Here, I will like to sound a caution. Most people have used this verse as grounds to excuse themselves from partaking in the Holy communion because they find themselves unworthy by reason of an act or condition of theirs that is not pleasing to the Lord. This has some superficial rightness about it but it is a very uncanny way that the enemy keeps us in sin and deprives us of the blessedness of sharing in this Sacrament. It is clear in Scripture that self-examination must lead us to immediate repentance.
The very moment we acknowledge that we have some sin in our lives, the right response is to repent that very instant and receive God's forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). To postpone repentance to another time is to keep ourselves in the bondage of sin. This even sears our conscience and hardens our hearts. If it is even a minute or second before communion that a sinful condition we have comes to mind, we have every right to repent there and then, receive forgiveness and partake of the Holy communion. Self-examination is ultimately not intended to prevent us from partaking. Rather, it should afford us the chance to put ourselves right with God and receive the full blessing of the Communion.