Page 58 - Overcoming Addiction

How then do we feed upon the Bread of Heaven? The answer is found as we
look at a few Scriptures that will open our understanding. In the Bible the word of
God is compared to food. Christ is called the Word of God, and He is also the
Bread of Heaven, so we can see that Christ is food, and divinely breathed words
are spiritual food. We see this further in the following verse:

Jeremiah 15:16
Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a
joy and the delight of my heart...

There are a great number of Scriptures that use the imagery of words being
likened unto food that a man eats. Following is another.

Hebrews 13:9-10
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for
the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those
who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which
those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

In these verses the apostle Paul compares teachings to foods. He is declaring
that many are carried away with teachings that do not profit them, the result being
that their hearts (inner man) are not strengthened. As mentioned already, there
are many such foods being served up to Christians today. These foods appeal to
the flesh, but do nothing to build up the inner man.
The last phrase recorded above is also filled with meaning. “Those who serve
the tabernacle” refers to those who are focused on the flesh of man. The body is
merely a tabernacle in which the Spirit of God is to dwell with the spirit of man.
There are those whose focus is upon fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and they
cannot eat from the same altar from which the overcomers in Christ eat. The altar
of God provides food for the spirit.
As we understand these things we are able to discern that it is very important
that the Christian who wishes to decrease, that the life of Christ in them might
increase, must feed upon the word of God. In one sense this word is the Bible.
There are many admonitions for the Believer to study the word of God; To
meditate upon it; To hide the word in their heart. It would hardly seem possible to
overestimate the value of this, particularly in a society where Christians rarely
read the word of God today.
As we stare intently at the glory of Christ revealed in the word of God we will
find ourselves being transformed into His image. There is a wonderful example of
this occurrence foreshadowed in the Old Testament. In the Tabernacle of Moses
there was a table set up in the Holy Place that was called the Table of Showbread.
On it were placed twelve loaves of fresh bread that were replaced weekly. This
bread was called in the Hebrew paniym, which is translated “The Bread of faces.”
This bread was considered holy, and only those of the tribe of Levi could eat it.
The tribe of Levi was chosen to be the priestly tribe of Israel because they
stood apart, and did not participate in the idolatry of Israel, when Aaron made a
golden calf for them to worship. What is pictured in the bread of faces is the food