Communion

Now I want to talk about communion. Here's another one that religion just nailed, because the way it was applied was exactly the opposite. But we don't realise it, because they read from the same Bible and you believe what they are saying is what it should be saying, but it's not that at all. It's something totally different. So again, I want to ask: what is communion and the significance thereof? What form should it take? Who can have communion? When? Who needs to lead communion? And what are the implications of having communion? I'm going to quickly explain all of those questions to you from the Word of God.

Let me explain one or two things generally, then I'll get to specific verses. You will know, because you have attended the Purpose Series, that we explained our oneness with God right from the beginning. Since the creation of earth, we have been in God, and what Jesus came to do in earth was to make it possible for us to be reunited again — the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry of oneness, being one with God.

When you are having communion, you are again celebrating. Communion is meant to be a celebration, by the way — not this somber thing. I don't know about where you grew up, but where I grew up, communion was the most holy thing. You couldn't say a word. Everybody just looked in front of them, and it was this serious thing with the cup. It's like you were afraid to do anything. But it's meant to be a celebration. I'll show you now from the Word of God what it's meant to be.

In terms of the core, communion is actually this: my spirit is communing with God — it has become one with God. So in its most basic form, I'm celebrating and declaring again. All these things that we do — baptism, communion — are a declaration. I'm declaring to God, I'm declaring to the people, and I'm declaring to the spiritual realm, every single demon and every single angel, that I know what the truth is, and I'm declaring that truth. In communion, I am declaring my oneness with God.

It's the same as with baptism. If you understand what baptism is, all the other religious arguments just fall away, because it's obvious that those arguments can't make happen what baptism truly is. In that process of having communion, you are declaring your oneness with God again — to everybody around you, to God Himself, and to the spiritual realm.

The Bible actually says to us, do it as often as possible. If you understand that communion is about declaring my oneness — from the beginning we can declare our oneness with God, but in essence the focus now becomes our oneness within Christ. That's what the focus becomes: our oneness within Christ.

So the Bible says, I'm one with You and I'm one with God — our fellowship is with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. So when I am having communion, I am not only celebrating my oneness with Jesus, I'm celebrating my oneness with you. If you start understanding that mentality, it has a different implication in terms of how I can look at you and what I can say to you, because I am one with you.

That's why the Bible explains to us — it's like you shoot yourself in the foot and don't understand why you've got pain in your head, because it's one body. The way you look at the person next to you will affect you as well. So when it comes to communion, it is significant to understand that oneness.

I've explained to you that verse that says, in God there is no darkness, and you can pull it a bit smaller and say, within Christ there is no darkness. God is light, in Him there is no darkness. Christ is light, and in Him there is no darkness. But we can choose whether we function in light or whether we choose to function in darkness. The fact that I have become born again and I am in Christ doesn't mean I always function in Christ. That's why the world looks the way it looks, and why we still experience some of the challenges we do. When we come to maturity, we will not have these challenges, but we are growing towards that.

So where is there light, where is there no darkness? Within Christ. Continuously, Jesus said, when you have communion, we are reminding ourselves — He says, bring into remembrance. Every time we have communion, we bring into remembrance. But people can easily bring into remembrance only the death of Jesus. That's why in most religious circles communion is this somber thing, because we are just associating with the death of Jesus — it's like we're having a funeral. But what about the resurrection of Jesus?

We just saw with baptism as well — we are celebrating, declaring and associating our oneness. All those verses about baptism continuously reminded us about the newness of life, the life that we live unto God. That's why it's meant to be a celebration, not just the death part of what Jesus did. When Jesus said, bring into remembrance, bring Me into remembrance, He wasn't just saying bring My death continuously into remembrance. He's also saying bring into remembrance the fact that you have risen with Me and that you are one with Me.

So it's a victory declaration. It is a joyous declaration. Communion should look different — and funerals should look different anyway too.

Now let me talk about the form, and one or two practical things, before I get to the verses. The form of communion, and who can have it and who should lead it — again, it has been a religious thing. I've been in many instances where I've ministered to people and we have communion, and some people will not touch it because they say, "No, no, you can't just have communion — it must be the priest, and he must be holy, and sanctified, and it takes him a month to prepare for it. It's not just everybody." No — that's a lie from hell. There's no such thing. We all not only can but should have communion as often as possible, not only at church.

Maybe you haven't done it before, but it's a good time to start doing it at home. Get your family around the table. Remember we spoke about the core of this body being a family unit, and in that family unit is the father, who plays his role. That's very significant — we'll get to the rest in the relationship seminar, but the father has to play his role.

Men, if your wife has a stronger personality than you, it does not matter — you are still the one who leads the communion in the house, because of the spiritual role that you play. It's got nothing to do with personality; it's your role as father. So don't mix things up. The fact that your wife has two degrees more than you and speaks ten times more than you doesn't give her more spiritual authority than you. Even if you're a very quiet person without all the degrees she has, there is something you have that she will never have. She will only be able to access it through you — but we'll talk about that another time; I need three hours to explain that one in detail.

Please do it at home as often as you can. Jesus says, "as often as you do this…" We read those scriptures about the Acts church — the old church, but it's actually the same church; we just lost it along the way. It says, they went from house to house, breaking bread, eating their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, and the Lord added to the Church daily.

So, talking about the form of communion — religion, and for practical reasons too, reduced it to a small cup and a wafer. But that's not what communion actually is. Communion is actually having a braai. That's communion. So you need to braai often, so that you can have communion. When they had communion in Bible times, it was a dinner — eating together, an amphitheatre, coming together, celebrating life, being joyous.

Think about this. All they did is they went from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, and the Lord added to the Church daily. Who of you has ever been to Israel? You should plan somewhere along your life to go to Israel, and maybe one day we'll do a tour again.

There is something when you see how the Jews live life. Remember, a lot of the Jews are not born again, but they still carry many of the traditions from the Old Testament, the things they do and the way they do them. When you look at them, you can understand — even though they're not born again — you think, "Well, that's what it should be like." We are Christians, and we sit here and say, "We're born again, they're not," but the reality is they know a few things we should still learn.

On a Friday evening, when they come together and eat, the men sit — I've seen twenty men around a table, and they start singing, slapping the table with their hands, and they sing these songs. They are celebrating. It's joy. And you look at them and think, "When last did we do that? When last did we look like that when we have communion?"

It's a celebration — the way they celebrate each other, the way they come together as families, the role the father plays. On a Friday evening the father will pray for the whole family, bless all of them, and they go through all the rituals. Yes, there is something heartbreaking about the fact that they are not born again, but they have been custodians of things God showed us in the Old Testament. Remember, that whole thing we spoke about was a shadow — but there has to be a real thing for it to be a shadow.

So to a large extent they live the shadow, but it so resembles the real thing, which many of us have not even come close to. We can learn from them and say, "That's what communion should look like." We should have it at our homes, celebrate it, sing — because if you are not glad about the fact that you are one with Christ, nothing will make you glad. Then you must rather say bye and go home.

So who can have it, when, as often as possible, even at your house — let the father lead it. This is the great thing about what we are going into now in terms of activation, and what's so amazing to me about last week: when you do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, there is power in it. The thing we did last week, Fast Trap, is something God showed me about a year ago or so. It's so simple — five people standing together, could be three as well, two on each side lift their hands and pray for the person in the middle.

It is impossible for somebody not to have a supernatural experience and receive a word from God in that, because that's how God designed it. Even last week I received testimonies of people saying, "It's the first time I've prayed for somebody," and the others in their group said, "But what you said to me was one hundred percent spot on about what's happening in my life." For the first time in their life, they prayed for somebody, and they prayed exactly the thing God wanted to tell that person. How can you ever go back from that into a normal life?

There is something supernatural about when we do the things God tells us to do, because we manifest His presence. I have learned in my short nine years — there's no replacement for obedience. Not intellectual ability, because that's not wisdom. Obedience. When God says, "Do it," and you do it that way, there is power in it. Jesus says, have communion, celebrate My oneness with you, celebrate the oneness with each other — it is a festivity.

In terms of the form, we don't have to reduce it. Yes, we do it a certain way for practical purposes, but it should be something where we come together, eat, celebrate, and it's a joyous affair.

Now I want to quickly read the verses concerning communion, and then show you something. Let me tell you the last point I want to discuss: remember I've said Satan managed to make communion a religious thing and took the power right out of it.

Communion, where we are now in the world we live in — and I've said it's amazing how, every single week, I start receiving teachings and messages from people around the world I've never watched before, and they are saying the exact thing we are saying. There's a big church here — remember, I'm not against church, you understand my heart and where we're going. I'm not against church; there are many great churches, different components of the body. The thing God has sent me for is to be the ligaments within the body, to connect body parts, to activate every single member. So I will not have this big church again, but there are people that maybe should. Somebody in a big church got hold of my teachings and contacted me and said, "We are saying exactly the same thing you are saying."

I'm not surprised. I was surprised the first once or twice people sent me messages saying, "I'm listening to this guy," and I said, "Where did you get my notes?" But that's the reality. There is only one God, one Spirit, one baptism, one body, one purpose left for us. This thing we live now, to manifest Christ unto dominion in this earth — that is the now word, which means communion for us is celebrating everything.

Remember I explained to you the shadow in the Old Testament, the Christ anointing that was present? He was the rock there. There was no sickness. Even the sheep — none were barren. The old people were not frail. Remember the ark that was at Obed-Edom's house, and he was prospering? So we know that when we attract that presence, when we activate that presence which is in Christ, we're in that light, and we are going to manifest things that will make everything not from God disappear. Poverty, sickness, divorce, depression — all of that will disappear, because it cannot exist in the presence of God.

If we have communion and we understand what we are doing — I have seen before, in services where we had communion, where people were not even speaking about healing or praying for healing, and as people were celebrating communion, they got healed just by having communion, because it's a conviction of reality. It's not about the ritual. Remember the sons of Sceva — it's a conviction, a revelation, personal, to understand: what does it mean to me if I understand I'm one with God? What can touch me? And if there are things in my life not consistent with that, I have an expectation that they will disappear, and I will stand in faith until the day Jesus comes, if that's what it takes. I'm not measuring who God is by what is happening in my life. I'm measuring the truth and saying, this is what truth looks like, and the Bible says hold on to the more sure word of prophecy — hold onto the Word because it is more sure than what we see with our physical eyes.

So when we have communion, we have an expectation that the fullness of the benefit of Christ will manifest in our lives. That includes an expectation that even symptoms in your body will disappear when you are celebrating your oneness through communion.

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."”

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 (NKJV)

Do you see that? Do this in remembrance of Me. So how often do you want to remind yourself that you are part of Christ in this world? As often as you can, because there are continuously influences that want to tell you the opposite, that want to say, "You say you're one with Christ, but why is death still in your life? Why is that problem not solved? Why is that not disappearing?" Don't listen to the lies of Satan. Look away unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. You have to do it — no matter how long it takes. Hold onto what reality is. It says, do this in remembrance of Me, and we need to do it together, because we need to remind each other.

“In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.”

1 Corinthians 11:25-26 (NKJV)

It says you proclaim the Lord's death, but it's the same principle as in the Old Testament, where God says, "I put in front of you life and death. Choose life." God is not putting death in front of you — He's putting life in front of you, but the absence of life is death. So here we are celebrating His death, but His death led to something. The whole thing we went through with baptism as well — it led onto a newness of life within God, from where we live in victory. That is part of what we are celebrating.

Now, one of the things religion has totally messed up is the portion that follows, and I want to explain it to you. In religion we were taught that you can only have communion if you have spent enough time thinking about all your sins, getting rid of all your sins, and if there's anybody you haven't forgiven, you must go and forgive them. What it said was, you must come to a point of self-righteousness — you must get yourself to a condition where you are so pure that you actually say you don't need Christ. But we are celebrating Christ through communion — it's actually ridiculous. So that's what they turned it into: you must first sort yourself out and become holy, and then you can have communion. It's exactly the opposite.

We are celebrating our oneness with Christ, through which I became one hundred percent righteous, and no sin can ever separate me from God. Yes, I've explained before that it is significant, if there is sin in your life, that you get rid of it. If there are things you need to pray to God and ask for forgiveness for, then you do it. The fact that you are righteous doesn't mean you can just brush a sin under the carpet — you need to confess it to God, have a sincere conviction in your heart that you feel sorry for doing it, have a sincere intention of not doing it again, and ask for forgiveness.

But the Bible says an amazing thing: the moment you ask for forgiveness, you receive it. You don't have to wait — it's dependent on your heart. Remember how God designed things — He doesn't even have to be involved in the process. He designed it so that the Word is the one that discerns your heart, and the Word comes alive based on what comes out of your heart. So if there is sincerity in your heart, the moment you confess that sin and ask for forgiveness, you receive it from the Father in that same instant, because that's the system He's put in place. I'm not in any way negating that — we do it, because that's the place where Satan hooks in with condemnation, and we get rid of that in our lives.

“Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 11:27 (NKJV)

There we were told that if you still have sin and you do this, you will be guilty of the blood of the Lord, because you have sin and you are taking communion. Thinking back on how ridiculous that was — my father was quite involved in the church structure, because I stayed in the southern part of Namibia, and the prayer council only came once every two months or so.

But there were things the church prescribed: if somebody was living in sin or doing something wrong in their lives, they were actually withheld from having communion. And that's still like that in church circles. How can we in our right mind think that is consistent with the Word of God? We should acknowledge that Jesus paid for our sins, and that we have our life of righteousness in our oneness with Him.

So I want to actually say the people who are still committing sin need to have communion ten times more than other people. That's the solution — not withholding communion from them. How ridiculous is that? So they use this verse too: if you use it in an unworthy manner, then you are guilty.

“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NKJV)

Now, I'm going to explain this to you, because the way religion has twisted this is totally wrong.

“For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.”

1 Corinthians 11:29 (NKJV)

This is the verse used to keep people away from communion when they are doing things wrong — or, if your heart is not right and you haven't got rid of sin, are you sure you have forgiven everybody? Because if you use communion and your heart is not right, you're going to condemn yourself. But here's the heartbreaking thing — and I say that superficially — I sat for thirty-nine years in that religion, and we thought it was right and good. There are still people sitting forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years in that religion who think that if people do something wrong, we should not allow them to have communion, and they think it's the right thing to do — but it comes directly from Satan.

That is why we do what we do, because we need to open people's eyes. It's amazing, the sheets people completed last week — there are some things I must share with you, with permission, leaving out names. There are people who said that in these six-week sessions, because they completed the form before we even had the seventh session, they have received more truth in these six sessions than in thirty-six years in religion. Thirty-six years of going to church, and they hadn't received the truth they received in these six sessions. That is why we have a responsibility, and why you have a responsibility, to go and share what you have received.

So it says, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself — but here's the key — not discerning the Lord's body. And look at the result.

“For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”

1 Corinthians 11:30 (NKJV)

That means they are dead — not fall asleep in church, they're dead. "For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." Can you see why it was so easy to keep people in condemnation, saying, "You must not have communion if your heart is not right, because if your heart is not right you might go to sleep, or get sick"? It was easy to use the verses to explain that to people and keep them out of it, but that's not what it's saying. Go back to verse 29 — what is the whole problem he's explaining through all these verses? The key is that last sentence: not discerning the Lord's body.

So what does that mean? If we have communion and we don't understand what we are doing — that we are celebrating our oneness in Christ, in whom there is only light and no darkness, in whom there is health and healing and prosperity and marriages that are working — but if we have communion and don't know what we are doing, we experience the same things the world experiences, so we'll fall sick and we'll die. But if we fully understand our oneness within Christ, and understand the ability of this light and this life and this love, and we walk in it, we will not be sick and we will not die.

Now, the "not die" part is a seriously higher-class teaching I'm not going to get into now, so let me park that one — but let's at least talk about not being sick. Can you understand now, if we have communion, what do we need to do? The key is in that last sentence: we need to discern the Lord's body. What does that mean? I need to discern, to understand, that I am one with the Lord's body, and that being one with the Lord's body will have certain implications in my life.

What he was explaining is: if you eat and drink in an unworthy manner, you eat and drink judgment to yourself, not discerning the Lord's body — because we are having communion, but we don't realise that what I'm having is a celebration of my oneness with life, with victory, with glory, with God Himself. And because I can't discern that that is what I'm doing, these things will still have influence in my life.

Can you understand what this verse was saying? It was not saying what religion wants it to say, in terms of using it for condemnation. Going back to verse 27: "Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." What does it mean to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord? Do you know that there is only one sin that cannot be forgiven?

There is only one sin, and that is not accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour – the only sin. The other sins the Bible talks about, sins against the Holy Spirit, you cannot commit if you are born again. You would have to denounce your born-again-ness to be able to commit that sin. So don’t worry about that. There is only one sin that cannot be forgiven, and it is obvious: it is not accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Now the same principle is being applied here in saying, “Therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Why are you guilty of it? You are guilty in the sense that you are not deriving the benefit of it. Who understands what I’m saying? Most of you. Okay, say it again: it says whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

I compared it to saying that the only sin that cannot be forgiven is if you don’t accept Jesus as your Saviour, because accepting Him as your Saviour means He pays for every single sin – there is no sin that Jesus didn’t pay for. So the only way there can be a sin that isn’t paid for is that you haven’t derived the benefit of what Jesus did, through accepting Him as your Saviour and your Lord. This is talking about the same principle in terms of communion. The only way you will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord is if you haven’t appropriated the benefits.

Does that make sense? So all those verses explaining “in an unworthy manner” – he’s saying, they were just eating and drinking, because that was the way they had communion. But he says, “What you are not recognising…” He isn’t saying to them, “You are committing sin.” He’s saying, “You don’t understand the benefits you should be deriving from acknowledging that Jesus is Lord of your life, and the benefits that should have in your life.”

That’s why he’s saying: if you don’t derive this benefit, it’s because you are not discerning the Lord’s body. Because you are not discerning the Lord’s body, many are sick and many are asleep – many are sick and many are dead – because they should not be, if they understand the benefits.

Now this makes me think of something. Can I have – is it Psalm 88? No, 82:6. Listen to this, because it has just come up in my spirit, since it’s the same principle being talked about.

Let’s read from verse 5, just one verse back. Speaking about the righteous, it says:

“They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable. I said, "You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High."”

Psalm 82:5-6 (NKJV)

Just wait there. When they wanted to stone Jesus, He said to them, “Why do you want to stone Me? Do you want to stone Me for doing good deeds?” Then they said, “No, we are not going to stone You for doing good deeds, but we are going to stone You for saying that You are the Son of God.” What was Jesus’ reply? He said, “Your own book says…” and then He quotes this scripture: “You are gods, all of you are children of the Most High.” But yet you want to stone Me for saying that I am the Son of God.

Isn’t that amazing? We understand now the new-creation realities, which they didn’t understand before. But that is what Psalm 82 already said – new-creation realities: we were made and created in the image and likeness of God, and we have the abilities of God. We could maybe interpret Psalm 82:6 wrongly, but Jesus Himself made sure we don’t interpret it wrongly by saying, “You want to stone Me for saying I’m the Son of God – yet how is it that your own Bible says that you are children of the Most High?” He brought the two nicely together: the Bible says you are gods; I say I am the Son of God, and you want to throw stones at Me.

“Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?"”

John 10:34 (NKJV)

There Jesus explained it to them. Now let’s go back to what I wanted to show you. It says, “I said, you are gods,” in verse 6, “and all of you are children of the Most High.” You can’t understand it in any other way. Then it says:

“But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”

Psalm 82:7 (NKJV)

He says, “You are gods,” but the fact that you don’t know it means you will die like mere men, like one of the princes. That is the same thing this communion passage is talking about – it’s the same principle: you are gods, but the fact that you don’t know it means you will die like mere men, like one of the princes.

What is he saying? Does it sound to you like God is impressed with that? Does it sound like that is what His intention is? It is not His intention. He says, “You are gods. You are in light where there is no darkness. You are in light where there is life, where there is victory, where there is glory, where there is a reality that is superior to death.” Remember, death was the last enemy, and Jesus has overcome it. He went down to hell, He took the keys of Hades and of death, He took those keys from Satan. We actually have authority over death. Let me not go too far down that line, because that will take up time – let me go back to the communion aspect.

It’s the same principle why he says, “For this reason many are sick, and they are dead.” Why? Not discerning the Lord’s body. Not knowing who you are. Not knowing what the benefit should be of being one with Christ.

Okay, I’m going to end off there for this portion. I want to…