Thanksgiving to God – Remember What?
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All through the Scriptures we read that the children of God are to give thanks to Him – to have a thankful, joyful heart unto the Lord. Across America we celebrate a day of Thanksgiving often reflecting on what we are thankful for, even if it might be simply to be alive.
As I shared in the last message, when the body of Christ honors the “last supper” or Passover meal with Jesus and the disciples which can be found in the gospels, we call this a communion meal or Eucharist which means “thanksgiving.”
Jesus uses the words “remembrance of me” in identifying with the bread as His body, and the wine as His blood. “This is My body, and this cup is the New Covenant in My blood.”
Paul adds to the words of Jesus, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body” (1 Corinthians 11: 26-29).
What are we to remember of the body and blood of Jesus Christ when we take communion or the Eucharist?
A study of the word “remembrance” in Greek is the word “anamnesis” (Strongs 364). This word refers to the recollection of “innate” knowledge, or knowledge acquired BEFORE birth. The opposite of the word “anamnesis” is the Greek word “mnesia” (Strongs 3417). This is where we get the English word “amnesia” or loss of memory.
The word “innate” is identified with “innatism” which is the knowledge the mind is born with – firm ideas, knowledge, and beliefs. The opposite doctrine that is often taught is known as “Tabula Rosa” at birth, which believes the mind is a blank slate that gains knowledge from experience and the senses. This is also known as the doctrine of EMPIRICISM.
When Jesus and Paul are using the words “remembrance of Me,” they are telling us that we have forgotten something of the “ME,” and with thanksgiving unto God as His children while taking in the body and blood of Christ – there is something of ourselves for us to remember before we were conceived in our mother’s womb. We are to examine ourselves with righteous judgment. Paul states in verse thirty of this chapter that because we do not judge ourselves rightly, many are weak, sick, and have fallen asleep (died).
How does honoring God with thanksgiving, eating the bread, and drinking the wine have anything to do with being weak, sick, or dying? Let’s recap the last message:
The word Eucharist means, “Thanksgiving to God.” The blessings of this action are:
- Intimacy with Jesus Christ
- Preserving grace with Jesus Christ
- Increasing grace with Jesus Christ
- Renewing grace with Jesus Christ
- Separation from identity crisis
- Strengthening God’s Love identity
- Preserves the future identity of the body of Christ
- Brings reconciliation, unity, and one body in Christ Jesus, whom Jesus Christ is the head of the body.
When we take communion or the Eucharist, we are not focused on the first three cups of wine. It is the fourth cup that Jesus said He would drink with us in the Father’s Kingdom. Where is the Kingdom of God? Paul told us that we are the temple of God today in the earth.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:15-17).
Everything about partaking the Lord’s supper with the fourth cup comes from a position of marriage, covenant, and oneness with Christ Jesus as the husband and lover of our soul. It is not about sanctification, deliverance, or redemption. All those issues are what He accomplished at the cross, the death, and the burial of Jesus. The fourth cup is about the resurrection of Christ Jesus who lives and moves and has His Being within each of as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh – one body in Christ.
When we judge ourselves as being an unworthy sinner, our free will is not rightly receiving the fullness of our inheritance given to us because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more that Jesus needs to be accomplishing for us in fighting a devil. It is us that has the free-will to choose what we desire our relationship to be with Christ Jesus today. We can have it all – King, Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, Healer, Provider, Husband, and Lover of my soul while in my natural body, but I must choose the identity I desire with Him. Do I see myself as a sinner, child, son/daughter, coming bride, or wife?
Taking communion from a position of anything less than our identity in Christ will cause doubt and unbelief in the body opening opportunities for weakness. These weaknesses are not necessarily about physical issues, but about our spiritual condition and relationship with the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us. When our trust and faith stand with the fact that as He is, so are we today in this world (1 John 4:17), then it is not logic and reason in today’s world that we need to remember in Christ, but our identity with Him before we were even born in the flesh – all the way back to Genesis 1 and 2.
When Jesus uses the word “ME” with breaking the bread and offering the fourth cup, He uses the Greek word “emos” (Strongs 1699). This word comes from the oblique cases of the Greek word “ego” (Strongs 1473). Jesus is not referring to His “ego” as remember “I.” He uses the word “emos” in this verse for us to remember “ME” as what is already mine, or of me.
In John 8:18, Jesus does use the Greek word “ego” several times when referring to the “I AM”, and His relationship with God as Father.
In 2 Peter 1:11-13, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, if I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.”
Peter is using this same Greek word “anamnesis” for remembrance that Jesus and Paul used. He tells us in 1 Peter 2:9-10 that we are, “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
The bread and wine of Jesus Christ is His body and blood of His resurrected LIFE today in us. Whether you believe literal or spiritual is not as important as the transformation of knowing who you are in Christ Jesus today. “Indeed, Jesus was crucified because of our weakness, yet today He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we today live with Him because of the power of God within us. Test yourselves if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:4-5).
When the body of Christ Jesus comes together in the unity of one heart, mind, Spirit, and Father’s DNA through the resurrection of Jesus as the head of the body – we will see global transformation of the Kingdom of God in the earth filled with glory as the waters cover the seas.
“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).