RECEIVING THE BREAD OF LIFE

If God says he will give you a car, rejoice in the word and not in the car.

If God promises to give you a car, can you receive it?  Don’t be quick to answer.  In the first place, what should you receive if God promises to give you a car?  If you receive a car at the promise of God, you might miss real the car of promise.  God does not give what man gives.  Neither does he give like man gives.  Jesus says: “I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14:27).

The peace of God is different from the peace of man.  The joy of the Lord is different from the joy of the harvest.  Therefore, the car of God is bound to be different from the car of men.  God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Rejecting the God-given

Many Christians cannot receive the “car” that God gives.   They can only receive the car that men give.  Therefore, if God says he is going to give them a car, they immediately receive the car of men.  It never occurs to them that the car of God might be different from the car of men.  Jesus says: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63).

When God promised Abraham a child in his old age, Sarah could not receive him initially.  She could only receive a child according to the flesh; therefore she doubted the word of God because she was past child-bearing age.  “She laughed silently to herself.  “How could a worn-out woman like me have a baby?” she thought.” (Genesis 18:12).  God confounded this thinking even more by waiting for another 25 years before giving them Isaac.

God made a promise to the church in the wilderness.  He said to Moses: “Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread.” (Exodus 16:12).  Accordingly, the Israelites expected beef-burgers from heaven.  But what they got instead was so strange they called it “manna;” which means literally: “What is it?”

Receiving life

Every promised gift of God must be received in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.  Every promise must first be received spiritually otherwise its actualisation will disappoint.  Flesh and blood will disappoint because the word of God is spirit.  Therefore, God’s promises must be spiritually received.  The word of God is a double-edged sword. (Revelation 1:16).  It kills and it makes alive. (Deuteronomy 32:39).  It is a stone that makes men stumble as well as a sanctuary that keeps men safe. (Isaiah 8:14).

Can you receive the gift of God?  Again, don’t be quick to answer.  Most people find it difficult to receive the things of God.  We can receive death but we cannot receive life.  We can receive loaves of bread, but we cannot receive the bread of life.  We can receive the fruit of the vine, but we cannot receive the fruit of the spirit.

We can receive spring water but we cannot receive living water.  Jesus said to a woman he met at the well of Jacob: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10).

Receiving by faith

A baby validates things by putting it in his mouth.  Can you receive what you cannot see feel or touch?  Can you value what is absolutely free of charge?  Can you esteem what you do not have to buy with money?  Simon the sorcerer could not.  He sought to pay for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  But Peter rebuked him: “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!” (Acts 8:20).

God says: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” (Isaiah 55:1-2).

The word of God is everything.  God does not give anything without his word.  His word is all in all.  In Jesus’ seminal prayer to God, he did not talk about giving believers houses, lands or property.  Instead, he says: “I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14).

Receiving the word

Therefore, if God says: “I will give you a car,” beware what you receive because “the letter kills but the Spirit gives life”. (2 Corinthians 3:6).  What then should you receive?  Don’t receive a car: receive the word.  If he says he will give you a car, then he has not given you a car.  What has he given?  He has given his word.  What will he give you?  He will give you a car.  Receive what he has given you.  If you don’t receive the word he has given, you cannot receive the car he will give.

Mary says: “Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45).  If we believe, there shall be a fulfilment.  To believe is to receive.  In the world, we say: “seeing is believing.”  But in the kingdom, we believe to see.  Jesus says to Martha: “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

Seek first the kingdom.  Always receive the word first.  In all and every respect, the word of God is enough.  Jesus is the word of God.  Is Jesus enough for you?  Would he only be acceptable if he comes with a car?  What if Jesus comes with tribulations, would he be acceptable?  Would you then reject him?  Under what circumstances would Jesus become unacceptable?  Under what circumstances would you lose interest in eternal life?

It does not matter, the pain and the anguish.  It does not matter the discomfort.  Receive Jesus.  If you receive Jesus and no car comes, let Jesus be enough.  If you receive Jesus and a car comes, let Jesus be enough.

Jesus is the word of God.  If Jesus is enough, then the word of God is enough.  If God says he will give you a car, rejoice in the word and not in the car.  The word is more important than the car.  God has no regard for cars.  But he has magnified his word even above his name.” (Psalm 138:2).  Rejoice then because God says he will give you a car.

Rejoice because: “it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3).