“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and
fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that
he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” -Deuteronomy 8:3
The
carnal man trusts in the conventional, the here and now, that which is seen. The routine is reassuring, there is comfort
in the day to day. The devil seems to
relish in the fact that sight seems to receive trust far quicker than the unseen. That the natural becomes the whole of man’s
existence, and that man refuses to accept that we live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.
He that
glorifies the creature over the Creator is doomed to a life eternal in
hell. Everything was made by God to
glorify God. There is no genuine
inspiration on this Earth. All things
are God’s, and because of him, all things exist. Our life is our life because he created it. The earth is “our earth” because he allows
it. We exist because of him. When you resolve to live by “bread only” you
adopt the “what happens here stays here” philosophy. The idea that we will live and die and that’s
all there is; is a short sighted, carnal way of thinking. The idea that the whole of existence is to
buy, sell and gain; only to spend on necessities and
wants. That is the “bread only”
mentality that seems to permeate our culture.
If I need it I take it, if I want it, I procure it. The consequences of those actions and
decisions are only brought into calculation if those same consequences
negatively affect me and what I want.
This is why the 21st century preaching is having so much effect on the
masses in America; why preachers can fill football stadiums with people while
Christian values in our society decays; because they preach what the people
want to hear. The bread only crowd is
the humanism crowd, which is (to quote Paris Reidhead): “That God is in heaven
for the happiness of man, Jesus was incarnate for the happiness of man and
everything is for the happiness of man.”
The devil wants us all to accept that the base elements of this world exist
so you can be satisfied, and anything that stands in the way of your satisfaction
should be discarded or perverted to fit your needs. The manna that Moses speaks about in
Deuteronomy, that manna that fell from heaven, is a physical example of a
spiritual truth that comes in direct contrast to the bread only crowd. It is proof positive that God is in control
and our life is through Him and only Him.
The word is God, and the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus
came and died to liberate us from bread only thinking and translate us into the
likeness of himself. Which is holiness
without, and holiness within; total abandonment to the will of God, and
acceptance of His word. A promise of
peace in this life and assurance of eternal life with Him in heaven. Jesus is the true bread of life that cometh
down from heaven. Jesus said: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to
me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John
3:35)
The
Holy Ghost within our hearts is the bread, and the life. It is our life and our direction, and we live
by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. When we live it, preach
it, talk it, follow it, and be the example; it shows to others the bread from
heaven. It shows to the world that man
was never meant to live by “bread only”, and that manna is life. Jesus is life and that life is all we have.
