Title: What is it? This is Manna!
by Reverend A. LaMar Torrence, Cross of Life Lutheran Church
I. Often there are times in our lives when we ask the question: What is it? What’s going on? How come I can’t get a breakthrough or why is it that I’m living from hand to mouth, cant’ never get ahead, and nothing seems to get accomplish? You take two steps forward and three steps back. It seems like you are literally taking it just one day at a time, just barely keeping it together. For some it seems that you are living just to go to work and pay bills. For others, your relationship, your marriage is in a rout- no passion or compassion. You wake up not speaking to each other and go to bed arguing. You’ve become roommates and there is no romance. So you ask yourself the question, what is it? Is it I? Am I the crazy one? Am I purposely-living life or am I living with a purpose? Well you need to know today that God has a purpose for your life. He has a plan design just for you. The only decision you must make is will you follow his plan. Will you walk in his teachings or not? That is the decision you must address. What is this? That is the question that is eating away at the hearts of the Israelites. Why are we experiencing these current circumstances? Why does each new day bring triumph or tragedy, pleasure or pain, sweet times or sour times? Where is the consistency- the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey? One day we are celebrating Pharaoh’s defeat. The next we are thirsty for water. One moment we are living in an Oasis. The next we are starving in desert? What is this?
A. What is it? Well. This is a Test. (Tell someone it’s only a test). This is a test to see how you will answer the question-what is it? This is a manna test. This is your spiritual SATs, GMATs, etc regarding your faith. You have given God lip-service saying you want his will done in your life, so now he’s putting you to the test.
B. What is it? This is a time of trying whereby God is proving you. He is preparing you spiritually, mentally, and physically to inherit the promise. He is developing your faith. He desires to have a people that are faithful going from faith to faith; people who will be spiritually outstanding. He is calling you to be his people patterned after his word, his likeness, and his glory. He is “proving” you; training you in the faith to grow your faith. He wants you to grow in your relationship with him. No body is perfect but you are being perfected (Matthew 5:18, Hebrews 13:20-21, 1 Cor.1:28, 1 Peter 5:10). You came to him broken, afraid, uncertain, sinful, and tired. And he took you as you were. Now he is refining you, shining you up like pure gold, getting the diamond of coal. Before you can increase your territory Jabez, he wants to see if you will be faithful over what you have.
C. What is it? This is a time of trusting whereby you will have to learn how to live not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You have to learn how to walk by faith and not by sight. How to trust him when there is no money in the checking account, no more minutes left on the phone card, the light bill is due, groceries are low, and the car is in need of repair. This is a time where he will give you your daily bread and you have to trust him daily. He’ll give you just enough to get by and that’s it. You have not entered into your season of abundance but this is your season of sowing and serving. Yet, your faith has to be more than enough to sustain you. You may have to go to bed not knowing about tomorrow’s needs; yet, your faith will have to be enough so that whatever comes tomorrow, you know that God will make a way.
D. What is it? This is Temporary. This is not permanent. This is just for a season and not a lifetime (depending on how you do on the test). But regardless of the outcome you must remember that this is temporary. Therefore, it is important for you to know that although you may be in the wilderness do not let the wilderness get in you. Although you are going through inconsistent times, do not allow the times to cause you to have an inconsistent faith. Do not develop a wilderness mentality; however, what you need to do is to develop some basic coping techniques for this time in your life. Don’t let hard times cause your heart to harden. Don’t let rough times cause your continence to become rigid because this is temporary. This is not your final destination. This is not the fulfillment of God’s eternal promise to your plight. This is a temporary condition that requires temporary sustenance- a temporary solution. That is what manna is.
1. What is it? This is ‘manna’ which literally means, ‘what is it’. For the Israelites this manna manifested itself in the desert as small white flakes or grains that resembled coriander seeds. It tasted like flour with honey. God gave it to them with clear instructions for it’s gathering. They had could only collect one day’s portion for each person which amounted to about six pints.
2. This is daily bread. This is manna. This is what God is providing to you that you may survive during your wilderness experience. Manna is what God is giving you during your times of trial and testing. Manna is what he will provide that will help you cope-your daily bread- which is temporary. It is not your final place of destination.
a) Some of your jobs are manna, given to you while you are being tested in the wilderness. Yet, it is not the vision you received for your life.
b) Some of our relationships are manna. We have people in our lives, friends and associates that are just friends of the road. God has put them in our lives for such a time as this.
c) Our problem is that we tend to take something that god has just given us for temporary relief and try to settle in it as a permanent solution. Like the Israelites, we often find ourselves trying to take a little more than what he allotted to us. We get frustrated, we complain, and we begin to curse our blessing. When in essence it is time for us to move on.
3. What is it? This is Manna. Paul calls it “Spiritual food”. (1 Corinthians 10: 1-5)
a) What is it? This is time for you to rely on his spoken word. For such a time as this, god has send us prophets, pastors, preachers, teacher, and evangelists in our lives to interpret for us that we do not understand. And this is not just the word but life itself. Look at the text, here it is that the Israelites, where promised bread from heaven, yet when it fell no one knew what it was but the manservant of God. Throughout history as a people, God has provided us servants with spiritual anointing to interpret for us our manna- our situations and circumstances. Ephesians 4:11 “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. These are individuals who have a direct connection with God. They are gifted with the talents of discernment, perception, wisdom, intercessory-prayer, and prophecy. Therefore when they make a pronouncement-it’s not supposition. It’s not guessing but it’s a divine discernment from God. That’s the purpose of having a pastor, preacher, the –African ‘griot’ in your life so that he can bring clarity to the things we do not understand.
(1) Acts 8:26-35 the Ethiopian Eunuch needed Phillip.
(2) Genesis 40:1-18 The Cupbearer needed Joseph
(3) Daniel 2:24, 36-49 King Nebuchadnezzar needed Daniel
b) What is it? This is a time for you to rely on his written word.
c) What is it? This is a time for you to rely on his living word.
II. While you are in the wilderness of your life, you need to know some basic spiritual survival principles so that you do not perish.
A. This is what not to do-Murmur.
1. 1 Corinthians 10: 1-5, 9-11: Resist the temptation to murmur. In the field of medicine, there is a medical term ‘called heart murmur’ which medical journals describe as an extra, unexpected, or abnormal sound that is caused by the flow of blood through the heart. These sounds may be caused by defective heart valves, holes in the heart walls, surgical repair of congenital heart defects, fever or other heart diseases. For the body of Christ, spiritually murmurs are caused by members with defective faith and/or people who are dis-eased about their current circumstances. For the body of Christ, murmurs are abnormal sounds coming from the body of believers. What are abnormal sounds?
a) Fear is an abnormal sound.
(1) 2 Timothy 1:7
(2) 1 John 4:18
b) Stubbornness and rebellion is an abnormal sound
(1) Psalm 78: 5-8
(2) 1 Samuel 15: 23
c) Disobedience is an abnormal sound
(1) Romans 1:28-31
(2) Titus 1:16
B. This is what should be done.
1. Be Obedient
a) Isaiah 1:9
b) Acts 5:29
2. Be Expectant: Live Expecting God to work in your life on a daily basis. Live expecting him to provide for you daily.
a) Matthew 6:11
b) Lamentations 3:22-23
3. Be Consistent (faithful): You need to know that god is looking for a people who are hungry and thirsty for him. The problem with the Israelites is that while in slavery, there lives were spent living on bread alone: being obedient to their taskmasters so that they may live. Yet, God is now trying to teach them not just live by their physical senses and desires but by his word. He wants them to walk by faith, trust his word not what he can give them. This is why their days in the wilderness are filled with extremities: from having no water to having sweet water; no food to having much meat; no wealth to having gold and riches. Their days are inconsistent but he wants them to demonstrate a consistent faith. Are you just a people who worship me, when I defeat your enemies or will you worship me during your hours of defeat as well? Will you serve me only during times of abundance or will you serve during times of feminine. Will you be committed only when you have money to pay your mortgage or will you still serve me when you have to sell that house to survive? Will you be committed when you marriage is healthy and your house in filled with laughter and pleasure, or will you serve me during your divorce or the death of a love one? Consistency.
a) Matt 24:42-46
b) Revelation 2:10
c) Mark 6:14-29-John the Baptist was faithful even unto death.
d) Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.”
