Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Living Bread
What if the key to eternal life lay in understanding Jesus as the "Living Bread"? In this episode, we journey through John, Chapter 6, where Jesus speaks to doubters and believers alike, offering a profound spiritual nourishment through the metaphor of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. We'll uncover how faith acts as the pathway to eternal life and how Jesus, much like manna in the wilderness, provides a sustenance that surpasses all by offering eternal life.
Let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for the mighty power of God. It's manifesting in my life. I've learned how to cooperate with the Word of God and the Holy Ghost. You're teaching me how to talk. You're teaching me how to talk, You're teaching me how to think and I'm seeing the supernatural results. In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 6. And we'll get into the Word together.
Speaker 1:Verse 47, jesus is speaking to a bunch of doubters. You know Jesus wasn't sent to the. You know he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He wasn't sent to the world, he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now there's a few people in the world that got something. The Syrophoenician woman got something from Him and the Roman centurion got something for his servant from him. But typically, I mean, his message is to the Jews and especially to the doubters. And he's talking to a bunch of doubters. They were doubting him. He started talking and the more they doubted, the more extreme he got with his language. You see that in Jesus ministry. I guess that's where I get it. I get kind of extreme sometimes and people kind of get offended. I'm sorry, I guess you know they got offended at Jesus. I don't know.
Speaker 1:John, chapter six, verse 47, verily, verily. Now see when you see verily verily. That's John, chapter 6, verse 47. Verily, verily. Now see, when you see verily, verily, that's a double annunciation of God. You can put it in the bank. It's true. Verily, verily. I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life, zoe Life as God lives it. Zoe life, not this human life. He that believeth on me hath Everybody say I have it, I have it, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread Everybody shout living bread, which come down, which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Speaker 1:The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat? You can kind of hear the doubt and unbelief and the mockery and the. It's kind of like Kamala yesterday. Those two young people said Jesus is Lord, so you're in the wrong meeting. You need to go down the street. Yeah, you told it right. Comedy, comedy, comedy.
Speaker 1:Then Jesus said unto them verily, verily. Second time, you know when he says verily, verily, you're at risk, when you doubt that he's trying to give you something that's real. Verily, verily. I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. You can almost hear the gnashing of teeth right there. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat, indeed, and my blood is drink, indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him.
Speaker 1:Do you kind of tell that he's doubling down on this message? I mean, the more offended they get, the more he just doubles down even more. I mean he just turns the screw a little tighter. He makes this. He's emphasizing something that he knows is blowing their cork and verse 57, as the living father hath sent me, I live by the father. So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not, as your fathers did, eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. So today I wanted to start a series entitled the Living Bread. The Living Bread and it's, you know, jesus in John, chapter 1,.
Speaker 1:I discovered this just right after I got saved. I went to a Bible study it's the first time I've been in Catholic church all my life and went to Catholic school, and I never heard this in my Catholic education but the subject of the first Bible study I attended after I'd gotten saved, I'd gotten saved on a Friday night and I went to my first Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International meeting on Saturday night. And I went to my first Lakewood church service on Sunday morning. And so this is the following Thursday night. I didn't let a lot of grass grow under my feet. I mean, I started pursuing what I had encountered. And the subject of the very first Bible study the following Thursday night so I'd have been saved less than a week was who is Jesus? And they preached out of John chapter one.
Speaker 1:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God Verse 14,. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word and it just. I mean I was astounded to hear that and some people that claim they're born again still haven't figured out that Jesus is the Word, but he is the Word. And then he says not only is he the Word, but he's the living bread. He compares the Word, the living bread, with manna in the wilderness, the living bread with manna in the wilderness. Now, if you go up and read the beginning of chapter 6 and you read further down I just assigned chapter 6 as homework you need to read the whole chapter and get the feeling this is where this message came from. Just me reading my Bible and me receiving the living bread for myself. Well, those things taught me to teach out of the overflow, not to try to make up some fancy message and try to, you know, have a homily or some kind of sermon.
Speaker 1:I don't do sermons. I do messages that I receive from reading my Bible. Do sermons? I do messages that I receive from reading my Bible. And so he's comparing the word, the living bread, with manna in the wilderness. And so I went back at the time and I started reading about the manna in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:And sure enough, you know, when they got out there they couldn't grow their own food. They're on the move, they're headed to the promised land and they couldn't stop and eat. They couldn't plan anything. They had to have some food and then they started. So God gave them the manna, and the word manna means what is it? What is it? And it wasn't particularly appealing. They didn't have a real taste for it. It wasn't that they got they real quick, they got kind of missing what they had in Egypt the garlic and the leeks and the cucumbers.
Speaker 1:Now, cucumbers has always given me a problem. Why would you miss a cucumber, I mean, unless you turn it into a really good kosher dill pickle. Now I can go with that. I like the sour, hot ones myself. Sometimes even the garlic ones are good, but just a cucumber, are you kidding? One time I planted a garden and nobody told me not to plant my watermelons next to the cucumbers. But I learned by sad experience that all my watermelons I had three nice watermelons next to the cucumbers, but I learned by sad experience that all my watermelon. I had three nice watermelons about this big and they tasted like cucumbers. Just use them for target practice is all they were good for Not in my backyard, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So he compares the living bread with the manna, and the manna was designed to sustain them. Remember now, they were in the wilderness and when the cloud moved they had to what they had to move. When they moved it took a lot of energy. I mean, look, they had to pack everything up. Now. They camped out, they had the tent, they pitched the tent, they got everything arranged, they got what few animals they're bringing with them, and all of that. They had some animals with them, you know, but not a lot, because there's no place to really for the animals to feed. You know, it's really. They're going to starve if God doesn't give them something.
Speaker 1:And he gave them manna, a supernatural food, and Moses warned them. He said now don't go out here and gather more than you need, just gather what you need for the day. And then on the Sabbath, the day before the Sabbath, see, the Sabbath meant that you couldn't work. You couldn't go gather your food. That's against the law. See, the Sabbath meant that you couldn't work. You couldn't go gather your food. That's against the law. So he's going to give you twice as much on the day before the Sabbath so you'd have enough to eat. But otherwise, if you gather more than you need, it's going to stink, it's going to have worms in it, it's going to deteriorate and you're not going to be able to.
Speaker 1:You know the our father, jesus, taught people to pray. Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed, be thy name, give us this day our daily bread. What's he talking about? He's talking about revelation. He's talking about living bread. You don't want to see faith cometh by hearing, not by having heard.
Speaker 1:A lot of people just try to live on what they ate way back 40 years ago. You know what? It didn't work. You need the living bread. You need it every day. Everybody say every day. I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm going to keep speaking the same thing until everybody does it. So Jesus is comparing that and I said what happens when you don't eat the manna? See, they didn't really like the manna. They got kind of fussy and they said you know, can God furnish a table in the wilderness, can God? I mean, they were just.
Speaker 1:You know that group, you know we're just like them in the flesh, Because they were people that were unredeemed. In other words, they didn't have the Spirit of God living on the inside of them. They're just, there's really no different than the world, except that they were covenant people. But as far as their mind and their flesh and their attitudes, I mean you could make a case they're worse than the world Talk about.
Speaker 1:I mean, god did all these miracles and they just ignored it Over and over. He did things to help them and deliver them and everything, and they just forgot it Over and over. He did things to help them and deliver them and everything, and they just forgot it and they limited the Holy One of Israel. They forgot His wonders in Egypt and they limited the Holy One of Israel by their unbelief. And so they said can God furnish? So he sent a whole bunch of quail. He sent so many quail. They were hip deep in quail and they ate, they stuffed their face full of quail and until they got sick and a lot of them died right there on the spot. You see, they just got into sin, the lust of the flesh. Them died right there on the spot. You see, they just got into sin, the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1:The manna was designed to sustain them supernaturally and it took a while for them to have an affinity or a desire or a taste for the manna. I mean, you know, their taste buds were tuned to the garlic and the leeks and the. You know all the food that they had in Egypt. They, they, they were missing, that. They were missing their chicken fried steak. Oh, here he goes again. And you know, see, it takes a while to.
Speaker 1:You know, I remember when I grew up and my dad was a beer drinker, he drank beer. Now, he was not a drunk. He never, I never saw the man drunk. I saw him drink. He'd drink. His limit seemed to be three beers. If he had three beers it was over, that was it. And he might be drinking three beers while he's bowling. He wouldn't, otherwise he wouldn't be because he'd be hanging around with his friends at the bowling alleys in a league and and I watched him pretty close and he, he would, he, just, he just would, he was, and he wasn't saved in those years. He got saved after that. But, uh, I tasted beer when I was a kid. I hated it. I tasted whiskey, I hated that. But you know, after a while I got a taste for it. I got such a taste for beer that I made my own.
Speaker 1:So you can. You know, if you'll pay attention to something long enough, you'll have a desire for it, you'll have a taste for it. See, and some people have just kind of, you know, looked at the Word and they're intimidated by the Word, and maybe they're reading the King James Bible. Well, get you a Bible you can read. Then you don't like the King James. I like the King James because I like the heathers and the slithers, but that doesn't mean that's what you have to read. You can read an LLT, a New King James. You can read any Bible that you want to. That you can develop a taste for the Word of God, for the living bread. You need to develop a taste for it and don't stop until you do. Are you all getting this?
Speaker 1:Now he's comparing it with the manna and earlier on he said no, moses didn't give you that. They started off by saying when he started saying he was the bread sent from heaven, they got offended. That was earlier in the chapter. That's why you need to read the whole chapter and see how this whole thing played out, because I mean he spent a long time tweaking them how this whole thing played out, because I mean he spent a long time tweaking them. He, I mean, they're without excuse. They're without excuse.
Speaker 1:And so our fathers, we ate manna in the wilderness. What are you talking about? You come, I know your mother, I know your father, your family, what do you mean? You came down from there. You didn't come down from there. See, they didn't want to accept what he said. They didn't accept it. And so he said Moses didn't give you that manna. God gave it to you, but I'm the living bread. If you, if you'll eat this living bread, you'll never die. I'll give you eternal life and you will dwell in me and I'll dwell in you and I'll raise you up at the last day. You couldn't get any more clearer than that. Are y'all with me? Now? Verse 60,.
Speaker 1:Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this about eating his body, eating his flesh and drinking his blood, when they heard that message, they said this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Put verse 60 up in the Passion Translation for me real quick. This is a hard saying. I should have brought my iPhone up here with me. Well, one translation says this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. Praise the Lord, I threw them a curve. Bless their heart. They just have to put up with pastor. You just never know what pastor is going to require.
Speaker 1:And when many of Jesus followers heard these things, it caused a stir. That's disgusting. They said how could anybody accept it heard these things. It caused a stir. That's disgusting. They said how could anybody accept it? See, part of these people are the 70. The 70 that had already been sent out to preach the Word they had had. You know they had healed the sick. The word they had had. That you know they had. They had healed the sick. They, you know they cast out devils the 70. And when they heard that, they said that's disgusting.
Speaker 1:We don't want to be responsible for preaching this message. This message is too extreme and if we preach this, people are not going to listen to us and people are not going to give us an offering. We need to be more woke. We need to say really good things about George Floyd and talk about how he was murdered, when he's really a drug addict criminal and he was not murdered, he overdosed, it's a fact. Okay, and the people that put that cop in prison or those guys in prison. They need to be in prison.
Speaker 1:But I'm going to say that I don't care if somebody likes it or Black Lives Matter doesn't like it, or what. I mean. That's a communist organization. They don't care about black lives. Let me ask you something Does Kamala care about black lives? Does the Democrat party care about black lives? I mean, you couldn't get any clearer. I said you couldn't get any clearer.
Speaker 1:So what happens when you're malnourished? Say what if they hadn't eaten the manna? See, this other stuff is not available. You know, god proved it to them. Yeah, you want something different? I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you until it comes out your ears. And he did it.
Speaker 1:But then they got sick. A lot of them died. They ate it when it was rotten. See, that's when it was rotten. See, that's when you really read your Bible, you find out they ate it when it was past its prime. You know, I don't want to go to the week old chicken store, if you, you know, if it's okay. Yeah, we got a sale on fried chicken. This was fried last Friday. Anyway, it sustained them so they'd have enough nourishment and strength in order for the cloud to move. Now they can pack up their stuff and they can follow the cloud wherever it leads them.
Speaker 1:But what happens when you are malnourished? Well, your body starts to feed on itself. I think about the Holocaust, I think about the Jews, where they locked them in the Warsaw ghetto and shut them in and they gradually starved them to death. I mean, people were dying of starvation right on the sidewalk. What happens is is that you finally, when you starve, literally starve to death. I've heard that it's the worst way to die, it's the most painful, it takes a long time. Why? Well, because your body eats itself. Your body starts eating its own fat and you get really skinny, and then it starts eating your muscle tissue. In order for your heart to beat, in order for your body to your organs to operate, they have to have fuel. So the fuel is supplied by your body, because you're not bringing anything on from the outside in it to fuel it. And so your body starts to use itself up until you're so weak that you lay right on the pavement and then, finally, you just itself up until you're so weak that you lay right on the pavement and then, finally, you just curl up and you're dead.
Speaker 1:And I've seen the pictures. I've seen the pictures of people that are in Warsaw and they starve to death, with people running by them. Usually it's the old people, because they would have a little bit of food and the younger people couldn't steal it, they'd steal it right out of their hand. I mean, it's a horrible thing when there's famine, it's a horrible thing to starve, and yet Christians starve when they don't feed on the living bread. He said it's meat. Indeed, it's drink, indeed, come on, lift your hands, thank God, thank God for the body and the blood of Christ.
Speaker 1:So the manna sustained their lives for 40 years. And as soon as they crossed the Jordan, as soon as they crossed the Jordan, as soon as they crossed the Jordan, the manna ceased. Why? Because they had, across the Jordan, in the promised land, they found places where the food had been stored up, that they had planted and stored up, and so they had food that they didn't grow and they got to eat off of it. And they ate off of that food until the time that they conquered Jericho, and then they got the land long enough to where they could plant their own fields and grow their own food, but they didn't need the manna anymore. What did they have? They had what you know. The Canaanites had grown, they ate, and they lived in the Canaanite cities and they lived in houses they didn't build. They ate food, they didn't grow. Are y'all with me now? They didn't need the manna anymore.
Speaker 1:So no, jesus said oh, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Your fathers, they ate the manna and they died. But you eat this and you'll live forever and I'll raise you up the last day. Come on, lift your hand right there. Glory to god. He said the living bread has been sent to us to give us everlasting life. And you keep reading.
Speaker 1:And, john, he gets over there in John, chapter 10, verse 10, and he's preaching like this again. And he said you know, everybody that came before me are thieves and robbers. He's talking about religion. All that came before me were thieves and robbers, the thief that cometh not but for to steal, kill and destroy. Now, I know we call that the devil, but really, in the context of what Jesus was saying, yeah, the devil is, but he's talking about religion. Religion comes to steal, kill and destroy. Why? Because it's not living bread, it's not sent from heaven, it's man's idea of how to get to God. Apart from Jesus, they love the creation more than the creator. That's the Democrat Party. The idea that we could actually destroy this planet by driving cars, by having air conditioning, by growing food, anyway.
Speaker 1:So he said, but don't get me mixed up with religion. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly, Super abundant in quantity, superior in quality. Glory to God. That means long life and a good life. That doesn't mean a long sick life, it doesn't mean a short, you know. It means what it says Jesus is the living bread.
Speaker 1:So this living bread, which is the Word of God, nourishes our spirit Because we're spirit beings. We live in a body. We have a mind, a will and an intellect, and spiritual growth is very similar to physical growth. So we need this living bread number one to grow and develop our spirit. You're born again, but we're all born as babies. We're all born the same way. We're babies when we're first born.
Speaker 1:That's why baby Christians need a lot of help and care and nourishment. They need a lot of mercy. They need a lot of why? Because they can be impatient, and they can. They look like the world in a lot of ways. They haven't separated completely. A lot of times when they come in this church they haven't made a break really totally with the world. The world is kind of hanging on them. We're here to love on them, we're here to help them to grow, not to condemn, beat them over the head.
Speaker 1:And the second thing it does is it helps them to follow the Holy Ghost. I mean, you know, when they got nourished with the manna, they got strong enough to follow the cloud. When the cloud moved, they moved. What if they hadn't been nourished, they wouldn't have been able to follow the cloud. They'd have laid right there and died. But the cloud is wherever the cloud was was where the manna was. I said wherever the cloud was, that's where the manna was. If they stayed where they were, they wouldn't even have the manna.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me now? So when you nourish on the living bread, you grow and develop in your spirit and then you're able to follow the Holy Ghost and then you're able to have success in this life. Those three things are what I'm going to be talking about today, next week and the week after that. I want to cover these topics. So today, as we're starting off, we're going to talk about growing the living bread, growing and developing our spirit. I teach on this and I spend four weeks on this subject alone. I'm just going to spend one week on it at this time. It's a subject that needs to be expounded on, but I'm going to spend a little time on it today, in Ephesians, chapter 4, let's turn there real quick, talking about growing and developing our spirit.
Speaker 1:You know you're born as a, but you shouldn't stay there. You don't stay a baby. A lot of people have. A lot of people grew a while and then regressed. How in the world does that happen? Well, you know that's what starvation does I mean. You grow a while and you're fat and sassy, and then you quit eating and then you starve to death. You can starve. I mean you grow a while and you're fat and sassy, and then you quit eating and then you starve to death. You can starve, I mean you can regress.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 4, 14,. That we henceforth, from now on, in other words, be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness. And there's an epidemic of that since COVID, since churches closed and a lot of the churches that closed had believers in them that are so weak. They were already malnourished, they were already starving anyway, and then you cut what little bread there is off of them. And then they get online and go out here and they get deceived. They pick up stuff that's total lies and remember what religion does. It comes to kill, steal and destroy, and that's what they get. They get man's ideas instead of God's.
Speaker 1:But verse 15, speaking the truth in love, may grow up. Everybody shout grow up. See, god wants us to grow up. He doesn't want us to stay babies. That's the whole purpose of a local church is to disciple believers, to bring believers up and develop them. That we may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
Speaker 1:See what did he say about this living bread? He said you know, he that eats the living bread dwelleth in me and me in him. We're in Christ. Well, that's automatic. When you get saved, you automatically the Holy ghost baptizes you into Christ and legally you're in him. But are you functionally in him? Not, unless you're feeding on the living bread every day. You're. You're. Legally, you're in Christ. You know. Technically, yes, you're feeding on the living bread every day. You're. You're. Legally, you're in christ. You know, technically, yes, you're going to go to have you die, you're going to heaven, but really you're not living the life down here as if you are in him, are you? Does that make? See, we've got two sides to redemption the legal side and the functional side. And so many people have the legal side. Okay, okay, you're born again. Great, let's act like it. Let's bring forth fruit that looks like it.
Speaker 1:So here he says don't be children any longer. Let's Hebrews 5. Let's run over here real quick, because you can regress. I've seen it, you know. You hang around long enough. You finally see almost everything that can be seen. Now he's talking here in Hebrews 5 about Christ the high priest. Jesus is better than Aaron. He's talking about Melchizedek. The whole theme of Hebrews is Jesus is better. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Aaron the high priest. You know Jesus is a high priest. After the order of Melchizedek, verse 11.
Speaker 1:Of whom, talking about Jesus, we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. Seeing you of dull of hearing, ooh, you know. Paul comes right around and kind of points the finger at the problem you are. I'd like to say more, but you're dull of hearing For when, for the time you ought to be teachers. You've been saved long enough that you ought to be teaching others. You've been saved long enough that you ought to be teaching others, but you have need that one. Teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become Everybody shout, become You've become, such as have need of milk and not of strong meat, for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. What the senses is he talking about? Well, he's not talking about your five senses. He's talking about the senses of your spirit, the eyes of your spirit, the ears of your spirit. Your spirit can smell. It can smell. I mean your spirit has senses as well.
Speaker 1:Anybody that's developed in the Word of God, has been feeding all the living bread, can look at these people and tell they're demonized. I can see demons on every one of these people. I look at Kamala and I see a devil. I look at Tim Walsh, I see another devil. I mean, just look at them. They look like the devil that they've given place to and they talk like it and they don't care anymore. They used to try to disguise it, but they don't try to disguise it anymore.
Speaker 1:So you regress. You ought to be teaching, you ought to be doing things that are more mature, but you've regressed. Now you need milk again. So you did have the meat, you were eating the living bread. But now you know and this is what's happened since COVID A lot of people got off the meat, what little meat they were eating.
Speaker 1:And now you know they've regressed. It's kind of an open question what's going to happen to them? I don't know what's going to happen. A lot of them are dying. A lot of them are going to heaven early. A lot of preachers I knew in the 80s and 90s are dying or they're being disqualified for the sin that they've allowed in their lives. They're being discovered.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Because the judgment of God, the plumb line, this message what was it? This message of the living bread, what was it? It was a plumb line and his own disciples left him. They turned their back on him. If you keep reading in the Passion Translation, they turned back their backs on him and did not want to be associated with him. Well, that's what this, that's what feeding on the living bread will do in your life it will cause you to have a different group of people that you associate with. Some people that you've hung with for a long time are not going to want to hang with you. You're too. You're too extreme, sister. You know, sister, you're just off the wall here. This Jesus stuff is eating.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's get back in the middle of the road. Let me ask you something. What happens to people when they walk in the middle of the road? I've never understood that. You know, let's get back in the middle of the road, Really, where you get run over by the 18-wheeler. That's what happens in the middle of the road. And so they become such as they have need of milk. See Well, what does milk do? It just makes you fat when you don't need milk.
Speaker 1:I mean if you let your child. I mean I remember when, gladys, when our kids were babies, I mean they were nursed and then it came to a point where they needed baby food and the baby food that she could buy at Randall's just wasn't good enough. She made her own baby food and we burned up I don't know how many blenders. I came home one day and I mean I smell this electrical fire. It smelled like you know, electrical fire is what it smelled like. And I'm looking at the blender and it's smoking and she's got some round steak in it.
Speaker 1:How many of you know a blender is not designed to be a meat grinder. I mean, you've got a meat grinder and it's got a big old, you know, one horsepower electric motor on it and it's got. You know it's, it's, it's it's. It can do the job. But a blender, a little blend of wearing blender, $30 blender, whatever they are, you know it. Just, it was just smoking and you know that it tasted smoky. It's, it tasted like electrical smoke. You know I barbecue, but this was a different smoke. This was burning electric wires. I don't know Our kids ate it though, liquefied, uh, round steak.
Speaker 1:Why? Because milk is just going to make you fat. It won't. It won't, it will not meet the nutritional needs of a growing child, a growing child At some point. The milk is ideal for a while, but then there needs to be meat, there needs to be vegetables, there needs to be all the regular kinds of food. They need to start on that. And that's the same way with us. We've got to be fed the meat of the word of God. What is the meat? The meat of the word is what our obligations, what our our, what we need or God is requiring of us. The milk is what God does for us. The milk is all the blessings, the milk is all the of the good stuff and we need that. We need that all the time. But we also need what are our responsibilities? What does God require of us? And if you never hear that, what happens? You get fat in your faith. Your spirit is fat. It's not going to be a very influential in your life because we are spirits, we live in a body and we have a mind. So what happens with people with heavy on milk is their light on their responsibility and they just think they're entitled and they express their opinions as dumb as they are. Why? Because their mind is not informed by the word, by the living word. Their mind is informed by the spirit of Antichrist. They bring their ideas into the church.
Speaker 1:You know, I had a young man one time. It was just a blessing. I mean, he was so intuitive, he had giftings and he was just so sharp he could anticipate things. And then he just started going downhill. He got more and more carnal, more and more, until every idea he had you could tell it wasn't God. And he finally, I mean you know, he resigned. And we accepted his resignation and he left and I wept because I mean he had such potential. But what did he do? He regressed. Wept because he had such potential, but what did he do? He regressed. He used his position close to me, as an authority. You know, he's an authority, taking advantage of people, stepping on people, throwing his weight around like he's something special, instead of being humble. Are y'all with me now? Let's see responsibility. He was light on responsibility. He was heavy on blessing.
Speaker 1:No, we need the living bread. The living bread will cause our spirit to be strengthened, educated and trained, just as our bodies and minds are. And we have to develop our appetite for the living bread by turning our attention to it. You know, whatever you pay attention to, that's what you're going to develop a taste for. And it happened in the negative with me about beer. I mean, I turned my attention to it in high school. All my buddies were drinking, so I just started drinking and I started, you know, and I paid more attention because of peer pressure, and so we'd ride around not much to do in Rufirio, texas, on a Friday night besides ride around and drink beer. So that's what we did. And then came Gladys. Praise God, she saved my life, but anyway she saved my life. So whatever you pay attention to, that will be what you desire. So, developing our spirit, number one I got four things today on developing your spirit.
Speaker 1:How many of you want to develop your spirit? How many of you have already arrived and you've already gotten your doctorate degree? No, we're always learning, we're always growing or we're shrinking. See, there's no, there's no middle ground, there's no coasting, there's no gliding. I was thinking about, about that idea I've said, I've said it a lot lately, about, about no treading water.
Speaker 1:How about gliding? So what is a glider? Well, a glider, you know gliding. So what is a glider? Well, a glider, you know, is a is an airplane without an engine and it has a tow rope. And you don't, you know, you just you tow the thing behind a powered airplane. An airplane will drag the thing down the runway until you take off and get you up about five, 6,000 feet, and then you pull a lever inside the glider and you detach from the tow plane and the tow line it flies off in another direction. And here you are up there gliding. But really, what are you doing actually? Well, you're crashing. You're not flying, you're crashing. You know you're descending.
Speaker 1:Now there is an exception to that and that is if you can find a thermal. And if you can find a thermal, that's where the upflow of air is coming from the earth and you can ride the thermal like the eagles do, and you can get in that thermal and you can just ascend and ascend. Well, you can't go very far in a glider Because you don't have oxygen. You get up about 10,000 feet in a glider. You're going to be in trouble Because the air is pretty thin up there, plus it's very cold and you don't have heat in a glider. So you know you're kind of limited how high you can go with your oxygen and with your body. I mean, you just can't put enough clothes on to stay warm up there. And then at the lower altitude you sweat because the sun's coming in the canopy. All the gliders are low wing. The wings are not above you, they're below you, so you've got the sunlight coming right down on you.
Speaker 1:I knew a guy that was in Refuro. He was a pilot and he loved gliding. He got into the gliding thing and he was really big on that. He'd write articles about it and had a lot of awards and how far he went, how long he stayed up. But basically it's a controlled crash. You're not going to glide that far. You've got a limit. And so what am I saying? There's no power In order to stay up. What do you got to have? You got to have power. You got to have the living bread, because if you don't have the living bread, you're just in a controlled crash. You might be up, but you're not up for long. Is this helping anybody? So, and Joshua 1.8,.
Speaker 1:God told Joshua Joshua, listen, he was Moses' right hand in the wilderness for 40 years. He's the second banana, if you will. I mean, he's the assistant. He's not the guy that made the decisions. Moses made all the decisions. Moses had all the responsibility. He did what he was told.
Speaker 1:And then, toward the end, when God told Moses you can't go in the promised land, you know, you struck the rock twice, you disobeyed me, you're not going to get. You get to see it, but you won't go in. He said now I want you to lay your hands on Joshua and put some of your honor on him. And so then, deuteronomy that's what he did. He put, he laid his hands on excuse me, he laid his hands on Joshua and transferred some of his honor upon Joshua and spoke over him as, as as God was with me, he will also be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Speaker 1:So when Moses died, the Holy Ghost told Joshua Moses, my servant is dead now, therefore rise. As I was with Moses, so shall I also be with you. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Fear not, be strong and very courageous. Told him that three times. You know he was intimidated. You know he was nervous to fill the shoes of a man, the greatest prophet in the old Testament, moses, so great that God had to hide his body lest they use the embalming that they learned from Egypt. I'm sorry about my voice, hold on just a second. They learned the art of embalming from the Egyptians, and so they could have embalmed him and made him an idol, and God did not want that. He hid the body of Moses so that they couldn't turn him into an idol that they worshiped. And so you're stepping in, joshua, you're stepping into that.
Speaker 1:He said this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate. Everybody shout meditate. You shall meditate therein day and night. Then you shall make your way prosperous, then you shall have good success. So meditation is what God told Joshua to do in order for him to be able to feed on this living bread. Amen, and have success.
Speaker 1:Psalm 1 talks about meditating day and night on this book of the law, and that you'll bear forth fruit. You'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit. In this season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper, see. So, again, meditating the word of God, it's not something you just do once a week or once a month. It's something you should do every day. It's living bread. It's just like the manna, in the sense that they gathered it every day. They couldn't store it up, but they had to have it each day. There's a portion each day for that day. Give us this day our daily bread. What bread? The living bread. He's not talking about bread, not talking about French bread, not talking about croissants. He's not talking about blueberry muffins, he's talking about the living bread. Are you? You with me now?
Speaker 1:So what does it mean to meditate? Well, it means to think, to turn about. Your mouth is involved. So it means to repeat, to mutter. You mutter it, you talk it, you speak it out of your mouth. It's kind of like confession, but not exactly confession. I mean, you're just quoting the Word different ways, you just turn it about and you mutter it, you speak it to yourself. And when do you do it? Day and night.
Speaker 1:And I want to make this statement, it's probably the most important statement that you're going to hear today when you meditate on a verse, you enter into that verse and that verse enters into you. See, that's what Jesus said, isn't it? He said if you, if you eat the flesh of the son of man, you know I will, I will dwell in you and you will dwell in me. So that's what you're doing when you meditate you're eating the flesh of the son of man, drinking his blood. What does that mean? Aware of the blood covenant, aware of what the blood has done? We need to have faith in the blood of God, blood of Jesus, what it has done, what it is doing and what it shall do.
Speaker 1:Otherwise you're going to be say you're unskillful in the word of righteousness. What does that mean? It means that you're always kind of around God and you're one of the reasons you don't like to hang out with him. Is you feel condemned, you feel unworthy? Well, you just need to meditate on scriptures that have to do with your righteousness, because righteousness is a gift. When you got saved, you were conveyed, conferred upon you, a right standing with God where you can get in his presence without fear, condemnation or guilt or shame. And if you have those things, then you need to find out. Did you sin since the last time and then confess that, get that off a plate. But a lot of times it's not anything anybody's done, it's just wrong thinking. But a lot of times it's not anything anybody's done, it's just wrong thinking. It's listening to the demons that are out there, that are all constantly accusing you, constantly depreciating you.
Speaker 1:I've worked with some women who've been abused over the years, many years, sat with them, talked to them, heard their stories. I talked to one woman whose husband had almost choked her out, almost killed her, got mad at her in the night and just grabbed her by the throat. That's happening every day in Houston, texas. I mean, every day you see domestic violence. Every day you see people getting killed. I mean husbands are killing their wife and even their babies and then shooting themselves. I mean it happens all the time, it happens every day. Every day it's an epidemic. Why? Because the devil is an accuser and he's an equal opportunity accuser. He will accuse the brethren.
Speaker 1:So if you, you know when a woman or a man but it's usually a woman who has been depreciated, first it starts with verbal and then it starts with a physical, you know. And then all kinds of abuse. And why don't they flee? Well, they can't, because their self-esteem goes to zero. They think, really they deserve the way they're being treated. They deserve it Really, they deserve the way they're being treated. They deserve it. They become convinced that they have been treated this way. And when they do call the cops, they try no, no, he didn't mean it, I started it. They'll lie for their man. Y'all looking at me crazy. Well, this is the way human beings are.
Speaker 1:And so when you have, when you have that operating in your life, where you can't be in front of the heavenly father. That means you're unskillful in the word of righteousness. You haven't eaten the living bread enough to know what Jesus blood has done for you. Because when you know when you've drunk his blood, when you have taken that blood and you didn't, you drank all of it, you drank it all. You didn't leave anything on the table, you downed the whole shot glass full of blood. That's offending somebody, I can tell already.
Speaker 1:This message will separate you from just regular people, people that are just kind of lukewarm. They might be saved but they don't really act like it all the time. It just depends on who they're hanging with. When they hang with the world, they act like the world. When they hang with you, all of a sudden they're real religious. Oh, my uncle is a preacher. I know when people find out I'm a pastor they're quick to tell me their relative is involved in the ministry or something Like I'm in their home. I was with a couple the other day and they were drinking you know martinis and all of a sudden they had them taken away. They quit drinking the martinis after I talked to them about 10 minutes I just kind of laughed to myself, all right.
Speaker 1:So when you meditate on the word of God. That word enters into you and, and, and you enter into that, it changes you. It changes you who is you, your spirit, and then that way, when you, primarily what I like to tell people is is don't meditate so much on Genesis and Exodus and Deuteronomy and meditate on the epistles. They are written to the church, meditate on in him, through him, all those verses that speak to the believer, speak to the born again, spirit filled believer. I mean every epistle is written by a spirit filled apostle. They had the Holy Ghost, same Holy Ghost you have. They spoke in tongues. That's why I don't like to listen to preachers that aren't filled with the Holy Ghost same Holy Ghost you have. They spoke in tongues. That's why I don't like to listen to preachers, you know, that aren't filled with the Holy Ghost, because they're not of the equal standing that my Bible is written from. I know that if they didn't get that, there's a whole lot of stuff they don't know. They might know a few things and I might listen and hear something, but I don't feed on that. I feed on people that know the Bible better than me. I'm not gonna listen to somebody that doesn't know it as well as I know it, are you with me now? You get rhema words, pieces of the living bread how many of you ever had like.
Speaker 1:When you're reading your Bible, one of the verses just comes off the page and it just lights up. I hadn't told this one in a long time, but I was reading way back man, I hadn't been saved. But maybe months, six months, maybe. It took about six months for me to leave the Catholic church and go to Lakewood full time. It took a while for me to grow enough to realize that that's what I needed to do. I didn't leave the Catholic church immediately. In fact I thought maybe God would use me with the Catholics. Well, he did, but not in the church. I've ministered to more Catholics I mean, it's amazing, still do, but anyway. So I was just reading John chapter one.
Speaker 1:In the beginning was a word. The word was with God and the word was God. Verse six there was a man sent from God whose name was John, and I'm reading that to myself, not out loud. There was a man sent from God. His name was John Griner. I heard Griner and tears shot out of my eyes. I knew it was the Holy Ghost. He's called me. He sent me 43 years ago I got that word. I mean, when you get a rhema word like that, it changes you. It makes you believe something that's just too fantastic to believe. Gladys didn't believe it. I was griping to the Lord one day.
Speaker 1:God you know she doesn't much think about this ministry thing. She is not down for this. I mean she likes Lakewood and everything, but she is not. She does not even want to talk about pastoring. I mean, I knew I was called, I knew I was sent, I knew I had that from the beginning. But she did not.
Speaker 1:And he said you leave her alone. You know, you had the bright idea to be a home builder. She, she worked to put you through school, to get your mechanical engineering degree and then you made a decision without her and decided to go in the home building business and informed her. You didn't even ask her, you didn't even talk to her about it. She's followed you all around when you've gone broke and gone there and all these moves that you've made I mean builders move all the time I mean I'd move from one house and next house and next house and put them up for sale. You know that's how you make. Your money is selling your personal house. Our furniture wore out just being moved, you know, and she's followed you around. I mean she hadn't complained and you just leave her to me, I'll take care of her. You just pay attention to yourself.
Speaker 1:I said, okay, all right, I won't bring that up again. And you know he did. I said he did Glory to God. When the time came, she was all in Praise the Lord Still is All right. Number two practice the Word. Praise the Lord Still is All right. Number two practice the word. Practice the word. James 1.22.
Speaker 1:Don't be just a hearer of the word, but be a doer of the word, not a hearer only deceiving your own selves. A lot of people can hear the word, a lot of people can talk about the word, but if you don't do it, it's of no use. If you, you know you've got to eat the bread, when you part of eating the bread is doing it. Doing it what it gives you the strength to do. It gives you, it empowers you, it gives you the strength to do what God told you that you could do so. But when you don't do it, then what happens? You deceive yourself. You deceive yourself. So when you read and hear the living bread. Just do what it says.
Speaker 1:I mean you read Ephesians 5 too, and be you followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. So walk in love. The word followers there it means imitators. You're an imitator of God. Be an imitator, love like God loves. God so loved the world, even before the world loved him. He so loved you, even we didn't know he existed. He sent Christ to die for you while we were yet sinners. How else can you love the world if you can't love the sinner? Unless you get into the agape love. If you stick with just the natural food, the manna, the food this world serves, you're never going to love the sinner enough to tell them about Jesus. You're never going to love the sinner enough to pull out of your pocket money to send somebody to go preach to them. Are y'all with me now? So practice the word.
Speaker 1:Don't you know Philippians 4, 6, don't fret, fret not about anything. Don't fret about anything, don't fret. I like what the message Bible says Don't worry about anything, Pray about everything. Brother Hagin said he came across that verse. And God, I can't even be saved. I worry all the time. I worry in the middle of the night. I worry about everything I can't be saved.
Speaker 1:And so he, he said well, you know the word says to do it, you can do it. You can't do it on your in your own strength. You know he had. He had to kind of teach brother Hagin how not to worry. So he, he learned how to cast his care one time, once and for all, upon the Lord. 1 Peter, chapter 5, casting all your care on him, for he cares for you. Wouldn't you do that every day? No, you do it one time in your life and then, whenever you're tempted to worry, say, oh no, I'm not worrying about that, I've cast my care a long time ago. I cast the whole of my care on the Lord. I don't worry about a thing. If there's something that rises up that I am concerned about, I pray about it with thanksgiving Hallelujah. I let my request be made known unto God. He takes care of it in grand style. I don't worry about a thing.
Speaker 1:Practice the word Number three. Put the word first place. It's your default position. The first place you look, the first place you consult to look for answers, is the Bible. If you're looking for answers, you don't go to Google, you don't go to. You know you don't go to some expert, you go to God, you go to God's word. Know you don't go to some expert, you go to God, you go to God's word.
Speaker 1:Years ago, I was facing a crisis in my business, uh and, and it came because I had ignored the witness. But I didn't know that at the time. I mean I just didn't know. I mean, later the Lord gave me, uh, an act, you know, a revelation of where I could look back on that decision I made that hurt me so bad financially and my family, and without me being condemned over it. And he showed me the very moment that I ignored the witness of the spirit. I made a carnal decision in my business and it cost me for 10 years. It put me down a road for 10 years and I didn't get back on track till this church started.
Speaker 1:Is y'all with me now? I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but that's how important these decisions are sometimes that we make. And when you're not eating the living bread, when you know your default position is not to go to the Word and go to the Spirit. First I went to a man that I respected, guy, that I knew pretty well, rich guy, he was a Christian too, and he gave me the worst advice you could ever get, and I followed his advice Instead of going to the Lord and saying, lord, I have gummed everything up. What do I do now? I mean, I just didn't pray enough, I didn't go, I didn't seek his face, I sought the counsel of a person that's dangerous. I don't care, I don't care how holy they are. I don't care how holy they are, I don't care how good they are. I mean, they're still a man. You know you need to have that kind of access, and you do. I said you do so.
Speaker 1:Put the word first place.
Speaker 1:It's your default position, your first place to look for answers.
Speaker 1:Act like the Bible is true. Act like the Bible is true. Act like the Bible is true. The advice he gave me was a complete wrong and I had to learn that hardly. I think about the millionaire. Somebody said, hey, how in the world did you make your millions of dollars? How did you go about doing that? He said good decisions. Well, how did you learn how to make good decisions? Bad decisions, it's not the best way, but it is a way and you know, since I learned from my bad decisions, maybe you won't have to make the same ones. Amen, all right.
Speaker 1:So meditate in the word, practice the Word, put the Word first and then finally, obey your spirit. Obey your spirit because once you feed your spirit, your spirit becomes more authoritative. Your spirit, you're able to identify the witness of the spirit more readily. You're able to know the mind of the Lord more readily. When your spirit is strong and influential. When your spirit is malnourished, its voice is weak. What is the voice of the spirit? It's the conscience, the witness of the spirit. You know it can't send the signal strong enough for you to recognize it. It's sending it, but it's not strong. Why? Because it's malnourished. It hasn't been fed the living word. Are y'all, are y'all getting this? So as you grow and develop your spirit, your spirit becomes more authoritative and reliable as your guide. You will recognize the witness more readily. You will overcome the tendency to simply obey carnal impulses and human reasoning. Amen, did this help anybody today? The living bread. Come on, lift your hands and receive. Praise God, everybody say I'm partaking of the living bread. Hallelujah, glory to God.