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#354 Kingdom: Manna – No Preservatives Added


God gave them Manna from heaven to eat but God condemned “Left-Overs.”


Exo 16:16] “This is what the LORD has commanded, `Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’” [17] And the sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. [18] When they measured it with an omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat. [19] And Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” [20] But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. [21] And they gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would melt.


EX 16:31 And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey. [32] Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded, `Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” [33] And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept throughout your generations.” [34] As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony, to be kept. [35] And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan


John 6: 31] “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’” [32] Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. [33] “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” [34] They said therefore to Him, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.” [35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.


The Manna which fell out of heaven into the wilderness fed Israel for forty years and none lacked anything to eat. Jesus said that Moses didn’t supply that bread but His Father who is in Heaven. This natural bread ,manna, was just a type or foreshadowing of the True Bread, Christ, that came down out of heaven to give Life to the world. This natural bread, manna, no longer fed Israel AFTER they entered into the Land of Canaan.


Canaan is a type of the Kingdom. After we enter into the Kingdom dimension natural manna must stop and we must experience the reality of the True Bread From Heaven.


This food for the natural man supplied the need of the natural man but for the Spiritual Man there was a new provision that was designed to feed the spiritual man. This inner hunger can only be met by the reality of the True Manna which comes down out of heaven and gives life NOT just to Israel but to the whole world. That True Manna / Bread is The Living Word of God. Jesus said “I am that bread that came down out of heaven.”


John 6: 35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.


The True Bread is not a natural manna OR is it His natural flesh as they supposed but the reality of “bread” is now “Spirit and Life.” As the Bread of Life He came to give “LIFE” to the world. Those that eat HIM shall never hunger. However, this “eating” is not an outward act of eating something naturally substantive outwardly. This Bread of Life is Inward and must be eaten inwardly by the new inner man. We saw that the new inner man has eyes, to see, ears, to hear, and now a mouth, to eat AND a new heart, to understand!


The response of the natural man either then or now is always; “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Eating a wafer, or bread or a roll during the Lord’s Table by the natural man will hardly fulfill John 6, as is popularly taught.


John 6: 53] Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.


The natural man will immediately conceptualize this statement and begin to think in natural terms. The natural man will reason, the Son of Man was Jesus who was born of Mary, therefore, somehow we must eat Him. Why don’t we get some natural bread and call this His flesh. Then how will we drink His Blood? Well, didn’t Jesus refer to the cup of wine as His blood of the Covenant? Oc course! Then all He was talking about was the Lord’s Table!


This natural man is certainly active today under the New Covenant. The natural man is always looking for something natural to eat because that is ALL that he can digest. The Spiritual man also has a big problem because he cannot digest natural things. This is why, in many meetings, the natural man goes away full and encouraged but the Spiritual man is still starving when he leaves. The spiritual man is crying out “Is this all there is?” ONLY Christ, Himself, the Living and Abiding Word of God, can feed the Spiritual man and satisfy his hunger.


The natural man is primarily concerned with doctrine and order and structure. All scripture is conceptualized as doctrine to be rationalized and put into order. If a doctrine is preached that the natural man can agree with he goes away full and satisfied. At the same time the new spiritual man is receiving nothing except nice words that are true but just not edible.


1PE 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, [2] like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, [3] if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.


Some preachers take this scripture as a commandment to always give milk every Sunday. This is good for the new born babies but it is not good for those who have been taken from the breast.


ISA 28:9 “To whom would He teach knowledge? And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? [10] “For He says, `Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’” [11] Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, [12] He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose [or rest ],” but they would not listen


HE, The Word Himself, will teach knowledge and interpret and explain the message BUT NOT to those who are still only able to receive milk.


We were in a meeting several years ago when a woman was still nursing her child when he was 3 ½ years old and it created a scandal. Many thought this amounted to child abuse and preventing to child from living a normal life. In the natural there was some wisdom expressed . However, we see this same scandal every Sunday in the church and the congregation discerns nothing amiss. Why? Because the natural man just checks for accuracy and not for spiritual content or food for the spiritual man.


The Manna would only stay eatable for one day except on Saturday but the maximum the Manna could be eaten was on the second day but this was not the normal Day because this was ONLY on Sabbath. Regularly on the second day the Manna turned to worms, got rancid, it became uneatable and had to be thrown out.


Today we see some “ministers” just repeating what someone else has said in their assembly. We purchase a book like “The Purpose Driven Life” and thousands repeat the message around the world. Since this is only milk, it seems to work OK and everyone gets excited because they think it is fresh manna. No! This Manna was gathered by Rick Warren and distributed to the church by the milk man { minister} several days later. Some of it had been frozen for months but it was thawed out and appeared to be fresh milk.


From these scriptures in Exodus we learn that God puts NO Preservatives in the Manna and that He hates left-overs. The ONLY MEAT that is available to the more mature person is THE LIVING AND ABIDING WORD OF GOD, HIMSELF. This is The True Manna that has come down out of heaven from God to give LIFE. Each responsible person is challenged to gather the fresh manna for himself and his household each morning.[ Not a natural morning but a spiritual morning.]


Why this arrangement? Israel had to trust God and obey each day. If they were in unbelief they would horde the manna one day just in case God didn’t provide the next day. God proved His faithfulness by never missing sending the Manna each morning. Israel’s faith was supposed to grow every morning when they went out and found Manna. They also found God to be completely faithful to provide. Now, this is an example for us!


I used to carry the Tabernacle of Moses and the Map of Israel coming out of Egypt to every meeting, just in case God didn’t show up, because I could always bring a message from the Tabernacle or the Map. I would panic if I didn’t have a good message beforehand. Why? I was in unbelief because I didn’t know if God would provide food for every meeting. Most of the time I didn’t just share the Manna God had given to me that day and sit down but gathered up all the left-overs I could find to fill in an hour message. Then I learned that if we trust God He will supply True Manna during the meeting, as we gather fresh Manna with the congregation. As with Israel, so also with the church! Some in the congregation are always complaining about this terrible Manna. I have been in many meetings when I was generally leading that group of complainers! I soon realized that this Manna that was being served was just left-overs and was full of worms. There was nothing wrong with the manna when it originally fell from heaven. However, the next time the old manna was served it had bred worms, was rancid and was no longer food for the spiritual man. However, the natural man in the pew checked the message for accuracy and rationalized that this was a good message full of truth.


Psalms 78:19 Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 22 Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in His salvation. 23 Yet He commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven; 24 And He rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven. 25 Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.


The Food of “Kings and the Priests” is different from the food of the average person in the pew. Still, God has called us all to make the transition to the “King’s Table” and not be limited by the food prepared for babies.


We should all know by now that participation in the Kingdom is not by some intellectual concept based upon a doctrine about the Kingdom. The Kingdom CAN BE conceptualized and preached by the natural man like any other doctrine. This presents a great danger because the natural man in the pew will think he has heard the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not about believing an intellectual concept about Kingdom truth or having an accurate doctrine about the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a matter of living by His Life, obedience to His Laws and living within the New Covenant provision.


We all know that real salvation is not just a matter of accepting accurate doctrine or agreeing with a certain truth about Jesus Christ but about being born from above and learning obedience within the inner life. In too many places proper doctrine becomes a war of concepts against other concepts and the accurate use of certain words like faith and works. All the time we may know accurate doctrines but have none of His Life at all. Like the manna, many of these doctrines began in life but soon turned into dogmas and then demanded acceptance and an outward obedience to a concept to be accepted into a certain group.


Dictionary} [dogma >noun an inflexible principle or set of principles laid down by an authority.]


We “conceptualize” today what was Life yesterday. Both “Spirit and Life” metamorphose into dead doctrines [ old Manna] that are without any of His Life. While the doctrine may be true it soon becomes “old manna” that is not food for the spiritual man. Many of our doctrines began in the spirit and very soon we begin to walk in the flesh and soon lose the Life of the doctrine but have no idea that this is NOT Christianity.


We may believe in Jesus by revelation and respond to an inner drawing by God and experience the primary salvation by faith. Then we read a verse about “works” and begin to attack any work as if that was our extreme enemy which jeopardizes our salvation. If we try to convince the natural man that works which follow AFTER a primary faith does not causes us to risk our salvation, the natural man can not receive this as truth because he has read a verse about works and grace. To the natural man any “works” that we do is a sure indication that we are not yet “saved!” The natural man CANNOT receive spiritual truth, not because he is stupid but simply because this Truth is of another realm that he CANNOT understand conceptually.


This is probably what has happened to the Lord’s Table and John 6. We can also trace natural understanding to other doctrines like the Baptism in Water and the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Messianic Movement is famous for taking natural things AS spiritual truth. The Book of Revelation is also a glaring example of interpreting the natural disasters by the natural mind and establishing a final “spiritual truth” for the natural man.


Just because a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit and speaks in tongues does not mean that the person is walking in the spirit or has any spiritual understanding at all. I was reading the testimony last week of a person that I once knew who was probably Charismatic. He had to move every two months because he couldn’t pay the rent because he felt God told him to quit his job. He was moving into a new rental property and saw the number 2440 on the mail box. He knew a verse about the 24 elders and God’s testing for 40 days so he put it all together and came up with an interpretation of what God was going to do while they were in this house. He saw the air conditioner with the name Payne in small letters and reasoned that the pain would be less than before. This kind of nonsense is common with the natural person AFTER they are baptized with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is wrong but that the inner man is still a baby.


The Book of Acts recorded the Acts or works of the Apostles. We know they sold property and held things in common and none lacked anything. This was a move of the Spirit of God manifesting His Life. Many have read that over these 2000 years and decided this was a Law to live by and made a doctrine out of it but it lacked His Life. Is it wrong for everybody to live together and hold everything in common so no one calls anything his own? Not then and maybe not today IF it is done by the Spirit so that it produces Life. Organizing something like that in the flesh is always a disaster very quickly. Just doing in the flesh what someone was successful doing in the Spirit is a common practice today. Rick Warren’s book proves the point. The “faith movement” is another example. The prophetic movement is another example along with the shepherding and discipleship movements. G 12 is a current example. What was successful in Columbia may be a disaster in Miami. Why? What began in the Spirit cannot be duplicated in the flesh or by natural ability.


If we get a revelation of Manna and how God fed Israel with the food of Angels we could then organize a campaign called “Gathering in the Manna from Heaven Harvest!” Then we could book the most popular speakers, send out hotel rates and registration fees and host an extravaganza with no life and no spirit. Still the natural man will come away totally blest and the spirit man will have received nothing. The natural man will return to his church group and want the pastor to book one of these “cutting edge truth conferences” about gathering manna. WHEN THE PASTOR CHECKS THIS OUT WITH OTHERS THAT ATTENDED HE GETS A MIXED TESTIMONY. Some will say it was a tremendous revelation and others will say it was as dead as last weeks roses. We think they must have been in different meetings. One person’s Manna is another person’s worms. The confusion is tremendous.


We were involved in the Shepherding and Discipleship Movements. We listened to the preaching, the teaching and the doctrines from scripture and determined that this is truly the Word of God. We visited Discipleship communities in Annarbor, Michigan and saw how it worked there in the Catholic Community. Then we taught discipleship and submission as a doctrine and we conceptualized this Bible truth but there was no Life just the mechanics or letter. Discipleship became natural people, doing natural things [ like picking up paper in the parking lot and cleaning toilets] to prove their submission to natural ministries. A rouge authority was created by the natural man FOR authority over other natural men and the system collapsed.


This was repeated in many places my many people of different denominations because the natural man is the same in any denomination. Someone feels the Holy Spirit say “No music today, just have the people share.” The announcement is made God is shutting down the music. A doctrine is formed and no music is allowed in the church until this day. But what if the Holy Spirit spoke the following week and said “ No preaching today, just have music.” We cannot obey because we have created a doctrine against music. Then we create a denomination known as “No Music Church.”


God speaks today what is for today and He speaks tomorrow what is for tomorrow! This is the difference with the Kingdom Of God. God insists upon having the preeminence in the church every day and to exercise His dominion and government daily. We have music or no music as He wills and then we don’t need a doctrine about music. Eunuch life, marriage of ministers, etc are similar examples that have become irrevocable doctrines in some fellowships. Why? Because it has become a fixed doctrine, having been ordained once by God for a certain time and a certain people. Now it is dead letter because the Life has gone from it.


Bob Mumford said he set out to build a New Testament church but couldn’t find any New Testament people. He had formed a concept of what a New Testament Church was supposed to be. The problem was he had to build with regular immature people.


One of the primary problems facing the ministries today is the extreme immaturity of the church people. The early church must have developed spiritual people very quickly. For example; Jesus developed 11 apostles in 3 ½ years but they still weren’t allowed to go out into the world and preach the Kingdom until after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. Like John the Baptist, they could go out and announce the Kingdom . Why? Because the apostles must become New Covenant People [walking in the spiritual realms] in order to be prepared to preach the Kingdom of God with Life and Power.


That which is born of the flesh preaching is still flesh but that which is born of Spirit preaching is Spirit. The people that get “converted” by argument and carnal persuasion are still flesh people that will demand proof of everything to satisfy the natural man. If we begin in the Spirit dimension, the growth into the Spirit realm and maturity is much quicker. Spiritual teaching of spiritual things to carnal people is still ineffective because they cannot understand spiritual truth. So what IS the point? Until the ministries begin to serve fresh manna the situation cannot change very much. Fresh manna means the Holy Spirit speaks today that which is FOR today. He will speak and reveal Jesus tomorrow in the truth that is FOR tomorrow. Every day has its own Manna.


The Bible doctrines were written by men moved by the Holy Spirit but the natural man is just not equipped to interpret the truth contained in the doctrine. Just reading a verse is not sufficient to gain the truth that ONLY comes by the Holy Spirit teaching us within.


Isa 28:9 “To whom would He teach knowledge? And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? ( obviously not!)


This maturity is not a matter of how long we have been “saved” but is defined by the growth and development of the inner man. If we still require milk it defines our maturity!


In the next restoration just living by established doctrines and our interpretation of those truths will not be sufficient to live, worship and minister in that dimension. The Holy Spirit [ In the Fulness of the Seven fold manifestations] must have preeminence and the dominion each day and accomplish His will in each life, each day, regardless of our doctrines.


Act 10:13 And a voice came to him, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”


Did God change His mind about eating unclean food? Not at all. However, the Holy Spirit must have the freedom to interpret the verses as He wills. Not only that but He may interpret the same verses differently later. This is now the New Covenant times and the Holy Spirit can interpret the Old Covenant as He pleases without our approval.


The doctrines generally establish what we accept as truth from what we know at the moment. The problem comes when we establish the doctrine as irrevocable because it was a word given us at one time in the history of the denomination. The doctrines become error when we can no longer hear what the Holy Spirit is saying today and how He is interpreting these verses today.


In the Kingdom Government of God, He will have the freedom to build His church any way He determines in that moment and according to what the Church needs to know and Live at that time.


In the next restoration the doctrines of the Outer Life must submit to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Inner Life. These things are far beyond anything that man can teach and will probably be in conflict with what the natural man is teaching at the moment. 1Jo 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.


It is my opinion that moving into this realm of the Holy Spirit teaching us in the Inner Man is not an option IF we are going to participate in the next restoration. Will this understanding be popular with the average minister? Not likely! Why? Because he has already decided what concepts he will accept and the doctrines he will live by and preach. Many will be regulated by the denomination they belong to and cannot change or they will lose their pension.