The Daily Portion
It’s been said that we are what we eat, meaning if we eat unhealthy foods we will in all probability become an unhealthy person. If, on the other hand, we eat that which is good and healthy for our bodies we will be a much healthier person. It’s a matter of discipline and consistency. The same can be said regarding what we feed our spirits. The health of our spiritual lives is determined upon that which we habitually partake of. Are we regularly feeding ourselves on the Bread of Life, or that which makes our hearts and minds obese and lethargic? In whose presence do we most often receive our daily meals, the Lord or the world? There is a wonderful picture of this that is revealed for us within the Old Testament.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem while his servants were besieging it. Israel had, once again, wandered from obedience to the Lord’s commands thereby removing their hedge of protection from their enemies. Jehoiachin, the young king of Judah, went out to Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of his reign and was taken captive. He was then led into a long period of exile in Babylon.
In the thirty-seventh year of his exile, the newly crowned king of Babylon, Evil-merodach (ev-eel' mer-o-dak'), the son of Nebuchadnezzar, released Jehoiachan from prison. It’s recorded that he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor above the other kings who were with him in Babylon. The Bible doesn’t tell us why this occurred but you have to wonder if the years of sitting in prison had softened the heart of Jehoiachan giving him favor from God with his enemies to the point where he would not only be released but receive his meals in the presence of the king of Babylon.
The Bible tells us that, after his release;
Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life; and for his allowance [“a meal, a ration of food”], a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life. (2 Kings 25:29-30/NASU)
Jehoiachan’s name means “Jehovah will establish.” This passage of Scripture is a picture of the way a Christian is established in Christ. The biblical definition of establish is, “to rise up, to stand up, to confirm, to be proven, to place firmly.” The establishing of the covenant, therefore, is a separation from the old way of life and a joining together with Christ in His new way. It is the proving of our faith, firmly establishing us in Him.
After turning to Christ with a repentant heart, we enter the sanctifying process of the Holy Spirit. This process of change removes our “prison clothes” that were gained when we were bound in sin without parole, to the garments of those who have been miraculously set free. The Bible guides us, explaining how to put off the garments of death and put on the righteous garment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul gave the following exhortation in regards to the putting off of our prison clothes and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ;
The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:12-14/NASU)
In this process of change we learn that we are not only commanded by God to do something, but that He helps us get dressed, so to speak, in our areas of weakness through the available power of the Holy Spirit.
The issue a Christian struggles with is in learning that just because something is available doesn’t mean that it is automatically going to happen. We still have the right of choice to accept or reject His power that is now available to us. It is in choosing to do God’s will that the prison clothes are removed, establishing the covenant within us, and we become free indeed (John 8:36) which is to be free in actuality rather than theory or doctrine.
In his letter to the church in Ephesus (also see Colossians 3:1-17), Paul spoke of this matter of laying aside the corrupt garments of our old way of life that held us in bondage and putting on what he referred to as “the new self.” He said;
…in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24/NASU)
As you can see we have been given a part, a responsibility of working together with the Holy Spirit in the changing of our spiritual garments.
Eating In The King’s Presence
After changing out of his prison clothes, Jehoiachan, we are told;
…had his meals [“bread, food”] in the king's presence regularly all the days of his life; and for his allowance [“a meal, a ration of food”], a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life. (2 Kings 25:29-30/NASU)
The Hebrew for portion is dabar (daw-baw'). It’s defined as “a word, a matter (as spoken of), a thing.” Our King has also set aside a daily ration of Himself, the Bread of Life, specifically for each one of His children. It is His specific life-sustaining word, His breath of life for every matter of our life, each and every day that will establish His Kingdom within us, and our trust in Him.
Leonard Ravenhill once said, “Men give advice; God gives guidance.” This is where the church often fails today. We are more willingly to receive the advice of men that is void of the Spirit than we are to wait upon the Lord for His wisdom. The lack of discernment among the Body regarding who is speaking is an indication of what we have been feeding on. The writer of Hebrews put it this way;
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14/NIV)
Our dullness in hearing, in particular the teaching about righteousness, is a result of our lack of putting into practice what we have already heard. Like a child, an infant in Christ is one who is still feeding on milk (i.e. elementary truths) rather than “solid food” that a mature person would feed on. As with an adult versus a child, as we mature we are more aware and discerning of that which we hear. You and I graduate to more “meatier” subjects as we put into practice what we have heard and, as a result, “grow up” in Christ.
The more we hear and disobey the harder it becomes to hear God’s voice. Disobedience creates separation from Him. Obviously, the closer you are to someone the easier it is to hear and understand what they’re saying. The prophet Isaiah declared;
…the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him... Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:18, 21/NIV)
If we truly desire to hear the word of the Lord as His sheep then we will obey His commands. Obedience results in unhindered intimacy which, in turn, results in our ability to hear with discernment.
Paul wrote that, according to the Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, the question is not if He is able to establish us in Himself (Romans 16:25), but are we willing? It is through our continued refusal to obey the Holy Spirit, thereby removing our prison garment of sin, that we, like Judas, excuse ourselves from the Lord’s table. As Solomon declared; A man will not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will not be moved. (Proverbs 12:3/NASU)
Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone
May we learn, with child like dependence, to pray every day as Jesus taught us, saying; Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). Luke records Jesus’ words as; Give us each day our daily bread (Luke 11:13/NASU) He will not reject our obedience to this humble prayer of dependency upon His daily guidance. You have to believe that He longs to converse with His children more than we do with Him.
Job declared;
My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. (Job 23:11-12/NIV)
Solomon, in confessing his heart's desire, pleaded with the Lord;
Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. (Proverbs 30:7-8/NIV)
The good news is the Lord never gives His children day old bread. It’s fresh and alive each and every day for the spiritual nourishment of all those who would come and dine with Him. The daily bread of His presence is able to give us His life all the days of our lives. This is the only way for us to become Christ’ “life-givers” unto others (the definition for Eve; see The Sleeping Bride Article, p.3). It is only through the victorious life of Christ that mankind is saved (John 1:4).
Jesus said;
I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh [“body”]. (John 6:48, 51/NASU)
To partake of Him is to partake of His life-giving body that is for the salvation of the world. This life is not only for us, but is to be given to others.
Jesus continued by saying;
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever. (John 6:57-58/NASU)
Right after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When He had fasted for forty days and nights He became hungry. It was then that the devil said to Him;
“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:3-4/NASU)
Jesus was quoting Moses who had warned the Israelites, right before entering the Promised Land, to remember the ways through which God had led them in their wilderness journey of forty years. He said;
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3/NASU)
Interestingly enough, both accounts of Jesus and the Israelites involved the wilderness and food as a test. The difference between them is that while Jesus remained faithful to the Father’s will rather than His human passions and desires (Galatians 5:23), the Israelites did not. Jesus stood firm, resisting the devil, and returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14).
Those among the the children of Israel who saw the power of God bring them out of Egypt, and then rebelled against His leading, died in the wilderness in the corrupt power of their own spirit, never entering the Promised Land. They reveal to us that the promise alone of entering in wasn’t enough. It would require their working together with the Lord by not receiving His grace shown toward them in vain, which means without the desired effect of conformity by the Spirit to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 6:1).
Removing The Daily Sacrifice/The Regular Allowance
We must understand that this lack of waiting before the Lord for our daily portion, our daily word from Him is an independent spirit that denies Jesus Christ as our Lord (i.e. lordship). It is the spirit of antichrist that desires to reign in the children of God, defiantly fighting against Christ’s lordship over us, grieving the Holy Spirit. In essence, what we are saying when we do not eat daily from the King’s table is that we can walk this life in Christ without Him. What we soon learn is the absolute truth that, apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
In the Bible we are told that after Daniel’s vision of a ram and a goat, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to give him understanding (Daniel 8). The ram had two horns which represented the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat with a large horn between his eyes that came from the west, he was told, represented the kingdom of Greece. When the male goat magnified himself after defeating the ram, his horn broke and four others grew in its place. Out of one of the four came another horn which started small but grew in power. I know there is a lot of symbolism in all this, but I want to point something out that I believe is significant to our discussion.
Daniel says that the small horn, as it grew in power, magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host of heaven. It then removed the daily sacrifice from Him and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. Paul refers to this same thing in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. He says in reference to the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction who opposes God and exalts himself that, he takes his seat in the temple of God [which, today, is within His people], displaying himself as being God. It is through the act of self-glorification within the hearts of God’s people that the place of His sanctuary within us is destroyed. We declare ourselves as lord when we choose to follow our will over God’s.
The Hebrew for daily sacrifice is the same word interpreted in English as the regular allowance in 2 Kings, chapter 25. This self-glorifying leader who presents himself in Daniel as God before the sheep is similar to many shepherds in the church today who lord their position over others. Their doctrines teach that a daily ration of the Bread of Life and our daily sacrifice unto God is really not necessary after turning to Christ for you to be saved/delivered from the evil that desires to master you. Like the Pharisees, their authority originates from themselves instead of God. They are destroying the sheep of His pasture.
The evidence of their rebellion is the apathy in the Body of Christ that now plagues us. There is little concern for the necessity of Christ’s life being daily infused within us so as to keep us from the danger of becoming “twice dead,” as Jude declares (Jude 12). They give a false sense of security to those who resist the Lord’s reign over their daily life, telling them they have “Peace, peace” when there is none. They keep saying to those who despise Me, “The Lord says: You will have peace.” And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, “No harm will come to you.” (Jeremiah 23:17/NIV) In other words, “You are secure in your salvation. You will be delivered from evil even though you walk in the stubbornness of your heart.” There will be much blood on their hands if they continue without repentance.
Our acceptance of falsehood has created a false sense of security within the majority of the church in America. There is very little understanding regarding the necessity of diligence in our Christian walk to make certain about His calling and choosing you (2 Peter 1:10). Many are no longer concerned about Peter’s exhortation; be diligent to be found by Him [Jesus Christ] in peace, spotless and blameless so as to be saved when the heavens and earth are destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:10-15). Reverent fear of God among His people is rare.
At the end of chapter eight Gabriel describes what the king, pictured by the small horn, will be like. He had started by telling Daniel that the vision he had been given pertained to the time of the end (Daniel 8:17). Gabriel stated that this self-centered egotistical king will destroy mighty men and the holy people. He continues by saying;
He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure [a false sense of security], he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power. (Daniel 8:25/NIV)
Judging by the great falling away from the truth in our day, we appear to be close to this time of the end Gabriel referred to. May we all examine ourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the true condition of our hearts.
The only way for the church to be built up in Christ is through the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:31). Instead of a demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that people’s faith might rest on God, their faith, more often than not, rests on the wisdom of men that are void of any life of God. The Lord will soon remove the hirelings that have led us into the spiritual wilderness we now find ourselves in, and will raise up shepherds with His heart. Currently, most are unknown because they do not attend man’s schools of dead religion and useless rituals. They may be unknown to man but the devil fears their appearing. He knows who speaks with the authority of God and who speaks on their own behalf.