BREAD OF LIFE

I want you to think about a time when you were really hungry.   How did you know you were hungry?   Why were you hungry?   Your physical body requires food to grow and be healthy, you can't live without it.

Now think about a time when you were spiritually hungry.   How did you know you were spiritually hungry?   Why were you spiritually hungry?   In the same way your physical body requires food so does your spirit require food to grow and be healthy.   The difference is that your physical body can't go on without food but your spirit can.   You can live in a state of malnutrition spiritually and many people do.   This type of person will never be satisfied.

JOHN 6:32-36 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven, My Father did.   And now He offers you the true bread from heaven.   The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”   “Sir, they said, “ give us that bread every day.”   Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life.   Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.”

A lot of people have learned about God, but have not allowed Him to satisfy them.   God made you with a place inside of you that only He can fill.   Why do some wealthy people commit suicide?   They have tried all else to fill the God shaped hole in their heart.   Have you ever known someone who got saved and their addiction just went away?   When they put God in His rightful place their hunger was satisfied and the desire for the other things was no longer there.   Some people have more of a struggle than that, but I have seen this happen.  

Advertisers know how to make your mouth water for their product by telling and showing you how wonderful it is and how much you need it.   In order to fill the hunger they have caused in you, you have to experience their product for yourself.   If I am craving chocolate, nothing else will hit the spot.

You have to enter in and experience God for yourself.   You have to step out into the water or you can't go swimming.   Taste and see that the Lord is good.   He is the bread that satisfies, but it requires more than just head knowledge of Him.   A personal relationship with Jesus became available when He paid the price for you sins.   The very ones who hung Jesus on the cross had head knowledge of God.   This is when God did away with the religious form of the law, and gave a new covenant for us to enter into a personal relationship with Him for ourselves.

When you come in contact with the BREAD OF LIFE HIMSELF, your spirit comes alive, but if your spirit man is not properly and consistently fed, it turns into an experience that you once had that no longer satisfies you.   There is a battle between your spirit and your flesh.   If your flesh wins the battle your spirit man suffers for it.  

Galatians 5:16-24 lists the lusts of the flesh and fruit of the spirit, then it goes on to tell us to walk in the spirit so we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.   These are contrary one to the other.  

We are made up of spirit, soul and body, in that order.   We get it mixed up when we put out body first.   The world says, body, soul and spirit.   Your spirit is what lives on when you die, so feeding it is very important.

Hebrews 2:1 We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

We end up spiritually hungry when we let the things of God slip in our lives.   It's not the responsibility of anyone else to feed us spiritually.   Your Pastor's job is to help form and strengthen your beliefs.   You have to feed yourself.   When some people leave their church they use the excuse that they are not being fed.   I have heard it said that if you are old enough to know you are hungry, you are old enough to feed yourself.

If the only spiritual food you get is on Sunday morning, your spirit will dry up and starve, just as your physical body would if you only fed it one meal a week.

We need more from God than what He has spoken to someone else.   Going after your own spiritual food opens the door for God to speak directly to you.   I have heard many great sermons, but the words I remember the most are the times when God Himself has spoken directly to me.

Don't let your relationship and experiences with God become just an experience you once had.   He has so much more for you.

When we run into people we have gone to church with before, we always ask them where they are going to church now.   It‘s not a surprise anymore to hear them say, “oh, we aren't in church right now.”   For whatever reason they are letting the things of God slip in their life.   There is a good chance that they will end up slipping one step at a time back into the things of the flesh.   I have seen it happen over and over again.  

Psalms 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  

Having said the sinner's prayer will get you into heaven, but you can take hold of some heaven on earth by dwelling in the secret place right now.

Where do you turn when times get tough?   This is how you know whether Jesus is your bread of life or not.   You have to take personal possession of a relationship with God.   When Jesus becomes nourishment that you can't live without, He has become your bread of life.  

Hold on to the things of God as you would a life preserver in the middle of the ocean.   He is your life preserver, but He has given you the choice to hold on to Him or let go and be on your own.  

Are there areas of your life you need to rededicate to the Lord?   Have you let the things of God slip in your life?   Do you turn to Him as the sustaining power of your life?   Is He the one thing that you can not live without?

Sandra's Bio:

After years of serving as Director of the Women's ministry in her home church, Sandra and her husband John felt God leading them to move to Tulsa Oklahoma to attend Rhema Bible Training Center . After graduating in 2001, they moved back to the Dallas area. They have done some traveling ministry and teaching in a Bible School . They are members of World Ministry Fellowship of Plano Texas. Sandra feels that her calling is to equip women to know who they are in Christ and how to live out their full God given potential.

Sandra Hall may be reached at tylersmimi@gmail.com