Eat the Whole Loaf

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EAT THE WHOLE LOAF, NOT JUST THE CRUMBS

Matthew 7:7-11

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

What man will give his son a stone who is hungry and asking for bread? Would he say,"I know you need your supper, but here, take this stone and chew on it for a while instead. It will really make a man out of you." Or maybe an earthly father would tell his son, "I know a fish would make a nice meal, but here's a snake in its place...let it bite you and toughen you up, instead of eating the fish. It will grow hair on your chest." No!! A good father is going to meet his son's needs.

Sometimes the church today communicates this same poor father image of God, and teaches us that God gives us lemons, instead of what we need, so we should just make lemonade. Or that God wants us sick and poor so He can teach us something. If that is what God desires, then let's all be as sick and poor as we can possibly be and REALLY please Him. Let's not go to the doctor to get help and don't try to increase our finances.

How do people give stones and serpents? When someone is struggling to believe for something, they discourage them from faith in the Lord. Some will say that if it was God's will to heal them then they would be well.

Matthew 6:10 says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Jesus taught us to pray that way. We can look at what heaven is like to see what God's will for earth is like. Is there any sickness or poverty in heaven? Just because we do not see something accomplished does not mean that it is not God's will. Many aspects of God's will are not being manifest in the earth today.

I Timothy 2:3-4 says "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

But not everyone is being saved, even though it is clearly God's will for all men to be saved. Jesus died on a cross because Father God desires people to be saved. God also hates divorce. It is not His will. But are people getting divorced? God's will being enforced on the earth is dependant upon people making good choices according to His will. Making choices according to His will involves love and faith. Real faith always has action associated with it, always.

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26.

Faith keeps putting a demand on God and keeps making right choices.

Matthew 15:21-28"Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.' But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, 'Send her away, for she cried out after us.' But He answered and said, 'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, help me!' But He answered and said, 'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.' And she cried, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered and said to her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour."

A dog to a Jew was someone who stood outside the faith, a Gentile. The children's bread, healing, was only for the children of Abraham. Jesus says that by her great faith she becomes a Jew and partakes of that bread.

John 6:32-33"Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you. Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world'".

Jesus is the Bread of Life. Anyone who eats of Him will be healed and delivered. To eat the bread of heaven, it does not matter where you come from or what your profession is. What matters is: Who's your Daddy?

Psalm 23:3 says that He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Why do sheep lie down? Because they have eaten and they are full. In verse 5 we have a table prepared before us in the presence of our enemies. That means here on earth. We will not have enemies in heaven. Sometimes our enemies are things and people inadvertently distracting us from true faith. They become your friendly enemy at the time you are going through something, because they are not reflecting a good father. You might hear an enemy say, "I know you need a healing, but here's a rock of unbelief. Here's a snake - a little poison won't hurt you." Or, "How can you confess that? You look sick to me....You might never recover - just live with it." But even in the midst of all that negativism the Lord has prepared a table with the children's bread as one of the entrees. Let's not settle for crumbs, which are just enough to heal, but let's get a whole slice or two, slathered with Holy Ghost butter and honey, while we are sitting at His table.

The Father's table is communion and Jesus is the bread and wine. Our Father is good. If you ask Him for healing he is not going to tell you to suffer a little longer. He's is not going to give you a stone or a snake. If there is a reason you are not healed, He will tell you why. Then He will tell you it is His will to heal you and He gives His authority to heal you and to prosper you. You can and should use and exert His authority.