Our Daily Bread

It wasn’t long after the disciples left the shore until they discovered that they didn’t have enough food to make it to the other side before they would get very hungry. As they talked about their troubles Jesus began to use the occasion to teach them a powerful lesson on trusting in Him to meet their needs.

Jesus said, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”

Oh how little we understand of the things of the Spirit! How little do we know of God! I don’t care how long we have served Him or how much we have studied, read and meditated upon His Word; we still don’t know anything about God. The more I study, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know and understand!

The disciples didn’t understand either. That helps me to feel a little better. After all they were face to face with Jesus, talking one on one with God! Should that make me feel any better? Of course not! WE have the same privilege if we will only use it and not ignore our privileges in Christ! We can talk to Jesus face to face. We can walk hand in hand with Him if we really want to! We just don’t want to bad enough.

I’ve heard it said, and it is so true, that anything we want in life or in the realm of the Spirit can only be attained or achieved if, “We have the Want To bad enough”!

The disciples thought that Jesus was talking about their lack of food when He was really talking of matters that were far more important than food for this mortal fleshly body.

Jesus was trying to teach the disciples, and us by proxy, that the bread that the Pharisees had was not bread at all but poison to the Spirit within.

The doctrines of the Pharisees included many traditions that had nothing whatsoever to do with salvation but only gave a form of religion with no power to deliver. They also embraced the beliefs of the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection. May of the Pharisees also embraced the teachings of the Herodians that taught that King Herod was the Messiah. They weren’t there to learn the truth. They were there to catch Jesus and trap Him and force Him to prove that He was the true Messiah. Jesus didn’t have the time to play their little games because He knew they wouldn’t believe not matter what He did and He would not make a public display just to satisfy their evil desires.

“ …And they reasoned among themselves, saying, it is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven. And he said unto them, how is it that ye do not understand?"”

Oh how foolish we are sometimes! Just like the disciples, we miss out on the greatest portion of what we are taught about the things of the Spirit because the flesh gets in the way.