Supernatural Sustenance

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

John 6:47-51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “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.”

It’s not the food of this world that sustains us, believers.

Being “in Christ”, we can be and should be sustained by Him.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

We should look to Him, and His food, to fill us up.

Physical food will be provided, when necessary, by our Heavenly Father.

He promises to take care of His children!

Matt 6:25-34 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We must give that a permanent place in our souls, so we can rightly focus on His mission for us; namely the “Great Commission” to reach out and save the lost. Mt 28:18-20

And we realize that “only one thing is necessary” as we go forward in His plan for our lives, Lk 10:42, and that is the supernatural Word of God, who is Jesus Himself. Jn 1:1,14

Luke 10:38-42 Now as they were traveling along, He (Jesus) entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.

40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;

42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

It’s being seated at the Lord’s feet in our souls that counts; that even feeds us.

Today, as has always been, we are seated at His feet when we humble ourselves before His Word.

And that doesn’t mean learning His Word while being occupied by the details of life, as Martha was.

It means dedicated time. It means putting everything else aside for a time and giving His Word 100% attention.

Humility implies surrender and submission. And when we take in the Word of God in a humble way, He will pour out His grace on us. Prov 15:33, Luk 10:42, Jas 4:6, 1Pe 5:5

James 4:6-7 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

Prov 15:33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, And before honor comes humility.

When we live life this way, realizing that really only one thing is necessary, we will be strengthened by His Word, and set free at the same time.

After all, what did Jesus look to as HIS food when He was on earth in the flesh??

In the desert, before being tempted by the devil, He fasted for 40 days.

The Word of God actually sustained Him all that time.

And then the devil tempted Him to receive physical food in a compromising way, before it was time.

Matt 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 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.'”

Jesus didn’t “need” the world’s solutions to His hunger.

Was He hungry?? YES! Can you imagine His situation?!

Don’t forget, He became a man in the flesh like you and I. You can imagine His physical hunger.

But, He was sustained by the Word of God. It satisfied Him. He was content with the Word alone.
When at the well with the Samaritan woman, Jesus was so focused and fulfilled by doing His Father’s will and work that He was satisfied by that, even physically sustained.

This is supernatural, or course. And physical food became an afterthought.
John 4:5-14 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

There we see the Lord possesses eternal, everlasting life and sustenance.

Now jump forward to vs. 31.

John 4:31-38 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

The Lord tells us He was sustained and given energy by doing the Fathers’ will and work.

Usually man receives energy by TAKING IN FOOD, but He received energy by PUTTING OUT EFFORT for God’s glory.

He is speaking again of supernatural, spiritual things… beyond the limits of the flesh.

And what was the “will” and “work” that was our Lord’s food??

35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

It was the “fruit” of the spiritual harvest of souls that sustained our Lord.

And so this work, doing the will of Him who sent us, can be our sustenance and even our joy.
John 15:7-11 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Jesus is saying that our obedience to His Word… abiding in His love and obeying His commands (such as the Great Commission)… can give us His joy, which makes our souls “full”.

This attitude, this perspective, is a daily decision to be made in each of our hearts. Will we hold onto this perspective or let it go?

It’s our daily choice Who and what we look to for strength and satisfaction.

The world has a myriad of counterfeits, but there’s only one true joy, and it comes from following our Lord and His Word.

Our Father will give us enough physical food when we need it, our job is to do the will of He who sent us.
We are to concern ourselves with the Father’s business, seeking and saving the lost, and reaping the harvest of souls awaiting our loving outreach.

And in that, we will find joy and sustenance.

Our food is doing “the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34
Let the Bread of Life sustain you, each and every day, by the grace and power of our God!