Welcome to Chapter 4 of Part 7 of Arise and Shine. Today, Bettie and Anna are together introducing us to the free will offering of the hidden manna in Christ Revealed.
Offering Surrendered:
(Exodus 16:12-15) 12“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”13In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
Exodus 16:32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Keep an omer of manna for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'”
Hebrews 9: 3-4 (NLT) Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
Promise Fulfilled:
(John 6:32-35) 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
Do you see that? Jesus is our true bread from Heaven, the hidden manna promised in Revelations to those who overcome. Manna that was once kept in a golden jar inside the Holy of holies, a room only entered by the High Priest, is now ours to feast upon daily. For, even as we abide in Him, the nutrition we need flows through the true vine to us. It’s all so interconnected! He supplies our life, now hidden in Christ!
Have you also noticed that our struggles are only proof that God is doing something new in us: that He is taking us up on our invitation to be cleansed ever more? Have you seen how it is the revelation of God’s Word to us, through the Holy Spirit, that ever reminds us, through every attack sent our way, that we are in fact in the very epicenter of our God’s will for us?
In these fresh revelations of His Word, God shows us that the repeated attacks of the enemy are in fact purposed by Him for good: to daily train us to die to ourself and our understanding that we might arise ever more in Christ and His will for us.
Have you too noticed how our God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies? How He calls us to strive to enter into His Sabbath rest, to sit back down in Christ’s victory for us as the attacks come?
Yes, our God loves to open our eyes to see ourselves seated in the heavenly places with our Savior, at the right hand of the Father. He continually compels us, through the Holy Spirit’s promptings, to slow down and behold new gems waiting for us in His Word.
In that place of attack, as we choose to listen to Jesus and sit back down, He even recovers lost treasure for us. He brings to remembrance what our accuser tells us our God has long forgotten, but in fact never has. Jesus not only reminds us of our past steps toward Him in trust and our repeated decisions to enter into His suffering, but also that every one of these steps and decisions was born at the Cross. In His mercy still flowing for us today, as we are hemmed in on all sides, so that Christ’s glory alone may arise through us to draw all men unto Him.
Our God reminds us that He was with us, leading us through every painful surrender, and that His heart is filled with deep compassion for us even still. As new attacks trigger past trauma and wounding, He shows us that He is in fact only awaking us to and overtaking us with more of His goodness and mercy overflowing for us.
No, He is not ashamed of us in our struggles to trust Him that are so beautifully exposed through the fresh attacks that He might cover us in His grace. He reminds us that He is a God who is ever extending Himself toward us to shower us in His compassion and mercy. He reminds us that every fresh trigger is purposed to wake us up to the fullness of Christ living inside of us, as we shed the taunts of our accuser to run into the glorious plans and purposes of our God.
For, as we slow to commune with our Lord in prayer, our eyes open to see more and more of His beautiful masterpiece being woven in our midst. He reminds us that it is our slowing down that in fact enables us to recognize and join Him, as He sets more and more puzzle pieces into their chosen and appointed places before our eyes. Through it all, He reminds us that our pain has served and still is serving a beautiful purpose.
The enemy points us to all we have obediently surrendered into our God’s hands – as proof of God’s rejection of us. But, God trains us, through the Holy Spirit’s promptings, to slow down and hear HIS Word to us that we might resist the lies of the enemy, that he and his condemnation may flee from us.
Come slow and behold with us today, how even our illnesses and woundings are becoming God’s gift to us – gifts compelling us to leave the ninety-nine to go after the One. Behold Him with us today will you? Our King of Kings and LORD of Lords. For, He is arising in our midst to pick up and carry not just us, but every lost sheep – home. Isn’t He glorious?
Satan sends false narratives our way to convince us that we are far from our God, as pain and triggers of past trauma hit. Often he does so right after we have in fact been drawing ever nearer to our God and have invited Him to cleanse our hearts. But as those attacks come, our Savior sends out timely and healing Words for us. In the piercing, He invites us to humble ourselves beneath His mighty hand, to look back up and see His beautiful face reflected in our own.
Yes, the LORD of Lords from whom all families in heaven and on earth derive their name longs to reveal Himself present in our midst – through all our pain. He longs to reveal Himself as the hidden manna in our own lives and stories, and in the lives and stories of those around us. For, He has long been interceding for us all, through every wounding we have borne, that has in fact planted us smack bang in the center of our Heavenly Father’s will for us – a will to bind us all together in love, truth and mercy- in Himself.
He reminds us that every attack that pierces us, has in fact only been permitted to root us deeper in love. For as we are comforted by Christ’s Presence afresh, His victory arises in us and our fighting and fleeing urges melt away. The enemy’s fear-filled and divisive thoughts dissolve in our deeper knowing and understanding of Christ’s victory for us, of His compassion, grace, wholeness and peace.
Our eyes open to see His joining together of each one of us – the members of His beloved family – into a glorious whole. It’s then we can arise and thank God for everything – seeing Him present to us and our loved ones, where we never had before.
God keeps moving us through the seasons that He has planned for us. Even through pain or trials, His new will comes forth.
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Look at these beautiful word meanings from that passage. May they move our hearts afresh today:
tharséō (“emboldened to show courage”) refers to God bolstering the believer, empowering them with a bold inner-attitude (to be “of good courage”). For the believer, 2293 /tharséō (“showing boldness”) is the result of the Lord infusing His strength by His inworking of faith (“inbirthed persuasion,” 4102 /pístis). Showing this unflinching, bold courage means living out the inner confidence (inner bolstering) that is Spirit-produced.
And there again is that inner-working (like that glowing and new inner bark of the rainbow eucalyptus tree.) The very tree our friend Lisa and we were reminded of – a tree we had been drawn to long ago. Lisa wrote to us both saying:
“Yes! I thought of that tree too. I can’t find the email either, but I found this (source: https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the-week-rainbow-eucalyptus/) :
As rainbow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta) sheds its bark, it reveals a neon green inner layer. Over time, as this layer is exposed to air, it ages into different colors—bright reds, oranges, blues, pinks and purples. The different colors appear as different layers fall off, while other exposed areas begin aging. This process creates a spectacular visual, resembling a multi-colored crayon scratch drawing, covered with black crayon that is then scraped away to reveal the multi-colors underneath.
Lisa wrote: Maybe God does something like this in our lives at times, as he reveals more of himself … God is a creative artist!
Oh yes, He does reveal more and more of Himself – the hidden manna – to us. For, He is the Master Artist, ever at work in our midst, even in those moments we are blinded by our sin and our pain.
He just patiently waits for us to take ahold of His hand that we might join Him afresh in prayer to see what He sees: the hidden manna given to us. For, yes! We are daily overcomers in His Name.
As Andrew Murray reminds us in his book The Prayer Life: Perservering in Prayer (p.25):
Redemption is not granted to us a little at a time, or as something of which we may make use from time to time. It is given as fullness of grace stored up in the Lord Jesus, which may be enjoyed in new fellowship with Him every day. It is so necessary that this great truth should be driven home and fastened in our minds that I will mention it once more. Nothing can preserve you from carelessness or make it possible for you to continue in living, powerful prayer except a daily close fellowship with Jesus our Lord.
And in that new fellowship our eyes are opened to see the pillars of the Word of God – Jesus – not only as our strength and portion, but as our creative and loving craftsman. A craftsman, who rather than being in a rush, slowed to paint and weld together the tiniest of details into a beautiful whole to awe us with the mystery and majesty of His grace.
And now He invites us daily to slow and enter His Presence through the attacks that come, that we might not fear but rejoice, as we see His handiwork uncovered in our midst. That we might, again and again, overcome in His Name to receive that hidden manna of His living and active Word He has promised to us. The Living Word that ever reminds us that our King of Kings and LORD of Lords:
has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end
Perhaps, like us, there are moments when you feel that you don’t understand, that after all these years you’ve still learned so little. Like Jesus saying to Phillip and Thomas, when they asked where He was going, and to show them the Father. And Jesus replied, Have I been with you so long, and you still don’t know? Perhaps you too feel…. it’s like we have to re-learn the process in each new place. … give us this day our DAILY bread. If so, perhaps you’d like to join us today in prayer, as we prepare to share this chapter’s daily free will offerings of praise to our King.
Yes, Lord, we come to You for fresh Manna, Your Words to eat, to be nourished by You alone … to taste and to see Your goodness, Your beauty, here. Oh Lord, show us more again, in these new seasons, what it means to eat of You, to abide in You.
Recover our childlike delight and awe for Your mystery and majesty in this new season. Continually lead us to lay down the expectations of the world around us that we might see and take eat of Your hidden manna, and watch with great delight as You – our hope of glory – arise in our hearts and in our midst.
Open our eyes to Jesus – the Living Word arising in our midst – as we overcome in Your Name, again and again, through every attack. Remind us, again and again thatYou have only permitted the attacks to root and establish us in Your great love for us.
As we look back we can see Your victory for us, again and again. Oh how we praise You today! With Hannah, our hearts rejoice in You, LORD! For, even now in Your Word to us today, You oh LORD have made us strong again. We have an answer for our enemies; we rejoice because you have rescued us! Thank You, precious, precious Jesus! AMEN
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
“This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed-not a single detail missed-and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”
John 6: 35 – 40 MSG
Shalom Aleh 