THE DANGER OF PROVISION TO CAUSE DISTRACTION

John 6v26: Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus knew that there were those in the world that would gladly come to Him if their natural hunger could be satisfied but that's not what the focus of His ministry was about. For that very reason, at this point in His ministry, He STOPPED providing for that hunger, in order to point them to the source of spiritual bread (Himself!). Already, even after just ONE INSTANCE of provision they had begun to lose sight of Jesus and become distracted! They had begun to believe that the power of God and testimony of Jesus resided only in what He did to naturally sustain them. They were even more interested in being entertained and blown away by the miraculous ("What sign then will you give...?') than simply following the Lamb. Even as Christians, we are often in danger of continuing to follow the Lord only if He feeds us and satisfies our natural hunger, and so He is having to continually remind us that that is not what He came for, and that He is our provision. And we too continue to ask Jesus for a sign of provision in order that we might continue to trust in Him (and first and foremost I'm putting myself in those categories!). And so today, as individual Christians, and as the Church at large, our representation of the Lord, His message and His truth must be exactly the same. While food isn't wrong, and natural provision isn't wrong either, Jesus made sure that such things were backgrounded in order to forefront what His very heart was about and what the very goodness and greatness of God was really about. Not only was it backgrounded, but to this crowd it was stopped! We are not to seek Christ and attend and be involved in His Church because of what is provided for us in the natural, but only the spiritual. The natural provision, if it goes beyond needful, will always have the tendency and even strong power- because of the weakness of our natures- to distract us from the true bread of life. 

We too, myself included, have been too involved with the food and entertainment of this life to try and prop us up and keep us strong in our walk with the Lord (an oxymoron I know), but there comes a time where the Lord stops the provision and life that we've gotten from such things in order to point us back to Himself. This is a gruelling experience, as often we're not even aware this has been going on, but thanks be to God that He is gracious and patient with us! 

Also, today we see much of the Church tragically dressing and filling their buildings, programs, meetings and gatherings with as much natural provision as possible; foods, feasts, festivals, shows, carnivals, performances and everything technological under the sun to enhance for the eye what God came to do for the inner man by His Spirit. Today, whether the intention is there or not, many of our leaders and ministers are sadly misguided, for they are distracting the people of God with what Jesus never wanted to distract His people with, and trying to make the following of the Lord as attractive as possible by such things. Despite how the truth of God is presented, it is never promised anywhere in the Word that spiritual provision goes hand in hand with physical provision, in fact Jesus said that often times we would have to deny ourselves (deny what we want and desire). Wherever you look in the New Testament, and whenever Jesus spoke, try and find 1 place where what He spoke about didn't have at its centre and focus, the spiritual, rather than the physical. Even when He did speak about provision, He said, 'SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD.' Even when He did speak about provision, He said that such things would be ADDED UNTO US- for the very reason that He didn't want us seeking after such things! He said that, THE PAGANS SEEK AFTER THESE THINGS (he was even just talking about the needful things here! amazing!). 

Many don't think what the Church has done in these ways has been detrimental at all, rather beneficial! But such thinking just thinks along purely natural lines, and takes no notice of our great weakness, and what the enemy does in order to deceive us; namely to satisfy the flesh in order to starve and deceive the spirit! and to distract us from Jesus and what He is speaking by the Spirit in the present. Watch out for those that would deceive us in misrepresenting our Lord and His desires for us as they shouldn't!

So, how do we and the Church know whether our following is sincere? Well, their comes a point where Jesus stops the natural provision of yesterday in order to point us to the spiritual provision of Himself today. I've found just how weak and often insincere my walk has been without such provision, even till this very day, and also realised (albeit often begrudgingly) and still am reminded by the Lord today, that whether I like to accept it or not, His Spiritual provision is enough for me. Yes, it's hard to accept, it's hard even to believe. Yes, it's not what our flesh wants. Or course our flesh and natural man loves provision, parties, carnivals and shows for our walk and for the meeting place of the Church of God, why wouldn't it? Our flesh revels in that which merely excites and thrills, in that which emotionally satisfies and in that which serves the pride of life (what God hates!) and the desire of the eyes, but God said that we must deny such things for ourselves (again, very difficult, as our flesh tries every which way to justify to ourselves how we deserve fulfilment in this way). Yes, as Christians and the Church of God we fight against it, and we fail in denying ourselves when the going gets tough. But we mustn't give up the fight! All the world is telling us that we are justified in wanting to satisfy ourselves and also to set up kingdoms on earth for our King, but His Kingdom isn't of this world! Furthermore, in all our supposed great 'spiritual' understanding (and all the liberty that supposedly God has allowed us to have because of His grace in doing what we want with His Church) have decided that such things can live in unison and even complement each other in going about our service to the Lord. But if we believe such things, we are GROSSLY mistaken. And at some point in time, but for the grace of God, we'll find out just how much and just how much that will cost us.

Father, give us all the grace to rid ourselves of that distraction that comes, not from the provision, but from the corruptness of our fallen nature to follow Christ because of such provision. May you Lord stop all that provision that masquerades as service for God but instead is actually designed to satisfy our stomachs at the cost of the truth. May you Lord stop those things that are distracting and deceiving rather than encouraging us to walk in truth and to follow the Lamb where He is going, not where we want to go. Amen.