Angels Food

Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. (Joshua 5:12)

Do you realise there was a generation of Israelites born in the wilderness that knew nothing of agriculture? A generation of people who thought it was perfectly normal to collect their food at their doorstep? They experienced the greatest feeding miracle of human history. This miracle lasted 40 years. 

But one morning, they would step outside their tent to gather manna and find nothing but sand! Can’t you imagine their thoughts? “Lord, what’s wrong? What sin did we commit that has prevented the manna”? But you see, God does nothing without purpose.

Because the desert is barren, uncultivated land, Israel needed God’s special attention during their 40-year journey through it. But Canaan wasn’t a wasteland; its soil was fertile, and the time of God’s desert supply was over. God stopped the manna to mature Israel and force them to learn the laws of agriculture.

Imagine a generation that never planted a seed. All they knew was manna at the doorstep. Now, suddenly, they had to learn:

The wilderness trained their obedience.

But Canaan demanded faithfulness and stewardship.

The Lord will give you manna when you are in the desert, and the only way you can make it is by His supernatural supply. But the Lord won’t typically provide manna when you live on fertile land! 

He expects you to employ the laws of sowing and reaping! That means the manna (God’s provision) stops because the Lord is asking us to move to a higher dimension of living. Like Israel, the Lord wants us to move out of the desert and into the Promised Land.

Let me show you how Lord Jesus taught this principle to His Apostles. When Jesus ministered on earth for 3½ years, He provided for His Apostles in every way:

During that time, He provided lodging and made certain their expenses were paid.

When it was time to eat, He multiplied the bread and fish and fed the multitudes.

When it was time to file tax returns, He told Simon Peter where to fish out the money.

When the storm raged against their boat, Jesus calmed it with the simple words, “Peace, be still.”

God deals with many areas of our lives this way.

A new believer comes to the Lord; you see them testifying every now and then, and that’s great.

Their prayers as easy as scooping up manna, but then, after some time, for no apparent reason, their success in prayer diminished? Or, maybe for a season, you flowed in a spiritual gift, but for some unknown reason, the manifestation was curtailed?

Do you know why this happens? Because God designed human life to mature! And during the spiritual developmental process, Christians “grow in grace” by seeking, pursuing, and learning God’s ways. This is the place where the Lord wants us to grow in the Word, grow in prayer, and grow in the principles of the Word of God.

Spiritual maturity means moving from being spoon-fed to sowing and reaping. It means God no longer has to do it all for you—He now does it with you.

Smith Wigglesworth launched out in ministry in his fifties and had incredible miracles. But after a season of ministry, Wigglesworth said the miracles stopped. And he was mystified. I’m sure anybody would be mystified as to why, after a series of miracles, they suddenly disappeared. But Wigglesworth prayed, and the Lord showed him what happened. When Wigglesworth began his ministry, he said God gave him “miracles on credit,” because he didn’t understand the principles of the kingdom. He was spiritually unlearned. But as time passed, the healings stopped because God wanted Wigglesworth to search for the secrets of the kingdom. And as he studied Christ’s miracles from the four Gospels, he discovered how Jesus dealt with the sick. And when He implemented Christ’s principles, the miracles reappeared in astounding fashion.