Recordings → [TV stuff {5}]
A recording of a radio broadcast. Most likely recorded from KNOF FM in St. Paul on 20 March 1996.
Discs → MD123 → [TV stuff {5}]
Transcription
(Gospel truth. This week we've begun a brand new series talking about blessings and miracles. Which would you rather have? Well, you know if I was to set a door up in front of you today, and if I had two doors up there, and one door was named miracles, and the other door had the title blessings on it and I said you could have either one of these, which would you rather have? Did you know most Christians would go for the miracle door? I mean we want something supernatural. And certainly there are times when all of us need the supernatural intervention of God in our life. Usually it's in crisis situations. And so there's times when all of us need miracles. But what I'm trying to establish is that actually receiving from God through a blessing is God's better way. That's God's highest way for us. And that may not relate to some people, but as we go through this this month I believe that if you can receive the things that I'm sharing right here it will totally change your life. It has changed mine and made a huge difference in my attitude towards receiving from the lord. Let me illustrate this through some scriptures. In Exodus chapter 16 we find the example where the Lord first gave manna to the children of Israel. Now the story behind this is that the children of Israel had been slaves in the land of Egypt. And God sent Moses there, and through a series of miracles -- 10 miracles where you know the water was turned into blood and all of these miraculous things happened. The first born in Egypt was killed. All of these things. The children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. But then they were going through the desert on their way to the promised land. And in this situation they ran out of water. God miraculously supplied their need for water. And then here in the 16th chapter of the book of Exodus is where God met the children of Israel's need for food. And the way he did it was he literally gave them manna, which was just little tiny things about the size of a seed. It tasted like wafers with honey on it is what the scripture says. And for forty years God supplied the children of Israel's need through manna. And let me read this to you out of Exodus chapter 16 in verse 13. It says it came to pass that at evening the quails came up and covered the camp and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up behold upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing. As small as [?] on the ground and when the children of Israel saw it they said to another it is manna. And the word manna means "what is it." For they wished not what it was, and Moses said to them this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. And then the Lord miraculously kept this manna coming every single day except the sabbath. Six days out of the week, the manna would be there and the children of Israel had to go out and gather it. Now this was a miracle. This was not just normal. You know I actually heard a person one time trying to explain this manna away as that it was the secretion of a beetle that dwelled in the desert there. And what they did was actually go out and eat this secretion of a beetle, and that's the way that God did it. They tried to explain away the supernatural part of it. But I tell you, you can not explain this away. It wasn't there before this intervention. I mean, God didn't just send these beetles. It was supernatural. And to prove that, see, it was only there six days out of the week. And the people had to go out and gather an exact amount. They had this little container that was called an omer. And when they gathered an omer per person, well then they had exactly enough to meet their needs and to satisfy them. And if they got any more than that and tried to save some up for the next day, just in case they weren't sure that God was gonna have food for the next day, well then the manna that they had gathered would breed worms and it would begin to stink. It would putrify and they couldn't eat it. But on the sixth day of every week, which was the day before the sabbath, on that day God would tell them to go out and gather two omers of manna per each person. And on that day only they could keep twice as much. They could eat half of it and save the other half for the next day. -- was going on here. I mean, there was an entire generation that grew up and they had never experienced anything except manna. They had never seen anybody go out and plant crops. They had never seen anybody harvest crops. They had never had to work to get their food. All they had to do was just go out each morning and just gather the manna that was round about the camp. And the people who entered into the promised land, that's the way that they grew up. They never had known it any other way. So basically these people had grown up under a miracle mentality. They just expected God to supernaturally meet their needs with no effort on their part. Now look over in Joshua chapter 5. Now, what we're doing is contrasting a miracle and a blessing. In Joshua chapter 5 it talks about the children of Israel when they entered into the promised land. And in Joshua chapter 5 verse 10 it says and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month and even --)