Fellowship - Another Mark of Growth — Zac Poonen

So, three weeks ago, or two weeks ago, when I spoke here first, Sandeep had said that since you had completed five years to speak a little bit about spiritual growth. So that first Sunday, I spoke on humility, if you want to hear it, it's on the NCCF website.

Humility Before God as the Primary Mark of Growth

One mark of, one primary mark of spiritual growth is that you are growing in humility. Now, all of us can imagine that we are growing in humility. Imagination deceives us tremendously. And it's not even a question of whether other people in the church think we are humble.

The question is whether God thinks so or not. Humility is primarily before God. It says about Jesus in Philippians 2 and verse 8, He humbled himself to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

That is the classic statement on humility in the Bible. He humbled himself to be obedient. If I'm not obedient to God in my private life, all my humility is imagined. It's very easy to get a reputation for humility before people because it's a good thing to have.

It's fit for the trash can, that type of reputation. The only humility that's worth anything is that which is before God. And there's a way to know whether God thinks I'm humble or not. Because the Bible says God gives His grace only to the humble.

He doesn't give His grace to the proud. When a person is humble, He gets behind him and pushes him forward. The moment that person becomes proud, no matter how many years he's been humble, God turns around and comes to the front and starts pushing him back.

Now, a lot of people don't believe that. I believe it because I've seen it happen in different places. I've seen it happen in my own life and it's written in the scriptures. God resists the proud. And it doesn't matter who the proud person is.

Proud believer, proud unbeliever, it makes no difference. It's a law of God, 1 Peter 5 .5. God resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble. So if you want God to get behind you and push you forward, that's the meaning of giving grace.

To overcome sin, to overcome temptation, to overcome the devil, to overcome the problems we face in life. And everything, if we want to receive that grace, the secret is just humble yourself. That means God must see that I'm humble.

And the way we can know that is Romans 6 .14. Sin will not rule over you if you're under grace or if you're receiving grace. So it's a foolproof method. You can't make a mistake. And for me, for a number of years since I've got light on this, which is nearly 30 years I think, I have made it a law, a principle and something which I remember always.

That if I fall into the smallest sin in thought or in word, a rude word or an angry word, you can say it slipped out of my mouth, whatever it is, we can make 101 excuses. But sin is sin. In thought or word or action or in an attitude to another human being, especially to my fellow believers, or in a motive.

These are the areas we sin in, thought, word, deed, attitude and motive. If I sin and I know it, immediately I say to myself, I did not get grace at this time. Because God's laws are unchangeable. He always gives grace to the humble.

And when you're under grace, sin cannot rule over you. It is impossible. Sin rules over me when I don't get grace. And that's why the devil has succeeded in deceiving what I think is more than 90 of believers.

They don't know what grace means. The only understanding of grace is, I sin and God forgives me, I sin and God forgives me. It's a merry-go-round. I sin and I confess and God forgives me. I sin and I confess and God forgives me.

And the devil is happy to have Christians sitting on this merry-go-round all the time, never, never feeling that they've got to get off it. So, it's a law that's helped me tremendously in my life to recognize that every time I sin, it proves I did not get grace.

And I did not get grace because somewhere or the other, God saw me proud, thinking I'm somebody, maybe comparing myself with somebody else and thinking I'm more important or better or more spiritual or whatever it is, and exalted myself.

And God immediately turned around and pushed me back. You mean you say God can push back one of his children? Well, what to do? God hates pride. And it doesn't matter who it is, and it's a sickness. Even a mother will hate a sickness in a child and do everything to remove it.

You know, when you see a surgeon cutting open someone's stomach, if you don't know what he's doing, you'll think he's a murderer. He's not a murderer. He's doing that painful thing to deliver that person from a cancer.

So, when God resists someone, it's like the surgeon cutting him open. You think, why does a surgeon do that? Why does God resist his children? To teach them how terrible pride is. And so, once I've understood that, it's been a great help to me, and I want to pass it on to you.

The mark of spiritual growth, the primary mark, is that you are growing in humility, and it's not a question of what other people think of you. It's a question of whether God is giving you grace, which means you can overcome sin.

Not all of a sudden that you become like Jesus, but there's a progression. That you become more and more like Jesus. A progression in overcoming sin in thought, word, deed, attitude, and motive. Just like in the first chapter of the Bible, I love to say that the first chapter of the Bible is like the whole message of the Gospel in a nutshell.

God created the first verses. God created heaven and earth perfect. And between verse 1 and 2 is when the devil fell and spoiled, and the earth became corrupt and dark and without shape, and lost everything.

I mean, the story of the devil's fall is mentioned elsewhere because the Bible was not written for angels. It's written for man. But that's why it became corrupt. And then what you see is in the next six days, God progressively changing that corrupt, dark, shapeless earth into something beautiful, which he himself can certify is very good.

That's the message of the Gospel. That God created man perfect, but Satan came in and messed up, and man lost the image of God and became dark and empty. And immediately the Holy Spirit, it says there, began to move upon man, and the Word of God went forth.

God said, God said, God said. That's why it's important to hear God's Word every day. And little by little by little, God brings us to the place where he can say it's perfect now. So that's spiritual growth.

And humility is the number one secret. And the other thing I mentioned last Sunday, and it's also on the NCCF website, is the spirit of thanksgiving is another mark of spiritual growth. If you're really growing spiritually, there'll be a spirit of thanksgiving in you for the things God has given to you and for people, and there will be less and less and less and less of complaining and grumbling and murmuring at home against husband and wife, or when things don't seem to go right according to your understanding.

Thanksgiving Instead of Grumbling

If that's not reducing, dear brother, sister, let me tell you the truth. You're not really growing spiritually. If you're murmuring and grumbling and complaining, it doesn't matter whether other people heard it or not.

This is an inward thing. If you find a grumbling, I don't mean to be tempted. We're all tempted to complain about many things. But if you find you respond to that temptation, and I don't want you to condemn yourself just because you're tempted.

We'll be tempted till the end of our life on earth. That's never going to change. But even Jesus was tempted. Temptation is not sin. In fact, God allows us to be tempted to show the devil that we are overcomers.

So, be careful about this. The Bible says we got to put away all murmuring and grumbling and complaining because that's of the devil. Godliness with contentment is great gain. A person who is godly, really godly, is content.

Content with the circumstances. Content with believing. His faith acknowledges that his God is so mighty and powerful that he controls everything that happens in his life. You know, the thing is when I grumble or complain, I'm saying for a short period the devil got power in my life and got power over the circumstances of my life.

I say never. The devil can never get power over the circumstances of my life. I mean, he may have power over the circumstances of other people's life who have given themselves to him, but not over my life.

That's impossible because I belong to God. He's a wall of fire about me, the Bible says. He who touches me touches the apple of his eye. So, I don't believe that the devil gets power over me at any point.

But that's what we are saying when we grumble and complain about something. Oh, this thing happened. Did God allow it to happen? If God allowed it to happen, it must be for your good. Romans 8 .28 says that.

God makes everything work together for your good if you love Him and you're called according to His purpose. Of course, if you don't love Him, then it doesn't apply to you. You know, if you get a check, you've got to make sure it's in your name.

Otherwise, you can't cash it. And Romans 8 .28, it's specifically meant for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. If you love Jesus and your desire is to fulfill His purpose for your life, you can be sure of one thing, that God will make every single thing, and when I say every single thing, every little, little thing, because Jesus said, even the hairs on your head are numbered, He'll make every little thing work for your good.

And that good is not to make you richer or profit in the world, but will make you more like Jesus Christ. That's mentioned in the next verse. The good is He calls us to become like Christ. So, that's why we never complain.

So, that's another principle that I've learned in my life, that if I complain about something, at that moment I'm saying, the devil's been in control. You might as well stop complaining and just say, the devil is in control of my life right now.

That's the same thing, when you complain or grumble. That means, either you don't love God, or you're not called according to His purpose, then you better set that right, but if you do, how in the world did God forget to make that work for your good?

It could be something terribly evil that somebody did to you, but you mean God couldn't control that? And I mention this, I'm just repeating this so that we don't forget it. I probably mentioned all this last time as well.

The greatest evil that ever took place on this earth was the crucifixion of Christ on the cross. And that is the greatest good also that took place on the earth. There's nothing better that happened on this earth than the Christ dying for my sins.

Otherwise, where would we be for our sins? But that was also the greatest evil that any human being ever committed on this earth, the crucifixion of the Son of God. So what do I see on the cross? Not just that my sins are forgiven, not just that Satan was defeated, but the greatest, this is a message from the cross of Calvary, the greatest evil that man could do, God turned into the greatest good for the human race.

That's the message of the cross. Have you heard that? Have you understood it? To teach us that any evil that's happened to you from men or demons or anything is lesser than the crucifixion of Christ. There's no evil that anybody can do to anyone which is worse than the crucifixion of Christ.

That is the greatest. So anything that happens to you is lesser than that. And if the greatest evil could be turned into the greatest good by God, then this lesser evil that somebody did to you or that the devil did to you or that happened because of your own mistake, God can turn it for good.

That's the encouragement I found. I found, you know, that God's used my mistakes also to work for good. That's amazing. Only God could do something like that. You know, for example, I've thought of it like this.

Wasn't it a terrible thing that Adam did, Adam and Eve, when they disobeyed God? Oh, if only they had not disobeyed God, how wonderful the world would have been. No sin, nothing. But see how God turned it for good.

We would never have known of the love of God, of Jesus willing to die for us on the cross if Adam had not sinned. I mean, God would have still been there, full of love. But do you think you would have known it?

We would have known God is love, but to see the depth of His love, of willing to come as a human being like us, to come into this sewer and muck in which we live and identify with us and take the guilt of our sin and the blame for all our sin.

Does God love like that? We'd never have known it. So in one sense, that happened because of Adam's sin. We don't thank God for Adam's sin, but God used it, even that, to show us His tremendous love, which we would never have known otherwise.

So I see God is in the great business of turning even Adam's mistake or sin, God turns it for good. So that's a great encouragement to me because none of us live on this earth without making mistakes.

Even if you're utterly sincere, you make mistakes. But God can turn it for good. That's why we don't grumble or complain. That's why we give thanks in every situation, whatever may happen. It's not a blind, monotonous habit.

It's a meaningful giving thanks. Lord, I give thanks because this is something that you have sovereignly going to overrule. Maybe I accidentally slipped up and did something stupid, but please forgive me.

I take the blame for it, and I want you to make even that work for my good. Yeah, I've seen that happen. So please remember these two things, humility and thanksgiving. I want to speak on another thing today, and that is fellowship.

Fellowship as a Mark of New Covenant Christianity

See, all these things, in the old covenant, they never knew what humility was. They really didn't know. There was not much preaching on humility. I mean, humility was seen as a virtue in the Old Testament, sure.

But when Jesus came, he said these words, Learn from me, for I am humble and gentle of heart. And if you take my yoke upon you, you will find rest in your soul. All unrest is because we are not learning humility and gentleness from Jesus.

One of the proofs that I'm in the will of God is rest in my heart. Any unrest, whenever any unrest comes into my heart, I say, No, I'm out of God's will. That's a sort of a whistle being blown, saying you're out of God's will right now.

Please remember this, my dear brothers and sisters. We really want to grow spiritually. The whole purpose of God establishing a little church like this in the Bay Area is to help people to see what real godliness is.

I hope other churches are preaching it, I don't know. There's a lot of churches today I find are more interested in increasing their numbers in quantity more than quality. And I'll tell you something, God is a million times more interested in quality than in quantity.

Quantity can be wood, hay, and straw, which will all be burnt up in the final day. Quality is gold, silver, and precious stones. If someone were to give you a million dollars and say, you can go either buy wood, hay, and straw, or gold, silver, and precious stones, which would you do?

If you're interested in quantity to impress people, you would go for wood, hay, and straw. And it would be a huge... Can you imagine the amount of wood, hay, and straw you can get for a million dollars?

And how much of gold, silver, and precious stones you can get for that? You probably can carry in your hand the amount of gold, silver, and precious stones. Who chooses that? And the Bible says in the final day, God's going to test all of our actions, all of our words, and everything we have built.

If it's a church, what we've done, it's going to be tested by fire. And in that day, it'll be tested whether we built with gold, silver, and precious stones, that which will last for eternity, or just wood, hay, and straw.

So it's very important for us to understand, fellowship is one of the marks of New Covenant Christianity. They didn't have that in the Old Testament. They didn't have always give thanks in the Old Testament.

There is no command in the Old Testament, which said you must give thanks for everything. That's in the New Testament. There's no command in the Old Testament which says rejoice always, or always give thanks, it was in the New Testament, because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within.

So, just like humility is a distinct privilege that we can have in the New Covenant, the spirit of thanksgiving, of giving thanks for everything, is something we can, it's our birthright in the New Covenant.

I want to have it, I don't want the devil to rob me of it. The devil robs me of it, if I grumble about one little thing, the devil rob me of my inheritance. We are so careful not to lose money, foolishly, from our bank accounts, or from our investments.

If you lost a little money, which somebody cheated you of, or you didn't get what you deserve, your right to, you would pick up on that and recover it from whoever took it away from you. Do you see that if you grumble a single time, or complain a single time, the devil has robbed you of your inheritance there?

Are you as concerned about that as a loss of money? I am. If ever once I grumble or complain, I say, Lord, the devil got an advantage of me over there. He made me testify that he's in control of this universe.

He's not. He's a liar. And it's never going to happen to me again. I'm going to give thanks in every situation, and thereby testify that my father in heaven runs this universe. And I'm his child, and he makes every single thing, and when I say every single thing, every single thing work for my good.

We must have that confession, my brothers and sisters. That is New Covenant Christianity. Don't accept this third-rate Christianity that you see in people around you, and in most churches, as normal.

It is not normal. It's subnormal. The Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years was not God's will for them. They disobeyed God, and that's why God cared for them. Sure, he gave them manna. He gave them healing from their diseases, and God may answer your prayers and do miracles.

Don't you think getting manna from heaven is a miracle? To get food dropped from heaven for you, even if you got it one day, it would be a miracle. They got it for 40 years. But all those 40 years, God was angry with them.

They disobeyed him. Does God do miracles for those who have disobeyed him? Yes. The proof of it is the Israelites in the wilderness. They were healed of their sicknesses. The Bible says there was not one lame person among them.

Can you imagine 2 million people and not one person lame? How would the guy be able to walk in the wilderness if he was lame? It was a miracle. Do you know their sandals never wore out for 40 years? That's one of the miracles mentioned in the Psalms.

Their sandals and their clothes never wore out for 40 years. There were no stores to go and buy clothes there in the wilderness. These are the miracles God did for them, but for whom? For a people who had disobeyed him.

Teaching us in the Old Testament that you can have miraculous answers to prayer even when you're thoroughly disobedient and God is angry with you. That's not the proof of God being happy. And yet I find so many people around the world, God's answered this prayer and that prayer.

That's great. But that doesn't prove God's happy with you. You know, Jesus also said that. He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Here is an atheist farmer and here's a God-fearing farmer who sows his seed and prays regularly and he prays over his field. And here this atheist who defies and says, there's no God up there, I take care of my field.

And when the rains come, they fall equally on both fields. And the atheist says, hey, you spend your time praying for rain and you got rain. I don't pray at all. The rain just falls on my... And when the sun rises, which is also needed, the atheist says, did you see?

You waste your time praying, kneeling down and all. I don't pray. See, the sun rises on me and I get as good a crop as you. You think atheists don't get good crops? What does it prove? It doesn't prove that atheists are right.

It proves that God is a good God. So when we get a blessing from God, a material blessing, it only proves God is a good God. If I prayed for some material, I've heard of outright unbelievers who have healed of cancer.

Not because they prayed. I mean, somehow or the other, they took some treatment and they recovered. It doesn't prove anything. It proves God is a good God. That it does. So these material blessings and even healings don't prove to me the goodness, that God is happy with me.

It proves the goodness of God, but not that God is happy with me. It's something else that proves God's goodness than that proves that God's happy with me. The important thing for me, you see, the thing is, I find there are Christians who seek for God's blessing.

Their main prayer is, bless me, bless me, bless me. There are very few Christians who seek for God's approval. You need to ask yourself, what is your goal in life? Is it to get God's blessing or God's approval?

In the Old Testament, God's approval was secondary. God's blessing was what they wanted. Our enemies must be defeated. Our crops must flourish and we must prosper and our barns must be made bigger and we must do better and better materially and we must be physically healed.

They're all marks of God's blessing. Good. I'm not against it. Thank God He blesses us. But much more important is at the end of my life, I must be able to say that God's approved of my life. See, God's been remarkably good to me in material things and physical things.

I'm 76 years old and almost never been into a hospital for anything. I've been healthy and God's taken care of me and protected us in all our travels. There's so many things I could say are marks of God's blessing.

He's provided all my needs, even though I'm in Christian work and never send any reports of my work or ask anybody, never dependent on anyone, even till today. That is not the mark of God's approval. That's the mark of God's blessing.

But I'm more interested in, Oh Lord, did my life bring satisfaction to your heart? When I come to the end of my life, I'm not going to count my blessings. I'm going to see whether, did my life bring satisfaction to God's heart?

Did I finish the purpose with which He brought me to this earth? Or did I hinder some of that by my stubbornness? And that's where Jesus is our example. He didn't seek for blessing as much as approval.

You know, at the baptism, we read, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Not this is my son whom I have blessed for 33 years. I don't want God to say to me, This is my son whom I have blessed.

I want to say this is my son in whom I'm pleased. What do you want, brother, sister? Do you want God to say to you, Here's my daughter whom I've blessed? Or here's my daughter with whom I'm so happy. Her thoughts are clean and pure and loving.

Her words are always, you know, it says in Proverbs 31, The law of kindness is in her tongue. What a testimony for a woman. It's written about a woman in Proverbs 31. The law of kindness is in her tongue.

Wow. That means God's blessed you. The speech is gracious at home, especially to those who live with you at home and your relatives and friends. Is there a blessing of God upon you? Is the approval of God there upon your life?

That's very important. So in the new covenant, the main thing is to be approved by God, not just blessed by God. They got blessing in the Old Testament too. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and don't forget all His blessings to me who has blessed you with so many things in Psalm 103.

But in the new covenant, Paul tells Timothy, let me show you this verse in 2 Timothy 2. Paul is writing this last letter to a man who was his closest co-worker. Timothy was about, Paul was about 67 or so.

He was about to die. Timothy was around 45. Probably been with Paul about 25 years. And he writes to him in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. It's a great verse. Be diligent, just like businessmen are diligent to make money.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. That means be wholehearted, Timothy, to make sure God can approve of you. Not just people think you're a wonderful Christian. It means nothing. That God who sees you in secret, who sees your motives, who sees your thoughts, who sees your attitudes, can put a seal of approval and say, good.

It says in Genesis 1, at the end of every day, God examined the work he had made, he had done. Have you noticed that in Genesis 1? He saw what he had done and he said, it's good. And the next day he said something and he did something, it's good.

What do I learn from that? I learn from that that God's examining every day, seeing me every day at the end of the day to see if it is good. I want it to be good in my life every single day. That's the message of Genesis 1.

That at the end of the day, God can look at my whole day's life and say that was good. The way you spoke to everyone today was good. The way you lived and the way your attitude to money today was good.

And the way you reacted to people who were evil was good. The way you reacted to people who had road rage was good. That you never fought with anyone, you never complained against anyone, it was good.

At the end of the day, God must say about everything in my life, it's good. Live one day at a time, that's how I seek to do. The Bible says we don't even know about tomorrow. What I learned from Genesis 1 is that I've got to live one day at a time and God examines my life, it must be good.

And if I live like that, it's not a strain. It's the most relaxed way to live, I'll tell you that. My life was most strenuous in the days when I didn't understand these principles. It's so relaxed now, I sleep peacefully at night and don't have any type of dirty dreams or fearful dreams because my conscience is clear.

I seek to end the day, every single day, to say that God should be able to say about me like He said in Genesis 1, it's good. If I live like that, then it's at the end of the sixth day He says it's very good.

This is our goal, brothers and sisters, the things that God shows us in the New Covenant, they did not know in the Old Covenant. So I was telling you about fellowship. I spoke a message once on the five fingers of our hand which gives us a good grip on things.

We can hold things with two hands. I can hold a cup with two hands but the grip won't be strong, somebody can take it away from me. But if I'm holding something with five fingers, that's a solid grip.

The Fivefold Grip on the Christian Life

And so here are the five fingers with which we can hold the Christian life. First of all, the blood of Jesus Christ. We have to begin there. We must be absolutely convinced that every sin, and when I say every sin, every single sin I ever committed in my life, in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive, has been blotted out in the blood of Jesus Christ.

If I'm slightly in doubt about that, the devil is going to attack me. The Bible says, he's the accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12, 10. And they overcame him, the next verse, by the blood of the Lamb.

So, I don't know where all of you are today, but I know all of you sinned. And I know we've all sinned. But some among us here are absolutely sure that when God looks at us today, He looks at us as if we have never sinned.

Are you in that category? I am. I have no doubt in my mind that God looks at me in my life, in 76 and a half years, I've never sinned. Because the blood of Jesus Christ has justified me. Romans 5, 9. Not just forgiven me, cleansed me, but justified me.

I believe the Bible. It's the only book in the world which is absolutely true. Justified means just as if I'd never sinned. That's the meaning of justified. Declared righteous. That is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

I believe that. It brings me such tremendous rest to know that I've never sinned in 76 and a half years, in God's eyes. That's number one. You must be sure of it, brothers and sisters. And if you've confessed your sin, and you don't blame anybody else, you've taken the blame for it, you believe that what Christ took on the cross was the punishment for your sin, why shouldn't you have that same assurance of justification that I have?

A number of others here have. You must live in that. Don't let the devil condemn you. Absolutely important. That's where we begin. It's like the thumb, the most important finger. And then, the second thing is the Holy Spirit.

God doesn't, in the Old Testament, they didn't have the Spirit of God dwelling within them. He helped them, spoke to them on the outside, encouraged them, fought their battles on the outside, but could not dwell inside them because until the heart is cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit could not dwell in.

And that's why nobody, even great men like John the Baptist and Elijah in the Old Testament, Christ could not live inside their heart. God was always on the outside in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, right up to Acts chapter 2, God is on the outside.

And that's why He spoke from the outside. But now, from the day of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes, God comes within. And He speaks to me from within. It's better that way because He can help me from within.

You would think that it's better if Jesus was physically here with us. Well, look at the Gospels. Jesus was physically with those disciples for three and a half years. And yet, they were scared when there was a storm in the lake.

We're not scared if there's a storm in the lake, if Jesus is inside. But you can be scared if He's on the outside. And when He's on the outside, when they sat together at the Last Supper, they were still arguing who's the greatest.

Well, you'll argue who's the greatest even if Jesus is sitting right there at the table. But you won't argue who's the greatest when Jesus is living inside. So which is better? That's why Jesus said to His disciples, it's better for you that I go away.

You don't understand that, but it is better. It's not Jesus physically being with us that's gonna help us overcome. You can't overcome dirty thoughts if Jesus is standing there. Maybe you can control your words.

You can't control your thoughts. For that, Christ has to come inside. And that's the gift of the Holy Spirit. Whenever you say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart, come into my heart, if you've said that any time sincerely, do you know who came in?

The Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, they would say, I mean, in the early days of Christianity, they'd say, believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. Yeah, we combine it too and say, receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the same thing. It's not the same as being filled with the Holy Spirit, which is another stage where we open up every part of our being and the Holy Spirit controls every aspect of our life. But as soon as you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit has come in.

You'll receive the Spirit, even if you're not baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit. The third is the Word of God. You see that in Genesis chapter 1, the Holy Spirit brooded over the earth and every day God spoke a word, teaching us that every day God wants to speak a word.

Think of in Genesis chapter 1, out of those six days, one day God didn't speak, let's say. Something would have been left out. Maybe the sun wouldn't have been there. Something important would have been left out if one day God didn't say anything.

Look through those six days and say, which of those days was unimportant? Okay, it doesn't matter if God didn't say anything that day. Do you know that you're missing something when you don't hear God speaking to you one day?

Man shall not live by bread alone. I think all of us eat something every day of our life, every single day, 365 days of the year, we eat something. But man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth, teaching me that the most, more important than eating my daily food every day is to receive God's Word.