Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's Power Walk Ministries broadcast, as Reverend Paul Cannings continues with the series, Endurance for a Time Like This. Our livelihood is critical for us, and yet we have all faced various giants with regards to our jobs. So how do we continue to work as unto the Lord? Helping us to consider how we handle challenging work situations God's way, Reverend Cannings brings us the message, Not Bread Alone.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Years ago, God brought me to a point that was very humbling. I remember sitting on my couch in Duncanville, Texas, and I started to realize I had the best thing. I graduated from Dallas Seminary, I got the job of a job, and I was all fired up about the school where I was now assistant to the academic dean and moving on. There you go.

But boom, the school closed. Nobody told me that was coming. I remember sitting on my couch going, "God, what now?" Long story short, I was offered a job in Kansas City, and that seemed like the thing to do. Great opportunity, salary set, done. Then I was offered another job. They promised to pay me nothing. I had to raise my support, and I had to hope that the support comes in.

If support comes to the school, then the school will pay me. If the support comes to me, then we'll try to figure out a balance so I can take care of my family, which led to sometimes three months not getting paid. I remember sitting on the couch and I said, "God, what is it You want in my life?"

I started to try to focus more on what God wants to do in my life more than what the money says to me and my family. I picked the job that I believed was attached to the purpose that God had in my life. That purpose has led me to where God has me today. He taught me: man shall not live by bread alone. Man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

That is a verse that seems to be just a wonderful verse that we come to when we're broke, when we're hurting, when we need God, when we're seeking God. We just come to that verse and go, "Man shall not live by bread alone." We like that. But you have to remember that verse is in Deuteronomy, which means it came after Numbers, which means it came after Exodus.

It came after they crossed the Red Sea, after they could not keep food but for a day. God was teaching them that in the wilderness before putting them in the Promised Land. In the Promised Land, what would their focus become? Man shall live by bread alone. Man shall follow God's word when it suits their schedule and their time.

During the time when we've got to plant and all this other stuff, we can't go to the temple the same way now. We'll go there on the Day of Atonement, but we can't just keep going as much as He's saying. We can't give God 23 and a third of what we're making. I mean, that's a lot compared to what we didn't have in the wilderness when we had nothing.

We couldn't cross the Jordan without Him. We couldn't get the walls of Jericho to fall without Him. We couldn't kill giants without Him. But somehow, we just can't let go of what we never actually owned. See, that verse is a reflection on them getting ready to go into the Promised Land. Their family members have passed away, and they're standing in front of him to go to war under Joshua.

He's reminding them of this journey: man shall not live by bread alone. You would say, "Okay, well, that's an Old Testament thing, and He proved it to them." No, in the New Testament, Christ is repeating this to us. He is teaching us this while telling us we have to work. If we shall not work, we shall not eat. Adam, you have to go take care of the garden; you have to cultivate it. You have to work.

When you're working, this is something you need to do. But what He's telling us is the mindset we need to have: man shall not live by bread alone. Watch the word "alone" now. When we have this conflict in our minds, remember the word "alone." He's not saying that we don't work to eat; He just says don't do that alone.

Don't come to the point where when you go to work, you're doing that without Me. Because when you do that without Me, then you have a hard time giving to Me because you did it. You feel you did it. You felt you accomplished it. That is why God has a way of putting us on our backs. This is what He would say to them in John chapter 6.

Jesus answered them and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, ye seek me not because ye saw miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." I blessed you, so you followed me. What do we do today? Blessed be in the city, blessed be in the fields, blessed be when I come and when I go. So we come to church with the mindset that man shall live by bread alone because we've given to God now, so God owes us.

How are we living? He says, "Labor not for the meat," verse 27, "which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed." He says labor. Watch this carefully. He didn't say work at this point. He said labor. He says to work to eat, but when it comes to "not alone," you labor.

That is why it says you have to remain in this. You have to decide in your brain, in your commitment, and your steadfastness of faith in Him to stay the course, because this is a labor. You're going to work with a mindset that "I'm doing this job for Christ. I'm not doing this for this boss." Colossians chapter 3, verse 22: "I am working unto the Lord."

It doesn't matter who's looking at me from the job; I'm going to do this job as unto God. It doesn't matter if there are giants in the land when I walk in. What matters is man shall not live by bread alone. He's saying, "I come for food that doesn't perish; that's my food." Verse 32 says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world."

In other words, what you saw coming down from heaven in the wilderness, which you know from your forefathers, it was God giving you an example of what you will do in the New Testament. What you will do in the New Testament is feed off of Me. I am your bread. I am your food. I am the person from whom you constantly eat.

You cannot make it, not one day, without feeding on Me. That is why 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 4 says that He's given us everything we need for life and godliness through His word. There's nothing that we face in this life that God has not given us a story in the Old Testament or a concept in the New Testament that we can guide our lives by.

There is lots of room for application, but you feed from Me. This is what "remaining in" means. John chapter 15, verse 4 says, "Abide in me, and I in you." You decide to abide in Me by keeping My word, which is food. Don't forget John 6 is before John 15. In verse 35, He says, "I am the bread of life."

I don't need to be plugged into God to give you bread. I don't need for God to pump into Me to come to you. I absolutely has the ability in My own self to be able to become bread to you. What is He saying? These are Jews. What do they like to have? Bread. It fills their stomach. If all they had was bread and water, at least they had something they could fill their stomach up with to make the day go by.

That was huge to have bread. If a person didn't have bread, they were really, really poor. Bread meant a whole lot. That is why there were a lot of wheat fields and all these different things. Understand He is saying, "I am the bread." You go to work and you kill yourself in your wheat fields trying to get bread. If you don't, you think you're going to die.

He says, "No, you go about it the way I instruct you to go about it." Go about it the way I instruct you to work, to follow the Sabbath, how you come to worship, how you function and give in worship, and how you serve. I tell you how to operate with the poor when you go into your fields. You operate the way I've explained it in Deuteronomy.

You operate in the temple the way I explained it in Leviticus. You operate because that is your bread. That is what fills you up. In chapter 14, He tells us that when I do these things, the Holy Spirit comes inside to guide me into truth. He came to illuminate the word of God and to convict me of sin. He's going to say all of this in John.

When I'm walking in the word of God, the Spirit of God came for that purpose mainly. We want to make it a jumping worship service and say we have the Spirit. No, the main purpose of having the Spirit is the Spirit of God guiding us to be able to feed on the word of God, because the word of God is the bread for life.

There are a bunch of people jumping around at football games, basketball games, and nightclubs. How could we immediately say because we're jumping up in church we have worship that is Spirit-filled? Lots of people do that outside of church. This is the main reason we have the Spirit of God: so that we could feed on the bread.

Jesus Christ says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The Spirit of God is the truth. I came to give you life and life abundantly. The more I feed on the word of God and the more I walk in His will, the more I'm transformed by the renewing of my mind to do His will. He says, "That's your food that I keep giving to you that makes you never have to walk in this world alone."

He says, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst." You will never get to the point where you want to pass out, where you just can't make it, or where you're just too weak. These folks have been in a wilderness. Where's the water? It's coming from a rock.

They never thirsted when Moses led them, and they lived on bread that came from God physically and from God spiritually from Mount Sinai when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments. He modeled this for us so that when He set them into the Promised Land, they would visibly know this, but they walked away from it.

I pray we don't, because to abide is to experience this life that will never let us be hungry or thirsty. Are you hungry here? God will never let the righteous be forsaken or go begging for bread. Stay focused.

I am so excited about April 23rd through the 25th because it is a conference with lots of notes and great teachers who are well-educated, well-prepared, and do what they're teaching in their churches. You cannot miss this conference. Come April 23rd through the 25th at Living Word Fellowship Church. Come and be blessed. The conference is "The Way Forward: How can we be productive despite the challenges ministries can experience?" Go to powerwalkministries.org and you will get all the information you need. Looking forward to seeing you.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. It's true; God provides clear instruction for us through His word in the way we should work, worship, give, and how we handle relationships. Please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. That is powerwalkministries.org. You can call us at 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402.

If you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. Dr. Cannings will continue this series tomorrow, so we hope you'll join us. And remember, reading God's word provides information and knowledge, but it's the application of it that bears fruit in our lives and transforms our character.