Why did God limit food for the Israelites (manna and quail) while they were in the wilderness? Because this was a time of testing. Nothing tests us quite like a restriction on our dietary intake. Take fasting, as the perfect example.

When we fast for the Lord, we go through many phases, and depending on the length of the fast, we will go in and out of these phases. I’m sure there are others you could think of to add to the following examples.

• A sense of God’s call, coming with faith to fast
• Our agreement and determination to obey
• False hunger pains
• Tempting thoughts to convince us we are hungry
• Obsessive thinking about food
• A great wrestle over our will
• Physical detox–sometimes painful depending on our usual diet
• Physical weakness
• Vulnerability to the temptation to eat
• A growing sense of the Lord’s closeness
• A strengthening of one’s spirit
• A growing sense of joy in the fast
• Physical strength
• A sense of loss and grief at the thought of breaking the fast
• Breaking the fast
• A sense of having fellowshipped with the Lord

Fasting is powerful, and in many ways, we could say that God called the Israelites to a type of fast for their years in the wilderness to test their devotion and obedience because He alone knows a man’s heart. Words are cheap. Many times, the Israelites proclaimed they would do all that God had commanded them through Moses, but just as many times, they disobeyed.

Being on any dietary restriction is hard, especially if you’re used to filling your stomach with whatever you feel like and whenever you feel like it. Food can present a major disciplinary issue for the believer because it is so closely aligned with our spiritual life. While millions across the globe are literally in a state of physical starvation, many of us have abundant food. But ironically, millions of us are in a state of spiritual starvation, even though we may think we are abundantly full!

The Western diet tricks people’s bodies and minds into thinking they are full and satisfied, yet the opposite can be true–we can be full of toxins and rubbish that are actually working against us. Our spiritual life can be the same. We might think we are ingesting all the right spiritual stuff when, in fact, we are taking in spiritual toxins and rubbish. We may falsely believe that we are spiritually rich when we are spiritually very poor. Many of us allow our bodies and their appetites to govern our lives; we are subject to what they tell us instead of them being in submission to the will of God in our lives.

But to even consider whether this is true of us, we need an open heart and willingness to hear from the Lord. We need to be prepared for the discovery that we are actually spiritually malnourished, even if we thought we were in the richest of health! If we seek the Lord’s truth on our spiritual diet, it may take a major paradigm shift in what we believe and ingest. You see, there is only one truth–God’s perspective on the matter.

It is easy to get tangled up and confused in a matter of right or wrong–should I eat this way or that way, am I eating the right spiritual food or not? We can go around in circles all day long trying to work things out on the basis of our own reasoning. No, we need the mind of the Lord Jesus. He is the one with all knowledge and wisdom. However, it takes humility to set our sense of reason aside and give it up altogether and be open to hear an entirely different perspective from God. His ways are higher than ours.

Many of us have lived a certain way for so long that we simply regard it as correct and as enough. But God may have other ideas. He might just know a little more than us and might have other plans (in fact, I’m certain that’s true!). We need to get on board with God’s program, not ours. We need to come to terms with the fact that God is our God, we are not His. He is not here to serve us, but we are here to serve Him.

God tested the Israelites in the wilderness for forty long years. Why? They needed it. They had all sorts of paradigms that needed shifting. They longed for the meat and fish they enjoyed in Egypt–they thought that was good. They continually looked back. They were insanely quick at turning their hearts away from the God of their deliverance to worship FALSE gods.

Tragically, we really aren’t much different. It only takes a little restriction of our food, our comforts, our agendas, a shift in our plans and dreams for our own lives, and we too, are brought undone. We too, turn our hearts away from the God of our salvation and towards other things.

God tests us to prove us true. Praise God, there were a small few who were faithful in the wilderness. These ones are our examples. Because of their faithfulness to the one true God, He was able to pour out His blessing and power upon them, to conquer all their enemies and live in the victorious life intended for them. The same is true for us, if we will only let God be Lord.

Over and over, God said “I am the Lord”. He constantly reiterated who He was. He knew how quickly the Israelites forgot.

What does it mean to let God be Lord? It means that He is everything, and we are nothing. It means what He says goes; He has rulership on every matter pertaining to us. He is Lord of our mind, our will, emotions, time, money, plans, and affections. God had a few like this at the end of the wilderness testing. The majority failed, they loved their lives literally to death. Jesus tells us to deny our lives that we might live.

Is God your Lord?  Can He take you through the wilderness of testing? Can you come through to the Promised Land? Will you be found true? Or, does God need to continually remind you that He is Lord?

I pray, brothers and sisters, that we will all come through, that God will be Lord of our lives in private and public, in the dark and the light, and that He will gain for Himself a faithful people who will co-labour with Him in His perfect plan, the revelation of His Son, the Promised Land.

God bless you today, holy ones.