10.4 The Hidden Manna
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat (Revelation 2:17). We now realize that part of the reason Jesus calls this manna “hidden” is that few ever knew it was there in the Ark, for Moses did not make it clear.
Yet again, we see John’s vision as nothing other than the heavenly power that is the simple truths of the gospel. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. – He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me (John 6:51a & 56-57).
All of God. Let’s position everything as our model of “Fire in the Holiest” gives us. (Look again at Lesson 7.3.) The Covenant as Word written upon our hearts, both every Word written on the pages of the Bible AND every word God speaks in the heavens AND all the 2 quadrillion Bible’s worth of God’s thoughts regarding each one of us, all this Word is written all through our own hearts. All the fulness of God. Not much of God is left out.
It is no surprise that all this WORD beating away in our chests as our own private and human hearts of flesh, might be a bit much for us. God has set this picture for us to know what He does.
Jesus Alive in Us. As we place ourselves inside the Holiest, having entered boldly, and now live seated upon the Mercy Seat completely turned around, something incredible happens to all that Word filling our human hearts, something of resurrection life. All that Word becomes Jesus alive in us, now our very and only life.
Jesus Himself is our hidden manna, Jesus as our own story, our own self. And He gives us that portion of Himself that we need in every present moment, just what we need and as much as we need. We walk in utter confidence that we CANNOT lose out, for Jesus is always our very self.
I Will Never Tire. Now, you might say to me, “But Daniel, this is what you have always taught.” Most certainly, I have always taught the Covenant. Yet every time I go through these things, here in the Holiest, lying here in perfect rest inside of my Father, I see that Covenant, Jesus Himself in Person now living as all that I am in every present moment, more and more clearly, more and more powerfully, more and more real. Give me a million, billion, trillion years more; I will never tire of knowing this Jesus now become me, always walking in perfect fellowship with me, always bearing all that I am within His own Self, always calling me as I am by Himself.
Our NEED. Here is our need. This God who fills us with all of Himself is a passionate and determined Fellow, a God who pours Himself out and us as well with no regard for Himself, a Fellow that pays every price, breaks down every door, searches out into every lost and lonely place until He has found and carried home ALL that He has lost. And God is determined to do ALL of this desperate salvation entirely in, as, and through you and me.
This God who fills us full is always spinning us around and saying to us, in no uncertain terms, “Love one another.” Yet He is always giving us the ONE STRENGTH we must have, Jesus Himself as our own personal manna, our own private sustenance.
Sufficient. And Jesus said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Jesus is my only life. Jesus is perfected, fulfills in me all that the Father speaks, entirely inside of and through all of my human weakness.
The hidden manna IS Jesus as Word become Jesus as me. And upon this manna, my very own, I feed daily, hourly, moment by moment, as the source of all the personal strength and nutrition I need in the present moment. When Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient,” He meant that all of everything we need right now is found inside of Him inside of us.
Manna and Bread. Although it is the same Jesus, the hidden manna and the bread on the table of showbread are two different expressions of Jesus as Word. The hidden manna resides entirely inside the Holiest, never leaving the Holiest, for wherever the Ark of the Covenant rests, that IS the Holiest. Thus this hidden manna is Jesus as Word known personally inside and to each one of God’s elect. But Jesus as the Bread of Life is Jesus as Word through us in a form suitable for all creation, for those who will not enter into the realms of Spirit, let alone into the Father’s Heart. Yet Jesus is also Bread to them in the form they can receive.
Comprehending Love. Here is a New Testament passage depicting this hidden manna.
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).
You have found me out. I have been feeding you this very hidden manna from the start, Jesus Himself living now as you and by every specific Word that is Christ.
Knowing Jesus. Here is another.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed with His death (Philippians 3:8-10).
That I may know Him. That I may KNOW Jesus. Yet in three specific ways, in the power of HIS resurrection, in the fellowship of HIS sufferings, already symmorphosed with HIS death.
We Eat of Him. And we feast on this hidden manna, Jesus as every WORD inside an infinite God coming forth into the creating and sustaining of every created thing, yet become in us personal and real, our very and only life – in a particular way. We eat of Him BY saying, in response to every word God speaks, “Let it be to me according to Your Word.”
“Let Jesus be in me according to exactly what You mean by what You say.”
And then we believe that we have already received ALL that we have asked. And then, by adding our confession to our faith – homologia, we speak the same words that Jesus speaks, together with Him.
Simplicity. Do you see the simplicity of the gospel, of God’s whole program of salvation? Even the littlest child or the least minded human can follow God’s path with all joy. No crippling of any kind can prevent any human from saying in his or her heart, “Jesus is my life.” Even the man filled with 2000 demons, though he could not speak except by them, yet they could not prevent him from speaking with his feet as he ran to Jesus, “Jesus is my life; Jesus is my life.”
Having boldness to enter the Holiest. Boldness, parresia, the freedom to SPEAK Christ – our personal manna.
Our Action of Fire. Look up again at the section “We Eat of Him.” Consider that action the Lord has taught us to do. That action of asking, believing, and speaking, is the energeia, the FIRE that is God, transforming the Words written upon our hearts into Jesus, the only life we are.
You see, this picture of the Holy of Holies in Moses’ Tabernacle is simply showing us what we have been doing in simple faith in response to what our Father has taught us, what has really been happening inside of us. When we live entirely inside of FIRE, we discover that FIRE for us is nothing other than Resurrection Life, that which was once dead springing forth now as abundance of fruit for all.
Our Own Hidden Manna. Yet, no matter what fruit that life arising in us brings forth for others, there remains, entirely for us, our own personal knowing, out from that same WORD made alive, this personal Jesus living now as us in sweet and private communion heart with Heart with us. This is our own hidden manna. Our personal and private secret place inside the Most High.
We NEED such a place to retreat constantly into from all the swirl of the universe and to find rest and sustenance, joy and strength arising anew every moment. We MUST live always in the certainty of our own hidden Manna, for we could never be the Mercy Seat of God apart from it.
What Is Life? Up until writing Covenant, my joy in writing was simple and ongoing. Now, as I write this course, everything seems to be getting far larger than I ever knew and taking on power and importance utterly beyond my simple inability.
In this session, we have seen our own human hearts of flesh as the very Covenant of God, beating in our chests. Coming up, we will find, I suspect, the BIGGEST thing of ALL, the Throne of God, the authority of Christ in the universe, our hearts as the Mercy Seat.
Before we are overwhelmed by such a Seat, let’s be overwhelmed a bit more by life. What is LIFE?