“Come away with Me. I encourage you to seek fresh manna each day and also find the hidden manna that will satisfy the hunger of your soul. Both will be needed in the coming times. The defining line has been drawn. It is a line that determines who will prosper and accomplish My will and who will simply survive, making it from day to day without direction or purpose. For many seasons, I have called you to an intimacy with Me. I have called you to make the time We spend together your priority. Those of you who have heard My call are accustomed to receiving the needed spiritual manna for each day. You are familiar with the strong meats that I have given you to eat - meats such as faith in adversity, absolute trust, and the ability to allow Me to be your defender. You have received spiritual tools too numerous to mention. You have received the nourishment to overcome the difficult places designed to eliminate your flesh and either expose your sin or testify of your faithfulness.
“Now you are able to receive My hidden manna, nourishment that comes only through intimacy and unattainable to the irresponsible. I can trust you to move with Me and be immovable by circumstances and pressures. I will now give you the power of My Word because you can be trusted with it. Those of you who have not heeded My desire to come close will be tossed around by your changing world. You will be looking for ways to maintain your comfort rather than walking with Me. You will have no ability to gather the proper manna to overcome. You will be blind guides, all because you wouldn’t come when I called.”
Zechariah 7:13 NIV
“When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen...”
Hebrews 13:10 NIV
We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
When the Lord gave these verses to me as an amplification of the word above, I had to really seek His heart. They seemed marginally in context to me, but at the same time did amplify the heart of what He wanted to show me.
I know that because of the cross, our God always answers when we call. He will never leave us or forsake us. That is an unbreakable promise. I also know that when we identify with Jesus, He is always there to hear our call.
I finally understood the image that the Lord was attempting to show me. It is a degree of association, not one of acceptance. Every one of us is equally accepted in the eyes of our Lord. We all have been saved by the blood and can have confidence in its redeeming power on that day.
What the Lord was bringing home to me was the issue of being capable and steadfast in difficult times because of our choice and habit of being infused with His power, rather than functioning in our own wisdom, strength, and old spiritual food. It is that continual call to intimacy, a time when He gives us Himself rather than things, that so has the heart of God for His people.
Recently, I was perusing some old teachings. While I was reading them, I remembered when I had used them in a college and career class that I held. It amazed me when I remembered the issues that captured our thoughts then, compared to the issues we face today. Our world has changed so much that the wisdom and strength that was needed to make it through those days is completely inadequate for today’s needs. It is a comparison of elementary school to college.
We are on the threshold of even greater changes to our world. I am convinced that is why the Lord continually brings up the issue of intimacy. He knows that we need to fully receive who He is in us in order to rise above what is about to occur and not just muddle through it ineffectively.
It fascinates me how much time He has to spend calling and wooing us to a place we should readily want to go, especially as we see what is on the near horizon. We are so hard of heart that we don’t even want to pray except when we are in trouble. The thought of true intimacy, fresh manna, and especially the hidden manna of His heart eludes most of us. What a pitiful shame.
Please do not stop wooing me, Lord,
Jim Corbett
