08-08-2025 PART 3: Dancing, Waiting, and Feasting on the Bread of Life
Section 1
The message opens in 1 Kings 18:26 with the prophets of Baal calling out from morning until noon, receiving no answer, and then performing what the text calls a “lame dance” around their altar. Using this as an illustration, the teaching points out how believers sometimes react when God doesn’t answer prayer immediately. Instead of simply trusting, we may try to “do a dance” before God—altering our prayers, rephrasing them, or performing some other action in hopes of speeding up His response. The reminder is that answers come not through performance but through faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Persistence in prayer is good, but it is God’s generosity, mercy, and wisdom—not our theatrics—that brings the answer.
Section 2
The next focus moves to Exodus 25:30, where God commands that the bread of the Presence be kept before Him at all times. This bread points to Jesus Christ, as revealed in John 6:51 where He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Hebrews 10:19–22 ties it all together, explaining that through Jesus’ sacrifice, believers can now enter the very presence of God anytime, unlike under the law when access to the Holy of Holies was restricted to once a year. The bread of the Presence symbolizes the continual nearness of Jesus, reminding us that we have unlimited access to His presence through prayer, fellowship, and communion with Him.
Section 3
The application is both practical and profound: keep the “bread”—the presence of Christ—before you always. This means living with constant awareness of God’s nearness, not treating time with Him as a chore but as life-giving nourishment. Brother Lawrence’s example of practicing God’s presence, checking his thoughts regularly to ensure they were set on the Lord, illustrates this mindset. Jesus, the bread of life, is available 24/7, and feeding on Him now prepares us for eternity in His presence. Just as bread sustains physical life, Christ sustains spiritual life, and keeping Him continually before us transforms how we live, pray, and wait for God’s timing.
