September 21, 1991 "Can God Prepare a Table in the Wilderness?" Mrs. N. D. Daniel
Psalm 78:18-30
God’s people who saw great things of God said in the wilderness, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?" Here in the 26th verse we read "God is power". He brought in the south wind and with it came the quails. Our God is a power. God showed the Israelites in Egypt great things. He did marvellous things. But they would not learn to exercise faith in God. After they crossed the Red Sea, God began to show them that He was able to take care of them till they reached the promised land. He had divided the sea for them and they could walk through the midst of it as if on dry land. They saw that He gave them water from a rock in the wilderness. But even after they saw the great things God did in their midst yet they said, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" The Lord heard this. He began to prove to them that He was able to feed them and take care of them in the wilderness. He rained manna from above and they ate it. It was the food of angels. We do not know what food is available in heaven for God’s children. The Israelites desired much meat in the wilderness. Then God gave them plenty of meat. He rained meat in the form of feathered birds from above. They did eat meat according to their desire. But it was at the cost of tempting (insultingly challenging) God. They forgot all the marvellous things God did for them. The same thing we also do. When a test comes, "Can God do this for us?" This question rises in our minds. God does not like that.
We have been seeing great things of God. Yet our faith has not risen up to be equal to the difficult situations we face. When a big prayer hall has to be built, we first think, "Where is the money?" We are apt to commit the same mistakes like the Israelites. First we know we do not have money in the bank. We did not borrow. We will not tell our needs to others. We will not covet money from others. We have to pay bill after bill. Are we going to limit God’s power? Are we going to disbelieve His promises? We are all praying but we all have got our limitations in prayer. We are people who cannot understand our great God. God has plans for each one of us. We do not understand just now. At that time when we indulge in unbelief the devil will be very close to us. He will be whispering words of doubt. But God wills that our faith should face the challenges we encounter. That is all. But we have to look unto the Lord, who is able to give more than what we think or ask. Bills come in whether we have money or not and we have to pay. Such is the faith we are learning.
I am seeing in young people there is much lack of faith in God. We have been telling people that God has been helping us the last fifty-six years and we cannot now show to people that our God is a poor God. We have seen God raining His provisions for His work. If we want to develop faith to see the great things of God we have to obey the Word of God. God is eager to show us greater things than we have seen in the past. The hindrance lies within us. Our lack of faith hinders us from thinking bigger. The question "Where to find the money?" blocks our thinkings. It is written in the Word that Jesus is the great treasure of wisdom, knowledge and all that is needed for His kingdom. Jesus is our treasure. He is in heaven and He wants to show to us that He is a great God with great love for us and great grace and provision for His work. We are expected to do great things for God- and when we fail to thus glorify God, we have to go ask the Lord why we have been failing. The disciples asked that way. "Why were we not able to drive away the devil from that boy?" He said that they were lacking in faith. Faith as much as a mustard seed would move mountains and nothing would be impossible. These days we need greater faith. God is cleansing His own "House of prayer". We can meet devil possessed people even in the house of prayer. And when Jesus went to a synagogue, he saw a man possessed with a devil in that worshipping place. We have to fight with the powers of darkness and devils. Young boys are possessed these days. Now we have to fight with these devils and drive them out of those boys. Some people are seeing deliverance to some extent. But we must ask the Lord for a greater share in His power to drive out these devils. But if praying people say, "Can God do this?" and tempt God, God is very much grieved. These days we need many people with authority to drive away devils from young people. God wants to give us a greater share of His power. He wants to give us all the good things He has got for His children. Parents are finding it very hard to drive out the devils from their own children. We should not talk anything against God or against God’s children. That gives room to the devils to come into the home and into the hearts of our children. We must be obedient to the Word of God. God wants to fulfill all His precious promises to us and His work, if only we obey Him. We should not talk as we like here. We should not talk negative things to our children. The Lord is able to give us wisdom because all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Jesus. So with that expectation let us pray. Let us ask that our faith will be increased according to the need of this generation.