Rabbi Schneider - How to Solve Spiritual Hunger
"Yeshua, Jesus then said to them, 'truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world'". (John 6:33).
Now, Yeshua is taking a physical, natural substance (bread), and he's giving it now a supernatural quality. He's talking about a bread that comes down out of heaven. And they respond to him, "Lord, always give us this bread. Yeshua said to them, 'I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst'" (John 6:34-35).
How is it possible then, that what Jesus says that we should have, truth be told, most of us are not experiencing it in our individual lives. "I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst". The reason, beloved, is because although we've come to Yeshua, we haven't fully come to him. The reason we're still hungering, and the reason we're still thirsting, even though we've come to Jesus, we've made our faith declaration, we're taking in the spirit, we're taking in the scriptures, we're part of a local fellowship, we're involved in sowing into the Kingdom of God, and doing good works, we're doing all those things, but yet we're still hungering, and we're still thirsting. Why? It's because, beloved, despite the fact that we've come to Jesus, that we're moving forward in him, we have not yet, listen now, fully come.
The spirit is not reigning over our minds a hundred percent. We're allowing all kinds of thoughts to run through our mind. "As a man thinketh so he is" (Proverbs 23:7). So, if our mind is not under the blade of truth, who is Yeshua, if we're not taking every thought captive, according to the command of the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), if we haven't fully surrendered to God's will, if our lifestyle is not fully lined up with obedience, what that says is, we haven't fully come.
Jesus said, "He that comes to me". We're not experiencing all that Jesus promised because we haven't fully come. See, this is why Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free". And then he said, "If you continue in the truth, if you continue in my word". Notice that word "Continue". "If you continue in my truth, if you continue in my word". Notice that word, "Continue". "You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free". It's the same thing here, "Not hungering, not thirsting, freedom", same thing. What's the common denominator? Continuing! We need to continue to come.
And so, I want to encourage you today, my beloved friend, the more you come to Jesus. It's not a one-time act, it's not a one-time thing. Coming to Yeshua is a lifetime of progress. It's a lifetime of being changed. It's a lifetime of overcoming. It's a lifetime of being transformed. It's a lifetime of breaking off old thought patterns, and old habits. And the more fully you and I come to Jesus, the more we're going to be fulfilled, and the less hungry, and the less thirsty we're going to be, because we'll be experiencing his shalom, his completeness, his wholeness in our heart.