Recently, my daughter Ester approached me excitedly after I had finished my prayer time. “Mom, I went into your room when you were praying. It smelled so strongly of pastries baking!” She even pulled me back into my room by the hand to try to help me smell what she was smelling. I couldn’t, but I smiled with quiet pleasure. I knew that she was experiencing a spiritual aroma.
I should add that I didn’t quite understand the pastries nuance at the time. However, today I got to the bottom of the mystery, and I’ve got to share this with you. I did a YouVersion search for “pastries.” My spirit gave that now familiar inner joy jump when I saw the result: “The house of Israel called the bread manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like flat pastry (wafers) made with honey” (Ex. 16:31, AMP, bold emphasis mine).
That’s what was baking in my prayer closet! Spiritual manna! It was so real that Ester actually experienced it through her physical sense of smell. Spiritual realities are just as real as physical ones, if not more so. As you and I cultivate intimacy with Jesus, His Spirit is baking up delicious, sweet, aromatic nourishment for our spirits. Extremely real nourishment.
When He showed me this pastry verse, I shook my head, amazed once again at His timing. What an apt introductory prophetic picture for this new devo blog! “Feeding on Jesus,” is the name He gave me for it, months ago. Just as God had a perfect measure of daily provision for His children as they journeyed with Him, so today He wants to feed you. The aim of each of these posts will be to serve up a hot, sweet-smelling delicacy right from His oven each day.
I’m reminded of a certain occasion when the Lord had a hungry crowd following Him, hoping for another free lunch. This is what He told them: physical bread was not enough. They needed pastries from heaven. “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die” (John 6:49-50, NIV).
He is gently communicating this same message to us right now. Do you have a hungry, empty, aching place inside you? If you pay careful attention, you will realize that it’s spiritual hunger you are experiencing. And believe me, beloved child, another Netflix binge is not going to fill it. Neither is a phone call to your best friend. Squeezing yet more busyness into your calendar won’t make it go away either. Your spirit is crying out to be fed. Those cravings are from the very core of you. For this reason, there is only one thing that will truly, deeply, blissfully satisfy. This one thing is sweet bread from Heaven’s own oven. You will only find it as you come away with Him.
Lean in and listen carefully. Jesus is tenderly beckoning you to ingest the closeness of His presence, the richness of His love, the sustenance of His Word to your heart: “I am the bread of life… He who feeds on Me will live because of Me…”
Do you have a special memory of a time when your spirit felt wonderfully fed and satisfied? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Feeding On Jesus 