By Joe D. Sizemore
Text: Exodus 16:14-18, 31-32
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they moist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath give you to eat. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating . . . And the house of the Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for you generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
Numbers 11:4-6
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
It must have been a wonderful thing for God to have made this – this manna to fall down every morning in the wilderness.
But reading the text from Numbers 11, we see now the negative pattern of this thinking.
And from verse 6, we see that they have changed the taste of that honey wafer, and it now tastes like fresh oil.
I don’t know how much the taste really was changed, but it must have been a radical change from the time that it was created in God’s own wisdom until the time that man put his hands to it and put it in bowls and beat it into mortar and baked it in a pan and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was changed.
When man put his hands, then, into what God had created for the blessing of the people, it changed the whole concept and the characteristics of this manna.
You may wonder, and I wonder too, that the Scriptures teach that it was an omen a piece.
An Omer, then, means that each person had a pint – a pint of manna, and a pint weighs a pound. They had six pints of manna per person, so each person had six pounds of manna to eat in the one day that God created it in His own glorious ovens all night, and they had that amount to eat. Now when you figure that there was approximately two million people to feed, it doesn’t take you long to figure that there was twelve million pounds of manna that fell every morning to the ground to feed Israel in the wilderness.
Think of it!
Twelve million pounds of manna, falling every morning, and it was fresh.
This, then, was the miracle of creation, the miracle of God’s ability to create for them all that they needed.
Every ounce of strength that they needed, all the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals was in that little cake of manna that fell from heaven every day.
I think that is the beautiful handwork of God, for He does supply your needs according to His own riches in glory.
So just think of that much manna and how sweet it was because it tasted like honey!
It could not have been any better because the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made it fresh for them every morning.
Well, what’s the unfolding of the divine mysteries as God walks through the earth?
The scribes gather and the writers write, “Look and listen,” for you cannot tell from what mountaintop God is going to speak to us next.
You cannot tell from what valley He’s going to come through for us or what visions He is going to give to us in this hour when we need a new touch, a new taste of the old manna that has brought us from where we were to where we are.
I can just see the heavens working all night, angels running to and fro.
Some of them have messages to give.
Just like when Jacob saw the ladder and all the blessings of God, and he saw angels ascending and descending from heaven to earth, bringing messages from the Lord God almighty and telling him (Jacob), “Just go on, everything is going to be alright.”
And now we are coming into an era of time when we need to see the evidence of the miracles of God.
First of all, let me tell you that it was the miracle of creation.
Nobody can do that but God.
Nobody can bake that much manna but the Lord. And I want to tell you now that the same God that worked in those days is the same Lord God that’s in this generation of our times.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He has not exhausted His supply.
Did you know that was enough manna to fill four trains, sixty box cars long, full of manna, raining down on Israel every morning in the wilderness?
Somehow I would like to get up close enough to where God is pushing a big door back and dropping His blessings out on us.
I believe that all of us here tonight are particular, peculiar, Jesus name, apostolic people.
I believe we have a place in the dispensation of the time.
I believe that we will play the most important role in the last generation and last dispensation before the Lord returns.
And one thing I don’t want to do is to change the taste of this great apostolic message.
I don’t want to put my hands in it and cause it to have a changed taste.
I’m =ill preaching what I preached thirty-five years ago.
I’m still shouting about thirty-five years ago, still praising like I did thirty-five years ago because as this great Pentecostal phenomenon dances across the tree tops, like tongues of fire, it’s making in-roads upon the religious systems of our times.
I’m glad to be apostolic Pentecostal, Jesus name, Holy Ghost, blood-bought, tongue-talking, full of the Holy Ghost and fire tonight and feeling or being able to feel Jesus like I feel Him right now.
And I promise you, you can still feel Him!
Some churches can’t feel Him anymore.
Some churches have changes the taste of the manna.
They’ve put their hands to it and have nothing but a cold, refrigerated religion and church that you could hang a country ham in it and would last for six months because they don’t have or do anything that is relevant to the operation of the gifts of the Spirit.
But as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As for me, and my house, we’re going to praise His name.
I feel like praising Him right now.
I feel like He is worthy to be praised.
How many believe that He is wonderful?
How many believe that He is more wonderful now than He ever has been?
Let me tell you about some things that I have found out.
I keep little old notes like this; sometimes they come through the mail, and I want to share one with you here tonight.
Now I’m talking about changing the taste of that wafer.
When they kneaded it like dough in a bowl and put their hands in it, they wanted to do that so they could make it more acceptable!
They said, “We’re tired of this manna. There is nothing but this manna before our eyes.
Every time we wake up and look out our tent flaps, there is nothing but that manna.”
But my friend, Israelite, you ought to know that is all that you need.
You ought to know that you don’t need a table set up with all the sweets on it and all the delicacies on it.
All you need is in that manna.
You don’t need to dress it up.
You know it’s real nice in our times because we can dress a table up and make it look pretty and it seems to make the food more acceptable.
But I’m telling you that all the decorations that are on the table doesn’t have anything to do with the way the food is cooked!
I’ve been in some pretty nice restaurants and been served some pretty poor food.
But I’ve been in some restaurants that didn’t look so great, but they served me some good food because the test is in the kitchen.
The test is in the Word of God.
It’s not in the decorations.
It’s not in all that we can put on.
It’s in the Word.
And I still tell you tonight that this Word works.
It still works!
It’s a real Word of the living God.
Don’t you know that He is still real?
Don’t you know the wafer tastes the same?
Now let me get back to this little note I got in the mail the other day.
This came in the mail, and it’s something.
Now I’m not putting anyone down, but it’s an advertisement for a singing group called the name of the church, and I looked at it and thought, “Well it’s just another singing group going around,” which is common, but down here at the bottom of the note it reads: “Love offering will be taken to support the ministry, tickets available at most Christian bookstores.”
And get this: “Please,” it reads, “no children under four years of age.”
And that struck me wrong.
I thought, “The little children need to be in church!”
And I’m not going to run an ad and say, “Please no children under four or five.”
The church is open to the children and when we add our hands to it . . . bless your heart, I can remember as a little child.
I remember the shouting in church.
I remember the praising in the church.
I remember one old sister that would get so tickled in the Holy Ghost, she would laugh until we all laughed until we cried because she was so absolutely thrilled by the presence of the living God. I’m not going to exclude children from an atmosphere such as that!
The whole problem with our society includes children and the young people.
Can you imagine some group saying, “No children under four?” Oh, Lord God almighty!
Can you see they are adding their hands to it?
They are trying to make it taste different, more exciting and more acceptable.
But I’m telling you now that if you don’t have the anointing of the Holy Ghost, you may as well shut it all down.
If you don’t sing and you don’t preach by the holy anointing of the Holy Ghost, you just as well to shut it down and shut it up Amen!
Let’s keep the taste of the honey wafer!
We’re not going change the taste of the wafer.
We’re not here tonight to work on having a new Pentecost.
We came tonight to shout of the living God.
And to tell the world that Jesus is and we don’t need no new Pentecost.
Just obey the Lord!
I read this little story the other day.
A minister’s daughter was about to have a baby, and she had felt that if she took any kind of medication . . . you see there’s an old wives fable that says that if a lady is expecting that she can “mark” the child by certain happenings.
Now whether there is any legitimate truth in that, I’m not so sure, but this girl made up her mind not to take any kind of medication for fear that it would “mark” her baby.
Her faith took her through that.
When the baby was born, it was born healthy, so the doctor that delivered the baby in the hospital said to the minister, “I’ll tell you, I want to commend you and your daughter for your bravery in having this child without taking so much medication, because ninety percent of the babies born in this hospital are born seeking what they were birthed in.”
For example, if the mother had been using alcohol or drugs or nicotine, the baby is born seeking that or desiring that substance.
So they had to immediately find out what would satisfy that baby through those particular channels of nicotine, alcohol, or drugs.
But this baby was born without all that, and it is simply seeking its mother’s breast. It is not tainted by alcohol.
It’s not tainted by drugs.
And I drew this analogy when I was born in the church, I am still seeking for what I was birthed in.
I was birthed in apostolic anointing in a little old community called Dawson Springs, Kentucky . . . wasn’t much.
All they had were some mineral waters, but there were some Holy Ghost-filled people there in the little church full of God’s power.
I was born in a flame; I’m going out in a flame.
I was born in revival; I’m going out in a revival.
I was born with anointing; I’m going out with anointing.
I was born in apostolic truth; I’m going out in apostolic truth.
I was born in Jesus name, and I’m going out in Jesus name.
I was born in the Holy Ghost; I’m going out with the Holy Ghost.
I was born in shouting; I’m going out shouting.
We’re not interested in having a new Pentecost because the minute we put out hands in it, we change the taste of it.
This blessed old Book (Bible) is real.
I pity the preachers today that have this new idea that all we have to do is put on a good program, call in a few name-brand preachers, and somehow get the job done that way.
That is not the way to do it.
The way to do it is to let go and let God have His way.
I’m not about to change it!
I didn’t want to give up this old-time feeling.
I don’t care how tall the steeple is; somebody will build one taller.
I don’t care how nice the pews are; somebody will have some that’s better.
I don’t care how big the building is; somebody is going to build one bigger.
But there is one thing: I’d rather have the old brush arbor if that’s what it takes to feel God and to understand Him.
I’d rather see signs and wonders and miracles in the church today.
There is a new line of Pentecostal thought going through the system today; it’s called charismatic.
It’s a whole new line that’s going by, and I’m standing over here on the sideline waving this blessed old Book, saying, “Don’t give up your standards of holiness. Don’t give up your right living,” and waving the old Book over here because they are changing the taste of it.
You’re changing it and making it just as formal as any other denominal group has done.
But as for me, and my house, we will continue to praise the Lord.
They thought that they would take this manna and they would knead it, put it in pans.
The mixed multitude . . . Did you hear me?
I said, “the mixed multitude” that was among them was the problem.
The test is coming now, either you are with us, or you’re not with us.
You’re either in the boat, or you are floating in the water.
There can be no in between now.
You either Jesus name, apostolic, or you have gone charismatic.
No in between!
You are either Jesus name, Holy Ghost-filled, blood-washed, tongue-talking, and living holy and righteous before God or else you blend in with the world and are trying to change this whole Pentecostal arrangement.
I know that they come through.
They come across strong with their make-up and jewelry and all that crying and carrying on.
I could tell you all about it.
I know what I’m talking about.
I’ve lived long enough to know and remember that some of them started out with us, but they didn’t stay with us.
They may be driving better automobiles than we’ve got, living in better houses, but we’re still singing, “I’d like to hear Elijah pray again.”
Now I’m not against anybody having nice things, living in nice houses, but I’m telling you, I can see the change.
Now they have this new fancy idea that we don’t need to preach about the blood anymore. They’re gonna knead it.
They’re not preaching like it is.
They’re changing the taste, putting their hands in it.
I’m not trying to be mean or ugly, but the Word is true.
They kneaded it and put it in their ovens and baked it.
Wait a minute folks; it was already fixed!
It went in tasting like a honey wafer, but it came out changed and tasting like fresh oil.
This is not time for changing.
This is not the time to be extreme right or extreme left, but walk right down the middle of the road with Jesus.
Now you can change the method without changing the message!
Some of our methods that we used to use may not work so well today, but you never change the message.
Let me tell you the night that I got baptized in Jesus name at twelve years old, when they shined the lights out on the water on a placed called, “The Blue Hole,” in a strip mining pit where they had old green water in that pit.
And I came out there, and I went down in the name of Jesus, and from that day ’til this, I have never changed the message.
I’ve never changed the truth.
I’ve never changed, and I don’t want to change.
Now they have changed church by saying, “We don’t want any children in it. We don’t want any shouting in it. We want church, but we don’t want God to have anything to do with it.”
We need to pray on our own.
We need to seek God on our own.
We need to let the Holy Ghost have its way among us.
Oh folks, let the Spirit of the living God do the work among us.
We don’t do these things on our own.
I have in my hand The Los Angeles Times, dated April 18, 1906.
Headlines that day read, “Earthquake Hits San Francisco Area.”
Tells about 452 lives being lost.
In another part, it reads that “Oldsmobile sales are up and down.
New Fords feature horns.” But there is a small article that reads, “Much strange phenomenon was witnessed by this reporter at the Azusa Street Mission yesterday, as I was there for the Sunday a.m. worship service.
The sight that greeted my eyes as I entered into the building seemed to be commonplace enough. The old wood-slated pews seated about twenty people, mostly from the lower scale of the social ladder.
There were a couple of the parishioners who seemed to be of the wealthier class, however.
All of these faced a black man who stood behind a slender wooden pulpit.
The worship began with prayer.
Prayer was conducted in a manner totally strange to me.
All hands were uplifted as parishioners began to audibly speak the requests interspersing them with cries of ‘Amen, Hallelujah, and Praise the Lord.’
The singing was also different as loud boisterous numbers were sung in place of conventional hymns.
I was shocked to my Sunday school roots as the people left their seats and began jumping up and down and running around the church building.
At one point during the sermon, a hush fell over the congregation, as an elderly man began to utter strange guttural sounds.
This of course is the much-discussed glossolalia, the supposed speaking in tongues as evidence of the Holy Spirit.
Surprisingly enough after the sermon, people seemed normal enough to socialize, speak of everyday life.
I found the Pastor, Brother Seymour, to be a very friendly fellow.
What is my conclusion?
Well, their worship was shockingly different and unlike anything I have ever witnessed before.
It would be easy to say that it has been conceived by Satan himself.
However, since then, reports of happenings at Azusa Street Mission are spreading like wild fires all over Southern California.
We shall let time be the judge.”
I want you to know that time has been the judge.
We have glory.
We still have shouting.
We still have praising since 1906!
Now I want to say something, and I don’t want to be misunderstood.
There is no such thing as a trinity Pentecostal!
I love you if you think you are, but Pentecost was Jewish feast, and the people who gathered there believed in only one God!
They didn’t believe in two or three.
They that Jesus was the mighty God that came down from Isaac, and Jacob.
I still believe that He is the mighty God.
He is the everlasting Father.
He is the Prince of peace King of kings, and Lord of lords.
I know they have large congregations.
You can see them on the television screen.
They look as though they are taking the world by storm, but I’m ready to say, “Look out, here come the Jesus name people. We have a part to play in the last days.’ Because I really believe you are going to have to be baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as the evidence, and living a holy life to be in the bride of Christ!
1906 said, “Let time be the judge.”
It was not only the miracle of creation, but it was the miracle of distribution.
How in the world do you think God could send down twelve million pounds of manna every day?
He is a miracle-working God of distribution.
He knows what each one needs.
Lastly, it was the miracle of maintenance.
How did He do it?
Well, they were walking along one day through that wilderness journey and a lady asked her neighbor, “Is that a new dress?”
And the neighbor said, “No, we just take them off, wash them, and put them back on.”
Well what about them shoes?
“It’s the same pair I’ve been wearing since we left Egypt.”
Can you imagine?
The little children’s clothes and shoes had to grow as they grew!
That was the miracle of maintenance.
Every time they had a need, God was right there to take care of everything for them.
When they ran into a bitter pool of water called, “Marah,” God took care of that problem.
I want you to know, friend, the Holy Ghost is real tonight.
He is God, and He will take care of you through the storms of life, and He will take care of you when the storms are raging.
And the devil can’t touch you!
Jesus said, “I am the bread that comes down from God out of heaven.”
And they said, “That’s all we’ve got is just this manna.”
But I’m saying, “He’s all we’ve got, and He’s all we need!” When you say, “Jesus,” you’ve said it all.
He don’t need to be put into a pan and baked.
He cannot be changed.
His miracles are just the same.
He said, “I am the Lord. I change not.”
The above article, “The Taste of the Honey Wafer,” is written by Joe D. Sizemore. The article was excerpted from Sizemore’s book Hot Bread.
This material is most likely copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
