Our Daily Bread - The Mystery Of Sufficiency by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Is the Daily Bread?

Matthew 6:11

Jesus was not praying here — this was a model teaching on prayer, not a ritual to recite. The classical Lord's Prayer is found in John 17, where Jesus actually prayed the entire chapter.

The model in Matthew 6 walks through layers: approaching God as Father — prayer is a family affair. Which art in heaven — faith is required, because he resides in a dimension not earthly. Hallowed be your name — approach him with reverence. Thy kingdom come — your ultimate desire in prayer should be the manifestation of his kingdom, because every other prayer request exists only because of the absence of that manifestation.

Then comes the line: Give us this day our daily bread.

Daily bread here does not literally mean bread. The Bible uses similes and metaphors to communicate kingdom realities. To interpret scripture correctly, two governing principles apply:

1. The Law of First Mention — Go to where a thought-line first appears in scripture; that becomes the framework for interpreting it everywhere else.
2. The Law of Emphasis — When the Bible stresses certain thoughts repeatedly, place corresponding weight on them.

The first approach to scripture is always literal. If it does not make spiritual sense literally, compare scripture with scripture. If it still does not resolve, seek prophetic interpretation through the Spirit.

Bread in Matthew 6:11 is not a loaf. Bread here represents sufficiency — everything that gives you life, everything that puts you at a vantage position to actualize destiny.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6

Paul admits that when you see ministers able to rise to every occasion and advance the kingdom without restraint — it is not that their sufficiency is of themselves. Their sufficiency is of God, who has made them able ministers of the New Testament.

2 Corinthians 9:8

God is able to make all grace — not some grace, all grace — abound toward you, that you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Reading this from the end to the beginning: to abound to every good work, you need all sufficiency in all things — and only God is able to make that grace abound toward you.

No one is able to actualize destiny, live an effective Christian life, and make commendable kingdom progress indefinitely without learning to outsource sufficiency from God.

Luke 22:35

When Jesus sent the disciples out, he asked: When I sent you without purse, without script, without shoes, did you lack anything? They answered: Nothing. This must be the destiny of every believer — to say, by the mercy of God, that in ministry, in business, in life, there has been an encounter with daily bread. There is an allocation for every believer. When God sends you children, there is daily bread to raise them. When God anoints you into an office, there is daily bread for that function. Physical strength beyond what you eat is also daily bread. Many believers embrace an assignment without embracing the daily bread — and die in the journey as though God never sent them.

2 Peter 1:3-4

According to his divine power, he has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The provision already exists. Whether your life experiences these supplies is a function of understanding and accessing them by faith.

Defining Sufficiency

• Having enough to achieve a goal or satisfy a need — the key word is enough.
• The capacity to always rise to the occasion, never disappointing. This is the deeper definition. Not occasional rising, not rising when conditions are right — always rising, never disappointing.

Fulfilling your days and fulfilling your God-given assignment will require abundant provision of resources — not limited to material resources.

Consistency in any area of life, as far as advancement and impact is concerned, is a product of abundant supplies of resources. When you see people who seem never to stop, never to mark time, never to tire — they have mastered the art of receiving their daily bread.

An aircraft flying a great distance may need to land midway to refuel. Nothing is wrong with the aircraft — it is simply the law of the journey. When you see people who never seem to stop, they have learned how to refuel: daily bread in ministry, daily bread in business, daily bread in leadership.

Daniel: Lifted Beyond the Reach of Trouble

When governments change, tides change — people who excelled under one king may be swept out when the next comes. But not Daniel. It did not matter what king ruled — they had to say, There is something on this man, an excellent spirit. They could not do without him.

In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the furnace — yet there is no record that Daniel left Babylon. He was there from chapter one, and yet trouble did not meet him. There is a way God lifts you beyond the reach of certain troubles. A pilot does not pray to cross a mountain — he lifts the aircraft far above every wall.

The Four Resources of Sufficiency

Anyone who presses to understand the system that governs the arrival and maintenance of these four resources will be an indomitable spiritual personality. The word of God is an equalizer for any destiny — no matter how disadvantaged the background, once the word is introduced, the basis for deliverance has come, the basis for lifting has come, the basis for restoration has come.

1. Spiritual Resources

   There are two essential spiritual resources.

   1. Divine Presence

      Exodus 33:13-16

      The first and greatest spiritual resource is divine presence. Moses prayed: If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may know thee. God's answer: My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

      There are three dimensions of God's presence as revealed in scripture:

      • Omnipresence — God's ability to be everywhere at once. This reality has no particular effect on you because even where demons are, the presence of God is there.
      • Emmanuel Dimension — His ability to be in the midst of his people. Where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there — whether or not they take advantage of it.
      • Shekinah — Manifested Presence — Not merely his presence, but his revealed, manifested presence. The presence in a way that must be acknowledged, and that has come for your profiting.

      When Moses said, If thy presence go not with me, I prefer to stay in one place — he was saying it is cheaper to remain stationary than to soar without this resource. No matter how intelligent you are, no matter how vast your knowledge, if you do not secure the sufficiency of his presence, you will fail in the journey.

      Acts 10:38

      How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil — for God was with him. The last line is the secret. It was not God in him alone — it was God with him. There is an inner work the Spirit does in you, but there is a dimension for the journey: God with you.

      2 Chronicles 26:5

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      Apostle Joshua Selman

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      He sought God — not a name, not power, not a preaching opportunity, not a transformation. God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.

      Two keys to securing the manifested presence of God:

      • The depth of your love and passion for God — John 14:21: He that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will manifest myself to him. Consecration and devotion are the expressions of that love — not empty words, but wholehearted pursuit. The depth of your passion for God, expressed in devotion.
      • Obedience — God will not back what he did not command. Many are doing things God did not ask them to do, and when you obey a lie, you are still disobeying. The disciples were sent, and when he asked, Did you lack anything?, the secret was that they went when he sent them — not when they decided to go.

      Any spirit — born again or not — can detect the presence of God. You can stand close to someone and not know why you want to bless them or help them. They are carrying something compelling. This is what you can carry as a man of God that will draw people who do not know you. They will travel distances and cannot explain what is pulling them. It is called presence.

      A good sermon without the presence factor will fall on deaf ears — it remains a lecture, no matter how intelligent. After preparing your notes, place them down and lie in prayer. Let the marination happen. A woman puts meat in a sauce for hours and something changes. The preacher who comes out of that atmosphere carries something beyond words. The more you carry presence, the less the noise — but the louder the sound of impact, the sound of deliverance.

      Don't just carry a Bible. Carry presence. Be marinated in that glory — soak in it, be robbed up in it, come out immersed. That is where the word baptism comes from.

      I will manifest myself to him.

   2. Supernatural Power

      Acts 10:38

      How God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power. Even the word needed to be anointed. The word without the anointing is impotent.

      Power is the force that compels compliance. Satan is a stubborn spirit — no matter what God has declared, once power has not been introduced, the declaration carries no weight in the spirit. It is through the greatness of his power that enemies submit themselves. Psalm 66:3: Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works — through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves.

      Acts 4:33: And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

      One authentic pathway to spiritual power is to engage the mystery of prayer with fasting. Not prayer and fasting as separate activities — prayer with fasting. And add light, the word of God, to it. When you shut yourself down and pray — not pray and browse, not pray and watch, not pray and call — but pray for the purpose of edification, you generate energy and make contact with genuine power. While others sleep, you are generating. When you carry the Spirit's presence combined with genuine power, you have something on your life that nothing can easily displace.

      The order of pursuit matters: your spiritual pursuit must be the greatest and the highest in terms of the energy you invest. Obtain grace to love the Lord more than your necessary food. Secure divine presence through the depth of your devotion. Invest in prayer. Invest in the word. Until you contact genuine power.

2. Intellectual Resources

   Proverbs 24:3-4

   Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established on a sound foundation. By knowledge, its chambers are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Every time you find wisdom, there are resources that follow it — not just mighty works, but treasure and oil. It is impossible to have wisdom and not find treasure and oil to be desired. If the treasure finishes, check — there is still oil.

   Destiny actualization is knowledge-dependent, wisdom-dependent, and understanding-dependent. The labor of the fool wearies every one of them because he does not know how to get to the city.

   Job 38:33-35

   Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth? There are laws that govern influence, leadership, abundance, growth, sustainability. These are the resources. When you say give us this day our daily bread, you are asking God to make available the knowledge needed to be empowered for the journey.

   Ephesians 4:18

   Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. The assignment of the god of this world is not primarily to afflict your health — it is to blind your mind, so you will not see.

   John 1:5-7

   Matthew 5:14-16

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   The moment light comes on a candle, there is a position it should never be in again — it is placed on a candlestick and gives light to all in the house. The first way to make your light shine is to be enlightened.

   Isaiah 60:1

   Rise from the depression and frustration that circumstances have kept you in. Rise to a new light. Rise to a new light. Rise to a new light.

   John 17:3

   This is life eternal — that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

   Faith is a product of light, a product of revelation. Genuine Bible faith is not a mechanical thing — it is the natural product of light. They heard the word just like everyone else, but it did not benefit those who did not mix it with faith. And faith is a child of revelation. If a word comes and there is no light to receive it, it passes by like water over stone.

   Your mindset is a prayer warrior — there are things it can call to your life. The Bible says God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think. There are two ways to pray: by verbalizing, and by the quality of your mentality. The thing Job feared most came upon him — he attracted it by his fear. Your belief system is your contribution to your failure or your success.

   Two dimensions of intellectual resources:

   • Spiritual knowledge — Knowledge of the word, of spiritual laws, of how the kingdom operates.
   • Knowledge of the laws of the universe — Laws that regulate life: the law of honor, the law of mental transformation, laws that govern leadership, influence, sustainability. These are not strictly spiritual laws, even though they are God's laws. Most people never take time to study them.

   The law of mental transformation states that the realities in your life come in honor to the quality of your belief systems. Your belief system is how you contributed to becoming a failure or a success. Demons partner with a poor belief system the way a womb empowers what is planted in it.

   Distinguish the three levels:

   • Knowledge — A coordinated gathering of useful information. Profitable only when it progresses.
   • Understanding — The comprehension of those laws; knowing the working dynamics and how to combine knowledge so it profits you.
   • Wisdom — The grace and fortitude to put understood knowledge to work so that it produces results.

   When you act on what you do not understand, you only recycle seasons of pain. The sequence is: knowledge → understanding → wisdom.

   Go for knowledge. There are too many teachings. If you take the time to sit with even one message and pray in the Spirit over it, you will be surprised what changes.

3. Human Resources

   1 Chronicles 12:1

   These are the men that came to David at Ziklag, while he kept himself hidden because of Saul — and among them were mighty men, helpers of the war.

   You are as fortunate as the men who believe you. You are as fortunate as the men willing to stand with you until God's vision comes to fruition.

   In the multitude of men is a king's honor. The Lord gave the word, but great was the company that published it. Numbers in the business of kingdom advance is an advantage. If God says yes and men say no, your yes remains in the realm of the spirit. There are many people for whom God has said yes from eternity, but the human vessel to partner with that prophecy has not come — either by demonic obstruction or by the low level of ignorance in handling people.

   Your destiny accelerates at the pace at which help arrives. Every vision is driven upon the strength of men. Even the Ark of God's presence requires priests to carry it to where it needs to go.

   Good will is as powerful as prophecy. When someone speaks a well-placed word on your behalf, it can turn the tide. Demons partner with words to program negative climates over people — conversely, one good word from a sent person can unlock what years of striving could not.

   Everything is as hard as who is absent. Everything is as easy as who arrives.

   Potiphar stood before Joseph without knowing that this man would be his prime minister — and lost the opportunity to establish a great relationship. But when Joseph stood before the king, the response was: In ranking only I will be higher than you. Egypt is yours.

   When God wants to help a man, he changes your audience — he puts you before men and women who have an appreciation for the investment of God upon your life. Pray for men. Not just members — people mandated to be part of your destiny. You cannot gather members; human beings are not animals. They are brought, in honor to these spiritual realities.

   May God make that roll call tonight. There are names — names of men stationed for your sake — John, where are you? Come now, find this person, stand with them. May every long-standing issue around your life that requires a man to step in be answered this week. While you sleep, may God wake men and position men so that those requests are answered speedily in the name of Jesus Christ.

4. Financial Resources

   Matthew 17 — Jesus was confronted by tribute collectors. Even he acknowledged: While I am on earth, I must subscribe to the earth's principles. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. There is nothing that embarrasses vision like the bankruptcy of finances.

   Financial resources are the lowest of the four in terms of spiritual priority — but they are indispensable for the actualization of destiny in the physical realm. Our world runs on the strength of economy. The instrument of transaction is largely finance. When God wants to show you mercy, among the many provisions he makes available is finance.

   It will take money to build that church, to pay school fees, to eat, to sponsor a crusade, to run a media platform, to fund an NGO, to take a young person off the street and train them. Resources are not optional — they are part of God's program.

   Refuse to be poor — not for carnal reasons, but for the sake of your destiny and God's program.

   The problem with the subject of finance in the body of Christ is twofold:

   1. It has largely been taught from a carnal standpoint, feeding the flesh.
   2. The accurate principles that make for wealth have not been holistically taught — so believers catch only fragments, like giving or entrepreneurship, but miss the full spiritual advantage of understanding wealth as a kingdom tool.

   The rich will rule over the poor, and the borrower becomes slave to the lender. At a leadership and governmental level, financial incapacitation leads to servitude — not just personal, but corporate, affecting the advancement of God's program on a macro scale.

   When a godly visionary receives resources, you see the power of resources to drive visions. The spread of the gospel at scale — global conferences, media, missions — requires financial resources to lift the name of Jesus high in places that would otherwise be inaccessible. There are sons of this world buying up auditoriums across Europe with the deliberate aim of shutting out crusades. When believers are empowered by God's mercy, they can stand at the mountaintop and tell the nations that Jesus saves, heals, and delivers.

   Don't just seek finance as a tool of personal comfort. See it as a stewardship — the instrument through which God's program is driven under your watch.

   Go and listen to The Power to Get Wealth (Parts 1–3), Seasons of Abundance, True Riches, and The Capital That Buys Money.

The Mystery of Sufficiency — Summary

When Jesus said give us this day our daily bread, he was revealing that there are resources — many of them, far beyond the third-dimensional realm — and that there are laws that can draw these resources to your space.

• The resource of his presence
• The resource of his power
• The resource of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge
• The resource of the gift of men — stationed like ushers at strategic points of your destiny, helping you rise, helping you stay
• The resource of finances — to run the assignment without compromise

If your life has not moved forward, examine whether there is scarcity in the delivery of daily bread. Yesterday's manna cannot feed today's hunger — the manna came daily. The presence dimension you need to confront the darkness you have been mandated to confront is not the same as what carried you yesterday. Power has levels, like currency — what ten naira can buy, one hundred naira cannot be limited to. Grace and peace can be multiplied.

Everyone you see in ministry, leadership, or business who is scaling heights as far as their prophetic assignment is concerned — they have mastered the art of receiving their daily bread.