There is no lack in Christ !

Mark 8:14-21 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.

Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."

But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?

Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."

Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, "Seven."

So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"

What did Jesus want his disciples to understand?

First: Leaven is a type of teaching that leads to a right or wrong belief system that then reflects in ones life.

As you know a right or wrong bs or belief system makes all the difference in a person’s life

As a man believes in his own heart do is he !

Proverbs 23:7

Jesus told his disciples to beware of the leaven or the doctrine, teaching of the Pharisee and of Herod . Which leads to a wrong belief system

The leaven or teaching of the Pharisee is legalism.

The leaven or teaching of Herod is the wisdom of man and of this fallen world that is earthly sensual and devilish.

The wisdom of the world continually looks to its own self and wisdom in order to provide for its self.. apart from God .. its all self centered.. not Christ centered

Jesus did tell us in another passage of scripture that what we really needed was the leaven or teaching of the kingdom of heaven which will then will cause a right persuasion and influence our hearts to believe right unto the glory of God. Matthew 13:33

All wrong leaven or teaching has the same thing in common..

It will influence your heart towards a place of the fear of lack or not having enough.

I need more ; if only I had this or that then i could do this or that. It operates from a place of insufficiency.

But the leaven of the kingdom of heaven will always lead or influence you toward a place of satisfaction, rest and complete sufficiency.

Remember the Promise land was a land that was flowing with milk and honey. A place of plenty ! A land of abundant provision and rest

Im also reminded of the scripture in 2 Corinthians 3

And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

But again as we look in Mark 8..

the disciples said they had no bread !

They lacked bread. We don’t have enough!!!

What to do ,, what to do !

Jesus then began to remind the disciples about the miracles of the feeding of the multitudes and all that was left over !!

In other words God is a God that will not only meet your needs, but will so abundantly bless you that you will always have more than enough, not only for yourself but for others.

God is a God of more than enough!!

Now Lets look at the word Faith and Grace

The actual word faith literally means persuasion that causes one to believe.

How does true faith come ?

It comes

By hearing the word of Christ or by hearing the good news of the finished work of Christ and about our new identity and completeness in Him..

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Ephesians 2:8

As we hear the gospel of Christ we then receive the gift of persuasion from God that persuades us to embrace Grace or the divine influence on our heart that then reflects Gods goodness in and through our lives to the glory of God !

Grace literally means : the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life;

Again .. The word Grace is the influence of God that then reflects in ones life.

So what am I saying???

Im saying that we need to be careful about what we are allowing to influence our lives or to persuade us..

We need to be careful of the leaven of legalism and of the wisdom of this world which by the way includes the entire fallen political system.

Both legalism and the wisdom will persuade us into a place of fear and lack !

We are living in a time where receiving the wisdom of God is crucial !!

Right teaching will lead to right persuasion, right believing and right manifestation.

The bottom line is this ..

God says we are complete in Christ which means there is nothing broken, missing or lacking.

We are crammed full of God.